Month: March 2020

Point of Endless Return | The Villainess (2017) Review

March 24, 2020

You ever go on a date with someone fun and you’re, like, a 95% match, but then they say something that grinds the conversation to a halt, and it throws the integrity of the match into question and also possibly the premise of matchmaking itself, that there are no true matches, only fish in an endless sea broiling with riptide and Bermuda Triangles? Well, I didn’t actually go on a date with director Jung Byung-gil, but him and I are that 95% match, and his 2017 film The Villainess is my Bermuda Triangle. It is a siren’s song; it is my doom. … More Point of Endless Return | The Villainess (2017) Review

K-Pop Pick of the Day: “NoNoNo”

March 24, 2020

This is where it began with Apink and I, and what a perfectly succinct introduction to this group’s bubblegum and surprisingly sexualized style. My frame of reference being Red Velvet, I do find Apink videos to be much calmer and still, willing to let the girls spend time with a single activity (in this case, baking cakes?) rather than run them through several at lightning speed (baking cakes, getting lost in the woods, stepping on cakes, breaking things, finding ants in cakes). That reduction in variety doesn’t also reduce the character: there’s still plenty of big smiles and goofing around. What could be cuter than Eunji poking Naeun with a cupcake? … More K-Pop Pick of the Day: “NoNoNo”

Battle of the Warrior Queens Part I

March 21, 2020

2019 was a big year for Rani Lakshmibai. She had two movies, a TV show, and an appearance in a third movie. This isn’t the first time there have been movies and TV shows about the Queen of Jhansi, but why this sudden interest? It’s the kind of thing that would happen in Hollywood once upon a time, where a more mercenary studio would produce a movie to capture some of the craze generated by a big blockbuster: Carnosaur in 1993, or Leviathan and DeepStar Six in 1989. I know why this doesn’t happen anymore, because there’s no market for movies that can be made quickly and cheaply, but it’s fun to see multiple interpretations of the same subject matter, especially with that mercenary edge, and especially when that subject matter is something rare like dinosaurs. I love dinosaurs, and I can hardly think of anything I’d want to see more in a movie. Except for maybe a warrior queen. … More Battle of the Warrior Queens Part I