Over the weekend, I watched Coco with my family. It was the perfect choice for a casual movie evening and for my younger brother. The tickets were about $16 each at the AMC at 34th street. I bought them early in person and found out theater makes you choose seats upon purchase. I picked middle seats near the back. My girlfriend got fries and came back once the theater was packed. Immediately after getting to her seat, she had to leave again to use the bathroom, so everyone had to move two more times.
The Frozen short that played before Coco was excruciating. I felt cheated out of my time but resisted pulling out my phone since some kids seemed to be enjoying the short. I tuned out until the movie started and noticed that the left side of the screen had a large vertical shadow/vignette shading it. I pointed it out to my girlfriend, who got upset that she could not unsee it. The shadow did not go away for the entirety of the film.
When I first walked into the theater, I was primarily concerned about how many babies would be there. Fortunately, only one cried during the movie and it was quickly silenced. There were a lot of children, who all stayed quiet and still after previews, which was a pleasant surprise. Overall, the experience was decent for a family film in large commercial theater.
Research Paper Proposal Option B
For my paper, I want to examine how East Asian movies portray the effects of Japanese imperialism. Because Japanese cinema plays a big role in canonical film history, I want to explore how it shapes the stories that other Asian filmmakers decide to tell. Stories of how the invaded outsmarted or fought back against the Imperial army seem to be a staple of Korean and Chinese movies. For example, Red Sorghum (1987) depicts how lives were changed by the Second Sino Japanese War. A good amount of recent, successful Korean movies (which prompted me to explore this topic more) have been historical dramas of the occupation or films that deal with the subject indirectly. The Wailing (2016) shows the effects of colonization through subtext and mistrust in a modern day Korean town. Many others films such as Assassination (2015) and The Handmaiden (2016) take place during the time of the rule and depict the struggles of the colonized, who are often thieves or traitors. I also wanted to examine the impacts of Japanese filmmaking on these countries’ crafts, as well as how post-colonial anxieties are shown on screen. I may narrow it down to just Korean films since I am more familiar with them.
