Film Structure and Presentaiton

                 Film Structure and Presentation                              Yu-Han (Frank) Chang

This film, Peppermint Candy, was presented in a particular unique fashion. In all the films that we have studied so far, this film was the only one, instead of using flashbacks, with the chronology completely reversed. Moreover, the film, unlike most films, was not presented in a continuous motion with edited work to ensure the smooth flow in the events. Instead, the editing work intentionally cut the storyline into small episodes like pieces of a puzzle. The question strikes me is that what is the significance in this way of structuring and presentation? What special effect did it have that could not be seen in a conventional film structure?

Personally, I believe that the editing work was essential in drawing the viewers’ interest and attention to the details of the state and what was going on in Yong-Ho’s mind, which in most parts this film chose to leave it untouched, unspoken and deliberately unexplained. By opening the film with a delirious Yong-Ho, this exposed the viewers to a state of confusion. And it was this confusion that drove the curiosity to find answers (at least to me). The director then intentionally leaving bread crumbs along the way to provoke ideas before presenting the some sort of explanation in the latter episodes.  The particular episode  structure of the film was like solving a puzzle. Each episode required the viewers to deduce information and attempt to link to other episodes, pieces of the puzzle. Through this process, the film provoked deep thinking into Yong-Ho’s state of mind in order to reproduce the overall picture of the puzzle on the box cover, in this case the delirious and suicidal Yong-Ho in the opening scene.

To me, this was the main aspect of this film that entertained me -the idea of mystery solving and linking pieces of the puzzle together. I would like to suggest that the structure and presentation of this film being the single arguably most important element of this film. The plot really on centered on a single protagonist. Most supporting characters were not really explored in the film. Furthermore, the storyline was rather simple with little twists and complications and the content was nothing but ordinary. A typical plot where a man suffering from things like PTSD returns and finds himself changed, pushes the old life away and locks deep inside. Instead, an appeared to be strong front covers up the badly injured mind. If this film had been presented in the conventional chronological way, everything would have appeared so logical and readily self-explained. It would not have raise much interest and because we are used to the conventional way, our senses are dulled from picking up the details.