This piece may contain some discussion of the film's content. I think it'll be easier to understand if you read this piece after watching the film.
-1.
For the first time in a while, I had occasion to listen to music on a record. While deliberating over what music to listen to, I figured that, as expected, listening to a 'soundtrack' would be best, so even though it wasn't music I'd listened to often, I put the soundtrack on the turntable and played it. At first the music that starts with a wee-wee-wee-weeng was, as I kept listening, music I'd heard somewhere. Among them the music I remembered was these two songs, 'Maniac' and 'what a feeling.' I hadn't heard the other songs before, but strangely Maniac was a familiar song so it was nice to listen to. So I, left with some lingering desire, thought I ought to watch the film of this soundtrack, and looking up the film, I found a film called 'Flashdance.'
-0.
One of the reasons I came to watch a film after a while is that recently, even though I'd tried to go to the cinema, after being greatly disappointed by the film lineup, I didn't watch a film. (More precisely, it's closer to couldn't watch.. since there were no films worth watching..) The films the 'cinema' shows are still rather dull. Especially Korean films - they're not emotional, they're steeped only in cliché, and when some film is about to be released, films of a similar kind appear again (imitations), and there are too many films busy only with following a trend whenever some 'particular trend' exists in society. Where did they throw away the solidity and uniqueness of the director or the scenario - there's not just one or two regrettable things. Of course, there are people who defend this, saying it can't be helped, but it's not necessarily so. Even if not a fresh film, I think an 'emotional' film can be made any number of times. Making such a film would require music, would require actors, and the scenario, angles, the director's philosophy, and so on would matter.. So I'm going to unpack the piece about this film in terms of 'actors and expressiveness,' 'scenario,' 'angles,' and 'music.'
1. Actors and expressiveness
There are no actors I know. The actors who appear here really are all actors I don't know. But well, what does not knowing matter - for me, who has hardly watched 80s films themselves, knowing the actors of this era is nearly impossible. The only old actor names I know are about Olivia Hussey, Audrey Hepburn, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Connery, Alain Delon, and Gregory Peck. So I can somehow remember the people of films I've watched, but I can't remember the names of all the actresses who were making a name in this era. However, this film's actress 'Jennifer Beals' is, I suspect, someone I'll probably remember for a long time.
Some might ask why the protagonist's name had to be 'Alex,' but this woman's name is 'Alexandra,' so it was just shortened and called Alex. From today's view this name is a bit 'classic,' but it's still a wonderful name. Such an aspirational name really stands out for that will to do something, I should say; anyway, the protagonist Alex lives up to her name. Because her dream is to be a professional 'dancer' (calling her merely a chumkkun or muyongga doesn't quite fit the nuance for either. 'A person who dances' is what suits 'Alex' best.), in the morning she earns her living doing welding work, and while dancing at a club, in the remaining time she imitates moves she saw in books at home or imitates people dancing on the street. She's a wonderful 18-year-old living each and every day with genuine passion.
Jennifer Beals really expresses well the bold charm, confidence, passion, purity, and honesty about emotions of an 18-year-old. After watching a ballet performance with Hannah, by chance she sees 'Nick,' whom she'd thought she was dating, getting in a car with another woman, goes to Nick's house and throws money at the window, shouting "You are son of bit**" and rides back on her bike, and the next day, in the scene where she meets Nick and talks, 'Alex' says she did it because she was so angry, expressing really well the purity an 18-year-old can show. Also, in the moment her friend 'Richie' says he's leaving for LA, the line 'I miss you' really hit hard. The expressiveness of this tremendous actress, revealed in her eyes and expressions, became the most basic 'foundation' that composes the film, I'd say.. I heard the competition rate was enormous too, and this actress was truly a remarkable actress.
2. Scenario (subject matter)
If I dissect this film's scenario from today's view, well, it's cliché. The story isn't complicated either. To summarize, it's like this.
1) The protagonist Alex is an 18-year-old woman who does welding work in the morning and dances on the bar stage at night, whose dream is to do contemporary dance.
2) 'Nick,' who saw this woman dancing at the club, learns that Alex is one of the people working at the construction site he's in charge of, and expresses interest.
3) The two grow close and talk about dreams.
4) After Alex, at the end of her deliberation, submits an application to the school, Nick, who'd been watching this, arranges for her to get an audition through an acquaintance of his, but Alex, upon learning of this, emphasizes to Nick that 'it's something she must accomplish all on her own' and gives up on the audition.
5) To find Alex, who was nowhere to be seen, 'Nick' waits in front of Alex's house, and after meeting her, they have it out. In this situation Nick leaves Alex with the words that giving up your 'dream' is no different from being dead, and goes out.
6) While Alex is deliberating, she goes to meet Hannah, but Hannah had already passed away, and in the end she goes to the audition.
7) Alex, having finished the audition, rejoices and reunites with Nick.
Many people, including myself, will already have encountered 'variations' of this kind of story. Actually Billy Elliot is close to a similar context too, and among later films, films about realizing a 'dream' generally end with a 'helper' appearing, and when that helper is of the 'opposite sex,' becoming romantic partners and realizing the dream, the film ends. Well, at any rate, the fact that such a film already existed in 1983 does lend the point that today's films can hardly be called 'fresh stories,' but anyway! Going back, 'Nick' has more money than Alex and looks a bit like a 'patron,' but in fact, beyond merely a patron, 'Nick' is the partner who teaches Alex the preciousness of dreams. 'Nick,' who leaves the famous line "When you give up your dream, you die," shakes off 'Alex's' refusal that she can't see a superior, and as Nick approaches a few more times, the two grow close.
The anecdote Nick tells after they grow close is also a meaningful part. The anecdote is like this: he says that his first wife was an educated, high-class woman, but after he realized this was the safest and most ordinary choice, he 'jumped' toward what he wanted to do. There's probably nothing in life as meaningful as 'becoming able to see' what I want to do. The most cliché theme is in fact the most 'universal theme.' For that reason this film left me a simple and important but meaningful lesson.
The 'cliché of the scenario' isn't much of a problem. I think how well you unpack even that ordinary narrative matters more. The 'railroad-track date' that appears in this film is, from that perspective, quite fresh.
People who've watched a lot of films will have seen similar scenes somewhere. Among the films that came out after this film, the ones that show a 'railroad-track date' all seem to have borrowed from this film. The film that first comes to my mind right away is, what, about 'Architecture 101'? In Architecture 101 too I remember the two protagonists in their university days dating while walking on railroad tracks. If this scene first appeared at this time, isn't it really 'sensible'? That is, the image of 'people living in the city' is somehow beautifully drawn on the 'railroad tracks,' I'd say.. In modernist fiction, when we think of the 'city image,' it's easy to think of a 'city' image that's fragmented and all broken, but in this film the 'city' image is beautifully sublimated. So while watching, I felt this film was emotional and sophisticated. Despite being a film from 30 years ago. This kind of thing should be possible in today's films too... why can't we see it.. It's regrettable, really regrettable.
Another part to mention is this scene.
Um.. this scene is the situation where Nick, after asking what they'll eat for dinner, comes to Alex's house having bought 'pizza,' and Alex, who lives alone in a remodeled 'warehouse,' explains to Nick the story of her childhood and the reasons she came to like 'music' and 'dance' (a time of self-disclosure). In this scene Nick tries to leave without eating the pizza, but Alex grabs the leaving 'Nick' and the two come to spend time together... um... this scene looked to me like the Hollywood-version origin of 'do you want to come in for ramyeon.' The slight difference is that it's changed to 'pizza' instead of 'ramyeon.' (Actually the function of 'ramyeon' and 'pizza' was similar.)
Anyway, even if the subject matter and the way of carrying the story can be cliché, the method of unpacking the story can be sophisticated. I felt this film was emotional and a sophisticated film. Under some indescribable, distinctive sentiment.
3. Director, structure, angles
To explain the angles I'd have to bring in more photos, but those photos could be a bit risqué, so I'll just unpack it with 'words.'
1) The male gaze viewing the female - when showing scenes of women dancing at the bar, I think the director tried to show their desperation through the dancing scenes. At first I deliberated over why the director only captures such 'sensual angles,' but in the end this was the gaze with which countless men view 'women dancing at a bar.' The camera meticulously captures the 'intense movement' centered on the whole body and the lower body.
Over this, at first I thought the director was so focused on 'sex appeal,' but watching to the end, that wasn't it. It was an expression of the 'desperation' of living life. In the latter part of the film, looking at the scene where 'Alex,' while gathering her clothes, hears among the words from a colleague the word 'show time' and sheds tears, in the end it contained the desperation of 'people who live hand to mouth.' Alex was no different from this either. Before meeting 'Nick,' there was only an 'Alex' who couldn't take on a challenge no matter what 'Hannah' told her. That such an Alex ultimately decides to challenge her own 'dream' becomes a portrayal of finally advancing toward the 'dream.' In fact, in a situation where I've been thinking more and more lately that challenging your dream is a really good thing as long as someone can help, this kind of 'Alex's choice' really resonates. If you're in a situation where it's hard to live hand to mouth, the 'dream' is in fact a back-burner matter, but luckily for 'Alex,' a good person called 'Nick' appeared, so Alex got the 'breathing room' to be able to challenge. In this situation, for Alex to 'give up' is truly no different from dying. For such an Alex to take on the challenge is plausible and corresponds to the 'goal' she must finally accomplish, and Alex accomplishes this through 'dance' containing 'her own method.'
2) This film shows Alex's change of heart through two 'confessions.' In the first confession, it shows the deliberating Alex from the priest's viewpoint, but in the second confession, it shows a crying Alex standing at the end of despair. The 'Alex' who rises by overcoming that despair comes to show a 'grown' figure that's finally ready to advance toward her dream. The deliberation that appears in the first confession becomes more concrete in the second confession so that everything blends together, and after that, finally the 'pupa' opened its shell and spread its wings. In my personal opinion, structuring the story front-and-back this way through 'confession' is something I'd call one of the director's outstanding points. Among the films I've watched, I haven't properly seen this kind of film, so this part comes across all the more fresh.
4. In closing
If I summarize this film's theme in one line, it's 'don't give up on your dream.' It conveys a very 'universal' yet difficult message: if there's something you want to do, something you can do with your heart pounding, go toward it. In Korean society in an era like these days, finding a 'dream' is harder than picking a star from the sky. It's because the environment in which you can find what you truly want to do isn't in place. Social instability and uncertainty about the future are the main reasons that make this hard, but even in such a situation, I think a 'dream' is worth finding. Fortunately, I'm glad the end of it seems a bit visible for me. Even while writing this piece, I'm glad there's a future I can draw.
As an aside, among films I've watched by chance like this, it was the best film. It was quite 'classic,' but I watched it well, empathizing with the protagonist.
Now I have to study hard again.
P.S. Among this work's soundtrack, the famous songs are 'Maniac' and 'What a feeling.' If you've read this piece, I recommend looking them up on youtube and giving them a listen. They have a strong old-song feel so you might dislike them as corny, but this is a subjective opinion - I think they're 'masterpieces' in their own right.
What a feeling : https://youtu.be/ntqxMICaUdQ?list=PLdhXHBCOdbfXIGliU04fx9lcRdrNhdk_6
Maniac : https://youtu.be/XYSe-BCvatw?list=PLdhXHBCOdbfXIGliU04fx9lcRdrNhdk_6
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