4v291o

this is mostly a clipshow of scenes from the series  as presented by dokin-chan and baikinman

(she's just too cute i can't)

there's room for improvement here for sure--most of all with regard to some persistent cliches in the motifs and dialogue--but between the nostalgia of the profound influence Mary and Max had on my taste for aesthetics and storytelling and the film's focus on several very soft spots for me--kinky sexuality, nervous attachment, the peculiar kinds of loneliness often experienced by the elderly, nursing homes, paraplegia, alcoholism etc--i just couldnt help but be deeply affected by this. definitely second to Mary and Max and perhaps a little sophomorish, but a wonderfully melancholy film nonetheless.

the kind of thing americans coom for. it was enjoyable and i liked the character & monster designs but tbh im pretty hard to impress when it comes to stories like this.

a few curmudgeonly thoughts:

this is a goofy ass movie. would have been significantly better if disney's goofy were cast in the starring role. aside from a handful of quite remarkable cuts of animation, this didn't do a lot for me.

my friends, who are big fans of this manga, say they were also disappointed by the adaptation. but tbh nothing about this convinced me that the premise had all that much more potential.

i might have liked this more when i was 15 years younger and was still enamored by started-from-the-bottom musician's success stories. but as a musician this kinda stuff makes me gag now.

netflix ruined my viewing experience of this with those damn bouncing subtitles. it made this very interesting film hard to follow bc im constantly having to search the screen, in many cases here for no discernable reason. and no, im not willing to watch the dubbed over version instead. 

netflix has easily the best experience in the game except for its refusal to let me customize the subs

Watched on Thursday August 1, 2024.

a fairly shoddy adaptation of akane torikai's fantastic manga series. where the manga was nuanced, the film is melodramatic; where the manga's characters were morally sophisticated, the characters here are far less so.

most importantly for many i'm sure, where the manga handled sensitive subject matter delicately, this adaptation was in my opinion more distasteful. trigger warnings abound for both the source material and the film, but i felt torikai's manga was particularly adept at approaching difficult subjects carefully while still finding a way to interrogate big questions about power, responsibility, etc (yeah i realize my phrasing was torn straight outta uncle ben's book, but i can't help it those are the right words).

i re-read the first volume of the series today before going to see the movie, and i realized that the manga's eponymous sensei is teaching Natsume Souseki's [i]Kokoro[/i] to her class at the beginning of the story. i don't think that its mere coincidence that just as in Souseki's novel, here too we have a character who is referred to as 'sensei' throughout, often within relationships that don't necessitate it. even though i have some ideas about the significance of this scene, i'm not ready to make any rash conclusions because it's been awhile since ive read either work in full. anyway, bc i was a few minutes late to the theatre, i'm not sure if that's included in the first few minutes of the film, but i think that a full reading of the adaptation or the original manga should take this intertext into .

anyway, if you feel at all compelled by the synopsis of the film and can handle some fairly brutal storytelling, i highly recommend opting for the manga series.

xoxo

a masculine power fantasy without rewards

Watched on Sunday November 19, 2023.

Watched on Wednesday August 16, 2023.

Watched on Tuesday August 1, 2023.

it's ridiculous, yes, but that's one of the things i come to shinkalion for in the first place. being a theatrical work, it doesn't have time to emphasize the parts of the show that interests me most--the way it clearly intends to indoctrinate japanese kids into japanese mass culture, otaku consumerism, and neoliberal ideology, or the fun character-centric moments that have made me love the cast.

but yeah, snow godzilla is tight, tho cast in a minor role. miku is in top form here, and the evangelion pilots return for another cameo appearence, bringing with them an eva unit 01-type shinkalion.

anyone coming across this bc of those cross-medial appearences should def try the series if they find it at all interesting. the show boasts high-quality cg animation and super cute characters, and most importantly (and not necessarily boastfully) a fascinating glimpse into how one of japan's largest private conglomerates (Japan Railways) use 'cool japan'-esque methods to establish themselves and their sanctioned vision of japanese national identity within the minds of impressionable children (while simultaneously making hella bank on model kit-collecting adult otaku). on the other hand, those coming into this film should probably be warned that what feels like nearly half of the runtime is composed of transformation sequences.

i love shinkalion tho. ffo monster-of-the-week, voltes v-type shit.

films like Nanjing are the ultimate form of aestheticized politics. its absolutely fucking disgusting. nevertheless, this is valuable material for those studying this period of chinese and japanese history.

ty to the Cinema Japan Retrospective youtube channel for ing the film with english subs

Watched on Saturday April 8, 2023.

Watched on Saturday April 8, 2023.

Watched on Sunday February 5, 2023.

Watched on Sunday January 8, 2023.

Watched on Monday January 2, 2023.

Watched on Friday December 30, 2022.

Watched on Friday December 9, 2022.

this is a truly beautiful piece of animation. the colors and backgrounds are especially outstanding, and the animation itself is of the high quality i've come to expect from fleischer cartoons. betty boop really shines in this role, too.

ive been reading tezuka's Princess Knight lately and the experience feels incredibly similar to this betty boop episode. no wheels are reinvented in either, but i find both fairy tales incredibly stylish and ultimately irresistible.

Watched on Saturday November 19, 2022.

Watched on Tuesday October 25, 2022.

Watched on Tuesday September 20, 2022.

Watched on Saturday August 13, 2022.

Watched on Tuesday August 9, 2022.

Watched on Sunday July 24, 2022.

Watched on Friday June 24, 2022.

"effed up movies is a place where you can watch effed up cinema from around the world. this is a growing site in of content and while we are slow with our posts, we have hundreds of movies we hope to post here eventually.

all movies here are shared in their uncut form. sometimes, the director's cut is chosen, but this is usually because it's the longer version"

(from the effedupmovies "about" page)

there are a bunch of lists of the eum catalog, but even the most comprehensive one i can find has not been edited in some while. since i check the site often and i'm regularly on letterboxd, i figured i'd try to keep up with it better.

anything i can't find on letterboxd, i will do my darndest to add to the database.

a few films that have previously been in the eum catalog are no longer available on the site. but because part of my purpose in maintaining this list is simply to create an index of extreme cinema, i will be keeping those films on this list. for any films for which this is the case, i'll indicate so in the notes.

ORDERED CHRONOLOGICALLY BY DATE ED TO THE SITE

xoxo

not currently on letterboxd:

Most Disturbed Person on Planet Earth (2013, dir. Thomas Extreme Cinemagore)
Most Disturbed Person on Planet Earth 2 (2014, dir. Thomas Extreme Cinemagore)
Most Disturbed Person on Planet Earth 3 (2019, dir. Thomas Extreme Cinemagore)
Death File (1989, dir. Kaoru Adachi [Susumu Saegusa])
Death File 2 (1989, dir. Kaoru Adachi [Susumu Saegusa])
Death File 3 & 4 (1989-1990, dir. Kaoru Adachi [Susumu Saegusa])
Death File 5 (1991, dir. Kaoru Adachi [Susumu Saegusa])
New Death File 1: Fetal Scream (1991, dir. Kaoru Adachi [Susumu Saegusa])

• In a Glass Cage
• Murder-Set-Pieces
• The Rosary Murders
• 20 Centimeters
• Sweet Whip
• Citizen X
• Zodiac
• Audition
• I Saw the Devil

  catacludes both the standard cut and the international version

• Grotesque

...plus 1004 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

from wikipedia:

"Agalmatophilia (from Ancient Greek ἄγαλμα (ágalma) 'statue', and φιλία (philía) 'love') is a paraphilia involving sexual attraction to a statue, doll, mannequin, or other similar figurative object. The attraction may include a desire for actual sexual with the object, a fantasy of having sexual (or non-sexual) encounters with an animate or inanimate instance of the preferred object, the act of watching encounters between such objects, or sexual pleasure gained from thoughts of being transformed or transforming another into the preferred object. Agalmatophilia may also encom Pygmalionism (from the myth of Pygmalion), which denotes love for an object of one's own creation."

"In Greek mythology Pygmalion (/pɪɡˈmeɪliən/; Ancient Greek: Πυγμαλίων Pugmalíōn, gen.: Πυγμαλίωνος) is a legendary figure of Cyprus, who was a king and a sculptor. He is most familiar from Ovid's narrative poem Metamorphoses, in which Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved."

in this list are films that feature, depict, are related to, or can be understood as representations of agalmatophilia--a paraphilia centered around dolls, automatons, mannequins, sex dolls, statues, gynoids etc--and/or pygmalionism or the pygmalion narrative in which a sculptor falls in love with a statue they themself carved.

i have not seen every film on this list, and i do not necessarily recommend each film on the list; the list is meant to be essentially encyclopedic. this being the case, there will be many films that i can't be personally certain fit the list description. if you disagree about a certain film's inclusion in the list, please feel free to leave a comment about it. also, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SUGGEST ADDITIONS TO THE LIST!!! i certainly don't claim to be aware of all films to ever touch on this subject!

LISTED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER BY RELEASE DATE

DSM-5 ENTRY ON PARAPHILIA:
www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/APA_DSM-5-Paraphilic-Disorders.pdf

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agalmatophilia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(mythology)
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2022.2031848
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224497809551011
www.proquest.com/docview/221222423
muse.jhu.edu/article/543701
www.jstor.org/stable/637802
www.jstor.org/stable/40649546
www.jstor.org/stable/40649546
www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/visit-us/exhibitions/silent-partners-artist-and-mannequin-from-function-to-fetish

ON SPECIFIC FILMS/TEXTS:
Ghost in the Shell: Innocence
www.jstor.org/stable/41510912

The Sandman
www.proquest.com/docview/1825191488

The Stepford Wives
www.proquest.com/docview/1825191488

• Pygmalion and Galatea
• The Doll
• Metropolis
• Pygmalion
• Pygmalion
• Pygmalion
• Rebecca
• Dreams That Money Can Buy
• Vertigo
• Psycho

...plus 91 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

NOTE: i just got this book so im not sure if this list is complete yet. ill update as needed

from cornell university press:

"Worm-Time challenges conventional narratives of the Cold War and its end, presenting an alternative cultural history based on evolving South Korean aesthetics about enduring national division. From novels of dissent during the authoritarian era to films and webtoons in the new millennium, We Jung Yi's transmedia analyses unearth people's experiences of 'wormification'—traumatic survival, deferred justice, and warped capitalist growth in the wake of the Korean War.

Whether embodied as refugees, leftists, or broken families, Yi's wormified protagonists transcend their positions as displaced victims of polarized politics and unequal development. Through metamorphoses into border riders who fly over or crawl through the world's dividing lines, they reclaim postcolonial memories buried in the pursuit of modernization under US hegemony and cultivate a desire for social transformation. Connecting colonial legacies, Cold War ideologies, and neoliberal economics, Worm-Time dares us to rethink the post-WWII consensus on freedom, peace, and prosperity."

in order of the book's discussion

• Parasite
• Shiri
• t Security Area
• Welcome to Dongmakgol
• Operation Chromite

anime films, ovas & short films at a discount!! odds & ends, deep cuts, curiosities, works of notorious repute, anime-adjacent atrocities, ill-advised english dubs, and more!

let me be clear: some of this stuff I GENUINELY LIKE--there are hidden gems in here!

sorted by average letterboxd rating, lowest to least low!

PLEASE feel free to suggest additions!

• Mars of Destruction
• The Legend of the Titanic
• Earwig and the Witch
• Skelter+Heaven
• Striking Daughter
• The Mighty Kong
• The Misty Green Sky
• The Island of Giant Insects
• Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution
• Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack

...plus 160 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

im forever hopelessly compelled to dive into any bargain bin i find. something about it strikes me as a fascinating practice in our contemporary consumer culture.

this list consists of any film (no TV series) that i find in bargain bins, dollar stores, grab bags, flea markets, thrift stores, and garage sales.

who knows how long this list will become. but there are ABSOLUTELY great films, classics, and hidden gems in here; just keep digging!!

• Simon Sez
• Dora and the Lost City of Gold
• Max
• Mass Effect: Paragon Lost
• Up in the Air
• Run All Night
• National Lampoon's Gold Diggers
• Alita: Battle Angel
• Kung Fu Panda
• Point Break

...plus 151 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Kanako Inuki, sometimes called the "Queen of Horror Manga", is a mangaka who debuted in 1987 with the one-shot "orusuban (house-sitting?)" in the magazine shoujo friend, within a special issue centered around horror manga legend kazuo umezu. she went on to create successful series such as Presents, School Zone, Bukita-kun, and the Mysterious Tatari-chan. her manga, which have often appeared in shoujo magazines, are well-known for her iconic, expressive artwork and is recommended for fans of junji ito, the aforementioned kazuo umezu, and maybe even hideshi hino.

this is a list taken from the english release of kanako inuki's collection Be Very Afraid of Kanako Inuki!

each entry contains inuki-sensei's comment on the film!

-----------

A STAND-ALONE ANIME OVA ADAPTING SOME OF INUKI KANAKO'S WORK:

boxd.it/cDJs

RECOMMENDED INUKI KANAKO MANGA THAT ARE FULLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH (either officially or through scanlations):

series'

Fulfilled Wishes; Wish Fulfillment - letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/manga/23191/Kanaerareta_Negai
Presents - letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/manga/9981/Presents
School Zone - letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/manga/5788/School_Zone

one-shot collections

Hell Mother - letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/manga/79451/Hell_Mother
The Legend of the Slit-Mouthed Woman - letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/manga/5407/Kuchisake_Onna_Densetsu
Warau Nikumen - letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/series/rngm1g9/warau-niku-men

SOURCES & FURTHER READING:

ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8A%AC%E6%9C%A8%E5%8A%A0%E5%A5%88%E5%AD%90
mangapedia.com/%E7%8A%AC%E6%9C%A8%E5%8A%A0%E5%A5%88%E5%AD%90-fek56a3aq
samatsutei.hatenablog.com/entry/20150523/1432392919

1. Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters

   "i watched this film right after reading [kazuo umezu's manga series] [i]Reptilia[/i] [her favorite horror manga]. i was wavering between watching this and the new toei animated movie, but i wound up picking this in the end."

2. The Exorcist

   "i was excited for this one a good half year before its debut; it was the first movie i ever bought advance tickets for. it left a huge impression on me subsequently."

3. Dawn of the Dead

   "i'm not a fan of some of the psychological aspects, but this movie's just packed with absurd dreams. i love the whole department-store part."

4. The Birds

   "i think hitchcock used this movie to make all japan's children tremble with fear. i was inconsolably scared of birds for a while afterward."

5. The Human Vapor

   "i love tsuburaya special-effects [tokusatsu] films from around this period. there were times when i couldn't sleep because i thought a vapor-man was going to come in through the bottom of the door."

from the home page on hardcore horror fest's official website:

"The best in brutal, underground & hardcore horror!! This is not your mama's horror fest, this event features the most intense horror films the indie community has to offer!!

FILMMAKERS - Has your film been rejected because it was too brutal? THIS FEST IS FOR YOU... Has your film been rejected because the sexual content was too explicit? THIS FEST IS FOR YOU... Has your film been rejected because it was seen as offensive? THIS FEST IS FOR YOU! Is your film HARDCORE HORROR?? THIS FEST IS FOR YOU!!"

hardcore horror fest only came to my attention recently, and i found that the american film fest (held in chicago) has not necessarily been well-chronicled. this list is my best attempt to change that.

the festival has been running annually since 2016, with two fests in 2018 and 2022 skipped because the couple that organizes the event were expecting a baby (congrats!). i tried to list all feature length and short films shown at the festival, only cutting out music videos. there are some very deep cuts in here, so hopefully someone will get something out of this. i also intend to update the list once the cycle starts back up in 2023, but no promises at the time of writing.

[b]ORDERED (nearly) CHRONOLOGICALLY BY DATE SHOWN AT THE FEST. AWARDS & YEAR SHOWN IN EACH NOTE[/b]

CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE ON LETTERBOXD:

2016:
anti-body (2015, u.s., dir. eric liberacki)
dickproof 2 (2015, canada, dir. sam mcglynn)
escape from the dead (2013, u.s., dir. daniel brown & joshua brown)
thirst (2014, u.s., dir. yiyi yin)
a terrible day for jared (2015, u.s., dir. dakota laden)
brainsick, the hammer killer (2015, u.s., dir. brock grossl)

2017:
small talk (2016, u.s., dir. william welch king)
delusions of grandeur (2013, u.s., dir. patrick loy)
television quest (2016, u.s., dir. terence lee cover)
my favorite shade of grey (2015, u.s., dir. holly mollohan)
dead weight (2015, u.s., dir. t.j. treece)
postal (2017, u.s., dir. kyle klubal)
the watcher (2015, u.s., dir. isaac rodriguez)
memory (2014, canada, dir. melanie coleman & william coleman)
delivery (?)
hunter's moon (2016, u.s., dir. sean king)
clear toxic (2015, u.s., dir. marc riordan)
bachelor party from hell (?)
inhumane (2015, u.s., dir. k.m. jamison - awarded SECOND RUNNER UP)
blood for thy master (?)
uncomfirmed murder (dir. david kniffen)
frigid night (2016, u.s., dir. robby mcbride)
year of the snake (2015, u.s., dir. nic collins)

spring 2018:
snatched the rebirth (2016, u.s., dir. don mew)
play-time (2017, u.s., dir. david bui)
tryst (2018, u.s., dir. andré monaco - awarded BEST FILM)
lucid pervert (?)
two for 5 (2018, u.s., dir. brian hession)
behind the mask (?)
synapse (2016, u.s., dir. roy arwas)
evil lives (2016, u.s., dir. tracy j. gardner)
nympho's diary (2016, u.s., dir. savvas christou)
say nothing (?, dir. patrick ègan)
i wanna play (2016, u.s., dir. savvas christou)
goodman (2017, u.s., andrew huggins)
just justice iii kungfu karate annihilator (2016, spain, dir. rafa dengrá)
last chance (2015, u.s., dir. oswaldo martinez)
angel bullet (2017, u.s., dir. benji stinson - awarded SECOND RUNNER UP)
balcony (2015, u.k., dir. chris cronin)
zombie jesus vampire hunter (2017, u.s., dir. gustavo aviles)
the mechanic (2016, u.s., dir. alan wills)
cruel is the night (2017, belgium, dir. alan deprez)
second chances: new beginnings (2017, u.s., dir. portia chellelynn)

fall 2018:
your turn (2017, u.s., dir. pete flem)
snuff (2016, u.s., dir. steve hasse & dan lang)
cross training (2014, u.s., dir. m.f. dinan)
a grave mistake (2018, u.s., dir. izzy sutton)
sex (?)
bathory '13 (2014, us. dir. m.f. dinan)
horror-struck (?)
the slayings at three fork road (2017, u.s., dir. brian nestor)
those who dwell within (2016, u.s., dir. mike piccirillo)
good apple (2018, u.s., dir. john greska)
natural horror (2016, u.s., dir. ricardo tenorio)
hooker assassin (2017, u.s., dir. misty dawn)
detour (2018, u.s., dir. andrew huggins)

2019:
doll house (2016, u.s., dir. alan dillingham)
escape room: proof of concept (2018, u.s., dir. bessy adut)
patina (2019, u.s., dir. alan maxson)
necro-sexual (2019, u.s., dir. brian rosin)
daydream (2019, u.s., richard ramirez - awarded BEST SCREENPLAY [richard ramirez])

2020:
critical threat (?)
baku (2020, u.s., dir. justin j. porcino)
hematic web (2020, u.s., dir. michael wade johnson)
stairs (2019, u.s., dir. michael kuciak)
sea monster (2020, u.s., dir. miceal og o'donnell
& eric cotten)
the preacher (2020, u.s., dir. jared tipton)
the peeping strangler (?)
the lesser key of solomon (2020, hungary, dir. jaro mayda iii)
drifted (2016, u.s., john wesley norton - awarded BEST ACTRESS [colleen elizabeth miller])

2021:
uno (?, italy, dir. davide nesti)
evil lurks (2022, u.s., dir. andre boyd, aaron hawkins & chris shern)
crucifix executioner: killer instinct (2020, australia & u.s., dir. duncan cunningham)
a walk in the woods (2021, u.s., dir. joe leblanc)
mma cop (2021, u.s., dir. tamara rothschild)
dolos (2021, u.s., dir. colleen elizabeth miller)
melody of madness (2020, finland, dir. matti soikkeli)

• Welcome to Woodbary

  2016

• The Dirty Sanchez

  2016

• House of Whores

  2016

• Plastic

  2016
  awarded BEST FEATURE

• All Through the House

  2016

• Ovulation

  2016

• N Is for Nightmare

  2016

• Shit's About to Get Dark

  2016

• El Gigante

  2016

• Murder for Pleasure

  2016

...plus 68 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.