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b-skarsgard · 4 days

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–How involved were you with casting, and what led to Bill Skarsgård getting the lead?

FITZJOHN: We were completely hands-on on all things, including casting. The usual suspects were thrown around by the sales agent saying, “We need to look at…” I won’t mention any names, but we did talk to some of the big A-league boys. I think it was Roy Lee who suggested, “What about Bill Skarsgård?” and when we first heard that, to be honest, that didn’t really strike us. You know, he’s not exactly a boy, he’s 6-foot-4–a pretty significant man. And then the irony of that was it got us talking about, “This kind of reminds me of that story about the baby elephant that’s tied to the stake and pulls and pulls and pulls and can’t get away. And then by the time it’s a big bull elephant, it doesn’t even try to pull the stake, which it could probably do in no time.” And that’s essentially Boy’s story, the way he’s been so programmed by Shaman. He should be the champion, but he cedes the king role to Shaman, who’s about half his size by the time he’s grown up. So it just felt right.

SWART: When we spoke to Bill, he was so excited about playing a true action role. He’s a massive martial arts fan, and so capable. He was like, “Yeah, I want to do the training, and as many of my own stunts as you guys will let me.” We said, “Well, that’s great, Bill, but remember, your character has no lines, you have no dialogue.” And he said, “Yeah, that’s what really gets me about this role.” He studied the old Charlie Chaplin silent movies; he not only prepared his body and learned the martial arts part, but if you look at the range of emotion on his face, there are some little homages to classic Chaplin as well.

The rest of the ensemble was very much the same, finding the right people to bring these wacky characters to life. When we interviewed the actors, as well as our heads of department, we told them, “Wave your crazy flag! However you bring these characters to life, just lean into your creative inspiration.”

FITZJOHN: Getting back to Bill, if you see what he does under all the prosthetics in IT, you still know what he’s thinking and feeling. He’s one of a kind, and if Hollywood hasn’t recognized that he’s a big star yet, I believe they’re going to after this movie.

What went into getting Skarsgård in shape and choreographing his fight scenes?

FITZJOHN: That was a pretty significant task. Our stunt coordinator, Dawid Szatarski, is incredible in terms of how he thinks. He thinks in movement. Dawid basically invented a fighting style for Bill, given his lankiness; he wanted him to move with big sweeping motions, and they spent quite a bit of time in Berlin doing the training. We also hired a really good fitness/strength coach, a nutritionist, who basically lived with Bill for about nine months getting him ready. I didn’t stay too far from Bill during production, and I would watch him do a 12-hour shoot and then go and do a two-hour calisthenics workout on the roof. I mean, the guy would work out during lunch breaks. He never stopped; I’d never seen anything like that commitment. He became Boy.

SWART: Dawid was also our 2nd unit director. I think he has three or four credits on the movie; he actually has a great cameo as VDK Dawe, the one soldier who just won’t go down. Bill’s relationship with Dawid was very special, and there were times when Dawid would go to Bill saying, “So, do you think you can do this stunt?” and Bill would go, “Of course I can do this stunt,” and we were like, “No, you can’t do this stunt!” There were many moments when I would have to tell Bill, “No, no, you’ve got to use a double for this, because if you twist your ankle or something at this stage of the shoot…” But Bill was up for anything; he was like, “Well, then don’t challenge me,” you know? “Don’t dare me.” And we were like, “We’re not daring you!”

FITZJOHN: If we’re honest, Bill did the bulk of it; it’s not a battle we won in the end. Outside of the stupid, crazy stuff, like when we were throwing Boy down from a double-story balcony, he pretty much did everything.

I’ve heard that Skarsgård originally did Boy’s voiceovers himself, before H. Jon Benjamin came in and took over. Can you talk about the reasons and that process?

FITZJOHN: It was always going to be H. Jon Benjamin. I mean, Moritz called it at the same time, when we were casting. The short had this Marlboro Man voiceover that just doesn’t match with Boy. And even with Bill’s versatility, we needed to explore something like that. He did an amazing job, but the audiences wanted the almost bipolar nature of it.

SWART: It’s the absurdity of his inner voice, right? So in the short it’s the Marlboro Man, and Boy gets his voice from an old cigarette commercial. For the feature, we recorded Bill, which did give us a great connection to his character, but we found that we lost the absurdity of where his inner voice comes from. It took something away from the physical performance and the storytelling.

FITZJOHN: And also, given the nature of the story, the humor of H. Jon Benjamin gives us a reprieve, in a good way, from a pretty dark, dramatic and violent story.

#bill skarsgard #bill skarsgård #boy kills world #article #interview

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ytptennis · 2 months

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Does Ole know how to fight? He looks like someone physically trained in the sense of combat, the jump in the gas station scene is very well choreographed (congratulations to Sam for the performance, even considering his height) - I'm a jiu-jitsu fighter and a ballerina, he did a jump very acrobatic in that scene, and I also imagine that he wasn't the type of hitman who kills you with a sniper, but the type who, if necessary, will go into brute force combat.

There's also the scene of him rescuing Dot from the well, Munch literally arrived with everything at Roy's henchman, unarmed and with only a knife (considering he had the knife that blinded Gator), I wanted to see the combat scenes with him, like we saw Malvo, Numbers, Wrench and so on. He seems very well trained to me.

(he seems to follow more of a stealthy style of combat)

ooo yes I love this question >:333

yes I do believe munch knew how to fight, though not formally. again, this is a situation where time is on his side; his own personal form of self defense that he's used for so long it almost resembles a discipline of martial arts were it not for how bestial & instinctive it is. at least with martial arts you can tell there was a before and after while the skills were honed, but munch has always needed to lash back at predators. its likeness to formal combat comes with his eventual incorporation of firearms combined with the pseudo-psychic knowledge he has of human behavior.

munch seems to prefer firearms as a last resort, though & doesn't appear to like relying on them. idk he seemed exasperated when he had to pull out the assault rifle in ep1, & when defending himself against gator in ep2, the scene clearly reads that he is the weapon, and not the pistol. age has not withered him but made him unnaturally strong and fast. thats more my headcanon since its feasible for a grown man to snap another grown man's wrist but learning of munch's supernatural origins adds that different flavor to his physical prowess.

im of the mind that munch's path to becoming a hitman was a complicated one rather than something he just picked up to survive. "a man is paid to soldier" but then he lays down his arms to go live with a community that welcomes him, until "the cannon & the musket" pull him back into solitude. i think thats when he starts using firearms as an extension of himself, to seek revenge. he probably had his own formal hunting skills, sure, but now that the significance behind those skills has been ripped from him, he wants to feed that cruelty back. bows & arrows become guns, and when he cant pick off his enemies from afar, he uses his hands and teeth. it might also be a form of punishment, like attaching a gangrenous limb to a stump. it provides you with temporary reach at the cost of poisoning you.

I thought it was interesting that he knew he was going to be ambushed the second he saw those men through the bushes & yet still followed gator to the shed (?) instead of incapacitating him before they turned the corner. I think he wanted to humiliate him, and, in turn, roy, by proving he's just as useless being supported by others as he is alone. kinda pretentious here so bear with me, but I also thought it was great that munch subdued gator by yanking his groin. a very good blink-and-you'll-miss-it instance of munch using the tillmans' masculinity against them.

the whole thing with dot's rescue will always be fascinating to me no matter what bc of all the unspoken layers leading up to it. munch went to the ranch with the intent of hurting gator, but somewhere along the way he sensed dot's presence, like he could smell her fear, and he followed it. from the way that one henchman was pulled, we can infer munch snuck up from behind, maybe from low ground, which would explain why the others didn't readily see him from their peripherals. that combined with his ferocity threw them off guard just enough that he could disarm them. instead of approaching them as another henchman, which he temporarily was, he rips them apart. instead of leaving dot to use the ladder, he checks up on her, remarks about the unfairness of her situation, and extends a hand. there is a clear thought process here, not entirely governed by animal instincts. he does sense the caged animal in dot, but the residual human in him desires contact and reassurance and the need to help, especially someone who's so like him that it haunts him. I've waxed on about it before but its so "stray animal learns to respect the human that feeds it" except he & dot weren't on that level yet. it was just a spiritual connection, one that was unequivocally necessary to act on. humans are social animals, but animals all the same, & that dormant part of his brain that yearned for love all those centuries was poked at, ironically, after being beaten in battle by this woman who was at her most animalistic. a prey animal turned predator.

#💌#fargo fx #ole munch

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ruinsofxerxes · 10 months

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Scar and Al are being disrespected in that poll fr, Mustang Vs Lust WAS cool but was it the amazing climax of a character arc in the narrative? No (tho I will give that Mustang vs Envy WAS, I just think Scar and Al were cooler than him)

YOU, ANON, YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS ME!!! Those are such underrated fight scenes!!! Like!!!! The anticipation…the lead up…the culmination of everything their characters are!!!! SO GOOD. It’s not just that they’re well choreographed fight scenes, it’s how well they are written and how important they are for Al and Scar as characters! The payoffs for their storylines are *chef’s kiss*

Even thinking about Al’s fight with pride is enough to make me go feral. Bro used his OWN LEG to make a SWORD!!! And the way he emerges from all the smoke after pride thought he had won and Al’s like BITCH YOU THOUGHT!!! BRUH….I have to calm down I’m getting all up in a state just thinking about it!!!!

Roy vs. Lust is a super cool scene too. It’s so intense and the animation is amazing. But lbr….we all give that scene so much praise because of Roy’s tiddies (which is valid)

#AHHHHHHHHHHHH #I’m gonna go to sleep now and replay the Al vs Pride fight in my head like a bedtime story #ask #anonymous

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ultimate-swordsmanship-bracket · 1 year

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ROUND 1 MATCH 10: Crona vs Qui-Gon Jinn

[Note, this was meant to be Camilla vs Weiss but there's something I need to sort out with that poll and I wanted to get others out in the meantime. Camilla vs Weiss should go up later today.]

The child of a witch, fused to a sentient magic sword... vs the Jedi Master whose actor incorporated real swordsmanship techniques into his fight scenes!

Summaries under the cut:

Crona is fused to a sentient magic sword that they can summon out of their own blood (and that also apparently has a human form). They can attack at a distance by manifesting a mouth on the sword that is used to send tangible sound waves at their opponents. They use the sword in combat as well as using their blood to create spikes and throwing knives.

Qui-Gon Jinn is a Jedi Master and skilled with a lightsaber. His actor, Liam Neeson, had extensive training in accurate historical swordsmanship from filming Rob Roy, and incorporated this into his fight scenes--apparently confusing the others on set when he'd do moves that hadn't been choreographed!

#crona #soul eater #qui gon jinn #star wars

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apieters · 7 months

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The MacBeth Demonstration

In This Scene

“Lay on, MacDuff, and d@mned be he that first cries ‘Hold, enough!’” André recited, and he swung at Chris the tyrannosaur with his heavy Scotch broadsword. Chris slipped back and lunged, and André quickly brought his sword up into a hanging guard, and the fight was on.

Simba, King of the Pridelands and Director of the Pridelands Shakespeare Company (PSC), smiled as the two fencing masters demonstrated the new fight choreography for his next production of the “Scottish Play,” scribbling notes in a notebook as he jotted down ideas that came into his head as he imagined his father and himself clashing blades onstage, he playing a Lowland Scots MacDuff and his father the role of the Highland Pretender to the throne of Scotland.

Beside him was his mate, Nala, Queen of the Pridelands, making her own mental notes. However, she found her thoughts drifting back to Scar’s regency, when she first learned of André’s skill with the broadsword. She was but a cub, then. The infamous “Hamlet Incident” had been but a year in the past, leaving Mufasa in a coma, Scar as King-Regent, and Simba nowhere to be found. She had seen the PSC’s fight choreographer hiking along the edges of the Pridelands several times, brooding silently with a sword at his hip, always looking disheveled, as if he’d slept in his clothes and just woken up. One day, she and her friends Chumvi and Kula were foraging for food (the first of several famines during Scar’s regency was just starting) when a group of hyena thugs had cornered them to steal what they’d found. They’d escaped up a tree, surrounded by hyenas, when André had appeared. He told them all to stand down. They’d sneered at him, asking to know what he was going to do about it.

That was when André drew his broadsword.

The hyenas attacked at all once, but André retreated until they’d thinned themselves out, then began attacking them one by one, hamstringing some, slashing at others’ shoulders, and smashing others in the face with his sword’s steel basket-hilt like brass knuckles. The fight was over in minutes, and when it was over he’d escorted the cubs back to Pride Rock, scolding them for wandering off alone so far from their parents. So when Nala grew older, a few years later, she knew who she wanted to teach her how to fight…

Behind the Scenes

Since I’ve been leaning a bit more heavily into my Highland broadsword fencing in the past few months, I decided to draw Chris and André doing something broadsword-related. While Chris can canonically use a Highland broadsword, his anatomy (short arms, big head) places major limitations on the techniques and guards he can use effectively, so he prefers to use rapiers and other thrust-centric swords whenever possible. Meanwhile, I’ve always conceived of André favoring more cut-centric swords and fencing styles since his earliest inception, and in the spirit of “write what you know,” I’ve given him skills in the British/Anglophone broadsword tradition.

Thus, I decided to stage a fight scene between Chris wielding a rapier and André wielding a Highland broadsword, and in that spirit decided to trace a screenshot of the final duel between Tim Roth and Liam Neeson in Rob Roy—this one, in fact:

I drew Chris using the same (anachronistic) style of rapier that Roth uses (it’s from nearly a century before the film takes place), while André gets the broadsword. From his earliest incarnation, Chris’s signature weapon was a cup-hilt rapier without a knuckle-guard, because he was a pirate captain and Disney’s version of Captain Hook had one. But as a kid, I came up with the idea that as Chris got older, he would retire his old rapier and start favoring a shorter, lighter rapier with a knuckle-guard, and Roth’s prop was exactly what I imagined. It seems that at this point in his life, he’s already acquired his new weapon, even if it’s not his main sword.

I was originally going to have the scene take place in the same kind of castle vault as the original screenshot, but the framing wasn’t working right—there was empty space in all the wrong places and the perspective was a bit too hard to nail down. So I changed the scene to Chris and André’s studio/home, Jeronimo’s.

The story is a variation on the children’s book “Nala’s Dare,” written by Joanne Barkan, as summarized on the Lion King Wiki ( https://lionking.fandom.com/wiki/Nala%27s_Dare ). In Swashbucklers of the Magic Kingdom, the Disney stories and movies we all know and love are exactly that—movies and stories. However, these stories usually end up being “fantastic retellings” of the characters’ “real lives” when they’re not making world-renowned movies, and some characters can appear in more than one story under a variety of names and even forms. In this case, Word of God says that André is, in fact, the in-universe basis for the character of Ni the rogue lion in “Nala’s Dare’—and this fact will become important in the latter half of Swashbucklers of the Magic Kingdom as Chris, André and Kopa start playing with some unusually powerful magic…

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wornoutspines · 1 year

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The Marvels | Trailer

#TheMarvels teaser has a lot of potential, I can already see how amazing the predicament they find themselves in could look in a well choreographed fight scene. #Marvel #MCU #BrieLarson #TeyonahParris #ImanVellani #SamuelLJackson #TeaserTrailer

Writer: Gene Colan & Roy Thomas Director: Nia DaCosta Stars: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Iman Vellani, Teyonah Parris, Zawe Ashton, Park Seo-Joon The Marvels will hit theatres in November 2023

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crowdvscritic · 3 years

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round up // JULY 21

‘Tis the season to beat the heat at the always-cold theatres and next to fans set at turbo speed. While my movie watching slowed a bit with the launch of the Summer Olympics on July 23rd, I’ve still got plenty of popcorn-ready and artsy recommendations for you. A few themes in the new-to-me pop culture I’m recommending this month:

Casts oozing with embarrassing levels of talent (sometimes overqualified for the movies they’re in)

Pop culture that is responding or reinterpreting past pop culture

Stories that get weEeEeird

Keep on-a-scrollin’ to see which is which!

July Crowd-Pleasers

1. Double Feature – ‘90s Rom-Coms feat. Lots of Lies: Mystery Date (1991) + The Pallbearer (1996)

In Mystery Date (Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 6/10), Ethan Hawke and Teri Polo get set up on a blind date that gets so bizarre and crime-y I’m not sure how this didn’t come out in the ‘80s. In The Pallbearer (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10), David Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow try to combine The Graduate with Four Weddings and a Funeral in a story about lost twentysomethings. If you don’t like rom-coms in which circumstances depend on lots of lies and misunderstandings, these won’t be your jam, but if you’re like me and don’t mind these somewhat-cliché devices, you’ll be hooked by likeable casts and plenty of rom and com.

2. The Tomorrow War (2021)

I thought of no fewer movies than this list while watching: Alien, Aliens, Angel Has Fallen, Cloverfield, Interstellar, Kong: Skull Island, Prometheus, A Quiet Place: Part II, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith, The Silence of the Lambs, The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and World War Z. And you know what? I like all those movies! (Okay, maybe I just have a healthy respect/fear of The Silence of the Lambs.) The Tomorrow War may not be original, but it borrows some of the best tropes and beats from the sci-fi and action genres, so much so I wish I could’ve seen Chris Pratt and Co. fight those gross monsters on a big screen. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 6/10

3. Dream a Little Dream (1989)

My July pick for the Dumb Rom-Com I Nevertheless Enjoyed! I CANNOT explain the mechanics of this body switch comedy to you—nor can the back of the DVD case above—but, boy, what an ‘80s MOOD. I did not know I needed to see a choreographed dance routine starring Jason Robards and Corey Feldman, but I DID. All I know is some movies are made for me and that I’m now a card-carrying member of the Two Coreys fan club. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 6.5/10

4. Black Widow (2021)

The braids! The Pugh! Black Widow worked for me both as an exciting action adventure and as a respite from the Marvel adventures dependent on a long memory of the franchise. (Well, mostly—keep reading for a second MCU rec much more dependent on the gobs of previous releases.) Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

5. Liar Liar (1997)

Guys, Jim Carrey is hilarious. That’s it—that’s the review. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7/10

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6. Sob Rock by John Mayer (2021)

It’s very possible I’ve already listened to this record more than all other John Mayer records. It doesn’t surpass the capital-G Greatness of Continuum, but it’s a little bit of old school Mayer, a little bit ‘80s soft rock/pop, and I’ve had it on repeat most of the two weeks since it’s been out. Featuring the boppiest bop that ever bopped, at least one lyrical gem in every track, and an ad campaign focused on Walkmans, this record skirts the line between Crowd faves and Critic-worthy musicianship.

7. Double Feature – ‘00s Ben Affleck Political Thrillers: The Sum of All Fears (2002) + State of Play (2009)

In The Sum of All Fears (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), Ben Affleck is Jack Ryan caught up in yet another international incident. In State of Play (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10), he’s a hotshot Congressman caught up in a scandal. Both are full of plot twists and unexpected turns, and in both, Affleck is accompanied by actors you’re always happy to see, like Jason Bateman, James Cromwell, Russell Crowe, Jeff Daniels, Viola Davis, Morgan Freeman, Philip Baker Hall, David Harbour, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Liev Schreiber, and Robin Wright—yes, I swear all of those people are in just those two movies.

8. Loki (2021-)

Unlike Black Widow, you can’t go into Loki with no MCU experience. The show finds clever ways to nudge us with reminders (and did better at it than Falcon and the Winter Soldier), but be forewarned that at some point, you’re just going to have to let go and accept wherever this timeline-hopper is taking you. An ever-charismatic cast keeps us grounded (Owen Wilson, Jonathan Majors, and an alligator almost steal the show from Tom Hiddleston in some eps), but while Falcon lasted an episode or two too long, Loki could’ve used a few more to flesh out its complicated plot and develop its characters. Thankfully, the jokes matter almost as much as the sci-fi, so you can still have fun even if you have no idea what’s going on.

9. Double Feature – Bruce Willis: Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) + The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

Before Bruce Willis began starring in many random direct-to-DVD movies I only ever hear about in my Redbox emails, he was a Movie Star smirking his way up the box office charts. In the third Die Hard (Crowd: 10/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), he teams up with Samuel L. Jackson to decipher the riddles of a terrorist madman (Jeremy Irons), and it’s a thrill ride. In The Whole Nine Yards (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8/10), he’s hitman that screws up dentist Matthew Perry’s boring life in Canada, and—aside from one frustrating scene of let’s-objectify-women-style nudity—it’s hilarious.

10. This Is the End (2013)

On paper, this is not a movie for me. An irreverent stoner comedy about a bunch of bros partying it up before the end of the world? None of things are for Taylors. But with a little help of a TV edit to pare down the raunchy and crude bits, I laughed my way through and spent the next several days thinking through its exploration of what makes a good person. While little of the plot is accurate to Christian Gospel and theology, some of its big ideas are consistent enough with the themes of the book of Revelation I found myself thinking about it again in church this morning. (Would love to know if Seth Rogen ever expected that.) Plus, I love a good self-aware celebrity spoof—can’t tell you how many times I’ve just laughed remembering the line, “It’s me, Jonah Hill, from Moneyball”—and an homage to horror classics. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10

July Critic Picks

1. Summer of Soul (…or, When the Television Could Not Be Televised) (2021)

Even director Questlove didn’t know about the Harlem Cultural Festival, but now he’s compiled the footage so we can all enjoy one of the coolest music fest lineups ever, including The 5th Dimension, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, and Stevie Wonder, who made my friend’s baby dance more than once in the womb. See it on the big screen for top-notch audio. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

2. Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

Robin Williams takes on the bureaucracy, disillusionment, and malaise of the Vietnam War with comedy. Williams was a one-of-a-kind talent, and here it’s on display at a level on par with Aladdin. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

3. Against the Rules Season 2 (2020-21)

Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball, adapted into a film starring Jonah Hill), is interested in how we talk about fairness. This season he looks at how coaches impact fairness in areas like college admissions, credit cards, and youth sports.

4. Bugsy Malone (1976)

A gangster musical starring only children? It’s a little like someone just picked ideas out of a hat, but somehow it works. You can hear why in the Bugsy Malone episode Kyla and I released this month on SO IT’S A SHOW?, plus how this weird artifact of a film connects with Gilmore Girls.

5. The Queen (2006)

Before The Crown, Peter Morgan wrote The Queen, focusing on Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) in the days following the death of Princess Diana. It’s a complex and compassionate drama, both for the Queen and for Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen, who has snuck up on me to become a favorite character actor). Maybe I’ve got a problem, but I’ll never tire of the analysis of this famous family. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9.5/10

6. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)

This month at ZekeFilm, we took a closer look at Revisionist Westerns we’ve missed. I fell hard for Roy Bean, and I think you will, too, if for no other reason than you might like a story starring Jacqueline Bisset, Ava Gardner, John Huston, Paul Newman, and Anthony Perkins. Oh, and a bear! Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 10/10

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7. New Trailer Round Up

Naked Singularity (Aug. 6) – John Boyega in a crime thriller!

Queenpins (Aug. 10) – A crime comedy about extreme coupon-ing!

Dune (Oct. 1) – I’ve been cooler on the anticipation for this film, but this new look has me cautiously intrigued thanks to the Bardem + Bautista + Brolin + Chalamet + Ferguson + Isaac + Momoa + Zendaya of it all.

The Last Duel (Oct. 15) – Affleck! Damon! Driver!

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Nov. 11) - I’m not sure why we need this, but I’m down for the Paul Rudd + Finn Wolfhard combo

King Richard (Nov. 19) - Will Smith as Venus and Serena’s father!

Encanto (Nov. 24) – Disney and Lin-Manuel Miranda making more magic together!

House of Gucci (Nov. 24) - Gaga! Pacino! Driver!

Also in July…

Kyla and I took a look at the classic supernatural soap Dark Shadows and why Sookie might be obsessed with it on Gilmore Girls.

I revisited a so-bad-it’s-good masterpiece that’s a surrealist dream even Fellini couldn’t have cooked up. Yes, for ZekeFilm I wrote about the Vanilla Ice movie, Cool as Ice, which is now a part of my Blu-ray collection.

Photo credits: Against the Rules. All others IMDb.com.

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cyber-flight · 4 years

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Notes from the AHWM Explanation Livestream

This will be long, so fair warning! If you're on computer, you can press the spacebar to skip this post if you want!

There was CG smoke for the bomb

The last shot was running after the bomb goes off, filmed during the day

Many cursed images

(0:56 - Guns Blazing) November 5th = gunpowder treason & plot (a reference)

Ethan is the one yelling during the run

Helicopter/Car was filmed in a place formerly known as Spiderwoods (spiders, snakes, and bugs everywhere)

Mark's patented method to get rid of snakes is to tell them to fuck off

There was big black snake near the library

Chica snore-grumbles

Most of the choices were pretty evenly split in the video data

The guy who owned the field in Helicopter/Car also owned the helicopter

It was hard to get the cameraman to know that the camera is an interacting character

They filmed up to 10 pages a day

Prison was the first 2 days of shooting, as well as the part with the most characters/extras (12 people)

Mick gets typecasted in roles of authority

The Prison location is a functioning mental hospital

John was a Prisoner, first mate, and is a realtor IRL

There is no "why" to recording this to keep a broad audience and have fun after Mark was in a depression and made WKM

The Gregory Brothers / Schmoyoho made 2 renditions of I Don't Wanna Be Free (which is on Apple/iTunes/Spotify)

The musical was a production/recording nightmare on the 2nd day

They had 20 minutes max. to learn each segment; they had a choreographer helping them learn the dances

The original vocals didn't have the accent

Mark had to do the vocals, acting, blocking, etc. in 30 mins

Mick was supposed to cross frame during the top-hats-part, but they had already recorded it; the producers weren't comfortable telling Mark "no" yet, so they had Amy do it

The smashed bricks were styrofoam; Mark was typed to a rope that was pulled

The director of photography was Phillip J Roy; he took a pay cut to work on this project

Yancy's sleeve tattoo is the whole map again

Yancy's tattoos are Tiny Box Tim and Mark/Dark across his knuckles; those were Makeup's ideas

The Musical was only 1/4 of a recording day

There was 3 work weeks of shooting (15 days)

Day By Dave made a remix

Yancy was named "Prison Mark" until the fight scene started to be made in post-production, where he needed a name; Mark liked Yancy and Amy was very against it originally

Yancy killed both of his parents; Mark knew people were gonna fall in love with him anyway

"Yancy stans, go, march on"

Yancy has an emoji bandaid

Heapass (canonically) makes an appearance in Thanks and also Yes Please; he had "Heapass" on a cast, but it was on the wrong side from the camera

Holt Boggs (the cell guard) is an amazing man; he was overqualified ("soft hands")

The cell was in a green-screen soundstage, so there was more improve

Yancy was supposed to be hidden in the ceiling or beside the bed, but under the bed turned out better; he's hidden under the bed the whole scene

The Red Gemini was the camera that they used for this project

Mark just runs off frame in Thanks and also Yes Please

The audio-only part was very convenient for filming and fitting for a 1st-person perspective

Yancy's talk at the gate was Mark real-acting & the late shot of the 1st day of filming, which made all of them realize that the project could actually work

Yancy WANTS to be in prison; he knows all the ways out - he'd leave if he wanted to

The items in the box are more representational achievements

Mark needs our help to promote AHWM, through liking the video(s), commenting good things, and spreading the project; the performance of this dictates the ability to make another similar project

Mark worked for FREE for 5 months, taking no cut of the budget for himself

"Yancy is just Prison Mark with amnesia" "There could be a time-skip there; it could work"

Robert Rex, "a god walking amongst mere morals;" has always wearing the same thing; Mark didn't know that he was going to do different accents

Amy is the hand with the feather-duster

The Warden's desk moves into the hallway after a smash-cut

Mick's line had to be rewritten so it can be ambiguous; you can only tell if you were looking

The Warden embodies "big strong hands," something Mark writes into dialogue a lot (along with "trust you me"); everytime he touches something it cracks (his desk, Yancy's shoulder)

Pulling stuff from behind Mark's back was on-the-spot

The dirt joke was a prop-person and Mark throwing buckets

Mark helped Holt Boggs make a short video

HOLT BOGGS

The truck in Prison was a one-take-wonder; they actually bashed the truck through the wall in a such a cartoony, perfect way

The Bob/Wade skit was a reference to Prop Hunt

Mark comparing the disappointment of people not liking the video to a cup of dirt under the Christmas tree

The lid to the sewer says "a heist with markiplier"

The sewer was in an actual sewer treatment plant, which took about a week of filming; some parts were flooded so they couldn't film there; this place was scheduled to be torn down

Mark forces us to choose the Light Tunnel first

Cranbersher, GrittySugar, and Lixian collaborated for the Light Tunnel; it was originally going to be live action with a green-screen and a pre-made raft; Cranberser offered when he had a 3-month break from other projects

Amy notes that Mark did a lot of "falling"

Mark had to carry a 200 pound man and a heavy camera rig to carry Y/N

There was poison ivy, snakes, spiders, etc. on the island

The Game Grumps voiced the aliens; Erin originally was meant to play the Warden & Danny was meant to play one of the guards

Many roles fluctuated due to scheduling

Getting abducted is a reference to ADWM ("not again!")

Mark loves MatPat's scenes and acting (Build a Shelter)

There were so many mosquitos near the Cave and the actors couldn't put on bug spray because they had to preserve their makeups

There was a giant hole in the Cave from which grasshoppers rained down

They were a mile into the cave; they weren't able to staff them for 3 days, so they recorded for 2 days and had fo cut some shots

The Cave freeze-frame was unscripted; the camera director didn't tell cut and it was too funny

The Hermit was originally supposed to be Jacksepticeye but scheduling errors were in the way

Mick was originally supposed to be Crazy Ed

When the sound-guy didnt have a sound effect, one of them riffed something at the mic and it was modulated to fit as best as possible

Mark's camera loses signal/battery power

Mark has done the hot-wire-while-moving in Car before (van videos)

The blue flash during Car is you from the future/another timeline

Mark was actually driving the car; someone flashed the blue light so it was a bit dangerous

Tyler and Ethan make appearances as Zombies

Tyler actually let Mark hit him with a rock

There was a dead beaver in the shed during the Zombie Apocalypse

The Zombie Apocalypse shots were in VERY hot weather

The barricaded front door but very open back door was intentional humour

Ethan's zombie handshake was thought up on the spot

Moe was the man screaming from the fire and zombie attack, making everyone behind the camera laugh

Rosanna Pansino sings opera & speaks Chinese

The Scientist had to be broken up (the cuts are in the gunshots)

243 is a chemical identification symbol in an actual laboratory, nothing meaningful to the plot

The code leads to the AHWM website

What's truly inside the box is the real timeline, which is the team making the project

The room where the monitor was in (Amy, script manager, etc.) was locked out and no one could see what was going on, only hear it through headsets

Mark threw 2 dummies (main video, Absolutely Not!)

Chica likes to climb through the cords underneath Mark's desk

The true/canon ending is For The Greater Good, which leads to ADWM

SodaPopIn hasn't really done this before, but he went with it because he was told Mark was nice; he continued even during harsh weather, many planes, and a long take/monologue

The sandwiches are a callback to ADWM

The montage endings were inspired by the ones Amy made for ADWM

There was never any time set aside to get photos for the montages, so they had to continuously get pictures

Catherine makes an appearance in the Warfstache bit

Warfstache is just a meta joke > you respond by writing in the comments as a survey, producer Catherine is more powerful than the video-editing, ringing the bell for notifications

They rented the same place for the Warfstache bit that they used to film all the other previous Warfstache bits

Dark inserts himself wherever he feels like being

There is charity (#TeamTrees) merch for each of the egos/Mark characters in this project (including the new ones)

Edge of Sleep's last episode aired yesterday (as of the stream - 6/11/19)

A "reverse" charity livestream is happening soon

The next project(s) are already in the works

SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT HEIST

Amy originally wasn't going to work on this project until they went to Texas; she became Creative Producer once Mark put himself into too many places

Iba originally auditioned for the man in the burning truck, but his voice was so good he became the seer/guide

The project has been "cooking" since May

The next project would be a completely different project, not a continuation

SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT HEIST

Regular uploads start again tomorrow (7/11/19)

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buzzdixonwriter · 3 years

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The Purple Monster Strikes

Recently in an online discussion of 1950s sci-fi films, the old Republic serial The Purple Monster Strikes came up.

Why is came up I’ll mention later, but first let’s note it:

was made in 1945

was the last 15 chapter Republic serial

is awful

Not eyeball gouging / brain melting / soul scorching awful the way The Lost City or Gene Autry And The Phantom Empire or Captain Video are awful, but awful enough…

…yet at the same time, worthy of comment (as we’ll soon note).

1945 is a crucial year. Despite the Nazis last ditch Battle of the Bulge, WWII is clearly winding down to an Allied victory in both Europe and the Pacific.

American audiences feel tired of the war wand want something else in their entertainment, even low brow / low rent entertainment like movie serials.

Republic produced three serials that year: Federal Operator 99 proved surprisingly good, Manhunt Of Mystery Island (their next to last 15 chapter serial) tried some new ideas that while interesting didn’t prove interesting enough to be tried again, and The Purple Monster Strikes brought interplanetary thrills back to the theaters, only this time instead of visiting Mars, Mars (at least two of ‘em) came to Earth.

As noted in my overview of Federal Operator 99, Republic serials of that year looked…inexpensive.*

This is especially true of The Purple Monster Strikes which really needed a bigger budget, a better script, and adequate production time for the type of story it was trying to tell.

That story?

In a nutshell: The Purple Monster is a one-Martian invasion come to steal the secret of the “jet plane” (the script uses the term interchangeably with “rocketship”) from Earth and take it to Mars where it can be mass produced and used to attack our world (Why? WTF knows or cares?). To achieve this The Purple Monster bumps off the scientist in charge of the project, physically possesses his corpse by turning into a ghost-like entity, and tries to kill a nosy investigator and the late scientist’s niece. In the end The Purple Monster tries to escape Earth only to get blowed up real good (Did I mention this is silly, stooped, and trite? I did? Good).

So why am I interested in The Purple Monster Strikes? Well, for two reasons, the second and more important one we’ll save for the end, the first is that when watched with fully informed eyes, it’s a testament to the single greatest contribution the serials made to filmmaking: The production board.

Lemme ‘splain what that is.

In the old days of movie making it was a folder with slots for narrow strips of colored cardboard to be slid in. The strips were color coded for interior or exterior scenes, night or day, specific locations, second unit or special effects, etc.

These strips were grouped together on the production board so all the exterior day shots at one location could be filmed back-to-back, followed by all the night shots there before moving on to a new location.

The colored carboard strips were further broken down to match production numbers in the shooting script (“Scene 37: The bandits take the town”), key props and costumes, stunt work, but most importantly actors / characters in the scene.

You want all your most important / expensive / difficult stuff grouped together…but you also need to figure out what you didn’t need so you could pare down your budget.

For example, if you need someone to play a policeman in Scene 1 and in Scene 12 but those scenes are shot two seeks apart, maybe it’s cheaper to have two different actors playing two different policemen for one day each than keep one actor on call for two weeks.

Likewise, if you’ve got an actor in a key supporting role, put all his scenes together.

This necessitates shooting out of sequence, but shooting out of sequence is now pretty much the industry norm for any filmed or taped production.

The serials invented the production board and the rest of the industry speedily glommed onto it.

Once you know what to look for in The Purple Monster Strikes, you can pretty much break down which scenes were shot when.

Case in point: Masked heroes and villains aside, serial characters rarely change costume except to match stock footage from earlier productions. It’s not especially notable for male characters but females typically wear The Same Damn Dress in Every Damn Scene.

So when heroine Linda Sterling gets dunked in a water tank midway through The Purple Monster Strikes, you can bet that was her last day of filming since they were no longer worried about ruining her costume.

Likewise when a female reinforcement from Mars arrives, the exact same location right down to the same car parked in the same spot are used even though the female Martian doesn’t arrive until 2/3rds of the way into the story.

You wouldn’t notice this week to week in a movie theater, but they’re painfully obvious when bingewatching.

Case in point: There are never more than four characters onscreen at any time; this was all the production could afford on any given day. If a fifth character showed up, one of the others needed to be knocked unconscious (if they were lucky) shot and fall off camera (if they were unlucky), or disintegrated (if they were really unlucky).

For example, the hero and heroine could be talking to a scientist (day 1 / shot 1) when three baddies show up at the door (day 2 / shot 1). The first baddie shoots the scientist, who falls off camera then enters the frame and knocks out the heroine, who conveniently falls behind a counter (day 1 / shot 2). The other two baddies enter and a huge brawl erupts (day 2 / shot 2). The heroine revives (day 1 / shot 3) and shouts a warning at the hero. The hero blasts a minor baddie who falls off camera as the other two baddies flee the scene (day 2 / shot 3), then the heroine rejoins the hero (day 1 / shot 4).

Binge watching also reveals a lot of sets and props reused again and again. The same footstool is used as a weapon more than once, a prop valve in one chapter serves an entirely different function in another, and while serials frequently reused stock special effects shots, The Purple Monster Strikes doesn’t just use the same exploding car shot twice in the same serial, not just twice in the same chapter, but twice in the same car chase!

(Speaking of which, whenever they get in Linda Sterling’s car you know the odds are 50-50 it’s going off a cliff in a big flaming fireball. The Purple Monster Strikes has her going through so many identical make automobiles you’d think she owned stock in a car dealership.)

Anybody familiar with Republic serials is going to find a lot of reused sets and props here. Having seen Manhunt Of Mystery Island recently, I immediately recognized their ubiquitous warehouse set, the Republic Studios loading dock doubles as two different factory exteriors, and having lived in Chatsworth several years I can practically name each and every rock in the exterior scenes.**

On the plus side, bonus points for some impressive looking props, including a rocket test engine that provides the explosive cliffhanger for the first chapter, a double-barrel disintegrator that looks like a giant set of binoculars (I wonder if it was originally a military surplus training aid), and a spaceship seen under construction for most of the serial that proves to be the most striking design the redoubtable Lydecker brothers ever created (a pity it’s glimpsed only briefly before being blown up in the last chapter; Republic should have reused it for their later sci-fi serials instead of the dull unimaginative designs they went with).

Fun factoid: Mi amigo Donald F. Glut, filmmaker / NYTimes bestselling author / film historian, knew The Purple Monster hizzownsef, Roy Barcroft, and reports Barcroft had the wardrobe department sew a secret pocket in his costume for his cigarettes!

Speaking of Barcroft, he’s the best thing in this serial and he ain’t that good. A perennial bad guy in serials and B-Westerns, he normally turned in a satisfying performance, but the script for The Purple Monster Strikes gives him nothing to work with.

I mentioned previously how Federal Operator 99’s script works more often than not and gives its characters something the actors can work with, but The Purple Monster Strikes? Nada.

Every line is a clunky flat declarative sentence exposition dump of the “I’ll take this strange medallion we discovered to Harvey the metallurgist to analyze” variety.

Even Linda Sterling can’t do anything with this though she tries to find an appropriate facial expression for whatever scene she’s thrown in.

As for nominal star Dennis Moore, I won’t say he’s wooden but in one of the innumerable fight scenes Barcroft hurls a coatrack at him and for that brief moment the coatrack delivers a far more memorable performance.

Sidebar on the fight scenes: They are choreographed expertly, among some of the best Republic ever staged, but directors Spencer Gordon Bennet and Fred C. Brannon -- both serial veterans who could do much, much better -- really dropped the ball in shooting them. They’re shot almost entirely in wide angle longshots using slightly sped up photography instead of intercutting to keep the pacing fast.

The rest of the cast consists mostly of stuntmen carefully enunciating their one line before the fists start flying, or older male actors who deliver surprisingly good performances compared to everyone else.

But that script -- oh, lordie, that script! This was made in 1945 and they’ve got a damn organ grinder in it! Organ grinders vanished from the public sphere with the damn of movies; by the 1940s they were found only in comic books and animated cartoons; in other words, kid stuff.***

It’s clear the writers on The Purple Monster Strikes (Royal Cole, Albert DeMond, Basil Dickey, Lynn Perkins, Joseph Poland, and Barney Sarecky) considered this mere juvenile pablum, not worthy of even the smattering of sophistication they sprinkled on Federal Operator 99.

An adult can watch Federal Operator 99 and at least feel the story makes some kind of sense and the characters, however imperfectly enacted, at least offer adult motives and behaviors, but The Purple Monster Strikes is just insulting to the intelligence (I mean, they call the female Martian invader Marsha. Seriously?).

Okay, so why do I think this is worth writing about?

Because The Purple Monster Strikes is the bridge between WWII and the Cold War.

Most of the major tropes of 1950s sci-fi are reactions to Cold War anxieties, and those anxieties are transplanted WWII anxieties.

Before WWII, American moneyed interests waged a relentless PR campaign against communism, socialism, and labor unions (sound familiar?).

Forced to make peace with the Soviets during WWII, these moneyed interests -- now heavily invested in what Dwight D. Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex -- bit their lips as US pop culture portrayed the Russians as gallant allies against fascism (and they were; credit where credit is due).

As soon as the war ended, however, and in fact, even a little before the end (see The Best Years Of Our Lives; great movie), they were already recasting the Russians as treacherous authoritarian atheists out to conquer the world.

As noted earlier, American audiences felt weary of a relentless diet of war related entertainment and in the waning days of the war turned eagerly to non-war related stories.

Likewise studios, not wanting to get caught with rapidly dating WWII related material nobody wanted to see began actively developing different kinds of stories.

After four years of intense anxiety, the country needed to come down but couldn’t go cold turkey. Science fiction (and hardboiled mysteries and spy thrillers) provided safe decompression.

1945 marks a significant sea change in Republic serial production. Sci-fi would become a more predominant theme, infiltrating other genres such as the ever popular masked mastermind (viz. The Crimson Ghost).

Federal Operator 99 would be the last highwater mark for more plausible serial stories, but crime and undercover espionage remained serial staples to the bitter end.

Only Manhunt Of Mystery Island seemed a misfire and even in that case it only meant the masked mastermind returned to more traditional origins instead of the inventive backstory created for Captain Mephisto.

What The Purple Monster Strikes did was take a very familiar set of WWII cliches and stereotypes then recast them in a (relatively) safe science fictional context.

The closest prototype to The Purple Monster Strikes is Republic’s G-Men Vs. The Black Dragon, as racially offensive as you could hope to imagine, and turn the inscrutable “yellow” villains into malevolent purple ones (later green when colorization was added).

By making the literally other worldly alien the “other”, 1950s sci-fi sidestepped the worst implications of their own themes:

Invasion

Subversion

Fifth columns

Loss of soul / identity / individuality (personified in bodily possession by alien intellects)

Paranoia

The Purple Monster Strikes lacks the wit and wherewithal to fully exploit these ideas, but it sure could hold them up for everyone to get a quick glimpse.

As childish and as inane as the plot may be, by the end when hero and heroine realize there is literally no one they can trust, The Purple Monster Strikes dropped a depth charge into preteen psyches fated to go off six years later with the arrival of The Thing From Another World and countless other sci-fi films and TV episodes afterwards.

Did The Purple Monster Strikes create this trend? No, of course not – but as Stephen King pointed out in Danse Macabre regarding the incredibly inane The Horror Of Party Beach’s selection of nuclear waste dumping as their raison d'être for their monsters:

“I’m sure it was one of the least important points in their preproduction discussions and for that reason it becomes very important.”

King’s point is by not giving the matter much thought, The Horror Of Party Beach’s producers simply tapped into a subconscious gestalt already running through the culture and said, “Yeah, nuclear waste, wuddup widdat?”

Likewise, The Purple Monster Strikes’ producers / directors / writers didn’t sit themselves down to analyze Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four but rather picked up on the forever war current already moving through the American body politic.

War without end, war without ceasing.

And if we can’t define an enemy by name or place, so much the better! The war on crime, the war on poverty, the war on drugs…

The war on terror.

The forever war thrives on the faceless unknowable enemy with the unknown but clearly malevolent anti-American agenda.

“Them”…against…U.S.

As an artistic achievement, The Purple Monster Strikes is sadly lacking in nearly all aspects, but as a cultural artifact, it’s still a clear warning.

Only not about “them” but about…us.

* read “cheap”

** Republic’s low budget backed them into an overlapping series of sci-fi serials, loosely referred to as the Rocket Man / Martian invasion serials by fans. The Purple Monster Strikes’ costume was reused for Flying Disc Man From Mars (which featured a semi-circular flying wing already featured in Spy Smasher and King Of The Mounties) and again for Zombies Of The Stratosphere, but between those two serials the wholly unrelated King Of The Rocket Men was released. Zombies… is a sequel to both Flying Disc Man… and King Of The Rocket Men but Radar Men From The Moon introduces a new character -- Commando Cody -- who wears the same rocket pack as the heroes of King… and Zombies… but faces a lunar, not Martian menace then he spins off to become Commando Cody: Sky Marshall Of The Universe in a quasi-serial (i.e., no cliff-hangers, each chapter a complete adventure) fighting a third alien invasion!

*** Or the works of Bertolt Brecht, but that ain’t what Republic’s going for here.

#Roy Barcroft #The Purple Monster Strikes #serial #sci-fi movies #1950s science fiction movies #Cold War

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watching-pictures-move · 3 years

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Movie Review | Game of Death II (Ng, 1981)

Perhaps my recent viewing of Game of Death has softened me to the idea of trampling all over Bruce Lee’s grave, but I did not find this movie’s first act as trying this time around. Yes, there is the extremely objectionable use of real footage from Lee’s open casket funeral, and yes, there are awkward inserts of the real Lee (dubbed so that he sounds the same as all the other male characters and nothing like his actual voice) when the movie goes in for close-ups. But the movie is slapdash enough about trying to disguise the lead actor (there are no fake beards like the other film) that it mostly stops trying during the fight scenes, of which there are a few, and opts to just pull back the camera and take it easy on the cutting. There is some novelty in seeing Lee as a child (the inclusion of this footage is explained by Lee’s character reminiscing about how much of a troublemaker he was at a young age), and the scene in the Japanese nightclub has a fun ambience (as well as a poster of Momoe Yamaguchi flashing a million dollar smile).

Of course, the movie does get immeasurably better once it kills off “Lee” and switches to that of his brother, who (surprise, surprise) is played by the same actor and can now be shot without trying to disguise him. Lee’s character was investigating the death of his friend Hwang Jang-Lee when he was killed (while dangling from a coffin being stolen from the funeral by helicopter), so it’s up to his brother to find out who’s behind his death. This involves visiting a secluded compound presided over by a white man in a tracksuit (Roy Horan, likely cast for his resemblance to Robert Wall but gets in a sweet fight scene nonetheless) who has a fondness for deadly martial arts and exotic animals. We see evidence of the latter with the monkey he carries with him and a tour of his facility where he points out different animals he is fond of (his menagerie includes peacocks and lions, both of which influence his fighting style). He is frequently accompanied by a sinister assistant who may or may not have just one arm. In my initial viewing I was not particularly attentive and assumed that he magically grew back his arm in the middle of a fight scene. This time around it still wasn’t clear to me whether he had been hiding the other arm the whole time or that he actually could grow it back as he pleased. Many famous, renowned films have ambiguous endings; Game of Death II uses ambiguity to complicate our relationship with one character in particular.

My favourite moment comes two thirds into the movie, where the hero, at the sight of a naked woman, has flashbacks to a dirty book and soon after is attacked by a man in a lion suit. It’s a culmination of a few threads in the film (the brother’s differing attitudes towards sex compared with Lee’s character, who is seen early in the film throwing away said dirty book and a bunch of porno magazines; also lions) and is still one of the funnier things I’ve seen in a movie. (This is another instance where the movie uses ambiguity, as it’s not entirely clear if it’s supposed to be a real lion or someone disguised as one.) The climax of the film takes the tower concept from the earlier film, literally turns it upside down and uses it as a launching pad for cheapo Bond-style theatrics. I won’t detail exactly what goes down, but a real flair for camp and a number of fast moving fights choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping make this all highly enjoyable. Now, if you’re worried that you need to see the original Game of Death to get anything out of this, fear not, as the movies are hardly related. Technically “Lee” is playing the same character in both films (and the lead actor, Kim Tai-jong, doubles for Lee in both films), but there are no story elements carried over. The more practical explanation was that Golden Harvest probably wanted to make their Brucesploitation entries feel more official, and as the last film had great “new” footage of the real Lee, naming this one similarly would likely get more asses in seats. Given that I first saw this because I mistakenly rented it thinking I’d picked up the other film, it worked in at least one case.

#film #movie review #game of death ii #ng see-yuen

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zukalations · 5 years

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All For One - Tamaki Ryou interview (July/August 2017 MUSICAL)

The mainstream musical theater magazine MUSICAL features various interviews with Takarasiennes in every issue. This interview with Tamaki Ryou comes from a feature discussing the then-upcoming production All for One.

Please note: All for One apparently went through major revisions after the press conference performance. Thus, what Tamaki discusses in this interview may not entirely match up with the show as finally performed.

All For One - Tamaki Ryou interview

The lead role of All For One - d'Artagnan and the Sun King will be played by Moon Troupe's young Top Star, Tamaki Ryou, who broke new ground with her mature allure in her Top Star debut role of Count Felix in Grand Hotel. There are high hopes for how her dynamic allure will shine in this adventure tale of love and courage.

~ How did you feel when it was decided you would perform All for One? I love adventure tales, so I was really happy! I'm playing d'Artagnan, from the world-famous 'Three Musketeers', and on top of that it's an original show by Director Koike, so I'm awfully excited.

~ How does it feel to take on the role of the 'undefeatable hero', d'Artagnan? d'Artagnan is full of a sense of justice, a good-natured young man who has a huge ability to sympathize with others. I want to focus on that, and create the character of a man who, while still lively and cheerful, has a very strong core. He'll risk his own life to protect someone... And that 'someone', in this show, is Louis XIV. And the way he fights for his friends is wonderfully romantic. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of d'Artagnan will be born once the rehearsals start. Director Koike was good enough to say that he wants me to display my inner generosity in this role, so I hope that I can use that to show the generosity that the country-raised d'Artagnan has possessed since birth.

~ Your partner, Manaki Reika-san, will be playing Louis XIV. Louis XIV is a huge key to this story. I'm sure that the audience will have great expectations for this, and I think that the relationship between our characters is something that only me and Manaki could do. Passion: Jose and Carmen, Le Roi Arthur, Grand Hotel...up until now, the shows I have done with Manaki have all had bad ends, so I'll be happy if people look forward to seeing how things will turn out for d'Artagnan and Louis XIV with excitement.

~ We are looking forward to your relationship with the Three Musketeers, as well as Countess Montpensier and Bernardo. Miya (Rurika)-san, who plays Aramis, had a friendly relationship with my character last time, in Grand Hotel, but that started out with me lying to her, and aside from that we often play enemies, so I'm happy that in this show we can play characters who have a deep bond with each other. Uzuki (Hayate)-san, who plays Athos, has also often played antagonists, but we were raised together in Moon Troupe so I'm looking forward to perhaps being able to display that relationship on stage. And then the young Akatsuki (Chisei) also joins us as Porthos. I hope that she can use her energetic charm to keep up with the rest of us, and I also hope that we can help her bring out a new side of herself. It's my first time in a long time performing with Saou (Kurama)-san, who plays the antagonist Countess Montpensier, and it's my first time with Tsukishiro (Kanato), who plays Bernardo, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how they create their characters.

~ I'm so excited for the show, evenafter watching just the press conference performance. Thank you so much! The theme songs we were presenting have uplifting melodies and amazing lyrics, and also, the character introductions are blended into that...even us performer were getting really excited as we were doing it. The costumes are also a really modern style design using denim and leather, so as soon as I put them on I feel like I'm in the world of the show. I think it's sure a show that will delight the audience's eyes and ears.

~ What other shows have you worked on with the writer and director, Koike Shuuichiro-san? He has worked on shows such as THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, Romeo et Juliette, Puck, 1789: Les Amants de la Bastille; he's so meticulous about the smallest details, and has an uncompromising desire to achieve his goals, so I think he's a really incredible person. Every time, we create the show by trying again over and over by trial and error until we gain Director Koike's OK. I always feel like not only is what we're doing really valuable, but I can sense a deep love from him, so I'm looking forward to it this time too.

~ How does the title, All For One, feel to you? Originally, the whole phrase is "One for All, All for One". I'm sure Director Koike was thinking about many different things when he chose "All for One", which means 'everyone for the sake of one person', as the title. This is my second show in the Grand Theatre as Top Star, so I want to be steady and take the stage confidently.

~ What was it like to play the role of the Count in Grand Hotel, as well as to meet Tommy Tune? Tommy-san is so pure and sensitive, and I could tell that his inspiration was really coming through in the wonderful direction for the show. Just listening to him speak struck me right to the heart. That was a huge and valuable experience in my life as an actor. While the Count was a role that was rather challenging for me and made me grow a bit, I was really happy while performing him, and I felt so honored to be able to sing all of the wonderful songs.

~ What do you think about your partnership with Manaki-san? I feel every time we do another show that our hearts interact in a different way each time to create that performance. I hope that our energies can impact each other more and more so that we can give birth to a huge power.

~ Has there been any change in your feelings towards the stage or your attitude since becoming Top Star? My attitude of putting in effort on top of effort hasn't changed at all, but now I think more than ever about the whole troupe and the troupe members, and I try to keep an eye on things. When I look at each person while we're on stage, even the junior actresses are making such lovely faces...I can feel how much everyone enjoys performing on stage. In Grand Hotel and Carousel Rondo, I was able to experience what an amazing thing it is to perform in such an impactful ensemble, and I think it was a big turning point for me. In All For One, I hope that Moon Troupe can use its abundance of energy to explode with fresh appeal.

~ What is the otokoyaku image that is your current goal? First I want to be both an actor and a human with a strong core. Also, on top of that base, I want to continue to hold on to a love for Takarazuka, and an inexhaustible desire to improve and learn as an otokoyaku, and be able to take on many different styles.

~ Can you give us a message looking forward to the opening of All for One? As it's called an 'Action Romanesque', there are three different fight choreographers attached to the show, and I think the action scenes, such as duels and combat sequences, will be a big attraction for this performance. Just imagining the scene where all the otokoyaku are ranked together as the Musketeers is so thrilling to me. This show is full with abundant new appeal for Moon Troupe, and it's a perfect musical for summer and early autumn, a fun musical full of love and hope. Moon Troupe will all work together to put on a powerful performance, so please look forward to it!

#takarazuka #article translation #troupe: tsuki #sienne: tamaki ryou #show: all for one #mag: Musical

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thegeminisage · 5 years

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alright now that i’ve finally seen both fullmetal animes here’s my compare & contrast

spoiler warnings!!!!!

2003 does this better:

better soundtrack. brotherhood’s ost is SUPERB but 2003 still wins. it’s iconic and historic

wack-ass ending aside 03 is MUCH cleaner and more self-contained. brotherhood zooms out a lot and takes a bigger look at the world than 03. that’s not to say one is better than the other, but something i like about the 03 anime is that a lot of minor characters came back in the end when they deviated from the manga. everyone was connected somehow

like ok in 03, winry’s parents were actually murdered by mustang, and the homunculi were created by regular old alchemists - i think little plot stuff like that is what i mean by “self-contained” - everything is so weighty and it matters so much and there’s nothing that isn’t important in the end

similarly, 03 has really good character development...brotherhood has a lot to accomplish in a short time, so the pacing is much faster and more oriented towards action where 03 has time to really slow down and dig into everything...we got a much longer time to get to know characters like nina and maes and marta/martel and even yoki

03 is a lot darker i think both thematically and literally as in they used darker shading which is like...obviously everyone has their own tastes but i really enjoy it

hohenheim, scar, lust, and envy all get like 10000x more character development in 03...in fact, almost all the homunculi save for bradley get more development, 03 is very definitely character based. i like 03 hohenheim a LOT better actually and i think his rocky relationship with ed gets more closure in 03, even with 03′s wack-ass ending

03 did a better job of exploring the fallout of having to do really and truly horrible things during wartime...it’s talked about a fair amount in brotherhood, but in 03, the weight of those sins is made much more tangible and horrifying

03 had better voice acting. sorrryyyyy but some of the new guys they got for brotherhood (to replace scar, marcoh, and breda, most notably) just aren’t as good! i did like the new al though in spite of myself

brotherhood does this better:

brotherhood actually knows what the fuck it’s doing as far as plot goes and the ending was cool and satisfying

since brotherhood does take that zoomed out view of the world we got to learn a lot more about it, which was really cool

some brotherhood-only characters are dope as hell. specifically the characters from xing but i also really loved general armstrong, brotherhood’s pride, & kimblee’s ex-men

brotherhood has more WOMEN. not that 03 is a slouch in that department but brotherhood is even better

while brotherhood didn’t do as well showing us the fallout of committing atrocities in war i DO think it did a better job exploring what it means to be marked by committing a taboo - how that changes you forever - in a way that 03 just didn’t quite reach

while i love 03′s darker look, brotherhood’s animation style is like...really so much easier on the eyes it’s GORGEOUS and i like the brotherhood openings better too. sometimes i had trouble skipping them bc they are so good and i just wanted to watch ‘em over & over. that plus the fact that it’s not a square (we didn’t all have widescreen TVs in 2003 lol) is like...a big bonus

brotherhood is just plain cooler in a lot of ways - the creatures are cooler (envy’s true form?? PRIDE?? HELLO??), the environments are more diverse (xerxes! briggs! amazing!), the FIGHT and ACTION SCENES (roy vs lust, greed vs wrath, SCAR USING ******* AGAINST WRATH), and lots of the action has nice little twists, such as al sitting in the dark with pride, or the briggs soldiers freezing sloth in the blizzard...yeah brotherhood has less character development but the action scenes are absolutely gripping. sometimes i forget how much i love a good fight scene when they’re actually choreographed well & brotherhood reminded me

brotherhood is scarier because the stakes are higher. the main villain in 03 had much smaller ambitions than the main villain in brotherhood. granted, i think dante is a cooler and more fun villain than father, but he’s definitely much scarier. dante wants to kill a lot of people. father wants to kill ALL of them. father can disable ur alchemy. father can force mustang thru the ******

brotherhood is a LOT funnier. i was surprisedd at how often i actually laughed out loud. this is a result of 03 being more angsty in general i think

brotherhood has no nazis. zero of them.

brotherhood DIDN’T KILL IZUMI CURTIS in fact i don’t think there’s a single character death in brotherhood that i disagree with which is REALLY rare for me. there were a couple in 03 that i thought were dumb and stupid

anyway, this concludes my comparison. neither is necessarily better than the other, they’re just Different, & i really love both of them

#personal #fma blogging #long post

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Studio Bones Celebrates 21 Years of Excellence!

I watched plenty of anime as a child—Pokémon, Digimon Tamers, Crush Gear Turbo. But much of it I absorbed passively, because my friends were watching it or it was airing on Toonami or because it was based on a video game I loved. I happily consumed all cartoons equally regardless of quality, chronology or origin. Then one day I discovered the manga series Fullmetal Alchemist, which was just then being published in English. After blazing through volumes of the comic, I discovered the Fullmetal Alchemist anime which aired in 2003.

Just like that, I was hooked. Something in the anime adaptation spoke to me as a teenager: the plaintive choirs of the song “Brothers,” the sadness infecting Ed and Al's rollicking adventures. In the Philippines I sought the series out on Animax and implored by friends (confused by anime) to do the same. Later, in the United States, I would record overnight episodes on my parents's TiVo and watch them on Saturday afternoons with microwaved pizza in hand. To this day I have never seen the whole thing, and there are many other anime series I would rank above it. But in retrospect, the first Fullmetal Alchemist series is the first I understood and loved as an anime, rather than as a cartoon. It was my gateway.

Then in college, I made a friend who had a similar experience with anime—but not with Fullmetal Alchemist. No, her turning point was Scrapped Princess, another animated fantasy series from 2003. Like Fullmetal Alchemist, Scrapped Princess combined an elaborate fantasy world packed with nested secrets, a constant sense of high adventure, and surprising darkness. Scrapped Princess's heroine, the bratty but well-meaning princess Pacifica, was hunted by her world as an instrument of its destruction; the medieval world she traversed with her friends was a cover-up for its true science-fictional origins. Just like I cried when Colonel Hughes met his end in Fullmetal Alchemist, my friend cried when Pacifica's love interest Fulle sacrifices his life to ensure her safety. And as Fullmetal Alchemist ends with a shocking twist that punches through the rules of its setting, Scrapped Princess wraps its fantasy narrative with robot dragons dueling in space.

You probably know someone just like me, or just like her. Perhaps the series that turned them into anime fans was the recent Shounen Jump megahit My Hero Academia. Perhaps it was the spooky creatures and slick animation of Soul Eater. Or maybe it was Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which in 2009 tackled the full story of the original manga to excellent results. If you're an anime fan like me and you've been following along, you can probably guess the twist here. All of the shows mentioned so far were produced by Bones!

Today, the famous studio Bones turns 21 years old! Founded in 1998 by Masahiko Minami, Hiroshi Osaka and Toshihiro Kawamoto—all veterans of the legendary mecha animation studio Sunrise—the studio has been releasing both adaptations of popular material and original series all this time. Much has changed in these 21 years: Gainax has fragmented into fiefdoms, Madhouse lost its famous producer, Masao Maruyama, and more anime is being produced than ever before, at a rate that threatens the health and sanity of those creating it. As chaos ravages the industry, Bones has been a rock. It's continued to produce series with ambitious worlds and settings, whether that be the skewed New York fantasia of Blood Blockade Battlefront or the political commentary of Un-Go. It has done so with consistently solid animation quality; famously, Bones chose to split My Hero Academia up into multiple seasons of material separated by breaks, rather than risk a production collapse in the strain of continuous release. If some have blasted Bones for often prioritizing that consistency over more flexible, visually experimental art... well, Bones also produced Space Dandy, which features some of the weirdest individual episodes of the past decade.

Bones has also consistently provided a venue for talented animators and directors to flex their muscles over these twenty-one years. Masahiro Ando directed one of the best action films in the history of the medium with Sword of the Stranger, but was also invited back to direct the eccentric Shakespearean action series Blast of Tempest and the endearing romance Snow White with the Red Hair. Takuya Igarashi set the stage for soon-to-be-legendary action sequences in Soul Eater and Star Driver, and even now is working with his favorite collaborators on pumping out seasons of fan-favorite series Bungo Stray Dogs. Star animator Yoshimichi Kameda rose to fame knocking scenes out of the park in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, most famously where Roy Mustang roasts Lust to a crisp. And of course you have Yutaka Nakamura, who some have claimed to be the most popular and influential action animator currently working today. Nakamura's work reaches across the studio's entire filmography, from the well-choreographed fisticuffs in Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door to multi-level sword on sword combat in Sword of the Stranger, to his current outrageous fights in Concrete Revolutio and My Hero Academia.

And this only sums up a small portion of their total output! There's also RahXephon, an ambitious reversioning of Neon Genesis Evangelion that classmates of mine in college would insist was superior to its inspiration. You have the two seasons of Show by Rock!!, one of the most bizarre idol shows of all time that happens to feature some very good CG. Then there's Darker Than Black's cryptic worldbuilding and fantastic soundtrack by Yoko Kanno. Also, there's the spiritual sequel to Scrapped Princess, cult favorite Chaika -The Coffin Princess-. And of course, there's the skewed workplace drama of Hisone and Masotan. Even Bones's deep cuts rival the highlights of other studios.

To me there are two shows that most of all define Bones's past and future. The first is Eureka Seven, a big sloppy love letter to mecha series that pulls in elements from Gundam, Macross and Evangelion into a vast and emotional saga. Its complex and fascinating world, fantastic action, grounded character work and blockbuster sensibilities mark it out as what I would say is the studio's defining work, despite the flaws in its construction. The second is Mob Psycho 100, which stands alone as one of the wildest and most cutting-edge action series of the past several years. Yutaka Nakamura contributed some excellent scenes to the first season, but even he was outdone by the work of countless young and talented animators in season 2! Watching the Mogami arc, you can see the next generation of fantastic artists spreading their wings. The exciting future of a medium being stretched to its breaking point by the forces of commerce. May Bones give them the support they need to survive and thrive in the next twenty-one years.

If you would like to learn more about Bones, I highly recommend following @liborek3 on Twitter, and checking out his articles on Sakugablog (starting with this one!) I would also recommend seeking out Kim Morrissy's article on the studio's history, which heavily cites multiple interviews Bones released on their twentieth anniversary. Happy twenty-first birthday to Bones's many employees and graduates! I'll be waiting patiently in the corner for the third season of Mob Psycho 100.

Are you a fan of Studio Bones? Did they help introduce you to the medium? Do you have a favorite production by them? Let us know in the comments!

---

Adam W is a features writer at Crunchyroll. When he isn't repeatedly listening to the soundtrack for Eureka Seven Ao, he sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? Follow him on Twitter at: @wendeego

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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dearestpartnerofgreatness · 5 years

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Can you do Wyndolls and Hollstein for the 10 song challenge

Hello, friend! I just did Wyndolls recently here

HOLLSTEIN

A song they would slow dance to: “My Moon” by Mary Lambert

A song they sing along to in the car: “Palace” by Hayley Kiyoko

A song that neither one can listen to after a fight/breakup: “Strangers” by Halsey ft Lauren Jauregui (partly because of the lyrics and partly because the day that video of the live performance on the Today show came out they watched it like a billion times trying to figure out if Halsey & Lauren were actually dating or not)

A song that Person A hates but Person B loves: Carmilla thinks “Girl Crush” by Little Big Town was a wasted opportunity at best and queerbaiting at worst but Laura thinks it’s pretty catchy and it’s something they’ll never agree on

The songs they would serenade each other with at karaoke: Laura is equal parts romantic and extra so she gives a very intense performance of “Come to My Window” by Melissa Etheridge (dance moves included). Of course then Carmilla floors her (and every girl in the place) with a gentle rendition of Kehlani’s “Honey”.

A song Person A would sing in the shower while Person B listens in: Laura sings “I’d Be Your Wife” by Mary Lambert in the shower and Carmilla gets very heart-eyed about it.

A song with lyrics that perfectly describe their relationship: “Make It Back” by Lesley Roy

A song that would play during a love scene between them: “Wanna Be Missed” by Hayley Kiyoko

A song that relates to an inside joke between them: “Youth” by Troye Sivan because one time Carmilla caught Laura dancing to it very dramatically (it involved head-banging, arm-ography and using a can of bear spray as a microphone) and now every time it comes on Carmilla grins like the cat that ate the canary and Laura starts squealing “STOOOOOOOOOP” because she knows what she’s thinking about

A song that relates to an AU I’ve created in my head involving this pair: So in this ballroom au I created Carmilla and Laura are reluctant dance partners; but after weeks of arguing and sexual tension they fall in love after dancing a veeeeeery spicy Argentine tango. The song that said tango would be choreographed to is “Angelica” from Pirates of the Caribbean.

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youcannotcancelquidditch · 6 years

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Below the fold you can read all about my time at Romeo e Giulietta in Milan (Friday, 12/10/18). I didn't want to forget anything so it's very chaotic, I'm sorry.

(edited on 29/01/19 - I added some things as well)

- I’d like to start by thanking the orderly who gave us 2nd category seats in the middle of the ground floor (we had 2nd gallery central tickets, aka almost the cheapest ones) because they didn’t sell out and he was impressed that we came all the way from Belgium to see the show. Grazie mille, sir! You made our night even better! He checked in on us twice during the break to ask if we liked our seats and the show, what a cutie.

- To understand why I would write an 2500 word post about this performance, you must know that I have been waiting to see this show since I was 6 years old (that’s 16 years!). I even have a very clear and detailed memory of the first time I heard a song from this musical, Koningen from the Flemish/Dutch production. This was my absolute number one bucketlist item and I still get teary eyed when I think about this experience.

- Lorenzo’s apprentice (I think his name is John in the play but don’t quote me on this) was scary as fuck before the show began. He was just roaming around the venue and stopped every once in a while to stare at someone without blinking for an uncomfortably long time.

- The costumes in this show are to die for! CAPES FOR DAYS!! This production works with the same choreographer and costume designer as La Légende du Roi Arthur and it’s just as beautiful.

ACT I

- Tebaldo just casually hanging around ‘Capuletti House’, applying his Scar-like scar with eyeliner and then falling backwards onto his crew (my friend had a fit, she did not see it coming and genuinely thought he was going to fall flat on his back).

- The prince may sing that two families make the laws in Verona, but everything about him says he is in power. He is just so impressive, physically and vocally so demanding.

- Our Benvolio wasn’t bad but he didn’t make the part as interesting as Riccardo did. His Benvolio was pretty plain, okay vocal performance but he didn’t bring the same flare to the part that Riccardo did. Benny isn’t the most interesting part in the show and he didn’t add anything more to it than what the songbook or choreography said. Ric’s Benvolio was every bit as playful, joyful and a player as the other to two in the main trio but there was such grace and gentleness to him, whereas our Benvolio was more like the ‘no fun, boring’ friend. The original Italian trio has great chemistry and he just wasn’t very convincing.

- Davide as Romeo: his singing has improved so much, he seemed to sing with so much more ease compared to the dvd-version. During ‘Io Tremo’ he had a lot more interaction with the Montacrew. I absolutely love his Romeo, Damien always was a bit to fatalistic for me. He is much more youthful and moves quite impulsively on stage. In dutch I would say he is a ‘kwajong’ and a ‘spring in’t veld’, Google tells me it’s a ‘rascal’ and a ‘little filly’ but I don’t know if that really covers what I want to say. (He kinda gives of the same energy as Maria during ‘how to solve a problem like Maria’ in The sound of music.)

- On a related note: I only realised during the show how different the two houses are. The Montagues seem a lot closer than the Capulets. The reds are a divided house, they seem a lot more competitive and aggressive, only Tebaldo has an obvious bond with the rest of his family (maybe even a bit too close to his aunt, this production hints on a possible incestuous relationship between the two). The fact that they have a pretty scary cat only proves my idea about the house.

- L’Oddio is a ride! I always loved the song but most of the time staging was off and boring which made it almost annoying to watch. I only listened to it but never watched any clips of it. This production however absolutely nails it and finally does the song justice. It’s one of my favourites parts in the show.

- Paride definitely changed a lot compared to the previous Italian production. He used to be innocent and polished, now he is arrogant and they changed his dancing style to a more modern vibe instead of ballet. Overall, I had a bad feeling about him and I was even happier that Giulietta didn’t have to marry him because she wouldn’t have been happy with him at all. I also miss Tebaldo singing the ‘give her to me’ part in the background,like they do in the French productions.

- I never liked the French Juliettes, Joy’s was like a spoiled brat sometimes and she wasn’t a great singer either. It’s mostly due to the way the production was written and the directors they worked with though. But Giulia Luzi is a perfect Giulietta for me, she is defiant, she has a mind of her own and her own ideas. This Giulietta isn’t a child, she is a young adult which makes more sense for a girl her age in this time.

- La Nutrice and both Ladies are such impressive vocalists! An absolute joy to hear them live!

- Il re del mondo live made me sooooo happy! (I don’t think I stopped grinning until the Duel started anyway)

- Luca GF!! What a performer!! You simply can’t look at anyone else when he’s on stage. He has such a fascinating way of moving around the stage and his vocals! I don’t have words! He was out of this world and I feel incredibly privileged to have seen him live. I was looking forward to his falsetto notes, but the dvd recording did not prepare me for his normal singing voice. The recording in no way does justice to how full and warm his voice is.

- The ball: they got rid of the ugly masks (thank the gods). This scene is so beautiful and I love the costumes. There is just so much going on I feel like I’d have to watch it at least 5 times to fully capture everything.

- The big ‘smack’-sound every time R e G kiss, because the microphones picked it up pretty hard.

- I like the order of the song better in this one then in the French production, it works better for the story (especially Tebaldo’s songs and the Verona reprise) and the acting is so much better!

- I have a hate-love thing going on for count Capulet. He seems tired of the feud when he fights with Tebaldo during the ball but he is such a dick to Giulietta and then has this solo song with a ‘Man only realise women are people once then have a daughter’-theme. Don’t get me wrong, I love this song and it’s always a song I look forward to in any production. You have to applaud the actor though for going from ‘Vedrai’ to ‘Avere te’ so fast, that’s one hell of an arc in so little time.

- I don’t get Belli e Brutti and I don’t think I ever will. But it gives me more stage time with the trio so I’m a happy girl. Also, the Montacrew eavesdropping on Romeo and Nutrice was really cute.

- The Balcony scene is so cute and I ship this R e G so hard. I usually care more for the supporting characters then the main pair in this story but I really believed these two.

- The official, original Shakespeare dialogues work better for me then the R et J dialogues.

- Romeo’s relationship with Lorenzo is so wholesome, I love them.

- Tebaldo had a throne!! Like, Yaaasss Bitch!! I loved the choreo for this song (I’m a sucker for swords), especially is contrast with his other solo song. This one is pure lust and anger while the other is so much more intimate and shows his yearning for love. The musical has made me love Tebaldo so much as a character and Gianluca did a great job. I always underestimate him for some reason, he sometimes sounds like he won’t make it but he always hit’s the notes perfectly.

- Nutrice’s solo song gets me every time, fantastic performance. I think she had a problem with her earpiece because she kept fidgeting with it but it didn’t affect her singing at all.

- Ama e cambia il mondo was so beautiful and emotional. I really like this tagline for the story, it perfectly captures the message I take from it. This song is such a victorious celebration of love (and it has no gender pronouns) and I’m living for it. Lorenzo is like the head of R e G shippers, such a proud and smiley dad.

ACT II

- Yes, thank you, a short version of ‘on dit dans la rue’ is enough. We don’t need a whole song about his friends knowing who he married and being unsupportive little shits.

- IL POTERE!! Need I say more? One of the songs I was looking forward to most. It suits this Prince so well and the whole scene is so beautiful! The choreo and the stage setting, ugh, so pwetty.

- I just want to hug Tebaldo, what a lost puppy.

- the side door entrance of the Montacrew before the Duel! They were so close to us!!

- La Follia. That’s it. Just La Follia. I have no words.

- Okay, I have a few words: that last note. The entire audience lost their shit and was clapping and screaming for what felt like ages and he was still holding on to that note when we finally calmed down!! Again, what a performer.

- The Duel is a journey. What a scene! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more complicated and impressive scene in any show I’ve been to. I also want to take some time to talk about the ensemble in this show. These people are great dancers but their acting was so on point! Especially the crew guys. A show is nothing without the ensemble and they did so much more than just support the story. They really lift it to another level.

- That piece of bloody cloth they pull from Mercuzio’s wound had me gagging. I could almost feel it.

- I knew there would be a kiss when Mercuzio’s died but this was a full make out session. I was like ‘yeah, same, Mercuzio’. I made the mistake of looking at Benvolio during this scene. Pro tip: don’t. Just don’t. It’s painful and you don’t need more pain at this point.

- Romeo stabs Tebaldo in the stomach and not in the back, I don’t know what the original play says about it but I feel like it fits Romeo’s character better. My boy is no backstabber.

- La Vendetta and Duo de désespoir broke me. The Prince seemed really sad about losing his cousin. Lady Montague’s acting in this sequence was perfect. Lady Capulet is more sad when Tebaldo dies than when her own daughter does, he must have had a golden dick. Tebaldo and Mercuzio are dead on stage for a long long time, kudo’s to the actors for putting up with that and actually looking dead.

- The Prince saying ‘mercy is the killer when it’s granted to the killer’ (that’s the best translation I can come up with right now) was such a deep mood, I haven’t stopped thinking about it.

- Giulietta’s duet with Romeo’s Mom is the only time she wears her house color. For Tebaldo? I don’t know, if anyone has a theory on this please let me know.

- Romeo and Lorenzo crying next to each other at the altar. Romeo curled up like a baby, so sad. Poor, poor child.

- Romeo’s pj’s are really funny.

- Vedrai is such a heavy scene to watch. It’s very painful but I like it better than the French version. I was pretty mad at Lady Capulet for not standing up to her husband but she did push his hand away Melania-style when he tried to touch her after calling their daughter a whore. Also, Nutrice was so hard on poor Giulietta, I felt betrayed. I can’t help but feel like Count Capulet would have given his blessing for a wedding to Romeo if he had known, Lady Montague maybe too, she really did want her son to be happy. Lady Capulet would have been a problem though.

- Giulietta turning to Lorenzo for help and him turning her down! He is the only one they have left and he doesn’t want to help (at first)!

- Romeo being all alone during Mio Dio.

- There were Giulietta look-a-like dancers standing around her bed before she drank the poison and it was very creepy.

- The Verona reprise with a teary eyed prince like: “Look at this place! You thought I was joking the first time I said this?”

- another side door entrance for a very anxious Montacrew and Benvolio almost fainting when he hears the news about Giulietta’s death. These people are A+ friends. The stage was too small for the original choreo of ‘con che pieta’ but it was really beautifully staged anyway.

- Okay so now it’s time for one of my favourite solo songs in the whole entire show: Mai piu. I was very nervous for this one because it’s so important to me and our Lorenzo looked so much younger than others I’ve seen online, I was really curious as to how he would interpret the song. Throughout the musical the theme of doubting their religious beliefs is very present and it’s come to a climax during this song. Most interpretations I’ve seen where very angry and questioning, some even go slightly mad, but after the first few lines you could already see this Lorenzo had an entirely different take on the song. He was very accusing at first toward the crucified Christ and after a while he looked so disappointed and angry with himself for what he had done. He took of his robe and I thought it was a symbolic gesture to show he would leave his function, but he took of his belt to punish himself and it was so intense and sad and I was shocked at how beautifully raw and human he portrayed his character. Like I said, this performance would make or break the show for me for a big part, but it was so much better than I could have ever imagined.

- The songs Romeo and Giulietta sing before they die usually don’t really interest me on dvd because they drag on for too long in my opinion, but when you watch the show live you really need that time to process everything that has happened. Especially after such an intense Mai piu. The scene looks pretty uncomfortable on the tilted stone bed, I was scared that Romeo was going to fall off.

- GIULIETTA WAKES BEFORE ROMEO IS FULLY DEAD!! HOW RUDE!! Why would you do that to me?

- Paride wasn’t killed even though this one deserved it more than the babyface from the 2013 version but he does appear next to Mercuzio at the end, I don’t really know why, it’s not like anyone cared about him anyway.

- Culpa Nostra is so beautiful. Everyone was dressed in white so you couldn’t see who belonged to which house. I’m pretty sure Benvolio forgot to put on his blue vest when they first came on because everyone takes their house colors off on stage except for him, he was already completely in white. Maybe because he is actually an innocent smoll bean? I do think he forgot though, because him and one the dancers had a short interaction with him nodding to Benny’s clothes with a confused face that seemed out of place. And the Ama e cambia il mondo reprise/theme; very strong ending for the musical.

End of PSA.

#romeo e giulietta #ama e cambia il mondo #davide merlini #giulia luzi #luca giacomelli ferrarini #gianluca merolli #leonardo di minno #retj #romeo et juliette

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