[Weekly Update] Nov 30, 2022

Phew, was very much under the weather in the past few days. Sorry for taking this long to give you an update. I'm feeling better now!

CHANNEL UPDATE

Hope you enjoy our latest video on Chinese Shlockbusters! I had a blast going through these movies. Even watching the lazy sleazy copycat movie that is Huge Shark, I still find myself enjoying its execution (at times, more than The Shallows). Hope you have a chance to give some of them a watch, as well!

The video proves a bit controversial, as with most things about China these days. Saying anything good about China often gets me a lot of hate in the English speaking world. In reaction to that, some people are also dissatisfied about me not highlighting the more classy side of Mainland China.

But to me, the best part of China is the people. The history, the culture, even the food come only second to the humans who foster all of them.

Beside, I find it rather astonishing to see how well-made some of these movies are. These movies have infinitely more class than junks like Slay Belles, and probably made with less money, too.

yeah, Slay Belles. I watch some really junky movies.

(Okay, the monster in Slay Belles actually looked really cool as far as I can remember)

MEDIA TALK

Thanks to Overly Sarcastic Production reading the entire book on stream, I got the chance to revisit Dracula.

I read the book in Chinese back when I was still in middle school, and remember very little about it. Most of my memories about the count came from Castlevania. And before the revisit, I can't tell you which part of my memory is from the games and which part is from the novel. (Turns out, they are ALL from the game).

As far as I can remember, the Chinese translation did not phonetically transcribe the accents of the characters. I don't know why a book made entirely out of diaries and letters would have accents in it but that's beside the point. The point is, Dracula is much closer to a zombie movie than it is any vampire movies. It's... kinda a pandemic fiction.

In case you haven't read the book, Dracula tells the story of Dr. Van Helsing fighting against a mysterious illness spreading in England. Said illness is vampirism. It is, for the vast majority of the book, a medical thriller about treating patients and preventing vampirism from spreading.

Dracula is less of a powerful monster and much more of a carrier of deadly diseases who's spreading it intentionally. He has all these weakness, much like how a patient with rabies is afraid of light and water and such. The final climax of the book doesn't even involve a fight against Dracula, just a race to intercept him before he can hide away. He dies without even waking up from his coffin.

This is fascinating because nearly every movie adaptation would betray nearly everything that is core to the books identity.

For one thing, the book is essentially found footage. It's comprised entirely of diary entries, notes, and news paper clippings. I don't think I've seen a Dracula adaptation that is found footage. Although I supposed it's hard to do that when the movie is a period piece, before movies were invented.

Dracula is also a story about science versus superstition. Of course, Christianity is presented as part of science, because that's just how things were back then. Using the crucifix is simultaneously using God's holiness to battle against evil, and using faith to combat sickness. But most Dracula adaptations did not lean into the science aspect, likely because magic is more interesting.

But I think the most glaring difference is, as mentioned before, that Dracula is about a man fighting against the spread of a pandemic. He's fighting it early on, so there's no real plague being spread. But there is genuine suspense in the story seeing a patient getting better one day and getting worse the other, as her fangs slowly grew, until she dies and becomes a monster.

It's a pandemic fiction! Van Helping is a medical doctor (actually he has multiple degrees, I think?). It's kinda weird that these days, he's known as a revolver toting vampire hunter.

Anyway, that's my thought on Dracula as a book. Would you want an adaptation of Dracula that is more about the medical side of things? I can say I'm curious but I can't say I would be excited about it. But there is definitely potential in that idea.

Anyway, no video this week. I'll see you next time!