"Everything Everywhere All at Once" | Blog Post #5

How does "EEAaO" represent social groups or issues?

EEAaO is about a typical immigrant, Asian-American family running a laundromat. Showing the experiences of most immigrant families as well as the issues they face. Notably, the beginning of the film, shows Evelyn exhaustingly running a laundromat, her issues with her family as well as tax problems. It displays typical tropes associated with Asian families while still being able to break them throughout the progress of the movie. The multiverses show different sides of Evelyn, the engrossed businesswoman, the kung fu master, the exhausted wife, the chanteuse, the tiger mom, the filial-and-failed daughter, the gifted mind-traveller and more.

In the end, Evelyn breaks from the typical Asian mother figure to a sweet loving wife, carefree as well as mending her relationship with her daughter and accepting her as who she is. Since Evelyn’s daughter, Joy, is part of the LGBTQ+ community, it also sheds some light on the issues that the community faces. Especially from the Asian perspective.

How do the elements of its production work together to create a sense of branding?

EEAaO is very unique due to its low-budget production. The team created props from simple everyday objects, used actual real-life footage of the actors, and had a limited amount of locations. And yet were still able to make the film look expensive. It’s clearly noticeable throughout the film that they had a limited budget, but it became what EEAaO’s is known for. The production of EEAaO is also a way that the film company used to promote the film. The countless reports, and interviews on its low-budget filmmaking methods. Creating a brand for the film.

How does "EEAaO" engage with the audience?

EEAaO has many different genres. Comedy, action, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, etc. Creating an emotional story while still being suspenseful throughout the storytelling progress. Generating sympathy, jeopardy, and relatability through Evelyn’s life and her relationships. While still having engaging moments through the action, and thriller scenes in the trailer and film itself.

How does "EEAaO" challenge, or confirm, conventions?

EEAaO is a genre-bending film, it challenges the typical way of storytelling. It has elements of comedy, action, thriller, science fiction, romance, etc. When typical movies only stick to one main genre and have elements of some other genres, EEAaO has it all. In between the scenes and parts of the movie, there are also film titles which are not something that is typically seen in movies.

EEAaO also breaks the typical conventions of Asian families, in particular Asian mothers. From a “tiger” mom figure, Evelyn becomes accepting of Joy and her genre orientation. She also becomes a loving wife to Waymond.

Political Compass | Blog Post #4

Are the results as you anticipated?

The results are pretty much what I anticipated but I’m still a bit surprised that it’s in this position. I thought I would be more toward the economic left and social libertarian. But it’s still pretty accurate to what I expected.

I guess the main reason it’s this way is that I don’t strongly agree or disagree with many of the questions and statements. Which is why it is in this position.

Opinion on the role of government and state-sponsored media

Production should be strictly produced and decided by the people. As we are the main consumers, however, regulation should still be in place to a certain degree. Products produced outside of a country should be checked before being released to see if it’s non-offensive to the nation's ideology. I’ve noticed my country is pretty great at regulating media products that are offensive to our people and our beliefs. The decision to ban the release of some products that show bent truths of our country is always supported by us, the citizens and the consumers of the media products.

Examples:

“Abominable”, “Uncharted”: Banned because of a scene showing the Nine-dash line that is used by the People's Republic of China to lay claim to parts of the South China Sea.

“The Roundup”: the depiction of Ho Chi Minh as a lawless place where Korean criminals run amuck might have been thought to give a negative image of the place and contributed to the ban.

To what extent do you plan to have an ideology easily identifiable in your media product?

My media products are more artistic and contemporary and do not touch upon political and moral ideas. However, if I ever want to make a statement then it would be the focus of the media product that I produce. Since my future project isn’t based on my ideology and beliefs, they won’t be present in my project. Though there might be unintentional hints of it in my final product. I strongly believe in gender equality and women's rights as a female myself, but my project has little connection to it so I won’t be including my ideology in it.

Quentin Tarantino | Blog Post #3

What do you find to be Tarantino's most powerful film?

I find “Inglourious Basterds” to be Tarantino’s most powerful film. Besides the fact that Tarantino himself admitted through the last scene where Raine says “I think this just might be my masterpiece.” before ending the movie. And the fact that it is his most-nominated film, “Inglourious Basterds” is a majestic concoction of comedy, drama, terror, gore, pastiche, and revisionist history. The slow-burning suspense, the cultural references, sudden laughs in the middle of intense scenes, it has it all!

As someone who watched a selection of Tarantino’s best films, “Inglourious Basterds” is able to catch my attention and suck me into its own fictional world unlike what “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction” could do. While still having the recognisable Quentin Tarantino’s filming style with retro aesthetics and sudden title screens in between scenes, “Inglourious Basterds” creates a totally different viewing experience, unlike its predecessors. Through all of the elements, Tarantino was able to deliver not only a masterpiece but also change how storytelling can be.

How does Tarantino get away with all of his 'stealing'?

His work is a mixture of many different references and “steals” all combined to assist his new story. I don’t consider it stealing because he’s not making a duplicate copy of an existing media product but rather taking elements of many different products and mixing it in a way that seems like an original piece. As a viewer, I only notice a few details that seem familiar but since it’s mixed with other references, unless you’ve seen and heard every media product made to date, you won’t notice that he “stole” it from pre-existing films. The only way that we know that he “steals” from other media products is because of him admitting himself and because we get told that it’s a reference to another media product.

The stolen elements assist his work, making it more interesting and not "boring". And that’s not what every filmmaker can do. It creates a new meaning for viewers who know the reference and assist the story built up for others.

What elements are you ok with being 'borrowed', 'referenced', or 'co-opted', and what absolutely has to be original?

For my Component 3 project, I’m okay with “borrowing”/”referencing” the visuals of some scenes from other movies with my own little spin. For example, reenacting movie scenes like how they did it for the “Thank u Next” music video but not a 100% copy of the scenes. Making it a little bit more interesting for viewers to see the binary opposites and interesting when they notice the details.

However, my story and the main plot have to be absolutely original or at least my own idea and not completely inspired by an existing media product. As a storyteller, I want to tell a story that is important and relevant to me and not someone else’s story that I find interesting enough to “steal”. Of course, it might not be completely original but it still has to be something that I came up with.

It’s hard to avoid stealing everything from someone else’s work when we try to reference and take ideas from other artists. So it’ll be easier to build an idea of our own and have a complete picture of what we’re aiming for instead of coming back to someone’s ideas to get more ideas on how to continue building the story.