Movies in General
- Thread starter bladerunner
- Start date
holy shit. I did not see this coming.
Wow, they're finally releasing it. That flick's been in still-in-production purgatory for a long time, ever since Mr. Cant-See-Me did those slice-of-life videos of himself 'living' in China from all those years ago -
Chinese audiences getting criticized for racism for giving Little Mermaid such poor box office sales. Yet movies with colored people like Fast X and the new Spiderman multiverse movie are doing remarkably well in the Chinese box office. It doesn't matter if you're also blue or green skinned too, the latest Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy also did very well in the China box office.
Might be an unpopular opinion but I don't see the point of making Full spectrum barrage jamming into a movie, it is pure, unmitigated 90s and early 2000s military dooming+coping.The entire point of these types of the stories(there are alot like it) is to cry about how weak national defense is in the 90s, frankly not something I find particularly relevant or interesting these days.
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Full River Red 满江红 (2023) is a 'Fall of China' genre movie with a 'Northmen invaders' and 'traitor or savior or both at the same time' genre subplots historical comedy thriller film directed by Zhang Yimou, and stars Shen Teng and Jackson Yee, alongside Zhang Yi, Lei Jiayin, Wang Jiayi and Yue Yunpeng. It was released in theaters in China on January 22, 2023, the same day as the Chinese New Year Day. The film chronicles a mystery case set in the beginning era of Southern Song dynasty. It is set four years after Yue Fei's death (around 1146). A mysterious murder occurs at Qin Hui's residence when he meets delegates from the rival Jin Dynasty. A soldier and a commander become entangled in a large conspiracy as one of the Jin envoys perishes and a confidential letter is reported missing. |
In contrast to the Matrix movie's 'Red pill and Blue pill' dilemma, where western determinism only offers two mutually exclusive possibilities, the 'Full River Red' movie illustrates the Chinese Taoist vision where the two choices can simultaneously coexist. In short, the Matrix movie's 'Red pill and Blue pill' represents the choice between the willingness to learn a potentially unsettling or life-changing truth by taking the red pill or remaining in the contented experience of ordinary reality with the blue pill. 
▲ Matrix movie's 'Red pill and Blue pill'. The Full River Red movie's 'Red or Blue button' choice is superseded by the 'pressing both Red and Blue button' to lock the blade of a knife. This is an allegory for Qin Hui's decision to make peace with the enemy only to buy time. Seen as traitorous but motivated by patriotic goals. 
▲ Full River Red 满江红 (2023) videomancy: 'Red or Blue, or both at the same time'. This Taoist concept is also at the core of modern quantum computing. In traditional computing, a bit represents either zero or one as its basic unit of information. A qubit goes a step further. It can represent zero – one or both at the same time – one of the simplest expressions of the peculiarity of quantum mechanics. 
▲ Full River Red 满江红 (2023) videomancy: 'traitor or savior or both at the same time'. As for the plot, it obviously shares resemblance with the Torn Curtain (1966) movie, where a high value target is tricked into revealing top secret by writing it on a black board. |
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Torn Curtain (1966) is a Hollywood propaganda 'Cold War' genre movie with several other 'defection' and 'stolen technology' genre subplots masqueraded as a spy political thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. Written by Brian Moore, the film is set in the Cold War. It is about an American scientist who appears to defect behind the Iron Curtain to East Germany. In 1965, Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman), a US physicist and rocket scientist, is traveling to a conference in Copenhagen with his assistant and fiancée, Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews). Armstrong receives a radiogram to pick up a book in Copenhagen; it contains a message which says, "Contact π in case of emergency." He tells Sherman he is going to Stockholm, but she discovers he is flying to East Berlin and follows him. When they land, he is welcomed by representatives of the East German government. Sherman realizes that Armstrong has defected, and is appalled that, given the circumstances of the Cold War, if she stays with him, she will likely never see her home or family again. Armstrong visits a contact, a "farmer" (Mort Mills), where it is revealed that his defection is in fact a ruse to gain the confidence of the East German scientific establishment, in order to learn how much their chief scientist Gustav Lindt (Ludwig Donath) and by extension, the Soviet Union, knows about anti-missile systems. Armstrong has made preparations to return to the West via an escape network, known as π. However, he was followed to the farm by his appointed chaperone, Hermann Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling), an East German security officer. Gromek realizes what π is and that Armstrong is a double agent, and as Gromek is calling the police, a tortuous struggle commences that ends with Gromek being killed by Armstrong and the farmer's wife (Carolyn Conwell). Visiting the physics faculty of Karl Marx University in Leipzig the next day, Armstrong's interview with the scientists ends abruptly when he is questioned by security officials about the missing Gromek. The faculty try to interrogate Sherman about her knowledge of the American "Gamma Five" anti-missile program, but she refuses to cooperate and runs from the room, even though she has agreed to defect to East Germany. Armstrong catches up with her and secretly confides his actual motives, and asks her to go along with the ruse. Armstrong finally goads Professor Lindt into revealing his anti-missile equations in a fit of pique over what Lindt believes are Armstrong's mathematical mistakes. When Lindt hears over the university's loudspeaker system that Armstrong and Sherman are being sought for questioning, he realizes that he has given up his secrets while learning nothing in return. Armstrong and Sherman escape from the school with the help of the university clinic physician Dr. Koska (Gisela Fischer). Transcript Torn Curtain (1966) 402-420 00:29:41,029 --> 00:30:41,172 Today, in my country, the United States, there are people in high places who do not want to see atomic war abolished. Now, because of that, a project that I was working on for six years was canceled by my government. That project is more important than the considerations of loyalty to any one country. As a result of that, I... As a result of that, I... (CLEARING THROAT) I am offering my services to your University of Leipzig hopefully to work with Professor Gustav Lindt, a leading authority in my field. Together with Professor Lindt, we will produce a defensive weapon that will make all offensive nuclear weapons obsolete, and thereby... Abolish the terror of nuclear warfare. 1061 01:26:37,818 --> 01:26:38,985 Ah! 1062 01:26:39,069 --> 01:26:40,820 Why do you say "ah"? 1063 01:26:41,488 --> 01:26:42,947 Well, surely there's something missing. 1064 01:26:43,115 --> 01:26:46,659 But it works! In Russia, we built it. It works! 1065 01:26:57,796 --> 01:26:58,921 My God. 1066 01:27:00,465 --> 01:27:02,174 That's brilliant. You jumped a step, didn't you? 1067 01:27:02,259 --> 01:27:05,511 Of course it's brilliant. It's genius. 1068 01:27:07,097 --> 01:27:10,808 The Russians thought I was crazy. They didn't know I'm Lindt. Analysis Very rare are the mediatic mentions of V-particles. With mentions of the MC warfare ingredients, while beating around the bush, including 'π ', 'international congress of physicists', 'neutrino collisions' (sic), 'U.S. Interspace Committee', 'anti-deuterons'. And of course the obligatory conspiracy of physicians of some ethnicity. π symbol of pi-meson particle is nonetheless masqueraded in this movie as a the name of an East German underground network helping people seeking to escape to the West. Alleged genius is here debunked, as to jump a step simply betrays this entire scam of a parrot receiving the instructions sent by the U.S. 20'000 orbital mind-control satellites. 
▲ Torn Curtain (1966) videomancy: mentions of the MC warfare ingredients including 'π '. 
▲ Torn Curtain (1966) videomancy: Alleged genius jumping a step. |
Trailer for the first movie in the Fengshen trilogy:
VFX is IMO not particularly impressive. I think most VFX are done by American studios and nowadays you can't get anything done in the U.S. without hugely inflated price, so bad VFX is to be expected. They justified outsourcing CG to US by claiming the Chinese team will gain experience from working with the best vfx teams, which made some sense but I hope they switch to Chinese vendors.
Daji is curiously absent from the trailer. It seems they've casted a hapa actress to play Daji and are now afraid of backlash so they're trying to keep her away from the spotlight.
Early July release.
VFX is IMO not particularly impressive. I think most VFX are done by American studios and nowadays you can't get anything done in the U.S. without hugely inflated price, so bad VFX is to be expected. They justified outsourcing CG to US by claiming the Chinese team will gain experience from working with the best vfx teams, which made some sense but I hope they switch to Chinese vendors.
Daji is curiously absent from the trailer. It seems they've casted a hapa actress to play Daji and are now afraid of backlash so they're trying to keep her away from the spotlight.
Early July release.
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Manifesto (2015) is an Australian-German multi-screen film installation written, produced and directed by Julian Rosefeldt. It features Cate Blanchett in 13 different roles performing various manifestos. The film integrates various types of artist manifestos from different time periods with contemporary scenarios. Manifestos are depicted by 13 different characters, among them a school teacher, factory worker, choreographer, punk, newsreader, scientist, puppeteer, widow, and homeless man. The film consists of 13 segments, each 10:30 minutes long. In each, a character recites parts of manifestos of various political and artistic movements. Analysis Pretentious film that belongs to the Art Gallery according to some viewers, but, for those who can remain patient enough, there is a rare hidden gem buried in the 'Puppeteer' segment. These puppets world leaders VIPs are indeed playing in the Golden Age of the Japanese Cinema. 
▲ Manifesto (2015) movie depicting world leaders as wooden puppets. 
▲ In the Manifesto (2015) movie, the last screen capture image indicates that these puppets are indeed playing in the Golden Age of the Japanese Cinema! The largest collection of puppet leaders ever in the history of humankind. |
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The Gladiators - Gladiatorerna (1969) is a 'hunger game' genre movie with several other 'intergenerational struggle', 'Cold War', 'defection' and 'militarism' genre subplots videomancy Swedish drama/science fiction film directed by Peter Watkins. |
Plot In the near future, the worlds governments have decided that war is a pointless waste of resource but still have scores to settle. So they organise “The Peace Game,” a computer controlled, televised series of gladiatorial combats between small groups of soldiers, each “contest” pitting one country against an alliance of others in carefully orchestrated acts of aggression. The battles are staged at “various sites in non-aligned countries around the world,” and the latest confrontation is set to take place in an anonymous bit of waste ground in Sweden with the Chinese squaring up to the rest of the world. The combatants are provoked by a subliminal but insistent electronic tone that the television broadcasters lower a few octaves to torment their viewers from time to time. As the soldiers engage each other, neither side really knowing what’s actually going on, the computer and its human operators constantly change the rules, keeping the worldwide television audiences hooked. This time, there’s the added attraction of a French left-wing agitator in the alliance’s ranks who is trying to access the central control room and bring the games to an end. Only when a Chinese and an allied soldiers decide to work together do the warring factions unite, willing to set the game aside and join forces to round on them in a chilling climax that sees them re-asserting control in a series of brutal black and white still images showing riot police assaulting the subversives while the bored generals offer fascist platitudes to excuse their violent over-reaction, all set to inappropriately jaunty music. |
▲ The Gladiators (1969) Videomancy: non-participation of the world's people in the Peace Game, the worst case scenario for the World Order. |