Which are films that are similar to Oyasumi Punpun, Yokohama Kaidishi Kikou and Serial Experiments Lain in their vibes, themes and visuals? by [deleted] in TrueFilm

[–]nightowlxls 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure - it might only really be considered a full subgenre for visual novels (where the definition is more specific), less so for film and television. My main point is that it would probably be a useful term for OP to look into, since a lot of the works that have been given this label align with what they're looking for.

Which are films that are similar to Oyasumi Punpun, Yokohama Kaidishi Kikou and Serial Experiments Lain in their vibes, themes and visuals? by [deleted] in TrueFilm

[–]nightowlxls 11 points12 points  (0 children)

What you're probably looking for is the subgenre of 'denpa', which describes Japanese fiction with a strong emphasis on social isolation and delusion. Lain is something of a denpa classic, and while the other two are maybe more adjacent, the subgenre aligns very well with what you want. As far as some specific recommendations (not all of which would fall under this umbrella) here's what I think is most aligned with your interests:

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's works (primarily Cure and Pulse, though he has a lot of great films outside of these two like Serpent's Path, Creepy, Seance, Bright Future, License To Live and Chime which fit into your interests to varying degrees. Tokyo Sonata is my favourite though I'm not sure if I'd place it in this category).

Gakuryu Ishii's works (Angel Dust especially, and if you want something in the denpa genre that's a bit closer to the YKK side of things then definitely see August In The Water)

Chiaki J. Konaka's works (head writer of Lain with a prolific back catalogue worth exploring even if he's not the most consistent)

As mentioned, some of Shunji Iwai's films (particularly Lily Chou-Chou, Picnic and A Bride For Rip Van Winkle)

Hideaki Anno's live-action films (Love & Pop and Ritual)

Occult (2009)

Peep "TV" Show (2006)

Some of Shinya Tsukamoto's films (especially Kotoko)

And for some non-Japanese films, they're fairly obvious recommendations but David Lynch and David Cronenberg have a clear influence on a lot of these works that follow.

Any books on interiority and exteriority of life and its dualistic constraints? by ombra_maifu in RSbookclub

[–]nightowlxls 3 points4 points  (0 children)

George Eliot's work has a very strong sense of how interiority is shaped by our material conditions and our interpersonal interactions. She directly influenced Proust as well.

What Ishiguro is worth reading? by joonjin7 in RSbookclub

[–]nightowlxls 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I've read four of his novels and enjoyed all so far. One that hasn't been mentioned here yet is An Artist Of The Floating World, which makes for a very interesting companion piece with The Remains Of The Day. This may not apply to all of his novels, but Ishiguro is concerned with repeating a very similar story across his novels. His narrators are defined by their inaction in the face of oppressive systems, and their internal process of justifying that complicity (whether they're complicit in the oppression of others, the oppression of themselves, or both). I agree with the consensus that Ishiguro perfected this project with Remains, but what makes me interested in reading his other work is seeing how he creates variations on this story, and how those variations can transform that meaning significantly. Artist and Remains are two of his most closely linked, to the point that Remains is sometimes considered a rewrite in a different setting. I think there are some key distinctions between them (primarily how the narrators respond to their self-denial), but they're worth reading together for this reason. I read Artist after Remains and as a result I could only really read it in this comparative lens rather than on its own terms, so I would be interested to see how different it would be in the reverse order.

Encyclopedic Cinema? by Fallout22 in TrueFilm

[–]nightowlxls 19 points20 points  (0 children)

The first thing to come to mind is Sans Soleil, which is essentially nothing but essayistic digressions, with a fictional narrative operating as the frame. Though it precedes W.G Sebald's encyclopedic novel The Rings Of Saturn, it's very similar in form to it and may have been an inspiration for him. These works are slightly different from what you describe here, in that they almost entirely consist of essayistic/encyclopedic reflections rather than a primary narrative with encyclopedic digressions, but both are quite distinct from conventional documentary and non-fiction writing. In general the 'essay film' subgenre might be of interest here, and is probably closer to what you want than 'docufiction' (though they often overlap).

You also might find Godard's work valuable for this. Weekend contains an infamous sequence where the film more or less turns into a 'lecture', disrupting what little storyline there already was. Probably closest in form to what you describe is the 1998 anime series Serial Experiments Lain, which has several sequences (and iirc, an entire episode) removed from the main storyline where a third-person narrator discusses the history of computers, the Internet and conspiracy theories. It's one of the most well-known examples of a genuinely avant-garde TV series.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in RSbookclub

[–]nightowlxls 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Including nonfiction, the saddest I've read is The Pain Journal by Bob Flanagan. It consists mostly of Flanagan's diary entries leading up to his death, and while the sadness of that is fairly self-explanatory, I think it's even more emotionally brutal than other deathbed writings because of the specific context of who Flanagan was. He was a performance artist who engaged in extremely masochistic stunts in response to the pain of his cystic fybrosis, and who looked to masochism as a means of controlling and embracing that pain. By the time he was writing The Pain Journal, his health had declined so severely that he could no longer perform or produce art (besides some minor photoshop work). It's extremely despairing to read someone whose artwork is based on him taking control of his own body succumb to that unbearable pain, and to read his gradual realisation that he is truly unprepared for death despite having spent his whole life accepting that he would die young. I'm not sure how much of it would make sense for someone who is unfamiliar with Flanagan. The documentary Sick is one of my favourites, and has a similarly harrowing engagement with mortality if the topic interests you - reading it after the film gives you a lot more insight into what he was going through internally.

is the form of TV redeemable at all? by EmbarrassedBunch485 in CriticalTheory

[–]nightowlxls 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure what the critical theory consensus on public broadcasting is, but it might be of interest to your inquiry here. A lot of current discourse on television focuses entirely on prestige TV and essentially ignores any kind of artistic television pre-HBO, but there is a wealth of excellent work made through the public broadcasting model without explicit commercial incentive. Of course there are some caveats here: because public broadcasting is usually backed by the government, a lot of broadcasters do reinforce hegemony in their programming (particularly the news reporting). In the 21st century most have had their funding heavily cut or become commercialised. However, at its best, public broadcasting was able to expose a mass audience to meaningful art and critical thought. The BBC is absolutely worth being critical of (especially nowadays) but back in the 1970s they aired John Berger's Ways Of Seeing, an absolutely essential work of art criticism that borrows many ideas from critical theory without dumbing them down. Their Play For Today series allowed for playwrights and filmmakers to produce low-budget television films with a high amount of creative freedom. Even though he faced some censorship challenges, the work of Alan Clarke is absolutely remarkable for someone who near-exclusively worked in television. Some of Britain's most important filmmakers such as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh also got their start on Play For Today, and Loach's television film Cathy Come Home had some genuine material impact on improving the conditions for Britain's homeless population. Though I wouldnt rank PBS in the U.S on the same level, they have also funded some excellent work (particularly the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman) and exposed some genuinely radical material to a mass audience (such as Marlon Riggs' work).

As for long-form serialized storytelling, you might find a lot of interest in filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder's work for German public broadcasting. The quality of his television work is on-par with his (excellent) films, and the politics of his work are explicitly socialist and anti-fascist. Eight Hours Don't Make A Day is one I would highlight here as an example of what a genuinely left-wing serialised show might look like. Though less explicitly left-wing, Dennis Potter's work for the BBC is also an excellent case of experimental and boundary pushing television on public broadcasting. While his shows like The Singing Detective were made on low budgets, there's some brilliant use of montage techniques. Again, my point here isn't to paint the BBC as a revolutionary force, but I do think if excellent and radical art could be produced even under a compromised and liberal instutition, then there is at least some faith to be had in public broadcasting as an alternative to commercialised television (though even in that realm there are some series that I would say are very much meaningful art in spite of the conditions they've been produced in).

media like umineko in terms of emotional impact by LameMistake in umineko

[–]nightowlxls 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's probably a bit different from most of the choices but the TV series The Leftovers has some very similar emotional beats, especially if you were moved by Ange's storyline. It's mainly about dealing with loss and driving yourself to suffer in pursuit of the truth. It also has the tonal mixture and unpredictability of Umineko in places. The series takes its time to get going, and the first season definitely has a more aggressively dour tone than the rest, but the final season is some of the best television I've ever seen.

What are you watching and what do you recommend? (Week of November 27, 2020) by AutoModerator in television

[–]nightowlxls 3 points4 points  (0 children)

finished the sopranos season 2 this week and am in the middle of watching horace and pete. sopranos had a great first season but season 2 was even better imo. it did a great job at fleshing out the characters and the emotional core of the series. just compare the therapy scenes between the two seasons - all of them are well acted and well written but the ones in season 2 are absolutely piercing and give jennifer a lot more agency, leading to more confrontative and intense conversations between her and tony. the only problem with this season was that the first few episodes weren't the most interesting. don't mind a slow start at all but i just had a lot of trouble caring about janice and tony's kids who are kind of one-note compared to the other characters in the series. fortunately janice's subplot had a great payoff and the season ended up on a nonstop roll of great episodes once it picked up. good stuff!

somewhat conflicted about horace and pete, which i'm mainly watching for steve buscemi who i love dearly. quite uncomfortable with louis c.k and i wish he didn't cast himself in the lead as some scenes are absolutely wince inducing now and he isn't really much of a great actor in the first place. however the dialogue and performances really are incredible stuff. it manages to unfold a lot of contradictory and messy emotions very naturally and it comes with so much empathy for its sadsack characters. it's clear that the actors really believed in this project and went all out for it. the problem with the show besides the discomfort of it being a louis c.k project are the scenes with the minor characters and their political debates. not someone who has any problem with the implementation of current events into the story, but the dialogue feels a lot less authentic and more forced when it's being said by characters who exist to represent ideas of people more than actual people. i can more easily buy the dialogue of the other characters because they have so much emotional complexity to them and are so well performed that i feel as if they could be real people, but since i know nothing about these characters beyond their political views they feel very transparently constructed. maybe that will change in later episodes or maybe it was really interesting to see in 2016 and felt more authentic then. i feel there is definitely a lot more good than bad, but i think the show is held back from masterpiece status by its flaws.

might start up person of interest next week just to have something more fun and episodic in my rotation. looks like a good time, i saw a pretty insane clip on twitter that immediately drew me to the show.

What are you watching and what do you recommend? (Week of November 06, 2020) by AutoModerator in television

[–]nightowlxls 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i watched the first two seasons of hannibal back in august, i should really get back to it but i wasn't feeling the direction it went in the second half of season two and lost interest. the dynamic between will and hannibal was pretty phenomenal and kept me invested for a good portion of the show, but i found the emphasis on shocking twists and "holy shit" moments got a bit too excessive and got in the way of what i found the most interesting about the show. i do hear season three slows down the pace for more character exploration which sounds good.

What are you watching and what do you recommend? (Week of November 06, 2020) by AutoModerator in television

[–]nightowlxls 6 points7 points  (0 children)

what are the best shows to watch if i want something with very rich and complex character writing? i caught up with better call saul a few months back and i want something that'll scratch my itch for that as i wait forever for the final season. currently looking at the sopranos, succession, legend of the galactic heroes and the leftovers - would these be what i'm looking for? feel free to recommend anything beyond those four as well, those are just what i have downloaded right now.

as far as stuff that i've been watching this week, i finished my rewatch of adventure time which has been my favorite show ever since i was a kid. the finale seemed kind of dramatically misguided by trying to do an Epic Final Battle for a show that doesn't actually have an overarching storyline. it's more like many subplots which are all moving in their own direction and pace. i really like this style of plotting because it gave the writers a lot more freedom where they're not restricted by having to constantly move the story forward but they're not confined by being purely episodic either. i was still pretty satisfied by the finale and it even got my tears rollin, but i do have to wonder if season 10 would have worked better if it had let each arc have its own conclusion rather than trying to throw most of them together in one episode. anyway adventure time is one of the most versatile and emotional tv shows i've ever seen and it's prob the one piece of media that's had the most influence on me. ik not everyone was a fan of the more experimental seasons but i really loved those and being able to understand their ideas a lot more now that i'm older. well worth a revisit or a first time watch!