ghost dog analysis

[megin peake]

Still writing on the idea how East and West interpret the samurai, this movie portrays the ghost of a samurai through a modern day "hit-man". The central theme of this movie is trust and loyalty. Which isn't much of a surprise considering this is a samurai based movie where trust and loyalty is an important quality a samurai must possess.
The scene i'm choosing to narrow down in on in the middle of the movie, starting at 50 minutes. This scene starts out with a birds-eye view of Louie walking from his car to an alley which moves into a close up of his face. He notices a pigeon which is an associated symbol with the "ghost dog", so by having Louie notice the pigeon and give a questioned glared indicates that the ghost dog is probably somewhere close. There is a quick gun to his head then a pan out so we see it is indeed ghost dog; this is where we question whether or not ghost dog is a good or a bad guy. Despite him being a hit-man he's still generally a good guy however seeing him turn on his boss would make the audience question this. As a side note i find this a great shot, a medium shot composed beautifully with ghost dog on the left and Louie on the right with a gun between them. Looking at this composing you might be able to tell whether who is the good or bad guy by seeing their positioning, ghost dog on the left which is comfortable to the human eye and Louie on the left which is slightly less comfortable. The reason behind this is because we read left to right and which make our eyes more suitable to that movement. Moving on, ghost dog talks to Louie his "retainer", which is a person who serves and is contracted, or is indebted to a lord, king or emperor [in the olden times]. Ghost dog keeps reminding Louie that no matter what he'll obey to whatever he wants and would never harm him. Ghost dog believes in making Louie his retainer because of a deed he did for ghost dog 8 years before, shooting a guy that was going to kill ghost dog. This is where the element of the samurai plays into the story line and locks in the belief that ghost dog really does live the ways of the samurai. We've seen props such as incense, medallions, and swords but for him to tell Louie that he'll never hurt him/go against him because he is his retainer goes to show us that ghost dog has the samurai passion. At this point there is trust between with the men, Louie trusts ghost dog because he could've easily killed him but he said he would never and ghost dog trusts Louie in finding him whenever he needs help. Loyalty also plays into this short exchange, we see that ghost dog is extremely loyal to Louie by making that promise. A quote from ghost dog states, "samurai must always remain loyal to his boss, so matter what happens"; definitely depicts that ghost dog is legitimate.
Ghost dog proceeds to then go visit his best friend, who is a French speaking Haitian who sells ice cream. I really enjoyed this character because of the unique qualities but. He had very neat characteristics, he only spoke french, sold ice cream, had a ghetto ice cream truck, and him and ghost dog had an ongoing game on chess. It gave the story and ghost dog an extra flavor. Ghost dog remains in his normal attire of all black with what seems to be a samurai symbol on the top back of his jacket as well as having a fake golden medallion around his neck at most times. The two men go off on a walk, the neighborhood they're surrounded by is evidence they're in a somewhat of a lower class area, kids skateboarding, the local park etc. which shows thae financial state of both men, don't have a bunch of extra money but enough to manage. His Haitian friend takes ghost dog to a roof top to show him something, he shows him a man building a tug boat. It's such an interesting pick of what he could've shown him, gives it that unique spice again, ghost dog looks at this and appreciates what his friend has shared with him. The boat has an obstacle which ghost dog realizes and asks his friend [despite either of them being able to understand one another], the obstacle of how is the man going to move the boat when he finishes building it? It kind of questions ghost dog in an indirect way and this relates back to his life of how he's going to deal with the whole ordeal of Louie's mob wanting to find and kill him.
This scene best demonstrates the theme when Louie is acquainted with ghost dog because it shows ghost dogs dedication to the life of the samurai however instead of the importance of swords, they use guns. Throughout this movie samurai qualities show up such as reading a samurai book, having incense and candles lit in a dim room, an offering, ghost dog praying, and his simplistic life with pigeons. It's safe to say that the concept of the samurai is fully communicated through to the audience, ghost dog is in a sense a modern day samurai.

[Cailin L]

Good details, but could use more analysis of specific features (lighting, color choice, etc.)