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[HanCinema's Videography] "King of Pigs": Violence

There are many ways to comment on and cite literature, but moving images are harder to handled and quote. The history of cinematic thinking has long been tied to the shadow of literary concerns, taking its terms, theories and filtering them through audiovisual cues back to typographical symbols. Is there a way to articulate the themes, motifs, moments and magic found within films without relying on the power of the written word?

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A recent wave of film enthusiasts, scholars and critics are turning their commentary and insight back on moving images themselves. They're called "video essays", "videographic essays", "film essays", or some or other combination of moving images with the literary essay in mind, and what they represent is a twenty-first century move to better articulate specific aesthetic and cinematic qualities of popular features (Eric S. Faden, an associate professor of English and Film Studies at Bucknell University, has been vocal on this turn, favouring, what he calls, "Media Stylos").

Quality curated content of this nature seems well adapted to (1) promote a deeper understanding and appreciation of moving images in our pictorially pressured present, and (2) do so in a way that is already part of the ocular zeitgeist dominating our realities. Our attention spans have indeed shrunk as flickering headlines and streams of information bombard our senses with meaningful messages; so who doesn't have time for a short masterclass video on symmetrical framing from Wes Anderson's filmscapes; the magical realism of Lee Chang-dong's short and stunning filmography; the superheroes America dreams of; the many times someone has taken their own life in a film from South Korea; celluloid kisses repeated over time and space from our favourite stars; or a Wilhelm Scream complication?

So, I thought it would be interesting to start experimenting with this new type of content by poking and prodding around Korean cinema. This first video simply showcases the violence found in Yeon Sang-ho's "King of Pigs", and of course it's rough and should disturb. Much like "The Fake", "King of Pigs" is forceful and brutish; the punches, blood, suffering and cruelty are used to elicit uncomfortable emotions in the mind of its audience. In addition to curating and cutting such a cinematic quote, I think what I like most about something so simple (and video essays needs be as 'nondestructive' as possible) is that it can be the equivalent of asking a soft and critical question, a way of relating and articulating a feature found in a film that asks the viewer to think further on a specific aspect revealed; no real or decisive answers, but instead just adjusting the binoculars' focus and passing them on ("Do you see what I see?")…discussion and refocusing comes later:

Very simple, as I said, but if you enjoyed that and have a topic or theme you think would be interesting, please mentioned in it the comment section below! (I was thinking of cutting the moments of magical realism from Park Chan-wook's "I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK" next.)

- C.J. Wheeler (@WoolgatheristKoreaOnTheCouch)


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