[Weekly Update] 2024 Movies in Review.

Sorry for the late update. Unfortunately, my health has not improved over the week. In fact, I'm seeing a doctor in a couple of hours. Hopefully my weak sauce of a body isn't going to be a big hinderance over the holiday season.

CHANNEL UPDATE

No update on upcoming videos:
Our next video is already complete and should go live in a few days. Work on the final video of 2024, a recap of Chinese language films released this year, will also be completed soon.

Thank you for the support:
It is yet another fulfilling year with multipart videos and unique videos, like our History of China series, and our Tour of Hong Kong. It is an achievement, one which I share with all of you.

I'll begin scheduling our 2024 videos as soon as our last video is complete. I'll keep you updated!

MEDIA TALK

Let's review some more 2024 movies. As mentioned last week, 2024 saw a lot of unique films hidden among a sea of boring remakes and unnecessary seasons. And in this hidden category of unique films, Longlegs is one that both impresses me, and also sucks ass.

Longlegs: If you don't know, Longlegs is a horror movie rooted deep within the online horror culture called ARG, basically a multi-media storytelling method utilizing social media, websites, viral marketing and such, all while pretending the events of the film is real, even if it happens in an alternate reality that's not our own.

Thanks to that genre, Longlegs was given a very experimental style that stays with me for a long time. For that reason alone, I think it is worth a watch. Yet, in terms of ARG, Longlegs took the most boring topic imaginable. It's a satanic serial killer story, and not even an interesting one. For any casual films of horror, this movie is just a chore to sit through. Oh, so much potential, so little to chew on.

Uglies: God f*cking god Netflix will you stop!?

Uglies is a young adult sci-fi dystopian drama about a society where the standard for "pretty" is achievable only through extensive cosmetic surgery. It is a pretty neat concept to commentate on the commercialization of our appearance.

Now, I have't read the novel so I don't know how much the fault lies in the book and how much it's the movie's problem, but the movie absolutely fails at tackling its own thesis, and fails at multiple fronts, too. From the fact that the ugly pretty dichotomy not being a cultural problem but a manufactured issue by the rich and powerful, to the film's inability to humanizes its character thanks to its messy pacing, the film, ironically, has nothing going on underneath its dazzling looking shell. It's another Netflix bomb, made to look impressive like a cinema production, but without cinema quality storytelling. If by this point Netflix is still trying to convince people they are legit cinema, then Netflix is doomed.

Megalopolis: Sometimes it's just fun to see a passion project, even if it's not a good one. Megalopolis is a movie made by Coppola and for Coppola. No one else will enjoy this film as much as he do himself, and I supposed that is okay.

In its core, Megalopolis is a story about how society rejects visionaries. Said visionary is clearly a self-insert of Coppola himself, who always wanted to create a utopian film studio where young and ambitious filmmakers are given free rein to create their work. And like his Utopia, Megalopolis ultimately came out, failed, and disappear because no one else actually wants the idea beside Coppola.

I admit, the only reason I even was able to sit through the self-pleasuring session of a movie is because I knew the authorial intention behind this. If you are interested in the film: (1) why? (2) I suggest giving Be Kind Revind's video essay a look before hand. A quick search on YouTube and you'll find it on the very top.

Actually, even if you aren't interested in the movie, still give the video a watch. It is amazing.

Anyway, that'll be the update this week. A couple more days and I'll see you in our Journey to the West video!