STYLE: Aligning Camera / Spectator Along a Single Axis

This is the linchpin of Hou's stylistic system. Early in the film, he introduces various settings with specific camera angles. These angles form an axis to which the camera will return throughout the film. Depending on the axis, the camera will either be irrevocably locked into that view, or it will pan from one axis to another. More simply put, whenever Hou returns to a location he uses the identical angle, the same view. He doesn't use the same shot, however, because the camera is positioned at various points along that axis.

An obvious example is the ambush along a country road. The principle at work is obvious because the scene is split into two long takes; the only camera movement involves slight reframings. The first shot shows the second brother waiting near the camera. This defines the axis, which runs down the road to a few houses where some carraiges arrive. When the brother runs down the road and begins fighting, the second shot jumps backward and above the first camera position (B 2:32 ~ 3:54). The graphic to the left displays images from the two shots.

Any citizen of the cinema world knows that a standard approach to this kind of fight scene would enhance its violence through as many shots --- taken from as many angles --- as possible. This scene obeys a different set of rules. At other settings in City of Sadness, this principle is always at work, though in much more subtle ways because of Hou's use of sequence shots. A setting become familiar as the view of it is repeated over the course of the film. To give some sense of how extensive this is, we've listed the 8 predefined axes used by the 14 shots of the segment we have singled out for "distant" analysis in another section. These axes are:

 

Figures 1 and 2 represent two shots using the setting of the hospital lobby. Figure 1 is the shot plan for the first view of the hospital. It sets up an axis that runs the length of the long lobby and occurs near the beginning of the film. Every subsequent shot of the lobby is located somewhere along this axis. These shots are all static long shots (the only tracking shot of the film moves laterally). Figure 2 is the shot plan for the last shot of the hospital entranceway, where the camera is placed so far back on the axis that it has retreated into a dark room.

This principle is directly related to other aspects of Hou's style in exceedingly complicated ways. If the stageline is the cornerstone of classical montage --- the imaginary line that organizes all cinematic space --- then the camera axis replaces that organizing function in Hou's narrative system. As we demonstrate, this "uncinematic" shooting strategy produces playful variations of mise-en-scene and amplifies the powerful impact of the film's violence.