We Are the Best! brings an inner child-like experience back to life. It a mindset many of us have forgotten, and while watching this movie I could not help but reflect back on my own youthful urge for rebellion. I choose the still of the home-haircut, partly because I once found my long hair at the mercy of my little scissor-held hands and partly because this scene defined the film for me in a physical way: to gain something (freedom, confidence, purpose) means that something else must be left behind (fear, fulfilling other people’s expectations of yourself, comfort).
Touch of Sin takes on a much darker expression of rebellion, often eliciting intense feelings of hopelessness and frustration. I chose the scene where a village worker takes revenge on his village leader, who had selfishly sold the collective land of his people for his own commercial profit. The (Justified? Unjustified?) murder takes place in front of what appears to be a run-down (even abandoned) Buddhist temple, sharply representing a fading belief system in a rapidly shifting world and the impact of these shifts have had on people. This thought trails through the length of the film; individuals living in a world with more than a “touch of sin,” where violence seems to be the only response to a collapse of humanity in an unstable world.
