Film studies and world cinema

Second, the national cinema is more focused on the home countries specific history and are thus less global in scope than their mere classification as suggested by world cinema. The relationship between country’s national history and national cinema is dependent on the specific country in question (Cheung & Esther 2015). Other countries such as England, Canada and South Africa including Asian countries like India produce English made films hence are included as a member of the world cinema due to their marginal status about viewership and access. It can be stated that the comprehension of the term world cinema while focusing on the Hollywood cinema brings about a Eurocentric view of the same. In other quarter’s foreign film are used interchangeably with world cinema.

The tone of the movie is well established by the midnight express restaurant. He Qiwu went near midnight express restaurant to make a call and to either escape the feeling of loneliness or waiting for calls from his ex-girlfriend. For officer 663, he and Faye first met at the Midnight Express with his frequent visits to the hotel catching the attention of Faye. The characters appear to be clinging to the place that obstructs them from moving on after their breakups. This concept of Mise-en-scene allows the viewer to see how the two characters need to move away from things that are in reality holding them back. The use of the slow shutter speed introduced the Honk Kong neon lights. It further gave out the displaced and disoriented look.

The overall effect includes making the audience feel dizzy and lose just like the film characters. Large parts of the film contained richly colored scenes. For example, when the woman was being chased down the garden hostel, the blue color dominated the screen to illustrate she is in trouble. It was difficult to identify whether the stories in the film are happening concurrently or not. Noise in the scene is created using heavy focus on the visuals that embodied a more a somber sense. It includes scenes that are highly saturated while others are less saturated (Dissanayake 19). The music used in the film serves quite a different purpose compared to the mainstream cinema. In Chungking express, music has been used to tell the viewers and spectators something regarding the story.