I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK with Karen Chee

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David, Don't know what to say or to expect, All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check

[00:00:33] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David, Don't know what to expect or to expect, All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check

[00:00:53] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David, Don't know what to expect or to expect, All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check

[00:01:23] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David, Don't know what to expect or to expect, All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check

[00:01:55] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David, Don't know what to expect or to expect, All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check

[00:02:15] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David, Don't know what to expect or to expect, All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check

[00:02:35] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David, Don't know what to expect or to expect, All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check Like, for movies they don't like. Wait, why? I don't know! This is not...

[00:03:11] I would say that's not entirely true. That's not entirely true. There is a little bit of completism with movies we are covering on the podcast. It can be fun to write. Just have to look and go like, ah, the history of doing this show.

[00:03:24] I don't regularly buy movies I don't like. Sometimes there's a movie I don't like by a director we're covering. Uh-huh. And I'm like, well, we have the disc. How many discs do you have? I can't answer that. It's too much. I can probably find a picture for you.

[00:03:36] Do you not have the internet? Is that what's happening? Dude, but Karen... What if that was the issue? He's like, I've never figured out my Wi-Fi password. We tried to hook it up, but I don't know. The plug doesn't work.

[00:03:48] Remember when Colin Quinn held up an iPhone charger plug for us? We've never said this on mic. Can we say it on mic or can we not? Let's say this on mic with all respect. Wait a second. Is this currently recording for the podcast? This is right now.

[00:04:00] We're deep in the podcast. We're in it. Let's say this. I'm going to try and find you my DVD shelf. I'm going to try and find you my DVD shelf. It's been two years now. Colin Quinn, who's a lovely man.

[00:04:08] We'd like to have him back on the show. He took time out of his schedule to come on our podcast. And let's say this. We'd love to have him back on the show in person. That'd be great. That's the adjustment we'd make. Colin was very generous.

[00:04:15] Offered his time about five minutes before we were about to start recording. And this is when we're sort of coming out of pandemic. We were recording at Ben's living room. We didn't have a permanent space.

[00:04:19] We were still doing some Zoom records, but trying to move away from them. Five minutes before recording, he goes, I got a problem. I can't fucking do my thing. I'm going to have to go to the bathroom.

[00:04:23] I don't know if I find it or, you know, we reschedule for another day or I, we try to just do it with what we have. And I said, okay, let's get on the Zoom. Our producer will talk you through it.

[00:04:56] And he turned his microphone around and he goes, I got the right. And then I got the cable and see, it's just not fitting in. It's the right cable. And it was two entirely different plugs. He was holding up an iPhone charger from what I remember.

[00:05:08] He was holding up an iPhone charger and saying this won't plug into my computer. And I want it to be like, that's not part of your microphone. Right. Of course it won't plug into your computer. The back of the mic. He wanted a micro USB. Right, right, right.

[00:05:21] Right. Well, my memory was the back of the microphone had like a USB port that was much wider. And then he had the little lightning plug from an iPhone charger and he was putting it in and he was saying like, it goes in, but then it falls out.

[00:05:33] I mean, that's fair. To be clear, lovely guy. The best. The best. It was a great episode. It was a fun episode. I feel like after about, you know, an hour, he was sort of like, so we're just kind of saying the same thing over and over.

[00:05:46] How long you fucking do this for? Karen, there are my, there are my discs. Oh my God. That's so many. Honestly, they look great. Are they organized in any particular fashion? By director. Yep. Same. Wow. And alphabetically? By director. By director last name. Alphabetically with it.

[00:06:03] And then sometimes I'll be like, wait, who directed like Rambo 3? Like, where do I put this? That's the thing. Do you go like, do you get the franchise box set so you have them all together or is it better to split the individual entries up?

[00:06:12] These are really tough questions. These are things that keep us up at night. But this movie has never been released in the United States. Correct. It never, the film we're talking about today, I'm a cyborg but that's okay. Yes. Never got a theatrical US release.

[00:06:26] Never got theatrical US release but also never got an American DVD release or Blu-ray release. I saw this movie originally on an import DVD and now I have finally acquired import Blu-ray. Can you turn your phone off? A lot of cute girls are calling you right now.

[00:06:42] Hey, wait a second. Hey, wait a second. They heard that news. Can I tell you, I just found a, there's no tagline for this movie in America obviously. But I found a French tagline. Okay. Elle est fou. Il est foudel. Which means she's crazy. He's crazy about her.

[00:07:00] Oh. That's the tagline. I would argue that he is also crazy. He is a little crazy. Not to use such loaded language. But they started it. They did start it. This fucking tagline writer started it. That is a tagline I found for you.

[00:07:15] It's the only tagline I could find. Yeah. Yeah. I mean there might be a. She's podcast. He's podcast about her. Well, wait. Is there a tagline on this poster? Come over here. Let's see. Deep dive. Close examination. It's just like actor names and this year's couple. Okay.

[00:07:36] I guess that's sort of a tagline. That's a good tagline. I don't think it's a tagline though because it's in a font that's too big to be a tagline. I wonder if that's interesting. When they were promoting it, they like slapped that on.

[00:07:46] Or that was like an award it was given. It's a tagline. It's like a film festival laurels. The next year, Barack and Michelle Obama. This year's couple, two fictional people in a mental institution. Next year, the president and first lady of the United States of America. Listen.

[00:08:02] This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. I'm David. I'm Karen. Oh, that's brilliant. That's cool. She just put it in. That's cool. Hey, Karen. Hi. Let's just flip it out. Our guest today from Late Night with Seth Meyers, great comedian, Karen Shi. Hey, Karen. Hello.

[00:08:21] Welcome. Thanks for coming. And this is a podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce.

[00:08:35] Baby, this is a miniseries on the films, a Park Chan Wook. And today we're talking about I'm a Cyborg, but that's OK. And are we officially just because this is the second episode we've recorded? Yeah. Just call it what you want to call it. I think you should.

[00:08:51] I'm a podcast, but that's OK. Yeah. He wants to call our miniseries I'm a podcast, but that's OK. We had a fan vote that picked Sympathy for Mr. Podcast. Right. In addition to butchering a line from the movie at the beginning of every episode, I

[00:09:04] butcher one title in every episode as the larger miniseries name. And this film is not very well known in the United States because it's never gotten. Turn your phone off. AT&T is telling me that I'm crashing their server. Too many cuties.

[00:09:21] Cell phone towers are catching on fire. But but yes, but I think that's the funniest one. I think it's the funniest one. And I also think it's good now to ignore Twitter. Yeah. Which is a bad website.

[00:09:33] I think we should keep doing Twitter polls just to ignore them. Right. Take that. Yes. Twitter. What about I'm a cyborg, but that's podcast? Well, that's fine. That's a good. That's a good. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

[00:09:45] By the end of this episode, I'm going to be the new host. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I could take a year off. You're better at doing this than we are. You're just the energy boost we need. Yeah. Some new life. Karen, had you seen this movie before?

[00:09:55] I had not. Wow. This is my first time. And David, you had not seen this before. Nope. Certainly not. This is actually my first time. This is actually the only film I hadn't seen apart from his first two films, which are obviously very difficult to find. Humblebrag.

[00:10:09] His first two films he basically has disowned. They don't really count. Really? Wait, that's really cool to do. Yeah. Because I'm embarrassed by my old stuff. Oh, you should do that. You should go on IMDB and just like, you know, draw a line through everything you just don't

[00:10:22] want people to pay attention to. On my computer screen? Yeah. Yeah. Cool. That sounds like a good plan. You know what's fun about the current world? Yeah. Like dumb shit you do when you're like figuring your shit out online will never disappear. Right.

[00:10:36] Your fucking bad jokes and like your early writings and all that shit. If you're any kind of front facing person, that shit will be on the Internet forever. Okay. Even if the site is taken down, there's like fucking way back machine. Right. So that's good. Right. Right.

[00:10:52] And then if you're working in the entertainment industry, you get to the point where you actually work at the big leagues and you make stuff that you're proud of. And then that gets taken down from the fucking Internet forever.

[00:10:59] These streaming services just fucking dump it and then no one can watch the shit that's actually real. Wait, Karen, what's the thing you're most embarrassed about? Now I want to know. What am I most?

[00:11:10] I mean, I am truly embarrassed by everything I've done from three days before today. But the last two days you've been crushing it. The last two days have been amazing. Today I've been stellar. Oh, you really have. Yeah. Best guest we ever had.

[00:11:22] You did a great job ordering coffee. Oh, thank you. I just want the listener to know that I was the guest. And I got them coffee. Yes, I want to listen. I paid for the coffee. Oh, that's true. David paid for it.

[00:11:32] And then I made David carry the coffees. Actually, I guess I didn't really do anything. Well, and also people kept opening doors for us. And I was sort of like, Karen, you have like Disney princess vibes, like the animals are going to help us out.

[00:11:41] The initiative was good, though. I think you can take credit for the initiative. No, totally. But you you got hired on Late Night with Seth Meyers very young to the point that it was sort of the bit of the show, your recurring segment, this sort of generational divide

[00:11:54] between you and Seth. Yeah. So when you say like there's early stuff you're embarrassed by. Yeah, I feel like you've been doing. Sure. Right. That's like I feel like you have like a very fast sketch team in kindergarten. Yes. Like, actually, that team was pretty good.

[00:12:09] I'm still proud of that. It was a lot of shock humor. What was the name? Oh, the bad boys. Oh, good. The bad boys. It does kind of sound like what a kindergarten group would call themselves. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[00:12:21] I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Anyway, yes. No, I've never seen this film before. Griffin. Okay. Is that surprising? I mean, it's not. Here's the thing. I thought this film was more well-known than it is. I think this is one of the least well-known films.

[00:12:41] Especially in the United States where it never really got put out there in any way. But I also thought this film was a big hit and then realized it was like a flop for him. Yes. Coming off of a huge. A couple of huge hits. Right.

[00:12:55] And I think the vibe when it came out, people were like, what's this? Why'd you do this? Second time invoked in a very short period of time. Weirdly. Beware the Gonzo, which Karen was a aggressively mediocre high school comedy I was in 15 years

[00:13:08] ago in which I played the horny best friend. Wait, what? Wait, what is this? A movie? It's a movie. You're in a movie? I mean, it's a movie like according to like the MPAA or whatever.

[00:13:16] It was a theatrically released film in the sense that it played for three days one time a day to no people. And I know this because my mom was like, there's no one else there. I was a young man star 1920. This was back in 1920.

[00:13:31] Yes, this is back in 1920. I was a child star. Beware the Gonzo. What? Yeah. You don't like this poster? No, I love this poster. Yeah. It's very like Juno vibes. I'm on the poster, right? It is Juno vibes. You are on the poster. My emaciated self.

[00:13:45] Along with the other misfits. Right. I forget who the other misfits are. Okay, so I think she's in the photo there. If I'm remembering correctly. You probably are remembering correctly, but who are you talking about? Stephanie Y. Hong. Uh huh. Who is in the little box.

[00:13:59] Big Ezra Miller, big Jesse McCartney, big Zoe Kravitz, tiny box with the other three misfits. Correct. Stephanie Hong's the one in the middle. Yeah. You're the misfits. Yes. We are. We're labeled the misfits. His character's name was Horny Rob Becker. That was the bit. Wow. Okay.

[00:14:16] The bit was that I was really horny. Okay. Sure. And I thought this was going to be the breakthrough. I thought, God, this is the last time I'm going to be able to walk down the street without people yelling out horny Rob.

[00:14:28] Like I have that feeling on set where I'm like, this is going to- Hey, you're that horny guy, right? What, Horny Jim? What was your name? People were like, this is going to be like a McLovin problem for you. You could still do that.

[00:14:39] You could still make that happen now just by being a big perv. I could. Oh yeah, just be actually famous for your hornyness. And introducing myself as Rob to people. Yeah. Okay. What about-

[00:14:50] Stephanie was a casting assistant for Susan Shopmaker who cast that movie and did an incredibly good job outside of casting me and finding a lot of people at the early stages of their career. Sure.

[00:15:02] And they were auditioning all these people for the other misfit in the group and no one was good. And Stephanie would do like the off camera reading and she was so sort of funny and sullen

[00:15:10] and dark that they finally were just like, can you just try doing one in front of the camera? She did it and she fucking nailed it. And she was in the movie and it's the only acting part she's ever done. Yeah. Wow. And she is from-

[00:15:25] She continues to work on movies but not as an actor. So she's from South Korea. She's like a big film nerd. And her main job was she would do subtitle translation for Korean films in American speaking markets.

[00:15:40] And even when we were working on filming this movie, which none of us were very well paid She was like in between takes going to her laptop. Wow, wow, wow. And like watching movies and typing them up.

[00:15:51] I think she moved back to South Korea pretty quickly after filming that. I haven't seen her in a while, but she's a wonderful person. And she was the one who turned me on to this movie. This movie in particular.

[00:16:02] At which point, I guess was fairly- this comes out in 2006? That's right. So we were filming in 2009. Yeah. It sort of came out in December of 2006 in Korea. And then it had a long festival run around the world in 2007 and 2008. And I was a Park Jin-wook fan.

[00:16:19] Sure, you'd seen Oldboy or something? I didn't like Oldboy, but I liked the other ones. Was the weird thing at the time. But she was like, have you seen this fucking thing? And I was like, no, that sounds so much like my kind of movie.

[00:16:32] You like emo movies. Right. And weird, like childlike movies about people having mental breakdowns. Sure. But yeah, so she gave me her imported DVD copy of it. And I watched it then and I just assumed like, oh, this thing must have been a huge hit because

[00:16:49] of the way she spoke of it. And then never realized that it didn't really come out over here and that no one else had seen it. That's the story. But I've thought of it very fondly since then.

[00:16:58] And big ups to Stephanie Honker for turning me on to it. Well, my experience is I watched this yesterday morning. I watched this yesterday morning. Wow. Great story. So, Erin, do you have much of a relationship with this director?

[00:17:12] You've definitely seen some of his movies because we were talking about which movie you would talk about on this show. I've seen Decision to Leave. Sure. That's the only movie I've seen by him because I think everything else he's made is scary. Yeah.

[00:17:24] I think everything else he's made is very scary. Violent more than anything. But violence is scary. You know what? I agree with this. Thank you. Thank you so much. We talked about it. I was like, hey, do you want to come on the show?

[00:17:34] And you were like, well, I don't like scary movies at all. Yeah. We were initially talking about you doing a different movie. And you said it looks scary. And I said, well, it's tense. Yeah. Sure. I'm not sure if I would call it scary.

[00:17:48] But now that you've said violence is scary, I do think right. I also don't like tension. Sure. Like in your life or just at any point? At any point. I don't like it in my life, so I don't want it for fun. You know?

[00:17:59] You don't even like the idea of like sort of like... I don't like suspense. Oh, you don't like suspense. Yeah. Yeah. What kind of movies do you like? I love The Parent Trap. It's a good movie. We've covered it on this podcast. It's a great...

[00:18:12] Done that on a podcast. Wait, what? You didn't have me on for The Parent Trap? Well, it was like seven years ago. But I mean, you know, we can have you. It was very early on. I don't know. We'll just do it again. Yeah, please do it again.

[00:18:22] That's a fucking Blu-ray I don't have because it's part of some exclusive Disney fucking membership program. Really? They're a version of like the Columbia Record House where you have to... You can't like just get it? Right. You have to like buy six movies a year.

[00:18:34] To get The Parent Trap? On a subscription service. And then some of the things are movies they don't otherwise release. Surely they have it on like eBay. I've come close to getting it on eBay. I'm going to pull the trigger soon. That movie's a masterpiece.

[00:18:45] Anyway, what else is in the Karen G canon? I love The Sound of Music. Okay. I love Mary Poppins. I love Paddington 2. Okay. Paddington 1, too much suspense. Paddington 2, perfect. You know what? You're right. Yeah. Paddington 1 is heavier on the suspense and villainy. Yes, and Nicole Kidman is terrifying.

[00:19:03] She's scary. She is an imperious figure. Yeah, she is. She is delightful. It is funny that he goes to prison in the second one. Yes, yes. But Nicole Kidman's performance alone makes the first one scarier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's worse than mass incarceration. She is. Absolutely.

[00:19:17] She's worse than the prison industrial complex. Oh my gosh. The prison in the second one, I mean, I know this is horrible to say, is friggin' delightful. It's a very nice prison. I'd move in tomorrow. Yes. Obviously Paddington helps spruce it up and make it nice.

[00:19:29] I'd move in post-Paddington. Right. Sure. You would move in post-Paddington? I'm saying the place post-Paddington's transformation. Yes. When he shows up, it's a little cold. But I will say when he leaves, he takes all the good people with him, right?

[00:19:44] So like prison is great because of Brendan Gleeson. But then Hugh Grant is there at the end. Oh, you're right! Wouldn't that be nice? Would that be nice? They're doing musical numbers. They're doing musical numbers. Yeah, right. I would love to be in prison with Hugh Grant.

[00:19:53] Do some fun songs or whatever. And hopefully they're still using like Knuckles' recipes in the kitchen. Yes, yeah, yeah. Even if he's not there. Yeah, look, I like Paddington. I think he's great. I don't need as much marmalade as he does, if that makes sense.

[00:20:08] Like that guy is so heavy on marmalade. I would love a more diverse diet. I would agree. I don't think I need as much marmalade. I need marmalade just maybe like once a year. That's not like at the top of my list. Even that once a year?

[00:20:21] I can skip a couple years. You're not going to be crying for it? No. I went to the jail that that jail is based on. It's in Dublin. I went to Dublin with my friend last fall. So you're like a Paddington superfan.

[00:20:33] I went to Dublin because I wanted to visit Ireland. I didn't go solely because they, you know, were inspired by that prison. But I did go to the prison because I heard that's where the movie was filmed. That's not true. Sure.

[00:20:47] They just sort of took pictures of the interiors and made a bigger version of it. That makes sense. Is it an in-use prison or is it like an old? No, no, no. Right. Because it's like a very, very old building. Yeah. It's like a historical monument now.

[00:20:58] But I went and it's like a real, obviously, as all prisons are, like a really devastating history about various famous people. Good things didn't happen there. Good things did not happen there. And at the end of the tour. There was a great music festival here 20 years ago.

[00:21:11] There's no like... Imagine if that were true. They took Woodstock into a real jail prison. I'm looking at it. I mean, yeah, it is quite an impressive building. It looks exactly like the one in the movie.

[00:21:22] And so she was telling us about all these people who got executed there. And then I was like, did they really film Paddington too? And she was like, no. She's like, no. Of course not. Let me tell you about the Easter Rising. But where was the marmalade cook?

[00:21:38] Which cell was the bear held in? Show me where the bear slept. I'm banned from the country of Ireland. Not knowing if you had seen this before. It did. It felt like the kind of movie that would be in your wheelhouse because this is an odd

[00:21:53] case of like most of his films are very intense. This movie is about intense things, but it's through the veneer of sort of a children's fantasy comedy. I'm a cyborg, but that's okay. It does have some violence. Yeah. It does have violence. I think the thing...

[00:22:08] So I did watch the movie. The movie is unsettling intentionally. I don't like feeling unsettled. I love feeling so comfortable. So that was the one thing where I was like, I can tell this is a great film and everything he wants to do.

[00:22:26] He's pulling off so well, including like every shot I thought was like really well thought through. Like every single thing kind of like crackles with this electricity. Yes. And then I was like, I just don't want to be electrified. You don't want... No?

[00:22:40] No, you don't want to plug yourself into anything? No. Nice reference. You don't want to make your big toe glow? That's kind of fun. Glowing toes is fun. The glowing toes was cool. It felt very like Thanos, the colors. That's true. They are different colors.

[00:22:55] She's got the infinity foot. Yes, this is his version of a whimsical film, but it is quite strange and a little devastating and kind of sad and honestly very good. I thought this movie was like a fucking victory lap after old boy.

[00:23:10] It is so funny to me that you're like, this is the first time learning that this was not the most successful film ever made. I think it was just like Stephanie was like so exuberant about it, but I think also knew like we have similar brains.

[00:23:22] You're probably going to fucking love this. And it is a very griffy movie, especially like a younger Griff. Right. This is my... I like my dream movie. I'm not saying this is my favorite movie of all time, but this is basically my perfect formula for a movie.

[00:23:36] Which is like the tone and style of a Paddington with like really fucked up shit happening underneath it. Oh my God. Yeah, I like the psychologically unsettling subject matter done in this style maybe is like... And by the style you mean like bright poppy energy? Yeah, right.

[00:23:55] Colorful kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I've said before, like children's movies made for adults. Ah, okay, okay, okay. Movies where the subject matter is perhaps very adult mature in some way or another,

[00:24:09] psychologically intense or probing, but it has the sort of style and the logic of a kid's movie. I see, I see. Okay, interesting. Yeah, so I wouldn't say like all of my favorite movies fall into that category.

[00:24:24] But when I see a movie like that, I'm like, that shit's for me. Had you seen it since? I had not. I had not seen it since because it's hard to see here. But it sat well with you. Yes, it sat really well with me.

[00:24:33] I hadn't seen it in almost 15 years. I didn't remember all of it, but there's certainly stuff that had really stuck in my mind. Sure. But I think just because like, you know, Stephanie was constantly telling me about the fucking

[00:24:45] South Korean film industry and who her idols were, who she wanted to work with and all this stuff. And she's like, have you seen the new movie by the old boy guy?

[00:24:52] And I liked old boy less than most people, but I knew he was like the big director in that moment. Right. And she hands this to me and I think I just assumed, oh, this must have been a fucking home run.

[00:25:03] And it was like the inception to his dark night. This is like he follows up his fucking huge hit with a blank check that like clears even more. And instead, not only was kind of a flop, but they even basically like pulled it from

[00:25:17] theaters prematurely to like mitigate the damage of how poorly it was performing. And the reviews were all like, what the fuck is this? What is this? Right. And it was sort of like, why are you outside of your lane? But right.

[00:25:30] And also like, why are these fucking things happening in a comedy? Why is this movie so cartoonish and including things that are this unsettling? It seems to be the common response to this film. Let me give you some context, Karen. We have a researcher.

[00:25:47] Give me some fucking context to. You can listen if you want. I'm talking to Karen. Park Chan-wook had made three very dark films in a row. His Vengeance trilogy, somewhat unofficial. That trilogy, right? Like the Americans kind of dubbed it a trilogy. Right.

[00:26:05] So you could say in the three Vengeance at this point. Right. But he'd been he'd been making very dark films. Yeah. And he has a 12 year old daughter at the time. OK, after as he's coming out of this. Sure. Out of the Vengeance movies.

[00:26:18] So he wants to make a movie that's more geared towards her. Especially after the Vengeance trilogy. I think he's in a sort of like Tarantino-esque position where they're like, you got your own fucking world. You got these weird ass, intense, violent movies that people eat up.

[00:26:35] Do your thing. Right? Like he had almost become his own genre. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Right. Wait, so he made this movie so that it would be viewed by a 12 year old girl? Well, his daughter. OK. So.

[00:26:50] So I think his daughter probably has more of a sort of twisted sensibility, perhaps. Apparently she'd been banned from seeing old boys. His daughter, of course, comes from the Twisted Spiromar Park. Right. But she had just been banned from seeing old boy.

[00:27:03] But apparently she had seen Lady Vengeance three times, maybe against his wishes or not. But like she was obviously getting into it. You know who I wouldn't want to watch old boy with? My daughter. So, well, basically, this is his quote.

[00:27:20] But you know, if you've done, you know, three feature films over five years, which are very dark and violent and gloomy, you'd probably want to change as well. The main reason is the fact that I wanted to make a film for my daughter to see when

[00:27:31] she was very young, a baby. It didn't really matter. Good point. When she was a baby, it didn't matter what she was watching. Nothing matters when you're a baby. Yeah, so true. But I've been away a lot shooting films in different locations.

[00:27:43] So it's kind of a present to her so she can see and watch and enjoy it. So yes, he absolutely made this film for her. Wow. And he says it was not entirely successful effort. And you know, I wanted to make something she could enjoy their friends.

[00:27:58] But I think she liked Pirates of the Caribbean more. You know what? That is a great movie. There you go. That's another Karen movie. No, but I have seen it. It's a it's a it's one of my brother's movies, I guess. Is your brother older or younger?

[00:28:11] He's older. So you had like a brother watching kind of the more. Yeah. My brother watched a lot of cool stuff. And then I was like, yeah, I like this too. But I would never watch it on my own. Right.

[00:28:21] And then there is peril in Pirates of the Caribbean and some tension unsettling situation. I think I don't like skulls. Yeah, that's the thing. Oh, you don't like skulls. I can't believe you made it through that. I know I want to.

[00:28:29] The poster of the movie has a skull on it. Fucking skull and crossbones is the logo. And you know what? That's why National Treasure 2 is better than National Treasure 1 is no skulls. Wow. We did those recently. I can't believe you're inviting me for the wrong movies.

[00:28:41] Identify all the movies you like. I'm going to send you a full list of movies I like and you'll find another one on there. Yeah, 100 percent. All right. Beyond wanting to make a film for his daughter, which she I think did a bit of an odd job at.

[00:28:58] I think he just wants to avoid being pigeonholed is like the one type. Yeah, that's great. You know, the revenge thriller kind of thing. No, I just the only like the only other example that immediately comes to mind of what you're

[00:29:08] talking about is like Pete Docter being like, I made Inside Out to try to understand my daughter like she hit puberty and I was having a hard time relating to her. And it was sort of this act of like outreach and empathy.

[00:29:20] And then Partridge does the same thing. This is what he fucking makes. Yeah. Yeah, that's why Inside Out was made. That's great. Yeah. Really? That's why you said I would be. Yeah. OK. He was like my daughter. My daughter turned 12 and she she started being really sad.

[00:29:37] And I was like trying to understand what was going on in her in her mind. And then out of that came the movie. That's so sweet. Yeah. Yeah. All parents should do that. I love that movie. Yeah. When their kid is at their saddest.

[00:29:51] Oh, Toy Story is a movie I like. Have you done this? Yeah. You have Toy Story 2 is my favorite movie of all time. Oh, I like Toy Story 1 more than 2. Interesting. But that's see Toy Story, I think is like what I like about Toy Story.

[00:30:04] It falls in this category. Yes. Even though they're obviously actually presented as children's movies. Yeah. I like that all the toys in Toy Story talk like they're adults. Yes. But they're dealing with like overwhelming existential concepts. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

[00:30:20] That it really is just like a bunch of adults sitting there being like, why am I alive? I feel like that's true for every Pixar movie. I'm really derailing the context part of this episode. No, I know. We're having fun. Oh, back to context.

[00:30:31] JJ, our researcher, did text me in the middle of the night to say, do you know that Park Chan-wook cites Toy Story as his biggest influence on I'm a Cyborg? But that's not. No. Okay, well, let's see them. Not to jump ahead. Let's see.

[00:30:45] He compares this film to Junior Bonner, a Sam Peckinpah movie that is also like, you know, outside of his usual thing. Right? He's sort of saying like it's a gentle, almost violence-free, slightly relaxed movie. Not true. This film has multiple scenes of violence. Yes.

[00:31:02] So, but to Park, I think he's like, you know, to director Park, this is almost violence. I know. But you're like, this movie has multiple mass shootings. Right. Fantasy. But they go on for a long time and they're bloody. They are? Yeah.

[00:31:18] So, he was sort of thinking like, okay, this is the end of the first part of my career. My films are becoming more feminine. There's more hope, he says. The themes of love and hope have become more prominent.

[00:31:30] And he was developing thirst at the same time as this movie. Okay. So clearly he was thinking of like two brands. This is a movie he makes later, Karen. Two like sort of ways to go in. And he goes for this one and thirst gets like backburnered.

[00:31:43] So he could have made thirst next. All right. Thirst is a vampire movie. Okay. Yes. Kind of a fun movie. Yeah. It's goofy, but it's more dramatic. Dark comedy. Yes. Great. Yeah. Okay. So, but for the toy story thing.

[00:31:57] So when he starts thinking about this movie because two images come to his mind, he says. The first is he was in a car during post-production in Old Boy and he thought of group therapy and a mental institute.

[00:32:13] And he imagined what would it be like if there were no medical staff there, if everyone was amongst themselves, patients amongst themselves. It's almost like in toy story when the toys come to life, when there are no humans around.

[00:32:24] I imagine if there's no medical staff, the patients might have more lively conversation. That's the beginning of my imagination. Okay. Yep. That's what I'm getting a big Andy's room vibes from this movie. Right. I'm picking up on it. Also Sid's room. Yeah. Yeah. Sure.

[00:32:39] Sid's room because they're all a little funny. But I do, I do think I was, I mean, without making the connection, I was clocking while watching this. Like I like that every patient has their own game, that they all have their own character

[00:32:51] game in the same way as toy story where you're like, everyone's got their thing. Their thing is somehow like in contrast with how they look, what type of toy they are, but everyone's got their own internal comedic game. So that's all true.

[00:33:06] The other thing he thinks about is about a cyborg and a girl uniform is how he puts it. Cool. With guns in her fingers. And my dream woman. And so he starts to initially think of a movie about like, okay, what if I made a movie about

[00:33:25] an actual robot girl? And then he's like, no, no, no. How about I make a movie about a girl who thinks she's a robot girl? Like I'll combine these two ideas. Right. So the cyborg girl gets to go into the psych ward and instead that's just her delusion

[00:33:38] that she thinks she's a robot girl. Just what this movie is about. It's about a girl who thinks she's a robot, doesn't need to eat food and instead just needs to lick batteries. Correct. And it's okay. It's okay.

[00:33:49] Yes, but it is doing some damage to her health, her physical health. Sure. Her ability to be alive. Yes. The film starts with the protagonist's mother talking to a doctor as she is about to admit her daughter into this institution. Yes. And it is after a suicide attempt.

[00:34:08] Right. Or what they think is a suicide attempt. Right. But actually she was just trying to plug in some wires to her wrist. Correct. So she could live longer. Correct. Or recharge her batteries. She slid open her wrist and put wires inside there and electrocuted herself because she

[00:34:20] was trying to recharge. And her mother is so sort of oddly blasé about everything, dismissive of any sort of answers that they try to offer up to her. Yeah. Just kind of apathetic in general. So she only eats turnips or is it the mother who only eats turnips?

[00:34:39] There's someone who only eats turnips. I think the mother's mother only eat radishes. That's what it was. Right. She sort of, right, no, radishes. That's what it is. Yeah. She's recalling that her own mother also has her own set of-

[00:34:48] The character that freaked me out the most was this mom though. The mom. When she's talking, I was like, I hate this. Weird. Nightmare person. Nightmare person. Yes. Yeah. I think she's accustomed to being into awful cut of meat, like tongue and eats like- Oh yeah.

[00:35:06] She's on the phone and I feel like that's a recurring thing of her having this- She keeps ordering, right. She's ordering intestines. So when they see her- Right, just a groin and bladder. Yeah. Yeah, when they show part of- Yes, yes. Right. She eats womb. Yeah.

[00:35:21] Oh, I didn't realize it was womb. She says womb at one point. She's listing, I guess, on the phone with her butcher. It was really weird because I feel like everyone is talking about how the main character is

[00:35:33] a robot or a cyborg and I was like, the mom is weirder. Like- Oh, absolutely. The mom is freaky. But I think all this is intentional and you start the movie out with just this kind of

[00:35:43] simple two person conversation with flashbacks as the doctor, I mean, is she the head of the institute or is she just admitting doctor? Whatever. It's sort of interviewing the mother, trying to get a sense of what's going on and the mother's like distracted, kind of dismissive of everything.

[00:36:00] But you're getting the sense that, right, she- the mom's pretty checked out. The grandmother really raised this girl. The grandmother had her own mental illness. Yes, and had a lot of rashes. Right, ate a lot of rashes. I like radish.

[00:36:11] Thought that she was a rat or a mouse. A rodent. A radish eating creature. Right, she thought she was a radish eating rodent. And at some point, she was just taken away. It was sort of ignored her behavior until the point where they also institutionalized

[00:36:26] her, took her away. The white coats. Right, and that feels like obviously outside of some, you know, genetic disposition for neurotypical- neuroatypical behavior that exists in this family. That was also this sort of traumatic event that the young girl had never gotten over

[00:36:44] and that has sort of broken her sense of reality since then. Right. I was gonna ask, like, is there any history of pretending to be something you're not in your family? And the mother's kind of dismissive of the fact that her mother fully identified as a rodent.

[00:36:59] Like, I don't think that has anything to do with anything. But yeah, she is a bit of a disconnected person. We're hearing these two characters talk about our lead character for several minutes before we actually meet her. Right.

[00:37:11] And just getting these cutaways to little glimpses of her suicide attempts, her behavior, all this sort of stuff. Yes. So, the way Park puts it is, he wants the audience to think, what is the purpose of existence? And is life really necessary? Very nice comedies.

[00:37:28] Nice themes for a movie for a 12-year-old girl. And so he says with the main character here, she was wondering why she was born. She wants to know what she should do to become a valuable being. And when you see a mass-produced product, they have clear, obvious purposes.

[00:37:43] So she starts to want to be a machine because machines have purpose and manuals. And like, there's a reason for them to exist. That is his thinking behind this sort of delusion. I like that. Sort of a funny way of thinking about it.

[00:37:56] That makes a lot of sense because I feel like that scene in the beginning where she's like in the factory line of people working. Yes. You're like, oh, instead of working to create something, she's just trying to become whatever it is they are making.

[00:38:07] I was like, that makes sense. Right. If you're in that setting for them. And her suicide attempts. Nobody cares. No one pays attention. They're robots working. Right. But it happens on the factory line. Yeah. Like, they're building electronics, behaving sort of robotically.

[00:38:21] And then she does this absurd action that for her is not a cry for help, is not a self-destructive act. It's obviously very alarming. No, she does it very, very calmly and then like wraps up her wrist with tape. Yes. And is like, good job done.

[00:38:36] Because she's hearing the broadcast. Correct. She's getting like the sort of set. Who's instructing her to do this. From the device that she's constructing. Right. It's like speaking to her. Am I? Yeah, I believe so. But her mother is so undramatic about all this.

[00:38:50] It's really just kind of like, so you're you have her under control. Right. I don't have to worry about this anymore. Right. She's like not panicked or alarmed by any of this other than just like, well, this clearly needs to be outsourced to someone else.

[00:39:00] This is someone else's problem. Yes. So she is institutionalized and she is alongside a boy who is played by the Korean entertainer Rain, who I feel like is a very famous person at this point in time. He's very famous. Does he continue to be very famous? Well, no.

[00:39:19] Everybody just knows who he is. He's like on a bunch of music shows, I guess, and stuff in Korea. He's not currently like, I mean, I feel like BTS is obviously so much bigger. Sure. But everybody knows who he is. Yeah.

[00:39:31] But I feel like he's like Rain is also in Speed Racer, which is made a couple years after this and you know, I feel like he was very, very hot stuff in the 2000s. I didn't know who he was when I first saw this.

[00:39:41] And so rewatching it, I was taken aback that, oh, fuck, that's Rain. Right. Because right. I saw him in Speed Racer a couple years later and the Ninja Assassin. Yeah, he's a Ninja Assassin. A movie that definitely exists, but he's the lead of that.

[00:39:53] But then also there were like the years where he was a running meme on the Colbert Report. Yes! Colbert had like a running bit about Rain. Oh my god, I forgot about that! Rain was on his show. Yes. And he, Colbert like sang a Korean pop song. Right?

[00:40:08] In response to Rain or something? What was the connection? Like, why did that begin? I don't remember why it started. I do feel like Colbert was very like into like sort of those sort of internet movements like or like tapping into other types of culture.

[00:40:20] But this was also like way before, like now we were talking about in our first episode how much like Korean pop culture feels like it is influencing the world now. Yes. This was way before that. This was way before that.

[00:40:33] And it was odd that he just sort of latched onto Rain. It might have just been because it was like a country that at that point was culturally kind of irrelevant to the US. Right? And then like a random pop star. Only just gaining relevance.

[00:40:45] Yeah, so it kind of was like, oh, here's a fun running joke I could do. You know what I mean? A hundred percent. Right. And that's a niche thing at this time. Because Colbert also did a thing with like a Swedish pop group. Right? At one point.

[00:40:58] This is what I was trying to remember. I definitely remember him trying to get his Hungarian bridge named after him. Right. And he was like, there was some Hungarian town that was like doing an online poll for a bridge.

[00:41:07] And he was like, it was that thing where he was clearly like, he was like, I have a small audience, but like if I can motivate them to do, you know, like if I could find a thing that's sort of on that level, I could probably succeed. Right.

[00:41:17] Small but very devoted. He was such a rascal back then, which is sort of funny to think about because now he's kind of like this sort of like compassionate, intelligent, you know, kind of like grand old man of late night. You know?

[00:41:29] He went from like, um, like a fun rascal to like a gentle dad. Like a soccer dad. A very gentle dad. A gentlest dad. But that was also, it felt like the bit, which is even odder for the character, Stephen Colbert,

[00:41:42] that he was still playing at that time, was that he just like fucking loved Rain. Right wing Fox News host. Right. But the bit was that he was like, this guy is magnetic. Wow. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

[00:41:58] That he was sort of like a Rain super fan, but he would just invoke him a lot. They'd play clips of anything Rain was doing. And it must have been right after this. Is this sort of like his peak? This movie? I don't know. I don't know.

[00:42:08] Rain's peak? In popularity? No, no, no, no, no, no. It continues to... I think his music popularity fully overshadows. I think a lot of people don't think of him as a movie star. I'm sorry, not his career peak.

[00:42:16] I'm saying like it's 2006 when he's at the top of the mountain. Oh, maybe, maybe, maybe. Okay. Yeah. It seems like whatever, the late two. But as you say, he's still popular. He's still trickles. I think he's like known now.

[00:42:27] I don't know if anybody would have like a poster of him on his like college, on their college He's like an elder statesman. Right, yeah, yeah. He's like fucking Blake Shelton on The Voice or whatever. He is fucking Blake Shelton.

[00:42:38] He's having sex with Blake Shelton on The Voice. And we're happy for both of them. Because NBC is just like, I don't know. I don't know. We'll try anything at this point. It's a fucking writer's strike. On simulated sex between different countries' music stars.

[00:42:51] And they're in the chair and the chair spins around. They don't have to say anything. This is like some horrible AI thing that is definitely going to happen. The machine told us to do this? We have to pay any price? Yeah, so Rain is in this film.

[00:43:06] And that's nice for him. His character is in search of meaning, right? He is empty inside. He thinks he may become nothing. Anti-social behavior, feels disconnected from everything. Yes, yes. He basically gets joy from fucking. He loves the steal. He loves stealing. He loves fucking with everyone else.

[00:43:25] Right? I mean, he's sort of constantly like teeing them up. Yeah. Right. For his own amusement. Right, right. He's a bit of a rascal as well. He's sort of the Stephen Colbert of the mid-2000s. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of the institution. Stephen Colbert in quotes.

[00:43:41] Park's take is sort of teenager always asking, why do I exist? Right. And so this is what he's sort of trying to get at here. Yeah. He never made another movie about teenagers. This is like a very unusual little entry in his filmography.

[00:43:56] There was no other film in his filmography like this. And it's recognizably one of his films. I think it shares themes and stuff, but tonally and stylistically this is so different. Are they supposed to be teens? I think they're supposed to be like late teens.

[00:44:09] But that's actually a good question because they are probably… I assume they were adults because the other people in the institution are adults. Yeah, I read them as like early 20s. Yeah. Well, you know what? I'm reading his quotes. I don't know what to tell you.

[00:44:19] He's traveling through his daughter. Yeah. The other thing that comes out later, I guess somewhere around the middle of the movie, is that she, when she was born, was born prematurely and was put in an incubator and hooked up to all these wires to be kept alive.

[00:44:33] Right, which ties to this thing of like the search for meaning. What am I supposed to be doing? Why am I alive? Right? A, she envies robots that are built for a specific purpose and don't have to question these things.

[00:44:46] But B, she has these sort of suppressed memories of being kept alive by machinery. Right. And so, like in a world without technology… It's her origin story. Right, in a world without technology, if she had been born 2,000 years earlier, she would have died. It's possible.

[00:45:03] I think about that a lot. Technology kept her alive and she feels kind of connected to it. You think about this? I think about that because I have really bad eyesight. Do you? I do. Are you wearing contact lenses right now? I am. Yeah.

[00:45:14] It'd be funnier if you were just like, and I just roll with it. Yeah. But I do feel like if you were a girl, right, and you were born with really bad eyesight, nobody's going to try and get you glasses unless you're like the aristocracy.

[00:45:24] You mean like in the 10th century? Yeah, I feel like any time before the 18th century, they would not have gotten glasses for women, unless you were the queen. Right. Because what are you going to do? You're not reading.

[00:45:34] But then I would be attacked and run over by like a wagon. Well, you would definitely have to learn good wagon dodging skills. That would have to be very early. Yeah. I have made this joke several times before on the podcast, and it's not even really a joke,

[00:45:49] but that my continued existence is an affront to the notion of survival of the fittest. Right, like Darwin is spinning in his grave at the idea of you succeeding. We built a modern society that allows me to stay alive. This is bad. It's bad for humanity.

[00:46:01] Because nature should be destroying me at all times, and it tries its hardest. It still does. Yeah. Even in urban environments. Totally. Right. But yes, she's like very much a product of a culture that is able to keep her alive.

[00:46:14] Karen, did you have glasses when you were very small? When I was, um... Like when did you get glasses? In third grade. That's a normal time to get glasses, I feel like. Yeah, I think so.

[00:46:23] I feel like it really sucks when you have to get them in like kindergarten or something. Oh yeah, then you're just like a dweeb from the get-go. You get the little rubber glasses. Wait, those are so cute though. I know, the new... Kids' glasses are cute now.

[00:46:33] They're cute now. I love baby glasses. I think they used to really suck. Yeah. When did you make the contact switch? Oh yeah. I made the contact switch, I want to say eighth grade. Wow, okay, early. And I think it's because... Yeah, pretty early.

[00:46:47] My eyes started getting so bad that I'm nearsighted, so when I wear glasses the lens was so thick. And also I would just look like there was an indent on either side of my face. Do you know what I mean? Yes.

[00:46:58] Yeah, and so then I was like, I don't want to be seen like this. Sure. And I switched contacts. Okay. Yeah. But you must have very intense contacts. Yeah. What do you mean? I don't know, do they have to be thick? No, I don't think so. Right.

[00:47:11] You have to wear Coke bottle contacts. Yeah, can you imagine? I can't blink. Your contacts stick out like five inches outside of your... They're so much better than glasses. They are on top of your eyes, so they don't have to be quite as crazy.

[00:47:25] But I have a very close friend who is legally blind without her glasses, she's got eyesight that bad. Wow. Yeah. But anyway, and her glasses are very thick, obviously. All right. THICC, right? They are, yes. Right, they got a lot of junk in the... Voluptuous glasses.

[00:47:41] Juicy glasses, yeah, they're juicy as hell. That glass. That glass is pretty good. Am I going to get invited back to the pod? Absolutely. Anytime you want to go on the pod. You're being put on the masthead now.

[00:47:57] Park, the first to admit this is not a realistic portrayal of mental health or mental health institutions. This moment? The cast of the ensemble behind the main two characters, he's like, none of this is based on any actual medical thought. I'm just taking traits and exaggerating them.

[00:48:13] I feel like he did research. Wait, but something I will say, because I thought that too in the beginning, and then I was like, wait, this is awesome. Is that they were somehow...

[00:48:21] He was able to show them in a way that they were more normal than the people who would otherwise be considered not crazy. Do you know what I mean? That's why I think the fucking movie opening with the mom is so important. Yes, it's so crucial.

[00:48:33] It's like this person would never be institutionalized, but she's a nightmare. She's actually... She's a problem. And everybody else in the institution is so sincere. And then the doctors are also weird. But there's things like, it's like the person who is too polite. Ideas like that.

[00:48:50] Legitimately such an Asian idea. I was watching it like, that's so funny. That's like two Korean dads trying to pay the tech. Park says he would call psychiatrists and be like, would this be possible? Someone who is excessively polite? Give me your funniest patients.

[00:49:07] Someone who is so polite that he can't walk forward, so he can only walk backwards. And he said they would always just kind of be like, I mean, no, but I suppose in theory such a thing? I feel like that's all I wanted to hear.

[00:49:18] And he'd be like, great! But so yeah, instead he's just like, you know, forget medical reports. I just want to sort of exaggerate how the human mind works. And I think this movie has a really interesting approach to reality.

[00:49:40] In that it doesn't that often do the thing where you're in her fantasy sequence and then you cut out and see the reality of what's going on. It will sort of stay in her fantasy and then just go to the next scene.

[00:49:52] So when there are things like these incredible acts of violence and watching 10 minutes of like a mass shooting.

[00:49:58] You're kind of conditioned to like for most movies you've seen like this be like, and then they're going to cut out and she's standing in a room making noises with her mouth and nothing's happening. Right, right, right.

[00:50:07] Right? Or you fear like, are they going to cut out and she actually has a gun and she's shooting people for real? Right. What is happening actually tangibly in this real world? And instead it's just like that's the scene.

[00:50:17] You're kind of like going in and out of her headspace, but they're not delineating that much. I think it's nice that there is no authority figure really. Like technically the doctors should be authority figures, but they don't seem to really have any power over them.

[00:50:31] No, this is not really like a one floor of the cuckoo's nest thing of like, oh, there's this terrifying matron who they're all like whatever. Yeah. No, and your introduction to the place and the cast of characters is all from this woman pretending to be.

[00:50:45] Right, which was such an incredible move. Right. Yeah, yeah. And then you're like, you're like five minutes with her rolling her around and you're like, got it. I get every character in their game and then a real nurse comes by and she's like, take the fucking jacket off.

[00:50:56] I told you not to do this. And then you're just like, so I don't know what anything is now. Yeah. But it does like, it feels like, like it's like The Muppet Show. Like no one here is normal. Right.

[00:51:07] And I kind of like The Muppet Show because everybody is a has a game. Yes. It feels consistently grounded. Right. Yeah. But in the way that where you're like, well, Kermit's the straight man who's complaining about all these Muppets being crazy.

[00:51:17] But he's also a fucking Muppet like Kermit. Like, check yourself. I love Kermit. He's so good. He should have been in this movie. He should have been. This is fucking the recast a movie with the Muppets and one human actor. Yeah, this is pretty easy.

[00:51:32] I mean, one of them is wearing a bunny mask for half the movie already. Yeah. Yeah. What was I going to say? Oh, you like Kermit. Kermit's cool. Kermit rules. Is he your top Muppet? Is he my top Muppet? Yeah. I'm a wave like Kermit.

[00:51:48] Like you sort of have a floppy kind of. Yeah. I really just sort of, I'm like tight at the elbow, loose at the wrist and then I go ham. See, all my favorite Muppets now are Sesame Street Muppets because I spend all my time with Sesame Street.

[00:52:03] Who's your favorite Muppet? Who's my favorite Muppet? Grover. Grover was my favorite Muppet as a kid. I think Cookie Monster is my favorite Muppet. Wait, I changed my mind. I think it's Ernie. Ernie's great. I love Ernie.

[00:52:16] See, David gets annoyed by Ernie and he likes Bert because I'm Ernie and he's Bert. Oh, wow, wow, wow. They keep showing this sketch that I've brought up multiple times in this podcast where Ernie is playing his trumpet as they are trying to go to bed.

[00:52:28] Right, and that is funny. And Ernie's like, I have to play my trumpet to go to bed and Bert's like, it's loud, I want to go to bed. David was like ranting and raving about it and he's like, that's psychotic behavior.

[00:52:35] And I'm like, David, that's a good bit. That's a funny bit. David, get with the program. Big Bert energy over here. My daughter doesn't really like Bert. I think they're too like normal for her. Like, it's like, who are these like regular people?

[00:52:48] They are like just couples, I know. Yeah, exactly. Like Cookie Monster, she's like, that guy eats cookies. That guy has a game. Promise of the premise. He's fulfilling. But now she's fiercely loyal to Abby. Elmo's in the dirt right now. Abby is the queen to her now.

[00:53:07] Getherd has such a good fucking chunk about Elmo and his new special. Oh, I'm very special. I guess it's coming out soon. Yes, but he just has basically like a manifesto on Elmo being the single greatest fictional character in history that is really convincing. Interesting.

[00:53:23] I certainly have seen a lot of Elmo in recent year. Recent year. Kermit is. I forget whose point this is that I'm stealing now, but it's like he is the only like main normal character in quotes in like a thing.

[00:53:38] We're saying he's your favorite is not a boring choice. Oh, you know? Yes, it's not like my favorite superhero Superman. Right. Or like Mickey Mouse or whatever. We really fucking likes Mickey Mouse. Right. We hate him. Right. He's a problem.

[00:53:55] Kermit for being the like the center of the everyman, the sort of balanced character is in and of himself interesting, funny, engaging. Yeah. Do you think it's because he's a frog? I do like frogs. Good question. I think the best is the frog. Oh, yeah.

[00:54:08] You don't want to sit next to this guy while he's watching Princess and the Frog getting turned freaking out. Don't turn into a prince. Stay frog. You should both stay frogs. Yeah. OK. Ben likes animal like animal, the Muppet animal. Yes. The drummer guy. He's the best.

[00:54:28] He's like animal. He's got great energy. He does. He's got plenty of energy. He's got plenty of energy. He's got plenty of energy. Yeah. He's got plenty of energy. But he's not the type of guy that you would expect from a dramatic young actors.

[00:54:48] OK, instead, he says they are very serious and thoughtful. He uses a word that I cannot pronounce. I don't know, Karen, if you know that. Is it an English word? No, it's a Korean word. Do you also look at it? Yeah. Come look at this word.

[00:55:05] I would have said it. Say it again. I'm sorry. It's an ennuguni, which literally means like kid. Ennuguni is like kind of not a nice way to say like an old person. But I've been called this because I tried to like hang out with some friends in Korea

[00:55:18] and they were like, oh great, it's like nine o'clock. What do you want to do next? And I was like, I'm going to bed. I don't know what you're doing. You're going to get tagged then. You're going to be called an old soul basically.

[00:55:26] So it's sort of old soul but with more of a negative connotation. Old soul I feel like is your spirit. I feel like ennuguni could also just be like, oh, this person is tired. In vibe. They're breaking down. Sure. They're decomposing. Yes, I guess you said.

[00:55:42] I mean, look, I think that like my impression of like what it is like to be famous in Korea as a young person is that it is a lot of work and you are constantly being thrust into various limelights. They're often multi hyphenate, right?

[00:55:55] Like they'll act, they'll sing, they'll host TV shows. And I feel like they must all be fucking exhausted. I feel for them. It's so sleepy. Yeah, being famous sounds really tiring. Yes. Well, you're famous. No. Are you tired? I am but separately. Okay.

[00:56:10] All right. So yeah, you know, Rain is obviously very well known at this point. Had he done films or is this kind of his big acting crossover? That's a good question. I feel like he must have been in Korean dramas before. But I don't know the timeline.

[00:56:25] Yes, he had been in a movie called Sang-do Let's Go to School. Oh no, that's a TV show. Sorry. Okay. So, you know, probably the sort of Saved by the Bell of its day. I have no idea.

[00:56:35] And he had had a breakthrough success with his third album, It's Raining. Which I just think is a fantastic name. And man, the confidence to hold on to that title until the third album. Incredible. Yeah, well, that's a good point. What were his first two albums called?

[00:56:49] It's Pouring. How to Avoid the Sun. The Old Man is Snoring. It's Sprinkling, It's Pouring, It's Raining. He gets to him. Fuck. Now It's Raining? Yeah. It's Drizzling. He was in a television show called Full House. Oh, that was super famous. Which was apparently a huge deal.

[00:57:07] Was based maybe on a comic book or something like some kind of... There's a very funny... Manhwa? Yeah, manhwa. That means comic. Right. Manhwa. There's like a weird trend of Korean shows having the same names as American shows, but then having nothing to do with the American. Interesting.

[00:57:26] So like Full House I think has nothing to do with the American Full House. I think there's like a While You Were Sleeping. There's like a bunch of stuff where I'm like, oh, this is iconic American stuff. Remade? Question mark. It's like not at all.

[00:57:39] No, just borrowing the title. Because there are American films that get remade. Of course. Yeah. I think there was like a Little Women that came out a few years ago and you read the story and you're like, this actually has nothing to do...

[00:57:50] But are they very small maybe? Are they like two inches? Yeah, they're so tiny. Borrowing type? Actually, they're giant. Oh, it's ironic. They're so big. I think I met... Because there was like, there were like four little women movies all around the same time

[00:58:04] leading up to the Gerwig one. Wait, really? Yes. There was like one that was sort of Christian. There was a Leah Thompson, I think semi-Christian modern day adaptation. There was a TV one with Maya Hawke and I forget who the mother was. I don't remember. Yeah.

[00:58:20] And then there was the Korean one. The Korean one I think has nothing to do with the book. It's like also three girls, which is the wrong number of girls. It is three sisters. And they're all like six foot five. Three sisters who play basketball.

[00:58:33] No, I don't know. Yeah, three sisters who are... And people online kept saying it was... It was based on... Yeah, but I really just was like, if that's true, they're just using this for publicity. There's absolutely no way. It is loosely based on Lizard and Alcott's novel apparently.

[00:58:48] You should edit the Wikipedia page. I'm going to do that right now. We would have been banned from Wikipedia. It's like life and death of Colonel Blimp. Right. Yeah, where it's like we're going to take that guy who's a character, but not really. Right.

[00:59:02] Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is like one of the best movies ever made, Karen. And it's this British film about like the entire life of a man and his lost loves and his friendships over like decades and wars and whatever.

[00:59:15] And they basically took the title of a very popular comic strip about a buffoonish general or colonel rather, and then took nothing else from it. The character in the movie is not even named Colonel Blimp. He doesn't look like the cartoon character. I think you'd like it.

[00:59:33] It's incredible. It's an incredible film. It's like guys who look like this, you know? I feel like that's your vibe. That is my vibe. But it's basically if you were like, I'm making a movie about Snoopy and then you made John Wick. Yeah.

[00:59:44] You're like, well, there is a dog in it. Right. Right, right, right. The military is involved, but they just truly coasted off of using a popular comic strip name and then none of it. Nothing used. Who is that old man? He was so sweet looking.

[00:59:56] That's the fucking guy who's not Colonel Blimp. He's the main character. I'm going to watch this movie. It's so good. One of the best movies ever made. Um, yes. Im Soo Jung plays, and I apologize, of course, if I'm getting these names wrong, plays the

[01:00:08] female lead, had been on a TV show and he calls her one of his favorite actors ever. She's in A Tale of Two Sisters, right? Correct. That was before this? Yeah, that was from 2003. She's the lead of that. That seems like a very scary movie.

[01:00:23] That was a very, very, very popular Korean film. I think it was like a pretty big crossover thing. Yeah, certainly in that sort of early phase of sort of Korean movies crossing over. Look at this. I'm sorry, Karen. I'm sorry to show you these bloody sisters.

[01:00:40] Was remade, of course, as the terrible English film The Uninvited. Right. With Elizabeth Banks and Emily Browning. So she was in that. He just loves her. He knows the director of Tale of Two Sisters.

[01:00:56] And that director basically said, like, come to the auditions, like, check out some of these people I'm seeing. And so that they... Oh, so he sees her auditioning for Tale of Two Sisters before he got her. And just like basically knows her. And it's like, she's great.

[01:01:08] I think she is great. She is. Oh, she's incredibly winning. And this is like, this is a tough performance. It's a tough performance to be like, oh, she was charming. You know what I mean? Yes. Right. And like to play someone who's not really in conversation with themselves.

[01:01:25] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Is sort of performing oddly. The character is performing oddly within the movie, but it's all sort of unresolved trauma going on. So you need to have the depth going on underneath the surface, even if she's kind of inscrutable. Right.

[01:01:41] And I was really struck by how much she loved her grandma. I was struck by how much I was moved by that. Because you kind of, you don't really see her emote. Otherwise. Yeah. She is like large. It's true.

[01:01:55] She's largely shut off, but they have a connection that's kind of beyond words. Well, that's right. It's like, that's the central trauma of the movie is her grandmother was the person who actually cared about her and the person she actually related to.

[01:02:05] And then she saw everyone around her go like, no, forget about her. You know what's wild? She can't exist in society. And then one of the reasons why she complains about her grandma, the mom complains about the grandma is that she only eats radishes at home.

[01:02:17] And I don't know if you picked up on this, but when they go into the mental institution, they're served radishes. Like that's what the lady is crunching on the whole time. I don't know. That's probably symbolic of something and I have no idea. Radishes are delicious and crunchy.

[01:02:30] I personally love radishes. That was probably what the symbolism is. That there are delicious and crunchy. Product placement for radishes. Big radish was behind this movie. It was a 20th century radish production. I don't know if you noticed that.

[01:02:45] Re Rain, he also says, I wanted someone not technically polished, but who could reflect the pure innocence of the character. A bit of a backhanded compliment there. This is apparently Rain's first film. He'd been in television. I think he's good in this. Yeah, he's great.

[01:02:59] I was shocked by how much he didn't and this is going to sound like a backhanded thing, but I mean this as a true compliment is he didn't seem to want to seem like a movie star. No. Like, and I mean that in the best way.

[01:03:10] Like no ego to this. No ego. No like trying to be glamorous or handsome. Just straight up like, I want to play the role this movie needs. Right. Yeah. Right. Um, yeah, no, I agree with that.

[01:03:21] That's it's not, it's not a very show off your performance at all and he's not, you know, he's wearing a mask, especially the first chunk of the movie. A lot of helmets. Yeah, exactly. There's not like a lot. Yeah, the bunny mask for.

[01:03:32] That's one of his big sort of defense mechanisms I feel like. You know, but he's pretty happy with how the movie comes out, but it doesn't do very well. Right. Um, and it's, you know, it's obviously sort of heavy on CGI and experimentation for him and all that.

[01:03:47] Like he's trying some new stuff, but I don't think he's down on this movie at all. Sure. Yeah. Uh, and I guess he basically goes right into Speed Racer after this. Uh, well Rain does. Yes. Oh, oh, oh, I was talking Park you were saying. Sorry. Yes.

[01:04:00] Uh, right. Yeah. I guess he'd never done something with this sort of amount of digital effects. Um. Not that his films become super heavy. I think his film like Decision to Leave uses a lot of visual effects. Yeah.

[01:04:14] To accomplish like kind of strange camera moves and things like that. But right, right. It's rare. He doesn't really do movies about like supernatural things. No, no. Um, I like, I mean, so Rain's character in this film, he says that he's basically spent

[01:04:28] the last five years in institutions in different facilities. And he's sort of in this rut of feeling like I just can't function in society. Yes. And he's in this odd in between place of like he is sort of more cognitively together than

[01:04:42] everyone else around him, but also not together enough to be able to exist outside of these walls. Right, right. He also, sorry go ahead. No, no, he knows enough to understand that everyone else is behaving strangely. Right.

[01:04:55] But he doesn't, his response to that is how can I entertain myself? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He also is kinder, I feel like, than or more willing to try to figure out how to help people than the actual doctors there.

[01:05:12] That's, this is what I really like about this movie and I find very touching is that he's like fucking with all these other people and then he sees her and he really connects her and he becomes the first person to like speak her language. Yeah, yeah.

[01:05:25] Like he actually, everyone else is sort of like I don't want to do with this fucking woman. Right. And she's like off in her own insane world, but her world is also dangerous because she's not eating because she's stuffing wires into her veins. Right?

[01:05:38] Like all these things she's doing and her belief that she's a cyborg are like causing severe harm. They're not harmful to anyone else, but they're going to kill her. Yeah. They're absolutely going to kill her. Right.

[01:05:50] And he's the one person who's like what if I like enter her world? Right. That was so sweet. What if I can share in the delusion or whatever you want to put it. Like entertain the concept she's wrestling with as a way of reaching her.

[01:06:03] Which look, as you said, there's no nurse ratchet in this movie, but none of the employees of the facility know how to deal with her. No, I mean, to be fair, I also wouldn't know how to deal with her. I wouldn't either.

[01:06:13] I would struggle to tell someone who wants to eat batteries that they shouldn't eat batteries. She licks them. Yeah, right. To be fair. But I do feel like it was just an example of a man taking a woman seriously instead of being like you crazy.

[01:06:24] Which is very nice. But there is that moment where. Time to listen. There's like a moment where one of the doctors towards the end of the movie is like talking with her and trying to figure out what's wrong with her. Right.

[01:06:36] And then you see the doctor get kind of giddy about trying to diagnose this person. Like what a strange case this is. Yeah. And then you're like, oh, like that feels ethically bad. Yeah.

[01:06:46] I mean, again, obviously this film is not a realistic portrayal of anything, but I do think there is that that element of like she's an intriguing case first and a person second. To some people. Yeah. She's like, right. She's like a puzzle for them to solve. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:07:04] And this film is a romantic comedy. I do think you can call it that. Right. But it is more like like the romance is sort of secondary to just their sort of compassionate friendship or whatever. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like this is not really a.

[01:07:21] You could call it kind of a love story. It ultimately gets there. But it takes a while before it feels like it really becomes romantic. That's the thing. It takes a while before it really is even about the pair of them.

[01:07:32] They're kind of just so much environmental stuff. Right. He's just kind of hovering around for a good chunk of the movie. Right. It's another thing I find interesting is the movie does kind of change perspectives several times. You know, you're not always with her.

[01:07:47] You start with the mother. Then you're sort of from the perspective almost of the employees, the other patient who's giving her the tour. You know, it takes a while before you're in her headspace. Right. And even then you're then shifting back and forth between him and her.

[01:08:02] For sure. Which is part of why you don't know. You can't always anticipate when something's going to turn into a fantasy sequence because you might feel like you're in an objective reality and then suddenly her fingertips turn into guns and her mouth opens up. Right.

[01:08:14] And for her that's like reality. Right. Yes. Which is hard to reconcile because how does she feel about what happens afterwards? Right. Right. If that makes sense. I think it's a good movie. Again, the movie is not really rooted in anyone's perspective, like you say.

[01:08:29] Her hair's very big. Yeah. Yeah. I also think. That was a great observation. Thank you. Her eyebrows are blonde. Oh, another great observation. She does have the light eyebrows. That's very true. I'm like 15 years ahead of the trend.

[01:08:40] I was going to say, yeah, that was popular last year. 2022. Oh, that was popular last year? I really missed out on this trend. Kim went to the Met with blonde eyebrows. Kim Kardashian. First name basis. Oh, I see.

[01:08:55] I truly, when you say Kim, I was like the last name of a Korean person. There are a lot of Korean people with that name, of course. Incredible. Yeah. Okay. Well, good for her. Yeah. Why aren't your eyebrows blonde? I know. What a good question.

[01:09:08] David, you should fucking bleach your eyebrows. I think that would look so bad. I just am born this way. Wow. You have full eyebrows. I know we were all thinking it and nobody had the guts to say it.

[01:09:17] Oh, by the way, Karen, Ben got his ears pierced recently. Really? That's true. Where's the stud? Oh, yeah. At 37, he decided impulsively. That's a great idea. You have pierced ears. I do. I'm thinking about getting a second piercing for either ear. Oh, you should do it. Thank you.

[01:09:37] Yeah, definitely. Why not? I don't know. Why not? That feels great. I see Ben like getting competitive. Like you said second piercing and Ben like sort of like narrowed his eyes. I mean, second piercing is in like piercings three and four. So Ben, you got to catch up.

[01:09:49] All right. Right. Ben has one piercing right now. I got nine. You're a hero. Yeah, I got nine. Yeah, you guys got to get caught up. Yeah, but Ben is calling this his. I'm just so worried about seeming like a dad who's having a midlife crisis.

[01:10:02] Are you having a midlife crisis though? I don't know. The piercing might tip me in that direction. You're also a dad. That's a problem. Ben can get away with it because he is. That's what I'm saying.

[01:10:11] I just feel like it's a thing dads do and you're kind of like, okay. That's pretty cool. No, it's listen, it's acceptable as a 37 year old guy. The first time in my life, he's getting my ear pierced. Bad boy 2.0 face. That's right.

[01:10:23] Anyway, but yes, she does have, you know, she just has big hair. The design of her is I feel like intentionally row body. And very sort of jagged bangs. Like it looks like she cut it herself with like childproof arts and crafts scissors.

[01:10:38] She looks like slightly plasticky because her face is because of the bleached eyebrows. I feel like it makes her look, you know what I mean? Like drawn. Yes. And she's literally wearing like a burlap sack. She is wearing a burlap sack. They're jumpsuits.

[01:10:53] Not everyone else is wearing a burlap sack. Like Rain is wearing clothes. He's wearing like a button down or whatever. I also love the woman whose condition was, I guess just skin care. Yes, yes. Successively. So funny.

[01:11:05] There's the mythomaniac who's the one who can't remember her own life so she compulsively makes up narratives. Right. And then she says, she tells her that one of the guys, his problem is that he sewed his butthole closed. Right. Oh, right. Yes. Yeah. But that's not true.

[01:11:26] No, but he does compulsively constantly pull fabric out of his ass crack. Yeah, yeah. There's yes. Who else is there? There's the polite person. I don't know. There's a lot of I'm trying to think of other stuff that happened to this. There's a lot of table tennis. Right.

[01:11:40] There's a grandfather clock that they're all kind of obsessed with. Right. Because someone died inside the grandfather clock. Yeah. The facility itself is very like bright. There's a lot of like art on the walls.

[01:11:50] I feel like, you know, there's a lot of sort of there's like a big water feature with plants and stuff like it's got this kind of whimsical quality. I feel like a daycare center. Right. Sort of like a kindergarten almost. Yeah. Yeah. There's a cute cat.

[01:12:04] Who's the guy with the glasses? Oh, the one who was angry. Yeah. Who's got like sort of the cravat and stuff. Is he the impotent guy who had the furry wife? Yes. That's right. Yes. Yes. He's not saying literally he's not saying his wife was into like antiform.

[01:12:20] She had fur on her face. Right. Yeah. I mean, do we think that was true? Probably not. Yeah. But I don't know. It's sort of part of the fun. Right. It's what I like about this movie. Yeah. That it doesn't. Pants to the wife and it's a dog.

[01:12:34] Cool. Cool. Cool. Good for him. Furriest wife of all. I'm trying to think like what else? There's this whole section where Rain puts on what I want to call a sort of where the wild things are crown mask. Yes. Is he a robot? What's going on there?

[01:12:49] He's letting the wild rumpus start. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. No, it looks. Yeah, something like that's when he's starting to get closer to her. Right. I view that as him trying to relate to her. Exactly. Because he wears a lot of masks to sort of. Yeah. Whatever.

[01:13:04] I did love the moment where when everybody sort of starts going feral and like yelling he just sort of closes the hole on his mask. Yes. Like in his little mask. Yes. That was a great move. But he starts really handsome. He's hot.

[01:13:18] He starts really engaging with the rules of her reality. Right. I need to recharge in this way. I can't eat food because it will cause me to short circuit. The way I know that my batteries are charged, my toenails light up. Right. All these different things.

[01:13:34] As her condition is getting worse and worse, she keeps on putting herself in these extreme situations and more than anything, she's like on this perpetual hunger strike. Yes. They cannot get her to.

[01:13:42] She has a little battery and a little lunch pail that she will lick, but that's not really doing it for her. Right. Stomach wise. Right. But I just like I'm very moved by the whole sort of section where he like builds the device for her. Yeah.

[01:13:56] And is like this converts human food into electrical currents. This makes it safe for you to eat. Like he really just gets to her level. The scene where he does basically like the surgery on her. Yeah. Where he's going to like rewire her. You know? Yeah.

[01:14:13] And you see him with the scalpel and then it cuts to her like wincing in pain as if he's cutting her open. It's a pencil. He's drawing like a little, a little door on her back.

[01:14:22] That scene is also like it's sort of like the only time the film really brushes against like sexuality. She has to like undress for him, but he's obviously very shy about it and it's not really like looking. You're only seeing her back. You only see her back. Right.

[01:14:35] But there's this kind of like tenderness and intimacy to it that is interesting. It's very intimate. Yes. There's a funny moment where, because he is using that like locket of his mom, right? That woman is supposed to be his mom.

[01:14:45] I don't know because I didn't want to do subtitles. I assume it was done well where there's a part where they're sitting together and he like looks at the picture of his mom and he suddenly just says his mom was really hot

[01:14:54] and of course the boys didn't leave her alone. Do you? I don't know if that. I don't. I laughed out loud. He like looks at this picture of his mom looking, I want to say, I'm sure she's a beautiful woman.

[01:15:06] But in this photo she does not look at all attractive or trying to be attractive. And he looks at it and he's just sort of like, of course the men didn't leave you alone. I was like that's so sweet.

[01:15:17] There is something funny though to like as we're going through like their conditions, right? Yeah. The like the game that each character has that's sort of their problem, their condition. Most of them are like not bad things, right? It's like this person's too polite.

[01:15:32] This person's like too regimented about their skin care. This person feels shame about who they loved. And like everyone's trying to like solve her as like a sport. How do you get this woman to stop thinking she's a robot?

[01:15:44] And he's basically like, how do I convince her that I've upgraded her robotics so that she can act like a human? Yeah. You don't make her act. Stop acting like a robot. You're not going to snap her out of it. That doesn't seem like.

[01:15:56] You make her think that the technology is evolving. And suddenly she can do other things. She's a cyber defense. In fact. Karen, does that happen when you watch a Korean film and you see it maybe with English subtitles?

[01:16:12] Do you note a disparity between what's actually being said and how it's been sort of simplified for an English language audience? Because I have heard about this, particularly with Koreans. Shout out to Stephanie Y. Hong. Did this for a living. Oh, yeah, yeah, I do.

[01:16:26] You know what a funny thing is? I watched Parasite with my parents in the theaters. Our whole family went. My brother was also there. I really caught him out of that story. I went with my parents. My brother also showed up uninvited.

[01:16:37] Kept complaining that there wasn't enough Barbossa in it. Oh my god. Truly his favorite character. We love him. He is a good character. Great character. We were, yeah, we were watching it and I remember the four of us realized that we were like,

[01:16:51] oh, there must be another Korean speaker towards the front of the theater because we all laughed at something that nobody else in the theater had laughed at. I don't remember what it was, but it was clearly like a joke that didn't translate onto the,

[01:17:00] you know, in the subtitles. Yeah, and I think there are literally words that exist in one language and the other that don't exist in the other one. And then you're like, well, what can you do? That's just that's just how it is. Yeah.

[01:17:14] What else do we want to talk about with I'm a Cyborg, but that's OK, which is not a really like sort of narratively straight movie. It's not like there isn't, you know, like there's it's episodic. There's stuff that happens.

[01:17:27] I read some like, I mean, obviously translations of reviews at the time. So who knows if the wording is being presented to me correctly? But people complaining that this movie was slow paced. Oh, and I wouldn't call it slow paced.

[01:17:42] It's a very energetic movie, but I mean, it's meandering in its story and doesn't have a lot of plot. He made three like fucking vengeance revenge thrillers that are very like Hitchcockian and complex. The man on a mission, woman on a mission. Here's what you got to do.

[01:17:57] You have your target. This movie moves a lot. It just moves in like a thousand different directions at all times. It moves sideways a lot. Maybe is that what maybe that's what they're like. It's not really going to a new place.

[01:18:09] Yeah, no, no, I would agree with that. It's not slow paced. I love learning that it was. I love learning. But I love learning that it was inspired by Toy Story or partly inspired by Toy Story.

[01:18:21] It does make sense to sort of like, you know, there's imaginative play happening in a weird way in this place. As much as there is this like, which I guess is sort of true of Toy Story 2 where you're

[01:18:33] sort of like there is there is a slightly melancholic element to what's happening to this. Toy Story 2 is so sad. What's my favorite movie? Well, I mean, as we've talked about Toy Story in this podcast, but yes, obviously, as the

[01:18:45] Toy Story movies progress and you can only ask more questions about these immortal beings and like what their existence is, then yes, it gets sadder. But there's the other part of it that's sort of very connected to the characters in the

[01:18:56] institution in this movie, which is like Rex's entire existential crisis is like, I do not fit the behavior of a dinosaur, but I was manufactured to be a dinosaur. This is not my spirit. Right. And you have these things that are like built for. Yet I must roar.

[01:19:13] I must roar. Mm hmm. Right. All Mr. Potato Head would love to do is for his facial features to stay in place. And yet the curse always falling out. Yeah, well, also, he has to like keep his frown in his butt.

[01:19:27] Like he has a weird sort of thing. My friend, I think he's keeping the smile in his butt. He's frowning most of the time. He frowns often. That's true. I had a Mr. Potato Head. Me too. What a strange toy. Incredible toy. I guess so.

[01:19:40] It's also so funny that it was I mean, you guys know that the original toy was just a box of parts and went provide your own potato. What? That's why it was called Mr. Potato Head.

[01:19:50] Was it was just yeah, it was just a box and they were much sharper because you got to get through a vegetable and raw vegetable again. Vegetable. Great. Well done. Thank you. Yeah.

[01:20:03] And then at some point they were like, well, the brand is Mr. Potato Head, but we should start selling the body kids like parents don't want kids playing with a moldy potato. So then they turn to a plastic potato and then you're like, that's weird that it's still

[01:20:13] just like this sort of like brown plastic oblong that doesn't really look like a potato anymore. And you just tell me it is. Yeah. And it doesn't I don't know. I just remember he didn't really jive with my other toys. He's such a strange being.

[01:20:26] He's also very large. Yeah. So like you put him against like an action figure. Weird scale. What are these guys are friends? Like what am I supposed to do with this? Well, once again, I think the characterization is on point.

[01:20:35] He's not really friends with anyone else in Andy's room. Except for Mrs. Potato Head. Well, I mean, if she was made for him. I think love in the beginning of the first movie where he goes like, what are you looking at? Yeah. Hockey puck.

[01:20:46] And then after that, anytime I had like a team name, I always was like, we should be the hockey pucks. Cool. Yeah. Even in basketball. Even in basketball. Which is your favorite of the Toy Story's? The first one. You're you're you're number one. Yeah.

[01:20:59] I also rewatched it because I have a niece and nephew. I rewatched it during the pandemic. Yes. And I was like, oh, this is just a movie about like jealousy and rage unbridled. Right. Right. I mean, it's a show business. Yes. You know about that. Right. Right. Yeah.

[01:21:16] But it was incredible of like how jealousy can become evil if you let it. You know what I like? Absolutely. Yes. No. Woody is quite as we've talked about. Yeah. He's a pretty green eyed and petty man. Once again, we've done five full episodes. We have.

[01:21:28] We'd love to. You got to re-record. I am always happy to talk about it. Sorry. You were about to say. Oh, no. I was just gonna say the only reason he's able to pull it off and be a likable protagonist is I think it's because it's Tom Hanks.

[01:21:39] Yeah. Absolutely. Do you know the crazy story where like it was Jeffrey Katzenberg. That's like the end of his run. I'm retelling a thing, but it was on Patreon. It was on Patreon. So it's fine. It's the end of Katzenberg's run before he leaves for DreamWorks. Right.

[01:21:52] And his big thing was like, I want to make like an animated movie that's more for adults that has like edgier humor. And it like basically Shrek becomes what he was always trying to push. Shrek? Yeah. Right. I love Shrek.

[01:22:05] But like that was the vibe he wanted of like, can it be like a lot more sarcastic and sort of like in on the joke and whatever. And the Disney brand was so strong that when Pixar comes in from the outside with the Toy

[01:22:13] Story pitch, he's like, maybe this is the avenue to be able to do something that's a little more biting and a little more hard edge. And so they're developing the movie and he keeps on pushing them to be like meaner, darker, you know, more acidic, whatever.

[01:22:26] And then they do this screening where they like have the scratch template voices and the storyboards and they screen it for all the Disney executives right before they give him the thumbs up and give him the money start animating.

[01:22:37] And they're like, it was the most disastrous screening of all time. It was like the darkest film we had ever seen. It was like so brutally dark. Disney wanted to shut it down and Pixar was like, give us a weekend. We'll fucking we'll roll it back. Wow.

[01:22:50] And I find it fascinating that that's the whole story of like the movie almost falls apart because it was too dark. And then you watch it and you're like in the version that came out and was a massive totemic hit that has lasted.

[01:23:00] He is still such an asshole. He must have been really intolerable. Yeah, he's look, he's a relatable. You get it. You get why what he feels the way he feels. Of course. Yeah, but he is not the typical.

[01:23:13] Like, no, if you were to sing an I want song, it would be like, I want this guy to go away because I feel inadequate. Get the fuck out of here. Right. Yes. Right. And he's like, he's petty. He's like rude. He's sarcastic. Yeah, it's all Hanks.

[01:23:26] Oh, we love Hank. We love Hanks. He's a nice guy. Yeah. Right. Famously. Yeah. He's pretty nice. Yeah, he's pretty nice. He must be. Did you see that quote from him recently where he was they were like, you have a reputation

[01:23:39] for being nice and he's like, it's a lot of work. Yeah. A lot of times on set where I really would have loved to have been an asshole. Yeah, I really, really bet that. I feel like if you're Larry David. Yeah.

[01:23:49] It's so much easier being Larry David than being Tom Hanks. People want you to be kind of a jerk. Right. But then if you're nice, people are like, oh my God. What the fuck? That's the thing. Everyone says Larry David is very nice.

[01:23:59] But I bet it's just because he's not as rude as he thinks he's going to be. Yeah. And if Tom Hanks doesn't hand you $100 in cash as soon as you meet him, you're gonna be like, what an asshole. I was just. You need to not only be nice.

[01:24:09] I'm fucking nice. Where's my money? Where's my money? You need to be balancing my bank account. I heard you're wealthy as hell. Get me out of the hole. That's why, I will say that's why I bought you coffee seconds into meeting you. Yeah.

[01:24:19] I was just like, I better fucking be nice. The heat is nice here. I just have my card. For the record, I offered to get coffee. You did. You did. You were reaching for the wallet. Yeah.

[01:24:27] And I was like, you were literally buying more drinks for blank check hosts than yourself right now. I will buy these drinks. I just, I love the admission from Hanks of like, because you read all those stories about

[01:24:38] him and you're like, is he just wired better than all of us? Yeah. He's just a relatively well adjusted guy. He is. But he also was like, you know what? It takes fucking effort to be nice all the time. Right. He's trying to be nice.

[01:24:48] I try to do it. You know what? It's hard work being nice. It is. That's true. But that's okay. But that's okay. I think more title should be reassuring in that way. Yes. It was a great title. Incredible title. Yeah. I am pretty sold by the title alone.

[01:25:01] I'm not a fan of the title alone. But I did expect her to be a cyborg. You thought... Going in. Sure. The only thing I knew about this film was the poster in which she is sort of floating. They're in like this green padded room. Right.

[01:25:13] Well, because the scene where they finally kiss for the first time, she has to float up to be able to reach him. Correct. Yeah. And they're floating. That's cute. It is very cute. Yes.

[01:25:22] But I thought like, oh yeah, this is like about a guy who falls in love with a robot. Yeah. Like that's what it'll be about. Yeah. You know, the other thing this movie isn't is like the K-Pax of like, but what if she is secretly?

[01:25:32] They think she's crazy, but what if she's really... There's no winking at like, hey man, maybe she is. Right. Yeah. Like even just the first time you see her, if I remember correctly, is in the mother explaining the suicide attempt.

[01:25:46] And you see clearly that she cuts in and her arm bleeds. Yes. Like they're not showing you her mind's eye. Oh, it's a bunch of wires and gadgetry. Like you see this was actually an act of violence. Yes. It's actually a very shocking moment.

[01:26:00] So shocking that I did sort of initially have the thought of like, this can't be real because what a way to start the movie. And then you realize, well, no. I think the score in this movie is very fun.

[01:26:10] There's basically one main theme he plays over and over and over again. Yeah. That's very whimsical and jaunty. Music is credited to three different people. Really? I don't know what the vibe is there. But one of them is his sort of main composer, Joe Young-Wook. I don't know.

[01:26:28] You have the end sequence where they sort of go out in the rain. Yes. A lovely, lovely scene. Yeah. In my opinion. Yes. Where basically, well, wait, like, yeah, wait. There's this, you know, okay.

[01:26:39] So she fantasizes about going on a rampage in the hospital because he's kind of like, you need to stop being sympathetic to the white coats, right? Like that's what sort of prompts all of that. Right. They start giving her shock therapy. She thinks it's recharging her.

[01:26:54] Like they think it's helping. Neither of these things are really working. It's sort of this beautiful, sad metaphor for like, you know, how these interventions often are sort of like you're checking a box, but nothing's really happening. Yeah. Right? I don't know.

[01:27:08] He starts feeding her the food using the food to electrical converter or whatever, the rice Megatron. Yeah. And but why? Why did they go into this? Oh, because like she's she starts to think that she's a bomb and like lightning will make her blow up. Yes.

[01:27:25] And her grandma, that's what she thinks her grandma was saying was the purpose of her existence. Right? Yes. And it was like the purpose of your, it's like you are a nuclear bomb. You should blow up.

[01:27:35] It's like you need a certain like 10,000 volts or something and you will blow up or something like that. Yeah. They go out with this giant pole. They go out with a big lightning rod and she's ready to get struck by lightning and he puts

[01:27:46] a little cork on top of it to protect her from the wine bottle that they were, you know, drinking out of. And it's this nice little reveal, right? Of his sort of like continued enabling of her delusion. But in this sort of practical way. Right?

[01:28:05] Is that the best way to put it? I don't know. Yeah. No, because he gets through to her. Right. Right. But he gets through to her. It's not exactly patronizing even, but like, you know, by like whatever by like indulging

[01:28:16] her but also helping her in a way that helps her indulge. I don't know. Also, his whole problem is sociopathy. Right. And he learns that he has the capacity to care for someone else.

[01:28:30] The amount of effort he puts into whereas everyone else is kind of like winding up to watch from a distance, you know, as they spiral out into their own shit. He's like engaging with her and helping her.

[01:28:44] He's using the same kind of little stinker instincts that he uses to stir shit up. Right. But it's out of an act of pure empathy. Right. So he's like learning that he has the ability to care for another person. Which is nice. Yes.

[01:29:02] Nonetheless, this film was a disappointment at the Korean box office. There's nothing else about the ending, right? Like that's that's the end of the movie. Yeah. Is them in the rainbow. The credits. Appears and then there's the credits. The rainbow connection.

[01:29:15] There is the credit sequence which we should shout out in which everyone who's involved in the film, their names are projected on the screen. In an order. Yeah. Not spoiler alert. This is the first time this has happened. I'm just trying to place it in a timeline. Really?

[01:29:31] What the hell is this? A bunch of words? Yeah. Like all the actors get a shout out. I know. It's incredible. Big ups. The sound guys. Yeah. Right. Nobody is left out. No one is left out. Even the best boys. Even the best boys.

[01:29:45] We truly were the best of boys. We got three of the best boys here. We were supposed to play a pet us on the back. Exactly. Okay. It did make about two and it made about four million dollars at the Korean box office which was not very good.

[01:30:02] Yeah. And it was not very popular with critics. It made like three of the highest grossing local films of all time. I can see because I think the idea of like it would be this is so embarrassing. Who made The Godfather? Francis Ford.

[01:30:17] If that if he was like I'm doing a romcom. I feel like people who normally watch romcoms like I don't want to see a romcom by this guy and everybody who likes this stuff is gonna be like I don't want to watch a romcom. I want another Godfather.

[01:30:28] And then nobody is going to go on. Yes. Yeah. Francis Ford Coppola made a weird dreamy musical with Tom Waits songs that he self financed himself and drove himself into bankruptcy. What is it called? It's called One from the Heart. One from the Heart.

[01:30:42] It's exactly what you're describing. And he was just like and it's all dreamlike and it's all these transitions through mirrors and everyone's like when is there a horse's head? Right. Yeah. Severed. And he was just like I know this is what I need to be making.

[01:30:54] And people were like fuck you. Yeah. They were furious. They were furious. And like mocked him for like his foolishness. Right. Yes. This was maybe not quite as epic a bomb as that but it certainly. It didn't ruin Mark Jamouk's life for a decade.

[01:31:10] It definitely got this basically this reaction of like what do you think you're doing? I think. Go back to your lane. And so but he thinks he at the time of release he says it's one of his favorite films that he's ever made.

[01:31:23] He says he has the most fun watching it. He says he put the most affection into it and it hurts the most seeing it being treated unkindly. His daughter thought it was mid. It was not released in American theaters so it's not really reviewed by American critics.

[01:31:42] But it did play at some festivals. I think it was at Berlin where maybe won a prize. But you know not really much to talk about on that front. So we're going to have to play the box office game from its release date but in America

[01:31:57] which is a box office day we've done before again. But don't worry you never remember these anymore. No I don't remember anything. But I think it's going to be fun because I want to see if Karen has seen this movie.

[01:32:06] So let's see the reason we've done this box office game before. How do you feel about the movie The Holiday? Oh I did love The Holiday. The Holiday is so long it makes no sense and I think it's a bad movie. OK you are correct. You are right.

[01:32:19] But now Griffin's going to ask you a very important question because we are divided. Which half of The Holiday do you think is better? Cameron Diaz with Jude Law and you've got Jack Black with you know. US or UK? When you have to pick between those two US.

[01:32:36] Here's the ultimate. Here's the thing that I found so annoying as you watch that whole movie that feels like it's four hours long. I believe it is four hours. It's an epic miniseries. The sorrow and the pity of that fucking movie.

[01:32:44] At the very end you see for like two seconds Kate Winslet and Jude Law just dancing together as siblings. And they have so much chemistry that it's disturbing because you're their siblings but also you're like that's the rom-com we wanted. We don't want.

[01:33:00] You think there should be a Holiday 2 where they're like should we partner swap again and Cameron Diaz is like that's your brother. It's like come on. Kate's like the heart wants what it wants baby. Can you deny? And Nancy Meyers is like keep rolling this is gold.

[01:33:12] I agree with you on all counts. We uh. You prefer Kate Winslet in America with Jack Black going scooby doo. No to be clear what I prefer is Jude Law in a different rom-com that's good where he is

[01:33:26] the protagonist and nothing else from this movie is preserved except for the sweet old man who lives next door. You like the sweet old man. I want the sweet old man in Jude Law. You want the two of them. I want you and that to be best friends.

[01:33:39] You want Eli Wallach on Jude Law. You're doing some heavy surgery on the Holiday at Fisk Park. When I was a kid we had sex with women now I have sex with Jude Law.

[01:33:48] My dream version of the holiday is Jude Law is the one who comes to the US lives in that house falls in love with me. With Eli Wallach. Oh no with Karen G. And my grandpa is Eli Wallach. This is a good movie.

[01:34:00] And then we all have the holidays together. Do you still want him to have like, you know, a cow. He doesn't have a cow. He does have a cow. He has a cow in that movie. But no two daughters. Do you want him to do Mr. Napkinhead?

[01:34:11] Of course I want him to do Mr. Napkinhead. You want all of that. You want him to be daddy. Do you want Cameron Diaz loudly shrieking that she is bad at sex which she does constantly in that movie.

[01:34:23] Every time I rewatch the holiday I'm like I remember everything that's in this movie that I forget that Cameron Diaz is like I'm so bad at sex. Yeah but David she's great at editing movie trailers. She sure is.

[01:34:33] Wait the other movie I want instead of this movie is her two assistants are John Krasinski and Catherine Hahn. That's right. I want that romcom. That's a delight. They may literally be having a, you know, Rosencrantz-Gilderstrom movie. You know they might be having a romance within that movie.

[01:34:49] We just don't see it. Oh man. They're two cuties. They're two cuties. Yeah. And then Krasinski's in It's Complicated. Yes. Yes. He's not one of the children. He's marrying into that sick family. Soon to be son-in-law. You do? Yeah. What's your favorite Nancy Meyers movie? The Parent Trap.

[01:35:05] Yeah. I believe I put that as my number one as well. No. I put the intern at number one. Oh Griffin once again canceled. You did? Yeah. You put the intern over the Parent Trap? Parent Trap was my number two to be fair. Also my number two.

[01:35:17] Something's Gotta Give was your number one. That movie's a masterpiece. You think who's too old? The guy that's too old. Jack Nicholson. The guy. I forgot his name. Mr. Basketball. As I was watching I was like oh I'm too old. I'm too old. I'm too old.

[01:35:31] I'm too old. I'm too old. I don't love that movie. Because here's what I think. It's not hard. I think a lot of people thought that. A lot of people were not that into his. I like movies with cute old people falling in love. That's great.

[01:35:45] You don't want them to be horny. I don't want him to be horny for that for what's her Amanda Peete in the beginning. Oh yeah. Well sure. Way too old for her. I mean of course that is the plot of the movie is that that is not cool.

[01:35:51] Right. But then once that happened I was like Diane Keaton deserves better than this weird old man. She's literally offered Keanu Reeves on a plate. I know. And she said no. And she dips her bread in it. I'm like I'm not going to watch this.

[01:35:59] She gets some gravy on there. But then she's like you know what take it back. Take it back. Bring me the dry aged steak. Dry. This is why I love the intern is I think he's such a sweet character. He's so sweet. Alton and her are nice man.

[01:36:07] There's no romance there. That's the best use of Robert De Niro. Yes. It's his it's his best performance. Is the pinnacle of his screen career. He's so sweet. I mean I'm not going to watch this. I'm not going to watch this. I'm not going to watch this.

[01:36:16] I'm not going to watch this. I'm not going to watch this. I'm not going to watch this. I'm just trying to think of how many other De Niro movies are better than the intern but they're all inappropriate for Karen.

[01:36:36] I mean I'm like well but no no no no no no. It may just be the right. It's the best Robert De Niro. I'm trying to think of the parents I suppose. I haven't seen that. I should watch it. I'm better in the intern than he is.

[01:36:50] He's far better in the intern. Meet the parents is not a movie that has aged well at all. No. But the sequels have aged worse. That is true. So the holiday is this box office game which I probably don't remember because we did that many years ago. Yeah.

[01:37:06] Too long ago at this point. But but the holiday kind of bummed. It's lower and it did it open number three to twelve million dollars in a sort of weird weekend where like a lot of movies are opening around that right here around that number

[01:37:19] I remember we number one is a period action horror November December 2006 talking December 7th 2006. OK. I'm just I'm trying to play because I mean we talked about this on that episode but the holiday one of the only movies I've ever walked out of and not by my choice.

[01:37:39] My friends stormed out and I followed them. Right. I'm trying to remember what else we were hungry. It was our eighty two. They were like we need to eat. And Eli was like no he's perfect. Back in my day we didn't eat food. Go on Eli. He's fire.

[01:37:49] And now I'm just making him the guy from Wet Hot American Summer. OK. Yeah. But I feel like we walked out into a different movie which probably whatever was number one. Well well period action it actually pride and prejudice.

[01:37:55] It's so hard to describe what this movie is it's but it was a hit. It was a mild hit. A mild. It was the follow. It made about fifty million dollars in a week. Right. Right. So it was a hit. And I think that's what we're talking about.

[01:38:04] It was a hit. And I think the only reason we've made so many hits is because it was a hit. And I feel like we walked out of this movie thinking like we're going to make a movie that was not so bad. It was a hit.

[01:38:09] So it was a hit. And I feel like we walked out of this movie thinking like we're going to make a movie It's so hard to describe what this movie is. It's... But it was a hit. It was a mild hit. A mild hit, okay.

[01:38:19] It made about $50 million in America. It was the follow-up to one of the most successful films ever made. The film is Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. The Mayan apocalypse drama. Karen's sort of looking at me sort of angrily. Oh, I've never heard of this movie before.

[01:38:34] It's a Passion of the Christ follow-up. After he made, you know, Mel Gibson made this film, The Passion of the Christ. This is the sequel to Passion of the Christ. It's not a sequel, but it is... It's his blank check. It is his blank check.

[01:38:45] It's the movie where it's like after that, he's like, great, well, can I make a movie about, like, you know, set in Mayan society, spoken in their indigenous language that is obscenely insanely violent. Right. You know, kind of crazy. Yeah, but no stars in it.

[01:38:59] And the movie is essentially one 30-minute foot chase. Yeah. Wow. It's actually... Great movie. It's an excellent film, unfortunately. It was directed by somebody who's pretty crazy. How great it is. But yeah, it's pretty fun. Ben, you dig Apocalypto.

[01:39:12] I feel like we're all embarrassed that we like that movie. You know what, we're supposed to be. Especially because the ending is always kind of stuck in my craw. The ending's kind of incredible, I think. Yeah, but it also, it's sort of like a little pro-Christianity.

[01:39:26] I disagree with that, but we... We gotta save this for the Mel Gibson miniseries. We never do. Our final series. We record and then we just somehow bury it. I guess like on the computer, we recorded it. Yes. Okay, big pivot. Number two.

[01:39:41] It's a fun animated film we've covered on this podcast. Uh, in 2006. And we've covered it on this podcast. And it's not a celic and it's not a bird. No. And it's Happy Feet. It's Happy Feet. Oh, the penguin movie. Yes. I haven't seen it.

[01:39:59] Wow, I thought you might have seen that one. It does seem right up my alley. He's a dancing penguin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very happy. See, all of the penguins sing. Oh. And he doesn't sing. He goes tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Aw, that's cute.

[01:40:11] And they cast him out of society because of that. Oh, man. So he has to dance his way across Antarctica or whatever. And back into their hearts. Yeah, Happy Feet, which we've covered on this show. Happy Feet 2 better in my opinion. Happy Feet 2 is a Secret Masterpiece. Yeah.

[01:40:25] Brad Pitt plays a gay shrimp in that film. Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Yeah, they play sort of existential... Or they're krill. They're krill. They're bottom feeders, but they love each other. They do. Number three at the box office is The Holiday.

[01:40:39] Number four is an action film, Big Hit. Big Hit. Major character. Major character. Like this becomes an ongoing... It's been ongoing for many, many years. Tom Witt. And not that. Stuart Little. You guys are both silent laughers, so I want the listeners to know they're dying right now.

[01:41:02] You should laugh loudly. Karen, recently I've had a cold and I've been laughing like Wheeze Laughing, which has been much more audible. I'm sorry that I'm basically over the cold now. I was kind of doing that... Like that kind of thing.

[01:41:15] Sort of a Stuart Little vibe from this guy. Harry Potter! Not Harry Potter, but it's English. Is this the first one? It's the first one with this actor. It's the... James Bond. There you go. James Bond's Casino Royale. Because there was... Right, there was one straight month

[01:41:31] where Happy Feet and Casino Royale were the number one and number two... They were dueling. ...movies in America. Yes. And they were like, fucking mumble, just kept on tap dancing all over fucking Daniel Craig. The Penguin did beat his ass. Have you seen Casino Royale? No.

[01:41:47] Have you seen any James Bond films? No. But you're aware of his general vibe. Oh yeah, I know who he is. I'll say we watched the Roger Moore... So if you met him, you wouldn't have to say Bond, James Bond. No, I'd be like,

[01:41:56] I know who you are. Right. We watched... I'd never seen the Roger Moore, James Bond movies, which are mostly like the 70s into the 80s ones. And we watched them for the podcast last year. Very silly. Maybe a little more Karen. Those are the silliest.

[01:42:11] Reaction shots from animals. Oh. Not to spoil, but there is a moment where a pigeon sees James Bond doing something wild and does a double take. That's so fun. Yeah, and that's in a film about a British secret agent who, you know, assassinates people.

[01:42:24] And we gotta bring it back. Number five of the box office is New This Week. It's an Oscar nominated film. Kind of not a huge hit. Blood Diamond? It's Blood Diamond. Leonardo DiCaprio. It multiplied well, but it was kind of an underperformer.

[01:42:40] It opens to eight and it makes 57. Not very good. A movie I've still never seen. I assume you have not seen Blood Diamond. No. Very dramatic, very tense. A lot of violence, a lot of sadness. I don't know. Number six, Deja Vu, a full on masterpiece,

[01:42:57] I've always said. Vertigo with two extra acts in a time machine. Sorry, Rear Window, not Vertigo. Sure. Number seven, Unaccompanied Minors. Paul Feig's directorial debut, Now Forgotten. Based on this American Life segment? Starring future heartthrob Tyler James Williams. Is that his name? Chris from Everybody Hates Chris. Really?

[01:43:19] Wait, Mr. Eddie? Yes, exactly. I love Mr. Eddie. I just love that he is fucking doing it. You know what I mean? Like that Chris from Everybody Hates Chris, who I was always like, oh, he's a child star. He was cute on that sitcom.

[01:43:33] It's just like he's a grown up now. He's a romantic lead on a hit sitcom. He's doing great. Such a good actor. He's a really good actor. Yeah. Anyway, love him. Was it on Fallon? I saw him do some late night interview

[01:43:47] where he did his impression of how he can tell when people recognize him which thing they know him from. Yeah, yeah. Okay, I think it was on Fallon. Look, it was a good segment. Would've been better if you'd done a pass on it.

[01:43:59] But he does like the bit everyone does about like, oh, different types of people recognize me from different stuff and I can tell. But he did his impression of just their facial reaction and the difference between someone looking at him who watches Abba Elementary,

[01:44:14] who knew him as a kid and Everybody Hates Chris or who saw him die in The Walking Dead. And it was really fun. Oh, I forgot he was also in The Walking Dead. Yeah. I've really been with him from the beginning.

[01:44:22] I watched every episode of Everybody Hates Chris. Yes. Good show. Underrated sitcom. Yeah. Okay. And yeah, that's the nativity story is in the top ten here. A weird flop. That's the sort of very straightforward read to it. It's post Passion of the Christ.

[01:44:38] They were like, let's do that. Literally the nativity story. And it's Oscar Isaac and Keisha Castle Hughes. Correct. Is Oscar Isaac Jesus? He's Joseph. Jesus is played by a baby. Oh, Joseph kind of the original cuck. Yeah, cucked by God. Embarrassing. Brutal.

[01:44:56] Had to really just take that L. Yeah. It's just like I'm pregnant from someone else. Who? The guy over there. No, the Lord. The big man upstairs. Our Lord. Our next door neighbor. Our upstairs neighbor. Guy in the club. We got a bunch of other Christmas movies.

[01:45:18] You've also got a film called Deck the Halls. Which one is that? That's a movie is. Oh, you love it. Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito get caught in a better battle. Chris in their houses. Who can have more lights on their house. Right, right there glows the neighborhood.

[01:45:33] Yes. That was the tagline. That was the kind of we used to as a country, as a nation. Used to make garbage. We used to put 50 million dollars towards Matthew Broderick. I don't know. He has the lights on the house. I'm gonna put more lights on the house.

[01:45:49] It's so bright. My eyes are burned out. Yeah, that's right. I put the lights. That would have to be movie about like the business that invented Christmas lights or whatever. Ryan also played both of them. Number 10. They both be secret Asians. Right. Chris Evans does four cameos.

[01:46:08] They they they number 10 at the box office. Final Christmas film. The Santa Claus 3. The escape clause. The one with Martin Short is Jack Frost. Do you have any feelings on the Santa Claus trilogy, Karen? I know but I love Martin Short.

[01:46:23] I think we would be really good friends. I think if you love Martin Short, you should never ever see the Santa Claus 3, the escape clause. Karen, I agree with you and I agree with David. I think you and Martin Short would get on like a house on fire.

[01:46:36] Yeah, thank you so much. Have you never interacted? He's always on the late night shows. I've never met him before. Oh, you should. I feel like he's also quite small. We would just be like two buds. Oh, you're I suppose you're quite small. I am.

[01:46:48] But he's smaller than me. He's very small. I mean, you've worked with Martin Short. How small are you? How small am I? How small is everybody? I'm five foot six. And you're smaller than you? Yes. Karen, how tall are you? I'm a little over five one.

[01:47:03] So he might be, he might be like my height. Oh, between us. Five four. Okay. Wow. He's got some hair height. Yeah, he does love to stretch the hair. Yeah, especially in the Santa Claus 3 where he plays fucking Jack Frost with icicle hair.

[01:47:15] But Karen, look, I hope the two of you meet and are able to form a happy life together. Thank you. Don't don't watch that movie. Okay. Not a good point. If you're going to do it against him. Okay. Last on the list. Now, have you seen Clifford?

[01:47:28] I was just going to ask. Okay. Now that's a movie you definitely. Why have you seen Clifford the Big Red Dog? Not that one. No? Okay. Clifford the Little Boy. Sorry. I really thought that's what you were talking about. Clifford the Little Rapscallion.

[01:47:41] Clifford is a film that we have covered on this podcast. It's Ben's favorite movie. It's one of, it's not the, but one of. Top tier. In which Martin Short plays a 10 year old boy. How old is he supposed to be? Like eight? Yeah. Yeah, 10 year old boy. Uh-huh.

[01:47:53] But as a grown-up Martin Short and it's not acknowledged in the film that like a grown-up man is playing a 10 year old boy. Drives his uncle crazy. As you can see by the fact that Charles Grodin is holding his head and going, this kid's driving me crazy. Yes.

[01:48:04] Okay. Excellent. No, no dogs. Just his name is Clifford. Is there a dog in the film? Probably not. No. Obviously Grodin wrestles with Beethoven later in life. Right. Right. Okay. Yes. You know Beethoven? Yeah, the dog. Clifford was kind of a dry run for Beethoven in terms

[01:48:21] of the Grodin filmography, right? As far as him interacting with kids and being a grouch. Chaotic. Preacher. Looking like this on a poster. Grease. Yeah, exactly. Always looking like that. Yeah. But check it out. Okay, I will. I will. That was the box office. We're done.

[01:48:40] Yeah, that's the box office. Karen, thank you so much for coming on. People should follow. Well, well, you're on strike right now for your writing jobs. Yes, so sad. Maybe the strike will be over by the time this episode comes out. When does it come out?

[01:48:56] Comes out August 6. I don't know if the strike will be over. God, I hope so. It would be nice if it ended in July with triumphant gains for the writers, obviously. If Sully was a strike captain. He would have done it. Or Aaron Eckhart.

[01:49:09] That's a better version of that joke. Karen, anything you want to plug? Yeah. No. Cool. No? Cool. Easy. What should I? I should plug Kiddo Costco membership. Yes! I love Costco. Ben and I have been trying to plan a Costco run.

[01:49:27] Costco is my favorite place in the world. Yeah. Do you go to the Brooklyn Costco? Listen, I've never been to a Costco in New York before. I was just thinking of my childhood Costco. Well, Karen, if you know, I have a car.

[01:49:37] If you ever want to go to a Costco, because I've never been to a Costco. David, you have never offered to drive me to a Costco. That's because I see plenty of you in my life. Friends for 10 years. It's my favorite place in the fucking world.

[01:49:52] So like live next to Costco. To the one uptown. Yes, I for a number of years moved specifically to be two blocks away from Costco walking distance from Costco. That's the dream. So I could hand cart my way back and forth rather than

[01:50:05] needing to have a friend with a car. Or get a cab or whatever. Yeah. I guess it'd be pretty annoying just be like hail a cab and then be like this pallet of water is going in your car. Yes, it is in fact annoying.

[01:50:15] I've been in that position before. Well, yeah big plugs to Costco. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate review and subscribe. Thank you to Marie Barty for our social media and helping to produce the show. Thank you to AJ McKee and Alex Baron for our editing

[01:50:31] Layne Montgomery. Why am I not able to say that name now? Layne Montgomery. Sure. Layne Montgomery. Layne Montgomery and the Great American Novel. Keep all of that in Ben for a theme song. JJ Burch for our research. Pat Reynolds, Joe Bowen for our artwork.

[01:50:49] Tune in next week for Thirst. Next week is Thirst. We're getting thirsty on Maine. Thirst. Next week. Absolutely. You could go to BlankCheckPod.com for links to some real nerdy shit including our Patreon Blank Check special features where we do commentaries on film series and we're now into

[01:51:08] the oceans, right? We're swimming across those oceans. Of course this is coming out in August when we are covering the Oceans films. Yes. But also soon we will apparently be doing an episode on The Little Drummer Girl. Parked at Yucks. TV miniseries. Yes, which I'm excited to watch.

[01:51:22] Gotta start watching it. Yeah. You can do that and as always reminder that we've got free Patreon membership if you want to sign up. Episodes from three years ago are unlocked every 10 days. Yeah. And as always. Yeah. I'm a podcaster but that's okay. You good Cam?

[01:51:47] Yeah, I think so. I don't have to do anything, right? No, you don't. Okay, great. You don't have to talk the whole time. I'm not gonna talk at all. Yeah, perfect. Yeah.