Contextual Studies - Resubmission (Part 2)

Black Lips

Aderline Tang’s “Black Lips “isn’t just an ordinary noir film. It is basically a thriller film that keeps the audience’s attention building up to very sudden climaxes one after another. The film revolves around the main character, Miyo whereby she constantly gets abused by her mother since young. As a result of that, she began to take revenge on people who abuse her, associating those people to her mother.  

 Throughout the film, lighting effects were interesting and scary. 

The first scene of the film was well executed. Shadows are very hard to play around with but they somehow managed to get it right. i.e: Miyo gets abused by her mother scene. 

Special effect wasn’t that bad, but I felt that it was lacking in intensity and gore. As for cinematography, I think they did very well in terms of having a balanced composition for most of the scenes. Camera angle was something that they nailed too.i.e: the office scene.

 Props were also well planned for this film. The black lipstick can be clearly seen as the main object in the film. It represents their cult which is to apply the black lipstick on people that have been killed. Given that the title of the film is “Black Lips”, I was rather disappointed that there was no explanation or motive as to why black lipsticks was used on the victims. Perhaps ‘black’ symbolizes death? 

Transition for this film wasn’t really that smooth. i.e.: @5.27 (too fast). Something that I would suggest for improvements is to amend the subtitles @1.42 (not really clear).

Besides that, to also slow down the transition o f subtitles from 14.30-14.36.  Lastly, the poor pronunciation in certain scenes can be rather annoying.

Overall, the plot and narrative was very straightforward and easy to follow. Perhaps it was a bit too predictable. I was expecting more from this film because the momentum was building up nicely at the beginning but the ending was a bit tame. I kinda felt empty after the watching the movie as it didn’t feel complete. I would rate this movie a 6/10.

Full Movie can be viewed here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sfW2uuieXU
 

 Elixir

Directed by Voon Lyn," Elixir" talks about a  beautiful young lady who goes by the initials “M”.M became too obsessed with her beauty and will do anything to stay young and beautiful forever.M believed that the existence of a cult that makes people immortal is not a myth but a true story.Finally, M’s effort of finding that cult has paid off when she managed to locate the cult leader’s lair where she makes her potions.M developed the instincts to kill and many tragic deaths has happened since then.

Since "Elixir" is a silent movie, I personally feel that visual communication had to play a major role. In other words, the scenes had to visually look good and understandable.Elixir has strong ties with different timing and era.I think they did a really good job in terms of choosing locations for the movie scenes. The location that they've chosen suits the whole ambient of the era. i.e: 1940's Shanghai bar scene.

 The Shanghai bar scene of a bygone era

As for props/costumes , it was very detailed and well planned/designed!.The Belladona poison,Elixir and hair pin was well positioned in certain scenes with the camera zooming in on the objects indicating its significance to the cult.

This is a scene where "M" is just chilling at her apartment drinking a glass of "Elixir". It is the part where "M" starts to have flashback about her killing spree with the cult leader

  

 

 " The Belladona Posion and hair pin which resemble the cult"

The costumes used in the various settings gives a very authentic feel of the era.  

 1920's hippie clothings - "M" and the cult leader drinking Elixir after a murder scene 

 1940s ancient chinese clothings - Shanghai bar scene.

 1980's look - England scene. 

The 1985 England scene was a good example of detailed set design. This scene was filmed at a park which was perfect for the scene as it resembled the perfect English autumn. A Mercedes Benz with a customize car license plate was used to resemble the olden days.

"BBL OOD " get it? xP

Another well design scene was when "M" walk into her apartment. 

Notice how detailed they designed the set?. Those numbers are always signifying bad luck and death and that is what ‘M’ brings to people, unfortunately. It is on her own intention though, so for her it is not a problem. 

I like how things can be subtle but meaningful. Little details in the background adds to the authenticity of the film. Even if the audiences doesn’t notice it, it still builds up the feel of those good old days. i.e: highlighting names and year of location for various scenes.

Lighting was perfect throughout the whole film!. My only critique was that the lighting during the 1985 cafe film was a little too bright for my liking. Perhaps a little darker will do the trick?

Lighting from the window was too bright and It didn't seem quite suitable

The composition values was well balanced in most of the scenes. As for camera angles,even the slightest detail of the props was included in the film.I can see that they put a lot of effort into lighting , contrast and the camera focus.For example, this note was emphasized by the blur background and the focus of the note was in the middle.

On the other hand, I think the choices of background music/ special effects were suitable for all the scenes. It really sets a nice tone and mood to the movie :).

Overall, I felt that the presence of the cult was strong throughout the film. I also think that the plot and narrative was very strong and interesting. It made me feel as if I was time traveling back into different eras.Although it was a silent film,there were miming at certain scenes which made it easier to understand the narrative..

 

The ending of "Elixir" was when a close up shot of the cult leaders missing poster was seen at the tunnel where "M" and "D" met up. The missing poster also states that she was last scene at E-13-4 apartment where "M" stays. It really seemed like a cliffhanger ending to me because Who killed her? Did M kill her? If yes, how and why did she do so? Will the murder evidences eventually lead the investigators to her? Will she ever be caught? We will have to wait to find out. Anyways, I rate this film a 9/10 as it was a great production!.