Westerns have always intrigued me since my childhood days. Cowboys, red indians, horses, gunfights, the old dusty dessert setting, are just a few of the many tropes that you might see in a Western film. Latest western film I watched would be the remake of The Lone Ranger (2013) directed by Gore Verbinski, starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer. It was not very well received by critics, but I thought it was overall a very entertaining film. I have not watch nor listen to any of the franchise that carried The Lone Ranger name prior to the remake, therefore I might not have any basis to judge my viewing experience of the film to compare with other renditions, but as a stand alone, I thought it was pretty well done and it carried majority of the tropes that made a Western film.

Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) directed by Takashi Miike was screened today during our first movie screening of the semester. Just by the name itself, you could tell it was going to be a strange and wacky film, Sukiyaki is known to be a Japanese dish that is usually served in a hot pot style, Western, I assume is where the film was set in, and Django could be the film making some reference to the Spaghetti Western film, Django (1966) directed by Sergio Corbucci.

Before I give my take on the film, I would like to reflect on a talk that I attended some time this week delivered by a professor who came from my home country, Singapore. Associate Professor Stephen Teo, from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) came to RMIT to conduct a lecture on Eastern Western. I found it really really interesting how it took a Chinese man, explaining “Rasa Theory” a ancient classical Indian theory that was formed between 200BC and 200AD, to a bunch of white men and some asian students. It just goes to show how far globalisation has taken us, but that’s a little side note that I took from the lecture. Basically, what I got from the otherwise very complex and highly academically structured talk, was that we can apply a set of readings and theories written in the ancient times to a Western film or any film for that matter and it could fit, with a little in depth analysis. What I have been taught so far through Introduction to Cinema Studies and Popular Cinema, is how we look at films from a academic perspective, however these  teachings and readings have been pretty much highly regarded to western Hollywood film theory and techniques, therefore I thought it was a refreshing experience that we could analyse films not just through the academic standpoint, but also using the eight Rasas in the Natyasatra written from ancient India.

Back to Sukiyaki Western Django, from the get go, I thought the film took on a very similar shape to an anime, in terms of use of colour, cinematography, and performance from the actors. On the other hand, it still carried the tropes of a western film, having set in the dessert, a small town, an outsider coming in to restore order and stability to the town from an opposing force. However, western being western, the film embeds very heavy oriental roots and like props such as lanterns, the tattoos on the back of some characters, the battle between red and white (symbolic to chinese/japanese) and so on. I thought the film wasn’t bad at all, although some might oppose to that. I feel that you can’t label a feel good or bad, just because it doesn’t fit the right template or model in the genre it seems to be classified under. In the film’s own right, I thought it fit very well using genre conventions, but still carrying some Asian flare, just to say it was made by a Japanese.

I wouldn’t classify Western as one of my favourite genres, but I would really like to go more in depth into the genre and exploring even more into it, and maybe employ some of the conventions into my video genre sketches.

So this week’s been pretty introductory. We had a full blown crash course on genre and the whole tale behind it, from different point of views, academic, critical, and even just layman.

What makes a genre? We can find genre almost everywhere even outside the realm of films. Music for instance carries many various genres and sub genres (which is another layer to touch on maybe later in the semester), from old school classic rock to electronic dance music dub step, country folk music to big band swing…the list goes on. Genre helps one to categorise things in a neat and orderly fashion. Since the dawn of the human species, we tend to group stuff together base on certain characteristics, tropes, and traits. From primary school science, we were taught to categorise between living and non living things, plants and animals… I believe it might be in our DNA to create order and categories.

So film genres, what is it? Some say that it is a tool made up by the studios to sell films and that it doesn’t really exist, and if we were to go along with that, it just puts whatever I’ve mentioned above down the drain. There is definitely a need to categorise films, and even if it was intentionally or unintentionally created by the institution to make consumers buy more films, eventually genres will be created organically. We need something to refer to, something to make a reference and to gauge. But film genres are not very well distinct, it is fluid, it overlaps with one another in intricate twists and variation. Which, I believe, is why most of us elected to do this particular studio to see how genres overlap each other, and also distinct themselves from one another. Can’t wait to see how this semester and this studio unfolds as we explode genres week by week.

EXPLODING GENRE!

Can’t get over the wacky titles for the individual studios. Gone are the days where the names of the classes or modules I’m taking just represent the subject that I’ll be learning like, Maths, Science, History, you get where I’m going with this. During my trip back to Singapore, I find it a challenge explaining to people what kind of studio am I doing this semester and end up breaking down the name “Exploding Genre” for them.

I chose this studio in hopes of being able to pickup the ropes of producing and maybe making, a short film myself, and it doesn’t get any simple than that. I do understand that a lot of time, effort, and manpower would go into making a film. Pre-production, production and post-production, each carrying their own importance and we have many distinctive roles for people to fill up and contribute into making a film reach its final stage where it can be screened onto the big screen. Whether that screen is in a commercial theatre complex or just in an AV room of your parents’ apartment is a separate discussion.

Besides uncovering the various methods and theories that may be employed by multiple filmmakers all over the world to give a film a certain characteristic to be classified as a particular genre, I would also like to acquire the skills and knowledge on the “technical-know-hows” on how to actually write, film, produce, edit and maybe even publish? Of course, the entire process can’t be taught within the duration of an academic semester, but just knowing the basic knowledge of how everything flows would be my main outcome in general.

Looking forward to exploding many genres week by week as time goes by.