Project Poor Noriko – Highly Symbolic Images from Liechtenstein

Project Poor Noriko

Project Poor Noriko Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

As the fourth smallest country in Europe (ahead of the city states of San Marino, Monaco, and Vatican City), it’s not surprising to find that there isn’t a film industry in Liechtenstein. The capital Vaduz has less than 6,000 inhabitants – smaller than larger high schools in the U.S. – and the country is one of just two doubly-landlocked countries in the world (the other being Uzbekistan). Children of the Mountains (Kinder der Berge) is the country’s first and most well-known feature film (by relative standards), but finding it was too much of a challenge despite a recent restoration. Therefore, we’ve searched far and wide for an accessible and recent Liechtensteiner film, and bring you Project Poor Noriko, a student film from Yuna Hoch.

From: Liechtenstein, Europe
Watch: YouTube, IMDb
Next: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, 300, The Color of Pomegranates

Project Poor Noriko – The Breakdown

Yuna Hoch divides Project Poor Noriko into four chapters which depict two young women breaking their bonds with a metaphorical society. Using highly-symbolic imagery and vivid, high-contrast shots, Hoch paints an elusive allegory of the modern day patriarchy.

Here’s how the plot of the short film plays out over the four short segments of dialogue-free images:

  1. In chapter 1, ‘Chains of (in)justice,’ a young woman in lingerie wakes up in chains with bloody bodies around her and finds a hammer to break her chains and escape whilst on TV another young woman swings on a swing and makes a bracelet for her hockey stick.
  2. In chapter 2, ‘Society’s Strings,’ a captive harpist plays, possibly calling to the recently escaped young woman from chapter 1.
  3. In chapter 3, ‘Like beads on a rosary,’ sinister priests in robes tempt the young women of earlier chapters with apples and give them rosaries. Both women fight their creepy advances.
  4. In chapter 4, ‘The Talisman of the Breaker,’ the harpist from chapter 2 removes her barbed wire chains and turns on her captor. The young women from chapters 1-3 break free and end the film in a natural environment with bright clothing.

Whilst the narrative is complicated by the editing between the three female characters (including the harpist), all three women share the same symbolic break from the metaphorical society which holds them captive. They all fight against patriarchal sexualization, personified in the creepy priests, the harpists’ captor, and in their lost childhood innocence. Project Poor Noriko’s message is a bit heavy-handed, but is demonstrative of a filmmaker unafraid to take big swings.

What Next?

The vivid colors and high contrast images reflects influences from both early German Expressionist silent films (see The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) and the punchy graphic novel style images of Zach Snyder films such as 300 and Batman vs. Superman. If you’re looking for more hard-to-grasp imagery dominated film, you could try The Color of Pomegranates, the highly-visual experimental film from Armenian legend Sergei Parajanov.

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