AccentedCinema

[Weekly Update] May 31, 2021

Added 2021-05-31 16:59:32 +0000 UTC

Welcome to June, the beautiful summer time of sweet 13°C here in Montreal. What is up with this weather.

ABOUT THE CHANNEL

Hope you enjoyed our bad movie month! I know this type of videos isn't everyone's cup of tea. But I love talking about cult and obscure movies, especially those that I have a personal connection to. If you also grew up with the crappy Hong Kong/Korean B-movies, I hope that was a pleasant trip down memory lane!
Next up, we have Kung Fu Panda in the docket. Viewers have been requesting this one for a long time. A lot of people want me to talk about how Kung Fu Panda botched Chinese culture. But I have something a bit deeper in mind. We'll go into more detail when my research concludes.
After that, we'll talk about a recent Chinese animation hit: A Chinese Cyberpunk Mythological Fantasy movie. Oh yes, all of those.
Finally, in July, we'll began a new series. I'll ask our Taiwanese viewers to list some of the must watch Taiwanese films, and I'll watch them, and give them my honest thought and analysis. Eventually we will cover India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and beyond!

ABOUT MEDIA

So, movie trailers.
When the trailer for Cruella dropped (rather unceremoniously), I was somewhat excited. The trailer has style and it clearly communicated its genre: A fashion heist film. A movie about the cutthroat world of fashion design, complete with over the top stylized visual? Count me in!
But then, Twitter reactions began, and everyone is shatting on the trailer. Or rather, the idea of a Cruella live action remake. It is, after all, Disney. They have ruined a bunch of classic villains. It is only fair to be skeptical about this one.
With all the negativity surrounding the film, I didn't want to say a thing.
By the time the movie came out, I have already forgotten my initial reaction. I was no longer expecting a fashion heist film. Yet, to my surprise, I got exactly that: A frantic, energetic, stylistic heist film, with a soundtrack that I want to own on vinyl. I don't even have a turntable.
It's always nice to feel validated when you managed to parse the intention behind a trailer, and can deduce if the movie itself is good or not.
Another one I managed to predict correctly is Terminator Genisys. When the trailer first came out, the YouTube comments were surprisingly positive (for some reason).
But I still remember my first thought: It looks like they already included all the big action scenes into this trailer, yet the action still feels uncreative and underwhelming. So, I waited for the film with the lowest of expectations.
And I was right. To a lot of viewers, Genisys remains the worst of the Terminator failed sequels. The characters are dull, the humor is forced, the action is lame, and the writing is lazy.
But of course, I'm not always right. I still remember seeing the initial teaser from Mulan, and was impressed at how the film captures the Chinese Wuxia aesthetic, with its grace and power. I think I even posted my thought on Twitter.
Oh boy. You know how much I hated that movie.
Joker is another one I was wrong about. When I first saw the trailer for Joker, I was very skeptical. I thought it looks self indulgent and pretentious, and expect it to be just that: Wanting to be deep, without actually tackling any serious social subject matter.
And while I'm sure a sizeable amount of people would think I was right all along, it's no denying that Joker ended up a much better film than I expected. At least in terms of filmmaking technique, Joker is a very complete and cohesive movie.
Finally, there are also cases like the recent Mortal Kombat movie. My expectation was so wrong, I ended up right again.
You can't really blame me, though. The initial trailer features Hiroyuki Sanada kicking the kidney stones out of a group of assassins in a ancient Japanese setting. It looks serious. It looks like a proper period epic.
But then the movie actually came out, and, wow, tonal whiplash. It started off serious, and then became cheesy within 10 minutes, and finally became self-aware 20 minutes in.
I was expecting it to be good and serious. What I got was cheesy entertainment. I'm not complaining though.
Making trailer is difficult. Often times, you have an unfinished film, and you have to piece something that represents the big picture in multiple ways: The genre, the tone, the intention, the message, the plot, the hook, the actors.
The worst part is, while people like me who are familiar with film language can parse these messages with some thought, the general audience may not pick up on them. So what's clear to the trailer editor may not be obvious to the world.
And that's how you ended up with the Cruella situation.