February media log + recents

February media
( dark fantasy was my manhwa flavor of the month )

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Recent media:

The Baengri Clan's Unwanted Granddaughter: Transmigration/regression/fix-it shoujo with a martial arts setting. Enjoying this a lot! And it's nice to read a wuxia/wulin story from Korea and understand what's going on because the concepts are familiar enough and the characters are kids. 😂 It's one of the ones where I want the childhood arc to last forever because everyone is so cute and charming.

Nezha 2: Hoping that the international digital release has reworked subs because the theatrical ones were not ideal... sometimes even going into "WTF" territory. 🙈 I spent most of the runtime anticipating west sea auntie's scenes and while she did not disappoint, I could have used more of her. There were only seven of us in the cinema when I watched; the other six came with their families, and the jokes were a hit with the kids and this one adult man who took his phone out to take videos so often I wanted to tell him that camrips are up on the internet. 😂

The Substance: A very pointed movie about patriarchal + Hollywood beauty standards and its effects on women, and how the pursuit of beauty and anti-aging is an addiction. I covered my eyes for most of the body horror, and completely checked out for the entire third act which was nothing but violence and body horror... Overall, great visual storytelling, Kubrick-esque art direction, feelings of liminal space, and pop culture impact... but I was too weak for it, and 2 hours and 20 minutes felt too long to make a point.

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale: DNF after 5 episodes. It just feels weird to watch a very shoujo anime tackle slavery (in this case, of fairies). It tries, but its foundations are still too silly and saccharine to have any bite. Kinda wish this category of manga/manhwa dies out.