[Weekly Update] December 27, 2021

And so we come to the end of yet another difficult year. Thank you all for the continuing support. It is because of you that this channel is not only thriving, but looking into expanding.

This year, I've been put in contact with industry veterans working in Hollywood. I have my video essay put on Criterion, and Time Magazine. I participated in a routable podcast with fellow Asian content creators. And I have friends who worked for a team that got an Oscar. If you tell film school me that all this will happen, I'll probably ask where you got your LSD.

In any case, truly sincerely thank you for accompanying us.

CHANNEL UPDATE

• Just finished with a short series of mini-videos on social media, in which I shared my stories with all the different cameras I've used in the past. If you want some extra content, come to our Twitter and Facebook and take a look! My favourite part is part 4 where I talk about the legendary Arri ALEXA.
• Bonus video for patrons will be uploaded tomorrow. Let's talk about the biggest Holiday classic of them all: Home Alone.
• For January, we have two videos planned. We have a video where I talk about all the cringe-worthy instances of Hollywood trying to speak Chinese. And we have another video about an Irish martial arts movie.
• Finally, we are looking for possible Chinese New Year movies to talk about. It's kinda strange that Chinese New Year movies often don't have anything to do with actual Chinese/Lunar New Year at all. If you have anything you think we should talk about, let us know.

MEDIA TALK

• With the year coming to an end, let's take a look back at our channel's videos. Here are my personal top 3 videos of 2021.
• Starting off in number 3, it's also the first video of 2021: The Autobots.
• The Autobots video is sort of my ideal videot: Talk about a foreign film, provide cultural context behind the move, and explained the impact it has on the world. And I suspect that's what most of our viewers preferred, too.
• Being able to bring in a unique perspective is always something I chase after. In a sea of channels that mock bad movies, all of the cultural context definitely sets this video apart for me. 
• Coming in in number 2, the References in Kung Fu Hustle.
• It's not a particularly well structured piece. In fact, I didn't really liked it at first. The video was meant to be a quick video for me to do while I was busy working on other projects. It didn't end up being a quick one because I had to research a lot of stuff.
• At the end, something about this video just brings a lot of joy to me. Maybe it's just a fun movie. Or maybe it's the fact that many viewers shared their memories in the comments with us.
• As a Chinese viewer, many of the references listed in the video are just common knowledge, so it is difficult to know if the video is deep or just very shallow. I'm glad it ended up helping a lot of viewers appreciating the movie in a deeper level.
• Probably not my favourite video to make. But a favourite to share.
• And finally, my number one video of the year, also happened to be my most viewed video. The one that got me into both Time Magazine and Criterion: How Tony Leung Acts With His Eyes.
• You can tell I'm proud of this one, haha.
• Making actor centric videos are always intimidating. There are always so many things to cover, too many for a 15 minute video. And for a prolific actor like Tony Leung, it is especially difficult. I'm still amazed the video ended up as concise as it is.
• Sure, I skipped over most of his performance in Wong Kar-wai movies, and didn't even bring up Inferno Affair. But I think most viewers are happy with the overview we provided, as well as the level of details we went into. All 15 minutes about someone's eyes.
• Another challenge is that I have no real formal training in acting. I don't really know all the theories and practices, so I can only really approached the topic through a director's perspective, which I did have some experiences.
• Of course, there is expectation, too. Not many videos on YouTube discusses Tony Leung. Fan expectations are high. that's also why I'm proud of the video, too. Being able to meet fan expectation is always a satisfying feeling.

And that concludes 2021! Thank you for another amazing year!

What is your favourite video from us? A few honourable mention from me includes the Gun-Fu videos, the Indian Cinema video. and the Kung Fu Panda video (It took me a while to piece the metaphor together and realized Po is a director self-insert). 

Here's hoping 2022 will be better, and hopefully we'll bring you some even better videos next year!