Nowadays, as short-form media has dominated our culture, people seek easy- to-understand mainstream films. While Tearjerker films, Hallmark films, or Korean generic gangster films take up the theater rankings, there is more we can learn when we venture further out. Here are some films that will help you understand the essence of movies, and of so-called “maniacs.”
Maniacs: Those Who Are Crazy in Love with Their Passions
“I have never met someone like Mr. Kim,” David Redman, the director of the film, Kim’s Video, narrates in his film. Who is Mr. Kim? Kim Yong-man was the owner of the video rental shop called “Kim’s Video” in New York City back in the 1980s. He was not just an owner of the shop, but also a movie collector, actor, and director. Kim’s Video is a documentary film that tracks the footage of how Kim’s video rental shop had to close its business. In this film, the maniac is not just one but many. During the film’s climax, the director of the film, Redman, also becomes a maniac while stealing the videotapes that he adored so much.
There is a similar (but fictional) maniac in a different film. “If I cannot shoot this, my life will pass in torment.” Director Kim says in the film, Cobweb. Out of perfectionism, Director Kim started re-filming his nearly ready-to-air movie. Every actor in the movie set did not welcome reshooting; so the set was in chaos. Director Kim was not the first of his kind. Director Kim was known to occasionally imitate the footage style of his master, who died on a movie set due to a fire hazard. Director Kim’s master had a chance to avoid the fire but did not because he was too immersed in shooting actual fire scenes. “This is it! This is the scene!” He screamed in ecstasy, dying, while tightly holding on to his camera. There is another irrational (but also fictional) director who spread a contagious virus on purpose to make his zombie movie realistic. “Keep on shooting! The camera should be rolling! The film must go on anyway!” said Higurashi in One Cut of the Dead directed by Shinichiro Ueda. These types of movie directors are all different, yet share a common trait. They enter a mesmerized “maniac” mode when it comes to filming. For their kind, there is no easygoing compromise. The general public would likely denounce these directors for their groundless and senseless behaviors. But all that matters, without a doubt, is that these types of maniacs are ones that make our culture special.
When Passion Meets the Right Person, It Is Unstoppable
Imagine yourself being intruded on and being forced to do a task while you are in the restroom at work. Picture yourself going about your duties despite a huge fire in your room. Envision yourself stealing something under government supervision for the sake of art. All of the above are actual episodes from the three different films.
The first situation is from One Cut of the Dead, in which the fictional director character Higurashi made his actors carry on acting when one of them suddenly had digestive problems. What caused Higurashi to push his actors to the extreme? According to the film, he was not this passionate initially. In fact, his shooting company’s official slogan was “Fast and cheap, but acceptable quality.” The director who spreaded the virus mentioned earlier was also a character in his movie. One Cut of the Dead has a unique concept in which it describes a fictional movie behind the scenes inside of a real movie. Hence, Higurashi doubled as the fictional movie director and an actor playing the role of an overenthusiastic director in that fictional movie. This confusing concept is one of the reasons that cinephiles should not miss this film.
In the beginning of the film’s storyline, Higurashi did not have passion towards his job nor his film. Hence, he allowed his actors to use some tricks such as artificial tear drops and let them work in a slack environment similar to his company’s slogan. However, in the process of acting like a passion driven director within his film, he started to mesmerise in his works. From then, he was able to authentically enjoy and love what he did for a living. Higurashi started to resemble his character. This change is also perceivable to the audience when in the movie’s climax, Higurashi yells, “Take off that face full of lies!” Through this scene, he is not only sending a message to his counterpart in the movie, but also to his lethargic past self, and to all of us who are numbly watching the film.
The second description regarding the fire is from Cobweb. Director Kim in the movie had a difficult lifetime; In the 1970s, South Korea was experiencing stagnation in the movie industry. Director Kim, who did not want to be outstripped, began to specialize a film technique called “Plan-sequence,” which is similar to one-take or long-take shooting techniques. At that time, being able to carry out such skills was considered one of the best competitive abilities. The film, Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuaron also featured this technique very well.
Director Kim kept the peculiar passion; he was shooting even when there were hazards such as huge fires, actors’ pain when being tied up, or their arachnophobia, and more. Was he being selfishly stubborn or extreme? According to Director Kim’s most quotable phrase; “Is this just me for god’s sake?” He would believe that those without his level of passion are the selfishly stubborn ones.
Last but not least, there was a director who almost committed a crime due to his love for movies. In Kim’s Video, there was a legally-complicated situation going on between two countries ever since Kim Yong- Man donated all of his movie selections from the U.S. to Italy. This was because the donated collection was not being used but rather abandoned for years. The director of Kim’s Video, Redman, decided to “free” the collection for the sake of the movie industry. In the middle of the night, he gathered his own “crime pack,” and they all put on masks of well-known movie directors’ faces. With intense music playing in the background, the gang ran into the storage room where the precious movie collections were stored for decades. When Kim heard about what Redman did, he jestingly asked, “Did Tarantino also help?” To these movie buffs, movies themselves were concepts valuable enough to even rationalize crime.
Wrapping up, what is the moral of this review? It is as follows: People shine and become truly special when they have their own original tastes and preferences. People who do not compromise with reality and push their capabilities to the extreme stand out.
People nowadays want to be deemed different from others, but do they really put as much effort as the directors in the aforementioned movies did? To truly excel in one’s domain, one must be as obsessive as the directors were. Once one becomes mesmerized with their own tasks or occupations, life itself will be fulfilled with joy.
So for those who want to feel the fervor and ardor of outstanding geniuses, why not watch some films that were directed by so- called maniacs? Maybe review the movies recommended in this column. Among those movies, decide which kind of film to live up to. As the movies speak for themselves: There is no limit to what you can become when you have a mad amount of passion!
