Thread by @Richmond_Lee

Good morning class! Silent Hill f trailer just dropped. You know what that means, a new Art-Eater Trailer Analysis thread woohoo! (I'll try to make it quick!) 🧵

The Silent Hill f trailer opens with a foggy shot of rural Japan. If you look closely at the flooded rice paddy you'll see an interesting looking scarecrow...

#SilentHillf is written by Ryukishi07, a luminary of mystery/horror doujin visual novels. I suspect this scarecrow wearing a Japanese school uniform (制服) and brandishing a scary looking blade is an homage to his earlier works like Higurashi When They Cry (ひぐらしのなく頃に)

Silent Hill f takes place in rural 1960s Japan. The developers of the game, Neobards, are experienced gamedevs based out of Taiwan. It's important to note that Taiwan also historically uses the "Satoyama" system of agricultural management like Japan.

Silent Hill f (left) takes place at a similar time and place as the classic Ghibli film, My Neighbor Totoro (right). I remember watching Totoro with my mother, who remarked that everything about the film reminded her of her childhood in Taiwan in the 60s.

Here's a great thread on the Satoyama system as it's authentically represented in Totoro.

(Anyway my point is that Japanese style farming shouldn't be alien to Taiwanese devs. It's something they could potentially draw on life experiences for)

Moving on! Next we see a shot of the sleepy town, lingering on a general store that sells refrigerated goods, toys and other things. It's appropriately foggy and unpaved (Japan was not yet a mega wealthy nation in the 60s, though it was on its way)

Cables stretch across the town, foreshadowing some of the more menacing imagery to come.

I just want to point out, this is such a good representation of a muddy country road. It's so authentic. Makes you feel like you're really there!

This red fire hydrant also stands out. Red things will feature prominently in the rest of this trailer. Also potential symbolism with storing water that's waiting to be released. Connectivity. Cleansing. In any case this looks to be a very wet game!🧵

Doh! Actually that is a mailbox! Which brings with it some more delicious connotations of communication, sending and receiving messages. And waiting for them.

OK next shot! Here we see a Ichimatsu doll (市松人形), a traditional Japanese doll usually made of clay or wood. They were originally dress up toys, but in modern times they are ornamental objects.
#SilentHillf

Dolls traditionally have a lot of importance and meaning in Japanese culture. It will be interesting to see if and how that plays out in Silent Hill f!

More info on the significance of dolls in Japanese culture here:
artsandculture.google.com/story/the-soul…

In the past, dolls were used in healing rituals (not just in Japan, but many cultures). The idea is that they could draw out harmful spirits residing in a patient's body into their own human shaped vessel. And of course Japan has stories about haunted dolls!

With Ichimatsu in particular, it's believed that over time they can build up a soul and even grow out their hair. This is a popular superstition, but there's actually a reasonble explanation for how it can really happen!

There's another object in the shadows to the left of the doll. My guess is that it's a very old kind of bronze mirror that was introduced to Japan from China long ago. But who knows? (lots of great thematic potential if it's a mirror tho!)

From the doll we cut to this image of this desolate, skeletal tree, standing alone in the mist. It's limbs are all windswept in one direction.

The camera pans down to reveal a school girl gazing at a macabre scene. This is such a beautiful shot! And the fog is not overwrought. Rather than scream SILENT HILL it recalls the feeling of morning mist in the mountains.

The school girl is looking at a Jizo (地蔵) statue, a Buddhist guardian of children and travelers. This one is missing its head and seems to have lost its protective powers. Strange red flora crows in front of it.

SO MUCH SYMBOLIC VALUE HERE

source:
okujapan.com/blog/japanese-…

Ojizo-sama watches over the spirits of dead children who have passed before their parents & can't cross the Sanzu River into the afterlife. This deity is also associated with saving people from hell which is incredibly significant to this trailer!

Source:
www2.ipcku.kansai-u.ac.jp/~nikaido/jizo.…

All this imagery is incredibly intentional. I will go into more detail later, but there are some real flowers in here that are strongly associated with death and hell in Japanese culture (and Sinospheric cultures in general).

Next we see this young woman (maybe highschool age?) walking through the town as a red slime mold menacingly starts to grow over everything it touches.

The girl is dragging a large pipe along the ground with a labored gait, recalling the nurses from Silent Hill 2! The pipe is red with rust and leaves a trail of reddish liquid as it scrapes across the town.
#SilentHill

We see the same view of the street from before. But this time the hellish slime mold is overtaking everything as the mist rises as if it's evaporating from the puddles.

Next we see a shot of the slime mold overtaking the Ichimatsu doll from before, foreshadowing the fate of our poor schoolgirl heroine.

Sure enough, the trailer cuts to the girl now battered and barefoot making her way through the town that's been completely overtaken by the hellish red slime mold.

She tries to fight it off, and briefly breaks away from its clutches. But escape is impossible at this point.

She runs desperately, hopelessly through the town as the slime mold starts to flower around her until all she can see is red blossoms and fog.

Let's take a moment to appreciate what a great idea it was to use the slime mold as one of the central visuals for Silent Hill f. IT'S SO THOUGHTFUL AND SO BEAUTIFULLY EXECUTED!!
#silenthill #silenthillf twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

In case you didn't know, slime molds are a real ancient life form that can spread very quickly as a kind of meandering slime, enveloping everything that it touches in the search for nutrients.

Thankfully, in real life, slime molds prefer eating oat flakes over humans!

Slime molds are so fascinating because while they are brainless single celled organisms, they can actually solve very complex problems! For instance, a slime mold was able to essentially recreate the Tokyo subway system!
wired.com/2010/01/slime-…

The slime mold imagery lends an air of ancient, malevolent, incomprehensible terror to Silent Hill f!

(quick note: slime molds used to be classified as fungi, but are now considered their own separate thing!)

Onward! Remember what I said about Jizo watching over the spirits of children who can't pass on to the afterlife? Here is a shot of a child, drifting on a raft through a foggy river towards a torii gate. This is clearly the Sanzu River which flows into the land of the dead!

Remember that in real life, torii gates symbolize the transition from our mundane world into sacred grounds.
#SilentHillf

The hellish flora has stopped spreading. Now it is flowering. This is much like real life slime molds which search for food in their slime state and when proper nutrients are found, they coalesce into more complex multicellular fruiting bodies.

Source:
scientificamerican.com/article/see-th…

Warning: The imagery from here on out is going to get ROUGH.

The raft is eventually impeded by floating bodies. Tiny holes appear in them triggering serious Trypophobia.

CW: Trypophobia

Trypophobia is a fear of clustered holes commonly triggered by plants like lotus pods. Beyond evoking revulsion, I think this is a deliberate callout to how lotus flowers figure into Buddhist symbolism.

Lotus flowers feature prominently in Buddhism because they grow out of the mud to flower beautifully above the surface of the water, symbolizing the triumph of the spirit over worldly desires.

The imagery in the Silent Hill f trailer is a corruption of this. Instead of lotuses, there are human limbs adrift in this river. But they start to form holes and sprout none the less. At first they resemble the fruiting bodies of slime molds...

But then flowers start to bloom and we can see that these are Lycoris Radiata, commonly known as "red spider lilies" and "corpse flowers" which are heavily associated with death and hell!

Spider lilies are completely poisonous and in the past, they were planted on top of graves to prevent animals from eating/desecrating the dead. In Japanese legend they're said to grow along the far bank of the Sanzu River and also IN HELL.
#SilentHill #SilentHillf

If you watch a lot of anime, you've almost certainly seen this flower before!

Nice article on the significance of spider lilies in Japanese culture here:
metrofieldguide.com/folklore-natur…

As the trailer continues, more flowers envelope this poor child's body including chrysanthemums which are associated with funerals in both Asia and Europe.
#SilentHillf

The final shots of this poor school girl, drifting along the Sanzu River, sprouting flowers from her body in the land of the dead, parallels the earlier shot of the crumbling jizo statue surrounded by strange plants (they're the same flowers actually!)
#SilentHill #SilentHillf

This beautiful shot here is very likely inspired by the 2019 folk horror film, Midsommar, but filtered through an East Asian lens. It's stunning.
#SilentHillf

Her countenance is placid, maybe even calm. But a single tear drips down. One final act of human expression before her entire face falls away, drawing further parallel to the jizo statue and welcoming us into ... Silent Hill!!

WHAT A TRAILER

#SilentHillf #SilentHill

I got chills when the music started up. So familiar yet so bold and new. I didn't think it was possible, but god help me, it's the year 2022 and I'm excited for a new Silent Hill game!

Oh man it's uh... boy that wasn't a quick thread at all lol. Anyway it's now 4am and my sleep scheduled is torpedoed, but I just couldn't hold any of that back! Hope you all enjoyed the thread!

Couple last thoughts:
I made a joke about "can you call it Silent Hill if it doesn't take place in Maine?", but that was just a silly play off of the concept of Champagne. To be clear, a Silent Hill game simply needs someone to stumble into the other world and face their demons.

Silent Hill f seems to have understood the assignment through and through. It's not cashing in on nostalgia and familiarity. Instead it's continuing a tradition of unnerving, reflective psychological horror. And with a fresh twist!

It's said that the name Silent Hill was actually originally inspired by translating "Shizuoka" directly into English. It's a Japanese game series after all. So let it return home to roost!

I'm really excited to see Ryukishi07 as the writer! And Neobards as the developer! Both have a lot of experience, but they also have a lot to prove! And judging from this trailer, this just might be the perfect storm of talent to craft a new Silent Hill for our times!

You know what? IM NOT DONE. This opening shot is so brilliant. I think there's more to it than just homage to earlier works. I think this is one of those shots that potentially spells out the themes of the entire game! (or at least this amazing short!)

First off, this scarecrow is obviously symbolic of the protagonist of this trailer. It's wearing the same school uniform as her and also scarecrows are made of plants, as is the schoolgirl by the end of this short film!

What's more, this scarecrow is gazing at it's own reflection! Duality is a BIG THEME in Silent Hill. The "otherworld" is twisted reflection of the "real" world. And the only way out is to reconcile your innermost demons that are pulling you in opposite directions!

On top of that, a scarecrow is supposed to protect the field by scaring away pests. But this one is brandishing a rice sickle! There's so many ways this can go!

For instance, rice sprouts are a common symbol of the new generation, representing hope for the future. The main character is a student (here represented by a stuffed straw scarecrow). She's tasked with protecting this new gen, but only until they're ready to harvest!

Also note the parallel between the scarecrow watching over the field of rice and the school girl floating down the river of the dead.

And the parallel between the scarecrows reflection in the rice paddy, with the new sprouts, and the corpses in the Sanzu River sprouding spider lillies! And her own body sprouting chrysanthemums!

It paints a picture of youth corrupted. Cultivated only to be harvested. She rises above the rest to become the harvester. But that only delays the inevitable. You reap what you sow.

BTW rice is traditionally grown first on dry land then transplanted into the water for protection when it reaches a certain size. So if the main character of Silent Hill f turns out to be a transfer student, a literal "transplant" then you can be sure this imagery is intentional!

OK that's enough mad ranting for tonight. Goodnight for real!