November media log
Dec. 6th, 2023 07:35 pmTV
Movies/Musicals
Comics
Fanworks:
Bottoms (2023)
High school movie + fight club movie but for the lesbian teens. Both the high school and fight club aspects were too stressful for me tbh, but it wasn't as secondhand-embarrassing as it could have been, and the execution met its intention. The movie occupies a very surreal space, with no true sense of place and time so you kind of just have to roll with everything it throws at you.
Ripe Town
Streaming on: WeTV
Serial murder drama spanning two timelines in the Ming Dynasty where the murder mystery is mostly a stylistic choice, with episodes feeling like nested dolls. It's more centered on plot and story than individual character arcs, though Judge Song's arc did feel strong and complete.
Each episode feels like a movie, beautifully shot and artfully cut, with a "show, don't tell" approach. I was very invested in the kiddos! My interest peaked at ep 8, where we had a clear view of the factions, the characters, and their motivations, and then eps 9 and 10 got too difficult for me (multiple instances of child harm). Ep 12 was 1 hour and 40 minutes long but I think they could have made it longer, or split it to have two full episodes to get the complete emotional effect of the ~twists~.
more thoughts
One of my problems with it was that I tend to stop being interested once I know who did what, so I got a bit bored when they let the scenes play out. XD It was also a bit hard to tell characters apart because this show had a limited palette, with multiple characters in uniform. And frankly I thought ep2 was weak and draggy haha.
The parts about justice/injustice were good but since it's a show where people have individual motives and are likely to doublecross each other, it gets stressful. Everyone, especially if it’s an older male character in power, in this show is presented to have skewed ethics, and all their actions give them a sense of, idk how to put it… a sort of moral responsibility to find their own retribution or redemption in the narrative? I have mixed feelings about how they handled this. And I’m not sure it resolves all the character arcs, especially Sangen’s, the primary POV character who they set up to have many emotional relationships. I almost wish they'd written out the mother and the captain's kids because of it.
Overall, it could have been either leaner or longer, but it's a 7.5/10 for me.
Content warnings for: police brutality and hazing (not shown as good things), child harm… at some point child murder (not the main kids)
Romance on the Farm
Streaming on: iQiyi
Transmigration + romance + family drama, with strong emphasis on FAMILY DRAMA. The FL gets transplanted into a farming game where her initial goal is to avoid a canon event (burning to death) and the initial vibes are very standard (and bland) webnovel romance.
Surprisingly, it gets better at eps5+ when the leads (+ supporting friends) get into stupid cons and the family dynamics feel a bit more balanced with what they criticize. It's definitely family drama-centric with varying levels of relatableness on the trials of sharing a home with your siblings, cousins and in-laws, harmful favoritism, toxic solidarity, and having to fight for the right to move out.