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Essay / Analysis and reflection on the film “Weighed but found wanting”
”Most people work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I am the opposite. My job is simple; I visit friends from time to time. I don't know any of these people. They don't interest me either. Soon they will disappear forever. “Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay This is how we discover the character of The Killers' Agent, played by Michelle Reis, in the film Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-Wai, Do lok tin si, 1995): a nameless woman dressed in latex and leopard print, pushing ravioli into her mouth with trembling hands as we see her raised chest as a pop of color separating her from the dark green background. Her voiceover may cautiously allude to prostitution, but the partner works with the bodies in other ways - by arranging for them to be killed. She never sells her body or makes love on screen (in fact, in an internal monologue she mentions that she hasn't been close to a man in a very long time), and yet her being even is imbued with lust and desire. Partner seems to be an archetype of this - from the way her character hinges on wanting her partner in crime, to the way she dresses and acts, to the way the light and angles frame her. In this essay, I will study how the character of the Partner is created through costumes, colors, angles, and props, and how Wong Kar-Wai made her appear to be in control of her own eroticism. important, and often one of the most underrated, parts of a character. In the book The Film Experience, authors Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White write about the role of costume and makeup in film, emphasizing that when their function is to enhance a character, they bring out important elements of the character's personality. this character. In Fallen Angels Partner, the character Fallen Angels Partner not only has significant parts of her personality drawn to her exterior, but rather it becomes one of the metaphors for her entire being. Bangs cover dark, painted eyes, her lips are red, and her clothes are short and revealing. This fits with the general atmosphere of the film, as the associated costumes and props often contribute to the "visual impression and design of the film as a whole", but it is also a great example of how female seduction is view from the outside. We become aware of Partner's awareness of this side of her personality in her final scene when she is sitting in a restaurant where the character He Zhiwu is also present. The partner just lost her, well, the partner who was her romantic interest and the driving force behind her erotic behavior. She wears a regular long-sleeved shirt for the second time in the film, the first time when she was washing clothes without any love interest. Her hair is up and her eyes unpainted - until she makes eye contact with He Zhiwu and we are treated to a close-up of her face as she removes the pin from her hair and leaves the bangs cover his eyes like before. She then asks him to take her home. This in-your-face action tells the audience that yes, the way she dresses is directly related to her attitude, and yes, she is aware of her erotic power. - ColorKar-Wai makes extensive use of color in his films, strong enough that many articles and videos about him focus on his "obsession with color", and one can interpret the use of color as a symbolism; for emotions, events andperhaps even as a common thread between people and places. In Fallen Angels, saturated neon lights illuminate the eternal night, subway stations and blinding LED lights. It's no wonder that the scenes in which Partner is at the center follow the same trend and can directly reflect the character's being. If we distinguish the different color combinations in the scenes where Partner is the star, two main ones constantly recur: green and red. It feels like they are tailored to each specific event. Corrigan and White write that color is one of the most important things in image composition and that it complements our experience of what is happening on the screen, they state that "for example, when "When used effectively, metallic blues, soft greens and deep reds can evoke very different emotions in viewers." What they don't do is explain exactly what emotions they arouse in us. Jon Fusco, however, does. In an article written on the "No Film School" web page, he talks about the psychology of color in cinema. According to him, each color used in a film can have both negative and positive connotations and sharpens the emotions of the scene. Red symbolizes, among other things, passion, rage, desire, danger and love. Green symbolizes – among other things – perseverance, renewal, fertility and desire. In the introduction to this essay, I stated that Partner seems to be an archetype of desire, "a very powerful feeling of wanting something," and these two colors and everything they represent are an extension of the definition . The two colors are constantly intertwined. When she cleans the apartment, the green of the exterior mixes with the warmer tones of the refrigerator, the masturbation scene is one where her red handbag contrasts with the neon green clock in the background and the blankets of his bed is green and red checkered, falling on "Blondie" in a subway station with red walls and green LED lights. Emotions are contradictory and intertwined, envy and desire clash. There are scenes in which one color is entirely dominant: red and yellow when Partner rubs against the jukebox, green in the final scene at the restaurant. A dark moment in black and white as the song “Wang ji ta” (“Forget it”) plays in the background. In the last two scenes of Fallen Angels, the scenes are more than influenced by color since the entire screen is a cool green (see first image), and here we can focus more on the "renewal" and the “perseverance” of the psychology of green - through diegetics. narration Partner describes her new life, how she now works with different people and no longer works in hotel rooms. “I firmly believe… that you should not get emotionally involved with your partner. “Bathed in green light, she persevered despite the trials and renewed herself. Until He Zhiwu stood behind her with a face full of red and let her down. AnglesCorrigan and White write that any interpretation taking angles into account must be done carefully. So, without further ado, here are some for Fallen Angels. Kar-Wai plays a lot with depth of field, especially with deep focus, where multiple shots of action are shown at the same time. The Film Experience provides an example of deep concentration in the film The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyles, The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946) where it creates relationships within a single frame - where two groups of people are meet happily in different rooms. while still being visible and the theme..