So I recently rewatched Snowpiercer, a dystopian movie from 2013 directed by Bong Joon-Ho. Although it’s one of my favorite movies, I see complaints about tone problems in that movie which I do think are valid. It doesn’t have a dystopian thriller tone all the way through. It changes.
And this got me thinking, maybe caring about tone is a culture thing? Keep in mind Bong Joon-Ho also directed Parasite (2019) which starts off as a dark comedy before rapidly shifting into a thriller / horror movie. I’m also reminded of some of the Indian cinema I’ve seen, where a movie might have drama, comedy, romance, sad scenes, and action and be received perfectly well by Indian audiences.
So I’m curious, people from non western countries especially, how well are tonal shifts received by your general audiences? Do people care less about the Avengers quips and one liners so much?
This is definitely my answer, too.
I can’t help but think of a conversation I once had as part of a creative writing community, where we were talking about stuff like tonal shifts, genre shifts, and so on. It started because someone was writing a story that started as one genre and then switched to a very different one halfway through. The general conclusion was that while this can be done well, and be very compelling when it is, more often than not, it’s done badly.
Massive shifts in tone or genre can completely ruin the pacing of the story, because just as the audience is getting into the flow of one thing, they’re suddenly jerked out of it to go into a different direction. It’s like accelerating up to maximum speed and then suddenly slamming on the brakes so you can change direction: sure, it’s unexpected, but nobody in that car likes being thrown forward to smack their head on the dashboard or have their seatbelt cut into their neck. I think that’s the issue Star Wars: The Last Jedi had. The dramatic tension in the attack against the enemy ship (a fast-paced scene) comes to a very jarring halt because of the sudden shift to the prank call comedy, which then continues for a whole minute, a much slower pace for the scene. The fact that Poe has time to mess around for a whole minute detracts from the sense that it’s a vitally important mission.
It also collides with an audience issue: the audience for genre/tone #1 will start reading/watching/playing because they’re promised genre/tone #1, and they can get pretty grumpy about that being changed without warning - especially if they actively dislike genre/tone #2. They will feel like they’ve been lied to and tricked into consuming something they would have known in advance they wouldn’t enjoy if they’d known it would switch to genre/tone #2 halfway through. Meanwhile, the audience for genre/tone #2 will skip the film/book/game because they think it’s about genre/tone #1, and so won’t even know there’s something in it that would appeal to them. The only audience that will be satisfied is one that likes both #1 and #2, which depending on the genres/tones, can massively reduce the potential audience. And even the ones that like both won’t be happy if the two are smooshed together in ways that aren’t satisfying or don’t make sense.