The most captivating ingredients of a story are its 'core conflict' and 'characters'. But which one is more important? Let's unfold today's discussion around the two classical methods master storytellers around the globe follow.
Among the two opposite styles of storytelling, the western and the eastern, I suppose that the major difference lies in "what's central to the core of a story?" While the Western storytelling has developed majorly into a conflict-driven narrative, Eastern or Asian storytelling art celebrates the evolutionary journey of its character. For ease of readers, let us limit the supporting examples coming ahead to some widely popular movies only.
WESTERN STORYTELLING:
If you notice, most of the big-budget movies today in the West are being adapted after a comic book, a bestseller, a classic or a fantasy fictional work. Conquering a race, stopping the armageddon or surviving in a post-apocalyptic world is a common theme. The characters merely serve as a tool there to construct a world in distinctive black and white narrative, building the central conflict. Think of Mad Max, Indians Jones, Terminator, Matrix, or any random DC or Marvel film of last decade- the core objective always revolves around the protagonist conquering the antagonist. You replace the core characters and still, the core of the story remains intact. The world still needs to be saved, even if it's not the same protagonist anymore.
A lot of it stems from the cultural influence in the West. Christianity has always maintained a disciplined doctrine on what thou should or should not do. It keeps things mostly in black and white. Their stories are so often a masculine battle between the duality of Light vs Dark, God vs Satan, Faith vs Temptation, Knights vs Death. We find most modern Western heroes a mutated version of the grand old knights. Strong in body and faith, guided by a personal moral code and not averse to a necessary violence. Life is a sacred duty, walking on a tight rope, or else the (one's own) world around them will collapse. To save it, they must BEAT the antagonist.
This is an easy to comprehend approach. So Bollywood in a desperation and for lack of originality, milked this to the fullest during 70s to 90s. We have had careers spent playing a nefarious villain or the do-gooder or the poor geriatric victim typecasted for life. The most memorable bad men such as Pran, Gulshan Grover, Amrish Puri, Amzad Khan etc. were surprisingly the most gentlemen in real life, compared to some of the most spoilt masculine superstars enjoying a haloed image on the silver screen. But among this noise of boack and white, 'grey' certainly didn't find much chance to spawn until very recently.
EASTERN STORYTELLING:
In the older Eastern or Asian style however, the focus shifts towards the protagonist's journey. The audience there is more concerned for "what the protagonist will do next?" Even if you remove or replace the central conflict, the soul of the story still remains in place. The protagonist's world view and his/her relationship with other characters around are what drives this narrative. Think of any old Chinese classic- "36th chambers of Shaolin" or Bruce Lee's "Enter The Dragon". Hardly anyone remembers the conflict between the hero and the anti-hero. Sometimes it feels so unimportant, even childish when we see them fighting over a fruit or a football. But the core characters in this journey traverse from point A to point B, to evolve during this enriching journey.
Asian culture follows a more stoic approach. Life here is a sadhana (meditation). One must explore and unlock his own destiny traversing this journey called life. Buddhism and Hinduism largely shun violence as a philosophy and practising moderation in all walks of life. Hence, these small scale stakes around the conflict. Life itself has a grey shade in these cultures instead of a divided black and white, as symbolized by feng-shui. There is good in bad and bad in good and that world view keeps the balance in this universe.
Some filmmakers have made stellar works in West (the US and the UK) also, fully following this Eastern storytelling philosophy. "Secret Life of Walter Mitty" pumps you up to travel your life journey both literally and figuratively. The whole career of celebrated director Wes Anderson would fall under this category. The Royal Tenenbaums, Hotel Grand Budapest, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Express etc. have quite a list of messed-up characters who are neither good nor bad. But over the course of some mad hat expedition, they come to terms with their true self. A triumphant and enlightening journey. Always!!
MERGING OF TWO WORLDS:
Over the years, however, I have keenly observed a few smart storylines which have successfully merged the best of both the worlds. It's been tactfully achieved through a smart plot device called- choices. In fact, it is not a new approach at all, but the most ancient and original one.
Let's explore a few easy examples:
1) Starting with the biblical literature. Christ is believed to be God's own son while Lucifer is his favourite firstborn archangel. In a way, both protagonist and antagonist here could be considered mirror opposites of each other. Evolution of their characters happened a certain way due to the choices they made. Lucifer chose to become envious of humanity and evolved into despicable Satan. While Christ chose to sacrifice himself for their sins and evolved into a messiah. It is an amalgamation of both approaches here- the duality of conflict, as well as the journey of the core characters, albeit to the opposite ends of greatness in this case.
2) In Hinduism, both Ram and Ravan were extraordinary beings. Ravan used his celestial wisdom, superhuman strength and extreme devotion to earn extraordinary gifts. Flying high in the pride, he committed unbecoming deeds and fell to eternal disrepute. Ram used his stoicism, self-discipline and divine powers to fight for justice against the tyranny. Thus became a role model for humanity. This story too has the elements of the duality of good versus evil but also learning from the choices both of them made and what these choices made out of them.
3) Harry Potter- another fan favourite. Both Harry and Tom Riddle are designed to possess a potential for greatness. But it is their life choices that shaped the world around them and pitted against each other. Harry's character evolves from an abused childhood to shy teenage to a rebel hero status- quite a journey, ain't it? Same went for Tom's journey from a scared orphan to a gifted student to the noseless monster magician Voldemort.
4) Ocean's 11 has a flurry of characters as well. While the casino heist can be considered the ultimate core conflict there, over the course of the movie, we fall in love so much with the build-up of characters, their chitchats, their team dynamics, that we couldn't mind much about the heist anymore. In fact, the antagonist chooses to turn a friend for the sequel Oceans 12 and nobody bats an eyelid.
The same trend we see in some popular long drawn TV series as well. A dark character turns white and then goes dark again with fluidity according to the writer's whims and fancies. The writer just needs to fiddle with the drives of a character. Take examples of Prison Break, Lost, Supernatural etc. The core conflict keeps renewing in each season in a different form. But it's the evolution of characters and relationships which make them endearing.
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So now you know both the classical approaches and the hybrid one in building a powerful narrative. It all essentially boils down to what's more central to your story. Do you as a Storyteller care more about the core conflict or your chief characters? Let me know your thoughts and examples in comments below.
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