Breathless - French New Wave

According to Susan Hayward, French New Wave left an important footstep in film history in the late 1950s.The rise of a new generation of filmmakers all around the world who disobey with their elders in the industry has created a new wave in the industry and the most influential of these groups were from French.

The most important movement done in French New Wave was these young filmmakers fight against the prevailing trends such as literary adaption which means the movie made by the story from a book, costume drama and massive co-production. The young generation of filmmakers in the late 1950s wanted to do more whether on screen or behind the screen. The appearance of the new wave of filmmakers caused the older filmmakers dying off in a short period. In the mid-1950s, these young men wrote for the Paris film journal Cahiers du Cinema which the content about the critics on the most respected French filmmakers of the day.  The authors write about the Film Noir and watched a lot of unreleased films. 

Became a writing criticism do not satisfied the young filmmakers and they decided to start to make a movie with borrowing money from their friends. These young filmmakers always rejecting the French filmmaker's establishment with the Hollywood's commercials. The principles of these filmmakers usually did not have literally write a script and must reject the montage aesthetics and insert directors' personalities into his/her studio products. Before the French New Wave occur, Hollywood control the film industry. Back in those days, Hollywood famous in their continuously editing to create the similar edit. They love to create a film world to pull the audience into a part of the movie. However, the French New Wave filmmakers always wanted to transcend the constraints of Hollywood's standardize system. They will reject all the strong editing and prefer use mise-en-scene to create a movie. For them, visual is very important as well as the film must include emotion and psychological elements.

Due to they do not associate with any group, they started to create low-budget and non-studio films. They have their own thought in making films and do not stuck in the studio based system. The director in French New Wave able to become an artist who making a real film art by no third party's controlling. The filmmakers show proficient and mature with each successive film to become an author. The economic situation for these filmmakers was independent with no studio interaction but with a low budget which means they do not have own studio and money.

The characteristics of French New Wave film somehow has some similarities with Italian Neorealism as these young directors had admired the Neorealists. They did not progress the studio filmmaking but shooting on actual location. They took the views of Paris as their mise-en-scene. They prefer to use natural light source rather than glossy studio lighting. The filmmakers loved to use shooting techniques such as panning, tracking to follow characters and long takes. Hence, Eclair had developed a lightweight camera that could be handheld and these filmmakers were crazy in love with this camera. On top of that, the filmmakers created unique editing skill as well to reject the film traditions such as jump cut and elliptical which means mouth do not sync with the voice we heard. The characters in the film will not follow the script and sometimes they will look into the camera and enter monolog mode. New Wave film has a casual humor as their special characteristic and the narratives often introduce startling shifts in tone and jolting our expectation.

Breathless is a 1960 French film which written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is about a youthful criminal, Michel who steal a car in Marseille and shot a policeman. He tries to escape from the police forces and falls in love with an American named Patricia at the same time.Patricia hides him in her apartment as he simultaneously tries to seduce her and call in a loan to fund their escape to Italy. Patricia says she is pregnant and most probably is Michel’s, however, she notices that Michel is on the run when questioned by the police. In the end, she chooses to betray him, but before the police arrive she tells Michel about this. The police shoot him in the street end, after a long run, he dies out of breath.

The most obvious New Wave characteristic can be found in this film is the editing technique, jump cut which brings a discontinuously editing in the scene where Michel shots down the police. On top of that, the whole film was shoot on in actual location but not a studio filmmaking. In the beginning of the film, Michel is driving on a road and talking in front of the camera as he is talking with us, the audiences. This can often remind us that we are watching a film by not enter the film world. Plus, the characters dialogues were not script based hence they were natural in talking with each other some more they will use hmph a song to complete the particular of a shot. The real life conversation makes they talk a lot in the movie for example Michel and Patricia's interaction in her apartment. It is not hard to find several shots are very shaky and unstable as they prefer the handheld camera to shoot the film.

Bicycle Thieves (Italian Neo-Realism)

Italian Neo-Realism is a film movement happened in post-WW2. Its appearance caused by the new generation of young filmmakers want to create a new style of Italian films.

During the pre-war, films have to help the government in propaganda purpose. Because during that time, the technology unable to let the government pass their message to the mass audiences hence they use films as the tools.

In Mussolini ruling era, films are not allowed to show the reality of the current society's situation to promote the beauty of Italy. At the same time, Italian Film School and Hollywood have established, the young filmmakers want to break against the fascism and produce a moral and an aesthetic cinema.

By 1943, without the controlling by fascism, the filmmakers think that they should eliminate the old cinema and start to focus the reality of the society to confront the audiences who also involve in the same situation.

Italian Neo-Realism has some similarity with Hollywood production such as they follow the three-act structure, hero journey format and features famous stars.

The young filmmakers have set up some principle to conduct the style and content of this film movement.

The films must tally with the ordinary people's life and focus on contemporary social realism which means the particular issue that not happened over one to two day(s). The films should concern about the social's problems such as unemployment and poverty that so common in the post-war period in Italy. Use non-professional actors to bring the realism on dialogue, body language to make them become more natural. The production stage should proceed out of the studio which means preferred location shooting. Shooting in outdoor able to shoot under the natural light and using observation to produce documentary's style of shooting.

Neo-Realism became a unique film movement as the sound equipment was rare at that time so they need to arrange the mise-en-scene by shooting on actual locales. Plus, they required for realism hence they often need to shoot on streets or in buildings and this caused the Italian camera operators expert at cinematography to avoid three-point lighting. The filmmakers start to work in a smaller team to move the camera freely.
The narrative form of the Neo-Realism film has a huge differ from the earliest films. In the old films, the endings usually are not a happy ending but in Neo-Realism, the endings often are unknown although the contents of the films are related to poverty and unemployed issues. The narrative style is matched with our reality life as our future is an unknown.

'Bicycle Thieves' is about Antonio Ricci gets a job offering which is posting advertisement poster in the city area but it requires a bicycle. His wife, Maria sells all of the bed sheets to the pawn shop to redeem Antonio's bicycle. Unfortunately, Antonio's bicycle steal by a young man. Antonio unable to chase the young man and go to report to the police. On the next day, Antonio brings his son, Bruno, along and find the bicycle with his friends. They meet a lot of trouble in their journey but still unable to find the bicycle. In the last part of the film, Antonio asks Bruno meet him at Monte Sacro by taking the public transport. Antonio steals other's bicycle but knocked down by the crowd. Bruno missed the public transport and he runs towards to his father. The owner of the bicycle let Antonio go because of Bruno. Antonio and Bruno walk towards the crowd as the ending of the film.

'Bicycle Thieves' has all of the features which matched with Italian Neo-Realism film movement. Firstly, the mise-en-scene of the film was adapted from the actual post-war location which in the beginning of the film where Maria carrying the water from a well.

It has shown the poverty in the post-war period, men are desperate to find a job while the women carry the water from a well which located far away from their home to take care of their family. Everyone are urgent need the money as there are always having a long line at the pawn shop to use their stuff to exchange money. Next, we can see that some of the innocent people will believe in seer to determine their future. I think that the filmmakers are trying to mock the people who willing to spend their money on the seer but not to use the money wisely.

On top of that, the using of the non-professional actor makes the film more realistic as Antonio perfectly brings out the feel of a working man struggles in the hardships in his life and try to make his family have a better life. Because of the nonactors do not how to act, hence the dialogue, accent, body language are familiar with the audiences.

Last but not least, the ending of the film is unknown as Antonio and his son walk towards the crowd does not reflect anything in their future. It may causes the audiences to think about it. Will they manage find the bicycle? Or Antonio's friends found the bicycle? Or Antonio wll lose his job?

The Maltese Falcon (Film Noir)

Film Noir is a film movement born in the 1940s and it is similar to American thriller film. At first, people do not call as 'film noir' but crime film. Because of the lifting ban on France movie, the new-looking films start coming in. People treat these new phenomena as a film movement but not as a genre because it can be referred as thriller or gangster movie but also can look as Western movie and melodrama at the same time.

Film Noir starts to notice the visual and the character's design is very different from the past. Noir means black or dark so all of the movies are in black and white. Film Noir has the cinematography similar with German Expressionism (1920s) such as low key lighting, high contrasts, deep shadow and diagonal camera angles. There are certain characteristics can be found in Film Noir, for example, chiaroscuro which means light-dark as a principle of contrasting lighting. The special location and setting of the Film Noir have made it very special as well as low-key lighting, high-contrast visual and the psychology issue happen in the protagonist. The setting in Film Noir often is city-bound with rain-washed street and interiors and always shots by the diagonal camera angles which referred to German Expressionism. The setting of the Film Noir always wants to give the audiences have a sense of danger and mystery. The reason is to create unbalance and not normal atmosphere as the there has a crime happened.

Shadow become a feature which makes Film Noir become famous.

Shadow reflects blurred moral values to create good and bad figure at the same time.

The film's characters are different in the past character's design. In previous, the characters in films are purely good or purely bad. But in Film Noir, the protagonist is not a hero but not completed badly. Just like the reality world, there are not a good guy in this world.

The femme fatale appears in Film Noir as it is about the power relation and sexual identity. The female status in society become more important because the women start to join the work field and start to make money during the war period as the men need to join the army force to defence their country. When the men return from the war, they started being suspicious and questioning about their masculine identity.

Film Noir portraits femme fatale as the central role with active, intelligent powerful to achieve their goal with courage and wisdom. These women able to do something which men usually do such as holding a gun or cigarette. What a man can do, a woman also has the capable to do it. In Film Noir, the murder case is not so important but she will become the male's investigation target. However, in the end of the film, women usually get her punish as the film is struggling of the voices controlling the narrative diegesis.

Because of the war, the status of male and female has a huge evolution. Film Noir can be viewed as the male start to concern about the women power and their economy growing in 1940. The 1950s Film Noir start to concern about the value of family life to make the men gain back their status as well as the national identity. 

Maltese Falcon is about two private detectives, Sam Spade and Miles Archer take over a case reported by Miss Wonderly who claims she wants to find his sister who involves with a man called Floyd Thursby. At the night, Spade receives a call informed that Archer has been killed. In the next morning, Spade goes to find Ms. Wonderly, now calling as Brigid O'Shaughnessy and tells Spade Thursby killed Archer but do not know who killed Thursby. During Spade investigating the murder case, he meets Cairo and talking about 'a black figure of bird'. A big boss, Gutman offers Spade $10,000 for the falcon. In the end, Spade calls the police force to arrest Gutman, Cairo, and Wilmer. Although Spade has fallen in love with O'Shaughnessy but he still let the police takes her away since Spade knew that she is the one who killed Archer.

Maltese Falcon is a classic Film Noir as it is black and white, and the story plot begins with the investigation and murder cases. Most of the scenes are in high-contrast lighting and occur a lot of shadows.

The camera angle that shoots on characters' faces usually through the low angle to create their faces become bigger and make the audiences have a sense of threat.

My favourite part in the film is on the characters especially Spade. He is smart to solve any cases but in the same time, he loves money and woman. He has the capability to become the hero but he does not want to be the hero. Spade is the main character with flaws as in the reality world do not have a good people. O'Shaughnessy is a smart girl who knows how to use her beauty and sexuality to complete her goal, makes Spade falls in love with her and make him confuse in the investigation. But in the end, Film Noir's setting has punished her. In the last scene, the steel bars of the lift portrait she is going to jail.

Filmmakers love Film Noir because of the cool visual and the psychology of the character is more realistic. Although Maltese Falcon is a classic Film Noir, but I not in love with the film because the dialog is very hard for me to understand and the speed of their talking is fast. Since it is black and white film, I confused with the time frame in the film because I can't identify the daylight or night time.

In the Mood for Love

Film movements have influenced the stage of the film industry today. The two most important elements in film movements are films that are produced within particular period and nation and that share significant traits of style and form. Next, the filmmakers who operate within a common production structure and who share certain assumptions about filmmaking. (Bordwell & Thompson, 2009)

World War I has destroyed the French film industry and caused American films began to enter the French film's market in 1915. The local film industry tried to reborn in the market by referred the style and genre of Hollywood films, however, this move has deferred the perception of young French directors with their predecessor. Their predecessor treats filmmaking as commercial tools, unlike younger generation, create the cinema to be an art which able to compare with poetry, painting, and music.

French Impressionism happened in 1919 until 1928. The younger directors love to explore the psychological emotion because they think that cinema was an art of emotion. They have a huge interest in the inner action of the actors rather than physical behavior. On top of that, the directors love to play the concept of manipulating plot time and subjectivity hence flashbacks are very common. Impressionism focuses on the personal emotion to give the film narrative.

To display a unique style of the films, the filmmakers developed different types of cinematography and editing such as masks and superimposition to trace the actors' thoughts and feelings. For example, point-of-view cutting to show a character looking at something, then change the shot to that thing from an angle and distance which are in the same position of the character. This method is using to show what the character looking at. Besides, the filmmakers will use visual to show the characters' situation such as when the character is getting drunk or dizzy, the camera will shake to show dizzy or the filmmakers will use the distorted and vertiginous camera movement. Additionally, Impressionists also developed the rhythmic editing which means the pace of editing will increase as the mood of that particular scene was excited to create the climax. The filmmakers think that they can do more on the camera hence they tried to develop the frame mobility such as strapped their camera on the cars.

In the Mood for Love, 花樣年華 is a 2000 Hong Kong romantic film produced, written and directed by Wong Kar Wai. The story happened in Hong Kong in 1962 when Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan move into the same place and become a neighbor. Their spouse often leaves them alone because of career purpose. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan found out they are in the same lonely situation and their spouse has an affair with each other. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan often dating together to imagine and rehearsal their spouse how to betrayal them. They even always hang out together to write a martial-art series of novel. They actually fall in love with each other and Mr. Chow asks Mrs. Chan to follow him to go to Singapore because he got a new job offer over there however Mrs. Chan is too late to join Mr. Chow. Three years later, Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow go back to the old place where they used to live there but they do not meet each other. The film ends at Mr. Chow whispering his little secret into a hole in a ruined wall.

This film is attractive because the formula was unfamiliar for us. The ending actually makes me felt sad because Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan did not being together although they fall in love with each other. The elements of French Impressionism can be found in this film especially the term of exploring psychology causes. There is a plot in the film where Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan buying and having their dinner at the same noodle stall. The BGM and the scene are similar and repeat for a few times. The director is trying to show they are do everything alone, having their meals alone. The expressionless of the characters shows they are used to the loneliness. When Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan found out their spouse having an affair, they imagine the scene of betrayal and rehearsal on it for few times. This shows the director apply the manipulating plot time effects in the film. The characters repeat the rehearsal but in a different dialog.

After Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan getting know each other better, they aware that they have some chemical between them. But they are struggling because they do not want to be like their spouse. They have a conversation about what if they haven't married. Both of them agree that they will be happier if they do not have married. Mr. Chow backs to his office and having a lot of smoke after the end of the conversation. The smoke, dark lighting and Mr. Chow expression show he is thinking and struggling. The smoke represents cloudy, his mind actually is crowded. Besides, time lapse effect can be found in the film. The time lapse effect makes the world is moving but not the character. This created the characters depress emotion.

Additionally, fast cut editing appears on after Mrs. Chan picks up the phone call from Mr. Chow and she is invited to the hotel to meet with him. Mrs. Chan arrived the hotel but she is struggling meet or not to meet with Mr. Chow. The confuse and excitement from Mrs. Chan match with fast pace editing elements to create the climax of her mood and the film. During the tutorial, we had a discussion about the director used freeze frame in certain footages such as Mr. Chow decided to go to Singapore but the frame is freezing at the moment he wants to leave and without Mrs. Chan's appearance. Mr. Joe said that it was a technique from director Wong Kar-wai as he wants to leave a memory on that particular scene. In my opinion, the freezing scene represents maybe Mr. Chow wants to wait for another moment to wait for Mrs. Chan. In this whole film, we can't see their spouses' faces and this makes the audiences very curious. But, does it important? Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan also can't see their betrayal so it is not necessary to show them to the audiences.

Frech impressionism ended in 1929. But it brings a huge influence on today's film industry. The concept, psychological narrative, cinematography and editing are not going to disappear. By the way, Maggie Cheung in the film is so beautiful!!!

Dark City

A film movement, German Expressionism happened in 1919-1926, after the World War I.
The filmmakers start to apply the human emotion and sexuality in the movement to express their modern art. The films' themes in German Expressionism are the revolt, self-analysis, madness and primitive, sexual savagery. The concept of the films is to present the true essence of people and things into visible form to make the film be more realistic and familiar to the audiences.

German Expressionism is far different from Surrealism. Surrealism present the content which let the audiences find the hidden message from unconsciousness but the German Expression is not. German Expression aligned with the terms of narrative, set and mise-en-scene. This film movement has different critics in the different era since the interpretations vary. Some viewed German explore the mental issue on the brink of madness, obsessed with death and fatality and ready to encompass fascism.( Hayward, 2013) (Kracauer, 1992 & to some extend Eisner, 1969), and others viewed the films as an attempt to escape even into horror from a dreadful effect of the economic crisis and inflation (Manuell and Fraenkel, 1971).

The German expressionist film has unique style such as diagonal camera angle, distorted body image and the setting with incongruous but Gothic at the same time. The lighting will have a very high contrast between light and dark (also known as chiaroscuro) to create the dramatic shadows. In the elements of the mise-en-scene, actors' performance has a very important role as the actors' body is as much a producer of meaning on that particular scene. In German expressionism, the filmmakers start to concern about the cinematic equipment with technology hence one of the technique in editing which is called 'montage' has been created and impacted on German films in the mid-1920s.

Dark city is an America neo-noir science fiction film in 1988 and directed by Alex Proyas. The story starts with a naked man lying in a bathtub and he noticed that he is in a hotel room with a female half-naked dead body. He is suffering from lost memories and suddenly receives a phone call from Dr. Schereber who asks him to escape from a chasing by a group of unknown men (known as strangers). The man realized his name was John Murdoch from his lost wallet. In the journey of finding his memories and escaping from the unknown men and police force, he actually found out he got a mind power which is called 'tuning' and the Strangers also possess. In every 12am, people will fall asleep and the strangers will rebuild the whole city while Dr. Schereber will change people's memory by injected new memory for them. Murdoch finally able to investigated the whole city actually is a space habitat and controlled by the force field which operated by the Strangers. The purpose of the Strangers to build this city is to investigate how to get the human 'soul' for them. At the end of the story, Murdoch uses his tuning and new memory to defeat all the Strangers and control the whole city. Murdoch meets his wife Emma on a pier but she already injected a new memory and new identity as Anna. They plan to walk to the Shell Beach and start their new relationship.

The main element of German expressionism can be found in Dark City is self-analysis. John Murdoch suffering from memory loss in the hotel and desperate to know who is him. He realizes his name was J. Murdoch from the hotel registration book and he is non-stop questioning himself what is his full name. When he met Dr. Schereber. he asking his true identity and leads his anger approached until shows his tuning power. Next, the lighting of the whole film is dark and with high contrast visual. This lighting effect will provide a sense of mystery to the audience and able to enhances the investigation nature of the film. The Strangers try to kill Murdoch as they are worry Murdoch tuning power is too powerful and might lead a threat for them. The weapon they use to kill Murdoch is a knife and this is a primitive sexual savagery behavior. The mise-en-scene of the film is surrounded with gothic and stylized buildings. Distorted bodies occur on the Strangers as they actually are aliens but they appears in a human form.

In conclusion, the film movements in the different generation have built today's film industry. We still can see today's film with the concept of German Expressionism. The technique and knowledge are very important to every filmmaker as a guideline to produce a great film with originality principal but aligns with the creativity by a new concept.

Paranorman

ParaNorman, an American 3D stop-motion animated horror-comedy film which directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler and released on 2012. This is the first animation movie I enjoyed in Film Studied tutorial class and the film has different genres such as Comedy, Horror, Action, and Melodrama.
In previous blog post, I've posted about how to categorize film genre by Rick Altman's theory which is the Semantic and Syntactic theory.

Semantics: list of common traits and attitudes, bringing us to very much the visual aspect.
*Which means that mise-en-scene: lighting, costume and makeup, actor's performance and movements, setting and props become a building block of the genre.

Syntactic: a constitutive relationship.
*Able to define a genre through a structure with deeper meaning. For example conversation between actors, types of character, ideologies, etc.
Genre can be analysis and better understanding through combining these two components.

Nowadays, the genre is still important for audiences and filmmakers for categorizing, marketing purpose and even filmmaking guideline.

ParaNorman is about an 11 years old boy who able speaks to the ghosts and everyone around him treat he like a freak. However, Norman still finds a best friend named Neil, a fat boy who also always being bullied. One day, Norman's uncle, Mr. Prenderghast's spirit tells him to read a book beside Witch's old grave before sunset today to prevent the Witch's curse happen. However, Norman reads the book in the wrong venue and attracted five male and two female zombies chase after him and Alvin, a school bully. After few obstacles, Norman finally finds the truth of Witch's curse and he decided to solve the Witch's curse trouble which always repeat every year.

How to define ParaNorman as Action film?

Action film often requires high tempo, continuous high energy and a lot of physical stunts. The pace of editing will be fast and a lot of fast cuts with non-stop motion. They are few chasing scene appear in the film such as the zombies chase after Norman and Alvin but luckily Norman's sister Courtney, Neil and Neil's elder brother, Mitch is searching for Norman by driving. During the escape, they pass by a policewoman with high-speed driving. Hence, the chasing between car, zombies and police motorbike happens. Besides, the zombies have been attracted to go to the town where Norman lives. However, the people in the town do not afraid of the zombies even a little girl who very brave to fight against the zombies. In my opinion, maybe they are influenced by the modern technologies elements which often show violent and horror genre media contents. 

Next, Horror genre often makes audience frighten and panic. Although ParaNorman's horror element is not so strong but Horror is the main genre in this film since it appears zombies and witch which consider as unnatural horror subgenre. Horror film often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. In my opinion, the most exciting horror part in ParaNorman is when the zombies chase after Norman and Alvin until Mr. Prenderghast's house. This is because when Norman and Alvin are hiding from the zombies, I'm very nervous that they will be found by the zombies or safely escape from them. On top of that, the design of the zombies makes me feel uncomfortable as their limbs or ear will tear apart easily from their body. Mr. Joe stated that horror genre always creates a threat to normalcy, it always wants us to move apart from American Dream.

Comedy is a genre which totally different from the horror genre. The comedy genre humorously exaggerates the situation, the language, action, and characters. Comedies observe the deficiencies, foibles, and frustrations of life, providing merriment and a momentary escape from day-to-day life. They usually have happy endings, although the humor may have a serious or pessimistic side. In my opinion, the main character who able to bring comedy atmosphere to the audience is Neil. For me, he is a very cute fat boy who is very optimistic and cares about his friend. Every time he appears, he definitely will bring a smile to the audience. In the scene where Norman and his gang want to find the location of the Witch's graveyard in the town hall. They are very nervous to find and read a ton of book in the town hall but Neil is not panic at all. In worse, he just read the page number the book. After Norman reads a lot of books, Neil only completes his mission which is discovering the page number of the first book. He might not smart and with a good looking but I can refuse to fall in love with this character. His innocent brings a lot of funny moments in the film which able to release the tension in the film.

In conclusion, postmodernism has made the genre transform and expand in different key concept. For example, ParaNorman is one of the famous and success hybrid genre film. It blends two film genres together which is Horror and Comedy. The filmmakers often want to be creative and always want to break the rules however film must possess universal or general semantics.





Reference
Filmsite. N.p., 2016. Web. 22 June 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.filmsite.org/roadfilms.html

The Conjuring 2

'The Conjuring 2' released within a couple of days, my friends and I went to the cinema to watch this movie. This is the very first time I watched a horror movie in the cinema. Usually, I will hide under my blanket and 'enjoy' the horror movie in my room because I knew that the sound system and visual effect in the cinema are going to enhance the horror elements in the movie greatly.

During watching the movie, I actually screamed in the cinema. But luckily my friend's screaming was louder than mine. Undeniably, this is a great movie and I enjoyed it a lot although it was very scary!

'The conjuring 2' is a supernatural horror film which directed by one of my favorite directors, James Wan.
The story is about a poor single family with four children, the Hodgson family suffering from a series of paranormal events in their haunted house. Ed and Lorraine Warren, husband and wife and also paranormal investigators approach to the family and try to solve the paranormal problems.

I like the mise-en-scene in this movie.
The setting of the film is in London with a time frame around 70's. I love the old street in London during the winter season. Through the movie, I saw a lot of vintage props, for examples the spin dial phone, black and white television and the remote control with the big buttons. From the setting, we can confirm the Hodgson Family is a poor family because their house is old and shabby. The furniture in the house is worn and there is a scene which the single mother Peggy, goes to the basement with her friend to do the laundry. Unfortunately, the washing machine has broken down. This makes me sad because they actually living in a very bad condition.
We can see a huge contrast between Warren couple's house condition if compared to Hodgson's.
Warren's house have complete and outstanding furniture plus the house is decorated with a lot of flora which able to make the house's environment become more friendly and warm.

Costume and make-up often able to enhance the appearance of the actors. To show the destitute of the Hodgson Family, the characters often wear the clothes with not much of design and all of them are in dull color. Unlike Warren couple, Ed is often wearing a hoodie with fashion design which is still popular in our decade while Lorraine often wearing Western women suit with elegant design. Make-up works very well on Janet, the second oldest child in Hodgson family. Janet always possessed by the old man spirit, Bill Wilkins. Wilkins is the previous owner of the house, he often possesses Janet's body to communicate with others. In the beginning, Janet is a beautiful and energetic young girl however she becomes weaker and exhausted after haunted by the ghost spirit. The make-up makes Janet's face pale and dark circles lies under her eyes to show Janet is extremely tired and depress.

Lighting plays an important role in a film. Low-key illumination usually applied in the horror films as it able to create stronger contrast and darker shadows. Low-key illumination makes the horror scenes become full of mystery and danger. For example, Billy, the youngest child in Hodgson family go downstair during the midnight to have a drink. The darkness in the house makes the audience feel nervous and curious whether Billy will get harm or return to his room safely. When Billy on his way returns to his room, he accidentally steps on his toy fire trucks. After that, he kicks the fire trucks into an Indian tent then return to his room and prepare for sleep. The tent suppose have nobody inside of it but the fire trucks actually moves by itself and enters into Billy's room. The darkness in the tent makes the audience unable to look into it and it creates mystery and horror element in that scene as we are curious what is in the tent.

In my opinion, a success film which able to make audiences enjoy and get into it, the enhancement of the films by sound effect cannot be ignored. To increase the horrific of the evil figures in 'The Conjuring 2' such as Crooked man, Bill Wilkins and Valak (the nun), their voice and screaming are creepy and stunning. Especially when Wilkins talks through Janet's body, the pitch of the voice is low and it makes the environment become more creepy and makes people shocking since Janet is just a little girl but with an old man voice. Valak, the nun does not have a dialog but her anger able to express via her roar especially the scene in Act three, Lorraine try to rescue Ed and Janet but Valak tries to stop her. I think that the scariest scene is Ed and Peggy go down to the basement and try to fix the washing machine. Ed found out that the washing machine has no problem but the pipe has blocked. Ed tries to fix the pipe which located in the middle of the flooded basement. At the moment Ed is fixing the pipe, Peggy sees some blurred spirit figure behind Ed. The background music enhances the nervous phenomena, and the jump scare works very well when the sound effect combine with the Wilkins who hides in the water and pulls Peggy into water. Sometimes, I'm confusing I was scared by the paranormal in the film or just the sound effects. I believed that a horror film is just a nothing if without the sound effect or background music.

Zombieland

The movie shown in previous lecture class was Zombieland which directed by Ruben Fleischer and released in 2009.

The story is about the mad cow disease deteriorate into 'zombie disease' which makes everyone turning into zombies. Columbus, a survivor from the disease is trying to make his way to Columbus, Ohio from Austin, Texas to find his parents. In his adventure trip, he meets Tallahassee, a guy who expert in killing zombies and has a strong desire to get a Twinkies at the same time. Two of them meet a pair of a sister, Wichita and Little Rock. Four of them begin their road trip across Southwestern united state to find a free-zombies land.

Genre

The topic we discussed in the class on last week lesson.

In general knowledge, the genre can be defined as 'types' or 'categorize' of films. But, how to define and categorize a genre?  Mr. Joe has shared his knowledge about interpreting a genre by syntax which is through semantic and syntactic, approached by Rick Altman.

Semantics: list of common traits and attitudes, bringing us to very much the visual aspect. 

*Which means that mise-en-scene: lighting, costume and makeup, actor's performance and movements, setting and props become a building block of the genre.

Syntactic: a constitutive relationship.

*Able to define a genre through a structure with deeper meaning. For example conversation between actors, types of character, ideologies, etc.

Genre can be analysis and better understanding through combining these two components.

Now, let us discuss the genres of Zombieland.

Zombieland is categorized in horror comedy film.

Horror film usually aims to lead the negative emotional reaction among the audiences such as fear, shock, disgust by creating a threatening, a thing which can terrify us.
There are several sub-genre under Horror genre but Zombieland is categorized in 'unnatural' horror type. Most of the storyline in unnatural horror is begin with an external force (vampire/zombie's bite) to change a normal body into bodily mutilations or mutations. Sometimes, it might be caused by a virus or disease.
A very strong evidence to prove Zombieland is an unnatural horror film is everyone has become zombies because of the mad cow disease turned into mad zombies disease except the survivors.
Besides, the setting and props and zombie's makeup make me actually felt disgusted especially the opening of the film is introduced by the zombies are eating the human flesh while the person is still alive. The blood and the tearing of human flesh scenes make me extremely uncomfortable and this is the aim of being a horror movie.

Comedy is a genre which totally opposite with horror. The aim of a comedy film is to make the audience laugh through a sense of humor, entertainment and fun.
In Zombieland, we able to find several comedy sub-genres in it such as dark comedy, slapstick, and parody.

Dark comedy is a sense of humor which makes us forget the darker and serious matter such as war, illness, and death. The scene where Bill Murray try to act a zombie and try to scare Columbus, but Columbus shots and kills him. At the moment he takes his last two breaths before he dies, Wichita actually laughs because Bill Murray is a classic comedian actor in her heart. I think most of the audience will treat this death as a hilarious rather than a sad case.

Slapstick is a style of humor with a varies of hyperbole physical actions which overreacting than a normal physical action to make people laugh. In the beginning of Zombieland, the screen appears the Columbus rules while Columbus sharing his experience to survive from the zombies. To let the audiences learn some rules such as 'double tap' or 'cardio' from a horror film actually able to add some humor elements in it. I remember a slapstick scene where Columbus meets with Tallahassee in the first time, Tallahassee treats Columbus have a drink but Columbus spills it out from the car window during Tallahassee drinks his liquor. After that, Columbus pretends he actually drank it.

Parody means that make fun and change the style of the original work into a more funny way. The parody of ghostbusters appears in Zombieland: Wichita, Tallahassee, and Bill Murray get high after inhaled the Shisha. Wichita tells Tallahassee and Bill Murray there has a monster on the ceiling lamp, then the two guys take a vacuum machine and act it as the weapon which able to catch the ghost.


Although the main genre in this film is a horror comedy, but this film has included other genres such as Romance, Sci-fi, Action, and Road film.

The romance genre is all about love stories. Columbus always want to impress and woo Wichita but the love story between Columbus and Wichita begin to fall in love with each other is when they are dancing and try to kiss each other but failed through the interruption from Tallahassee. However, they are finally kissing and Wichita reveals her true name after Columbus changed his nerdy and timid into a hero to save Wichita and Little Rock from his greatest fear, clown zombie.

Sci-fi, Science-Fiction-Film often dealing with scientific facts, futuristic science, and technologies and visually through imaginative or after effects. The background in the film is about the extinction of human but full of zombies. The setting of the film is an advance city but only left a shell with no human but damages everywhere. It seems like the entire world only left four main characters as the survivors from the mad cow disease.

The action genre often requires an action hero and this character must belong to Tallahassee. He is a one man army who can kill hundred of zombies. His appearance brings along the masculinities, which is a cowboy image, strong built body, and expert in killing zombies. Columbus can be considered as an accidental hero as he has no courage and body skill to deal with the zombies, he is a nerd but he uses his intelligent to survive from zombies, unlike Tallahassee takes the actions without thinking. Wichita is a heroin with the combination of Tallahassee and Columbus. She is smart, quick, brave as she tries to protect little rock and herself from chasing by zombies with the expert in a shotgun. A huge chase scene happens in the film when a crowd of zombies attracted by the sound from Pacific Playland after Wichita and Little Rock activated the rides and enjoy the theme park. Luckily, Columbus and Tallahassee come to rescue them. Tallahassee attracts all the zombies to chase after him to let Columbus near to the drop tower ride to save Wichita and Little Rock. Tallahassee locks himself in a game booth and shooting down all the zombies. Columbus overcomes his phobia, clown zombies to save Wichita and Little Rock. He even changes one of his rule 'Don't be a hero' to 'Be a hero', then he smashes the clown zombie's head with the game hammer. The chase scene, battles, rescues are the important elements to categorize a film into an action film.

Last but not least, a car has become an important vehicle for the characters to reach their destinations. Road film genre requires a journey and the characters will travel from one place to another. The characters will start to have a bond with each other along the road trip. I felt warm when four of them agree to go to Pacific Playland in Los Angeles, California and take turns to drive the car. They start to have a conversation like the old friends without suspicious with each others. 

Requiem for A Dream

A psychological drama film with four main characters, four different styles of drug addictions, four failures lives which able leads the audiences to know better the darkness of Drugs. This film is so realistic since it is all about the dark side of humanity on drugs, fame, money, and sex.

I actually felt tired after watching this film in class since I so got into in it. The pace of this film was so fast to make me unable to take a break. Of course, the sound effects also played a very important role to serve the excitement in the storyline so well.



What is editing?
'Editing is the basic creative force, by power of which the soulless photographs (the separate shots) are engineered into living, cinematographic form.' - V.I. Pudovkin, director

Yes, in my opinion, editing is a powerful tool to filter the flaws, joins all of the best shots together, enhances the film with various of vision and audio effects.
I believed that most of the audiences are impressed by the editing skills in 'Requiem for A Dream' on how the director delivered his ideas and messages for us.

The use of split screen technique is interesting and new for me because I seldom watch a film with this technique with frequent appearances. I like the way director split the screen in the beginning of the film to show the quarrel between mother and son, Harry and Sara. It able to present Harry's anger and Sara's fear in a frame. Another unforgettable scene with split screen is Harry has a pillow conversation with his girlfriend, Marion. Their bodies part are shown at the same time with extreme close up until not exactly able to see who they are but able to confirm via the voices and Marion's blue nail color.
Why director split the love scene since they were lying in the same bed? When I saw this scene, I'm was thinking: this lovely couple must not having a happy ending. I think that this was director's intent: to make the audiences have a feeling which they are 'so close yet so far'. Their love was so real but still has a gap which leads to collapse easily.

One of the marvelous editing technique we have discussed in the class was the fast cut and arrangement of the random shots which a.k.a montage. I discovered montage techniques have been used on two different actions: the act of drugs consumption and the characters cut and sell the drugs on the streets. The montage might just appear on the screen for only a few seconds, but it able to present the whole process of drugs consumption with step by step: pour out the drugs, burn it, boil the water, prepare the injection, roll the paper money to suck the drugs and finally found the pleasure after consumption the drugs. The sound effects on every single step were emphasized to enhance the actions.
I think this technique is so powerful to avoid audiences to get bored but able to repeat it again and again to show the characters taking the drugs all the time.

I found interesting elements in cinematography has been used in the film which was the director used fish-eye lens in several scenes. In my opinion, fish-eye lens able to enlarge the facial expression of the actors in a medium shot. This mise-en-shot has been used on focus on Sara expressions and emotions. The desire of fame shown on Sara's face as she is imagining she is on a TV show but the illusion makes her face turned into frightening in the next seconds as she thought her refrigerator come alive. The second time to apply this technique was when Sara visits her doctor. Sara is trying to explain her problem to the doctor but he seems like do not care about it. The fish-eye lens makes Sara looks like very confuse and her world already became distortion but the world apart from her face seems like normal as usual.

The mise-en-scene means 'putting into the scene' / 'staging the scene' which includes the aspects of the film such as lighting, setting, and props, costume and makeup, actor's performance and movement. In my view, the actor with most stunning performance is Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb. She actually makes me heartbreaking when she tells her upset and loneliness to her son with a smile, a smile which full of sadness. Her emotional stages appeared in this film have a huge contrast as she is looking forward to be on TV but dealing with the 'fridge monster' at the same time. In the end, she drives crazy and accepts the therapy from the hospital which is very reasonable and convincing. On top of that, makeup plays an important role to enhance the appearance of the actors. The makeup on Harry's infection arm makes me impressive. Especially when Harry tries to inject the drugs on the wound on his arm, this actually makes me got goosebumps.

I strongly believe that many of us can't get rid of this film after watching it. Thanks to Mr. Joe makes us awake as he said that all of the movies are FAKE even it was based on true story. Yup, the story can be true but not the movie itself. I agree that. I learned a new thing from him which is called 'Hollywood realism'. For a simple example: we watch a guy in the movie was killed but in real he is not dead. The Hollywood realism makes us believed that the guy actually been killed.

Spirited Away 千與千尋

I remember I watched this movie before when I was a kid. I never thought that I got a chance to rewatch it during the Film Studies tutorial class. Thanks to Mr. Joe for choosing such amazing film as our first weekly journal.

However, second time watching this movie was totally different from the first time which makes me think a lot after enjoyed the movie. When I was a kid, I'm just simply enjoyed the graphics, music but not thinking about the hidden messages.

I've learned two important values from this movie: Manners and Kindness

In the beginning, Chihiro's parents eat the foods on the street without asking any permission. As a punishment, her parents actually turn into pigs.
To avoid the punishment, Chihiro needs to request a job in this magical world. She meets Kamaji and Lin after she follows the instruction from her rescuer, Haku. Luckily, Kamaji and Lin choose to help her. Before Lin allows Chihiro to follow her, she asks Chihiro to say "please" and "thank you".

For me, Lin just like an elder sister who teaching Chihiro to become a polite girl.
Chihiro actually goes to Yubaba's room to request a job from her. Chihiro gets scolded by the magic doorknob because of she directly opens the door but not to knock it first.

From these points, I think that being a polite person is very important especially when we step into a new environment/society. Even a smile or a nod of the head to a stranger is able to give a good impression for the others. Good manners may not guarantee makes everyone likes you but it can avoid everyone dislikes you.

Besides, Chihiro's kindness makes me like her more. She got a magical medicine from the River God after she 'cleaning' him. At first, she wants to use the medicine to cure her parents to become a normal person. However, she chooses to save her friend, Haku from his death by feeding him a part of medicine. Another part of medicine is given to No-Face after he drives crazy until swallow everything. After Chihiro fed him the medicine, No-Face vomits everything out and become normal again. The medicine means a lot for Chihiro since she wants to rescue her parents but she decided to give it to someone who need it more. Chihiro is not a selfish girl but generous.

Before the class ended, my classmates voiced out a lot of opinions. The pollution problem, greedy, policy...
I'm felt quite surprise this movie is not just an animation movie but it actually reflects a lot of society's issues.

In my opinion, the most important hidden message is no matter where we are, we must not forget who we are.

Yubaba wants Chihiro to sign a contract after she offers a job for Chihiro. Then, Yubaba change Chihiro's name into Sen. Luckily Sen remember her true name when she found her farewell card with her name on it. Otherwise, Chihiro will forget her name forever.
Haku stated that Yubaba controls people in this magical world by taking their names. If Chihiro forgets her name, she will never go back from this magical place.

Just like our reality society, most of the people will forget who they are after step into this materialistic society. The workers in the bathhouse reflect the people in the society. All we know is blindly chasing the wealth and power by working non-stop and repeat it day and night.
A cruel reality is: everyone lose their pride when they face the money.
In the movie, everybody loves to dedicate all they have for the No-Face after they discovered No-Face able to provide a lot of gold for them.

I think that this hidden message very suitable for the newbie freshly graduates in this society. We must remember our dream and fulfill it while we are young. We must not sell our pride and happy in front of the materialistic desire.

A Great Performance- TIGA

Yesterday, I went for a field trip which is a drama performance named TIGA.
The venue same as 'Baling' which is KOTAK (27&27A, Lorong Datuk Sulaiman 7, Taman Tun Dr.Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur)

TIGA: a showcase of three MONOLOGUES based on three objects.

First section: BED

Very simple props but the story was strong throughout the acting skill by the actress and lighting effects.

This section is about a young woman dealing with her relationship problem.

When she was walking on the edge of the bed, means that she was standing on a very dangerous status in her relationship. 

When she is fighting with her boyfriend, she actually jumping on the bed and step on it non-stop until she was fell down. She was shouting and yelling. This made me very shocked and admired her acting skill.

After she gets up, she used the blanket to hold herself tightly. Through her action and script, we knew that she actually having cuddle and sex with her boyfriend. She said that her boyfriend always makes up with her after a fight.

Lastly, she tidies up the bed. Just like nothing happened to it. Back to the start.

In my opinion, nowadays most of the ladies in a relationship must be gone through this process. 

Women in this society are too strong. They are not just staying at home, take care the family, do the housework but also need to work and earn money. When they need to handle so many things, they always lose some balancing to handle our relationship. However, they are afraid of being lonely too. So, they always repeat the same situation in the relationship.

Second section: Chair

photo credits by PeiFang

This is a story about a mother and a daughter.

The daughter seems like stuck in a certain stage in her life. 

At first, she tried to sit on the chair but she always fell down from the chair.

Hence, she always flashback on the memories with her mother. What her mother taught her, said to her, done to her.

In my opinion, the reason why she falls down from the chair is because when she try to do something, her mother actually does not want to approve. 

The daughter was so frustrated and  angry. She wants her mother to admit what she thought and done. At last, she said she missed her mother.

I think, her mother had dead. Then she finally able to sit on the chair with calm and depress.

The lighting in this section has played a very important role in representing the current and flashback's scenes. The actress was so amazing that she played two roles at the same time.

3rd Section: Knife

photo credits by Vincent

Audience's moods and emotions turned to relax and joyful from serious and tension's emotion when entered this section.

The actress actually brought the story via a cooking show.

She wanted to cook a dish - salad.

First, she used a knife to peel off the cucumber and cuts it.

Then she cuts the carrot.

She picked an audience to perform peel the cabbage into a salad bowl with her.

When she was doing these stuff, she was moaning with pleasure in the same time.

Obviously, this is the fun process of making love.

At last, she wore a pair of gloves and mix the ingredients with mayonnaise.

But she became panic when she realized that her gloves have broke.

In my opinion, the ladies nowadays do not have much awareness about sex. They actually having fun and enjoy it a lot.  But they will become panic and nervous after they realized they had to be careless on the safety of sex. The most common consequence is they might get pregnant even they do not prepare for it.

TIGA is a performance about women nowadays. It is quite interesting the scriptwriter is a woman- SHARIFAH ALEYSHA but the directors for this three drama are men. FAHAD IMAN, ANDY DARREL GOMES, and ARSHAD ADAM.

I'm sure they did a lot of researches before the performance was carried out.

I really enjoyed this drama performance and the interpretation of mine doesn't mean that I am correct. The underlying message for each performance is different based on different individuals. Hence, I like to discuss with friends after watching a drama. I think... this is not Catharsis, right?

LION DANCE

The last assignment in Malaysian Media and Culture course is a group assignment which requires choosing a Malaysian Traditional  Art Form.

We've formed a group with 6 fabulous members and the art form we had chosen was Lion Dance. We need to do a lot of researches and present it in the class.

It seem's like an easy task for university student but actually... NO!
Besides searching the history of Lion Dance, transformation, perception... The most important part was we need to persuade our lecturer, Dr. Carmen, why is Lion Dance belongs to a local traditional art form?

As Chinese, we knew that Lion Dance actually developed in China and it has a very long history. Why do we think that Lion Dance was a Malaysian Traditional Art Form?

In our opinion, Lion Dance has a long time frame established in Malaysia since British Colonial Era. The lion dance actually was brought by the Chinese from China who had been imported to Malaya to become the laborer. Lion Dance had been through many obstacles to survive in Malaysia. Thanks to our second Prime Minister, Tun Razak and the leaders of Lion Dance community who paid a lot of efforts to keep Lion Dance alive until nowadays society. Malaysian even won a title 'Country of Lion King' because of the excellent performances in many competitions. So, why we can't recognize Lion Dance as our Local Traditional Art Form?

My groupmates and I have paid a lot of efforts to complete this assignment.
*A BIG HUG for them*

First, thanks to our group leader, Rene for spending a lot of time to do the corrections for our academic report until needs to burn mid-night oil.

Brandon actually went to Rawang to interview Mr. Yip Mung Meng, the Head of Rawang MCA Youth Lion Dance Association. *thanks to Mr. Yip*

Vincent, Emily and Johnny borrowed the Lion Dance costume and try to clean and fix it.

 We actually borrowed the drum.

Thanks to Yi Ren, Chairman of WUSHU Club for lending the lion costume for us.

We decided to present one of a legend of Lion Dance in our presentation.

The Story: Once upon a time, there was a monster named 'NIAN' went to a village to eat the villagers during Chinese New Year. Suddenly, a lion appeared and scared Nian. The villagers realized that Nian actually scared of the lion and the sound of the drums. Hence, the viallagers will performed the Lion Dance in every Chinese New Year.

Rene: Narrator

Vincent and Johnny: Lion Dancers

Emily: NIAN monster

Brandon: Drummer

Me: Villager

Here is a video which will shows some part of our performance, hope you guys able to enjoy it.

A Different Assignment

In this semester, the subject I loved most is Malaysian Median and Culture.

Despite I have three lovely lecturers and tutor, Dr. Carmen, Ms. Gee and Ms. Ezzati

I also enjoyed one of the assignments which distributed around one month ago

'YouTube Film Review', the name of the assignment.

To complete this assignment, we need to do 4 film reviews and watch a movie/ short film during our tutorial.

This is so excited because I've got no experiences in doing this kind of assignment since stepped into university. Plus, I have camera shy issue in my life... hahaha
A big thanks to my partner~ Rene!
She is the best partner ever I met

The first movie we watched was Perempuan, Isteri, dan...?

This is a Malay movie which directed by U-Wei Haji Saari.

I have to admit, although I am a Malaysian but seldom watch Malay movie. I will not try to watch it unless for assignment purpose. BUT! The movie was beyond my expectation. A good movie with a bold storyline, and able to produce in the era of lacking modern film technology.

2nd Movie will be Tiga Abdul.
This movie is more on comedy genre. It is a story of three brothers. The eldest brother and second brother refuse to share the properties with their youngest brother after their father passed away. However, the eldest and second brother cheated by a business man. At last, the youngest brother uses his wisdom to take the revenge.
This movie was directed by Malaysia's Star!!! Mr. P. Ramlee
I've studied about his history when I was secondary school, but only now I have a chance to watch his movie.

3rd Youtube Review is about 3 short films which are selected from 15 Malaysia. 15 Malaysia consists 15 short films which produced by 15 Malaysian Film Makers.
The name of the 3 short film I watched are: Duit Kecil, Lollipop and Meter.
Rene and I had interpreted the underlying messages from this three short film, hope you guys abe to enjoy it since we were putting a lot of effort in it!!!!

The last movie was Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah.
This is a Malay film which had mixed genre: Horror and Comedy.
The film was directed by Mamat Khalid and screening on December 9, 2010.





Thanks to this assignment, I've watched so many interesting films which I will not to choose to watch in the past.
But, I realized that whenever I wacth any films from now on, I will automatically interpret the content, cinematrography and the underlying messages in it. I wonder this is good to me or not since I can't simply enjoy the movie right now.

The Baling Talk

3rd April 2016
We attended a documentary performance named BALING

Thanks to Dr. Carmen has posted some information about this performance in the FB group for us to understand the content before we attend for it.

Dr. Carmen: The play is about the Baling talks and the negotiation between the British (represented by David Marshall), the Malaysian leader at the time (Tunku) and the Malayan Communist Party (led by Chin Peng).

OMG~

I'm very excited when I realized the talk is about Chin Ping.

Because:

1. In 2013, I saw a newspaper with a BIG headline: Chin Ping died in Bangkok, Thailand. His last wish was back to Malaysia but cannot be fulfilled until he was dead. I asked my father who is he, my father did answer me but I can't understand because I'm not really concerned about it. <<stupid girl

2. When I was Form Six's student, my Pengajian Am teacher always bad mouthing about Chin Peng. Said he is cruel and inhumanity...blah...blah

The venue for this talk not as big as my imagination

But I loved the decoration

The venue named: KOTAK (box in Malay)

When we entered into it, I felt like I'm squeezing into a little black box

Haha

Because it was all black, it able to create mysterious and serious phenomena to me 

Besides, I loved the format in this talk because there has a movement for audience during the talk

We have to move upstair, move around according to different sections in the performance.

Apart from it was able to avoid me fall asleep, these movements more likely to make the audience get into the performance. I believed that most of us felt like changing the live scene represented changing the venue or timeframe during the debate section between Tunku, Marshall, and Chin Peng.

The performers are awesome! Their facial expressions and body languages able to bring the nervous atmosphere for us although they were not hyperbole. Their script and dialog are based on the talk which is the original documentary: Transcript of the Baling Talks. But it wasn't bored at all for me although I hate Sejarah subject in my secondary school.

When they were performing, they were holding their script. At first, I was wondering why they are holding their script? Because they can't remember it?

Luckily, my question was able to be answered by the director in this talk, Mark Teh. He said that the performers, of course, able to remember all the script due they are professional. But he wants to present history is an object as the script is an object too. The script can be a tool to persuade us they were holding the documentary as Tunku, Marshall, and Chin Peng were holding the agreement when they were debating.

Cannot be denied, I'm quite disappointed because the content in this talk just like touch-and-go. I want to know more about it!

From this performance, I able to know that Baling talk was about the talk and conflict between the Government of the Federation of Malaya and the Communist Party of Malaya which held on 28th and 29th December 1955 in Baling, Kedah.

British Colonial government declared it was Malayan Emergency instead of WAR.

Besides, I able to know more the details in their meeting's conversation. In the end of the meeting, the Federation Government rejected the terms which applied from the Communist Party.

Before the end of this performance, they played a short interview video for us. It was the last word from Chin Peng who stayed at Thailand after the surrounded of Communist Party. However, Chin Peng can't be answered the question from interviewer but only stated that he wants to back to his homeland, Malaysia. Maybe he was suffering from his illness since he looks like he does not remember anything.

In my opinion, Chin Peng aka Ong Boon Hua was just an old man who wanted to go back to his homeland. But why the government does not allow it happen even until he was dead? Maybe the government thinks that an old man or his ash able to destroy a country?

He was a young man who has a courage and different ideology from the Federation Government, but he used the wrong way to express his ideology. 

Catharsis and Distancing

Dr. Carmen has mentioned a word in our tutorial class (6th April 2016)

Carthasis

What is catharsis?
From online sources, Catharsis is derived from the Greek word which translated as 'cleansing' or purification.

Dr. Carmen explained that Catharsis in a drama which means that people able to gain a feeling with a very strong relieve and release in the end. Usually, people will get a satisfy ending in that particular theater or drama.
In many years ago, many sucky life people will often spend money to watch a drama get catharsis. After they felt relieved and released, they able to resume sucky life.

Other words mentioned by Dr. Carmen were

Distancing and Alienation

Distancing and Alienation effect is totally different with catharsis. It won't simply gives the entertainment or gives direct messages to the audience. The theater with this effect will make the audience think.

Before Dr. Carmen teach us these words, she asked about our preferred drama, film or theater. A story with a happy or sad ending? A story with a complete flow or mysterious ending?

When I was a kid, I preferred a story with a complete and happy ending. I able to get the catharsis. I felt happy after getting the catharsis as I felt relieved.
However, I prefer a story with an incomplete or mysterious ending.
I able to think or imagine the ending I want. Actually, it is quite fun when you share your opinions with your friends.
I able to gain a lot of knowledge and view from the others since a different individual has a different interpretation.
Some people will like or dislike on the particular of film or drama.

For example, my friend actually felt catharsis after we went for the Baling Talk.
She said that she have such a long time did not attend to high standard drama performance. For me, the answer is no.
I felt that I need to know more about the story of Chin Peng. Hence, I went for searching the information through online sources and asked my father about the story of Chin Peng.

I think... Dr. Carmen's lesson able to let me differentiate the younger me and the older me.

I Love Malaysia

Dr. Carmen has shown much well-known ART which produced by local artists for us during a lecture class.
This makes me think about: What have I done to show my love towards my country?

When I was Form Six student... When I was young...

I've participated a lot of activities which related to patriotic.

I really enjoyed and I strongly felt that I'm the part of this country in that time.

It doesn't mean that I'm not a part of the country right now. Just... missing a strong feeling...

Well, let me share a part of my honourable memories to you.

31st August 2013

My school has been selected as one of the representatives in Independent Day's march activity. This activity was prepared for different schools and NGO organisation.

 The band from my school took the lead in this marching activity.

Some of the roads in downtown were sealed during that day.

We were marching from the downtown to the square.

Can you spot me? hehe

4th September 2013

Every year, my school will hold an activity called: Merdeka Raya

Each class must send a team to march in that day.

This is the second time I joined this activity.

Can you guys see me?

I'm wearing a cheongsam!

Haha

During that time, I am a student from PRA-U Atas (Upper Six)

On top of that

Our school will choose a classroom with best patriotic's decoration.

Form six's classrooms were very old and made by wooden

But, my class got the first place in this competition!

WOOHOO

Really appreciate the teamwork which makes this classroom full of patriotism!

These are only a small parts in my form six's life.

Two years of Form Six's life really short but that time was the best moment in my life.