Savage Streets

CW: GRAPHIC SEXUAL ASSAULT

The term "exploitation film" is loosely defined as a film that uses lurid material to attract an audience.

That's pretty broad. I believe there are borderline exploitation films and then there's Savage Streets (1984)

I'll give an example of a plot line in each category.

Boarderline exploitation film- rape/revenge

Savage Streets (1984) - rape of a deaf and mute girl and murder of her friend/revenge from her crossbow-using sister on a biker gang.

The poster for this movie reveals the quality we are dealing with here.

The poster is terrible, The first part of the tagline goes over a spectrum of shades, and they used yellow font. It's difficult to read the words "was" and "crime", as there isn't enough contrast with the light sky behind them.

Linda Blair is the star!

Savage Streets starts out with a refreshing change in exploitation movies- male objectification.

Not only is there male objectification, there's an attempt at diversity!

 This is a progressive exploitation movie.

The guys get into a car and drive. The girls walk around Hollywood and gawk at things. An incoherent song plays.

Brenda (Linda Blair) takes a good look at Chekov's crossbow.

The blonde girl, Heather, is the innocent Catholic schoolgirl and Brenda's sister. Linda Blair is the one wearing the cross necklace because, you know, safety after past experiences.

Heather wanders into the street and the guys almost run her over. Brenda helps her up and another girl yells at the guys that her sister is deaf.

This is the second movie I've reviewed in which a character is almost run over by a car so that the line "I'm/She's deaf" sounds natural.

Two movies do not a cliché make.

The main gang member, Jake, tries to get with Brenda but she rejects him.

Jake intercepts someone who owes the gang money for weed. The other guys grab his girlfriend and rip her top off. Jake beats up the debtor.

Clearly this scene was necessary to establish that the gang is bad.

Also, the movie reached a respectable 8:50 before a topless woman shot,

The girls giggle over a picture of a naked man in a  magazine.

"Would you check out the schlong on him? You know, I bet he has to put it on the nightstand when he goes to bed!"

I would say "They should make a movie about that", but someone probably already has.

I bet it's called something like One Night-Stand (197?)

The girls decide it woud be a good idea to take this gang's car for a ride.

I like the juxtaposition of Charlie Chaplin in a movie about a mute girl. It's better than my other interpretation of Charlie Chaplin looking horrified that this movie is being made.

The girls taunt the gang and then get ice-cream while talking about sex.

The ice cream scene is about sixteen seconds long. My theory is that the director had this extremely specific fetish and wanted to put it in.

The guys find the car crashed and Jake screams.

The gang busts into the high-school, past a gratuitous all-girl gym class, and intimidates Debtor. The principal breaks it up with the following line:

"Go fuck an iceberg."

He tells them to leave because they are clearly too old for high-school.

This attractive guy, Wes, leers at the cheerleaders. Then he leers at girls in gym class. But it's okay because he's attractive it's a 1984 exploitation movie.

Some movies have audience surrogates. Wes is Savage Streets's (1984)  male gaze surrogate.

The gang is still on the school property. They also leer at the cheerleaders.

The cheerleaders have a very inappropriate cheer

Our backs are breaking

Our skirts too tight

Our hips are shaking

From left to right

To the left

To the right

To the left, right, left

It's inappropriate because none of them are wearing skirts.

Heather walks into gymnasium to meet Brenda. Cindy walks in and tells Wes not to look at Brenda, or they are breaking up.

Heather gives Brenda a necklace for no reason other than she's about to get assaulted

S-L-O-W shot of girls showering. This isn't even the male gaze; it's the male leer.

Brenda's friends talk about a wedding while getting dressed for no reason other than to justify having a scene in the shower.

Heather takes off her shoes and does ballet in the middle of gym for no reason other than she's about to be assaulted.

The sexual assault scene is by far the most brutal thing I've watched for this blog.

It's ten minutes long and cuts between the assault and Brenda and Cindy getting into a catfight, the two of them going to the principal office, and then Brenda smoking and walking with her friends. So the assault in the story is much longer than ten minutes.

This does not disappoint in being an exploitation film. This scene almost makes the assault scenes in Red Sparrow (2018) seem tasteful by comparison. And they both feature ballerinas.

The one important thing is that one guy, Vince, is reluctant to join.

The girls find Heather and rush her to the hospital. Brenda and her mother stay with Heather.

Brenda goes home, looks at Heather's room, and then goes to talk to her friends at a rock and roll club. Some choice lines:

Charlene: So what's your school gonna do about about it?
Brenda: Put us in the gym and give some speech. Even the cops are a bunch of pussies.

and

Brenda: It's up to us to do something about it.

and

Charlene: You've just gotta believe
Brenda: In what, God? I gave up when my father died.

I've noticed that sometimes there are attempts at social commentary after particularly exploitative scenes in exploitation movies. Maybe the directors feel guilty?

The male gang force Vince to join them at the club, The girls talk about moving to the country and getting a farm.

The guys enter the club and collect money from the Debtor. They sit at the table and mock Vince. One of them grabs and molests a blonde waitress. Then they grab and molest another girl from the Satan's.

The female gang is called the Satans. Perhaps knowing that before the midway point of the film would have been helpful.

The debtor attempts to the stop them and a fight breaks out. The Satans join. It ends with Charlene slashing a guy with a knife and the cops come.

The next day, Ms. Young reads the poem Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Some of the writing in Savage Streets (1983) is truly poetic.

Her name is Ms. Young because she looks younger than the students.

Richie tells the class a poem. Notice the poster of Shakespeare in the background. This builds on the previous scene where Chaplin watches this movie.

Disco Sucks

Punk is Dead 

Give me Rock

Or Give Me Head

Would you believe that Savage Streets (1984) has a really clever and funny scene?

Ms. Young writes the poem on the chalkboard and has the students analyze it.

She claims it is a real poem because "it has rhythm, it rhymes, and it has meaning."

I did not know that those were three satisfactory conditions for "real poetry", but I didn't go to high-school in Savage Streets (1984)

 It escalates to the question "How do sex and death connect?" and Francine replies "Like, till death do us part?"

Oh, and after class, Ms. Young tells Brenda that she is sorry about Heather. which is why she went into detail about death and sex in the lesson.

Vince runs to the Scars. The Scars and the Satans. This movie...

Vince worries that Heather is going to die. Jake tells Vince not to worry as long as he doesn't tell anyone they did it.

Cindy insults Heather in Health class and a catfight breaks out. Brenda rips off Cindy's top. Of course she does.

The prinipal suspends Brenda because she is already in trouble from the first fight.

Francine is picking up her wedding dress later that day, further confusing the age of the high-school students.

The Scars...

He literally has a scar. This movie...

The Scars chase down Francine to a bridge. Jake picks Francine up and tosses her off to her death.

In daylight, as cars pass.

There goes the bride

She's all drenched in red

This movie has a couple fun lines.

Vince attacks Jake and runs away. The remaining Scars hop into their car and drive off.

...The entire point of the marriage was to make Francine's death worse. (?)

The Satins are worried because Francine hasn't returned yet. Brenda decides to go to the hospital to check on Brenda.

Vince enters the hospital and walks into Heather's room without checking on or anything. Even in 1983, was this possible? Considering what he just went through, he probably has a lot of germs on him.

Heather is asleep so she doesn't see one of her rapists.

Brenda walks in as Vince apologizes because the other Scars "forced him." Brenda attacks him and Vince runs away, intercut with scenes from the sexual assault.

So, 1983 hospitals were as tolerant of violence as 1983 high-schools.

Brenda goes home and vows revenge while a song plays. I think this is supposed to be the female empowerment section. but it's hard to tell as it plays over an extended shot of Brenda naked in the bathtub.

Playing with hearts

Is a dangerous game

So don't play with mine

I'll put you to shame

This sounds more like a break-up song than a revenge song.

It's an eye for an eye

You're in a blind rage

That's ableist.

Know what it costs

Before you commit

Don't start a fight

I won't let you win it.

They hold on the "win it" as if they are really proud that they almost rhymed with commit,

She's wearing the necklace. Heather gave her. We know this because of the extended shot of her cleavage.

Brenda grabs a pocket knife from her drawer. Someone calls the house and Brenda's mom answers. She learns of Francine's death and  runs upstairs, but Brenda has gone out the window.

Brenda goes to Vince's house, but his father tells her that "Vincent" isn't allowed visitors on school nights.

Every so often, the movie throws in a good line.

Brenda attacks Vince,

Female empowerment?

Vince claims that the other Scars forced him to assault Heather. Vince tells Brenda where to find the other Scars. Behind a garage.

How does he know if he ran away right after Francine's death? Never mind.

Jake drives the two other Scars (Red and Fargo) to the garage and drops them off because he doesn't want them to watch him assault another girl for some reason.

Fargo reminisces about how Francine bounced when she hit the pavement.

Brenda appears and unzips her top to lure Red and Fargo in.

Female Empowerment

Farg grabs an axe. Brenda laughs and taunts them.

Not really, cause Fargo finds a tape recorder with Brenda's voice.. And then he finds a couple of bear traps. This is the movie that inspired Saw (2004)

Brenda appears in an aisle.

Fargo: The Game's over

This is Saw.

Brenda loads her Chekov's crossbow and aims it at Fargo with the most amazing line.

Brenda: Too bad you're not double-jointed.

                                             Fargo: Why?

                                           Brenda: Because if you were, you'd be able to bend over and kiss your ass good-bye. 

I think that all the writing talent in this movie went to that one exchange.

Brenda shoots Fargo in the throat. Then she starts moaning to lure Red. Then she shoots Red.

Jake sees Vince bring a girl safely home, so he runs him over.

He just happened to see Vince in this alley on his way back from assaulting someone?

Fifteen more minutes to kill Jake.

Jake opens the garage door and sees the corpses of Fargo and Red tied up and bloody. Brenda, hiding in the trees, shoots him in the knees and he falls to the ground.

There's an almost-effective gore shot of Jake pulling the arrows out of his leg. It would be effective if the blood looked less like strawberry jam.

Jake tries to shoot Brenda.

Jake: Brenda? I didn't get you, did I?

Brenda: No Jake. You didn't get me. But I'm definitely gonna get you.

Eh, they used up all the writing talent for the double-jointed line.

Brenda intentionally misses and says she has to go to the car to get some more. Remember, they have to drag this out to fifteen minutes.

Jake manages to drag himself off the steps of the garage and towards the car. Brenda closes a gate and, when Jake tries to open it...

Brenda approaches Jake with a knife and reveals that Francine was pregnant.

I don't know whether that supposed to be a reveal to the audience or if I missed it.

Jake manages to shut the gate, knocking Brenda to the ground, and frees himself. He climbs on top of Brenda, but Brenda stabs him in the genitals.

Brenda runs away (in high heels) and climbs....back into the garage.

Makes sense. Probably couldn't afford a new location

Brenda runs to the other end of the garage, gets behind a gate, and waits for Jake on his injured legs.

Then she sees...

Killing Jake has taken about ten minutes.

Brenda opens a flammable liquid container right as Jake sneaks up behind her, She yells and turns, splashing the liquid on him. (and herself). She lights a lighter and...only Jake gets set on fire.

Jake's arms were around Brenda, and some of the liquid definitely splash onto her clothes, but only Jake is affected.

The police come and Brenda watches Jake burn up on the street.

Cut to a peaceful scene in a graveyard. The Satins plus Heather bring flowers to Francine's grave. I assume Brenda got into no trouble with the police.

Heather takes Brenda's flowers and puts them on the grave. And the movie ends like a generic tear-jerker.

Until the song starts:

No More innocents

No more

No More innocents

No more.

Savage Streets (1984) delivers on it's promise of camp. misogyny, violence, and gore.

So it definitely is a successful movie. Does that mean that it is a good movie?

Probably not. This is no masterpiece like The Candy Snatchers (1973).

Midnight Sun

The Midnight Sun is a fascinating study of a young woman struggling to redefine what normal life is as she is unable to withstand contact with the sun's rays. It is a rich, artistic piece and is probably one of the best offerings from the third season of The Twilight Zone.

Also, I saw Midnight Sun (2018) and it was pretty mediocre.

The theater was almost completely empty. I usually sit at the back of these chronic illness romance movies so I don't distract people when I take notes. So I was walking to the top when I noticed two teenage girls in the back row. When I reached the back row, they started whispering, looking alarmed. Then I realized "Oh, I'm a twenty-something year-old male walking into movie targeted at teenage girls and it looks like I'm going to sit next to two of the only teenage girls in the audience."

So I quickly went to three or four rows down.

The movie starts with a black screen and then sunlight. Getting into the themes immediately. Katie talks about Xeroderma pigmentosum with some visual aids. Just like the original Everything, Everything  (2017)

Speaking of Everything, Everything (2017), the first line of dialogue is a little kid asking Katie's father whether she is a vampire.

For years, Katie has watched a boy ride past her house.

Also, someone named Megan just barges up to Katie's house, asks her father why Katie can't go out, and offers to be her friend.

This movie is an hour and forty-nine minutes and not much happens,

Katie watches the high-school graduation on television. Her father gives her a graduation card and she jokes about he is the best "math, history, Spanish teacher" she has ever had. This takes place in current year and online classes don't exist?

Later in the movie, she even refers to online classes.

Now that she has graduated, her father extends her curfew to midnight, an extra hour. I did not know that graduation affects Xeroderma pigmentosum.

Honestly, Eleven o'Clock Sun would have been a more interesting title.

For a graduation present, Katie's father gives her her dead mom's guitar. Her mom died in a car accident. Of course she did.

The guitar will become A-Major plot point.

Katie's Father: Just like you, [your mother] was hot.

First of all, don't call someone who can't go into the sun "hot". This happens throughout the movie and nobody called attention to it.

Second of all, don't call your daughter hot. There may have been more than a couple incestuous hints throughout the movie. Maybe I was just looking for them, because at least that would have made the movie interesting.

Charlie, the guy Katie watched out her window, got hurt jumping off a roof and now might not be able to get a swim team scholarship.

Katie takes the guitar to a train station and plays the song Reaching. (The Bella Thorne single available for purchase now!) The lyrics are amazing:

But lights are dim

To fulfill my destiny

I'll keep reachin' as far

As I can till break of day

I'll keep reachin' the light

Of my life will find it's way

I know if I reach too far

I may not ever recover

But I know the stars 

Ain't all I'm meant

To discover.

I wrote my own version of the song.

It's not suicide

If I'm sick.

                                                                         

 She meets Charlie coincidentally and they have the worst faux-awkward awkward dialogue. It ends with Katie telling Charlie she has to rush home for her cat's funeral. She leaves her notebook behind.

Cut to Megan at Katie's house exclaiming the stupidity of the cat funeral. Then they talk about Taylor Swift writing songs about awkward interactions with boys,

Have I mentioned that the screenwriter is male?

Megan offers to pick up Katie's notebook for her and meet at the train station, but, of course, she really contacts Charlie to meet Katie. So Katie has an impromptu date with Charlie. She calls Megan angrily because she is wearing sweatpants.

Okay, the makeup in the movie bugs me. Obviously, this movie was going to have Katie in makeup despite her XP. But it gets really distracting when she talks about how she can't ever go out in the sunlight and her face is coated in makeup. It's even more distracting here when she's complaining about sweatpants with a made-up face.

This will get worse in a few scenes.

Katie tells Charlie she is busy during the day but is free at night.

Then he invites her to a party and things get... slightly more interesting,

Morgan helps Katie get into a fancy dress and makeup and she goes downstairs,

First, the make-up is supposed to completely transform her, but she was already wearing make-up. If this movie wasn't about XP, I'd forgive it.

Yes, the most annoying thing about this movie is the make-up.

Second, her dad's reaction is another creepy incestuous hint. I kept watching using the interpretation that he was secretly lusting after his daughter and the movie took on a whole new meaning.

They go to the party, but it turns out to be completely "lame", so they go to another party.

Have to make it to the hour and forty-nine minute run time somehow.

Katie: I've only seen high-school parties in movies.

So has the screenwriter.

Charlie and Katie go to the pier and kiss. Then there's a scene where Katie tries to lie to her dad about going to Megan's when she's really going to meet Charlie. Then there's an attempt at a funny scene where Charlie and Katie's dad meet.

Midnight Sun (2018) is what happens when you take the "chronic illness romance" genre and put it on auto-pilot.

And the next obligatory thing is the pop song montage of Charlie and Katie going out together. Montages are the best way to establish chemistry between actors.

But honestly, Bella Thorne and Patrick Schwarzenegger have less chemistry than Katie's skin and the sun.

Charlie asks Katie's dad to let him take her on a "real date" and he agrees. A "real date" is going on a train to Seattle.

On the train, Charlie makes a big deal out of giving Katie some peanut M&Ms. He asks her to close her eyes and hold out her hands, and there's a too-long shot of the M&Ms wrapper.  This is treated as a huge moment, like Charlie thinks Katie has never had candy before. Have to get product placement in there somewhere.

The first place they go to in Seattle is a live show at a night club. Remember that this movie is about promoting Bella Thorne's songs.

Charlie and Katie leave, go to the harbor, and strip to their underwear to go swimming.

Katie is 17 in the movie, but Bella Thorne is 20. That wasn't my problem. I thought "Should she be exposing that much skin, even at night time?" and then I remembered that this is the fantasy version of XP.

The girls behind me giggled when Patrick Schwarzenegger took off his shirt, so this movie is a hit with its target audience, despite the current 18% on Rotten Tomatoes,

They went on a train, to a night club, swimming and then lay on the harbor. How long is night?

Charlie says this exact lime:

"Ready for the greatest sunrise on planet Earth?"

I love how  Kate has found probably the only guy who would say that line and she has XP.

Katie's watch has stopped because it isn't waterproof. And she has a bunch of texts from her dad telling her to get back to the house. So, she tries running home, but Charlie picks her up in his car and drives her back, leading to the funniest scene in the movie.

Everything slows down as Katie rushes to the house while the sun rises over the horizon. Attempting to make this a suspense scene works about as well as it did the last time. The sun hits her skin just as she enters the house.

Katie's dad rushes her to the hospital. Morgan tells Charlie that Katie has XP. The director actually tries to make this scene artistic- cutting from the doctor telling Katie more about XP to Charlie Googling XP. Then the doctor says he will do a test for the skin exposure to the sun. When Charlie reads a symptom, it cuts back to a clue from earlier in the movie like this is a mystery story. For example, he reads that people with XP can only go out during the night and it cuts back to Katie's line:

"But I'm free at night."

Also, they paid to have Google in the movie.

Some time later, the doctor shows up at Katie's house to give her father the results of the test. This is protocol? Katie watches from the window and guesses that she doesn't have much time left.

The only interesting thing about this movie is the incestuous subtext. Katie sets up her dad for an online dating site. This doesn't sound too creepy until she says that she picked the most attractive photos for him and wrote his profile.

"You lost Mom. You're going to lose me too."

This is like an incestuous Me Before You (2016).

Katie's father reveals that he was the one who had set Charlie up to bring the notebook to the train station instead of Megan. 

For some reason, Katie apologizes to Charlie. Charlie gives her some speech that amounts to "You're gonna die soon, so might as well have a great summer."

Katie watches Charlie at a swim race. She wears a super-protective suit that was never established. Then he invites her to recording studio to plug Bella Thorne's latest song record one of her songs. See, Charlie stole her notebook and read the songs lyrics. Romance.

Katie admits that she has been watching Charlie ride past her window since she was small. Romance

"If I had just looked up, I could have been with you this whole time."

"You were...I love you, Charlie."

Some of the lines border on parody.

The interesting thing about Midnight Sun (2018) is that not a lot happens and then she commits suicide. And the death scene is hilarious.

She decides to go sailing and die that way. Katie is in the sailboat, covered with a hood. She takes the hood off slowly and the sun shines on her face.

Remember earlier in the film when just one ray of sunlight was devastating? Now she can be in a boat in broad daylight. I expect little consistency in idealized Hollywood diseases.

Its kind of amazing how straight they play this suicide.

They cut away to Charlie dumping her ashes so they didn't have to show her father recovering her corpse on the other side of the lake.

Charlie apologizes to Katie's dad for keeping her out late, and her dad says something like "At lease she was happy." Also, the radio plays the song Katie recorded called Walk With Me.

I wish I could walk on a star

I wish I could be where you are

They say don't you ever give up

It's so hard to be somethin' when you're not

Girls, if you want to be a pop star quickly, die young.

Charlie gets Katie's journal and reads a letter to him saying essentially "I Love You" but with a lot of sun and star imagery.

The final line is 

"Remember, I love you."

Midnight Sun (2018) is interesting. Not the film itself, but its existence. They took a 2006 Korean movie about XP that was an extended commercial for a Korean pop star and decided to remake it in America to market an American pop star.

This raises the question: Why are the mainstream releases more exploitative than the actual exploitation movies I review?

Oasis

CW: Sexual assault


This is going to be more of a serious critique than humorous commentary.

Oasis is a 2002 South Korean film about a man recently released from prison who forms a relationship with a woman with cerebral palsy.

Roger Ebert describes new South Korean cinema as "transgressive and disturbing", with "extreme characters"

I argue that Oasis works as a deconstruction of the inspiration porn genre because it takes the structure of a typical inspiration porn but alienates the audience from the characters and story,

Yes, I used the word "deconstruction" unironically.

Spoilers for Oasis, even though there is only one real twist and it isn't exactly crucial to the story.

I'm going to use Me Before You (2016)  as an example of the typical inspiration porn. I designed a structure:

1. Able-bodied Character has some dissatisfaction in life
2. Able-bodied Character meets Disabled Character and there is a stark contrast
3. Characters have an initial negative interaction.
4 Disabled Character relates to Able-bodied Character.
5. Characters bond and grow relationship
6. Third Act Low Point where the Characters fight
7. Something Bad Happens to Disabled Character.
8. Characters Forgive Each Other, Some lesson is learned.
9. Disabled Character Dies.
10. Able-bodied Character changes

But, first I want to talk about the music. The music choices in both movies indicate the philosophies behind the movies. Me Before You used pop songs with lyrics that explicitly described the intended mood. Examples include:

• Till The End
• Don t Forget About Me
• Happy With Me

Oasis has no non-diagetic music except a dream sequence. The only song with lyrics is when a character sings karaoke. I personally felt like the lack of music prevented me from fully engaging with movie, which made it much more effective.

1. Able-bodied Character has some dissatisfaction in life

Oasis begins with the main character, Jong-du Hong, wandering around the city asking strangers inappropriate questions. He gets arrested when he eats a restaurant without paying, and the police reveal that he has a criminal record of assault, attempted sexual assault, and manslaughter from drunk driving. He was just released from prison. His brother is at the station, and he reluctantly picks him up, as the family was attempting to hide from Jong-du. Jong-du's brother tells him to grow up and gets him a job delivering food.

Me Before You starts with Louisa Clark wrapping up a pie for someone in a diner, getting laid off, and then telling her large family that she has to get a new job or she won't be able to support them. The pie scene indicates that Louisa takes pleasure in helping others and getting positive reception, This makes Will's initial cold reaction to her hold more weight. Her primary motivation is to support her family, but she also likes to help everyone.

Jong-du as a main character is extremely alienating. We know that he is a criminal, and he does socially unacceptable things such as eating a block of raw tofu at a store. He uses his money to buy a coat for his mother, but doesn't wear it himself despite the cold. His parents move and change their phone number.  The only motivation I can think of is external; his brother telling him to fit in with society.

But Jong-du doesn't seem to even want this. Not giving Jong-du a strong motivation helped me see the story from a more impartial perspective.

Louisa Clark's motivation changes from money to caring about Will when she learns that her job is to convince Will not to commit suicide. She takes time outside of her paid hours to research things to do. I believe that the Clark's obvious motivations are key to making Me Before You into inspiration porn. The audience is supposed to identify with Clark and thus react to Will as she does.

2. Able-bodied Character meets Disabled Character and there is a stark contrast

Jong-du meets Gong-ju while he makes his most socially inappropriate motion- giving a gift basket of fruit to the family of the man he has killed. Both characters are outcasts; Jong-du for his social mannerisms and Gong-ju for her physical disability.

Louisa Clark meets Will Trainer after accepting the job to take care of him. Louisa Clark is poor and optimistic about life. Will Trainer is wealthy and pessimistic.

Will's family does everything they can to help him, to the point of euthanasia.

Gong-ju's family exploits her. They have friends who illegitimately rent an apartment for disabled people in her name. She has to go there whenever the landlords do an inspection.

I believe that Oasis's choice of two outcasts, for different reasons, makes the eventual relationship more realistic yet shallow. Oasis made me recognize that most inspiration porn fail because they try to craft a deep relationship in a limited time frame. In Me Before You, the relationship jumps from "obligatory" to "real" around the time Will tells Louisa to explore life. In Oasis, the relationship never rises above fetishistic aspects of each character.

3. Characters Have A Negative Interaction

The second time Jong-du is alone with Gong-ju, he tries to communicate with her, and then sexually assaults her. Remember that Jong-du has a previous conviction of attempted sexual assault. This is important because it made me realise that the audience isn't "supposed" to identify with the characters or want them to change. It's just a brutal story that follows the beats of inspiration porn.

Louisa and Will have negative interactions because Will knows that his parents are using Louisa to convince him to not commit euthanasia, and Louisa is experiencing ingratitude.

4 Disabled Character relates to Able-bodied Character.

After the sexual assault, Gong-ju manages to call Jong-du (he left his number) and invites him over. This is the first time Gong-ju talks. Jong-du is descended from a General and Gong-ju means princess. Jong-du lies and says that he works in his brother's auto-shop. This relationship is built entirely on pity/envy. Gong-ju explicitly states this.

Jong-du takes Gong-ju outside against her family's wishes. He does sort of show remorse for the sexual assault, as he asks a pastor to pray for him. Then he gets a job in his brother's auto-shop, purely for Gong-ju. Note that this is the opposite of the beginning, when his brother forced him to get a job delivering food.

Gong-ju uses a mirror to reflect light. When she first meet Jong-du, she accidently throws the mirror and it shatters. Now the reflection is fragmented and it turns into butterflies, symbolizing how she views Jong-du as freedom from her isolated life.

5. Characters bond and grow relationship.

The brilliance of Oasis is that it uses extreme situations (sexual assault, abandonment) to demonstrate that the relationship in this "inspiration porn" is abusive but doesn't comment on it. Jong-du uses Gong-ju to craft his own life story, claiming to be in the military instead of jail. Gong-ju asks Jong-du about life outside to live through him.

The titular Oasis is a painting in Gong-ju's house, representing Gong-Ju as Jong-du's Oasis from society, where he is an outcast. The trees outside form a shadow over the painting, indicating that outside society makes them and outcast, and Jong-du uses his "magic" to make the shadow go away, the "magic" being their relationship.

There are fantasy scenes where Gong-ju gets up and walks. These amazed me, because So-ri Moon plays Gong-ju so well that I was sure she had CP. This is why I think able-bodied actors can play disabled characters convincingly.

The relationship in Me Before You is just as shallow as the one in Oasis, but Me Before You manipulates the audience into thinking that the relationship means something.

6. Third Act Low Point where the Characters fight

Jong-du brings Gong-ju to his mother's birthday dinner, despite neither of them being invited. He casually mentions that she's the daughter of the man he killed and we learn the truth; Jong-du's brother was the driver who killed the man and Jong-du took the blame and went to prison for him because his brother had a family to support.

When they get back to Gong-ju's apartment, they have sex. Gong-ju's family comes back and assume Jong-du broke in and assaulted her.

While typical inspiration porn paints most characters sympathetically and a few as unlikable, Oasis goes out of it's way to make everyone unsympathetic except for Gong-ju, who is entirely passive.

Ebert said that this is the "Idiot Plot", because this whole scene could have been resolved with a simple explanation. I disagree. Who would have believed Jong-du, especially with a prior conviction of attempted rape? Gong-ju attempts to communicate with people, but can't.

 Gong-ju and Jong-du never fight with each other.  In the third act, both are separated due to the accused sexual assault.

In Me Before You, the fight occurs on a beach when Louisa yells at Will for wanting to kill himself despite everything she's done for him. This moment is melodramatic and comes out of nowhere. Despite the movie trying to make the audience sympathize with Will, I felt that Louisa had a good point about being manipulated.


7. Something Bad Happens to Disabled Character Medically.
8. Characters Forgive Each Other, Some lesson is learned.
9. Disabled Character Dies.
10. Able-bodied Character changes

This happens beat-by-beat in Me Before You. It ends with a voice over of Will's letter to Louisa, telling her to live life to the fullest.

None of this happens in Oasis, because the character's aren't fighting.

Jong-du assaults a woman in street to get her phone and call Gong-ju's apartment. He climbs tree and saws off the limbs so there is no shadow over the Oasis painting and gets carted off to jail, where he was at the beginning of the movie.

Gong-ju is all alone, like she was in the beginning of the movie.

The movie ends with a voice-over of Jong-du's letter to Gong-ju from prison, saying he will buy her food when he is released.

This ending is why I believe Oasis subverts the entire inspiration porn genre. The crux of this genre is that the able-bodied character learns something from the tragedy of the disabled character. In Oasis, the able-bodied character learns nothing from the disabled character, and ends up in the same place as he started. The disabled character doesn't change much from her starting point.

Oasis is the counterpoint to the yearly release of generic inspiration porn. Speaking of which, I will do my real review of Midnight Sun (2018) next week,

My April Fool's blog post this year was my first serious post. That's a joke in and of itself.