'MediaCorp’s “Police and Thief” Essay\r'

'1. Short summary of my savvy of the question and my thesis state ment\r\n2. State whatsoever evident similarities and differences amongst the 2 case studies.\r\n3. rumpvass each case study with the following categories in mind:\r\na. Narratives\r\nb. Genres\r\nc. Representation\r\nd. Ideology\r\ne. Scenes\r\n4. Conclusion\r\n5. approximately other things to cogitate virtually:\r\na. Give c everyplace examples.\r\nb. Aspects of styles.\r\nThese two visualises are very capital of capital of Singaporean. By this I mean that they contain galore(postnominal) ingredients which are grotesque to my country, elements which only within the paradigm of our society provide resonate with topical anesthetic viewers. Homerun, an Asian remake of the internationally acclaimed Iranian ikon Children of Heaven is a movie directed by Jack Neo, who is a local anesthetic anaesthetic celebrity best known for his sur hardihooddic prowess and the m whatsoever a nonher(prenominal) comedy s hows under his name. Police and bandit is a relatively new weekly half- mo situation comedy shown on Channel 5 which has yet to stiff a foothold in the heart of local audiences. These locally produced shows use, essentially different techniques in many areas to present the story to us while do use of our experiences as Singaporeans to wait on us examine and evaluate the shows from their story/plot to the surprises and nuances contained within. I entrust proceed to show you how the techniques used are also more different than similar.\r\nA distinction among the two shows is the element of narration. Cause and effect is occupied to effectively present the story or stories in the shows. It is not uncommon to find secondary stories in an episode of a situation comedy or sitcom. These are often inserted into the plot and often come to take inher in conclusion at the fire of the episode. In Police and highwayman, the show starts off on this episode with Lee Tok Kong the impo rtant character of the show wanting to get under the blanket with his married woman and cod to common reasons of tiredness and falling dormant chop-chop, has his pleas ignored.\r\nThis scene is contactd to how Tok Kong later reacts to the wiles of a less(prenominal) than archetypical femme fatale. There is another(prenominal) story inserted in between, which shows how the neighbour’s sons, Rudy and Rafi having an unspoken dispute over a common love interest. This plot suppuration has no explicit and implicit impact on the main story menti unitaryd earlier. It almost feels like tokenism has interpreted place, either to fill up the half hour of screen time or to give wildness to the other characters in the sitcom.\r\nIn Homerun, it is quickly formal that poverty leads to a lack of options and hence with the losing of garb early into the movie, we prove the main ’cause’ in the show that explains later effects. The show revolves roughly how the main char acters are thwarted at every enterprise to obtain a new pair of garb or retrieve the old pair. We do not see scenes that chip in no relation to any other. In fact the entire narration of Homerun is about a search for a cause- spot.\r\nBoth the shows have different range of stories. There is less indecision buildup in Police and Thief and this is probably due to restricted narration where both(prenominal) the audience and the characters in the show know the same information at relatively equal times. The only example of all-weather narration in the recent episode was when Rudy cheated on his promise to his brother Rafi behind his back to get a chance to go out with the girl, Cecilia, they both like. Rafi only found it out in another scene when Cecilia whom similarly does not know of the conflict called their home. In this case, we know more than several(prenominal) characters in the show at a special(a) time.\r\nIn Homerun, during the opening sequence of Chew Kiat Kun running errands for his family, it is quickly established that a rag-and-b angiotensin converting enzyme man had taken out-of-door the pair of shoes which Kiat Kun had put down. Kiat Kun has no imagination how the shoes had mysteriously disappeared and hence his sister Seow Fang too. In this scene only when, a beautiful play on camera angle suffices to keep us in suspense till much later in the show. This seemingly passing top down tight fitting up scene of the gnarled hands removing the shoes helps to tug hard at our heart strings when we later realize the rag-and-bone man is blind. The above is a good example of how both restricted and nonsensitive narration can be developed from one scene. We know who had taken away the shoes (unrestricted narration) provided like the characters in the show we have no idea he was blind (restricted narration).\r\nThese two shows get to the 2 commonest genres in Singapore. Police and Thief can be classified as belonging to the â€Å"HDB” genre . In fact this plot of this particular sitcom revolves around the conflict faced by two men who live in obturate proximity. It has an appeal particular to local viewers who are able to appreciate the familiar settings. One example which we can relate to is the scene of Lily, Tok Kong’s wife who repeats a poking line in a scene where her face is framed in the center of our common sometime(a) HDB window panes. It is common to see neighbours walking and talking from the same angle for those who have lived in HDB flats.\r\nHomerun is a social commentary and even as it is establish in 1965, the year Singapore became independent, it reflects on socio-political situations which were familiar during the time of filming i.e. the weewee issue between Malaysia and Singapore. Another genre which is mixed into both these shows is the drinking chocolate shop genre, featuring many scenes of meeting and interactions at local coffee shops. We see this in Police and Thief where Tok Kong was existence interviewed by a lady pricey the beginning of the show and in Homerun, Kiat Kun helps out his instructor from school who is close to collapsing from shortness of breath at a roadside coffee shop.\r\nThere is obvious stereotyping in Police and Thief. Tok Kong is your typical gangster or â€Å"Ah Beng” in colloquial terms. He has wild, pointy gelled hair and wears colorful clothing, even for sleeping attire (Opening scenes). His heavily distressed Singapore Colloquial English (SCE) (â€Å"Don’t play with my heart”) and his love for techno music ejaculate â€Å"Ah Beng”. He is put in direct blood line with his neighbour and antagonist in the show sergeant-at-law Dollah who is a policeman. Dollah is characterized with short hair, very neat and righteous.\r\nThese stereotypes alone set the premise for tension and conflict as neighbours. It is akin to Phua Chu Kang versus his sister-in-law Margaret. The stereotypes in Homerun broadly diffe rentiate the adequate and the poor. A simple comparison can be made between Beng briefly and Kiat Kun, friends of opposite ends of the sparing spectrum whose relationship sours then mends in the course of the show. Beng Soon is cast in shirts, clean with well-gelled hair (in school) and stands at a good head taller than Kiat Kun. His friend until now is almost always dirty, with smudges on his singlet and/or face. Even during a game of association football, Beng Soon provides the soccer boots and he is the only one on the force field with soccer socks.\r\nTok Kong as the gangster also becomes an motion-picture show easily associated with local shows of similar genres. There is no obvious icon in Homerun. It uses a melodic theme rather, to play out the story. There were multiple scenes of close ups of your ‘Bata’ white or dirty shoes (in the shops or in the background with Seow Fang’s face in the focus). Many scenes of tension started because of shoes e.g. the shoes slithering off and into a canal full of travel water and even in the scene where Seow Fang’s teacher paces as the children are exercising). These scenes feature changes in music, close ups with dialogue in the background, all to resume attention to the motif in the show.\r\nDuring the scene at the well with the confrontation between the two groups of boys, we see wealth being equated with role, that Beng Soon who was the rich one could actually decide who got to use the well. This is perhaps the director’s ideology portraying the way Malaysia hordes over us in the water issue. The premise of Homerun rotated around three things: shoes, intelligence and power being associated with wealth. Jack Neo parodies the socio-political situation between Singapore and Malaysia using the three elements with shoes being the water, Singapore being the more intelligent country and power that Malaysia holds over us due to their superior water resource.\r\nThe two shows e nd differently too. The end of the sitcom is close without answered questions while the cryptic ending of Homerun leaves us pondering what the director would have us think as we leave the cinema. There is no element of suspense left in Police and Thief to entice the audience to look out for the conterminous episode, unlike a soap opera.\r\nEven as both shows make use of our experience to raise our appreciation and understanding of the shows, they obviously use several different techniques and some similar ones to bring forrader the essence of each individual story. These different methods bring out certain elements essential to the plot of the stories and ultimately help us to enjoy the shows as Singaporeans.\r\n'