Second Karaoke Singer

In the movie The Player by Robert Altman, we are presented with a scene between Griffin Mill, played by Tim Robbins, and David Kahane, played by Vincent Philip D’Onofrio. The scene takes place in a Japanese-style Karaoke bar at the 32nd mark of the movie. This scene shows two karaoke singers. The second karaoke singer, in particular, sings a slower song than the first. The camera pulls out from the Karaoke screen to show him in the frame singing. In his article Scales of Presence: Bess Flowers and the Hollywood Extra, Will Straw addresses what it means to be an extra. He cites Woloch, explaining that film extras are a pivotal link between a psychology that simplifies emotional states to their sharpest corners and a social dynamic that unites these extras in registering responses across the cinematic scene ( Straw, 2011). He states, “The extra’s face is normally both the condensation of quickly legible attributes (the white society woman,in so many of Flowers’s roles) and one of several surfaces along which collective social energies accumulate and gather momentum.” ( Straw, 2011 ). In this scene, we are introduced to the second karaoke singer, portrayed by the Japanese-American actor Brian Tochi(“Let’s start over from the start,” nd). This portrayal aligns with Will Straw’s statement regarding the extra’s face and quickly legible attributes, with the actor being Japanese. We also look at the setting and social dynamics and see that we are in a Japanese Karaoke bar. We can assume that most of the patrons are Japanese based on David’s interaction with the waiter, thanking her in Japanese and that the first Karaoke singer is singing in Japanese. This combination of extras and setting satisfies the second aspect of Will Straw’s statement, in which he talks about the collective unity of the extras and how they combine to trigger a cinematic response in the scene. Through this, we can see how the second Karaoke singer is a minor character. The Japanese style theme and setting are essential to the scene. They are a focal point in the conversation between Griffin and David, giving the second karaoke singer a minor but essential role in the overall storytelling of the scene. Not only does his singing help illustrate that this is a karaoke bar, but the fact that he is ethnically Japanese, along with most other patrons, helps to show the audience that this is a Japanese venue that Japanese people tend to frequent.

References

Straw, W. (2011). Scales of presence: Bess Flowers and the Hollywood extra. Screen, Volume 52(1), 121–127. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjq061

GENIUS (n.d.). Griffin’s Plan / Let’s Begin Again. Genius.com. https://genius.com/Brian-tochi-griffins-plan-lets-begin-again-lyrics