Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-06-05, 17:03

Watched Extremities (1986) last night (only someone like me would deliberately do something like that right before going to bed :roll:). Part of the reason why I did is because I remember seeing part of this movie on TV years ago, and the other part is because I think my extreme lack of knowledge about misogyny (or more specifically, in this case, rape) is really starting to worry me.

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby mōdgethanc » 2016-06-05, 18:46

vijayjohn wrote:Watched Extremities (1986) last night (only someone like me would deliberately do something like that right before going to bed :roll:). Part of the reason why I did is because I remember seeing part of this movie on TV years ago, and the other part is because I think my extreme lack of knowledge about misogyny (or more specifically, in this case, rape) is really starting to worry me.
Why are you worried about that? The fact that you even think about it puts you way ahead of most men.
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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-06-05, 18:50

mōdgethanc wrote:
vijayjohn wrote:Watched Extremities (1986) last night (only someone like me would deliberately do something like that right before going to bed :roll:). Part of the reason why I did is because I remember seeing part of this movie on TV years ago, and the other part is because I think my extreme lack of knowledge about misogyny (or more specifically, in this case, rape) is really starting to worry me.
Why are you worried about that? The fact that you even think about it puts you way ahead of most men.

I'm just worried about potentially doing something wrong, I guess, and also about the fact that I'm way more familiar with various other forms of violence than I am with rape. Like, I've read National Geographic since I was little, I've seen the kinds of injuries people get from local conflicts and wars and stuff, but I've seen very little when it comes to how men can hurt women, which alarms me given that I am a man myself and men can also hurt women without even trying. And the problem in my case isn't necessarily that the information doesn't exist; it's that I haven't been seeking it out.

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby mōdgethanc » 2016-06-05, 19:20

I think that if you're already thinking about it and mindful of it, the risk is pretty low. Of course, it's always good to become educated on stuff like this. Why not read some feminist websites and see what they have to say? I think that would be enough to reassure you.

When I was younger, I used to worry sometimes about things like what if I raped a woman because it's part of my savage nature as a man or some dumb crap like that. But then I realized that was ridiculous because a) men are better than that b) I'm more cognizant of women's issues than most men my age (I was a teenager) and c) it's just not in my character. Of course, that doesn't mean I should become complacent about how I think about and act towards women, and I try not to, but I think you'll reach the same conclusions too soon enough.
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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-06-05, 19:48

Thanks! I think I'll do that then. :)

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-06-12, 23:52

Just watched another much shorter movie (17 minutes 50 seconds) called നമ്മാ നാട്ടക്ക് ബന്ന ഹളാ [n̪əmˈmaː ˈn̪aːʈəkɯ ˈbən̪n̪ə həˈɭaː], meaning something like "The Misfortune That Befell Our Homeland." I guess the equivalent of that in Malayalam would be നമ്മുടെ നാട്ടിന് വന്ന കഷ്ടം [ˈn̪əmmʊɖe ˈn̪aːʈɪnɯ ˈʋən̪n̪ə kəʃˈʈəm]. EDIT: My dad instead suggested that the equivalent of the last word in Malayalam would be അബദ്ധം [əˈbəd̪d̪ʱəm], not [kəʃˈʈəm].

It's from Lakshadweep, a group of islands off the coast of Kerala and just north of Maldives administered by the Indian government as a union territory (like Delhi, Puducherry, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, among others). In addition to Standard Malayalam (if that's the right term for it - it definitely sounds much closer to the way I myself would speak), people in most of Lakshadweep speak Jeseri, which is descended from Old Malayalam but is barely intelligible with Modern Malayalam at all. Most of them are Muslim, in particular from the Shafi'i School of Sunni Islam.

This is apparently the first short film ever made in Jeseri (with English subtitles). It's about how the government ignores the concerns of ordinary people in Lakshadweep and (some of) the problems they face as a result. I can honestly say that I have never once heard of anyone I personally know taking any interest at all in the language, culture, or people of Lakshadweep except for my dad, and even then only to joke about Jeseri because I learned a few words and phrases of it from a book I happened to find at my alma mater's library. Mainland Malayalees pretty much seem to only ever go there as tourists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41OqI16mnPQ

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby Osias » 2016-07-13, 2:00

Pixar's Finding Dory. It's good. There are no lesbians.
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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby mōdgethanc » 2016-07-13, 5:37

Osias wrote:It's good. There are no lesbians.
what
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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby Osias » 2016-07-13, 12:53

mōdgethanc wrote:
Osias wrote:It's good. There are no lesbians.
what

Some Christians were trying to organize a boycott because of a supposed lesbian couple featured in it.

I should have used a line break between the two sentences. :rotfl:
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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby Varislintu » 2016-07-25, 8:48

The new Ghostbusters. First of all, I have to just get it said that even I find it amazing how deeply into the misogyny inside all of us the making of this movie has apparently reached and touched in some people. Just look at the gender distribution of the ratings for this movie on IMDb, for example. A good consequence is that Milo Yiannopoulis apparently got banned from Twitter for staging another "sick-'em" attack towards one of the actresses. Good effing riddence, although his horde will remain, of course.

Anyway, with that said, I frigging liked the movie. I did. Outside of its aspect of being a statement, as well. It was funny, carefree and enjoyable. Most of the time effortless, as well, but in some scenes I think it felt like they tried too hard. I could immerse myself in the events despite it being a goofy style. I loved the character Holtzmann especially. But they were all good, even Kevin.

The only minus I'd give is for the reason that, given that this movie could not avoid being a statement, they should have run with it all the way, specifically by doing the outrageous and paying attention also to the gender-distribution of the background cast. We had a male professor, a male Logic Expert, a male mayor, male secret service, male police officers, male military and 95% male ghosts. Once you see it, you can't unsee it, and it did feel disappointing once I noticed it.

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby Osias » 2016-07-27, 14:26

I even liked it more than the original! No considering its aspect of being a statement.
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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-09-11, 4:43

White People. It's a good, interesting documentary; I'm not sure I have a lot more to add. When José Antonio Vargas introduced himself, I didn't recognize him until he mentioned that he was from the Philippines, and then I remembered his article in Time magazine on illegal immigrants.

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby Osias » 2016-09-11, 13:38

Star Trek Beyond. Best one of the last three.
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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-09-25, 4:46

I just watched Raise the Red Lantern (大红灯笼高高挂), for no other reason than a) it's a famous movie by one of the PRC's most famous directors that some people I know have seen, b) I found a video of it with subtitles in Chinese and English a long time ago, c) I've never actually seen a Mainland Chinese movie in its entirety before, and d) my Mandarin Chinese really could use some reviewing, but I didn't really feel like re-reading old textbooks. :silly: It seemed like an interesting movie, but now I'm reading Dai Qing's review of it (in translation. I haven't found the original yet, I should go to sleep soon, and I probably wouldn't get much out of reading it now anyway because I'm so out of practice).

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby Varislintu » 2016-09-25, 7:33

The Babadook.

I thought it was a pretty good depiction of a mother's descent into deeper and deeper mental health problems. (That's how I interpreted it -- the movie doesn't actually take a definite stand of whether the horrors are supernatural or just inside the characters' heads.) Also, the child character was not annoying, even if I think he could easily have been written/directed that way.

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-10-09, 4:55

Just got home from watching The Artist (2011) with my parents at their friends' house. It's technically not an American movie, I suppose, but it feels a lot like one - and like a lot of them, it's unusually difficult for me to appreciate it. I mean, it's not even a bad movie (it won five damn awards), and just starting to think about it more helps me appreciate it more. And yet on the surface, the plot doesn't really convince me. This guy starts out as a big movie star, then suddenly he becomes nothing! This woman starts out as basically no one, then suddenly she becomes this big movie star! So then in the end, when he (I guess) becomes a big movie star again, how do I know he isn't just going to go back to becoming nothing again? :P "I don't have a job. I'm dead meat. I'm going to risk my neck to burn my life's work." "Hey, let's do a movie together!" "No. I'm gonna kill myself!" "Hey, let's try dancing together!" "Whoop-de-doo! I'm awesome!!" Yeah, no. :lol:

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby mōdgethanc » 2016-10-15, 4:47

The Witch (2015)

I've always had an interest in witch trials due to their connections with social psychology, being perfect historical examples of mass hysteria, as well as examples of how culture forces can produce totally bizarre somatizations in the "possessed". This movie is set in colonial America and is about a Puritan family who are besieged on their remote homestead by supernatural forces and come to suspect their own daughter of witchcraft. It's a highly disturbing look at paranoia, religious extremism, and dysfunctional families. The twist ending was also great.
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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-11-08, 5:14

I randomly decided to try watching a Burmese movie on YouTube because I've never seen one, so I watched သက်တံရောင် နှလုံးသး, which is apparently pronounced something like [θɛttã̀jãʊ̃ n̥əlṍʊ̃ðá]. In English, apparently, it's called Rainbow Heart. It's about a woman who struggles to make a living and support her family but eventually succeeds with the help of a bank that gives her small loans for her to pay back each time. I think it might be some kind of government-made movie. It was posted on YouTube at least in 2012.

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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby mōdgethanc » 2016-11-26, 7:03

vijayjohn wrote:with the help of a bank that gives her small loans for her to pay back each time.

Isn't this called microfinance?

vijayjohn wrote:I think it might be some kind of government-made movie.

It's Burma. What isn't government made.
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Re: Which movie(s) have you watched lately?

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-11-26, 7:17

mōdgethanc wrote:Isn't this called microfinance?

I'm pretty sure, yeah, but I didn't know the right word for it. :P Thanks!

mōdgethanc wrote:
vijayjohn wrote:I think it might be some kind of government-made movie.

It's Burma. What isn't government made.

Well, I've seen bits of other movies in Burmese on YouTube before that were anti-government, and I wanted to see something different for once. I'm not entirely sure what the relationship is between the media I see and the government (is what I'm seeing pro-government, anti-government, or neutral? Is it even possible to be neutral? (Idk). Even if it is pro-government, does that mean the government supports it? This seems a bit easier to tell with movies than with music videos, for example).

This did strike me as a pretty pro-government movie. Apparently, the bank in question was government-owned, and they make this big deal out of it in the movie about how it turned the protagonist and her family's life around and she gives this emotional public speech to express her gratitude and stuff.


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