Enter The Dragon

As you can see from the title I couldn't quite think of a witty and humorous title for this blog post, but oh well cest la vie and all that. And yes this is due to be my second essay thingy in one week. And no I haven't gone mad. What I have done is realise how much longer we have of our 'summer holiday' left. A week essentially, well with a few extra days. So since stumbling across this rather depressing reality I though I still have alot of work to do so here I am, bored as hell on a sunday so Im going to do another post.

This one is on Enter The Dragon. It was directed by Robert Clouse and released in 1973. And straight away this film is special as it is the first co-made Japanese and American martial arts film. Being the first martial arts film to be made by an Hollywood studio is pretty damned big news. Now although this film is deemed American/Asain to most people it is considered to be predominantly Asain due to the location as the majority of it is set in Hong Kong, the actors as it mainly stars Asians, and the films star Bruce Lee even revised of the script and even directed parts of it. It was made with Golden Harvest, a Chinese film production studio and Lee's own film production company Concord.

So although this film does have a bit of America in it, it is Asian at heart, this is mainly due to Bruce Lee wishing to portray this film not as another mindless action film but as a wway of expressing his beautiful Chinese culture.

The plot of this film revolves around Bruce Lee's originally named character, Lee as a martial artist/monk type guy who is asked by some suits (the FBI or the government, who knows) to infiltrate a karate tournament on an island hosted by Han, as Han is thought to be a heroine/opium dealer. Needless to say Lee agrees and becomes enthralled in a masquerade of murder and martial arts until the film flash kicks its way to one of the most iconic climaxes in cinema, the mirror maze fight between Lee and the claw handed, Han.

You don't mess with the Lee

As the picture above shows the star of this film is the late and very great Bruce Lee. He died 6 dyas before the release of the film mysteriously making this his last film and most well known, influential, iconic and money making. Bruce had previously starred in films before this, most notable were his martian arts films with Golden Harvest Studios such as the film that catapulted him to fame Big Boss. Now this article is not on Bruce Lee, but it could quite easly be given that this film helped him to achieve fame in the US and in Europe. But this film did not just make Bruce a legend. The film it self was a box office legend taking in an estimated 90 million dollars world wide with only 850, 000 dollars for a budget, making this one of the most profitable films ever made.

As well as making Bruce a hit all over the world even after his untimely death, Enter the Dragon also as my hypotheses states, changed world cinema forever. Not only did it introduce the world to the brilliance that was Bruce Lee but it also introduced the world to the martial arts sub-genre. Before Enter, martial arts films were a massive niche market of films only really found in Asia at the time. Enter changed all that. The box office taking show don't you think. But it was not just in cinema that martial arts was making an impact, it made an impact on the whole world with martial arts themed shows such as 'Kung Fu' and songs such as Kunf Fu Fighting. Enter had changed media at the time. People every where were taking up martial arts inspired by the film. That along with the fact it sparked a sub-genre in itself is reason enough as to why this film is so influential and had such an impact on world cinema. But it also paved the way for modern films such as the money spinning Rush Hour trilogy.

Which conveniently allows me to move on to my next point. If launching a sub-genre wasn't enough and establishing Bruce Lee as a popular culture icon, but also launching the acting career of none other than Jackie Chan. Chan starred as a stunt man in this film as well as having many other minor roles, this lead to further association with Golden Harvest Studios and arguably the launching of Chans film career. Further acting on world cinema as Chan has starred in 94 films himself. Thsi can only snowball really as arguing that it paved the way for Jet Li as well. I think you see where im going with this. Enter the Dragon = alot for martial arts to be thankful for really.

A financial and critical extrodianre. One of hte most culturally significant and one of the greatest films of all time. Taken into accont all it has done for cinema that is not really a surprise is it.

It is also constantly referenced in popular culture. A list on wikipedia to long for me to type out on this. Bruce and the film are referenced in countless number of video games, inspiring characters and move sets. Inspiring scenes from other popular films such as Pulp Fiction and many many more.

According to wiki a remake is even said to be in the works.

Bruce Lee's wife once said that we shouldn't dwell on how Bruce died but rather remember how he lived. Enter the Dragon is a prime example of the man and one of the best martial arts experiences there is as the jewel in the crown of martial arts films.

- Alex x

Akira Akira.

In 1988 something happened that was to change the term 'cartoon' for ever as far as im concerned, the Japanese cult hit Akira (directed by Katsuhiro Otomo). A film adaption of a Manga Comic of the same name, Akira made mass waves all over the world.

In continuing with continuity of this series of critical research essays/blog posts on the films I shall do as I did with Godzilla and start with the story.

Right, the story, ermm... the story is well hard to explain. So I shall let imdb do it for me.

"A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psionic psychopath that only two kids and a group of psionics can stop"

In a rather large nutshell that is basically it. This is by no means a classic Hollywood high concept film. As this film is based on a Manga (one that spans over 6 volumes) it is by no means going to be an easy and smooth translation to a two hour film. People who have already read the Manga will no doubt understand the story vastly more than others but doesn't stop this from being one heck of a film. The story revolves around a rebellious teenagers slow and rapid fall into psychological oblivion. With awesome cartoon bike chases to top it off. The story is hard to encapsulate is what I think im getting at here.

The film, in terms of visuals is a masterpiece. It is a lush and glorious depiction of a cyberpunk punk dystopian Neo-Tokyo. This fusion of psychedelic colours and bleak back drops consisted of over 150, 000 cels of animation, thats 3 times more than usual to me and you, equaling to alot of layers of awesome. The explosive 'Japanimation' is powerful enough to shudder even Disney's feathers as even to this day 20 years after its first release it is still considered to be a landmark in animation and even film, breaking previous anime trends such as cornet cutting (such as moving mouths and static faces). This visual approach to the film could be argued to be one of the reasons it is so damn popular. But there are obvious other reasons such as its stock fan base of loyal Manga readers who flocked to see their favourite Manga distilled into film(and it shows as it grossed over ¥6,346,343,871 in Japan, almost 50 million dollars, a number which is still probably rising in DVD sales). Also the films themes were popular of the time such as as it consisted of the destruction of Japan as well as its post-war revival (such as Godzilla).

Another reason for this films success would be the sound that accompanies it, it fuses together moderns synth sounds with classical Japanese instruments to create a delightfully futuristic sound. Also as the director often extracted the sound at key action orientated points in the film such as explosions to emphasis the emotion of the characters and then revving up the action again in the scenes after with a plethora of sounds and effects. Often attacking the viewers ears.

Artistically this is an amazing film. Critically and commercially with an averages score of 88% on RottenTomatoes its easy to say it was 10 million dollars well spent on a film. With its main criticism being that at times the story is too complex.

"Okay Alex, so its a good film, but how the hell is this changing world cinema??" Is what some people may say. Well let me tell you.

Akira is not just a landmark film cos its looks pretty. Its a land mark film because it is the one of most internationally successful and described as the "definitive anime film" as it is credited as being the first full length animated feature to play widely in cinemas out side of Japan. Injecting Manga into the western audiences as some would say. Before Akira cartoons were seen as childlike and well rather simple, but Akira opened their eyes with its apocalyptic tale of a teenager running amok in Tokyo who accidentally destroys it as well. In destroying neo-tokyo, Otomo lead the way for anime in the west.

Akira was followed by other works by Otomo such as Metropolis in 2001 and Steamboy in 2004. Although not as successful as Akira, they also effected cinema winning awards such as best Animation and builds on the foundations of Akira in catapulting Anime out of obscurity.

Akira had highlighted anime and created an interest in it which could be argued to be a reason for the ever growing popularity of the Studio Ghibli films post- Akira such as Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away which even won an Oscar for the best animated feature.

Akira is still popular till this day with a mass cult following surrounding its mainstream success it is often referenced in other media, most notably of late in Kanye West's video for 'Stronger' in 2007 with scenes of the film remade using CGI. Clips of the film were even in a Michael and Janet Jackson video called 'Scream' in 1995 and is even referenced in the British sitcom, Spaced.

So as you can see Akira didnt just do wonders for anime film it also changed world cinema for what I hope is, forever. As I dread that Akira will fade back into the obscurity of its predecessors. But it doesn't seem like thats going to happen thanks to the Hollywood remaking machine 2 live action adaptions are to follow with one in the summer of 2009. Great.

- Alex x

I are Gozilla, you are Japan.

Right, erm I have commented on the blog my hypotheses as requested and was going to initially wait for it to be published or ok'd in some way. But no activity on the school blog or any one elses blog I figure I will have to wait a fair bit for that.

But I assume its a fine hypotheses as I had talked it over and over with Mr White (=[) and Ms Ward and they were happy with it, plus I do not want to put this off any longer. So I figured I may as well start, going to have to some time.

So I am going to with my research into my first film: Godzilla. Dir - Inoshiro Honda

When I say Godzilla most people immediately picture a gargantuan lizard tearing through Tokyo (Or America depending on how clued up you are, but more on that later) like a chainsaw through butter. People do not typically think of a political film that has impacted the world of cinema almost like no other in certain genres.

'Nooo way' you say at that second statement, well as my hypothesis is on the impact of Asian films on world cinema, in my research I found that Godzilla was one of the most impacting.

Let us start with the story. Godzilla was released in Japan in 1954, 9 years after the first atomic bomb was released and the story tells of nuclear testing that awakens a slumbering Jurassic age reptile by the name of Godzilla. The following of the film consists of Japan deciding what to do with this new menace of massive proportions whilst Godzilla pops up and wreaks havoc on the mainland and islands off of it. All matter of military force is used to stop the monster from bullets to missiles to electrical fences but obviously none of it has any effect and Godzilla's path of destruction lengthens with each failed attempt. How ever a secret scientific prototype weapon developed by a lonesome scientist known as the 'Oxygen Destroyer' seems to be their only hope. How ever not only would it destroy the monster but all other life within Tokyo-Bay.

That is the jist of the story, an even shorter version would be 'a monster fucks shit up'. But I don't think the examiners would appreciate that. Now, the fact that this film was released almost a decade after the first Atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima in JAPAN is no coincidence and as it was released at a time when science fiction films were used as a covert way to shoe horn political and social commentary into films with out offending people. Godzilla could be said to be the epitome of this as it is a metaphor for the nuclear age, which is one of the reasons why this film has gathered such fame and had such an impact on world cinema as behind the rubbery costume of Godzilla lies a cleverly crafted critique of modern science, war and its effect on post-war Japan. Not only was it a metaphor for the atomic bomb and Hiroshima but also of another tragic Japanese incident 5 years before involving the boat 'Lucky Dragon 5', which was aJapanese tuna fishing boat which was exposed and contaminated to American nuclear fall out, this is notable and obvious during the films opening as a fishing boat is destroyed by Godzilla's radioactive breath and a life preserver in the background of the wreckage has the number '5' on it.

The reason Godzilla acted as an allegory for the nuclear age was due to the state of the global post-war environment where opinions had to be hidden or not said at all, as to not upset the delicate status quo of the times that had been achieved at the end of WW2. Although Japan was seen as the victim to American aggression for Japan to openly criticise it was still unacceptable, so they did the next best thing and made a film about a Jurassic monster to voice their opinions.

Regardless of the some what controversial nature of the film at the times upon its first release it sold 9,610,000 tickets and was the eight most attended film of that year. It grossed approximately 152 million Yen ($2.25 million dollars). Also critics at first were dubious about the film and saw it as a mockery of the nuclear age but as time went on the film slowly gained more and more respected in its home country and is considered to be second only to another holy iconic Japanese film, Seven Samurai (more on that in due course).

The popularity of Godzilla had such an impact in world cinema that it prompted a joint American and Japanese release of Godzilla: King of Monsters in 1956 that was released a year after Godzilla's initial release in America and it consisted of original Godzilla footage with an American character in the mix of it as a reporter, reporting (duh) on the arrival of Godzilla. This change was to make American actors identify more with the film and it was thought that the original was still too anti-American due to the storyline which heavily focused on nuclear activities and its release to a mass American audience could have been damaging to the relations between the countries. How ever this was not the only spin off...

There are numerous amounts of scenes in Godzilla, not only the first one which sees the destruction of the fisherman ships, this also holds implicit meanings as Godzilla, the walking metaphor for the bomb is first spotted in the sea by Japanese fishermen. Other less monster-esque scenes that hold numerous implicit alter meanings are when the citizens of Japan are demanding information about the deaths by Godzilla from the government but are given the littlest information possible, also when Professor Yamane gives his hypothesis that Godzilla was awakened by nuclear testing he is told he cannot let the public know, this sparks a debate on the panels. This reflects how the government were about the Hiroshima incident and the war in general by not reporting losses to the people to maintain the illusion of victory. Information was leaked as the government saw fit, alluding to the idea that the government knew more than than they let on about America's plans to bomb them. A monstrous government?

Godzilla's carnage is also vital as he is often seen destroying roads, electrical towers, roads, bridges, hospitals, malls and cars, which are all signs of modernity and represent the nuclear bomb wiping out all signs of life in Japan. The fact that the film is shot in black and white is also noteworthy as it was intended to increase the audiences tension and represent the starkness, also Godzilla's roar was akin to the sound that accompanies the dropping of a bomb.

The 'oxygen destroyer' is noted by its inventor as a terrible invention that claims its destruction could be worse than that of the atomic bomb. This is a scene put in by Honda to give a face to the faceless by using the film Honda questions whether the inventors of the A-Bomb knew of its destructive capabilities. In doing this Honda confronts and questions complex ethical and moral questions.

Nom nom nom.

So there you have it, the low down on Godzilla and all the reasons as to why it had such a huge impact on cinema of Japan AND the world. But it also had a large influence on the science fiction genre and created a genre in itself, the monster movie genre (still popular today, a la, Cloverfield). Godzilla used state of the art special effects in order to do this and the success of the film allowed other films to take its concept and run with it. It also spawned many, MANY sequels;

• Godzilla (1954)

• Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

• King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

• Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

• Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

• Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966)

• Son of Godzilla (1967)

• Destroy All Monsters (1968)

• All Monsters Attack (1969)

• Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

• Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

• Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

• Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

• The Return of Godzilla (1984)

• Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)

• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

• Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)

• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)

• Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)

• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)

• Godzilla (1998)

• Godzilla 2000 (1999)

• Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)

• Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

• Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)

• Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003)

• Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

If you beat the dead horse enough it'll still let out whimpers of life, above is the evidence of this.

Godzilla luha- Godzilla goes to Hawaii

The one most people are familiar with is the big budget American remake in 1998. How ever this lacked positive reviews from critics and fans alike.

But this all sparked from the original. A small cult film that is still not really that heard of by wide audiences of today (people often mistake it one of its many, manyyyy sequels) and in popular culture it is often seen as a joke due to those sequels, but Godzilla stands as one of the most iconic figures in film of all time. Also as it pretty much spawned a genre on its own show the impact that this film has had on world cinema, he even has a star on the walk of fame. The use of a Jurassic creature as a metaphor for the dawn of a nuclear age and for the future is rather bizarre and quite ironic and even in a sense comical, if it were not based on a disturbing reality.

- Alex x

Back.

Hey, It is 20 to 12 on the 5th of August and ive just got back from seeing The Dark Night for the second time and am eating Quaker Oats whilst waiting for Dara O'Briain to come on the television. Welcome to my summer holiday.

After a few initial weeks into my summer of relaxation and generally doing nothing (which I haven't actually done much of ironically) I have noticed everyone has been moved in to the 'slogs' section and no activity, from well, any one from media as of late. So to get back into the proverbial swing of things I thought id do a post. Now this post will not involve any critical research as the book I was using as research had to go back to the library as it was overdue :/

But! This post is going to act as a predecessor, a warning if you like to say that after this I will be back in my blogging ways and post some actual useful... stuff. On Japanese films. Soon.

Sometime by the end of this week soon. The posts will consist of a post by post look at the films I am researching, as you already know. Just thought id clarify.

.... :/


- Alex x


p.s. GO SEE THE DARK KNIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hurrah!

Finally, huzzah! I have now decided on my final hypothesis after much weeks of paranoia, worrying and deliberation. 

But yeah, more to write about in question 1 I guess.

Now that I have changed my hypothesis it has, as madam said it would, meant i can now narrow down my focus films. So i am removing some and just simply changing others. Which is the same I guess.

Any way my new list of films is likely to include:

- Gojira

- Seven Samurai

- Enter the Dragon

- Old-Boy

- Akira

I may not do 'Old-Boy' as im not sure whether or not my theories as to it changing world cinema are just enough. But oh well time will have to tell. But I am pretty sure the other films have had a influential impact on world cinema. Influences of which I an going to elaborate on in further posts. At home. As blogging at school is harder than concrete.

 

Above: Something really hard

- Alex x

:/

Since the beginning I have been having numerous problems with my hypothesis, starting with my unoriginal too cliche video-game violence one and followed by my completely wrong comic book film one. So to the realm of cult Asian film I went and good lord im still having problems.

I originally came up with the hypothesis of 'Cult Asian Cinema' when I realised, 'what the hell thats a title not a hypothesis'. So I quickly changed that. My most recent hypothesis is more towards the;

'The influence of Asian cult films on world cinema.'

But im just thinking about how I could refine it or improve it. So after much deliberation and confused talks with my teachers, I think I know how to do it now.

So drum roll please.

'The influence and growth and popularity of Asian cult films in World Cinema'.

It may only hold a difference of around 4 words but I think that it will enab...

Wait a sec... ive just had a, what Ms Ward would say, a brain wave.

'What effect, if any, has cult Asian film had on World Cinema'.

Oh yeah! If that isnt good enough ill be forced to shoot some one [JOKE!!1+shift!]. One of my, and I think Mr White's previous qualms with my early hypothesis was that it was more of a statement opposed to a question so would it of been critical research.

But upon listening to David Bowie and eating chocolate spread rolls I think that one up there allows me to argue 2 sides of the argument whilst enabling me to do all the things I previously planned to do in terms of the films and what to write about, only now, with more direction.

That Way!

The good thing is I kinda already know what I would write about with some of my films as well. I may have to change one or two though to cater for my new hypothesis. Or maybe I don't, maybe I could use them to argue that there is no effect.

Ladies and gentlemen I think i have cracked it!

What would i do with out him?

- Alex x

Narrowing it down.

Right. Back from the rolling hills and picturesque mountain tops of Wales and im back, in bonny ol' Albion again. To work.

Great.

Any way whilst I was away I was paranoid about having lots of work to catch up on so in between setting up tents and hiking up mountains with increasingly slowing steps, I took a few moments to think about my media work and my hypotheses which led me to think about the films in which I would like to study and what not.

So i narrowed it down to these;
-Godzilla
- The Seven Samurai
- Akira
-Perfect Blue
- Battle Royale
- Old-Boy
And finally, Versus.

Although i may lose Perfect Blue as there is no sense in having that AND Akira when both films are of the same niche genre. (That sounds like something to write about in my evaluation thing, or question 1 in the exam, not bad.)

So yeah ill get rid of that.

So the films I will be studying are;
- Godzilla
- Seven Samurai
- Akira
- Battle Royale
- Old-Boy
- Versus

I have picked these films because for obvious reasons, they are all Asian in origin and when they were released they were all Cult films of sorts or 'B-Movies'. But some of them have gone on to achieve world wide fame stemming from their cult Asian roots. Also some of the films have gone on to influence more renowned 'mainstream' cinema in the West, even to influence genres as a whole. Some, are just damn good cult films.

In my research of these films I will look at how the films are sold to an home Asian audience and how they try to appeal to Western audiences. I will also look at their box-office earnings to see if their popularity matches up to their money. I will also look at their influences on other world cinema (if any) and throw in some theoretical textual analysis to round it all up.

I will do blog post to cater for each films.

Expect to be seeing one on Godzilla soon. and it might be long. Don't say i didn't warn you.

Seriously, i just spent like 15 minutes trawling though Wikipedia looking at Godzilla stuff and all its reincarnations, theres LOADS! Did you know that in the 1998 American version of Godzilla the giant dinosaur lizard thing isn't even called Godzilla! Read away.

I hate purists.


- Alex x


p.s.

Oh! Back to my days of ol' NMT video game nerdiness, i have recently bought GTA4. And after all the hype that came with it my verdict so far is a resounding; its alright. If you do own a PS3 and are really looking for an amazing experience i would suggest MGS4. But hey,

p.s.s.

In-game XMB for PS3 at last \o/

Decisions decisions.

As Sir for saw, after talking to Ms Ward and trawling the internet and library for books I found that Asian cinema is the most prominent in terms of Cult cinema. So as Sir predicted I have narrowed my hypothesis right down to;

'The influence of Asian cult films on world cinema.'

Well something to that effect. Also I am already aware of some films I will be looking at in relation to this topic.

For a start I have the original Godzilla and anime sensations Perfect Blue and Akira and any teachers nightmare(or dream depending on the teacher) Battle Royale.

I already have a overview of how I would like to write it in my head but other the week I will develop it more.

Any way, this isn't a long post like normal because im sorta strapped for time at the moment as tomorrow I take my leave for the sheep haven that is Wales.


So see you in a week with further ideas and posts!

- Alex x

Cult Films.

This bring me back a few months. I remember like it was a few months ago, doing my media coursework on magazines with the almighty 'Alt*' magazine. I had chosen my article to be on cult films. Months later and here i am again in familiar-ish territory trying to pull off the same feat again. But this time i am looking at international cult films opposed to familiar 'commercialised' (if you can call a cult film, commercialised) cult films such as Fight club and Reservoir Dogs and trying my hand at the foreign language world cinema view on cult films.

From Quintin Tarantino to Luc Besson, the leafy suburbs of Donnie Darko to the dystopian neo-Tokyo of Akira and from Tyler Durden to Konstantin Khabensky.

But before i get into more detail on the films in which i am researching into, which i have compiled a LONG list of to sift through, i thought that as i seemed to have defined World Cinema it is probably for the best that i now try to define 'Cult Cinema'.

In a previous cult film article i described it as;

"The word cult refers to a social group who all follow the same ideologies of something out side of the mainstream and which deviates from the norm. Slap the word film on to the end of it and you get ‘cult film’. Cult films are particularly known to of failed commercially at the cinemas (bar a few exceptions such as Tarantino’s ‘Pulp fiction’) and out side of their relatively small fan bases. These fan bases over time become obsessive and slightly obscure as they transcend into the depths of fandom, hence why they are compared to ‘cults’. Simple. Cult Films can be identified thanks to the conventions with in them; they are usually eccentric, obscure, random and go against the traditional narratives found in the more generic genres such as action and drama. These are the ‘alternatives’ of cinema in a way as they at times can be called controversial as they turn their backs on the ‘Hollywood cinema’ that we all know and love and instead tell magnificent stories and highlight innovative exotic topics that no other film would dare touch upon."

I feel that this is a pretty solid basis of what a cult film is. Although upon reading it, it could be possible to label ALL of international cinema as 'cult' films as they as stated, have loyal solid fan bases, the films have flopped commercially, they do not go against the normal genres of the western world, and they are the 'alternatives' for all those who frown upon 'Hollywood cinema'. Also international films tend not to focus on the commerciality of westernised films such as the ever original Hollywood blockbuster film factory.

Pretty straight forward right. Im not going to write about every international film ever, cos i quite frankly just don't have the time, instead im going to choose a select few from a select few countries and analyse the crap outa them. These films will be chosen for many reasons such as their influence and their impact on other cinema. If thats okay. Which i damn well hope it is.


I will post a list of said films up in a later post.


Also to further my research beyond the interwebs i have joined ilford library \o/ and i have taken out a very useful book called 'The cinema of Japan and Korea' which as the name entails focuses on mainly Asian cinema. I will use this book to gather work on the 3 Japanese films i shall be researching. I will search for more international cinema books upon my next visit.

Until the next time


-Alex x

Sigh.

As the title entails. Sigh...

Got to my first lesson of critical research with Mr White told him about my chosen topic of study. I told him of my comic book hypothesis and what topic i was going to be doing. When all of a sudden i was back to square one.

We meet again...

Sir had informed me that my topic of choice and what i had already done and wanted to look at such as blockbuster and Marvel etc were in layman's terms. Wrong. This was due to the Hollywood and American influences that would be involved in my project. Something that apparently is NOT World Cinema. This sparked a discussion on what exactly 'World Cinema' actually is? As far as i thought it was any cinema from all around the world, i.e. English, American, French etc etc. Sit said, this was wrong how ever and asked us to look it up.

To wiki i went!

They described it as;

"World cinema is a term used primarily in English language speaking countries to refer to the films and film industries of non-English speaking countries. It is therefore often used interchangeably with the term Foreign film. However, both World cinema and Foreign film could be taken to refer to the films of all countries other than one's own, regardless of native language."

And the way i saw it was, 'Well even American films are to be deemed as foreign to Spanish people so what the hell'.

And:

"In other English speaking countries, it would be extremely unlikely to class films made in the U.S. as foreign films, or belonging to World cinema, as American films are reasonably dominant in all English-language markets."

Damn you wiki, you've failed me :(

Also as wiki lists World Cinema as;

"
World cinema

• African cinema
• Asian cinema
• East Asian cinema
• South Asian cinema
• Southeast Asian cinema
• West Asian cinema
• European cinema
• Latin American cinema
• North American cinema
• Oceanian cinema

"
It just confused me more as it says North American it only confused me further. So i found the examiners report for World Cinema last year and to my morosity (i should SO copyright that word) it read that people would lose marks for getting too wound up in Hollywood or more Western films ignoring other films such as Japanese and German etc etc.
The source of my anguish.

So basically i rang OCR to ask if they could help and provide some Deus Ex Machina on this unsatisfactory situation only to be provided with in my words; "The dude that would usually answer this is on holiday". I hope hes having fun... ¬.¬

So i have basically taken it upon my self and deducted that World Cinema is everything that doesn't originate from England and or America. World Cinema seems to have an aura around it more focused on the artistic values and interpretations with more substance to it, opposed to the commercialised superficial block busters that seep from America. So as i was saying back to square numero. It bad enough trying to define my exteremly vague area of work let alone define a topic with in it. Which is why all i am most probably changing my comic book related hypothesis. I came up with another one in relation to this absurd revelation of how 'Japanese anime and manga affects films' or something to that extent, but as the report says; "Other areas of study were Japanese cinema: Manga/Anime and Horror." And i don't want to be just another one of those guys who would fade into obscurity along with all the other i-did-anime-and-manga guys. So i have basically abandoned my comic book origins, yup that does mean my post on Marvel is redundant now. Merely a wall of word vomit on my Mario themed viral.

So i went to ask Madam, [warning: Exaggeration] 'What the hell am i going to do?!!?!?!'
she was as dumb founded as me and we agreed that to avoid the examiner looking at it stamping it with a novelty sized stamp reading 'EPIC FAIL'.

So i have chosen to change it to Cult Status within World Cinema. In other words what are the most famous/inspiring/wonderful/...good cult films with in different areas of World Cinema and why? As well as how have they influenced other films... maybe even western ones. If i dare touch on that.

So yeah, i appreciate Sir's bluntness and nice way of saying 'wrong' as it is best to identify problems such as this one early on. Also it gives me more to write about in question 1 on the exam.

So every metaphorical cloud has a metaphorical silver lining.

- Alex x

Marvelous.

The term comic book is almost synonymous with a certain company called 'Marvel'. Marvel a company so huge searching for it on wikipedia dishes out several possible results;

"

• Marvel Entertainment, a character-based entertainment and licensing company based in the United States of America
  • Marvel Comics, a comic book publisher owned by Marvel Entertainment
  • Marvel Productions
  • Marvel Animation
  • Marvel Studios, the film division of Marvel Entertainment

"

Thats not even the half of it seriously.

What with my research and topic on comic books and their effect on world cinema i thought i would research a bit into the organisation known as Marvel and there break into world cinema. Now i know that Marvel are not the only comic book company which has films to its name as well but none of the other companies such as Dark Horse or DC are going to do something very very special in the coming years that will have fanboys creaming their pants for a while...

Its obvious to everyone that the beginning of the 21st century saw a massive boom of comic book films. As Marvel Studios, a sub-division of the Marvel Entertainment company was formed in the late 90s and headed by Avi Arad. This sudden burst on to the silver screen had come at a profound time for Marvel as in the late eighties up to the early nineties some would say that Marvel had lost its way as they had suffered some severe financial pit falls and abundantly increased their amount of titles from around 40 to 140, their sales were plummeting. Marvel's former boss Ronald O. Perelman would only prove to cause more problems as he made more and more financial moves by implementing failing ideas such as trading cards, sticker collections and collectibles causing major problems for the company already teetering on the edge of total financial melt down and even resulting in eventual bankruptcy.

But enter Avi Arad who swung in like some hyped up super hero and rejigged everything by taking control of Marvel Studios with co-company Toy Biz. With the release of Batman films through the 90s from Marvels rival leading comic company DC comics, Avi put the wheels in motion to convert Marvels hottest properties, its characters into film by latching onto Marvels then wasted licensing potential by setting up films such as Spider-Man and Hulk with distributors such as Universal and New Line Cinema. Following the success of Marvel Studios first major motion picture Blade in 1998 which saw takings of over 130 million dollars world wide and studios began to churn out more and more comic book titles with 18 films since Blade burst onto our screens in 1998. But these films were made by companies that hadn't any thing to do with Marvel and thus rendered with some of them being total flops financially, such as Ang Lee's original Hulk or just plain terrible, point in case;

At least being blind meant he didn't have to see such a terrible film

But recently Marvel have decided that they will start to produce and distribute their own films in the years to come with Paramount Pictures as they regain the rights to their characters. A bold move and a very highly lucrative one that paid off very well with their first release of Iron Man in 2008 which had an opening weekend of over 100 million dollars world wide, damn. Not only that but has gathered mainly positive reviews! Some thing quite uncommon of Marvel films of late what with Fantastic Four 2, ghost Rider and Spider-Man 3. But what may be one of the best things about Iron Man could be the short scene after the credits in which Samuel L. Jackson comes into the screen announces himself as Nick Fury and informs Tony Stark of the 'Avengers Initiative'. This is followed closely by Marvel's second self produced film, a reboot similar to that of DC's Batman Begins directed by Edward Norton him self of The Incredible hulk, a film that is laden not only with intense action, Liv Tyler in a wet shirt but also many references to World War 2 and a super soldier serum, which all act as indirect references to another of Marvel's upcoming films, that of Captain America. The third member of The Avengers reference in film so far.

The Avengers, widely known as one of comics greatest show case of super heroes consisting of Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor and Ant-Man. The latter 2 films are also soon to be in production which will finalise The Avenger's singular character films before getting them all together in the on screen debut of Earths mightiest Heroes, The Avengers which is said to be released in 2011.

"And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born — to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand! Through the years, their roster has prospered, changing many times, but their glory has never been denied! Heed the call, then — for now, the Avengers Assemble!" — Prologue from The Avengers


If this film isn't awesome,there is no hope for any of us. Ever.

Marvel are looking to monopolise the comic book film market in the future, and if the recent success of their current films shows any thing, maybe even world cinema as a whole. The pending films will most definitely dominate our summer block busters for the years to come. And thats JUST from Marvel.

Ill be posting more about different comic book industries from different sections of the world etc, but i felt that this post at the moment was appropriate what with Iron Man and Hulk coming out within a month of each other and causing such a kerfuffel. There are so many comic book films out there, some of which you wouldn't even know originated on the glorious technicolour pages of a 1 dollar 25 magazine. and i hope to inform you more of these soon ;)

-Alex x