Hey Story Crafters,
Happy cherry blossom season! 🌸
Cherry blossom season is one of my favorite times of the year, as proven by The Writer’s Corner theme. The most impressive display of cherry blossoms I’ve seen are the trees in DC (since I’ve never been to Japan), though the ones back home look lovely as well. I missed their peak bloom this year though—when I saw them in person, some already had leaves coming in. There’s always next year.
In this post, I want to talk a little about flashbacks. I recently watched Bullet Train, and it got me thinking about how to use flashbacks effectively in storytelling. I’ll be referencing the movie just from a storytelling perspective—I haven’t read the book, so I can’t offer any opinions on how well it was adapted.
First, a brief overview about flashbacks as a storytelling tool.
Overview on Flashbacks
Flashbacks are useful for:
Giving insight into character.
Giving context to plot.
Allowing a change of setting. This is especially useful if the story’s main setting is in a confined space.
You might have heard of the writing rule that says to never start a story with a flashback. I like to think of “writing rules” more as guidelines than set rules; but this one is, for the most part, true. This is because for a flashback to be effective:
The reader needs to care about the character who is having the flashback and/or care about the characters in the flashback, and
The flashback needs to enhance the reader’s current reading experience, or pay off later in the story.
Flashbacks usually don’t work as an opening for a story* because the reader doesn’t know the protagonist or any of the characters, or care about them yet, and because the reader doesn’t know the story. The reader will have a basic idea of what the story is, since they chose to read your book based on some understanding of the premise. But regardless of what expectations the reader has when they open your book, they don’t have a complete picture of what the story is yet. And, similar to being forced to play a video game without understanding the controller commands, the reader will likely get frustrated if they’re thrust into a flashback on page 1 without knowing who or what they’re supposed to care about.
*One exception I can think of is if the book is a sequel, in which case the reader is at least familiar with and presumably cares about the protagonist, or trusts you, the author, to deliver another satisfying story.
So, when is it effective to use a flashback?
As discussed above, a good rule of thumb is when the reader has a general sense of who the major characters are and what the story is. Once the reader feels connected to (a.k.a. invested in) the characters and the story, there’s a spark of curiosity that causes the reader to start asking questions, like Why is the protagonist acting this way or making this choice? or What circumstances led the characters to this moment in time?
That’s usually when you can start considering the idea of including flashbacks in strategic places. As for actually transitioning into a flashback, the most effective transition is to have something (e.g., an object or a sensory detail) or someone in the narrative present cause the protagonist or point-of-view character to remember a specific memory, leading into the flashback.
Effective transition into a flashback: Something and/or someone in the narrative present causes the point-of-view character to remember a past event, which can lead into a flashback sequence and make it relevant.
Flashbacks in Bullet Train (Rated R)
Premise for Bullet Train: Ladybug, an unlucky professional criminal, is hired to steal a briefcase from a Shinkansen heading out of Tokyo to Kyoto. The job gets complicated when he encounters other dangerous, professional killers on the train. You can check out the trailer below.
**Rated R. Warnings for graphic violence (blood, gore, etc.) and crude language.
Giving insight into character
Ladybug: One of the earliest flashback sequences happens when Ladybug (the protagonist, a professional criminal) is introduced. Ladybug discusses his current job (a snatch and grab off the Shinkansen) with his handler, and shares his worries about the job going sideways because of his bad luck.
Effective transition: Ladybug’s conversation with his handler leads to the flashback.
Insight into Character: The flashback sequence illustrates why Ladybug believes he has bad luck (people die without him trying to kill anyone), how Ladybug reacts to unexpected occurrences (his attempts to help people or make things better go awry), and sets up the expectation that his current job will likely conform to pattern.
The viewer is told Ladybug has a history of jobs never going to plan, and that he believes he has bad luck.
The viewer is shown why Ladybug’s worries are justified in a flashback. Illustrating Ladybug’s bad luck in a flashback sequence encourages the viewer to connect with him faster, because the viewer can visualize similar situations where they’ve felt the universe is against them.
Tangerine and Lemon (a.k.a. the Twins): Their earliest flashback sequence shows their casual approach to violence, and how they’ll get a job done…with a lot of blood, and collateral damage.
Clip of flashback sequence. **Rated R. Warnings for graphic violence (blood, gore, etc.) and crude language.
Effective transition: Tangerine and Lemon explain to the White Death’s son (their charge) how they got on the train. They get into an argument about how many people they killed in the process of rescuing the son, leading to the flashback sequence.
Insight into Character: The flashback sequence also shows that Tangerine and Lemon work well together, even if they tend to bicker a lot when they’re not fighting or killing other people. The flashback happening at all supports the idea of a sibling-like relationship between them, because siblings often recall a play-by-play of past events when they’re trying to prove one of them is right.
Giving context to plot.
Introducing the White Death: A major threat introduced early in the movie is the White Death, a dangerous crime lord. He’s mentioned by name and reputation for most of the movie. He first appears, masked, in a flashback sequence.
Effective transition: Tangerine narrates the White Death’s backstory to Lemon early in the movie to illustrate how dangerous their client is.
Plot context: In addition to introducing the White Death as a threat to all the criminals/professional killers on the train, this flashback sequence pays off later when the Elder’s (another character) backstory is revealed.
El Lobo’s appearance on the Shinkansen is explained through a rather extensive flashback sequence. His reason for being on the train is to hunt down the hitman (let’s use hit-person from here on out) responsible for killing his wife at their wedding, and all of the guests—including his boss, another crime lord. He believes Ladybug is that hit-person.
Transition: The transition isn’t as smooth as some of the other flashback sequences in the movie. It has a timestamp screen leading into the flashback, but it isn’t clear right off the bat that it’s El Lobo’s backstory.
Plot context: The payoff for El Lobo’s flashback sequence happens later in the movie, as the circumstances behind the presence of several hit-people on the Shinkansen at the same time get revealed. It actually serves as a misdirect:
First, the entire flashback sequence sets up the expectation that El Lobo will play a major role in the movie. (Spoiler: He doesn’t.)
Second, when Ladybug learns he was actually at El Lobo’s wedding on a job, it brings up the question of whether or not Ladybug is responsible. (Spoiler: He isn’t. Another hit-person is.)
Allowing a change of setting.
Since a majority of the movie is set on a train, the flashback sequences take the viewer out of the train, to other settings.
Remember, flashbacks are subjective.
To wrap up this discussion on flashbacks, I want to bring up an important, easily overlooked detail about them: flashbacks are subjective. This realization was hammered into me when I was a kid by another movie, Hoodwinked.
For those who might be unfamiliar with the movie, it’s a comedy-mystery, police procedural animated retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood.” The premise is that the police are called to Granny Puckett’s (Grandma’s) house to investigate the crime that has been committed, and determine who is responsible. The line up of suspects include Red (Red Riding Hood or Red Puckett), Wolf W. Wolf (the Big Bad Wolf), and Kirk the Woodsman (the Woodsman/Woodcutter). Even Granny Puckett is interviewed. Each tell their own version of the events leading up to the b-and-e at Granny’s house to the lead investigator, and each interview is a long flashback sequence that narrates these events.
This movie taught me that flashbacks are subjective. For example, in Red’s flashback, she believes that Wolf lunged to attack her; in Wolf’s flashback sequence, it’s revealed his tail got caught in his photographer’s camera when the film was getting switched out, and he cried out in pain.
When a story is told by a single character, it’s easy to forget that the story is subjective to that specific character. In that sense, all protagonists (or narrators) are unreliable. The reader has no choice but to believe the protagonist is telling the truth, because that character is the one the author has established as trustworthy. But remembering that flashbacks are subjective can open a lot of opportunities for misunderstandings and later reveals that, if done effectively, can help keep readers engaged in the story.
That’s all I have for flashbacks for this post. Now, for some news.
News and Events
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Until next time!
Best,
Leah
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