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RVIFF Day 3: Geomancer vs. Evil Grave, Sea Priestesses vs. Corrupt Modernity, and Mads Mikkelsen vs. the Jutland Heath

September 8th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

Mami Wata (Nigeria, C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi, 2023, 4) The adopted daughter (Evelyne Ily Juhen) of an untouched village’s intermediary to the sea goddess struggles to protect it from the encroach of corrupt modernity. Impassioned allegorical drama shot in a striking digital black and white that transforms the actor’s patterned costumes into stark graphic elements.

The Promised Land (Denmark, Nikolaj Arcel, 2023, 5) Stubbornly determined veteran 18th century officer (Mads Mikkelsen) vies for a noble title by promising to successfully cultivate the Jutland heath, gathering misfit allies and enraging a sniveling, murderous rival landowner (Simon Bennebjerg.) Thematically a western, but also in its emotional performances, narrative sweep, and depiction of landscape as divine antagonist, a drink from the well of David Lean.

As far as actual history is concerned, this turns out to be one of those “don’t look up the real guy” movies.

Scarlet (France, Pietro Marcello, 2022, 4) Girl grows from infant to young adult (Juliette Jouan) in an interwar French village whose churlish residents treat her talented woodworker father (Raphaël Thiéry) as an outcast. Lyrical, novelistic drama shows the difference between sincerity and sentimentality.

Cliff Walkers (China, Zhang Yimou, 2021, 4) Communist commandos paratroop into occupied Harbin to perform a mission, unaware that they’ve been betrayed to the puppet government’s secret police. Snowy period espionage action-thriller where nearly every character is engaged in at least a double game.

Exhuma (South Korea, Jang Jae-hyun, 2024) Hired to lift a curse afflicting a rich family, a team led by a mercenary geomancer (Choi Min-Sik) and a blunt shaman (Kim Go-eun) removes their grandfather’s coffin from his inauspicious grave, digging up more than they expected. Investigative folk horror flick packed with scares, curveballs, and fun character moments.

Just when I thought the South Korean film industry had already laser-targeted my interests, it puts the star of Old Boy in a movie about a feng shui expert conducting an occult investigation. It even features creepy foxes, which by reality-shattering coincidence also appeared as an emergent recurring motif from my Yellow King playtest series.

However until James Gunn greenlights a Justice Society of America movie where the golden age heroes hang out with a disturbingly friendly blood robot, I assure you nothing weird is going on.

For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its roster includes the foreign, independent and cult titles we used to love to see at TIFF, but cheaper, hassle-free, and on the comfort of our own couch. Daily capsule reviews roll out throughout the festival, with a complete list in order of preference dropping a day or two afterwards. Review ratings are out of 5.

If you enjoy this special text feature of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and don’t already support our Patreon, consider tossing a few bucks in the tip jar. Or check out my book on action films and their roleplaying applications, Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.

Tags: RVIFF

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RVIFF Days 1 & 2: Chinese Neo-Noir, Mongolian Indie Quirk, and a Miike Monster

September 7th, 2024 | Robin

A Ken and Robin Consume Media Special Feature

The film festival you can play along with at home, hitting the pause button whenever you need a nap, and no one in the line up has a loud dumb opinion about something you’re seeing later in the week, is off to another strong start.

The Sparring Partner (Hong Kong, Ho Cheuk-Tin, 2022, 4) A psychopathic loser (Yeung Wai Leung) and his questionably functionable roommate (Mak Pui Tung) go on trial for his parents, gruesome murders. Told in fragmented chronology and with quasi-surreal visual devices, this true crime docudrama probes the impossibility of reliably knowing the facts of a case or the motivations of its participants.

The Sales Girl (Mongolia, Janchivdorj Sengedorj, 2021, 4) When she subs for a classmate as a sex shop clerk, an unassuming physics student (Bayarjargal Bayartsetseg) bonds with the owner (Oidovjamts Enkhtuul), a former ballet star with lessons to impart on lust, life and loss. Straight from Ulaanbaatar, it’s a quirky, embracing indie comedy-drama with touches of Aki Kaurismaki deadpan.

The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout (UK, William Nunez, 2023, 4) Documentary chronicles the production of the notoriously laughable, Howard Hughes-instigated 1956 Genghis Khan biopic, shot downwind from Nevada a-bomb tests many link to the cancer deaths of stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorhead, Pedro Armendariz and director Dick Powell. Grounds a real life story with a central metaphor too on-the-nose for fiction by also focusing on the huge number of non-celebrity fallout exposure victims.

Walk Up (South Korea, Hong Sang-soo, 2022, 4) Abrupt time jumps between scenes set in the same building reveal the shifting relationships between a successful, neurotic filmmaker, his daughter, a couple of girlfriends, and a neglected admirer. Formally disorienting, satirical character piece unnervingly suggests that people can change, but only to find new ways to disappoint, or be disappointed by, others.

Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Romania, Radu Jude, 2023, 4) Exhausted PA (Ilinca Manolache) fights brutal Bucharest traffic working on a worker safety video for a performatively concerned foreign manufacturer. Satirical portrait of a nation working itself with to death underpinned by such formal interventions as the heroine’s scabrous bro culture parody TikToks, extended drop-ins from an earlier, Ceaușescu-era film, and a run time that feels like an extra overtime shift.

Are You Lonesome Tonight? (China, Shipei Wen, 2021, 5) After running a man over, a redemption-seeking air conditioner repairman (Eddie Peng) contrives to meet his widow (Sylvia Chang), making a startling discovery about the case. Neo-noir thriller with an almost tangible feeling for the characters’ hot, humid environment and a bag full of narrative surprises.

Lumberjack the Monster (Japan, Takashi Miike, 2023, 4) Murderous lawyer (Kazuya Kamenashi) tries to figure out why a masked serial killer attacked him, as an obsessive profiler (Nanao) hunts them both. Thriller novel adaptation pays off after getting the complicated plot out of the way, with Miike in his relatively normal mainstream mode.

For the third year running, my wife Valerie and I are attending our own at-home film festival. It takes the place in our hearts and vacation plans formerly reserved by the Toronto International Film Festival. The Robin and Valerie International Film Festival is the cinema event you can play along with at home, with a roster of streaming service and SVOD titles. Its Blowing Up the Movies. Or the roleplaying game inspired by the Hong Kong films I first encountered at TIFF, Feng Shui 2.

Tags: RVIFF

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Episode 615: Ranger Problems

September 6th, 2024 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut we look at ways to tell whether your group will thrive in a sandbox game.

Ken and/or Robin Talk To Someone Else features our chat with fast-rising board game designer Clarence Simpson, whose credits include The Wolves, A Message from the Stars, Chomp, and Merchants of Magick.

Part two of our Horror Hut look at reality horror, as spurred by beloved backer Greg, tackles scenario design for this mind-tripping sub-genre.

Finally the Consulting Occultist cracks the code on pioneering steganographer Johannes Trithemius.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

The prophecy has been fulfilled: Ars Magica Definitive, a revised and expanded deluxe version Ars Magica 5th Edition, launches this fall. With a host of new material published since the original rulebook’s release and heirloom production quality, this belongs in the library of every magus. Instruct your most trusted companion to sign up for launch alerts.

That cult would never die, till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to announce Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, coming October 1st on Backerkit. Get ready to alert your friends and anyone else you’d be willing to climb into a ghoul pit with.

Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

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Tags: Consulting Occultist, Gaming hut, Horror Hut, Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Killer (2024), Hundreds of Beavers, and Dench on Shakespeare

September 3rd, 2024 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

Hundreds of Beavers (Film, US, Mike Cheslik, 2022) After beavers sabotage his cider operation, trapper Jean Kayak endures epic pain and humiliation to gather enough of their pelts to marry his trading post sweetheart. Fusing the aesthetics of Chuck Jones, National Film Board of Canada animation, and Guy Maddin, this surreal, bonkers black-and-white near-wordless slapstick comedy featuring actors in plush mascot outfits easily wins the title of most Canadian film ever made by an American.—RDL

Long Live the Missus (Film, China, Hu Sang, 1947) A woman propels her husband’s business career with a few strategic white lies, only to have him take up with a gold-digging girlfriend. Cynical comedy of manners from the last moments of the short-lived Shanghai commercial movie industry. Aka Long Live the Mistress! —RDL

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent (Nonfiction, Judi Dench & Brendan O’Hea, 2024) Longtime Shakespearean actor-director O’Hea prompts Dame Judi to discuss and divagate on every Shakespeare part she’s ever played, which is most of the female roles. Lovely blend of theater reminiscence, hard-headed acting advice, and the best kind of Bardolatry.—KH

Thelma (Film, US, Josh Margolin, 2024) Stubbornly independent nonagenarian (June Squibb) evades the scrutiny of her protective family to hunt down the scammers who ripped her off, with scooter-equipped old friend (Richard Roundtree) in tow as voice of reason. Affectionate, observant indie comedy doubles as sly parody of techno-thriller tropes.—RDL

Wigs on the Green (Fiction, Nancy Mitford, 1935) An upper class office drudge, unwillingly accompanied by his charming weasel friend, head to the Cotswolds in search of heiresses to marry, setting their sights on a teen fascist nitwit. Laugh-out-loud satire of the romantic folkways and political obliviousness of the upper crust assumes the reader is capable of supplying the needed moral context.—RDL

Okay

The Killer (Film, US, John Woo, 2024) Pursued by a maverick Parisian cop (Omar Sy), a formidable assassin (Nathalie Emmanuel) protects a singer (Diana Silvers) she accidentally blinded during a hit. Reconfigures Woo’s 1989 heroic bloodshed classic by taking a handful of images and plot points and starting over, with more plot and talking, and much less momentum and melodrama.—RDL

Under Paris (Film, France, Xavier Gens, 2024) Mutant super-mako Lilith inexplicably follows traumatized marine biologist Sophia (Bérénice Bejo) to Paris, where idiot shark-simps and vaguely helpful cops get chomped around her. Paris looks nice, and I counted two effective shots, but this Netflix chum coasts on people’s love of shark cinema and nothing else.—KH

Tags: Ken and Robin Consume Media

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