Fonzi: A Poetical Space about Relation of Self, Another-self, and Space within Motion Picture Context
Title : Fonzi (24 mins.) Singapore 2006
Director : Tang Keng In Kirsten
Genre : Short Movie
This is a Synopsis I citted from the festival catalogue:
“A world-within-world story, Fonzi is a tale of a movie character who, like Pinocchio, wants to be a real person. Except Fonzi takes it one step further, and believes herself real when she is not. And, unlike Pinocchio, (who had Disney and magic), Fonzi can never be real.”
But I see Fonzi from another point of view. There’s something I found interesting from this movie, that maybe even the director/writter doesn’t realize it. Or, let’s say that I’ve made some wild interpretation about it: It talks about relation of “self” and “space” in a very poetic way!!
The story began with Fonzi telling the spectator about her self, her childhood, her friends, and then... sudennly when she watch TV she saw her self in TV talking to her. And then she realized that she was in another space, an empty space. There’s nobody there except her and “another-her” in TV. And then she ran away from the TV and only found an empty world with no other human being. So, she ran again, and this time she came in to a theater building, and again, met “another her” in the theater screen. No matter how and where she ran or hide, her “another self” will always find her.
So, what’s so important about Fonzi, Another-Fonzi and their Space?
Fonzi might be anyone, she might be me, you, or anyone else.. who lives within a specific space.
And what is space? Hmm., it’s a little bit hard to make a definition about Space..
In The Value of Space, Steve Yates assert that a definition of space is ever-expansive. The interpretation of space measurable only in the context in which it is used. However, conceptions of space have played a significant role in the evolution of art. And in this Fonzi case is a motion picture space.
I thoght what Fonzi trying to say is, every shape, every form need and have it own space. Now Fonzi is a form, a self that has its form, act, and character. And her space is a motion picture space. Fonzi sees Another-Fonzi in it space, and we see Fonzi and Another-Fonzi in their space. So it’s about seeing and realizing another space to see and realize that acctually we live in a space too, a certain restricted space.
This is just a wild and subjective interpretation from me. Like a poem, Fonzi is very ambivalent, ambiguous, and open to many interpretation. How about yours?
