Review of “The Five Obstructions”
I am very fortunate to watch the
movie “The Five Obstructions” as recommended by Professor Min. My straight
impression to this movie is that it is not the movie as what I have commonly
watched before. The way of expression in
this movie is very unique. Specifically, it utilizes three ways, i.e.,
documentary, experiment and creation, to tell a story “the perfect human”. The
story line in this movie is clear and interesting. There is a filmmaker called
Lars Von Truer. He asks another filmmaker Jorgen Leth to re-produce the film
for five times. However at each time there will be different rules that Leth
has to strictly follow such rules.
The first version of the film tells
story in a narrative form, which describes the perfect man and woman do some routine
work on a daily basis, such as shaving, eating, jumping, sleeping, etc. Then,
Trier asks Leth to reedit the film by only using 12 frames or less. Therefore the
film is refreshed and resulting film becomes totally different. In the second
version, Leth puts himself in a street in Bombay that looks crowed and poor. Then
he eats some delicious foods on that street. While I was watching, I was very
impressive to that scene because it provided a sharp comparison by putting well-heeled
Leth with poor people who stand behind Leth together. Such strong contrast
makes audiences feel the environment presented in the movie closely and deeply.
In the third version, Lars asks
Leth to break one of the rules. Then Leth can recreate the film by following whatever
the ways he wants. The rule of the fourth version is that the film should be a
cartoon. Here the interesting point is that both Lars and Leth do not like the
cartoon. But they have to use cartoon
form. Surprisingly, however, the result is quite successful. The scene is beautiful
and stylistic. In the last version, Leth needs to read a narrative which is
written by Trier. The entire story of this version is a Trier’s documentary
about how Leth encounters different types of problems and how Leth solves them
effectively. In this version, we are able to review the previous scenes, Leth gets frustration, and his
confidence is shaken incessantly by Trier’s picky feedbacks and requirements. Through
the narrative, we realize the whole film is actually a deliberate loving gift that
Trier gives to Leth because of Leth’s big impact on Trier’s career and life. I
am very touched while I was watching that moment.
After watching this movie, a deep
understanding comes into my mind: as a designer, I should be never afraid of
failure or even temporary falling down. What I need to do is to confront my
weakness bravely, and
force myself to beyond the limitation to be greater.
