Thirst with Hoai-Tran Bui

[00:00:21] I don't have faith. I'm not going to podcast. That's one. The taglines for this movie are lusting after sinful pleasures. That's the tagline? And then the other one is, this place is evil. Which you could use that to describe. This podcast is evil. This place is podcast.

[00:01:05] Yeah. This podcast is podcast. Did you know there was also a straight-to-video movie called Thirst starring Lacey Chabert. Chabert? How do you say her name? Chabert? Chabert? Which seems to be about people who are literally thirsty for water. Really? They're like in the desert and they're thirsty.

[00:01:25] It's like Mad Max without cars. Surrender to the unholy oasis. When is this from? It's not about those people who hate drinking water to the point that they become dehydrated and have to go to the hospital. They hated that so much?

[00:01:37] There was a story about this a couple of years ago. I can't remember where I read it, but there was a few prominent people. Who issue water. There was an athlete I think who hates the taste of water so he would only drink Gatorade or something.

[00:01:49] But people who would become dangerously dehydrated because they don't like the taste of water and then would have to go to the ER and get IVs and everything. I'm just going to keep this entirely anonymous. Wow. I was at a wedding.

[00:02:04] They bring around the water pitcher, pour everyone a glass of water. The guy next to me at the table takes out a packet of Crystal Light, pours it into the water. Oh my god.

[00:02:17] I give a glance at his girlfriend. She's like, do you not know this about him? He hates water. So he has to flavor anything. He won't drink water straight. Sugar up some water. He never chooses to drink water and if we're in an environment.

[00:02:30] Do I know who this is? No. Okay. But like if we're in an environment where they're going to preemptively pour water for him, he needs to have like five packets of Crystal Light. Oh my god. Wait, you have to keep that a secret.

[00:02:43] That can't be good for his blood pressure. No, there's no way that's good for you. You need to drink water. Not good for anything. Exactly. What do you mean you hate water? But some people hate water. Some people hate water. David Dunn, Mr. Unbreakable. True. Hates it.

[00:02:59] Remember Bruce Willis in Unbreakable? Yeah. He dies at the hands of water. Dies in a puddle. Yeah. Arguably, the water hates him too. It's a two-way street. The water has a vendetta against him. I think the water's indifferent. I think he just, you know, he meets his match.

[00:03:12] In water. Puddle. You think it was involuntary manslaughter on the water's part? It'd be hard to arrest water. That's the problem. Have you ever read the books, The Three-Body Problem, the series of science fiction books? I have not read them. I know of them.

[00:03:29] I know this could be a Netflix. Well, obviously they've been turned into a very expensive Netflix television show right now. I'm rereading the second one right now, The Dark Forest. Wasn't there also a movie? Hasn't it been adapted a couple of times? There is.

[00:03:40] I think there was a movie maybe, and he also wrote The Wandering Earth, which was a very big hit. Right. Yes. He's got such big ideas, always. And one of the billion ideas in The Dark Forest is that one of the people tasked with defeating

[00:03:56] the aliens, which is what the book is about, comes up with the idea of making people think thoughts, encoding thoughts into their brains that they can't get rid of. Okay. The idea to be to fill them full of zeal, defeating aliens. Yeah.

[00:04:10] But he tests it by making people think that they don't want to drink water. Oh. Wow. Because he's like, can I do something so fundamentally against their biological needs and still have it work? And it does work. So is the villain of this series— There's no villain.

[00:04:24] Well, the villain is far away. The villain is really, though— I'm saying Dasani's not trying to get fucking revenge on this guy. It's one of those books where I could tell you things about the book for a hundred years, and you would be like, that's interesting too.

[00:04:37] And I'm like, yeah, there's more. There's more. I got more ideas. This guy has so many ideas. It's incredible. So many ideas. Yeah. It's a very loose narrative, sort of, but it's a lot of ideas. Interesting. I like them.

[00:04:48] But I can only read like one of them a year. It's too much. Too many ideas for one year. It's too many ideas. It's a lot. Yeah. You know what this is? I don't know. You don't know what this is? It's Blank Check with Griffin Thedon.

[00:05:01] You seriously don't know what this is? Oh, you're right. I do know what this is. We've been doing this for like eight years. I'm Griffin, though. I'm David. That's who we are. It's our podcast. It's about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers

[00:05:14] and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear, and sometimes they leap up the side of a building, baby. This movie is so good. Do you like this movie? I do like this movie. Thank God. Yeah.

[00:05:28] I figured you did. No, I hate this movie, actually. It's happened. We've made that mistake. It's happened. A couple times we've made that mistake, and people will never let us live it down.

[00:05:37] I feel like when people have been asking who we're covering next or people who know that this director won March Madness and was coming up next, this is surprisingly one of the ones I hear people cite the most as a favorite that they're excited for. Absolutely.

[00:05:56] I agree with you. Yes. Yeah. I think it looms larger than I think. I think it looms larger than I think. That doesn't really work if I say I think two times in that sentence. Did you say the name of the miniseries?

[00:06:10] This is a miniseries on the films of Pak Chan-wook. It is called I'm a Podcast, But That's Okay. Today we're talking about his 2009 vampire movie that is, according to Wikipedia, based on Therese Raquin. Therese Raquin. A book that I read in anticipation of this podcast. You did? Really?

[00:06:31] You busted out the Emile Zola? You know what I did? I read a third of this book and then I finished reading the Wikipedia. More than I did. I recently watched the Oscar-winning biopic The Life of Emile Zola because I decided that

[00:06:44] I had to watch every Best Picture winner ever. You finished it. Boring! And he just writes that whole book. You have to watch him in real time. Yeah, he dictates it to someone. It's like the original biopic. He's got mustache and glasses.

[00:06:58] He's like, oh, I have to write a book. That's like Broadway Melody winning basically for inventing the musical. And they were like, we've never thought of it like that. It's not good. Biopic people were just minds blown. Well, is it? How? Well, we'll talk about it.

[00:07:13] You know what? We'll talk about it. We'll talk about how inspired it actually is. I was surprised to see that because the credit does not exist in the credits of the film. Right? Well, actually, I'm not sure. And all the information around it, like the Wikipedia, for example.

[00:07:30] The Wikipedia does cite it, but Wikipedia is a bit... That's the other thing. I own this movie. I'm gonna burn it up right now. We're going to see. Sometimes I find on Wikipedia... They're burning up again.

[00:07:43] If a filmmaker in an interview says, like, I was kind of inspired by this, then someone will say adapted from. Right. It says directed by and then it goes right to the actors. They do credits differently. Sure. OK, what's the name of the movie that we're covering?

[00:07:57] We're talking Thirst. Thirst. Our guest today who read one third of a book, which is one third more than either of us did. You probably rewatched Thirst. I don't know. I think that's a key credit, though. Hoi Chan Bui. I'm sorry. Did I fuck that up?

[00:08:14] Yes, you did. I burped in the middle of it. Hoi Chan Bui. Hoi Chan. It does say inspired by Emile Solis, Theresa Rackham in the credits. OK. Screenplay by Park Chan-wook and Chung Seo-kyung, his usual... I'm sorry if I'm messing those up. His usual collaborator, I feel like.

[00:08:32] Screenplay collaborator. Thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you so much for inviting me. I'm so excited. Thank you for reading a third of a book.

[00:08:41] Yeah, this is my first time on the show and I wanted to make a good impression and do some research. And I did my research a little too late in the game. I started reading the book a day and a half ago. No, but look.

[00:08:51] OK, no, but no, no, no. You don't understand. That's the blank check way. That's Griffin's way especially where Griffin will be like, I want to read this whole novel. The episode's on the books. We're going to record it in about six months.

[00:09:03] And then the day before, I'm like, are you ready? He's like, yeah, I'm just trying to finish this novel. I started it yesterday. I got fucking seven Buster Keaton books on my desk. There you go. I made it through one and a half. That's not bad.

[00:09:17] Yeah, but like six months ago, I was like, I'm going to be airtight. I'm going to be perfect. The Buster Keaton expert. Yes, we have a researcher. For the listeners at home, though, we should just sort of mention Griffin's desk is covered. It's become pretty Griffin-y pretty fast.

[00:09:30] Unsurprisingly, it's got a lot of crap on it. Well, napkins from previous lunch orders. Because you never know when you need another napkin. You never know. And I got two batteries. I have a screwdriver. I have a drawing of Wado that I did. I have a little ectotrap.

[00:09:45] Honestly, this would go on for so long. Ben, here, I'm taking this off. David has a laptop, two or three records. Yeah, that I need to take home. David's favorite toy. Of course, his trusted tape measure. I do have a tape measurer.

[00:10:01] He loves using this in the middle of episodes to... For what reason? Poke people. They put it on my desk and I've just been playing with it. Well, I mean, I left it there, but actually, and then of course you just have some various items from your pockets.

[00:10:14] Well, I have like my wallet and keys and I have a glass for water. And that's what I have, the essentials, like a magnetic floating hoverboard from Back to the Future Part 2, seven Buster Keaton books, my lunch. Thirst. Thirst. Did you see this movie when it came out?

[00:10:33] What is your... Yes, what's your history with this filmmaker? My history of this filmmaker is like many Asian Americans growing up in the 2000s. I watched most of his movies illegally. Shout out to all of those former KissAsian123 website goers. Wait, please. Sorry, KissAsian123? Yeah, KissAsian123.com.

[00:10:56] I don't know if it exists anymore. Also, don't go there. My computer's on fire. It seems like it can't be reached. But yeah, I watched a lot of his movies really in a really grainy, really ripped from the right from the theater type of way.

[00:11:11] And I think it was recently I went to see not this filmmaker, but I saw the host at Metrograph and I was like, wow, it's so weird seeing this in total clarity. Excellent quality. But Thirst specifically, I actually had not seen until last year.

[00:11:29] So this is a really recent movie for me and I was just kind of catching up on Park Chan-wook's filmography. I had seen, you know, The Standards, Old Boy, The Handmaiden when that came out.

[00:11:40] But I'm actually and I love Decision to Leave last year, but I'm actually not fully caught up with his entire filmography. So Thirst is one of the ones that I was like, I have seen this and I really, really like this movie.

[00:11:52] So I would definitely be excited to talk about it. Cool. I feel like this one got a slightly wider release in the US.

[00:11:59] But like I mean Old Boy and The Host are two movies that I think of as and we've talked about this a lot in this series. But like reading breathless reviews of these movies online and then waiting two years for it to come out in the United States.

[00:12:11] Like by the time it was finally playing at one theater in New York, I felt like I'd been hearing about it forever. Is this came out literally like it was at the it was at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. So that's May 2009, came out in America in July 2009.

[00:12:30] Right. This is the point where I think his reputation was big enough here that his movie sort of just got proper releases right away. And I think, yeah, maybe it might be the first example of that because I'm a Cyborg basically did not come out in America.

[00:12:42] Right. And the Vengeance movies we went over all pretty much strategy of those. Yeah. Same year. Right. And Old Boy was the only one that was kind of given any real shine in theaters.

[00:12:53] Yeah. So yes, this is this is yes. This is the beginning I feel like of him being taken presented a little more seriously to Western audiences. But also this movie is a two hour 15 minute sex vampire virus romance.

[00:13:09] Lots of blood. Yeah. And like, yeah, exactly. Magic and religion. And I love this movie. I think it might be your favorite. My favorite. Wow. One. But I need to rewatch The Handmaiden. Yeah. That's given away my rankings now.

[00:13:27] But I do think I remember in 2009 the review was which is often the review of his films. The review was like, that's a lot of movie. Oh, I don't know. It's not for everyone. He's ever made a little movie. No, not really. Yeah.

[00:13:39] Like honestly, Decision to Leave felt like his most restrained movie in a lot of ways, even though it's like very visually busy, you know, all the same.

[00:13:47] And structurally pretty dense. Yes. And complicated. Also a lot of movie. A movie that drops you in the middle of another movie. Right. Right. I think, you know, like a he's certainly a filmmaker we've talked about who was really buoyed by peak DVD era. Right.

[00:14:07] And I think Oldboy and the rest of the Vengeance trilogy just very quickly, like growing in the couple of years after they were released when they certainly suddenly were available at blockbusters and such.

[00:14:17] Right. So also because now Oldboy is not watchable in the States as it's about to be re-released. They sort of pulled it from everything and people are complaining about that. They haven't been able to watch Oldboy in preparation for our episode.

[00:14:32] Mind that that was like a perennial early Netflix streaming movie. Like it felt like that was from the moment Netflix started streaming always up there. But so those movies very quickly gain a much bigger following here in the States after their theatrical release.

[00:14:47] And then also this movie is coming out the year after the first Twilight movie. I do feel there's a lot of vampire in the air. That's fair.

[00:14:54] There's a lot of vampire in the air. And I do think there was a pretty quick people being like, can I make the art house vampire movie?

[00:15:01] You know, I think like Jarmusch talks about only lovers left alive, being like, you can get a vampire movie sold right now. You know? Yeah. Get a couple of movie stars, save their vampires. Doesn't matter how weird your movie is. People were buying that at that time.

[00:15:16] What's your favorite vampire movie? My favorite vampire movie? I don't know what my answer is. What is my answer? There's a lot of vampire movies. Guillermo del Toro's Cronos. Great movie. I love that movie. I haven't seen that movie in years.

[00:15:31] That's my artsy answer. My other answer, which first came to mind was What We Do in the Shadows. Which I love. That's an incredibly charming movie. It's very funny. Got turned into a TV show. I don't know if you know that. It's also fun.

[00:15:44] I do forget about it though, yes. My answer is Hotel Transylvania. One? I think the one is still my favorite. That's not actually your answer. No, I'm trying to think what my actual answer is. Nosferatu. I do like vampire movies. Me too. Vampire movies are my favorite. Nosferatu.

[00:16:03] I loved when I was a pretentious teenager Guy Madden's Dracula. Pages from Reverse. I like anything with vampires. I like Blood for Dracula a lot. That's a very enjoyable movie. Unfortunately, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a very formative part of my growing up. 100%. Blade 1. Blade 2. Blade 3.

[00:16:30] Maybe not Blade 3. You haven't seen that one in a while. You cannot say that Blade Trinity is your third favorite vampire movie. We'll accept the first two. Blade 2 does rule. Blade 1 is pretty fun. Have you watched original Bela Lugosi Dracula recently?

[00:16:47] I saw it in a theater with a friend of the pod, Karen Hahn, maybe like four or five years ago with the Metrograph. I watched it recently too and it's fantastic. It rules. Good Bad Boyfriend movie. Oh, the dramatic lighting, the eyes, the just everything Bela Lugosi does.

[00:17:08] Fantastic. My take on this, I know I think Jamel, our friend Jamel Buie, did a sort of universal Monsters Rewatch in October and hadn't seen that one before and was tweeting through it. It is very front loaded. Like the first 20 to 30 minutes of that thing are fucking unbelievable.

[00:17:27] We were like, well, I'm watching the greatest movie ever made. And it's the best performance you've ever seen. And then the stuff when he goes to London is, it drops off a bit. It's all still fun. You definitely are the most into, you're visiting Dracula at his castle.

[00:17:41] He's going like... Yes, and like Renfield getting converted, all that shit. All the little creatures of the night. The thing is when I saw it, I saw it without a score because it doesn't have a score.

[00:17:53] It's a sound movie with no score because it was like right at the... It's only at the opening. Right. Well, it's got like an overture, but there's no music. And so there's these scenes of like someone walking up the stairs

[00:18:04] and him walking behind her with no music, which is so odd. But fun and unusual. But then of course there are scores that people have written. Like Philip Glass wrote a score. And I've always wanted to see how it feels with a score.

[00:18:17] Yeah. This movie he was sort of generating before Oldboy was offered to him? Yes. Okay. All right. All right. Crack open the dossier. Yes. This is the longest gestating park project for sure. He says it goes back to his childhood memories. In the Catholic church, the priest...

[00:18:37] This is his quote. A priest drinks red wine as a symbol for the blood of Christ. And this always reminded me of vampirism. I actually wonder why no one thought of that before. Yeah, I agree. That's how he feels about it. This project was initially called Evil Live.

[00:18:54] And he says during making Joint Security Area, he first thought about sort of whatever, the broader concept of this movie. Then when he's making I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay, which is his prior film to this, he wrote down... He did a couple of images.

[00:19:10] One was the birthday cake scene where he turns her into a vampire. And then the other was him being turned into a vampire at the beginning, the main character. He was like, a protagonist will be a priest turned vampire

[00:19:23] and he will eventually turn someone else into a vampire. Everything else he had to figure out. That's a good starting point. When does he figure that out? Is this sort of like just in his mind only as that? No, okay. He was making a short film called Cut.

[00:19:37] Have you ever seen this? I have not. I have not seen this one. I assume none of us have seen this. There's an omnibus film called Three Extremes. Yes. He's contributed a lot of shorts to these kinds of projects over the years. He was making Cut.

[00:19:50] And I guess that has a female vampire character with silver teeth. Cool. False teeth, which she uses to punch holes in the victim to get their blood. She doesn't have fangs, but she has these fake teeth that she puts in. Smart.

[00:20:06] That sort of starts the ball rolling for him again. And then he picks up Emile Zola's Therese Racken and that, for whatever reason, is what he decides to fuse onto this story and it becomes Thirst. He'd been planning Thirst for about 10 years

[00:20:23] and then he came across the book. He liked that the book was not romantic or sentimental, which was the approach he wanted to take with Thirst. So let's talk, we need to talk about Therese Racken. I think the stuff that he's taking from the book is like

[00:20:36] the mother, right? And all that stuff. Well, as someone who read one third of Therese Racken, he actually took quite a bit from this book to the point that I was quite surprised because it's not just the mother, it's the whole setup of how the affair starts

[00:20:51] and sort of with the wife and this repressed woman who is stuck in a loveless marriage and starts an affair with a friend of her husband. Right. And then they end up starting this torrid affair ends up ending in murder.

[00:21:09] So it actually is quite similar to the book and even has some, like, in addition to the broader beats, even has some scenes that are basically written right out of the book. Like the scene where, if I'm allowed to go into spoilers. You can't. Please, spoil away.

[00:21:24] He's a vampire, by the way. That's the biggest spoiler. Oh, the scene where they first have, they first start the affair and she kind of breaks into this confessional of all of her pent up feelings and her hatred for her husband or hatred for her mother-in-law

[00:21:40] that kind of comes spilling out as they're like in the throes of intimacy and passion that is from the book itself and that is also, you know, very much basically straight, then straight in the movie. Wasn't there a recent English language, Tyrius Rekha, direct adaptation?

[00:21:59] Was it the Oscar Isaac? Yes, it was called In Secret. Great title. And it starred Oscar Isaac and Elizabeth Olsen and then Jessica Lange as the mother, the domineering aunt or mother or whatever. Let me guess, Jason Clarke is the husband? Weirdly, Hollywood's number one cuck, Jason Clarke.

[00:22:23] It's a recurring discussion on the show. But he has been cheated on many times in film. He has, it's true. It almost feels like a contractual requirement. Did not get that role. It went to instead Draco Malfoy himself, Tom Felton. You know what?

[00:22:36] He's got, he could, if Jason Clarke doesn't watch his back. He has to change his name to Jason Cuck, that's why. He could. He tried. Do you like Felton? I do like Felton. I'm sort of pro Felton. I am pro Felton.

[00:22:54] I'm not like, I wasn't one of the falling over, swooning over Draco kind of person, but I'm fond of him. He came off very well in that documentary retrospective thing. He was just well, you know, centered, I guess. Yes, not an asshole.

[00:23:07] I remember his short stint on the CW's The Flash, and I enjoyed him in that. Who did he play? Alchemy. Dr. Alchemy. He was a newcomer to Star Labs and sort of a foil and foe to Barry Allen. I think I may, my wife was definitely still watching

[00:23:25] The Flash when he was on it. I remember seeing him on The Flash. He also did, he's in one of the Planet of the Apes. Is he the first one? He's the bad guy. He played a great jerk in that. Yes, he's a jerk in that.

[00:23:40] I remember he's a jerk in Belle. Remember Belle? Oh, the goo goo? You know how Belle, you know, like, People are mean to her. Right, some people are like, well, Belle, I accept you, even though this is unusual. And he's like, well, I don't accept you! Absolutely not!

[00:23:58] I do imagine it must be, I mean, I think he's talked about that he had a serious drinking issue for a while. He kind of hit a wall for a bit there and took a couple years off of acting.

[00:24:08] I do think it must be tough to be like, you're always going to be seen as sort of like a sniveling asshole. Like, Draco Malfoy, you just did it for ten years. Rich kid, teen jerk. People watch you age into doing it, even though that character essentially

[00:24:23] kind of redeems himself by the end. He sacrificed his hairline to that bleach blonde hair. He did. To ruin his hair. And I'm just like dumping that stuff in his hair. Peroxide. But like all the parts we're listing, even though we're like, he's good, he's always good,

[00:24:38] you're like, he always is playing stuff that's kind of Draco adjacent. That must be frustrating. I still remember, I think it's in Azkaban, the movie where he suddenly, you know, in the first two movies he has like this sort of slick back hair. He's a little twerp.

[00:24:54] Then in the third movie I feel like when you're seeing a movie, the trailer plays, you see him, he's like blowing like a little paper animal into the sea. He's got this like, and she's just like, like the fact that they were fucking with things

[00:25:10] and making people look a little more like contemporary teen was so shocking to us. We were like, Draco. People were so fucking angry when that movie came out and they were like, they're wearing like jeans. Right, they wear jeans in that movie.

[00:25:24] They're wearing sweaters and jeans and shit. They spend half the movie, Hermione's just like in a hoodie. Right, and it's like you wouldn't wear your uniform when you're fucking traping through the woods. You don't need to. On an illegal mission. And like their uniforms are like robes.

[00:25:40] You need to be able to move. That movie's good. Azkaban, very good, yes. The best Harry Potter movie. Unquestionably in my mind. I think six is the best, but I think Azkaban's the second best. I think Harry Potter aside from Dobby, he had never watched any of them

[00:25:58] until like two years ago and then is only into Dobby. But Dobby's only in like two of the movies. Well those are the two that I like. Because he's in more of the books but I feel like they were just kind of like

[00:26:10] let's not bother with Dobby on this one. Do you like Dobby better pre-makeover or post-makeover? Like after he loses all his wrinkles, gets some Botox? Well, don't make me decide because you love all Dobby. I love all Dobby all the time. I love all Dobby.

[00:26:26] I love all Dobby. But I think in Harry Potter where you're just like she didn't know what she was fucking doing. He has unlimited powers. He's like very, very powerful. But they're like, oh but you know how self magic is sort of restricted.

[00:26:42] And he likes to wear a pillowcase so that means he's a weird little guy. Right. And then you're just like this guy can just do anything. He's popping around all the time. Oh crap. Imagine if Robert Pattinson was covered in boils and stuff.

[00:26:58] Pin in that. We'll get back to that. Oh, Robert Pattinson's going to hear this and he's going to be like hmm, interesting. I need to actually get boils. Robert Pattinson's very active on our subreddit. He's not. But what was I thinking? No, Stephanie Meyer,

[00:27:14] obviously that was someone who wasn't really thinking about like she's just writing all this shit. Oh, like how her world works. Right. And it's like the obvious thing you throw at it. And then with like 20 years distance like basically all the same criticisms could apply here.

[00:27:26] Even if she did it more elegantly. She throws time travel into the third one. Yeah. I mean, whatever. We don't need to. She's done a lot of bad things. Where? All right. So Therese Rackhan, he felt reading this book rather initially, Director Park's notion of like Sang-hyun,

[00:27:45] who's the main character, would have this moment where he caught himself in the mirror seeing what he was doing as he's like, you know, descending into vampiric madness. And that would be this like sort of shocking moment for him. And then he was like,

[00:27:57] what if it's a person who's the mirror? Like, what if it's this mom, like you sort of semi-comatose or whatever, petrified basically. And like she's sort of like watching everything that happens even though she can't do anything. And that becomes the sort of like thing they can't escape.

[00:28:16] The, you know, the terrible guilt. Yeah. You were saying the mom dynamic is similar in the book. Does she similarly like, does she have a stroke? Is she frozen in the same kind of way? Yes. It's actually very similar. She has a stroke. She's paralyzed.

[00:28:31] They take care of her. But then as they're arguing during the falling out, her eyes move. I think her eyes move. She learns of the murder of her son that they committed. And then it's their guilt also drives them mad. It's the same. It's pretty similar, actually.

[00:28:46] I think they hallucinate his body in various places. I was about to say, does it have a scene where they have sex and his wet body is between them going like, ah! Don't mind me. Yeah. It's quite similar. And they also drowned him.

[00:29:00] I think the drowning in the book actually is much more practical than the one that they do in the movie where they're like, well, let's go fishing at 9 p.m. Right. Of course, they have superpowers in this movie too. Right. This and Handmaiden are both him,

[00:29:14] adapting books from different cultures and putting a lot of different stuff onto the bones of it. Right. Which more people should do in terms of adaptation of like... Yeah, but like most people aren't as talented as this guy. Right. Or boring.

[00:29:27] I also think it's really interesting that they're both English novels. And they're both very extremely English. And he finds some commonality with that and Korean cultural history in some way. Right. And I think that's fascinating in that sort of cultural exchange. Yeah. And I also think, on reflection,

[00:29:46] that it's funny that he took a very realistic book, essentially. Sure. It's like a psychological thriller. Vampire film. He's like, this is good, but what if it had vampires? He says it's fortunate that Amilzola passed away 100 years ago because he might have had some notes otherwise.

[00:30:04] But anyway, he starts writing the screenplay now that he has this. He starts writing it with his co-writer. And then he thinks, like, is this going to be too bleak? Is this not going to be funny? He's then surprised when he makes the movie a few years later.

[00:30:21] And he's like, I think it's the funniest thing I've ever made. Which is sort of... You know, arguably, I'm a Cyborg is more nakedly funny. But that's actually honestly more of sort of a sweet movie. Yeah. This movie is kind of absurd and funny and heightened.

[00:30:37] I want to say several times during my notes when I was doing my rewatch, I said, this is a comedy. It definitely is. Yes. It's a very, very sort of gonzo comedy, really. Especially during the corpse sex scene. Especially during all the corpse sex

[00:30:55] and all the inexplicable wetness. I love that. That's one of my favorite sort of weird reality breaking into fantasy things that he does. Anyway, the main character, he says, you find comedy and humor looking at the perspective of the protagonist.

[00:31:10] He can't let go, he's trying to hold on to his faith and his newfound identity as a vampire. It's a desperate struggle to hold on to these two ideas which are mutually exclusive. In this struggle, you can see funny things take place.

[00:31:21] So it can be said that the audience that laughs the most watching this film are the ones who understand the tragedy of the character the most. He's always just very profound. Yes. And so he did like horror movies as a young man. He says, when I was poor,

[00:31:38] I would watch a lot of horror movies on like an old small TV. These things, I scare very easily. He's like, I can't actually handle a real horror movie. I need to watch it as like a shitty EHS tape to not be scared of it. Oh wow.

[00:31:52] I bet he would watch it on kissasian123.com. Probably would. Probably loved Kiss Asian 123. That's wild for someone whose films are so bloody though. Although I guess there are other examples of that where you hear that... Of like horror directors who are fraidy cats.

[00:32:06] And you see the process going into it being phony baloney. Yeah. His concept of vampirism, he basically made it like a disease. He wanted to take a fairly realistic approach. So no fangs, no bats, right? No hunchback servants or fear of garlic or the stake through the heart

[00:32:27] or any of that stuff. That's all gone. So basically I feel like it gets boiled down to thirst for blood. Mm hmm. Power, can jump and shove. Yes. Jump shove powers. Can't be in sun. He can punch a streetlamp and run away

[00:32:46] in one of the funniest scenes of the movie. Yeah. But that's basically it, right? Like it's fairly stripped down, this form of vampirism. Yeah. I guess he doesn't have heightened senses although there's the effect that's so great of him basically seeing people's veins. That is cool.

[00:33:04] He doesn't have the heightened sense when he first turns vampire because he wakes up from passing out and he can hear things on the floor below. Oh, right. And you can see the little bacteria on his skin and that kind of stuff.

[00:33:18] That shot of just the camera panning over and you seeing like his back basically roasting. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I also think this is a funny quote where he's like he can't have a fear of the cross because he's a Catholic priest. So that wouldn't make sense.

[00:33:32] And then he's like and also in Korea it has garlic in it. They put garlic in everything in Korea so if you're scared of garlic there's not a drop of blood you can feed on in Korea. It's kind of a funny gag.

[00:33:44] If someone's eaten garlic in vampire lore can you not drink their blood? I think it makes them sick, right? Yeah, maybe like a little garlic could be bad. I think when I read Bram Stoker's Dracula it was just like he didn't like garlic

[00:33:56] but it didn't make him like, you know, it didn't totally fend him off. It was just like this stinks. I know vampires hate garlic. I haven't even considered it. If a vampire was about to eat me and I was like man, I cook with a lot of garlic.

[00:34:10] That's my question. Because usually it's like fucking Van Helsing throwing a whole clove of garlic in his face or whatever. Right. If you want to keep vampires away do you just need to take garlic supplements four times a day? Do you? I don't know. That's what I'm asking.

[00:34:26] They probably won't find out until after though is the problem. You shake the bottle. Yes. You have to walk around with a sign saying I'm a vampire. Director Parks favorite vampire movies. Nosferatu. Heard of that one? Martin, the George Martin, George Romero movie. I've never seen People Love.

[00:34:46] I have never seen either and I would love to see. I think it's about to be re-released, restored. Makes sense. Yes. I think just got restored. Available if you want it. There was a director's cut with like an extra hour

[00:35:00] that was lost forever and I think they just recently found it. That's cool. I like the movie The Unstable Farrar, which is one of my favorite movies of the 90s. You ever seen that? No. Lily Taylor. It's a whole AIDS metaphor, early 90s. Very, very cool movie.

[00:35:15] I'm seeing here it said I'm more of an HT2 guy. That's his favorite because I like hard jokes. Right. Heavier on the jokes. But yes, he didn't want to do the classic stuff. He does think The Addiction is probably the closest line you could draw.

[00:35:28] Similarly, quote unquote realistic movie. Like set in our world. Yes. And the title basically boils down to she wants to suck your butt. That's like the main thing. That is explicitly a vampire movie? Yes. But it's not. Look at you. That also recently got restored.

[00:35:50] There's an arrow of it that I bought. Really good. He also loves everyone's favorite movie Possession. Yeah. You know, the movie that no one knew about until five years ago and then suddenly everyone on Twitter watched at the same time and everyone's like, oh, I've seen it.

[00:36:06] It's a very good movie. I guess I didn't consider it a vampire movie. No, he's more like the sort of aesthetics of that. Oh, I see. The bloodiness, like all of that. But no, that's not a vampire movie per se. This is just one of his influences. Gotcha.

[00:36:20] Yes. He does like that film. It is a great film. I don't mean to be snarky. It's just kind of funny how everyone watched it. I'm sorry. That's how I learned about it too. Exactly. Me too. We're all the same.

[00:36:34] I was like, oh, I'm going to watch it. And then I went, why? I said, why? Yeah. I was like, I don't know. Everyone talks about it on Twitter. I should go see. Right. It was a famous video, Nasty. That one.

[00:36:50] Right. It was out of circulation for a very long time. And then it came back and then it was like, fuck. Banned in many countries. Right. It is not a chill movie. No. It was banned for a while. He also likes Ingmar Bergman's Thirst. Okay. Mostly coincidental.

[00:37:10] And he likes Cronenberg movies. Sure. So do I. Okay. So, yes, he was raised in a Catholic family. Mm-hmm. And so he does think that's a little bit of, you know, whatever. Why this idea sort of is transfixing to him.

[00:37:26] Because the character is not a priest in the novel? No. The character isn't the same in the novel at all. It's just some sort of priest. Some random hedonist that he gets into an affair with. Yeah, he's a hedonist. Not a priest at all. Right. He's a hedonist.

[00:37:42] Yeah. He's just some guy who wants to live an idle life, as they describe many times. Right. Because Therese is the—that's the lady. That's the lady. She's the protagonist. And Camille. Camille is her husband. Is her husband. And then Laurent is— He's no good.

[00:38:04] And at the end of Therese's they kill themselves, essentially. And the novel has the same ending, right? They sort of take a final embrace and kill themselves. Exactly. They— The mother-in-law at the same time. Yeah. So basically the guilt from killing Camille, her husband, drives them mad.

[00:38:20] And then they decide to finally commit suicide together. And the mother, I think, just left to her own devices, knowing all of that went—that happened. Yeah. But the fact that she's always there means they can never escape the guilt of what they did.

[00:38:34] And if she can't, like, you know— She's the flesh and blood specter. Such a good idea. And Camille's all— So this film was co-financed by Universal Pictures. Right. Mostly done by CJ Entertainment, the big Korean company. But that was a pretty big deal.

[00:38:53] It was one of the first—it was the first ever Korean film to lend U.S. distribution before its local premiere in Korea. Wow. Okay. So obviously it only made like $300,000 in America. But still, that's not nothing for a movie this audacious, I would say. No. In 2009.

[00:39:15] That's why—Oldboy made about—I forget what we said in that episode. But similarly, I think they just knew these movies exploded on home video. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oldboy made like $700,000. The other two made—the other two Vengeance movies made next to nothing. Right.

[00:39:31] But this movie was a big hit in Korea. Yeah. It talked about in the sympathy for Mr. Vengeance episode, I think, how—I think one of director Park's strengths is getting into scenes late and getting out of them early.

[00:39:48] That sort of like disorientation, but also sort of just like dropping you into the most interesting part of the scene without the shoe leather. Right. And just leaving you with a sense of ambiguity and not immediately filling you in on the space between sequences. Right.

[00:40:03] There's just something to—especially since it is—his creation is not anything from the novel that he's taking. The introduction to this character of like here is this entirely respected man of the cloth who just kind of is filled with like deep ennui and unhappiness, right?

[00:40:19] This guy who like everyone else looks to for balance who's just like, I don't know what the fuck am I doing? You know? And like a lot of other movies would be about this guy's downward spiral triggered by something. Sure.

[00:40:32] And you basically just start at the point where he's like, I don't know, just fucking inject the virus into me. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. You know? Like minute five he's getting injected.

[00:40:39] And he never actually acknowledges the fact that he has some sort of existential crisis or problem. No. Like he—I think during the interview with the experimenter who asks, are you doing this for martyrdom or for suicide? And he says, my prayers work fine. Right.

[00:40:55] And it's obvious that he's in some sort of denial about all of this. Yeah. Yeah. And there's no clear catalyst for it. We don't know how long this has been going on with him.

[00:41:02] Right. And we also there's like this made up virus in this world that needs to be cured and he's ostensibly, you know, looking for, you know, he's a test for that.

[00:41:12] But there's that scene early on where he's taking confession with this woman and he's just like, I don't fucking know. None of this matters. You know? He's like very dismissive to everything she has to say.

[00:41:23] Also she kind of scolds him in that scene, doesn't she? He says something like, turn to science. Get some antidepressants. And she's like, worry about matters of the spirit. Don't worry about matters of the earth or something. Right. I didn't come to a priest for that advice essentially.

[00:41:38] Sang Kyung-ho is so good at that though. Yes. At the ennui. Yes. At the weight of the world being on him.

[00:41:45] He would over explain, I think, why he chooses to take the virus. Right? And even just the idea of yes, he's presenting it as some act of nobility. This guy can't even really pretend that's what's going on here. What's the virus called? The Emmanuel virus. Yes.

[00:42:06] Which I guess like makes you break out in weird blisters. You start puking blood. Not good.

[00:42:16] This is, you already brought up what we do in the shadows. This movie reminds me of that a lot in terms of how obsessed it is with just the inconveniences of being a vampire. Right. You know, just like the petty existence of it.

[00:42:33] True pain in the ass. Especially if you're a vampire who's not going to just like wantonly murder. Because if he doesn't drink then he will die because the EV will return. Right. The blood keeps it at bay. This is the sort of like pseudo scientific form of vampirism.

[00:42:49] He also heals. That's the other thing. Yes. Because there's the whole thing where he's cutting his wrist and then it heals up before he can get the blood. Right. He can let the lead clergyman touch his heart inside his chest. Right. Yeah. Anyway, so, okay.

[00:43:05] Catholic priest, kind of whatever, on the outs with his job. Kind of on the outs with life. On the outs with life. Gets this injection, becomes somewhat of a miracle man. People want to spend time with him now because he survived the virus. Yes.

[00:43:23] And he's already a priest so people are like you must be, you know, imbued with miracle powers or whatever. Which I think seems frustrating to him. You get the sense he just was hoping he could die and be relieved of all this.

[00:43:36] And instead it's like not only do you have to keep living but everyone now looks to you even more for guidance. For like magic. People want him to solve all the world's problems now.

[00:43:47] I love this early section where he's got like the invisible man look with his bandaged head and hands. Yes. That's what I thought too. And just the tufts of hair poking out.

[00:43:56] I was going to say, kind of going back to what his wishes were, there's that scene where he has come down with EV and he's in his room.

[00:44:02] He's writing a letter. I don't even know who to, but saying like, oh, I have the nicest hotel, like room in this hotel. It's because they said I was handsome and I have a nice tan.

[00:44:12] And he like picks at his nail and it comes off and his boils all over his face and he's playing his flute and he just throws up all over his face. Oh yes. The blood starts pouring out. Yes. That is very, very good. Very gross. Very inventive.

[00:44:25] It's great. It's just like he's really happy dying away. Yeah. I think he is. Yeah. Kind of what he wants, I guess. You're watching this movie, I feel like you got guys in robes, you got priests, you got blood viruses.

[00:44:41] You're definitely not thinking like this is going to turn into like a whole, you know, love triangle sex murder thing. Right? Like you don't see this being a romance. Vampire Priest is already kind of, it's already thematically rich.

[00:44:54] It's already thematically rich. It's like, you know, cause the priest is the sign of chastity and spiritual, like higher power. And then the vampire itself is a representation of all of the, of, you know, lust and temptation.

[00:45:09] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, there are much better studies done of sort of like the primal roots of all the classic monster archetypes. But vampires are like always about sex. They're always about sex and power and control. And the sexy other. Yes. Yes. Bad boyfriend. Bad boyfriend?

[00:45:28] Bad boyfriend. I just think a lot of movies like Dracula are about like what if your daughter, whatever, you know, lover, wife had a bad boyfriend. Right. And a lot of movies like the Twilight Saga are about what if your daughter had the best boyfriend of all time.

[00:45:44] But he was a good boyfriend because she was like, I can't fuck you. I'll kill you. He's a good boyfriend who doesn't want to be a bad boyfriend. But he's so afraid of being a bad boyfriend. Don't get near me. You smell crazy.

[00:45:54] The thing that makes him a good boyfriend is that he understands that he's evil. That is sort of the thesis of the Twilight movies. But like, especially with Dracula, like the whole notion of like, come to my castle. Yeah. I'll make you dinner. Yes.

[00:46:06] I've got candles. You know, all that. You're going to say I've got candy because I thought that would be better. I've got candy. Yes. Trick or treat. Sour Patch Kids plus the watermelon one. Some people like those better. Some people like those better.

[00:46:20] But not the fun size, the full bars. That's a lot of nougat. No, just, you know, like the way Dracula lays on airs and he's so seductive. Yes. Yes. But Vampire Boys is about seduction and ceding control to someone else, someone having power over you, you know?

[00:46:37] And no longer having control of your own body. Yes. Because of the other person or because of the effect it has on you, having these desires that you can't control and all that sort of stuff. And then there's the very literal metaphor of bloodlust.

[00:46:54] Yes. Absolutely. You cannot, you must have blood. Yeah. You cannot be controlled. You can't be held accountable for your actions.

[00:47:02] But this is a guy who almost seems to have resentment that anyone looks up to him, takes him seriously, turns to him for guidance, that he holds any power in the community, right? He's basically just like, let me fucking die. Let me rot away.

[00:47:15] Is thrilled when he's dying, hates when he gets better. And then I think seems almost most depressed in this era where everyone thinks he's a miracle man. Yes, of course. Before he's really identified what's going on inside him internally. Right, because he didn't even do anything. No.

[00:47:31] He just like didn't die. And now there's more expectations placed on him, more responsibility placed on him. He wants to disappear and be invisible, invisible man.

[00:47:39] Which is why I think he connects so deeply and violently to Teju, who is considered invisible within her own family and by her own mother-in-law and by her own husband.

[00:47:53] Right. So when he's making the rounds at hospitals, he runs into this one patient who turns out as a childhood friend of his. Right. Who recognized him. Does he still have the bandages on at this point? He does not. Okay.

[00:48:06] And invites him over for their weekly Mahjong game he does with his mother, his wife, his friends. Mm hmm. And very quickly, yes, I think he's drawn to her as almost like that's maybe where he wants to be. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:48:27] He seems like uncomfortable with the amount of power he has in his life. Right. And there's a certain degree to which like she is someone he actually wants to help versus everyone else. He's like, fuck. Right. Don't talk to me. Well, so they're a family. Yeah.

[00:48:41] It's ostensibly sort of a warm environment. They're playing Mahjong. Right. Like it's like it's a colorful in there kind of. Well, that's this environment as whole.

[00:48:48] But why he's so immediately kind of latched onto her is like her life has like an order and a structure to it that is perhaps not what she would choose.

[00:49:01] But it's like she actually does have everyone just expects that he can do anything, can roam around, has kind of complete freedom and control in his life. And to a certain degree, I think he envies the fact that she is kind of kept.

[00:49:15] That she has no expectations for her. She has no expectations. And she's just sort of resigned to what she is told to do around her. Because the more leeway this guy is given, the more upset he seems, the more depressed he seems, the more suicidal he seems.

[00:49:29] Hey, I don't mean to speak ill of priests. Huh? But I do feel like you might crave order. Sure. Rules. A way to go about your day. Someone telling you what to do.

[00:49:40] Yeah. Like and, you know, being unable to stray outside. And priests never obviously stray outside of their rules or anything like that or never behave badly. No, never. But I just mean like the structure of religion, I think can be comforting for people.

[00:49:51] This seems like a guy who perhaps pursued theology looking for that order and control and purpose in his life and then got to the top of the mountain and kind of feels like maybe I don't believe in any of this. This is not giving me any answers.

[00:50:02] There's an interesting line at the beginning of the movie where the blind priest tells him he told him to go to medical school, but then he pursued priesthood instead, I think.

[00:50:11] Which I think is an interesting character trait that they don't really follow up on, but I think also kind of lends to his whole weird crisis that he's going through too.

[00:50:21] Like he wanted to be a man of medicine and maybe a man of the earth, but then he turned to be a man of cloth instead. And then now he's kind of in that in between too. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. I think that's a good point. Yeah.

[00:50:33] Someone just sent me a real estate listing for a three screen colonial theater in Maine. Who sent this to you? Some random. What's like a listener of the podcast? Twitter. Okay. Should we buy it? Well, that's a big question. Oh, that looks cool.

[00:50:49] This looks great. It's in Maine? Where in Maine? Belfast, Maine. Sounds like real Stephen King country, doesn't it? What it costs is probably the big question there in terms of whether or not we should buy it. $1.3 million. I don't think we should buy it. No. Yeah.

[00:51:04] Damn it. It just looks so nice. It does. I agree. It's not close. Yeah. I can't see it being convenient. It's pretty far. You can summer there. Yeah. Yeah. You could summer. They're vacation land, famous. It's an eight hour drive from New York.

[00:51:18] You and I have talked about this. So we could do like an 8 p.m. screening and be like, leave at lunchtime. Exactly. You'll be here in time for the movie. You and I have talked about that's like our one absurd rich person dream.

[00:51:29] Sure to own a theater and do whatever you want with it. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be pretty cool. Maybe just not in Belfast, Maine. They have a bus stop? A single bus stop? They won? How long is the bus ride? Ten hours? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. About 10, 12 hours.

[00:51:47] I think we're going to buy this theater. You're going to buy the fucking... What's it called? Um... Great question. David, here's all I'm going to say. If I find out you bought this theater, I demand we crack open the books of blank check finances.

[00:52:02] Because if you suddenly have the liquidity to buy this fucking movie theater for over a million dollars... What would be the inaugural film that you would show at this theater? Incredible question. And I don't know the answer. Um... Ponyo probably. My favorite movies, right? Sure. Master and Commander.

[00:52:20] What's the first movie you ever covered on this podcast? Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace. So it's going to be Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace. Hey, Disney, I got a proposition for you. It's called The Colonial.

[00:52:32] Okay. The original bit of the show is that we only covered The Phantom Menace. And we thought we were going to do that forever. So I think if we bought a theater, we'd have to just only play Phantom Menace for four months.

[00:52:42] And then be like, never mind, we're actually going to branch out as a theater. We'd actually make some money if we did that. We would. Anyway, wow, it's really far up there. You would go from showing only half hour increments of The Phantom Menace

[00:52:55] and then suddenly start showing like two and a half hour movies. Yes. Yes, exactly. Yes. A great metaphor for podcast length creep. David, you have to close this tab. I'm closing it. It's gone. Thirst. Let this dream die.

[00:53:10] I don't know. Who knows? Maybe someone can go in on it with me. I happen to have .3 million dollars lying around. You got .3? Just need the one. You need that big one. You got two left. Tim Simons is from Maine.

[00:53:23] Hey, Tim, have I got the two tallest men going to the movie business together? We could call it Tall Boy Theater. You should get Steven Merton to invest in Will. Tall Boy Theater is good. And we could sell Tall Boys in the lobby.

[00:53:36] I'm seeing here Maine won't let me have a look at this. This has got legs. Sorry, I just got that. Tall Boy Theater's got legs. David, you know the old adage they say. Don't fall in love with the first movie theater up for sale you look at.

[00:53:47] The very common adage. The next day, like a triplex in Brooklyn, like four blocks from my house is for sale. Just put a movie theater alert. Shit, I'm moving to Belfast. Put a movie theater alert on Street Easy and see what shows up.

[00:54:00] Zillow's been buying a lot of movie theaters, right? So this is like a we got a Zeus at your bar, right? Yeah. Thirst. So he meets Teju. He goes to the bar. The comely wife of Kang-Woo who is a churchgoer and a childhood friend of his, I believe.

[00:54:17] They know each other. Doing the rounds. He's a childhood friend. You know what? I'm just even going to simplify what I said about why he's so immediately drawn to her. I think he just immediately senses that she's sad. Right, and lonely and feels a little ignored.

[00:54:31] And angry because the first time we meet her, she's rolling her eyes the entire time. This person is similarly kind of like over everything. She's sick of it all. They both have Doria syndrome out the ass. She's also very pretty. She is. Have you guys seen The Villainess?

[00:54:49] I have not. I know she's in Kim Mok-bin. Kim Mok-bin, yeah. She is incredible in The Villainess. And the scene in Mission Impossible, ooh, which one? The one where Rebecca Ferguson is in the opera and shoots... Five. Rogue Nation.

[00:55:04] Yes, Mission Impossible V, Rogue Nation. That scene is almost straight from The Villainess. Interesting. I remember the poster for The Villainess because it was like she's going like... Like she's got the gun pointed down. And it's sort of like pink and blue.

[00:55:15] David's doing, for the listener at home, a perfect impression of the poster for The Villainess. But have never seen. She is a babe, I will venture. As is Song Kang-ho with his emo floppy hair.

[00:55:27] I have to say, having only watched Song Kang-ho in Bong Joon-ho movies where he kind of plays... Usually plays a buffoon. He usually plays a buffoon. He usually plays the dope that is hiding secret layers of power or some secret or hidden qualities.

[00:55:43] You haven't really seen Song Kang-ho who fucks. Yeah. And Park Chan-wook was like, he laid eyes on Song Kang-ho and was like, that is a sexy baby. Yeah, sexy baby, right. You're kind of like, but also... This is the first Korean film to feature full-frontal male nudity.

[00:56:02] This is the first Korean film with a penis. With a penis on screen. And it's in, obviously, it's not in an erotic context because it's when he's like stumbling out of the tent. It's the least erotic moment because I kept waiting.

[00:56:15] I have to be honest, I was sitting there going, because a lot of sex scenes in this movie. And I was like, is he going to show the penis in this one? And then he shows it kind of the worst moment.

[00:56:23] Yeah, he's very vulnerable. I mean, that's the idea of it. When he's trying to ruin his reputation. Which I feel like is usually how male nudity is because a flaccid penis is more funny than sexy often. It's like a banana peel. Go on. Prop comedy.

[00:56:40] And it's usually when he's sort of like humiliated or kind of like whatever. No, it's usually a punchline. Right. And yes, he is. JJ said he could not back this claim up because this claim is just kind of one of those things that the press repeats or whatever.

[00:56:55] And he says maybe we'll finally get together and make blank checks, big book of on-screen penises. Circle back on that one, JJ. That's our researcher. But apparently, yes, the first Korean film with full-frontal male nudity. Park says Sungkyung had no problem with that.

[00:57:12] He lost weight for the role. He had no hesitation about any of the raunchy sex scenes. He'll do whatever. You know, he's very gung-ho about all of it. There is that thing. I feel like very often, like the biggest stars of non-American cinema, right?

[00:57:29] People talk about how brave they are. And I think there's this feeling of just like, oh, you watch like Antonio Manderas in all Almodovar films or you watch like Song Han-ho. And you can't imagine like Brad Pitt doing these things on screen. Right?

[00:57:43] You're like the ultimate A-list man are sort of just anything for the arts. There isn't that same sort of like commercial calculation of like if I do this, the audience will turn against me. They won't follow me here.

[00:57:56] And I wonder sometimes how much of that is just which films get imported to us. Sure. That like American critics say that, but it's like, well, you're only seeing their artier films. Sure.

[00:58:09] Or if it is just like in other countries, there is a less, I don't know, what's the word I'm looking for? I don't, well, like obviously, obviously, Europe, many European countries are less buttoned up about sex on screen. That's not that unusual.

[00:58:26] But I do think of Korea as, you know, a society with some like. Yeah. It's fairly socially conservative as far as I know.

[00:58:35] Right. So it is interesting to me that like there are, but I feel like I think you're kind of like we kind of get, we're getting a lot of the sexy art house Korean movies over here from these sort of major auteurs who can take bigger risks or whatever.

[00:58:50] Right. Right. Like, I don't know. I guess I'm gonna have to watch every movie from every country to make a big list. So Kim Okvin, this is her breakthrough performance. She, according to director Park, has big hands. She's a very famous dancer.

[00:59:08] She's got a lot of muscle tone in her legs. He keeps talking about how like sort of physically imposing she is, which is why he wanted to cast her because she was going to turn into the sort of like strong sort of monster.

[00:59:21] But he also liked the idea that this character cannot bear the frustrations of her daily life and feels trapped. So every night she sneaks out and like runs. And that's why she's got such great muscle tone. This is something he thought about.

[00:59:35] Yeah. In pretty short order, they make good on their chemistry, on their attraction. Sure. They sleep together. Her husband's also a dink. Let's be honest. He's a dink, right? He's a real dink. Yeah. He's, you know, I don't know. He's a real wet blanket, you might say.

[00:59:54] Jason Clarke type. And, you know, right. So he's not much of an impediment. And yeah, suddenly they're boning. I have to say, I really love more so even than some other sex scenes, the scene where Song Kang-ho's Sanghyun finds her running through the streets.

[01:00:14] And this is after he's just turned vampire. He flies, I think, towards her and like lifts her up, takes off his shoes and puts her in his shoes. And it's such a weirdly wholesome and warm action. And one that is very protective and she's kind of shocked at.

[01:00:34] But I find that one to be more, I don't know, like a spark of connection between the two of them and even some other sex scenes.

[01:00:44] And the sex scenes are very hot. They're very physical. Like there's the one, you know, in the hospital bed. There's the one where she's sort of on top of him. And there's like linens all around them. They're in the handbox shop.

[01:00:57] Right. Yeah. And like, I feel like the sex is also kind of front loaded in their relationship. Like there's a lot of it early on and then they're dealing with like, okay, well, what do we do about fucking your husband now?

[01:01:12] But I think you're right. You get a greater sense of like actual kind of selfless compassion and how he treats her in the little moments like that. Then you see in any of the moments where he's actually supposed to be someone helping people.

[01:01:24] And people are acting like he is. He's also breaking the rules. He's a priest. So he's not allowed to do that. Not even forgetting that she's married or whatever. He can't have any sex. He can't have the sexy times.

[01:01:37] He can't have the sexy times. It's banned. The effects in this movie are so fucking good. Very seamless. This is the reason I kept thinking about Twilight because we did all the Twilight movies on Patreon and those run from 2008 to 2012. Sure. Yeah.

[01:01:52] I mean, it's basically this exact same time. But the first one's 2008. That one has the quote unquote smaller budget but still cost a lot more than this movie did. Right. You're saying that the Twilight movies have a lot of people going like, I'm doing the running.

[01:02:09] Like running in the air. And it looks like junk. And this movie has seamless like wire work and really cool visual effects. I think we both chose movies and both of us came around to liking them on the whole.

[01:02:19] I enjoy basically every Twilight movie. The third one I find to be a bit boring. The first Twilight movie, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson's choices are actually inspired because they realize that these two are just two extreme weirdos. And they're weirdos together.

[01:02:36] Yes, I agree. And then I think the problem with the franchise as it goes on is they both get flattened out by like the thing becomes too big. And they're like, you guys have to be more normal. Pattinson in the first one is incredible.

[01:02:48] He's after the first one. He just seems like he wants to check out. And then Stewart's thing is so much more subtle that she's able to hold on to more of it. Well, she also has more to play like in the third one. She's got the love triangle.

[01:02:59] The fourth one, she's pregnant and the fifth one. I can't remember what's happening. She's got the baby. Renesmee! Kind of suffocated by the series where they're acting as Dalkos out of a... Renesmee! The most normal looking baby of all time.

[01:03:12] But watching those movies, I think the complaint we kept on having is like every single one of those films and the budget is like going up 25% on each of those movies. And they constantly keep on redefining the visual language of what their powers look like.

[01:03:26] And seemingly the approach to the effects and they basically never work. And in each of the movies, they're like, here's what jumping looks like. Here's what it looks like when they go fast.

[01:03:34] Here's what their senses look like. And you're just watching like seven different attempts at all of these styles of powers that never fit. And in this movie, every time nails it on the first try.

[01:03:45] And it is one of those things where you're just like, he must have just been so deliberate because there are complicated shots. You know, and they're seamless. As you said, like a lot of them require like insane wire work.

[01:03:56] There's shit like him vomiting blood that's like a hard effect to fake. Yeah. You know, and just the mix of like the digital and the practical, it just feels like very organic in this movie. You actually buy that this is happening in a real tangible world.

[01:04:10] And what we do in the shadows was the one I thought of where I feel like similarly that movie has much more impressive vampire effects than most big budget vampire movies.

[01:04:19] Like the wire work is better, more organic. I don't know. I was just I was every little moment. There's the moment where he lifts up the mother in law in the chair and takes her down the hallway. And it is done so offhandedly.

[01:04:34] He's so good at that kind of, I think, just just thinking to make a part of the world. Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. Like it never feels like we're entering a fantasy world. How to toss off those shots so they feel just like stolen things. Right. Yes.

[01:04:49] One thing I found really interesting about the powers and the depiction of the powers here, especially him like learning them and giving and sort of showing them off to Teju. It is framed a little bit like a superhero movie. Yeah.

[01:05:03] Especially in when he first wakes up, he has all vampire powers. He suddenly can hear feel everything. He sees someone chopping green onions like two floors down. He hears people talking. He sees things on his skin. And then it feels very much like Rami Spider-Man in that sense.

[01:05:17] When he first shows Teju that he's a vampire and he picks her up and starts leaping through the rooftops, it feels almost like exciting and inspiring in a way that a Christopher Reeve Superman movie or a smallville will feel.

[01:05:30] It's interesting the way that it feels. It's almost it's almost like it's like a different movie. It just is like this this windswept romance. And it's framed like that sort of superhero sequences. Well, and I agree with you that that that first awakening moment is very Rami Spider-Man.

[01:05:46] But then he avoids doing the montage of testing out his powers, learning everything he does so that when later in the movie he does something like leap or lift something or whatever, you're kind of surprised at the reveal of like, oh, right.

[01:05:59] He can do this. They haven't like he doesn't do it all the time. Yes, it is. And he and sometimes he's just a bit of a fusser. He doesn't project all powerful vampire sometimes. You know what I mean? Because it also doesn't make him very happy.

[01:06:14] Look, he's not carrying himself with some renewed sense of vim and vigor.

[01:06:18] The man's in search of an answer. Yeah. Tries to kill himself with a virus. He tries to, you know, fall in love with a married woman. He kills a man like these are all he's looking for answers that he's never going to get when he realizes he's a vampire tries to kill himself again.

[01:06:31] That's true. I just feel like he's always like maybe this will be it. When does he do that? Doesn't it happen when he wakes up? Am I wrong about this? Is it when he jumps out of the window?

[01:06:43] That's what I took it as him not knowing that he would survive. You know, he's like hitting himself. Right. A lot of that stuff felt like him. The hitting himself I felt I read more as part of his Catholic opinion. That's a self flutilation.

[01:06:58] Yeah, he's doing he's got a flugelhorn and he's hitting himself. That's right. He does have a flute slash recorder. Yeah. Blood recorder. The blood recorder thing is so gross. The thing with the like mouth pincers that they keep doing is also a very cool, very gross idea.

[01:07:16] It's something that you're like, why would they do that? But at the same time, it looks so cool. And it's so disturbing that you're like, you know what? It's just part of the whole texture of the movie, which he is so good at.

[01:07:25] But, you know, yeah, he jumps out the window, lands on the car. OK, he's like, right. And then he's like, I guess I'm still alive. Right. That wasn't him testing his power. That was him hoping he was ending it.

[01:07:36] That's what I viewed as like it's a Groundhog Day thing of like he's doing things that accidentally reveal to him that he's invincible. And then right after that is when he puts her in his shoes. Right.

[01:07:46] And then they. But let's say he basically confesses he's a vampire to only two people. One is his superior. Right. And he's just like, I'm a fucking monster. I hate this.

[01:07:57] He literally opens his heart up to him. Right. And like makes him put his hand in his chest to feel his weird vampire heart. And Priest Rose response is like, well, I'm here to help you out, which is not what he wants.

[01:08:08] Right. Like he wants to be damned. Yeah. Right. He's like, drink my blood and also make me a vampire. Right. Right. Like he immediately offers up his own blood of like, I'm here to serve you.

[01:08:18] And then clearly the end goal is I would love to regain my vision. I want your power. He wants to see the world before he dies. Right. Yeah. And then when he admits when he reveals that he's a vampire to her, she's immediately freaked out.

[01:08:31] Yes. I do think the one reason. Yeah. He's just disgusted that like he's like, what are these rules? If if like if I am saying to my superior, I'm a vampire and he's not like, well, you are.

[01:08:43] An offense to God. Yeah. Then why have I been doing any of this shit? Like, well, you know, what are we talking about? I'm a monster. Tell me I'm a monster. He became a man of the cloths that find answers.

[01:08:53] You get the sense he went. I don't think there are any fucking answers. And the fact that people look to him as if he knows anything makes him feel like a bullshit artist. Right. He knows now one thing demonstrably, which is I am a monster.

[01:09:04] I am actually a vampire. He's a monster. And everyone around him is like, what do you think a vampire is good? And he's like, no, hate me. Now, obviously out of this town, they have lots of hot sacks.

[01:09:15] And then she sort of like tells him that she her husband is abusing her. Yes. And that is why he's right. You know, helping her kill. Right. But it's because he sees the bruises. Yes. Yeah. So would you do do do boat murder? Would you do it?

[01:09:34] No, no. You're out on the boat murder. No. And I swear to God, I'm not just virtue signaling here. I think I think boat murders may be one of the last types of murder I would commit.

[01:09:45] The first type of murder you can. That's a great question. Let me think on that, Ben. I want to go ahead and say I wouldn't even fish. No, you wouldn't even just like do it for any. Yeah.

[01:09:57] Well, I wouldn't even be tempted to commit boat murder because I would say no to the fishing. Right. Would you do boat murder? Well, I think I would say no to the fishing at 9 p.m.

[01:10:05] Yeah. It's a little weird night fishing, night fishing. Would I do boat murder? No, I think I would be more likely to fall underwater than anything, even if I did have vampire powers. Maybe my answer is kill him with kindness. Maybe that's what I would do.

[01:10:18] Just be so nice. Yeah. OK. So the sex director Park says it's very important. The minute he's doing this, he's stepping over a line he can't you know, shouldn't have crossed. Sure. It's the moral downfall of the priest for her. It's liberation.

[01:10:31] Yeah. You know, she's free from this marriage. So I didn't just want to have sex. I wanted all these complex facial expressions like I wanted to choreograph every moment of the sex to make it like feel very, very powerful.

[01:10:45] Like both of them are like sort of crossing these lines. There's this handbra thing too. She talks about how much the handbra. Right. She basically says like, I'm not shy while refusing to show herself after she's taken her clothes off.

[01:10:59] Right. Yeah. It just feels like the whole thing is so gnarled and twisted in their own. She's trying to repute her whole sort of passive image that she that everyone has of her. Yeah. Is this like chase sort of like a friendly wife? Mousy woman.

[01:11:15] Right. Because she also tells him that she's basically a virgin. I guess this guy is. Yeah, he's not. I don't know. Not doing much. No. In Teresra Kain, I will say he's an invalid. So and she is raised alongside him.

[01:11:30] So she's raised like an invalid, even though she herself is actually quite strong and hardy. So she has a resentment against that because she's like, she's like, I was trapped in all these dank, dark rooms with him all the time.

[01:11:41] I couldn't go outside because he couldn't go outside. He wouldn't take his medicine. So I had to take it alongside him. So she became a hypochondriac because of him. This is Shin Hakyun. He plays Ryu in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the mute lead character.

[01:11:57] And he's in joint security area. Another frequent Park collaborator. The he's a Park is like inveterate storyboarder, right? Loves his previs, right? All his shots are so complicated. He said the first things he storyboards are sex scenes because he knows they're going to be the most complicated thing.

[01:12:16] And then he'll take them to the actress. Yeah. And he'll be like, all right. So, you know, this shot's going to have left nipple. This shot's going to have butt like, you know, he takes them through the entire sort of choreography of it.

[01:12:29] I do think this one wasn't exactly controversial, but it was pretty, you know, lurid for Korea. Yeah, it's pretty learned for anybody. By the way, so 2009, they filmed this in 2008 or whatever. Sure. Well, you're describing with like his approach to storyboarding. That's what they do now. Right.

[01:12:48] That's like basically the main function of an intimacy coordinator, not to literally draw the storyboards. Like every move of the sex scene. You just read every fucking actor over the age of 65 complain about the fact that like.

[01:12:59] They've made all these sex scenes formal. You can't do anything as an actor anymore. And basically it's just like treat it like it's an action sequence. Right. It's like stunt photography. It's choreography. You need to like just 100% communicate clearly.

[01:13:12] Yeah, all the sex scenes that seem the most disastrous is where they were just like, all right, get in the bed. We're going to try a bunch of stuff.

[01:13:19] Disastrous look interpersonally for the people on set, but also like all the best sex scenes in film history that people talk about. We're done in this way. Intentionality and communication. He thought about doing this in black and white because he thought it would be too gory for color.

[01:13:35] And then he decided, no, let's go the other way. Make the blood look like wine, which I feel like it really does. It's very like dark red. And you know, he basically says it's like the most blood he's ever had in a movie.

[01:13:51] This film's got a lot of blood. I like that he was worried about how much blood there would be when there is a scene where after they commit the murder, they paint the house white. For some reason, for reasons.

[01:14:05] And then that just is I feel like it's for the express purpose of whenever there's blood spatter to just make it look cooler. It just looks insane anytime they're in that white room.

[01:14:14] He has the the tiling on the floor is like these long diagonal strips at sort of like odd angles. And they're so fine that you don't really see them until the blood lands. And then it creates this weird pattern on the floor.

[01:14:28] It falls into the crevices and what have you. God, this movie's cool. I'm just sort of watching it right now. All right. So yeah, they kill her husband as their affair progresses. They drown him and they put his body in a cabinet. Right. Put at the bottom.

[01:14:49] Put a rock in it. Can we talk about the detail of there is a village underneath the water and he has to put him into a closet and put a rock on top of the closet? Death by Atlantis. Is that what seems normal to you? Yeah.

[01:15:05] A very normal way to die or kill someone. Yeah. And this is in the lake, the body of water. In the lake, yeah. Like a drowned city. I feel like the remnants of a... Sure. Okay. That makes so much more sense.

[01:15:21] I could not figure out what was going on there. Is that from the book or is that just like some wild sort of flight of fancy? That's some wild flight of fancy.

[01:15:28] I don't know if it's something that he imagines, like his character imagines and this is just like a mental thing that he has to put him in this closet.

[01:15:36] He doesn't know if he's actually going to come out or something or if it's just that, you know, if it's actually real. But I like that detail and it's so interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And also look, better alibi, right?

[01:15:47] If they find a dead body and it's just in the middle of a body of water with nothing there, like why would he be hanging out here? But you're like, oh, this was like a living room. Right. The closet, maybe he came here to do some work.

[01:15:58] But like right after that you've got like they're trying to have sex when he's touching her. He's like, why are you so wet? Why is the bed damp? I love the detail too that it's a waterbed. Yes. Like they're suddenly feeling dampness everywhere.

[01:16:14] And then just the most incredible shot that anyone has maybe ever done of her naked. Her naked, then the husband wet, sort of snotty with like the most ridiculous expression on his face. I don't know what a little stinker expression.

[01:16:31] And then Song Kang-ho naked on top of him, like thrusting madly while, you know, the husband is just like. And he's holding onto the rock that he was weighed down with. And he's also bloated from the water too. And just like, yeah, grinning goofily. It's great.

[01:16:47] It's just so much creepier that he doesn't come back to haunt their nightmares being like, you killed me. Right. Like he's not in sync with Marley Ghost. He's like, by all means, go ahead. He's like, I've always wanted to have a throuple. I've always wanted to watch. Yeah.

[01:17:02] It's so funny. I just can't imagine another director thinking of that and then having the audacity to actually try and pull it off. It's very, it's a great laugh moment. But it's also such a creepy indelible image. I never see Thirst.

[01:17:19] Not to ask that in an aggressive way, because I saw this in theaters. I think I did. Yeah. Because I saw Old Boy in theaters. I think I saw this in theaters. And I just remembered like, you know, laughing. The whole audience sort of going ballistic.

[01:17:34] It's also, you know, the older I get, the more movies I watch, the more impressed I am by anyone who is able to like switch tones at the same time. Right.

[01:17:50] Not just switch tones within a movie, but like be able to maintain multiple feelings within a single sequence or shot. Which he does. You're like, the comedy should play against the horror. One should, I don't know.

[01:18:05] The flexibility of genre within this, just a single scene is so impressive. Yes. Okay. So what else? We haven't talked about the mom very much. She's sort of a domineering mom. Sort of. Extremely domineering. Yeah, I don't know. She owns some sort of bespoke clothing store.

[01:18:29] It's a handbox store from what I saw. Yeah. So they sell and make customized handbox, I think. That's the traditional Korean gown. You wear it for like a wedding photo, right? Yes. I feel like I've seen Korean couples I know where you do the portrait.

[01:18:45] Wedding photo, other rites and ritual occasions, that kind of thing. I have to note I'm not Korean. So I am just saying from what I know of Korean culture. But yes, that's exactly what you wear it for. Usually weddings.

[01:19:01] And like the guy has like a sort of, there's sort of guy, the male version is sort of these cool robes. Okay. It always looks very impressive. I want to just move past this, but you were talking about how in the book the husband is an invalid.

[01:19:16] There is of course the thing that they, you know, the connection point happens in the hospital, right? And then after Song Kang-ho like enters their life, there is this period where he seems to be better.

[01:19:27] Or it almost feels like it's a psychosomatic effect of feeling like this miracle man blessed him. And then very quickly his health starts getting worse again. And so much of her, I don't know. We find out very shortly that he never abused her.

[01:19:45] He never laid a hand on her, that this was all a fix. Yes. She just wanted out. She didn't want to be with her dumb husband. She wanted to be with Song Kang-ho.

[01:19:55] Her life was very constrained by living with his mother under the sense of control with a person who was very limited in what he could do.

[01:20:02] She had this brief window of like maybe he's going to be able to be an active member of society again outside of these four walls. And then when that's taken from her again, it feels like she's just done. She's trapped again. Right. She can't go back.

[01:20:16] And she is immediately back to emo mode. No offense to her. She's allowed. Yeah, sure. I mean, I guess some offense. She did kill her husband. Yeah, that part is offensive. Whatever. And so, you know, on this revelation he eventually kills her.

[01:20:32] By snapping her neck, which why didn't he fucking snap her husband's neck? Well, she begs him. She's like, let me be with my husband again. She's suddenly racked with guilt.

[01:20:40] But he doesn't want to let that happen. And so he turns her into a vampire in a very gross scene. Yeah. I mean, the only thing that's more depressing to him, he hates being alive and he's terrified at the notion of actually being dead. Right?

[01:20:55] He hates being alive, but he hates being alone and alive worse. That's the worst possible scenario for him. I just feel like the image of him cutting his wrist, trying to get the blood into him. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[01:21:08] That's how I feel about it. And like fails. He's like, ah, goddammit. You know, and he has to do it again. Right now I'm grimacing. It's very nasty. It's very clever. Like, I like it as a world-building vampire. You know, your take on a vampire.

[01:21:20] Because, of course, that is classic vampire, right? That's how you sire another vampire. Yes. There's a lot of sucking in between. A lot of sucking. And she's dying fast. You've got a limited window.

[01:21:32] So she's up as a vampire and as in so many vampire stories. And it is one of my favorite things in vampires. When you make a vampire and you'll be like, you'll be like me, right? And you're like, no, I'm different than you. She's psychotic.

[01:21:45] I was different than you alive. Like, why are you surprised that I am now also different than you as like an immortal superpowered thing? Yes. I'm attacking this with gusto. I have no sort of... I could have told him that's what's going to happen. Yeah.

[01:22:00] She's emo like him, but in a much more rebellious way. She takes action. She fucking talks someone into murdering her husband. She's not going to be like a dilettante vampire.

[01:22:10] Yeah. She has been waiting for this freedom her entire life. And now that she finally has it, she's going to go nuts. And power. She can do whatever the fuck she wants now.

[01:22:19] Yes. She's a very cool, hot vampire. And I do think the bad vampires are the best. I love the I'm a monster, woe is me vampires. But I really like that.

[01:22:30] Kim Oakbin's just wide leery grin throughout this entire last third of the movie. She's so good. She's so creepy. She's grinning the entire time and just gleefully laughing away. She's so fun to watch. Another, of course, vampire property at this time is True Blood. Oh, sure.

[01:22:49] Right? At the same time. Yes. More sexy vampires. More very much like the sex metaphor is brought all the way to the front. And Debra Ann Wool's character is that. What's his pants? Stephen Moyer? Stephen Moyer? Eric. No, Eric was Scar's guard. No, wasn't he?

[01:23:13] Has to make her a vampire for some reason. I can't remember why. But it's like a punishment or something. And she's like this retiring little church girl. She was quote unquote the nice girl.

[01:23:25] Right. And then the second she's a vampire, she's like, this rocks. I'm going to go fuck shit up. And he has to be like, no, you have to do what I say. You're right. He's Bill. Bill. Bill. Eric is Scar's guard. Scar's guard is Eric.

[01:23:39] Bill was always going, suck it. That show was about Bill, the sexy vampire. Bill? But bringing it back to Buffy the vampire slayer, there's the whole concept of a vampire with a soul.

[01:23:52] And then when Angel, who is the one vampire with a soul, loses his soul, he becomes that monstrous, just psychotic. Angelus. Yeah, Angelus. He loves violence. He's a sadist, all that stuff. So there's that whole duality.

[01:24:06] And he becomes a monster by taking her virginity. It's all going on. When he experiences his perfect happiness. And then Spike gets a soul. Did you ever watch Buffy? You were really a Buffy kid, right? No, it feels not like a great time to start watching.

[01:24:19] It's not a great time, but you know what? You can be like, this is separate from its creators. A lot of people work on things. Yeah. But it does feel like, it's one of those shows I always meant to watch.

[01:24:31] And then the more things I heard about Joss Whedon, I was like, do I really want to jump into this? I grew up with Buffy. Buffy is very certain. Buffy, I've been looking for you. Along with The X-Files, the first show to basically have comic book storytelling.

[01:24:44] And that took over all media, but it was very exciting at the time. I've seen isolated episodes that I loved. Yeah, it's got great episodes. The great combo of serialized and teen soap.

[01:24:55] Exactly. Just the sort of two tracks of like, sometimes we're going to be like a sci-fi serial show. And sometimes we're going to be more of a fun teen soap. That's a thing we really fucking lost with streaming.

[01:25:05] Is the like, we have so many episodes to fill that we have a couple different types of episodes we cycle between. That's the thing, right? When you had 22 episodes, you could switch off. You could be like, this will be a fun one.

[01:25:15] Right. You got like a lot more experimentation with form when people had to figure out how to not be repetitive. Hydron was just telling me about, oh fuck, I already forgot the name of the show. What's it called? The Tom Holland show. Oh, The Crowded Room.

[01:25:30] And apparently they don't have the twist until episode seven or something. It's episode seven. I'm not going to talk about the show because it annoys me so much. What is this show even? It's the one with Tom Holland on... Doing what?

[01:25:43] I can't spoil it because there was a spoiler embargo for episode seven. So basically you cannot reveal what the premise of the show is because it does not reveal itself until... Exactly. It's the premise of the show.

[01:25:56] It's based off a true story of which you can't reveal what the true story is based off of. Now you can Google the true story and then make some inferences. It will have come out by this point, I will say. But anyway, it doesn't matter.

[01:26:06] But anyway, yes, we all agreed serialized TV was better in the 90s. Bring back episodic TV. Yes, bring back episodic TV. Let TV shows be TV shows again. Will they though? I don't know. It's all broken. Is it even TV though anymore?

[01:26:25] Streaming shows? Is that what should we call them? Contractually all these things are written up as if they're web series. Screen shows? It's on a screen. Series. Do you like that? The boob tube. I like that. Let's bring them back. We're going to watch another boob tube.

[01:26:41] Okay, she's a crazy vampire. They have the big fight in the rooftops. They're jumping around. And then at some point soon after is where you sort of have this scene where through eyes alone,

[01:26:55] she sort of starts, the mom starts to communicate what has happened because she knows everything. Eyes and nails. Yes, pointing sort of.

[01:27:05] The sequence where she asked to be killed and then he cannot let it happen and converts her all happens while the mother-in-law is lying on the ground watching them frozen post-stroke. And then there's the scene where the friends come over from Mahjong and are all like,

[01:27:22] I'm sure your husband will show up at some point. It's tragedy. Who knows? We'll get an answer at some point. He's just missing. But just like aggressively unsuspicious, right?

[01:27:32] And the mother-in-law who up until this moment has seemed completely just kind of like, I think to their mind she... She's got nothing going. They think she's almost vegetative.

[01:27:42] And then she starts, as you said, like she gets one of her fingernails off so she can write in blood on the arm of the chair. She teaches them how to like read her communication through length of blinks and stuff like that.

[01:27:54] And starts spelling it out to them, which is an incredible sequence. I love the fact that her nails are already so gross and falling off at that point.

[01:28:04] Like it's something that even Teju and Seung who have not noticed at that point, they're like, what happened to your nail? And she's been working at it to try to write in blood exactly what's been happening. So she has a mission.

[01:28:14] So she tips a couple people off and so then they have to die. I love movies where it turns out everyone's going to have to die. You know what I mean? Where you're in so deep.

[01:28:26] And then someone else walks in and sees you doing something and you're like, fuck. They start drawing curtains like, oh boy, guess we're going to have to do this murder. Her with the hand saw coming up the stair. She's got a big saw.

[01:28:40] She's pretty happy about it. She's pretty happy for a massacre. She's looking for an excuse. She's like a man-eating monster at one point. Like the first thing when he, when the, I think the cop runs out and she just breaks his neck with his, with her arm.

[01:28:53] And she's like, yep. Just all in a day's work. She's excited about it. Yet she keeps the third guy alive. Right? Yeah. The guy that she was also having an affair with. Yes, she is randomly having him. There's that scene where they're having the worst sex.

[01:29:07] She's just like sitting on top of him, not looking at him. And then just kind of gets up and is like, I'm going. I'm going like that. Yes, there's this sort of sub affair happening. Who is that guy? He's just a guy. He's just the guy. Neighbor guy.

[01:29:19] Right. And then so after all of that murder is. This is the camping, right? Is the is like him, him leading her away basically. Right. Yeah. This is the end. This is peak. Just I want to be caught. I want people to destroy me. Right. Right.

[01:29:39] He basically frames himself for sexual assault that he did not commit. Right. At a campsite of people he knows adore him. Deify him. Right. Just to create a paper trail basically of this guy sucks.

[01:29:54] And he does get his dick out just to make sure people think he's a real loser. Right. So why do you think he's so intent on leaving his legacy like that?

[01:30:04] Because he's already had that wanting to sort of shed that and be left alone and not have to deal with people who idolize him. But why does he want to leave? Make sure he dies that way. Yeah. Make sure he dies that way. Possibly disgusted with himself.

[01:30:20] His sort of, you know, extreme betrayal of his original principles, whatever they were. Yeah. And I think I think it's a heightening of how he feels at the beginning of the movie, which is just like I feel like a phony.

[01:30:31] That people look to me like I have any answers and I my genuine belief is that it's all bullshit. And that heightens over the course of the movie to him doing a lot of bad things. Right. The last thing he wants is to be deified in his death.

[01:30:45] He's been a monster and hiding this whole time. So now he wants to bring the monster out. Yeah. Right. Because even when he did become a monster, no one turned against him. Everyone's like you're still great. What a cool guy you are.

[01:30:56] And the one person that he revealed it to was like, cool, I'll become a monster too. I can has powers. Right. But I think it's like not even a very strategic thing.

[01:31:06] It is that like people so overwhelmed with guilt that they do something stupid because they want to get caught. You know, it's like why does Robert Durst steal the fucking sandwich? Why does OJ do the Jersey heist? That man is not normal. Do you think this man's normal?

[01:31:22] No, he's not too normal. He's a vampire. I think he's better than OJ and Robert Durst. I agree. He's number three.

[01:31:28] And yeah. And then you just have this incredible final sequence of them in this car, out in the beach, in the middle, you know, unable to get unable to outrun the sun.

[01:31:43] Yes. I've taken us to a place where it's the sun's about to rise and we just can't get away from it. Like, you know, if we ran. I like how extended the sequences and also how funny it is.

[01:31:53] It's basically a big like just set up of gag after gag of her trying to hide from the sun and him just demolishing that hope in some way or another. She'll grab a bit off of the car and hit him and like all that stuff.

[01:32:07] She'll hide in the trunk. He'll throw the trunk's hood away. And then she'll try to find the hood again and she'll just throw it into the ocean. And then they're finally like, OK.

[01:32:20] Yeah. They sit on the thing and she says together in hell and he's like, there's no like that. We're not going anywhere. Mother-in-law just trapped in the backseat. Yeah. They're far away. It's gonna take a long time probably for anyone to find her.

[01:32:33] Like that's sort of the darkest element of this. She may well die. Probably just gonna starve to death. I mean, I guess maybe someone will come out for a stroll. He gave her the phone before he like sure committed suicide.

[01:32:47] He put it in her hand. So he's like, yeah, all right. That's up to you now. Yeah. I mean, good luck. Obviously, it's very intense then burning up. But then there is kind of the jokiness of like their look ashy little legs and then the shoes fall off.

[01:33:02] It's just funny. It's funny, but it's also kind of sweet because it brings it back to that first. Shoes. You're right. And then but there's also just them looking out like an ocean of blood. Right. That's my favorite part.

[01:33:14] He starts like hallucinating in that moment and just imagines the entire ocean is blood with dolphins swimming through the blood and everything. Crazy. Yeah. Is the whole movie and the ending actually a metaphor for Park Chan-wook's own atheism? Like going from Catholicism to atheism? I mean, absolutely.

[01:33:35] I think he hit the nail on the head. I mean, he talks about it so clinically when he's interviewed. He may just be trying to not sort of come off offensively or whatever. He's just like, you know, one day I just decided as a teenager I'm not religious.

[01:33:48] And that's fine. But like, yeah, I mean, the loss of faith can be like this really profound upsetting notion. Right. You have this sort of idea of like, oh, I'm going to go somewhere when I die or oh, you know.

[01:33:59] It's also come up a lot in directors we've covered. Yeah, so many directors. Following some path. As teens someone was like, he'd be a good priest. And I do think it's often you hear like, oh, this film became their new belief system.

[01:34:13] At the moment where they suddenly felt there is no meaning to any of this. What they would rather do is use fake stories to communicate their thoughts rather than stand in front of anyone and claim that they are telling the truth.

[01:34:27] But it does, you know, the novel obviously is working off of those sort of Victorian novels. And like so many film noirs where it is link fuck around and find out. Right. So it's just like, look, it's fun. It's crazy what you do.

[01:34:40] It's liberating. But then at the end of the day, you are going to probably die. I like I like categorizing a whole genre as fuck around and find out. Yeah. In the Wikipedia they say it's the it's one of the first examples of naturalism.

[01:34:51] But fuck around, find out is much better, I think. Yeah. If I ever met Emile Zola, I'd be like, you kind of invented fucking around and finding out. How do you feel about that? Right. Because like, you know, yeah, it's it's not like quote unquote, like crime pays.

[01:35:08] It's more just kind of like, you know, you can search for the sublime or like whatever the answer all you want. Bill comes due. Right. But we're all we're all destined for the dirt.

[01:35:17] This movie can't just end with them being like, let's just be hot vampires who murder and then like just jumping into the sky. That would be weird. You kind of like that? It's kind of a good pitch. Thirst too, hardly thirsting. How does Only Lovers Left Alive end?

[01:35:31] Doesn't it end? I have not seen that film since theaters. Just basically restart the cycle of their relationship. Yes, it ends with them finding young lovers like kissing and they're like, here we go again. You know, like, yeah, it's great. That movie is great.

[01:35:51] I love but half of that movie is mostly just them sitting around being like, remember when we hung out with Mozart? What a crazy dude. Right. Like, yes.

[01:35:59] Well, they're in Detroit. It's the same thing I love about the old guard of just like, what do you do if you're thousands of years old? If everything just becomes like meaningless. Yeah. Yeah. You've seen it all. You've done it all.

[01:36:11] Have you seen Only Lovers Left Alive? I have not seen Only Lovers Left Alive. I need to. Do you like Hiddleston? I do like Hiddleston. It's like peak spindly, sexy, pale ass Hiddleston.

[01:36:21] Maybe. Because I'm a fan of Hiddleston and Crimson Peak. So it feels like a one of a piece. It's very similar era to that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe only a year or two before that.

[01:36:31] Yes. Oh, he's good in Crimson Peak. He's great. I mean, we thought we thought he was probably gonna win. He had a shot in this bracket that Park Chan-wook won. Yeah. But then he lost. He lost. To Park Chan-wook. Yeah.

[01:36:45] So fuck around and find out. Fuck around and find out is the lesson there. All right. Are there any other sort of like as a fan of his films general Park Chan-wook thoughts you want to drop on this episode?

[01:36:56] I like how intentional he is with his camera all the time and the way that he frames things. He always loves frames within frames, especially in that in the introductory scene with the priest.

[01:37:10] When we have the shot of the hospital door and the shadows of the leaves on it. And it feels like there's something about nature and man and the clinical, you know, setting there going on.

[01:37:24] And then especially in the scene where we have the Mahjong game and with the introduction of all of the people and the camera swings back and forth between people who are speaking, but also people who are reacting.

[01:37:37] And I was just thinking how different it is from how Bong Joon-ho's camera is with a big ensemble scene for the big group of people. And how this feels so much more laser focused on a single person with each shot versus with Bong Joon-ho.

[01:37:51] There's almost like a more of a chaos to it, but also chaos. Yeah, but a more like framed chaos in a way. And I thought that was so interesting. Exactly. Sort of anthropologist versus architect. Yeah. Park Chan-wook has always been that architect. He's very clinical.

[01:38:10] And I think people don't like that. I love it. And him making a very clinical vampire movie that is as much about how they are forces of chaos and evil, but also ruled by their human natures. It feels very... only he can make it.

[01:38:30] Yeah. No, this is a normal movie. Anyone could make this. I think G could make this. Can I share one thought before we move on to the box office game? Please. Yeah. The mother has a really special power that stuck out for me. Okay.

[01:38:46] At one point when her son is obviously sick, he farts and she gives a big old whiff and is able to detect certain aspects of his sickness. I cannot believe we almost went the whole episode without talking about this.

[01:39:04] Thereby, in a way, sort of being a fart detector. A true fart detective. Because she even goes like, it smells different than when he had pneumonia. She's got different samples to pull from.

[01:39:19] Yeah. She is the true fart detective, which by the way is a title we have bestowed upon Ben in the years of this show. I was wondering about this bit. Yeah. He is a fart detective.

[01:39:28] And I don't necessarily love the title, but I have many others that are far superior. But anyway, it's just nice to see, I guess, yourself represented on this big screen. You clearly like this mom.

[01:39:40] Yeah. No, wasn't it when we went to see Turok the first flight, the Avatar Cirque du Soleil show, that the guy in front of you in line to buy a hot dog farted and tried to pass off like it was someone else?

[01:39:51] And you called him out on it? And then we called you the fart detective. Called him out on it, to be clear. He didn't call him out in person. No. Yeah. That's how that all went down. Thirst was at the 2009 Camp Film Festival.

[01:40:04] It won the jury prize, the sort of third place prize. It shared it with Fish Tank, the Andrea Arnold film. Some of the other movies at that can in competition were Inglourious Basterds. Antichrist, which everyone had a very chill reaction to. Jane Campion's Bright Star.

[01:40:25] One of your favorites. Wonderful movie, Almodovar's Broken Embraces. Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void. I loved that movie. Ben Cannon. Basterds, like we said. You know, Jacques Cotillard's The Prophet, which is a big deal. Great film. Ang Lee's taking Woodstock, less of a great film. But still.

[01:40:51] And the Palm, of course, went to the White Ribbon. Michael Hanneke and Isabelle Huppert was the jury president. Everyone was like, she was in the bag for Hanneke! But yeah, just kind of a stacked camp. Has he won three times or two times?

[01:41:10] Two times. No one's won three. It's a really good year. But yeah, Prophet won the Grand Prix. Christoph Waltz won Best Actor. And Charlotte Ginsburg, Best Actress for Antichrist. Chill movie. That's why they gave it to Gansport.

[01:41:26] Well, I think it was one of those, like, sorry you had to put up with all this shit. It was a little bit like the Anadromous Oscar nomination. Big year for full frontal male nudity. I was going to say, another movie with dicks. Dick.

[01:41:38] But isn't that one fake? I think so, because it gets, you know, mutilated. That's also the thing that Lars von Trier said. He said his Willem Dafoe's penis was too large and distracting. I believe he said confusingly. That it took away from the story.

[01:41:52] Yeah, during the test screenings, the audience was confused. That was the only part, otherwise, logic crystal clear in this film. I'm confused! The Fox, I get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, still, I feel like early, you know, it's the 2000s.

[01:42:06] It's still a very big deal for these films to be winning major prizes at the big fancy Western film festivals. You know, Old Boy's big breakout was at Cannes, blah, blah, blah. It was a success at the Korean box office.

[01:42:16] And apparently there's an extended cut of the film on its Blu-ray. I don't know that I've ever seen that. It is only on the Korean Blu-rays. It has not been released in any other territories. The film itself is long. It's two hours, 15 minutes, basically.

[01:42:35] The extended cut's like two and a half. Correct. Let's play the box office game. The box office was for like $250. This one came out in America on July 31st, 2009. So it's the summer of 2009, Griffin. And they released on what, like 4,000 screens? It was released on four screens. Okay.

[01:42:56] Number one at the box office is a comedy. It's New This Week. July 31st, 2009. It's a long film. Speaking of long films. Funny People. I knew that would be enough. Somewhat underperforming. As Judd Apatow's big follow-up to Knocked Up and an Adam Sandler movie, it's only making 22.

[01:43:17] I think people thought it would do better. But they underestimated the fact that it's 14 hours long. Correct. And sort of incredibly depressing. Kind of a bummer, yeah. Good movie though. Great fucking movie I love. Underrated movie. Yes. Hangover had been so big earlier. That's true.

[01:43:37] And then when he did his comedy, it made $100 million. Without exception. And then when he would do his Spanglish or his Rain Over Me or his Punch Drunk Love, then it would kind of bomb. And everyone thought like, well this is going to be the one

[01:43:49] that's right in the middle. But it kind of bombed. Yeah. It made 55, no sorry 51. It didn't do great. It's very long. How long is it? It's like two and a half hours I want to say. It's two and a half. Knocked Up had been such a smash. Yeah.

[01:44:11] Number two at the box office. What did it open to? 22. Oh yeah. Number two at the box office since third week is a film I just said in this episode was the best in its series. You said in this episode?

[01:44:25] I said in this episode this film is the best in its series. What series were we just talking about? Twilight. Twilight? No. No, because that's November. We talked about it. Come on. Oh, it's the fucking, it's the Harry Potter you like the best. But which one?

[01:44:43] Order of the Phoenix? No. Though I think that one's also pretty good. Half-Blood Prince? That's right. Bruno Del Bonel, beautiful inky visuals. I agree. There's love potion comedy. That's the one that's mostly. There's Jim Brombe turning into an armchair. Flashbacks, right? Yes.

[01:45:07] Order of the Phoenix, the fifth one. That's the Dumbledore's army one? Yeah, and it's the first David Yates one. And it's him bringing some sort of like juice to the series in my opinion. He's got a lot of cool design ideas.

[01:45:17] Yeah, because Order of the Phoenix was like him doing like I'm going to do these weird blue tinted like color scheme things. And it works really well with Order of the Phoenix. But then he keeps doing it with the next ones. And I'm like, OK. I love it.

[01:45:29] But his design for the Ministry of Magic where it's all the black tiles. It looks like a weird subway station. I just think he, I think whatever. He gave the thing some juice. And now he clearly still has all the juice from the crimes of Grindelwald

[01:45:41] and Secrets of Dumbledore. You can tell. Yeah, the man still got juice. Yes. It does feel like a bit like a vampire thing where they like gave him a power and now it's like sucking. It's draining him. Yes. Half-Blood Prince good though.

[01:45:59] It's one of the few summer potters much like Azkaban. Yeah. Number three at the box office is a cartoon movie about gerbils. One of those movies that like made $130 million domestic. And it was like, wow, big hit for Disney.

[01:46:09] And they were like, actually, we lost $300 million on this. And you were like, what? Why was G-Force the most expensive movie ever made? G-Force was $300 million? G-Force. I know that Disney did like a $100 million write off on G-Force. You have brought this up so many times.

[01:46:23] It is fascinating. Yes. Because it was a hit. It did all right. Yeah, G-Force did pretty good. It was like, it was directed by, I think, the guy who was like the special effects supervisor on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

[01:46:35] And his son was like, you should make an action movie with gerbils. And then he went to Jerry Bruckheimer and was like, my dad, my son said I should make an action movie with gerbils. Beware of who's dead. Yes. Son, you should make an action movie with gerbils.

[01:46:47] And Jerry Bruckheimer was like, here's $150 million. And then they like tried to do it with state of the art technology at a time where like you could make fucking Beverly Hills Chihuahua for $40 million. No one gave a shit.

[01:46:57] They were like, oh, we're going to make a movie with a movie about gerbils. And they were like, you know, I'm not going to make a movie about gerbils. And they were like, what if we make the most photorealistic animals ever?

[01:47:09] And it just went crazy over budget and Disney lost their fucking shirt on it. Mickey was shirtless. He's always shirtless. He just wears suspenders. Yeah, because of G-Force. He wishes he was wearing a shirt. Number four at the box office. Yeah. The romantic comedy. OK. The Dared Tell.

[01:47:31] The Proposal. The Proposal. And the thing is, you know, women's head. Yes. Is in their heart area. Sorry, her heart is in their head area. Right. Men's heart is in their dick area. Right. The poster, she's holding a picture of a heart. Yeah.

[01:47:53] But then there was that there was the first even blunter. You see where the man's heart is. It's not in the head at all. That's the ugly truth. And the career, just romantic comedy as a genre for like 10 years. Have you seen The Ugly Truth?

[01:48:06] I refuse to watch The Ugly Truth. You know The Ugly Truth, then you don't know The Ugly Truth. I watched the trailers for The Ugly Truth and I'm like, I'm not watching that movie. You'd rather live a beautiful life than ever know The Ugly Truth.

[01:48:18] I'd rather live, yeah, the ugly lie for me. The idea is he's like a talk show host, right? He's like Howard Stern. I'm telling you The Ugly Truth. I'm Australian for some reason. David, he's got an American accent. I'm from the East. Hello, I'm Gerard Butler.

[01:48:34] I'm very much an American guy. I'm from Nebraska. Yeah, I do a talk show where I say, guess what? I don't care who's offended. I like having sex with women. And then Katherine Heigl is hired to make him more appealing to women. And then would you believe it?

[01:48:50] They fall in love. Yeah. Number five at the box office is new this week. It's a bomb. Children's film. Is it based on the universe? Is it based on anything? No. What studio? 20th Century Fox. It's a big 20th century Fox bomb. It's not Aliens in the Attic.

[01:49:14] It is, in fact. Aliens in the Attic, Griffin. You got that in one. That's one where you're just like, what was that? Sorry. Number six, the hugely underrated horror, Orphan. Yeah. I feel like not underrated anymore because it got the legacy sequel. Yeah. You like Orphan?

[01:49:46] Yeah, no, it's a good movie and I'm surprised that it's been so long since then. Yeah, that's wild. But that was also one where when it came out, the reviews were like, are they fucking with us? Does this movie know it's insane or not?

[01:49:57] And I think his career has demonstrated, like, yes, I'm fully aware of all the insanity. Orphan is camp. Yes, it's highly camp. It is the moment. And it's just one of those, yeah, yeah. Or Esther is serving camp. Yes. Esther the orphan did the thing.

[01:50:15] There's something wrong with Esther and it's that she did the thing. No, just great Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard, just two great actors to play like, the fuck is wrong with you? You know, the whole movie. Okay. You've got The Hangover still,

[01:50:31] you got The Proposal still, comedy going strong. And then of course, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, the second and worst. The biggest film of the summer. It was a huge fucking hit. It was humongous. It made $400 million at the US box office. Yes, it like opened to 200.

[01:50:47] God, do you like the Transformers movies? I detest them. So just universally? Everything except Bumblebee, I will say. Bumblebee's a little cutie pie. Bumblebee doesn't do much in this new one. He's in it though? He's benched, he's in it. He's not a beast.

[01:51:05] He's got to step back and listen. He's going to sit his ass down. And let some others rise. Wait for the rise of the beasts. Neither of you have seen Rise of the Beasts yet, right? No. Especially now that I know that Bumblebee is not in it

[01:51:19] because he's not a beast. He's just a cute little bumblebee. Bumblebeast, make him a beast. He is in fact a giant car. Let's see. Yeah, apparently Pete Davidson is one of the main Transformers. He's Mirage. I heard he's actually quite good at this too. I can see that.

[01:51:37] Fuck, Ron Perlman is Optimus Primal? What? Yeah, a monkey. The fuck? Yes, Michelle Yeoh plays... Michelle Yeoh? Yes. Airazor? Airazor. She turns into a Peregrine Falcon apparently. She-dor is in it. Who plays She-dor? Tongai Chirizia. No Rattrap though. A Zimbabwean actor. He was my favorite character.

[01:52:09] I can't keep track of the nonsense you're saying. Rattrap! Coleman Domingo apparently voices Unicron. Eater of Worlds? Yeah. Unicron's like the Galactus of the Transformers. See, I don't know any of this shit. I was going to say I don't either but I'm saying you.

[01:52:25] You're the one who's saying, oh, what about this guy? He's got this glaze over. And I'm like, yeah, something about cars. Well, the other problem is any time I'm like, I love lore. I don't like the Transformers movies or anything.

[01:52:35] But I'll be like, oh, let me read a clean Wikipedia page. And it's like, no, there's like 18 different kinds of Transformers things. Sure. So there's not even like sort of like a unified canon I can enjoy. I like that the lore exists. Do you know what I'm saying?

[01:52:49] It's up its own ass. Yeah, that's what I kind of like about it. The more convoluted, the better. Correct. I know that. No, I know he's a planet. He is a planet. He eats other planets. We love a planet eating planet. Yeah, it's just fucking Galactus.

[01:53:09] Yeah, except he transforms from a planet into a planet with arms and legs. I gotta go home. Oh, now you got to go home? Yeah. I start talking about Unicron, suddenly you got to go home. Yeah, I'm out of here. OK.

[01:53:23] Hartran, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you so much for inviting me. I'm not at all resentful that you guys didn't invite me for the Ghibli series. That was several years ago. Yes, that's true. It's OK. It's all right. It's fine.

[01:53:39] I'm not the biggest Ghibli fan of all time or anything. Apologies. Oh my God. Well, what's your favorite? We'll talk. Yeah, what is your favorite? Spirited Away. It's a pretty basic one, but it's my favorite. Do you have a favorite Takahata? That movie's incredible.

[01:53:59] I was looking, because it was this story. I'm sure it has changed by the time this episode comes out. But at this very moment, Across the Spider-Verse is the highest rated film in the history of Letterboxd. Oh, sure. Yeah. It beat Come and See. Correct.

[01:54:18] But I was just curious, like, oh, what is the Letterboxd Top 50? And how many of those movies have we covered? And what are the highest rated movies that we've covered? And there are actually quite a few Park Chan-wook films in the Top 50 alone. OK.

[01:54:34] Handmaiden, I think, is pretty high up there. That's an early Letterboxd fave, too. That came out right when Letterboxd was getting hot. Spirited Away is like number four. As it should be. I've said it's the best film ever made. I see. We should talk about it.

[01:54:50] We'll do a second Ghibli series. I've rewatched it 60 times. How many times have you watched Ponyo? 15 or more. A lot. It's because I put Spirited Away on when I did laundry, so that's why. It was a ritual.

[01:55:04] Spirited Away is like this special, like, jewel in a box that I will take out in my toughest times. I don't know. Maybe I should watch Spirited Away. You going through some stuff? Air is on fire. That's true. I'm doing OK.

[01:55:19] I was just very stressed out yesterday with all the air on fire. Oh, not me. I felt very normal. You know, I never extrapolate. You're out there extra. I just got that kid. You're just like, what am I supposed to do here?

[01:55:30] And you know, and your kids like go outside and you're like, go outside. Stressful. It's bad. It looked like when he has the fucking vision of the ocean being on full with blood at the end of thirst. It did not look like that. It did look like that.

[01:55:46] Do you have anything you want to plug? I would like to plug my own podcast. Yes. It's a Doctor Who Star Trek watch podcast that I run with Jacob Hall, a slash film. You can find it on all your podcasting platforms.

[01:56:00] But tell me. No, that's too. Tell me. How do you do this? So I have never seen Star Trek. You have never seen Star Trek. Jacob had never seen Doctor Who. Never seen any of any of any series.

[01:56:14] Any of the series. I've seen the movies, the Abrams movies. But I was, I'm a Doctor Who fan. Jacob is a Star Trek fan. And we decided to get together and show each other our favorite shows. So each episode is like one of each.

[01:56:25] You're each picking like a curated episode for the other to watch? We're going chronologically, baby. I love that. Thank you. I like these kinds of format. I knew there was a good form. Right. Yeah. First episode where no man has gone before in a row.

[01:56:37] So you're starting with the rebooted Russell T Davies. We're starting with the rebooted Russell T Davies Doctor Who. But then we are going to be going back to the classic Who at some point. Temporal pincer movements. Yes. Absolutely.

[01:56:50] You can't watch some of those early ones. They don't exist. They don't exist. Exactly. There's some of the ones where they still have only the audio and they've now started animating them. They recently found some. Believe you, you're aware? Those guys are crazy. Which guys are crazy?

[01:57:06] Who's the one who's telling you about this though? So I went to school in London and you're not allowed to make fun of that. It's very serious. And there was a Star Trek society, you know, and like they watched Star Trek episodes at lunchtime.

[01:57:20] You go check it out. So, you know, it was a little dorky. Like fairly mainstream dorks, you know, Star Trek was like on TV. Right. You know, when we were kids, when I was a teenager, that was like primetime stuff.

[01:57:33] Doctor Who was off the air when I was a teenager. That was a pretty neglected moment. It was, you know, because the whole 90s and much of the 2000s, there's no Doctor Who. Right. Except for the one movie with Paul McCann. The failed sort of pilot.

[01:57:46] With Roberts as the master. And there was a Doctor Who society, right, as well. And they would watch. But that would be a thing where you're like, okay, so you're a teenager like me. This has never been on while you were a kid. Sure.

[01:57:58] You were obsessed with a dead franchise that exists in sort of videotaped form. It's like me being obsessed with Buster Keaton movies when I was 15. Yeah.

[01:58:06] And like I was not a judgmental of it, but it was definitely, it was a sort of a deeper, more devoted kind of quainter form of nerdery. Sure. They were like the true nerds. They're idealists. A little bit. It was very sweet.

[01:58:21] And also, like, I love those old Doctor Who. I haven't seen that many of them. I've seen a fair amount of them. And they're quaint as well because they're, you know, they're really vintage.

[01:58:29] I was going to say, I feel like so much of the attitude was like, well, they had no money to make any of this and it all looks bad. But the ingenuity. Yeah, and the story writing and all that. They had no money and a dream. Yes.

[01:58:38] And what are you up to now? That's a great question. Oh, unfortunately. Well, we're going back and forth between Doctor Who and the spin off. So we're doing some Torchwood right now. Oh, interesting.

[01:58:50] So we are at this point doing we're finishing up Torchwood Miracle Day, which is terrible. I never touched any of Torchwood. Is that the last Torchwood? It's the last Torchwood. Because the one before that was pretty good, right? Yes.

[01:59:02] Children of Earth is probably some of the best sci-fi TV I've seen in a while. Right. Torchwood season one I remember being very mixed. I'm sorry to put it up. Yes, up and down. But yeah, right now we're in Star Trek TNG and Torchwood Miracle Day.

[01:59:14] But we're soon moving on to Doctor Who season six. I mean, I guess you guys truly picked the most bottomless of franchises. You really can't stop with these. We can go forever. Right, yeah. Because you're in the middle of season two of TNG. We are.

[01:59:30] I was fanatical about Doctor Who through the middle of the Matt Smith run. Sure, I think a lot of people fell off sort of middle end of Matt Smith. Yes. But it's so daunting to even get back into it now.

[01:59:38] Well, I think the new one's going to be kind of a reset, right? It's a nice reset. Russell Chidiades is back and we have a new Doctor. We have David Tennant coming back before the new Doctor played by Shuri Gawa comes on. Yeah.

[01:59:50] So I think it'll be a good reset. You can join in again. Although I will say as one of the people who fell off in the middle of the Matt Smith—well, actually at the end of the Matt Smith era and then came—

[01:59:58] You didn't watch the Capaldi one, surely? I didn't watch it. I came back to Capaldi and now Capaldi I believe is the best Doctor Who. Here's the thing. He was amazing. It's just that the show maybe I had my problems, but his performance. That's the thing.

[02:00:12] I got tired towards the end of the Matt Smith run, but Capaldi is like, well, that's of course exactly who should be playing the Doctor. He is incredible. Yeah. Like literally every scene with him, just like, I need more of you. I need five more seasons of this.

[02:00:23] So yeah. No, I agree with that. I watched pretty much all the Capaldi. What are your Jodie Whittaker thoughts? The show just stunk. I mean, I don't know about you, but she's pretty charming.

[02:00:34] She was poorly served by very inconsistent writing and one that didn't know how to characterize its own Doctor. Who was the showrunner of that? Chris Chibnall. Don't get me started. The Broadchurch guy. I mean, that was his big claim to fame was he did Broadchurch. He did Broadchurch.

[02:00:54] He did a good job with that and he has some good ideas, but he doesn't know how to follow through with them on any Doctor Who I have as somebody's friend. Right, because he did Torchwood as well, right? Mm-hmm. I loved that stuff. Loved it.

[02:01:06] Yeah, I never watched Sarah Jane Adventures. No, I mean, at a certain point, like, there's only so many hours in the day. And then going back to the earlier stuff just felt like, yeah. Daunting. Daunting. Mm-hmm. 60th anniversary of Doctor Who this year, guys.

[02:01:21] Is that what it is? Mm-hmm. Best theme song of all time, except for maybe ER. I don't know. There was this show that was on starring Ted Danson. Uh-huh. Becker? Yeah, had a certain theme song. God, I wish I could remember the Becker theme song.

[02:01:38] David, could you play it quickly? I haven't heard this thing in years. What? This is from a... Because that was a good theme song, as I remember. Absolutely. But I can't even... Oh, wait a second. It was The Doctor in the House? All right, Jen, this is...

[02:01:58] We were doing a whole bit about this. I don't know what Becker is. I've never heard of Becker before. It's a sitcom with Ted Danson. I don't even know how old you are. You may have been a child when Becker was on TV.

[02:02:10] What if House was more of an asshole and he didn't actually solve anyone's problems? He solves prob... Well, I don't know. He probably writes you an option. It's always lupus in this case. It actually always is lupus. It's just like, lupus, on you go! Yeah.

[02:02:28] Becker always says it's lupus, but it isn't. Thank you for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe! Thank you to Maria Barty for our social media. We just do this every episode now. Thank you to Joe Bone and Pat Reynolds for our artwork.

[02:02:45] To Dave Birch for our theme song. Adrian McKean, Alex Baron for our editing. Lee Montgomery, the guy who... I said that one already. Go to BlankCheckPod.com for links to some real nerdy shit, including our Patreon, BlankCheck Special Features. Whoa, whoa, what's going on?

[02:02:59] It just loaded up another video called Dr. Becker on political correctness Is he a surgeon he's a neighborhood doctor yeah, he works in the Bronx Based an old-school New Yorker Bunch of special features patreon

[02:03:16] Film series we're doing the oceans mm-hmm. No oceans full of blood just oceans full of stars Yeah, movie stars movie stars And of course we have our free membership on patreon where every 10 days we unlock an episode from three years ago So that's mission impossible series right now

[02:03:34] Yeah, let's see. I think yes if Yeah, the pump for dead reckoning part one few days ago. We had Trolls the experience with Richard Lawson early covert episode that is an episode describing the last thing we did before lockdown basically

[02:03:54] Griff I have to pee how much of this oh, I misread that it doesn't matter enough you're right Well I was right tune in next week for Well I'm sorry you put me on this much Stoker Stoker. Yeah, we like Stoker. I do like so okay

[02:04:12] Yeah, so core family st. James return to the show yeah far too long and as always From here on out every episode ends with the Becker theme play it again. No play it again We'll play it in post. Just let's just play it live okay now

[02:04:26] Like me pointing the microphone in my laptop, that's not a thing you like I mean it's not it's not help