Graduate School of Global Information and Telecommunication Studies, Waseda University
Abstract of Doctoral Dissertation
Application of Magical Realism in Cinema:
Depicting Cultures and Traditions
映画へ 応用
―文化と伝統 表現―
YEO YEE HAENG
Global Information and Telecommunication Studies
Creation and Expression of the Screen Image II
1 Magical realism is an aesthetic style and literary genre in which magical elements blend
seamlessly with the real world, usually to provide a deeper understanding of reality. Time does not march forward in a straight line in magical realist worldview. The distant past is present in ever moment, and the future has already happened. Ghosts and spirits mingle with the living, appearing as embodiments of memories or representations of the past. In places with strong traditions and superstitions that believe in living spirits, supernatural beings, deities, like the countries of Latin America and South East Asia, along with India and Japan, the combination of both the magical and reality in magical realism is considered a method that accurately depicts the fabric of their existence. As a branch of serious fiction in literature, magical realism is not escapist and is always serious because it tries to convey the reality of one or a few worldviews that have existed, or have once existed, thus it functions to engage and explore truth, and not for entertainment.
Although many well-known filmmakers in the history of world cinema have also employed magical realist techniques in their films, magical realism remains obscure, and is never established as a concept in filmmaking. Cinema usually crosses national, language and community boundaries and reaches deep into social space. As it is a film's inherent nature to cross cultural borders within and between nations, cinema exists as a system for cultural
exchange whether a film was made for commercial or artistic purposes. Through platforms such as international film festivals, cinema clearly becomes an art form that depicts emotional truths in different cultures and traditions. Magical realism is a distinctive cinematic tool that portrays particular ways of looking at the world, which helps to create emotional engagement among audiences regardless of their national or cultural background.
Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to display the numerous possibilities and methods of magical realist techniques that can be applied on films. It is also to prove that magical realism is a powerful tool for visual storytelling, that its depiction of culture and traditions is crucial in cinema’s role for cross-cultural purposes.
Chapter 1 introduces the background and objective of this thesis. It also emphasizes upon the importance of the relationship between film and literature. Because magical realism is relatively obscure in the context of cinema, this dissertation intends to rectify and create more awareness for it.
Chapter 2 familiarizes readers with the concept of magical realism and its current presence in world cinema. After that, the chapter discusses magical realism’s function as collective
consciousness and political critique. A few seminal magical realist literature and films that mix history with fantasy will be explored.
Chapter 3 focuses on my purpose and methodology. To receive a first-hand experience in these methods of storytelling, my research for this doctorate thesis include further productions of short and feature-length films from 2010 to 2012. These films will be examined throughout the dissertation guided by the following questions: Where is the use of magical realism in the film?
What is the main intention of its use? What are the hidden political and historical subtexts? And what are the consequences after the public exhibition of these films?
Chapter 4 concerns the process of studying each culture and sociopolitical situation with the use of magic realism. It also evaluates whether a magic realist text of a different culture or a
different nation can be transplanted to a different sociopolitical and cultural context. The films that are part of this process are:
4.1 “Fleeting Images” (2008), an essay film with a defamiliarization technique that makes us
2 reevaluate and celebrate everyday life.
4.2 “Love Suicides” (2009), a short film based on the magical realist short story of Yasunari Kawabata. It serves as a political allegory for Malaysia.
4.3 “Woman On Fire Looks For Water” (2009), a feature-length film directed by Woo Ming Jin and produced by me. The magical realism in this film is personified by the superstitious beliefs and traditions of villagers in a fishing village portrayed in the film.
Each subchapter in Chapter 4 ends with a feedback of film academics, critics and other film industry insiders, along with a list of festival screenings for the films.
Chapter 5 concerns the process of bridging history and time with the use of magic realism. How can a magic realist story from a different era function after being updated to a contemporary setting, asking relevant, timely sociopolitical questions? The films that are part of this process are:
5.1 “Kingyo” (2009), another short film based on Yasunari Kawabata's work. This film is told entirely in split screens and has a few scenes of magical realism.
5.2 “Exhalation” (2009), a short film with literalizations of metaphors. A ghost of a just- deceased man appears occasionally throughout the film when two women are drowned by memories of him. The play between black and white and colour imagery are used to emphasize the emotional states of the characters.
5.3 “Springtime Nostalgia” (2012), a commissioned work from the chemical and cosmetics company Kao. This film is about a woman who loses her ability to smell after her lover
disappeared. Suffering from ennui, she takes a Japanese flower arrangement (Ikebana) class that is taught by the mother of the disappeared man. Meanwhile, a ghost lurks in the forest, clinging on to fading memories of his mother and his lover. This film provides a glimpse of Japanese traditions like Ikebana and haiku, while also examining the themes of impermanence and yearning.
Each subchapter in Chapter 5 ends with a feedback of film academics, critics and other film industry insiders, along with a list of festival screenings for the films.
Chapter 6 is about magic realism for transcultural storytelling. Different cultures are merged into one based on their commonalities and other connections, creating an entirely new aesthetic and story. The works that are designed for this particular process are:
6.1 “Inhalation” (2010), a short film that is more overtly critical towards the political situation of Malaysia. The film ends with a magical realist scene. The everyday scene of Japan is portrayed as a symbol of escape for a Malaysian girl.
6.2 “Girl In The Water” (2011), A Malaysian-Danish co-production short film I produced that was directed by Malaysian director Woo Ming Jin and Danish director Jeppe Ronde. The complicated relationship between the neighboring countries Malaysia and Thailand is allegorized in a surrealistic, magical realist tale.
6.3 “Last Fragments of Winter” (2011), a short film I wrote and directed that follows the lives of a small family in Malaysia during the span of a day. Told in a non-linear manner, the story shifts between past and present, reality and dreams. There are juxtapositions between the use of
3 the beautiful wintry landscapes of Shirakawa-go in Japan and the lush green paddy fields of Sekinjang, Malaysia used to illustrate the dual identities of a character's heart. Numerous references were made towards the March 11th Great Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan.
6.4 “Now” (2010) and “I Dreamt of Someone Dreaming of Me” (2011), a pair of 1-minute short films made in cross-cultural events. Traditional iconology of Malaysian Chinese culture and Japanese architecture are featured extensively.
6.5 “Second Life of the Thief”, an unproduced feature film screenplay co-written by Malaysian filmmaker Woo Ming Jin and I. It revolves around the investigation of a series of mysterious serial killings in a Malaysian fishing village and the effect it has on the villagers. The bird’s nest soup industry, a Chinese delicacy, has a central role in the film. The bird’s nest is now harvested in manufactured nesting homes, which mirrors the situations of the Thai refugees and Japanese tourists who lurk within the village, exiled from their own native countries. Social commentary exists in this film to show both the urban and rural growth of Malaysia as a nation, and its painful consequences.
Each subchapter in Chapter 6 ends with a feedback of film academics, critics and other film industry insiders, along with a list of festival screenings for the films.
Chapter 7 illustrates the final research of the dissertation, which merges the concepts of Chapter 4, Chapter 5 and Chapter 6, resulting in a screenplay called “Reincarnated Dreams of Deer”.
The unproduced feature film screenplay covers the span of a century in Malaysia., and is an episodic attempt to depict a comprehensive portrait of Malaysia and also its shared histories with Indonesia and Japan. The main story charts the story of Shinichi Matsuda, a Japanese private detective living in Malaysia. Hired by an old man to look for a deer, Shinichi has numerous encounters with a mysterious woman Rie Imai, whose connections with him may have been the culmination of events from their previous lives. The concept of reincarnation is prominent in this film. One of the protagonists in the film, Akiko Miyagawa, is constantly plagued by dreams of events that happened one hundred years ago. Through her dreams we learn of the Karayuki-san, Japanese women sold to pre-Independence Malaysia for prostitution towards the end of the Meiji Era. This magical realist story mixes magical realism, folklores and myths to show little-known history events shared by Malaysia and Japan.
Chapter 8 concludes the findings. It also provides suggestions of future researches.
As magical realism is often working against dichotomies, such as ancient man versus modern man, in favour of pluralism, much like postmodernism does. In magical realist stories or
literature, the past is brought into the present, time and space distorted to the point of irrelevance, just the same way that postmodernism thrives on being in the present for eternity. This makes it a very different way of historical portrayal compared to documentaries, historical films or other replications of the past.
Despite criticisms that magical realism exoticizes a culture in a way similar to Orientalism, I will argue that the use of magical realism is a necessity in the storytelling tradition of certain countries. The type of heightened reality in magical realist films conveys information about a country’s past, its history, its culture or its traditions to viewers on a global level. And to be able to open and establish such dialogues and discourses with the rest of the world, one should examine the limitless potentials of magical realist storytelling in cinema. Further research for this dissertation will then be discussed.
