I’ve had a pre-recess week film rush: I’ve watched 2 films in 48 hours.First, an Anime masterpiece by Miyazaki Hayao called Spirited Away,and then another one at the VCF Faculty Gathering in Telok Blangah, called Flywheel.
Flywheel, screened after dinner and worship, seems essentially a film directed both at non-Christians and Christians alike; it has two sets of messages that are coded to each different psyche, and it doesn’t take too much discernment to get what the film producers are trying to say. Why the film was chosen to be screened a faculty gathering was a deep mystery I debated on all the way home, which ultimately ended in this dangerous question: does a film need to be “Christian”for it to be shown at a“Christian gathering”?
But that is besides the point and not the main reason for this post. But as someone who enjoys consuming media and popular culture –who definitely takes pleasure in discernable watching and then tearing a film/book/programme apart with interpretations – what did I get out of watching Flywheel? And what did everyone get out of the movie screening?
Flywheel simply shows the downward spiral,then upward spiritual recovery of Joe Austin, a used car salesman. The film is,I feel, spiritually coded – a Christian will have no issues unraveling the messages and, include the pan-sunset shots of the American flag and open-scene views of the main character reading a bible, it is also culturally meant for American Christians. A radically different style and medium (animation) is used where Spirited Away depicts a very typical underdog story.Chihiro/ Senis stranded in a spirit world and, needing to save her parents, the story finds space for her adventures. In contrast, Spirited Away resonates with familiar cultural symbols: lanterns, pigs and the lone dragon, the protagonist’s romance item, Haku.
Like others, I subscribe to the Uses &Gratifications (Katz, 1956)approach to media and popular culture forms – an approach I learnt first as an aspiring Communications rookie, then later when I switched over to Sociology as my major. It states that audiences are active consumers of what they see onscreen, and they use media for their own purposes(hence, the term “uses and gratifications”). A single film or scenario will mean different things to different people, who all interpret the coded messages differently, finally using them for different personal reasons. So, given that there were 40 people at FG,is it an understatement to assess whether we had 40 different interpretations of Flywheel?
The point I’m hoping to make is not too complicated:judging by the amount of laughter, comments and conversation going on through the movie screening, I could assume that people were actively scrutinizing and analyzing the film. Flywheel is, again to me at least, quite a serious movie; it is about spiritual change, renewal, being a Christian practically at work (in the business world) and unconscious self-hypocrisy. But I felt inadequate watching it. It appeared too predictable and miraculous to be actually real (the question then, shifts to being: as a Christian, how real is real?). And still, as a Christian, I wonder how does it encourage me when the protagonist holiness is abstractly related to financial security. And,if I were a non-Christian watching it, I would not be too convinced by the idea that everything fits together so nicely at once upona180-degree moral turnaround.
Moral change, being deeply personal, is admittedly always difficult to portray on film. In Spirited Away, the protagonist Chihiro/ Sen emerges onscreen as a spoilt, whiny brat and ends in movie as the headstrong young heroine who has battled witches,spirits and personal fear. Both Spirited Away and Flywheel do seem remotely related in a basic message they are trying to convey:personal moral change is necessary for you to get your life right. Of course, Flywheel’s creators believe the agent of that change to be a re-dedication of life to Jesus Christ: Joe Austin falls to his knees,while Chihiro/ Sen just endures a lot of obstacles. But in a final comparison of the two films, what message do they have to leave a viewer with?
At the basic level, Flywheel encourages the wayward back to God. Joe Austin recommits his life to Christ, and puts the highest standard of living as his goal. That seems to be more or less the act, because everything – from public opinion,to finances, to family – falls into step after that. Question then: is it really that simple? Is it really just one act that changes everything. The exact theme of Chihiro/ Sen’s tale of maturity is a bit more ambiguous: to mature, to be become dependable and headstrong,requires both a keen appreciation for fellow creatures and a stepping out of the usual zones of comfort. This is, at least,my most elementary reading of it (leaving out the idea of destiny in Chihiro/Sen’s romance with Haku).
So,in truth, both movies pick out each others flaws.And I’m just glad to say that I could watch both back to back, and attempt to link the two together.
A last word: perhaps Christian living, as shown in Flywheel is really that simple: just an act of heartfelt repentance – and then everything else would be aligned to that change of heart. Perhaps we complicate things, rob our service of its simplicity,that all things should use Jesus Christ as the final moral standard for our ministries.So that we can do things with the humility of Joe Austin, but with Chihiro’s life-changing resolve.
Yap Xiong
Edited: 24 Sep 2008
An earlier edit of this article appeared on Epiunleashed. Comments on the author’s article can be posted there.
