Narrative technique · used in 3 films
Using physical places, like buildings, geography or how high up someone lives, to show something you can't see directly, such as a character's class or state of mind.
Examples
Park Chan-wook · 2000
The Bridge of No Return and the border line stand for the divide between the two Koreas. The friends cross it in secret, and the film shows what happens when people step over a line they were told not to cross.
Where to see it: The soldiers passing notes across the bridge. A small written message goes over the border and starts the friendship.
Bong Joon-ho · 2013
The train is a class system you can walk through. The poor live in the dark tail section, and every car toward the engine is cleaner and richer. Bong framed most interiors with the tail on the left and the engine on the right, so the story always seems to move in one direction.
Where to see it: The protein bar reveal in the tail section. The rebels learn the bars they have eaten for 17 years are made from cockroaches.
Bong Joon-ho · 2019
Where people live in this film tells you their class. The Park family lives up on a hill with light and air. The Kims live in a semi-basement below street level.
Where to see it: The flooding sequence in Act 3. The water runs downhill and ends up in the Kim family's home.
Questions