Back at it again with the blogging this semester in BCM 320, Digital Asia. Enrolling in this subject I kind of had an idea what this subject would be about (key hint being the title) but I was really interested to know on a deeper level what I was getting myself into. The first film to kick off Digital Asia was a Korean film called ‘The Host’. This film was released in 2006 and was directed by Bong Joon Ho. Now surprisingly, this was my first time seeing a Korean film, and man did it deliver. There were monsters, viruses, and archery, what else could you ask for in a film.
Watching films I know that my culture plays a role in how I perceive something. My background includes an English, Irish heritage…with a weee bit of Scottish. I have grown up with a western perception of film, and I am used to seeing the world of cinema through this lens, so watching The Host was new for me. With this in mind, I was surprisingly entertained throughout the film.
Live-tweeting while watching the film was a new construct for me and I really enjoyed it but found it difficult to do both. Turns out reading subtitles and tweeting was harder than expected.
Ellis et al (2011), discusses how when researchers commence ethnographic studies they study one’s culture, focussing on beliefs, values and shared experience. From this it allows outsiders to better understand the culture. What I did like in the movie was that I could find a connection with the way I view films through my values and beliefs, finding similarities communicated across cultures.
To discover deeper meanings behind films is one of my favorite things to do, so watching ‘The Host’, and linking the host with American capitalism, and the control to take over the world was a really interesting technique used by the writers. Another connection I made was the family dynamics. For example, the family in the movie had a dysfunctional relationship with each other and I too have a dysfunctional family, lol.
This film is a great way to kick off BCM 320 studies, and I am keen to dive even deeper into the world of Digital Asia.
OG Post can be found – https://michellembowd.wordpress.com/2019/07/30/week-1-blog-post/
References:
Ellis, C., Adams, T.E., and Bochner, A.P, 2011, ‘Autoethnography: An Overview‘, Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Vol. 12, No. 1
Digital Asia 