Last movie you watched

[Zunu]

I watched Ride or Die on Netflix today. It's a Japanese film, based on a manga (spoiler link), about a 29 year old lesbian named Rei (played by Kiko Mizutani ) who still carries a torch for her unrequited high school crush, a married straight woman named Nanae (played by Honami Sato). Out of the blue, Rei gets a call from Nanae, who has a rather urgent request....

The movie had a few flaws but I ended up enjoying it nonetheless. The main problem is that there are some pretty graphic sex scenes that go on for a long time, which I generally find to be gratuitous, as well a little awkward if you are watching the film with others. Second, Rei does some ...reckless... things in the movie and there seems to me to be an unpleasant implication that her "curse" of being a frustrated lesbian spurs her to do these things. Especially unpleasant considering that homosexuality is still widely viewed as deviant behavior in Japan. Having said that, there's real chemistry between the two leads and the story in my opinion improves as it goes on, and

mild spoiler

Spoiler: show

it avoids the pitfalls of the standard Hollywood ending. Outside of the one big over-the-top thing that Rei did,

..the characters actions weren't cartoonishly unrealistic. It's a story that seems it could possibly happen.

[erilaz]

How to Be Really Bad (Meine teuflisch gute Freundin) (2018) — It's a fun little German teen comedy. The Devil's teenage daughter wants to leave Hell and live among humans, so her father gives her a week to turn a small-town good girl evil. If she can accomplish that, she'll be allowed to stay here permanently. It's on Netflix.

[Zunu]

Went to the actual movies for the first time in about 13 months today, and saw the subbed version of Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train, the movie sequel to the Kimetsu no Yaiba anime series. I enjoyed the series but it seemed kind of average to me, so I was kind of shocked when the film came out in Japan last year and quickly became the country's highest-grossing film ever. Now that I've seen it myself, I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a G.O.A.T. movie, but I do get the hype. It was basically non-stop action, well-animated, and was unexpectedly moving at points.

[erilaz]

The Sparks Brothers (2021) — A documentary about Ron and Russell Mael, a.k.a. Sparks, directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). Very entertaining and funny; 2¼ hours didn't feel like 2¼ hours. It was a good educational experience, too, since I've enjoyed Sparks' music when it's come across my path, but I never really delved into their catalog. I need to rectify that.

[Zunu]

That looks super interesting. I was gonna say I've never heard of them but according to my listening history over 15 years, it looks like I inadvertently played exactly one of their tracks back in January.

Man I used to have the biggest crush on Jane Wiedlin.

[erilaz]

^ So I'm gonna guess "Cool Places"? I have the 45 of that, which is the only Sparks record that I actually own, and I watched the video on YouTube just last night.

I've adored Jane for decades. I've seen her in concert with the Go-Go's five times, and I also saw her band froSTed a couple of times back in '96. Her more recent band, Elettrodomestico, played three years ago at a tiny venue about 100 steps from my front door. I had my ticket to see the Go-Go's again last July, but the show was cancelled because of COVID.

[Zunu]

Went to see "A Quiet Place Part 2" yesterday. It was genuinely scary at times, had a reasonably short running time, and wonder of wonders, provided a genuine conclusion to the saga.

On the other hand, lurking in that constructed world for a long time starts to reveal some of the problems with the conceit. As we were sitting there our minds started to pick out little flaws in the logic of how things worked. But overall it was a lot of fun, and well-served by the theater experience. I recommend it.

[rikkikow]

A Review, and a Review.
I thought I would share this gem with you. It's not the last movie I watched because its been awhile now.

BACKGROUND:
This movie was made in 1984. Not the novel 1984, but the year 1984. Eric and Sid are the real thing. Best friends that go back to the late sixties when Sid was a security guard at the Oakland Museum and trespassing Eric was caught teaching Kung-Fu on the Museum grassy grounds. Both are Grandmasters in their respective martial arts (Kung-Fu and Shorin-ryu karate). When I met Sid, he was Kyoshi (8th degree black belt). Sid had been elevated to Grandmaster by the time he passed. Both are in multiple Martial Arts Hall of Fames.

REVIEW:
This was the funniest thing I ever saw. I laughed my head off. It was an old beat-up VCR that Hanshi Campbell had in a box in the back of the dojo, the only copy that he thought still existed. He really didn't know what the fate of the movie was over time. He thought someone in South America had bought the rights or something. It was a lost movie but has now been re-discovered and remastered into blu-ray.

THE REVIEW:
What these two reviewers don't seem to appreciate is that this is a Chinese genre of movie making where there is no script. It's on the fly. Sid told me some Oakland Raiders were in it that were his students. Ninjas were students and friends.



Hanshi Campbell had the reputation of being a BS-er. True; he did have a knack of inflating and embellishing his martial arts tales. But, to my amazement, I never found one of his stories not to pan out, except one or two. Ha Ha. I remember him telling me one of his dojo incidents. I said, you know Hanshi, I wouldn't be surprised if Bigfoot would walk through that door for instructions someday. He said, "me too". We had a good laugh. I never knew anything about this kind of movie making except from Hanshi Sid and he wasn’t bull-shiting. ha ha

One other thing about this Chinese genre of movie making is that the actors have no idea what the movie is about. The director tells them what to say and how to act in each scene. After all the scenes are filmed the director edits it all together to make the story of the film.

OTHER Misc. NOTES:

Spoiler: show

Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi was in the classic move 2046 which was such a movie. In an interview she said she didn't know what the movie was about until she saw its premier because there was no script, and that she was told just how to act and what to say in each scene.


2046 was the last in a trilogy. But works stand-alone as the other two do as well.

Maggie Cheung interview
https://youtu.be/aokmC8x2eHE?t=560

and the dance scene that was cut

[rikkikow]

Best movie EVER!

[Moh]

Just watched A Quiet Place Part II on Paramount+. Really enjoyed it! Probably would've been more into it if my mom hadn't been going "nononononono" throughout it.

Spoiler: show

Thoroughly thought they were gonna kill off Cillian Murphy's character at the end there.

On the other hand, lurking in that constructed world for a long time starts to reveal some of the problems with the conceit. As we were sitting there our minds started to pick out little flaws in the logic of how things worked.

Spoiler: show

Yeah this was me wondering how they still managed to have power on the island for over 470 days, lol. That and how long the little girl's hearing aid is supposed to last like that.