themes. As an extension to this, bad movies often feature heavy-handed, moralistic messages, delivered with all the subtlety of a brick, and it comes off as a paltry effort to elevate the superficial material. Screenwriting, we learn, is therefore a struggle to present your viewpoint as a filmmaker through real characters and stories, in a way that provokes the viewer to think deeply in an attempt to find their own answers to the questions posed. As entertaining as they are, bad movies, even the best kind of bad movies, are not at all more valuable
than critically acclaimed good movies. However, they certainly cannot be underestimated, especially in terms of their community, their educational value, and thus the insight they provide into how we assign value in terms of media that entertains and fascinates us. Regardless, if this article has impressed upon you nothing else, let it be only that you would be doing yourself a favour by watching the legend—the masterpiece—the Citizen Kane of bad movies—The Room.
ISSUE 17
XIAO HUA
75