[Weekly Update] Do you let things bother you? (Patreon)

My new medication is messing me up, but I'm back on track now.

CHANNEL UPDATE

Our new video is still being edited. It is the finale of a mini-series, and it makes me realize why they split the last Harry Potter book into 2 separate movies. There are so much I couldn't include in this video.

I think I'll need a break and focus on smaller videos about individual movies. Immediately on the list we have Deshdrohi, which one of our patrons have graciously found a copy for us. Thank you, I dread it but thank you.

I think I'll also finally review Like a Dragon: the Movie, as the live action series is coming up. I wanted to review this movie a long time ago but got completely sidetracked and played through the entire Kiryu saga on PS4. I wonder if I can file my game purchases as business expense...

Three other movies I want to talk about: YOLO, The Pig the Snake and the Pigeon, Twilight of the Warriors. I think I'll combine them all into a single video, as they are all Chinese language films that made wave in mainland Chinese theaters this year.

Finally, I still have no idea what to do with our bonus video this month, so I think I'll actually stick to Mean Girls.

MEDIA TALK

Watching the recent Mean Girls remake, and seeing people's reaction to The Boys season 4, I realized there's a topic of discussion here. Do you let things bother you?

What I mean is, does your film review reflect your gut reaction, or does it reflect your analytical view? Does it take into account the reactions of others, or is it purely your personal opinion?

First thing first, there is no wrong way to review movies. As long as you are consistent and precise with your criteria, your review is valid.

Anyway, somewhat recently, I made a video on Godzilla, and how the Hollywood series can't reach the height of the recent Japanese iterations. In that video, I cited Minus One and Shin as the good examples, and that seemed to have confused a few commenters. Didn't I hate that movie? Now I like it all of a sudden?

But as I explained in our Shin Godzilla video, I didn't like the movie for its (unintentional) political implication, not because it is not a well made movie. Birth of a Nation is a horrid movie filled with racism, but it was a masterful movie that changed cinema when it was released. In other words, my Shin Godzilla review is precisely about my personal view, without taking into account the public reception.

Conversely, in our Three Kingdoms tier list video, I rank John Woo's Red Cliff quite high. Plenty of commenters think it should be even higher, while a few thought the movie is too dumb and should be that high. I personally lean towards the latter opinion: I think John Woo's understanding of heroism is, frankly, too shallow. Red Cliff ended up feeling like 300, while Chinese viewers expected it to be way more series than that, something along the line of Ben-Hur, maybe.

But in this case, since the video functions more as a guide or a tool for our viewers, my priority is to reflect the opinions of individual viewers, putting aside my own feelings as much as possible. As such, the rankings reflect the general reception.

But it was only recently I realize this "switching of gears" isn't something most people do. In a lot of situations, it seemed people equal "I don't enjoy it" with "bad". It's a very gut instinct driven mentality: Decide your verdict first, and then find reasons to justify your judgement.

I don't want to bring up too many uncomfortable examples, so I'll just offer one. The recently announced Assassin's Creed Shadows features a samurai who's a black man. A lot of people don't like that, so they look for reasons to justify their gut instinct. Critiques includes anything from "historical inaccuracies" to "forced diversity". I'm sure we all know the real reason for the negative verdict, though. But to realize that would require introspection.

Man, Assassin's Creed Valhalla really attracted a lot of... unsavoury fans.

Back to my experience: When I was watching Mean Girls, I also dislike it pretty much instantly. I hated the, for lack of a better term, "white girl musical". I dislike its unnecessarily existence. I don't like the Gen Z humor. I went in, ready to hate it from the bottom of my heart.

When the credits roll, I still am not a fan of the songs. I still dislike the existence of this film. I still don't like Gen Z humor. But, I supposed I'm lucky in this regard, I was able to put aside my personal feelings, and see that the film's intended audience will have a blast with it, because it is genuinely well made.

To understand that something isn't made for me is a skill, it turns out. It's not a good feeling when we aren't invited to the party. But at least we can learn not to be bother by it, and perhaps be happy for those who are invited.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. I still have to work on the video.

Hopefully I'll see you soon with the complete finale!