The film, A Brand New Life (2009), directed by the celebrated cinematic artist, Ounie Lecomte, is a South Korean work that can surely be deemed as a fine work of art. The film is one of the best examples of the cinematic work directed by a woman director as the filmmaker exudes her aesthetic quintessence and perfect use of the cinematic techniques to leave a lasting impression in the minds of the avid audience. This is a very sensible film about this 9-year old girl who is left at an orphanage by her father who has remarried. Before coming to the orphanage, the little girl is given the wrong impression by her father that she is going for a trip. He even buys her new clothes and a cake. The film documents the struggle of this tender girl to adjust to the ambiance of the orphanage while dealing with her abandonment. Mostly through the narrative, the girl never accepts that her father would not return for her. The narrative shows her violent outbursts, her insecurities, her vulnerabilities to portray the emotions and psyche of an innocent mind that is left sans love and care of her parent. However, by the end, the audience comes to know of the French couple who wait eagerly to meet their adopted child, the 9-year old girl who had struggled for so long.
There can be no denial of the fact that the story in itself is extremely touching. The director aims to engage her audience with the sheer affective appeal of the film in context. The film appeals to all with its aesthetic expression and emotions as one sees the tender girl suffering in the orphanage. What is truly commendable is to see how Ounie Lecomte uses the background score in the course of the narrative. The background score of the film is truly touching and it permeates the hearts of the audience to enhance the affective appeal of the story. The music supplements the visual representation on the screen. Thus, the director shows skill in utilizing the visual as well as the aural stimuli to engage the audience and bring forth the emotions and struggles of the life of the child protagonist of this film.
The cinematography of this film too works a lot in accentuating the effect of the film on the minds of the audience. For a number of scenes showing the emotional struggle and plight of the 9-year old girl, the filmmaker goes on to use the close-up shots so as to be able to focus on the expressions of her face portraying the emotions. The film uses the third person omniscient narrator to portray the story. Many times this third person omniscient narrator of the film endeavors to make the audience relate to the girl’s character and her emotions. The filmmaker does this by shooting the girl with the camera being placed at her height. This works to create the difference between her world of innocence and emotions and the adult world. In such scenes, one can only see the lower half of the body of the father’s character- something that points to the unknown interests and psyche of the adult world as the face of the father is left unseen. Thus, the filmmaker is successful in showing the dichotomy between the two spheres.
Apart from this, the filmmaker uses the long shot showing the time when her father leaves her in the orphanage and walks away. Cinematically, the long shot and the spatial distance between the little girl and her father is represented by the perspective shot of the girl. This also stands for the mental distance created by the adult as he chooses to walk away from his innocent daughter. The director uses mid shots to portray the violent outbursts of the girl when she struggles to come to terms with her abandonment. This lets the scenes to show her expressions, bodily movements as well as the mise-en-scene where her actions are placed.
There is use of over-the-shoulder shot and top angle shot to show the reactions and emotions of the girl from an objective point of view of an adult or a general viewer. The mise-en-scene is used perfectly to portray the ambiance of the orphanage. The dining place, the ground, and the beds where the children sleep come together to establish the ambiance of the orphanage where the girl is left. Now, it needs to be noted that the filmmaker uses the mise-en-scene to portray the cultural markers of South Korea. The costumes that are used by the characters in the film also work to reflect the cultural ambiance of the society where the story is placed in the film.
There is one scene where the girl tries to bury herself. This is an expression of her frustration and vulnerability. The camera work in this scene is noticeable as it shakes while the girl covers her body with the mud. It is truly commendable to see how the filmmaker uses the cinematography to portray the disorientation of the girl’s emotions and her state of mind. Here, the shaking camera can be taken to be a symbolic representation of the world of this girl that has become upside down after she is left in the orphanage sans her family. In other parts of the narrative, there are uses of low angle shots to show the characters from the point of view of the girl. Thus, the filmmaker makes quintessential use of many filmic elements to appeal to her audience.
It would be correct to conclude that this film is an exceptional emotional journey for the audience. This emotional journey is only supplemented by the perfect use of the cinematic techniques that testify the aesthetic sense of Ounie Lecomte, the director. The journey of the girl leaves one speechless as the audience is made to walk in the shoes of the girl with the perfect mesh of all the emotions, heartbreaks, insecurities and hope. Thus, this is surely one of the finest films ever made by a woman director in the history of world cinema.
Works Cited
A Brand New Life. Dir. Ounie Lecomte. Perf. Kim Sae-ron, Park Do-yeon. Now Film,
Gloria Films, 2009. Film.
