I've been thinking about how much Western storytelling trains us to expect that writers show the audience where they're going right up front. Main characters have to be introduced right away. Twists have to be foreshadowed. Inciting incident in the first 10% etc. BUT 1/
Many of my favorite stories, especially Asian ones, don't adhere to these "rules." In My Neighbor Totoro, Totoro doesn't appear until 30 mins into a 90 min film. The slow sense of discovery makes the film enchanting. Can you imagine any American film waiting until the 33% mark?
If the film Parasite had been an American movie, there would all sorts of clues, hints, bumps in the night. Or maybe the movie would've ended with the rich and poor families having a showdown and then reconciling. As it is, when the twist comes, it's truly a shock. 3/
Yet, it makes perfect sense and re-contextualizes everything. It's been thematically foreshadowed but NOT literally foreshadowed.
Not an Asian film, but there's a similar OMG WTF moment in Sorry to Bother You that works precisely because it *hasn't* been foreshadowed. 4/
Not an Asian film, but there's a similar OMG WTF moment in Sorry to Bother You that works precisely because it *hasn't* been foreshadowed. 4/
As a former debater, I was taught, "Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them." Front loading (or hinting at) all your narrative cards upfront is a storytelling tradition couched in cultural assumptions and not really a rule at all.
Follow up! Here's a great article from @HenryLienAuthor
that talks more about culture and story forms (and includes a structural breakdown of Parasite, to boot).
that talks more about culture and story forms (and includes a structural breakdown of Parasite, to boot).
https://twitter.com/Rowena_SW/status/1364506966651936775
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