Every once in awhile I get this feeling watching certain movies that I‘m really just watching a commentary-less let’s play of a weird hyper narrative-focused game.
For example, the first time I watched Barking Dogs Never Bite directed by Bong Joon-ho (who went on to direct Parasite), this feeling was very intense for me. 80% of the movie is about two people with a complicated, bizarre connection between them, navigating around an apartment complex. The way the movie is shot, that very normal apartment complex ends up feeling like a fantastical other universe. It glimpses into some dark corners and makes all sorts of insinuations, then just ends, leaving you feeling kind of weird.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezx9nKqqmbE
After the movie was over that first time watching it, I immediately wanted to play a game that is just walking around a weird apartment building, going through hallways, staircases, and basements, and talking to people.
A lot of movies that have a distinct sense of place end of feeling video gameish to me. One of the big joys of video games, for me, is the ability to walk around a world completely different from the one I live in and explore at my leisure. However, as far as things go, I don't think there are that many truly interesting video game worlds. Even with games I love, I feel like I have to actually try in order to try in order to fully imagine the world, like playing with dolls. Movies are never like that for me. If they're good, then, even with a restricted camera angle and scripted reveals of the world, there is usually no effort on my part to engage with this other universe being presented to me.
Often the movie places I see feel way more intriguing than any video game place I've explored. Part of this might be because in a movie you're only seeing the world through a camera angle carefully selected by the creators, rather than being able to poke into anything you desire, like in a video game. Creating a convincing world that will be seen from every angle is obviously a lot harder, especially when every object in that world has to be created from scratch by someone. Still, even with realistic, mundane environments, the best movies seem to be a lot more clever and creative with their world-building than the best video games.
Despite all that, whenever I see a good movie world, one of my first thoughts is usually "I wish this were a game."
Are there any movies that you have that feeling about? Of course it can be for other reasons than just the world-building. Maybe the movie immediately suggests an interesting mechanic, or it has a very video gameish story.
To be clear, I'm not talking about already existing movie adaptations of video games (or vice versa). These often just _look_ vaguely like what they're based on without actually _feeling_ like it.
