Week 54: Socials Roundup
Posts from 9th January to 15th January 2024
Week 54 saw posts on Romeo Must Die (2000), Paprika (2006), Minx (2022-2023) and a series on Prehistoric Planet (2022-current).
Romeo Must Die
Last week we looked at a dialogue-less series of 'people find out bad news' in Romeo Must Die; this scene of Romeo finding out is longer than those five scenes together, because it's interested in showing Romeo's surroundings, how impossible escape is, and more, before we even see Romeo himself.
The establisher goes 'all of Hong Kong' wide, before a MCU on a prison guard. The next series of shots are high & low & wide & medium (and several fun canted angles); all this covers barbed wire and guns and guards to tell the audience "this is max security all right.'
The sequence also show how the gate release works, which will come into play later.
The camera follows one 'fresh' prisoner in particular as he's offloaded from a transport bus, shuffles in while shackled, gets lunch, and then sits down to whisper something inaudible into the ear of a man we see only from behind.
By the time it cuts to Romeo / Jet Li's face, the film is over 12 minutes in, and the buildup in this scene alone has been 90 seconds showing in detail how much work it's been to get him this news . . . so you KNOW something is about to go down.
All that is nearly done without us needing to hear a word.
Minx
This Split Diopter in Minx 2.06 "This is Our Zig" shows Bambi watching Richie with love and admiration in the background, as Richie puts on makeup right in front of us.
It's a lovely shot / moment which shows us Bambi's adoring look and gives us a closeup of what she's looking at, while clearly conveying Richie is in his own little world.
Paprika
Sexy Saturday looks at how this scene transitions from Paprika and Konakawa lounging in bed to Paprika leaving.
First there's a practical camera wipe as Paprika walks into the camera lens - a very 'live-action' technique.
The shot switches from directly in front to directly behind #Paprika, her legs blocking the camera both ways . . . but as she walks away, we see instead of a bathrobe, she's wearing street clothes.
In a crafty visual touch to ease transition, the crease in the bathrobe approximates what becomes the space between her pant legs.
The cut smoothly ellipses time with the momentary 'fade to black' but the camera placement and action are so beautifully stylised, it may take a moment to realise that's what happened.