AHMAD ADLI BIN ROSLI
2018440664
MC243S4B
BROADCAST CRITIQUE - MIDNIGHT DINER: TOKYO STORIES
1. What are the conventions that make up the genre?
The conventions that make up the genre for Midnight Diner:
Tokyo Stories is about slice of life. Slice of life is about a realistic
representation of everyday experience in film. The genre appears to be a slice
of life, drama, romance, and comedy. The series revolves around stories of
customers of a diner in Japan, with each episode telling different stories of
their own everyday life.
2. If the program appears to be a hybrid genre, what are the
conventions of the genres that have been combined to make it a hybrid?
The program appears to be hybrid because of 2 different genres
combined together. For example, the series also tells of a particular food or
dish for each episode accompanied with different stories and challenges of the
customer ordering the food. All of this create a hybrid genre. Meanwhile the
Master in this series is the main character for this series but he is a
mysterious person whom background is not clearly explained, which make up of
the mystery genre.
3. What are audience expectations of that particular genre?
As an audience, I expect nothing much in this story because
a few of the episodes are kind of slow and the storyline is not that bad for
me. For me, who like watching people cooks food, I focused on the foods a lot
more rather than focusing on the storyline. Moreover, they should emphasize more
on the mystery part in this series to make it more exciting.
4. What it the narrative progression? Describe the events.
The narrative progression for this series is very linear. In
the second episode of Midnight Diner, “Corn Dog”, the story started from
showing Hajime Moriwaki and his Master Comedian in acting entered the diner.
Then the story turns to a plot where it tells a story of the master get jealous
of his apprentice because his apprentice is more famous than him. They then got
into a big fight with each other but get along with each other at the end of
the episode. The plot will change throughout the series with different episodes
brings different people and stories.
5. How is time presented? Are the events successive? Do they
go back and forth in time, or do events occur simultaneously?
The time presented simultaneously. Yes, the events successive.
Every episode of the show will start and will end with their own ending.
6. What is the lack or disequilibrium, and how it the lack
removed to restore equilibrium?
Disequilibrium can be characterized as a sudden event or an
underhanded character that would then be able to prompt a progression of
contention including occasions, and the equalization is known as the harmony.
It very well may be set up when there are harmony occasions in the film. For
example, the Master Comedian and Hajime Moriwaki as his apprentice have a
contention about their relationship in episode 2. Others who knows Hajime might
want to snap a photo with Hajime as opposed to his master since he is presently
significantly more popular. It brings about the master gets desirous towards
Hajime. Anyway in the last scene, the two of them got along again on the
grounds that the circumstance is unravelled.
7. Is there a hero and heroine and a villain or villainy?
How is the hero or villain represented? What are their action, and how can
their personalities be derived from their actions? Does the hero or villain
have superior abilities?
In my opinion, this series hero is the main character, is
The Master, the one who cooks. The hero portrayed in this series is very
enigmatic, there is no clear history to his past. He has a very obvious scar on
the left side of his nose, implied in one episode to be from a sword cut from a
harsh past existence, maybe he is a former Yakuza or from gang things by my
thinking, even if this is never clarified otherwise. The Master has very
sympathetic features too. Almost all the time, he will be the one who solve the
client's problems although sometimes he never gets too involved in their
affairs.
8. How does conflict play out? Are there oppositions such as
good and evil, legal and illegal, work and home, and/or masculine and feminine?
The dispute depends on every episode in this series. Each
episode has its own conflict. In fact, in the first season there are things
happen where the roles played between male and female. For example, in the
first episode, the leader of the ranger is actually wanted to be a female but scrutinize
by some people who thought that action was going against nature.
9. Is there closure or delay until the next episode? How is
this presented?
For this story, each episode was not related at all. This is
because each episode has their own story to tell. Moreover, there were no delay
because each episode ended perfectly so that the next episode will have a new
story to tell rather than continuation from the previous story. However, the
only delay that the audience get from this series is The Master (The cooker)
background.
10. Identify the stages of the hermeneutic code - enigma,
delay and resolution - that move the narrative forward. (The enigma engages
viewer interest by presenting a riddle such as “who committed the crime?” and
teases the viewer to guess what happens next. The delay stalls or postpones the
solution to the enigma. A resolution to the enigma is finally found, but it may
create another enigma.) Can you identify the enigma, delay and resolution or
several of them in the narrative?
The enigma in this series that I can conclude is from
episode 2 when Hajime wanted to sleep with his master’s mistress, and then when
Hajime wanted to confess to the mistress the scene abruptly change to another scene
which leaves audience with a cliff hanging feeling about what happened on that
night. The delay is when the audience are waiting for the answer on what happened
on that night. However, the resolution is when the master came to the Diner and
told Hajime that he knew that Hajime slept with his mistress.
11. Are there elements of older stories that are retold in
the narrative?
In the first episode this is where the Radio DJ or his name is
Shimada keep thinking about his favourite TV show when he was little, the
elements of older stories were revealed there.
12. Can you identify myths? Do the myths give lessons for
social order?
Myths can be defined as a traditional story, especially one
concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social
phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. In my
opinion, there are some myth that have been dropped in the series such as in
the episode 2, the Master Comedy told everyone that Hajime have a small size
penis in the diner. A low blow myth that stated that Japanese men usually have
a small penis.
13. Are there archetypes and rituals in the narrative? If
so, how do they relate to the myths?
Archetypes vary between each episode so there are no
consistent one. However, the archetype that can be seen is when Hajime gets
swarmed by fans when he is walking with his master because he is famous. The
myth about Japanese guys having small penis intertwined with the narrative when
the master started telling people at the diner that Hajime has a small penis
and cannot satisfy his mistress when Hajime secretly sleeps with her.
Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WgzI150y1ayXHh1GwoVaob9DVLMnZmV3
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