Monsoon Wedding

Mira Nair has been criticized for being an NRI (Non-Resident Indian) who attempts to represent Indian culture and fails to produce true national cinema. But in the nation of 'Bollywood' this seems to be a matter of pots and kettles. As the world moves more towards globalization, however, hybrid films seem perfectly appropriate. Monsoon Wedding portrays Indians living in contemporary, upper-class India, but the film will feel very familiar to American audiences (I'd like to say global, but I can't say this for certain without experiencing more of other cultures).

The language of the movie is the first thing that will prevent Americans from feeling disoriented in this flowing, vibrant cultural expression; often times the characters will converse in English or mix it with Indian. Honestly though, I was relieved when the subtitles came on though because the English was difficult to understand through the thick accents many times (it depends on the character who's speaking). Still, it will put English speakers at ease and transitioning between spoken English and subtitles was barely noticeable.

Monsoon Wedding deals with many relationships at once, each one existing under circumstances. Notable among this myriad are the three (and a half if you count the ex-boyfriend) loves stories existing between characters of varied social classes that are pushed forward by factors unique to each respective one. The engaged couple strives to be genuine despite the contrived nature of their relationship while the Aussie playfully courts a rebellious Indian girl sporting a scorpion tattoo on her upper arm. Lastly, the hidden love between the contractor and the house servant is most frustrating because their lack of communication leads to misunderstandings; the pure nature of their love makes this one my personal favorite. There are other familiar relationships including one between a father and son and another involving an uncle and young girl. This last one reminded me of Salinger's Catcher In the Rye although Jane's ordeal is more subtle and plays a much smaller role compared to Rhea's. Each one of these relationships can be found in films, novels, and other forms of entertainment around the world.

This film is a contemporary piece for the globalizing generation. It entertains and enthralls with the same classic tales we've heard before, but it presents them non-traditional form that challenges conservative, nationalist views. Watch this movie.

Amores Perros

Amores Perros, which roughly translates to Love's a Bitch, is a contemporary view of Mexico that isn't afraid to move at quite a clip. The film's director artfully weaves three stories from different socio-economic classes together, each expressing the titular theme in different ways. For American audiences the film may be best equated to Quentin Tarrentino's Pulp Fiction: the fast cuts, the romanticizing of underground culture, the chrono-illogical organization of scenes that demand the audience's attention in order to keep up.

Strong performances from all the cast give the film a very realistic feel. The coincidences and run-ins in Amores Perros seem ironic and leave the viewer feeling as if they've stumbled upon an epiphany rather than coming off as contrived and deus ex machina. This is the area of the picture that shines the most, engaging in a symbiotic relationship with the three-story construct; each one enhances and emphasizes the other. El Chivo appears often on the streets throughout the first two sections of the movie and in the third we see Romero and Susanna walking hurriedly past the ex-guerrilla on the street.

With each progressive story the intricacies of love between the characters grow. Octavio loves Susanna. Daniel loves Valeria, or does he love his wife? El Chivo loves his wife and daughter but his actions are for the greater good. With Octavio and Susanna the love blossoms too early due to Octavio's impatient urges and turns sickly in short time. By the end of the film, Octavio's bruised and beaten exterior, his shaved and scarred head, reflect the broken heart inside his chest.

Daniel and Valeria's relationship is also rushed and the tension and strain is quick to rear its extremely ugly head. It seems as if the two's love is superficially built on money and physical attraction and will surely crumble. However, the trials they face seem to bring them closer in the end, and the image of Daniel holding Valeria as she stares out the window at the symbol of a past she can never regain gives hope for something deeper.

Finally the film reaches El Chivo, a man who loved his family dearly but his country more. His story is most complex because he acts contrary to his feelings of love but seeks redemption at the film's end. This act of seeking redemption, not necessarily finding it yet but at least taking a step in the right direction, is the most progressive and hopeful outcome of all three stories. As he shaves off his beard and trims his hair I cannot help but be reminded of the symbolism of unruly hair in Half-Nelson.

This film review has been less informative and more analytical, so for those who have not yet seen the film but faithfully stuck to reading this up to this point here is a verdict you can take with you: watch it. This film is smart, entertaining, hip, yet sensible with important messages beneath the contemporary and Hollywood exterior.

Battle Royale: Sifting for Meaning in Blood: Bridging the Gap

Battle Royale Synopsis: In the 20^th century Japan’s economy has fallen into ruin and hundreds of thousands are left without work. Exceptional numbers of students boycott school, partake in acts of violence, and are generally disobedient. The government responds with the ‘Battle Royale Act’ which forces one ninth grade class to be randomly selected each year and taken to a remote location. There they must kill each other off in three days until only one is left or they are all killed. The film follows one class’ struggle for survival on an abandoned island, observing trust obliterated, unshakable devotion to the end, and merciless slaughter by those who are pariah. Who will survive?

Sifting For Meaning in Blood

Describing Battle Royale isn’t difficult; comparisons are often drawn to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies—Anthony Leong remarks that the film “is Lord of the Flies meets Survivor with guns” (Battle). The similarities are easy to see: youths on an island fight one another for survival. However, while Lord of the Flies focuses on exploring repressed human nature set loose Battle Royale touches on this only in its quest to socially critique contemporary culture in Japan. The film’s booming cult following world-wide, however, suggests that there may be more to this blood-soaked work than the‘ultra-violence’ that the global audience is latching onto. In fact, director Kinji Fukasaku states explicitly that “[Battle Royale] is a fable. The themes that are included in the film are very much realistic modern issues” (Midnight). Although the movie is not likely to conjure up images of Aesop, one can examine Battle Royale in hindsight and clearly see a number of strong messages that Fukasaku has left for viewers to take with them, and the strongest one is that the world should feel more deeply troubled by the disconnect between younger and elder generations in modern society.

The generation gap between parents and their children is one that adults across the globe struggle with every day as youths continue to connect more through and with technology and less with traditional values and culture. The very premise of the film pronounces this theme as a growing social issue in Japan, albeit in a rather extreme manner: due to strong youth dissent and boycotting of school—not to mention an outbreak of youth violence—the government has been compelled to take action with the heavy-handed ‘Battle Royale Act’. It stipulates that each year one class of ninth grade students will be taken to a remote location and forced to compete in a brutal game of survival from which only one or no victors may emerge. The harsh words of the class’ ex-teacher Kitano express the adults’ sentiments most clearly: “Life is a game, so fight for survival, and find out if you’re worth it” (Battle Royale). At only fifteen, the students fail to find this statement either humorous or reasonable, but it’s one way Fukasaku attempts to connect with youth throughout the movie.

Fifteen turns out to be a significant number to the film. Kitano’s quote above reflects the real life experiences Fukasaku went through at the same age as the students in the film, fifteen.

I was fifteen when World War II came to an end. By then, my class had been drafted and was working in a munitions factory. In July 1945, we were caught up in artillery fire […] We survived by diving for cover under our friends. After the attacks, my class had to dispose of the corpses […] As I lifted severed arms and legs, I had a fundamental awakening … everything we’d been taught in school about how Japan was fighting the war to win world peace, was a pack of lies. Adults could not be trusted.

Kinji Fukasaku (Midnight)

Fukasaku’s words reveal that, in a way, Battle Royale is his attempt to connect and communicate with Japan’s increasingly distant youth, and to present a contemporary experience that allows those youth to relate to the lives of older generations. At fifteen, most Japanese students are attending the ninth grade, the last year of compulsory education in the nation. After that, students are placed into various levels of high schools based on their performance on various standardized tests. The cutthroat nature of Battle Royale and the eventual focus on the survival of oneself by any means is an allusion to the means that students often use to succeed on these exams. Fukasaku’s criticism of the current education system might be lost on global audiences, but it is an important one that provokes thought among Japanese people. Another, unintentional significance of the number fifteen is the film’s rating from EIRIN (Japanese film review board akin to the MPAA): R-15, which is defined as “[r]estricted to mature audiences 15 years and over” (EIRIN). When the rating was determined Fukasaku filed a formal complaint against EIRIN, feeling that the very audience that he was trying to reach was largely being excluded. Despite his attempts, the film’s rating remained.

The movie finds the youth divided, some fighting feverishly for their own survival, others banding together to rebel against the adults and their establishment. Even Kitano’s own child calls a couple of times to express contempt, at one point disgustedly saying “your breath even stinks over the phone, Mister” (Battle Royale). A large group of girls bands together and swears to make it out alive together. In the end though, they are torn apart by distrust and kill each other in a bloody shootout. Another group, led by computer hacker Shinji Mimura manages to take down the headquarters’ computer system and assemble an impressive arsenal of explosives. But they fail to destroy the island’s barracks and reach their ultimate goal of escaping together. Another couple is shown only briefly as they express their love for each other and hatred for the game before jumping off a cliff to their deaths.

Despite being separated from their elders emotionally, some of the children still feel influence from those adults they knew from when they were younger. Mimura, mentioned above, takes inspiration from his guerilla uncle who sends him a bomb-making guide book and a photograph of a young child with the words, “Someday you will smile like this boy,” (Battle Royale) penned on the back. In another manner, Mitsuko Souma looks to her mother for guidance. But her mother is lost in a bottle, prostituted to a pervert and a pedophile. In a flashback, Mitsuko pushes the man down the stairs killing him; she’s only seven. Promising herself she’ll never be like her mother, a ‘loser’, she pimps girls at school and kills over a dozen of her classmates without hesitation. Finally, one of the protagonists of the film, Nanahara Shuya, takes perhaps Fukasaku’s strongest message from his father, whom he finds strung up in his apartment by electrical wire in the seventh grade. Wrapped around the body is toilet paper covered with the words, “Go Shuya. You can make it” (Battle Royale). Again at the end of the film Shuya speaks over the image of him and Noriko, the female protagonist, fleeing into the crowded streets of Tokyo, voicing words inspired by his father: “No matter how far, run for all you’re worth. Run!” (Battle Royale) In an interview Fukasaku confirms that this is message he most wants to leave with young viewers.

The film has inspired much controversy world-wide in relation to youth violence. In 2004, an eleven-year-old Japanese girl killed her classmate over a dispute stemming from messages left on an internet message board. This event delayed the opening of Battle Royale 2 several months and spawned a disturbing cult following. Talk of a US release of the film has stirred in the past but studios refuse to touch the film in fear of law suits. The New York Times quoted Roy Lee, the ‘reigning king of the Asian remake’ relating an anecdote in which he tried pitching the film to Universal Studios: “They [Universal execs] said, 'You're having kids kill each other?' I said, 'Yeah, that's pretty much the story.' They told me, 'There is no way Universal is ever going to make this movie' "(Ito). New Line Cinema has been pursuing the rights to a US remake but hopes have become slim in the wake of school shootings such as Columbine and Virginia-Tech. The aversion shown by adults towards the film’s portrayal of youth violence may be a tell-tale sign of the generation gap that Fukasaku is criticizing and trying to breach.

Despite reactions like that of Universal, Battle Royale has found a cult following in the United States and Europe, becoming quite popular among youth. Additionally, the film was well received at the Japanese Academy Awards, winning three of its eight nominations. According to J.T. Testar’s article, Japan Goes to the Movies, Battle Royale grossed ¥3.11 billion and was one of the top local movies in a strong year for Japan. Peal Harbor took in ¥6.88 billion by comparison (1).

Perhaps Battle Royale might be more accurately related to Peter Pan than Lord of the Flies based on Fukasaku’s intent in creating the film. Audiences, young and old, should watch the film again with this thought in mind, and gather new meaning from this fresh perspective. If viewers from all age groups are able to appreciate the themes in this film and reconnect with one another then Fukasaku’s contemporary masterpiece will have achieved its purpose.

Works Cited

Battle Royale. Dir. Kinji Fukasaku. Perf. 'Beat' Takeshi. DVD. Toei Entertainment, 2001.

"EIRIN." Administration Commission of Motion Picture Code of Ethics. 2006. 29 Feb. 2008 .

Fukasaku, Kinji. Interview with Tom Mes. Midnight Eye. 9 Apr. 2001. 29 Feb. 2008 .

Ito, Robert. "Lesson Plan: Kill or Be Killed." The New York Times 9 July 2006. 29 Feb. 2008 .

Leong, Anthony. "Battle Royale Movie Review." Asian Cult Cinema 2001. 27 Feb. 2008 .

Testar, J.T. "Japan Goes to the Movies." The Journal June 2002. 27 Feb. 2008 .

The Wind Will Carry Us

If you're going to watch Iranian film The Wind Will Carry Us, make a big bowl of popcorn, grab your fuzzy blanket, maybe a large soft drink, and prepare to do a lot of one thing: wait. One great literary (and cinematic) technique is to withhold information from the reader/viewer in order to build suspense. Kiarostami masters this technique almost as well as Hitchcock in such classics as Rear Window.

The main difference, however, between Kiarostami and Hitchcock is that the latter is inclined to lead the audience along with little tidbits of action or information while the former is content make very subtle pokes at the truth with the viewers' imaginations without ever really moving things along with any sort of pace. This can almost be seen as a commentary in itself: comparing the audience's impatience with film's pace to the impatience of the engineer and his colleagues with life's pace in the small village. Much like the men are used to a daily schedule run by the ticking hands of clocks to measure progress moviegoers often judge the progress of the story by the amount of time passed and time remaining.

Kiarostami challenges this convention supremely, taking the audience back to a time when life's rhythm was dictated by the position of the sun in the sky and life was seen as blooming with passing time, instead of bleeding away. When you settle down to watch this movie challenge yourself: don't check your watch or cell phone or DVD player once for the time. Instead try to relax and find solace in the fact that while you could probably be doing something more enjoyable, there's something golden about just doing nothing.

This description makes it seem as if the movie is boring; it's not. The Wind just moves at a different pace than you're probably used to. As a movie it's very solid. The engineer, the charming young boy, and the few villagers that you meet play their roles convincingly and their performances help to build the suspense. The beautiful sweeping shots of the Iranian landscape are also worth mentioning and they should leave momentarily breathless. There are also two themes that would be noteworthy if not for the fact that they aren't truly realized until the end of the film. However, after completing the film, it is worth reflecting on these two.

So the real question is: Does Kiarostami keep us waiting too long? For younger audiences probably yes, but those with more patience and/or time would be well served to sit through this film.