The Great Buddha+: The Black Reality Under the Interaction of Sound and Image
Ever since the invention of talking films, producers and directors have made tremendous efforts to involve music into films. The Great Buddha+ is not only famous for its refreshing use of black and white images, but also the malleability of music that is shown in the film at a level of narrative and representation.
The Great Buddha+ tells the story of Pickle and Belly Button, two low-class characters who witness a murder and run into trouble as they steal a car recorder from Kevin’s car and play its contents to pass the time. The film continues the tradition of humanistic realism in Taiwan, and the malleability of sound in narrative and representation is greatly extended by the creation of the director Hsin-Yao Huang, in addition to the unique black and white images. Thus, in the active interaction between the aural and visual elements, a profound writing of the contemporary underclass narrative of Taiwan is unfolded.
Stage Photo | One the way to Belly Button’s funeral.
Auld Lang Syne is featured at the beginning and end of the movie as one of the theme melodies. This Scottish folk song, widely known worldwide, is often used as music at funerals and New Year’s Eve celebrations because of its haunting melody that remembers the past and laments the passing of good things. However, the combination of music and images in The Great Buddha+ removes the temporal limits on music effects, which instead derives brand-new indications from the interactions of sound and pictures, and brings out the warmth and coldness of the society.
The song is diegetic, rendering a sentimental atmosphere. The two times it appears is invariably at a funeral. For the first time, Pickle is the drummer, with Lin’s funeral procession, in a longitudinal movement toward the audience; for the second time, several close friends join for Belly Button’s funeral with a composition and movement similar to the opening scene. After the melody of Auld Lang Syne is introduced as sound source music, the two funerals are further interpreted in black and white images to convey the sentimental atmosphere of sadness and longing for the deceased. The film’s opening with this song and the funeral footage also hints at the development of the later text: this is a story that begins with “death” and ends with “death”, and in such a closed-loop, intertextual structure, the tone is somber throughout.
At the same time, the objective social class differences are visible in the same song with the superimposed funeral singing. Funeral customs and rituals are an essential part of traditional culture, and complete and thoughtful rituals are not only binding for filial piety in the ethical field but also can bring blessings to future generations in the traditional ideal; hence they are valued in Taiwan. However, planning a funeral also requires a certain economic foundation: as seen in the film, the former is relatively well-off, and the rituals are well thought-out to send the deceased off on his last journey. On the other hand, the latter is a temporary gathering of a grass-roots group with only three or two people in line and uneven and sparse drumming. Despite the same score, there is a world of difference between the two groups of processions in the picture, both in terms of line and scale. Therefore, in the interaction of sound and picture, the cruel social reality is revealed: not only is there a clear class division in people’s lives, but this hierarchical structure also continues after death. Moreover, the bottom class, represented by the Belly Button, on the one hand, has no one to rely on, and their existence is ignored both in life and after death. On the other hand, even the portrait of Belly Button held by his friends when they came to the sound of music was a picture taken from the internet because of his arrest—there is no more way to prove their existence than this picture and the friends who see him off.
Stage Photo | Friend (from left to right: Sayka, Pickle, Belly Button)
However, amidst the layers of sadness, the introduction of Auld Lang Syne also becomes one of the only remaining warm scenes in the film. Although living in a social reality of class confrontation and power struggle, most of the low-class people are also isolated, but the love among them is still precious. Each underclass is living in this society; though they cannot take any concrete action to do justice for Belly Button, Auld Lang Syne is the best note of their friendship—within the scope of their ability to make some modest efforts to complete his funeral process.
The success of The Great Buddha+ is not purely technical. Instead, the key lies in the human concern that the director tries to convey behind the clever handling of sound and picture, giving the audience a heart touch. Under the interaction of sound and image, through the process of video narrative, he constructs a black world of class solidification and separation. In this dark world, the joys, sorrows, powerlessness, and fatalities of the underclass are brought to the forefront, causing the audience to have a disconnected effect in the process of watching and then inducing in-depth thoughts.
Burns, R. (1788). Auld Lang Syne.
Crosland, A. (Director). (1927). The Jazz Singer. https://digitalcampus.swankmp.net/syracuse362001/play/d5f33d0662e4a688
Eisenstein, S., Pudovkin, V., & Alexandrov, G. (2014). A STATEMENT ON SOUND (USSR, 1928). In A STATEMENT ON SOUND (USSR, 1928) (pp. 565–568). University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520957411-161
Huang, H. (Director). (2017, October 13). The Great Buddha+.