[Weekly Update] May 4th, 2021

May the 4th be with you, everyone! I'm back from my week long break. Movies are being transcoded. Script is being written. New video planned for next week!

ABOUT THE CHANNEL

• Video schedule has been shifted around a bit. I did a bit of research into Tony Leung, with hope of making a retrospective of some kind. But after a couple of days, I realized I just don't have a lot to say, other than plainly reporting the facts. And that's not really what our channel do. So that video has been postponed.
• Instead, we'll move the bad movies two parter series up. Next week, we'll dive into the terrible movies made during the golden age of Hong Kong.
• Our Earwig video was an unexpected success, I guess the humor really works. A lot of viewer likes that there are jokes to break up the pacing a bit, making the video easier to digest. So, I'll keep up with the lighter tone.
• It also makes me realize it's important to have a feel for the topics at hand. So, from now on, I'll be more picky with what topics I'll cover. That means more video ideas will be scrapped.
• That means our upload frequency will remain the same, but delays may be more frequent. It should result in higher quality videos, though. So, in the long run, it should be worth it.

ABOUT MEDIA

• So, Falcon and the Winter Soldier is over. Phase 4 movies are announced. The MCU lives on.
• Doing research into why the Hong Kong film industry collapsed makes me realized just how much of a miracle MCU is. Few, if any genre ever lives to be this long. Most genres last about half a decade, like Sword Sorcery (Conan the Barbarian), and J-Horror (The Ring).
• If you are a Godzilla fan, you'd know that individual Godzilla series rarely lasts all that long in the grand scheme of things, and about half of them don't make much money.
• So, for the MCU to be this consistent in quality and in box office return, It is truly a mind boggling achievement.
• I understand a lot of our viewers are not a big fan of what Hollywood has become these days. Personally I hate it when Disney became synonymous with Blockbusters. But it is hard for me to deny that Hollywood is getting really good at producing passable movies.
• At least, that holds true to me, anecdotally.
• Compare that to the 80s and especially the 90s. Those two decades were filled with stink bombs like Jaws 3-D, Batman & Robin, The Flintstones, Judge Dredd. Ghost Dad, and of course, Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot.
• Bad movies were a constance back then. Most series and franchises dies by the third instalment.
• But then comes the late 2000s and all the day to today. Series that are good often remains good. The MCU, John Wick, Fast & Furious, Harry Potter.
• And even bad movies aren't nearly incoherently bad. They are usually just boring bad. Like the theatrical cut of Justice League, or Ghost in the Shell, or The Lion King remake, or any of the Disney live action remake that is not Mulan for that matter.
• And that brings me to my question of the week: Which way do you prefer?
• On one hand, even if I'm not the biggest fan of the continuing serialization, the utter lack of originality and story diversity. I have to say, Hollywood blockbusters these day are always consistently entertaining. That is something I cannot say back when I was in high school.
• On the other hand, I love the bad movies in the 80s. They are trying so hard to sell each movie with new and novel ideas, that when they are bad, they are bad in an interesting way. Few movies managed to be like that today. Maybe Wonder Woman 1984 and the new Mortal Kombat movie. But even they don't quite reach the absurd badness of the 80s.
• Mega blockbusters back in the 80s are not as dominating, so there were still spaces for filmmaker to be experimental, and be original. Some of our favourite franchise began that way. It was the decade of franchise starters.
• Today, it's all homogeneous mega blockbusters, with safe ideas dictated by production companies. However, with new technology and massive budget, filmmakers can create ever wilder imageries that 80s directors couldn't even dream of. Wild styles like Doctor Strange, Thor Ragnarok, Inception, and a lot of the Pixar movies.
• So, it's really a toss up for me. Do I want consistency? Or do I prefer the wilder days where franchises die fast and filmmakers chasing after the new trend?
• Ultimate, it may not even matter. With online streaming becoming more and more popular, low-to-no-budget production like Searching, Unsane, and Unfriended carved out a new space for audience and filmmakers. In a few years, we may see a revival on new series and franchise starters, back to the days of the 80s.

And that's the update! Sorry I didn't update earlier. Monster Hunter Rise was too much fun, and I really needed that mental break from work. In any case, I hope you are having a good week, and I'll see you next update!