Zombieland (Part 2)

So yeah, this is the part 2 of Zombieland's genre analysis followed by the previous post.

Romance genre exist for the nerdy Columbus and femme fatale Wichita. In the middle of the film, Columbus starts to fall for Wichita. “Where ever this girl was, that’s the place I wanted to be,” Columbus said. His idea of being with Wichita makes himself to find a new family. Wichita also falls for Columbus twice. First time when she sympathizes Columbus’s sad eighth grade, then leave because she starts to put trust on Columbus as Wichita makes an agreement on not trusting anyone else except Little Rock. Second time, the seed of love sparks after Columbus save the sisters.

It is also a road film! This film involves many travelling scenes along with vehicles. Columbus who wants to go Columbus to meet his family, Tallahassee who wants to go Tallahassee, the female duo who heads to Pacific Playland for a zombie-free life. They are forced to stay with each other for more than 24 hours in vehicles and that’s how their relationship starts to bond. This can be seen in the montages of the main characters take turn to drive in night where they talk over random things and stuff. Throughout the journey, their hates toward each other has changed to treasure the existence and companion.

The vehicles involved in the film are such as Tallahassee’s black truck that Columbus tags along and then drives away and get destroyed by Wichita and Little Rock, yellow truck that Tallahassee and Columbus stole from a neighbourhood, minivan that Tallahassee breaks with a crowbar, the malfunctioned motorbike rides by Columbus who wants to go for Wichita.

Another genre is science fiction, or known as sci-fi! The imaginative concept in this film goes to mad cow disease which has a wide spread in zombieland. Mad cow became mad people and became mad zombie. This fast-acting virus makes the person to have swollen brain, a raging fever that made them become violent and hateful. It spreads from one to another with no cure. Mad cow disease is so powerful that it gives apocalypse and extinction to zombieland. Nothing else left in zombieland excepts zombies everywhere.

Last but not least, action genre. Action genre is always associated with chasing scene. To name it, in Pacific Playland, the two zombies who chase after Columbus.

Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita, Little Rock are nominated for being the action heros or heroines. For Tallahassee, he has the typical action hero look. He has a manly appearance and body, no fear, good with all sorts of weapons, always looking for zombie kill of the week, can shot dead the zombies without aiming. As for Columbus, although he is completely the opposite of Tallahassee, the nerdy and coward is an accidental hero. Although he feel paranoid at times, he still strategize. He manages to overcome his phobia and forced himself to be strong. He killed two of his greatest fears, which are zombies and clowns. By following his sets of survival rules, he “double tap” the zombies, and even break the rules to become the hero who then save Wichita and Little Rock in Pacific Playland.

Wichita is protective towards Little Rock. When Tallahassee finds Little Rock annoying, he puts the gun to Little Rock. The smart and fast Wichita who is driving will immediately step on the brakes and places her gun to Tallahassee. Little Rock, the young sister but brave and smart. She is not afraid to learn new tricks like driving the vehicle despite of not reaching the legal age to drive.

Before I end the post, let’s have a revision of Columbus’s rules of survival! Just in case you met zombie, oops!

Heard the sequel Zombieland 2 is in the making? I’m looking forward, hopefully it will stick with the same casts. Do you?

Zombieland (Part 1)

Let’s take a step into Zombieland! (No...)

A film released in 2009, directed by Ruben Fleischer, starring Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus, Emma Stone as Wichita, Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee and Abigail Breslin as Little Rock.

It is about Columbus, the shy and nerdy American student who survives in zombieland, which was previously known as Texas, tries to search for his family in Columbus, Ohio. He meets Tallahassee who is a zombie killer who has Twinkies obsession. While both men are on their way to their destination, they get to know a pair of sisters that plan to go Pacific Playland, an amusement park which rumoured to be zombie-free. While they are heading to their destinations, four of them get together to survive in the journey by killing zombies.

As what the film title suggests, you can expect the genre is horror as zombie is one of the most popular convention in horror genre film. And yes, Zombieland wouldn’t complete without zombie. 

Other than that, Zombieland is not only a horror film but it has a combination of comedy, romance, action, sci-fi and road film genre too! It is a mixed genre film, a postmodernism film. Let’s break it down!

Talking about postmodernism, as soon as Jesse Eisenberg who acted as Columbus narrated “This is now the United States of Zombieland” in the opening, it indicates United States is no longer United States. The country doesn’t have people but zombies everywhere. The country is a collapse of the modernist world.

Horror genre refers to films that makes viewers to elicit the feelings of fear, anxiety and fright. It indicates the unnatural element appears to be an external threat that threatens the civilians. From the opening, the canted angle of a footage which then leads to a long shot of a man, or specifically saying, a man who is actually a zombie runs towards the camera, eats the man who is lying on the road. The zombies eating people situation causes fear in civilians. For instance, the zombie chase after the obese man in the sports stadium.

The zombies are attracted by noises. When they hear noises, they are alive because the noises work like a notification that tells them to hunt for their “happy meal” or “manwich”, which means eat another zombie to fill their hunger. They are active in day and night. Literally they can be found anywhere. They could be in the supermarket, in the car’s backseat, on the road, peep you while you doing your business in toilet.

The existence of zombies creates the chaotic feeling in people. Columbus sets a list of survival rules in order to survive in zombieland. For example, Columbus’s rule of surviving number four “Fasten your seat belts” is an important tips. It is seen in the scene where the pink-sweater woman frightened to see the princess zombies from her neighbourhood crowding around her car to the extend that she forgets to fasten her seat belt during her drive, followed by her scream, she get threw out to the road. The civilians have to be aware of zombie all the time due to these fast acting, mad, aggressive zombies are a threat to their lives.

Moving on to comedy genre. In the opening of Zombieland where it shows the zombie has some bites on the man, the zombie burps. The film introduced itself is associated with comedy genre. Furthermore, slapstick comedy exist which means the exaggerate humor that is beyond the boundary of ordinary sense. Comedy also happens when Columbus who often practices his rules of survival, accidentally killed Bill Murray who guised as zombie without knowing he is also a survivor. Wichita even laughed at the first place for Columbus’s mistake on causing the death of Bill Murray. In terms of dark comedy, it goes to one of Columbus’s rules “Double Tap”. By using weapon or car, double tapping is a good practice just to ensure the zombie is dead and you can leave the place in peace.

Parody is one of the characteristic found in postmodernism. Zombieland pays tribute to Ghostbusters by parody. While Little Rock and Columbus go into the mansion’s theater room to watch Ghostbusters, the rest who are Wichita, Tallahassee and owner of the mansion, the Ghostbusters star Bill Murray did a reenactment. In the chandelier scene, Tallahassee wears the costume from Ghostbusters and Bill Murray takes the vacuum cleaner points to the chandelier as if it is a ghost vacuum. Bill Murray mocks his signature role and scene in Ghostbusters.

I will continue the genre analysis in the next post. Stay tune!

Requiem for A Dream

A Darren Aronofsky's film, Requiem for A Dream.

It's based on the same book name by Hebert Selby Jr. After watching it for the first time in class, I would say it's a film that you won't feel comfortable watching it, due to how the content is presented, yet the message behind is powerful.

The main things you should be aware of from this film:

DRUG. MONEY. SEX. SUCCESS. 

The 4 main characters - Sara, Harry, Marion and Tyrone, each of them are obsessed with drugs in different ways. They are willing to pay money to get their drugs fix. For sex, especially Marion, she sacrifices her body for purpose. All of them tried to achieve what they want in an extreme way. 

I love how the film shows us people will go all the way just to achieve their goals, although their goals might not perceived good generally. Thanks to the director's style, the mental and psychological state of each character is well presented. 

There are many split screens in the film. Sara (mum) vs Harry (son). Harry (boyfriend) vs Marion (girlfriend). Sara vs refrigerator. Drug consumption process of Tyrone vs Harry. Although they are in the same place, but the execution of split screen highlights the difference in each character.

I love the split screen especially for Sara vs refrigerator. Sara has the urge to eat something else during her diet so she keeps looking at the refrigerator but has to resist. The medium close-up shot of Sara sitting on the chair keep zooming into the extreme close up of Sara's eye, the overall process is fantastic! Other than that, many close up and extreme close up are performed to show the intensity and focus of the scene. Most of the time the shot is taken with a stationery camera. That means characters are constantly giving meaning to their motions while camera is capturing them without changing the camera position.

Parallel editing that shows two events happen in the same time can enhance the storytelling. For example, Sara going to Madison Avenue, Harry and Tyrone going to Florida. This helps to establish the plot yet audiences still can get a picture of what's going on for both sides without delaying the story.

The fast cut montage showing the drug consumption process is worth a watch too! The perfect combo consists of powder, fire, boiling water, rolling money, widening pupil. The matter of arranging the shots is important as it shows act of drugs consumption. The arrangement is interesting, accompanied by dramatic sound effect! 

After they consume the drug, the scene fades to white screen slowly. It indicates that they feel energised. They feel like they're in the "whole new world". 

Watch here to understand more:

But I don't like how hip hop music is always associated with drug. In this film, the young drug addicts dance along with the hip hop music to show their excitement after consuming the drugs. This is really labelling hip hop music = drugs. NO, please. 

The TV show that drives Sara to go on diet insanely. I sympathise with her a lot. This old lady got a call from the show to be a contestant. She is so excited to be on television, to tell people about how much she loves her deceased husband and successful son. With a dream to go on television by wearing her lovely red dress, she had a crazy diet. But her inner feeling - she is old, she is alone, she is lonely, she has no one to care for. This chance is sort of giving a meaning to her life. In the end, she destroyed herself. I feel bad for her. 

Requiem for A Dream, a brilliant film! 

And please don't get yourself into drug. YOU WILL SUFFER. 

Spirited Away 千と千尋の神隠し

First movie to analyze in Film Studies class - Spirited Away 千と千尋の神隠し ! 

One of the most popular and successful Japanese animation film, Spirited Away from Hayao Miyazaki has been long on my to-watch list but The Wind Rises was the first Hayao Miyazaki's film that I watched when he announced his last feature film and retirement. (But recently he is working on a new project so...)  

Spirited Away revolves around a primary school aged girl Chihiro who is moving to a new neighbourhood with her family. While on the way to the new neighbourhood, the wrong road direction leads them to a mysterious tunnel, The parents are curious to explore it but Chihiro doesn't willing to do so as she feels creepy about it but still follow them. While wandering around, Chihiro meets a boy namely Haku who warns her family to leave the place as soon as possible, or else they will get into trouble. When Chihiro rushes back to her parents, they become giant pig. In order to rescue her parents and return to the real world, Chihiro has to forget her real name to be named as Sen and work in the bathhouse where the spirits come to relax themselves which owns by an old witch Yubaba. 

This animation movie successfully evoked my tears, especially this part.

My tears actually came out as soon as Chihiro cries. She must be worry about her parents and pressure to face the obstacles. Haku who helped her at the first place, soothes her by patting on her shoulder. I feel her emotions totally. 

It was quite an enjoyable film with various lessons to learn. 

So, WHAT DO I LIKE ABOUT THIS FILM?

1. People shouldn't be greedy. People shouldn't get tempted by money. People should be contented with what they have. 

Nowadays the society is full of materialism. People are becoming more demanding. 

But Chihiro is the exception. 

Be like Chihiro, she is not materialistic. 

Even if No Face offers her extra herbal soap and gold, she rejects it because she doesn't need it. However, the other workers in bathhouse are very greedy. They even wake up at the midnight to cook nice foods to feed No Face because he is giving away the gold. They are blinded by the golds. 

2. Furthermore, everyone is responsible for environmental care. Tons of wastage like bicycle, pipe can be found inside the body of Stink Spirit (or River Spirit). That just shows how polluted the surroundings are. People are not mindful for what they did. They simply throw everything at anywhere. River is one of the place that get affected and polluted. 

3. Strong presence for feminism! Protagonist Chihiro, antagonist Yubaba, and the supporting Lin!

As the main character, Chihiro has the strength and does not give up easily. She tries very hard, insist to persuade Yubaba to offer her a job in the bathhouse. Even though she faced various obstacles, the strength in her made her stronger to not letting go of every chance to save her parents. She also fulfilled her responsibility as a worker in bathhouse by serving some troublesome customers (No Face, Stink Spirit). Unlike other workers, they please the customers because they could bring them fortune. 

The antagonist Yubaba, owner of the bathhouse. She has the power and wealth. She puts spell to control over everything. She even takes Chihiro's name and identity away, hence Chihiro has the new name Sen.

Lin, who always take good care of Sen (which is Chihiro) like a mum. She constantly assist her in all sorts of tasks in spiritual world. 

4. Always show appreciation to others. Be it the black soots that help Chihiro to keep her shoes. Be it Haku who save Chihiro and family in trouble and then Chihiro saves Haku when he's in hurt. Be it Chihiro who should say thank you to Kamaji who hides Chihiro's identity. Be it Lin who supports Chihiro in bathhouse's work. Be it Chihiro who is thankful for No Face in "stealing" soap tag for her. 

5. Live your life and be who you are. Name and identity are just something extra to live our lives. Who cares you are Chihiro or Sen? As long as you're still the same person, that's what matters.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE FROM THIS FILM?

Here comes the downside.

1. I don't really like how pig is being portrayed in the movie. Chihiro realized her parents transformed into giants pigs after eating countless food at the food stalls.

Isn't it a stereotypical view on pig? They eat a lot and lazy? (As Yubaba said human is lazy?)

It's negative, for both human and pig.

Chihiro's parents turns to giant pigs eating at a food stall.

2. Did Chihiro's parents behave appropriately? NO.

When the parents decided to explore the mysterious tunnel, they ask Chihiro to wait inside the car. Although Chihiro finds the tunnel creepy and refuse to go in, does that means it's ok to leave the kid alone? Things can happen in a blink of eyes. They just don't show much concerns to Chihiro's safety. 

In addition, Chihiro's dad who owns Audi car drives fast on the dangerous stoned roads in the jungle because he has four wheel car. He just wouldn't listen even if the wife asked to slow down. This is selfish without considering for others. 

Furthermore, they eat food without asking for permission. They think the food is nice and tender. They grab whatever they want, because they have credit card and cash. Bad example and role model for Chihiro. But luckily Chihiro has her sense not to follow her parents to behave that way. 

For this part, it's ok. This can educate the parents the DON'T to carry their role of being parents.

To sum up, this 2001 film still able to captivate my heart. Thumbs up for Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece!