Research into thriller opening - Stephen Potter. 1

Research into thriller openings – Oldboy

As this is the first thriller opening I am looking at, I felt like it was reasonable to analyse the introduction to a thriller that is foreign, the importance of this film being foreign is to highlight the differences between how thrillers are introduced compared to which part of the world it is being market too, e.g, thrillers such as Drive being marketed towards western cultures. By using a foreign film, we can see if there are many differences or if they are more similar than I would have assumed.

The first shot of the scene reveals a hand holding what appears to be a firearm, (fig 1), his hand is also shaking. From the use of body language; an element of mise en scene, shaking, we can see that this character is perhaps nervous and unsure. What adds to the enigma within this opening scene if the fact context is hidden from us, we don’t know who is holding the gun nor what the gun is pointing at, this creates a sense of mystery as we are asking ourselves these questions. Camerawork is utilized through the use of a slow pan up the arm to reveal to us this character, (Fig 2), although enigma and mystery is still predominant, we know now that the character is a male yet through the use of back lighting we cannot see the characters face, this keeps the audience guessing, this is important for thrillers as the director wants us on the edge of our seats, thinking about the film.

fig 1

fig 2

The following shot answers some of our questions yet creates more, leaving the spectators absolutely confused as to the situation within the film. We are shown that the first character we see is dangling another man off of a roof,(fig 3), he is also holding a dog which creates more mystery and enigma, which is what the director wants as ideally, a thriller should be confusing and unpredictable so we are focused and fully engrossed in the film. What we can safely assume from this shot is that this dangling character may be killed. Through the use of setting we know this is also withing an urban area, due to the buildings and the fact they are atop one.  Dialogue is utilized by having the dangling character repaeat question such as “who are you”.  The male character holding the one who is dangling slowly says “ my name is” but before his name is said, the scene changes.

Fig 3

This is an effective opening sequence, as within the space of 30 seconds we receive almost no context to the film but we are given questions that we want to be answered. Enigma is created successfully through mise en scene and lighting.