Reflection on Moolade

Although it has been close to two weeks now since I saw the film Mooladé for the first time in class, it took me a matter of only a few minutes to refresh my mind on the subject by looking over some notes taken during class. The movie was, in my opinion, one of the most emotional films we have watched this far in the semester. However, while it was an incredibly dramatic and emotional movie, I feel like the cultural and political topics handled in the movie had the greatest impact. From arranged marriages, to the men having multiple wives, to the extreme demands for obedience, Mooladé showed just how strong the African people believed in their culture.

                One of the first, and perhaps most obvious, cultural differences in the movie was the practice of arranged marriages. Being that this was an African film it made sense right from the beginning that arranged marriages would be an important factor in their culture and family lives, but considering modern American and even the Western part of the world’s practices on the matter it took a while to be able to grasp just how important the arrangements were.

                Another difference between American and African cultures that I noticed was extremely important to practice in the African lifestyle of Mooladé was all the men in the community had multiple wives. Also, not only did they have multiple wives, but they were all different ages; there was an “elder wife” and then there were also other wives that seemed to be a significant amount of years younger than the man of the house/family and the other wives. The wives all lived together and seemed to treat each other more like what seemed to be a sister-sister relationship, which I found to be hard to comprehend being that they were all married to the same man, and I would assume that would bring a lot of tension and even competition. This was not the case to say the least, and I found it very respectable and it made it sink in that much more how much the women of the community and in the African culture really valued each other.

                The aspect of the African culture that by far stood out the most to me while watching Mooladé was the extreme belief and practices that pertained to and went along with making sure that all the men, especially the elder men in the community, were strictly obeyed by the younger men and the women. While there were several instances throughout the film in which various punishments were depicted, the one that was the most dramatic and evident would be when Collé was beaten by her husband for not enforcing the younger girls to be Purified. This was such a strong scene in the movie, perhaps the most intense, because it wasn’t just a few whips. He whipped her excessively, all while doing it in front of the entire community, which I felt made it emotional beyond the intensity.

                Mooladé, overall, I felt was an extremely powerful movie and was an excellent look into the idea of the African culture and their practices. The few differences discussed previously were not even close to the only differences between American and African culture, and I feel more could even be picked up after the initial viewing of the film. However, I feel these differences were some of the strongest, and therefore would be interested in learning more on the subject.

               

Children of Men

                The movie Children of Men was most probably the toughest one for me to get a good idea of my opinion on the movie thus far in the semester. While I do not think that the plot was that difficult to follow or understand, I even feel as though I got a little swept away following the dramatic story, I had a hard time being able to locate one big event, or more importantly central theme, in the movie that would be a good topic for discussion for this response. Had it not been for the storyline, the sound, and the dramatic settings/ surroundings of the characters in Children of Men, I feel as though I would have had a much greater deal of difficulty following than I originally did.

                The biggest thing that I believe kept me intrigued throughout the film was the storyline. It was obviously not a true story considering Children of Men took place in the year 2027, but I found the thought of something such as human reproduction to no longer be possible to be an extremely dramatic/ depressing thought, and therefore found myself swept up in the story to find out what happened. I also think another reason that I found the storyline interesting was because being that it does take place in the future, I thought it gave the film an unknown suspense of what could possibly, although not likely, take place in the years to come.

                One of the biggest things during and after watching Children of Men that really seemed to grab my attention was the sound and sound effects in the film. Obviously, one of the main reasons for this was probably because of the intense and at times seeming almost constant, sound of battle, war, and weapons. This is an obvious point being that the movie took place during a time of war and literally in the middle of a war zone for a major part of the film. That point aside, I still feel as though the extreme details of sound throughout the film were a major aid in helping me be able to feel engaged in the movie, and even be able to further connect with the characters in the film.

                The final aspect of Children of Men that I believe was a reason for me being able to become connected to the film was the dramatic settings of the characters and overall story. To some extent I guess this point directly goes along with the sound in the film, but I feel that they were both such detailed and extreme accessories to the movie that they deserve to be acknowledged separately. The majority of the settings in Children of Men were simply depressing. When watching the film I was constantly reminded of the trouble and fears that the characters were living in at the time, and I feel that made the movie much more relatable, especially considering it took place some almost 20 years in the future from when it was made.

                While I may have had many difficulties with the film Children of Men I feel the details of the storyline, sound, and settings did a remarkable job in aiding for me, and perhaps even other viewers of the movie to be able to follow it a little bit easier and perhaps even to understand and/ or enjoy its dramatic story.

Lady Vengeance and Revenge

                The film Lady Vengeance that viewed in film class was probably the one I have had the hardest time grasping thus far in the course. I think the obvious reason for this is that the film is told in a non-linear form, and being that this particular type of literature is not popular in the western culture of the world, especially America, I simply am just not very familiar with it. Aside from the manner in which the film was presented, I feel that I was able to somewhat understand one of the main themes coming through in Lady Vengeance, that being one of revenge. I feel that the color in the movie, the struggle for the characters to decide the killer’s fate, and the fact of the daughter being the narrator of the film all added to the strength of the theme of revenge.

                The use of the color in the Lady Vengeance was probably the most evident way that I was able to tell that Lee Guem-Ja was looking to seek revenge once she was released from prison in 2004. That color was red. One of the earlier scenes in the film, after she was released from prison, specifically showed her up close with the eye red make-up. This was the first sign to me that some type of drastic or even evil action was about to take place in the film, and that became more obvious as the movie progressed.

                Speaking for myself, the scenes when Lee Guem-Ja was speaking to the parents/families of the children who were murdered and explaining the situation to them was when the story line finally clicked and I realized the circumstances of what was taking place. This was also a major scene for portraying the importance of revenge in Lady Vengeance. They went through each parent/ family member and showed the struggle they had with deciding how to act out on the teacher who was responsible for the deaths of all the children. Not that I have any personal experience with the matter, but I had sympathy for all the characters, no matter what the choice they made or how they felt, because I feel that it would be an impossible situation to be in. Revenge is a dangerous thing, and these scenes did an excellent job of making that clear to the audience.

                While the fact that the daughter was the narrator of the film may not directly relate to the theme of revenge within Lady Vengeance, I feel that it had an important role. We didn’t see a huge amount of interaction between Lee Guem-Ja and her daughter, the narrator, in the film, but one of the main things we did see was that the daughter was present throughout/around the killing of the teacher. I feel that her presence at this time in Lee Guem-Ja’s life gave her a deeper look at the person and struggles her mother was experiencing, and ultimately led for her to sympathize with her even though she may not be worthy of it.