Movies have played important role in my upbringing. I remember, family members being so fascinated by my interest in movies. They used to ridicule like any other relative. That it doesn't hold any meaning or movies are not going to help you in life. Now, it's cool but you will hear this only from someone who hasn’t watched a considerable amount of cinema. They generally haven’t seen or don’t enjoy a good story. And to experience, a good story in movies is the only theatre. I often look forward to the experience of watching a movie in the theatre, especially in times like these. You just forget about the world for few hours. That is certainly the best way to experience good cinema. That’s the only time when I’ll be happy being part of little, tiny masses, experiencing a story together. Movies have certainly shaped my thinking and psyche very much.
The new logo of Thinking mold is based upon a movie. That has taught me about friendship, learning, relationship, and most importantly life. Dead Poet Society is a movie to remind me constantly of Carpe Diem i.e. Seize the Day, a constant theme in the movie. Mr. Keating, sort of protagonist in the movie, teaches his students about this philosophy. The beauty of life and how to embrace it by standing still in the present moment.
Life is simple, not easy but simple. Still, there are too many complicated moving pieces in reality. That piece takes more than the life of a human to makes sense of. You can never get the answer to every question, in the time span of a human's life. No human ever did. But when someone, gets together with a bunch of passionate folks to present a story to the world, they create cinema. A story to simplify complicated human emotions and uncertainty into a single simple piece of visual and musical imagination.
Every script, book, and movie was once just in the imagination. Oftentimes, good movies are based on books. So much so that, around 65% of the top 20 IMDB best movies of all time are somewhat based or influenced by a novel. If you are an avid fiction reader, you understand that imagination is paramount in your reading experience. But that imagination has to work with intellect to give you a fictional world experience. Also by watching a movie before its novel, you let someone else's imagination get fed into your brain. Which is not authentic and ruins your reading experience.
All the truths of life are big paradoxes and every good story follows it. They understand that there has to be a dichotomy to make it real and authentic. Like depiction of order and chaos in The Dark Knight. Duality of love of family, and betrayal in The Godfather. The oppression of authority and freedom of individuality in Dead Poet Society. Every great story teaches you that there is not a single way your life will go. There is no objective truth. Everyone is trying to convey their version of truth and reality in their art. Even different generations have different mainstream truths.
Creators have realized that different generations consume different kinds of cinema. Not just a single piece directed film, but everything. Different directions, story, movie, editing, movie duration, etc. will resonate with different generations. For example, Intentionally or not but Wes Anderson's direction fits perfectly for Instagram. Each frame in his movies checks all marks of perfect Instagram aesthetics. They look so pleasing and soothing to human eyes, that you would not want to even blink for a second. Everything is just too perfect in each frame of his movie. Search on YouTube The Grand Budapest Hotel or The French Dispatch. You'll understand what I am talking about. On other hand Quentin Tarantino's movies not much appealing to younger generations. He focuses on dialogues, slow and patient storytelling & old cultural references. But at the end of the day, they make this cinema for themselves and are aware that they attract a certain kind of audience. Of course, you have to be a hell of passionate about something to crash a real Boeing airplane for a scene. Although, passion and struggle in filmmaking are more mainstream than in other domains. That display of struggle is mostly fake and superficial in the Indian film industry.
Indian mainstream cinema lacks storytelling, a decent one. Once in a while, a movie comes and shows us the real meaning of storytelling. But that's a once-in-a-blue-moon event. Often time those movies get hidden with the over-commercialization of mainstream movies. People admire Hollywood more than us because, in today's capitalistic world, they were able to capitalize on the best art they produce. Each country has its own heritage, culture, and art. But those who were able to successfully capitalize upon that, shaped the pop culture as we know it now. Indians failed on doing that. Our mainstream cinema exists just to show you the dance of people in their 40s & 50s, superhuman dumb fights, straight-up stupid dialogues and don't get me started on how it has ruined the idea of a romantic relationship for a whole goddamn generation. Even for the new generation, Instagram has taken place of Bollywood movies to ruin their idea of relationships. Exciting and quite sad times ahead. Even a good music album in a movie is a rare event in our country.
Films are as beautiful as the music. You cannot have a good film without good music. And just like music, there is no barrier of language in movies too. You got to give this one to technology, for making it possible for you to watch Korean, Japanese or German cinema. Specifically in Asia, or should I say from Asia, Korean and Japanese cinema has become too popular all over the world. K-drama from Korea and animes from Japan. You certainly cannot ignore the influence of both of these content forms around the world. Especially in the new generation. I, personally, am fond of Japanese cinema i.e. animes.
Animated cinema was an explored territory for me. I regret being so skeptical about it. But trust me, It won't fail to blow your mind as a viewer. It bridges the gap of fakeness in VFX & constraints in real life. You cannot, would not want to question its authenticity. As a creator, it gives you freedom. Literally, imagination is the limit. You can tell every story you can think of.
If you are watching a considerably good anime. You will be mind blown by the amount of storytelling they offer in so little time. Without compromising in any metrics of a film. If you still think that animes are childish, you are just being ignorant. Start with cliches. No matter what you have watched in your life, it will take time for you to understand some things in anime. The fact that the population of a country is watching so thought-provoking stuff from a young age, says a lot about the development of that country. It is obvious that the country's future majority will be gritty, intellectual & culturally rich. Anime is an art by Japan to the world. So much so that now animes are shaping cultures and rituals in other countries.
On an artistic level, popular Hollywood directors take inspiration from anime. Not even scenes but story plots are being inspired from it. Initially, in the process, it is created from manga i.e. comics in Japan. Manga has the frames for the scene and story in typical comic format. But figuring motion between those 2 frames is a key thing in anime. Adding a pinch of great direction and music makes it complete.
Anime is mind-blowing, doesn't matter what is your opinion about it, It certainly is. One of the best movies, I have ever seen in my life was an anime movie. There were no words to describe that movie, except beautiful. It was beauty. Which is also known as The Silent Voice.
Just watch one episode, of 20 minutes, of any anime you like or you have heard most about. If you don't want to continue after that, then don't. But just not giving it a try is being a bit ignorant. Don't you think?
Most people are actually ignorant about art. How it could help you in overall personal development. You can learn everything about almost everything from stories. As I have been saying for a while, stories are the best way to experience reality without bearing pain. Of course, pop culture has all this geeky, romanticized stuff. But there is always another way to look at something. Humans are inherently attracted to art for gaining that wisdom from experience. I don't believe ignoring that would be a good idea. But don't confuse gaining experience from art with gaining real-world adventurous fearless experience. That is for some other day.
Ciao.