The Choice is yours

Warning: Spoilers for Day Watch (aka Night Watch 2 – not released in US yet)
I have chosen to write on two films that I enjoyed for their philosophical elements and the drastic differences between the cultures that produced them. Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry's film, "Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind", is an American-made film released in 2004 and has quickly become a modern-day "cult classic". The Russian film I will be comparing this to is titled "Day Watch," the second installment of the recently-released trilogy "Night Watch". This film has not yet been released in the United States, and is tentatively scheduled for release later this year. On a side note, I was very interested in the respective budgets of these two films. The American film industry is well-known for the immense sums of money that are spent on a single film, and Eternal Sunshine is now different, the grand total being around twenty million dollars. Day Watch, in comparison, totals a mere 4.2 million, whereas both films include a comparable amount of special effects such as extensive use of various lighting techniques and the use of computer-aided effects where camera magic simply could not pull through on its own. The main similarity I saw between these two films were the themes of broken relationships between the characters and the desire to change or fix the past through the use of peculiar tools and techniques, both that are not exactly of this world.
"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is currently rated #36 on IMDB.com, with it being the more recent of the two releases. Like many philosophical films, critics either hated or loved Eternal Sunshine, those who did not like it were most frequently the ones who became confused while trying to keep the story's issues straight and simply gave up. This film deals with a technique, that will erase a memory of an object, or in this case, a relationship. The main issue that is focused on is the idea of memory erasure, the female character, Clementine, played by Kate Winslet erases her then boyfriend, Joel, played by Jim Carrey on a whim, convincing herself that she would be happier and better off. The movie focuses more on Joel's thoughts and feelings, following his mind as he goes through the procedure himself. The heavy influence of lighting – particularly of darkness and shadow, is a key element to this film. The darkness of his painful memories is contrasted by the lightness of the happy, and reflects his change of heart when he decides he does not want to forget Clementine after all. His desire to hold on to the happy memories is played up, the regret and pain he feels upon realizing that it's all or nothing, as theorized by Immanuel Kant. It would be against the moral law set forth, Clementine would be misrepresented in his mind because the truth would be not genuine.
The realization that Joel and Clementine's relationship is bound to come to an inevitable end is one that many people can relate to. Their personalities clash, one becomes bored with the other, and one will feel trapped in the relationship against their will. Near the end of the film, they come to a crossroads whether to go their separate ways or try the relationship over from the beginning, even after they have both erased each other from their memories. Despite knowing that their relationship may come to the same tragic end, the same fights and the same anger, they agree with a simple spoken "Okay", a scene that is relatively similar to one that occurs in "Day Watch".
Not yet released in American theaters "Day Watch" is a typical struggle of "Good vs, Evil," a struggle that is echoed in Eternal Sunshine as the characters struggle with the evils of their own human nature. While an obvious difference between these two films is that "Day Watch" is in Russian and must be watched in English subtitles, the relationships between two characters resemble that of Eternal Sunshine. The key relationship here is that between the main character, Anton Gorodetsky, and his son Yegor. The struggles between these two result when Anton is unknowingly reunited with a son he never knew he had. Anton had thought that Yegor was killed, because Anton made an agreement with a supernatural being to get rid of the kid. In the first film, "Night Watch", Anton finds that his son is still alive, and in the hands of the Dark side of the world. This film uses new CG effects, but still contains aspects to make it a gothic/fantasy/action/horror film. The lighting was rather dark throughout the film, although the name was "Day Watch"; most of the film took play at night. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" also contains many dark scenes which are blurred and altered, very similar to "Day Watch". "Day Watch" had many more characters than Eternal Sunshine, however, each character had a purpose which was fulfilled then seemed to vanish from the film.

"Day Watch" uses many themes throughout the film; however the theme I'll be discussing is related to Eternal Sunshine's memory loss procedure. In "Day watch", there is an item called "the chalk of destiny", this piece of chalk can rewrite the past. Once in the possession of the chalk of destiny, you may rewrite the past by simply using the chalk and writing on a surface. This piece of chalk is similar to Eternal Sunshine's memory procedure because both are used to try to fix a problem, or in these cases, a relationship. In "Day Watch", Anton Gorodetsky is on the good side, called the "light", in first film "Night Watch", Anton meets with a witch to have his son, Yegor to be killed, because he cannot handle a kid. Yegor was not killed; he survived and was adopted to the "Dark". Throughout the film, Anton is trying to reach his son and fix the relationship. However, this is something he cannot stop, just as in the memory procedure, it's unstoppable. His son is the ender of the world, and Anton must use the chalk of destiny to change his mind on killing his son at before he was born. Only this way, will he be able to save the world. There was a catch, during the time Anton was fighting the Dark, he fell in love with a woman, that woman would be lost if Yegor was already in Anton's life. In the end of the film, Anton and Svetlana meet up, both never seeing each other, because their relationship never existed in their mind. It seems there is a force that brings us together, as in "Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind", and in "Day Watch", the characters meet up for a last time and then, they are left with a choice.

I believe it is important for Americans to view foreign films for a variety of reasons, the most obvious and important in my view is that Americans need to be exposed to the wide variety of cultural and ethnic differences of the world and of the films that are produced in various parts of the world. The biases or prejudices that many of us hold about one culture or nation are often questioned after viewing a film of that culture or nation, something we may firmly believe to be true can be completely reversed in the amount of time it takes to watch a movie. Crash is a perfect example of the racisms and prejudices that fill much of our American society, even among our own people we see violence, hatred, and most of all, misunderstanding and misconceptions. By exposing ourselves to the many different worldviews held by different people across the globe, we are broadening our horizons and are less likely to fall prey to stereotypes and biases. The way a film is made, the writer, their cultural background, how they were raised, cultural influences, all of these things differ widely from one area, and one film, to another. By simply watching American-made films, we are shortchanging ourselves of the huge diversity that the film industry, and the world at large, has to offer.

Useful links
Day Watch IMDB page - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409904/
Wiki on Immanuel Kant - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant
Eternal Sunshine IMDB page - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338013/