#Category 2021 films

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Lei mi parla ancora (2021, Pupi Avati)

15/11/2024

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

LL Cool J featuring Boyz II Men - Hey Lover 1995

"Hey Lover" is a song by American rapper and actor LL Cool J, released as the first single from his sixth studio album, Mr. Smith (1995). He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow acts Beastie Boys and Run-DMC. In 2017, LL Cool J became the first rapper to receive the Kennedy Center Honors. In 2021, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with an award for Musical Excellence. LL Cool J has appeared in numerous films, including Halloween H20, Any Given Sunday, Deep Blue Sea, S.W.A.T., Mindhunters, and Edison. He played NCIS Special Agent Sam Hanna in the CBS crime drama television series NCIS: Los Angeles. He was also the host of Lip Sync Battle.

"Hey Lover" features American vocal harmony group Boyz II Men. The song samples Michael Jackson's "The Lady in My Life" from his 1982 hit album Thriller; thus Rod Temperton, the writer of that song, was given credit as a writer of this song. "Hey Lover" would prove to be the most successful single from the album, making it to number three on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B Singles charts. It also reached number 17 on the UK Singles Chart, number six in Sweden, and number five in New Zealand. In 1997, the song won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance, becoming LL Cool J's second Grammy in that category after 1992's "Mama Said Knock You Out".

"Hey Lover" received a total of 53% yes votes.

[canmom]

Animation Night 189: Nonphotorealistic

There is a funny trend in animation-related terminology to define things by what they aren't. Animation is any technique for creating film that isn't live action. Limited animation is any style of 2D animation that doesn't follow the conventions of Disney's 'full animation' on 1s and 2s - a category that includes a wildly diverse range of approaches and techniques, as this wonderful history by Animation Obsessive describes.

In 3DCG circles, there is a similar term: nonphotorealistic. Which describes, naturally, anything that isn't trying to look like a photograph of a real scene. There has been a real boom in this of late, and just like the other terms, it really doesn't narrow it down very much. Other terms like 'hybrid animation' add a bit more hints.

Of course, if you've been anywhere near animation in the last few years, you'll probably know another term: 'Spiderverse style'.

There is no denying that Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018) by Sony Pictures Animation was an absolute landmark for animation. (I wrote about it way back on AN21, focusing more on the cultural angle.) The ludicrously stylish film pretty much set the direction for animation in the 2020s - making a bunch of money and awards and thus finally throwing open the door to 3DCG animation that doesn't look like the style set by Pixar/Dreamworks in the 2000s. Its sequel, Across the Spiderverse (2023), was even more ambitious and successful (despite a troubled production involving a lot of needless crunch). We'll be showing that soon in a Spiderverse double bill so look forward to it!

So perhaps not surprising that when people see the use of graphical styles, 2D elements, limited framerates and the like in 3DCG these days, Spiderverse comes to mind. In its wake have come various films and series that apply these and related techniques: 3DCG animation is more varied than ever, and it's cool.

It isn't really a style, tho.

Here I'm indebted to youtuber Camwing who has made a nice video overview breaking down the animation of recent movies in this vaguely defined paradigm. Among them we have The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021, also Sony), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022, Dreamworks), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023, animated at the French/Canadian studio Mikros animation), and of course over on Netflix you got the wildly popular League of Legends spinoff series Arcane (2021, Fortiche Productions), and the romance film Entergalactic (2022, DNEG), tying in with an album of the same name.

None of these films has exactly the same style, but they all pull from a related bag of tricks. The core techniques are animating on reduced framerates for a 'snappy', high-clarity feeling, the combination of 2D and 3D elements in some fashion, and taking inspiration from traditional media such as paintings or comic books.

For example, Arcane and Entergalactic both use the trick of 2D backgrounds/projecting paintings onto 3D geometry, inhabited by 3D characters with a stylised shader. Arcane is dripping with 2D visual effects. Puss in Boots drops the framerate during its action scenes - the opposite of the old paradigm of full animation, where fast actions would get more frames. Spiderverse draws 2D expressions onto its 3D models to push them further, and is full of all kinds of colourful stylised rendering - screentone effects, kirby dots, outlines, the works.

It's tempting to link this to 2D-in-3D animation, and certainly many of these films apply this technique - this is the major niche where Blender has found its way into industry pipelines. But using 2D isn't mandatory to count here. For example, TMNT Mutant Mayhem has an incredibly striking storybook-painting style, accomplished largely by clever shader work and a strong sense of graphic design. Genndy Tartakovsky's canned 2014 Popeye project was planning to use a ton of 2D-style posing and squash-and-stretch, accomplished largely with rigged 3D models. There are many paths to take!

And mind you, I haven't even covered one of the biggest angles here. Search for nonphotorealistic 3DCG on Youtube and what you'll probably find most is information about cel-shading - aka 'anime style'. This has also advanced considerably in the last few years, with the techniques pioneered by Arc System Works in Guilty Gear such as editing the normals of characters for more precise control over shading, and minute adjustments to break up the mechanical feeling of 3D, becoming widely copied in both games and films. (And particularly, animated porn.)

Vtubers in particular have really run with this technique, generally speaking using cel-shaded models with edited normals, inverted eyes, etc. etc. to try and get the feeling of an anime character come to life. [You can see a lot of these state of the art techniques if you download Pixiv's free VRoid Studio software and import the model into Blender using the VRM plugin.]

Naturally this kind of cel-shaded approach has found a particular home in Japan. In anime, the biggest champions of it are certainly Studio Orange, whose hybrid approach involves planning out shots with 2D animation before matching them with the rigs. We've covered their adaptation of Houseki no Kuni in great detail on Animation Night 97; their Trigun reboot was perhaps even more popular. But cel-shaded techniques, 3D previs and the like have also made their way into big films like Eva 3.0+1.0 (AN66).

Although this type of rendering aims to recreate the look and feel of 2D animation as much as possible, it always ends up being something new: character models that would be too complex to draw, an ease to 3D movements and camerawork that would be challenging in 2D, and generally a new hybrid style. This is good! 2D animation is already very good at being 2D animation - it's fascinating to see what 3DCG becomes with that inspiration.

So with that brief overview, where does that take us tonight?

I'm not quite ready to do a Spiderverse double bill tonight, so instead the plan is to check out a couple of recent American franchise films that are taking on the new suite of techniques. I've mentioned them up above, but let me introduce them more fully here.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a sequel to a fairly unpopular spinoff about a side character of the Shrek franchise (AN75). Not, on its face, very promising - which is why it is all the more striking that I was told on all sorts of sides that I must watch this movie. I'm finally going to make good on that.

The title character is a kind of feline musketeer type, now facing the end of his swashbuckling career as he's lost 8 of his 9 lives. Not wanting to hang up his hat, he goes on a quest to restore them. What makes it stand out its the action scenes, which go all in on the anime-influenced, extreme perspective and lighting, limited framerate style that we're discussing above. Apparently it looks sick as shit.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a fresh reboot of the venerable TMNT franchise, which pretty much describes itself in the title: four turtles (named after Renaissance painters, of course!) live in a sewer as ninjas, led by their aging master who is a rat. Starting as a comic book, it became one of the iconic toyline-driven TV shows of the 80s - but it's still going! Indeed, Turtles has been on a roll of late (at least going by animator scuttlebutt), with Australian studio Flying Bark Productions turning a lot of heads with their neo-Kanada School style (and for really stretching the definition of 'storyboard').

This new film takes a different approach to the bombastic action of Rise. It focuses on a new origin story for the turtles, telling a kind of coming of age story - but what makes it unique is the animation style and cinematography. Cinéma vérité is not a phrase you really expect to be associated with ninja turtles, but the film seems to really go all out in a way you wouldn't really expect from a franchise movie, shooting the young turtles in a handheld style and focus heavily on character. Marcel Reinhard's shader work, allowing the animators to isolate lights to specific objects and characters and introducing graphical elements of cross-hatching, stippling, etc. etc. to the lighting, gives it a uniquely painting-like feeling, augmented by a lot of 2D creativity in lighting and effects.

Turtles has never really been my thing, but this film looks unique enough that I really want to see it - and I hear it's a good film too.

So that's our bill for tonight! Puss and Turtles. Let's see what the big studios have been cooking of late...

Animation Night 189 will be starting around 10pm UK time (roughly three hours hence) and carrying on til about 2-3am same! We'll be on twitch.tv/canmom as usual. Hope to see you there!

[theheightofdishonor]

GL Recs Masterlist

I've watched a couple hundred gls now and so I thought i'd put it to good use and help other people find some. There's not enough gl rec lists anyway

First things first, I'll like to direct you to https://mydramalist.com/list/1xrpwdW3 which is a gl rec list on mdl with more than 200+ titles + links. It's an EXCELLENT resource, kept up to date and even tracks upcoming titles.

Now for stuff that I've watched and thought are decent. I'll link all of these to their mdl page and the links to watch the show can usually be found in the comments. If you're new to gl, be warned that a lot of these are pretty short, ranging from 1-30 minutes.

1 in 10,000 (2018) Korea. This is a soulmates piece told in 3 parts following two girls through different parts of their lives. I think this got more confusing as it went on but I really liked Act I and I think it's worth watching. It's beautiful and angsty and a bit artsy. I'm pretty sure it has a happy ending but don't quote me on that.

Afraid of (2019) Korea. A short film about a girl struggling with her sexuality. Yeah, I know, there's a THOUSAND of these but I do like this one. It's beautifully shot and there's a lot of heart.

Am I the only one with butterflies? (2018) Korea. A girl blogs about falling in love with the manager at her new job. I like part ii better than part one but it's just cute and the pining is very similar to het kdramas.

Anonymous high school girl (2022) Korea. A low stakes love triangle. Good chemistry, low budget, awful kisses.

The Beauty of the Law (2023) China- If you're not familar with chinese gls, I think it's certainly something to get used to. This is like in the top 1% of the category. It's an ad for Adolph Shampoo and i'm going to let you know that they're going to appear often on this list because they make excellent gls. It's a historical about a female unlicensed lawyer trying to help a woman escape her abusive marriage. Makes great points about gender imbalances and women's historical lack of legal rights in China. (f you like this one, Sheng Wei, one of the actresses stars in 50%+ of all chinese gls, check her out)

Beguine (2018) Thailand - It's if the school dancing scene in My School President was a 30 minute sequence with two girls. No plot but adorable.

Cat in the eastern palace (2020) China - Watch this just to have the surreal experience of seeing like 3 whole cdrama arcs which normally take 20ish eps executed in a 7 minute timeframe. Also because it stars laoji who's in the other 50% of chinese gls. As for plot, it's about a cat spirit and a girl pretending to be the crown prince.

Clasper (2021) Thailand - And they were roommates! I liked the production, the dialogue and the acting was pretty decent.

Couple of Mirrors*** (2021) China- Wait to watch this because it will ruin you for everything else. This is like typical thai bl length, like 12 45~min episodes. It's a historical mystery about a wealthy woman who finds out about her husband's affair with her bff and the photographer she enlists to help her. If you watch one thing out of China, watch this.

Dear My Girlfriend (2021) Korea - A group project ft love triangle. It´s pretty classic. A girl starts dating someone who likes her only to realize she might instead be in love with her best friend. The editing is cute. It's a touch angsty as love triangles are and pretty well done.

Dear Uranus (2021) Taiwan. Another school love triangle. Does feature an adorkable female character, you know a bit awkward, a bit cutesy, if you hate this archetype, ignore this one. Personally I think the chemistry for the lead couple was lacking (genuinely shocking considering taiwan tends to be great at this) but both the love interests are hot and I am not immune to hot women

The Demonic lord and the virtuous cultivator (2021) China - Avoid this if you don't like toxic yuri. I personally love it so this is 10/10 for me. Orphan gets taken in by a benevolent benefactor who turns out to be her parents' killer and eventually....you know what go watch it.

Encore Martha (2021) Taiwan. One of the few gls about older women. A tomboy reunites with her first love. This one's only available on gagaoolala so you'll either need a subscription or sometimes they promote it for free. If you can find it though, it's worth a watch.

Family Plan (2016) Korea. This is a bit of an odd one to describe. The first half is two high school girls who are dating. And then the second half is their relationship as adults where they marry guys and use it to have a kid that they raise as theirs. I liked how this examined how two gay people would go about their relationship in in a world where they can't freely be with each other.

Favorite Girl (2022) Thailand. Very standard plot about a girl suffering from a breakup and her roommate but something about it stuck out to me.

Five steps to accept farewell (2016) Korea. Warning for unhappy ending. This is all pure angst, a 9 minute snapshot into a breakup. I like how it's done and the messiness of the situation.

Fragrance of the first flower (2021) Taiwan. A beautifully shot, beautifully acted, slightly too short show about two ex-lovers reuniting ft. all the angst about living in a homophobic society. It stayed in my head for weeks after I first watched it.

Girls Blood** (2014) Japan. A movie about 4 "girls" in an underground fight club. warnings for rape, trauma, domestic assault. One of the main characters is a trans man. There are sex scenes. It's very queer and I highly recommend.

Girls Love** (2016) China. Pre-censorship China had some very wonderful queer work and one of them was this movie It's about a girl who falls in love with her hot butch roommate ft all the tropes AND we get to see them function in a relationship instead of the movie ending when they get together. Warning for both characters being forcibly outed at the end. (nothing bad really happens to them after though). Also do NOT watch the sequel. If you go to mdl, everyone else will also tell you not to watch the sequel and I foolishly did not listen to those people because I liked these girls so much and I suffered for my mistake.

The Girls on Rela (2016) China. It's an anthology of short, I wouldn't say stories, more like moments, sponsored by a lesbian dating app. Each one's really short but the acting and scripts are all pretty good.

The Girls on Rela Season 2** (2016) China. This is sponsored by the same company but it's a totally different format. It's one long show about two girls cohabiting. Pretty well executed if a bit slow.

Graduation, Present + Propose (2021) Korea. A short about a high school girl giving a graduation present to her crush. What it does it does well. It's pretty.

The Handmaiden (2016) Korea. Historical set movie about a conman and thief girl who plot to steal a heiress’s fortune. I make it sound boring but that's only because it's a pretty popular movie and everything to be said about it has already been said.

Happy to have you here (2021) Thailand. Two friends have a sleepover and figure out their feelings. This is definitely in the top 20% for this trope, even though they rushed just a tad into the kiss.

Hello, spring is coming (2019) Korea. I'll let you read the synopsis for this one. What you need to know is that it's pretty, well acted, has good chemistry and is as brightly colored as a lollipop. It's a bit disorienting, parts of it doesn't make a lot of sense but it's a fun time.

I broke up because of you (2023) Korea- A bartender and their client catches feelings for each other. The dynamic is nice, the kiss less so but it can be forgiven.

I’m her weapon (2022) China- It's kinky, it's angsty, it's 3 minutes long and still fits in a separation arc. I would pay money for an extended version.

Kanojo no Kuchidzuke Kansensuru Libido (2022) Japan - two girls fall in love in a hospital. I like the tone of this one.

The L Bang** (2015) China- Another Rela production. It's a 4 episode comedy about a bunch of lesbians + (1) gay man who live in the same apartment complex. It's got queer friendship, queer acceptance and queer love. It's just wonderful. It feels like 2000s American sitcoms but queer and Chinese.

Led Astray by Love (2022) China- Fairly long for a cgl. A girl gets transported to a manhwa and falls in love with the ruler. Sunshine/grumpy. This baby is 52 minutes long and covers like the same amount of plot as word of honor does in 30 something episodes.

Legend of Yunze (2021) China - A human and a half demon vanquish demons from a village. It has a second season and a special that I haven't watched yet.

The Lost World** [Xia Ye Zhi Dao Feng De Tian] (2023) China - After watching as much cgl as I have, I was shocked to see Laoji in a modern piece. This is a college setting running-into-a-childhood-friend trope. The pacing and chemistry are both pretty good. It's one of my favorites from her.

Love in the Tinder Age** (2019) Korea- A black comedy about a bullied lesbian's failed suicide attempt ft psychics, ghosts and a teacher/student relationship. It's not really a gl because the main character doesn't get a romance BUT it's really fun so you should watch it anyway.

Love of Secret** (2022) Thailand- More of a slice of life than a love story but it's cute and fluffy and the main character very much is in a relationship. The actual plot is about a med student who's hiding both her relationship with her best friend and her dreams to be an idol. I found it positively charming.

Lover’s Concerto** (2002) Korea- Calling this a gl is a stretch. It's more just queer? The girls were most likely in love but they don't end up together and the movie itself doesn't really have a happy ending. I did find it beautiful though.

Mayfly angel (2024) Korea- Classic discovers-feelings-for-bestie-after-a-breakup plot. Warning that this is angsty and they don't end up together. But I found it realistic and I liked that they felt like two real people. Take that how you will.

Miss shen and the woman warlord (2023) China- a woman cross-dresses as another young woman's fiance and they fall in love. Despite how i describe it, there's a decent amount of plot and some political commentary.

More or less than 75 celsius (2019) Korea- A tea master and her supervisor fall in love. It's sparse and short but cute.

My Dear (2021) Thailand. A drunk girl confesses to her friend and luckily for her, it's mutual. It's 5 minutes long but it uses its time well and the acting is nice. It feels a bit like gmmtv's confessions. If you like it, the production company ShakeShoulder makes TONS of gl shorts and i'd recommend checking them out.

No distance left to run  (2022) Hong Kong. a 15 minute short film about how fame causes issues in a pop star's relationship. Unhappy ending. The song's a bop though and it's well done.

Nü er hong** (2023) China. I forgot to mention but this one, the legend of yunze and the lost world are all produced by the same studio. They do a lot of fairly long chinese gls. The story is about these two beings from an alien world who crash land on earth and are hunted. One is a healer and the other is a killer, they're in love, the killer goes insane so her lover kills her. Unbeknownst to them, they're immortal so the killer wakes up with no memories 200 years later. The pacing is better than some of their earlier stuff but it's not quite perfect here yet. It is one of my favorites from the studio though and it ends happily.

Our relationship ended before it began (2022) Korea. A barista falls in love with her manager at a coffee shop ft gender roles, miscommunication and the classic "cool one picks on the nice one to show affection" trope.

Pyramid Game** (2024) Korea. This is more gl adjacent like Devil Judge and Beyond Evil. There is a secondary gl couple that's more explicitly canon though. If you've watched other kdramas about school bullying, this is pretty similar except it's an all-girls school and everyone is so gay. It's got so much heart and is one of my favorite shows of the year.

Really, Lily? (2019) Korea. A 6 minute short about two girls who visit a cafe and beats up two men who were making homophobic remarks about them. It's surprisingly comedic and the coloring is bright to match. Features a pretty decent kiss. Watching it, I wished it was longer but what's there is still good.

Secret of us (2024) Thailand. The only longform thai gl that i've liked enough to finish. It's about an idol who comes back to win over her doctor ex. It falters from ep 6 onwards but until then, the show is really good at showing the emotional thought processes of the characters and the way they construct the story is compelling, even though I don't even like second chance romances.

Shackles (2023) China. Another one from the Chinese shampoo ad. The pairing itself is not my favorite but it's so cool that this is basically a warning against nuclear pollution AND features chinese mythology that's used in the brand's marketing. Like a 3 in 1. It's so interesting.

She Makes My heart flutter (2022) Korea. Baby lesbian finds out her aunt runs a lesbian bar and starts working there. It's so goddamn cute but it has this weird relationship with homophobia where everyone in the show is apparently 100% ok with queerness but a lot of the aunt's actions is so driven by her being a queer person in an unaccepting society. A bit like how Moonlight Chicken deals with Jin and Li Ming's different attitudes towards being queer except they don't dwell on why the aunt is the way she is or what she's been through. Anyways, it's worth a watch.

Sleep with me (2022) Philippines. A 6 episode series about two girls who are disabled in different ways fall in love. One of them can only sleep during the day and the other is in a wheelchair and the show does a pretty decent job at showing how these disabilities affect their lives and their relationship

Soshite, Yuriko wa Hitori ni Natta** (2020) Japan. If you follow me, you may have seen me talk about this show earlier this year because I found it and promptly fell in love. It's not quite gl but Mizuki's actions are all driven by the fact that she's in love with Yuriko. It's queerer than you would expect, less queer than you might want. It's a supernatural-adjacent school horror about a girl who's new school has a weird thing where every year, a girl named Yuriko becomes "Yuriko sama" and rules the school while everyone else in that year with the same name mysteriously dies. Yuriko's best friend Mizuki plots to make the sweet innocent Yuriko the newest Yuriko-sama to save her life. It's weird, there's plot holes everywhere by the end, it definitely vilifies it's gays and the ending is weak but it's such a compelling watch.

Stand-in love (2023) Philippines. 2 best friends have a ‘stand in’ relationship where the straight one helps the lesbian one learn how to court someone but they end up falling in love with each other. Like 20 min long and I love it.

Ti Shen** [The substitute] (2017) Taiwan. The mdl synopsis can describe the plot better than I can but it's a romance between an idol and a normal girl that's split into two parts. The first half is about them meeting in high school, the second is when they reunite later on a movie set where one of them is the other's stunt double. I think the first part could've been a bit longer but it's a great movie.

Transit Girls (2015) Japan. Stepsisters. Happy ending though and it's fairly long. I liked this mostly because I like Japan's moody stuff. I also liked how they handled the male love interest.

Truth or Dare (2022) Korea. A 10 minute short about two girls who like each other playing truth or dare. It does a great job at building tension and revealing things without saying it.

Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna** (2022) Japan. A woman who loves to cook comes to an arrangement with her neighbor who loves to eat. Japan does food-centered dramas better than everyone else and this is no exception. The romance itself is slow and you watch how their dynamic changes through this and the season two that came out this year.

The Twelve flower gods: Camelia (2020) China. A xianxia romance about a girl falling in love with a flower but it's a minute twenty so I promise you're not watching for the plot. You're watching to witness the ridiculous amount of innuendos that they manage to fit in under two minutes.

Twin souls of destiny (2023) China. Xianxia romance between two elves, one who is made from the memories of the other's past life. I want someone else to watch this so we can discuss whether or not this is selfcest. The color combination is interesting because I very rarely see lovers in red and purple. The time travel is confusing but it's a good time and laoji is in it.

Until Rainbow Dawn** (2018) Japan. Movie about two deaf girls falling in love ft homophobic parents. The director is a deaf lesbian herself so the movie does a wonderful job in how it depicts deafness and their relationship. It's really well done

When the light pours (2022) Korea. A girl's boyfriend wants her to sing him a song so she enrolls in guitar lessons and ends up falling in love with her teacher. The girls don't get together and I really wish they had! So if you watch this, don't watch the ending and pretend that they did end up together.

[eretzyisrael]

by Matti Friedman

The failure of Holocaust education has been most sharply observed by the writer Dara Horn, particularly in a prescient essay for The Atlantic last spring and before that in a 2021 book, People Love Dead Jews. After visiting numerous museums and speaking to educators who teach Holocaust curricula, she concludes in the essay, “The bedrock assumption that has endured for nearly half a century is that learning about the Holocaust inoculates people against antisemitism. But it doesn’t.” 

By turning the Holocaust into a generic story about prejudice, Horn argues, Holocaust education left its recipients without any understanding of the specific problem facing Jews—or even much sympathy for real Jews in the present. 

This was the argument she made half a year before the Hamas attack of October 7 and its aftershocks, when any doubts about the accuracy of Horn’s hypothesis were put to rest. The well-meaning donors who’ve footed the astronomical bill for museums, memorials, classes, and films should ask for their money back.

The confusion between knowledge of the how and of the why is illustrated, inadvertently, in the figure of one of the experts interviewed in Evil on Trial, Omer Bartov, a Holocaust historian at Brown who describes himself as a “historian of genocide.” Bartov, who is Israeli, belongs to Israel’s most unfortunate export category—namely, academics who find a home for themselves on an increasingly unhinged Western left by reassuring their comrades that their dark fantasies about Israel are sane. Barely a month after October 7, Bartov wrote a New York Times op-ed accusing Israel of “crimes against humanity” and warning of a possible “genocide” in Gaza, taking the two key terms first invented to describe the Nazis and deploying them against Jews. Then, after visiting one of the college encampments where Zionists are cast as malevolent global villains, he reassured an interviewer from Democracy Now! that he’d seen nothing amiss and that antisemitism on American campuses “does not exist in any significant form.” The protesters may be trafficking in lurid stories of Jewish evil, but the Holocaust professor thinks that this time the stories are true.Prisoner shoes on display at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Oświęcim, Poland. (via Alamy)

One of the blithe assumptions of Holocaust narrative has always been that no one would identify with the Nazis, but this is wrong. They’re villains, to be sure, but also strong figures, men of action. Just as the best character in Schindler’s List is the Nazi commandant played by Ralph Fiennes, the best character in Evil on Trial is Adolf Hitler, acted with deranged energy in the reenactment scenes by Károly Kozma. When I finished the series on Netflix, I saw that I could continue to Hitler’s Circle of Evil, then to Hitler: A Career, and then to five other movies with title screens featuring Nazis. All of this manages not only to bestow upon the Nazis a kind of dark glamor but also to reassure everyone that if you don’t have a red band on your arm and a skull on your hat, you’re fine. 

The Jews, on the other hand, tend to be mostly absent as real characters. They occasionally appear to be marched away with their hands up or shot into ditches in their underwear. But we don’t get a sense of who they are, or why their difference—and particularly their stubborn refusal to adopt whatever ideology is current—has repeatedly turned them into figures of hate. 

The liberal West may believe itself to be post-Christian, but it’s still the world created by an ideological system that co-opted Judaism and then developed a furious resentment toward its continued existence, thus establishing a civilizational pattern that seems destined to repeat forever.

If Holocaust stories treat Jews as props, they miss understanding what the Jews think about what’s happening to them. And what they think is worth consideration, not just out of courtesy.

Judaism is a religion with a very long memory, and Jewish texts include stories of oppression and extermination stretching back to Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus. Europe’s Jews saw the threat as a continuum that didn’t start or end with Hitler. They knew he was a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. It is this insight, unlike the details of SS hierarchy or the sadism of Dr. Mengele, that has the power to help us make sense of the world we see right now. 

[vdragon-creations]

Happy 40th Anniversary TMNT!

It's really crazy to think that after all these years, I still find myself loving these bois! I've talked about it before, but i found this franchise when I was 9, that was in 2005, and I had just started watching the 2003 series. I believe the first episode I saw was "The Darkness Within" from season 3. I was hooked instantly! Then I watched 87, the 90's live action films, then the 2007 movie! When Nickelodeon got a hold of them, they made 2012, a version that too this day I still don't like. But there were aspects of it that i enjoyed. The Bayverse Films where in the same "This makes me feel a way" category, and while the second film has grown on me, the first one is still pretty rough.

And then RISE came, and....oh boy. I was part of the crowd that was of the foolish mindset of "It's different, and therefore ruined"! But it wasn't until pretty recently, in 2021, that I actually watched it. And it floored me! I hadn't realized just HOW MUCH I missed this franchise in my life, but this series pulled me back in. And I've since been swimming in a pool of Turtle Content, learning more and more then I ever thought I would about this fandom set around four turtles!

This show taught me a lot as a kid, and it's continued to help me through some of the worst times of my life! And it helped be discover a lot of things about myself. For better or for worse.

I've since seen some amazing artists in the fandom like @shellsweet @sassatello and @mishacakes ! I've learned so much from the fandom too, both about the series itself and how to hone my craft better!

I owe a fuck ton to this brand, and I honestly think, if it hadn't been for The Turtles, I don't think I'd be the same artist I am now! So thank you! Thank you to the fandom, to Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird, to Sam Riegel, and to so so many others for making this fandom and series! I don't think I'd be here without you! And most of all, thank you four brothers! Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo.

Cowabunga!

[welcome-to-green-hills]

the vibe I’m getting from the movies thus far is that they pick new characters based on how much hype they’ll bring and how much they can raise the stakes from the last film. With that in mind, Amy and Rouge don’t fit either category, so I can’t see them showing up at all :/

Hello my dear!❤️✨

I completely understand the frustration that you’re feeling on your end. Let me assure you that it’s perfectly okay to feel upset not seeing your favorite character(s) on screen. It’s a normal feeling. I promise.

This information is all in my pinned post. I think that it goes back to the “January” tab. (I’m not sure, my brain is fried from course work today). The way that the crew includes characters is based on how the story is projected, as well as audience familiarity with characters. They also follow a standard of introducing one or two characters at a time.

Sonic a very popular game franchise. It’s been that way since the 90’s. This logic would actually fit myself (a 20+ year fan) and my mom, who was a fan of Sonic in the 90’s with her cut-off year being Sonic 3 & Knuckles. They’re going to include Sonic characters that people know. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Dr. Robotnik, and Shadow are recognizable characters.

It’s understandable that they’re going this route. I do recall that I’ve said back in 2021 not to expect Amy Rose or Rouge. With what I’m seeing so far, the main story revolves around Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Dr. Robotnik, and Shadow. And that’s okay. Shadow has a lot to unpack and it’s one of the most rememberable stories in the franchise.

Here’s the good news: the SCU crew engages a lot with Sonic fans. That, and most of these crew members have worked on Sonic games. They listen to fans a lot and value feedback (if you’re civil, mind you). I believe that if you’re vocal about it, then you could get them included in a potential fourth.

I hope that this helps, my dear.

[matan4il]

Mileapo did a live today, and I thought I'd share some of my fave moments from it.

For starters, the way Mile touches Apo is always just so gentle:

Then I also have to mention that Apo didn't like how far apart their separate chairs were positioned, so he moved closer:

But that proved to STILL not be close enough, so Apo kept leaning in:

Somehow that was STILL not enough, so look at Apo sitting half way out of his chair:

But my fave part is that there's flirting, and then there's whatever it is that these two have got going on...

Since I like throwing extra stuff in, apparently... I wanted to add to this post from the other day. When Apo went to Song Wat with his parents, we got a pic that showed all three were wearing green, which is Mile's fave color.

Not that I'm saying I know anything. I have never known anything ever in my life. BUT. Statistically speaking, what are the odds that three people will all randomly choose to wear a green shirt on the same day? If we go for the basic color categories, I could think of 11 colors that most people would name for an item of clothing (black, white, grey, brown, red, blue, yellow, green, purple, orange, pink). So the probability of one person randomly wearing a green shirt would be 1/11 (or 0.09). The odds of three people ALL randomly wearing a green shirt would be 1/11*1/11*1/11 (or 0.0007).

So, did the Wattanaghithipats all randomly wear a green shirt on this day? Or did Apo maybe tell his parents at some point about Mile's love for green, and they decided to give their son's partner a small nod? Who knows... But since Mile and Apo both chose to wear green today for the live, I thought I'd throw this out there. (AND they chose to share not one, but three new selfies while matching like this...)

Oh, and just for the heck of it. Mileapo were in Song Wat this morning filming an interview. At some point during it, Mile took a pic of Apo... with Apo's own phone. We have plenty of pics where it's Apo taking Mile's pic with his phone (earliest I can remember is 21 Feb, 2021), so it's nice to have the reverse, too. You can see the phone in Apo's hands in the bottom right pic.

(if you're looking for more of my Kinnporsche/Mileapo posts, you can find my madness here, it's about as serious as Apo in those last two selfies they took today)

[tangents-within-tangents]

I can't believe people still say The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch are "just kids shows" when whatever this show is literally exists:

analysis of target audiences below (there's a TL;DR don't worry)

Okay so the whole "it's just for kids" fallacy/excuse/conversation stopper is such an issue as it is. Here's a good video about it, I'll probably do a whole rant at some point, but in short: the level of storytelling merit, emotional depth, and thematic exploration a work can and should achieve has never been limited by it's target audience/age group, nor it's storytelling medium. (And if you don't think that's true, try to tell me Pixar has never made you cry, go on)

So it doesn't matter if it was made for kids or not. There's nothing wrong with that and anyone can enjoy it anyway. But what I actually wanna talk about here is not the merits of "kids shows" but the misconception on what "kid show" even means.

For one thing, I think when some people say "it's a kids show" they are lumping anything from like Winnie the Pooh to Avatar: the Last Airbender into the same category, and that's just not how it works. The above example demonstrates that not all kids shows/stories are the same anyway (partially bc level of development/education changes drastically between the ages of like 3 and 12, and these are things that are really taken into account in the publishing industry).

I found Disney's ratings guide and I think this should clear some things up:

For reference:

Young Jedi Adventures is listed as TV-Y

Clone Wars (2003), Rebels, and Resistance are TV-Y7-FV

Clone Wars, Bad Batch, and the Tales of the Jedi/Empire are TV-PG

Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Kenobi, Book of Boba Fett, Andor, and Acolyte are all TV-14

And if we put that in context with the films:

The Clone Wars (2008) film and the Original and Prequel trilogy are PG except for Revenge of the Sith which is PG-13 along with the Sequel trilogy, Rogue One and Solo.

So basically TCW and TBB are considered by Disney's own system to be about the same level as most of the films. They are 4 degrees away from 'Young Jedi Adventures' and only 1 degree lower than the live-action shows. Which frankly feels like we got some animation bias going on since all the live-action shows are automatically in one category (which is silly as is and undue here anyway (here have another video) esp since the Clone Wars animation style is clearly meant to be older/more realistic). But regardless, it's literally right there:

And again there is nothing wrong with TCW/TBB being kids shows, but some internet-ers dismiss it as "made for 7 year olds" and that's just objectively not true. Strictly from this system (which idk how it compares to whatever system Cartoon Network used when it aired) you could say the TV-PG might mean 8-13 years old (which is a wide range tbh, there's a big difference between being 8 and being 13), but since TV-G says "suitable for ALL ages" it's also not limited to that.

Also if TCW was aimed for ~8-13 year old's back in 2008 then those same people, who TBB was clearly meant for based on the marketing, were ~21-26 when it premiered in 2021 (and I think that is definitely reflected in writing).

Age of the protagonist is another a good indicator, though it's not a strict rule (i.e. Ender's Game and To Kill a Mockingbird have younger pov characters but are clearly meant for older audiences) and we have a wide range in these shows (Ahsoka 14, Anakin 20, Obi-wan 35, Clones early 20s, Omega ??? 10ish?? idk it's unclear) and time passes. (And while a lot of TBB is filtered through Omega's perspective, there's also plenty of scenes/subplots/episodes where she isn't even there. Also I doubt anyone would call TLOU a kids show just bc Ellie is 14)

But also target audience is a lot more than just content ratings. Note how the first few ratings above say "this program is designed for" the age group, while after TV-G it's about if it contains anything that could be unsuitable for age groups. And ratings can be pretty vague and arbitrary, especially since they change over time (like I get RotS but I could not tell you what makes the Sequels PG-13 compared to the PG films. And why is 13 the age we draw the line at? And why is it 14 for TV instead?)

I think TCW confuses a lot of people because it jumps around a lot; some episodes are about Jar Jar or the droids, and then some are, you know, Umbara. But on a rewatch, even some of the more serious episodes like the Citadel or Kadavo arc still tend to have a more juvenile or simplistic tone/writing style, like repeating information a lot or joking in the middle of the mission (like right after Echo died, hello?!). This actually feels like a writing issue to me, like maybe the writers weren't very clear on what they were going for. (Reminds me also of the only episode I watched of the live-action Atla, where compared to the original it increased the violence/death, but also dumbed down the exposition and didn't seem to trust the audience) Though there is also a clear difference between the seasons, again because the audience and characters are growing up as time goes on. I don't think TBB really had that issue though. It never talked down and it was much more tonally consistent, even in the lower stakes episodes.

Personally TBB feels generally grittier than TCW, though it doesn't really have any of the dark/gruesome deaths and "this is a kids show?!?!" moments like TCW (i.e. clones getting airlocked, decapitated, cut in half by doors, squished by Grievous, and whatever the ever living eff Colt's death was). Though actually come to think of it, there are a few things (like Crosshair killing civilians, the electro suicide pills, and the clone on Tantiss who got skewered (rip)) but I don't think they stand out as much, maybe because they're given the proper weight so they fit the tone rather than feeling out of place. Well, most of the time at least...

Like the friendly fire incident is probably one of the heaviest moments in TCW but I don't see it in those compilations, maybe because the characters respond appropriately and it fits within the Umbara arc. Verses when stuff happens in the middle of lighter more childish plot lines that feel more shocking because they are somewhat brushed off.

But also here's the thing. I think people get really fixated on the darkness/violence/death thing, but it isn't actually as big a deal as we tend to think. Like you'll find "this is a kid's show?!?" compilations for so many shows like these (with a similar age range, like Gravity Falls) that are just anything remotely creepy or intense or related to death, as if kids can't handle anything at all. Like I'll admit it's surprising sometimes (Infinity Train traumatized me bro lol) but most of the time I think we're underestimating kids. Like do you remember being 12? It's not that young.

There just seems to be this misconceived barrier, like the argument goes: "Clone Wars is just a kid show" "No it's not, look at this death scene!" But like there's death scenes in Disney movies all the time, you know? I think that's also why we get so many of these MA animated shows (i.e. Invincible and Vox Machina) that feel the need to overdo the blood and gore to like prove themselves as adult shows (bc again, animation bias).

As a writer that's just not really where the distinction is. This came up in my 'Writing for Children and Adolescents' class and we were all a little surprised when our professor said that death/violence is actually fine for middle-grade (8-12, the 'golden age of reading' and probably the equivalent to TV-PG). Like think of stories with ~12 year old protagonists like Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Gregor the Overlander (tho Suzanne could stand to tone that one down imo lol). Basically, violence is okay actually. And most the TCW and TBB characters are way older than middle-grade.

(Also I think the difference is usually more in the delivery. Like death and violence being more implied (no blood, or cutting away/seen with shadows), and themes/emotions generally being more clear, simple and stated upfront rather than more nuance, subtle and subtextual. (And tbh writing for kids is actually usually a lot harder btw))

The distinction we did learn about that has been most insightful for me has a lot more to with the story itself: what topics and themes does the story deal with? And what age group/phase of life does that speak to?

For example, Love You Forever is a picture book (generally considered 3-6 yr old range) but it deals with topics that are clearly aimed for an adult. It follows the parental character until they are on their death bed being taken care by their kid, that's not something a 6 year old would care about or relate to. That's why age of protagonist typically aligns too, bc they will be dealing with/worried about things that the reader is dealing with in their life too (like high school struggles vs career and family struggles etc).

Aaaand this post has (once again) gotten away from me lol so I don't feel the need to analyze all of the topics and themes in TCW and TBB, but basically look at what is being explored and how it is being talked about (since a lot of things, esp with war, aren't necessarily age exclusionary) and that can give you a good idea. I think it's clear TBB generally deals with things in a more nuanced and complex way than TCW (most of it at least, honestly the difference between seasons is stark). And there is a main emphasis on family and parenthood, especially with the very end speaking to both young adults growing up and moving out, and the parents letting them go.

TL;DR:

-Animation doesn't automatically equal for kids

-For kids doesn't equal lesser

-Not all kids media is the same bc not all age groups are the same

-Violence doesn't necessarily equal NOT for kids

-Age of protagonist and themes/topics are a better indicator

-The Clone Wars is def middle grade, and The Bad Batch is probably more YA to adult

-But nothing is exclusionary regardless

[vioartemis]

The queen of hearts

(Emma Myers x fem! reader)

Summary: You, a well known actress, joined the cast for the second season of Wednesday. A well-executed magic trick and a questionable pick-up line later, you find yourself kissing one of your co-stars. Warnings: none (?) (English isn't my first language, I'm sorry if there are mistakes or if something doesn't make sense TvT)

As far as you could remember, you always wanted to be an actress. You starred in some adds on tv when you were 12, before auditioning for the role of C/n Henderson in the first season Stranger Things.

You were 14 when the series was released, and you didn't expect it to make you famous. But since then, you played in several movies such as Fear Street 1978 and 1666, or the last two Star Wars - for which you symbolized the new generation of the upcoming trilogy.

You favorite genre to play was fantasy. Sometimes you wished you were born in the 90's so you could have a chance to play in the Harry Potter movies.

Of course, you continued the 'Stranger Things Adventure', as you called it, all the way to season 5, which had yet to be filmed. You were proud to see that the series was on top of the most watched Netflix series.

But recently, the series rank was in danger due to the new series Wednesday. You resisted a whole month before binge watch it with Sadie. Since you met on the set of Stranger Things season 2, you were best friends.

"It's not like we're betraying anyone if we watch it, right? They can't fire us for that, right?"

"I don't think so, Noah and Mille watched it already and nothing happened. I think it's safe"

You put the pop-corn bowl between you on the couch before Sadie pressed play. Being a big fan of the Addams family, you were a little scared to watch it. But everyone seemed to say it was really good so... why not giving a try?

You liked it so far, Enid being your favorite character. You found her really cute, and her bubbly personality was a great contrast with Wednesday's cold self.

On TikTok and other social medias, you saw everyone simping for Wednesday, and honestly, it was understandable. But Enid. The wink.

You were full on gay panic. This wink, along with her smile, got you simping for her throughout the whole series.

"So, what do you think? I liked it" Sadie asked you when you finished watching

"It was great! Let's hope season 2 will come out soon!"

"So you can see who's the stalker? Or maybe more of a certain blonde?"

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"As if you didn't spend the last hours simping for her" she teased you

"Who wouldn't? She's so adorable!"

After that, it didn't take long until you where googling who played her, and in what other movies she played. You watched all of them, from 2010 Crooked, to 2021 Girl in the basement.

You quickly became a Emma Myers fan, which meant you started following her on Instagram.

When she noticed it, she couldn't believe her eyes. The Y/n L/n, her favorite actress, knew who she was? If that wasn't a dream coming true...

One of her favorite genre of movies / series was fantasy. She watched almost every work of this category, which meant she saw multiple of your roles.

Her favorite one was your Star Wars character. It was the first time she saw you on screen. Since then, she had watched everything you played in. You had something that attracted her, something special that made her want to meet you.

Not just like every other celebrities she'd love to meet. It was something different, something she couldn't quite explain.

<><><><> ♡ <><><><>

"Are you kidding me?? You're really part of the cast of Wednesday season 2?? That's awesome!"

"I know, that's crazy! But don't count on me to tell you anything"

"Come on, we're best friends, right? You can just tell me little things, no one will know..."

"Nope, sorry. I have to go, I'm in front of the studio"

"I hate you"

"Love you too bestie"

You smiled as you hung up, putting your phone in your jacket's pocket. You were excited to meet the cast and to know what happened next.

Totally nothing to do with a certain girl you were impatient to meet.

When you entered the studio, you were greeted by Jenna, whom you had already met at the auditions as she was producer of this new season.

"Y/n, hey. It's nice to have you here" she smiled

"The pleasure's mine"

She led you to where the others were, gathered a little further.

"Oh, before you meet everyone, Emma's a big fan of yours so don't be surprised if she's a little shy"

"Really?"

You couldn't help but smile. You were fan of each other. Interesting.

You walked up to the group, Jenna in front of you.

"I told you we would have a new addition to the cast, right? Well, here she is"

She stepped to the side to reveal you. You waved at them with a smile that got wider when you spotted Emma next to Hunter. You felt inexplicably drawn to her the moment your gaze met hers.

"Hi"

Like every other Saturday night since the beginning of the shooting, you were gathered at Georgie's for a little party. Apparently, it was a little tradition they had since season 1.

It was really fun to see some of you try to do your scenes the next morning when they drank a little too much. Not that the scenes were poorly acted, no, it was the behind-the-scenes face in a bucket that was the most fun.

You weren't one to drink much, so you never had the problem. But Hunter did quite a lot even though he doesn't drink a lot either.

This night however, you found yourself drinking more than you should, which doesn't go unnoticed by a certain brunette.

"Is everything okay?"

"Of course. What makes you think otherwise?"

"I don't know, maybe the empty bottle next to you? Or the other one in your hand? You can talk to me you know?"

You knew that, but the words got stuck in your throat every time. You were ashamed to admit it, but you were jealous. Jealous of Georgie and Emma's relation.

They were just friends, yes okay, but the way he looked at her made you think he wanted more than that. You couldn't blame him for that, being in the same situation.

What you blamed him for was... what was it again? Ah, yes. You had no reason to blame him. Emma and you were just friends too.

"It's... nothing really, just- just a bad day"

"You sure?"

She wasn't blind, she saw how you looked at Emma, how you acted around her. But what she saw too was how Emma looked at you. And that you didn't see.

"Yeah, don't worry. I'm fine"

"Okay then..."

She didn't believe you, but let you alone, taking the bottle with her as a precaution.

A little while after, you were joined by Emma who sat next to you on the couch. You had sobered up by the time Jenna left.

"How you doing?" she asked gently

"Great, you?"

"Georgie tried to show me a magic trick, ended up with my shirt being stained with his drink..."

"You should change, or you'll get cold"

"Yeah, but I don't want to leave... Plus it's dark outside, I don't feel like going alone..."

"I can come with you if you want"

"Shit, I think I forgot my keys at Georgie's..." Emma mumbled, looking in every pocket she had while you were standing in front of her door

"We can go at mine if you want, you can borrow a dry shirt, we'll go back later for your keys"

"I don't know what I would do without you"

You missed the blush on her face as she said that, too busy taking your keys out of your pocket.

"Get a cold probably. Here, come with me"

You walked side by side, shoulders brushing every now and then, until you arrived. You opened the door and let her in, before heading to your closet to find something to give her.

Meanwhile, she looked around at your room. She had no idea what it would look like, but it really screamed you. And exactly like you, the room was to her liking.

She spotted a deck of cards on your bedside table.

"Do you play card games?"

"Uhh not really, I only know poker, and am very bad at it"

"Why do you have a deck of cards then?" she asked as you emerged from the closet

You gave her the shirt with a smile.

"Want me to show you some real magic trick?"

"Sure! I love magic tricks"

You grabbed the cards and sat on the floor on the other side of the room, giving her time and space to change.

"Oh oh okay, I have to pull out my best trick then"

You shuffled the cards as she sat in front of you.

"Here, take a card, look at it, and don't tell me anything"

She obeyed, looked at the card, and kept it in hand, waiting for your instructions.

"Okay, now I'm gonna make a pile of cards randomly, for example here I put like three cards, then six, then two, etc. You tell me to stop whenever you want"

You started to stack the cards, looking at her with a smile.

"Stop!"

"Okayy, now put your card on top"

She did as you told. You put the cards you had left on top of her card and took the deck in your hands before spreading the cards on the floor in a swift motion.

In the alignment of cards, one was face up. 3 of spades.

You took the card out, letting a hole in the line of cards.

"Is it your card?"

"I'm sorry to disappoint, but it's not"

"Oh really? Maybe it's a sign... 3 of spades, so maybe three cards before..."

You counted to three starting from where the card was, and pulled a new one out, showing it to her.

"Is this one your card?"

"Oh my- Yeah it is!"

You smiled widely, before turning the card to look at it.

"The queen of hearts huh? Funny when you're the queen of mine"

You didn't mean to say that. Absolutely not. You felt your face heat up.

"Shit I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

You stopped, noticing she was as red as you were.

"That sounded better in my head..." you finished, still embarrassed

"... Do you mean it?" she asked after a moment of silence

"Depends. What would you do if it was the case?"

"Well..." she got on all fours and got closer to you to the point her nose was almost brushing against yours "I think I would really want to kiss you..."

"Y-yeah?" your eyes flickered to her lips before going up to her oh so beautiful eyes "My heart is yours since day one, Emma”

A smile made its way up to her face as her cheeks reddened.

“Can I kiss you?” she whispered

You leaned forward as an answer, pressing a soft kiss on her lips. She was quick to cup your cheeks and sit on your lap as she kissed back, making you tilt you head up a bit.

As your hands found their place on her hips, pulling her closer to you, the soft kisses turned into a passionate make out session that left you both breathless.

After you pulled away, she rested her forehead on yours. You were both smiling like idiots in love - which you were, actually.

"If you had told me I'd get to kiss the Y/n L/n - and that she would be romantically interested in me - I never would've believed you"

"Well, if you had told me I'd get to kiss the Emma Myers and have a romantic relationship with her, I wouldn't have believed you either"

"You're such an idiot" she chuckled, cheeks reddening again

You couldn't help but smile and placed another kiss on her soft lips.

"True, but I'm your idiot now"

[brian-in-finance]

Orlando Bloom /The Cut

Orlando Bloom And Sean Ellis Talk About Star’s Transformation Into Past-His-Prime Boxer In ‘The Cut’: “He Was Willing To Have His Nose Broken” – Toronto Film Festival

Sean Ellis’s sixth feature, following the deliriously atmospheric 19th-century vampire movie Eight for Silver (2021), is yet another curveball from the criminally underrated British director. Titled The Cut, it is the story of a past-his-prime boxer who goes behind his wife Caitlin’s back to accept a lucrative comeback fight in Las Vegas. But this is not yet another Rocky-style underdog story, the kind that culminates in the ring. Instead, it is a sometimes-shocking psychological thriller, a sort of boxing procedural that details the extreme lengths that cornered fighters will go to. On paper, it sounds like Southpaw, but in reality, it has a little more in common with this year’s Cannes hit The Substance, a visceral body-horror movie about a fading starlet (Demi Moore) and her desperate drive to maintain her fame.

Sean Ellis / Getty Images

In The Cut it is actor Orlando Bloom’s turn to defy expectations. As the boxer, the former Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings star is a revelation. He’s not entirely unrecognizable as the matinee idol of the 2000s, but, thanks to the magic of prosthetics, he certainly looks like he’s been through the wringer, and his return to professional boxing is not a sure thing. In fact, the most suspense in the film is generated by the initial weigh-in, which will determine whether he even gets to fight in his own title category at all. Caitlin (Caitríona Balfe), his wife and his trainer, can only get him so far, and when the team gets to Vegas, the boxer meets the charismatic Boz (John Turturro). Boz hooks into the boxer’s insecurities, drawing him into an increasingly dangerous training and weight-loss routine.

With the film about to make its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Deadline sat down with Ellis and Bloom to discuss the film and its themes.

DEADLINE: Where did the project start? Who was attached first?

ORLANDO BLOOM: I’d worked with our producer, Mark Lane, some years ago on a movie for Tea Shop Productions. We did a movie together in London called Retaliation, but it was released as The Romans. It was another small, British independent movie production. It was brutal, and I loved the brutality of it. One day Mark said, “I’ve got another one for you,” and he pitched me The Cut. We talked about it, and I loved it immediately. I loved the idea — the premise of a boxing movie without the boxing, where the focus of the fight wasn’t the boxing match itself but rather the fight within the character, who just happened to be a boxer. I thought that was really fascinating, an interesting commentary on the way masculinity operates within that space.

We worked on the script for about a year or two with [screenwriter] Justin Bull, who was fantastic. And then we were just over the moon when Sean read it and responded to it exactly as you’d hope a director with his kind of vision would. He said, “Yeah, I see this.” [To Sean.] Right, Sean? That’s the long and short of it, isn’t it?

SEAN ELLIS: Yeah, that was pretty much it. The first time I read it, actually, was over the Christmas period [in 2022]. Mark had sent it to me, and I was interested because I’d been looking to do a boxing movie. But how do you do a boxing movie? I mean, it’s become almost a genre in itself. They’ve become so clichéd. Like submarine movies: You’ve got to have a scene with one person trapping themself in the air lock and drowning, as they tap away at the little porthole.

With boxing, you’ve got to have an impossible match that they’re not going to win, and then they either do or they don’t. And I thought The Cut was just a really interesting take on that. It was the about the preparation that an athlete goes through, and the drama of that. I thought that was so much more interesting than anything we’ve already seen in a boxing movie. I called Mark back, and I said, “It’s great.” I mean, it grabs you and it doesn’t let go. And it really delivers. It doesn’t let you down, and it really takes you right through to the end. And as OB was saying, it’s pretty brutal.

BLOOM: It’s an assault on the senses — which was kind of what it was like for me, physically.

ELLIS: Yeah. But I love cinema like that. I love it when it grabs you and shakes you. I think that’s what cinema should do.

DEADLINE: Orlando, how much did you weigh when you started the process?

BLOOM: I was about 185 pounds. [Laughs.] Sorry to use pounds and not stone!

DEADLINE: Same as the character?

BLOOM: Give or take.

DEADLINE: How did you lose the weight?

BLOOM: We worked with a great nutritionist called Philip Goglia. He started me on a program about three months prior to filming, and I tiered down from there. I was eating more food than I’d expected, in order to maintain the muscle but drop the weight. There was a sort of science to how much and how often I was eating, like having a spoonful of honey at night, things like that, to hold the muscle but lose the fat. This was three months prior to filming, so when I landed in London to start — which was about three and a half weeks before filming started — I would say I weighed about 170 pounds. I’d dropped quite a lot of weight before I came to the UK, and then in that three-week period I was basically eating five tiny meals a day. A lot of it was tuna and cucumber, and nothing else. I dropped to 152 pounds for the weigh-in scene. We shot that at the beginning of the movie, and then we shot the whole movie backwards.

DEADLINE: Why was that?

BLOOM: Philip, the nutritionist was like, “He’s not going to have any brain function or energy to make the movie.” [Laughs.] He said, “You’ve got to start with the weight loss and then feed him through the movie.” So, we shot the movie in reverse. I remember, I had this massive drop [in weight], because I was sitting at about 163 pounds for what felt like forever. And the training regime was a lot. It was two hours of cardio every day, an hour in the morning and again at night, and then boxing, and then weights, and a very limited amount of food.

I’d already started training — I’d been doing boxing training in America before I came over — and then I dropped 10 pounds of water weight in one night, which was crazy. Philip had told me about this routine that boxers do — they have a hot Epsom-salt bath. I don’t know whether it’s down to osmosis or just some weird body science, but it worked. I had a photo of myself, and I sent it to my partner and my mates, who were tracking me through this wild experience. I sent it to Sean. And then I sat in this space of that weight for about two and a half weeks before we started filming. [Pause] Is that right, Sean? I have to say, my brain is very scrambled…

ELLIS: Yeah, he came to us at his lightest weight because you can’t lose weight and work. It’s almost impossible — you can’t remember your lines or anything else. So, Phil said, “He has to come to you at his lightest, and then you need to allow him to start eating again. But that means you have to shoot the movie in reverse chronological order.” Now, chronological order is a nightmare at the best of times. But reverse chronological order is a total Rubik’s cube. We only had 25 shooting days, and, obviously, Orlando was putting weight on as we were reaching the end of the shoot, which was actually the beginning of the film. But when you edit it in reverse, he starts off heavy and then goes to his lightest point. It was a big jigsaw puzzle, but we got there.

DEADLINE: How did you feel about him losing all that weight? Did you ever feel guilty?

ELLIS: Mark Lane said, “Look, he’s really committed to this. Have a call with him and see if you guys jell,” and I did, instantly. But more than that, what I saw in OB was a huge commitment to make this right. And he was willing to do anything. I think at one point we even spoke about him going to the dentist and having his teeth filed and recapped. There was also the idea that he was willing to have his nose broken. [Laughs.] I was like, “I’m not sure we have to go that far.” But Orlando’s a good-looking bloke, and we were thinking, “How do we convince the world that he’s a professional boxer and make him look like a professional boxer?”

[British makeup artist] Mark Coulier came in and did a lot of work on his face. Mark got an Oscar nomination for Elvis. I’ve worked with him on a couple of movies and he’s just amazing. He took a head-sculpt of Orlando and then showed us what he would be able to do with him. A broken nose; fake ears that were more like cauliflower ears from the fighting; a change of the jawline — there were these “plumpers” that went into his mouth — and the teeth. The eyes as well: Mark gave him a droopy boxer’s eyelid.

I remember when I saw him sitting in the makeup chair. He had the haircut and everything, and I thought, “I buy this guy as a professional fighter.” At that point, he didn’t actually look like Orlando, strangely enough. In fact, I remember when we were shooting, there were two girls in the hotel we were using — just were members of the public — and they were waiting for the elevator to go down. Orlando was down the other end of the corridor, in his pants, and one of them nudged the other one. She whispered, “That’s Orlando Bloom.” The other one looked up and said, “Nah,” and then they got in the lift. I was laughing, because they didn’t recognize him.

DEADLINE: Were you surprised by his dedication?

ELLIS: Even from that first call with him, it was obvious that he was just so committed to this film and was willing to immerse himself. We were referencing [Irish featherweight and lightweight champion] Conor McGregor for a while, to the point where we started talking about the character being Irish, and we loved that idea. Then we cast Caitríona [Balfe], who’s Irish as well, and it made even more sense. It felt like the journey from Ireland to Vegas was bigger, because in the original script he was American, I think. Those changes came about from just me and Orlando talking about the character. I love his accent in it. Honestly, he’s not giving us an Orlando that we’ve seen before, and I love that. I love the change.

DEADLINE: Why did you want Caitríona?

ELLIS: I’d seen her in a couple of movies, Belfast and Ford v Ferrari, and her TV show Outlander. And at the point when we were having these discussions about Orlando playing Irish, I was like, “Well, let’s find an Irish actress.” So, I spoke to Jamie Dornan about Caitríona, because he’d worked with her on Belfast, and I said, “What’s she like? Is she nice? I love her movies. Is she good to work with?” And he was like, “Oh, she’s the best.” So, I got that endorsement, we offered it to her, and, luckily, she said yes. [To Bloom] It was just the three of us a lot of the time, wasn’t it?

DEADLINE: How did her casting affect the script?

ELLIS: A lot of her character was really born out of a lot of the discussions that the three of us had about the relationship that the two characters had. How their past dictated their relationship, and how it was going to dictate their future. So, it was really lovely just to work with both Orlando and Caitríona on finding those characters and really giving them life without really having to spell it out. Boz has more of a visual background, because you see him in flashbacks, but what I love about Caitríona’s character is that there’s a lot of subtext in her performance. It’s not overwritten, but you still get a sense of her life and what’s happened to her in the past.

BLOOM: I remember a conversation I had with her when we first spoke. I called her up. In the early drafts, the script was really centered on this transformation that the boxer goes through, the inner torment and the fight. And I said to Caitríona, “Look at the script as a blueprint, because there’s so much more between the lines than there is in the lines.” I really wanted the authenticity of this relationship to play. Because I think he can’t live without her. He can’t function, he can’t operate without her.

DEADLINE: In the middle of these two you have John Turturro as his trainer, Boz. It’s a very interesting part, almost like a kind of sadistic Jiminy Cricket…

ELLIS: We had many conversations about the script before John actually came on board, but I think John wanted to reassure himself that he was right about how he was going to do it. Because when John turned up — am I right, OB? — he’d fully formed that character. You said, “Action,” and John just did it. There was no, “What do you think?” He’d decided how Boz was going to be.

BLOOM: Can I jump in, Sean? What was on the page for that character was completely different to what John brought to the film. I remember sitting next to him in the makeup chair, and I was in and out of consciousness, in terms of how I felt emotionally. I was paranoid as hell. It was a really weird time, because of my mental state: I wasn’t having any food. Or sleep. I wasn’t sleeping because you don’t sleep when you’re not eating — you keep waking up.

And then he said to me, “It’s love.” And I was like, “What?” He said, “It’s a love story.” And my mind exploded. Sean was like, “Yeah, of course it’s a love story.” But his part wasn’t really written like that. He was written as a pretty straightforward character, like a drill sergeant, very aggressive. And then when he told me that, it became this love triangle in my mind. Boz was seducing me, in a way, into his web. Like, “You’re my guy now.”

Obviously, I’ve been huge fan of the man and the actor for years, and everything he’s ever done. That part could have been so generic in the hands of anyone else, but he just knew what to do. He was sprinkling magic dust all around us. I think we had that conversation on the second day of filming because we were all a bit thrown to begin with. Do you remember that, Sean? I was, certainly. I was like, “Wait, what’s going on?”

ELLIS: I remember Mark coming up to me and saying, “So, is that how we want Boz to be?” Because Boz was very much on the page as a character like the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket. I remember saying to him, “That’s John Turturro, and he’s giving you Boz. It might not be the Boz you saw on the page, but it is a Boz, and he’s absolutely made it his own.” As OB said, he��s sinister, he’s conniving, and he’s also kind of a groomer, because he understands his victim and he knows how to take control. So, he really pulled himself into this in a very insidious way, which I find very creepy and just brilliantly executed.

BLOOM: Yeah, he totally transformed what the movie could have been.

DEADLINE: You’ve got the Toronto premiere coming up. What kind of reactions are you hoping for?

ELLIS: Well, I hope they don’t throw eggs at the screen. [Laughs.] Listen, I’m incredibly proud of the film and I’m incredibly proud of the performances that the actors have given. It was just such a privilege to record them, and be present, and see them craft those characters. That’s the thing I’m most proud of when I look at it. I think it’s very strong, and it’s a drama with very strong characters.

DEADLINE: Orlando?

BLOOM: Yeah, it’s funny, when I was at drama school, I remember working on The Seagull, the Chekhov play, and there’s a moment at the end where the audience goes silent, because it’s just so uncomfortable. And I think this movie has a similar impact. It’s such an assault on the senses. And, to his credit, Sean never takes his foot off the gas. You can’t hide at any point in this movie. It’s like we strap you into a rocket, and you’re off. And there’s a lot of commentary on the way athletes — male athletes in particular — operate. Obviously we haven’t taken this from a true story, it’s fictitious. But I think it deals with very real ideas about self-worth. It’s about what people will do to fill the void that’s in their stomach, or in their soul. It’s about the lengths they will go to.

Deadline

Remember… (about Caitlin, Caitríona’s character) I really wanted the authenticity of this relationship to play. Because I think he can’t live without her. He can’t function, he can’t operate without her. — Sean Ellis

[ao3feed-piltovers-finest]

under the hood (oneshot)

by caitandvisthird

A tall, muscular woman emerged from the cab, moving with the kind of confidence that made Caitlyn sit up a little straighter. She wore black mechanic overalls, but the top half was tied loosely around her waist, revealing a grease stained white tank top underneath. A black baseball cap was perched backwards on her head, with short red-pink hair poking out from underneath it. One side of her hair was shaved close to the scalp, while the other had long bangs that fell carelessly over forehead. The woman's arms were covered in tattoos, and up to her neck and down her forearms.

Hot damn.

Caitlyn felt her breath catch in her throat, she bit her lip slightly. The woman was stunning in a way that left her momentarily frozen. She hadn't expected her savior to look like this- like she had just stepped of a girtty action film, or straight out of the gym, or maybe an undergroud fight club. All hard edges and effortless cool. the women exuded a raw, untamed energy that made Caitlyn's stomach flutter. 

Words: 4418, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F

Characters: Caitlyn (League of Legends), Vi (League of Legends), Jinx (League of Legends)

Relationships: Caitlyn/Vi (League of Legends), Caitlyn & Vi (League of Legends)

Additional Tags: Caitlyn and Vi are in Love (League of Legends), Top Vi (League of Legends), Bottom Caitlyn (League of Legends), Vi is in love with Caitlyn (League of Legends), Caitlyn is in love with Vi (League of Legends)

Read on A03. from AO3 works tagged ‘Caitlyn/Vi (League of Legends)’

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #672

Top Ten MCU TV Shows 2024

Once more, with feeling, we return to the MCU. Last week I ranked my favourite MCU movies – the third time I’d done that in the nearly thirteen years I’ve been writing this dumb blog. Time passes, tastes change, and Marvel keeps making more movies. But one thing I’ve never done before is rank their TV shows.

There are two very good reasons for that. One is the simple fact that Marvel Studios haven’t really been in the TV-making business all that long; y’see, I’m not counting MCU-adjacent series such as Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil, or Jessica Jones; and as good as X-Men ’97 is, I’m also not counting the many animated series based on Marvel comics. No, I’m very specifically referring to the Marvel Studios/Marvel Television productions that are explicitly set in the MCU; so, basically, the ones they’ve made for Disney+. As a result, I can only go back as far as 2021’s WandaVision; and in all that time, they’ve only recently slipped past ten total productions (eleven series and two one-off TV specials). So I couldn’t really have done this list very much earlier regardless.

And the second reason is that I never thought of doing it till now.

So what we have here is something very simple: a top ten ranking of my favourite MCU TV projects. I say “projects” there, and “shows” earlier on, because I’ve decided to include their two TV specials into the mix here. The line between “short film broadcast on TV” and “one-off TV programme” is a very blurry one, but I do think both the Guardians Holiday Special and Werewolf By Night fall into the latter category, and therefore I think I should include them in a ranking of TV shows, rather than shoe-horning them into a movies ranking. But that’s all there is to say, really; this is a top ten of my favourite MCU TV.

Do not adjust your set.

WandaVision (2021): MCU’s TV adventure really exploded out the gate with this stunning, genre-bending, convention-defying mystery. Utilising TV tropes and formats perfectly, it gave us the tragic downfall of Wanda, allowing a slow-burn and rather uncanny conundrum to unfold week-by-week, a fantastic use of episodic TV. Mysteries, guest stars, new characters, big Avengers; it had it all, and some great theme tuns. And it set up…

Agatha All Along (2024): maybe it’s not quite this good, but my mind’s full of it right now. The best MCU show to give us an unfurling mystery since its predecessor, once again we have a drip-feed of revelations that often lead to more questions; once again we have a cool crew of characters to fall in love with. Some terrific acting, some great songs, some real emotional heft, and some overdue progressive representation. Glory at the end.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022): at once light, breezy, and throwaway, and yet also incredibly emotional and potentially essential if you want to know these characters. Something of a hangout mini-movie, it’s a knockabout yuletide lark, but also manages to bring a tear to the eye with honest characterisation and earnest, old-fashioned love. Also has not one but two genuinely very good songs.

Ms. Marvel (2022): debuting a character so perfectly formed and perfectly cast, this is Iman Villani’s show and she knows it. Kamala Khan is a joy from start to finish, and her down-to-earth world with its down-to-earth characters is a refreshing change from the MCU’s gods and billionaires. Like Black Panther before it, simply telling these stories through the lens of another culture instantly makes them feel fresh and exciting. I hope we see more Kamala and her family very, very soon.

Hawkeye (2021): essentially a PG-13 Shane Black movie turned into a TV series, this is in many ways the perfect superhero Christmas film. But, er, a TV series. World-weary Jeremy Renner – finding new shades of Clint even now – contrasts beautifully with firecracker Hailee Steinfeld, with lots of great banter and warm feelings. But it doesn’t skimp on action, with some fantastic fights and one outrageous single-shot set-piece involving a car and a ton of trick arrows. More please.

Loki (2021-23): I think you could argue that the only MCU shows thus far that essential to the overall narrative are maybe this and WandaVision. Here we totally unpick not just the central character – and Tom Hiddleston’s multi-faceted, many-layered performance is possibly the best in the entire franchise – but also reality itself. The design of the TVA is extraordinary, and when it goes weird – multi-Lokis, time-slipping, the works – it’s a wibbly-wobbly joy. And it has arguably the best single episode – certainly the best finale – of any MCU show.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022): Marvel is often funny, but Marvel doesn’t often do outright comedy; this, then, is a rare gem. A snappy, progressive sitcom in superhero clothing, we have a stand-out central performance, a ton of great cameos, lots of genuinely hilarious jokes, and some utterly bananas fourth-wall-breaking meta-gaggery. It cost a fortune and was, I believe, considered a bit of a disappointment, so we’re probably not getting any more. Savour this sweet miracle for what it was, and be grateful.

Werewolf By Night (2022): unashamedly echoing a particular style in a way not really seen apart from the sitcom pastiche of WandaVision, this is a love letter to all kinds of classic horror, with lots of high contrast shadows and keylit screaming. Manages to be a creepy and grisly thrill-ride, but also give us some nice emotional pay-off with Man-Thing at the end.

Moon Knight (2022): a show by turns masterful and frustrating, we’re here seeing something that sadly happens a lot in the MCU: a failure to stick the landing. The magical shenanigans of Khonshu are one thing, but the highlight here is the multiple personalities of Marc Spector/Steven Grant, and how their perceptions of the world colour not just our perceptions of the show but also Moon Knight himself. Meanders a bit with a woolly ending, but some of its highs are stratospheric.

What If…? (2021-2024): a really bold swing for the fences, this is an exciting adventure show that showcases different characters in new and interesting ways. Whilst you could argue that, with the whole multiverse to play with it’s rarely all that inventive or strange, it’s nice to see, say, Nebula as a detective, or a more playful T’Challa. The animation is often very good, and the way the stories dovetail is interesting. Apparently this year’s third season will be the last. Let’s hope it goes out with a bang.

[rollercoasterwords]

I haven't seen many horror films and would like some recommendations. What are some must-watch horror movies for someone new to the genre?

oooh this is such a fun question but so hard 2 answer bc horror is like. such a versatile genre & where u should start depends a lot on like what type of movies u enjoy/what ur looking for….

like if u want sci-fi/alien horror then the obvious place 2 start is w alien (1979) and aliens (1986) (there are other sequels as well but the first 2 are the best) & then also the thing (1982) and its prequel film that came out in 2011 (also titled the thing). AND of course the fly (1986) is a must-see...and if u want something more recent nope (2022) or no one will save you (2023)...both a little more artsy and slow-moving than the 80s recs on this list but very very good <3

if ur interested in slashers then again start w the classics scream (1996) is SO fun it deserves its spot in the horror hall of fame...i know what you did last summer (1997) is also a fun & slightly older slasher; cabin in the woods (2011) is great if u want some meta-slasher-horror; ready or not (2019) isn't necessarily a conventional slasher but i'd still include it in this category & it's one of my faves

if found footage is ur jam PLEASE start w creep (2014) probably my fave found footage horror film ever...but also i'm not a huge found footage fan generally speaking lol. that being said the blair witch project (1999) is of course the classic here but it's not my personal fave; other good options if u want something genuinely freaky/scary are the bay (2012) hell house llc (2015) and gonjiam: haunted asylum (2018)

if u want like possessions & demons etc then. start with jennifer's body (2009) if u want horror-comedy it is SO fun & a staple of the genre atp but if u want something scarier then it follows (2014) is a popular one. there have also been a lot of good possesion movies coming out recently i thought smile (2022) talk to me (2022) and when evil lurks (2023) (<- literally JUST watched this one today lol) were all quite spooky

& sort of possession-adjacent but if ur more into hauntings, ghosts, etc then start w the babadook (2014) or his house (2020) both SO good. also the shining (1980) is a classic & la llorona (2019) is a personal fave of mine (NOT. the u.s. 'curse of la llorona' movie. the guatemalan one.)

if u want witches then start w the craft (1996) another sort of fun one <3 or if u want a classic then hungry wives (1972). the love witch (2016) if u want a visually beautiful & less scary one; the witch (2015) if u want a scarier one.

if u want eerie fantasy-horror then the company of wolves (1984) or tale of tales (2015). if u want a creature feature then blood red sky (2021) for vampires, ginger snaps (2000) for werewolves, and a quiet place (2018) for like post-apocalyptic creature invasion horror.

& SPEAKING of post-apocalyptic. if u want zombies i could make a whole separate post but. START w train to busan (2016) & seoul station (2016) the dynamic duo <3 & then if u want some classics from the genre of course night of the living dead (1968), dawn of the dead (2004...i haven't seen the original one u could watch that one too tho...), and 28 days later (2002). raw (2016) if u want an artsier one, the girl with all the gifts (2016) if u want a fun spin on zombie apocalypse, cargo (2017) if u want 2 cry. & if u want something funny then PLEASE watch zombie for sale (2019) or anna and the apocalypse (2017) or one cut of the dead (2017)

if u want kind of a slower-build psychological thriller then the invitation (2015) is one of my faves, but mother! (2017) is also good if u want an artsy pick & gerald's game (2017) and lyle (2014) are good as well

and then just a grab-bag of horror movies that didn't fit perfectly into any of these categories: barbarian (2022) if u want something really scary, piggy (2022) if u want slow-building horror, midsommar (2019) if u want sunshiney culty a24 aesthetic, us (2019) if u want something that'll freak u out & is slasher-adjacent, get out (2017) if u want slow-build thriller vibes, and teeth (2007) if u want teen-girl horror classic.

bear in mind that many of these films overlap between the categories i've divided them into 4 this answer, as is the nature of horror...if u were asking me 2 just like. force myself 2 choose a top 10 horror movies 2 introduce someone 2 horror w no preference 4 genre or vibe...i think my list would probably be (in no particular order):

alien (1979)

2. the fly (1986)

3. jennifer's body (2009)

4. ginger snaps (2000)

5. train to busan (2016) (<- pains me 2 say bc seoul station is my fave zombie movie of all time but if i had 2 choose just one zombie movie 2 introduce someone 2 the genre it would be this one...beginner zombie movie...)

6. scream (1996)

7. his house (2020)

8. barbarian (2022)

9. creep (2014)

10. us (2019)

[trashexplorer]

BLCD Review: Zanzou Slow Motion

Title: Zanzou Slow Motion (残像スローモーション)

Author/Artist: Janome

Shop: CD + Manga

Release Date: 2021/05/28

Cast:

Furukawa Makoto x Nakazawa Masatomo

Eguchi Takuya

Satou Gen

Tadokoro Hinata

Yasuaki Takumi

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu

Ichikawa Aoi

Yanagi Kouhei

Karino Sho

Synopsis:

What happens when two rival directors who hate each other's guts are forced to share one roof? And what if one of them has a secret he's been harboring for years? Throw in a shared love of movies, BL manga, and an accidental kiss, and you've got the next heart-pumping love story in Midorigaoka High and the sequel to Twilight Out of Focus 1. Jin Kikuchihara, third-year director, main actor, and president of the film club, and second-year director Giichi Ichikawa see eye-to-eye on very little. Jin is flashy, flirty, and focused on keeping everyone happy, while Giichi expects the best from himself and others, and will compromise nothing to see his vision through. Constantly at each other's necks, the two can hardly stand to be in the same club. But what will happen when family trouble forces them to live in the same room? Will their shared interests bring them closer as friends, push them further apart as rivals, or something else entirely?

Review Proper

I love Tasogare Outfocus, but this is actually my favorite Janome.

The second installment curse strikes again!

UGHHHHHHH THIS WAS SO WHOLESOME. Don't get me wrong, Tasogare Outfocus is written pretty decently, but I really don't like how Janome just glossed over Hisashi's SA and grooming like that. It reminds me a lot of Etude vol. 1. I can still get over Etude vol. 1 'cause it's not that uncommon to see in sports and Ichi-san's deal with Futami was given some closure in 2, but given how short Tasogare Outfocus was, Hisashi felt like he just lmao byed his teacher. 😔Doesn't help that it kinda doesn't matter anymore in overlap even though it hasn't been long since it ended. Is my son Hisashi really okay now? 🥹

I'm old, so DK BL doesn't appeal to me that much anymore. It's also hard to find good DK rivalries nowadays that aren't just about fucking or delinquents. Zanzou Slow Motion, however, just checked all the right boxes for the category: simple, no drama, and no loose ends. That coupled with Janome's element of touch?

And can we talk about this monologue?

Ugh.

I will say Jin's suspenders, Ichikawa's snatched waist, and the ABO shout-out greatly influenced my decision too. Y'all should get suspended in high school, not wear suspenders!

Onto the technicalities...

I don't think I've heard these two co-star before (or I just don't remember), so I was a bit skeptical especially 'cause last I heard Makonyan in a DK was in, well... Given as BLCD!Ritsu. And where else did we hear Yuuma star in a DK too? Yuuma as Anime!Ritsu. We just had Given Anime!Ritsu in Tasogare Outfocus being somewhat friends with Ichikawa and now we have BLCD!Ritsu (thanks to ecargmura for catching this!) trying to romance him. They used very different tones for Ritsu, but the vibe was the same overall. THEY'RE THE SAME PERSON. Makonyan and Nakamo also played tops in the last works I heard of them (Makonyan as Takaba in Kurui Naku and Nakamo as Yakumo in Nu:carnival), so I was concerned about a lot of things. Thankfully, however, instead of Makonyan going for his Ritsu tone or his lighter Kimitte Yatsu for a more youthful vibe, he went all shounen in here lmaooo.

His bwakame was so funny it reminded me of this:

I love roasting Makonyan more than any other seiyuu out of fondness, but I'm really proud of how far he's gone. He's gotten so much better in his delivery, and it's obvious in his budding anime career, too.

But...

I didn't expect there would be improvements in his bedding techniques too...

What the fuck was that? HAHAHAHAHAHA. WAIT. No, y'all don't understand. I have most of this man's r-18 otome CDs and BLCDs, and I have never heard him this... this hot before???? Jin is such a smooth flirt, so I had some expectations on the delivery, but FURUKAWA MAKOTO HISSES. HE HISSES!!! SIR IS THIS APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR FOR A HIGH SCHOOL BOY??? THEY DON'T EVEN SHOW THEM DO THE DO FOR MORE THAN A MINUTE??? WHERE WAS THE NEED?!

PUTS THE GODDAMN FU IN FURUKAWA MAKOTO ALRIGHT!

First it was Ono Yuuki, now it's Makonyan. Is Nakamo's ass really that good that his tops go all in???

I admittedly don't have a lot to say about Nakamo because that man always slays. I was afraid that Makonyan would overpower him during their Netflix and chill, but as soon as I had that thought, Nakamo pushed back like??? THEM SHAKIRA HIPS DON'T LIE!

HOW DO I LEGALLY MARRY GINGER RECORDS???

I didn't read the scan or the official English release 'cause I actually had the raws, so I can't vouch for the translation. As for faithfulness to the manga, however, I need to stress that there were a lot of rearranged events and cut dialogue. One notable instance was Ichikawa's message for Jin. It was placed after their kiss in the last chapter, so I believe that these changes are quite significant. It is still possible to read the manga while listening to the BLCD, but I suggest reading the manga once first so you're aware of which pages you need to jump to.

Chil-chil Awards 2022 was a scam 'cause this wasn't nominated for ANYTHING! This might actually just be my favorite BLCD of 2021... and Makonyan was my favorite actor in this series so far. OKITSU AND MAKONYAN REALLY SWITCHED IN THIS LOG HAHAHAHA. Makonyan and Nakamo at least won in my heart. 😌 Definitely listen to this if you're a Makonyan fan or if you're a fan of the series in general. It's also perfect if you're looking for something light and sweet but immersive at the same time. Chesk gives this a 9/10! Only the third 9 after Sonna ni and KD!

[42bakery]

this is a random question but what's going on between fermin and pedro acosta??? this is my first year really following moto2 and they used to be best friends but they hate each other now or smt?? i really don't know 😭 thank you in advance, also i love you blog ♡♡

Hi there anon 👋👋👋👋

I'm glad you like my blog, it makes me very happy 🥹😍

It's actually not that random. I had been thinking about it for a long time, and actually there isn't a lot of info about it. I can only make guesses, but yours could be as good as mine because those idiots don't talk about what happened. Pedro refuses to say Fermín's name and he only referrers to him as 'the other rider' or 'him' when he's asked. But then again he went to Dani's 2000s circa rivalry classes. So the less he says a name, the more he considers you his rival. And Fermín does say his name, he actually was team Pedro last year and in Catalunya when Pedro and Alonso made contact he refused to say it was Pedro's fault (neither he blame Alonso, he just stand there and watch Alonso throw Pedro under the bus). Fermín also said Pedro is his rival and one that is an important rival for him.

We know that they aren't in a terrible situation because they hugged each other and talked during the podiums the shared last year. Fermín even tried to share Ramírez champagne bottle with Pedro in one of the podiums before Marcos took it away. Or even this year in Portugal they had a brief moment. And even Pedro's dad went to congratulate Fermín. So definitely there isn't bad blood there.

Now my guess is this. They have been racing against each other for so long, moving on the same categories more or less at the same time that they moved from friends to rivals. That paired with Fermín being younger and moving categories early than Pedro might have pissed Acosta.

Fermín was supposed to debuted in Moto3 in 2020, but the team where he was going to race withdrew leaving him without options. Pedro didn't do it until 2021. That year Pedro won the championship on his rookie season. That same year, Fermín made his debuted in MotoE that kind of helps skip Moto3 and give an opportunity to go to Moto2. Fermín also was doing the European Moto2 championship, where he won all races except the last 2 where he was 2nd and then made his Moto2 debuted in Moto2 replacing Yari Montella. So basically Fermín is younger and is 'making' the debuts a year earlier than Pedro. paired that they are from the same region (50-70 minutes away one from the other more or less) you have the perfect combination. Media has pushed them to be the new Pedrosa-Lorenzo.

So basically it's two kids that have know each other for their whole life in teams that have a beef with each other and forced to be rivals. (I think I saw this film before, anyone is with me?). Whatever Pedro does, Fermín is there to compete with him in being the youngest to do X thing (like a win, a pole, etc), but also outshine him. When people is supposed to talk about what Pedro has done, somehow Fermín does something equally crazy for us to speak about it.

But again anon, this is my guess. Maybe they both have a thing for the same girl and one of them got the date they wanted. Or maybe they tried (or did) date the other's sister and didn't end well. As I said, they don't talk about it. I just get a small summary from Fermín's side and that definitely is biased. He also didn't get into lot of details.