Buckland-Warren-Puzzle-Films-Complex-Storytelling-Contemporary-Cinema

208 Marshall Deutelbaumplace in December, about 40 days later. By paying attention to the wall calendarswe can deduce from part three when part two occurs, then, retrospectively,understand from part two why part four occurs in December.Rather than call the film fragmented, then, we might more accurately describethe film’s chronology as being linear with a great many gaps of all kinds,none more puzzling than the formal photograph that Bokyung tearsup. It suggests a happier family life before the film begins and hints thather alienation from her husband and willingness to have an affair withHyosup are the consequence of whatever may have happened to their child.By focusing only upon the gaps in the realistic elements of the film’s story,critics ignore the significant cinematic choices Hong made in how to tellor narrate these stories through his use of camera placement and editing.These choices create additional gaps that cannot be explained by the film’ssocial context alone. Rather, the gaps are designed to wean viewers fromtheir habitual, virtually automatic habits of perception learned from yearsof watching traditional narrative films. In other words, The Day a Pig Fellinto a Well is an example of pragmatic poetics, a perceptual model offeredby a first-time filmmaker to his audience in order to teach them to understand– or at least how to approach an understanding – of his personalaesthetic. Hong expects viewers to do considerably more interpretative workthan traditional narrative films require.Indeed, he signals their need for heightened attention during the film’sopening credits as the soundtrack moves from orderly language (a woman’svoice heard announcing the imminent departure of a bus for Jinju),through apparently random phrases (a man’s muffled voice saying “Well. . . let’s start! Ready!” and a different woman’s voice enigmatically intoning,“ ‘Blue, down!’ ‘Blue, raise!’ ‘Blue, don’t down!’ ‘White, don’t raise!’‘Blue, raise!’ ‘White, don’t down!’ ‘Blue, don’t down!’ ‘White, don’t down!’ ”),to sounds whose origins cannot be identified (a ringing bell, a whistle,the opening and closing of a door, and the sound of knocking). Dependingupon how well they have been able to remember these sounds, viewerswill recognize the bus announcement when it occurs in context at thebeginning of the film’s second part, the enigmatic phrases when they arespoken by Minjae in the film’s third part as she dubs a video game, andthe final sequence of sounds when Bokyung makes them during her finalvisit to Hyosup’s apartment in the film’s fourth part.One can begin to appreciate Hong’s program of perceptual reeducationby comparing the narrative and narrational complexities of The Day a PigFell into a Well with how the narrative and narration are handled in the