Tag: HAR: Metamorphosis/Transformation
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I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Dir. Charlie Kaufman. Netflix. 2020.
“There’s just something… ineffable. Profoundly, unutterably, unfixably wrong here.”
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Kubo and the Two Strings. Dir. Travis Knight. Laika. 2016
Figure 1: Kubo lifted in the air by wings made of origami birds. Kubo and the Two Strings follows a boy whose life is made even more extraordinary when a perilous adventure, which his mother has tried to save him from, accidentally finds him. Kubo can tell stories using the magical music of his shamisen…
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An American Werewolf in London. Dir. John Landis. Universal Pictures. 1981.
“The wolf’s bloodline must be severed; the last remaining werewolf must be destroyed. It’s you David.” An American tourist, traumatised and alone wakes up in a London hospital after an attack on the Yorkshire Moors. His newly cursed body drifts between human and wolf as his deceased friend haunts him in limbo, telling him he…
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Song of the Sea. Dir. Tomm Moore. StudioCanal. 2014
Song of the Sea is full of magic, mystery and mayhem. Ben, a ten year old Irish boy, discovers that his mute sister Saoirse is a selkie. After Saoirse’s true nature is revealed, her father, blinded by fear, retaliates and hides the coat that enables her to transform. This separation causes Saoirse to fall ill.…
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Porco Rosso. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 1992.
Porco Rosso follows a former fighter pilot who abandoned the Italian military, transformed into a pig, and becomes a bounty hunter that fights pirates. One day he meets American pilot Curtis who was contracted by pirates and is in love with Porco’s friend Gina. Curtis realises Gina loves Porco despite him being a pig and…
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Spirited Away. Dir Hayao Miyazaki. Toho Company Ltd. 2001.
Miyazaki’s 2001 Spirited Away, blurs the binary of human, animal, mythology, and spirit. Each character has its own version of this intersectionality, creating different presentations of ontology that in turn create varying perceptions. The film encourages us to reflect on how our own perceptions of fear in cinematic animal species are moulded through the presentation…
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Ginger Snaps. Dir. John Fawcett. Motion International.2000
“B, I Just Got The Curse” In his direction of the initial werewolf attack in Ginger Snaps (2000), John Fawcett repeatedly frames close shots of the creature’s bloodied snout and teeth as it savages the central character, Ginger. These close shots lead to what I argue is a reinterpretation of the lycanthrope, wherein the werewolf…
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I. Dir. By David Yates. Warner Bros Pictures. 2010.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (2011) is the penultimate film in the franchise. Harry, Ron and Hermione begin a desperate race to understand the instructions Dumbledore leaves after his death, concluding they must find and destroy the horcruxes that keep Voldemort alive before he discovers their quest. The horcruxes are objects containing…