{"id":19483,"date":"2023-01-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=19483"},"modified":"2023-01-09T20:17:09","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T04:17:09","slug":"how-kogonadas-video-essays-inform-his-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/how-kogonadas-video-essays-inform-his-films\/","title":{"rendered":"How Kogonada\u2019s Video Essays Inform His Films"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe only great problem of cinema seems to be more and more, with each film, when and why to start a shot and when and why to end it\u201d \u2013 Jean-Luc Godard<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Kogodana\u2019s feature debut, Columbus<\/em>, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, the writer\/director was already a familiar name \u2014 at least in cinephile households. Over the past five years, he\u2019d dazzled this community with a steady stream of video essays for the Criterion Collection and Sight & Sound<\/em>, spotlighting technical and thematic patterns within the works of Yasujir\u014d Ozu, Stanley Kubrick, Ingmar Bergman, Wes Anderson, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the largely glowing reviews from Park City that January, and later in summer as Columbus <\/em>classed up indie screens, rightfully make note of Kogodana\u2019s previous scholarly work, praising his visual precision and command of tone. But the extent to which the filmmaker\u2019s critical eye and seemingly encyclopedic grasp of cinematic history has impacted his own work has grown far clearer with his 2022 sophomore effort, After Yang<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like Kogonada did with his analyses of filmographies, having two features to his name allows critics to better sense what\u2019s important to the man himself as a filmmaker. And by considering his narrative work alongside those of the artists he\u2019s chosen to highlight, a fascinating portrait emerges of his influences and the distinct original contributions he\u2019s making to the medium \u2014 none of which are overly beholden to any of the masters and contemporaries he\u2019s studied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Kogonada\u2019s video essays are primarily visual works, accompanied by music and occasional text and narration, it\u2019s logical that his narrative films foremost look exceptionally sharp. Two of his looks at shot construction, \u201cKubrick \/\/ One-Point Perspective\u201d<\/a> and \u201cWes Anderson \/\/ Centered,\u201d<\/a> provide well-rounded understandings of what makes each filmmaker\u2019s meticulously constructed aesthetic unique and identifiable. Combing through both artists\u2019 careers, Kogonada presents thrilling montages that thoroughly illustrate his theses, offering up mini film schools in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kogonada centers characters and objects a fair amount in After Yang<\/em>, but rather than ape Kubrick or Anderson, he\u2019s more apt to take their commitment to visuals as inspirations for his own interests, especially in Columbus<\/em>. Set and filmed in the titular Indiana town and prominently featuring its wealth of modern architecture, characters are often shot at a distance so that the buildings and\/or interior decorating can also be showcased within the same frame, or in the forefront with a structure\u2019s appealing angles in the background. Instead of being consistently centered, the buildings intentionally fit within the frame to highlight their full majesty, drawing viewers\u2019 eyes to them, regardless of their orientation in the shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cumulative result is a remarkable sense of place, which proves key to unlocking the motivations and limitations of the film\u2019s protagonists. While longtime resident and part-time building tour guide Casey (Haley Lu Richardson) loves the town\u2019s rich design history and dreams of becoming an architect, her fondness for these surroundings is tied up with a commitment to caring for her recovering addict mother, and the fears of what would happen if she left tragically keep her rooted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complementing her struggles are those of Jin (John Cho), who\u2019s summoned to Columbus from South Korea after his estranged architect father falls ill while in Indiana for a lecture. Due to their fraught relationship, Jin has long resisted communing with his father\u2019s profession. Yet after befriending Casey, spending time in and among these revered structures with her, and gradually gaining a greater understanding of their allure, he finds some sense of peace with his hospitalized dad \u2014 or at least enough to build from. Thanks to Kogonada\u2019s engaging presentation of the town\u2019s architectural wonders, these character arcs and the soulful resonance of modern design prove all the more powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Kogonada\u2019s video essays further influence his films on the micro level, guiding what <\/em>to focus his camera on and then how <\/em>to focus on these items, what they signify, and the emotions that stem from them. Analyses of the significance of passageways to Ozu<\/a>, hands to Robert Bresson<\/a>, mirrors to Bergman<\/a>, eyes to Alfred Hitchcock<\/a>, and water and fire to Terrence Malick<\/a> all inform Kogonada\u2019s own attention to detail. But it\u2019s his exploration of Hirokazu Kore-eda<\/a> placing importance on everyday moments that seems to have had an even greater impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Kogonada notes in his narration, Kore-eda\u2019s films often involve \u201cchoosing the familiar over the fantastic,\u201d and place an emphasis on \u201cmoments that often seem insignificant to the living.\u201d The context of death, he adds, gives \u201cthese fleeting, everyday moments value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In After Yang<\/em>, it\u2019s only when Jake (Colin Farrell) is confronted with the likely loss of his malfunctioning, eponymous techno-sapien (Justin H. Min) that he more fully appreciates this android big brother for his adopted Chinese daughter, Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja). While exploring Yang\u2019s stored memories from an extracted hard drive, Jake is deeply moved by the mundane yet beautiful imagery that Yang has chosen to keep. And in viewing Yang\u2019s largely unexceptional recollections of Jake\u2019s family and prior \u201clives,\u201d Jake achieves a sense of closure that gives him the confidence to let go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe world is not simply some romantic postcard notion of life. It is difficult and sad; infused by death, it requires something from us,\u201d Kogonada says in his Kore-eda narration, though he may as well be talking about his own films. \u201cBut the world is also full of everyday moments that mean something. Moments that connect us to one another. Moments that we\u2019ll remember forever. Moments that might very well mean the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to Casey and Jin at the end of Columbus<\/em>, Jake and his family feel more in tune with each other, themselves, and their surroundings by the end of After Yang<\/em>. The characters from both films have experienced various forms of loss, but appear increasingly capable of facing the future than when we first met them. Their growth is emblematic of the \u201cchoice between escape or entrance\u201d that Kogonada notes many of Kore-eda\u2019s characters face, and the humans in both filmmakers\u2019 works ultimately choose to engage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And still, beyond these creative twists on the building blocks of the greats, Kogonada retains elements across his two films that have no clear analog in his academic studies. Dialogue often serves as a connective tissue between scenes, with a conversation beginning before its speakers are visible, and his characters are fond of walking among trees and engaging in somewhat impromptu dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also a distinct love of modernism that ties his films together. Even without design being the focus of After Yang<\/em>, the architecture of its future Earth has much in common with the copious glass and appealing lines of the buildings in Columbus<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all sounds like great fodder for a video essay. \"\"\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By studying the masters, the writer\/director developed a firm foundation that\u2019s served him well in his career as a filmmaker with his own distinct style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":547,"featured_media":19485,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381],"tags":[162],"class_list":["post-19483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}