#New 2020 Philippine Film Release

[lunios28]

Jollibee & Facebook Pandemic Advertisement

Jollibee, the most prominent Filipino fast-food chain, was founded by Dr. Tony Tan Caktiong in 1975. It first began as a two-branch ice cream store and subsequently expanded to serving hot meals. Today, Jollibee has been expanding to other parts of the world and has been grabbing milestones ever since it was first established.

Furthermore, the fast-food chain is also known to release heart-whelming advertisements. On November 21, 2020, they released an ad about how a child sees joy even during the times of the pandemic. The video is entitled "Jollibee, Sarap Kasama ang Pamilya." At first, the ad starts sadly, and a boy expresses how he questions how long life will remain this way, with people's smiles gone, how people stay indoors to keep safe from the virus, and how he can not play outside on the playground. Then the video shifts to a more lively vibe, and the boy expresses his happiness. He questions when life will remain this way, where he gets to spend time and bond daily with his family. Then by the end of the video, the ad displays that 2020's Christmas may be different; the gift of being with your family is still the best. Even though the intended audience was the general public, the ad couldn't be applied to everyone because there are broken families, overseas Filipino workers restricted from visiting their families in the Philippines, and unhappy families due to personal issues. Despite this, the advertisement had solely intended to show the audience how some children see the world during the epidemic.

Through this video, Jollibee also promotes its food. With the affordable and high-quality products of Jollibee, their food can undoubtedly benefit those who are trying to save up or those who just want to eat great-tasting food.

Overall, this Jollibee advertisement has shown no media manipulation, as it only wanted to deliver the importance of family and how the pandemic has given everyone new challenges to face. Jollibee employed strategic promotion of the brand, leading it to success.

One of the most popular social media applications or sites worldwide is Facebook. In 2004, in a dorm room at Harvard University, Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg along with Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin. Zuckerberg was a self-taught computer programmer and dropped out of college to focus on his social networking site.

On April 1, 2020, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, Mark Zuckerberg and Meta (formerly known as Facebook) launched a film advertisement about the world during the pandemic. Throughout the duration of the video, we can hear the spoken word poetry of the British poet, Kate Tempest. The ad also showcases clips of how empty the environment looks because human activity is lacking. It reveals the challenges individuals face, from front liners risking their lives, to people crying probably because of a loss due to the virus or because they are separated from their loved ones. It shows how everyone is affected by the epidemic, but despite that, people are still reunited, and there is still peace. We can see in the advertisement that people come together to encourage one another through video calls or from the balcony of their homes. By the film's end, Facebook portrays a message, which is also the video's title: "We're never lost if we can find each other." This film ad is meant for everyone worldwide, as we all face the Coronavirus simultaneously. This inspired thousands of people since we were reminded that we are not alone in the process of overcoming the global pandemic.

The product advertised by Facebook in this short advertisement was a support hub meant for everyone. The community help platform allows users to volunteer or seek help from others for services such as grocery delivery or food distribution. They can also donate to or organize their own fundraisers to help with relief efforts.

All in all, no media manipulation has been used in the film advertisement as Facebook relayed its genuine message that we can get through the pandemic together. It has only shown real content of clips of the events that went down during the proliferation of the virus and has encouraged many people.

References:

Angeles-Agdeppa, I., Javier, C. A., Duante, C. A., & Maniego, Ma. L. V. (2022). Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Household Food Security and Access to Social Protection Programs in the Philippines: Findings From a Telephone Rapid Nutrition Assessment Survey. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 037957212210783. https://doi.org/10.1177/03795721221078363

Downey, L. (2021, September 16). Mark Zuckerberg Definition. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mark-zuckerberg.asp

Facebook. (2020). We’re never lost if we can find each other. [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWwVFywBCeY

Facebook: What is Facebook? (n.d.). GCFGlobal.org. https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/facebook101/what-is-facebook/1/#

Jollibee. (2021). History and Milestones. Jollibee Foods Corporation - Jollibee Group. https://jollibeegroup.com/history-milestones/

Jollibee Studios. (2020). Jollibee, Sarap Kasama ang Pamilya [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-kdKPPCjfk

[sseeeeedd]

The weirdest advertisement that took social media by storm last 2020

The weirdest advertisement that took social media by storm last 2020—RC Cola’s Nyahahakbkxjbcjhishdishlsab@!!!!  Basta RC Cola!  This commercial was released last November 26, 2020 by RC Cola, a soft drinks manufacturing brand.  Through its bizarre theme, the advertisement penetrated Philippine pop culture, gaining many reactions from netizens.  The story is about a son who has just returned home from school after being bullied and confronts his mother about whether he was adopted.  Similar to typical dramatic Filipino teleseryes or television soap operas, the exchange of dialogue becomes emotional.  That is, until the son lifted his shirt, showing off the four glasses that were affixed to his back.  “Matagal na naming itinago ito sa’yo anak (we hid this from you for a long time, son),” classic emotional line; however, instead of crying, you will be surprised as the mother then shows off what seems to be her severed body with an RC Cola bottle protruding from the neck.  She then continues by pouring the RC Cola into the glasses randomly.

In an interview by Contagious with Jake Yrastorza, Managing Partner of Gigil—the ad's creator, he stated that the ad aimed to differentiate RC Cola from other brands in the minds of younger generations, specifically Gen Z's.  Since Gen Z's tend to 'live in the moment,' they do not need reasons to act on something.  With this, the creators of this commercial adopted that mentality and made the brand embody it, making RC Cola a reflection of their consumers (Contagious, 2021).  The audience may not benefit from the product being advertised to them since excessive drinking of soft drinks can be harmful, particularly to older people, and may increase one's risk of having Type 2 diabetes (WebMD Editorial Contributors, 2020).  However, analyzing the actual message the advertisement wanted to convey, we can notice parallels to our everyday life, including self-doubt, unwavering acceptance, love, truth, family, and spending time with the ones we cherish.

RC Cola's advertisement emphasizes a good marketing strategy rather than a way to manipulate the media.  The manufacturing brand is aware that their market is continuously evolving; therefore, they have to keep up and think of a way to convey its message creatively and effectively, and they did not disappoint!  With its absurd title and theme, the company was able to take the internet by storm and receive a mix of emotions from netizens on different social media platforms.  This can be observed in the ad's performance six hours after its launch, earning approximately 1.6 million views, and within 24 hours, it had 130,000 shares and 203 reactions, becoming a top-trending topic on Twitter.  Today, it has more than 10 million views (Diaz, 2020).  Since this kind of commercial has blown up, several local brands have been incorporating weird themes.  An example is a commercial from Julie's Bakeshop entitled "Harina is Shaking sa Newest Film for Julie's 40th Year Anniversary!" which featured a dough of bread having eyes and being able to speak.

References

Diaz, A.-C. (2020, December 11). This is the Weirdest Ad we’ve Seen All Year. Ad Age. https://adage.com/creativity/work/rc-cola-basta-rc-cola/2300386

Nyahahakbkxjbcjhishdishlsab@!!!! Basta RC Cola! (2020). [YouTube Advertisement]. In YouTube. RC Cola. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXWj5BK7evM

The Strategy Behind RC Cola’s Basta Campaign in the Philippines. (2021, July 20). Contagious. https://www.contagious.com/news-and-views/insight-and-strategy-behind-rc-cola-Filipino-advertising-campaign

WebMD Editorial Contributors. (2020, October 22). Drinking Cola: Is it Good for You? WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/diet/drinking-cola-good-for-you#:~:text=Even%20one%20or%20two%20colas

[thedailydigestcmc]

Nadine Lustre: The Icon Who Redefined Stardom

Few names in Philippine entertainment are as impactful and enduring as Nadine Lustre. She is a trailblazer, style icon, and multi-talented artist who has captured the hearts of many with her authenticity, fierce individuality, and groundbreaking work.

From Girl Next Door to Box Office Queen

Nadine’s journey to superstardom began humbly, with early roles in teen shows and her membership in the girl group Pop Girls. However, it was her breakout role in the 2014 hit Diary ng Panget that catapulted her into the limelight. With her on-screen chemistry alongside James Reid, she quickly became a favorite in romantic comedies, further solidified by their partnership in the immensely popular On the Wings of Love.

Yet, what set Nadine apart from her peers was not just her undeniable acting chops or her girl-next-door appeal; it was her willingness to evolve. As she moved from rom-com sweetheart to dramatic actress in films like Never Not Love You and Ulan, Nadine showcased an emotional depth and maturity that cemented her as a force to be reckoned with in Philippine cinema. Her transformation was more than a reinvention—it was an artistic reawakening.

The Rise of a Multi-Hyphenate Artist

Acting was just one facet of Nadine’s expansive talents. Her venture into music took her popularity to new heights. In 2020, she released her first full-length album, Wildest Dreams, which was an introspective, ethereal dive into her thoughts and experiences. The album’s unique mix of electro-pop beats and poetic lyricism was a far cry from the mainstream sound that dominated Philippine pop, showing once again that Nadine wasn’t afraid to break the mold.

Her music, just like her acting, was deeply personal. It spoke of self-love, healing, and empowerment, and resonated with her fans, who saw in Nadine not just a star, but a role model who wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable.

Fashion and Advocacy: A Style Icon with Substance

Nadine’s influence extends beyond entertainment. She has become a fashion icon known for her fearless approach to style, often experimenting with bold, edgy looks that challenge conventional beauty standards in the Philippines. Her collaborations with major brands like H&M, where she launched her own swimwear line, cemented her position as a trendsetter.

But it’s her authenticity that sets her apart. Unlike many celebrities, Nadine isn’t afraid to speak her mind or showcase her true self, even when it means going against the grain. She is known for her unfiltered social media posts, her advocacy for mental health, and her dedication to environmental causes. Nadine frequently speaks out about the importance of caring for the environment, especially the Philippines’ fragile natural resources.

Breaking the Stereotypes, Inspiring a Generation

More than just an actress or singer, Nadine Lustre represents the modern Filipina—strong, independent, and unapologetically herself. She has broken countless stereotypes about what it means to be a female celebrity in the Philippines, proving that you don’t have to conform to traditional standards of beauty or behavior to succeed.

Her journey—from a teenage dreamer to an empowered artist and advocate—has inspired a generation of young Filipinos to embrace who they are and to chase their dreams, no matter how unconventional.

The Future Is Bright

As Nadine continues to push boundaries, it’s clear that her story is far from over. Whether through her music, acting, or advocacy, Nadine Lustre is an artist who refuses to be boxed in, and that’s exactly why she remains at the top of her game. Whatever she does next, one thing is certain—she will do it on her own terms, and the world will be watching.

In a time when authenticity is rare, Nadine Lustre stands as a shining example of what happens when talent meets courage.

Non-fiction Writing // Shekinah Grace Dinagsao

Image From Nadine Lustre's IG

The Daily Digest

[delaneegail]

Blog Post 4

Primary Sources

Da Vinci, Leonardo. Mona, Lisa. 1503, painting. Louvre Museum, Paris

"Sarah Geronimo Accepts Global Force of the Philippines | Billboard Women In Music 2024." Billboard, 8 Mar. 2024, www.billboard.com/video/sarah-geronimo-global-force-of-the-philippines-billboard-women-in-music-2024/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.

Twice. “One Spark.” With Youth, Republic Records, 2024, track 2, Spotify, open.spotify.com/track/7cIn67LEvk16v6komC8znS?si=dab6cd97399a43e4

Secondary Sources

Cragg, Michael. "Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter review – Takes Country Music by Its Plaid Collar and Sets It on Fire." The Guardian, 6 Apr. 2024, www.theguardian.com/music/2024/apr/06/beyonce-cowboy-carter-review-country-music-album. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.

Korda, Holly, and Zena Itani. “Harnessing Social Media for Health Promotion and Behavior Change.” Health Promotion Practice, vol. 14, no. 1, 2013, pp. 15–23. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26740853. Accessed 8 Apr. 2024.

Venkataraman, BIna. "Why So Much Fuss About An Eclipse?" The Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2024, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/02/eclipse-path-of-totality-fuss/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.

References from an article from Wikipedia: Mulan (1998 Film)

All of the sources listed below are secondary sources from the wikipedia page about Mulan

Belz, Aaron. "The Maker of Mulan's Mushu Speaks." The Curator, 11 Mar. 2013, www.curatormagazine.com/aaronbelz/the-maker-of-mulans-mushu-speaks/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.

D'Alessandro, Anthony. "'Mulan' Going On Disney+ and Theaters In September; CEO Bob Chapek Says Decision Is 'One-Off', Not New Windows Model." Deadline, 4 Aug. 2020, deadline.com/2020/08/mulan-new-release-date-disney-earnings-call-1203003942/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.

Gray, Tim. "Disney Puts on a Glitzy 'Lion' Show." Variety, 17 Mar. 1994, variety.com/1994/film/news/disney-puts-on-a-glitzy-lion-show-119347/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2024.

[shanevdreads]

BLOG

ThirstyThought by Kryz Uy

ThirstyThought is a blog managed and made by Kryz Uy–an influencer who blogs about her life, fashion styles, travel, beauty discoveries, inspirations and interesting chronicles. It began as a school project in 2009, when Kryz wrote about random things she felt would make other people laugh.  In a particularly momentous blog post, Kryz shares an exciting milestone in her life along with her growing family: the journey to their new home, Skypod. With her signature storytelling style, she invites readers to experience the thrill and joy of this significant step in her and her husband's lives. Through ThirstyThought, Kryz Uy invites readers to join her on an inspiring and delightful journey of style, wanderlust, and heartfelt experiences.

TEXT-TALK FICTION

Better than Fiction by Beeyotch

Better than Fiction is a chat-fic novel written by a Filipino Wattpad author–Beeyotch and was published under POP Fiction in 2017. This captivating novel is divided into three distinct parts, each featuring a different storyline that unfolds through a series of text messages and chats. Through the unique format of chat fiction or text-talk fiction, readers are immersed in a dynamic and fast-paced narrative that mirrors contemporary communication styles. Beeyotch's skillful storytelling brings the characters and their stories to life, creating an interactive reading experience that is both entertaining and relatable. "Better than Fiction" offers a refreshing and modern take on storytelling, capturing the essence of digital communication in a way that keeps readers eagerly turning the pages.

HYPER POETRY

Three Faces, One Intention by Renee Chua

Three Faces, One Intention is written by then 16-year-old Renee Chua, a Chinese-Filipino poet who was eager to discover more about the Philippines and the opportunities it may offer. Her Hyper poetry was published in August 2016, via her own page at wordpress.com. The poem has three parts, hence the three faces in the title to which implies the poem's primary point to a condemnation of hypocrisy and corruption within specific levels of power. It emphasizes the contrast between the noble ideals associated with serving one's country and the reality of individuals abusing their positions for personal gain and inflicting harm to the community they are supposed to uphold. In order to address and rectify the situation, the poem pleads for justice and a community acknowledgement of these injustices.

CHICK LITERATURE

Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones Diary is a 1996 novel written by Helen Fielding who is now a novelist and a screenwriter in London and Los Angeles. The novel is written in the form of a personal diary which chronicles a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single working woman living in London. It tells the story of how Bridget navigates the difficulties of dating, weight loss, and her frequently hectic social life through her funny experiences. The novel is a renowned and timeless piece of contemporary literature because it depicts a modern woman's journey towards self-acceptance and personal progress in a relevant and funny manner. It has a film adaptation which was released in 2001, and the novel won multiple awards.

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Emily Henry writes an excellent and poignant novel set over a summer at the beach. Beach Read was published in 2020 and was listed in the Indie Next List for June 2020. The plot revolves around January Andrews, a bestselling romance author who is experiencing a slump in her writing career as a result of a series of personal and professional problems. Augustus Everett, her college nemesis and literary fiction novelist, ends up living next door to her. They go on a journey of self-discovery, healing, and surprising romance after agreeing to switch genres and challenge each other to write something fresh. Despite exploring themes of grief and personal growth, the novel retains a light and entertaining tone, making it an ideal summer read.

References:

About. (2021, August 4). Thirstythought. https://www.kryzuy.com/about/

Better Than Fiction. (n.d.). Google Books. https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=yN5WEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=twopage&q&f=true

Give It Up. (2021, August 20). Flash Fiction Online. https://www.flashfictiononline.com/article/give-it-up/

Goodreads. (n.d.). Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52867387-beach-read

renee chua - Bing. (n.d.). Bing. https://www.bing.com/search?pglt=41&q=renee+chua&cvid=e857469f4f07421784acdb96188cab8c&aqs=edge..69i57j0l7j69i65.1642j0j1&FORM=ANNTA1&DAF1=1&PC=LCTS

The Baguio We Know. (n.d.). Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7686475-the-baguio-we-know

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich (A Graphic. . .. (n.d.). Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60656848-the-princess-and-the-grilled-cheese-sandwich

Wikipedia contributors. (2022a). Bridget Jones’s Diary (novel). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Jones%27s_Diary_(novel)

Wikipedia contributors. (2022b). So Cute it Hurts!! Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Cute_it_Hurts!!

Wikipedia contributors. (2023). The Giver. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver

[hairstyleforteen]

How much did Emily in Paris cost?

How Much Did Emily in Paris Cost? As a fan of the hit Netflix show Emily in Paris, I'm sure you've been wondering how much it cost to make the show. After all, it's one of the most popular shows on the streaming service, and it's easy to see why. From the stunning Parisian locations to the beautiful costumes, Emily in Paris is a feast for the eyes. But how much did it cost to make this show? Well, the answer isn't as straightforward as you might think. The cost of producing a show like Emily in Paris is dependent on a variety of factors, including the budget, the cast and crew, and the locations. The Budget The budget for Emily in Paris was estimated to be around $60 million. This is a significant amount of money, but it's not unheard of for a show of this caliber. In fact, it's on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to the cost of producing a show. The Cast and Crew The cast and crew of Emily in Paris are some of the best in the business. The show stars Lily Collins as Emily, and she is joined by an impressive ensemble cast that includes Ashley Park, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Lucas Bravo, and Samuel Arnold. The crew behind the show is equally impressive. The show was created by Darren Star, who is best known for creating the hit show Sex and the City. The show is also executive produced by Tony Hernandez, who has worked on shows like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Transparent. The Locations The locations for Emily in Paris are some of the most beautiful in the world. The show was filmed in Paris, France, and the crew took advantage of the city's stunning architecture and iconic landmarks. The show also filmed in other locations around the world, including London, England and Prague, Czech Republic. These locations added to the show's production costs, but they also added to the show's visual appeal. The Final Cost When all is said and done, the cost of producing Emily in Paris is estimated to be around $80 million. This is a significant amount of money, but it's not unheard of for a show of this caliber. FAQs How much did Emily in Paris cost to make? The cost of producing Emily in Paris is estimated to be around $80 million. Who created Emily in Paris? Emily in Paris was created by Darren Star, who is best known for creating the hit show Sex and the City. Darren Star is a highly acclaimed American television producer, writer, and director. He has been in the entertainment industry for over three decades and is best known for creating some of the most popular TV shows of all time. One of his biggest successes was the hit show Sex and the City, which ran from 1998 to 2004. The show, which starred Sarah Jessica Parker, became a cultural phenomenon and was praised for its portrayal of female friendships and sexuality.In addition to Sex and the City, Darren Star has created several other successful TV shows, including Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, and Younger. He has won numerous awards for his work, including four Golden Globe nominations and two Primetime Emmy nominations.Emily in Paris is one of Darren Star's latest creations, which was released on Netflix in 2020. The show follows the story of Emily Cooper, a young American woman who moves to Paris to work in a marketing firm. The show has received mixed reviews, with some critics praising its lighthearted and entertaining storyline, while others have criticized its unrealistic portrayal of Parisian life.Despite the mixed reviews, Emily in Paris has become a popular show among viewers and has been renewed for a second season. Darren Star's ability to create engaging and relatable content has made him one of the most sought-after TV producers in the industry, and his legacy continues to inspire new generations of writers and creators. Where was Emily in Paris filmed? Emily in Paris was filmed in Paris, France, and other locations around the world, including London, England and Prague, Czech Republic. Read the full article

[beadiola]

Sama-sama sa Distansya | #SafeAtHome (Globe Ph)

It has been difficult to deal with COVID-19 in the Philippines. The number of COVID-19 cases in the country has significantly increased, especially in the National Capital Region and neighboring provinces, which has left the healthcare system overburdened, with a lack of hospital beds, oxygen, and medical personnel, as well as a high fatality rate. The Philippine government put in place a number of controls to stop the virus's spread, including travel restrictions, quarantine procedures, and social isolation measures. To control the movement of people and slow the spread of the virus, the government enacted a nationwide lockdown in March 2020. This lockdown lasted for several months. The number of COVID-19 cases in the nation increased throughout 2020 despite these attempts. The Philippines recorded its highest daily increase in COVID-19 cases on August 10, 2020, with 6,958 new cases. The total number of confirmed cases in the country reached 1 million on April 26, 2021, with 17,411 deaths reported.

Numerous businesses were forced to close as a result of the pandemic, and many people lost their jobs as a result. To aid organizations and people impacted by the pandemic, the government put in place a number of economic boosting initiatives: schools and institutions in the Philippines were closed for several months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to maintain education, the government put in place remote learning programs like online classes and printed modules.

The “Sama-sama sa Distansya | #SafeAtHome” advertisement of Globe Ph was released on the 17th of April 2020. It showcases that although people might be far from their loved ones due to social distancing, they are still “closer, stronger, and together.” The phrase in the advertisement, “Magkalayo, kasi close tayo” depicts the sacrifice and the need to reduce physical interaction to protect their families and friends, which is the situation of most people during the peak of COVID-19. The Advertised Globe Load App and Network aid people’s bereavement and worries because, through this, they are now able to access communication and be closer online with their loved ones, although they are distanced from one another.

On the other hand, this video advertisement has captured the attention of millions of viewers due to the fact that they relate to people’s grievances, experiences, and circumstances during COVID-19. It showcases to the world that these same people are physically distanced but never mentally and emotionally.

Globe Ph. (2020, April 18). Heartwarming Globe Digital Film Shares Message of Hope and Connection Amid Isolation. https://www.globe.com.ph/about-us/newsroom/corporate/connection-amid-isolation.html#gref

Heartwarming Globe digital film shares message of hope and connection amid isolation | Inquirer Entertainment. (2020, April 21). INQUIRER.net. https://entertainment.inquirer.net/372256/heartwarming-globe-digital-film-shares-message-of-hope-and-connection-amid-isolation

A brief history of Covid-19 in the Philippines. (2022, December 13). Manila Bulletin. https://mb.com.ph/2022/12/13/a-brief-history-of-covid-19-in-the-philippines/

[brookston]

Holidays 4.8

Holidays

Aerosol Day

Baghdad Liberation Day (Kurdistan)

Colorism Awareness Day

Counter Stool Memorial Day

Cushing’s Disease Awareness Day

DAB Day (Draw A Bird Day)

Day of Silence

Day of Valor (Araw ng Kagtingan; Philippines) 

Dog Farting Awareness Day

Draw a Picture of a Bird Day

Geranium Day (England)

Grand Ivy Day

Grand National Ladies Day (UK)

Hammerin’ Hank Day

International Bird Day

International Day of Pink

International Feng Shui Awareness Day

International Pageant Day

International Romani Day (a.k.a. International Day of the Roma)

Martyrs’ Day (Tunisia)

Milk

More Cowbell Day

Mule Day

National All is Ours Day

National Arcade Day

National Best in the World Day

National Catch and Release Day

National Dog Fighting Awareness Day

National Pygmy Hippo Day

Peanuts-Kids-Baseball Day

Polling Day Eve (Samoa)

Pygmy Hippo Day

Rex Manning Day

Rumenians’ Independence Day (Sweden)

Sealing the Frost (Cuchumatan Indians; Guatemala)

Shiba Inu Day (Japan)

Step into the Spotlight! Day

Trading Cards for Grown-Ups Day

Tutor Appreciation Day

Twin Peaks Day

World Mixed Martial Arts Day

World Neurosurgeon’s Day

Zoo Lovers' Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Milk in Glass Bottles Day

National Bass Day (UK)

National Empañada Day

2nd Saturday in April

Baby Massage Day [2nd Saturday]

Global Day to End Child Sexual Abuse [2nd Saturday]

Slow Art Day [2nd Saturday]

World Circus Day [2nd Saturday]

Independence Days

Australis (a.k.a. Grand Duchy of Australis; Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Ædesius (Christian; Martyr)

Anne Ayres (Episcopal Church (USA))

Apollonius (Positivist; Saint)

B. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem (Christian; Saint)

Buddha's Birthday (Mahāyāna Buddhists)

Constantina (Christian; Saint)

Cornelius de Heem (Artology)

Day of Amon-Ra (Pagan)

Dionysius of Corinth (Christian; Saint)

Feast of the Hummingbird (Aztec)

Feast of the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law begins (Thelema)

Geronimo Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Hana Matsuri (Flower Festival on Buddha’s Birthday; Japan)

Julie Billiart of Namur (Christian; Saint)

Kanbutsu-e (Buddha’s Birthday; Japan)

Kiki the Rattlesnake (Muppetism)

Nuzzle Quran (Malaysia)

Perpetuus (Christian; Saint)

Red Wine Day (Pastafarian)

Saturday before Easter (a.k.a. ... 

Black Saturday (Philippines)

Easter Saturday (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles)

Holy Saturday

Walter of Pontoise (Christian; Saint)

William Augustus Muhlenberg (Episcopal Church (USA))

Zoo Day (Pastafarian)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Nēmontēmi, Day 4 (of 5) [Aztec unlucky or fasting days, taking place between 4.5-4.18]

Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [19 of 60]

Premieres

All the Old Knives (Film; 2022)

American: The Bill Hicks Story (Documentary Film; 2011)

The Boss (Film; 2016)

The Century, by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster (Book; 1999)

The Clash, by The Clash (Album; 1977)

David and Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell (Book; 2014)

Destitively Bonnaroo, by Dr. John (Album; 1974)

Father Noah’s Ark (Disney Cartoon; 1933)

Fever Pitch (Film; 2005)

From Russia, with Love, by Ian Fleming (Novel; 1957) [James Bond #5]

The Gambler (TV movie; 1980)

Hanna (Film; 2011)

Inspector George Gently (UK TV Series; 2007)

Just Dance, by Lady Gaga (Song; 2008)

Killing Eve (TV Series; 2018)

La Gioconda, by Amiliare Ponchielli (Opera; 1876)

Mr. Right (Film; 2016)

Sea Salts (Disney Cartoon; 1949)

The $64,000 Question (Radio Quiz Show; 1955)

Smash by The Offspring (Album; 1994)

Soul Surfer (Film; 2011)

Toys in the Attic, by Aerosmith (Album; 1975)

Twin Peaks (TV Series; 1990)

The Unusuals (TV Series; 2009)

Where Did Our Love Go, recorded by The Supremes (Song; 1964)

Ye Olden Days (Disney Cartoon; 1933)

Today’s Name Days

Beate, Rose-Marie, Walter (Austria)

Lazar, Lazo (Bulgaria)

Diogen, Dionizije, Klement, Timotej (Croatia)

Ema, Emanuel (Czech Republic)

Janus (Denmark)

Julia, Juuli, Juulika, Lia, Liana, Liane (Estonia)

Suoma, Suometar (Finland)

Julie (France)

Beate, Rose-Marie, Walter (Germany)

Lazaros (Greece)

Dénes (Hungary)

Alberto, Dionigi, Walter (Italy)

Dana, Danute, Dziedra, Edgars, Žanete (Latvia)

Dionizas, Girtautas, Julija, Skirgailė (Lithuania)

Asle, Atle (Norway)

Apolinary, Cezary, Cezaryna, Dionizy, Gawryła, January, Radosław, Sieciesława (Poland)

Agav, Irodion, Lazar, Ruf (Romania)

Alla, Anna (Russia)

Albert (Slovakia)

Amancio, Dionisio, Julia (Spain)

Hemming, Nadja, Tanja (Sweden)

Gillian, Jill, Jillian, Jolyon, Julia, Julian, Juliana, Julianna, Julianne, Julie, Julien, Juliet, Juliette, Julio, Julissa, Julius (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 98 of 2024; 267 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 6 of week 14 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Fearn (Alder) [Day 21 of 28]

Chinese: Second Month 2 (Gui-Mao), Day 18 (Bing-Shen)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 17 Nisan 5783

Islamic: 17 Ramadan 1444

J Cal: 7 Aqua; Sevenday [7 of 30]

Julian: 26 March 2023

Moon: 93%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 14 Archimedes (4th Month) [Apollonius]

Runic Half Month: Ehwaz (Horse) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 20 of 90)

Zodiac: Aries (Day 19 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 4.8

Holidays

Aerosol Day

Baghdad Liberation Day (Kurdistan)

Colorism Awareness Day

Counter Stool Memorial Day

Cushing’s Disease Awareness Day

DAB Day (Draw A Bird Day)

Day of Silence

Day of Valor (Araw ng Kagtingan; Philippines) 

Dog Farting Awareness Day

Draw a Picture of a Bird Day

Geranium Day (England)

Grand Ivy Day

Grand National Ladies Day (UK)

Hammerin’ Hank Day

International Bird Day

International Day of Pink

International Feng Shui Awareness Day

International Pageant Day

International Romani Day (a.k.a. International Day of the Roma)

Martyrs’ Day (Tunisia)

Milk

More Cowbell Day

Mule Day

National All is Ours Day

National Arcade Day

National Best in the World Day

National Catch and Release Day

National Dog Fighting Awareness Day

National Pygmy Hippo Day

Peanuts-Kids-Baseball Day

Polling Day Eve (Samoa)

Pygmy Hippo Day

Rex Manning Day

Rumenians’ Independence Day (Sweden)

Sealing the Frost (Cuchumatan Indians; Guatemala)

Shiba Inu Day (Japan)

Step into the Spotlight! Day

Trading Cards for Grown-Ups Day

Tutor Appreciation Day

Twin Peaks Day

World Mixed Martial Arts Day

World Neurosurgeon’s Day

Zoo Lovers' Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Milk in Glass Bottles Day

National Bass Day (UK)

National Empañada Day

2nd Saturday in April

Baby Massage Day [2nd Saturday]

Global Day to End Child Sexual Abuse [2nd Saturday]

Slow Art Day [2nd Saturday]

World Circus Day [2nd Saturday]

Independence Days

Australis (a.k.a. Grand Duchy of Australis; Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Ædesius (Christian; Martyr)

Anne Ayres (Episcopal Church (USA))

Apollonius (Positivist; Saint)

B. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem (Christian; Saint)

Buddha's Birthday (Mahāyāna Buddhists)

Constantina (Christian; Saint)

Cornelius de Heem (Artology)

Day of Amon-Ra (Pagan)

Dionysius of Corinth (Christian; Saint)

Feast of the Hummingbird (Aztec)

Feast of the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law begins (Thelema)

Geronimo Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Hana Matsuri (Flower Festival on Buddha’s Birthday; Japan)

Julie Billiart of Namur (Christian; Saint)

Kanbutsu-e (Buddha’s Birthday; Japan)

Kiki the Rattlesnake (Muppetism)

Nuzzle Quran (Malaysia)

Perpetuus (Christian; Saint)

Red Wine Day (Pastafarian)

Saturday before Easter (a.k.a. ... 

Black Saturday (Philippines)

Easter Saturday (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles)

Holy Saturday

Walter of Pontoise (Christian; Saint)

William Augustus Muhlenberg (Episcopal Church (USA))

Zoo Day (Pastafarian)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Nēmontēmi, Day 4 (of 5) [Aztec unlucky or fasting days, taking place between 4.5-4.18]

Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [19 of 60]

Premieres

All the Old Knives (Film; 2022)

American: The Bill Hicks Story (Documentary Film; 2011)

The Boss (Film; 2016)

The Century, by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster (Book; 1999)

The Clash, by The Clash (Album; 1977)

David and Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell (Book; 2014)

Destitively Bonnaroo, by Dr. John (Album; 1974)

Father Noah’s Ark (Disney Cartoon; 1933)

Fever Pitch (Film; 2005)

From Russia, with Love, by Ian Fleming (Novel; 1957) [James Bond #5]

The Gambler (TV movie; 1980)

Hanna (Film; 2011)

Inspector George Gently (UK TV Series; 2007)

Just Dance, by Lady Gaga (Song; 2008)

Killing Eve (TV Series; 2018)

La Gioconda, by Amiliare Ponchielli (Opera; 1876)

Mr. Right (Film; 2016)

Sea Salts (Disney Cartoon; 1949)

The $64,000 Question (Radio Quiz Show; 1955)

Smash by The Offspring (Album; 1994)

Soul Surfer (Film; 2011)

Toys in the Attic, by Aerosmith (Album; 1975)

Twin Peaks (TV Series; 1990)

The Unusuals (TV Series; 2009)

Where Did Our Love Go, recorded by The Supremes (Song; 1964)

Ye Olden Days (Disney Cartoon; 1933)

Today’s Name Days

Beate, Rose-Marie, Walter (Austria)

Lazar, Lazo (Bulgaria)

Diogen, Dionizije, Klement, Timotej (Croatia)

Ema, Emanuel (Czech Republic)

Janus (Denmark)

Julia, Juuli, Juulika, Lia, Liana, Liane (Estonia)

Suoma, Suometar (Finland)

Julie (France)

Beate, Rose-Marie, Walter (Germany)

Lazaros (Greece)

Dénes (Hungary)

Alberto, Dionigi, Walter (Italy)

Dana, Danute, Dziedra, Edgars, Žanete (Latvia)

Dionizas, Girtautas, Julija, Skirgailė (Lithuania)

Asle, Atle (Norway)

Apolinary, Cezary, Cezaryna, Dionizy, Gawryła, January, Radosław, Sieciesława (Poland)

Agav, Irodion, Lazar, Ruf (Romania)

Alla, Anna (Russia)

Albert (Slovakia)

Amancio, Dionisio, Julia (Spain)

Hemming, Nadja, Tanja (Sweden)

Gillian, Jill, Jillian, Jolyon, Julia, Julian, Juliana, Julianna, Julianne, Julie, Julien, Juliet, Juliette, Julio, Julissa, Julius (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 98 of 2024; 267 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 6 of week 14 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Fearn (Alder) [Day 21 of 28]

Chinese: Second Month 2 (Gui-Mao), Day 18 (Bing-Shen)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 17 Nisan 5783

Islamic: 17 Ramadan 1444

J Cal: 7 Aqua; Sevenday [7 of 30]

Julian: 26 March 2023

Moon: 93%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 14 Archimedes (4th Month) [Apollonius]

Runic Half Month: Ehwaz (Horse) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 20 of 90)

Zodiac: Aries (Day 19 of 30)

[king-galaxius]

New 2020 Philippine Film Release: Love Or Money

Movie: Love Or Money

Release: 4/11/2020

Director: Mae Cruz-Alviar

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Cast: Angelica Panganiban, Coco Martin

Production Company: Star Cinema

Reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Philippine_films_of_2020

[viollentine]

"𝑰'𝒎, 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆, 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒄𝒖𝒕𝒆. 𝑰 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒛𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒏. 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈."

𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐒𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐚𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚 𝐀𝐊𝐀 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲

Bretman Rock was born on 31st July 1998 in the Sanchez-Mira, Cagayan, Philippines, in an Ilocano family. Rock moved to Hawaii at the age of seven and played sports while growing up including baseball, soccer, cross-country, and volleyball. At Campbell High School, Rock was on the track team.

Rock began his social media career in 2011 by joining Twitter and launching his YouTube account. However, he just began making YouTube videos in 2015. Talia Joy, a fellow YouTuber who suffered through cancer, inspired him. He decided to start making films and began applying full-face makeup. Rock was first chastised for his looks, but this just served to encourage him.

Rock's main objective is to urge his audience to accept their uniqueness. He also started sharing videos on the famous app Vine. These little, 6-second movies perfectly captured Rock's sense of humor and endearing nature. He makes make-up lesson videos on YouTube, such as "How to Do Your Eyebrows" and "How to Contour." Rock presently has over 6 million Instagram followers and over a million YouTube subscribers.

Time magazine named him one of the 30 Most Influential Teens of 2017. In 2018, he was also included to Forbes' "30 Under 30 Asia – Media, Marketing, & Advertising" list.

In June 2019, Rock graced the cover of Gay Times during Pride Month. Rock attended his first New York Fashion Week in September 2019, when he teamed with stylist Andrew Gelwicks.

Rock played the role of "The Playboy" in the ten-episode fourth season of the YouTube Premium web series Escape the Night, released in July 2019. In December 2019, MTV announced that Rock would be the star of the next season of the YouTube show, No Filter.

Rock's beauty line, created in conjunction with Wet n Wild Cosmetics, will be released in early 2020. To promote the line, he held a press tour in Los Angeles in February 2020 with businesses such as Buzzfeed, Condé Nast, Hearst, and others.

Rock featured as a guest star on the third episode of James Charles' YouTube Originals series "Instant Influencer" on May 9, 2020. Rock will unveil his eyewear collection, primarily sunglasses, in November 2020 in conjunction with Dime Optics, a Los Angeles-based firm. He released six frames, four of which were only available at Dime Optics and two of which were only available at Revolve.

On May 14, 2021, Rock appeared with other online personalities in Bella Poarch's music video for her first track, "Build a Bitch." Rock was nominated for an MTV Movie and TV Award in the Breakthrough Social Star category in June 2021. On the day of the event, he was named as the winner.

Rock makes a surprise appearance in the music video for Sub Urban and Bella Poarch's song "INFERNO" in August 2021.. He also took part in a live webcast promoting the video.

Rock became the first openly homosexual guy to appear on the cover of Playboy magazine in October 2021.

Bretman Rock really entertained me. She thought me on how to do my makeup, she always gives us the smile and entertainment with her family. Also, the MTV show also displayed her vulnerable side. She told us that being unique is what makes us human and we should always value ourselves.

[usafphantom2]

USAF: RQ-180 stealth combat drone officially presented?

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 12/02/2021 - 19:27 in Military, UAV - UAV

RQ-180 rendering.

RQ-180 rendering.

In a recently released video, the United States Air Force (USAF) revealed what may be the most important combat drone of its generation: the RQ-180 "White Bat".

If the concept of stealth was widely explored in the United States for strategic bombers such as Northtop's B-2A Spirit or Lockheed Martin's F-117, as well as for fighters such as the F-22, the first drones put into service around the 2000s had to be mainly rustic and allow a good stay in the area.

Flying wing concept presented by USAF for the first time operationally with the B-2 Spirit.

The second generation of drones needed to have standards closer to the stolen devices piloted, in particular with the J-UCAS (Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems) project launched in late 2003 with the aim of developing a common drone for the United States Navy and Air Force. It resulted in the development of the Boeing X-45 and Northrop Grumman X-47, technological bases of stealth drones currently in use, starting with the RQ-170 "Sentinel", a 20-meter flying wing developed to provide assistance and support to ground troops in reconnaissance and surveillance missions, the existence of which was not recognized until 2009.

Drone RQ-170 Sentinel, known as "Kanahar Beast".

In late 2011, the "Sentinel" device was at the center of an incident between Iran and the United States: during a mission to observe Iranian nuclear facilities for the benefit of the CIA, the drone was shot down and its wreckage recovered. Iran is said to have carried out reverse engineering work to develop and produce the Saegheh drone, very similar in its forms to the RQ-170, but which would also have included some of its components, as well as its internal architecture, information provided by Israel that had the opportunity to cut and study a copy.

Iranian Drone Saegheh.

In 2008, Northrop Grumman signed a $2 billion contract with the Pentagon to develop a new generation stealth drone dedicated to ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) missions in hostile environments and capable of participating in electronic warfare missions. Until now, without much information about the device, even its RQ-180 designation was only a logical and unofficial extension of the RQ-170.

However, some leaked images allowed you to get an idea of their shapes, the first having been taken about Zone 51 in the USA (images below) before obtaining a much more accurate image in November 2020, and the last in the Philippines last September (pictured below). This last observation also proves that the device is really operational.

The first image of the RQ-180, captured over Zone 51 and over long distance, does not provide information (Photo: Dreamland Resort)

Belonging to the HALE (long and high altitude resistance) drone class, the RQ-180 would exhibit an autonomy of approximately 36 hours, a double propulsion system with dorsal air intake and a cell strongly similar to that of the tailless X-47B.

First image taken of an RQ-180 outside the US, here in the Philippines, at the end of October 2020. This image was the most accurate available so far.

In the promotional film released in late November 2021 (belower) by the Profession of Arms Center of Excellence, the USAF reveals the first pseudo-official images of what could be the RQ-180, nicknamed the "White Bat".

Logo of the new reconnaissance squadron activated by the USAF, showing a white bat, alluding to the RQ-180 "White Bat".

In 2019, the USAF recreated the 74th Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale Air Base (California), with a badge representing a white bat.

The shapes of the White Bat can also be a sample of the B-21 Raider stealth bombers, the USAF secretary said last September that five jets were at different stages of production at Northrop Grumman's factories, with in-flight tests scheduled to start next year. With the 6th generation NGAD fighter, whose first images would have been revealed a few weeks ago (in this dedicated article), the United States would then have the entire flying wing line and Northrop could become the leading American manufacturer in the field.

Captured from the video, a computerized image of the RQ-180.

In addition to the detailed images of the RQ-180, this video also reveals an unknown black plane, which some have identified as the SR-72 hypersonic drone, capable of flying to Mach 6... No confirmation from the U.S. Air Force for now.

Tags: Military AviationDronesRQ-180USAF - United States Air Force / US Air Force

Fernando Valduga

[letterboxd]

Halfway—2021.

Two Filipino indies lead the Letterboxd Top 25 at the 2021 halfway point, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to shake—and reshape—the film industry. Jack Moulton and Gemma Gracewood take stock.

Cleaners, Glenn Barit’s photocopied, hand-colored, stop-motion feature about high schoolers in the northern Philippines city of Tuguegarao, is the highest-rated 2021 film on Letterboxd at the halfway point of the year, with a weighted average of 4.3 out of 5 stars. Ode to Nothing, by Barit’s fellow countrywoman Dwein Baltazar, is in second place, and Shaka King’s two-time Oscar-winner Judas and the Black Messiah rounds out the top three.

Last year was a transition year in many ways: for the world, a pandemic-led move away from cinema screenings to at-home virtual theaters and streaming-first releases; for Letterboxd, a move away from US-led release dates in our annual calculations. This has opened the way for notable films from around the world to be included on our lists far sooner than their oft-delayed American releases (which had resulted in, for example, Brazil’s Bacurau not making the 2019 Letterboxd Year in Review).

Both of these factors help to explain why we have two Filipino independent features leading our midway Top 25. “Cleaners and Ode to Nothing are exactly the kind of small Filipino films that would have struggled to get national distribution in theaters in the before times, despite the buzz that they garnered,” writes Manila-based film critic Philbert Dy in his companion essay to the Top 25, in which he explains how the Philippines’ particularly long and harsh Covid lockdown has “led to smaller, quirkier films being made accessible to more Filipinos, whose consumption of cinema were once beholden to the whims of conglomerate cinema owners”.

‘Cleaners’, written and directed by Glenn Barit.

When we shared the good news with him, a delighted Cleaners director Glenn Barit specifically shouted out his nation’s film lovers: “It is a testament to a vibrant Filipino film community still actively watching and supporting films of our own. Especially with a film like ours set in a small city far from the capital, it is amazing to read in reviews that it resonates with a lot of people (sometimes even outside our country).”

From this year forward, our mid-year rankings include films that have been released in any country, with at least a limited theatrical, streaming or video-on-demand run, and a minimum of 1,000 views on Letterboxd. These new rules allow us to celebrate the love for Katie Found’s lesbian romance My First Summer—released in Australia in March—without having to wait for the US to catch up. It joins indie highlight Shiva Baby, Michael Rianda’s animated hit The Mitchells vs The Machines and Heidi Ewing’s swooning romance, I Carry You With Me, on the Top 25 in putting young, queer characters on the screen.

‘My First Summer’, written and directed by Katie Found.

As expected, many films on the list have suffered pandemic delays. We use premiere dates to mark the year of record for each film, so A Quiet Place Part II will always be attached to its March 2020 red-carpet screening, despite the fourteen-month hibernation that followed. This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection by Mosotho director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese screened at 2019’s Venice Film Festival and had a very long festival run until Mubi picked it up for streaming in the UK this year. The film’s lead, Mary Twala, passed away a year ago, July 4, 2020 (see her also in Beyoncé’s Black is King). Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s Our Friend—one of the eight women-directed films on the list—went to TIFF, London, and AFI before being released this January without screening once in 2020.

More than half of our Top 25 films are directed by BIPOC directors, nearly a dozen of whom are of Asian descent, illuminating a key benefit of the new eligibility system. Challenging the US for the most represented country is India with five films in the list, taking advantage of Amazon’s distribution deal and creating greater accessibility for Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam-language films at home and abroad.

‘Red Post Post on Escher Street’, written and directed by Sion Sono.

Also among the Asian directors making the list are legends Tsai Ming-liang and Sion Sono. Tsai’s Days recently received a limited run in Spain (it will be brought to the US by Grasshopper Films this August), while Sono’s Red Post Post on Escher Street had a quick VOD run in February courtesy of Japan Society Film.

Produced in the US and directed by Japanese-Brazilian Edson Oda, Nine Days qualifies due to an exclusive run at the Singapore arthouse theater The Projector in May—it’ll be released in the US later this month. Finally, Asian American director Jon M. Chu makes the list with his adaptation of Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights. We are also happy to see a couple of Letterboxd members in the halfway 25: Cleaners’ Barit and Chad Hartigan (Little Fish). If you’d like to discover more 2021 releases by our member-filmmakers, we have a list for that.

The Top 25 is, of course, solely made up of narrative feature-length films. On the documentary front, Flee is currently the highest-rated non-fiction feature of 2021. Neon is expected to release the film in the US for an awards run later this year, but it’s eligible now due to a release earlier this month in director Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s homeland of Denmark.

‘Flee’, directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen.

Fellow Sundance Film Festival winner Summer of Soul (or… When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is currently the year’s highest-rated documentary in general, but was 48 hours shy of eligibility for the halfway list, releasing in theaters and on Hulu on July 2. The runners-up are: Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, directed by the notorious football manager’s son; David Attenborough’s The Year Earth Changed, directed by Tom Beard; and rock-docs TINA and (in his doc-directing debut) Edgar Wright’s The Sparks Brothers.

In other categories, It’s a Sin is the highest-rated narrative miniseries at the midway point, Can’t Get You Out of Our Head by Adam Curtis is the highest-rated documentary miniseries, Bo Burnham: Inside is the highest-rated comedy special, Blackpink: The Show is the highest-rated music film, Save Ralph is the highest-rated animated short film, and Four Roads, by Alice Rohrwacher, is the highest-rated live-action short film.

With Cannes underway and more festivals to come, it is still a long road to the 2021 Year in Review for these films—but given the journey most of them have already travelled, it is pleasing to celebrate the filmmakers’ success. Ang galing ninyong lahat!

On top of its meticulously bonkers production process, our highest-ranked film, Cleaners, had a long journey to its first theatrical distribution, and it’s far from over. The film premiered at the QCinema International Film Festival in October 2019, to raves from Filipino Letterboxd members, and it still holds a firm grasp on its high rating nearly two years later. Ultimately, the first non-fest release for Cleaners occurred when Singapore’s Asian Film Archive screened it for a week in April, thus qualifying the film for our 2021 lists.

‘Ode to Nothing’, written, directed and edited by Dwein Baltazar.

Ode to Nothing has been on an even longer journey. The film also debuted at the QCinema Festival, but in 2018, and finally arrived on local streaming services iWantTFC and KTX.PH earlier this year.

Being celebrated by their countryfolk on Letterboxd is one thing, but how can those of us outside the Philippines see these top two films? Perhaps we need to give our local distributors a nudge. As Cleaners director Barit explains: “We are a team of three first-time filmmakers and producers. We are still learning the ropes of film distribution and marketing—and it’s been very hard. I just want to shamelessly say that our doors are wide open for distribution and acquisition; we are not yet available on any streaming platforms locally or internationally [winks nervously].”

See the Halfway 2021 list on Letterboxd and watch the Top 10 countdown on YouTube

Follow Jack and Gemma on Letterboxd

[its-bound-to-get-loud]

Michael Clifford hair timeline

As some of you might know, this blog started from the frustration of missing certain things in the 5SOS fandom. I’m a 1D fan, I’m used to seeing masterposts about anything and everything. That’s very much not the case in the 5SOS fandom. So I figured, if it’s not here, I might as well go and do it myself. A while back I came to the conclusion there doesn’t seem to be a proper detailed timeline of Michael’s hair journey. So of course, I decided to make one. I heavily underestimated the amount of time this would cost, but I (mostly) had fun making this. So, now I would like to present you with the finished result. It should have every hair color ever in here, but if I somehow missed something or got something wrong, please let me know. I’ve tried my best to be as thorough as possible, but I only became a fan in 2020 and basically had to work my way through 5SOS history for this.

I used Michael’s instagram as a guide and filled in the gaps with interviews, tour diaries, etc. Thankfully he documented most of his hair changes on instagram, which made my job a little easier. So let’s get going!

I have combined 4 pictures into a collage, to prevent having to post close to 50 pictures below each other. The order of every collage is left to right, top to bottom.

So we start with Michael’s natural hair color,. This is a picture I found on Google, I have no idea about the exact date. But this is his natural hair before he started dying it. The next picture is the very first time he dyed his hair, this was a red-ish brown. This picture was posted on January 2 2013. Then later on in the same month he decided to dye his hair darker, to a chocolate brown, which he posted a picture of on January 27. His first bold color happens about a month later. On March 30 2013 he posted this picture of himself with dark blue hair and some lighter blue highlights in his fringe.

The next change comes June 19 2013. When the blue has been mostly removed, you can tell there’s some blue left in the fringe from the highlights, and the rest of his hair still has a blue-green tinge to it. This picture is a screenshot from the 5SOS vs. food video, Michael did post a picture of it on instagram captioned: “when I went blonde for a day”, but the color of that one is quite saturated. So is a better representation. After that, we move on to galaxy hair! The first picture with this hair was posted on instagram on June 19 2013. I thought this was a separate color from the 3rd picture in this collage, but it’s possible it’s the light playing tricks. Picture 3 was posted on June 26, exactly a week after the previous one. On July 6 we move on to the next change, bleach blonde! I think this is the first time he bleached his whole hair. Since the previous color’s were all darker than his own hair, he wouldn’t necessarily have needed bleach. As seen in the first picture of this collage, his hair wasn’t bleached yet. Except for the highlighted fringe. I assume a color removing product was used to get most of the blue dye out, because he said he went blonde “for a day”, which doesn’t indicate fading to me.

The bleach blonde seem to stay for a while, because the next change is almost 3 months later. September 28 2013 brings the reveal of the smurf blue hair. This obviously fades over time, leaving a light, almost pastel blue color as seen in the screenshot I included from their Australia/New Zealand tour diary, opening for One Direction. As October 21 comes around we get a brand new color, bright pink! This faded into a pastel pink as can be seen in the screenshot from this thank you video, posted on November 24.

Up next is reverse skunk, as posted on instagram on November 26 2013. This seems to last a good while, because the next change doesn’t come until 2014, judging by this twitcam from January 18 where the reverse skunk hair is still present. February 10, is when this picture of the purple hair was posted. Moving on to March 21, we get dark red, or maybe dark brown with red highlights, it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly this color is. There is no instagram picture for this one, so I’ve used a screenshot from the 5SOS Livestream to show this one. While writing this I discovered in this video, posted on March 13. where his hair was also this color already. The 4th screenshot from the Don’t Stop video, to demonstrate how long their hair lasted. The video was released May 18 2014. So I’m assuming it was filmed somewhere in (late) April.

The next hair color in line is brown, the picture in this collage was posted to on May 18. However, going back through Michael’s instagram it seems like he already had this color at the start of the There’s No Place Like Home tour in Sydney, on April 30 2014. It’s likely he dyed it right before the start of  tour. The next change comes a little quicker, the earliest I could pinpoint this brown/blonde combo is May 18 at the Billboard music awards 2014. I can’t pinpoint, when exactly he got it done, but I’m assuming it was close before the BBMA’s. Moving on, we’re getting to the iconic green hair era. Again it’s hard to pinpoint when he exactly got it. There’s only 1 picture of it on his instagram, which was uploaded in July. The picture I used is from the Capital Summertime Ball 2014, held on June 21. The website describes it as “his new green hair”. So I’m assuming this is where he debuted it. After green we get this mystery lilac type color. I only found it in this Target Prank video on the 5SOS Youtube channel. Since they are promoting 5SOS1, which was released June 27, 2014, the video can be narrowed down to late June, early July of 2014. That’s as close as I could get it. I even went back to check if maybe they pre-filmed this in february/march and this was the faded purple hair, but the timeline still holds up.

September 1 2014 is when we see a new hair color appear on instagram. For (what appears to be) the video of Good Girls Michael bleached his hair to a white blonde. A better picture is the screenshot from the Good Girls video I included. The next change we see is on September 4 at the 5SOS performance for the iTunes festival 2014. This means that either he bleached his hair a while before September 1 or it was just a transition before the red with the orange undertone. This color fades throughout September judging by the pictures on instagram. I probably should have included one in here, but you can easily find them if you look for them. However on September 29 it seems the color got a refresh, looking nice and bright again.

The first picture in this collage, posted December 17 2014, shows the hair fading again. Then on December 18, at the People Magazine Awards the hair seems refreshed again. It looks to me as if the color has a slightly less orange undertone as well. But that’s hard to determine from 1 picture. The next picture, posted February 4 2015 shows the red has once again faded.  After the red he moves on to this purple color. The first time we see it on instagram is February 18 in a video from the studio. The picture used for illustration was posted on February 27. 

A better view of the violet/purple hair can be seen in the screenshot from the Japan Tour Diaries part 1. In part 2 you can already see the color fading again. The next picture, posted February 28 2015 shows and even more drastic fade, where his hair has turned almost blonde again. Then around March 15 his hair goes fully white blonde again. At the start of the ROWYSO tour in Portugal, May 4, Michael’s hair is still blonde. However 2 days later in Spain, on May 6, he seems to be back to a violet/blue color, like he had previously. 

Then May 24 2015 we move to the next change, (jet) black hair (sorry, it had to be done). On July 16 a touch of color is brought into the hair, with addition of a few colorful streaks in his fringe. right on time for the start of the next leg of the ROWYSO tour that starts in Las Vegas. On July 23 he seems to have added a feather extension in the mix. This may have just been a temporary thing, because I can’t find any further evidence of this beyond the 1 instagram picture. Then August 29 brings a drastic change. From black we move back to blonde.

The blonde seems to last for quite some time. Judging by this performance of Hey Everybody, his hair was still blonde on November 11 2015 (the video was uploaded on the day of the performance, I checked). But then November 22 brings us red hair at the American Music Awards. Judging by other pictures on his instagram this seems to be a more true (less orange) red than in 2014. The red slowly fades, first to a more orange toned color in Bali (picture posted January 2 2016). And eventually it fades all the way to blonde wint a soft hint of red/pink in the 3rd picture, posted January 25 2016. Shortly after he premieres a teal hair color at the G’day USA red carpet on January 28. 

The teal color sticks around for a while, even during the first leg of the SLFL tour. The last I saw of it was on March 12 2016, at the Philippines show. Then in between the Asian and Euopean leg the color changes from teal to brown, as seen at the Sheffield SLFL show on April 5. Then in the break between their last Dublin show (April 27) and their Vienna show (May 12) he bleaches his hair again. After this the era of Michael frequently coloring his hair seems to be done. He stays blonde, at some point he grows it out until only the long parts of his hair are still blonde. As can be seen in this picture posted on October 16 2017. Then at the start of the Meet You There Tour in Japan (August 2 2018) the colored hair makes a brief return with this pink moment. It doesn’t seem to last long however, since I can’t find a lot about it after Japan. So it may have been a temporary thing.

October 9 2018 he posts the first picture in this collage. It’s very possible this is faded pink from the previous picture. Or maybe he dyed it a lighter shade later on. After this the colored hair stops, but we do occasionally get various shades of blonde. The second picture, from November 16 2018, shows a caramel tone to his hair. In the third picture, posted on October 21 2018, we see sort of a dirty blonde. We end this timeline the way we started, back to natural hair. because of quarantine the bleached blonde grew out and eventually disappeared once he cut it. So we have come full circle. We started with natural hair and we are ending it with natural hair. If we get any more changes in the future I will be sure to add them to the timeline.

Finally, a few facts, for fun. 

In total, Michael has had 29 color changes in a span of roughly 8 years.* 

He’s had the most colors in 2013 and 2014 (both years he’s had 8 different colors)

The orange red was the color he had the longest, 150 days to be precise (based on the information available).

* Not counting fades or the “blonde for a day. Since they are part of 1 color or were just used to transition to another color. Also not counting the various shades of bleached blonde in the last collage, since it’s hard to tell if they are actually different, or if it’s light. I did count the transition from blonde to natural.

[dweemeister]

NOTE: This is the third film released theatrically during the COVID-19 pandemic that I am reviewing – I saw Raya and the Last Dragon at the Regency Theatres Directors Cut Cinema’s drive-in operation in Laguna Niguel, California. Because moviegoing carries risks at this time, please remember to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by your local, regional, and national health officials.

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

As Raya and the Last Dragon, directed by Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada and written by Qui Nguyen and Adele Lim, made its theatrical and streaming bow, the United States was grappling with a wave of highly-publicized hate incidents towards Asian-Americans in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This spike in racially-motivated verbal abuse, assaults, and homicides began with the pandemic and, frustratingly, had only been receiving national attention in these last few weeks. Despite the nation’s racist origins entwined with chattel slavery of black people and its continued unequal treatment of minorities including Asian-Americans, I am not qualified to say if the U.S. is “more” or “less racist” than other countries. But I can hardly think of any other people that interrogate racial inequality and oppression as much (and as publicly) as Americans – an undeniable strength. There was no way Raya and the Last Dragon’s cast and crew could have anticipated the film’s fraught timing, but the film provides a much-needed, positive, and heavily flawed, action-adventure romp drawn from Southeast Asian cultures.

The very notion that Walt Disney Animation Studios was attempting to craft a film using an amalgam of Southeast Asian cultures stoked my excitement and dread. Southeast Asian cultures – including, but not limited to, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam – are often lumped into those of East Asia (China, Korea, Japan), which dominate Asian-American depictions or Asian-influenced media in the United States. What gave me pause is that Disney’s track record in films featuring non-European-inspired characters and places inspired by non-European cultures is mixed. Aladdin (1992) and Pocahontas (1995) are aggregations of (and indulge in stereotypes towards) Arabs and indigenous Americans alike, especially in their presentations of “savagery” (Pocahontas in particular is guilty of false equivalences).

Cultural aggregations in fictional settings are not insensitive, per se. Yet, Disney’s stated intentions on this film are undermined by a voice cast ensemble almost entirely composed of actors of Chinese and Korean descent – you can bring up Adele Lim’s response to the voice casting controversy all you want, but her response contradicts the film’s promotion. Amid its gorgeous production and character design, Raya manages to avoid the worst mistakes of its Disney Renaissance predecessors. But its hero’s journey is too cluttered and too littered with the anachronistic and metatextual jokes plaguing the last decade’s Disney animated features.

Five centuries before the events of Raya and the Last Dragon, the land of Kumandra saw its people live in harmony with dragons. That relationship, however, would be devastated by the appearance of the Druun – a swirling, purple vortex that turns living beings into stone. In the conflict against the Druun, the last dragon, Sisu (Awkwafina), makes a fateful sacrifice to save Kumandra by concentrating the dragons’ collective power into a magical orb. Soon after, Kumandra’s five tribes – Fang, Heart, Spine, Tail, and Talon (named after parts of a dragon) – fight amongst each other for control of the orb (Heart eventually gains possession of it), effectively partitioning the land. In the present day, the Heart tribe’s Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) proposes and hosts a feast-summit to discuss and heal Kumandra’s divisions. Benja has taught his daughter, Raya (Kelly Marie Tran), the ways of a warrior and the necessity for Kumandra’s tribes to realize their oneness. At the feast-summit, Raya befriends Namaari (Gemma Chan; Jona Xiao as young Namaari), the daughter of Fang Chief Virana (Sandra Oh). Predictably, Namaari betrays her new friend in an orchestrated ploy to pilfer the dragons’ orb for Fang. Just as the Druun make a surprise invasion of Heart, the botched heist sees the orb break into five, and each of the tribes makes off with part of the orb. It will be up to Raya to recover the other four pieces of the orb, lest Kumandra succumb to the Druun.

The film’s screenplay is, charitably, a mess. Though Qui Nguyen (primarily a playwright) and Adele Lim (2018’s Crazy Rich Asians) are the credited screenwriters, Raya’s phalanx of story credits (mostly full-time, white employees at the Disney studios) suggest studio interference. Raya seems as if it is trying to cleanly differentiate certain tribes as based on a certain Southeast Asian nation. Instead, it comes off as a brew of mish-mashed parts (this problem extends to the otherwise stunning animation). With the exception of those from the militant Fang, the bit characters from the various tribes do not behave any differently from the members of other tribes. The partition of Kumandra, five hundred years before the events of Raya, feels like as if it had never existed for lengthy stretches in this film.

After Kelly Marie Tran, as Raya, narrates the mythology and history of Kumandra in the opening minutes, the film’s structure tethers itself predictably to the monomyth. The fracturing of the dragon’s orb into five parts sends Raya onto a tedious adventure: the physical travel to a new part of Kumandra, introduction of a sidekick (all of them are comic reliefs), an action setpiece involving a necessary assist from new sidekick, and the integration of that sidekick into Raya’s ever-growing party. Lather, rinse, repeat. To squeeze the four other tribes into the film’s 107-minute runtime and set up a climax and resolving actions results in a frantically-paced movie. Almost all of the film’s dialogue is subservient to its structure, the hero’s journey. This disallows the viewer to learn more about our lead and her fellow adventurers. In arguably the most important example in how the dedication to story structure undermines the characters, take Raya’s repeated mentions to her newfound confidants that she has difficulty trusting others. Six years have passed since the day of Namaari’s betrayal and Raya’s discovery of Sisu. How has Raya’s sense of distrust evolved over time, and how does it manifest towards those of other tribes? Does it appear in moments without consequence to her quest, in gusts of casual cruelty? In terms of characterization, Raya is showing too little and telling just the basics – a dynamic that also applies to the film’s most important supporting characters.

Ever since Tangled (2010), the films of the Disney animated canon have increased their use of metatextual and anachronistic humor (e.g. Kristoff’s comment about Anna’s engagement to a person she just met in 2013’s Frozen and Maui’s Twitter joke in 2016’s Moana that still makes me gnash my teeth when I think about it). Invariably, the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has seen its brand of pathos-destroying humor bleed into the Disney animated canon and Star Wars. Like so many films in the Disney animated canon, Raya takes place in a fantastical location in a never-time far removed from the present. From the moment Raya meets Sisu, the circa-2020s humor is ceaseless. For Disney animated movies set in fantastical worlds, this sort of humor suits films that are principally comedies, such as The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) – a work that owes more to Looney Tunes than anything Disney has created. Instead, Raya’s comedy will suit viewers who frequent certain corners of the Internet, “for the memes.” Do Disney’s animation filmmakers believe the adults and children viewing their films so impatient and unintelligent about human emotions? That they will not accept a scene that deals honestly with betrayal, disappointment, heartbreak, or loss unless there is a snide remark or visual gag inserted within said scene or shortly afterward?

Raya seems like a film set to portray its scenarios with the gravity they require. But overusing Awkwafina’s Awkwafina-esque jokes and a DreamWorks- or Illumination Entertainment-inspired infant causing meaningless havoc will subvert whatever emotions Nguyen and Lim are attempting to evoke. These statements are not arguing that Raya and Disney’s animated films should be humorless, that Disney should stop casting an Awkwafina or an Eddie Murphy as comic relief. Instead, Raya is another case study in how Disney’s brand of ultramodern humor is overtaking their films’ integral dramatics. Raya is noisy, clamorous – no different than anything Disney has released in the last decade, save Winnie the Pooh (2011).

Production designers Helen Mingjue Chen, Paul A. Felix, and Cory Loftis have worked on films like Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Big Hero 6 (2014), or Zootopia (2016). Each of these films feature glamorous, near-future metropolises or sleek digital worlds. Where the tribespeople of Kumandra might not be behaviorally-differentiated, the color coding, lighting, and biomes of each of the five lands comprising Kumandra ably distinguishes Fang, Heart, Spine, Tail, and Talon from each other. As if taking cues from the production designs of Big Hero 6’s San Fransokyo and, to some extent, The King and I (1956), it is difficult to pin down specific influences on the clashing architectural styles within the lands, in addition to the unusually empty and cavernous palaces and temples and varying costumes. As picturesque as some of these lands are, the art direction does not help to empower the characteristic of the tribes and their native lands. Nor does James Newton Howard’s thickly-synthesized grind of an action score, which prefers to accompany the film’s excellent combat scenes rather than stake a clearer thematic identity for its own. Howard uses East and Southeast Asian instrumentations and influences in his music, but, disappointingly, they are heavily processed through synthetic elements and are played underneath the film’s sound mix.

Character art directors Shiyoon Kim (Tangled, 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and Ami Thompson (2017’s MFKZ, 2018’s Ralph Breaks the Internet) embrace the (generally) darker and varying skin complexions of Southeast Asian peoples. The skin textures are among the best ever produced in a Disney CGI-animated feature, and the variety of face shapes – although still paling in comparison to the best hand-drawn features – is a pleasure to witness.

The number of films starring actors/voice actors of Asian descent (all-Asian or majority-Asian), animated or otherwise, and released by a major Hollywood studio makes for a brief list. Raya and the Last Dragon joins an exclusive club that includes the likes of The Dragon Painter (1919), Go for Broke! (1951), Flower Drum Song (1961), The Joy Luck Club (1993), and Crazy Rich Asians (2018). Among those movies, Raya is the only entry specifically influenced by Southeast Asian cultures. Its cast may be headlined by Kelly Marie Tran (whose skill as a voice actor is one of the film’s most pleasant surprises), but most of the roles went to those of Chinese or Korean descent. No disrespect intended towards Gemma Chan, Sandra Oh, or veteran actress Lucille Soong, but the majority East Asian cast only serves to further monolithize Asians – as the amalgamated story, plot details, and production design have already done. I will not second-guess any fellow person of Southeast Asian descent if they feel “seen” through Raya. What a compliment that would be for this film. How empowering for that person. But the life experiences of those of East Asian and Southeast Asian descent are markedly different. Disney’s casting decisions in Raya – all in the wake of the disastrous Western and Eastern reception of the live-action Mulan (2020) – have revealed a fundamental lack of effort or understanding about the possibilities of a sincere attempt at representation.

To this classic film buff, the discourse surrounding Raya strikes historical chords. When Flower Drum Song was released to theaters, the film was labeled by the American mainstream as the definitive Asian-American movie. Opening during the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, the film (and the musical it adapts) looked like nothing released by Hollywood (and on Broadway) at that time. In that midcentury era of rising racial consciousness and the lack of opportunities for Asian-Americans in Hollywood, the marking of Flower Drum Song as the absolute pan-Asian celebration was bound to happen – however unfair the distinction. Even though Rodgers and Hammerstein (two white Jewish men who made well-meaning, problematic attempts to craft musicals decrying racial prejudice and social injustices) composed the musical and zero Asian people worked behind the camera, those labels remained. With some differences in who wrote the source material, The Joy Luck Club and Crazy Rich Asians have followed Flower Drum Song’s fate in their categorizations. Will Raya? Time will be the judge, the only judge.

Before time passes judgment, we have some present-day hints. Though not released by major studios, the quick succession of The Farewell (2019) and Minari (2020) point to an experiential specificity that Raya attempts, but never comes close to achieving. Whether through aggregation or specificity, Hollywood benefits from the perspectives of underrepresented groups. Widespread claims that Raya too closely copies Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) reflect that dearth of East Asian and Southeast Asian representation in American media. For too many, ATLA is the Asian fantasy. These simplistic observations and bad-faith criticisms (one could rebuke Disney’s vaguely-European princess films on the same principles, but I find this as lazy as the bad-faith ATLA criticisms) also suggest a lack of understanding that Asian-inspired stories are drawing from similar tropes codified by Asian folklore and narratives centuries old. If one reads through this reviewer’s write-ups, you will find an abiding faith in the major Hollywood studios – past, present, and future – to be artistically daring and to genuinely represent long-excluded persons. Many might see this faith as misplaced. But even in the major studios’ flawed attempts to depict underrepresented groups, like Raya, they concoct astonishing sights and form moving links to the cinematic past.

Assuming you have not skipped to this paragraph, the write-up that you have read may seem scathing to your eyes. Raya is no Disney classic – there has not been one for some time. However, I thoroughly enjoyed my first viewing of Raya. After a few weeks’ worth of keeping my agony private over the recent uproar over attacks on persons of Asian descent in America, it was a surreal experience to see even an amalgamated celebration of Southeast Asian culture. Over this last year, we have lost people and things that emboldened us and ennobled us. In this season of unbelonging and otherizing feelings for Asians in America, Raya’s timing is fortuitous. It is emboldening and ennobling.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[chlorinatedpopsicle]

Some Misogynistic Hate Crimes Against Lesbians / Lesbophobic Hate Crimes or Attacks in the Last Few Years:

(Chile) On July 8, a trial was finally held for the 2019 attempted murder of a 24-year-old out lesbian, more than two years after the attack. The perpetrators have finally been convicted.

Carolina Torres was 24 years old when she was attacked and beaten after 10:00 p.m. on February 13, 2019. At that time, she was holding hands with her girlfriend on the corner of Laguna del Inca and Laguna Sur avenues, in Pudahuel. The attackers started following her and insulted her because of her sexuality and clothing, and then attacked her.

“With the intention of killing her, the defendants approached her, locking her up and positioning herself in such a way that she was defenseless and prevented from starting,” the Western Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office alleged in the trial, which began on June 8 2021, more than two years after the attack.

As a result of the lesbophobic attack, the young woman was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the former Central Post of Santiago with serious injuries: complicated severe head trauma, consisting of a skull fracture , acute left frontotemporal subarachnoid hemorrhage, left frontal contusion, fracture clavicle, in addition to fracture of the bones of the nose.

(USA) A lesbian suffered chemical burns following a homophobic attack outside the Abingdon Home Goods store.

2 June 2021 – Harford County Sheriff’s Office is looking for two suspects in a homophobic assault on a Baltimore County woman outside the Abingdon Home Goods store.

The victim told deputies she was in the Home Goods parking lot, in the Constant Friendship Shopping Center, between 12:30 and 1 p.m. May 27 when two people pulled up in a vehicle, yelled homophobic remarks at her, and threw an unknown liquid at her before driving off.

The victim believed the liquid was water, but about an hour later, her skin started itching and she went to urgent care for treatment of what appeared to be chemical burns, according to a press release.

(Italy) A 15-year-old lesbian was beaten and raped by her father as “punishment” for being a lesbian.

(Italy) A woman was violently attacked for being an out lesbian.

(Italy) A lesbian was threatened and kicked out of her home by her parents after coming out.

Born to a Moroccan father and an Italian mother, Malika did not imagine that she would find herself on the streets after coming out. She wrote to her parents, revealing that she fell in love with a girl, and coming out. This revelation made her parents angry and they forced her out of the family home without even her clothes.

The young woman reported the words of her mother. “If I see you, I’ll kill you. You are the bane of our family. I wish you a tumor, you are the shame of the family. I would rather have a daughter on drugs than a lesbian”, she told her daughter in anger. Once homeless, the police accompanied her to her parents’ house so that she could retrieve her clothes but this did not go as planned, with her mother claiming that she did not know her.

(South Africa) A 22-year-old out lesbian named Anele Bhengu was brutally raped and murdered.

(South Africa) A woman named Lulama Mvandaba was murdered for being an out lesbian.

(South Africa) An out lesbian named Nonhlanhla Kunene was raped and murdered.

(South Africa) An out lesbian chef named Phelokazi Mqathana was murdered.

(Ghana) An out lesbian DJ was kidnapped, drugged, and raped.

Elladeevah Ellios is known among her peers on Facebook as a DJ and an advocate for the LGTBQ community.

She came out today to disclose on social media that she had been kidnapped, drugged, and raped for 2 days.

From a screenshot of her Facebook post, she added that the assault was filmed. The men who engaged in the act are unknown.

(Germany) A gang of six men attacked two lesbian teens.

As reported by the Berlin police, a 14-year-old and her 17-year-old companion were in the park at Gleisdreieck when three strangers approached the two young women, punching and kicking them. Meanwhile, two adolescent men and their accomplice insulted them in an anti-lesbian manner.

The perpetrators were able to flee from the scene undetected. Before that, however, they grabbed and stole the 14-year-old’s handbag and destroyed her cell phone. The two attacked reported the crime and said they were seeking medical treatment themselves.

(France) Man sentenced to 14 years for the ‘rape because of sexual orientation’ of a lesbian.

May 2021: In a “historic first” according to the victim’s lawyer and lesbian activists, on Friday, the Paris Assize Court sentenced a man to 14 years for the “rape because of sexual orientation” of a lesbian.

In March 2020, Jeanne’s attacker was sentenced to 15 years by the Seine-Saint-Denis assize court, without the aggravating circumstance of homophobia being recognised. This time, jurors and judges ruled it was lesbophobic rape, not least because the 25-year-old accused “knew from the start of their meeting the sexual orientation” of his victim.

Recognition of the lesbophobic nature of this assault “was most important to me,” Jeanne said after the trial. The rape was fueled by that – he wanted to deny me as a lesbian, to punish me. At the first trial, the second denial of my identity by the courts and by society was the hardest part.”

(France) A lesbian pride march was attacked by homophobic protesters.

(Brazil) A 39-year-old out lesbian named Ana Paula Campestrini was murdered.

On the morning of June 22, at the age of 39, Ana Paula Campestrini was executed with 14 shots when she arrived home. The entire event, which lasted about ten seconds, was recorded by the security cameras of the condominium where she lived, in Curitiba (PR).

Living a personal process of discovery, Ana discovered that she was a lesbian and asked for a divorce from her husband. From that point, she was subjected to blackmail and threats from her ex, lawyer Wagner Oganauskas.

“The only thing she wanted was to be able to be happy being who she was [a lesbian woman] and to be able to have contact with her children. And she was taken from our lives,” said Luana, in a choked voice, over the phone, as she headed to the demonstration for justice by Ana Paula. On Sunday (27 June), dozens of people walked through the central streets of Curitiba asking for the investigation into her murder to be prioritized. Two suspects have been arrested: Wagner Oganauskas, ex-husband of Ana Paula, and a friend of his, Marcos Antônio Ramon.

(Brazil) A 20-year-old woman was kicked out of her home and attacked by her father because he suspected she was in a lesbian relationship.

(The Philippines) Several lesbians were shamed by forced public head shaving.

The alleged public shaming of several lesbian women by shaving their heads has sparked outrage in the Philippines during Pride Month and prompted an investigation by the national human rights ombudsman.

LGBTQ acceptance has expanded in the Philippines over the years, illustrated in part by the success of some members of the community in politics, media, and entertainment industries. But rights groups say gender-based discrimination and violence are still a major problem.

The independent Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said last week it investigated reports of forced head shaving of women in the town of Ampatuan in Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines.

Videos and photos of the alleged punishment went viral on Facebook and were picked up by local news outlets, where reports said an estimated six women were targeted. Although the video was taken down, it triggered condemnation and calls for action.

A provincial officer who condemned the punishment was quoted as saying that members of the local community suggested it.