Pete April 26, 2017

From Childhood to Adulthood

 

Lukas Moodysson’s 2013 film, We Are the Best! (Swedish: Vi är bäst!), and Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring, released by Ki-Duk Kim in 2003, are prime examples of how films about the transition from childhood to adulthood are consistently successful. They form a useful duo in the critical assessment of this topic because, despite being from different cultural contexts, Sweden and South Korea, and their releases being separated by a decade, both productions achieved considerable success. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring earned 9.5 million USD worldwide, while We Are the Best!  only grossed around 1.5 million USD (Box Office Mojo, 2004, 2014) it did receive considerable critical success, receiving 13 awards and 19 nominations (Moodysson et al., 2014),.

Lars Moodysson is described as “a grown man whose tether to teenage bedroom angst has not frayed” (Spitz, 2014, n.p.). Herein lies on of the primary reasons why audiences all over the world want to watch tales about the loss of youthful innocence and the journey into self-discovery—it is reminiscent of our own angst. Indeed, the “coming of age” narrative is very much steeped in nostalgia, as most people can find something to identify with in the typical tropes of such films—bullying, sexuality, identity, these are all treated in films that tackle the transition from childhood to adulthood, and these are universal themes. Nostalgia is an important part of the cinematic process, in that it affords filmmakers an opportunity to draw upon the intense feelings and emotional memories of their audience (Nelmes, 2012, p.267)—this is evidenced by the rise of the “nostalgia film” (Villarejo, 2013, p.149) in contemporary cinema.

 

This notion of representation is key, as another aspect of these films is that they do not simply play off nostalgia, but rather, seek ways in which they can construct characters in a fashion that subverts typical stereotypes. The female protagonists in We are the best! are seen acting as teenage rebels who choose to start their own punk band as an act of defiance to their boys at their youth centre—the film is a departure from the “gentleness and sympathy” (Bordwell and Thompson, 2013) usually associated with female characters who are coming of age.

 

Nostalgia is a powerful tool, and can be a major draw for audiences, but the success of this genre is not based on nostalgia alone, it is also successful because it gives viewers an opportunity to see the potential for the events of youth to forge personalities and relationships, and audiences tend to see something of their own formative years reflected in such narratives.

 

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring was released internationally at a time when there was a growing interest in foreign cinema, particularly Asian cinema, which stemmed from the global success of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film, like We Are the Best!, portrays a transitional journey, not from childhood to adulthood, but from novice to master, again, a universal theme for audiences who themselves would have experienced such a journey, be it professionally or otherwise. These films also help reinforce our own awareness of cultural identity and that of other and distant cultures. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring follows the spiritual development of a Buddhist monk, and in doing so, introduces foreign
audiences to Buddhist iconography.

 

Globalisation is a growing problem and film such as these help stem this homogenisation of cultures, although always successful as there will always be aspects of foreign cinema which remain unknown to foreign audiences (Etherington-Wright and Doughty, 2011) these cinematic ambassadors introduce global audiences to new customs, cultures, and symbolism.

 

 

Bibliography

Box Office Mojo (2004) Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring [online]. Available from: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=springsummerfallwinterandspring.htm (Accessed 13 April 2017).

Box Office Mojo (2014) We Are the Best! [online]. Available from: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=wearethebest.htm (Accessed 13 April 2017).

Blatterer, H. (2007) Coming of Age in Times of Uncertainty. London: Berghahn Books.

Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K. (2013) Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Cook, P. (2004) Screening the Past: Memory and Nostalgia in Cinema. New York: Routledge.

Etherington-Wright, C. & Doughty, R. (2011) Understanding Film Theory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hogan, P. C. (2009) Understanding Indian Movies: Culture, Cognition, and Cinematic Imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Kearney, M. C. (2002) ‘Girlfriends and Girlpower’, in Frances K. Gateward & Murray Pomerance (eds.) Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: Cinemas of Girlhood. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp. 125–142.

Moodysson, L. et al. (2014) We Are the Best! [online]. Available from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2364975/awards?ref_=tt_awd.

Nelmes, J. (2012) Introduction to Film Studies. New York: Routledge.