MOVIE: "Suicide Club"

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Watch it HERE

It is not a suicide club, and the name of the film is actually SUICIDE CIRCLE. This is about fads, about corporate marketing to kids as young as 2 years old, about utilizing modern forms of media to manipulate children. The problem arises when it is the children who begin to manipulate back. The writer/director is also a performance artist & poet. He staged massive poetry readings & art exhibits in Tokyo subways by advertising on the net, by cell phone, etc. It was an early mob event. Tokyo police did not know what to do and the events continued for several weeks. This is his answer to the question, what if the kids used new media today and sent the message, are you connected to yourself? There is no criminal to which anybody can point, because we are all complicit in this crime: we are murdering our young. This is pure art. I do not understand all the symbolism (butterfly tattoos, baby chicks), but I wonder if I need to, if it is because I am not urban Japanese or if I am just too old to get it. I will tell you this: SUICIDE CIRCLE should be shown in every Urban Planning, Psychology, Womens Studies and sociology class in the USA, let alone Japan. A website is mentioned near the beginning of the movie, by The Bat. That site is active. I joined today. Girls are talking. It is called jikennews dot com There are other, semi-hidden sites on the net. It takes little investigation. The circle is there. So are the dots.

MOVIE: "Thousand Pieces of Gold"

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This story continues today: women are brought to this country, or kidnapped here, and forced into slavery and prostitution. I honor the woman of this story for having luck, good fortune, intelligence, a network of alliances to avoid some of the worst pitfalls. I do not, however, for one second believe that a tiny woman who would wield a huge knife at a big, drunk white guy who just paid two hundred bucks to rape her would be afraid to tell a Chinese guy that she has set his cap for him. I also wish stories would be told of Chinese women who managed to survive and flourish in this historical period without the protection of a romantic alliance with a white man. I have no qualms with the story of this woman. I do, hovever, think it feeds a stereotype that we all need the protection of a white father to survive. The male/female gender relationships are revisionist history: folks just did not act that way back then, esp. Chinese & white relationships. It is as bad to revise history in a liberal bent as it is to revise it so that folks wearing Confederate flags on their hats would look like sanctified homeboys who loved their Black neighbors, ignoring the legacy of slavery and lynching. I am disappointed, but give three stars for acting & attempt at Chinese American history of women.

 

MOVIE: "The Eye 2"

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Go back & look @ that stunt sequence again: a LIVE actor steps toward the edge, jumps, lands on what appears to be hard concrete, camera moves forward; you would SWEAR there is no padding, THEN break to close up of lead actor on sidewalk! THAT was a GOOD SHOT! I like how the film shifts sympathies from the lead actor to the ghost; I do not think I have ever seen that in Asian horror before. Single motherhood is terrifying. Add to that spirit beings who reincarnate in, well, a very intimate fashion, and the fact that you can SEE it! Add to that what you have always been taught about ghosts being bad or creepy. Now, try to reconcile yourself that your own baby will be a reincarnated being? I can see the stress in this. In a single-child China, I can understand if the film makers might have some regretful, whistful thought on the accessibility of abortion and want to linger in a medium close up pan of newborns. I really can. I WISH a film like this would be rewritten, directed and produced by WOMEN, though. I think we have more depth in the matter, frankly. I have to say this to another viewer/reviewer: saying you do not believe in Buddha is like saying you do not believe in George Washington. They are both historical figures. And I am pretty sure Buddha does not have much faith in you, either.

MOVIE: "Beautiful"

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Beautiful is amongst the first projects in the world to use the new Sony F23 CineAlta HD Camera, this has enabled us to shoot HD with the flexibility of film, says Smith. We are projecting daily rushes that are exciting to watch, given the superior full resolution images we are seeing. INSIDE FILM Now you know why the tight close ups of dew-dripped roses, spider webs and road kill look so sharp and crisp. I hope this film is to Sebastian Gregory what BACHELOR PARTY was to Tom Hanks: a way to get face time and launch a decent career, but a piece of his filmography he will never mention on The Tonight Show unless someone else brings it up, and even then, only with mortification all over his face. This film has about the same substance as BP: manipulation of audience, as much profundity as a drying puddle and a nearly pathological fear of conventionally good looking blondes. It is as full of cheap tricks as a half=drunk illusionist in a bad cocktail lounge in Las Vegas. It is all smoke, mirrors and misdirection (I mean the latter literally). There is, as Gertrude Stein said, no there there, as can be perfectly exemplified by the ending. Who cares who worked on the film? Not the director, for sure. I did not much care for this mov

 

MOVIE: "Adam and Steve"

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This MAY be the FUNNIEST Queer film I have EVER seen! It is funny because it is HONEST, SMART and REAL. It is not self consciously trying to be clever, cool or hip. In fact, it is pretty much just the opposite. Most of us are just regular schmoes, trying to get through life without utter humiliation or breaking every bone in our bodies. We do not have time or energy to primp in front of mirrors, except to make sure we do not go into public with a big, green booger hanging out our noses. In this plastic fantastic world of plastic surgery and hair highlights, how in the world can we keep our heads screwed on right, let alone find someone to share our lives with? Under normal circumstances, I DETEST that particular song from the MOVIE of SOUND OF MUSIC, because it was padding, not part of the original score. But here, only here, and only under these circumstances, yeah! For those of you who like to send bright, shiny objects on to friends, the song, S*it Happens, is available as a UTube video. I already have it on my Facebook page. I am female, so I have no romantic agendas here. I just TOTALLY wish Adam and Steve were friends of mine! I could pich their cheeks. . . as long as nothing squirts.

MOVIE: "Spitfire Grill"

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I am sick to DEATH of so-called christian men telling women we must be perpetual victims and QUOTE sacrifice END QUOTE for the good of the community! As a survivor of child sexual assault and abuse, I can tell you: prisons, mental hospitals, homeless shelters and the streets are FULL of women who were human sacrifices to the hubris, arrogance, violence, ignorance and tyranny of evil men, some of whom write screen plays to promote their religious agendas that perpetrate the same. 

 

 The problem is, most of us are not as cute, soft-spoken, wide-eyed, quaint and sweet as Percy; the traumas of our lives have left us rather unattractive, so we can rot while filmmakers bring in big bucks off of our suffering. 

 

THIS IS NOT A FILM BY, FOR OR ABOUT WOMEN! It is a film about a sad misinterpretation of sacred texts, superstition, condescension toward women and people with behavioral health challenges. 

 

Some proceeds from this film went to a religious kindergarten, so more suckers can be indoctrinated into the propaganda that the only good woman is a suffering woman. 

 

And TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD did a MUCH better job with Boo Radley! You even stole the MUSIC! That was very christian of you! 

 

If you want to help abuse survivors, stay out of our way! Do NOT speak FOR us; LISTEN to us -- and NOT with dollar signs in your eyes! 

 

This is a tear jerker only to those arrogant and ignorant enough to PITY us, rather than RESPECT OUR DIGNITY (because THAT, of course, would mean they might actually have to DO something to CHANGE THINGS!) 

 

Family values, my right mammary gland!

MOVIE: "Requiem

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Fictionalized biography of Anneliese Michel, source of films, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE and THE EXORCIST.

MY SUGGESTED THEORY OF WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: This film is a testiment to the sadistic, sexist domination of a corrupt, greedy church that encourages believers in blind obedience & superstition, in order to maintain power. Devout, young girl, knows no alternative to religion, sexually molested by parish priest who blames girl for tempting him to damnation (see story of Eve). Girl is epileptic; blames seizures on what she thinks is her sin. Begins penance for wayward priests, sleeping on bare floors, even in winter. At puberty, begins self-abuse & anorexia. Girl escapes to university, despite controlling mother. Sexual relationship with boy triggers repressed memories of sexual assaults by priest as voices, visions; cannot pray, touch crucifix. Feels shame & guilt for sexuality; consults priest, who touches her too often & encourages identification with saint who suffered similar symptoms & died young, martyred. She cannot identify, totally, with Katherine, as she is not virgin: more shame, guilt. Katherine tortured and killed when she could not persuade Roman Emperor to stop torturing Christians, but converted Empress. Katherine held as role model for Catholic femininity: the chaste martyr. Priest suggests Katherine's suffering a good thing; does not suggest medical attention. Friends try to help, but boyfriend returns her to source of trauma: family home & parish, afraid of stigma of hospital. Parents, priests gang up, feed delusion of supernatural possession; confine woman to house; ignore medical alternatives; constantly suggest demonic possession; allow woman to starve. This is not a horror film; it is a biographical drama. Every survivor of child sexual abuse can see what really happened here. Props to her school friends, who tried to support her to leave her madness & heal.

Film available on NetFlix and elsewhere with English subtitles.

please use emoticons

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 Kate,

 ok, tease me all you like. just know that you were not very playful with me, back in pg, so I'm not used to the concept of you being silly.

In order to help me wrap my head around the concept, it might be useful if you threw in an emoticon now and then, since I can't see your face. Some of the Japanese ones are rather complicated, so I'm not recommending them, but the standard, US happy face, etc.: those are pretty simple. I got so good at ascii imaging in chat rooms and forums, I could make animal faces and human body parts. yes, I could, and yes, I did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons

I FINALLY watched Lugosi's Dracula! It took THREE DAYS to get through it. It has been very interesting to me to see how the indoctrination of my Southern Baptist childhood has completely disappeared! Things that I took as absolutely true, all they way into my mid 20s (long after I'd left the church) seem as fanciful as fairy tales, Santa or the idea that money really IS something.

It's no wonder people think I'm crazy. I'm not, of course. But my perceptions of reality are so DIFFERENT!

My foundations are rooted in entirely different soil now. Except for one thing: I have an inarticulate, but profoundly tender, memory of Jesus as my only friend, and of such phrases as "consider the lilies," "whatsoever you do unto the least of these," etc. Those values still hold in me. I did not throw out the baby with the bath water when I escaped, I'm proud to say. But I came very close!

So, Mr. Lugosi was very interesting to watch. His very expressive side kick was funny as hell and I'll bet a dollar the actor was gay. I now know that it was Mina, Dracula's victim in the film, who had scared me the worst. Subconsciously, I was terrified I would become like her: a slave to my midnight, bedroom visitors.

I get my terror now. I can protect myself, seeing I didn't turn out to be a victim. And I can comfort that little girl who was so scared.

MOVIE: "Beyond Belief"

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OH! The arrogant opining of NettFlicks viewers! And how many of them have set an Afghan woman up with a micro-business, I have to wonder! The Afghan woman who said 5 stories burned? To her five stories IS a tall building! She can not even imagine anything as tall as the trade towers! As to all the self-endulgent, self-interest of the US women who started the organization? Really listen to them: out of everything they say, maybe, MAYBE they speak of themselves one twentieth of the time! The rest, they talk about family, their lost husbands, the organization and its plans, the futures of those they love, the futures of Afghan widows they have yet to meet. Ninety nine percent of the ideas that come from these women are positive, productive, accepting and tolerant of others, life-affirming and pro-active, unlike viewer reviews at NettFlicks. Those who can, do. Those who cannot, criticize those who do. For a single mother of small children to get on an airplane -- after her husband died in one -- and fly to a country that has been at war longer than she has been alive, even after an aid worker there was held prisoner -- to assist widows in starting businesses and getting out of abject poverty? How can ANY of us criticize that, question her motives or grumble that this documentary is not polemic enough? They are replacing hate and fear with love and dignity. What more can anybody do?

http://www.beyondthe11th.org/