By ANA LUCENA
Daily Arts Writer
Female director Boo Ji-young
seamlessly blends the line between
art and activism in “Cart.” The
screening
I
attended
was
part
of
the
film
festival
Korean Cinema
NOW,
that
showcases
the
development of
Korean culture.
Before the film,
a speaker from
the University of Michigan Nam
Center for Korean Studies, a key
sponsor, explained that the film
and the real-life incident that
inspired it provoked a heated
discussion on women’s rights and
labor rights in South Korea that
exists to this day. It was a privilege
to learn more about the East Asian
country while enjoying their
cinema that has increasingly (and
understandably) earned praise in
the last decade.
The film focuses on Sun-hee
(Yum Jung-ah, “The Spies”) and
divorced Hye-mi (Moon Jeong-
hee,
“Mama”),
two
mothers
who do not live with the fathers
of their children. They work at
a major supermarket chain as
temporary
workers,
meaning
their benefits are limited. In
spite of the fact many temporary
workers get stuck in this position
for several years. Right away, we
see the difference between the
two women’s attitude towards
work: Sun-hee works overtime
without pay to help her chances
of getting a vaguely promised
promotion from the company,
while Hye-mi is unable to avoid
conflict with entitled customers
and struggles to subsequently
apologize
as
demanded
by
her
superiors.
Both
women
comply with the supermarket’s
regulations, though, as they are
the only ones sustaining their
households.
The struggles women face
to
keep
employment
at
all
ages is illustrated in the wide
variety of women who work at
the supermarket as temporary
workers, who are from all walks
of life and in similarly precarious
situations. There are recent college
graduates who can’t get a better
job, to elderly and poorly educated
women whose ill husbands can’t
work and everything in between.
All of the employees’ stories
were fit into the film, admirably
presenting the entire scope of the
central issue.
Without any warning, all these
women are suddenly fired without
any respect paid to the stipulations
of their contracts. Their company
plans to avoid having to hire them
as full-time employees under the
law by outsourcing their jobs,
brutally
showing
the
impact
such
economic
advancement
has on human lives. They come
together to apply for the creation
of a union, but fail in doing so.
The sisterhood they create as
they find alternative means to
protest their unfair termination
and to fight for their jobs back
proves far more valuable. Taking
into consideration the women’s
diverse backgrounds, their united
front is all the more impressive.
Eventually,
a
full-time
male
employee agrees to be their leader
alongside Sun-hee and Hye-mi as
they host demonstrations against
the supermarket chain.
The men in “Cart” brilliantly
play a critical role in presenting
common opposing views when
discussing gender equality in the
workplace, without ever resorting
to stereotypes that oversimplify
the real patriarchy into villains
with one-track minds. The way the
busy, patronizing head executives
of
the
supermarket
chain
repeatedly dismiss the protests
as “sensitive” women getting out
of control was very reflective of
real-world enterprise. Not only
did it show the sexist indifference
fueled by business that allowed for
the inequality to happen, but also
their lack of understanding of the
women’s economic instability that
caused it.
“Cart”
not
only
brings
awareness to unfair practices
targeting
vulnerable
demographics in real life, but also
manages to keep you engaged
with well-paced setbacks and
advancements that never feel
derived.
The
additional
star
power of a lead singer from the
popular K-pop group EXO having
the role of Sun-hee’s son will peak
the interest of anyone, really, who
cares about Korean pop culture.
Or women. Or workers. Or people.
‘Cart’ serves up an
artful slice of reality
LITTLE BIG PICTURES
I love Splash Mountain!
A-
Cart
Little Big
Pictures
Michigan Theater
By ALEX INTNER
Daily Arts Writer
A couple weeks ago, “How to
Get Away with Murder” ended
its second season at a series low
rating. The finale brought in 5.29
million viewers and a 1.4 rating
in the key 18-49 demographic.
While that number might seem
decent for a 10 p.m. drama in
this day and age (in fact, it was
the highest rated 10 p.m. show
on ABC that week), when you
compare it to its season one
finale, it stops looking pretty.
Last year, the finale of “Murder”
earned 8.99 million viewers, and
a 2.8 demo rating, which is double
season two’s finale number.
There’s no way to sugarcoat
it, a 50-percent drop year-
to-year is awful. While there
are other factors at play here,
including a similar drop for its
lead-in “Scandal” in the 9 p.m.
slot, it seems like a good chunk
of the audience has given up on
“Murder.”
“Murder” ’s not alone. ABC’s
lineup is populated with dramas
that started well but faded over
time. In its first season, “Once
Upon a Time” averaged over a
3.0 in the key demo. The latest
episodes have scored a 1.3, 1.3
and 1.1 in the key demo. “Castle”
has also dropped substantially
from prior seasons in both total
viewers and the demo. Then,
there’s the case of “Marvel’s
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” which
started out averaging above a 2.0
for the first half of its first season,
but barely registered at a 0.9
demo rating this week.
The problem isn’t just at ABC
either. “Supergirl” opened up
to a strong, “Big Bang Theory”-
driven 3.1 in the fall over at CBS.
By episode five, the series was
getting half that rating, settling in
between a 1.3 and 1.8 depending
on the week. The show lost about
half its initial audience by the
time it settled down. There’s also
“The Muppets” on ABC, which
opened to a solid audience of 9
million viewers and a 2.9 demo
rating. However, by episode four,
the show was only pulling low 1’s.
After a hiatus where the show
retooled and rebooted itself, the
show opened to a 0.9 and only
dropped during its winter run.
These are examples of a
trend which is pervasive across
broadcast
television.
Viewers
have shown they’re willing to
sample shows, but they’re not
necessarily
willing
to
stick
around.
This is one of the hardest
questions
facing
network
executives today. What factors
lead to viewers turning away
from a show? How do you make
your show a nice saute instead of
a brief flash in the pan?
What I find to be a big driver
of
drops
between
seasons
is something driven by the
necessity of TV scheduling — the
long break. A network TV series
will make at most 24 episodes
in a year, leaving a substantial
amount of time without it airing.
When shows like “Murder”
or
“Rosewood”
drop
upon
returning from a long break, it’s
an easy thing to point blame at.
However,
because
serialized
shows do not repeat well, this
is still the best way to schedule
dramas, despite the potential for
dropping.
However, multiseason drops
can also be associated with
natural attrition. Pretty much
every single show on TV suffers
some sort of decline as they age.
“NCIS,” for example, is averaging
a 2.26 in the key demo, which is
down substantially from the 4.0
it averaged just three years ago.
This trend is probably one of the
hardest to avoid, as there’s no
way to stop time.
However, neither of those
explain why new shows are
suffering
precipitous
drops
within a few episodes of their first
airing, though it’s hard to come
up with a general rule because
of how individualized each case
is. Take “The Muppets.” Its
decline can be attributed to a pure
audience rejection of its format,
which featured a fighting Kermit
and Miss Piggy and some more
conventional
sitcom
elements.
With “Supergirl,” it could be the
superhero show didn’t mesh well
with a CBS audience used to crime
procedurals.
Yet, for everything in TV which
points to a trend, there’s something
which bucks the trend. And last
season, nothing worked to destroy
conventional wisdom in how TV
works more than “Empire.” Much
has been written about how the
music industry drama grew each
week in total viewers and almost
every week in the demographic,
ending up at 17.6 million viewers
and a massive 6.9 in the demo.
While the show’s second-season
numbers have not reached that
high, the series is still averaging
4.77 demo rating.
Not
every
show
can
be
“Empire.” The series seems to
be a special case where it caught
on in a big way, and there doesn’t
seem to be a clear way to prevent
declines at the level of “How
to Get Away with Murder” or
“Scandal.” Networks have tried to
be clever with scheduling or with
formats to try to bring viewers in,
but there’s no clear-cut way of
keeping them once they arrive.
TV: Prevent a flash
ABC
I’m still here babyyyyyyyy.
NO FILTER
FILM REVIEW
4B — Thursday, April 7, 2016
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com