These were my original ideas for the Critical Research Project:
Topic Area: World Cinema
Sub-Area: Cultural differences
Question: How far do cultural differences affect audience relationships with characters?
Media Texts: Chungking Express (Wong Kar Wai, 1995)
Tsotsi (Gavin Hood, 2005)
Reasons for choosing above texts:
I chose these two texts because I already have an understanding of ways in which character relationships are created. As I have studied both of these films in Film Studies I have in-depth research about them which I can refer to, to help me with my studies.
Chungking Express is a Chinese film from the Hong Kong New Wave. It contains conventions of art cinema and is stylized but character driven. As the focus is mainly on the characters and their feelings I think it is a good film to use in my studies for researching audience/character relationships when the audience has been alienated by cultural differences such as location and language.
Tsotsi is a rather controversial film that follows the life of a young thug. The main character is both the villain and the hero, making the audience both sympathise with and criticize him. I chose this film to be one of my texts as it challenges the audience with both alienation from location and language and the unclear character role of ‘Tsotsi’ himself.
After a briefing from Sean (see first post), my idea has changed to suit the project more. I will now be studying two African films, one being the original choice of "Tsotsi". I will attempt to find another African film, possibly with a more mainstream genre or international appeal so I can explore character relationships in terms of alienation by cultural differences.
