[Weekly Update] (Patreon)

Wow, the new Patreon design looks kinda bad.

WEEKLY UPDATE

Welcome to the last quarter of 2023, and here is what we have on the docket for the rest of the year.

First, we have our Halloween video on the Hong Kong horror/thriller Mad Fate. It's a great movie, one of the best from Hong Kong in recent years. There is a chance it is still in theatres outside of Hong Kong, so take a look if you are into horror movies! The video is being edited and should be up in the next few days.

For the second half of October, we have a video on kung fu cooking. This will be somewhat of a redux of a very early video on this channel. It'll be more on the cultural side of things, and less about the movies.

For November, we'll talk about the bad movies from around the world. I have yet to acquired a copy of Ashiap Man, so I'll start with South Korea and India first. The film will be Real (2017), and Coolie No. 1 (2020).

Finally, for December, we'll have a video going through all the worthwhile Chinese movie came out of 2023. We'll conclude the year with a video topic voted by you! The poll is still up, cast your vote before the end of the month!

Oh and for bonus video, I think I'll talk about Final Destination.

MEDIA TALK

What's your ideal movie length? For me, it'd be 100 minutes.

As Hitchcock said: "The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder". It's funny but also true. Holding it in while you watching the climax of a movie seems to have become a very universal experience. And I don't think anyone likes that.

I don't think anyone thinks a movie is bad just because it's not 2 hours long either.

Of course, I have the film taste of an old fart, so my ideal movie length comes from old school Hollywood. All of the Charlie Chaplin movies, the golden age Hollywood comedies, due to the physical limitation of film reels, they are all around 90 to 100 minutes long.

It is also the perfect length to enjoy a film, feeling satisfied, while coming out wanting for more.

But I think the big thing is, and this is coming from my creative side, the limitation of a shorter run time makes me think critically about the story. I have much greater incentive in cutting out all the fat, and making the movie as focused as possible. One of my favortie movies of all time, Back to the Future II, is 108 minutes long. It is the shortest of the trilogy, and also the most focused in its story telling.

This is kinda my gripe with so many Hollywood movies in recent years. With exception to Across the Spider-Verse, most movies feel like they have no business being that long. It's a feeling so persistent, that often I find myself watching the film and thinking: "This part can be cut".

That's kinda how I feel while watching The Flash. The opening microwaving baby sequence can be trimmed down to at least half of its length. All the digital cameos can be trimmed. Gal Gadot can be trimmed. The script has a very strong emotional core about Barry and his mother. But it gets buried by tons of fluff, fan service, and I guess Ezra Miller being a douche.

Less egregious is Oppenheimer. I supposed the gold of the film is to adapt the entire book, and Nolan did a very faithful job at condensing most of it into just two storylines. Yet there are still quite a few moments, if not entire plot lines can be removed. The days of Oppenheimer studying practical physics and trying to poison his professor isn't central to the thesis of the film. It can be trimmed. Similarly, Oppenheimer's extramarital affair can be trimmed a lot.  Doing so likely won't appease the critics who wants every bit of the movie to be historically accurate. But it'll make a tighter story.

Shazam 2 is perhaps the definition of a bloated script. Even though it's just a bit over 2 hours, it feels way longer because of how many storylines are going on. From Billy trying to learn to be a leader, to him realizing he might have to move out of his foster home, to his parents trying to buy their house, to Freddy's love story, and also the villain's own backstory. Ideally, this is a problem that gets fixed on the scripting stage. But it is also possible to be fixed in editing. By removing one of two storyline in its entirety, focusing either entirely on Freddy or Billy, the film would've have so much more room to breathe.

Of course, there are movies that are long and feel right. The aforementioned Across the Spider-Verse and Everything Everywhere All at Once were two movies that, despite the length, went by in a breeze. A big part of it is because they are such airtight movies. Each and every scene is revolved and centred around its core theme.

I supposed the best length for a movie is as short as it can be, without the movie crumbling. It is a delicate act. A movie too long may be slightly annoying. A movie trimmed too much, however, can become incomprehensible. So, in a way, I understand why modern movies would rather be longer.

Still, if Hitchcock can tell a movie as complex and thrilling as Psycho, complete with an exposition at the end, all in 108 minute, than there's no reason a simple superhero story cannot be told in the same amount of time.

So that's my excuse as to why we don't make long form video essays. I'll see you soon in our next 10 minute long video!