Class Struggle in Contemporary Films: "Hunger Games" vs. "Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon"

Abstract

By critically engaging with Marxist notion of class struggle in contemporary films utilizing the bow and arrow as their signifier, this paper textually analyzes two films in order to find distinctive characteristics of Western movies and non-Western movies. Since the textual analysis becomes very important to understanding how media texts might be used in order to make sense of the world we live in—meaning it is significant to contextualize it within our life and/or society, this paper investigates the ways in which the major themes have developed and what their representations are. It therefore compares and contrasts these movies in terms of their major themes, in particular the ways in which these two films portray capitalism, either internally or externally. It especially examines how the bow and arrow symbolize class struggle either within a country or between countries in order to map out the major differences that the arrows represent.

Keywords

• Korean cinema
• Hunger Games
• Arrow
• the Ultimate Weapon
• Class Struggle
• Textual Analysis
• Comparative Analysis