Film Journal | Life of Pi (2012)

 

Introduction and story of the Movie

Life of Pi (2012) is a fantasy movie that directed by Ang Lee and this story originally wrote by Yann Martel. The actors that play the main roles in the movie are Suraj Sharma as teenage Piscine Patel and Irrfan Khan as adult Piscine Patel. (AFI catalog of feature films) In this movie, Mamaji told the novelist Pi has a fantasy story that will catch his eyes and makes him believe in god. The story is narrating becomes the sole survivor in a shipwreck and drifting on the sea with the Bengal tiger, Richard Parker. 

Setting

The setting of drifting on the Pacific Ocean will bring about the feeling of uneasiness and loneliness to the main character, Pi. Pacific Ocean owns the deepest trench in the world and its name is Mariana Trench.(2014) Other than that, Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean among the Earth’s oceans. He does not know when will be discovered and survived. Meanwhile, he is worried about the unknown attacker that living under the deep sea.

Props

In the plot development, the utensils in rucksack have big effectiveness for the survival of Pi. Among the utensils, survival handbook has provided some survival guidance and the weaknesses of wild animals. It is the only sustenance for Pi to have a strong will to survive during his drifting.

After Pi decided to settle down on the mysterious island, the discovery of human’s tooth flower helps Pi to realise the danger of living on this mysterious island. In the next day, Pi promptly escape from the island and finally arrived at the seacoast of Mexico.

Costume

On the sea, Pi has two sets costume. When the drifting just started, Pi is wearing a neat kurta and trouser. In this beginning phase, Pi is vulnerable and has not adapted to his drifting life since many variable incidents had happened. When Richard Parker is tamed by Pi, he is wearing a trouser, a hat made by his kurta and strip to the waist. In this phase, Richard Parker is successfully tamed by Pi and both can even stay on a boat peacefully.

Make-up

Pi’s messy make-up and hairstyle make him looks dirty to indicate Pi is undergoing a physical and mental exhausted. There is also a sunburn make-up on Pi’s cheeks and body, evincing the long duration of drifting

Lighting

Before the rainstorm coming, the usage of lighting in this scene is obvious. The strong sunlight area and the dark rainstorm area create a strong contrast. In this scene, we can observe that the rainstorm area is more than sunlight area. Therefore, audiences enable to foresee what incident will happen in the next.

In the mysterious island, the colour tone that applies in the mise-en-scene is respectively using dark yellow in the daytime and fluorescent green in the night. Although this scene applies yellow tone, it is a darker yellow that creates a weird ambience. The fluorescent green that applies in the night helps Pi to reveal the truth of this island.

Performance

The main character, Suraj Sharma needs to put many efforts since all the animals include Richard Parker is generated by the filmmaker. This actor has indicated the personality of Pi very well. For instance, when the orangutan enables to shock the hyena, he smiles sincerely; when the orangutan is attacked by hyena, he suddenly flies into the fury and tries to attack the hyena. This action shows Pi’s kind-hearted and courageous personality. 

Conclusion

To conclude, the animation in this movie is high quality as all the animals look real and some of the mise-en-scene is beautiful. The pace of plot development is good as it is not procrastinate and makes the audiences feel boring.

References

AFI catalog of feature films. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://catalog.afi.com/Film/69096-LIFE-OFPI?sid=48119b50-f000-4f41-a6b2-b6f9e01beb60&sr=9.986348&cp=1&pos=0

About the Mariana trench - Deepsea CHALLENGE Expedition. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.deepseachallenge.com/the-expedition/mariana-trench/