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SPECTACLE OF TRANSNATIONAL CINEMA

Yojimbo

I found Yojimbo to be very interesting, as the main character, Sanjuro was not a traditional samurai who would fight in honour of its master. In the movie, Sanjuro would pledge his loyalty as a bodyguard to the side that pays him the most but in the end he did not take any sides. Sanjuro’s strategy in outsmarting both parties trying to hire him brings more of a modern samurai feel instead of a traditional samurai.

In my opinion, Yojimbo is a transnational movie as it brings a lot of western aspects in the characters and the setting. Yojimbo felt like it is a cowboy movie that is set in Japan. The fight scene in the movie felt like it could be a cowboy movie as during the fights the people of the town would close all the shops and their windows. Sanjuro the samurai had a gunslinger feel to him except his weapon was his katana. Yojimbo also had a more modern movie sound track, which had more of a western feel, and the display of violence in the movies was not very common in Japanese movies during the 60s.

Om Shanti Om

In my opinion, the movie Om Shanti Om did a really great job portraying the real Bollywood industry. In the first half of the movie, Om never made it to a main hero actor due to coming from a common family and having an ‘unattractive’ last name. However in the next life, despite being less hardworking and with a diva attitude Om made it as a big screen actor due to being born into a Kapoor family.

Om Shanti Om is a great example of a transnational movie with its main actor; Shah Rukh Khan being well recognized internationally. The one star six songs and three dances one dancing in Bollywood and in Om Shanti Om has also influenced movies internationally especially with Hollywood musicals to do the same such as in High School Musical. There is also a large use of western terms in Om Shanti Om such as what the fish. However, the movie still sticks to the Indian culture where censored words in movies are frowned upon. During the second half of the movie, a lot of the dressing was also very westernized and the songs featured Caucasians as background dancers.

 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

In my opinion, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is my favourite out of all three movies in the transnational theme because it’s not a traditional kung fu movie with male characters doing the fights. Most of the fights scenes in the movie are between Shu Lien and Jen Yu. Even the main villain, Jade Fox was a female character. The ending was really interesting as it gives an open opinion for viewers, did Jen Yu die? Did her wish come true from her sacrifice? I felt that the movie also had a really good pace to it with no scenes that felt too slow and a great combination of action, romance and a sense of ambition.

I believe that Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is a great transnational kung fu movie with the line of the main actors all from different countries as Zhang Zi Yi is from Taiwan, Chow Yun Fat from Hong Kong and Michelle Yeoh from Malaysia. This really reunites all the different countries but with the same Chinese heritage. All the main characters have also acted in big Hollywood films and Ang Lee is also a Hollywood director. The film is western themed with a lot of feminism aspect in the movie such as Jen Yu who did not want to be married off to a man of his fathers choice and ran away from her wedding to be a kung fu warrior.