I really enjoyed the Ben Affleck film Paycheck - it was a brilliant depiction of the operation of memory. In case you haven't seen it his job involves having his memory erased and after it's been erased following an especially lucrative assignment he discovers that his previous "self" voluntarily turned down the paycheck and left himself with seemingly unvaluable items (BMW key; .45 Caliber bullet; bus pass; can of hairspray; cigarette lighter; crossword puzzle; diamond ring; fortune taken from a fortune cookie; half dollar; janitor's key; keycard to his employer; converging lens; matchbook; pack of cigarettes; pair of tinted sunglasses; paperclip; stamp; watch; Allen wrench; Ball bearings)
In a wonderful scene he returns to his room, bewildered, and tries to piece together what these objects mean. It's just like when you've been on a particularly heavy night out, and wake up the next morning and empty your pockets. Fragments of memory need to be pieced together into some form of narrative, as you struggle to recollect the relevence of each item! We've all come back with some treasure...
However the point I want to make about this film is (what I thought to be) a rather odd sub storyline where Affleck's character practices martial arts. In one scene he's practising (left). A later scene he gets into a fight and guess what - there's a stick lying about. So he picks it up and kicks some ass. Why did the script work that way?
I think it's because the film has international scope, and therefore not everyone watching it will understand English. Consequently films utilise essentially meaningless visual storylines to provide a sense of narrative for people who aren't listening to the words. "Ah!" they say, "he's using that stick, he's good at all that" (obviously they don't say this in English...)
But why a stick? Why this particular storyline? I presume (and again, this is pure supposition) a market that might watch the film, and where English isn't the primary language is in the Far East. And without sounding like a hideously crass stereotyper, aren't those guys all into hitting each other with sticks?
It strikes me as an interesting glimpse into cultural exchange. An American film, an American star but who's the Director?. John Woo! There we go!
I'd like to claim that it's a Marxist assumption that ideas and institutions travel from West to East - certainly in my studies of the diffusion of economic ideas I often encounter a presumption (and it typically comes from Marxists) that ideas travel in that direction. But it's not true. There's a great trade at play, it's not simply a case that "we're all getting more American". This is an example of America becoming more Chinese.
So cultural exchange is more complicated than people tend to make out, as Tyler Cowen says
William H. Marling's How "American" is Globalization? This wide-ranging book is the definitive current source on which cultures are gaining and losing in respective cultural areas. The bottom line of this book? The world is not becoming Americanized. Very highly recommended.
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