In returning to the roots of a meme as being something that emerged within a person's thoughts, essentially an idea, that has the power to spread and thus inevitably adapt, fuse, recombine, and segregate its content (Smithsonian Magazine 2010), as opposed to a funny picture on the internet (such as the likes of 'grumpy cat', see below), we can note its presence within film. A Hollywood Meme can thus be noted as a means for ideas and ideologies of hollywood spreading, adapting, and fusing to create new product. Referring mainly to the Filipino remake (arguably parody) of the James Bond film 'For Your Eyes Only'(Glen 1981) , named 'For Y'ur Height Only' (Nicart 1981), the representation of part of their 'freak' culture can be interpreted in many ways. For example were its intentions to highlight the obscurities of the 'James Bond' character? Was the film genuinely trying to recreate iconography from James Bond? Or perhaps it was an attempt to reframe strange or misrepresented characters as able and talented? Grumpy Cat MemeThe Filipino film industry generally described as a 'nameless never ever land' (Smith 2017:83), due to its lack of national identity, makes identifying it ambiguous by nature. In the defining characteristic of the Hollywood meme generally being that a producer/director is attempting to use the Hollywood formula cross-culturally to form a transnational adaptation and thus make the film suitable for export, a transparent narrative is arguably key to do so. A transparent narrative as described by Smith (2017: 19-20), is a narrative which the audience can project their own values and beliefs onto, because of its lack in some respects of specificity, yet also has elements for the audience to be able to somewhat negotiate with, elements they can relate to, thus allowing them find their own way to read the text. However in Filipino cinema, as a nameless never ever land, perhaps it is almost too unspecific in its nature for the audience to be able to even apply a transparent reading of the narrative.
In watching 'For Y'ur Height Only' (Nicart 1981), applying the concept of a transparent narrative is difficult. Although it is apparent throughout that the character of 'Agent 00' is essentially a recreation of the traditional Hollywood 'James Bond' character, it seems as though his character has simply been taken and placed in a person who, to a Hollywood accustomed audience, is unidentifiable as a stereotypical mainstream identity, also in an unidentifiable context. Thus not only do the intentions of it as a film for a Western, traditionally hollywood familiarized audience become confused, but the ability of it as an exportable text becomes complicated and unlikely.
My personal reading of 'For Y'ur Height Only' (Nicart 1981), particularly with the context of the documentary 'The Search For Weng Weng' (Leavold 2013), is one of attempting to break the representation of 'freak' culture. When I say 'freak' culture I essentially mean anyone who deviates from the accepted bodily norm in terms of appearance, physical ability, etc.. We can see this in 'For Y'ur Height Only'(Nicart 1981) through the representation of such a traditionally suave, attractive, talented character even beyond the traditional bodily norm such as James Bond, by such a different actor as 'Weng Weng'. Weng Weng, a 2ft 9inch tall male is represented in Leavold's (2013) documentary in a way that for me provided insight beyond the parody-like nature of many of Weng Weng's films. For example in learning about how he was seen by many as rather enigmatic, his young death, his parents being unable to look after him and thus his essential lack of a family. This created for me an investment in his personal life, struggles he has been through, and thus upon watching 'For Y'ur Height Only' (Nicart 1981) I viewed him not simply as a funny, 'freak' type, parody character, but instead with a sympathetic connection. The film itself from my perspective came across largely as almost a spoof of the James Bond films, for example Weng Weng's character is painted as a 'ladies man', like Bond himself, in that fairly much every woman he encounters in the film seems to be attracted to him, even in the most random of situations. For example a scene in which 'Agent 00' (Weng Weng) gets in a car with a random woman for a lift, and then they kiss before he leaves, as well as a scene where he enters a woman's hotel room in trying to hide from the baddies, and without saying a word they start kissing, before he quickly exits again. This reminded me of a scene in 'For Your Eyes Only' (Glen 1981), in which in a young lady's hotel room she attempts to seduce James Bond (Roger Moore). However the main difference between Agent 00 and James Bond being that Bond rejects the woman's advances, whereas Agent 00 somewhat randomly and almost comedically passionately kisses her before grinning and exiting. This sort of scene highlights to me what is seemingly an attempt at a parody or a spoof of a James Bond film, as opposed to a more genuine recreation.
However, when looking at the advertising for both films, it seems that 'For Y'ur Height Only'(Nicart 1981) is attempting to use the same sort of elements as 'For Your Eyes Only'(Glen 1981), as you can see in the posters for both below in that they both place the female legs as dominant in the imagery. Here Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze' could be applied in that in order to attract attention, the woman is sexualized so as to attract a straight, male audience, and allows anyone else to place themselves within this same lens and thus see why it is attractive and also gain their attention (Chaudhuri 2006:2).
And thus from this imagery, with both male characters holding a gun, similar objectification of the female, and similar use of guns within the text itself (in the '007' on the left poster, and in the 'F' on the right poster'), we can see embodiments of the hollywood meme. Smith (2017:8) discusses how the meme refers to hybridization rather than appropriation, in that the cultures intersect and borrow from one another essentially to form a new product. This can be seen in that rather than simply copying James Bond, In 'For Y'ur Height Only' (Nicart 1981) he has been renamed, the female in the picture has been represented slightly differently in a slightly more submissive fashion, for example in a less dominant pose, not holding a gun as in the James Bond poster, seemingly with the main character as opposed to attempting to combat him. This difference in the representation of the female could perhaps be a reflection of gender issues within each respective country the films were made in, thus once again embodying the hybridization of the Hollywood meme. Although it could also be noted that perhaps the use of the legs in the poster for 'For Y'ur Height Only'(Nicart 1981) was somewhat to highlight Weng Weng's height, rather than how they were used in the James Bond poster, and thus perhaps also as an attempt to cater more to a different audience in the largely dissimilar nature of representing the main character between both films.
To conclude, whilst 'For Y'ur Height Only' (Nicart 1981) in many ways borrows from 'For Your Eyes Only'(Glen 1981), it also varies largely. The representation of the main character to be a suave, talented, ladies man in both highlights the nature of the hollywood meme in many ways through the borrowing of such characteristics in an attempt to create a film for export. Yet the largely differing nature in which the characters are shown on screen, through for example the vast difference in quality, editing, and in my opinion the randomness of the storyline, in that at many points I found it difficult to follow what was actually happening due to the minimal context provided in many scenes, it seems as though there could never have been a possibility for Agent 00 to ever be viewed as the same as Agent 007 if this was the intention of the film makers.
Bibliography:
Chaudhuri, S. (2006) Feminist Film Theorists. London:Routledge
As a young female, one who has consciously avoided the world of horror film until its introduction to me in this class, I have never really considered the implications of female representation within such films. Perhaps all along it was these very representations that have made me avoid the films. In considering the 1970’s Italian horror film ‘Suspiria’ by Dario Argento (1977) set in Berlin, Germany, traditional horror female representation is simultaneously presented and negotiated with. Thus, I feel a theory that can beintegrally applied to ‘Suspiria’ is that of Williams’ (1984) ‘When the Woman Looks’. If we ignore the notion Williams presents in this text of the predisposition that any male spectator is heterosexual, and essentially views women on screen from the place of a sexual desire, it presents a useful lens with which to break down barriers of women being inclined to ‘hide’ from horror, and has pushed myself to view horror not from the perspective of fear or apprehension,...
'The American Nightmare' theory posed by Robin Wood (2003) essentially highlights the surplus of extreme repression within American society. This is in that if repression itself is what makes us identifiably human through developing from the innate animal capabilities of little more than convulsions, surplus repression is what essentially creates a deeper societal structure which we must follow. For example, the surplus of such repression can be seen through the likes of sexual energy within American society, in which any form of 'creative' sexuality, beyond the monogamous, patriarchal norms of women as subordinates, is repressed and denied as a norm or as the 'ideal'. This representation of such repression can be seen basically and rather explicitly through the lens of film, and in particular through horror film. When we note film as reactionary, essentially meaning as a reaction to the happenings of the social, economic, political context in which it was mad...
Comments
Post a Comment