By Adam Chan February 15, 2022
Lights. Camera. Action.
Narration?
Many films get on just fine with narration and, in many cases, narration is a necessity. Could one imagine Fight Club (1999) or Shawshank Redemption (1994) differently?
The Great Buddha+ (2017) is a black and white dark comedy that uses the convention of narration to its advantage. The original film was a short film titled The Great Buddha (2014) by Taiwanese director Hsin-yao Huang. The short film garnered the success that allowed Huang to make his short into a full-length feature, earning the right to add a ‘+’ to the end of its title…inspired by how the Apple iPhone has been enhanced through the generations.
Huang introduces himself in a documentary-style narration, which is the root of his filmmaking. We, the audience, can quickly piece together who is speaking to us and rely on his guidance as we watch alongside his vision unfolding. In this documentary-style narration, he serves it as a source of plot, backstory, and character.
The Necessary Character of Commentary
Narration functions well when it is necessary. Huang serves as a character who must speak for the characters who cannot speak out for themselves. It is a harrowing theme in the story. Huang’s narration does not affect the story’s plot; it provides a neutral tone of backstory that beautifully fills in any gaps of information. Huang watches the characters alongside us as we watch them do the same in their world and peer into another. He is not being critical of us; it relates that we are all simply observers of the world, of both the good and bad.
The main characters are similar to Estragon and Vladimir from the play Waiting For Godot, two poor folks that try to survive in the cruelty of society and seemingly have little intention of their own. Pickle (Cres Chaung), a night security guard who finds himself in situations, not of his choosing, and Belly Bottom (Bamboo Chu-Shen Chen), a recycling collector who faces the dirty underbelly of the world day after day. The characters themselves comment on how their names play rank within their hierarchy of society. Although they are the two main characters, without Huang speaking on their behalf to share their circumstance, they would be another soul to disappear into the world.
Seeing the Whole Picture
If I can describe the film in one word, it would be ‘self-aware.’ There are moments in the film that we would not normally be aware of but add significant value and meaning to the meaninglessness of the events that are taking place.
Although the film is primarily in black and white, as the two main characters sneak through dashcam footage of their boss, those images are bright and full of colour. Bottom says the line: “The life of the rich is so colourful.” That line speaks for itself and is something internal to the character’s conflicts.
The Great Buddha+ holds a gold standard in the art of film when it comes to narration in my eyes. The only words I can leave you with are Amitabha Buddha.