[Weekly Update] March 28, 2021

Oh boy, it's almost April Fool's. What whacky shenanigans have I planned?

ABOUT THE CHANNEL

• Hope you all enjoyed our lastest video on King Kong vs. Godzilla. This one was fun to make. In all honesty, I didn't enjoy rewatching it at first, mainly because I was not in the right mindset. I forgot how slow the Showa era Godzilla movies are. But after a while, my brain turned on the cheese switch, and everything is right with the world again.
• Nothing has changed for upcoming videos, except it has come to my attention that, at one point in time, South Korea makes really, and I mean, REALLY bad movies, in the same vein as Mainland China during the 2010s.
• Now I always knew they had a bad period, but I did not realized how deep that rabbit hold go. So, let me dive deep into that rabbit hole, and see if I'll come back with a video.

ABOUT MEDIA

• With our channel's focus on foreign language cinema, it seem like we'll never have the chance to talk about King Kong proper. So, let's talk about them here.
• 1933 saw the release of King Kong, and it blew everyone's mind with its epic stop motion effects and crazy compositing. It's often cited as the father of all Kaiju, and directly inspired the creation of Godzilla. That, however, isn't entirely true.
• King Kong didn't really create the Kaiju genre. The Cold War did. Between King Kong and Godzilla, there were very few giant monster movies.
• In fact, King Kong is very much part of the Universal Studio horror series, in the same vein as Frankenstein, or the Mummy, or Creature of the Black Lagoon. It's a freak of nature story. Kong is the ancestor of Kaiju, but wether he is a Kaiju himself is very much up for debate.
• The one thing that surprises me, is how fast pace King Kong is. At just 100 minute, the plot moves at a brisk pace. It's a thrill ride movie through and through, all spectacles. In a way, it also sets up an expectation we still have about monster movies: The humans just don't matter.
• Still, just for the history of it, it's well worth watching. Although I'd say, the behind the scene stuff is way more fun than the movie itself.
• In 1976, King Kong got a remake. With such an important cinematic legacy behind the name, the 1976 movie tries its best to live up to it. And boy or boy did it try. It tried way too hard.
• In a lot of weird ways, the 1976 remake reminds me of what Disney is doing with their own live action remakes. They know the woman should fight back a little instead of being a damsel, so the blond calls Kong a misogynistic pig. They know they have to update the story, so it has an environmental theme.
• And just like Disney, these themes are very much crowbarred in, with no subtly, nor a true understanding of these themes and messages. It's just there for lip service.
• Around the time the Peter Jackson remake came out, I remember a lot of people hating on this film. I did not like it either. But over the years, reception got warmer. 
• Beyond its somewhat unfocused plot, there is a technically well done movie. The suit is pretty decent, even if Kong's design is not my favourite. The animatronic is top notched. It's so good, you might not realized you are watching a puppet unless you actively pay attention.
• But these days we have so many other Kong movies we can choose from, this one unfortunately sits at the bottom of the pile.
• 2005 saw the release of Peter Jackson's King Kong. It's very much a love letter to the movie. And it's also unnecessarily long.
• In the original version, Kong's animalistic innocents is only hinted at. But in the Peter Jackson version, it is played up a lot. Kong is practically fully sentient in this movie, doing human things, have an understanding of human emotions. It doesn't just act on instinct, it can think.
• That makes the relationship between the blond and Kong a lot more interesting. Not to mention, the blond now has actual agency, deciding what to do, and doing what she wants, even if the word is against it. Weird implications aside, it can be a very effective love story.
• If any youngsters want to watch King Kong, this is probably the version to look out for. It's new enough to a modern audience. It's stylized CGI, despite some flaws, aged pretty well. Kong's design is, in my opinion, at its best.
• It's not a high class entertainment or anything, but Kong has never been a high class monster.
• Finally, there is Kong: Skull Island. Technically, this is not a remake, but a lot of people have accepted that this is a reboot of the Kong franchise, so let's talk about it briefly.
• This is, again, one of those movies that I did not enjoy at first. My cheese switch was off when watching this. Now, to be fair, the movie didn't smell like cheese for the first 20 minute either.
• But if you go in expecting a cheese monster fest, with a lost word genre coat of paint, Kong is a surprisingly easy watch. The actions are satisfying. Not spectacular, but self-contain enough to be thrilling. Brie Larson and Tom Hiddleston are pretty charismatic, carrying the film along.
• Of course, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman and John C. Reilly also help a lot. This movie has a stellar cast, enough to create the illusion of an interesting human story. It doesn't have one, but it feels like it has.

Just a couple more days before Godzilla vs. Kong comes to streaming. Reviews are out and critics are loving it. It seem like all the Monke meme has collectively turned on our cheese switch.

Or maybe because of Covid, we all want something light and easy to watch for once.

Will I love the movie? Well, I'll see you in the next video.