A Journey Through the Universe Without Words: How 'The Mandalorian & Grogu' Returns to the Origins of Cinema (Attractions)
*This article does not contain core
spoilers, but it does mention the production and style of the work.
While watching 'The Mandalorian & Grogu' in the darkness of the movie theater, I was overwhelmed by a certain 'strange silence.' No, of course, the sound is powerful, and there are explosions and spaceships flying across the screen. However, the structure of the 'story' there is surprisingly quiet and simple.
At first glance, this might seem like a subtractive script that Hollywood has tuned to be easily understood by the masses. However, I saw a completely different landscape. This is not a regression. Rather, isn't it a happy atavism to the excitement of the moment the medium of film was born—a 'pure visual attraction where the story can be understood even without sound,' like Georges Méliès' 'A Trip to the Moon' (1902)?
Come to think of it, the situation surrounding Star Wars (SW) in recent years has been somewhat stifling.
If Episodes 1-6, created by the sole god George Lucas, were the massive 'canonical myth' of the SW world, depicting the succession of the Force, the rise and fall of the Republic, and the tragedy and reconciliation of the Skywalker family, then Episodes 7-9 (the sequels) made afterward seem like products of a business lost in commercial compromise. Trying to kill two birds with one stone—gaining new fans while satisfying seasoned, discerning ones—resulted in many viewers feeling that the charm of characters like Rey and Kylo Ren was not fully realized and that the story fell apart. For many viewers, the story must have seemed to lose its sense of unity. That is likely why there was no update to 'Episodes 10 and beyond' that they probably originally wanted to produce, and why current SW has had to rely on spin-offs (apocrypha) as 'gospels' or 'songbooks' to fill in the gaps, rather than the main story.
Ironically, it was the Mando and Grogu duo, the children of this spin-off, who saved the galaxy at that dead end where the massive myth called the main story had stalled.
Why do they capture our hearts so much? I felt the secret lies in a return to the 'genetic code of Japanese culture,' which is the origin of SW.
Just as Lucas once built the framework of SW from Akira Kurosawa's 'The Hidden Fortress,' the creators of 'The Mandalorian' undeniably chose
'Lone Wolf and Cub' as their base.
A taciturn bounty hunter hiding his face behind an iron mask and a toddler who cannot yet speak. What they weave is not a grand political drama involving the fate of the galaxy. It is a gritty story of duty, humanity, and chivalry: 'risking everything to protect one small, fleeting life that you can never betray.'
Just as Japanese period dramas 'speak with their backs,' these two do not need dialogue. Mando shows his conflict with the slight angle of his mask, and Grogu expresses 100% of his emotions just by the movement of his ears and the widening of his large eyes. The overwhelming eloquence of this 'body language.'
Because it does not require words, the film is freed from complex 'setting explanations.' We can lean back in our theater seats, be surprised by strange creatures, hold our breath at the dizzying action, and 'bathe' in the pure dynamism of the visuals, as if riding a theme park attraction. Just as people all over the world were once enthralled by the moving images of 'A Trip to the Moon' beyond the language barrier, this work has revived the pleasure of film as an original 'spectacle (attraction)' with the highest modern technology.
Director Martin Scorsese critically remarked about the modern wave of massive comic book movies, 'That is not cinema, it is a theme park (attraction).'
However, the 'attraction-ization' in this work should be taken as the highest compliment. It has unleashed the curse of the 'myth (sequel)' that had become bloated, bound by settings, and unable to move, and brought SW back to a toy box where anyone can intuitively get excited. It abandoned words and staked its life on Japanese lyricism and pure visual excitement.
I felt that stopping the telling of myths and committing to being the best 'attraction' is the clean and most happy victory of this spin-off, which brought the gospel to a wandering galaxy.
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