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.

For my research paper, I would like to talk about the role of animated movies in popular culture and how animated movies have become more respected in the American general public, as well as why they should be integrated more into the film canon. I believe there are two huge reasons to this: creators are creating more substantial stories around relevant themes such as racism and depression in a way that resonates with the audience, but also audience members are growing older so the children who flooded the theaters when animated movies really started boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s are now adults whose opinions as to what is respectable in film is now taken into heavier consideration. While I plan to focus on the American public, I am considering looking into movies from all over the world, including of course, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.

For this research paper, I am debating between two different films, for completely different reasons. Actually I am not sure if I can write about .a film currently in the theatre but I am drawn to the film, The Florida Project. Sean Baker is a filmmaker I admire for telling authentic, real stories without pushing such harsh topics onto the viewer. I wanted to focus more on the script itself and the style it is written in verse the types of shots he specifically used to coincide with the mundane dialogue. The pairing of that along with such a heartbreaking story that a good portion of America grow up living that way. The reality of these children upbringing and the sense of loss of innocence. They are preoccupying themselves and witnessing some harsh scenarios. I want to focus on the script in particular, the stylistic shots, the long tedious takes and the non actors vs. real actors onscreen. The relationship between the kids, the owner and the single moms are each relevant, powerful and entertaining. All of this supports a gentle/powerful way in which cinema touches light on and expresses an otherwise painful story.

The second film I had in mind was the Polish Film, All These Sleepless Nights, directed by Michal Marczak. Stylistically this film draws me in. The film is about that time period in  your twenties where one is battling the idea of love, partying and identity. It is set in Warsaw but the topic is definitely universal. I really look up to the low budget indie film style where Michal filmed on a Sony a7s and filmed overt the span of two summers. I read somewhere that all the sound was ADR mainly because he specifically chose certain songs wherever they were partying to go along the mood. Which also ties into the debate whether this is a documentary or fictionalized film. Michal states its borderline between documentary and fiction which I find fascinating. The way he directed actors reminds me of neorealism. The editing of the jump cuts is another element I would love to research and delve into because he will cut mid conversation to either another conversation or a completely different location. As the viewer, one is never fully satisfied but it goes along with the idea of that time in our lives where nothing really “feels” satisfying and always looking for more.

So those are the two films I am debating between to focus my research paper on.

For this research paper, I want to explore the production side of this indie film by first time director, Chris Evans. I initially watched this film solely because Chris Evans stars in it. However, now thinking about this film critically as a film student, I think this film has been wrongly trashed by big outlet film critics and deeply underappreciated. Usually I find indie films boring because although they have artistic values, they lack the attraction to bring in potential audience who don’t share mindset as the filmmaker. Often times it feels like indie films are specifically catered to certain group of people, alienating large group of people.

In this film, Evans is able to express himself as an artist in a way that he won’t be able to do in his marvel franchises. Going into this production, he knew he wanted everything handheld, long lens, and practical lights as much as possible, thus creating a unique night time New York city space to already a cliche two strangers meeting in nocturnal New York city story. I personally love that he used his stardom to attract viewers because not only is it economically beneficial but also introduces mainstream audience to indie films and possible develop a better understanding of indie film. I am going to be critically analyzing the not so mainstream story line and how he used different techniques (camera, lighting, editing, color, etc) to achieve the emotion and tension.