NoYank. Remove All American Media And Culture From Your Life

The characters are complex enough that they do surprising things, don't just follow a simple template, yet their motivations make sense.

There is Machiavellianism but they don't pile it on (one of my pet peeves about current American culture is they constantly make a point of signalling how amoral they are, it's really weird)

It has some tropes (martial artists can fly/become weightless) but only here and there, not so they overwhelm the story.

This is what I get when I look up 'quotes from Yellowstone' –

Why?? What's the point? "Ooooh look at how evil I am, I am so amoral, I don't care about anything except money and power."

It doesn't even advance the plot, they're just doing it to be weird.

I made it about two minutes into that new British show about gladiators for the same reason: every single line of dialogue is like this.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17299575

Ageing and death are perhaps the foundation of all horror, but this droll French chamber piece, adapted from an 1839 novella by Aleksey Tolstoy, puts a devious spin on that. The titular “vourdalak” – a kind of Mitteleuropean vampire – is Gorcha, wizened patriarch of a family of forest-dwelling peasants, who is driven to feed on the blood of those he loves the most. With the film incarnating this beastie in the form of a toothy puppet resembling Norman Tebbit (voiced by director Adrian Beau), it’s a cruel but funny metaphor for parental authority and late-life dependency. Obviously they didn’t have assisted living in early modern Bohemia.

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Beau could have adapted this as straight gothic. Instead, he opts for an enjoyable high-strung comedy that, with him often shooting through Hammer-style soft gauze, skims pastiche. D’Urfé’s court manners are ridiculously superfluous in the rustic setting, exposed as hypocritical when he roughly pursues Sdenka, and then redundant in the face of the ghoulish paterfamilias scoffing at him down the dinner table.

Trailer

IMDb

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16911227

It’s unlikely that you will have seen the city of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, shown with such textured complexity in a film before. In part that’s because the Saudi film industry is so new – the first film to be shot entirely in the country, Wadjda by Haifaa al-Mansour, was made just 12 years ago. Mainly, though, it’s because Mandoob, the striking first feature from Saudi director Ali Kalthami, delves into places in this stratified, rapidly evolving city that even those who live there are unlikely to know about.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16891767

Gwledd/The Feast (2021) got the number one slot in the best folk horror movies of the 2020s listicle but there isn't a post on it, so here is one from 2022.

Where did the inspiration for this project come from?

I’ve worked with screenwriter Roger Williams quite a bit on a number of television projects, and we’re both passionate about horror. We were also passionate about creating a piece of horror cinema in the Welsh language, with the ambition of having it travel the world. We decided to delve into the long history of Welsh literature, which is inherently horrific in many ways, and use that as a springboard to tell a story about contemporary Wales, weaving in the global theme of climate crisis.

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Now that the film is about to be unleashed on the world, what are your hopes for it and the Welsh industry at large?

I have big hopes for our little film. I would love it if it were to kickstart some kind of industry in the Welsh language. There’s absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t have a thriving film industry. But it seems to me that we need to be pragmatic in establishing the kind of brand that we sell to the world, and it’s about identifying what we do really well. Our culture, our literary heritage is full of these brilliant, fantastical stories. I think that’s a really good base for us to start from. There is no reason why Wales can’t be as renowned for horror as somewhere like South Korea.

For it's reception see:

• Gwledd (The Feast) on track to become most successful Welsh language film of all time
• The Feast’ review: A keen-edged, slow-burn Welsh-language horror that takes no prisoners
• The Feast is a chilling Welsh-language eco-horror
• The Feast—folklore meets gore in this environmental horror film

Trailer

IMDb

Let's pick out a line from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-h/16643-h.htm to see what he has to say:

"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist."

That's a pretty typical line. Let's set aside for now the debate on whether nonconformity is good or bad: look at the tone of the writing. It is a moral lecture. It is saying: "This is how you should think, what you should believe, how you should be." The reading allows only one interpretation. It's just beating you about the head with serious truth-claims. Another line:

"Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is Christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For everything that is given, something is taken."

Each sentence is a bland assertion. Commanding the reader what to think. I am reading a list of opinions. That is all it is: a list of opinions. This is considered peak Usan culture. It is considered to be literature or philosophy. Another line –

"He is a good man, who can receive a gift well. We are either glad or sorry at a gift, and both emotions are unbecoming."

This is not literature. This is a self-help book. It is downright bad, adolescent writing. It's relentlessly po-faced, and there isn't a whiff of creativity from the prose. I grew up on Irish writers. Irish writers say things like –

"Choosing his boot, the buttoned class, as a convenient example of inanation, he lifted it in the air"

Irish writers say things like –

"She opened the fridge for the ham, the butter, the can of Smithwick's. Happy as a duck she was"

These are just the first two lines before my eyes when I picked up the first two books by my elbow. Do you see the difference? Literature should have warmth, humanity, creativity. Writers should have the craic with language. The words should be buttered with character. Ralph Waldo Emerson's output has all the banality of ChatGPT's. Imagine living with this guy. Imagine trying to flirt with him and he just starts lecturing you like a charmless Anglican.

Edgar Allen Poe's pretty good though I'll give the yanks that.

They include:

• Romance of the Three Kingdoms

• Water Margin

• Journey to the West

• The Plum in the Golden Vase (of the Ming dynasty)

• Dream of the Red Chamber (The Story of the Stone)

• The Scholars (of the Qing dynasty).

The Chinese historian and literary theorist C. T. Hsia wrote that these six "remain the most beloved novels among the Chinese."[2]

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16652219

This isn’t the first film to serve up redemption through a furry emissary – and it won’t be the last. Guan Hu’s Chinese drama-cum-western-cum-state-of-the-nation missive won Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year – but more importantly, its heavy canine quotient meant it also bagged the second prize in the festival’s Palm Dog award. Its heartwarming aspect comes framed with real grandeur, and a stark absurdism and tightly wound sentimentality reminiscent at times of Takeshi Kitano.

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the splendid desolation of the vision of China makes the film’s feelgood belly-rubs feel all the more vital.

Really really good, best film I've seen in years.

Won the 2023 Palme D'Or.

It's a French courtroom drama I suppose you could call it, though it doesn't follow some genre formula.

The brilliance of it is that the questions aren't answered, the core of the plot is a mystery rather than a stated fact. My main gripe about American culture is there is only one interpretation of the text.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUXawkH-ONM

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_a_Fall

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17009710/

cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/australia@aussie.zone/t/1119180

We were dismayed to see no Australians on the New York Times Best Books of the 21st Century – so, with the help of 50 experts, we created our own, all-Australian list. You can have your say, too!

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16556837

Kneecap is so confident and single-minded in its telling of the semi-fictionalised origins of its titular west Belfast hip-hop trio, that it may make anyone who’s never heard of them feel like a bit of a loser. It’s a film that not only signals a major musical arrival, but ends up feeling a lot bigger than the conventional (and often confining) boundaries of the “music biopic”. Kneecap is the story of Belfast and of the “ceasefire generation” – the ones who were told that all is well, that they live in “the moment after the moment”, even when their nation’s traumas are still writ into their bones. It’s a story, too, crucially, about language deployed as an act of liberation and defiance.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19382242

https://steamdb.info/charts/?sort=peak

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16376448

Hollywood blockbusters have dominated international box offices for decades, but in recent years, they have lost luster in the largest movie market outside the U.S. — China.

Walt Disney Co.'s latest film, "Deadpool & Wolverine," has taken the world by storm since its release on July 22, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. But it has failed to replicate that success among Chinese moviegoers.

While the Marvel superhero sequel made a respectable $57 million in its first 20 days in China, a locally produced comedy-drama, "Successor," made six times as much in the time period, according to data from maoyan.com.

Released on July 16, "Successor" continues to thrive in Chinese theaters. As of Monday, it had grossed over $439 million to cement itself as China's third most-watched movie of the year. "Deadpool & Wolverine" languishes at number 15.

A hit Hollywood franchise screened in China, especially one under Marvel, would be almost certain to rank higher in the box office prior to 2020. For instance, Avengers: End Game was China's third most popular movie in 2019.

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"China learned all they could from Hollywood. Now they make their own big-budget blockbuster films with good special effects, and even good animated films ... They don't need Hollywood anymore," Rosen, who specializes in Chinese politics, society, and film, told CNBC.

Meanwhile, Chinese films like "Successor" have a major home-field advantage.

"The Chinese audience, mostly young people, want stories they can resonate with ... films that relate to things happening in China in one way or another," said Rosen.

Successor matches that description, with the film touching upon themes of child-raising, education and upward mobility, tailored specifically for the domestic market, according to Emilie Yeh, Dean of Arts at Hong Kong's Lingnan University.

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Aside from films that are culturally relevant and relatable to the Chinese market, nationalistic and patriotic movies have also become increasingly popular.

China's top-grossing movie of all time is 2021's "The Battle at Lake Changjin," which depicts a battle between the North Korea-allied Chinese People's Volunteer Army and U.S. forces during the Korean War. It's followed by "Wolf Warrior 2," a 2017 film about a patriotic Chinese action hero battling corrupt forces overseas.

This patriotic streak has gone hand in hand with increased Sino-U.S. tensions and the 'decoupling' of the world's two largest economies.

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The Chinese Communist Party takes an active role in developing and overseeing the local film market, as well as deciding how many foreign movies are screened in the country's theaters.

In 2012, then-vice President Xi Jinping and Joe Biden signed an agreement to increase Hollywood's access to China. This eventually led to a 34-title quota for U.S. movies to be distributed by a Chinese state enterprise under a revenue share model. Approved movies also had to pass through China's strict censorship policies.

When Xi became president, he put the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party in charge of regulating and overseeing films.

As per local media reports, China Film Co. had a role in producing "Successor." The company was started by China Film Group Corporation — linked to Beijing's propaganda department — and other entities.

According to Lingnan University's Yeh, while "Successor" is a great movie with a good script, it still benefits massively from distribution, promotion, and "blessings" from the state.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16244881

Korean film maestro Park Chan-wook is keeping in motion. The internationally acclaimed auteur, 60, will begin production on Saturday on his 12th feature, an adaptation of American novelist Donald Westlake’s 1996 novel The Ax. The movie, which is currently going by the working title I Can’t Help It, will star Korean screen royalty Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin, with financing and distribution coming from local studio heavyweight CJ ENM.

Westlake’s novel was previously adapted into French by Costa Gavras as the 2005 film Le Couperet (The Axe). Like its predecessor, Park’s adaptation follows a man — named Man-soo this time and played by Lee — who is abruptly laid off by the paper company where he worked tirelessly for many years. The man grows increasingly desperate in his hunt for new work, eventually resolving to kill his job competitors. Son will play the man’s wife, the warm-hearted Mi-ri.

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CJ ENM has said the target release date for the film remains undecided. Park, however, is a regular at the Cannes Film Festival, held annually in May, having premiered four of his films there.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16093338

Austria in the 18th century. Forests surround villages. Killing a baby gets a woman sentenced to death. Agnes readies for married life with her beloved. But her mind and heart grow heavy. A gloomy path alone, evil thoughts arising.

IMDb

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/15843547

Ten years ago, musician Usman Riaz grabbed a pencil and started to sketch.

He might have hoped, but didn't know at the time, that it would start him on a path to making history.

That initial drawing became The Glassworker - Pakistan's first ever hand-drawn animated feature film.

It follows the story of young Vincent and his father Tomas, who run a glass workshop, and a war that threatens to upend their lives.

Vincent's relationship with violinist Alliz, the daughter of a military colonel, begins to test the bond between father and son.

Usman tells BBC Asian Network the characters ultimately come to learn "that life is beautiful but fragile, like glass”.

He describes The Glassworker as an "anti-war film" set in an ambiguous and fantastical world that takes inspiration from his home country.

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The country doesn't have the thriving film industry of neighbouring India and there is no government support or incentive for budding creatives like Usman.

So The Glassworker was a passion project, he says.

“These 10 years for me have just been purely driven with passion and obsession.

“Since I was a child, I have loved hand-drawn animation and there's something so magical about it.

"The beauty of the lines drawn and painted by the human hand always resonated with me.”

Usman says he travelled the world looking for mentors and his search took him to Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli.

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Usman says the industry veterans at Ghibli were also the ones who encouraged him to start the production himself.

After raising $116,000 through a 2016 crowdfunding campaign he founded his own studio, Mano Animations.

From there it's been a painstaking process, especially since full production started in 2019.

“What you are watching is essentially a moving painting,” says Usman.

“Every single frame you see, whether it's a background or the character moving, it's all drawn by hand.”

Usman says that, so far, he hasn't made any money from the project and has been unable to pay his wife Maryam and cousin Khizer, who he recruited to help him.

But there's hope that the labour of love could be the start of something bigger.

These archived versions might give you an idea.

• Archive.org - German
• Archive.org - Russian
• Archive.org - French
• Archive.org - Italian

To be honest, I don't know about the PDF versions you can find in Anna's Archive or similar archives/libraries. These methods had apparently been optimized for printed, pocket-sized books.

I consider these methods among those things that have not been necessarily superseded "just because" we have more advanced technology. They were very sophisticated for their time, marketed like many courses of this type to the busy working person, and at the same time were effective and entertaining.

We always had a couple of those books lying around the house (German and French). The annotations and explanations for native English speakers are superb, and the overall presentation of the volumes was of very high quality with minimal typos and errors. I only have found a couple omissions over some three hunded pages or sth which is virtually excellent.

With a good command of the English language that many possess, these books are accessible and effective in language learning, and if I don't omit some books, then you can teach yourself German, French, Italian, and Russian, using these methods. Let me add, they have accompanying cassette tapes (yes! Tapes!) which you can also find ripped in some online libraries.

The texts are tastefully chosen, they involve funny stories, anecdotes, proverbs. The culture and gender roles depicted in these books are dated of course, but it is like traveling back in time to simpler times, where you have to call the music teacher on their landline to tell them they forgot their umbrella, but you don't find him at home, so you have to leave a message to the housemaid, whatever. I look at these stories with a time traveler's curiosity. I do find this kind of thing enjoyable, but this might be a matter of taste.

There is no need to say that the grammar progression is gradual. and there is some opinionated, sublime structure you can vaguely discern, but well perhaps ...you shouldn't? The books make you feel you are in the good hands of some wiser people who have in store for you more and more tips on the language you are trying to learn, which is comforting and takes a load of your head. At some point you do have to pull up a notebook for some grammar stuff, but unless you are serious about learning the language you can as well skip this part and consult the self-contained appendices all the same.

Now there are several things that I think are quite special about this series.

Page numbers are transcribed in a simplified pronunciation system. Lessons are numbered too. Under the text you can find a phonetic transcription, which is not IPA but a custom system, that somehow makes sense to a speaker of English, for instance u with umlaut in German sounds like the last syllable of "view". This is not a novelty of course, but it is very well thought out how discretely it is placed on the page, that you can seamlessly ignore it for pages and pages over, without ever looking at it, but when you actually need it, it is consistently there.

Then, there are some footnotes, as well as some proper notes that are part of the subject matter. These are very thoughtful. Every time you wonder "what now?" about either a grammatical or a cultural thing, you will find the explanation right in the notes.

Everything is made to fit in pairs of pages (English on the left, Target language on the right), so you can look up translations both ways. Everything is discretely numbered so you can cross-reference everything: sentences, notes, lessons, appendices. (See note 7 in lesson 24). After the various stories and episodes that form the main lesson, there is one exercise (also numbered and phonetically transcribed) that delves deeper in grammar stuff and is more bland/repetitive, but usually relates to the main story. The hidden treat here is the comic. Yes, there is a comic strip next to the boring exercise always , so you are tempted to go right through the exercise to get the joke. Every now and then there are some revision chapters that are blocks of English text breaking down different grammar phenomena.

That is enough said about the design. Everything is designed and placed on the page with taste and sophistication that not all modern apps provide. The whole book fits in a pocket and is dense with compressed, promptly retrievable, information for a language learner.

Design issues aside there is the actual method. At first you just read the texts and the exercises. When you start to get better at it, you have to be able to translate the whole lesson and the exercise. At some point they ask you to get back to first lessons and try to reverse translate from target language to English. Later on they ask you to stop memorizing the main text, but you have to keep on memorizing the exercise and continue the reverse translating. Each lesson can take you up to 20 minutes tops.

Anyway, I don't know if this works for everybody or if it is demonstrably any better than other methods or apps, but I think it is very advanced for its era because every little thing seems to be very well thought out, and it is very smartly designed, so it has set some standards for me personally as to what a good piece of work should look like, be it on paper or on screen. The stories are enjoyable to me, and I reach out to these books as a pastime quite often, and I have picked up some German and French on the way. Now I have found the whole series in Anna's Archive and I am tempted to look into Russian and Italian too, but let me tell you, these books really shine in the printed book format for which they are designed. I tried to use them with a PDF viewer and they are not as easy to handle as the printed book. So if you happen across any of them in a thrift store or something give them a chance, they might become treasured items of your collection, especially if you are into languages.

Still bugs me how this level of detailed organization and proof-reading was even possible before computers, but it is really impressive!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18182906

Source
Linux currently 29.1%

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/15581017

Near the start of “Only the River Flows,” police officers set up an office in a closing movie theater. That backdrop suits this Chinese noir, the third feature from the director Wei Shujun, which, at times, feels like it unfolds in a universe of other films.

Tangled, unresolved procedurals like Bong Joon Ho’s “Memories of Murder” and David Fincher’s “Zodiac” loom large. Much of the score, on the other hand, is taken, strangely, from David Cronenberg’s “Crash” — not a murder mystery, but perhaps a clue to the kind of mind-body disconnect and existential stakes that Wei’s film means to ponder.

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But “Only the River Flows,” based on a work by the author Yu Hua, is not the pure pulp a summary suggests. (An opening quotation from Albert Camus is fair warning.) As Ma Zhe’s personal life and the investigation begin to merge in his mind, Wei’s film increasingly blurs the line between the real and the imagined. The filmmaker has a gift for disorientation — a chilling cut connects a scene of a pregnancy ultrasound to Ma Zhe flipping through slides of murder evidence — that partly compensates for the muddiness of the plot.

Trailer

IMDb