Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:
Eva Yojimbo wrote:Interesting stuff. Makes me wish I'd watched it more growing up. I remember when the first season was a big deal, and I think I caught an episode or two but that was back before I had a DVR so if I wanted to watch a show weekly I had to program the VCR, which was a PITA.
I think its a very engaging show but man there is a lot of it if you start now. They just wrapped up airing their 40th season a couple of months ago, and you have to commit for that much of something.
You're talking to a guy that started this year by watching nearly 800 hours of a table-top RPG streaming show. ;)
Raxivace wrote:
I heard about that Press Your Luck guy. I know they did a documentary on that, as well as the guy that cheated on UK's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
I've seen both of these documentaries, but its been a very long time since the Press Your Luck one. The WWTBAM one is interesting because the first hour is just a typical documentary about the guy, how they cheated, the consequences etc., and then the last 20 minutes or whatever are just his segment of the WWTBAM episode he was on played uninterrupted. You go into that footage now knowing how he was cheating though (IIRC it was a friend of his in the audience that would cough when the host would read the correct answer to a question), allowing you to "spot" the methods and such being used in real time- it becomes almost a game in its own right. Good stuff.
I saw the Millionaire one to, but I never got around to the PYL one.
Raxivace wrote:
Would've been cool to have a Doc-centered storyline that didn't solely revolve around a plague or someone else's illness. Definitely would've been funny too if Farnum was the one to burn everything down because of his petty bruised ego, lol.
There's the whole war veteran angle with Doc too that was interesting.

I think it honestly could have worked with Farnum. Like seeing a guy that was nominally the mayor just turning like that could have been good.
I think both Doc and Farnum represent missed opportunities to an extent. I mean, I like what they did with both characters for the most part but I feel like there was more that could've done in later seasons, or perhaps even in earlier seasons if they'd spread the attention around a little more.
Raxivace wrote:
All good points here. Yeah, Tarantino gets away with it because he's very self-aware and Basters is very open about being historical fantasy. Deadwood very much wasn't that, or wasn't that until the film at least. Dead on about people disliking uncertainty and ambiguity, especially when it comes to endings. I'd also say it's even more true when it comes to TV because people invest so much time into TV I think they feel like they deserve to end on some kind of conclusive note. Sopranos received a lot of hate for its ending for similar reasons (its ambiguity). I haven't seen GOT but I've wondered if the hate around its final season/ending isn't for similar reasons.
I'll try and dance around spoilers here, but with GoT its more that a character many people projected hard onto ended up not being the hero they thought they were going to be despite the character doing plenty of questionable shit throughtout the entire series and them doing something awful at the end of it that they had been saying they were going to do that entire show anyways...
That's fair enough. I generally don't get upset about the directions characters go in as long as there's some justification for it and it doesn't seem to come completely out of nowhere, so I doubt seriously if a character not ending up being a hero would bother me. If anything, it sounds quite interesting. From your description I'm also getting Shinji-esque vibes from it: setting a character up to be the hero, but then subverting those expectations.
Raxivace wrote:
Yeah, I agree with all of this. I can understand fan reactions being positive because fans root for the good guys and want the bad guys to get their comeuppances; but it is weird how critics have accepted it so, errr, uncritically. I'm sure Milch wanted to make the film to have an appropriate end of the series, but I do wonder how much pressure he felt to please fans and wrote it with that in mind.
Supposedly Milch had Alzheimer's already while writing the movie too, and well I don't make light of that but I have to imagine that affected the quality of his writing.
Yikes. Well, I know they've come a long way in treating Alzheimer's since I was a kid. My great grandmother had it from the time I was little and in her late years she didn't remember anyone or anything. It was pretty sad, especially for my grandmother who'd taken care of her for decades, and she didn't even remember her.
Raxivace wrote:
TBH, the thing that's taken me so long with my system is that I'd really love to invest in a full 4K system, but 4K AVRs are still kind of a mess and I also need to serve as a music system (which means an AVR with Dirac) as well as a home theater, and it's tough finding an AVR and player that can do everything I need. I keep thinking that if I wait long enough the ideal products will come along, but every time I check AVS forums people are complaining about the newest players/AVRs not being stable and tons of features having bugs. The good AVRs with Dirac are also still stupidly expensive ($4k is on the cheap side. :( ).
Dirac...as in, Dirac sea. That's that thing from Eva. I understand these words you're saying and what they mean.
LOL, sorry. Dirac is a Room Correction algorithm similar to Audyssey. If you've ever had an AVR that gave you a microphone and told you to set it up at various points in your room and then it made all the speakers do frequency sweeps, that's the basic idea. These programs measure how your room responds to sound and then adjusts accordingly for an even frequency response and also sets the frequency crossover between the speakers and subwoofer. Different programs do this differently. Dirac is almost universally recognized as the best when it comes to music as it was made by the company (Harmon) on the forefront of audio engineering science. Audyssey is fine for movies, but people have always complained it sounded crappy on music. A big reason for that is that there's an industry standard for mixing movies, but not for music, and Audyssey is tuned for the former.
Raxivace wrote:
Resnais was definitely the filmmaker most obsessed with memory. Muriel and Providence are about memory too, and Je t'aime, je t'aime is even a sci-fi film where a guy takes part in an experiment that backfires and he ends up reliving his past at random (that film was a huge influence on Eternal Sunshine too).
Tbh I've never quite seen Eternal Sunshine before. A teacher in high school put it on at the end of the year once, but the sound quality was basically inaudible and I had no idea what was happening. I dunno if that was also because of the Dirac sea but it sucked.
I wasn't crazy about Eternal Sunshine, but if you see Je t'aime, je t'aime there's no missing the influence.
Raxivace wrote:
TBH, I always thought Cloverfield was an odd film to make into a franchise, maybe because the initial film just works so well as a standalone entity, and, from what I've heard, 10CL is pretty tenuously connected to the events in the first film.
That the connection is only tenuous honestly works in 10CL's favor, because the characters themselves don't actually know what's going on because they're locked in a bunker the whole movie, and its like you're trying to figure out alongside the characters if its actually a Cloverfield sequel or just a thematic connection a la Twilight Zone or something.

Even without that though, John Goodman of Pyst fame is just awesome in the movie.
Even with that, though, it's an extremely odd way to make any kind of sequel, tenuously connected or not. I can't think of an analog in film history.
Raxivace wrote:I'll have to keep this in mind when I was L'Eclisse. I ordered the Red Desert blu-ray too btw.
I also wrote a long review for Red Desert that was on Cinelogue, and I'm pretty sure I still have it in my emails. I loved that film too. It felt like the most personal/emotional of all Antonioni's films.
Raxivace wrote:
As my reviews got longer I started hiding them under spoiler tags to take up less room on the forums, but the downside is that now I can't find them with a Google search.
You might have more success if you use EGF's internal search function.
Perhaps I should try that, though I'm not sure if that search would "see through" the spoiler tags either.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:91. She's Gotta Have It (1986, Dir. Spike Lee) -

100. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946, Dir. Tay Garnett) -

115. The Big Boss (1971, Dir. Wei Lo & Chia-Hsiang Wu) -
I remember liking She's Gotta Have It, but it does pale a bit if you watch it right after DTRT like I did. I still think it's a solid 7-8/10, though. Something about it always reminded me of Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door, in being these very exuberant works by young directors before they made their masterpieces.

The original Postman is good but, yeah, it's got nothing on Double Indemnity. Fun fact is that there's actually an early version/adaptation of that story by Luchino Visconti from 1943 called Ossessione. I'd put it about equal with the '46 film. Hard to believe that the same guy that made Senso and The Leopard also made that.

I went through a Bruce Lee period as a kid and saw all those films. The only one that's really stuck with me is Enter the Dragon, probably because I saw it the most. I think I only saw The Big Boss once... I also remember Return of the Dragon because of the duel between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Eva Yojimbo wrote:You're talking to a guy that started this year by watching nearly 800 hours of a table-top RPG streaming show. ;)
Hmmm, there's about 600 hours of Survivor right now with about 30 extra hours added in non-Coronavirus years. That does add up eventually but I dunno how much them tabletoppers produce a year in comparison.
I saw the Millionaire one to, but I never got around to the PYL one.
I enjoyed it when I was a kid. I think that was one of the few documentaries I had even seen for the longest time.
I think both Doc and Farnum represent missed opportunities to an extent. I mean, I like what they did with both characters for the most part but I feel like there was more that could've done in later seasons, or perhaps even in earlier seasons if they'd spread the attention around a little more.
I agree, though obviously its easier to say this with the hindsight knowledge of how long the show ran.
That's fair enough. I generally don't get upset about the directions characters go in as long as there's some justification for it and it doesn't seem to come completely out of nowhere, so I doubt seriously if a character not ending up being a hero would bother me. If anything, it sounds quite interesting. From your description I'm also getting Shinji-esque vibes from it: setting a character up to be the hero, but then subverting those expectations.
FWIW people that didn't like the direction the character went in claim that it "came out of nowhere" though I had the opposite complaint for the character- that for years I felt like there was little other way that they were going to end up.

It is kind of Shinji-esque I suppose, though I think Shinji is a much better execution of a similar concept.

EDIT: The manga/anime series Attack on Titan also has a more effective version of the idea I think Game of Thrones is going for and other general similarities in its premise, but GoT also has other aspects I think it does better than AoT.
Yikes. Well, I know they've come a long way in treating Alzheimer's since I was a kid. My great grandmother had it from the time I was little and in her late years she didn't remember anyone or anything. It was pretty sad, especially for my grandmother who'd taken care of her for decades, and she didn't even remember her.
Alzheimer's claimed my own grandmother a few years ago. It was particularly hard for me to see her like that since she was a really well educated woman and very smart, so to see her to get confused and think I was her dead son all grown up was one of the rougher things I've gone through in recent years.

Part of me is kind of glad she passed away then and not now, with all of the coronavirus bullshit going on.
LOL, sorry. Dirac is a Room Correction algorithm similar to Audyssey. If you've ever had an AVR that gave you a microphone and told you to set it up at various points in your room and then it made all the speakers do frequency sweeps, that's the basic idea. These programs measure how your room responds to sound and then adjusts accordingly for an even frequency response and also sets the frequency crossover between the speakers and subwoofer. Different programs do this differently. Dirac is almost universally recognized as the best when it comes to music as it was made by the company (Harmon) on the forefront of audio engineering science. Audyssey is fine for movies, but people have always complained it sounded crappy on music. A big reason for that is that there's an industry standard for mixing movies, but not for music, and Audyssey is tuned for the former.
I've never messed around with that kind of thing before to be honest, but "Audyssey" is the kind of wordplay that should be justifiable grounds to stone someone.
Even with that, though, it's an extremely odd way to make any kind of sequel, tenuously connected or not. I can't think of an analog in film history.
Yeah I can't think of another example off of the top of my head either.

BTW, did you know there's a DHARMA Initiative logo hidden in Cloverfield 1? For years people tried to argue that meant it tied into Lost and wasn't just a cute nod.
Last edited by Raxivace on Thu Jul 23, 2020 11:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Eva Yojimbo wrote:I remember liking She's Gotta Have It, but it does pale a bit if you watch it right after DTRT like I did. I still think it's a solid 7-8/10, though. Something about it always reminded me of Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door, in being these very exuberant works by young directors before they made their masterpieces.
Yeah it is kind of like that I guess. Spike had already been hugely influenced by Scorsese anyways (He's talked about seeing Mean Streets when he was a kid and such in interviews before), and was even personally mentored by the man when he went to school at NYU.
Fun fact is that there's actually an early version/adaptation of that story by Luchino Visconti from 1943 called Ossessione. I'd put it about equal with the '46 film. Hard to believe that the same guy that made Senso and The Leopard also made that.
I need to check out Visconti at some point. I know The Leopard comes up on Top 10 lists a lot at least.
I went through a Bruce Lee period as a kid and saw all those films. The only one that's really stuck with me is Enter the Dragon, probably because I saw it the most. I think I only saw The Big Boss once... I also remember Return of the Dragon because of the duel between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.
Sounds awesome, can't wait to get to that one.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Sight & Sound recently did a list of 50 "key" anime films. It's got a lot of picks you would expect (Ghibli, Satoshi Kon, Akira etc.), though I was pleasantly surprised to see Belladonna of Sadness there too, and while I liked Promare its perhaps a bit too recent of a pick for a list like this IMO. Really, from what I've seen Arcadia of My Youth is the only film I would say flatout shouldn't be on there because that's just not all that engaging of a movie and its "Japan did nothing wrong in WWII lol" subtext is a bit troubling.

End of Evangelion is the only thing of Anno's on there. Their description of it seems a bit odd to me.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion is a tricky film to love, as what it does best requires substantial context: first, that it accompanies the far more hopeful ending of Anno Hideaki's 26-episode Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series, serving more as a what-if or alternative timeline scenario than as a conclusive ending; second, that both series and film were highly auteur-driven and heavily influenced by production woes and mental health issues; and third, that the film was indelibly impacted by Anno's bruising experience with the series' fans, including death threats sent to the studio. The end result is a blisteringly caustic film wrapped in hallucinogenic horror, with visuals so potent they've stuck with fans for decades. While unsettling and even draining to watch, it's hard to say - looking, for example, at the behaviour of modern-day comic-book fans - that there isn't a place for a film so filled with rage.
It just seems like this kind of description misses the mark by like a lot. Like "rage" just seems like the wrong word to describe the film to me, and I think these "Anno just really hates anime fans! EoE is hate letter to them!" takes from the fucking 90's are totally outdated and ignore just how heavily NGE as a whole references other anime (Though mostly stuff I'm guessing Sight & Sound people are not familiar with, since stuff like Gundam/Mazinger Z/etc. that NGE does lift from and radically transform are also totally left off of lists like this), and that Anno continuously made anime after EoE and to this day.

Like come on. The implied comparison between anime fans and Comicsgate nonsense feels totally bullshit to me.

I will say it is still cool to see Sight & Sound include EoE in a list like this after they initially dismissed it as "Disneyesque bromides" back in the day, but it doesn't seem like their understanding of it is much better which is disappointing for a publication that's relatively prestigious.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:
Eva Yojimbo wrote:You're talking to a guy that started this year by watching nearly 800 hours of a table-top RPG streaming show. ;)
Hmmm, there's about 600 hours of Survivor right now with about 30 extra hours added in non-Coronavirus years. That does add up eventually but I dunno how much them tabletoppers produce a year in comparison.
Critical Role started in June of 2015, so 800 hours divided by 5 years is 160 hours a year. TBF, I also watched them on 1.5x-2x speed, so I spent significantly less than 800 hours watching it.
Raxivace wrote:
Yikes. Well, I know they've come a long way in treating Alzheimer's since I was a kid. My great grandmother had it from the time I was little and in her late years she didn't remember anyone or anything. It was pretty sad, especially for my grandmother who'd taken care of her for decades, and she didn't even remember her.
Alzheimer's claimed my own grandmother a few years ago. It was particularly hard for me to see her like that since she was a really well educated woman and very smart, so to see her to get confused and think I was her dead son all grown up was one of the rougher things I've gone through in recent years.

Part of me is kind of glad she passed away then and not now, with all of the coronavirus bullshit going on.
Yeah, Alzheimer's is really rough when it gets bad. I've heard that these days it's extremely important to catch it early for modern meds to really slow down the progression. I keep bugging my parents to get tested but they're both stubborn/proud and seem to have the mindset that if anything's wrong with them they'd rather not know about it (I'm the exact opposite). My own great-grandmother passed away on New Year's Eve of 1999. Whole family said she just didn't want to see the new millennium.
Raxivace wrote:I've never messed around with that kind of thing before to be honest, but "Audyssey" is the kind of wordplay that should be justifiable grounds to stone someone.
LOL. If you have an AVR that has it, I'd definitely recommend reading the manual and running it. It definitely makes a substantial difference. The two things that have the biggest impact on sound is speakers and rooms, and if you get speakers that measure well (many of them these days do), then most all of the sound coloration will come from the room.
Raxivace wrote:
Even with that, though, it's an extremely odd way to make any kind of sequel, tenuously connected or not. I can't think of an analog in film history.
Yeah I can't think of another example off of the top of my head either.

BTW, did you know there's a DHARMA Initiative logo hidden in Cloverfield 1? For years people tried to argue that meant it tied into Lost and wasn't just a cute nod.
Didnt' know about the Dharma thing in Cloverfield. Makes me want to watch it again and keep an eye out.
Raxivace wrote:
Fun fact is that there's actually an early version/adaptation of that story by Luchino Visconti from 1943 called Ossessione. I'd put it about equal with the '46 film. Hard to believe that the same guy that made Senso and The Leopard also made that.
I need to check out Visconti at some point. I know The Leopard comes up on Top 10 lists a lot at least.
Visconti's strange because he went from neorealism early on to the extremely lush, decadent, operatic films later on like The Leopard. Those later films are gorgeous to look at but I wouldn't say I've unabashedly loved any of them. My favorite Visconti so far has been Rocco and his Brothers, which is probably more on the neorealist side, but it's such an incredibly rich, novelistic film.
Interesting list. Top 10 makes me realize how I have absolutely zero knowledge/experience with the real classics of anime, which is pretty much anything prior to the 80s. Also interesting that two of those Eiichi/Animerama films made the top 10 (Belladonna and Thousand and One Nights). Beyond that, there's tons of familiar titles, but the ranking seems extremely bizarre. Like, I love Barefoot Gen and Angel's Egg, but to rank them before any Miyazaki, Takahata, or even stuff like Akira and Ghost in the Shell? Hell, even Wings of Honneamise, while pretty good, is kinda trash compared to EoE and Miyazaki's/Takahata's best.

Of course their take on EoE is outdated and misses the mark completely, but I can't think of many works of art that have been more grossly, completely misunderstood for so long than NGE and EoE, so it's disappointing but not surprising. Part of it makes me feel bad that I never really got around to writing some kind of definitive, all-inclusive companion to the series and film, as it desperately needs it.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Eva Yojimbo wrote:TBF, I also watched them on 1.5x-2x speed, so I spent significantly less than 800 hours watching it.
Image
Yeah, Alzheimer's is really rough when it gets bad. I've heard that these days it's extremely important to catch it early for modern meds to really slow down the progression. I keep bugging my parents to get tested but they're both stubborn/proud and seem to have the mindset that if anything's wrong with them they'd rather not know about it (I'm the exact opposite). My own great-grandmother passed away on New Year's Eve of 1999. Whole family said she just didn't want to see the new millennium.
Yeah you have to catch it ASAP. The signs were there for my own grandmother in retrospect, but there was overly complicated and stupid family political nonsense going at the time and we thought it was my aunt just turning her against us.

It's always sad when death gets associated with a holiday like that. Particularly something like New Years.
LOL. If you have an AVR that has it, I'd definitely recommend reading the manual and running it. It definitely makes a substantial difference. The two things that have the biggest impact on sound is speakers and rooms, and if you get speakers that measure well (many of them these days do), then most all of the sound coloration will come from the room.
Read the manual? LOL that is some crazy talk.

Next thing you know you'll tell us to "consult" with "experts" about "science" and "facts" about the "natural" "world" that we "live" in. Lol GTFO.
Visconti's strange because he went from neorealism early on to the extremely lush, decadent, operatic films later on like The Leopard. Those later films are gorgeous to look at but I wouldn't say I've unabashedly loved any of them. My favorite Visconti so far has been Rocco and his Brothers, which is probably more on the neorealist side, but it's such an incredibly rich, novelistic film.
Sounds kind of like the opposite of someone like Eastwood actually, starting out over the top and postmodern and such, but going more realistic over time (There's even an argument to be made that 15:17 to Paris is almost Eastwood trying to do neorealism). Of course he's just on my mind now because of that reaction gif.
Interesting list. Top 10 makes me realize how I have absolutely zero knowledge/experience with the real classics of anime, which is pretty much anything prior to the 80s.
At some point I'll work through some more of the 70's classics myself at least. Like Miyazaki and Takahata's run on Lupin seem to be well respected and Miyazaki also did that Future Boy Conan series as well. There's other stuff from that time people enjoy like Rose of Versaille and Aim for the Ace (The latter of which I'm told is what GunBuster starts out parodying).
Also interesting that two of those Eiichi/Animerama films made the top 10 (Belladonna and Thousand and One Nights). Beyond that, there's tons of familiar titles, but the ranking seems extremely bizarre.
I think its just put them in chronological order of release.
Of course their take on EoE is outdated and misses the mark completely, but I can't think of many works of art that have been more grossly, completely misunderstood for so long than NGE and EoE, so it's disappointing but not surprising. Part of it makes me feel bad that I never really got around to writing some kind of definitive, all-inclusive companion to the series and film, as it desperately needs it.
Honestly we should probably just co-author a book or something. Especially with the Netflix release reviving all of these dumb as hell takes and rumors and misinformation.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:
Eva Yojimbo wrote:TBF, I also watched them on 1.5x-2x speed, so I spent significantly less than 800 hours watching it.
Image
[biggrin] I actually watch everything on YouTube at 1.5x-2x speed except for music. I mean, those TTRPGs episodes are 3-4 hours each, and a lot of that time is spent with the players talking/planning about what they're going to do. Really no reason to play on regular speed for most of the runtime.
Raxivace wrote:
LOL. If you have an AVR that has it, I'd definitely recommend reading the manual and running it. It definitely makes a substantial difference. The two things that have the biggest impact on sound is speakers and rooms, and if you get speakers that measure well (many of them these days do), then most all of the sound coloration will come from the room.
Read the manual? LOL that is some crazy talk.

Next thing you know you'll tell us to "consult" with "experts" about "science" and "facts" about the "natural" "world" that we "live" in. Lol GTFO.
LOL, Reminds me of my dad's aversion to ever reading manuals. When I came along especially since he realized he could just always ask me to fix/set-up all electronics.
Raxivace wrote:
Visconti's strange because he went from neorealism early on to the extremely lush, decadent, operatic films later on like The Leopard. Those later films are gorgeous to look at but I wouldn't say I've unabashedly loved any of them. My favorite Visconti so far has been Rocco and his Brothers, which is probably more on the neorealist side, but it's such an incredibly rich, novelistic film.
Sounds kind of like the opposite of someone like Eastwood actually, starting out over the top and postmodern and such, but going more realistic over time (There's even an argument to be made that 15:17 to Paris is almost Eastwood trying to do neorealism). Of course he's just on my mind now because of that reaction gif.
That's actually a good contrast/comparison as I'd never considered Eastwood's career progression like that, but you're definitely right.
Raxivace wrote:
Also interesting that two of those Eiichi/Animerama films made the top 10 (Belladonna and Thousand and One Nights). Beyond that, there's tons of familiar titles, but the ranking seems extremely bizarre.
I think its just put them in chronological order of release.
Oh, that makes sense then. I don't see the point in putting numbers next to them though...
Raxivace wrote:
Of course their take on EoE is outdated and misses the mark completely, but I can't think of many works of art that have been more grossly, completely misunderstood for so long than NGE and EoE, so it's disappointing but not surprising. Part of it makes me feel bad that I never really got around to writing some kind of definitive, all-inclusive companion to the series and film, as it desperately needs it.
Honestly we should probably just co-author a book or something. Especially with the Netflix release reviving all of these dumb as hell takes and rumors and misinformation.
I'd love to but I know it would be a massive time-sink. Hell, the few music reviews I've written have taken me 2-3 days of writing/editing, and that's just for like 1000 words. That's not trying to figure out how to write and organize a massive companion book... and then the question of editing, publishing, etc. It probably would've been more feasible back when I was active on EGF, but doing it on my own sounds like a madman's undertaking. Although, I will say I've been reading the Dark Souls companion (You Died) and it's pretty damn loose and informal and mostly just feels like a love letter and trek down memory lane by the guys who wrote it, so... who knows.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Eva Yojimbo wrote:I actually watch everything on YouTube at 1.5x-2x speed except for music...Really no reason to play on regular speed for most of the runtime.
Mods, ban this filth.
LOL, Reminds me of my dad's aversion to ever reading manuals. When I came along especially since he realized he could just always ask me to fix/set-up all electronics.
That's what my father does. Even when he's asked me to teach him how to do something before he usually just whines until I do it for him anyways.

Like I swear to god it took him like 20 years to learn how to feed his own damn child through his g-tube properly. And even then he still has no idea how to replace something like that on his own. I think he's helped change a diaper all of once his whole life too.
That's actually a good contrast/comparison as I'd never considered Eastwood's career progression like that, but you're definitely right.
It was something I remembered a professor saying about Eastwood anyways back in the day.
Oh, that makes sense then. I don't see the point in putting numbers next to them though...
I guess people just like numbered lists, even when it doesn't necessarily make sense. Like "Top XYZ" articles and videos are still popular clickbait.
I'd love to but I know it would be a massive time-sink. Hell, the few music reviews I've written have taken me 2-3 days of writing/editing, and that's just for like 1000 words. That's not trying to figure out how to write and organize a massive companion book... and then the question of editing, publishing, etc. It probably would've been more feasible back when I was active on EGF, but doing it on my own sounds like a madman's undertaking. Although, I will say I've been reading the Dark Souls companion (You Died) and it's pretty damn loose and informal and mostly just feels like a love letter and trek down memory lane by the guys who wrote it, so... who knows.
Ah see I can't stand these loose and informal books like that. Like the one I read on Shadow of the Colossus was in that vein and it drove me up the wall.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:
Eva Yojimbo wrote:I actually watch everything on YouTube at 1.5x-2x speed except for music...Really no reason to play on regular speed for most of the runtime.
Mods, ban this filth.
Funny thing about watching stuff at that speed is that I go back to real life and it feels like everyone is talking/moving in slow-motion. I think my brain just permanently functions on a higher speed because even playing guitar my biggest mistake is that I would always be rushing things and making them more difficult to play than they really were.
Raxivace wrote:
LOL, Reminds me of my dad's aversion to ever reading manuals. When I came along especially since he realized he could just always ask me to fix/set-up all electronics.
That's what my father does. Even when he's asked me to teach him how to do something before he usually just whines until I do it for him anyways.
As bad as my dad is, he'll at least try to learn stuff. Like, I did eventually teach him how to use an iPad to access all his music and send it to his AVR to play drums to. I also set up my old PC in his room so he could watch Lost. My mom, however, refuses to learn anything new. Like, she's had a cellphone for years now and still struggles to log in and make calls because she does it so rarely.
Raxivace wrote:Like I swear to god it took him like 20 years to learn how to feed his own damn child through his g-tube properly. And even then he still has no idea how to replace something like that on his own. I think he's helped change a diaper all of once his whole life too.
Wait... what?
Raxivace wrote:
I'd love to but I know it would be a massive time-sink. Hell, the few music reviews I've written have taken me 2-3 days of writing/editing, and that's just for like 1000 words. That's not trying to figure out how to write and organize a massive companion book... and then the question of editing, publishing, etc. It probably would've been more feasible back when I was active on EGF, but doing it on my own sounds like a madman's undertaking. Although, I will say I've been reading the Dark Souls companion (You Died) and it's pretty damn loose and informal and mostly just feels like a love letter and trek down memory lane by the guys who wrote it, so... who knows.
Ah see I can't stand these loose and informal books like that. Like the one I read on Shadow of the Colossus was in that vein and it drove me up the wall.
I think a better title would've been "A Dark Souls Remembrance" rather than "A Dark Souls Companion." "Companions" are supposed to be information-dense books to help guide people through something, but this book feels mostly like a recounting of the writers' experiences first playing the game. Basically it seems there are chapters dedicated to each area that describes the area (I will admit there's some good writing in these parts that I mostly appreciate as writing in-and-of-itself; like, they described the music of Firelink Shrine as something like "bows scraping across violins like a razor blade across a vein," and that's just an awesome simile), and in between these there are chapter devoted to a variety of things, like VaatiVidya, or the English translator, or short-ish quotes from Miyazaki, etc. It's not a bad little read, but I don't feel I've learned much. I think the thing I gleaned most was just how different a game it must be playing it completely blind without any guides or maps.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Raxivace »

Eva Yojimbo wrote:Funny thing about watching stuff at that speed is that I go back to real life and it feels like everyone is talking/moving in slow-motion. I think my brain just permanently functions on a higher speed because even playing guitar my biggest mistakIte is that I would always be rushing things and making them more difficult to play than they really were.
This is the danger of watching at 1.5x to 2.0x speed. It has hampered your ability to interpret the reality around you.

Had you watched at speeds any higher, you may have just vanished entirely...
As bad as my dad is, he'll at least try to learn stuff. Like, I did eventually teach him how to use an iPad to access all his music and send it to his AVR to play drums to. I also set up my old PC in his room so he could watch Lost. My mom, however, refuses to learn anything new. Like, she's had a cellphone for years now and still struggles to log in and make calls because she does it so rarely.
I'm sympathetic to technology complaints at least because a lot of this feels to me anyways like it doesn't always necessarily improve in ease of us as it changes over the years. Like iTunes is a much bigger pain in the butt to use now than it was a decade ago IMHO.

Where is Dad Jimbo's review of Lost? I need his take on Jacob v. MiB.
Wait... what?
My younger brother takes his medicine and eats 95% of his food through a gastrostomy tube, or g-tube for short. The pictures here are the exact kind my brother has. Essentially, you plug another tube into that one and feed him through that.

It's not at all difficult to use, but medicine and food has to be set up in proper amount beforehand (And cleaned afterwards) and feeding sessions alongside cathing usually takes about 15 minutes or so (Maybe a bit longer if for whatever reason formula just decides not to go down the tube very quickly)., and has to be done twice a day. You would think it would take less than 20 years to learn how to do something like this, especially for your own child's sake, but I guess some of us picked it up more quickly than others.
I think a better title would've been "A Dark Souls Remembrance" rather than "A Dark Souls Companion." "Companions" are supposed to be information-dense books to help guide people through something, but this book feels mostly like a recounting of the writers' experiences first playing the game. Basically it seems there are chapters dedicated to each area that describes the area (I will admit there's some good writing in these parts that I mostly appreciate as writing in-and-of-itself; like, they described the music of Firelink Shrine as something like "bows scraping across violins like a razor blade across a vein," and that's just an awesome simile), and in between these there are chapter devoted to a variety of things, like VaatiVidya, or the English translator, or short-ish quotes from Miyazaki, etc. It's not a bad little read, but I don't feel I've learned much. I think the thing I gleaned most was just how different a game it must be playing it completely blind without any guides or maps.
Honestly it might be how these things are titled and advertised that makes them bother me more than anything- I'm fine with "Remembrances" even if I'm not personally interested in them much, but don't call them "Companions" if that that's what they aren't. Like the SotC book was half the author recounting a relationship with...his brother or something, I don't even remember, and half Let's Play SotC in written form. There were interview bits sprinkled in here and there, but it was super light on anything that wasn't surface level-description about the damn game itself.

And honestly some of the interview bits were questionable in their own right and could have used some actual commentary of their own but lol video games criticism.

EDIT: Grammar.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:
As bad as my dad is, he'll at least try to learn stuff. Like, I did eventually teach him how to use an iPad to access all his music and send it to his AVR to play drums to. I also set up my old PC in his room so he could watch Lost. My mom, however, refuses to learn anything new. Like, she's had a cellphone for years now and still struggles to log in and make calls because she does it so rarely.
I'm sympathetic to technology complaints at least because a lot of this feels to me anyways like it doesn't always necessarily improve in ease of us as it changes over the years. Like iTunes is a much bigger pain in the butt to use now than it was a decade ago IMHO.

Where is Dad Jimbo's review of Lost? I need his take on Jacob v. MiB.
I think it really varies in terms of whether technology improves or worsens ease-of-use. It helps if you can find something stable and reliable, but that's the trick of it. Like, I now have all my music/movies on my NAS, which is much easier to access than my old CD/DVD racks, and it's easy to build super-long playlists on JRiver and listen at my convenience and it works all the time. However, my dad with his iPad setup isn't nearly as reliable because it's all wi-fi, so if for some reason his iPad or AVR has a weak connection then the whole thing can just stop working for no apparent reason.

Dad Jimbo is pretty laconic about such things, but he seemed to enjoy the show (the fact that he watched all of it says as much), but was quite confused by the end. I tried to talk him through some of our discussions/interpretations but he rarely seems interested in such things. Good thing about him with media is he's OK with stuff that's confusing/weird as long as he finds it entertaining, he doesn't have to understand everything. Again, my mom's very much the opposite.
Raxivace wrote:
Wait... what?
My younger brother takes his medicine and eats 95% of his food through a gastrostomy tube, or g-tube for short. The pictures here are the exact kind my brother has. Essentially, you plug another tube into that one and feed him through that.

It's not at all difficult to use, but medicine and food has to be set up in proper amount beforehand (And cleaned afterwards) and feeding sessions alongside cathing usually takes about 15 minutes or so (Maybe a bit longer if for whatever reason formula just decides not to go down the tube very quickly)., and has to be done twice a day. You would think it would take less than 20 years to learn how to do something like this, especially for your own child's sake, but I guess some of us picked it up more quickly than others.
Ah, I gotcha, thanks for the clarification.
Raxivace wrote:Honestly it might be how these things are titled and advertised that makes them bother me more than anything- I'm fine with "Remembrances" even if I'm not personally interested in them much, but don't call them "Companions" if that that's what they aren't. Like the SotC book was half the author recounting a relationship with...his brother or something, I don't even remember, and half Let's Play SotC in written form. There were interview bits sprinkled in here and there, but it was super light on anything that wasn't surface level-description about the damn game itself.

And honestly some of the interview bits were questionable in their own right and could have used some actual commentary of their own but lol video games criticism.
Yeah, I don't disagree with you. I haven't been able to read any more if it the past few nights as I've been reading/rereading the instruction booklet to the DS board game, which I did end up buying. Seems fairly simple, though I may tweak/home-brew a few rules... like, I hate how there's no option to upgrade vitality/stamina and how every character starts with the same amount. Of course, I get that I can't tweak that too much or it will probably unbalance the game, so it'll probably just be minor.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... =emb_title[/youtube]

All superhero media forever is now redeemed.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Fell behind again on these responses, and honestly not too much to say about most of these. I guess the pandemic nonsense must finally be getting to me.

116. A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Wicked Wives (1993, Dir. Christian I. Nyby II)

117. A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle (1994, Dir. Helanie Head)

118. A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Grimacing Governor (1994, Dir. Max Tash)

119. A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Jealous Jokester (1995, Dir. Vincent McEveety) - After Raymond Burr died they tried to continue these films with different lawyers and uh it only sort of worked? The first of these films feature an opera loving lawyer named Anthony Caruso (Lmao at that name. He's also played by Paul Sorvino from GoodFellas of all people too, which sure is a choice.), and it was kind of a mess since you were expected four women suspected of murdering their same ex-husband would somehow also be VERY friendly with his lawyer Caruso.

I'm guessing the character was supposed to be Mason himself originally and operating in a more neutral role at that since the ex-husband seems to be have been a huge douchebag in general, and its kind of weird if Caruso is such a nice guy its kind of weird that he was so close to him to work through like four divorces but eh whatever. Also its implied he and Della Street might hook up and I'm sorry but that's some horseshit- Della kissed Perry finally a few movies before this, she's not going to hook up with mother fuckin' Anthony Caruso.

The last three movies ditch Caruso for a cowboy rancher kind of lawyer named William McKenzie and he's a little better even if he still doesn't have the presence of Burr. The last of these movies was probably the most interesting to me, since it was about a murder on a television set that seems to be a thinly veiled pastiche of Roseanne from what I can tell.

120.Planet of the Apes (Rewatch, 1968, Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner) - I hadn't seen this for about 15 or years, and man I had forgotten a lot about the movie. I think the biggest thing that surprised me was how scathing this really was, from the not so subtle recreation of the Scopes Monkey Trial (Perhaps not surprising since the Spencer Tracy version of Inherit the Wind had come less than 10 years before this), to the hosings that seemed to be pulled directly out of footage of Civil Rights protests, to infamous twist ending of course.

I will say I did find myself understand the perspective of Dr. Zaius more this time though- honestly his desire to actively repress not only mankind but scientific development in general kind of reminded me of the Patriots from Metal Gear Solid 2, and looking at how the world to fall apart in a lot of ways since then, its not hard to at least have some sympathy for his POV.



121. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941, Dir. Victor Fleming) - I previously mentioned surprise that the original novel was even a mystery story, and well the movie ditches the mystery aspect entirely for something more focused on Jekyll's general descent (And honestly this is closer to what I expected the novel to be anyways). Honestly Spencer Tracey worked better here than I was expecting, even if he does kind of give me the impression that he was never a young man in his life.

122. The Lady Eve (1941, Dir. Preston Sturges) - I waited too long to really write about this in much detail unfortunately, but again this is just another solid Sturges comedy at basically all levels. Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda just work so well here.

123. Ad Astra (2019, Dir. James Gray) - Probably the closet thing to a quiet, contemplative space movie we're going to get out of Hollywood anytime soon. It is by no means on the level of 2001 or anything like that, but its nice to see someone in Hollywood at least aim for something kind of slow and thoughtful even if it doesn't really reach the mark.

124. Psych 2: Lassie Come Home (2020, Dir. Steve Franks) - Similar to the first Psych movie its just a fun revisit of the characters from the TV show. I hope they keep doing these every few years because its fun to visit these dorks.

125. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947, Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewwicz) - Similar to Lady Eve in that's just a really solid example of its genre, though in this case its romantic drama.

126. You Only Live Once (1937, Dir. Fritz Lang) - "What can go wrong, will go wrong": The Movie. The film itself is solid though, but man Fonda's character in this movie got screwed.

127. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011, Dir. Tomas Alfredson) - Yeah this wasn't bad but did leave me pretty cold. Not really sure where the heavy praise I seem to remember this getting was coming from.

128. Peyton Place (1957, Mark Robson) - Eddie Mueller on TCM described this as Twin Peaks minus supernatural stuff (I'm assuming he means the original seasons though), and honestly he's right. A lot of the soap opera-y aspects are here of course, but honestly a lot of the social critique about the covering up of the abuse of women, small town America turning a blind eye to it etc. is present as well.

Robson himself of course directed like four of the Val Lewton horror films before this too, which kind of creates a chain from Lewton to Lynch I guess.

129. Queen Christina (1933, Dir. Rouben Mamoulian) - Garbo playing the Queen of Sweden, and the tragic romance she finds herself in. Garbo does command a lot of screen presence here, though I have to say it is not convincing at all when she tries to disguise herself as a man.

Whole movie kind of reminded me of The Scarlet Empress from von Sternberg/Dietrich, though I'm not sure which I liked better. I think I lean more toward Garbo's performance, but the set design in Empress.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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130. It's a Wonderful World (1939, Dir. W.S. Van Dyke) - Fairly decent romantic comedy in the vein of films like It Happened One Night. Here the spin is that Jimmy Stewart plays a detective trying to prove a client innocent of murder, but ends up arrested by the police. Stewart escapes the police and along the way he ends up entangled with a poetess played by Claudette Colbert, and together they both evade the police and look for clues and such. It's a light bit of fun, and its always kind of neat to see these early Stewart roles.

131. Dead End (1937, Dir. William Wyler) - Bogart plays a gangster who, while running from the police, returns home to the New York City slum he grew up in. One of the people he meets up with again is Joel McCrea, who used to be a kid that ran with Bogart but went straight, graduating high school and college and having nothing to show for it while crooked Bogart at least got some money for his criminal ways (But little else, most of his old connections, including his mother, now reject him). To pass the time, Bogart tries to corrupt a gang of kids into his ways (Played by the Bowery Boys, though here they're called "the Dead End Kids"), though the sister of one of them (Sylvia Sidney) tries to keep him out of trouble so he can go straight and hopefully get a real job one of these days.

This drama is also played against the backdrop of the slum itself becoming gentrified by the upper class, who are building luxurious apartments nearby for the nice view of the East River. Economic tension is all over this film.

Honestly, this probably my favorite Wyler. Maybe its just the times we're in at the moment but the general tension between economic conditions and personal choice (I.e. going straight like McCrea or crooked like Bogart) just played really strongly for me. Sure, Bogart is a bad guy in the film (He's killed at least 8 people before the film begins), but at the same time when "going straight" does little good for McCrea its hard to deny there's a legitimate reason for Bogart to engage in crime (In fact, film's ultimate irony that being able to collect the bounty on Bogart after he's shot and killed is the only reason McCrea and Sidney can pay to defend her brother of a crime he's accused of in the film's end).
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^Bogart and his gangster buddies enjoy cigarettes as the upper class apartment towers over them, almost looming even, in the background.

Of course the basic idea of the themes here are pretty inherent to the gangster genre of the 30's to some extent, but I'm not sure any of them (In this time period at least) so directly places the gangster as not only the natural end product of capitalism's failures quite like this, but a generational phenomenon too that feeds into itself too.

-----
Lunar Legend Tsukihime (2003) - An anime adaptation of Tsukihime, with a reputation that is so bad that people say this doesn't exist. And you know what, they're right. This anime is not real. I thought I watched all 12 episodes of this anime, but it turns out I didn't. My computer screen was off this whole time, including while writing this post. Nothing is real, we can't do things that are impossible, such as watching a fake anime.
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Pack it up everyone, we're done here. We can all go home now. Farewell Pitter's Place, it was nice knowing you. Thanks for all the memories! This is Raxivace, signing off for the final time.
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...All joking aside, this really is a fairly bad anime, hence 15+ years of variations on the "There is no Tsukihime anime" meme. It is actually interesting how it chooses to adapt the original visual novel at least, though few of its choices here are successful.

Despite having the same overarching plot as the Arcueid route of the original game (The extremely short version of this being "Boy meets girl, boy murders girl for reasons he doesn't understand, girl comes back to life, gets pissed off at boy, and forces him to help her in battle against undead vampires as recompense". Refer back to my review of the visual novel for more detail), the problem comes from how it actually treats the material. From what I can tell there are three main points that cause this to fail.

1. Only adapting roughly half of the story, and the half that is adapted is pretty sloppily consolidated together into a single narrative. Mainly because the game only really adapts the Arcueid route, with details from the Ciel and Akiha routes thrown in (And the Ciel route shared a lot of material with Arcueid's to begin with to be fair). The problem though is that the individual routes were never meant to give you a complete story on their own, and the story seems like it has a ton of unexplained and extraneous elements otherwise. Hisui and Kohaku for example are great characters but have absolutely nothing going on this adaptation because their routes (Probably the best two in the game) aren't even adapted here and seem like pointless inclusions as a result.

2. Complete removal of main character Tohno Shiki's internal monologues, almost but not quite completely whitewashing him of any negative qualities whatsoever with one major, unexplained exception in his initial murder of Arcrueid from the "Near Side" routes of the game.

3. Failed attempt to make make the story more some kind of serious, mysterious atmospheric pseudo-ennui thing. Just uh, one that also has vampire battles in a few episodes. And frankly I'm being extremely generous by throwing the word "ennui" in there because its the politest way I can think of to explain why everyone comes off fairly bored and lifeless here that's actually an intentional artistic choice and not just a colossal fuckup- its most noticeable with Shiki but really the whole cast is like that, even for the most part the rest of the cast has their personalities left more in tact.

1 and 2 are particularly notable here since Studio Deen's Fate/stay night adaptation just a few years later would share exact same issues (Having not learned it seems from J.C. Staff's attempt at adapting a Type-Moon game), though its worth noting that 1 at least is a defensible in theory.

In the original visual novel there are 5 routes based on which girl Shiki ends up with (Arcueid, Ciel, Akiha (Ugh), Hisui, and Kohaku), but honestly paring this down is not the worst thing in the world and it could probably be successfully done for the purposes of television (Not that this anime is able to do that). Arcueid and Ciel's route share a lot of common ground to begin with and combining them into a single narrative isn't a terrible idea per se. Even throwing in elements of Akiha's route probably could have worked, though the elements of it that appear in the actual anime are fairly bizarre and raise more questions than answers.

Part of me wonders with Hisui and Kohaku's characters being so gutted if there wasn't a plan for a second season at some point to focus on their routes which would naturally answer some of the questions the anime raises (And not make their characters kind of pointless inclusions), but as far as I'm able to tell there's no direct evidence for this. To be fair their routes would be legitimately tricky to adapt for an anime since Shiki spends most of them bed ridden and going insane, but then again why adapt Tsukihime at all if you're not up to the challenge?

2 is probably the anime's biggest offense, since a big part of Shiki as a character is that while he's generally polite or whatever, his internal narration goes into very bizarre (And often violent) places. Even the mundane act of accidentally bumping into a chair sets him off into crazy town at one point.
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^This particular internal rant that precedes Shiki's murder of a chair is notable since each instance of "This chair." needs an individual click to appear onscreen- meaning you need to click 30 or whatever times to get through this "page". Good use of the VN medium IMO.

Like the dude has issues, and one of the most interesting part of the VN is watching him go back and forth being polite Shiki and disturbing Shiki. That's a huge running part of the VN- if Shiki is just paranoid, if he actually is the serial killer he he hear about on the news and dreams about etc. That's mostly a thing in the Far Side routes about Akiha/Hisui/Kohaku, but then again the question itself is raised in Near Side routes where Shiki murders Arcueid. Arcueid herself offers an explanation for why Shiki does this, but its called into question later on.

The question of where exactly these thoughts and impulses in Shiki are coming from, and how much of it is because of his heritage, or his urban fantasy magical nonsense, or general circumstances, or if that's just who Shiki is deep down. Similar to the psychologist's explanation of Norman Bates in Hitchcock's Psycho, I'm not sure any of these fully explain Shiki's character (And this is just going by Tsukihime itself. Kagetsu Tohya complicates this even further, such as with Flower of Thanatos ending).

Of course the anime adaptation cuts this out nearly entirely (Again, other than the initial murder), leaving behind more generic character with little to no internal psychology whatsoever. I'm guessing 3 therefore is the anime's attempt to make up for that...



^And if you look at the opening credits sequence for the show, you can sort of get the vibe they're trying to go for (And its kind of inline with the tone of other series from early 2000's that went for similar vibe post-Evangelion). I just don't think this material works though when played so completely straight like that, at least for this portion of what they chose to adapt. Part of the reason is that even the source material thinks is still a bit goofy to some extent (Catholic Church assassins etc.)- that isn't to say the VN doesn't have moments of drama or whatever, it absolutely does and boy does some of it get bleak, but it doesn't get there by trying to pretend some of the goofier things aren't at least a little goofy.

Perhaps a comparison can be made to the differences in tone between the TV version of Escaflowne and the film version. That's not a perfect comparison though because the Tsukihime VN does honestly go to darker places than the anime does (Mainly during Hisui/Kohaku routes that the anime ignores almost entirely), but I can't think of a better comparison off of the top of my head. Maybe the differences between Magic Knight Rayearth and the Rayearth OVA is better (Where despite ostensibly bleaker tone the OVA is honestly significantly less thematically substantial than the ostensible show aimed at children), but I don't think anyone else here has seen that.

(EDIT: Another comparison that comes to mind immediately after posting this would be like if you tried to do a remake of a Hitchcock film in the style of someone like Antonioni, but via removing most if not all suspense elements while still technically following the plot, nearly all psychological and sexuality themes etc. while still advertising it as a Hitchcock remake. Like unless you're a rare once in a lifetime genius what is even the point such an endeavor to begin with?)

It's a huge shame this isn't better, because there's a lot of good stuff in the original VN that could be made even better with a solid adaptation.

Maybe one day we'll get a Tsukihime anime that actually exists...
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132. Written on the Wind (1956, Dir. Douglas Sirk) - Classic Sirk style of combining melodrama with social themes. Could anyone shoot Autumn colors in America better than Sirk? Because damn they're just gorgeous, like I've fallen into a catalogue for a clothing line of cozy sweaters of some kind.

The actual drama between Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, and Dorothy Malone is all good stuff too, though I'm not sure its quite as good as All That Heaven Allows or Imitation of Life on in that department (Though they are two tough contenders to beat).

133. Anaconda (1997, Dir. Luis Llosa) - Really campy and fun for what it is, but I gotta be honest I would watch more films about Ice Cube fighting giant reptiles.

134. Crazy Rich Asians (2018, Dir. Jon M. Chu) - For some reason I remember this being described as, well, some crazy zany movie of intense debauchery but really its just a standard but decently well made romantic dramedy. The kind we don't seem to get much out of Hollywood anymore, unfortunately.

135. The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962, Dir. Robert Bresson) - I gotta be honest between this and the Dreyer movie I really don't don't get the fascination with the Joan of Arc trial and this didn't do much to enlighten me. I do agree with Bresson that Dreyer's film is overacted (Even for the silent era), but the reserved stoicism Bresson directs Florence Delay as Joan with also leaves me as cold as Dreyer did and honestly it feels a little lifeless even by Bresson standards.

This is only like 65 minutes too, and really feels like it should be the entire last act to some other film instead of individual film in its own right.

136. Ocean's Eleven (Rewatch, 2001, Dir. Steven Soderbergh) - I forgot how slick of a film this was. Its still generally pretty fun to watch today and kind of makes me wish Soderbergh still made these kinds of blockbusters (Though Logan Lucky is pretty close).

137. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981, Dir. Bob Rafelson) - It is kind of interesting to see some of the BBS Productions alumni in Rafelson and Jack Nicholson try and do a straight genre story like Postman Always Rings Twice, but I'm not sure it adds very much to the 40's film beyond more explicit sex scenes. Probably the most interesting difference is that this version of the story ends at the second car crash, but tbh it just makes the story feel a bit more maudlin to me (And the title never actually gets explained here either unlike the 40's movie). Thing is, its otherwise not terrible or anything before that, like its watchable enough, but it does make me wonder what exactly drove them to make this.

Apparently this was David Mamet's screenwriting debut too.
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138. Richard Jewell (2019, Dir. Clint Eastwood) - True story of Richard Jewell, man falsely accused of detonating bomb and how he's railroaded by the media and government. Mostly its just standard, solid Eastwood hero drama.

Probably the most interesting thing to talk about with it is whether its intended to be commentary on politics of the Trump era or not. And honestly juts based on the film its hard to say- the people saying this is a pro-Trump film point to fact that well, media mishandling the story are villains here for part of the film (Very much in contrast to something like Spielberg's The Post, which is Spielberg almost explicitly using story of the past to talk about Trump). Others however would point to the fact that the government are just as responsible for bad things that happen to Jewell, and probably demonized even heavier than media is in my view (Media characters at least eventually realize they fucked up, while John Hamm ends the movie still believing Jewell planted the bomb). Of course its hard to tell even then whether its specifically commentary on politics of Clinton administration of when the film is set (I.e. "look how much better it is now than when Clinton was president"), commentary on the politics of today (I.e. "We're using this story from the past to indirectly criticize Trump and politics of today and how bad shit still is", similar to Spielberg's The Post), or if it's not even meant as specific comment on any era's politics at all.

Like most of Eastwood's movies it seems politically ambiguous to me. It's also entirely possible he's just purely interested in the general story here and not really specific politics, and honestly the thing that leans me toward that is how this film has almost the exact same dramatic narrative arc as Eastwood's previous film Sully (Public figure makes controversial decision to save lives, initially loved as hero until he's called into question during investigation, public figure defends himself, and then ultimately clears their name). I don't remember anyone trying to say Sully was really about failure of Obama years anyways, and its entirely possibly Eastwood is just interested in yet another story of what heroism is or isn't in America (Really that seemed to be driving question of most of his work).

139. The Open House (2018, Dir. Matt Angel & Suzanne Coote) - A teen boy and his mother move into a new house after the death of his father. They basically just take care of for the mother's sister as she's in the process of selling it- at night they just kind of chill out there but during the day realtors are in the process of selling it. Thing is weird shit keeps happening around the house (Things going missing etc.) and also the neighbors are kind of weird. Honestly its a decent thriller/horror film with weird undertones about the familial drama (I think they almost want you to think the son and mother have some kind of weird Oedipal incest thing going for a while even) until dumb as hell ending where the guy terrifying son and mother reveals himself and tries and then ultimately succeeds in killing both of them. Mysterious man turns out to be...just some mysterious man who has been spying on both of them for days now. We never see his face even, and apparently he just gets off on going to open houses and killing the people selling the houses. That's it.

Dumb ending aside its decent movie before that and maybe even with the ending there's something larger intended that I missed (Particularly if I'm right about Oedipal thing).
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140. Visions (2015, Dir. Kevin Greutert) - Weird movie. Basically a pregnant lady and her husband have moved into a new house after a car accident some time earlier, except now the lady thinks she's either going crazy or that their new house is haunted by ghosts. It ends up being kind of both, in that the lady is being gaslit by her one of her friends (Who turns out of to have been a victim of the aforementioned car accident, having lost her child in it), who plans on killing the girl and her husband and cutting the baby out of her. The "ghosts" ends up being psychic reverberations of the attack being sent back in time, or something along those lines. Not exactly greatest film ever made, but kind of a decent twist.

141. Hubie Halloween (2020, Dir. Steven Brill) - Adam Sandler's mashup of various Halloween movie cliches and such. I kind of enjoyed it for what it was, and honestly it was also a better mystery narrative than the actual murder mystery movie that he made with a Jennifer Anniston a few years back.

142. A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote (2020, Dir. Thomas Schlamme) - A stage-based remake of West Wing episode "Hartsfield's Landing", to get people to inspired to go out and vote at the polls and such. My own political views have moved to the left compared to the general themes of The West Wing, though I have to admit to still having fondness for general characters and such and it was nice to see a lot of the actors returning to these those roles (That were still alive anyways) so many years later.

I guess in a way its also one of these weird examples of creators remaking their own work, like Funny Games and such. Not often you get to see the same cast read the same parts nearly 20 years later. Its also kind of surreal seeing the same kind of camera setups and such that made sense for network TV circa 2002, but redone not on only on the stage but kind of surreally so since there was no audience because of COVID-19 restrictions. When we've (Hopefully) moved on from the nightmare we're living in at the moment, that'll probably be the most interesting thing about this.

143. A Bone to Pick: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2015, Dir. Martin Wood) - I'm sorry but these Hallmark Channel mystery movies are way stranger and hornier than anyone is giving them credit for. Like this one features a wannabe detective girl who runs a club based around True Crime going to a funeral and hooking up with a minister. Like, wow.

Otherwise its fairly kind of generic TV movie mystery but man it makes me wonder just what the deal with the Hallmark Channel is.

-----------------------------------------------

The Sopranos (Season 1, 1999) - God dammit, this was actually really good. There's something to be said about a DA's statement that prestige TV is about white dudes making bad choices, and while Sopranos basically started that trend on American TV from what I can tell it does it so damn good. The direction feels way more cinematic than most of what's on TV now even (Even compared to Deadwood which I loved), from obvious things like the ducks as a symbol, to even Christopher's dream sequence in episode 8 where Tim Van Patten imitates the famous "Spike Lee dolly shot" (Something I normally don't even like about Spike's work but makes more sense in context of a dream sequence).

Its also kind of interesting how much this references other media and what the other characters get out of it. Sure there are conversations about The Godfather, Scorsese's movies like GoodFellas etc. and its not a surprise the actual gangster characters are into them and have various thoughts about them, though other characters discuss whether gangster movies stereotype Italian-Americans. Even Anthony Jr. repeatedly playing Mario Kart 64 in many scenes seems like it plays into this, since Nintendo's modern empire (If not the entirety of modern Japanese gaming as a whole) is arguably built on characters like Mario and Luigi who are arguably a form of Italian stereotype themselves. I'm not sure I buy that mind you, but its not like criticism hasn't been made before.

The only major thing I'm kind of iffy on in this first season is Tony's mother as a character. Frankly the direction she goes into I.e. literally ordering a hit on her own son feels kind of ridiculous to me and maybe a turn to the cartoonish for a show that was relatively grounded before this. I still think she's play quite well mind you, but its a bit much.

The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) - I'm not familiar with the original stories this is adapted from, but I found this to be a general enjoyable ghost/love story, though I'm kind of a sucker for these haunted mansions with sordid histories. Really the only major problem I had with this (Besides how obvious some of the other twists were, though that could be an inheritance from the source material), is how hard the focus shifts into the second to last episode onto a completely different cast of characters. The episode itself I thought was fine, but the buildup didn't feel quite earned- say what you will about season 6 of Lost, but by time you got to "Across the Sea", Jacob and Man in Black and been characters you had been seeing and hearing a lot of so the idea of an episode solely dedicated to a flashback about them made sense. Bly Manor didn't need to go that hard, but it would have been nice if you had been hearing some more about these other people that lived in the house before you shifted gears so hard to them right before the literal end of the show.

I'm also not sure the framing device of this being a story told to a group of people at a party was all that necessary or that it added a whole lot. It didn't really detract though, I guess.

Berserk (1997) - After I watched Elfen Lied last year, I wanted to watch another sort of horror anime for October/Halloween but honestly I was having trouble coming up with something. Then I remembered this exists and decided it was close enough- I quite like the original manga this is adapted from and it seems to enjoy a positive critical reception. Its not without it criticisms though, something that Lyndon's recent watch brought to mind.

Anyways this is a medieval dark fantasy series that adopts two arcs from the manga- a sort of prologue arc and the "Golden Age" arc. The prologue features a man named Guts fighting a lizard man while the "Golden Age" is a flashback that details a younger Guts as mercenary being brought into the "Band of the Hawk", itself a larger band of mercenaries, and Guts' fascination with both its charismatic leader Griffith and Casca, a commander in the unit who many underestimate due to being a woman. There's kind of a weird three-way love triangle going here, as clearly all three of these people are into each to varying extents.

We're already kind of at a problem here though, because of that prologue arc I mentioned. The purpose of the prologue was to show what the state of Berserk's world is in the present- frankly its descender into a proto-Dark Souls hellscape. Strange demonic monsters have started popping up all over the land, supernatural beasts and creatures are just fucking up everyone's lives generally etc. Guts is going around killing a lot of these things, mostly so he can get to a sort of demonic angel named Femto and kill him. Femto is known by another name though to Guts, and that's Griffith. Guts is specifically enraged by how Griffith "betrayed" him, that he wants revenge etc., but Femto has strange demonic powers now that makes him very very difficult to kill.

This is incredibly important context, because it establishes not only heavy presence of supernatural stuff in Berserk's world but also that Griffith did something to enrage Guts.

The anime adapts this as a single episode instead of the multi-volume affair it is in the manga, almost completely downplaying the supernatural element (Beyond one off snake Apostle that Guts fights) and leaving out Femto/Griffith almost entirely. Sure, there's a single line from a random townsperson that mentions Griffith, but a new viewer isn't going to remember that's significant. This single episode fails to contextualize not only itself (Online reactions seem to not understand what this episode is even doing in the narrative), but the rest of the series as well.

The Golden Age arc then being a flashback explains how we got to the point of the prologue. We see Guts' childhood, his meeting of Griffith, and the entire thing is not only a buildup to Griffith's betrayal but as to how it got fucked up by Dark Souls shit in the first place when at first it just appeared to be a fairly standard medieval fantasy world with knights, castles etc. with maybe the occasional odd monster here or there.

The anime adapts this Golden Age stuff fairly straight for the most part, and its both for and against the anime's benefit. For in the sense that this is narratively the strongest stuff in the manga in all honesty, as we have well done classic rise-and-fall story with betrayed friendships (Or more than friendships) and such that ends in End of Evangelion-esque apocalypse. Because its so straightly done though, it does mislead people into thinking its much less supernatural story than it really is at first, which I think is kind of a problem.

Golden Age being a flashback arc isn't just for the sake of it, but part of the manga's general obsessiveness with themes of causality/fate/predetermination etc. Because we know from prologue arc that 1) World gets fucked up by demon bullshit and 2) Griffith betrays Guts and the Band of the Hawk somehow, its meant to add an air of inevitability over the entire Golden Age arc that a mostly solo adaptation of it adds. Griffith betraying Guts isn't meant to be a shock as much as something that was always going to happen- the narrative structure reinforcing the themes of the story (It kind of reminds of Better Call Saul come to think of it, as it being a prequel gives greater weight to the antagonists that are anti-Jimmy in that story, because audience already knows that once Jimmy becomes "Saul Goodman" for real he'll do some bad stuff around the proper Breaking Bad era).

There's also changes to the arc in the anime to note- namely that Guts' pre-Band of the Hawk backstory is fairly sanitized (They leave out of the fact that he was raped as a child, though that would have been tricky to air on TV because its something that comes up multiple times over the manga's version of the story), and the anime's story is left on something of an anti-climax. The anti-climax I actually kind of like because it kind of works a la Deadwood season 3 (This adaptation never got another season), but not quite as well. I think it would work better as a standalone story if the prologue had been a fuller adaptation and the general message that Guts will continue hunting Griffith for all eternity was more clear, but its kind of muddled as is.

Its a testament to the source material that even in a watered down form like this I still enjoyed the anime greatly though. There is also the anime's score which is worth bringing up. It only has like maybe 10 tracks by I generally quite liked them. Its by Susumu Hirasawa, who did the soundtracks to Satoshi Kon's work of all things.


^Guts' theme in particular was probably my favorite bit of music.

There is a song left off of the official soundtracks from what I can tell.



From reading around online, there's speculation that this track used in the anime was probably plagiarized from something Ennio Morriconne did.


^That's from something called "Blue Eyed Bandit" apparently. I'm not familiar with whatever that is (I'm guessing a movie), but its hard to deny the similarity between the two tracks.

I don't know if it was actually plagiarism or not of if they were actually allowed to use the music, but its kind of a neat bit of trivia in any case.

EDIT: Apparently Satoshi Kon himself even used footage from Berserk to make a music video.
Last edited by Raxivace on Wed Nov 18, 2020 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Trying to distract myself from the election, so here's some late Halloween watches plus other stuff.

144. Island of Lost Souls (1932, Dir. Erle C. Kenton) - I'm not really familiar with the Dr. Moreau character or his stories, but the whole notion of the island of weird chimera-esque monster people was kind of neat.

145. The Vampire Bat (1933, Dir. Frank R. Strayer) - Decent little murder mystery about how murders in a small town get pinned on lowest member of society because of fears of supernatural vampire. Fun for what it was.

146. Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933, Dir. Michael Curtiz) - If you've seen the remake version, House of Wax with Vincent Price, this is the exact same story. Its still pretty decent but well I missed Vincent Price.

147. The Walking Dead (1936, Dir. Michael Curtiz) - Boris Karloff gets pinned for a murder, but is brought back to life through experimental science. He gets revenge on those who wronged him. Really fun riff on Frankenstein.

148. Genocide (1968, Dir. Kazui Nihonmatsu) - The last of those "When Horror Came to Shochiku" films and this is fuckin' nuts. Basically, insects become afraid that humanity is going to destroy the world through nuclear weapons and start attacking humans en masse, including downing an American bomber plane carrying an H-bomb. Most of the story involves a Japanese lawyer trying to defend a Japanese guy accused of a murdering American soldiers that were actually killed by these evil insects. Also there's a woman who survived the Holocaust as a child that helps the insects? This whole thing is like the most bizarre reaction to World War II in movie form I have ever seen. I'm not sure it was particularly good exactly, but its something.

149. Bram Stoker's Dracula (Rewatch, 1992, Dir. Francis Ford Coppola) - I've really turned around on this, to the point I'd say its probably Coppola's 4th best film ahead of The Conversation (Sometimes I think the reception of how good that movie is is inflated because of how good Godfather 1/2 and Apocalypse Now are).

I'll also say having read the fairly disappointing novel now, for an adaptation that tries to actually stick to the source material to some extent (Not that there's anything wrong with Nosferatu/Universal/Hammer/etc. straying from it heavily), its honestly an overall improvement. All the long stretches of nothing happening are gone, Mina is focused in on as basically the main character, Dracula actually is a character throughout the whole story, Renfield being reworked as guy that originally tried to be lawyer for Dracula is excellent change (I think its also implied that the "Dracula's Guest" lost chapter happened to him), and a lot of black comedy works pretty well here (Particularly with Van Helsing as a character, though Mina describing Lucy as a "pure" woman as she tries to sweet talk Seward/Morris/Holmwood at the same time is pretty fun and good reintepretation of the line from the book about she wishes she could marry all three of them anyways). Even Keanu's acting was not nearly as stodgy as I remembered, though it helps knowing that Harker in the book was kind of cardboard anyways and that honestly Keanu is probably bringing a little more to the character than he is typically given credit for.

The other thing about this film is that the production design is insane. Maybe even overdone, but its appropriate for this kind of story I think.

150. Dark Skies (2013, Dir. Scott Stewart) - Family of four in suburbs is getting trolled by aliens, nobody believes its happening, oldest son is eventually taken at the end. Its decent for what is.

151. Blood Type: Blue (AKA Blue Christmas, 1978, Dir. Kihachi Okamoto) - I have wondered for a while now if "Godard-isms" in Anno's work were transferred to him via Okamoto (I think I first read about idea on EGF somewhere). Well I still don't know if that's the case or not, as I haven't seen much here in Blood Type: Blue. The name at least made me think there were must be some influence on Evangelion from this movie and there...sort of is? Kind of? Maybe?

Anyways the basic story here is that there after reports of alien sightings across the world, many regular people blood seems to have been turned blue. A reporter (Tatsuya Nakadai) tries investigating this after a scientist seems to have been kidnapped and deported to America, only to discover plot against the people with blue blood as the Japanese government at the end of the movie ultimately just kills everyone with blue blood out of fear.

I thought this might be more of a horror movie based on the premise, but really its closer to being a conspiracy mystery/thriller thing, though honestly its not that shocking of a mystery really. And as a result the 2 hour 20 minute runtime feels pretty drawn out and sluggish. Like there's even a scene maybe an hour in where somebody watches a history documentary on TV about the rise of the Nazis and how awful their genocide of Jewish people were and its not at all hard to see the parallel with the blue blood people is being made and figure out what is going to happen to them at the film's end.

As far as Evangelion influence goes, I'm guessing the stuff with the Nakadai character MAY have influenced the Kaji stuff in NGE but that's about it (Really the whole blue blood thing reminds me more of RahXephon, ironically enough). I'm not sure what exactly Anno saw in this film though to the point he made a reference to it such an integral part of Evangelion, other than him just generally seeming to have a thing for Okamoto. I'm guessing it does reinforce the notion that Angels are as much of a victim in a way as the blue blood people in this movie are (As they're the "Blood Type: Blue" of Evangelion), and frankly it makes those "Eva is antisemtic" arguments even dumber than I initially thought if Anno is directly referencing a movie that makes point that the Holocaust is something awful that can happen over and over again throughout history.

I still want to watch more Okamoto movies to see about the Godard thing and if there is more influence on Anno in general, but I gotta be honest this just wasn't nearly as good as the other one I've seen in The Sword of Doom which was one of the best samurai movies of the 60's.

-------------------

Dragon Ball GT (1996-1997) - Worst main Dragon Ball anime by far. Its a shame too because most of its ideas are honestly pretty good for Dragon Ball stories (Super 17 arc being dumb exception. Baby is decent idea if not retread of obscure "Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans" ova, and the Shadow Dragons though are honestly an excellent idea though and even work as climate change metaphor- shame that the Shadow Dragons themselves suck ass as characters and are defeated in dumbest ways. One guy is killed because it starts raining for christ's sake.) and from the broadest of broad perspectives it may even be the best plotted Dragon Ball ever got (Which notably stands in contrast to Toriyama's style of coming up with stuff as he goes along and adapting on the fly), but you can really feel the lack of Toriyama here. The whole spirit of the franchise is just gone (Characters being obsessed with bettering themselves through training), and without the strong visual style of a Toriyama manga to work off of the general direction and action scenes here are pretty bad and almost completely lacking in any kind of iconic or strong imagery (By shounen standards anyways).

There are other general problems like characters just not being given much to do (Uub being big one here, done so badly to point that Majin Buu is taken down with him for no reason), characters like Goten and even Trunks just being sort of forgotten, Pan unfortunately never being allowed to be more than comedic relief despite end of DBZ setting her up as next Goku etc. Not that I expect "deep" character work from Dragon Ball but even by shounen and comic book-esque standards whole cast is kind of gutted, which is a shame when the entire theme of GT is, to some extend, the same as these "nostalgia/past is coming back to haunt you" franchise revivals and meant to act as conclusion to the franchise as a whole (Before Toriyama himself came back with Battle of Gods movie and basically told GT to fuck off lmao. The franchise has more or less been revived now since 2013).

TL;DR - Decent to good ideas for Dragon Ball, baaaaad execution.
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I've always been a fan of Coppola's Dracula, despite its flaws.
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48. National Treasure (Rewatch, 2004, Dir. Jon Turteltaub) - I had a soft spot for this movie as a kid, and I still do. Its really goofy but its so committed to Nic Cage being a historian treasure hunter that I still can't help but love it.
I saw this a long time ago. I remember it being entertaining.
54. Troy (Director's Cut, 2004, Dir. Wolfgang Petersen) - Honestly this is kind of underrated. I say “kind of" while there are still issues with it (I'm still I'm not sure I like the gods being removed as actual characters or not), its honestly pretty decent for the most part. Some solid action, a fairly morally ambiguous take on the Trojan War (This is called an adaptation of The Iliad, but really they throw a lot of The Aeneid in here as well, particularly with the ending featuring the actual sacking of Troy), and for the most part I like these takes on the characters (Even Brad Pitt as Achilles I think mostly works, if one remembers how whiny he was in Homer to begin with. If anything that aspect seems toned down here). I kind of wish we had more of Sean Bean as Odysseus as well, he fits the part pretty well.
I saw this a long time ago. I remember it being good.
57. Killing Them Softly (2012, Dir. Andrew Dominik) - Basically a gangster movie about how neoliberalism has failed America. Its pretty on the nose (Especially with Brad Pitt's fairly didactic speech at the end that more or less amounts to criticizing Obama's “hope" being ultimately kind of empty), but it's a perfectly fine movie.
I saw this last year and I loved it. I think I'm the only one, though.
71. Night and Fog (1955, Dir. Alain Resnais) - Honestly I'm not sure what I can really say about this one. Its difficult to create any kind of real intellectual response to this when such things just seem so weak and small and feeble compared to just the fucking horrors that the Nazis filmed.
This is an excellent film. Resnais is one of my favourite directors and this is one of his best.
73. Contagion (2011, Dir. Steven Soderbergh) - People have been going on about how this seems to have a lot of parallels with the Covid-19 outbreak and oof they're right. People blaming China, a fake “cure" being hawked, the term “social distancing", Dr. Sanjay Gupta being on TV talking about it etc.
I remember this being quite good.
Deadwood (2004-2006) - Finally finished this, though I'm waiting a bit on the movie. I'm not sure I really have much to add to what I've said before though. I will say I think the final episode still kind of works as an ending honestly despite the show being cancelled. Hearst basically winning while Swearengen is left once again with yet another bloodstain to clean up just kind of seems like an appropriate note to end on, though I'll see how the movie's ending compares.


I saw Deadwood back in 2017. I'm a big Western fan so I decided to see it. I loved the first and the second season but the third season bored me for some reason.
75. Do the Right Thing (Rewatch, 1989, Dir. Spike Lee)
I think this is Spike Lee's best film.
77. Cloverfield (Rewatch, 2008, Dir. Matt Reeves)
78. 10 Cloverfield Lane (Rewatch, 2016, Dir. Dan Trachtenberg) - Rewatched these as well. I meant to rewatch The Cloverfield Paradox but I feel asleep about 30 minutes in to that bad movie. First two Cloverfields hold up really well though. I think 10CL is still the best by a margin, but honestly the original Cloverfield is better than I remember.
Two very good films. I also preferred 10 Cloverfield Lane by a little bit.
86. Enemy (2013, Dir. Denis Villeneuve) - Hitchcock-lite but with a bunch of spiders? I typically like Villeneuve but I don't feel like these Aronofsky-esque symbolic additions really added to this story, though even if you subtracted them this story still feels like it has nearly as much going on as the movies this takes inspiration from like Vertigo.
This is my least favourite Villeneuve film. It was only okay.
89. Bad Boys (Rewatch, 1995, Dir. Michael Bay) - Anything that isn't Martin Lawrence and Will Smith bantering together in this movie is just awful. I remember thinking this was one of the better Bay films but NOPE.
I remember this being an action comedy that I kind of liked back in the day.
100. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946, Dir. Tay Garnett) - A really solid little noir about a guy helping a woman murder her husband. The biggest problem I had with it though is that as good as it is it still doesn't quite match up to Double Indemnity to me, which I feel like is the definitive take on this premise. Still, Postman is fun. The diner is a solid location for a location, and everything about the blackmail scheme in the later part of the movie is cool.
I saw this twice. I liked it. I love Lana Turner. She is one of my favourites from that period. I think this is widely considered as her most iconic role.
114. The Great Silence (1968, Dir. Sergio Corbucci) - I'm not the biggest spaghetti western guy outside of Leone's films, but this one was honestly really damn good. Its deeply cynical, though hot damn does it look good even on the cheap letterboxed DVD copy that I have. The snowy mountains and such are a marvel, making it one of the few wintery westerns.
I saw this last year. This one of those films I didn't enjoy, but I have no idea why. There is nothing wrong with the film.
120.Planet of the Apes (Rewatch, 1968, Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner) - I hadn't seen this for about 15 or years, and man I had forgotten a lot about the movie. I think the biggest thing that surprised me was how scathing this really was, from the not so subtle recreation of the Scopes Monkey Trial (Perhaps not surprising since the Spencer Tracy version of Inherit the Wind had come less than 10 years before this), to the hosings that seemed to be pulled directly out of footage of Civil Rights protests, to infamous twist ending of course.
I saw this, but I don't remember much. I wonder how are these new Planet of the Apes movies (I think they are prequels of some sort). I haven't seen them yet.
121. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941, Dir. Victor Fleming) - I previously mentioned surprise that the original novel was even a mystery story, and well the movie ditches the mystery aspect entirely for something more focused on Jekyll's general descent (And honestly this is closer to what I expected the novel to be anyways). Honestly Spencer Tracey worked better here than I was expecting, even if he does kind of give me the impression that he was never a young man in his life.
I saw this because Lana was in it. I only remember that Ingrid Bergman was good in it.
123. Ad Astra (2019, Dir. James Gray) - Probably the closet thing to a quiet, contemplative space movie we're going to get out of Hollywood anytime soon. It is by no means on the level of 2001 or anything like that, but its nice to see someone in Hollywood at least aim for something kind of slow and thoughtful even if it doesn't really reach the mark.
I saw this one last year. I loved it. It was certainly aesthetically pleasing.
125. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947, Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewwicz) - Similar to Lady Eve in that's just a really solid example of its genre, though in this case its romantic drama.
A very good film with Gene Tierney.
127. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011, Dir. Tomas Alfredson) - Yeah this wasn't bad but did leave me pretty cold. Not really sure where the heavy praise I seem to remember this getting was coming from.
This was a slow paced spy movie and I liked it myself.
128. Peyton Place (1957, Mark Robson) - Eddie Mueller on TCM described this as Twin Peaks minus supernatural stuff (I'm assuming he means the original seasons though), and honestly he's right. A lot of the soap opera-y aspects are here of course, but honestly a lot of the social critique about the covering up of the abuse of women, small town America turning a blind eye to it etc. is present as well.
I saw this. This was Lana's only Oscar nomination.
135. The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962, Dir. Robert Bresson) - I gotta be honest between this and the Dreyer movie I really don't don't get the fascination with the Joan of Arc trial and this didn't do much to enlighten me. I do agree with Bresson that Dreyer's film is overacted (Even for the silent era), but the reserved stoicism Bresson directs Florence Delay as Joan with also leaves me as cold as Dreyer did and honestly it feels a little lifeless even by Bresson standards.
I saw this one and I thought it was very good actually. I saw it a long time ago, though.
136. Ocean's Eleven (Rewatch, 2001, Dir. Steven Soderbergh) - I forgot how slick of a film this was. Its still generally pretty fun to watch today and kind of makes me wish Soderbergh still made these kinds of blockbusters (Though Logan Lucky is pretty close).
A very entertaining movie.
137. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981, Dir. Bob Rafelson) - It is kind of interesting to see some of the BBS Productions alumni in Rafelson and Jack Nicholson try and do a straight genre story like Postman Always Rings Twice, but I'm not sure it adds very much to the 40's film beyond more explicit sex scenes. Probably the most interesting difference is that this version of the story ends at the second car crash, but tbh it just makes the story feel a bit more maudlin to me (And the title never actually gets explained here either unlike the 40's movie). Thing is, its otherwise not terrible or anything before that, like its watchable enough, but it does make me wonder what exactly drove them to make this.
I saw this remake. I didn't care for it.
The anime adapts this Golden Age stuff fairly straight for the most part, and its both for and against the anime's benefit. For in the sense that this is narratively the strongest stuff in the manga in all honesty, as we have well done classic rise-and-fall story with betrayed friendships (Or more than friendships) and such that ends in End of Evangelion-esque apocalypse. Because its so straightly done though, it does mislead people into thinking its much less supernatural story than it really is at first, which I think is kind of a problem.
Very interesting. Thanks for the extensive write-up on Berserk. It certainly cleared up some things for me.
149. Bram Stoker's Dracula (Rewatch, 1992, Dir. Francis Ford Coppola) - I've really turned around on this, to the point I'd say its probably Coppola's 4th best film ahead of The Conversation (Sometimes I think the reception of how good that movie is is inflated because of how good Godfather 1/2 and Apocalypse Now are).
I'm going to have to disagree with you there. I liked Dracula, but I absolutely loved The Conversation. That being said... I loved Apocalypse Now even more. It is probably my favourite film at the moment.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Lord_Lyndon wrote:I saw this, but I don't remember much. I wonder how are these new Planet of the Apes movies (I think they are prequels of some sort). I haven't seen them yet.
The original movie already had prequels (Battle, Conquest etc.), so I think the new movies are just their own separate continuity.
I saw this. This was Lana's only Oscar nomination.
You really do like Lana lol. She's a great actress.
Very interesting. Thanks for the extensive write-up on Berserk. It certainly cleared up some things for me.
Glad it helped, though looking at that post again I feel a lot of the grammar is pretty messy. I might go back and clean it up at some point.
I'm going to have to disagree with you there. I liked Dracula, but I absolutely loved The Conversation. That being said... I loved Apocalypse Now even more. It is probably my favourite film at the moment.
Apocalypse Now is usually in my top 10 or so, though its been a while since I made a real list like that (And I probably won't try again for a while). Its certainly fantastic.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Thanks for the reply, Rax. I'm looking forward to your next write-up about films/anime you've seen.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Lord_Lyndon wrote:Thanks for the reply, Rax. I'm looking forward to your next write-up about films/anime you've seen.
I'll hopefully get something up here soon. I've got a live action miniseries I want to finish first and then I'll start writing up a decent-sized post about everything.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Bah another post where I have a lot of things reviewed, but I don't really feel like I've done justice to anything here.

152. Wings of Honnemaise (AKA Royal Space Force: Wings of Honnemaise, 1987, Dir. Hiroyuki Yamaga) - The movie that first put Gainax on the map. This follows an alternate Earth (Maybe) and their attempt to develop a space program against the backdrop of international conflict.

I found myself thinking of The Wind Rises a lot while watching this, though I think I actually preferred this to Miyazaki's movie since the main character Shiro was much harder for me to get a read on than Jiro (Huh their names even rhyme). Shiro is just such a weirdly ambivalent guy throughout much of the movie that I never quite know what to make of him or what he thinks he'll get out of being in the Royal Space Force. This is to say nothing of the controversial near-rape scene in the film, which seem to have caused interpretations as far apart as Shiro just being a guy nearly making a terrible mistake to an outright villain. I think the film leans towards the former more than the latter, but it does make one wonder.

Its also worth noting Ryuichi Sakamoto did the score for this film- the same year he did the score for Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor. That's still kind of a bizarre juxtaposition of films to me.

153. Cutie Honey (2004, Dir. Hideaki Anno) - One of the two adaptations of Go Nagai's classic manga "Cutie Honey" that Anno made. The basic story of Cutie Honey is about a cyborn girl getting revenge for the death of her father against the organization "Panther Claw", though its mostly pretty silly and other than maybe Death & Rebirth this is Anno's worst film. Probably the most interesting to note is what Anno emphasizes between the two different versions- here in the live action film, its the wholesome relationship between Honey and the other main characters.

154. Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya: Oath Under Snow (2017, Dir. Shin Onuma)
155. Fate/kaelid liner Prisma Illya: Prisma Phantasm (2019, Dir. Shin Onuma) - See the Prisma Illya review below.

156. Cast a Deadly Spell (1991, Dir. Martin Campbell) - A weird film noir tribute where 40's LA is re-imagined with magic and witchcraft and voodoo and Lovecraftian deities (Hell the main character is a detective named H.P. Lovecraft!) such as a part of the setting. Its a bizarre combination that I think kind of works, though the most bizarre thing might be that there's a sequel to this directed by Paul Schrader of all people. Though I guess this movie too was directed by the guy that would go on to do GoldenEye and Casino Royale (2006) (And also Green Lantern but lol at that).

157. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion (2020, Dir. Marcus Raboy) - A reunion/special documentary where most of the living cast of the show (RIP James Avery) come together to reminiscence, watch old clips etc. Its exactly the kind of thing you would expect and it was a nice trip down memory lane. Probably the most interesting thing though was Janet Hubert- the original Aunt Vivian- talking to Will about some of the drama that happened behind the scenes about why her character was recast to begin with. They don't directly state the specifics, but it sounds like she got a pretty raw deal though it seems she and Will made amends.

158. Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020, Dir. Dean Parisot) - Cute for what it was. Honestly the thing it reminded me most of was Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, but this actually made me chuckle a few times and was generally warm hearted, which is more than I can about what Kevin Smith put out.

-------------------

Otaku no Video (1991) - This short two episode OVA from Gainax that follows two narratives more or less. The first is an anime that fictionalizes the story of Toshio "Otaking" Okada (Here called "Ken Kubo")- his becoming an otaku, and the creation and rise of Gainax. This is contrasted what seems to be staged documentary interview segments with real otaku (And former otaku), who have either denounced their old ways or are just generally paraded around as a freakshow of sorts. It would be easy to say that Otaku no Video is contrasting the idealized world of anime with the bitter reality of real life with the interview segments, but frankly both portions get so ridiculous as they go on that I think this series is really ambivalent on the subject. There's a MAL poster that puts forward the idea is that the both the anime and live action interviews reflect the ways that otaku view themselves more than anything else, which is perhaps another interesting way to interpret the show.

The segments start reflecting each other in weird ways too that makes it a bit tricky to nail down what the POV of this OVA is, if there even is one. For example, in the anime segment the fictionalized version of Kudo befriends a "military otaku" early on who explains that he doesn't like murder or anything even though he's into airsoft guns (I think they're airsoft but the larger point is that what he collects are nonlethal toys), he only likes the technical designs of the weapons themselves and the aesthetic of the military and such. He's generally presented as a lovable enough guy, one of the many cool and friendly otaku that Okada befriends. Later on that there's an interview with a "real" military/gun otaku that actually presents pretty similar arguments about his love of the stuff as the earlier anime character, but this guy is presented much less warmly. But why? Why are we presented with the contrast? I'm not sure its just to say "lol nerds are losers in real life" because well this OVA is being made by the nerdiest of nerds. Maybe its to ask why would accept a type of a person in a fictionalized form like anime, but not a realized form. But even then, even the "real" guy is an actor as well.

There's another cute nod where in the anime, Kudo and his friends are waiting in line at the premier of "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind", and while waiting in line they discuss Hideaki Anno's animation in the film "Macross: Do You Remember Love?" (Who also did animation work on Nausicaa), though later on Anno himself plays a character in the interview segments who's obsessed with a hentai game that I think is supposed to even feature GunBuster characters hilariously enough.

There's also stuff like how even in the anime section too that Kubo basically cuts his girlfriend out of his life over the first episode, and while she and her new lover become the "villains" its hard to say that Kubo exactly comes out looking good here even if her leaving him inspires him to become the "Otaking". So how good are we meant to view Kubo anyways?

This doesn't seem to be discussed quite as much as Gainax's more famous stuff (Anno's work, FLCL, Gurren Lagann etc.), but its one of their most self-reflexive and strange accomplishments.

Re: Cutie Honey (2004) - This follows the same basic plot more or less as the live action movie, but here Anno emphasizes the horniness of the original manga over anything else it seems.


^The OP should make the intentions of the anime version pretty clear. I have to say though, its pretty stylish to the point I think he was having more fun on this anime version than the live action version.

The other big difference to me is in Honey's characterization. In the movie she's more of a kind hearted idiot, whereas here she's still kind or whatever but much more in control of herself and self-confident. There are other changes across the board too (I think this version is slightly longer than the movie all things considered), mostly in terms of bad guy minions and tactics, but I feel in grand scheme of things those aren't as notable as as these other aspects.

Last thing to note is that while all three episodes of this have a co-director, episode 1 was co-directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi who would go on to make Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, and Promare.

Ani*Kuri15 (2007) - A collection of 15 one minute shorts. Unfortunately most of are too well, short to say anything about really, though there are a few interesting names on the list of directors gathered here- Akemi Hayashi of Gainax (Who seems to have done a short for Anno's Animator Expo as well), Mamoru Oshii, Shoji Kawamori (Guy behind Macross and Escaflowne), Makoto Shinkai, and in what is apparently his final completed directorial effort Satoshi Kon. Kon's short is a weird thing about a woman waking up from bed in the morning- a really odd note for his career to end on.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya (Seasons 1-4, 2013-2016) - The last of the Fate anime I had to watch, and now I'm truly done with the anime of the franchise for the time being until new stuff starts being released. Unfortunately this was probably the least interesting series despite having more episodes than any other individual show (Though the story doesn't seem to be finished yet). Basically this takes the backstory of the original FSN, shifts it around a bit, and turns the whole thing into a magical girl show with Illya as the main character- though one that seems aimed at adult male fans from what I can tell. For the most part it seems to a fairly straightforward one too, though there are a few decent action scenes and I like that several Hollow Ataraxia characters get moments to shine here. Still I find some of the pandering to the "loli" crowd pretty inappropriate here (Seasons 2 and 3 in particular spend way too much time on that), though that aspect is almost entirely dropped in season 4. Season 4 in general was probably the best season of the show since its the most focused on the actual plot.

Oath Under Snow is a prequel movie that's mostly just a bunch of action scenes linked together, though it was probably the best part of this spinoff altogether since they fully committed to that. Prsima Phantasm is something of a successor to Carnival Phantasm and mostly just similar absurdist comedy featuring the Prisma Illya cast- I think that generally speaking Carnival Phantasm was better at that though.

The Undoing (2020) - This is a miniseries where Nicole Kidman plays a therapist. At a charity event for her kid's school she talks to a strange woman who turns up dead the next day. Also that day her oncologist husband Hugh Grant disappears, becoming accused of murder. That's episode one; episodes 2-5 introduce his attempts to defend himself, other possible suspects, how Nicole Kidman feels about her family life now etc. Episode 6 throws all of that away to go LOL IT REALLY WAS HUGH GRANT THIS WHOLE TIME!!!! in one of the dumbest endings I have ever seen to these kinds of mystery/thriller stories.

Seriously in episode 6 this whole thing changes gears into Hugh Grant becoming one of the most of the comically sociopathic villains I have ever seen. On just a mystery level this whole development is disappointing since "Lol it was literally the first guy you suspected" is weak as hell, but once the reveal happens the dude becomes a cartoon character that has basically nothing in common with how he played the character in the first five episodes and this whole show devolves into like not only a Lifetime Movie, but a particularly bad one. Like for god's sake, a helicopter chases a car in the finale.

I've seen people suggest this show was supposed to be a comment on white privilege or something, that if you didn't think Grant was the killer its because you were charmed by him being rich and white (I apparently missed the memo on white people having this power). I don't really buy that, because it seems like the actual thing that distracts people from thinking Grant is the killer is genre conventions and episodes 2-5 being basically nothing but red herrings. Even if this idea was intended you could probably construct a better story around it without the pointless whodunit elements tacked on.


Apparently the original ending was meant to be ambiguous about who really did the murder too, which probably would have been better but people are idiots I guess.

On Death Row (2012-2013) - If you've ever seen Werner Herzog's documentary "Into the Abyss" this is more of that. Apparently interviewing three death row inmates wasn't enough for Herzog, so he did a miniseries where interviewed eight more and did a 50 minute episode on each of the subjects. I watched the first six episodes years ago and thought the material was pretty grim even by Herzog standards, so I had to stop for my own sanity for a bit. Well I picked up the last two episodes today and they were still pretty dark. Episode 7 revolves around a guy set to be executed who is probably mentally retarded (Which for those who know me should understand that something like this would be a sore spot for me in particular), and the last episode revolves around a guy who killed two people in a fit of road rage. The latter guy in particular is kind of interesting since Herzog seems to imply that he sees a lot of himself in him (I.e. traveling the world and such), though as I've been gearing up to rewatch Evangelion again I did find it kind of surreal when this last guy started singing lyrics from "Fly Me to the Moon".

Throughout the whole series Herzog makes it pretty clear he's against the death penalty even in the cases where the accused probably did it (And I think he thinks most of these people committed the crimes they were accused of), but that also makes it feel a bit different than most of the other true crime documentaries that were popular a few years ago. Even the better of those often feel like they're kind of trashy, which I think Herzog is trying to avoid by focusing more on how grim the death penalty really is.

Mysteries of Lisbon (2011) - I'm not even sure how to describe this one really so I'll just link to its Wikipedia page for those that want a plot summary. It's honestly one of the more narratively dense things I've watched in a while, to the point I'm not sure how much of the plot we're really expected to follow or understand. I thought I had pretty decent grasp of things in the first two episodes where we were only one or two degrees of separation removed from João, but things started getting shakier for me in episode 3 through 5 as we start getting in Father Dinis' complicated backstory. Its honestly complicated to the point that I suspect the film version likely is the better telling of this tale, since there's so much packed in that I honestly think entire plotlines probably did need to be cut. This archived IMDb post suggests the storyline about Dinis' "sister" was one of the plotlines that was cut from the movie, and honestly in the show that was one of the first ones that I actively felt like lost me as I was watching it. I'd be curious to know what else is cut in the film version, but I suspect it is a little bit more cohesive while still remaining generally mysterious.

Honestly at times it felt like I was watching INLAND EMPIRE or something, though while Lisbon certainly feels like it has a dreamlike logic in how jumps from plotline to plotline, connection to connection etc., I'm not entirely sure whether the full thing is meant to be read as a dream or not. João seeming to commit suicide after realizing who exactly it was he was dueling in episode 6 and yet seeming to be fine later on for example complicates any attempt at reading this as a single straightforward narrative that has merely employed nonchronological storytelling.

In a way this also reminds me of something like Hawks' famously difficult to follow adaptation of The Big Sleep. In that film, it was really the charisma of Bogart and the rest of the cast and the general atmosphere that really carried that film and made it an enduring classic even though the plot was notoriously difficult (And only partly because of the censorship at the time that made some of the plot points less explicit than in Raymond Chandler's original novel). No performance in Lisbon is quite on the level of Bogart, but the characters are compelling and there's something to be said about this world of mansions and fancy parties and duels and counts and priests that is similarly enjoyable to get lost in.

I do plan on watching the film version now at some point to see what was different (Probably next year some time), but as cool as this was its a tough one and probably needs some kind of rewatch from me anyways.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Gendo »

I remember loving Otaku no Video back many years ago, when I was myself an otaku. I have it in my collection.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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Yeah Otaku no Video is really something.

I started rewatching NGE and here's just some random thoughts from Episodes 1-4.
-I forgot how just how quick some of the editing is here even in these early episodes. I remember a lot of these shots being held longer.
-Maybe its just because I'm older now but in these first four episodes Misato arguably feels more like the main character than Shinji does. Like it almost feels like this really will be adoption story about raising a child with mecha flavoring more than anything.
-A lot of the sound design here probably doesn't get enough credit. Like there are scenes where we are so far away from characters we can barely hear them. Of course this is animation, so its even more of an illusion than these kinds of things normally are.
-For as much as people go on about Judaeo-Christian references in Evangelion, its funny how even early on there are religious references that fall outside of that. "Marduk" for example I only recently realized is a deity from Babylonian mythology.
-Its kind of interesting that as early as episode 2 that Misato and Ritsuko are worried about the pilots receiving "mental contamination" from the Angels

Also on slightly related note, I never realized before that the Platinum DVD's contain a promo for Elfen Lied. Maybe that's where origin of "lol Elfen Lied is artistic show" nonsense spread to the internet from like 10-15 years ago? At least within the Eva fanbase maybe...unless the idea was already a thing and that's why they chose to advertise it to Eva fans to begin with.

I'll post more thoughts as I go.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Gendo »

I sadly only have the older DVD set instead of the Platinum; without the director's cut versions of the changed episodes and such.

I remember really liking Elfen Lied when I saw it, or at least the first several episodes. Didn't know about any Eva connection.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Catching up...
Raxivace wrote:116. A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Wicked Wives (1993, Dir. Christian I. Nyby II)

117. A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Lethal Lifestyle (1994, Dir. Helanie Head)

118. A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Grimacing Governor (1994, Dir. Max Tash)

119. A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Jealous Jokester (1995, Dir. Vincent McEveety) -
Kinda funny you got into these. The only thing I remember from Perry Mason is that my great grandmother used to watch it and whenever I visited as a young kid I'd fall asleep listening to Perry Mason and wake up hearing the theme song to whatever soap opera she used to watch.
Raxivace wrote:120.Planet of the Apes (Rewatch, 1968, Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner) -
I need to rewatch this myself. Haven't seen it since... I think even before my teens. I didn't like it much back then, but who knows now.
Raxivace wrote:122. The Lady Eve (1941, Dir. Preston Sturges) - I waited too long to really write about this in much detail unfortunately, but again this is just another solid Sturges comedy at basically all levels. Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda just work so well here.
This would be on the short-list for the best romantic comedy duo in film history. Stanwyck and Fonda just play off each other so well, and Sturges' sense of pace and timing is second-to-none (I think only Hawks had a similarly pristine sensibility, though Sturges is a bit more manic).
Raxivace wrote:125. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947, Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewwicz) - Similar to Lady Eve in that's just a really solid example of its genre, though in this case its romantic drama.
I remember really liking this too. Pretty unique concept for the time, and I liked how it was a "lighter" take on the gothic romance drama (perhaps in contrast to Hitch's Rebecca).
Raxivace wrote:126. You Only Live Once (1937, Dir. Fritz Lang) - "What can go wrong, will go wrong": The Movie. The film itself is solid though, but man Fonda's character in this movie got screwed.
I vaguely remember this one. I think I reviewed it back on IMDb... let's see... Yep, here it is:
You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang) - 7.5/10

You Only Live Once has three-time criminal, Eddie (Henry Fonda), released from prison to his wife, Joan
(Sylvia Sidney). He promises to “go straight," but finds it nearly impossible when facing the prejudices of
others due to his past. After he's framed for a bank heist, convicted, and sentenced to execution, he's forced to
escape and go on the run with his (then pregnant) wife.

Though Hitchcock is most well-known for the “wrongly-accused man" genre, Fritz Lang made several as well,
and their respective films are a fascinating study in contrasts. Whereas Hitchcock's interest in the genre was in
the personal and psychological upheaval such events represented (and the suspense-thriller plots they
naturally generated), Lang was far more interested in the interpersonal and social failures such events
represented. We see that social element here in numerous ways, from the prejudice of Eddie's boss and the
hotel owner, to the media who's more interested in getting their story out on time than getting to the truth.
The cast is excellent as well. Henry Fonda was perfect for playing idealistic men in the midst of psychological
and social torment. Sylvia Sidney was just as good at playing the innocent and naively devoted wife, as she
would again in Lang's Fury and (in a more complex role) Hitchcock's Sabotage.

Lang gets a few moments to shine as well, especially during the fog-soaked, high-tension, nocturnal prisonbreak when Eddie takes a doctor prisoner and confronts a priest, one of the few men devoted to helping him.

You Only Live Once relies a bit too much on some obvious plot contrivances, touches of melodrama, and some
choppy editing (perhaps due to 15 minutes being cut for reportedly unprecedented violence), but overall it's
another rock solid, razor sharp, tough-as-nails American film from Lang, this time foretelling the similar
outlaw-couple-on-the run films to come.
Raxivace wrote:127. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011, Dir. Tomas Alfredson) - Yeah this wasn't bad but did leave me pretty cold. Not really sure where the heavy praise I seem to remember this getting was coming from.
Yeah, I felt similar. It seemed to be going for a kinda "slowburn" suspense/thriller but also left me cold. Kinda reminded me of the same reason I don't dig most Melville (filmmaker, not author).
Raxivace wrote:131. Dead End (1937, Dir. William Wyler) -
Haven't seen this one but it sounds really fascinating. I like the Wyler's I've seen and you saying it's your favorite makes me want to see it more.

You also kinda made me want to see Lunar Legend Tsukihime, but for the opposite reason! LOL
Raxivace wrote:132. Written on the Wind (1956, Dir. Douglas Sirk) -
All That Heaven Allows is probably my favorite Sirk, but this one's not far behind (I need to rewatch Imitation of Life: I saw it before I really knew who Sirk was because it was a favorite of my mom's). Here was my review:
Written on the Wind - Douglas Sirk - 9/10

WotW feels like the apotheosis of Sirk's 50s lurid technicolor, satire-cum-melodrama films. The plot is the
blueprint for all wealthy-family soap operas to come (Dallas, Dynasty), where everyone has their sexual
hangups: --Rock Hudson's thinly veiled homosexual desire for Robert Stack, Stack's near-sterility, Dorothy
Malone's nymphomania and lust for Hudson, and Bacall's timidity in being caught between them. The whirlwind
of emotions by the end seems to be the God of Job, what's "written" his judgment on the gluttony of the
American ideal; even while Malone does her Salome-esque dance of seduction, becoming a dance of death via
Sirk's brilliant intercutting. Lynch is often credited with revealing the metaphoric nightmare behind the
American dream, but Sirk arguably did it first in his own unique way. Melodrama literally meaning "music
drama," Sirk's music is his mise-en-scene, where the lavishness of the colors and designs match with the
"drama" to create such an unnaturally heightened combination that it becomes a grotesque funhouse mirror,
which should be impossible to take at face value (though many did and still do: either loving or loathing him
as soap opera). Sirk is closer to another misunderstood auteur, Paul Verhoeven, as an outsider satirizing
American values while working within distinctly American genres. But Verhoeven lacks Sirk's visual skill and
subtlety, where it's still possible to indulge in the cinematic textures of Sirk's films like one indulges in a
fudge-on-fudge cake, while still knowing that in both cases you're being punished for it.
Raxivace wrote:133. Anaconda (1997, Dir. Luis Llosa) - Really campy and fun for what it is, but I gotta be honest I would watch more films about Ice Cube fighting giant reptiles.
Actually saw this in theaters with my mom and my best friend. It was awful, and we loved it.
Raxivace wrote:135. The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962, Dir. Robert Bresson) - I gotta be honest between this and the Dreyer movie I really don't don't get the fascination with the Joan of Arc trial and this didn't do much to enlighten me. I do agree with Bresson that Dreyer's film is overacted (Even for the silent era), but the reserved stoicism Bresson directs Florence Delay as Joan with also leaves me as cold as Dreyer did and honestly it feels a little lifeless even by Bresson standards.

This is only like 65 minutes too, and really feels like it should be the entire last act to some other film instead of individual film in its own right.
I get why Joan of Arc is appealing to theists like Dryer and Bresson because it's one of the ultimate examples of an ordinary human called to great things "by God" and sticking with that faith even in the face of persecution and death. Dreyer's film is overracted because it's essentially an expressionist piece, similar to Murnau's Sunrise, or even the Noh-inspired films of Kurosawa. I do agree that Bresson's Joan isn't great and is probably one of his weakest films. Hell, I even prefer Bresson's early Angels of Sin.
Raxivace wrote:136. Ocean's Eleven (Rewatch, 2001, Dir. Steven Soderbergh) - I forgot how slick of a film this was. Its still generally pretty fun to watch today and kind of makes me wish Soderbergh still made these kinds of blockbusters (Though Logan Lucky is pretty close).
I liked this back when I saw it. Don't remember much beyond the "slickness" you mention, though.
Raxivace wrote:137. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981, Dir. Bob Rafelson) -
Haven't seen this version, but I did see the original (I think) as well as Visconti's Italian version. Didn't care much for either, and they both made me wonder why that story was so popular.
Raxivace wrote:The Sopranos (Season 1, 1999) -
Yep, Soprano's is great indeed. It's been too long since I've seen it to discuss it in-depth but your review definitely triggered memories of stuff I loved about it too. I don't remember having any issue with the mom; yeah, maybe she's a bit OTT and unrealistic, but she's played so well and is so intriguing as a character I didn't mind it. FWIW, I do remember thinking that the series peters out a bit towards the end and becomes more inconsistent, though still with some great moments. Will be interested to see what you think about that.

As for prestige TV being about white dudes making bad decisions, I disagree: The Wire was about white AND black dudes making bad choices. [biggrin]
Raxivace wrote:Berserk (1997) -
I've known about this series for a long time and it was on my short list to check out right around the time I stopped watching anime to focus on film. Your review makes me want to see it, though. For horror-tinged anime, have you seen Boogiepop Phantom? It's not really scary, but more psychological/eerie/existential.
Raxivace wrote:149. Bram Stoker's Dracula (Rewatch, 1992, Dir. Francis Ford Coppola) - I've really turned around on this, to the point I'd say its probably Coppola's 4th best film ahead of The Conversation (Sometimes I think the reception of how good that movie is is inflated because of how good Godfather 1/2 and Apocalypse Now are).
I loved this when I saw it as a teen, and it even inspired me to read the book and I remember thinking I was weird or had bad taste back then for actually preferring the film to the book. Years later I could understood why the film was criticized but I also think most of those criticisms are pretty weak in the face of film's obvious strengths. I've always loved the production design and visually the entire thing is impressive from beginning to end. For Coppola I think it's his only film that even comes close to capturing as strong an atmosphere/aesthetic as Apocalypse Now does, though obviously in a completely different mode. I think Dracula is a bit like Batman in that you have to bring out the expressionistic elements, because anything too realistic just makes the entire thing seem like nonsense.
Raxivace wrote: "Eva is antisemtic" arguments...
WTF? How have I never heard of this before? [gonemad]
Raxivace wrote:152. Wings of Honnemaise (AKA Royal Space Force: Wings of Honnemaise, 1987, Dir. Hiroyuki Yamaga) - The movie that first put Gainax on the map. This follows an alternate Earth (Maybe) and their attempt to develop a space program against the backdrop of international conflict.
Saw this a long time ago. I remember kinda being disappointed, but in retrospect much of that may have just been me not being used to pre-90s anime.
Raxivace wrote:157. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion (2020, Dir. Marcus Raboy)
Didn't even know this was a thing. I'll have to check it out because that show was a big part of my childhood.
Raxivace wrote:Otaku no Video (1991) -
Never heard of this, but it sounds really interesting.
Raxivace wrote:On Death Row (2012-2013) -
Makes me think of Kieslowski's A Short Film About Killing, which is also a pretty grim (though fictional) meditation on the death penalty (it was also an extended version of one of his Dekalog episodes).
Raxivace wrote:Mysteries of Lisbon (2011) -
I think you know I consider this one of the supreme masterpieces of the 21st century. I saw the film version myself, and didn't even know the TV version was different until you mentioned it a while back. I may make it a point to watch the TV version while it's relatively fresh in your mind so we can chat about it. I think what struck me most about the film was its narrative complexity combined with a production design that seemed straight out of Visconti's opulent late films with such an elegant cinematic style that was reminiscent of Mizoguchi. Whole aesthetic was thoroughly intoxicating and the narrative gave you enough to chew on for probably as many viewings as you'd care to give it. I also can't really think of any analogs to it... maybe the closest thing is something like Yang's A Brighter Summer Day, but its narrative complexity is due more to the wealth of characters and minimal exposition, and its visual style was less opulent, though maybe with a bit more depth in how it used various motifs/symbols. Maybe if you combined A Brighter Summer Day with Hou's Flowers of Shanghai you'd have something vaguely similar.
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." -- Carl Jung
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Eva Yojimbo wrote:Kinda funny you got into these. The only thing I remember from Perry Mason is that my great grandmother used to watch it and whenever I visited as a young kid I'd fall asleep listening to Perry Mason and wake up hearing the theme song to whatever soap opera she used to watch.
Kuribo told me the other day that some of the stuff I've been watching lately his mom has also been into. Lol what's with you guys comparing me to maternal figures in your lives?
I need to rewatch this myself. Haven't seen it since... I think even before my teens. I didn't like it much back then, but who knows now.
Since its not the most cinematic of movies I'd be surprised if you were to ever become a big fan. Still, I enjoy it for what it is.
This would be on the short-list for the best romantic comedy duo in film history. Stanwyck and Fonda just play off each other so well, and Sturges' sense of pace and timing is second-to-none (I think only Hawks had a similarly pristine sensibility, though Sturges is a bit more manic).
I'd have to really think about what pairings I like better than Stanwyck/Fonda here. They're some tough competition.
I remember really liking this too. Pretty unique concept for the time, and I liked how it was a "lighter" take on the gothic romance drama (perhaps in contrast to Hitch's Rebecca).
That's a good comparison, though Rebecca probably needs a rewatch from me. I do have that Criterion blu-ray luckily...
You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang) - 7.5/10
Good review. I hadn't thought of it as a precursor to those "couple on the run" movies, but now that you mention I can see some of its DNA being passed on to stuff like Gun Crazy, Bonnie & Clyde, and very probably Godard's work like Pierrot le Fou and Weekend etc.
Haven't seen this one but it sounds really fascinating. I like the Wyler's I've seen and you saying it's your favorite makes me want to see it more.
Keep in mind that while I don't hate Wyler or anything he's never been like a huge favorite of mine otherwise.
You also kinda made me want to see Lunar Legend Tsukihime, but for the opposite reason! LOL
Its one of those weird cases where if it were technically a worse series it would probably be more enjoyable as a bad, campy adaptation of part of the visual novel instead of the half-measure it is.

It kind of makes me wonder what you would think of visual novels like Tsukihime in general too, though I suspect you'll either find a lot of them not video game-y enough for a video game, or not literary enough for literature (Since prose and actual sentence-to-sentence writing are not their strongest aspect, even if you give them some leeway for not only being translated but often fan-translated at that).
Raxivace wrote:132. Written on the Wind (1956, Dir. Douglas Sirk) -
All That Heaven Allows is probably my favorite Sirk, but this one's not far behind (I need to rewatch Imitation of Life: I saw it before I really knew who Sirk was because it was a favorite of my mom's).[/quote]OMG that reminds me of this story I saw online the other day about when Richard Pryor saw Imitation of Life. Talk about militant cinephilia!
Here was my review:
Written on the Wind - Douglas Sirk - 9/10
Good review. Yeah I totally see a lot of Sirk in Lynch- though it makes me wonder what Sirk would have thought of Twin Peaks and such.
Hell, I even prefer Bresson's early Angels of Sin.
I still have to see that one. I think I'm at five Bressons at the moment but he has such a small filmography that one day I should really just marathon the rest.
Didn't care much for either, and they both made me wonder why that story was so popular.
I mean its a story of sex, crime, and betrayal. I dunno if its that much of a mystery why people like it. I didn't know Visconti had a version though.
The Sopranos (Season 1, 1999) -
Yep, Soprano's is great indeed. It's been too long since I've seen it to discuss it in-depth but your review definitely triggered memories of stuff I loved about it too. I don't remember having any issue with the mom; yeah, maybe she's a bit OTT and unrealistic, but she's played so well and is so intriguing as a character I didn't mind it. FWIW, I do remember thinking that the series peters out a bit towards the end and becomes more inconsistent, though still with some great moments. Will be interested to see what you think about that.
Yeah as much as the idea itself I'm a bit iffy on, its hard to imagine the execution, performance etc. being much better in this first season. After I'm done with the Great Eva Rewatch to End 2020 Once and For All, I'll get back to Sopranos.
As for prestige TV being about white dudes making bad decisions, I disagree: The Wire was about white AND black dudes making bad choices. [biggrin]
Well, I wonder. You could make argument that its more about the system pushing everyone to act the way they do, though I don't like these kinds of takes that make it a binary between "the system" pushing people into decisions or it being solely "personal responsibility" or whatever. Like its probably combination of both, with which one having more influence being dependent on context of whatever situation.
I've known about this series for a long time and it was on my short list to check out right around the time I stopped watching anime to focus on film. Your review makes me want to see it, though. For horror-tinged anime, have you seen Boogiepop Phantom? It's not really scary, but more psychological/eerie/existential.
Yeah Berserk is pretty fun, though I hope the manga actually gets finished one day.

I have not seen Boogiepop Phantom though I thought I remembered you saying it was bad back on EGF at some point. Seems to be a forgotten series these days anyways, though long-term memory of anime fans seems shorter than ever now.
I loved this when I saw it as a teen, and it even inspired me to read the book and I remember thinking I was weird or had bad taste back then for actually preferring the film to the book. Years later I could understood why the film was criticized but I also think most of those criticisms are pretty weak in the face of film's obvious strengths. I've always loved the production design and visually the entire thing is impressive from beginning to end. For Coppola I think it's his only film that even comes close to capturing as strong an atmosphere/aesthetic as Apocalypse Now does, though obviously in a completely different mode. I think Dracula is a bit like Batman in that you have to bring out the expressionistic elements, because anything too realistic just makes the entire thing seem like nonsense.
Honestly the parts of the novel that try to emphasize that "realism" (Ignoring errors that Stoker simply couldn't have known about like how blood types work) instead of the gothic elements are probably the weakest anyways. Like that book is at its worst when its just all of the human characters chilling out talking in circles- it may be "realistic" in a sense but it got maddening to read.

That's not quite the same as the aesthetic realism you're talking about but there is basis in the novel for it I think. Its just less interesting than spooky castles and such to me, at least in terms of Stoker's execution.
Raxivace wrote: "Eva is antisemtic" arguments...
WTF? How have I never heard of this before? [gonemad]
Its not a new idea exactly (I remember first hearing about it on EGF back in 2013 or so) but its been gaining ground in recent years. From what I remember the argument comes down to SEELE being coded as not only Jews but stereotypes about Jews that control the world or whatever the fuck. I don't really find it convincing myself, and it seems like something imposed by Westerners onto NGE rather than something drawn form it to me.

Here are some links about it:

https://qmisato.tumblr.com/post/190221082619

https://forum.evageeks.org/thread/20403 ... rn-thread/ (Though I guess more people disagree here)

I know Kuribo has contested a lot of the details with the QMisato link, hopefully he jump in here at some point.
Saw this a long time ago. I remember kinda being disappointed, but in retrospect much of that may have just been me not being used to pre-90s anime.
What was throwing you off? The pudgy faces?

Generally the sticking point with old anime to me isn't the animation or character designs but rather the bloated episode counts, but that's not really a problem with a movie I guess.
Raxivace wrote:157. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion (2020, Dir. Marcus Raboy)
Didn't even know this was a thing. I'll have to check it out because that show was a big part of my childhood.
FWIW I saw it on HBO Max and I think its exclusive to that.
Raxivace wrote:Otaku no Video (1991) -
Never heard of this, but it sounds really interesting.
The whole thing is only like 100 minutes long too so if you have an afternoon to kill one day its worth taking a look at.
Raxivace wrote:On Death Row (2012-2013) -
Makes me think of Kieslowski's A Short Film About Killing, which is also a pretty grim (though fictional) meditation on the death penalty (it was also an extended version of one of his Dekalog episodes).
Whenever I watch the Dekalog I'll have to watch that too.
Raxivace wrote:Mysteries of Lisbon (2011) -
I think you know I consider this one of the supreme masterpieces of the 21st century. I saw the film version myself, and didn't even know the TV version was different until you mentioned it a while back. I may make it a point to watch the TV version while it's relatively fresh in your mind so we can chat about it. I think what struck me most about the film was its narrative complexity combined with a production design that seemed straight out of Visconti's opulent late films with such an elegant cinematic style that was reminiscent of Mizoguchi. Whole aesthetic was thoroughly intoxicating and the narrative gave you enough to chew on for probably as many viewings as you'd care to give it. I also can't really think of any analogs to it... maybe the closest thing is something like Yang's A Brighter Summer Day, but its narrative complexity is due more to the wealth of characters and minimal exposition, and its visual style was less opulent, though maybe with a bit more depth in how it used various motifs/symbols. Maybe if you combined A Brighter Summer Day with Hou's Flowers of Shanghai you'd have something vaguely similar.
Yeah that production design really imprints upon you- like the way it looks is how I always try to imagine similar classic novels about similar themes (I.e. rich Europeans talking about infidelity and such 150 years ago) in my head, like Part 2 of Count of Monte Cristo and such. I can see the ABSD comparison though even that seems more straightforward than Lisbon to me. The climax of ABSD really ties that film together in a way that I don't think Lisbon is quite really going for.

Ugh I still need to get into Hou too... And also Visconti.

I really do wish Lisbon were more popular if only because it sucks that there doesn't seem to be much in the way of real resources about it. Like I actually tried googling things about it when I was getting lost in the plot but it doesn't people have really worked it out.
"[Cinema] is a labyrinth with a treacherous resemblance to reality." - Andrew Sarris
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The Undoing (2020) - This is a miniseries where Nicole Kidman plays a therapist. At a charity event for her kid's school she talks to a strange woman who turns up dead the next day. Also that day her oncologist husband Hugh Grant disappears, becoming accused of murder.
I must say, Rax, that I'm quite surprised you decided to see this instead of incredibly acclaimed and immensely popular 'The Queen's Gambit' with Anya Taylor-Joy in a leading role. I remember I saw Anya in Shyamalan's 'Split' a couple years ago. I thought that was a very good film with a mind-blowing performance from James McAvoy. I should really see 'Glass' at some point. And see 'The Queen's Gambit' and some other Anya Taylor-Joy films in the future.
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When I started watching The Undoing I think it was before King's Gambit came out. I might go back and watch King's Gambit still at some point though.
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NGE Episodes 5-16: Honestly I just got too caught up in watching the damn show to actually write down more thoughts lol.

-Jet Alone episode is still kind of underrated as an episode. Its funny how much of what the Jet Alone director guy says ends up being problems that will come to haunt NERV later on
-During "action arc" Shinji is a much more proactive character than I really remember him being. I had forgotten that he seems to like Kaji and find him funny. This time it even seemed like he peeped on Asuka changing on purpose in episode 8 to me.
-Shinji starts getting depressed again a little earlier than I remembered too. Is it really Misato's promotion that starts to bring him down?
-Speaking of Shinji, it is kind of odd that during his test with Unit 00 that one of the images that seemed to get flooded into his mind is of the "Phantom Rei" of episode 1. Still dunno what to make of that, or what Shinji thinks of it.
-I never really bought "Anno is Japanese nationalist" claims and if he is, what is purpose of all of those comments of Asuka criticizing Japanese etiquette and customs?

Lastly I've been reading this book Otaku: Japan's Database Animals by Hiroki Azuma which is a really, really mixed bag in general, though there is a section on Evangelion.

Image
Image
Image

There's a lot in there I don't really agree with, though has anyone ever heard of Anno "anticipating derivative works" based on NGE and "setting up various gimmicks within the originals to promote those products" before? Like I had heard of EoTV being based on doujins and such somewhere before, but if that EoTV school section is parodying doujins or fan drawings or whatever (Seriously what is it that its supposed to be actually parodying? This seems vague) that already existed even at the time than how does it follow that this is Anno anticipating such works? Or that the point of referencing them is to promote them?

This is to say nothing of there being no source in this book for the claim that EoTV school section is parodying some bit of fan content either.
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So I was rewatching episode 19 of NGE and the famous shot of EVA-01 here bizarrely reminded me of that famous Francisco Goya painting.

Image
Image

I would be shocked if that's a connection that Anno and co. intended the audience to make, but they really do have a similar kind of energy to me. There's not just the cannibalistic gods thing, but even they way they look at the audience with their almost surprised eyes does have that feeling like you just accidentally stumbled upon them (To paraphrase Nerdwriter's video on the painting).
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Eva episodes 17-20 was the very first anime I ever watched; it's what got me started as an anime fan for many years.
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The first anime I ever saw was probably Speed Racer or Voltron as a kid. Maybe Dragon Ball Z slightly after that.

First Evangelion episode I saw I think was honestly "Dance Like You Want to Win!" which uh sure is one to start with lol. I remember saw NGE episodes in a weird order in general, where I somehow saw 26 before 25, hadn't seen EoE (In retrospect because they could never likely air that on TV), and I somehow saw the right combination of episodes that I never knew EVA-01 going Berserk was even a thing until I saw the full series proper for the first time back in early 2012. That made episode 2 a shock for me lol.
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I've tried to get into anime, especially with you guys writing about it all the time, but I just can't. The only one's I ever made it through are Akira back in the day and Paprika, and I thought they were both just okay. (Ducks.)
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Akira is awesome. I like Paprika okay but its probably Satoshi Kon's worst movie FWIW.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:Kuribo told me the other day that some of the stuff I've been watching lately his mom has also been into. Lol what's with you guys comparing me to maternal figures in your lives?
What do you expect when you're watching shows whose primary target audience are mothers? Just start watching Matlock to aim for the even-older maternal figures!
Raxivace wrote:I'd have to really think about what pairings I like better than Stanwyck/Fonda here. They're some tough competition.
Off the top of my head the only one I might like better is Grant and Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby, but that one has a lot of nostalgia for me too. Gable and Colbert in It Happened One Night is up there too.
Raxivace wrote:
I remember really liking this too. Pretty unique concept for the time, and I liked how it was a "lighter" take on the gothic romance drama (perhaps in contrast to Hitch's Rebecca).
That's a good comparison, though Rebecca probably needs a rewatch from me. I do have that Criterion blu-ray luckily...
Rebecca's gotten better each time I've seen it.
Raxivace wrote:
You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang) - 7.5/10
Good review. I hadn't thought of it as a precursor to those "couple on the run" movies, but now that you mention I can see some of its DNA being passed on to stuff like Gun Crazy, Bonnie & Clyde, and very probably Godard's work like Pierrot le Fou and Weekend etc.
I'm guessing it probably wasn't the first either, but I can't immediately think of any before it.
Raxivace wrote:
Haven't seen this one but it sounds really fascinating. I like the Wyler's I've seen and you saying it's your favorite makes me want to see it more.
Keep in mind that while I don't hate Wyler or anything he's never been like a huge favorite of mine otherwise.
I wouldn't say he's been a huge favorite either, but in the ones I've seen I really do like his style, which was unusually luxurious for classic Hollywood.
Raxivace wrote:It kind of makes me wonder what you would think of visual novels like Tsukihime in general too, though I suspect you'll either find a lot of them not video game-y enough for a video game, or not literary enough for literature (Since prose and actual sentence-to-sentence writing are not their strongest aspect, even if you give them some leeway for not only being translated but often fan-translated at that).
I wouldn't expect them to be very gamey since I know the general premise. As for literature I usually try not to cross-compare mediums anyway, and if anything I'd think a visual novel would be closer to graphic novels/comic books.
Ha! Funny story.
Raxivace wrote:
Hell, I even prefer Bresson's early Angels of Sin.
I still have to see that one. I think I'm at five Bressons at the moment but he has such a small filmography that one day I should really just marathon the rest.
Some of his are still pretty hard to get, though. Don't know why Four Nights and a Dreamer has never made it to DVD/blu-ray.
Raxivace wrote:
Didn't care much for either, and they both made me wonder why that story was so popular.
I mean its a story of sex, crime, and betrayal. I dunno if its that much of a mystery why people like it. I didn't know Visconti had a version though.
Visconti's version was Ossessione, one of his first (maybe his first?) films and very much in his early neo-realist style. Maybe part of the disconnect is that the story was more shocking for the time than it is now?
Raxivace wrote:
As for prestige TV being about white dudes making bad decisions, I disagree: The Wire was about white AND black dudes making bad choices. [biggrin]
Well, I wonder. You could make argument that its more about the system pushing everyone to act the way they do, though I don't like these kinds of takes that make it a binary between "the system" pushing people into decisions or it being solely "personal responsibility" or whatever. Like its probably combination of both, with which one having more influence being dependent on context of whatever situation.
I was really just joking, but you're certainly correct that The Wire is far more about the complex entanglement of systemic problems and the decisions (many of them bad, of course) that people are pushed into because of it.
Raxivace wrote:
I've known about this series for a long time and it was on my short list to check out right around the time I stopped watching anime to focus on film. Your review makes me want to see it, though. For horror-tinged anime, have you seen Boogiepop Phantom? It's not really scary, but more psychological/eerie/existential.
Yeah Berserk is pretty fun, though I hope the manga actually gets finished one day.

I have not seen Boogiepop Phantom though I thought I remembered you saying it was bad back on EGF at some point. Seems to be a forgotten series these days anyways, though long-term memory of anime fans seems shorter than ever now.
[confused] Pretty sure I never said Boogiepop was bad on EGF. Sure you're not thinking of Elfen Lied? Or I may have been talking about one of the LA Boogiepop adaptations as to those were pretty bad. It's not a perfect series by any means, but I remember liking it for the most part. It just doesn't stick out for being as good as something like Paranoia Agent or as bad as Elfen Lied.
Raxivace wrote:Honestly the parts of the novel that try to emphasize that "realism" (Ignoring errors that Stoker simply couldn't have known about like how blood types work) instead of the gothic elements are probably the weakest anyways. Like that book is at its worst when its just all of the human characters chilling out talking in circles- it may be "realistic" in a sense but it got maddening to read.

That's not quite the same as the aesthetic realism you're talking about but there is basis in the novel for it I think. Its just less interesting than spooky castles and such to me, at least in terms of Stoker's execution.
Yeah, I think we fundamentally agree on this. I do vaguely remember finding those parts of the novel quite dull.
Raxivace wrote:Its not a new idea exactly (I remember first hearing about it on EGF back in 2013 or so) but its been gaining ground in recent years. From what I remember the argument comes down to SEELE being coded as not only Jews but stereotypes about Jews that control the world or whatever the fuck. I don't really find it convincing myself, and it seems like something imposed by Westerners onto NGE rather than something drawn form it to me.

Here are some links about it:

https://qmisato.tumblr.com/post/190221082619

https://forum.evageeks.org/thread/20403 ... rn-thread/ (Though I guess more people disagree here)

I know Kuribo has contested a lot of the details with the QMisato link, hopefully he jump in here at some point.
Yeah, I'm not buying it either. The article even mentions that Keel Lorentz is (partly) named after a Nazi doctor, so why do that if you're trying to make him a Jew? The "big, pointy noses" thing was a common trope in anime around that time, probably most notoriously in Escaflowne, which started a year before NGE IIRC, and I'm sure neither were the first to do that style. The kabbalahistic elements are quite muddled and hardly solely associated with SEELE either, and we know the series' religious elements are a mixture of "cool-looking/sounding" stuff and symbols for the series' underlying themes, which have nothing to do with religion.
Raxivace wrote:
Saw this a long time ago. I remember kinda being disappointed, but in retrospect much of that may have just been me not being used to pre-90s anime.
What was throwing you off? The pudgy faces?

Generally the sticking point with old anime to me isn't the animation or character designs but rather the bloated episode counts, but that's not really a problem with a movie I guess.
Hard to say because it's been too long ago. Could've just been the general style/quality was very different than most other anime I'd seen.
Raxivace wrote:157. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion (2020, Dir. Marcus Raboy)
Didn't even know this was a thing. I'll have to check it out because that show was a big part of my childhood. [/quote]FWIW I saw it on HBO Max and I think its exclusive to that.[/quote]I'm sure it's torrentable somewhere.
Raxivace wrote:Yeah that production design really imprints upon you- like the way it looks is how I always try to imagine similar classic novels about similar themes (I.e. rich Europeans talking about infidelity and such 150 years ago) in my head, like Part 2 of Count of Monte Cristo and such. I can see the ABSD comparison though even that seems more straightforward than Lisbon to me. The climax of ABSD really ties that film together in a way that I don't think Lisbon is quite really going for.
ABSD would be a strained comparison to push much farther than "they're both really complex and novelistic," but they definitely go about it in entirely different ways.
Raxivace wrote:Ugh I still need to get into Hou too... And also Visconti.

I really do wish Lisbon were more popular if only because it sucks that there doesn't seem to be much in the way of real resources about it. Like I actually tried googling things about it when I was getting lost in the plot but it doesn't people have really worked it out.
Hou's one of my absolute favorites (I think you know), and Visconti has some really good stuff though I'm not the biggest fan. The Leopard is the one that everyone raves about in terms of its lavish production design, though I think Senso was just as good. My favorite from him so far has probably been Rocco and His Brothers, which is closer to his neo-realist style.

Yeah, it would be nice if there was more critical analysis out there of Lisbon. I remember after I first saw it looking for something to read and couldn't find much. What little I read just suggested most people were as baffled as we were, lol.
Raxivace wrote:NGE Episodes 5-16: Honestly I just got too caught up in watching the damn show to actually write down more thoughts lol.

-Jet Alone episode is still kind of underrated as an episode. Its funny how much of what the Jet Alone director guy says ends up being problems that will come to haunt NERV later on
-During "action arc" Shinji is a much more proactive character than I really remember him being. I had forgotten that he seems to like Kaji and find him funny. This time it even seemed like he peeped on Asuka changing on purpose in episode 8 to me.
-Shinji starts getting depressed again a little earlier than I remembered too. Is it really Misato's promotion that starts to bring him down?
-Speaking of Shinji, it is kind of odd that during his test with Unit 00 that one of the images that seemed to get flooded into his mind is of the "Phantom Rei" of episode 1. Still dunno what to make of that, or what Shinji thinks of it.
-I never really bought "Anno is Japanese nationalist" claims and if he is, what is purpose of all of those comments of Asuka criticizing Japanese etiquette and customs?
Jet Alone is one of those eps. I think is better for what it represents thematically than for anything else. The actual battle/drama surrounding JA is one of the weaker "big monster battles" in the series, but what it says about the political forces and their role in the big picture is pretty important. I'd say something similar about Magma Diver and how crucial it is for developing a lot of the series' symbolic motifs, but as an ep. is pretty blah.

Seems like Shinji was always pretty depressed. If anything, his boost of confidence later in the series was more of a contrast to his usual state of depression. I mean, ep. 4 is a pretty brutal depiction of his state of mind.

I'm forgetting what test/image you're referring to, but the Phantom Rei I generally just take to be one of the series' intentionally unresolved mysteries, and it's not hard to imagine why it would be haunting Shinji since that's kinda the idea.

I don't know if Anno is a Japanese nationalist, but NGE's depiction of Japan isn't very flattering. Anno did call it a "nation of children" afterall.
Raxivace wrote:Lastly I've been reading this book Otaku: Japan's Database Animals by Hiroki Azuma which is a really, really mixed bag in general, though there is a section on Evangelion.

There's a lot in there I don't really agree with, though has anyone ever heard of Anno "anticipating derivative works" based on NGE and "setting up various gimmicks within the originals to promote those products" before? Like I had heard of EoTV being based on doujins and such somewhere before, but if that EoTV school section is parodying doujins or fan drawings or whatever (Seriously what is it that its supposed to be actually parodying? This seems vague) that already existed even at the time than how does it follow that this is Anno anticipating such works? Or that the point of referencing them is to promote them?

This is to say nothing of there being no source in this book for the claim that EoTV school section is parodying some bit of fan content either.
Azuma's "Anime or Something Like It" was one of the first pieces of writing I read on NGE and hugely influenced my perception of the series. Didn't know he had a whole (translated?) book out. Never heard of the idea that Anno was setting up/anticipating derivative works. No idea what that scene was supposedly parodying either, but probably something that was only seen in Japan. I think what it's saying is that the scene is both a parody of an existing (perhaps unauthorized?) derivative of the work, but also meant to anticipate a different derivative of the work. As to what either is, no idea.
Raxivace wrote:So I was rewatching episode 19 of NGE and the famous shot of EVA-01 here bizarrely

I would be shocked if that's a connection that Anno and co. intended the audience to make, but they really do have a similar kind of energy to me. There's not just the cannibalistic gods thing, but even they way they look at the audience with their almost surprised eyes does have that feeling like you just accidentally stumbled upon them (To paraphrase Nerdwriter's video on the painting).
Cool connection. I also doubt it was intentional, but I can definitely see it.
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Eva Yojimbo wrote:What do you expect when you're watching shows whose primary target audience are mothers? Just start watching Matlock to aim for the even-older maternal figures!
What's sad is I've thought about watching Matlock before. [sad]
Off the top of my head the only one I might like better is Grant and Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby, but that one has a lot of nostalgia for me too. Gable and Colbert in It Happened One Night is up there too.
Both fantastic pairings of course.
I'm guessing it probably wasn't the first either, but I can't immediately think of any before it.
There might be a weird gangster movie or something that did it earlier, but I can't think of anything else myself right now.
I wouldn't expect them to be very gamey since I know the general premise. As for literature I usually try not to cross-compare mediums anyway, and if anything I'd think a visual novel would be closer to graphic novels/comic books.
Hmm, I was going to say they're not quite like a comic since average "shot" in a visual novel isn't exactly composed in the way even a panel of a comic is, since those individual panels are still usually little mini-painting in their own right that work as a piece of a whole that is an an individual comic book page, which itself is a part of a single issue, and issues have larger context of overall volume or comic series etc., but in thinking about I suppose there is an element of that to it still.

In visual novels you typically get your paragraphs of text and narration and such on-screen, static background art, stock character sprites that cycle through different sprites as characters "react" to what other characters or doing or are speaking themselves or doing something else etc., and background music accompanying all of this. Occasionally you will get "CG's" (Standing for something like "Computer Graphics") that are composed drawings in their own right and these are probably most comparable to comic books. VN's typically don't have a lot of them (And usually once seeing them in-game you "unlock" ability to revisit CG's from the main menu of whatever game you're playing), and usually use them for particularly emotional or dramatic moments, or maybe an action scene or something, or a sex scenes if its a pornographic game.

None of this is a fast and hard rule of course, and now that I'm trying to "theorize" about the medium I guess what I'm really saying is that different artists and projects emphasize different aspects about the medium. Some games will have more CG's than others, some will put more emphasis on having a lot of character sprites, some put of more emphasis on "choices" than others and make finding the "True Ending" something of a puzzle in its own right (Kagetsu Tohya being a particularly nasty example of this, though there's the Zero Escape trilogy and such as well), and hell the guy who wrote Higurashi and Umineko says what he creates are "Sound Novels" more than "Visual Novels" since the music and sound effects tends to be what sets the mood for his stuff more than anything and barely has choices and such (I think Umineko doesn't even get one until like literally 70 hours in).

Thing is I dunno that medium has produced any particularly unassailable masterpiece really (Some might say this is because of how much of the genre is rooted in pornography and not "art" but well whatever), but its hard to tell how much of that is just me being a bit insecure about a super nerdy thing I like.
Don't know why Four Nights and a Dreamer has never made it to DVD/blu-ray.
Hmm seems it may have been on Prime Video at some point, but not currently in my region.
Visconti's version was Ossessione, one of his first (maybe his first?) films and very much in his early neo-realist style. Maybe part of the disconnect is that the story was more shocking for the time than it is now?
Well we might be swinging back into such a thing being "shocking" if the people I see claiming younger generations are becoming more puritanical are correct, but I can't tell how much of that is pearl clutching about annoying "kids these days" on Twitter or whatever, or if its an actual upcoming shift in societal attitudes among post-Millenial generations.
Pretty sure I never said Boogiepop was bad on EGF. Sure you're not thinking of Elfen Lied? Or I may have been talking about one of the LA Boogiepop adaptations as to those were pretty bad. It's not a perfect series by any means, but I remember liking it for the most part. It just doesn't stick out for being as good as something like Paranoia Agent or as bad as Elfen Lied.
Hmm looking it up again, I think I was confusing it for something you said about Ergo Proxy. That's another show I never watched lol.
Yeah, I think we fundamentally agree on this. I do vaguely remember finding those parts of the novel quite dull.
Yeah but isn't great that we agree on this? How wonderful and angelic you are for agreeing with me. You are the best. Let's spend three or four pages now talking about how awesome it is we agree. Now lets repeat this ad infinitum, because that's the Bram Stoker way.
Yeah, I'm not buying it either. The article even mentions that Keel Lorentz is (partly) named after a Nazi doctor, so why do that if you're trying to make him a Jew? The "big, pointy noses" thing was a common trope in anime around that time, probably most notoriously in Escaflowne, which started a year before NGE IIRC, and I'm sure neither were the first to do that style.
Escaflowne started in 1996 but at any rate it was a contemporary of NGE.
The kabbalahistic elements are quite muddled and hardly solely associated with SEELE either, and we know the series' religious elements are a mixture of "cool-looking/sounding" stuff and symbols for the series' underlying themes, which have nothing to do with religion.
Yup. Whole argument seems like weird evolution of "Evangelion is about Christianity" nonsense from back in the day, really.
Hard to say because it's been too long ago. Could've just been the general style/quality was very different than most other anime I'd seen.
Honestly the style of Honnemaise in particular might be something of a throwback at the time even to 70's style character designs that were always a little goofy. Not to say the 80's didn't produce some goofballs either, but there does seem to be a gradual shift in "otaku" media to pretty boys and pretty girls more than anything (I'm not complaining, personally).
Yeah, it would be nice if there was more critical analysis out there of Lisbon. I remember after I first saw it looking for something to read and couldn't find much. What little I read just suggested most people were as baffled as we were, lol.
I'd just settle for plot summaries at this point. As much as I usually make fun of hacks like Alan Sepinwall for creating "recap" culture, Lisbon could actually use that!
Jet Alone is one of those eps. I think is better for what it represents thematically than for anything else. The actual battle/drama surrounding JA is one of the weaker "big monster battles" in the series, but what it says about the political forces and their role in the big picture is pretty important. I'd say something similar about Magma Diver and how crucial it is for developing a lot of the series' symbolic motifs, but as an ep. is pretty blah.
I dunno, this time I ended up really enjoying those episodes, maybe because they felt slightly "newer" to me than more famous episodes I had put way more time into thinking about and analyzing over the years.

And frankly I have better appreciation for them now still feeling fairly unique after watching shit loads of other mecha anime that don't even come close to the variety of "monsters of the week" that Eva has. After so many Tomino shows and such that have the same types of battles over and over, Eva having so much variety is astounding.
Seems like Shinji was always pretty depressed. If anything, his boost of confidence later in the series was more of a contrast to his usual state of depression. I mean, ep. 4 is a pretty brutal depiction of his state of mind.
True. I just didn't remember Misato's promotion being the catalyst to really start bringing him back down again before the more horrifying Angels and such start attacking.

BTW, kuribo asked me this the other day and I didn't quite have an answer, but do you think the long train station shot at the end of episode 4 is "earned"?

Image
^This one, I mean. From the end of the episode.

I had somehow completely forgot about it, but really its close to much later elevator scene in length (Which ended feeling shorter than I remembered anyways).
I'm forgetting what test/image you're referring to, but the Phantom Rei I generally just take to be one of the series' intentionally unresolved mysteries, and it's not hard to imagine why it would be haunting Shinji since that's kinda the idea.
It's episode 13 or 14, after the "recap" and Rei's soliloquoy, where they have Shinji trying syncing with Unit 00 and it starts going berserk and flooding him with images of Rei.

This has been weird pet thing for me, but I've never been able to tell if Shinji ever retroactively recognize "Phantom Rei" in episode 1 as well, Rei. And this episode didn't really make it clear to me.
I don't know if Anno is a Japanese nationalist, but NGE's depiction of Japan isn't very flattering. Anno did call it a "nation of children" afterall.
I just bring it up because I remember similar accusations being made against him in wake of Shin Godzilla.
Azuma's "Anime or Something Like It" was one of the first pieces of writing I read on NGE and hugely influenced my perception of the series. Didn't know he had a whole (translated?) book out.
Yup: https://www.amazon.com/Otaku-Database-A ... 0816653526

I remember that "Anime or Something Like It" article being pretty good, but in O:JDA he tries to use Critical Theory to analyze anime as a way to analyze "otaku culture" and uh yeah. He cites people like Zizek and just makes a bunch of weird claims throughout the book.

Still its a short book and seems to get referenced a lot, so it might still be worth reading if you're interested (I'm not quite done myself though). Maybe pirate a PDF or something, and then read it in jail because piracy is a crime. You wouldn't download an Evangelion after all.

EDIT: To expand on this, he complains that postmodernism, the loss of a unifying "grand narrative" in Japanese culture is why there is a loss of plot in in anime series, and Evangelion ruined anime and turned into a plot-less "database" of characteristics. I.e. shows aren't watched because of plot or story or theme and basically just flatout stopped having those in favor of a "database" of "characteristics" i.e. including a character based on Rei Ayanami but with cute verbal tic or maid uniform or whatever the fuck to appeal to "moe" audience, and that all anime after Evangelion are just reorganized tropes in some similar fashion.

I just think that the argument is not only nonsensical on the surface to me, it just kind of reeks of a general ignorance of art and broader art history from Azuma outside of the otaku stuff he's talking about (I'd argue you could say there's a "database" for any narrative art movement. Like you could make similar claims about Classical Hollywood. Hell we just kind of did with talk of "couple on the run" films. Is that really any different than talking about anime with "Rei clones"?)- to say nothing about how much fantastic stuff was coming out in the era he was writing in. Between Evangelion and the year 2001, you're getting stuff like Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop, Big O, Satoshi Kon's rise, Miyazaki's most acclaimed films, Kare Kano, FLCL, Serial Experiments Lain etc., and I think you'd have a hard time arguing any of those have less of a "plot" than any of the formulaic 70's/80's stuff like Gundam he's contrasting the contemporary state of anime with.

This is to say nothing about how its just kind of a given that a shift from "plot" to "characters" is this terrible thing.

EDIT 2: I'm continuing with the book and almost done with it, and now Azuma is complaining about how prostitution is ruining society as much as male otaku liking porn does. Man I do not have the energy to unpack this, but this just reinforces my belief that legitimate belief in the nonsense of psychoanalysis leads you to some dumb dumb dumb points of view.
Never heard of the idea that Anno was setting up/anticipating derivative works. No idea what that scene was supposedly parodying either, but probably something that was only seen in Japan. I think what it's saying is that the scene is both a parody of an existing (perhaps unauthorized?) derivative of the work, but also meant to anticipate a different derivative of the work. As to what either is, no idea.
Yeah I don't doubt there was a ton of a fan works based on Eva as the show was coming out in Japan, since fan culture and doujins and Comiket and such is so big there, but the lack of specific citations and weird argumentation here bugs the wannabe academic in me.
Last edited by Raxivace on Mon Dec 14, 2020 6:29 am, edited 2 times in total.
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159. Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (Rewatch, 2019, Dir. Quentin Tarantino) - Revisited this on a whim the other day. I really liked it the first time and was kind of shocked how quickly the 2h45m or whatever runtime just flew by. I'm still not sure I quite understand the choice to have Kurt Russell's character of all characters narrate the story, or why the ambiguity of whether Brad Pitt spoiler murdered his wife or not is even in the film, but everything else about this is just delightful.

160. Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (Rewatch, 1997, Dir. Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, & Kazuya Tsurumaki) - Or Death (True) Squared or whatever they're calling it these days. Still a hard film to know what to do with anymore really. Some of the connections between disparate elements it draws are kind of interesting (Like playing dialogue about Touji's sister over Bardiel/Unit 03 battle (EDIT: Another good I just remembered from the same sequence is contrast between Gendo pulling Rei out of Unit 00's Entry Plug contrasted against Shinji looking at the injured Touji in Unit 03's Entry Plug)), but as a whole the movie still does feel kind of vestigial in an era of easy home releases and such.

161. The End of Evangelion (Rewatch, 1997, Dir. Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki) - Still a wonderful film. I might be too familiar with it now to be really shocked by it anymore (And stuff like Godard/Gorrin propaganda films makes literally any other narrative film seem normal and mainstream) but man everything about this is still dazzling. Still, what I wouldn't give to see this for the first time again.

As far NGE itself I still love it death obviously and loved how watchable of a show it still was. I do have some stuff I want to look back in detail at a little later (Namely episode 24' scene where Misato spies on Kaworu talking to SEELE, might have to actually grab screengrabs and such to make ~an argument supported by evidence~ about it and what might be happening in that scene), so I might get a post about that going here soon.

In the meantime, I've got some Rebuilds to watch.
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I recently picked up Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and look forward to seeing it. But I think I'm gonna do a full rewatch of all Tarantino first; there's a bunch that I've only seen once.
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Gendo wrote:I recently picked up Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and look forward to seeing it. But I think I'm gonna do a full rewatch of all Tarantino first; there's a bunch that I've only seen once.
I've seen about half of them more than once, though Jackie Brown, the Kill Bills, Hateful Eight, and especially Death Proof could use a rewatch.

Death Proof in particular is an annoying one I saw the standalone version before and didn't like it much, but now I dunno if I should track down the "Grindhouse" version at some point and watch that instead.
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Pretty sure the version I saw was the standalone; at least I know I haven't seen Planet Terror. I remember liking it ok, but now that I think about it, it's the only movie of his that I don't own. So I'll either need to find it, or skip it in my marathon.
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Sounds like we're in similar boat then because I also never bothered to see Planet Terror, but I do own standalone Death Proof.
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162. Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone (Rewatch, 2007, Dir. Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, & Kazuya Tsurumaki)
163. Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance (Rewatch, 2009, Dir. Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, & Kazuya Tsurumaki)
164. Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo (Rewatch, 2012, Dir. Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, Kazuya Tsurumaki, & Mahiro Maeda)
165. Evangelion AVANT 1: 0706 Version (Rewatch, 2019, Dir. Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, & Kazuya Tsurumaki) - Yeah these are still probably the best franchise films of the 21st century. Best that I've seen anyways (Only competition that comes to mind are one off sequels like Mad Max: Fury Road and Blade Runner 2049).

Maybe it's just nostalgia since its been several years since I've last seen the main films and I'm currently very excited for the last movie to finally come out after all these years, but I really really really enjoyed these again this time around. From spotting little differences in 1.11's take on the first six episodes of the series, to even 2.22 playing the best that it ever has for me this time around (Climax in particular is really interestingly a moral mess), to the mysterious hellscape of 3.33 that I'm still debating the precise meaning of (And factors back into 2.22 climax anyways). Good blockbuster filmmaking can just as fascinating as any art film, and honestly Rebuild might not be getting enough credit for what its bringing to the table since it seems like a lot of fans online are still made its not literally the same as the OG series. And I do love that to death and go generally prefer it, but this is its own thing with its own merits.

Of course I should temper myself a bit in case the last movie ends up being a disaster, but I'm very optimistic at the moment.

166. RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio (2003, Dir. Tomoki Kyoda)
167. RahXephon Interlude: Her and Herself - Thatness and Thereness (2003, Dir. Tomoki Kyoda) - While I still had Eva on the mind, I decided to check out the RahXephon movie since I never actually saw that before. Its not very good unfortunately, though it at least takes tries something bold. Basically, the movie starts with the plot twist about Haruka's identity upfront and tries to reframe the story from her perspective, which is a decision I can respect. Unfortunately this shift's focus from RahXephon's Eva-lite plot mysteries to its characters and they unfortunately they still suck pretty hard. After prologue bits this is where the movie really starts falling into typical compilation film traps as it becomes more about being a Greatest Hits of the anime instead of telling a coherent film narrative on its own. Like episode 19 was probably the best episode of the original (The one where Hiroko is unknowingly killed by Ayato), but its kept in here even though the thrust of the film's story really is more on Ayato's relationship with Haruka. The Hiroko stuff just feels totally vestigial in the film, and probably should have been cut or changed heavily for a 2 hour narrative that has a lot of balls to juggle, but most of the rest of said balls aren't successfully caught anyways as the film continues to stumble forward. This ultimately leads to a somewhat different ending than the original series', but not one especially more interesting.

The "Interlude" meanwhile is an OVA meant for the original series about Quon having an Eva-esque conversation with herself in a mysterious mindscape. Honestly despite being 15 minutes long and being fairly derivative I enjoyed it more than the Pluralitas Concentio.

Honestly its kind of shame this isn't a better franchise. There are a lot of good names attached to RahXephon- like Ichirō Ōkouchi (Who would go on to write Code Geass, Lupin the Third Part 5, and Devilman Crybaby), Yōji Enokido (Who wrote on Evangelion itself and also Utena, Sailor Moon, and FLCL), to even Chiaki J. Konaka (Who wrote on The Big O, Serial Experiments Lain, and Texhnolyze). This is just picking a few names off the Wikipedia page too- there's a lot of talent behind this show so its baffling that it never rises too far ahead of being a fairly bland Evangelion clone. Maybe it was a "too many cooks in the kitchen" thing, I dunno.

Too many cooks, too many cooks, too many cooks...
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

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168. Quantum of Solace (Rewatch, 2008, Dir. Marc Forster) - Honestly its not nearly as bad as I remembered it being back in theaters. Its still a bit “undercooked" in aspects (Its worth noting this is the shortest official Bond film, though I dunno if that is because of the infamous Writer's Strike of the time or not that also affected things like season 4 of Lost), but it wasn't the complete disaster I remembered it being. In some ways it feels like a remake of Licence to Kill too, since you have Bond going rogue, seeking revenge etc.

Also the villain guy in this movie just being some rich asshole that's trying to jack up water prices in Bolivia arguably plays a little better in a post-Occupy world where differences between extreme rich and the poor and such have only increasingly become larger talking point in the world and politics. Makes you wonder how this guy would have been written had this film come out like, even just five years later.

169. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, Dir. Vincent Minelli) - Pretty fun for what it is, though I still find it a bit odd to watch Judy Garland in movies that aren't The Wizard of Oz.

170. The Magnificent Ambersons (Rewatch, 1942, Dir. Orson Welles, Fred Fleck, & Robert Wise) - Still a great film, still a butchered ending. I hav ea copy of the original Booth Tarkington novel this is based on now, so I'll probably watch this yet again next year and will find more to say about it then.

171. Tenet (2020, Dir. Christopher Nolan) - If Inception is James Bond plus Satoshi Kon's Paprika, then Tenet is James Bond plus something like Back to the Future Part II. Thing is I'd say Tenet is more heavily weighted toward the Bond side of things than Inception was, which is kind of the opposite of what I think you'd want from genre mixing like this. Otherwise you just have knockoff Bond with slight sci-fi flavoring.

I also only liked Tenet about as much as average Bond film. Like its got a few clever action scenes (The backwards moving inverted people and objects were a cool idea in particular but also feel kind of underutilized to me, similar again to how dreams are not really exploited for all their worth in Inception) and John David Washington is promising as an up and coming movie star. Still it feels kind of lacking and still kind of messy in parts, particularly the beginning of the film. Like its kind of interesting to watch this right after Quantum of Solace, since in a lot of ways they have similar flaws and strengths, but Tenet has burden of being the new work from from a darling auteur while Quantum is one of the more maligned films from a producer-driven franchise.

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The Sopranos (Season 2, 2000) - Yeah this was a good season though I feel it suffers from a bit of the problem that S2 of Deadwood did in that the direction starts becoming perfunctory and easing a bit quickly into the “generic prestige TV" aesthetic that a lot of shows now have.

This is also a weird case where while I enjoyed basically every single scene of this season, it did feel a bit scattershot compared to the first season. Like for example, Christopher's main plotline this season involves him joining an acting class in the first part, getting shot somewhat randomly and spending time recovering in the second part, and then in the finale getting promoted within the ranks of Tony's organization. Sure, there's something to be said how the acting classes (And him seeming to actually be pretty good at acting) shows that there was in fact an alternative to the gangster lifestyle he could have pursued, while the gunshot shows the dangers that the mobster lifestyle has and Chris getting drawn more into it by the end is tragic, but I dunno. The dots don't quite feel naturally connected to me.

I also find the thing with Tony's sister Janice/Parvati a bit weird. Like she and her old flame Richie come into the season at roughly the same time, and Tony has frustrations with both of them, but then the way they cancel each other out is a bit unsastisfying. He's dead, and she's literally put on a bus and leaves the season. It almost makes me wonder why I even watched either of these characters when so far it feels like they feel so self-contained to this season ATM. Like Janice was an interesting enough character and I liked her scenes with Tony, but she almost is played as a replacement for her mother Livia in this season even though Livia is still actually in this season...just not doing a whole lot. Like you could a lot of this season 2 material as a prequel to season 1 with very little changes.

Again that isn't to say I didn't enjoy this because I did, but the season as a whole just plays kind of oddly to me.
"[Cinema] is a labyrinth with a treacherous resemblance to reality." - Andrew Sarris
Lord_Lyndon
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Lord_Lyndon »

Raxivace wrote:159. Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood (Rewatch, 2019, Dir. Quentin Tarantino) - Revisited this on a whim the other day. I really liked it the first time and was kind of shocked how quickly the 2h45m or whatever runtime just flew by. I'm still not sure I quite understand the choice to have Kurt Russell's character of all characters narrate the story, or why the ambiguity of whether Brad Pitt spoiler murdered his wife or not is even in the film, but everything else about this is just delightful.
This is my least favourite Tarantino film. I even preferred Death Proof to it.
161. The End of Evangelion (Rewatch, 1997, Dir. Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki) - Still a wonderful film. I might be too familiar with it now to be really shocked by it anymore (And stuff like Godard/Gorrin propaganda films makes literally any other narrative film seem normal and mainstream) but man everything about this is still dazzling. Still, what I wouldn't give to see this for the first time again.
I haven't seen it in a long time, but this one is a masterpiece alright.
170. The Magnificent Ambersons (Rewatch, 1942, Dir. Orson Welles, Fred Fleck, & Robert Wise) - Still a great film, still a butchered ending. I hav ea copy of the original Booth Tarkington novel this is based on now, so I'll probably watch this yet again next year and will find more to say about it then.
I remember this one being a masterpiece too, despite being butchered. Welles is, of course, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.
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Re: Raxivace's 2020 Movies or: (Neo-General Chat IV: Jimbo Gets Lost in Deadwood)

Post by Raxivace »

Lord_Lyndon wrote:This is my least favourite Tarantino film. I even preferred Death Proof to it.
Lyndon man, I love ya but [gonemad].
I haven't seen it in a long time, but this one is a masterpiece alright.
It will always be lodged in my brain, one way or another.
I remember this one being a masterpiece too, despite being butchered. Welles is, of course, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.
Ambersons will always have a special place in my heart if only because its like the only good film about Indianapolis, where I grew up. Its just also about how much Indianapolis kind of is a soulless hellhole. [laugh]

Like the nickname of the city is "Naptown" for a reason. [laugh]
"[Cinema] is a labyrinth with a treacherous resemblance to reality." - Andrew Sarris
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