Tracing the Shape of Despair: Video Game Aesthetics and Actor-Network Theory in <i>An Elephant Sitting Still</i>

Abstract By positioning the camera as a central non-human actant, this study invites a comparison between the cinematic space in An Elephant Sitting Still and game space in video games. It argues that the video game experience and research on game world-building provides a novel perspective to re-examine the conventional relationship between spectators and characters in films as resembling the interactivity between players and avatars in video games. This study shows how the film’s use of depth of field isolates its human protagonists from the antagonists, and then how the camera’s movement, namely close tracking shots, alters both the portrayal of antagonists and, more crucially, reshapes the protagonists into “figureless avatars.” Ultimately, the article explores the potential for convergence between film and video game aesthetics, proposing an alternate video game ideology to allow an expanded theoretical framework that transcends the social realism often applied in Chinese film studies.