Visual Literalism

There are different styles of film and visual art. One dimension is what I call "visual literalism."

At one extreme film and other visual media depict things just as if you were there in the world being depicted. It need not be a real world, it could be a fantasy. But it is what you would see if you were there. This is very characteristic of U.S. media.

In contrast to visual literalism, in manga, anime and Bollywood films, for example, sometimes an image is used to depict emotions or relationships or other concepts that someone present in the real world of the story would not actually see - a sudden musical dance routine, a character kicked into outer space for peeping at girls (by accident, of course), or kewpie figures replacing realistic one to illustrate the situation emotionally.