Chinatown is one of the best films to emerge from the 1970s. Also, considers as Neo noir. Chinatown isn’t afraid to play with the conversation. The plot is about the private detective Jake Gittes who is hired by Mrs Mulwray about her husband’s affair. Jake gets himself into the murder and city’s corruption which related to the city’s water supply. The theme of the movie is femme fatale. The man always gets himself into the trouble because of a beautiful and dangerous woman. But Everlyn is not what she seems to be or what we expect that she’ll turn out to be. There’s a fragile humanity in her due to what she has been through.
Character Analysis:
Gittes has a nice office and 2 staffs. Also, he dresses very well. He’s good at what he’s doing but someone has to lead him to the hint first. For example, the Japanese gardener told him about the salt water then he realizes who’s the killer. Even though, Gittes is the main character. He doesn’t care much about the appearance. He has the bandage on his nose throughout the film. Also, the bandage on his nose doesn’t intend to make a funny look but to make the serious look.
Furthermore, Gittes thinks he can handle this problem but he has no idea what he’s dealing with. He finds out that Mrs Mulwray’s father is behind everything. He is the one who kills Hollis Mulwray. The money and power comes before everything in Chinatown. At the end, it reveals that Everlyn’s sister is also Everlyn’s daughter because her father rapes her.
There’s the twist ending when Everlyn’s gonna take her daughter away but her father won’t let her. Trying to drive away but Everlyn is shot and killed. Her body falls down to the floor. And close up to see Everlyn’s eyes. Poor little girl. Tragic. Gittes can’t believe what he sees he stares at Everlyn’s dead body till his fellows urge him to walk away with a famous quote. “Forget it Jake, It’s Chinatown” meaning that everything can happen in Chinatown. Don’t give a damn about it.
Time Crimes tells the story of a man (Hector) who can travel time to time. The question before watching the film is a life under construction, voyeurism, punishment for looking the woman undressing. Is he a true hero? The concept of doubling and circular narrative. The mask and transformation. What’s the idea of the mask. Misuse of science+technology. Time travel- one little earlier like an hour.
Character: There are three Hectors. 1st Hector is not an honest man. Also, he moves and walks slow. 2nd Hector slowly learns what happens to him and can’t accept it at first. After get out from the time machine, he realizes that he’s the bandage man. He asks the woman for help but she refuses so he forces her to do. The woman runs away and he fails. He accidentally kills a woman who he thought she’s his wife. He fails again so he forces the scientist to send him back in time. 3rd Hector is the one who controls the game. He rapidly changed to a confident person. He knows what he has to do so he decides to crash 2nd Hector by himself. Plus, he tricks the scientist so the 2nd Hector will hit him. He hides his wife and disguise the woman as his wife and send her to death.
The theme is human and science
Science controls over human.
Take him back in the past: Learn and change what he sees.
Misuse the machine : personal
Keep going back to fix things: result – a person died.
Circular Narrative- things happen in pairs
Husband and wife in the backyard talking
Naked woman
Arrow drawing
Scary Hector in the woods.
Car crash
Screaming sound
Woman falls from the roof
The transformation happens along with appearance, behavior and thoughts and things happen for a reasons such as pink bandage – got hit by a car. Coat – cover himself from 1st Hector. Strap 1st Hector to get rid of him. Naked woman- to draw 1st Hector’s attention so 2nd Hector get back to the house. Become 3rd Hector – help his wife. Disguise the woman to be his wife – fool 2nd Hector.
This film won several best Foreign Language Film Awards such as Vernice International Film Festival.
Synopsis: China in the 1920′s. After her father’s death, nineteen year old Songlian is forced to marry Chen Zuoqian, the lord of a powerful family. Fifty year old Chen has already three wives, each of them living in separate houses within the great castle. The competition between the wives is tough, as their master’s attention carries power, status and privilege. Each night Chen must decide with which wife to spend the night and a red lantern is lit in front of the house of his choice. And each wife schemes and plots to make sure it’s hers. Back to 1920s, girls are considered as bad luck in China because they cannot inherit the family like males. Before marriage, obey the father. During marriage, obey the husband. After marriage, obey the son. In this film, marriage is not about love. It against he stereotypes…Audiences are entering into the hidden world. For example, When Zong Lian is married to Chen. There’s no sign of celebration. It is more like married into a systemand expectations.
Another theme is male domination. Male will carry the family name from generation to generation. Therefore, The obligation is to have sons in order to gain position. Also, only male can play instrument or when the maid gets sick. The owner only cares about his reputation. Talking about Chen’s tradition. First, concubine system shows a power of the husband. The new mistress has to pay the respect to the old mistresses. 4 mistresses have to have breakfast together. If the red lantern lit in front of any mistress the following day she will have the privilege to order the food. Chen’s rules are very strict until Zong Lian comes.
The symbolisms are the red color which represents lust, sin and power. Foot massage represents sex and power. When Zong Lian did not receive foot massage. She feels something…so she calls her maid to give her a foot massage.
The mood in this film: pride, jealousy, stubbornness and schemes.
Characters analysis:
4 characteristics of woman of what extremes they would go to earn a higher place for themselves.
1st mistress (Aging) already fulfilled obligation of having a son now she’s abandoned. Husband favors the young mistress and now she doesn’t care much about life anymore. 2nd mistress (Deception) appears to be nice to Zong lian throughout the film but ended up he had put on a mask n order to win favors of the husband. 3rd mistress (Punishment) She used to be a beautiful singer and still singing when she’s miserable. She gets too pressure so deciding to have an affair and end up with tragedy. 4th mistress which is Zong Lian. She’s educated girl who doesn’t follow the rules. She doesn’t like the circle of jealousy in the house but later on she becomes one of them. She wants to win so she decides to fake a pregnancy.
The owner of this house = the husband. (How powerful to the wives)
We don’t see his face. His dialogues are short but mostly orders.
Maid (Social Climbing)
dream of becoming a mistress. She was caught telling the other mistress that Zong lian did not pregnant so she was punished to knee down. When the maid falls down and the lantern burns down meaning that she never reach the dream.
Opening sequence: Zong lian decides to walk instead of riding the carriage showing the state of the character.
Ending sequence: Zong lian wears he same dress as the first day she comes to this place.
Mother won 6 awards from 4th Asian Film Awards. The plot is about a middle aged mother who runs a herbal therapy and performs illegal acupuncture. She has an abnormal son (Do-joon)who easily gets into trouble because of his mental condition. Her son is accused to be the murderer who kills high school girl. She finds every ways to prove that her son is innocent even though she might have to commit crime.
Opening scene: Middle aged woman dances alone in the field. CUT TO: The mother chops some herbs while watching her son. In the meantime her son is hit by a car and she accidentally cuts her finger. She runs to see if her son is alright and doesn’t bother her cut at all. She’s OVER protective mom and cares too much about her son. For example, 1. Mother feeds Do-Joon but he puts it back. The son kinda rejects what his mom attempt to do for him. 2. Mother giving him a drink while he’s peeing. Moreover, things that shock viewers is when Do-joon tells his friend that he did really sleep with woman which is his mom. We don’t believe what he says till the scene when he comes home and turns on his mom. The following day Do-joon is accused to be the murderer. His mom doesn’t believe it. She believes that Do-joon’s friend killed the girl. She asks the lawyer to help Do-joon. At the same time, she also has mental problem. She goes to the girl’s funeral and the girl’s cousin attacking her but she sees the illusion that the dead girl slapping her face. The mother finds out that the garbage man might be the murderer so she visits his place by pretending to give him a free treat. The truth reveals when the garbage man is actually the witness who saw Do-joon kills the girl. The next day, Police informs the mother that Do-joon is innocent and caught the real murderer. Mother asks to see the boy and she must be surprised that the boy who was arrested is autistic. The mother instinct in her makes ask him a question. “Do you have mother”…”No” the autistic boy replies. This is the most intense scene ever. It gives the feeling that mothers can do anything to protect their child. Ending sequence is same as the first sequence. The question is why? I think it’s because they want to show how abnormal this character is.
There are so many Korean’s film with cheesy story in the market but this one is beyond. It separates from all those Korean love story.
When the director made this film, he claimed that he was inspired by his parents and Mozart’s work. Moreover, Apichartpong used to live in the rural area and when he came back, everything changed. It modernized like Bangkok. There’s no plot in this film but there’s something that keeps the audiences watching till the end. In other words, the film charms the audiences by itself. All the characters link together. The plot is telling the story through Big modern hospital and small hospital in rural….same plot and same events. Meaning that this is the most ironic film toward Thai health organization. The relationship between doctor and patients is more than duty in countryside. For example, 1. Monk gives doctor a her medicine and the doctor says she’ll try it. 2. The janitor owns doctor. 3. The patient can fall in love with the doctor. 4. The long intimate conversation between the monk and dentist. In contrast, same event happening in big hospital is cold and surrounded by neon lights. Totally different from small hospital. The same event when monk tries to give herb medicine to the doctor but the doctor think it’s kinda nonsense. or the scene when the dentist covers the monk’s face and the monk repeatedly put it back. And they don’t even talk to each other. Back to the relationship in the story, there’s a scene when the monk talks about his past lives. If you’re Apichartpong’s fan, you will notice that most of his movies are about the past lives.
In addition, the beliefs, glow in the dark orchids and past lives are not only opposite to the big hospital, industry and artificial legs and father statue but also blend into one another. However, Syndromes and A Century was censored due to the fact that gonna ruin Buddhism and Health Organization. Apichartpong decides not to release in Thailand. 4 scenes which was censored are 1. The monk playing guitar. 2. Doctor drinking while on duty. 3. Kissing scene and the boner. 4. The monk playing Frisbee. Nevertheless, Syndromes and A Century is my most favorite film so far. I love the singing part. It’s just so Thai!
The Gold Rush (1925) is considered as Charles Chaplin’s masterpiece. He has been famous since 1915 and his film started to space out because his old fashioned style. Also, his well known work are City Lights and Modern Time. The plot is about a lonely prospector ventures into Alaska. He has to survive by himself with another fellow “Big Jim” and he falls in love with a beautiful girl. Trying to win her heart by his charm. In the opening scene, with his cane, he’s walking on a snow covered path, unaware that he’s being followed by a bear. Chaplin doesn’t need any techniques in his film. He acted by himself. His acting is surreal, it’s more like a comedy. Talking about classic scene in this film is the starvation scene when Big Jim and Tramp celebrates thanks giving and there’s no food left anymore. Therefore, Chaplin gonna cook for Big Jim by choosing his shabby shoe to boil and make a feast of it. Chaplin twirls the laces like eating spaghetti. After look at Chaplin, Big Jim decides to give it a try.
Another day comes and still no food for Big Jim and the Tramp. Big Jim gets really hungry. He thinks Chaplin is a chicken so he tries to kill Chaplin. They fight! The bear accidentally comes in the house. Big Jim kills the bear and eats it. Another famous scene is when Chaplin waits for a girl who never comes. He’s doing the bread dancing. As you can see, Chaplin usually play with the gags…using simple things to make it unreal. The theme of the movie is about love, feminine, male friendship and social class (Being friends with rich people only when he’s drunk). He falls for a girl who belongs to a wealthy man…trying every silly possible ways to win her love. The ending of The Gold Rush is when Big Jim calls Chaplin that he finds a fortune of gold and becomes billionaire. Fate brings Chaplin to see the girl again but it’s not about money anymore. It’s about love. Chaplin’s character is brave, unaware of danger and even put himself to danger, being creative within small space. Chaplin’s film was launched again in 1942 with added sub narration and music. Both spoken and composed by himself.
