[Weekly Update] March 6, 2022

Welcome to March! Movies are getting fun again. Uncharted is apparently pretty enjoyable, can't say I see that coming. The Batman is getting some buzz. But the film is kinda a hit or miss among my snobby filmmaker friends. Turning Red is coming out in a few days. A lot of movies to catch up, a lot of fun to be had.

CHANNEL UPDATE

• Editing on our next video is complete. It took an extra week of work because it is 18 minutes long and it covers a lot of films. And even then, I feel like it didn't go nearly in-depth enough. I'm starting to understand why some channel make hour long essays.
• Depending on how Turning Red turns out, there may or may not be a video on it. After the recent trailer, I'm pretty optimistic about it. But I really do hope this will be that one Pixar movie that takes some risk and tell a different story.
• As with channel tradition, we'll have a April Fool's video. Afterward, if we don't have a Turning Red video, I should have enough time to finally get started on our Malaysian Cinema video.
• If our channel schedule remains busy, I'll probably talk about a Godzilla movie since those are usually quick and easy to write.

MEDIA TALK

• Over the years on this channel, there have been attempts at videos that went nowhere. Here are some of the films and topics we wanted to talk about, but couldn't.
• Infra-Man: The first Chinese superhero movie is so full of awesome actions, crazy explosions, and meme potential. Yet, I can't think of anything to say about this movie. Originally I wanted to compare the film to martial arts and wuxia movies of the same period. But much of the similarities are tangential. Infra-Man ended up just feeling like a generic tokusatsu without much unique Chinese flare. And there just isn't much insight I can offer. Maybe one day I'll talk about it alongside other Chinese superhero movies that came out around the 2000s.
• Oppai Volleyball: I'm so glad the word "oppai" has entered the English lexicon. Because back in 2009, this movie had a title that sounds a lot more vulgar. Anyway, I distinctly remember it being one of the first film I stopped watching half-way through, because the juvenile sex humor was too annoying. However, it's not supposed to be a bad movie. And I kinda wanted to use this film to talk about the difference between what constitutes a film review, and what's an opinion. Turns out, that's not material to make a video. And the movie is not good enough for me to rewatch. Into the trashcan it goes.
• The Wailing: There's not nearly enough K-horror content on our channel. We talked about Train to Busan, and that's about it. Another highly regarded K-horror film is The Wailing. I watched it, and tried to analyze it. The more I read into the subtext, the more it opens to interpretation. The reading range from mildly uncomfortable Christian propaganda, to very uncomfortable endorsement on racism. I don't think any of those are intended meanings, but the film is just too vague to show any sort of intention. I backed out of the video idea after I realize what a hole this film really is.
• Disney Movies in Chinese: Viewers requested us to do a video on what movies to watch to learn Chinese. My immediate thought is: Watch Disney movies dubbed in Chinese. Disney usually does amazing dubs, and the vocabulary is usually simple enough for non-native speakers to follow. However, at the end of the day, I realized I never formally learnt the Chinese language, so I'm probably not the best person to give advice on language learning. The idea is then scrapped. Maybe I can talk about movies to learn English instead... Oh wait, those are just regular Disney movies.
• Stephen Chow Retrospective: I always wanted to do a Stephen Chow retrospective, but it'll be like 4 parts, and a huge undertaking. Considering multi-part videos never do well on our channel, and Stephen Chow movies are constantly being copyright claimed, the prospect is scary.
• Jet Li Retrospective: We talk about Jackie Chan multiple times, and also talked about Michelle Yeoh in our Kung Fu Heroine series. But we never talked about Jet Li. The reality is, Jet Li's career is just never that defined, and it's difficult to craft a cohesive narrative around his life. What can Jet Li's career and film teach us? I still am not sure. But I'll make a video when I find one.

Anyway, that is it for this week's update. There are plenty more unused ideas, but let's keep them for next time. Is there any abandoned ideas that you'd be interested in?

In any case, I'll see you either Wednesday or Thursday with a new video!