1 Tablespoon Meaning Extract- DOA: Dead or Alive

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:34:00 -0400

My first film is a video game adaptation. Because you only get the classiest films here.

1 Tablespoon Meaning Extract is where I talk about the subtextual meaning of things that are probably not there in the movie until you boil things down. A lot of the times, we’ll be dealing with less-than-stellar films in this category, but nonetheless. I try to sound intelligent while talking about them.

So my feelings about this film as a whole are pretty simple! It’s a really entertaining movie, and I like the whole films about badass ladies deal. Of course, this is where we run into problems, namely this: DOA is bursting with the distracting and skeezy thing known commonly as the male gaze.

I try to make this blog accessible to everyone, so in case you don’t know what that means, here it is in a nutshell: male gaze in film is when the cinematography itself settles on poses and areas of the female anatomy that are meant to appeal specifically to the male sensibilities through the all-powerful lens of sex appeal. It’s one of the leading methods of objectification of the female being in film and is really kind of a problem.

Now for a bit of delving into the DOA franchise to connect to this! There are indeed male characters in this fighting game franchise. This is something not many people know, except for the few who have played the games without blotting them all from their memory. Why would this be surprising, you might ask? Because DOA is a franchise full of women in revealing outfits meant specifically to appeal to the male audience, and these are the parts that get pushed. And there’s no argument that the outfits might not be sexual, especially given that this franchise has provided us with multiple beach volleyball games, and a game that features a mode where you hang around a beach and hide behind rocks taking pictures of the girls in their bikinis.

It’s like Pokemon Snap, but in higher def and with women in swimsuits who think they’re alone. You can go ahead and let that sink in.

So naturally, even more than it’s prevalent in other fighting games, the male gaze is essentially everything that defines the DOA franchise! It takes it to the extreme, and passes that off as a defining feature of the series. Feel free to let out that “ewwww”, those of you who knew nothing about this series going into this.

There are a lot of problems with this movie already going in. But I’m not here to talk about the problems. I could talk about how they cast a norwegian actress as the purple-haired ninja who’s Devon Aoki’s sister. I could talk about how disgusting the fandom is and link to a flash game about raping the “Japanese princess” character that I’ve stumbled upon in my research of various fighting game series. But I won’t. Well, actually there’s something to that second section.

See, the plot of this movie is as follows: a bunch of fighters from around the world, mostly women, are called together to fight in the Dead or Alive Tournament on a secluded island to find out who is the “ultimate fighter”. While there, it turns out the movie was organized by a rich crazy dude named Donovan (played by Eric Roberts), and an obnoxious nerdy shit of a thing called Weatherby (Steve Howey), who I refuse to give a human identity to. Yeah, the villains are an incarnation of The Master from the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie and Kevin Ball from Shameless. This movie’s cool like that.

Weatherby and Donovan spend the tournament observing the fighters from cameras all over the island, recording their muscle movements to make the “ultimate fighter”. They watch everyone. All the time. Especially, in Weatherby’s case, the women. Because who needs decency?

Their continual watching of the fighters, and Weatherby’s eventual lust after fighter Helena (Sarah Carter), brings up the most obvious parallel. In my mind, Weatherby and Donovan represent different aspect of the standard player of the series.

We’ll start with Weatherby. The male gaze in the film mostly occurs during the fight sequences on the island, or just bits on the island period. We get a little outside, but this is when you realize: Weatherby is the one controlling the cameras that are literally covering every angle everywhere. We’re seeing what he’s looking at. And that’s the breasts and pelvises of all the women fighters, apparently. He openly admits that’s what he’s doing, and even mentions often his adoration of Helena and desire to make her actually his, despite his complete inability to fight and lack of any redeeming qualities except maybe hacking, which he kind of sort of maybe does later.

This makes him the perverted side of the male fantasy associated with this series specifically, and perhaps with fighting games in general. The association between fiction and reality, and the continuing desire to use the game as sexual wish-fulfillment. He’s the part of the player base responsible for Fighter Lady Snap mode, and the aforementioned flash game. In the end, Weatherby gets what he wants: Helena and the respect and admiration of the female cast. His fantasy becomes reality through the alternate lens of the movie, and this is meant to stand as the basic desire of all men who play the game expecting this sort of thing to come of it, or think about it happening. Hey, at least Paul W.S. Anderson didn’t cast himself in the role. That would really make this a depressing aspect of the film. But as it is, this can be interpreted as a criticism of this behavior as opposed to a praise of it. But really, without any in-text mention of this, it comes off more as self-insert fanfic. Oh, Paul.

Donovan represents a less controversial and thought-provoking aspect of the film to most, but something that players of fighting games might take some time to think about. He downloads the fighting styles of all the film’s characters into himself in order to become the ultimate fighter. By using sunglasses and torrenting muscle memory from the ladies of the series, but that’s really not why we’re here. Stay on target, stay on target…

In this, he represents the flaw in the basic nature of fighting games: the assumption of fighting skill that takes years to learn a fraction of in one person and putting it all in the hands of an experienceless outsider. In essence, the basic nature of the player. The player has the sum total of a number of different fighting styles in their hands to pick and choose from in a game, things that they could never hope to do themselves. Unless, of course, their wishes are fulfilled and this happens. This one is unique in that it serves not mostly as a observation of the DOA games (I don’t claim that other fighting games feature the aspects Weatherby is looking for in a tournament, but this is especially a hot topic with this series) but fighting games in general. Is the assumption of all these fighting styles with a simple procedure like pressing buttons or donning stupid-looking glasses really fair to those who actually spend their time training and practicing to be as good as one of the digital fighters onscreen?

So perhaps Donovan and Weatherby are in fact the most devious villains in any adaptation anywhere: they are, in fact, the player. And if the narrative focused on this aspect of things and took time to call them out on what they do, I feel there would be a lot more value to this movie. But alas, Weatherby is never called out for what he does, and Donovan is just defeated like any run-of-the-mill big bad with an exploding island lair.

They both get the wish fulfillment the player wants from the series, but Donovan’s is the only one that leads to his destruction. This begs the question: is the movie saying that only Donovan’s desire for the power of the series is a negative? Is it trying to call Weatherby’s stalkerish and obsessive behavior normal and healthy? Well, in the end, I suppose that’s to be expected. Calling out Weatherby would be calling out the fans of the franchise, and that would drastically lower the studio’s profit, not to mention slander the franchise itself. Not that it’s been doing a great job of maintaining integrity, with EXTREME BEACH VOLLEYBALL being a full game and all.

Oh, Dead or Alive. You ridiculous thing.

Until next time,

-A

Hello and welcome!

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:34:29 -0400

So this is spoilersitstandsforsex, where I (tumblr user itsnotarevolution if you care about my personal) will spend time talking your ear off about metaphors and deeper meanings that may or may not have been intended. Sometimes, too, I’ll just go through a movie I’ve just seen and analyze it. I’ll pull out so many themes and allegories that you’ll be begging for mercy by the time I’m done with you.

Unless you’re not, which is cool too. I guess.

Anyway, don’t expect just new releases here, but also don’t expect just older films. Don’t expect the mainstream, and don’t expect the obscure. Don’t expect the good, but don’t expect the bad. Oh, and don’t expect anything resembling a regular update pattern.

In case you haven’t gotten the message, don’t really expect anything. This will be an account of whatever movies I feel like talking about, and a place for me to talk about my feelings regarding them and their content. I can’t say it might get loud, but it might get long.

Enjoy!

-A

Because meta is fun and original!

1 Tablespoon Meaning Extract- DOA: Dead or Alive

Hello and welcome!