This week, I stumbled across a film that I wanted to watch but have forgotten about. It was listed under ‘The Most Harrowing Kids’ Films’. Watership down is a great novel and animated film depicting a group of rabbits trying to survive a journey after abandoning their home. The entire film gave an eerie feel, because of the way the rabbits interacted with each other in such humane ways, and how the main rabbit is always sensing danger before it approaches, but no one else really believing in him. Not to mention, the terrifying gore and raw representation of the dangers in the outside world, a depiction of inevitable death. No wonder children were so frightened of this film! However, I personally loved it… it gave an unexpectedly fresh ring of the harsh reality we live in. Even though the characters were animals, it really was depicting humans in society, otherwise why would the author create this story in the first place? It is for us viewers to learn something about ourselves. It also gave me great visual inspiration for my rabbit paintings. It had curious visuals, the rabbits looked realistic but full of human feelings flushed in their faces.. but also, in some moments a more abstract portrayal of rabbits were shown, which gave an even more terrifying effect since you can't distinguish what is real and what is fantasy anymore.
Perfect Blue was another brilliant film that inspired me this week. Known now as the ‘original Black Swan’, Perfect Blue is an Japanese anime film that has endless similarities to the recent Black Swan Film, and is apparently the inspiration behind it. Both deal with the pressure performance and the public eye has put on the main character, and in turn giving the viewer the portrayal of schizophrenic-like experiences. It really messed my mind up, since I could not distinguish between whats real and what’s not, especially as the film came to the end, when the character hits the peak of insanity. So much traumatic experiences were introduced in the film, including Mina deciding to quit her idol career for acting, being forced into filming a rape scene even though she didn’t want to, repeatedly seeing the same scary-looking stalker, getting death threats and real attacks, committing murder and not remembering anything about it, and at the end getting attacked and chased by herself.. the film really pushes you to lose grip on reality. I suppose watching this film definitely made me realise what multiple cases of trauma and pressure can do to your mind and body.. it is a terrifying thing to not know what parts of the things you see are real and fantasy. Having another version of yourself alive and taking over your life.. that is an extreme situation that can come from significant trauma… anyway, the visual of this film gave me great inspiration too. Another film that has always given me great visual inspiration is Princess Mononoke.
Perfect Blue:
Perfect Blue:
Princess Mononoke:
