The Rites of Passage in Rare-disorder Films: The Dialectic between Life and Death of On Liter of Tears and Midnight Sun

• Main Authors: Wei-liang Lai, 賴韋良
• Other Authors: Rong-fu Mao
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/29532075621529894971

碩士 === 慈濟大學 === 傳播學系碩士班 === 99 === There are no effective treatments for rare disorders, since the pathogenic factors haven’t been found yet. The onset of illness makes the patient lapse into the ambiguity of life and death as well as normality and abnormality, generating a contradiction which cannot be classified. Therefore, the patient is stigmatized and marginalized by the society. As if the novice in rites of passage, the rare-disorder patient passes from life to death, situated in liminality. While the time of the rare-disorder film goes by, the story unfolds and changes the relationship between different symbols, which helps the leading role cross the threshold of life and death. Hence, the dramatic time of the rare-disorder film can be regarded as the dynamic process of the rites of passage. This thesis takes One Liter of Tears and Midnight Sun as two-case study to explore how the relationships between different symbols pass from one state into another, how those symbols show the change of the leading role’s attitude toward life and death, and what the social and cultural implication might be. In these two rare-disorder films, the internal structure is the transformation process of falling ill, adjusting the attitude and facing death. The course presents complete life, the situation between life and death, and physical death with spirit remaining, which matches up with the three phases of the rites of passage. As the film goes on, the story expresses the ambiguous image and solves the contradictory dilemma of the rare disorder. Then, the leading role obtains the ability of going through the threshold of life and death, and being reunified into a new social structure. The film story presents the rites of passage; likewise watching films plays the role of the rites of passage in this modern capitalist society. The process of watching movies separates mass audiences from the capitalist regime. Via watching movies, audiences are recharged and being able to rejoin the production society. In addition, the process of watching movies also leads to another possibility, which makes mass audiences understand what rare disorder is, and change the liminal situation of rare disorder in action gradually.