The film “Life of Pi”

Ang Lee directed the film “Life of Pi,” which has a wonderful plot and impressive visuals (Lee 3). The narrative was based on a best-selling book that most readers did not believe would ever be adapted for the big screen due to the novel’s complexity and the difficulties it would have created to film and preserve the plot. It is regarded as a powerful spiritual accomplishment that captures how life is.

The film chronicles the 227 days that a youngster spent drifting across the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat. In that boat, the teenager had to share with a Bengal tiger which was one of his father’s zoo animals. The tiger and the teenager found themselves in one boat after a colorful and amusing prologue that in itself enlarged to the exciting family film (Sa’adah 12). The film eventually expands to a parable of survival, adaptation and acceptance.

The story began in Pondichery, India in a small family zoo where Piscine was raised (main character). Piscine was often mocked by his name in which his peers would call him ’pee’ that was then translated as Pi in the movie. In the story, the zoo owned by the Pi’s father goes broke and this forces him to transport his family and some valuable animals on the ship heading to Canada. During the trip, a storm hits the ocean and Pi losses touch which his family after the ship is destroyed. After the unfortunate events, a hyena, lion, orangutan, and zebra get into the lifeboat with Pi and are drifted away by the sea. Most of the film concentrates on the journey through the sea in which Pi demonstrates that he has the ability to think with greater ingenuity while the tiger demonstrates that it has the ability to learn.

Ang Lee is a film director from Taiwan; he is also a producer and film writer. Lee has done other films like Pushing Hands, Eat Drink Man Woman, and The Wedding Banquet which have explored conflicts and relationships between modernity and tradition (Lyness 449). The unique director has also ventured into films that trigger the repressed and hidden emotions like The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain and Hulk. Most of his work is popularized by their emotional charge in which it is believed to be responsible for their success in achieving international recognition and offsetting cultural barriers (Torabi 12).

Lee produced the film Life of Pi in 2009 in which he adapted the name directly from the book that was authored by Yann Martel. This novel was at one point considered to be impossible to turn into a movie; however, Lee managed to persuade the 20th Century Fox to direct their investment into the creation of the movie which was highly reliant on special effects in 3D during its post-production (Visser 219).

Contrary to the other sci-fi movies of the past, Lee managed to explore the artistic horizon related to the application of 3D effects in which he explored how the technology could serve the artistic vision of the movie (Torabi 20). Lee is recognized for the chameleon-like diversity that he installs into his films; he uses different genre and subjects in all his movies. Nonetheless, each choice that he makes redefines his single exploration of a relationship between an individual and the society or the outsider. If this is viewed consistently, then one realizes that his work remains the same. Even though he represents a diverse subject matter, Lee always finds common themes in all the materials that he selects (Visser 219). As a director, he has managed to define the concept of globalization throughout his films as compared to the other directors.

In the Life of Pi film, Ang Lee has keenly incorporated camera angles, symbolism, and music that contributed to a better understanding of the main character’s depth (Lyness 449). The utilization of the camera angles during the film have assisted in attaining an enhanced understanding of the themes and setting and the character. In this case, camera angles represent the various styles and processes used to capture a shot. The close ups and mid shots possess a high significance in the film because they reveal intentions and emotions of the characters especially Pi. A low angle shot was used to show the tiger being trained and is relevant because the assumptions from Pi’s feelings and emotions reveal that he seems ruthless and angry.

At the same time, the director has intentionally shown Pi’s emotions with relevance to the shots that he used since he was mad and aggravated. They used the shot to portray him as more superior and powerful to Richard Parker (Lyness 21). As the story ends, it is discovered that the Richard Parker seems to be the figure in Pi’s mind and the tiger is just a metaphor. The shot that was done in a low angle reveals that Pi is directs his life and he decided to control his wild side by training it (Visser 219).

Based on the Life of Pi movie, Lee is portrayed as a realist because of the special effects that he used in the film to bring out the humanity of the main character, Pi. The special effects that Lee used in the film were well thought out and prepared so that they would assist in creating the reactions that were attained from the audience. The angles that he used to film the movie had a major impact on how the characters were perceived. Lee used music in the film to show the emotions and feelings of the audience which also assisted in setting the mood to various scenes in the movie (Torabi 24). The music that was incorporated in the film told the audience where the main character comes from as well as offered them an insight into his culture. In the entire film, traditional Indian music was used and the mood that was provoked from the audience changed the music while the underlying culture was maintained.

The film shows that music is essential to culture and the audience in general. The kinds of music that we enjoy could be linked to the content of character and it can make the audience express and feel feelings; this is the reason why Lee incorporated the unique music to his film (449). The director also used symbolism in order to link the characters to the animals so that he could show how they behaved specifically during a life-threatening event. Furthermore, he has used the animals enhance the understanding that if one is put in particular conditions, it is important to survive and we may turn into animals which is equal to irrational thinking (Visser 217). This has been depicted in the scene whereby the possessive and kind orangutan, just like the mother of Pi, protects a zebra once it was attacked by the hyena. This was an intentional decision by the director to assist the viewer to have a better understand that we have to control our wild side in unsettling situations.

The director wanted Pi to act just like any other person in the same situation would have, wild and thoughtless. For instance, Pi did not have any issue during the first part of the journey because his faith kept him sane, but later as he is fighting for his survival, he finds that there are aspects that are more essential than faith. He rebels against all his religious practices of consuming just vegetarian food so that he can stay alive. Therefore, the director wanted to show the immense change in Pi even if it seems unimportant in the film; he did this by showing him going against his religion and culture which influenced his choice of food.

The film combines different religious traditions but in a hidden manner so that it could enfold the story in terms of the wonder of life. The director acted remarkably by combining the use of animal characters and a single human character to evoke specific emotions from the audience. The scenes in the movie are all interlinked and relate to one another but this can only be seen if one pays attention to the fine lines that connect and assist in making everything in the movie work (Torabi 15).

Works Cited

Lee, Ang, et al. Life of Pi. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2013.

Lyness, Paul I. ”Patterns in the mass communications tastes of the young audience.” Journal of Educational Psychology 42.8 (1951): 449.

Sa’adah, Hilyatus. A Semantic Analysis of Entailment Applied by the Main Character in the Movie Life of Pi. Diss. Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, 2014.

Torabi, Atousa, et al. ”Using descriptive video services to create a large data source for video annotation research.” arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.01070 (2015).

Visser, Franco P. ”Life of Pi: movie review.” African Journal of Psychiatry 16.3 (2013): 219.