The scene I am going to write about in my film is where the
protagonist, CHA Tae-shik, right after being shot with a pistol, while in agony
being treated for his wound he experiences a flashback into his cruel but
gentle past, where he is seen as young and clean going to visit his girlfriend
who is pregnant with his child. The Man From Nowhere had been produced by Cinema Service, Opus Pictures, United Pictures and was directed by Lee Jung
Boem and been released for Korean cinema in 2010 belonging to the crime, action
and thriller genre. In this scene, Tae-sik attempts to struggle and rescue his young and only friend, So-mi, he takes So-mi for the reincarnation of his unborn daughter, murdered along with his wife in retaliation for his work as a special operative and assassin for the Korean government.
The cinematography from the beginning of this scene presents a close
up of the protagonists hand onto where the wound from the gunshot is. This shot
is used here to present to the audience through the visual codes where he had
been shot and how much the protagonist is suffering through how we can tell how
much blood he’s losing. The close up is important a
s it conveys the message of
all these that the director intends to convey and signifies the importance of
the wound that the protagonist has as it’s life threatening. As his hand is
shaking while realizing how much blood he’s lost from the close up, the
performance here shows how much he’s in pain and how much anger he is bearing
in order to protect the young girl who’s closest to him with addition to the
struggle he has to undertake in order to save her. The director Lee Jung Beom,
utilizes this without needing to show how the protagonist is feeling with a
close up on his face to show his facial expression, rather just using a close
up on the wound and his hand to show this.
The non diegetic background music adds to the scene to
generate an effect of suspense and tension within the audience as this is a
crucial turning point in the protagonist’s life in the film. The soundtrack
additionally goes well with the scene as it makes the audience understand how
significant the tension and seriousness of conflict between the Korean mafia
and the protagonist’s current affairs are, as the director uses the non diegetic
sound to highlight this.
Straight away from entering this flashback, it’s extremely
noticeable how the colour scheme changes in the scene of the flashback compared
to the rest of the film from the exterior. There is a clear use of bright colours,
especially on the furniture in the hospital and the shopping store. The use of
the bright colours while in the hospital gives off the meaning that at that
present time, the protagonist was experiencing the most positive moment of his
life with the one person he loves the most. Additionally, there is frequent use
of white colours in this setting which symbolizes peace and proximity which
adds to the mood while also representing the new life that had been due to be
born.
The colour of the car that his girlfriend is waiting in is also white,
along with- the babies clothes he purchases in the store which also relates to
the colour scheme of the environment used here. The frequent use of white
colours definitely has a calming effect on us and reaches out to us on an
emotional level: such as the ironic feeling of love in this scene, protection,
humility, innocent, youth and kindness. These themes are also explored
throughout this film and within this scene. The lighting here also symbolizes life
and is used coherently along with the bright colours which works well along
with the setting and environment inside the hospital building and shopping
store.
However this can be taken very differently due to the widely
different cultures and therefore separate audiences to cater to. Unlike in
Western culture where the colour white symbolizes peace and purity, the use of
white colours in Eastern culture, white is considered to be a colour that
represents death. The colour white led to its traditional use as the
traditional colour of mourning. Considering this is a Korean film, this
audience may have taken these hints as an incident related to death that was
about to occur. This is a very smart
technique that the director, Lee Jung-Beom has employed that gives a deeper
meaning than just using an ordinary colour for no deeper reasoning.
The low angle close up shot of the detectives shoes as they’re
walking shows how important the people are even before showing the audience
what they look like. This is to display a dominance of power within these stock
characters also this is a way that Lee Jung Boem can introduce them simply
through their performance and mise en scene of the detectives walking at a busy
pace as a group with formal suits on, along with the cinematography of the low
angle shot to symbolize dominance and importance.
His hair is also appeared to look long and unhygienic, which
shows how he doesn’t care much for his life right now until he has a purpose to
live. Compared to the flashback scene, Tae-shik looks very clean and positive
compared to his negative vibe on his other appearance. He has a calm sense of
ease to himself and looks like he could cause no harm to anyone at all. On the
other hand, throughout the first half of the film up until this flashback, the
way the protagonist is portrayed creates the mood that death is always lurking
over him, how he attracts danger everywhere he goes which was also the cause of
his pregnant wife’s death and also symbolizes how he is regretful about how he
lived his life so far up towards the end of this flashback.
I believe that during the scene where Tae-shik walks over to
his girlfriend and sits down with her, he asks to hug “both of you” (yet-to-be
born child), once he hugs them we see a trimester scan photo of his child. He
has the photo scan in his hands and we see a close up shot of him grasping the
photo with force to the point where it creases up, foreshadowing that an
unpleasant incident involving the unborn child is going to occur. This action
is also relevant to the murder of his wife, who gets crushed by a truck driven
at full speed. The cinematography used
in these scenes works excellent accordingly to the transition into the
protagonists past. As he is undergoing surgery to ta
ke out the bullet from his
stomach at the beginning of the scene, a close up shot is used on his face to
show the pain and how traumatizing the experience is to him because of the same
experience he faced long ago which ties into this scene here. The close up is
also shot on his face in order to show his facial expression and portray his
current emotions to make us, the audience, feel involved and share his current
sense of sorrow and . As the camera focuses on the protagonists facial
expression as he is in pain from undergoing emergency surgery, the
cinematography in this scene creates a swirl effect to generate an accurate
representation of the pain the protagonist is going through. This is an effective
technique that the director employs as he is intending to portray the
protagonists emotions to the audience through cinematography techniques as well
as use of performance.
Overall the cinematography and mise en scene are all
effectively used to address the scenario and portray the themes of hope,
vengeance, suffering and redemption of The Man from Nowhere.
