I’ve recently started reading Haruki Murakami’s novel “Norwegian Wood”. Though I’m nowhere near finished (or even started really, been so busy with school), an interesting thought has hit my mind. How much exactly is lost in the translation from Japanese to English? Especially in such a language-based format that writing is. Are there many subtle nuances that are unable or to be conveyed (or even more simply so) in the English language that are prevalent in the Japanese language? If everyone really can only ever have one first language that they understand fully, is it ever possible to fully translate something in this language to any other we may know? It’s good food for though for the concept of a documentary or even the subject matter of a short film. Maybe the thought struck me also because “Lost in Translation” is a source material for the film I’m working on in production class. I’d like to explore more inside the scene where Bill Murray’s character is dumbfounded at the brief translation of a lengthy message from a director he’s working with. Languages can be such a fickle thing to work with when there’s translation involved, thus I feel it would be interesting subject matter to see the things that can change in the process of doing so. 

The RZA written/starred/directed and Quentin Tarantino presented “The Man with the Iron Fists” is more a movie about these two key players as it is anything else. Simply put: it is a film marketed directly at people like me: big fans of the Wu-Tang Clan and the indie filmmaker behind “Kill Bill”. A major inspiration of the hip-hop supergroup’s once leader is shared with a cinematic genre Tarantino pays much homage to: Chinese kung-fu films (in all their corny, overdramatic and gore-filled glory). Where the two differ, however, is in their approach to incorporating this style into their own works on the silver screen.

While Tarantino blends this style successfully with other inspirations, RZA, with “The Man with the Iron Fists” instead is faithful to the one genre. However, this is where the film falls flat. To the audience, it is at once most obviously an unauthentic imitation of such martial art films, and this realization provides comic relief in its novelty. With the film standing only on being “so bad that it’s good”, it buckles by the end of the second act leaving the viewers searching fruitlessly for deeper meaning.

Despite these obvious flaws, I would not say the film was a complete failure. RZA’s direction was effective, especially as he was able to transform the stellar talent he had to work with (Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu, to give two examples) into their intentionally over-the-top performances. If I were to give any advice to RZA (though I’m not worthy to), it would be to stick to directing, and leave the acting to the actors. He is not a good enough actor to match the just-right performances he directed his other actors into.

In terms of cinematography, Chi Ying Chan could have chosen a better medium to shoot the film in to match it’s kung-fu source material better. In my opinion, it would have looked much better with the gritty, flawed look of celluloid film than the digital perfection of the RED One M-X. His main focal lengths were somewhere between 50-85mm, and, as a result, led to a sense of visual confusion of our placement in the scene. He would have been better off taking some master shots and utilizing wider lenses. Joe D’Augustine’s failure to find a good pace in the editing room detracted from the film and left me confused as I constantly had to adjust to new scenes, without any buffer zone in between. On the other hand, the action scenes (and there are a good handful) are perfectly executed. The art direction of Drew Boughton (production design) and Thomas Chong (costume) was superb. They successfully created a fictional look just far enough above a realistically historical Asia.

One of the film’s strong points is it’s score and soundtrack, but this is to be completely expected from a revered music producer. The soundtrack, featuring the likes of the Black Keys, Kanye West and new recordings by the Wu-Tang Clan, could function successfully as a standalone piece. This is not to say, however, that it doesn’t complement the film and strike a chord within it’s intended audience.

Outside of the Pink Blossom’s obvious link to the Japanese eatery in the climax of “Kill Bill, Vol. I”, I am glad to say that “The Man with the Iron Fists” is original and doesn’t try at all to imitate Tarantino’s film. The RZA is at least successful in creating the type of film he was always inspired by. With this directing experience under his belt, I have faith in his ability to direct a more serious film that can be universally appreciated outside his already established fan base. I am glad to hear he got “The Man with the Iron Fists” out of his system, and it makes me excited to see what’s next. If anything, for a film with the tag line “you can’t spell kung fu without f and u”, it was exactly what I expected.

6.5/10

- A

This is a photo I took back in high school. Though it’s littered with scratches and dust, it’s interesting to note that I took, developed and scanned it myself. The entire process was my doing. However, what I am most proud of with this image is my use of frame within a frame. Stylistically, I am very inspired by a great usage of frame within a frame. In my opinion, framing is nearly half the battle of conveying the artistic message to the audience. A poorly framed picture could denote unprofessionalism; framing images side by side creates context between them. It doesn’t only have to extend to the physical framing of artwork or photographs: aspect ratio in cinema is essentially the framing of the work; splitscreen creates a frame-like context between two moving images. What I was going for in this image was successful: as a viewer, we are looking through two layers to see the core of the woman in question. 

I recently looked over my old art history notes when I came across my favourite artwork and art style we learned about in first year: the pointillist piece “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat. I love the multitude of individual dabs of paint that compose the picture. The dots of colour make the image a predecessor to film-based photography as they almost resemble the many pieces of film grain in a high ISO stock. It inspires me to experiment with high ISO film stocks and recreate famous pointillist pieces of artwork utilizing the grain. A future project?

kanyewesanderson:

Fantastic Mr. Fox / Touch the Sky

This blog actually made me laugh out loud when I first saw it. It combines two very opposite things that I love in a way that is not only unique, but totally fitting. The whole blog is dedicated to posting screenshots of Wes Anderson films that coincide with the lyrics of musician Kanye West. On a deeper level, it’s interesting to note that the typeface Futura is so closely associated with Wes Anderson. It is a good topic of interest that developing one’s own, unique style, is beneficial to their recognition in the art world.