Movie Critique - “Burn Out”
Scene from “Burn Out”
A narrative shorts portraying a pair of couple in their late twenty’s, having a disputes over the divergence on fulfilling the norms of society. The story unfolds in an intimate scenes of the couple, the protagonist then share the tension under the roof. This shorts are created with average production value, however, it fails to achieve the purpose and theme was not well spoken.
The plot was a loose adaption to the book “How to Ignite the Low Desire Society - Kenichi Ohmae”, which failed to capture the essence of the social phenomenon but rather an immature views toward relationship and commitment. Insufficient character background stories supported and shallow character arc lead to an awkward catalyst and resolution of the story. Examine this issue might required a longer form of narrative, creators should narrow down their ambitions for a better established piece.
Besides, one of the fatal setback of the movie is the atypical assembly of the protagonist. It comes to my attention that neither did the dialogue, tone of speaking and the actions of the main character are authentic and natural with reference to our daily live. Appealing the director/ scriptwriting are unfamiliar with the mentality of a late twenty’s couple, resulting in an unconsciously mismatched character design. For instants, revamping the rift in this long term relationship by simply a sex invitation with vague promise is rather unconvincing. To sum up, I believe that director/ scriptwriting should done a lot more researches and interview before digging deep into an unfamiliar spectrum.
Take a deeper study into the ‘low desire’ phenomenon, it is important to aware that experts generally believe that ‘indulgent of lust’ and ‘materialistic desire’ are closely tied. Obviously in some areas like Japan, the new generation who adapts a ‘low desire’ mentality would stop pursuing luxuries consuming, and minimised their sexual impulses as well. The director in this movie, on the other hand, narrate the characters with strong sexual needs but only refused to commit in their career. A clear explanation should be given if the director deliberately make a unique interpretation of the phenomenon. Otherwise it would create unnecessary confusion to the audience (as shown in the post screening audience reaction), especially this play are known for adapting a renowned concepts.
For production design, the crew apparently chose a spacious and decent ‘middle class’ location for the story, which is quite a contradiction to the concept of ‘low desire’ couples, who struggle to make their end meets and disputing about the future.
The shorts replicate a Japanese styles of cinematography, using high key and low contrast to create a minimalist hipster tone, while the key light comes from the sunlight through windows and practical back/ fill lights to support the indoor scene.
This approach might help create a stylish and on trend image of the movie, however it does detached the connections between the plot, mood and the space. As this narrative told a story of a suppressed reality of Hong Kong youth, extensively replicating a Japanese styles might be misleading to the audience in getting into a Hong Kong couple’s story, the cinematography also failed to portray a suitable stage and atmosphere for conflicts and resolution. Purely pursuing a stylist mood and tone are not recommended for narrative works, as it lost the chance of adding value through cinematography and production design. Nonetheless, the film did a great job in handing the sound design. Extensive use of ambience sounds and absence of distracting scores gives a subtle touch of reality.
There are also minor defect of colour synchronisation between different shots and scenes, colourist should conduct an exhaustive check.
The main casts struggled to play the part, the audience could almost feel the embarrassment in the air while they are performing intimate moments (ie. kissing and hugging) and conversation (both small chats and arguing) . Both of them are unfamiliar with each other, not to mention the task of portraying couples with long time relationships. The actors were green and inexperience, failed to bring out the context of the theme. A better casting job needs to be done.
Director could make a better use of character blocking in the space instead of consistently cross cutting the close up shots and two shots of the characters. There can be more possibility to experiment creative mise-en-scène to depict the conflicts (ie. division and isolation of the characters) and resolution (compromising, reconciliation of the character) .
