Media Meditation: Black and White

            I’m not really one for anime, typically, but I got talked into watching the movie Tekkon Kinkreet recently. The title is a play on the Japanese tekkin konkurito, meaning steel-reinforced concrete, as if mispronounced by a child. The story follows two children in the fictional Treasure town—Black, who’s tough and jaded; and White, who’s childish and innocent—who live on the streets and know them better than anyone in the city. The movie follows their struggle against the yakuza that try to take over the town, and eventually Black’s struggle against his own psyche. It’s brilliantly written, and the characters are brutally relatable.

            The movie is really adept at striking chords on the limbic level. The music does a really good job of conveying the atmosphere of the grandeur of the city while still matching the tone of whatever’s going on with the plot or within the character’s minds at the time. Listen to one of the tracks here.

            Less about the movie and more about how I watched it, the whole experience is generally a good example of both aesthetic and digital shifts. I watched this movie on the Internet, after a bit of digging, which shows how media platforms are converging—I can use the same medium I use for communicating with friends and doing research, for example, to watch a movie on a whim. It also indicates a technological shift because not only does this movie use a lot of obviously digitally-created sequences (I don’t know how much of it was actually digitally done), but it’s also being delivered on a platform that’s entirely digital.

            As a creative medium, this movie is obviously an example of individual meaning. There are a lot of subtleties involved with the characters’ actions and relationships that can be interpreted in a number of ways. I think this is part of what separates good movies, books, etc. from bad ones. It’s also a really strong example of emotional transfer—the characters are very tangible, and the movie touches the limbic brain in all the right ways to really convey their emotions to the viewer.

            Again, the movie is a creative medium, so it doesn’t necessarily have an argument to make. It does, however, display some common persuasive techniques. One of these is "warm fuzzies"—White is adorable both in appearance and character, and that does a lot to establish an emotional connection with the viewer. The technique of timing is also present, though it could probably be more accurately described as pacing. The plot moves forward at such a pace as to keep the viewer interested while also establishing the characters really well.

            Like I said, I don’t watch too much anime, but I was really glad I spent the two hours on this one. Both the visuals and writing are phenomenal, and it was one of the more unique movies I’ve seen in a while. Definitely a worthwhile watch, even  for those who aren’t anime fans.