Category: Film Studies

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Fidelity in Nonfiction Motion Pictures: An Analysis of Nollywood’s Apaye

Fictional stories are easy to make and even easier to consume because apart from the fact that filmmakers get to flex their creative muscles and explore the endless array of storytelling possibilities, they are mostly entertaining. Nonfiction motion pictures however are emotional, thought-provoking cautionary tales that are based on true life events that mandate filmmakers

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Space and Time Through the Lens: A Cinematic Exploration From Lumière, Warhol and Keiller

To gain a deeper understanding of how space and time are depicted in cinematic movement-image, this paper analyzes five seminal films: Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat (1897) by the Lumière brothers, Empire (1964) by Andy Warhol, and Patrick Keiller’s Robinson trilogy (London [1994], Robinson in Space [1997], and Robinson in Ruin [2010]).

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Semiotic Analysis of Fan-Made Illustrations in Film Parasite Posters: Visualizing Social Inequality

The movie Parasite (Bong, 2019) made history as the first Asian film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, inspiring fans to create unique posters. Despite the popularity of these fan-made posters, limited research in Indonesia examines them from a visual semiotics perspective. In fields like visual communication and film, posters are crucial promotional

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Visual Semiotics of Javanese Cultural Signs in Indonesia’s Popular Horror Film Titled “KKN Di Desa Penari”

The rapid development of horror films in Indonesia provides a perspective on the increasing trend and global interest in the entertainment industry. Many Indonesian filmmakers have gained attention from audiences and achieved viral status in 2022. One such example is the horror film titled “KKN DI DESA PENARI,” which is among the most popular horror

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Rural Narratives and Media Convergence in Thai Cinema

The year 2023 marked a resurgence for Thai cinema, highlighted by the successes of The Undertaker and Death Whisperer, which brought rural narratives and socio-cultural themes to the forefront. Produced by Thibaan Studio, The Undertaker became Thailand’s highest-grossing film of the year, while Death Whisperer engaged audiences with its haunting portrayal of family and community

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Mythic-Historical Elements and the Evolution of the Image of Dracula in Popular Culture: The Case Study of Dracula Untold

Dracula is an iconic character in popular culture, with his origins tracing back to the Romanian ruler, Vlad the Impaler, from Wallachia. This research aims to analyze the evolution of Vlad the Impaler’s image in popular culture, specifically in the film Dracula Untold (2014), identifying the associated themes, and exploring how Vlad the Impaler’s figure

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New Comedy Paradigm: The Ascendancy of Stand-Up Comics in Indonesian Film

This study examines the trend of stand-up comedians entering the Indonesian film industry, particularly focusing on their influence on the comedy genre. Over the past few years, comedians like Ernest Prakasa, Muhadkly Acho, and Bene Dion Rajagukguk have become prominent filmmakers and actors in Indonesian cinema. The aim of this research is to investigate the

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Campus Cinema: University Portrayals in Contemporary Films

This research analyses English-speaking films made from 2014 to 2024 that are primarily set in university environments. The main aim is to investigate the role of universities in these films, focusing on how these institutions are depicted and whether they adhere to stereotypical representations. By examining a diverse selection of movies, this research also seeks

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Intergenerational Solidarity in Pixar’s “La Luna”

This paper aims at examining intergenerational bonds in Disney and Pixar’s short film La Luna (2011). More specifically, Bengtson and Schrader’s (1982) taxonomy of six dimensions of intergenerational solidarity are considered in relation to De Bono’s (1985) Six Thinking Hats as a way of pilot-testing a theory of a conflict-free mechanism against a problem-solving methodology.

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Panopticon Perspective: Visual Analysis of a Film

Bent Hamer’s movie Kitchen Stories (2003) is a Norwegian movie that is a combination of the post-war context within the research storyline of daily life practices. Kitchens are places where parts become wholes: where various ingredients could be combined and turned into a new form. In the film, space turns into a research field about

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The Implicit Observer: Exploring Voiceover and the Sense of Reality in Taiwanese Documentary Films

This study examines the role of voiceover in Taiwanese documentary films, with a focus on the increasing use of self-narration by filmmakers. While filmmaker presence was traditionally believed to enhance authenticity, voiceover holds a complex position in documentary aesthetics. Language’s referential nature can convey messages clearly but may also be overly direct, disconnecting audiences and

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Disability or a Personal Lifestyle? Examining Indian and Foreign Depictions of Obesity in “Double XL” and “The Whale”

Growing obesity rates are a serious problem among Indigenous populations in several nations throughout the world. Numerous media studies have been done on various elements of obesity, but there hasn’t been much research done on how obesity is portrayed in the media, particularly in films. Recent films released from both industries with the underlying theme

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Orientalism and Self-Orientalization: A Case Study of Female Images in Chinese Films Awarded at the San Sebastian Film Festival

Since the 1980s, Chinese cinema has gained international recognition, with an increasing number of Chinese films receiving accolades overseas. The portrayal of women in Chinese films has emerged as a contentious and significant creative theme. This research focuses on 11 award-winning Chinese films showcased at the San Sebastian Film Festival, employing textual analysis and cultural

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Unvelling Red Culture in Zhang Yimou’s Films Through a Semiotic Perspective

From “Red Sorghum” (1987) to “Full River Red” (2023), Zhang Yimou’s illustrious career spanning over four decades has been marked by a distinct emphasis on color, particularly the vibrant shade of red. In Zhang Yimou’s films, red transcends its role as a mere color, birthing a visual language that masterfully conveys his creative concepts. This

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Cinematic Practices of Repetitions in “The Grudge” and “Ju-On: Origins” –Remaking Networks, Contexts and Building Taxonomy

Globalization processes profoundly affected the world economy and, consequently, film industries. Film remakes, among the most well-known forms of creative repetitions, became a norm, especially when approached by Hollywood. The scholarship usually associates remaking with the institutional practices of recycling previously established and financially successful trademarks. However, continuous releases of repeated film titles created complicated

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Biography as Cinema Verité? Writing Steve Job’s Life

This paper reviews the biographical film within the genre of documentary and proposes a contemporary approach to a subgenre. Neither completely fiction nor fact, it attests not just to the conceptual hybridity between historie and discours; it also permits both a creative approach to the inscription of life and a critical analysis of the temporal

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Decomposing the Stereotypes: East-West Dichotomy in the Film Adaptations of W. S. Maugham’s the Painted Veil

William Somerset Maugham’s classical novel The Painted Veil (1925), in which a marital crisis is set against a cholera epidemic in China in the 1920s, and its three Hollywood adaptations (1934, 1957, 2006) feature a confrontation between the East and the West through the interaction between the Westerners, allegedly bringing progressive methods in dealing with

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Using the ‘Candle in the Tomb’ Fandom as an Example and Explain Its Associated Behaviours and Values

In recent years, IP films and their fans have received increasing attention. Every film adaptation of an IP work has fans’ support, which actively spreads information. Fans have created their own discourse space in virtual communities, producing a reasonably close-knit social group, thanks to the development of mobile internet technology and the relative democratisation of

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Roars and Recuts: A Comparative Analysis of Japanese and American Versions of Godzilla 1954-1962

This presentation explains how various American distribution companies rebranded the first three Japanese films about Godzilla. I propose these examples offer a unique meeting ground between two film industries and their narrative norms. By textual and industrial analysis with examination of marketing, I reveal the extensive modifications of all three films were done pragmatically. American

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Kissing Scenes in the Representation of Family in Post-war Japanese Films

Yasujiro Ozu and Mikio Naruse are well-known Japanese filmmakers who depict the “everyday life” (nichijo in Japanese) of family in the post-war period. Their ways of presenting “everyday life” are characterized by the exclusion of violent and sexual expressions. However, exceptionally, there are kissing scenes in their films and they form unusual expressions. Focusing on

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Droids and Peasants: Akira Kurosawa’s Thematic Influence on the Star Wars Saga

Following the international success of Rashomon (1950) and Seven Samurai (1954), Akira Kurosawa’s films came to exemplify Japanese cinema to western cinemagoers and had ‘a significant influence on many international auteurs and genres’ (Russell 2011). Most famously, George Lucas admits to basing the storyline for the original Star Wars (1977) upon The Hidden Fortress (1958),

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Strength Through Poetry as We Regain Our Balance in the Cinematic COVID Aftermath

Drawing on aforementioned Seamus Heaney and his symbolic reference to a great sea change or tidal wave indicating that a new chapter is about to begin, and “The City” by contemporary writer Ted Hughes ̶ where a life is read like a poem and in fictional dark [Parisian] city centres the writer roams “my own