Sunday, October 4, 2015

Aunt Maria vs. Kiki's Delivery Service

Witches are very similar to vampires in the sense that, they are both portrayed as either good or evil. In Aunt Maria we have the very cliché witch story happening, two kids go visit their relative who they haven’t visited very much before. They hear things like, she is a different kind of person, the town is super odd, the Aunt has this certain effect on everyone around her that comes off a little strange. Then later throughout the book they find out she is a witch that is obsessed with power, she controls all of the men and women in the town and keeps the children locked up in an orphanage. Aunt Maria is a very typical evil powerful witch story, where in the end the two main characters have to put an end to her evil ways. If we compare Aunt Maria to Kiki’s delivery service we have a very different idea of how witches are perceived. In Kiki’s delivery service witches are perceived as good people but with special talents. In this story Kiki doesn’t run a town like Aunt Maria she moves in and tries to be accepted by the townspeople. Kiki is trying to discover herself throughout the movie, In a way it’s a typical hero’s journey but a witch version. Kiki is this innocent young teen girl, she is trying to discover what her talent is and how she can use it to help people. That talent ends up being a delivery service, that a baker helps her build. Throughout the rest of the story Kiki grows to be a better young girl and witch.

Even though Kiki’s delivery service and Aunt Maria are different because in one story we have a good witch and the other we have an evil witch. They both portray this similar idea that witches are this powerful woman figure that shouldn’t be messed with. I personally enjoyed Kiki’s delivery service better than Aunt Maria because I enjoyed seeing her grow throughout the movie into a powerful witch. I feel like a common theme with females in horror movies is they are always witches or vampires and they always have so much power and it’s portrayed in a very cliché evil way. Kiki’s delivery service is a very different portrayal.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night/The New Weird

This past class we watched “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night”. I absolutely loved this film. This film really ties into the idea of the new weird because it delves into a new idea for a vampire movie and branches outside of the typical horror flick. The movie is completely in Persian but it has English subtitles, the setting of the film is never said throughout the movie, it’s only referred to as Bad Town. The reason I enjoyed this movie so much is because I fell in love with the two main characters, especially the vampire girl. In the movie you learn a lot about the two main characters, the girl is a vampire, she appreciates indie rock bands, loves to dance, wears heavy eyeliner, and kills evil men. You could say she is a feminist type of vampire. In the film she kills a drug lord and later she kills the 2nd main character’s father. Arash is the second main character in this movie, he stumbles upon the vampire at a party where he is completely wasted. After he meets her their love story begins. The story line really interested me because they didn’t make the vampire completely evil or completely good but you fell in love with her anyway. The director gave the evil monster of this movie emotions and hobbies. That made the viewer go “oh so she isn’t a crazy blood sucker she listens to rock music on a record player”. On a side note the cinematography in this movie was incredible, every shot was so well done, props to Lyle Vincent for shooting it.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is a really good example of where horror is going. People are getting tired of cliché bloody and jump scare horror movies. We want new quirk and creepy stories, we need something that we aren’t going to see coming. I can really see this happening with modern day horror, with this movie did you really expect to see a feminist vampire that falls in love at the end with a boy whose father she killed? Cause I didn’t see that one coming. American horror story is another example of horror going into a new direction, Ryan murphy really focuses on building a new story and building suspense that the viewer is clinging onto. Modern day horror is embracing background stories and the new weird.

Japanese Horror

Before we studied Japanese horror in class, I had never really been introduced to it in the past. Now seeing it and understanding the components of a Japanese horror film, I can see very clearly the differences it has compared to American horror films. I’ve only seen a couple of American horror movies such as, The Haunting of Connecticut, Sleepy Hollow, and the Chernobyl diaries. During class when watching the Kwaidan Snow, it really interested me how much of a story was included in the movie. I enjoyed how in the beginning you see this creepy snow creature and you experience her power and what she can do to her victims. Then throughout the rest of the movie you see this soft side of her and you question whether or not she is completely evil or if she just has trust issues with men. I say she just doesn’t trust men I can respect that completely. Japanese horror really focuses on legends and stories that help the viewer connect to the characters and It also builds suspense throughout the film so the creature becomes scarier. This especially can be seen in Kwaidan, you see the snow creature in the beginning, question what she is, why she does this to people, why does she save the guy etc. Then later you meet this girl and she is beautiful, kind, and a strong mother, finally the plot twist hits and you find out she is the monster from the beginning and your view on her completely changes. Is this character truly evil?

If we compare Japanese horror to American horror it is a very different ball game. With American horror we don’t get a lot of backstory on the monster and American horror usually steals from Japanese stuff anyway so the story disappears. American horror films consist of gore, graphic violence, jump scares, torture, and lots of blood. That’s really all you need in America to get your movie into a theater. Overall I found the Japanese very interesting because I enjoyed the legends and folk stories that they come from.