[Weekly Update] Grass is Always Greener

Hi, everyone. I'm feeling under the weather at the moment. So I'll have to take our next few videos a bit slower. I already outlined their scripts ahead of time, so it shouldn't be too big of a delay.

CHANNEL UPDATE

Hope you all enjoy our last video on Devilman. Researching this movie was a real nightmare, because the film wasn't actually entertaining to watch. To add insult to injury, I've been studying Japanese for no particular reasons and definitely not because of Vtubers, I was able to parse a lot of the dialogues in the film. That made the whole experience that much more stressful, because oh lord, Neil Breen is legit a better actor.

We'll be doing bad movie world tour bi-monthly for the rest of the year. Here are the movies on our docket at the moment: Ah Girl Go Army from Singapore, Deshdrohi from India, Sex Lives of the Potato Men from England, Turkish Star Wars from Turkey, Nukie from South Africa. Do note that these films are ridiculously hard to find, so I may have to skip over one if I don't manage to find them. Deshdrohi is just impossible to obtain for me currently.

For now, we have the meme video coming up next, and followed by a video on why Western critics preferred Japanese Godzilla. Unless Godzilla Minus One came out, and then I'll talk about that movie instead.

We are having a bit of a scheduling problem with our April Fool's video, as none of the sponsorships line up with that date. We'll try to negotiate an adjusted released date, or maybe we'll just release it a day early.

Finally, if you haven't watch it, we released our bonus video for February yesterday. It's on National Treasure, from my perspective as a once-upon-a-time ignorant immigrant kid. Check it out!

WEEKLY UPDATE

Our Devilman video could've been twice as long. Remember the bit where I mentioned someone collected a long list of negative reviews from the internet? I actually read all of it. It's how I came to understand the social perception behind the film during its release.

Japan was right about a few things: Indeed, X-Men and Spider-Man were about to launch a new wave of comic book adaptations. It was the perfect time to adapt Devilman. Remember, Japan doesn't draw a distinction between comic and manga.

It was a very sharp prediction. As Spider-Man 2 was released only months before Devilman. It most definitely shaped societal expectations regarding the movie.

The problem is, 2004 was also the same year we saw one of the worst comic movies of all time: Catwoman. That movie came out before Devilman in the US, but after Devilman in Japan. That's why no one references to that movie in any of the reviews.

But grass is always greener on the other side, right? After Hollywood successfully adapted The Ring, after Takashi Shimizu went to Hollywood to direct The Grudge, After Kill Bill fascinated the world over, conscious or not, many Japanese cinephiles may saw this as a sign of international recognition. This mentality could be the driving force behind that false hope.

And now, as said in the video, people are unhappy with Hollywood. If this trend continues, maybe American filmgoers will look to other cinema for aspirations. I wonder which film industry will be the next big one.

Probably South Korea.

I'll see you in our next update!