gomosmorodina · 8 months ago
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did jimmy have silly boy romance in prison? or at least some group of fanboys that had a big crush on him
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musclesandhammering · 11 months ago
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Unpopular Phase 4 & 5 Opinions
Quantumania is the worst Phase 4/5 movie. And it wasn’t even because “kang got beat by ants.” (I liked kang in this movie). It’s just that the Spy Kids aesthetic & bad acting & overall weird vibes just weren’t for me.
Love and Thunder is no worse than Ragnarok. I would argue that it’s better in a lot of ways, actually. I really liked it.
Taika Waititi ruined thor with bad humour all the way back in Ragnarok tbh, but y’all weren’t complaining about it then 😒.
BuckySarah is better than sambucky every day of the week.
The Marvels was a good ass movie & they’re one of my favorite teams in the mcu. I’ll never forgive cbm sites & online dudebros for killing the hype from the moment the film was announced.
I adore America Chavez & Kamala Kahn and I want to see them in everything. They must be protected at all costs.
Multiverse of Madness had shitty characterisation & basically just copy-pasted the ‘grief made me go off the deep end & hurt people, then I realised and stopped myself’ storyline from Wandavision… but Wanda was extremely selfish & apathetic to other people’s suffering from the time she was introduced in the mcu. MoM didn’t make her like that.
Wanda should’ve been looking for Vision (her actual real life boyfriend whom she spent years with irl) in MoM instead of the kids that weren’t even real that she spent like a week using as characters in her sitcom.
Making everyone forget Peter Parker wasn’t profound or poetic in any way- it was just frustrating and needlessly cruel.
I’m begging marvel to understand that heroes don’t have to be in constant suffering to be heroic & villains don’t have to sacrifice themselves to achieve redemption. Let characters heal and atone, you absolute weirdos.
What If…? is the most boring show ever. I’d rather watch Secret Invasion or She-Hulk.
Season 2 of Loki is, in a cinematic & artistic sense, the best marvel project period.
Loki season 1 was meh- more of a fun au than anything because his characterisation kinda sucked. Season 2 fixed it, though, and made it way easier for me to incorporate this version of Loki back into the larger mcu.
Having Steve stay in the past with Peggy was stupid af.
I don’t hate Peggy (or Captain Carter), though. I actually think she’s pretty cool.
I don’t really love Steve. He’s arrogant & they never really let him have flaws & something about him being a perfect metaphor for the American military industrial complex (and marvel painting that as a good thing) doesn’t sit right with me.
The Illuminati got done dirty and the only reason they went down so fast was because Wanda had all that plot armor.
I thought the retcon of having Wanda be “destined” to become the Scarlet Witch since birth was an annoying cop-out. Her powers originating from being experimented on with an infinity stone was way more interesting.
Loki & Wanda have almost the exact same powers.
Nebula deserved a bigger rule in killing Thanos & everything else moving forward.
I love Kathryn Newton but her acting as Cassie Lang was the worst acting I’ve ever seen in the mcu, like it was outrageously bad.
I’m glad Sam is the new Captain America and not Bucky.
The fact that Bucky probably isn’t gonna be one of Thee lead characters in the upcoming avengers movies feels sick and twisted.
Secret Invasion was actually passable until the G’iah scene at the end. That ruined it. And Nick Fury deserved way better for his solo series.
Kang is so much more interesting than Doctor Doom. I really hope they just recast him.
Carol Danvers does NOT deserve the hate she gets.
I actually disliked Carol until The Marvels. That movie made me a stan.
The way people treat Monica as Wanda’s little inferior pet creation or smth & then brag about it is uhh very sus.
I don’t like sylvie (bc she’s an amalgamation of 3 different comic characters- which killed any hopes of them appearing individually in the mcu, the creators used her existence to butcher Loki’s genderfluid rep, & she was written poorly) & I HATE sylki (bc it’s weird & unnecessary).
Marvel isn’t dead. I actually love where they’re taking things. But that’s just me.
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monstersinthecosmos · 7 months ago
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List 7 comfort films and tag 7 people!
Tagged by @ihaventcomeupwthanameforaheroyet ! thanks!! I WROTE DOWN A FEW FAVS OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD (IN NO ORDER) AND HAD 9, SO, I THINK IWTV 1994 GOES WITHOUT SAYING LMFAO, ALSO HONORABLE MENTION TO AMERICAN PSYCHO BC IT MAKES ME LAUGH MY ASS OFF EVERY TIME BUT I ULTIMATELY CUT IT FROM THIS PRESITIGOUS LIST.
is it obnoxious if i put some pictures in the post too? Sorry I get really excited to talk about movies hkjdslgasd please don't feel obligated to put pictures in yours, I'm just being extra.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day [1991]
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LISTEN I CRY EVERY FUCKING TIME it's just the best, ROBOT DADDY??? HOT MOMMY???? The T-1000 is so scary?? ALL THESE RIDICULOUS EPIC FIGHT SCENES AND THE ACTORS ARE JUST NOT EMOTING AT ALL BECAUSE THEY'RE ROBOTS? The director's cut with the extra scene where John is trying to teach the Terminator to smile and you realize when he does his little side smirk it's because he's copying John's smile, bc when he copied randos it didnt fit on his face?!??! Eddie Furlong's voice cracking which feels like such a happy accident because he's a weak little fragile human in contrast to the killing machine?? PLEASE.
Hellraiser [1987]
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IT'S WEIRD, IT'S KINKY, IT'S GAY, IT'S CHEESY, IT'S GOT PRACTICAL EFFECTS THAT ARE KINDA COOL BUT KINDA STUPID, IT'S GOT THE GRAINY 80S COZY FEEL, IT'S GOT INCREDIBLE FEMALE SEXUALITY AND BAD ACTING, I JUST LOVE IT. It's just a movie I put on when I need to relax and wow it just makes me really happy ;.;
Pet Sematary [1989]
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okay this one and the next one and the last one are all GRAINY 80S COZY FEEL, you have to understand that I grew up watching 80s horror from like the age of 5 so that flim look, the grain, the flat lighting, it just !!!!!!! gives me so much cozy fuzzy warmth for childhood and I just adore it. Anyway !!!!!!1 I LOVE THIS MOVIE SO MUCH it's so extremely dark and also extremely absurd, somehow it's so magnetic that you are immediately immersed even though it's got the aesthetic of a bad TV movie, it's just wonderful I adore it. ALSO a rare super faithful Stephen King adaptation!
An American Werewolf in London [1981]
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PRACTICAL EFFECTS MY BELOVED!!!!!!!!11 blah blah cozy 80s, but also! FUNNY! ROMANTIC! TRAGIC! SCARY WHEN IT NEEDS TO BE! I'm so deeply deeply impressed by the practical effects in this film, too! But wow it's so good every time, the hot nurse in this movie is a crazy monsterfucker I adore her, it's a good Armand/Daniel AU, the end is a gut punch every fucking time, it's the best, a naked American man stole my balloons, etc. Absolutely perfect film.
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain [2001]
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VISUALLY STUNNING FILM ABOUT AN ASEXUAL WOMAN WITH SOCIAL ANXIETY, PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I think this movie like, changed my life maybe? I think I saw it when I was 15 or so and it just had such a huge impact on me. I used to watch it so much I would just turn the subtitles off because I'd get distracted and didnt even need them anymore. It's a movie I used to bring with me when I traveled, like I brought the DVD with me when I studied abroad because I was so scared I'd have anxiety or get homesick, I just always wanted to be able to watch it if I need to. IF I WATCH THIS AT THE WRONG TIME OF THE MONTH I CRY MY EYES OUT which is cathartic in the end, idk if it's comfy or comforting but wow. but wow really amazing film it's so beautiful and had such a huge impact on my worldview and my creativity and the way I write and the way I do photography and just !!! ;.; I'm gonna cry!
The Departed [2006]
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I really like it when Leo DiCaprio cries and he's not a super crybaby in his one but he does scream in pain and have the shit beat out of him and has panic attacks and needs anxiety meds! The cast is sick! The music is amazing! It's such cool storytelling!!! It's exciting every time! The ending fucks! GOD. Just wonderful, I love it so much. The Blu-ray starts over every time it ends so every time I watch it I tend to walk away and let it loop all day LOL. It's disgusting how many times I've watched it. ALSO MY BABE VERA FARMIGA WHAT A MILF god i love her.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall [2008]
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this is like such a perfect comedy for my sense of humor, INCLUDING A BONUS DRACULA SUBPLOT CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, but is actually such a clever and lovely story about getting over heartbreak wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this movie so fucking much oh my god. Also ever since I worked on ships I feel like especially potent to it because there's something about the social community within the resort that feels so much like the community of a cruise ship crew!! ;.;
Tagging (but no pressure!): @rugbertgoeshome @hekateinhell @mothmage @apoptoses @cup-of-lixx @somevagrantchild @covenofthearticulate
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llynwen · 7 months ago
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hi you're European right? I'm curious to know your thoughts about how the American south is portrayed in true detective bc I've been there and yes it's exactly like that but even moreso. Haunted ass beautiful country
Thank You So Much for such an interesting ask!
In the case of many europeans who were born before the Internet was such a big thing, we mostly learned about the us from films and shows. my childhood experience was watching reruns of spaghetti westerns and early 2000s rom coms, family comedies and kids movies, and feeling that the technicolor reality of america was somehow so much better than the Gray of eastern europe. the discrepancy isn't as noticeable now as it used to be when i was a kid, but you could Smell the post-sovietness some days. the life i saw in the movies was anything But the bleak, overwhelming reality of the early 2000s in my country that just made you feel nauseous and gave you a migraine. like i remember being Shocked at the technology of CDs and MP3 players. it was 2007.
the consensus was always that america was somewhere where everything was better. bigger. brighter. america was where you went to be happy. where you could breathe.
then, as i grew up, i obviously realized that this was a load of bullshit. i don't remember when the shift took place, but sometime in my teenage years, i suppose. by that time, my english has gotten good enough to actually participate in social media (that are predominantly american, like tumblr for example. i've been here for a decade) and actually engage in discourse. to learn about the Real america and what life looked like for the average person. and it wasn't great. guns, systemic oppression, privatized healthcare, the capitalist rot. none of that was present in the movies of my childhood.
now, in true detective, the south reminds me so much of how eastern europe felt in my childhood. it's nowhere near similar to it visually, the nature and architecture and people are all different, but it is Stifling, Suffocating, like the sky is gonna come down on your head. the ash and aluminum line actually describes it so good. what i was most surprised by, though, was the people. starting from marty (let's not focus on rusty here as we can all agree he doesn't really belong with the rest of the characters), he is a perfect example of the average family man. i love his character Because he's a shit and a cringeass loser, but in the scenes of him interacting with his daughters in '02, the feeling that he evokes in me is Disgust. and i feel like that's a common archetype of the father-provider that thinks his role in the house ends with making money. he sits in his chair, makes everybody miserable with his very presence, and expects the food to be brought to him. that man has never scrubbed a toilet in his life. i know men like him. i've met them, talked to them. i'm related to them. they're everywhere. that disgust feels intimate. now, the other characters that surprised me were the side characters, the people rust and marty go to question. tyrone's mother, the prostitutes, dora's friend at the scrap yard - they remind me of my people. now, i really don't want to come off as classist or some shit like that - but in both the show And my reality, the divide between the working class and the educated crowd is Stark. that is not to say that one is better than the other (i firmly believe that a lack of education can make you happier, if you think about it. content with a simple life, happy to work in a mine your whole life, live in a wielka płyta apartment and go to the sea once a year. if that. this is very specific to my region, sorry). the way those side characters talk, behave, even look - that is Nothing like the movies. they're not the flashy main characters, they're imperfect in every sense - they Look like people, have flaws, crooked teeth, they don't dress like supermodels, they can be stupid, they drink and smoke and cheat and lie. they're Human, not movie protagonists. and i love that reality in the show. makes it feel that much more authentic.
i don't know how specific that is to the south; are the people like that in other places? are the fishermen in luisiana the same as in minessota? is the suffocating feeling specific to the iberia parish, or is that just how it is in small town america? i dont know. the problem is, i wanna find out.
see, i never lost that childhood wonder. call me naive, but i still wanna Go. i still want to see the american dream with my own two eyes, even if it means i'm gonna watch it shatter in real time. i graduate college in a little over a year with a masters degree, and for right now my plan is to find a way to go work at a ranch in montana or wyoming. that's all i want. my favorite thing about america is not the culture, not the people, not the Possibility, but the Space. ironically, the stolen land is what compels me most. i want to experience that open space, to Breathe, and for the first time in my life feel my lungs filling up fully. i will be disappointed, full stop, but i want to have that experience.
the american south is a fascinating place to me, always has. the specific mix of cultures, the tradition and lack of it, even the bigotry and hate, it's all endlessly interesting. as you said, haunted but oh so beautiful. it scares the shit out of me. i need to go and feel it bite me.
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kohakhearts · 1 year ago
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hey that pokemon 2000 gifset + your jn dub analysis made me think about the pokemon 2000 dub - I've only seen it subbed once (compared to the hundred times I watched it dubbed as a child) so I could be misremembering, but didn't the dub completely change the themes of the movie with the chosen one ash thing?
i actually haven’t watched the sub nearly as many as times as the dub either :p but i have read extensively about this topic bc it’s personally my favourite pokemon movie and yes! the first and second pokemon movies are both victim to this (like mewtwo’s epic speech we all love so much at the end of the first movie…being a complete fabrication by the dub team :p you gotta give those writers credit - they were VERY good at what they did), largely i’m guessing due to cultural values and expectations. since they were trying to sell the anime to an american audience, not a japanese one.
tangentially, i will say i also think that’s the root of this like…subtle distinction some people have between the characters “ash” and “satoshi.” i don’t differentiate them in any big way myself because fundamentally they still are very much the same, but it is true that in japanese, ash has somewhat different mannerisms and responds differently to events at times, especially in the early anime when it was so much easier to get away with making big changes for…a big assortment of reasons haha.
in THIS movie in particular, some of those things are like…well. the prophecy is probably the most obvious change. the dub team rewrote it to include the chosen one reference, which works great because of the word play on ash’s name. in japanese, it just says “an exceptional trainer will appear to help calm the wrath of the gods.” ash’s response to this is more mild trepidation than outright fear. he doesn’t hesitate like he does in the dub. and tbh? both reactions make perfect sense for his character in my opinion.
in japanese, his concern is more "do you really think i can fit that role?" this...tracks pretty well with his character development by this point. like yeah he said he could win the indigo league, but he's also thinking about dropping out after gary loses; it's that little grain of insecurity he has, which he's normally good at covering up with arrogance (a lot of which is also very genuine, don't get me wrong). but he sees the opportunity to help and he takes it. that's just...what ash does.
in english, though, the prophecy is pretty clearly about him. there's no one else it could be. it has to be him. and he...doesn't like that? that scares him. which, fair. anyone would be terrified by being singled out like that. it's also so much...not ash's thing, even at this point in the series. his character development is about embracing having to work hard to do well. to keep trying until you get it right, no matter how many times you get it wrong. the idea of being a "chosen one" completely robs him of his ability to be so single-minded about what he wants his destiny to be that it manifests as pre-determined; it just...pre-determines it for him, if that makes sense. lol.
the thesis of the japanese version of the film is that no one person or pokemon can stand on their own. everyone needs help. it's about harmonizing with each other and with nature. about letting others help you, and helping them in turn. the english version rewrites that into a story about power and destiny. the title alone says it all, right? it's called "the power of one" - no reference to lugia, no reference to the birds. in japan, the title is about the revelation (or "birth") of lugia.
westerners love a good chosen one story, so this was a really good choice by the dub team in that respect. i mean, it's a narrative that's stuck really well. fandom loves chosen one ash! in general, western fanbases are really into this narrative. it's everywhere. and there's a lot that goes into that, culturally, and especially religiously, historically, etc. so at the end of the day, i don't think the change is so much about conflicting ideas about collectivism and individualism. it's more about goals and ideals, on a personal level.
let me say again for the 273456784th time, i love that they resolved ash's story by having him realize that the goal he's really been striving for all this time is to meet and befriend pokemon. to learn from them. to earn their trust. it's like...he did the thing that everyone else thought represented his goal, maybe even himself included, only to realize that his dream was never about the end of it anyway. it was about everything he learnt and everyone he met along the way. (i also suspect nobody writing in 1997 knew that that would be the ultimate resolution, either. but it makes sense in the entire context. it's kind of a nice irony, even. to only figure it out after writing the story :p)
and i think this little distinction is important to that goal! it's his whole character! which is why even though i too love chosen one characters, i don't necessarily think of ash as one. because even if he is, his whole Thing is that he wants to try. a lot of the chosen one narrative is about characters being reluctant to be used for a "greater good," or about them collapsing under that pressure. ash doesn't really have that. he does what he thinks is right because he...thinks it's right. sometimes, sure, others have to push him into it a bit, but usually they're actually pushing the other way - it's too dangerous, you're going to get hurt, etc. and to me, i don't know - thinking of times he's died, or nearly died, and some legendary or mythical pokemon has saved him at the last minute...i don't think that has to mean he's special in a cosmic sort of way. i think it just means he's special to them. that he did something for them, or for someone else they had come to care for (thinking manaphy responding to may's emotions, not just to the fact that ash was drowning, or in mpm ash convincing latios to trust him because of their mutual desire to save latias, etc.), and so they want to help him. which is completely opposite to the typical chosen one narrative, i think? because he doesn't do those things out of obligation...he does them because he thinks he can become a better trainer by doing them, and he wants to do that. and well. he did do that.
anyway my tl;dr here is YES they changed the theme a lot haha, but i find it fun that they also changed the characters’ responses to that theme. funnily that’s…kind of also what fanfiction writers do all the time, lmao, but that’s a whole other conversation.
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tiandarling · 3 years ago
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| Mules |
Pairing - Namjoon x fem!reader
Summary - You and Namjoon--two stubborn, idiots in love--reconsider your relationships end.
Content Warning - slight angst, fluffy ending; explicit language and mentions of sex (including the tiniest mention of a daddy kink bc pls, it's Nammie).
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(As always, the characters portrayed are in no way a relfection of their real life counterparts. Much like the Percy Jackson film adaptations, I took the names and ran from there. Enjoy, loves)
--
“This is messed up.”
“Shut up and fuck me.”
The number of times alone that conversation or some form of it had occurred was fucked up. You and Namjoon had a complicated relationship, to say the least. You'd known him from the time you were both in the same kindergarten class all the way through high school and, as your parents were close friends, you two inevitably became best friends. From playing blocks as snotty toddlers, to doing schoolwork, you two even learned English together by watching the American sitcom, ‘Friends.’
Slowly, best friends became something more, and in your junior year of high school, you finally became a couple. Your relationship was just as it had been your whole lives, but better (Jimin always said it was the sex), and it lasted for several years. Several golden, beautiful years filled with (mostly) perfect memories. But everything changed when Namjoon became the leader of BTS. Of course you were beyond happy and proud of him for pursuing his dreams and talents, overwhelmingly so. But nonetheless, the more time he spent away from you the more your relationship became...old. It was amazing when you did get to see each other as both missed the other incredibly whenever apart, but it began to feel more and more like just going through the motions. You saw each other so rarely, sometimes you almost forgot what it was like to be in a relationship. And then one night he came home drunk, a fight ensued, and you left, the sudden void of screams deafening in your ears.
Naturally, you had fought before, but this time something was different. Both of you seemed to acknowledge the unspoken agreement that this was the end, (the fact you were both stubborn as hell didn't help matters,) and you both tried to move on. You tried. Both of you hooked up a couple times, you even tried several new relationships, but, unbeknownst to the other, everything always ended disastrously. Both parties had lost count of the times you had called out the others' name during sex with whatever random person it happened to be with at the time. Namjoon had gone on a couple dates but they never turned into anything because the entire time he would be thinking about you and it hurt. You, on the other hand, never failed to get angry at your new partners for all the ways they weren't like Namjoon. They didn't know you like he did, couldn't read your expressions, didn't make you laugh the same way. Lost and miserable, you both continued going through the motions, only now you had nothing worth going through them for.
However, every now and then you ran into each other. Usually at some club or party, the pair of you would instantly attempt to hide how truthfully miserable you were in an unfailing ploy to make the other jealous. Almost always this led to one of you dragging the other into a private room to fuck.
Friends could always tell when such a happenstance occurred because, for the first time in months, a glimmer of their old selves resurfaced again.
It had happened again earlier tonight in fact, and now, back in the dorms, the other boys of BTS had finally had enough.
“Hyung, I don't mean to be disrespectful; but what the fuck are you doing?” Jimin demands exasperatedly around his toothbrush, while everyone is in various states of dissarray getting ready for bed. “You obviously still love her, and she wouldn't keep fucking you every time you two see each other if she didn't feel the same.”
“Seriously Joon, you two need to get back together already, this is ridiculous," Jin agrees, accompanied by a chorus of approvals from the other boys.
“You're both so miserable, why keep putting yourselves through this?” Taehyung points out.
“It's not fair to her!” The addressed shot back defensively. “I'm busy all the time and we'd hardly ever see each other. She deserves to be happy with someone who will be there for her.”
“For fucks sake, it's been two years Joon! Two years of you both being the biggest pair of stubborn idiots and hooking up every damn chance you get! Exes don't do that! Stop being such a pussy and go talk to her!” Suga yelled. Namjoon was stunned but everyone else was watching him, clearly in concurrence with Yoongi.
“Damn, fine,” The former muttered, before swiftly dressing again, grabbing his phone and keys, and stalking out the door.
The entire way to your apartment he furiously tried to work out what to say to you, barely paying attention to the roads he was taking. Not that he needed to, he had been to your place so often he could probably get there blind-folded. All too quickly he was in front of your door, staring at the rusted brass number 9 and trying to work up the nerve to knock. After several minutes of failed attempts to get his knuckles to make contact with the wood, he shook his head and turned around to leave, head hanging dejectedly. But before he could even get halfway down the hallway, a door opened and he heard your voice.
“Joonie?” Stars above how he missed you calling him that. For the past two years, it had been either 'Namjoon' or 'Daddy' depending on the situation. He turned around to see you poking your head out the door. Your hair was going a hundred different directions and your eyes were endearingly puffy and more closed than usual--sure signs you had just woken up.
“Did I-” he pauses nervously. “Did I wake you up?”
“No, no I have work in an hour,” you reply, opening the door a little wider. “What are you doing here?”
“I, um...” Why is this so goddamn difficult “I-”
“Joon please come in while you find your words, I have to get ready and it's cold.”
“Right. Thank you.” You simply nod tiredly and, the moment he enters, spin around and head for your room, presumably to get dressed. Not knowing what else to do, he follows, waiting just outside even though you had left the door open and he had seen you naked more times than anyone could count. There was a small collection of pictures on the wall and he studied them as you threw outfit after outfit behind you onto the floor. Most were of you and your family, but there were a couple with him in it. He got so caught up in old memories he didn't realize you were next to him until you said, “Those were some good times.” Namjoon jumped a little but then agreed, smiling at you.
“Y/n...” he began warily, “Why don't we go there again?” And then, before he lost his nerve or you straight up rejected him, he rushed on. “Listen, I know I wasn't the best boyfriend--not even close-- and I know I messed up a LOT, but it's been two years, and I'm still... stuck on you. I think about you all the fucking time, I miss you more than I thought was possible, and I thought it would get easier with time and all that bullshit but it's just getting worse. You make me the best version of myself and I am miserable without you.” He took a breath and puffed it out in a sigh. “Please, Y/n. I don't want to go on without you anymore.”
His heart sank when he noticed your eyes glistening, bracing himself for the doubtless rejection you were about to offer. But suddenly to his surprise, he felt your tears on his cheeks just as he felt your lips press against his. Somehow this felt like the sweetest kiss the two of you had ever shared and he was almost sad when you broke away.
“I'm sorry too, Joonie. I'm so, so sorry!” you managed before you began sobbing into your hands.
Gently he wrapped you into his arms and let you soak his shirt with your tears until you quieted completely, and even then, neither of you moved. “I'm going to be late to work.” You mumble against his chest, voice muffled by his chest.
“Yeah you are," Namjoon agrees, "because you're not going.” You look up in surprise.
“I have to Joonie, my boss is already looking for any excuse to fire me he can get,” you laugh with a watery chuckle.
“Good, I have plenty of money for the both of us and you hate that job anyway," he states matter-of-factly.
“How'd you know that?” you inquire curiously. His face flushes, caught.
“I may or may not have paid Y/F/N to tell me how you're doing," he admits shamefully to the wood floor.
“Oh my gosh, we must be the two most stubborn blockheads on this planet,” you laugh.
“Mules are jealous," he agrees, laughing too. “I better text the boys and tell them I'm okay, not that they care at this point.”
“Then come to bed, it's still cold from all the heat I had to let out of the house waiting for you to come in and I require your warmth in exchange.”
“On second thought, the boys can wait.”
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abitofboth · 3 years ago
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i would like to hear your opinions on francis whitman in the darjeeling limited (SPECIFICALLY THE FLASHBACK SCENE BC- OH MY GOD)
HE IS SUCH A BIG BROTHER like god. I'm the youngest in a trio of sisters so in the flashback scene in the car when he comforts jack and puts his arm around him, it REALLY hit home because my big sister is just like that with me 🥺 the whole film really gets the sibling dynamic perfect, and not the weird "hey big bro! :D" "hey little sis! :D" that most (american) films tend to do
he definitely has his flaws which are like an integral part of the film but I really do love his character. the slow reveal that his motorbike accident was actually on purpose is just. heartbreaking. and ESPECIALLY the scene in the airport when all three of them just fall silent watching him take off all the bandages only for him to say "I guess I've still got some more healing to do." it made me go WILD the first time I watched it. the layers to it, the vulnerability, the framing and direction of the scene ugh god I loved it. felt it right in my chest.
I also love that during the film you do see him heal. he's not fully healed by the end of it, but compare him at the end from where he was at the start and there's something much lighter about him.
I also really love at the end- after francis has been carrying his father's baggage, both literally and metaphorically, throughout all their travels and holding on to it SO tightly, being so controlling over it, barely letting his brothers near it other than to help him carry it around- the scene where they just. throw it all away. let it bounce away from them as they run for the train. very good scene. a lil on the nose but it just really completed the full circle of the film.
I love how he perfectly mirrors his mum too. the scene in the convent where she's talking about what they want for breakfast being the exact same formula when francis is asking jack and peter what they want for dinner. mmm perfect I adore shit like that. also peak eldest sibling energy lmao
I'd love to hear your thoughts too!!!!!
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sunnysaylorboy · 4 years ago
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my opinion on/a surprisingly passionate defense of Mulan (2020) (SPOILERS)
I’ve seen a lot of ppl ragging on the new Mulan for so many reasons, so I will go over why these (mostly) are stupid reasons and why I love the new movie.
1. Liu Yifei supporting the Hong Kong police. Now this is not a stupid reason, this is valid. I am an East Asian studies major, and as much as I love Disney, when I first heard the news I knew I could not watch Mulan (2020) in good conscience. It went against everything I have learned in my studies, and everything I believe. However, now I am almost positive Liu Yifei was forced to make those comments- I've seen several sources saying so recently. You can look for these sources on your own, because this isn’t the whole point of my post, but I think it's true. A movie about a woman defying her government and social expectations of the time? Hong Kong citizens could absolutely use her as a symbol for protesting against China. It makes sense that the government would take preventative measures before this could happen. But anyways, I was not planning on watching Mulan (2020) until I found out that what she said was most likely fake/forced.
2. The removal of Mushu. Yes, I too miss Mushu but I completely understand why they did that. A lot of ppl make these sort of complaints about the live action remakes not using humor in the same way as the original, but that’s bc it doesn’t translate well. Humor in animated movies is exaggerated or silly, and it works in that medium but if you do the exact same in a live action film, it will come off as too slapstick. Think Will Ferrell in Elf (still a good movie). Mushu’s whole character is based off of this humor that appeals more to kids, and it would have really made the dialogue with him super cringey. and I know if they made him a more serious supportive character people would've complained about that too, so I understand why they did it.
3. The removal of Li Shang. I miss our bisexual boy too, but I actually think they did a really great job with the new guy Honghui. The directors removed Li Shang because he is in a sense, Mulan’s boss, and they felt that it was too much like the #MeToo movement, which I applaud. At first I was upset that supposedly this new character would be a jerk to Mulan until he found out she was a girl, but that's not what happened in the film fortunately. Honghui and Mulan start off on the wrong foot but they grow as comrades and sort-of friends, and Honghui is the first to stick by Mulan’s side when she reveals who she is. Even if there aren’t as many signals of him being bi, I think they progressed their relationship nicely. (I was sorta hoping for a kiss at the end though).
4. Mulan’s “chi.” Apparently people do not like that Mulan already has a sort of warrior streak inside of her already, as opposed to the 1998 version where she struggles to get used to the army. I think this is an overgeneralization. Mulan does struggle to become a soldier, as we can see in the training montage. Similar to the pole and the arrow at the top, she cannot reach the top of the mountain carrying the buckets with her arms outstretched like everyone else at first- then when she manages to do it, she knows she has proven herself. Plus, I like that they gave her more character. We don’t see any of Mulan’s childhood years in the original, so it is a little hard to understand why she is such an outcast. She only had one incident with the matchmaker and suddenly she is questioning her identity. But the 2020 version establishes that Mulan has been different from the start and everyone has known it since then. It makes it more believable that she brings dishonor on her family so easily. And just because she has strong chi doesn’t necessarily mean she is already a warrior. She is told to hide her chi as a child, and she does not tap into it easily- her commanding officers can sense something is holding her back. She is special, yes, but she isn’t “the chosen one.” She still works hard and she still relies a lot on her strategy instead of brute force just like in the animated version.
5. Lack of musical numbers. I do miss the musical numbers. But they did well with incorporating the musical themes from the original into the movie. The little “Honor to Us All” theme playing while she gets ready for the matchmaker? Perfect. The bit of “Reflection” playing when she reaches the top of mountain? Beautiful. And “Reflection” playing at the end when she is recognized as a hero? I was bawling. Also, this isn’t the first remake that Disney hasn’t made as a musical- the 2015 Cinderella did not include “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” (except in the credits like Mulan did), or “Bibbidi-Bobbido-Boo,” or “So This is Love.” I know that Cinderella is an older movie and may not be as beloved to this generation as Mulan, but those song are still incredibly iconic to the Disney brand and I didn't see anyone complaining about those songs being removed. Idk, I don’t think it’s a big enough deal to be upset over it, especially because they included instrumentals of the songs for the live-action version.
6. The addition of the witch. I can’t believe people are complaining about the personification of the hawk from the first movie- seriously, watch the remake and you’ll see how great Xian Liang’s character is. I love the parallels drawn between her and Mulan. Despite fighting for opposite sides, she sees herself in Mulan, and Mulan sees how she might end up if she had chosen the route of evil. I think they did it wonderfully and I’m definitely not gay for Gong Li...
7. The cost. This one, I understand. $30 is a lot to pay for a movie, but I get it because they’re losing money from not going to theaters for a few months. I paid the $30 because I felt like I had waited long enough to see it, I was foaming at the mouth the night of its release, and I had $30 I was willing to spend on it. Ofc Disney is a multi-million dollar company, so I don’t begrudge anyone pirating it bc screw capitalism.
I just had to get this off my chest because so many criticisms of this film seem so unjustified, weak, or deliberately negative. I swear, not just with Mulan, I see so many people who hate the live-action remakes- it’s like they’re trying to find things to hate about them, and I'm frankly getting sick of it. Like damn bitch why you gotta be so negative about everything?? The acting is great, the music is phenomenal and timeless, the costumes are so extravagant, the action sequences make you hold your breath in anticipation... y'all will find anything to whine about and I'm TIRED. And it seems like some of y'all are purposefully ignoring WHY they made these changes. These changes were made to adhere to the Legend of Mulan more closely, to make up for some of the racial insensitivity/cultural inaccuracies in the original, and to appeal to their Asian audience. the 1998 version is a VERY Americanized way to tell they story- so stop complaining, you got “your version” that appeals to you.
Some things I loved were
1. Mulan’s sister. It’s not often we see Disney princesses with siblings. Even though she didn’t have much screen time, I loved Xiu and the relationship she had with Mulan.
2. The phoenix symbolism. In Mulan (1998), there is heavy dragon symbolism as Mulan is preparing to run away to the army. This insinuates that Mulan is the dragon, the protector of the family, and that is why the Great Stone Dragon doesn’t awaken later. In this version, she is instead guarded and represented by a phoenix. In Chinese mythology (correct me if I'm wrong), the phoenix stands for yin and yang, harmony and is often the female counterpart to the dragon. The wings specifically represent duty, which is why the wings of the phoenix spread behind Mulan when she saves the emperor singlehandedly. Though I don’t know if they intended this, in Greek mythology the phoenix is a symbol of death and rebirth. Mulan is reborn again as Hua Jun, but ultimately in this version she is not discovered as a girl, she chooses to fight as one. The moment she does, “Hua Jun died, and Mulan was born again,” as she sees the phoenix once more. Mulan is the phoenix, and she brings harmony after defeating the Rourans. It’s beautiful.
3. The avalanche scene. A lot of the battle scene was different, but I loved that they kept in the avalanche from the original. Mulan’s planning in this one shows how big her brain is, and how well her strategy works.
4. Xian Liang and Honghui. As I already mentioned, I really loved how they portrayed these characters.
5. The fight scenes. God they really got the perfect actress to play Mulan. Liu Yifei leaning back to avoid an arrow from a Rouran? Impeccable. Mulan’s display of her techniques when she and Honghui get into it when they’re supposed to be practicing? So cool. 
All in all, I loved this movie just like I love all of the other Disney princess live-action remakes. Disney obviously spent a lot of money on the action sequences, the costumes, the backgrounds, the historical accuracies, the casting, the storyline, everything is amazing. I will definitely be watching again.
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lesbiancarat · 3 years ago
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PREACH IT!! SAY IT LOUDER FOR TH3 PEOPLE IN THE BACK!! *stands up and claps*
Just your comment, please I want to tattoo that entire response on my forehead so people could understand some stuff fjshdhsh. I very much agree with everything you have said, like I do think the bighit deal was more so with the help of say with western connections (which again does NOT mean pledis could have done this without bighit. They clearly could but I saw a theory on a YouTube comment where someone said they focused on the core fanbase aka in Korea which is their main market and it paid off imo) from helping with buisness side of things like we do have merch to buy directly (which I have my opinion on some merch ideas like why the fudge is bighit selling us water!? Bro you thought that worked with bts doesn't mean it will with seventeen) which wasn't common in the past or being able to film concerts with ease during the pandemic. Bighit clearly acknowledges that seventeen is a monster group in their own right I mean as you said, they break records and are 2nd behind bighits own group. They are EXTEMELY big in Japan. They are their own song makers, bang pd confirmed this when pleids was first announced in a press video so the fact people brush all of their achievements and statements because why, their streaming numbers are low?
And oohh such an interesting point as well! Very much i think the current mindset of kpop fans (or at least some) is that streaming is what equals success which to some degree, yes but as you said, many ignore the casual side of listening. People that find the song due to it being viral for whatever reason, a fancam getting popular like in the cass of hani from exid or whatever reason. Dwc is a great example and I saw those comments under their recent performance of that song and it makes me proud that the boys have a song like that. That it has its own "fanbase" quote on quote with how well loved that song simply is and well known. You don't have to have fans doing crazy streaming to be considered "popular", I mean I could give more examples but I don't wanna make this too long nor cause unwanted fandrama lol. Those casual listeners are extremely important and powerful I mean brave girls is a great recent example of that I think! It very much does seem like that when looking at the views, its mainly the core fanbase which isn't bad nor should we feel bad for not having crazy numbers. They seem more organic if that makes sense? Plus I agree, we can stream and can explain how it works, clearing up confusion about it like no emojis don't take down views and yes youtube does take away views but that is due to it making sure it isn't bots only viewing the video. Explaining that streaming should be done with a chill mindset and its ok if you don't stream. But hey, maybe we're too weird of fans to think like this fjajdjajs.
But some few updates! Seventeen is back on Instagram, fully everyone is posting away. Makes me happy hehe m, a bit funny it took so long for them to comeback but am happy nonetheless. The interactions that seungkwan does makes me super soft. Seventeen are also back with doing proper promotions so yay (also pledis is S Wording people over the mingyu issue finally so bless). As for me on the personal side of things. I have OFFICIALLY finished that video game ^_^ it took me a while but I have finished it, my last goodbye was completed and am at ease so to speak? Lowkey am planning on beating all the trophies in the game cx also may I ask about your thoughts on the album? Favorite songs, have you bought the physical cd?
ok finally getting around to this lol!!
and yeah that's absolutely true, pledis focused on kr promotions/fanbase first and foremost (and then expanded to Japan and is now looking toward the US/western promos in general). which i agree was a good thing. i think some companies get too greedy with wanting a group to be ~internationally famous~ that they ignore their Korean fanbase a bit too much and I've seen groups that have failed bc of it, so I'm glad that didn't happen w SVT
and yeah in terms of merch I'm genuinely grateful as an american that for this cb at least there was a US distributor which made things super convenient but wtf is going on w hybes merch those water bottles are not it TT it just sucks to see bc it's clear that at least as far as merch goes hybe doesn't have an interest in like. doing market research to figure out what carats want. which is funny bc they don't even have to start from scratch they could literally just ask pledis?? and tbh what's sad is i don't think hybe is like. purposefully trying to sabotage SVTs merch from my limited perspective i get the feeling they treat all their groups merch like that :( but since us carats have seen in the past what kind of merch we're capable of getting it's disappointing to see such a downgrade. and like tbf pledis's merch decisions were never perfect like that time they tried to sell replicas of the SVT rings and carats were rightfully pissed bc those are something the members earned, not something to be bought. and i also don't think hybe never has or never will make good merch, I'm sure they're fully capable of it. but it just seems obvious that they've put WAY less if any effort into understanding both the market (ie carats) and seventeens brand compared to pledis so like of course most carats aren't gonna like it :/ i really hope they step up their game and do better research or bring ppl onto the team who better understand svt's brand
and yeah i very much agree with everything u said about streaming! tbh i think this mindset isn't as uncommon as you might think, I've actually met a fair number of kpop fans who are critical of streaming culture but as u know there also are a lot of ppl who are really into it and those ppl tend to have the loudest voices. and unfortunately part of streaming culture is that if you question the methods or don't participate you must be a bad fan or secretly an anti or something ridiculous like that. so ppl who aren't into streaming culture end up learning to not be too vocal about it bc of how bad the backlash can be
yes! I'm glad to see insta line (+ now dk!!) active again. i still wonder why pledis made them stop using their ind instas, like I know all the theories people have as to why but honestly none that I've seen seem to fully make sense. it will probably be one of those things where we'll just never know the full story. but i digress!! regardless of the reason I'm just glad to have them back after all this time ^^
congrats on finishing the game! I'm glad it was able to help you work through your grief a bit and that you feel more at ease now ;-; and good luck with the rest of the trophies if you end up trying to get them!
as always I'm answering this a bit late so you may have seen already but i did get the physical album! it was a birthday gift so i only got it the other day, but according to my mom it arrived almost immediately after the album was released so as i said before, I'm very grateful for the US shop this time around ;-; as for the songs usually it's easy for me to pick one or two favorites but this time around it's genuinely a 4-way tie between heavens cloud and all the unit songs TT (i also love anyone and RTL, they're just slightly lower on the list in terms of preference if u get what i mean). i really hope some time in the future we get some kind of performance or special video or something for heavens cloud, since so many carats and the members themselves seem to really love it. i also think it's a song that brings up such beautiful imagery that it would be a shame if it never got any type of visual representation, you know? I'm also really curious to see a performance of wave, since iirc the members said the choreo is a lot more laid back/different from other perf unit choreos?? + that song also evokes such great imagery for me that like... makes feel like it needs some kind of movement so I'm just itching to see a performance. kind of like... even if i didn't know it was a perf unit song i would think it would be great to choreograph to if that makes any sense dhfkf. but yeah overall i think it's just a really solid album, as expected from summerteen ^^
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letteredlettered · 4 years ago
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hi! ive been following your writing for a few years now and i drop by periodically to check if you have anything new posted, and im really surprised that you seem to be enjoying the untamed? im curious what you think about the show - its story and characters, the acting, the production, etc. idk if you know, but the untamed is the most successful example of a current trend in chinese entertainment, where popular online novels centered around a gay romance is adapted into a 'safe' drama.
continued:
due to the many explicit and implicit restrictions imposed on creative media in china, many crucial plot points have to be changed (often badly) or removed, including the nature of the relationship between the main characters. the untamed is considered the most loyal adaptation so far, but like all other works in the genre, it received criticism for weak acting and queerbaiting. that's why im really curious about what you think of the show as it is, as itself, free from its context.
if you're interested, you could also check out guardian! it features much better performance and chemistry by the leads imo, but the story was heavily botched bc the original incorporates and reinvents a lot of classic chinese folklore beautifully and stuff like that is considered disrespectful and not-pc. i think it's really sad how so many great pieces of writing with complex world-building and plotlines are simplified into... idek what to call them, but just, less than what they are.
im sorry this turned into a rant. as a mainland chinese person with oh so many frustrations about our current society, it's hard to comprehensively describe my feelings about the untamed's popularity. it's the first mainland chinese show/movie to gain this much organic interest abroad so i should be glad? but, but. anyway, yes, im sorry.
There’s no need to apologize for ranting, but I admit to some confusion as to whether you want your question addressed or the rant. Because I’m me and tend to be thorough, I’ll address everything, in reverse order.
First of all, I’m sorry that this show is sad to you. I’m sorry that the popularity of it is difficult. I’m also deeply sympathetic to your frustrations about your society, as I too am deeply frustrated by my own.
Secondly, yes, I’m aware of the context of The Untamed. I’m aware that the book it’s based on is a BL novel, and that, in order to align with Chinese politics, overt queerness was erased from the adaptation. I’m aware of the censure laws of gay media in China. I’m also aware that some aspects of necromancy and morality were adjusted to make the show more palatable for general audiences, but I’m fuzzier on those details. Lastly, I’m aware that the popularity of the show calls attention to certain things, such as fanfic, and that attention results in more censorship,
The fact of this erasure and this censure provokes a lot of questions: by consuming this product, which contains erasure and censure, do we engage in the erasure and censure? By posting gifs and writing fanfic and talking about this product, do we increase its popularity, thereby encouraging additional erasure and censure? By increasing the popularity of this product, do we diminish the popularity of the original gay morally gray canon, thereby decreasing representation? Do we discourage other authors in China from writing explicitly gay morally gray material? In short, are we allowed to enjoy this media?
I don’t know the answer to these questions. However, I do know that boycott is a very effective tool when it can inflict economic pain on the producer, or when it can exert pressure on an entity to change. That said, I feel like a lot of the calls to boycott certain media these days are a lot like telling people to stop driving their cars to stop climate change: it’s suggesting that individuals can solve the problem, which presupposes individuals are the problem, and therefore fails to address the scope of the problem, or present the possibility of a real solution. Not watching The Untamed isn’t going to change laws about portrayals of homosexuality onscreen in China, partly because the laws in China are a much bigger problem.
The other part of it is that The Untamed is coded queer, so if you run a successful boycott against it, you end up with . . . less queer TV. I know a whole lot less about China than I do about the Hays Code, but if you had told gay people during the Golden Age of Hollywood that they couldn’t enjoy movies that were coded queer because they weren’t explicitly queer, they’d have said you were crazy. In fact, many people will tell you that media that was coded queer was a big reason we got more explicit queer stuff later. And as I’m sure you’re aware, the US is still fighting that battle . . . partly because it wants to sell movies to China.
So then there’s a question about whether me, an American in the US, liking something coded queer from China but not explicitly queer--does that encourage Chinese censorship? Should I only support texts that are explicitly queer? But the answer is the same--it’s not addressing the scope of the problem, and by supporting texts that are coded queer, you could be paving the way in the future for something brighter.
But you weren’t talking about boycott! You were talking about your discomfort with the popularity with this show, which I accept. I understand feeling uncomfortable. I can only hope it makes you a bit more comfortable to know that plenty of fans are deeply aware of the context and do wrestle with the question of what liking this show means in the context of a society that would never allow aspects of the original to be portrayed onscreen.
Thirdly, I’m not against trying Guardian at some point, but by comparing the acting and chemistry of the leads to The Untamed, I feel like you prove our tastes are very different in these regards. I love the acting of the leads in The Untamed; I found their chemistry off the charts. It’s okay you don’t feel the same.
Lastly, you asked my opinion of The Untamed: its story and characters, the acting, the production, sans context of the canon upon which its based and censorship laws in China.
a. I love the overall story, but the plot has deep plot holes. Quite a few segments do not actually make sense to me, because the plot is so haywire. However, I’ve never cared that much about plot, except when it gets in the way of characters and themes, and for the most part, this plot serves its characters and themes, except when the parts they leave out are so confusing that I cannot follow the story. As for the story, it feels like it’s built for me, because ultimately it’s about moral decisions and how to make them; it’s about guilt and paying for mistakes; it’s about learning, changing your mind, and remaking yourself. Really, I’m not sure there are many stories I love more--except they killed my favorite character, and I almost quit. So, that certainly put a damper on things.
b. I love the characters most of all, although the villains are really two-dimensional. However, large parts of the plot are not Hero vs Villain, they’re Hero vs Society, and then some Hero vs Himself in a way that suggests the Hero is no longer a hero. I could talk about the characters forever, but suffice it to say I think they’re really strong. Also, the relationships are really exquisite, particularly when it comes to family dynamics. Unfortunately, they killed my favorite character off. Also unfortunately, there are six women in this show, only two of them are main characters, and every single one of them dies. It disgusts me.
c. I think the two leads are exceptional, in particular Xiao Zhan . . . when he’s not being too broad, which he is quite a bit. However, I do wonder how much of this is direction and production style, because in many instances, he’s quite subtle, and the choices he makes are astounding. Then there are times where it’s like they needed more footage, or wanted to drive home a point, and he turns on the extra, and it’s awful. It could just be him, but I actually feel it’s the case with most of the actors, which does make me think it’s a directing issue. Meng Ziyi never really has that problem though, because she is the most perfect of all. But then take He Peng, who I actually thought could be incredible, but every scene was just SO BROAD that I began to feel sorry for the poor dude having to act that part. But there is nothing to be said for Wang Zhuo Cheng, who really is just terrible, which is sad, because it’s a great part.
d. Production-wise, it’s really hit and miss. So much of the locations are truly beautiful. A lot of the costumes are too, unless the shot is too close. I actually don’t mind the wigs; I love the long hair. The CGI is terrible. And then while a lot of the shots are beautiful, some of them are awkward, and the pacing is really difficult, imo. It really seems like they wanted to drag it out, and there are so, so many scenes where I’m sort of embarrassed that we’re in the same scene or that we’re still looking at someone’s face, or that everyone is just standing there waiting for the shot to finally end.
I will say that film is a language that does differ from culture to culture. It could be that both the broadness of the acting and the awkwardness of the editing are my cultural lens based on American and a lot of western film. When I watched older Hollywood films, the acting is a lot more broad and maybe a little less “true” feeling, but I understand that it’s not the case everyone in the past was a bad actor. It was just a different style, so I’m not sure I’m equipped with the cultural knowledge of Chinese acting, cinematography, and editing to be able to really judge the value of these things.
I do know how I feel, which is that the editing is the biggest hurdle for me while watching the show. However, I feel that the beauty of it makes up for a lot, and the strength of the characters and themes really carries it.
I hope I addressed your points adequately, and I wish you well.
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fmdduri · 3 years ago
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a headcanon about duri & titan’s title tracks.
word count: 2,422. about: this is how duri feels about each title track of titan’s thus far. duri also very much saying he doesn’t like a song because people work hard,, but you can’t help what you don’t like, right? notes: don’t perceive me for some of this, thank you <3 i believe i did this on duri’s old blog as well but this is all new information ! 
btd: duri believes that btd (before the dawn) was a rather strong debut song. it showed off titan’s concept rather well, as well as cementing titan as a strong group in vocals, rapping, and dancing - no matter what position you have in the group. btd is definitely a song that still holds up to this day, one that duri really enjoys. however, attached to btd is also the criticism that duri faced about not fighting titan’s concept and saying that he was simply only there due to be a very strong vocalist, especially for the age that he debuted at. nonetheless, god tier debut.
be mine: this was a rather strong comeback song, duri believes. everything about it was rather smooth and he thinks it really showed off titan being a strong group together, once again. even though his styling gave very, your high school boyfriend who fell into the category of emo trying to be some sort of rock god - it did manage to work with the whole mysterious concept of titan. however, duri does prefer btd over be mine, if he had to be honest. duri, yet again, faced comments about not belonging in titan due to the concept and his own image, saying that he was really only there to carry vocally. 
paradise: duri likes to forget his hair exists in this. however, it’s clear their producer is truly iconic, especially with something like this. this song tends to remind duri of the 90s songs that he had really enjoyed, but clearly with a more modern push upon it. he wasn’t entirely sure why they spent a lot of the time in a train, but it’s fine, whatever. this is also one of the songs that comments towards duri in the concept had gotten better, but they just weren’t all the way there just yet. but, it was looking up now. 
the chaser: probably his favorite of their older songs, as well as really being the song to cement titan as legends in the industry. while duri never fully watched the music video due to the fact that a car accident occurs in the music video (that he didn’t watch while on set, granted he had to walk away from the flipped car at some point, he held up pretty well), it’s still generally one of his favorites. still kind of frustrating though that titan went through all of that in the music video, only for them to not even open the box in end, even though they had the key. this was the comeback that had also solidified duri fitting into titan’s concept.  so, it was all around really positive for him and one of the songs he still really loves to perform. this just truly showed how incredible he is with stage presence and something that continued to carry throughout his career. however, the only negative was duri being faced with underaged sexualization because you could see his arms through the mesh shirts he was styled in for music shows. 
destiny: another song that is 100% one of their best, at least in duri’s opinion. he really enjoys destiny, the music video itself, and the dancing as well. generally, he just believes that it’s a really good song and something that’s really fun to perform. destiny really just is that girl and there’s nothing else that can be said about it. she’s just sitting very pretty in titan’s discography. 
fanfare: to put it simply, this is one of duri’s least favorite titan songs. he finds the beat of the song to be rather odd, to the point that he wasn’t entirely sure how to really sing it at first. also, the “la la las” in the chorus were rather odd as well and he didn’t get it. kind of wishes it wasn’t in the discography. he seemingly just felt awkward in this song.
roar: roar just feels like a continuation of fanfare, with that odd beat that occurred. he really can’t say he even understands why that became such a trend with the last two releases. again, the “la la las” in the chorus is just something that he can’t seem to really get behind. essentially was a fanfare 2.0 and it would be better if this didn’t take up space in their discography. 
easy love: easy love... she’s just that girl and you can’t say anything bad about her. this is a song that duri really, really likes from titan’s discography. this is another song that he enjoys performing from their older discography. he really likes the genre it falls in, the beat, and the choreography. after the chaser, this is the second song to really prove that duri does fit into titan’s concept, as well as solidified him even more as a force to be reckoned with in the industry. 
last romeo: last romeo definitely falls into the extraordinary part of titan’s discography with btd, the chaser, be mine, paradise, and destiny. they found themselves going back to the older vibes of your emo rock boyfriends, but they really just made that styling work. he can’t say anything bad about last romeo either, he really likes her. sure, the music video is a bit odd, but she’s fun! 
back: truth be told, duri probably didn’t fit this concept at all. but, gaia and netizens thought he fit really well, and maybe he just ended up being a rather good actor. this is a song that falls into the extraordinary part of titan’s discography as well. it’s very much god tier with the chaser and destiny. but, in general, he enjoyed this one a lot. 
call me baby: this seemingly marked a shift in titan’s sound, as well as rounding out their concept to be even bigger than it was. it still fed a bit into the mysterious heartthrobs in a way, but was also a bit brighter. duri also likes this type of genre a lot, so he really had a lot of fun with call me baby. this was also shaping to him really, really fitting into titan’s concepts and being able to put himself into multiple different concepts of music videos. really just the type of song to shake your ass to! 
love me right: the electronic and r&b genre is something that duri really enjoys, which makes love me right go pretty high up on the list of favorite titan title tracks. he gave him that early 2000s boy group that he truly wishes he was because of how much he really enjoys songs from the 90s and early 200s. he felt a little bit cool in the football uniforms as well, even though he doesn’t no one thing about american football in the slightest. but, he looked cool, so that was great. 
sing for you: sing for you is probably one of duri’s all time favorite title tracks. however, that probably more so has to do with the fact that it’s one of titan’s ballad title tracks and duri is very much a ballad singer, which definitely shows within this titan release. there’s something rather comforting about the song and the melody that it holds. he really can’t say anything bad about the song at all, and it’s really just a perfect winter song, that’s for sure. 
monster: a song that falls into the their more “funky” songs, but it’s something that works really well. duri quite enjoys this song, and holds one of his most iconic lines in a titan song of “creepin’, creepin’, creepin’.” monster is definitely a song that duri wouldn’t ever get tired of, and a song that he really enjoys/enjoyed performing, to say the least. the styling of monster also one hundred brought back the emo wannabe rockstar boyfriends, but it worked really well, so that counted the most. definitely a heartthrob song for sure. 
lucky one: probably one of titan’s weirdest music videos, to say the least. the creepy, lifeless stares that they had to do was very chilling to have to see. but, besides for the rather odd music video, she’s a very fun song! following the funkiness again, but it also just works really well. the choreography is a bit odd, mainly because of the head bopping. but, other than that, she’s a very, very good song that duri quite likes. he remembers not having to work out on this filming day because of the amount of running that went on.
lotto: she’s definitely your best friend’s sexy older sibling. while she relies very heavy on autotune for the purpose of the beat and everything else about the song, she really wasn’t that hard to sing on stage. it also didn’t diminish titan’s talents in anyway, even though so people like to drag them for using autotune - duri still really likes the song because it just works so well. plus, he also did feel a bit sexy in this music video because of the cocky attitude he had to portray for some of his parts. 
kokobop: this song means a lot to duri, simply because bc entertainment had picked his lyrics for this song. he wrote the title track completely on his own, so he’s probably a bit bias to the song as a whole, but it is one of his favorites, and would even consider it one of their god tier songs - but, that might just be because he wrote the song and he had fun with the song, it went over rather well as well. though, of course, he had to explain a few times that kokobop means “fun dancing” and also comes from the 1959 hit song “shimmy shimmy ko-ko-bop” by little anthony and the imperials. he’s really proud of this song, and it’s something for the girls and gays to shake their asses to in the summer!
power: probably titan’s most hated song and duri holds a rather unpopular opinion about the song. he likes this song, a lot actually. he thinks the song and performance is a lot of fun. yes, maybe he did get to be the hero in the music video and beat the big robot with the shield he created through the music video. but, still, it was a very fun song that he really likes! he likes fun! he likes to have fun!
universe: this is another song that duri really likes, however, it’s most likely because it falls within the genre of ballads. though, it is a bit different due to it being a pop-rock ballad. but, duri still got to shine a lot due to it being a ballad, and really just showing off balladeer duri. it’s another comforting song and generally, the whole concept of baristas and stuff is something that’s very comforting to duri as a whole. generally, he can’t say anything bad about this song at all. 
tempo: another god tier song!! though, the only thing duri might hold against the song is the fact that he didn’t get to be apart of the acapella part of the song. however, this holds another one of duri’s iconic lines, with him opening the song with “i can’t believe” and the way that he just sings it, which had often been mentioned in reviews of the song. nonetheless, this is a song that duri really likes, something that falls into the god tier. it simply falls into one of their best songs. 
love shot: another incredible song. duri can’t say anything bad about it. it’s very reminiscent of lotto and duri feeling a bit sexy due to the cocky attitude of the song as a whole. generally he just felt very cool in this song and it’s one of his favorites among titan’s discography, he can’t deny that at all.
bad: simply, another god tier song. this song kind of brought titan back to their days of being mysterious heartthrobs, rather than the heartthrobs that they had become over the years. however, it did bring back some more versatility, especially for duri, as he showed off the aggression in his voice some more, like he used to in the older titan tracks - something that hadn’t really been needed the last few years for titan over all. this is another favorite of his, and the music video was a lot of fun - even if he wasn’t really a fan of the small rooms and had a hard time with that. lots of running again.
obsession: obsession is the god tier of god tier. however, that probably has to do with the fact that, once again, duri gets to feel like he’s in a 90s boy band, simply because of how the song is. he also finds it rather cool that they’re all essentially the evil versions of their selves in the music video and performances. there’s simply just something about this song and simply, it’s never going to get old in anyway. 
now or never: essentially, he thinks this song is just okay. at least, okay till getting to the chorus. the beat is okay too, if he’s honest. he kind of wishes the choreography was attached to a different song. it’s another song that he can do without, but he doesn’t dislike it as much as he does some others. 
o sole mio: this is honestly another song that’s just really good. he doesn’t have anything bad to say about it, she’s really just a whole banger! there isn’t one bad thing about the song in it’s entirely at all. he thinks it was a really good choice for a title track and believes it fits in well with what titan had released in the past. 
enough: enough isn’t that bad, either. it’s definitely a song that falls into their emo wannabe rockstar boyfriend with the styling, and adds onto being mysterious heartthrobs. generally, it’s the second best song that titan has released from 2020 to 2021. however, he wouldn’t say it really falls into titan’s best songs either. but, it’s still a bit of a banger. 
rpm: if he was honest, this song falls right behind both fanfare and roar in being apart of titan’s possible worst songs. it seems to not really fit in with them sound wise, and the music video is interesting, to say the least. something in duri wishes that a different song was chosen, while also wishing that titan had at least one more song to release this year, rather than leaving rpm as their last comeback of 2021. 
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ziracona · 3 years ago
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I wish when people talked about media it wasn’t always about how bad it is to do things and how terrible you are if you do, and sometimes it was about how great and important it is to do things better. Like. If you create media that is anything but the milkest of toast of your own experience, then you /will/ make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be massive or awful or really matter. And it’s so much better to try and be imperfect than to be a coward who never learns or grows or cares for anything outside their own lived experience at all. ‘Write what you know’ never meant ‘literally only write your own experiences,’ it means don’t make up inner truths. You can write about anyone experiencing the loss of a pet if you’ve lost one, or had one and understand the fear and pain. You should enjoy growth and learning and exploration—you should want to understand other people and want to listen and grow and learn. Even if you mess up a lot, there’s still always going to be people who got something good out of it if you tried. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) was the first film I ever saw with a sex-repulsed Asexual as a character, let alone a main character, and he /does/ end up having sex with his partner eventually and being okay with it after, and it’s not like, the absolute /best/ handled character arc, but I still remember how blown away I was to be in a theater of people and see a character of such an underrepresented sexuality in a piece of classic like essential American cinema. And I liked him. It wasn’t the best handling, but it was pretty okay, and most of his characterization was great—he routinely refuses to have sex and his partner doesn’t get it, but he absolutely loves her and comes to her defense and shows it, and she gets over her worry his feelings towards sex with her mean he doesn’t love her well before they ever do have sex. That movie is special to me for that alone. It’s wild to se a mid sixties romance classic where the /male/ lead is a sex repulsed asexual and that’s a major theme.
Sure sometimes people mess up in a big and bad way, but that’s almost always because they didn’t do any work trying to research harmful sterotypes and tropes beforehand and played right into them, and even then, that doesn’t make you bad. TAZ Balance’s first LGBTQA were two Lesbians who immediately died, but as soon as fans went ‘Hey you’re a straight guy so you might not be aware, but Bury Your Gays is a very harmful trope in media—especially for lesbians,’ he introduced two more Lesbians and brought the two dead ones back to life. And the rep in all their work exponentially exploded and they helped organize the first Pride event in their home town in WVA ever. If you do some work checking for tropes beforehand, the worst you usually do is ‘eh,’ and that’s a whole lot better than a gaping nothing, and you will do even better the next time, and like, isn’t that cool? Doesn’t it feel good to learn more and care and try? Writing diversely and like, not any -ist-ly isn’t just important bc like, it’s bad to not. It’s important because it’s great to do it! You learn more about yourself and other people, you grow. I know it sucks especially for younger creators bc the online kind of atmosphere is very much that of a lake full of piranhas that are starved, but I hope you know at least it’s not true. If you try, you’re brave, and you’re good. You won’t be perfect because no one is, but you will be great. And sometimes you’ll be perfect. And there will always be people in a theater years after most of the cast is gone, watching something they never expected to see in a work from 50 years ago, and feeling a little bubble of hope and joy from the acknowledgement from someone with no personal stock in their experience at all acknowledging not only their existence, but that it, occasionally clumsily represented or not, was a story they also though deserved to be told.
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victimhood · 4 years ago
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My TOG cast and crew movie reviews
Ok so watching TOG revived the part of me that LOVES indie-ish/European Arthouse films and I blitzed through a bunch with more to come! Idk who this review serves but I just had to explode in writing or...the feelings would go nowhere.
Love and Basketball
My movie rating: 4 / 5
Favourite parts: the conflict between a tomboy sports loving protagonist and a conventional homemaking mother. To sound cliched, this is the sort of thing only a woman filmmaker can bring out in her films. There’s so much nuance and tension expressed in all the individual women in the film and where that lies in the enforced dichotomy of woman/not a woman--thereby highlighting that IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN A DICHOTOMY all of these are in the broad spectrum of womanly behaviors bc they come from women!!! The ending where a husband supports his wife in HER basketball game? LOVE THAT. Music choices are also A++ in this film.
The film also provides some insight into respectability politics--here we have an NBA player who wants his son to do something more conventionally “respectable”. I am not American nor am I Black so someone with more insight would be able to speak to this better, but even so as an audience I could feel it!
TOG cast rating: none, bc it’s the director!! This is Gina Prince-Bythewood’s breakout film but you can palpably feel that she poured her heart and perhaps some of her life experiences in this film!
Martin Eden
My movie rating: 3.5 / 5
Don’t understand the movie, slightly put off by the Nietzschean individualist philosophy. Doubly so after I read that the author of the book (Jack London) is a socialist?? (FTR so am I so like...I’ve had enough of white male indivudalism!!) Stuff like that always reminds me of (500) Days of Summer which is anti-manic pixie dream girl and yet is beloved by aspiring MPDG-philes. Here is a quote from the author himself: London wrote, "One of my motifs, in this book, was an attack on individualism (in the person of the hero). I must have bungled it, for not a single reviewer has discovered it."
Though I have not read the book, I hope the movie is a little more pronounced, in the unraveling of the eponymous protagonist. Luca gives an impressive show of his Acting Range as the protagonist moves through life and goes through a whole bunch of political beliefs in reaction to the situation around him.
I love movies that show the impoverished side of Europe though. The movie does a good job of showing the class conflict within society--at the end of the day, the Martin Eden that has risen through the social ladder is a self-despising man. The bread mopping scene is great, and truly, there is no love for Luca Martinelli like the camera’s love for Luca Martinelli. I love Luca’s bad teeth in this too. Dental health is possibly one of the most obvious, yet most unremarked markers of social class. Nice detail.
TOG cast rating: 5/5 Luca really carries this film on his broaaaaad shoulders. Thank you Luca. Thank you Pietro, for making a movie that lingers so lovingly on Luca’s face, inspiring many a writer to pen horny paeans to the Roman nose and the Byzantine eyes. I even saw one about the lop of hair over the eyes. Yes….watching Luca is a very physiological experience.
They Call Me Jeeg (Lo Chiamavano Jeeg Robot)
My movie rating: 4 / 5
Ok this movie is quite male-gazey in the conventional action movie way. Moments where the damsel is in distress are filmed in a somewhat titillating manner. That aside, the damsel in distress does get a moment of glory, though it shortly precedes her death. The hero of the film I also found not too groundbreaking. He starts out as a thief but is given superpowers, and he’s mostly a sad loser who watches too much porn in his free time, though the damsel’s belief in him helps turn him around to the greater good. The story moves at a quick pace and with twists and turns at each corner which help the enjoyability rating.
Really, the standout of this movie is the villain. Fabio (Lo Zingaro) is fantastically deranged, in a style that surpasses the Joker. The only thing I truly have to say about this movie is that the moment where Lo Zingaro barges in on the hero and the camera POV switches from third person to first person and the hero is on the verge of fainting but all he sees is Lo Zingaro saying “Ciao”.........reader, I am speaking from the afterlife. Again, truly, there is no love for Luca Marinelli like the camera’s love for Luca Marinelli. My heart stopped when I saw Fabio’s face in such a tender, loving proximity...and yet...he is deranged...he wants to kill you….TAKE ME NOW FABIO I AM YOURS *lovelorn Victorian sigh*
Perhaps I might issue a CW that there is a trans character in the film. The character doesn’t appear for too long, and I think the portrayal is mostly neutral to borderline negative for playing to stereotypes. The damsel in distress’s story carries a huge TW for sexual abuse and incest.
TOG cast rating: 5/5 just for that 1st person POV scene alone--that was life changing. I did not expect to be greeted so intimately by a completely deranged motherfucker. I want it as my phone wallpaper.
A Bigger Splash
My movie rating: 4.5 / 5
I loooooooved Bigger Splash so much?? But this is because I love Tilda Swinton and I love Ralph Fiennes. While watching this, I don’t know why, but I just kept thinking, aaaaand this guy is also Voldemort (Fiennes). I love the implausibility and yet here we are.
Matthias is so boyfriend-shaped in this movie, I wanted to snuggle up against him and have him care for me. He’s a wonderful boyfriend, and Ralph Fiennes’s character truly, is the Most Annoying Mansplainer type ever, like, you’ve probably met that type, who thinks he’s slick and loves the sound of his own voice and I 100% related when Matthias’s character just...has had enough of Ralph Fiennes’s character. But oopsie, the rest is a spoiler.
THE SOUNDTRACK IS AWESOME also it’s got St Vincent covering the Rolling Stones and St Vincent is the lesbian guitar hero of your dreams, please give St Vincent more love.
TOG cast rating: 5 / 5 Matthias is butt naked in the opening scenes of the movie, and then he appears full frontal nude later on. But mostly he just looks so snuggly like a big boyfriend hoodie.
Rabat
My movie rating: 4 / 5
Wow ok I LOVED THIS ONE A LOT. Idk what I was expecting, but it was a beautiful, beautiful ride. It’s a perfect expression of the “roadtrip story” form. It’s got the adventure, the hijinks, the conflict and the “transformative growth” that comes out of the conflict. It’s about the MENA immigrant experience in Europe, and though from a different community as someone who’s had the immigrant experience myself I loved the part where they talk about people back home thinking they’re rich for having moved abroad. Yet--in many white-dominated countries, non-white immigrants live under an incredibly bulletproof glass ceiling and moving “upward” in society is a pipe dream. I loved when the main character Nadir mentions his dad’s taxi being a reliable source of income for the past 15 years. I think it’s such a warm and human film played by very warm and human characters, and [mild spoiler] I CACKLED SO MUCH at how Nadir “resolves” the question of marriage--I can’t go into too much detail bc the movie builds up to this but I LAUGHED SO MUCH. It’s the blend of total inappropriateness delivered in the most sincere package played to perfection.
TOG cast rating: 3/5 criminally underused Marwan bc he is not the main character. Marwan is a womanizing, alcohol-loving Tunisian friend in this story who buys a...bootleg? Hugo Boss suit for 200 Euros and then rips it up to form shorts bc the weather is too hot. The story implies he has a more complex backstory re: his relationship to his father as well as having impregnated a girl and escaping paternal responsibility for that but doesn’t give us much more. At one point, one character remarks that he would do “horrible” things (implying sexual interest) to Marwan’s character and ALAS I MUST AGREE.
...AAAAAND we’ll have more to come!! I promised a friend to watch Beale Street together so it’s gonna take a while for that to happen thx covid.
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foolgobi65 · 4 years ago
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Ram/Sita + spy au+ friends to lovers + “you know i’ll do anything for you”
lol this...AGAIN....spun out of my control.....and is apparently 6020 words while still having massive massive holes in characterization and plot and ...general stuff..lol. anyways hope u like it? it ended up being way less Spy Spy and more ....arranged marriage au...... because everything i’ve written has basically been that now lol and raazi is the only spy movie i could think of that works bc rama and sita dont have mr and mrs smith vibes to me. love u!!!!!!
----
“Are you serious?” 
The face on the screen is somehow almost as familiar as Sita’s own -- she’s never been one for the gossip rags, but at some point, it’s almost harder not to know the features of someone who’s been famous since his parents announced his conception. 
“You know him, then.” Sita’s handler Kaikeyi seems remarkably even-tempered for a woman charging Sita, her top recruit, to attach herself to the arm of Kaikey’s stepson -- a boy that the papers seem to believe Kaikeyi prefers even to her own Bharata. Sita raises an incredulous eyebrow before realizing that Kaikeyi does actually expect Sita to recite what she knows about her newest target. 
“Ramachandra Raghav,” Sita recites from memory, “but the papers call him Ram. Only son of Dasaratha and his first wife Kausalya, sole presumptive inheritor to the Kosala industries fortune. Dasaratha Raghav and his wife publicly struggled to conceive and adopted a daughter, Shanta, nine years before they had Ram whose birth coincided with the release of Dasartha’s final film and his entry into politics.” Sita purses her lips, unsure if she should continue, but Kaikeyi remains impassive. “Dasaratha and Kausalya divorced when Ram was five, and three months later Dasaratha married you.” Judiciously Sita chooses not to include the fact that Kaikeyi, who during her acting days had only been paired with the already greying movie star, reportedly delivered her eight-pound son Bharata three months early. 
Kaikeyi rolls her eyes, still the same striking green that had made her first film such a hit. “Of course I was pregnant when we got married. What else.” 
Sita racks her mind. “The custody case was unusual -- Kausalya shifted to America with her children, but Dasaratha petitioned for them to stay with him in India. Shanta was 16 and decided to finish school abroad with Kausalya, but the courts decided that Ram would spend alternate years with each parent until he reached his majority.” It was the oddity of the arrangement that kept the Indian public so desperate for news about what otherwise might have been just another star-turned-politician’s son: pictures of Bharata, who was constantly being presented at building openings, movie premiers and other assorted Party functions went for nearly a quarter of the price as those of Ram whose arrival at the Delhi airport became more and more of a national event in sync with his father’s increasing political power. The exoticism of his American English was viewed with as much pride as his unaccented Hindi which the Party often used to great effect, having him canvass his father’s constituents on camera the year Dasaratha was put forward as the party’s candidate for Chief Minister and releasing them online. 
But it has been a few years since Ram was last in India for more than a month or so’s vacation -- at 16 he graduated from school and sent the Indian media into near paralytic shock when he decided to attend university in Delhi. Not even three years dimmed the public’s fascination, which quickly turned into genuine discontent when it was announced that Ram had accepted an offer to do his doctorate in California and had barely been seen in India since. 
“You want me to investigate a Chief Minister’s son?” Again, Sita leaves unsaid the rumors that swirl even in headquarters -- that Dasaratha’s relative competency at state-wide management has made him a viable candidate for even higher office. That after the last election’s dismal results, it is apparent that Dasaratha might be the only remaining Party figure popular enough to lead a coalition that would bring them to power in the Centre after nearly a decade at the periphery. 
Kaikeyi laughs. “Not quite,” she says, still perfect red lips twisting in a faint smile, “Ram is in New York now working for the UN, and it seems that he will have a long and illustrious career in diplomacy which will bring him into contact with all sorts of people of interest to our national security agencies. We need someone at his side to make sure that those contacts are being utilized to their full potential.” 
Sita frowns. “He’s too young to need a trusted aide or a secretary.” 
“Correct. That’s why we’re sending you to New York as his wife.” 
-- 
When Sita is 18, a woman comes up to her on the street asking if she’d like to be a model. As a laugh Sita shows up at what the woman’s business card says is the head-hunting agency’s main office only to be quickly moved to a backroom, divested of her backpack, phone and shoes and investing her with a new lifelong wariness of strangers with offers too good to be true. Her father is the aging yet venerable University President -- they don’t have the money for ransom, but Sita just as quickly rules out potential trafficking since her father has one or two connections that would raise quite the fuss if he informed them that his daughter was missing. But before she can think of another reason behind her apparent kidnapping, the door opens, and Sita’s life changes with the incoming rush of bright light into the dark room. 
“You’re..” she splutters, eyes raking up and down the perfect figure of the woman in front of her. 
“Yes,” Kaikeyi Raghav says, sunglasses perched delicately at the top of her head as she adjusts the pallu of her elegant chiffon sari. “I’m sorry for all the confusion, but we really needed to get you alone before we could try and talk to you.” 
“Talk,” Sita rasps, suddenly hyper aware of her own dry throat. Kaikeyi sighs, clapping her hands once before taking a bottle of water that appeared almost instantly at the door’s threshold, opening the cap and offering it to Sita who gulps it down. “Talk about what?” Sita asks. 
“One of our associates brought you to our attention about a year ago thinking that with some work you could be turned into something quite extraordinary.” Kaikeyi brings up her right hand to pull down her hair from its updo, the cascades only making her more breathtaking to Sita, whose father always had a soft spot for the old Dasaratha-Kaikeyi films. “I’ve been observing you ever since, and recently came to the same conclusion.” 
Sita can’t help but glow at the praise, even as she tries to keep her sense of rationality -- she’s been kidnapped after all, even if by one of the nation’s most illustrious figures. First: “Are you trying to traffick me into sex work?” 
Kaikeyi laughs, and the sound is clear and captivating like a bell. The more Sita watches, the smaller details begin to stand out -- a mole just slightly to the right of Kaikeyi’s collarbone, the green of the embroidery that brings out those colors in her eyes, the red fingernails that perfectly match Kaikeyi’s lips. 
“Do I look like a pimp?” Kaikeyi’s tone is one that does not truly seek a response, though Sita is not sure she even has one. The proclivities of the rich and powerful are rumored to skew to the truly scandalous, and there is no reason that an elegant woman could not be the front for the procurement of such services. 
“Then is this supposed to be recruitment for politics?” Sita has never thought herself particularly gifted at deception, which seems to be the first requirement for a fruitful career of public service. 
“No,” Kaikeyi laughs again, ���but I find it interesting that you didn’t consider that I might be signing you on as a heroine.” 
“I don’t have a face for film,” Sita says, “and I have no intention of leaving Delhi.” 
“You have exactly the face for film,” Kaikeyi counters, “but I agree -- your mind would be as wasted as mine in Bombay.”  
“Then politics?” Sita, who was born and brought up in Calcutta before her father was given a position in Delhi had never given much thought to the Raghav’s stronghold Ayodhya -- she can’t imagine what Kaikeyi could possibly see in her. 
Kaikeyi shakes her head. “What do you know about this country’s intelligence services?” 
Sita blinks. “You want me to be a spy?” 
-- 
Five years after their first meeting, Sita has learned how to handle all sorts of weapons including her own body, how to speak a dozen languages, how to scope out a room. In some strange way, Kaikeyi seems to have filled the gaping hole left behind by Sita’s long-dead mother Sunaina, who Sita is not entirely sure would approve of what her daughter decided to make of her life. There isn’t quite a bond of affection, but there is loyalty beyond even what Sita would have given her own mother -- no better proof than the fact that here Sita is agreeing to marry Kaikeyi’s stepson entirely because Kaikeyi demanded it, where Sunaina would have had quite the shock if she had tried to suggest a man for Sita to wed. Sita had dreamed of marrying for love, but loyalty she reasons is close enough. 
Ostensibly, Sita has finished her MA with high honors and works at an NGO that enjoys Kaikeyi’s patronage -- this, they decide, is how the papers will be told Kaikeyi knows Sita. There are a few strategically leaked photos of Kaikeyi first paying the NGO a visit, then taking Sita out for a series of lunches. Sita finally travels to the ancestral Raghav mansion in Ayodhya for Diwali, bringing along her father to meet and pay his respects to his favorite screen star. 
“You must be Sita’s father,” Dasaratha booms when they approach, somehow brimming with the same vitality and presence that drew such crowds to the theater in his youth. He grins, left arm wound around Kaikeyi’s waist at his side as he turns to speak to Sita. “My wife has grown old and taken up matchmaking to pass the time, but from what I have seen you would be a fine choice for my Ram.” 
Janaka stiffens at Sita’s side, hearing about such an arrangement for the first time, but Dasaratha’s charisma pulls him into its orbit as Dasaratha reaches out his hands. “I confess that I was never well educated myself, but I believe it would only bring me and my family honor to be able to call someone as learned as yourself ‘Brother.’” 
Janaka is sold. Sita, who has never been quite sure about the real dynamic between Kaikeyi and her husband, realizes with some relief that there is genuine fondness, even love, in the smile she flashes her husband. Perhaps there might be hope for Sita herself. 
Dasaratha insists that the informal engagement is enough to justify Sita and her father’s extended stay at the mansion. After one day, he calls Ram himself informing his son that Dasaratha has found him a wife. Within a week, the news reports that Dasaratha’s eldest son has found himself back on Indian soil. 
Sita finally leaves the mansion two weeks after Diwali with the instruction that she must treat the property as her own home whenever she returns to India -- after all, Dasaratha booms, she is his beloved Ram’s wife now, and Dasaratha’s daughter now as much as Janaka’s. 
-- 
“So,” Sita says on their first night, sitting on what's supposed to be their marital bed,  “what name should I call you?” 
Her husband raises an eyebrow, silent just as he has been for almost the entire week since he was called home. Kaikeyi, when Sita asked for details, had not elaborated on the character of her stepson nor had she offered details about how Sita might best seduce him. 
“Follow your instincts,” Kaikeyi had said, smiling at Sita’s frustration. “You’ll know what I mean when you spend time with him.” 
Well, Sita thinks perversely, her instincts are telling her to confess everything to the man she has promised herself to in front of her father, and God almighty. Somehow, she is meant to maintain a lifelong relationship with a man she is only now speaking to, and to mine his contacts for information to send back to her handler, his stepmother. 
“The papers call you Ram,” Sita says, only a little sullen at the thought of the task ahead of her, “as does your family. Is that what you prefer to go by?” 
“My father’s family,” he corrects mildly, and Sita immediately flushes at the mistake. Kaushalya and Shanta had of course come, but arrived only the night before the wedding -- Sita had met them both the morning of, but only enough to touch their feet and have Kaushalya cluck, teary-eyed, over the beauty of Sita in her wedding sari. 
“Of course,” Kaushalya had said off-handedly to Shanta standing at her side, “Kaikeyi has always had excellent taste.” Sita had not trusted herself to answer. 
“Will we live with your mother in America?” Sita has been provided with what she considers shockingly little information regarding her future living situation -- Kaikeyi insists that, largely, this assignment requires Sita to effectively live her own life and as such being more information than provided a new wife would only detract from her performance. 
He shakes his head. “My mother and Shanta live in New York too, but Shanta needed to be closer to Columbia and...” he looks away, suddenly just slightly awkward. “Things changed so much for Mother throughout my life that I think she was finally able to find some type of stability when I was away at university. When it turned out that I was moving back, I didn’t want to be the one to throw her life back into flux.” 
Sita nods. “Are you close?” 
Her husband hums, fingers of one hand slightly worrying at the hem of a blanket. “As much as I can be, having spent every other year away.” 
Sita can’t imagine -- for years, the story of the boy caught so explicitly between two worlds has always been interesting or amusing, but now that she’s confronted with him in the flesh she knows that it must have been sad, too. She tries to imagine a mother committing to the notion that the child she waves off at the airport gate would not be the one who returned, and finds that it’s impossible. 
“It must have been difficult,” she offers, not elaborating on whether she is speaking of her husband’s family, or himself. 
He nods. “Father and Mother Kaikeyi always had Bharata, and the Party. I was glad when Mother found Sumitra and the boys.”
Sita’s eyes widen. “A friend?” 
He turns his body to look at her for the first time head-on. “No,” he says, eyes boring into Sita’s, exuding the same gravitational force as his father. “Her wife. The boys are my Father’s during a...period of disagreement with Mother Kaikeyi, and when Sumitra decided to keep them Mother brought her to New York to have the children. They fell in love.”
This is a test, Sita realizes, and for the first time, she realizes the wisdom of Kaikeyi’s lack of preparatory material even as she curses Kaikeyi in equal measure. She would have liked to have not been blindsided, but there is a truth to her reaction she could never have mimicked so effectively. Her mind roils with the amount of information relayed in such few sentences -- Dasaratha, already so old, still fathering sons. Kaikeyi and her husband having a disagreement so strident it sent him into another’s arms. Kausalya, raising more of Dasaratha’s children as her own. Kausalya, in love with a woman. 
Her silence has drawn on too long during her contemplation, and her husband’s eyes have gone cold as he leans away from her. 
“You call her Sumitra,” she decides on, “but if she’s your mother’s wife, should I call her mother in law as well?” 
Her husband is wide-eyed himself for a moment, but then his face cracks into a smile just dripping with sudden, unexpected delight. Sita’s heart skips a beat at the sight. 
“It would make her very happy if you did,” he says. “And as for me, my mother has always insisted on calling me Ramachandra and none of my siblings use my name at all. You can call me whatever you’d like.”  
---
“Rama!” Sita exclaims, trying to rise from the chair behind her desk and managing to trip on the hanging sleeve of the sweater she had been sitting on. She laughs, picking herself up off the ground. “Oh, and you brought the boys too!” 
It’s been a year since Sita moved to New York, a year in which she’s found fulfilling work at a South Asian women’s shelter, learned how to navigate herself via subway to find the best of ten different cuisines in New York, read three books related to Shanta’s new area of interest, featured in the boys’ Instagram Lives over 20 different times, and found herself a best friend in the form of her husband. 
Ram, she had decided, was how the public knew him even if his father’s family chose the same. Ramachandra was much too long. Rama was short, sweet, vowels easy in Sita’s mouth. 
“No one calls me that,” he’d said when she’d first used the name, his tone again one of unexpected delight. “I’ve always thought it was strange that they never did.” 
Sita’s due a lunch break, but she’s always been prone to eating at her desk unless she’s eating out -- a budgeted, once weekly expense she keeps track of after the humiliating exorbitancy of her first month’s bill. 
“We have money,” Rama had said, bemused at Sita’s profuse apologies. “I’ve got a trust fund, but my salary certainly pays well enough for this.” He’d glanced at the bill Sita had handed him as she had wrung her hands in front of him, so unsure of how she’d managed to spend so much. “It looks like this is mostly just restaurant charges anyway, and,” he’d looked up at Sita with a smile, rising to hold her hands before she could twist them again, “you live in New York now. I’m glad that you’ve spent the last month trying all sorts of the things the city has to offer. It’s exactly what I did when I moved back, except I probably spent twice as much.” 
Sita had felt the first of many twin pangs at his kindness -- one pang of joy, at being with someone so well suited to herself, and another of sorrow when she thought of how their relationship was founded on a lie. Kaikeyi had told Sita that there was no need to actively seek out contacts for at least the first year, and so the extent of her real work was having regular conversations with Kaikeyi that easily blurred the line between professional and personal relationships. 
“Is he any good at sex,” Kaikeyi had asked one day after asking for a report about Rama’s “family situation” which Sita found distressingly similar to the inquiries of a second wife wondering about her husband’s former paramours. Sita had hung up. 
“Sita?” Sita starts, bringing herself out of her reverie and smiling. 
“Sorry,” she says, grabbing her coat. “I was just thinking about something.” 
“Something interesting?” He takes the coat and holds it out for Sita to slip her arms into, smoothing down the lapels when she turns around. “I spent the whole morning stuck in the single least productive set of meetings, and knowing them they’re probably arguing about what appetizers to get for lunch. I’ve never felt as lucky as I did when I told them all that, unfortunately, I’d already logged that I was taking a half-day to take care of my brothers.” 
The boys scowl. “We’re thirteen years old,” Lakshmana says. Shatrughana nods in agreement. “We could have gone home by ourselves!”
Sita flashes Rama a smile, leaning down with an expression as if in deep thought. “That’s true enough -- if you’d like we can send you home and just join you after I finish work, but aren’t your moms on a health kick right now?” 
Lakshmana, always the more suspicious of the pair, crosses his arms. “And?” 
“Well,” Sita drawls, hearing Rama snort softly next to her, “your brother and I were thinking of taking you to the greasiest joint we can find in walking distance, and then to 7/11 after to find you both snacks for when you spend the weekend at our apartment. But if you’d rather not, that’s totally ok too!” 
The boys fall for the line, hook and sinker. 
“Oh,” Lakshmana says, voice suddenly a pitch lower than usual as he squares his shoulders in what Sita doesn’t think any of the three recognize is his best imitation of Rama, “that’s ok.” He looks over at Shatrughana, who nods. “Family is important. Let’s go eat!” 
“Thank you,” Rama says softly after they’ve finally decided where to eat and are walking in the correct direction. Sita raises an eyebrow. “You’re good with the boys,” he explains, shrugging his shoulders. “I was expecting to have to take them out on my own, and stay at my mother’s when I wanted to spend time with them but --” 
Sita interrupts him before he says something truly embarrassing about what she only sees as a pleasure. “It’s easy when they’re such good kids,” she says, “and I would have done it even if it was harder. It’s the least I could have done for you, after everything.” 
Everything being the credit cards he’d given her when they landed, his insistence that he wouldn’t monitor her spending and would set up a bank account for her that he would periodically transfer money into but not be able to access. Everything being the books he shared with her and the books he read on her recommendation, in turn, the concerts they’d attended together, the plays and musicals and movies and street festivals. Everything being the conversations they’d had on the couch until late at night, the meals he learned to cook because they reminded her of home. 
The one similarity underlying all others between them, Sita realized one day, was that they had both grown up lonely, without anyone person, they could claim truly, entirely understood them. Neither of them had had a best friend until they met the other. By unspoken agreement, they had not consummated their marriage that first night, nor during the first few hectic months of Sita’s acclimation to New York. Eventually, it became easier to simply maintain things as they were and to enjoy the novelty of a companion before things became ... complicated. 
If a part of Sita insisted that she hold off from sex so as to not build even more on an inherently unstable foundation -- if that same part screamed that her husband had given her trust beyond all else and she squandered the gift every day she didn’t tell him who she really was -- then that was something for Sita, and only Sita, to think about.
--- 
“Oh,” Sita hears from the bathroom threshold, glancing through the mirror at the figure Rama cuts in his tailored tuxedo. It’s been nearly a year and six months since their marriage, and what Sita thought of as friendship has since bloomed into a wild, uncontrollable love. Yet, she keeps her love to herself, knowing that it would be cruel to offer him fruit with a rotted core. 
He cares too, she knows -- only a fool could willingly ignore the little signs of it he offers so freely, long and lingering looks, kisses to her cheek, forehead, the corner of her lips and the edges of her knuckles. She knows that her resistance to further intimacy must confuse him, perhaps even hurt him, but still, she can’t help but think that things would be worse if she gave in only for him to find out later. Sometimes, she wonders if Dasaratha knows about Kaikeyi -- if Lakshmana and Shatrughana owe their existence to a revelation of the truth which so discomfited their sire that he sought another woman to drown in. 
Sita is selfish, far too much so, to allow the truth to poison what she now has, half-life as it is. So she smiles over meals Rama cooks for her, meets the contacts Kaikeyi has started sending her way during lunch breaks she takes less frequently at her desk and begins preparing her heart for when things will inevitably fall apart. Today, she and Rama will attend a gala meant to raise funds for refugees which will double as a drop-point for some dissident’s data collection from the last five years on the inside of their regime’s surveillance operation. 
“You look beautiful,” Rama says, walking in. Sita’s hands, haphazardly smoothing down the last wisps of hair that refuse to curve to her skull in their updo, pause when he places his own over them. “Is that my mother’s sari?” 
Sita nods. “The style has come back,” she says, reaching out to the counter for the strand of jasmine Sumitra had sent to their apartment to be paired with Kausalya’s sari. “Even Kaikeyi approved, which means that this outfit technically has the approval of all three of your mothers, and your sister as well.” 
Rama smiles softly, taking the jasmine and pinning it up with a deft hand that speaks of experience. “I’ve never been one to keep up with fashion trends, but I think you wear it very well.” 
“Kaikeyi says it makes me look like a movie star.” In order for the drop to be successful, Kaikeyi had demanded Sita pull out all the stops possible within the relatively demure confines of charity-wear. Sita’s blouse plunges at the back, skin unobstructed by a pallu or bra, and she shivers slightly when Rama’s left-hand traces lines. 
“I suppose she would know,” he says absently, eyes raking up and down at Sita’s reflection in the mirror they both face, passing over her eyes rimmed with kohl and her dark red lips. His right-hand falls to his pocket, searching for a moment before he finds what he needs, pulling out a pair of beautiful earrings Sita hadn’t known he had. 
“Mother Kaikeyi had me get these from storage a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t sure if they would suit what you were planning on wearing.” They look at the pieces in his hands, realizing together how well the earrings will look with Sita’s sari. 
“Will you put them on me,” Sita asks, voice thin and breathy despite herself. His hands are gentle, just slightly cool to the touch as they gently thread the earrings into her lobes, tightening the screws and caressing her ear before moving to ghost over Sita’s hips. If Sita moved into his touch, allowed him to grasp her body so hard that she bruised if she turned her face just slightly and brushed her lips against his -- her entire body is one flame, but even now she is attending this gala with her own motive, even has a small gun she plans on holstering to her left leg as insurance. She can’t. 
She can’t. Sita takes one step forward, Rama’s hands falling back to his own sides. 
“We’ll be late,” Sita says, moving them back into purgatory instead of choosing heaven or hell. 
Rama shakes his head slightly, taking a breath. “Yes,” he replies, tone never betraying a sense of the frustration he must feel. He smiles again, holding out a hand. Sita will tell him one day, she tells herself. He deserves that much. 
“Let’s go.” 
-- 
One day, it seems, will be sooner rather than later. Sita’s very first drop of this assignment, after nearly two years of prep, and it seems like she’s going to end up just another statistic, shot in the head for all her efforts. 
Worse, she thinks, she’s going to break Rama’s heart. The dissident was less careful than they’d thought, trusted someone they shouldn’t have, and now they’re both being held up against a wall and being told to recite any final prayers for their souls. Sita’s single measly gun at her hip wouldn’t change the odds of 10 against 2, especially since no amount of physical training will significantly change the realities of her smaller physique going up against larger numbers of even better-trained muscle. 
She only wishes that she’d thrown caution to the wind once, had told Rama the truth and let the cards fall where they may. She wishes she could see him one more time and apologize, reassure him that her love was true even if her initial motives weren’t. 
“Hey,” she hears from somewhere in the distance, away from their cluster of a firing squad. Her heart simultaneously sinks and soars to realize that the voice is Rama. “That’s my wife!” 
The leader laughs, just as the dissident sobs. Sita clutches their hand tighter. “Then I’m sorry to say that she hasn’t been much of a wife,” the leader sneers, “just another one of Kaikeyi’s little rats meddling where they’re unwanted.” 
“Run!” Sita screams, deciding that she’d rather Rama be alive than hear her confessions before he too is killed. “For my sake run, before they decide to kill you too!” In the back of her mind, she knows that it’s already too late -- people are executed for far less than what Rama is doing, which is continuing to walk forward. 
He sighs audibly, not even pausing his forward momentum. “I’m sorry,” he says, and for some reason, Sita genuinely believes that he is. “You know I’d do anything for you, but there’s something I haven’t told you yet about me.” 
Shouldn’t that be Sita’s line? “What,” she croaks, captivated by how he’s somehow holding the group hostage, each of them curiously watching as he walks right up to wear Sita and her companion stand against the wall. “Please,” she sobs, breaking her own vow to face death with dignity, “if you’ve ever cared about me, you would leave.” 
Rama’s fingers come up to trace Sita’s bruised eye, her puffy lip, the cut at her cheekbone. “Concussion?” he asks, completely ignoring Sita’s plea. 
“It hardly matters,” she says, “when I’m going to die in about five minutes. Just like you will if you don’t leave right now.” 
Rama hums, right hand shifting down to her thigh, where her gun is strapped. Sita’s eyes widen as though the fabric he seems to be easing the gun out and up to where the fabric wraps around her waist. Left hand still caressing her cheek as the right holds the gun in place against her stomach, he leans in to gently kiss Sita’s forehead. 
“All three of us are going to live tonight,” he says, so confident that it seems as if it would be absurd for Sita to think anything else as if even three against 10 the odds are stacked firmly in their favor. “Hold this for me?” 
Sita’s hand shifts down to the gun still hidden in the fabric as Rama steps away and turns, his hands now busy divesting himself of his tuxedo jacket and the bowtie Sita had so painstakingly learned how to tie for him earlier. 
“Now,” he says casually, as everyone watches him worry at his cufflinks, dropping them in the pile now at Sita’s feet, later followed by his wedding ring. “Unfortunately for you all this means that you will not be surviving this encounter. Do you have any last words?” 
The leader laughs. “Are you fucking kidding me?” 
Rama’s left-hand reaches out behind him. Sita, as if in a trance, dutifully fishes out the gun and places it in his hand before realizing that she has something she needs to say before it's too late. His own confidence gives her some of her own, but still how could he possibly win? How will they possibly survive -- and if, against all odds they do, what on earth is she going to say? So: “I love you,” she blurts out, smiling slightly when Rama’s head twists to look at her, incredulous, but before he can respond the first bullet fires and he explodes into action. 
For the first two minutes, the fight is 10 against 1 and still, Rama makes it look like child play. Weaving in and out, every shot he fires taking down at least one if not more of the men against him. At some point, he grabs another gun and tosses it in Sita’s direction, whose entrance into the melee serves to turn the tide even further. At least she’s always been a good shot, she thinks to herself, taking a man out even when her head rings with what she knows her husband accurately diagnosed as the beginning of a concussion. Part of her can’t do anything but watch as her studious, gentle husband breaks someone’s nose before shooting them through the heart. 
Within five minutes, it’s over. Just like Rama said, all ten men are dead at their feet. The gun drops out of his hand, slippery now with other people’s blood. Sita’s kill count is 2. He’s just killed eight men. 
“I...” Sita starts, realizing she doesn’t know what to say. She swallows, looking at the carnage around her and tries again to reconcile the sight with Rama’s soft sweaters, old fashioned glasses, and aversion of horror films. “How?” 
Rama purses his lips. “Same as you,” he says, wiping his hands on his pants with a grimace. “Mother Kaikeyi trained me, and while I was in India I was sent on assignment.” 
Sita pauses. “You’re a spy?” Even as she says it, she knows that she’s in no position to speak with such scandal in her voice -- yet, she thinks, she had thought she knew him, that he had trusted her. 
Rama laughs as he never has: short, hollow, bitter. “No,” he says, “not anymore. And even when I was, I was more of a hitman than anything else. I quit and moved away, and I assume that’s why Mother Kaikeyi sent someone to make sure I didn’t step too far out of line as a rogue element.” 
Somehow, Sita thinks, this is worse than she imagined. “No,” she says, rushing forward, hands wringing as if he’s looking again at her first credit card bill. “I asked at the beginning. It was never about you.” 
Rama is silent for a moment that seems to stretch endlessly as the adrenaline wears off for Sita, and her aches start to make themselves known. Her face throbs, her head spins, and there’s something in the vicinity of her ribs that twinges while she stands still -- not broken, she doesn’t think, but maybe bruised? Rama’s hands, almost as if it were against his mind’s will, come to stop her hands and tangle his fingers in his own as they do nothing but stare into the darkness over the other’s shoulder. “I’m glad that that’s what you were told,” he says eventually, and Sita suddenly realizes that there is an entire lifetime’s worth of complication she hadn’t known existed. 
“I wasn’t told anything,” she says, sure now that Dasaratha knows at least part of Kaikeyi’s truth, because why else would Kaikeyi have made sure that Sita walked into her relationship as transparent as possible. “Everything we shared was real.” She pauses, uncertain. “At least from my end.” 
Rama’s hands are like vices, clutching Sita’s fingers so hard it feels like he’s cut her circulation. “From mine as well. So when you just said--” 
“Yes,” Sita says, unable to say now what fear of imminent death had so successfully inspired. “Before, I was afraid of you finding out about me, but yes of course.” 
Rama exhales. “I’d hoped that’s what was stopping you, but I was never entirely sure that you really were one of Mother Kaikeyi’s recruits,” he smiles with a hint of self-deprecation. “You’re a good actor, you know.” 
“No,” Sita says, bringing her hands up to cup his face, finally deciding to be brave. “I’m really not.” She leans in. 
Their first kiss is gentle, tastes just slightly like blood, and ends quickly when Sita’s lip is irritated and makes itself known. It’s perfect. 
“I love you,” Rama breathes into the sliver of space when they part, one hand drifting to hold her at the waist, another rubbing small circles into the nape of her neck. Sita’s head spins, and not only from the concussion. 
“Hey,” she hears from somewhere behind. “I’m glad you two seem to have made up...and also .... that we’re all alive. But can we go now?” 
Sita laughs, and then immediately regrets doing so. “Yes,” she says as Rama holds her still, “let's go.” 
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awaytoday · 4 years ago
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wild that americans are liking space sweepers so much when the reaction in korea seems largely lukewarm. it’s honestly a very typical korean film with a lot of cliches that you see in a lot of movies essentially just to get box office numbers up. not saying that you’re not allowed to like it, it’s just weird to see cliches that are so overused in korean media do well in the u.s. because they’re so different from the cliches in hollywood films. it’s also not nearly as progressive as american media is making it out to be. uhhh rant under the cut bc i have Thoughts
i’ve also been seeing a lot about train to busan (bc hollywood is stupid and thought it would be a good idea to make a u.s. (read: white) remake) but if you’ve seen that movie too, you’ll know what i’m talking about when i say space sweepers has a lot of typical korean cliches. both movies follow the same blueprint: fucked up man finds himself in a dangerous situation and learns how to be a better father to his cute kid while fighting baddies with his crew. it’s always the father in these movies who get labelled as heroes for protecting their kids (usually daughters) when actual fathers in korea don’t do shit and the burden of childcare is always put on women. this type of behavior is expected from women, so it’s not considered interesting to write a story about a woman who goes through the same ordeal. this gets at another point, which is that apocalyptic movies always cast the most privileged people as their main characters and people sympathize with those characters, but they blatantly shun the real people in real society who face the same or similar problems in real life.
there’s a quote that gets at this in ruha benjamin’s race after technology: “The 'unbearable Whiteness' of sci-fi expresses itself in the anxiety underlying so many dystopian visions that, if we keep going down this road, 'We're next.' Whether it's Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, Chris Evans in Snowpiercer—all characters whose Whiteness, maleness, straightness, and (let's just admit) cuteness would land them at the top of the present social order—they all find themselves in a fictional future among the downtrodden. Viewers, in turn, are compelled to identify with the future oppression of subordinated White people without necessarily feeling concern for the 'old' underclasses in our midst.” in korea, since most people are the same race/ethnicity, the most privileged group is men and the group that is consistently being ignored is women (and i’m not at all saying there’s no racism in korea but that’s a whole nother topic that warrants a 5 page essay i’m not willing to write right now lmao). the men in these movies always get the sympathy and we are given the illusion of progress (i.e. see look how caring these men are! gender equality achieved <3) while women in korea are being actively discriminated against (being shunned for lacking ‘motherly love’ if they decide to pursue a career, politicians saying women aren’t giving birth to enough children and blaming the population decline on them, etc.). isn’t it interesting that snowpiercer, mentioned in the ruha benjamin quote, was directed by bong joon ho? in korea, korean men are analogous to white men in the rest of the world (there are even korean men who essentially think of themselves as honorary white people. again, a lot more i can say about this but i won’t).
also, about the trans robot character. the actor who plays her is known for his comedy acting and the director literally said in an interview that he thought it would be funny to have that actor’s voice paired with the visuals of the actress who played her at the end of the movie. i get that a lot of people are relating to her and that’s fine, but just know that the director is not on our side and is very much intending to make fun of trans people. it’s like that transphobic guy in animation who keeps accidentally making his characters trans or how disney made mulan but is still very much homophobic and transphobic. it’s ok to relate to those characters, but let’s not give the creators too much credit.
i guess what i’m saying is that after parasite it feels like a lot of non-koreans are over-praising korean media solely bc it’s media created by poc. while it’s good to support poc and their art, it feels very weird to me to see all this praise when the creators of this art are very much part of the most privileged group within their own society, and are using their art to discriminate against groups that are more marginalized than they are. trans people in korea are not happy with the representation in space sweepers because it is clear to them that that storyline was intended to be funny and ridiculous. feminists in korea are not satisfied with kim taeri’s character because they essentially just girlboss-ed her, and i don’t think this movie even passes the bechdel test.
yes, on the global stage there is a heavy bias toward white creators and thus these korean creators, as poc, are discriminated against. what i’m saying is that at times it feels like americans are being all ‘uwu these poc are amazing and perfect and can do no harm.’ it feels like they’re supporting this media without adequate criticism.
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tilbageidanmark · 3 years ago
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Movies I watched this week - 20
The Unexpected Find of the Week: First King (Il primo re).
A uniquely brutal, “authentic” retelling of twin brothers Romulus & Remus myth, shot with minimal dialogue in paleo Latin, as it was spoken in 753 BC. How the mythical power of fear in primitive cultures shaped who we are today.
(Recommended by AlonzoMosleyFBI)
✴️                 
Why were you so unpopular with the Chicago police department?
Because Charles Grodin died (Hard to imagine that he was 86!), I tried to watch his old ‘Seems Like Old Times’, but had to stop after 10 long, cringey minutes. Instead, I just went back to my all-time favorite his and De Nero flick, Midnight Run. Every time I remember any of the many quotable situations from this funny, delightful film, I have to go and watch it again: It’s literally a perfect movie for me. (As I wrote about it here).
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The emotionally powerful Coco, which Adora and I watched many times together, still one of my favorite Pixar’s about family and memories. The widescreen compositions are exceptionally radiant & colorful.
(Photo above).
✴️                     
4 more by Anders Thomas Jensen, whose range of story-telling skills keeps astonishing me:
✳️✳️✳️ After the Wedding (2006) - Another tortured-looking Mads Mikkelsen, this time as an ex-patriot manager of a small Indian orphanage. Here he re-visits Denmark to secure a large donation promised by a rich benefactor, and things do not end up as they start.
Intense and sensitive, with many quiet close-ups, mostly on everybody’s eyes.
Best film of the week!
(Like many other great Danish movies, this was re-made in ‘American’ in 2019 with Julianne Moore - “because it’s too difficult for Americans to read subtitles” (?) - and I tried to watch it too, but I had to turn it off after less than 10 minutes: it was just a jarring, fake copy.)
✳️✳️✳️ "The Revenge" (Hævnen) another drama written by Anders Thomas Jensen and directed by Susanne Bier. 2011 Oscar winner, about violence, retribution and ange. A story of a 12 year old boy who is bullied in school and meet another boy with a chip on his shoulder. 7/10.
✳️✳️✳️ Fear me not, with a manuscript by ATJ, was the least accomplished of all the films of his that I saw. It’s about the growing psychosis of a depressed man who, as part of a clinical test, takes experimental pills with unfortunate side effects. What was missing is ATJ’s usual humanity shining through from the characters.
✳️✳️✳️ On the other hand, I don’t know why I am so drawn to keep watching his layered Riders of Justice (for the 4th time this month!), but the detailed style of the story is so compelling, so sweetly funny and moving, that even the over-the-top violence is completely acceptable.
✴️               
Yesterday I took 15 kilometer bike ride around the island of Amager. Later in the evening I watched 5 hours of the Danish police procedural series “The Investigation“. I was delighted to see that many of the exteriors were shot exactly on the Svenskeholm coast where I just biked!
It’s a VERY slow burn, understated and moody Scandi-noir, with constant and quiet cello background. Didn’t realize it was based on real events. So un-American, without any glitz or melodrama. Second film with Rolf Lassgård in the same week.
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I enjoy watching big Danish actor Nicolas Bro very much, but Small Killers from Nibe is a terrible black-comedy, a copy of ATJ’s style but without his charm and humanistic depth. 2/10
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First watch: I actually never saw Leni Riefenstahl’s complete Triumph of the Will before! What a masterful propaganda film! Wach Auf!
Trump - and the Nazis of Charlottesville - must have watched this one many times.
This was prompt by travel-guru Rick Steves’ short Germany’s Fascist Story. It’s interesting how he’s been turning recently from geography to history.
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Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, the only ‘decent’ American president before Obama, and his friendship with like-minded musicians, Willie Nelson, the Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, etc. Lovely!
✴️                         
The Human Voice - A Pedro Almodóvar Jean Cocteau-inspired short: Tilda Swinton alone in a gilded apartment saying goodbye on the phone to her lover, who is about to marry someone else. Theatrical, cerebral, affected.
✴️                    
2 by British director Mike Hodges:
✳️✳️✳️ Get Carter - Young Michael Caine, suave, cool as a cucumber, is a gangster returning to Newcastle to attend the funeral of his brother there.
✳️✳️✳️ Clive Owens breakthrough role, Croupier. A struggling writer takes a job in a seedy casino. The 3rd-person interior monologues didn’t work for me
A wave of elation came over him; he was hooked again... watching people lose.
✴️                     
I disliked The Lobster, an artsy, absurdist dystopian fable with a convoluted premise of forced couplehood. Single people are rounded up at a hotel resort and are given 45 days to find romantic partners or otherwise be turned into animals.
The very first scene told me everything I needed to know about what followed:  The camera focuses on a profile of a woman, driving for a while in the rain, then she stops by a field, gets out of the car, and shoots a donkey. 3/10
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Unstoppable, another “Runaway Train” themed movie, with Denzel Washington: Tony Scott’s last film before he jumped off the San Pedro bridge in 2012.
Action, Action, Action and large, heavy and noisy machinery.
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The One I love, Elisabeth Moss and her husband are visiting a romantic resort in order to save their troubled marriage, where they discover two doppelgängers of themselves: A muddled up & confused story that makes no sense or evoke much empathy.
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Throw-back to the  art project:
Adora with Mama Coco.
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(My complete movie list is here)
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