Snidely Whiplash, a rendering of an archetype of a villain as a late 19th century businessman.

A villain (also known in film and literature as the "antagonist," "bad guy", "black hat", or "heavy") is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. A female villain is sometimes called a villainess (often to differentiate her from a male villain). Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot".^[1]

Etymology[link]

Villain comes from the Anglo-French and Old French vilein, which itself descends from the Late Latin word villanus, meaning "farmhand",^[2] in the sense of someone who is bound to the soil of a villa, which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in Late Antiquity, in Italy or Gaul.^[3] It referred to a person of less than knightly status and so came to mean a person who was not chivalrous. As a result of many unchivalrous acts, such as treachery or rape, being considered villainous in the modern sense of the word, it became used as a term of abuse and eventually took on its modern meaning.^[4]

Folk and fairy tales[link]

Baba Yaga often acts as a villain in Polish and Russian fairy tales

Vladimir Propp, in his analysis of the Russian fairy tales, concluded that a fairy tale had only eight dramatis personae, of which one was the villain,^[5] and his analysis has been widely applied to non-Russian tales. The actions that fell into a villain's sphere were:

• a story-initiating villainy, where the villain caused harm to the hero or his family
• a conflict between the hero and the villain, either a fight or other competition
• pursuing the hero after he has succeeded in winning the fight or obtaining something from the villain

None of these acts necessarily occurs in a fairy tale, but when any of them do, the character that performs the act is the villain. The villain therefore could appear twice: once in the opening of the story, and a second time as the person sought out by the hero.^[6]

When a character performed only these acts, the character was a pure villain. Various villains also perform other functions in a fairy tale; a witch who fought the hero and ran away, and who lets the hero follow her, is also performing the task of "guidance" and thus acting as a helper.^[7]

The functions could also be spread out among several characters. If a dragon acted as the villain, but was killed by the hero, another character (such as the dragon's sisters) might take on the role of the villain and pursue the hero.^[7]

Two other characters could appear in roles that are villainous in the more general sense. One is the false hero: this character is always villainous, presenting a false claim to be the hero that must be rebutted for the happy ending.^[8] Among these characters are Cinderella's stepsisters, chopping off parts of their feet to fit on the shoe.^[9] Another character, the dispatcher, sends a hero on his quest. This might be an innocent request, to fulfil a legitimate need, but the dispatcher might also, villainously, lie to send a character on a quest in hopes of being rid of him.^[10]

Villainous foil[link]

In fiction, villains commonly function in the dual role of adversary and foil to the story's heroes. In their role as adversary, the villain serves as an obstacle the hero must struggle to overcome. In their role as foil, the villain exemplifies characteristics that are diametrically opposed to those of the hero, creating a contrast distinguishing heroic traits from villainous ones.^{[citation needed]} Others^[who?] point out that many acts of villains have a hint of wish-fulfillment,^[11] which makes some people identify with them as characters more strongly than with the heroes. Because of this, a convincing villain must be given a characterization that makes his or her or its (see HAL 9000) motive for doing wrong convincing, as well as being a worthy adversary to the hero. As put by film critic Roger Ebert:

"Each film is only as good as its villain. Since the heroes and the gimmicks tend to repeat from film to film, only a great villain can transform a good try into a triumph."^[12]

Portraying and employing villains in fiction[link]

Tod Slaughter always portrayed villainous characters on both stage and screen in a melodramatic manner, with mustache-twirling, eye-rolling, leering, cackling, and hand-rubbing (however, this often failed to translate well from stage to screen).^[13][14] Brad Warner states that "only cartoon villains cackle with glee while rubbing their hands together and dream of ruling the world in the name of all that is wicked and bad".^[15] Ben Bova recommends to authors that their works not contain villains. He states, in his Tips for writers:

"In the real world there are no villains. No one actually sets out to do evil. Fiction mirrors life. Or, more accurately, fiction serves as a lens to focus what we know of life and bring its realities into sharper, clearer understanding for us. There are no villains cackling and rubbing their hands in glee as they contemplate their evil deeds. There are only people with problems, struggling to solve them."^[16]

David Lubar adds:

"This is a brilliant observation that has served me well in all my writing. (The bad guy isn't doing bad stuff so he can rub his hands together and snarl.) He may be driven by greed, neuroses, or the conviction that his cause is just, but he's driven by something not unlike the things that drive a hero."^[17]

See also[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Villain

• Evil Genius (video game)
• Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. Since 1991, Bollywood recognizes the best actors portraying a villain.
• Heel (professional wrestling)
• List of soap opera villains
• Mad scientist
• Supervillain

References[link]

External links[link]

Lee Sang-il (Korean: 이상일, born 6 January 1974 in Niigata Prefecture, Japan) is a Zainichi Korean film director and screenwriter. His first film Chong was a short film about the lives of third generation Koreans living in Japan.

Lee won the Best Director and Best Screenplay prizes at the 2007 Japanese Academy Awards for Hula Girls.^[1]

Filmography[link]

Director[link]

2010 Akunin

2006 Hula Girls (フラガール, hura gāru^?) – declared best Japanese film of 2006 by Kinema Junpo (キネマ旬報^?)

2005 Scrap Heaven

2004 69

2002 Border Line

2000 Chong

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sang-il Lee at the Internet Movie Database
• 李相日 (Sang-il Lee) at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)

This article about a Japanese film director is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Phoenix Jones
At an MMA event, fighting as "Fear the Flattop"
Born	Benjamin John Francis Fodor 1988
Nationality	American
Occupation	Costumed Vigilante[1] (Phoenix Jones disputes this label),[2] MMA fighter
Known for	Confronting alleged lawbreakers while dressed in a superhero costume.

Phoenix Jones^[3][4] (born Benjamin John Francis Fodor, 1988)^[5] is an American leader of a ten-member citizen crime-prevention patrol group who call themselves the Rain City Superhero Movement,^[6] operating out of Seattle and Lynnwood, Washington. In a CBS news broadcast, Jones is shown entering a back room of an unnamed comic book store in which he changes into costume which consists of a Dragon Skin bulletproof vest^[7] and stab plating, as well as equipment including a stun baton, pepper spray or tear gas, handcuffs and a first aid kit.^[7][8]

He says the best way to prevent getting mistaken for a criminal by the police is to wear a "supersuit",^[9] although local police have expressed concern that the strange costumes may lead to emergency calls from citizens who mistake the "superheroes" for criminals.^[10] Jones says that all members of the Rain City Superhero Movement have a military or mixed martial arts background.^[11] He does not condone other people dressing up and fighting crime.

Origin[link]

Jones says he wanted to take policing matters into his own hands after a few incidents changed his mind about Seattle. The first was when Jones says that his car was broken into and his son was injured after returning to the vehicle and falling on the broken glass. Jones was told that several people saw the break-in happen, but did not intervene.^[10][12] According to Jones the car window had been broken by a rock with a mask wrapped around it, which Jones left in the car's glove box.^[12] Later, Jones says that he encountered a friend being seriously assaulted outside a bar, and after calling 911 he put on the mask from the earlier break-in and "made a commotion" until the police showed up.^[12] "And I thought, why didn’t someone help him? There were seventy people outside that bar and no one did anything."^[4]

Jones went on to develop a full costume and pseudonym, when his crime-fighting behaviour made him too recognizable.^[10]

Reported actions[link]

• On Sunday, January 2, 2011, in Lynnwood, Phoenix Jones stopped and chased away a car thief as the car owner (Who asked to be identified only as "Dan") stood by in shock as Jones ran into action. CBS News introduced Dan and Phoenix Jones to one another the following Monday evening. Dan proceeded to thank Jones numerous times while later talking about Phoenix's gear.^[13]

• A few days later, ABC News aired a news story covering Jones.^[14] In this report, footage shows Phoenix Jones preventing an intoxicated man from entering his car. Jones resulted in him threatening to use a stun baton as the angry and inebriated man approaches Jones with the intent to fight. In the video, a police officer is shown later talking to Phoenix Jones and his group regarding the effect masks may have on an intoxicated individual.

• On Saturday, the 24th of September 2011, in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Phoenix Jones doused a man with pepper spray after he attempted to steal a bus. The driver of the bus had been handing out fliers when another individual attempted to steal the bus. Jones was reported to have intervened and the hijacker escaped with his skin dyed orange due to the spray. Jones says he didn’t receive any help from Seattle police, who took hours to respond to the incident.^[15]

• On Sunday, October 9, 2011, in Seattle, Jones was arrested for his role in an altercation involving pepper-spray.^[16] Close associates, who were present and equipped with a video camera, told reporters that Phoenix Jones broke up an unfair fight between two groups of nightclub patrons.^[17] According to police reports, the officers who responded determined that "there was no fight", with one member of the group denying that anyone among them had been fighting. They asked that the masked man be "arrested for attacking them."^[5] According to one woman who was involved in the altercation, after an argument had broken out between her group and another, Jones suddenly approached and pepper-sprayed them, saying "I'm a superhero". But the same woman shown on video footage appeared intoxicated as she chased Jones and others with a high heeled shoe. The video footage shows her slipping on the ground and having trouble walking due to being intoxicated.^[18] The next day, videographer Ryan McNamee uploaded a video online showing that Phoenix Jones did in fact respond to a large fight in progress and soon after a hit and run takes place.^[19][20] Jones was released on bail hours later with no charges having been filed. He later was acquitted of all accusations.

• In another incident several hours earlier, Phoenix Jones had come to the defense of a would-be fight victim. Police arrived after the aggressors had fled. In their report, the police called it a case of "questionable use of pepper spray", but the victim later told the Seattle Times^[21] that Jones was indeed a hero who had saved him from "a potential beat-down".

• On Sunday, the 27th of November 2011, near the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Phoenix Jones and crew followed a man accused of stabbing another man. They prevented the attacker from fleeing until the Seattle police arrived.^[22]

• On Saturday, the 31st of December 2011, in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Phoenix Jones and his crew provided police with valuable evidence of a New Year's Eve shooting.^[23]

• On Friday, the 6th of January 2012, Phoenix Jones and crew stopped a fight at the same location of the New Year’s Eve shooting in Belltown.^[24]

• On Tuesday, the 1st of May 2012 (May Day), Phoenix Jones allegedly pepper-sprayed protesters in downtown Seattle (Phoenix Jones denies this).^[25] In an interview on the Bob Rivers Show on 2nd May, Phoenix Jones asserted that, while undercover with the protesters, several of them revealed to him a plot to bomb the city courthouse. According to Phoenix Jones, after telling the police and receiving no support, he and another member of the Rain City Superhero Movement intercepted the protesters at the courthouse and acted in self defense as the protesters began throwing rocks and bottles through the windows and glass doors of the court house.^[26] Fellow costumed activists El Caballero and Midnightjack accompanied Phoenix Jones.^[27]

Stance on drugs[link]

When asked if he would have someone arrested for smoking marijuana, Jones said he considered it a low priority, and that he has no problem with people using drugs, but wants drug dealers to "sell somewhere else."^[28]

Injury[link]

Jones reports being stabbed with a knife while trying to intervene with a drug dealer and a citizen,^[7] damaging part of his costume which had to be repaired.^[11] He has told police that his ballistic vest helped stop a bullet during an incident in Tacoma.^[11]

In 2011, Jones claims to have had his nose broken by an assailant while attempting to break up a fight,^[7] when one of the men pulled a gun on him while another one kicked him, breaking his nose. This incident was never reported to police, and was treated by Jones' private doctor.^[7][29]

Rain City Superhero Movement[link]

In July 2011, local police recorded ten citizens patrolling the city in superhero costumes, using the names Thorn, Buster Doe, Green Reaper, The Mantis, Gemini, No Name, Catastrophe, Thunder 88, Penelope and Phoenix Jones. An individual using the pseudonym "Red Dragon" has also self-identified as being a member of the group.^[30] Jones's wife is a member of the Rain City Superhero Movement, under the name "Purple Reign".^[31]

Criticism[link]

Phoenix Jones has an uneasy relationship with Seattle law enforcement and the city attorney there has called him a "deeply misguided individual."^[32]

Arrest record[link]

In October 2011, Jones was arrested for investigation of assault, after using pepper spray to break up an alleged fight.^[17][33] He spent approximately seven hours in jail before posting the $3,800 bail.^[34] No charges were filed and the case was dropped later that month.^[35]

Identity[link]

Although prosecutors had not filed charges, Jones appeared in court wearing a black and gray striped shirt over his costume on October 13, 2011. A court officer asked Jones to remove his mask, and he complied, putting the mask back on after the hearing. Jones then spoke with reporters and removed his mask again to reveal his identity as Ben Fodor. Fodor stated that he would continue patrolling the city:^[34]

I will continue to patrol with my team, probably tonight [October 13, 2011]. In addition to being Phoenix Jones, I am also Ben Fodor, father and brother. I am just like everybody else. The only difference is that I try to stop crime in my neighborhood and everywhere else. I think I have to look toward the future and see what I can do to help the city.^[34]

Fight Record[link]

Benjamin Fodor holds an 11-0-0 record in unsanctioned amateur mixed martial arts fights,^[36] and a 4-0-0 professional fight record.^[37] Fodor's fight name is listed as 'Fear the Flattop'.^[37] He is also the brother of [Strikeforce] MMA fighter Caros Fodor.^[38]

See also[link]

• Master Legend
• Superbarrio
• Real-life superhero

References[link]