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shiny objects

Thursday, June 23, 2005


There's something almost infuriating about Asian cinema, and last night I finally figured out what it is. Dead ends. The characters present ample information of varying relevance in every scene. As a result, the viewer is forced to decide whether a particular fact is pertinent to the plot (i.e. worth remembering), or a dead end (don't worry about it and just enjoy the scene).

Asian cinema is full of dead ends - scraps of plot mentioned in such a way as to mimic Western foreshadowing. Western cinema prefers a dynamic, linear plot to an indecisive plot. We Americans like it short and to the point. We don't want to see a single second of movie that doesn't either further the main plot or ply us with low-brow comedy. This is probably why a lot of Americans HATE anime or just don't understand it.

It seems that Japanese filmakers, in particular, like to indicate "otherworldliness" by dropping useless, yet interesting, facts about said "otherworld" into the story. I've noticed this effect several times before - most notably in "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke." Miyazaki loves to do that. It's as if he spent years planning out every detail of a fictional world and can't wait to tell us everything about it. Two hours just isn't enough time!


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