The transformations of image creation of the aesthetics of surface gazing:based on the images of the characters in the Banquet by Feng Xiao-gang

• Main Authors: Hsu, Shu-chen, 許淑貞
• Other Authors: 鄭惠美
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/cmbfe4

碩士 === 實踐大學 === 時尚與媒體設計研究所碩士在職專班 === 97 === The formation of an image is a process of “making illusion into reality” and “transforming the emotional into the substantial,” embodying the invisible, abstract idea in a concrete and tangible image. Based on the images of the characters in The Banquet by Feng Xiao-gang, which is outstanding in its style of new oriental aesthetics, this thesis is to analyze the fundamental signs--the scenes, times and places, concepts, characters, roles, images--from the perspective of “gazing and “existence,” study the inner and outer qualities of the images of these characters, and, furthermore, function as a conceptual transformation and fulfillment of the creation of an “image.” Chapter I formulates the motive and goal of the research, the methodology and steps of the research, and the explanations of important terms. Through the composition and manipulation of cinematic signs along with the theme of reducing “power” to “desire,” Feng Xiao-gang investigates the subversion of political legality. His script is modeled on Qiu Gangjian’s The Prince with a Sword, a story from the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in Chinese history. Labeled by critics as the Chinese version of Hamlet and strongly informed by Shakespeare’s play, the movie is certainly connected with eastern and western semiologies in its content. Cinematic semiology is a “synthetic” art that includes “stillness” and “movement,” “time” and “space,” and “modeling” and “rhythm;” it consists of multiple signs such as the “main structure of the story,” “the locale of the story,” “special weapons,” “the form of entrance,” “properties,” “music,” “special sound effects,” “lighting,” “scenery,” “dialogue,” and “camera language” It is fair to say that cinematic semiology is directly and indirectly concerned with film theories, semiology, theories of literature and arts, aesthetics of arts, types of social culture and humanistic epistemology. Therefore, Chapter II is a review of documents and an analysis of theories. Through the collecting, formulizing and recording of sources, this chapter is meant to make an overall introduction and summary about the eastern doctrine of imagery, western semiology, the manipulation and composition of cinematic signs, baroque aesthetics, neo-orientalism so as to lay the solid theoretical ground for Chapter III.. Cinematic semiology has become a popular fundamental knowledge and analytic tool for research on film theories. These cinematic signs not only highlight the motives in the story and the backgrounds of the characters, constitute the locale of the story, the looks of the characters, but also shape the image qualities of the characters, such as their inner worlds and personalities. Actors and actresses create the souls, feelings and flesh and blood of the characters, while “costume” and “makeup” create the outward images of the characters. It is only through modeling and creating the styles of the characters’ costumes and images that the abstract ideas could be transformed into cinematic images for the audience to see. Therefore, costume is the “dialogue carried by actors and actresses,” a building block of the “style of the movie.” Analyzing the modes of the images of the characters, this thesis should not ignore the topic of the “costume code.” Costume, as a code, is related not simply with the body but also with the issue of the “signifier” and the “signified.” Chapter III analyzes The Banquet in terms of “the inner qualities of the characters” and “the outer qualities of the characters,” and then, furthermore, inquires on the material assemblages and expressions of the outer images of the main characters in The Banquet. Chapter IV focuses on the transformation of the concept of the “costume code,” taking advantage of the movement and flow between the illusory and real spaces to fulfill the creative idea and realize the work. The wander between the “visible” and the “invisible” is the main concept of this creation. In everyone’s life, there is a period of time that he or she would rather forget, while in the process of contemplating about the creation that period of life is brought back to the creator’s face. In order to know whether she is truly living, the creator tries to make visible the invisible. Confronted with a series of unexpected incidents, the creator makes great efforts dealing with her perceptions about the world, and her relationships with the world—conflicts, alienation, numbness and expectation—causes abundant reactions in her emotions and feelings. After being spiritually settled, the creator works again in the real space and contemplates the framework of feelings and the genesis of memory so as to find out the unknown future of the creator.