[Weekly Update] (Patreon)

So, my "office" is in the basement, which I shared with a roommate that is a spider. I have never met the little guy, but everyday I'd find new spider webs on the window sill.

That's the anecdote of the week.

CHANNEL UPDATE

Hope you enjoyed our last video on Rush Hour 3! It was loads of fun revisiting the film, despite the blemishes.

Originally, I wanted to talk about some of the racist jokes in the film, and talk about why they work. Upon revisiting the films, I realized most of the jokes only really worked in the first movie. The latter films merely coasted on the goodwill build on the first film. Maybe one day I'll talk about this topic properly. For now check out Quality Culture's amazing video on a similar topic instead!

Now that we are on schedule once more, it's time we begins preparing for a new batch of more ambitious videos. Come back tomorrow and cast your vote on what we talk about on Christmas. Fair warning, whatever we talk about, it won't be good.

The options are:

• Miami Connection + Wannabe Kung Fu Films
• Steven Seagal + Orientalist Films
• Turkish Starwars + Copyright Infringement Films

And for October, we have two videos planned. If I can get my hands on a copy of Mad Fate, then It'll be about this thrilling Fengshui horror movie. If I can't, then I'll cover 3 more horror films from around the world instead.

After that, we'll finally talk about Kung Fu cooking movies!

MEDIA TALK

Recently, Nintendo released a game called F-Zero 99. It's basically a sci-fi racing game in which 99 machines uses anti-gravity tech to compete in death race at the speed of 1000km/h.

That sounds pretty rad, right? Well, I've been imagining what would a movie adaptation would be like. And I realized, good or bad, I'd rather watch an F-Zero movie rather than Mario or Sonic.

Sure, for the general public, the name recognition of Mario alone sells tickets. But for someone who's familiar with the name (and the genre), it actually dampens the hype for me. I'm not interested in seeing a movie adaptation of something I'm already familiar with. I want to see the movie to introduce to me to a world that's new to me!

That's the reaction I had when the One Piece adaptation came out vs when the Castlevania series came out. Evidently both a very good. But the former is just a very accurate retelling of the manga and anime series. I don't want or need to see a film retells something I already know.

But stories in Castlevania games used to be sparse and were not well told. The lores were often tucked inside the instruction book. Now, seeing those stories come to life, that's exciting to me.

So many gaming IPs make great adaptations in this way. Punch-Out is another game in this category. Imagine a Rocky movie that's a comedy, with ridiculous opponents that sometimes is literally just Donkey Kong!

That is another thing that makes me interested in these mid to low value IPs. Compare to blockbuster movies, a lot of video games have much more unorthodox and creative settings. It's a great starting point to make movies that take risks and be unique and different.

We can get a glimpse into that potential world by checking out fan films. Particularly, fan movies based on indie games. Papers Please is yet another great game with deep lore but limited story told through limited gameplay. It has a lot of potential for a movie adaptation, and the fan films sometimes play it straight, sometimes turned it into a musical. And they all worked.

Unfortunately, in reality, these type of games often get shafted. Uwe Boll got his hands on a lot of these IPs like "House of the Dead", and instead of adapting them, he just does whatever he wants. The Monster Hunter movie is also in this category. Deep lore, great premise, limited story, amazing potential, ruined by a director who didn't seem to care at all.

Anyway, enough incoherent rambling from an old man for one night. Work on our next video has begun, and should be up next week. Check back tomorrow and cast your vote on what crappy movies I should watch!