[Weekly Update] How I got into obscure movies

It'll be Lunar New Year in a few days! Whether you celebrate it or not, I hope you are having a good time and a good feast!

CHANNEL UPDATE

Shanghai Joe:
Hope you all enjoy our last video on Shanghai Joe. It's probably no surprise that I'm a big fan of obscure and strange films like this, and the video was a ton of fun to make. After so many years doing YouTube, writing jokes has finally become something I'm used to, even if I'm not necessary very good at it.
I play on doing more bad movies world tour video this year. Though I'm not sure which movie to cover next. If your country has an infamously bad movie, let me know!

New video idea:
I wrote down half a video idea called "my skin color is not your marketing tool". It deals with the recent phenomenon of race marketing, in which film and TV shows generate buzz by flaunting racial diversity in their cast.
Right off the bat, you can tell it's a spicy take. Viewers of our channel knows that we have been advocating for diversity in the film industry since the beginning of this channel, but to any new viewers, this take can easily be misconstrued as in support of racism and against DEI policies, which it is not.
Instead, the thesis of the video is that by making every minority actor "a special casting decision" that demands celebration, it'll reinforce the notion that these actors are hired not for their talent but the color of their skin. Instead of normalizing minorities in work places, it merely commodifies their existence, and continue to uphold white people as the default/normal option.

New video idea (cont'):
The aforementioned idea has been brewing in the back of my mind for a long time now, and it has only just been sorted out and wrote into words.
Yet, it seems I'm too little too late. After America celebrated a Nazi salute with thunderous applause, I realize the environment for discourse is not going to be friendly enough for this sort of spicy opinion, and the video may end up doing more harm than good.
So, the video is going to be sitting in the backlog indefinitely. Oh well.

Bonus video:
Should be out tomorrow.
That's it, that's the whole update lol.

MEDIA TALK

Have you wonder how I learn of the existence of Shanghai Joe and other random movies mentioned in our channel? Well, let's talk about how I fell into this weird little fandom.

Truth be told, I don't remember exactly where I discover the film, other than gestures vaguely at the entire Internet. I do browse reddit r/BadMovies and similar forums rather frequently. But these forums just aren't as active as they once was.

Around the early to mid 2010s, online creators such as Brandon Tenold and Allison Pregler began gaining traction by highlighting and reviewing obscure B-movies, ranging from Howling II, to Sleepaway Camp, to Chatterbox (a movie about a woman with a talking crotch). At the time, many of the aforementioned movies were stuck on VHS, and are known to only the most avid horror films and bargain bin divers. These creators, no doubt all grew up with the show Mystery Science Theater 3000, manages to make fun of these movies in an endearing way. It was around then I began become part of the fandom.

Among this group, creator James Rolfe deserves a special mention. Known mostly as the Angry Video Game Nerd, Rolfe is actually a fairly prolific film reviewer back in the days of Spike TV, where he would upload videos discussing some truly obscure horror films, many of which are from the 1950s and 60s. He also ran a yearly video marathon called "Monster Madness", in which every October, he'd upload a short video talking about a horror film, for 31 days leading up to Halloween. I actually began watching his world before I was able to speak English, let alone have any deep interest in film.

This marks the beginning of fall into the rabbit hole. By watching these content creators, I came to know a lot of these cult films. Evidently I'm not alone, as many of these films have since been released in Blu-ray, no doubt thanks to the growing fandom.

This was also the time when The Room was gaining notoriety, a movie so infamous, it was mentioned by our professor during a film aesthetics course, in an academic environment. I came into contact with the film much later, and by then I was already studying film in University. The academic training has made film viewing an exhausting activity, as every good movie feels like homework for me to sit through. I often feel like if I'm not paying 100% attention to all the details in a movie, I'm wasting my time. Luckily, some movies are so bad, it doesn't worth my attention to begin with. And so, I began seeking out some of these newer online horror shows: Birdemic, Fateful Finding, Who Killed Captain Alex, etc.

Ironically, the last thing in the fandom I came into contact is Mystery Science Theater, the show that arguably started it all, the grandfather content that inspired so many people into watching bad movies for fun. The struggle with depression and insomnia made my nights the perfect time to watch something surreal, and MST3K has always been the best at putting me in a delirious mood.

And that's how I became an avid video of craptastic movies. It's a bit of a messy recollection, but that's just how I remember it: like a mess. I believe many of you are also fans of bad movies as well. I would love to know how you fall into this rabbit hole, so share your stories in the comments!

I'll see you in our next update!