[Weekly Update] October 31, 2021

Happy Halloween! Although knowing our audience, by the time you are reading this it's already November.

Oh, how I wish I can grow a bear so I can participate.

CHANNEL UPDATE

• As stated before, our channel will slow time for this winter. Upload will go from bi-weekly to once a month. But Patreon update and rewards to remain the same.
• We'll be using the extra time to create bigger videos, but also working on a major project: We are making a short film. A martial arts short film, to be exact. The script is done, and casting is about to begin. Filming starts this winter, and stay tuned for some behind the scene updates.
• While this film is being made, we'll also look into launching a second channel, where we upload our original films.
• Anyway, for November, we have a video about recommended equipments to buy as a beginner filmmaker / film student. With the holiday season approaching, a lot of these equipments may be on sale. Hopefully the timing works out for a lot of people.
• For December, I ran out of Christmas movies from Asia, so we are doing something vaguely Christmas-y: Stand by Me, Doraemon. It's a nostalgic, sentimental movie that, at first, I was skeptical about. The idea of making Doraemon in 3D just irks me. But it turns out to be an amazing movie. So, let's have a warming journey through time together.
• And for January, we go to Ireland, and visit their one and only martial art movie: Fatal Deviation. It has been a long time since we step out of Asia, and for 2022, I want around the world a bit more.
• Then again, I wanted to cover Taiwanese movies more last year and it didn't exactly pan out, so... Yep hopefully I can get things together better this time.

MEDIA TALK

It's Halloween. Everyone's in a horror mood, let me recommend you my personal top three horror film. You probably have seen them all, but here are my thoughts on them:

• Number 3: The Thing
• John Carpenter's The Thing is widely considered to be one of the best movies ever made. Not only is it a gruesome spectacle to be hold, but it's also an intense psychological thriller/horror.
• The film follows a group of arctic researchers being hunted by an alien life form. But this life form isn't just your run of the mill monster. It's capable of mimicking and replacing any human beings it comes into contact with. At every turn, characters have to guess who is infected. And the sense of paranoia is unmatched by any other horror films I've seen.
• That's one of the key feature of a good horror film: It isn't just scary. It has to induce specific emotions, like paranoia, anxiety, dread, etc.
• Another emotion it captures brilliantly is the sense of isolation. Long stretches of the film is slow and without music. The plot doesn't seem to progress during these scenes, but you get to mess around with the characters. Or rather, you feel like you are stuck with these characters, just as they are stuck with each other.
• And since you spend time with these characters, the second half of the film also becomes much more effective.
• This is just an all around great movie. If you aren't afraid of some body horror and truly twisted imagery, this is one movie every cinephile has to see.

• Number 2: Alien
• You can tell I like sci-fi a lot.
• In the film, a space cargo crew received a distressed signal from a nearby planet. They investigate, and an unknown creature latched itself onto a crew member. And it escalates from there.
• This is your quintessential "curiosity kills the cat" story. For a horror movie, this is one of the rarer film that doesn't start guns blazing. It actually takes its time building up a mystery. It frequently uses your curiosity against you, and it's almost always effective.
• For example, when the crew is on the planet and sees an alien egg, one egg slowly opens up. A crew member slowly moves closer to look inside. You know it is a bad idea. But at the same time, you are just as curious as everyone else in the film.
• And of course, it does not end well. You get a brilliant scare: A scare that you saw coming, but still gets you.
• It is this type of "fair scare" that really makes Alien special to me. A jump scare is lame. A real good scare, is tell your audience you are going to do it, and then do it, and still gets them.
• Over the years, I dabbled in horror writing. And to this day, Alien remains the main template it look to, when I need a scare.The technique and concept of the film is basic, but its execution is top notch.

• And number 1: Ringu
• The choice may be obvious, but how can I pick anything else.
• The plot of Ringu is so famous, I don't think I need to explain anything. But in case you don't know, it follows a journalist doing an investigation on a rumoured curse: A cursed VHS tape that, after you watch it, kills you in 7 days.
• Came out during a time when people watch horror movies to see creative kills, Ringu marks itself with minimal body counts, and a rock solid mystery. and plot. It was so well written, I did a minute by minute analysis of it on my own, because I want to write scripts with the exact same structure.
• The film begins without the protagonist, just a separate side story of two girls talking about the rumoured cursed. And then we see the protagonist hearing the curse from high school students.
• We then follow her to a funeral, where we learn one of her relatives were killed by the curse.
• And finally, she reaches the tape, and watched it herself.
• Notice how there's a slow escalation, as if the curse is approaching her one step at a time, getting more and more personal. And by the time it latches onto her, it is too late to escape.
• Ringu is just a great movie, horror or not. And it is because of this well written structure that it remains engaging after rewatch upon rewatch.

And that's the update! What are some of your favourite horror films? Or do you watch horror movies at all?

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a good time, Halloween or not. I'll be taking the next few days off to destress. But I'll see you in the next update!