sogyumo acacia band - butterfly | blue, 2002

it's been a while since i was here. life got in the way. i lost my sense of creativity, too. now i'm trying to start again.
i watched blue last week. a rare thing, queer films about women/girls. this one was almost a treat, except, i felt a little detached from the lead and her love interest. as much as they displayed interiority -- their fears, failings, doubts -- i still felt estranged from them. i don't know why. visually, there lacked close-up shots, so that shows me something. also performance. not enough nuance in them, i think.
despite this, i can sense the tenderness and care behind the scenes. the slow, quiet pace. the lack of gratuity that we so often see with films depicting queer girls or high school students in general. this film respected their subjects, and i appreciate it for that.
i chose to emphasise the rare scenes where we see kayako's face in close-up. i needed to assert that she's the lead. i also wanted us to read the plot through her face. long shots did this as well, except their focus was on how their bodies told the story. in terms of colour, i wanted to keep the colour palate as cool as possible. this was easy since the film was already conscious of it. but, i still made sure to choose as many blue scenes/shots as possible.
for the editing itself, it was so fun. so relaxing. i felt at ease returning to my keyboard. the editing process that i had abandoned for months came back to me with no contention. choosing the song was the tough bit. i needed something soft and gentle. the songs i had in my repertoire were a little too upbeat. and i didn't have a slow enough song in Japanese, so i opted for this 2004 korean song by sogyumo acacia band instead. it was perfect! the feminine vocals and minimal chords were what this youthful gl film needed. a raw, candid song for an equally raw, candid film.
that's it, i suppose.
(no it's not. one last thing: i just realised that the long shots are usually done when the two girls are together. as if we're not meant to see the details of their intimacy; like they're keeping it to themselves. their cute little secret.)
from shelly
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19 february 2022