Category: Media Studies

Mirror (Movie) – Story – Analysis

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Story: 

A jumbled series of dramatised scenes, dream sequences and newsreel excerpts reveal the memories and present-day experiences of unseen protagonist-narrator Alexei. The traumas of Alexei’s rural childhood and experiences of war are mirrored in his urban adult life. His estranged relations with his ex-wife, Natalia, and son, Ignat, reflect the abandonment he suffered from his own father. A myriad of motifs echo across generations melding dream with reality and the personal with the political. Transcending autobiography, elements drawn from Tarkovsky’s own experiences (and those of his mother and father, who both feature in the film) are implicated within the wider traumatic socio-historical experiences of Soviet Russia from 1930 to 1970. 

Analysis: 

What is this film about? It is about a Man. No, not the particular man whose voice we hear. It’s a film about you, your father, your . . . Read More

Zemlya / Earth (1930 Movie) – Summary – Analysis

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Summary: 

The film begins with the final moments of grandfather Semyon Opanas beneath a pear tree. Locals, including Arkhyp Bilokin, contemplate the process of collectivisation and declare their resistance to it, while elsewhere Semyon’s grandson Vasyl and his friends meet to discuss collectivisation. That night a dark figure attacks and kills Vasyl. At the cemetery, Bilokin’s son Khoma arrives to declare that he was the one who killed Vasyl, but the villagers pay him no attention. One declares that Vasyl’s glory will fly around the world like a new communist airplane. The film ends with a downpour of rain over fruit and vegetables. 

Analysis: 

Earth shares several characteristics with many of the most influential Soviet films of its era. It follows the Communist Party line by depicting a proletarian collective as a united and heroic force against bourgeois self-interest, while its formalist . . . Read More

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum – Summary – Analysis

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Summary: 

In late nineteenth-century Tokyo, young kabuki actor Kikunosuke meets Otoku, his baby brother’s wet nurse. Otoku candidly tells him how bad his acting is; her honesty impresses him, and love and trust develops between the two. Kikunosuke’s adoptive father and mentor, the great Kikugoro V, however, does not approve of their relationship, let alone their marriage, and disowns him. Kikunosuke starts afresh in the Osaka kabuki world. One year later, Otoku joins him. Four years pass. Kikunosuke now plays in travelling troupes and, even if his acting itself has improved, the couple struggle to survive and often quarrel. She confides in Fuku, Kikunosuke’s friend and fellow kabuki actor of privilege. Fuku and the impresario Morita promise Otoku to give Kikunosuke a chance in exchange for her leaving him. Kikunosuke makes a spectacular comeback performance and is received by his family in Tokyo, and Otoku disappears. Several months later, . . . Read More

Eat Drink Man Woman: Summary & Analysis

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Summary: 

Mr Chu (Lung) is a retired hotel chef in Taipei, Taiwan, who still shares the family home with his three adult daughters. Jia-jen (Yang), the oldest, is a Christian chemistry teacher who falls in love with the new school coach, Ming-dao Chou (Lu). The next daughter, Jia-chien (Wu), whose relationship with her father is the main focus of the film, is a successful executive at an expanding airline company who moves on from her modern, nostrings sex relationship with Raymond (Chan) when the suave Li Kai (Chao) arrives at her office. The youngest, 20-year-old Jia-ning (Wang), gets pregnant by her best friend’s ex-boyfriend. Chu himself keeps secret his developing relationship with their neighbour Jin-rong (Chang) while preparing school-meals for her young daughter, Shan-Shan (Tang). Chu’s oldest friend and colleague Old Wen (Wang) dies suddenly. Jia-jen and Jia-ning marry their lovers while Chu and Jia-chien, his favourite daughter, are . . . Read More

Yeelen (Movie) – Summary – Analysis

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Summary: 

A young man, Nianankoro, embarks on a journey across ancient Mali to fulfil his destiny and challenge his tyrannical father Soma, a member of the Komo society which holds the secrets of a divine cosmic force. Nianankoro’s power matures with the help of the Peul and Dogon peoples, and after acquiring the sacred Wing of Kore, he engages in an epic battle with his father for the fate of the entire country. 

Analysis: 

Yeelen stands as one of the most acclaimed African films of the twentieth century, largely due to its striking portrayal of the peoples and pre-colonial culture of Mali.1 This status inevitably raises questions about how to judge the film in relation to the pervasive representation of Africa as ‘a paradigm of difference’, the ultimate ‘Other’ of Western modernity.2 Does the film’s vibrant portrayal of precolonial myth and culture make it an African film par . . . Read More

Y tu mama tambien – Story – Analysis

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Story: 

The film’s young male protagonists, Tenoch and Julio are just leaving high school and embarking on their adult life; they spend their time getting drunk, taking drugs, having sex and “whacking off”.Whenthey meet an attractive older woman, Luisa, at a family wedding they flirt with her and invite her to come on atripto the beach with them. Luisa, in her late twenties, is married to Tenoch’s cousin Juno and, although she doesn’t take the invitation seriously at first, when she discovers that her husband has been unfaithful she takes the boys up on their offer. The trio travel through the Mexican countryside en route to the mythical Heaven’s Mouth. 

Analysis:

On the surface Y tu mamá también is a stylish road movie. Whilst the film borrows from the Hollywood genre, it does not employ a classical Hollywood style. Y tu mamá también has a distinctly documentary feel, employing long . . . Read More

A Touch of Zen: Summary & Analysis

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Summary:

 An artist, Ku, lives with his mother near an abandoned fort, reputed to be haunted. One night, investigating strange noises, he meets the beautiful Yang who is living there, and finds himself caught up in her struggle to survive attacks by agents of an imperial noble who murdered her family. 

Analysis: 

The Chinese wuxia (martial chivalry) genre is familiar to Western audiences largely through Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon (2000) with its characteristic code-bound warriors, their mastery with weapons and ability to scale walls or trees via great leaps. In Mainland China, the Communist Party banned the genre for romanticising feudalism and anti-authoritarianism, forcing it underground until the end of the last century. Meanwhile in nationalist Taiwan and colonialist Hong Kong, wuxia thrived where the subtext of the underdog’s fight for traditional values against oppressive . . . Read More

Crows & Sparrows (1949 Movie): Summary & Analysis

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Summary:

The story takes place in Shanghai at the end of 1948. Hou, an official of the Republican government takes possession of Mr Kong’s property, a residential house, driving the old man into a tiny corner room downstairs, while he and his concubine occupy the top level. Two other families, the Huas and the Xiaos, rent the other two rooms. However, the Republican army is soon defeated by the Communists, making Hou decide to sell this building and flee to Taiwan. He demands that all of the residents move out immediately. Unwilling to become homeless, Mr and Mrs Xiao propose to buy the house from Hou. They mortgage all their valuables with Hou to trade gold, but end up losing all the money. Meanwhile, Mr Hua is arrested for his unintended involvement in a strike. In order to rescue him, Mrs Hua asks Hou for help, yet is taken advantage by him. When the residents are finally outraged by Hou’s exploitation and get ready for a confrontation, the . . . Read More

Two Stage Sisters – Summary – Analysis

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Summary: 

Against the backdrop of the evolution of Shanghai-based Yueju (aka Shaoxing opera), Two Stage Sisters unfolds around Chunhua, a child bride who runs away from her arranged marriage in 1935. Taking refuge with an itinerant Yueju company, Chunhua becomes an apprentice in that opera troupe and befriends the master’s daughter, Yuehong. On stage Chunhua and Yuehong play duets together, while the troupe travels from village to village in the countryside. After the demise of the troupe master in 1940, however, Chunhua and Yuehong find themselves sold to an opera theatre in Shanghai, where all-female Yueju has recently attained an enormous popularity. Both Chunhua and Yuehong rise to stardom in the following years. However, Yuehong then falls for the manipulative stage manager, Tang, and gradually recedes from the performance scene. Chunhua, by contrast, is firmly dedicated to her career, and is gradually drawn to left-wing politics under the . . . Read More

The Wild Bunch (1969 Movie): Summary & Analysis

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Summary:

Set in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution, along the Mexican-Texan border, The Wild Bunch tells the story of an aging gang of outlaws led by Pike, and chased by bounty hunters led by a former gang member, Deke Thornton. They rob a bank, which turns out to be a set-up by the railroad company to capture the gang, and escape to a Mexican village, home of Angel, one of their gang members. The village was attacked by General Mapache, who also kidnapped Angel’s girlfriend. After they get to Agua Verde, Angel sees his former girlfriend with the General and shoots her. Pike agrees to steal a US military shipment for Mapache in exchange for gold. Though the hold-up is successful, the train also carries the bounty hunters, who chase Pike and his group, only to be foiled again. When Mapache realises that Angel has stolen a crate of weapons, he captures and tortures Angel. In a bloody shootout between Mapache and Pike, almost everybody, including Pike, . . . Read More