The wind blows gently from screen right to left

This video essay says as follows. The screen direction is a tool. Joon-ho Bong in Snowpiercer (2013) shows character choice by "Left or Right".

Snowpiercer depends on one simple rule: Camera left is the back of the train, while camera right is the front. And we gradually move from left to right. 

We understood which direction means what in this movie. But what if Left and Right were opposite? What if we moved from right to left? Is the screen direction just optional?

Betsuyaku Minoru, a Japanese playwright, says "Stage has a spatial tendency like the wind blows gently from stage left to right". The direction of the wind is called the forward route, and the direction against the wind is called the reverse route. Regarding movies, we can say as follows. The forward route is the following wind from screen right to left. The reverse route is the opposing wind from left to right. According to it, we move along the reverse route in Snowpiercer. That reminds me of a side-scrolling video game which is well known as Super Mario Bros. Most of the characters in side-scrolling video games move from the left side of the screen to the right to meet an objective. That is to say, moving against the wind is appropriate for the protagonists who are facing difficulties. Let's have a look at two contrasting movies.



Oldboy(Chan-wook Park, 2003) vs Oldboy(Spike Lee, 2013)

Like Snowpiercer and side-scrolling video games, Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) in Oldboy(2003) goes from left to right. By contrast, Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin) in Oldboy(2013) goes in the opposite direction. We can detect distinct differences which don't necessarily derive from direction.



Mauvais sang (Leos Carax, 1986) vs Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012)

Alex(Denis Lavant) runs like struggling against the wind.



The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Mamoru Hosoda, 2006)

Unlike live-action films, Animated films don't depend on location. Animation directors can position the object at any orientation freely. How did Mamoru Hosoda determine the blocking in a steep slope scene?

The uphill direction which gives some resistance set against the wind(left to right).
The downhill direction which gives some momentum set before the wind(right to left).

As the video essay says, filmmaker should be conscious of the sense of the screen direction. That is not really optional. Although it's so subtle, there is a spatial tendency as Betsuyaku Minoru says. The wind blows gently from screen right to left.