Well that was f*cked up. Danny Boyle’s 1996 classic adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel, Trainspotting takes its viewers on a wild ride involving drugs, alcohol, heroine, money, sex, family, and friends but it presents all these in such a stylized fashion that each single element blends so well with the other despite the common notion that they aren’t exactly the best things to combine in a narrative.

The biggest shock this film gave me was first and foremost Ewan McGregor’s show stealing performance as Marc Renton. I only primarily saw him as one of the only redeeming factors of the Star Wars prequels, a young Obi Wan Kenobi so seeing him as a druggie was a complete 180 slap to the face to my childhood. And I loved it. Rent as a “main” character is not exactly a likeable guy. We see him at the start running from cops while giving a memorable speech about choosing life and then the film proceeds to show us how much he loves heroine. And I do mean LOVE it.

The film describes as heroine as the best sex you’ve ever had in your life, multiply it by a thousand and it still won’t be as good as that. Simple and easy to understand and somewhat relatable to the audience. This is important since this one element is the main driving force of the narrative in which the characters find the trouble they get themselves into. The cast of characters here are crazy, and not in a Guardians of the Galaxy type of crazy but the disturbing, uncomfortable type of crazy. Oddly enough, it works? And it’s entertaining to see?

Some of the scenarios showcased here are straight out of a grown man’s nightmares. The film does not shy away from what would usually be censored content in other released projects. The visuals presented here are all within the realm of disturbing and interesting. A good look into how the mind of an addicted person works and how they see the world. Some of them are suffocating to look at while the others feel very real and sublime. This is all complimented by the immersive cinematography and camera work that really pulls the viewer into this endless void of pain and pleasure the characters are experiencing.

Only a few films that deal with drugs tend to be successful with how they present the element itself. What Trainspotting does right is what the other druggie films do so very wrong. No one ever talks about how drugs and heroine can be such a trip on your life to make it better. It’s usually showcased a something that can ruin one’s own future and a one-way ticket to shitty life in general. Trainspotting dodges this common imagery and instead tells us that heroine is probably the best thing to ever come to the lives of these people. That is of course before all the relatively heavier stuff happens which may or may not include a dead person. Even the ensemble is handled in such a careful manner. Take the parents as an example, usually when they see their son be eaten up by the system of drugs, giving up is such an easy option but instead they treat Rent with careful calculated care to help him get back up from the hole he has unfortunately dug himself into.

It’s almost horrific how the film casually dodges these scenarios. Someone dying is either played for comedic effect or for the service of showcasing how heroine and alcohol can put a fantasized reality onto someone’s mind. Danny Boyle’s flawless and electric direction definitely elevates the scenes into something so much more than they can be.

A straightforward narrative would drain out the viewer’s thoughts and emotions and frankly, make it into a two hour depressing ride but the dark humor benefits it indefinitely. Tonal shifts from scene to scene may give the viewer an impression that the film does not know what type of narrative it is but it can be seen as something in the complete opposite. The film knows exactly what it is and the jarring shifts in tone can easily mirror how the daily lives of the characters go. There will be bad days, there will be good ones and there will absolutely be f*cked up ones.

But of course, one can’t talk about Trainspotting without mentioning its astounding soundtrack. Electrical beats and compositions alongside techno sounds just to name a few really plays a part as to how engulfed we are as a viewer into the story. The soundtrack in a way, is a character of its own as well already. I do believe some scenes will not work unless it was accompanied by these euphoric compositions. The film is worth a watch just for them alone.

A trippy ride into the minds of what would usually be outcasted from society is put front and center and we as an audience somewhat grows a fondness for their very distinct and disturbing personalities. This is a testament to what Danny Boyle’s cast and crew has achieved with Trainspotting. Normally I would recommend a movie that I’ve spent the last few paragraphs praising to the end of the world but for this one, I actually can’t easily just recommend for a watch. It is heavy and it will make you question humanity in some parts but once you go in open minded and with a right mood, it is enjoyable from start to end.

This movie is such a “what the fuck” movie for me. It has been for a week still. The only thing that keeps recurring in my head is the non-monotonous scenarios happening in a very monotonous setting and how it still manages to strike a reality that is possible in our life.

The movie revolves around shifts in a convenience store and a wall clock. A scenario comes up like a normal Korean drama. Plots build up and before I know it, the camera is focused at the wall clock again and an entirely new scenario happens albeit having the setting as the sole thing that remains the same. It is weird that the characters that were customers before become employees but the film generally occurs like that. With each shift of scenario the film and its plot gets weirder and less monotonous. From having a North Korean ex –convict become an employee to be harassed by a customer to a DJ enthusiast having a creepy woman task him with giving someone a box then disappearing after failing and to a robbery happening with one of the final scenes showing the owner hanging himself. I could never make sense of the film and get its chronological sense. Perhaps it was never supposed to make sense and that there is no chronological sense.

The film did a great job in visualizing how the monotonous setting of a convenience store could be something more eventful than we realize. It could perhaps be a fantasy for us but a relatable reality that convenience store clerks only relate to because they are the only ones who truly stay in the stores that long. We can come to realize that almost all of us don’t spend a lot of time in a convenience store especially compared to them. We usually just come in, buy something, look around more, maybe even eat first, and then leave. A convenience store is actually a small area that in a way demands a lot of intimate space for a clerk and a customer which shows how numerous scenarios can happen. The movie shows us incredulous to the unrealistic events happening in the movie. To us we are incredulous, but the clerks can consider this part of the monotony in their lives. You begin to reflect what other things happen which ultimately separates the monotony of their lives to the monotony of our lives. What is worse is how they can easily make such things look like it is just a part of reality. I never had the notion that this is happening out of a fantasy. I had this suspension of disbelief that such things although preposterous happens in real life. Some may say otherwise, but to me, I honestly feel like I cannot disprove such likeliness happening. The only way I can probably disprove such cases is to be a convenience store clerk myself. Then again, I might not be able to tell because of a curse or nobody would believe me; or I might have the illusion that such a life is naturally part of my monotonous life.

The film was truly immersive in showing the life of a drug addict. Some may say that a film like this is just exaggerated black comedy to entertain people with a topic that is not so PG. With this in mind, such a perception shows me why Trainspotting is the ideal film to show to viewers on why the life of a drug addict is not to be emulated.

The film shows up introducing a group of hooligans who are drug addicts and commit such antics to fuel their drug addiction. The protagonist introduces his life and his friends’ showing that he is surrounded with horrible but amusing characters. Some are drug addicts such as himself but with a differently colored personality and others are not; but both are terrible in their own way. He narrates how his life is not amazing but believes in the notion that his life will not get any better by following the status quo of a conventional citizen aka not doing heroin. Eventually he realizes that there are better things in life without heroin but kicking the habit is even more difficult as the movies shows the terrible symptoms of withdrawals and adjusting to the norms of society. Although the humor was spread pretty well throughout the movie, the situation of the protagonist and his friends became even darker through examples like his friend’s baby dying, him overdosing and experiencing troubled withdrawals, one of his best friends passing away, and the reality of life taking an entirely different spin now that he is not on drugs. Elaborating further on life changing, the movie ends towards a risky attempt of selling heroin and thus the protagonist abandoning his friends for a better life with all the money except for one good friend getting his share.

The film impressed me by scaring me well enough to not try heroin and make me enjoy the humor of the misadventures it can bring. It scares me not by doing what conventional public service announcements or government warnings do by scaring me or boring me about the dangers but by attracting me to how funny the life can be. Aside from the great effects to help visualize how it is like to get high, overdose, experience an intense withdrawal (like seeing a dead baby crawl on the ceiling), the film shows how your life does change during and after going through drugs. During drugs you are situated in a terrible environment with terrible people to adapt in such a situation. Although getting out of the habit is one thing, the experience and connections you make during such a life does not escape you and sometimes you have to life with it. The saying “a mate is still a mate” is put to the test time and time again each time Ewan McGregor tried to set himself straight. Eventually, blind loyalty to his mates gets clear to him and makes the first move of betraying them before they could betray him. Such a reality makes me realize that he quit drugs to be a better person like the rest of us. Though being like the rest of us did not really make him a better person.  

Futureless Things was anything but an ordinary Korean movie. It seemed like a strange yet well-thought tactic to use a convenience store as the only setting for the film which is also the only consistent part of the entire film. Usually, films with only one setting could either be very boring or interesting to watch. Futureless Things is the latter. I like how the characters were in some way all connected through their work in the convenience store, despite being totally different individuals. 

The film’s characters played the biggest role in making the storyline come together. There were many shifts in protagonists and they each had their own story to tell which I personally found enjoyable to watch. Although I think that film viewers such as I would have been more attached to the characters if they would have been given more screen time. It felt like typical customer interactions between cashiers and customers — limited and fleeting. The film missed the opportunity to delve more into the lives of the protagonists instead of showing just brief scenes of their life in the convenience store. Moreover, the characters had to deal with so much prejudice and drama from the customers which gave the film its comedic aspect. A particular scene which showed this was when one of the women from Malaysia got a nose job to look more like a Korean woman. It touched on the prejudice that women who are dressed in all black are from the Middle East while also tapping on the common nature of Koreans to undergo plastic surgery. 

Despite what many people say about the film, I did not find it weird or confusing in a way. I enjoyed how simple the movie is and at the same time also complex. The simplicity of it comes from the setting which is a convenience store — a go-to place for many to get what they need. On the other hand, the complex part comes from the various plot lines of the characters in the film. Yet, the simplicity and complexity of Futureless Things intersect since the convenience store then transforms from being a basic space into in a sense, a deeper space because of the events that took place there. A scene that was both comedic and dark was the Marlboro scene wherein the customer had a very lengthy monologue about existence and reason only to buy a red Marlboro cigarette pack. I would say that this was my favourite scene to watch since it was so funny and made me think about my Philosophy class. On the contrary, a scene that I found quite strange and irrelevant to the story was the one involving the box lady and the frustrated DJ. I found that it did not fit in the film and made no sense in telling the story of the protagonist for this scene, the DJ. 

In the end, I realized why the title of the movie is Futureless Things. The characters were like objects or tools being used to run the convenience store and they all had no future — from the guy who missed his audition to the woman who is broke and just got fired up until the guy who tries so hard to learn English but ultimately can’t. There is an unexpected dark feel to the movie that leaves an impact to viewers and showing them how monotonous life can be at times. 

I was expecting an obnoxious large creature just destroying cities and killing people and one heroine jumping out of an airplane to save the day but instead I got a beautiful and poignant tale of a country rebuilding itself after havoc.

Out of respect for the characters in the film, I will be referring to this monster Godzilla as “Gojira” because I do agree that the United States did give it an ugly name. Shin Godzilla (2016) was the Asian franchise we needed. I believe it evoked some nationalistic message when Gojira arrived and dismantled Tokyo with every step it took and Japan still didn’t really want the United States to step in. There was this recurring problem of considering whether countries other than Japan itself should intervene but in the end, Japan was able to save itself. from the origami maps and the absurd strategizing, Japan was able to save themselves from a God-like destroyer who was bigger than life.

The cuts were so fast paced, I felt as though I were reading a graphic novel. The entire film made me mentally and (maybe even convinced me to be) physically tired because I had been so immersed in the world. It just felt as if I had actually been there the whole time. For each character that the camera panned to, I was watching intensely and seeing what they had to say. Not a lot was said by each character yet each thing they had to say seemed to be something urgent and important. It went on like this for almost half the film (if not most) and it was so frustrating because of how slow yet fast everything was to watch. It was frustrating in a sense that I felt the direction the film took got the reaction they were looking for in showcasing how inefficient the characters were in dealing with the situation. What I also noticed was how all the shots were really clean and the positioning of every character, nook, and cranny seemed planned. There was symmetry in every frame and that to me showed how the film was trying to portray how organized and systematic on the surface Japan’s government was trying to be. Most of the shots were very wide and had a really clean view. Sometimes there were perspective shots as well like some hidden spy might had been watching.

There was clearly no main character or heroine and it was truly a tale of the entire Japan bureaucracy and the government trying to figure things out by themselves. The majority of the film was the government going through drama in trying to make the best decision for its country and it was a life or death thing. Through the hierarchy seen in decision making in this Japanese government, it showed how destructive it was for Japan to be waiting. Even if Gojira walked at a ridiculously slow pace and there could have been time to prevent his destruction of Tokyo sooner, the processes of the government took too much time. It’s a very interesting critique that this film touches on that with this immensely careful Japanese government set-up it turned out to be more detrimental than helpful.

We could, however, see that in the end Japan was able to save itself and despite numerous lives lost and half the city in shambles, Japan allowed itself to grow by taking stances against international forces and the lesson learned is that maybe a nation’s own people should be the one’s to save themselves.

I won’t forget that scene when Gojira was destroying the city and everything felt so hopeless. It was in slow motion and the camera showed the face of all the terror and trembling in every Japanese person’s eyes. Gojira was bigger than life, Gojira was not from heaven or hell, it was just a creature finding a way out. It made me tear up a little and to see an entire nation get destroyed so easy with no way out made me feel so gloomy and hopeless with them. My heart jumped when towards the end, the Japanese people had found its way into hope and discovered a way to get rid of Gojira. I think just imagining how all these people banning together and trying to figure out how to save their own society kind of reminded me also of what I had here in the Philippines. I might not necessarily know everyone whose ever lived in the Philippines or even met those who once walked in the same place as I did but there is a sense of community and empowerment seeing people of the same place, area, and physical traits that make me think, we’re all kind of in this together. When calamities strike, may it be man or nature, everyone’s affected as one.

Godzilla was able to bring that kind of community and let the audience feel emphatic to an entire nation.

It’s easy to hate on a film you don’t understand but strangely, Schizopolis (1996) had the opposite effect on me. I’m not sure if it’s also because I do tend to like things regardless of whether I understand it or not but it was a good kind of not being able to understand it that humored me. I found myself entertained by its confusing absurdity. It felt as if it was a template for a generic sort of Western film and it managed to make sense of senseless dialogue. A scene in particular that stuck in my head was when Soderbergh coming home finds his neighbor mowing the lawn and in their conversation they happily converse about how Soderbergh is sleeping with the neighbor’s wife. This isn’t exactly the most acceptable thing to say to one another but since the film had already established itself as something far from normal, my suspension of disbelief was so high up, I started to accept everything happening in the film.

There wasn’t a very clear and focused narrative on one particular character. In fact, different characters were played by the same actor. Soderbergh played so many different roles, it left me to wonder whether he had a doppleganger or if they were out of budget to get any other actors but then even if a production were to be out of budget, they would just hire a b-movie kind of actor to play the other roles instead. This wasn’t the case with Schizopolis, I think the filmmaker just wanted to intentionally mess around with the audience.

Sometimes the film jumped to this exterminator who charmed bored, desperate housewives with his randomized selection of words. The exterminator would say something like “Beef turkey omega” and the housewives would response back like a cat in heat. These were English words that I understood and even if logically thinking about the formation of the words, I still understood what the characters were trying to communicate to one another. They were trying to seduce each other despite the odd selection of words. Despite how nonsensical the way that the words were arranged, I still responded as though I knew what they were talking about. It’s fascinating how Soderberg is still able to get a reaction and some understanding from the audience despite the clear intention to not sound intelligible.

I like the idea of how the film made fun of certain film formats and was not afraid to insert random characters even if it was just for five seconds. The old man who ran around pants-less never really contributed much to the storytelling but he was there. The most enjoyable part for me was how there wasn’t any unifying plot, it was just a combination of characters played sometimes by the same guy, Soderberg who also amazingly, directed it. Soderberg using his real name, makes it very meta, all the more. This film begs the question of whether media needs to mean anything or say anything for it to be consumed. I laughed in times where I did not even understand was going on. Sometimes there just isn’t any meaning and maybe it’s okay for media not to. I don’t know what Soerberg’s exact intentions were but Schizopolis was a bizarre adventure into a template format full of ridiculous dialogue that was hilariously brilliant. I admire filmmakers who make films not exactly to have some deep, political, pseudo-intellectual content but who are able to just experiment with different forms and break conventions. I think that’s what Soderbergh as a director tried to do just that with this film. He was just experimenting with the form and I think that’s what makes Schizopolis worth watching.

I am not going to lie; this may be the first movie to be shown in the class that I am not a fan of (at least at first viewing) simply because it did not really make much sense. The big problem with this description I gave, however, is that not all films are made that way; their structures are quite malleable and can be made in almost whatever form and even then, no matter what film I am supposed to watch, I somehow get it, somewhat like the way I have viewed the orderly mess that was Schizopolis (1996). How?

As I watched the individual shifts of the workers, something felt and looked…familiar. They were not reminiscent of personal experience, but they reminded me of the Korean people themselves. Being a history major, I have always held an interest in modern South Korean history because of how events molded the country from one of the poorest in the world to one of the most affluent. Even at the beginning of the film did it implicitly acknowledge this.

“When the descendants asked us in the future what our generation bad done for them and what we have achieved for our country, let us proudly answer them without any hesitation that we labored again and again with faith in the modernization of our country”

Although that alone is impressive, I have always been reminded of the time my Asian History teacher called Korea “a beautiful country but with a sad history.” My reaction was of confusion; how can a country that pulled off a seemingly impossible economic miracle ironically have a sad history? Curiously, I did a bit of reading and even went to Seoul on vacation, and I found some quite upsetting contemporary background surrounding it, and each of the subplots in Futureless Things (2014) vividly reflected some of this a lot (albeit not completely).

A prominent theme that surrounded this film is the negative outlook on work, which is tangent to the movie’s introductory words. Immediately, one of the customers reprimanded the new worker, stating that getting paid is no jest. Next, we see how an aspiring actor struggles with balancing his obligation to serve the customers. There is also the female worker with the scar who, despite being treated respectfully and appreciatively by one elderly for the hard work, is mistreated and misunderstood by her superiors.

But for such a pessimistic viewpoint, it treats work still as a “necessary evil” because of how Koreans, in general, are very goal-oriented. For one, the manager of the convenience store feels disappointed in not getting enough income to pay off his debt, to the point where he committed self-asphyxiation in the film’s conclusion. Another who is learning English while in his shift attempts to communicate in the language to foreigners, but unfortunately was flat-out rejected or reprimanded for his efforts.

Another would be the viewed disregarding of certain topics and the unfamiliarity of other cultures, especially in a cyclic and/or rushed work setting of buy-and-leave. The auditionee (and by extension the audience) clearly grows impatient when two of the customers were discussing Christianity and philosophy. The North Korean defector feels pretty hurt by a customer’s stereotypical generalizations of her former home country. There seems to be a passive disposition regarding those subjects that, while interesting, are brushed off as trivial stuff.

All of these together create some form of frank critique that being a prosperous nation has its own downfalls. For the film to start with a very optimistic and confident quotation, it quickly shifted gears and showed how mundane and unfair modernization has become, and the setting and happenings of a convenience store provided a fitting portrayal of it.

Sincerely

JoMar Fernandez a.k.a JMCthefilmystan

“Futureless Things” in my mind, was going to be Korean Drama with a lot of romantic and touchy moments. I did not realize that it was not purely about romantic relationships or touchy moments between the main guy and girl. Instead, it was just set in a convenience store with different people handling the store. There was a male employee and a female employee who  were running the store first but the female employee has plans of leaving. The next employee was a guy who was auditioning for a part (I was assuming a theatrical play) but was held back by several customers which frustrated him. After that employee was a woman who was being harassed by a man while she was working and ends up crying because the man was insulting her for being a North Korean. This continues to other people throughout the entire movie. And at the end, it seems like all the people are connected somehow by the convenience store as all of them were shown in the convenience store together.

The movie gave me mixed feelings throughout the entire thing. I felt a little bit cringey in the scenes where the girl was trying to kiss her girlfriend and the guy talking to his boyfriend. Personally, I’m not really into those super cheesy lines and moments but at the same time I felt happy for them. However, I would say that for the majority of the movie, I felt very confused. I didn’t know why the employees were changing. I didn’t understand the scene with the box and why the guy had to look after it. And with the scene where the store seems to be robbed by three people and it was replaying the scene with the first male employee with his boyfriend. I have to admit that this is the 2nd movie out of the four we have watched that made me confused. The other being “Schizopolis”.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. Even if I didn’t understand the plot of the movie and the point of certain scenes, I just took it as different perspectives of people who worked in the convenience store and what it’s like for them to work there. That is why I assume that there were different people running the store and each time was something totally different from the last person. I am not too sure if the people who worked there were changing as the time would change or if it was a totally different day but, I feel like maybe they were changing shifts. The changing shifts were evident with the scenes showing the time of the day which made me assume that those people were switching with the previous employee. I also believe the movie took a place throughout the course of one day since it starts in the early morning up until nighttime so by the ending scene, the convenience store has become a mess. But the odd thing here is that they played the events of when the first male employee was talking to his boyfriend and the difference was that the store was destroyed and robbed. This adds to the confusion that I felt watching the movie but I still enjoyed it nonetheless.