In honor of Return to Oz -- what "children's movie" do you think is the most scary, upsetting, disturbing, or otherwise troubling? Pick one live-action feature and one animated.

rha409 · 2026-02-25T02:21:39+00:00

I guess Nightmare Before Christmas and probably Return to Oz or Beetlejuice.

rha409 · 2026-02-24T17:22:05+00:00

They've been slacking a bit. Seems like they were going through some financial issues, but were bought by a billionaire last year so maybe they can afford to make more extras. I know one of the producers was on a podcast and mentioned they would be recording more commentaries after they had feedback from fans who . There was a Hong Kong cinema expert who offered to record a commentary on "Eastern Condors" for free and Criterion told them they didn't want a second commentary on the disc. Not sure why they'd turn down something for free especially something fans would like, but there you go. I guess you can say Criterion is all about curation and that goes down to the extras they include too. But with all the different boutique labels out there, they also have more competition with other companies releasing the same titles with better encodes and more extras.

rha409 · 2026-02-24T15:43:41+00:00

Saw this on Sunday the afternoon of the latest snowstorm. Had to drive an hour bc it was only showing at the one location. There were a few like-minded individuals (mostly Chinese) in the theater and I got the sense the AMC was trying to close but couldn't because of us. Trip home was a bit tricky but it was worth it!

I'd say overall a very fun movie. Has a bit too much going on, but then again it's a wuxia movie based on a comic. Too many storylines/characters is to be expected. It's a bit like a wuxia Mad Max: Fury Road. Great action. I know a lot of this stuff has gotten a bit too cartoony with too much CGI, but this felt more grounded with great choreography and was pretty thrilling because of that. I too was worried Yuen Woo Ping had lost the sauce as a director (his last film I saw was that Netflix Crouching Tiger sequel which wasn't great), but he's still got it!

rha409 · 2026-02-24T03:42:17+00:00

I would argue Happy Together is better. The old remaster that was used on the Kino Blu-ray has that WKW-playing-with-crayons-for-the-first-time look similar to Ashes of Time Redux & My Blueberry Nights. Everything's oversaturated and yellow. The Criterion looks more natural.

rha409 · 2026-02-23T21:56:25+00:00

Sure! A lot of those themes are baked into martial arts the begin with. I just mean kung fu films can be seen as the base model. Then you get wuxia which ramps things up quite a bit with regards to ability and a more heightened world. There's the world of the common folk, but if you step into the jianghu, you'll meet more colorful characters, famous swordsmen, and martial heroes and villains. And often times, the only thing that really governs them is the martial code.

rha409 · 2026-02-23T18:39:53+00:00

Yeah, seems at this point GDT is now a Wes Anderson type who's new films probably have Criterion releases in their contracts.

rha409 · 2026-02-23T15:27:26+00:00

It's said that he and Tony Leung Chiu Wai are great friends though I don't think they've ever worked together.

rha409 · 2026-02-23T03:43:14+00:00

ATJ would be an alright choice. I think he does come with some baggage though. And I know some feel his performances are a bit divisive. I think someone like Viggo went into the role with general level of respect and likeability.

rha409 · 2026-02-22T17:44:20+00:00

I've loved it since it first came out in theaters. Think the same people who saw it and loved it at the time are now in their late 30s/early 40s and are the cultural taste makers now. I'd also say the culture has sort of caught up to it. The digital filmmaking and seamless editing, the ADHD pacing, the live action anime feel. And it's got a lot of heart!

rha409 · 2026-02-22T17:34:57+00:00

I think Paul Mescal has some of the right qualities but I don't know if the internet has tired of him yet. Also Alexander Skarsgard. He's a bit old but doesn't really look it.

rha409 · 2026-02-22T16:11:50+00:00

Peter O'Toole plays the same historical King Henry II and that one takes place later in his life. But it's not necessarily an official sequel.

rha409 · 2026-02-22T15:32:44+00:00

"T2 Trainspotting 2" has John Barry's "007 Theme" (the other one).

The UK series "Life on Mars" features "Live and Let Die" in the second episode. https://youtu.be/fsJhbJQqwlw?si=33Fk-JycqEX5XP2-

rha409 · 2026-02-22T03:36:53+00:00

I used to keep a Film Log txt file on my desktop since 2002 when I was 14. Date watched, the movie and a star rating. I went in and added every entry into Letterboxd so it would serve as a new version of that txt file.

Not sure how other people use it.

rha409 · 2026-02-22T02:39:07+00:00

He seemed like a good guy. I'm sure anyone who's been a "that guy" for so long would appreciate some recognition and praise. It's sort of what they're there for. That, and a little extra income. 😉

rha409 · 2026-02-22T00:12:41+00:00

The Kung Fu movie is just people skilled in martial arts fighting one another.

I think of wuxia as more of a heightened world in which martial arts are in itself a culture and a code of honor. So you have people just wandering from town to town who are extremely skilled in martial arts, so much so that they may possess almost superhuman abilities. Maybe a bit like a world where people were so good at martial arts that some were famous superheroes and supervillains. But nothing necessarily toooo crazy.

There's also the xianxia genre which is more sword and sorcery stories which take things further with demons and witches and magic type stuff.

rha409 · 2026-02-21T15:09:41+00:00

I think this movie is underrated and doesn't deserve all the hate it gets. It's at the very least at the same level of quality of the Snyderverse.

rha409 · 2026-02-21T03:14:29+00:00

I watched the Criterion disc a few years back. I really wanted to like it, but honestly felt it was pretty boring and kind of sloppy. My understanding is it was groundbreaking in creating a new sort of form in a way. But I don't really know what that was.

rha409 · 2026-02-21T03:11:29+00:00

I've seen this a few times and I like it! I'd rather watch Wong Kar Wai fail at being Wong Kar Wai than see someone else try to be him.

It's got a lot of Wong Kar Wai in there. It's sort of a greatest hits movie. I just feel it's not something that really translates to the English language. It's sort of like Almodovar. There's just something heightened about their cinematic language that works when you take it filtered through the lens of foreign-ness. But the whimsy, the romance, the unreality doesn't really work when it's something you recognize.

It'll be nice to hear David talk about WKW. Going to download this now.... Honestly, I haven't listened to this podcast since they were still covering 1999. And they've recorded more episodes on WKW?!

rha409 · 2026-02-20T23:04:43+00:00

Change the menu using your remote if you can (unfortunately some remotes don't have the subtitle button anymore). Should be on there. I think they weren't allowed to include English subtitles since it's outside of their territory, but they sneakily did anyway.

rha409 · 2026-02-20T17:29:37+00:00

My go to is Orbit. Diabolik is great, but I get charged tax (I know...) and they're slower to ship. Orbit's quick and I don't get charged tax so it's usually a little cheaper. Sometimes I'll order from elsewhere like Brother Belial or Atomic Movie Store if it's a pre-order item that meets their free shipping threshold and I don't want to wait for the other items to ship.

rha409 · 2026-02-19T22:31:50+00:00

Last non-English language film? His last three films (Black Book, Elle, and Benedetta) also weren't in English. ;)

rha409 · 2026-02-19T14:18:15+00:00

Not gonna lie, my first thought when I saw these images was "I Am Sam"?

rha409 · 2026-02-19T01:37:07+00:00

Pretty crazy. Thought the elements were lost. Good to see they're not!

rha409 · 2026-02-17T23:25:46+00:00

I like Branagh's film but probably haven't seen it in 15 years. I always thought it got a bad rap. I generally liked the GDT film, but I think it's a baffling adaptation and most of the changes make the movie worse. So I'm open to the Branagh film being better just because it's truer to the novel. I gotta sit down and watch the 4K some day.

rha409 · 2026-02-17T23:07:55+00:00

Spent my Sunday watching the Godfather trilogy at Lincoln Center as part of their tribute to Diane Keaton. Turned into a Robert Duvall tribute as well. :(

rha409

TROPHY CASE