Ken and Robin Consume Media: Weapons, Venus, and Vegan Body Horror from a Nobel Prize Winner
August 26th, 2025 | 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.
Recommended
The Case of the Seven of Calvary (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1937) A Swiss peace ambassador stabbed on a Berkeley street, the enigmatic “Seven of Calvary” symbol on the body, surely this is a case only a Professor of Sanskrit can solve! Come for the interlocking and overlapping murders, but stay for the glimmering conjuration of the prewar University scene. Boucher’s first novel isn’t his best mystery, but it’s well worth reading.—KH
Green Fish (Film, South Korea, Lee Chang-dong, 1997) Ex-serviceman from a shattered family (Han Suk-kyu) drifts into the orbit of an insecure mobster (Moon Sung-keun) and his trapped girlfriend (Shim Hye-jin.) Refreshes an archetypal gangster plotline by sympathetically zeroing in on the characters’ inescapable brokenness.—RDL
July Rhapsody (Film, HK, Ann Hui, 2002) As tensions rise with his wife (Anita Mui), a stagnating high school teacher (Jacky Cheung) passively allows a self-possessed student (Karena Lam) to throw herself at him. Finely observed naturalistic drama gives two HK megastars a rare chance to turn in restrained performances.—RDL
Remember My Name (Film, US, Alan Rudolph, 1978) Impulsive, vengeful ex-con (Geraldine Chaplin) stalks a self-centered construction worker (Anthony Perkins) who has concealed details of his past from his concerned wife (Berry Berenson.) Treats subject matter foundational to the later erotic thriller cycle as the basis for an offbeat dysfunctional character study with a distanced west coast vibe.—RDL
The Vegetarian (Fiction, Han Kang, 2007) To the embarrassment of her proudly mediocre husband and angry shock of her family, a woman attempts to stave off her brutal nightmares by going vegan. Literary body horror in which the gulf between external expectation and concealed selfhood devours the characters from the inside out.—RDL
Venus (Film, Spain, Jaume Balagueró, 2022) Club dancer Lucia (Ester Expósito) steals a big drug stash and hides out with her sister (Ángela Cremonte) in a cursed apartment building. Allegedly a “dirty, modern” adaptation of “Dreams in the Witch House,” it’s actually a superbly paced genre-switcher that puts modern crime beats behind a horror melody to great effect. Expósito carries the film with her acting, switching between suspicion, kindness, and desperation as the film does likewise.—KH
Weapons (Film, US, Zach Cregger, 2025) The simultaneous, overnight disappearance of 17 third-graders from a class of 18 sets a number of characters in motion, among them their teacher (Julia Garner) and one kid’s father (Josh Brolin). Over and above Cregger’s assured overlapping-narrative script, his collaboration with cinematographer Larkin Seiple and editor Joe Murphy provide a consummately creepy feel even in seemingly normal moments. Finally, a huge relief to see a horror film that would rather be scary than write an op-ed about trauma.—KH
Good
Legend (Director’s Cut) (Film, US, Ridley Scott, 1985) When his love the Princess Lili (Mia Sara) accidentally lets goblins kill a unicorn, forest boy Jack (Tom Cruise) must rescue her and the land from the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry). Adding 25 minutes to the theatrical release, this version sadly doesn’t do much more than extend and deepen a film that doesn’t really ever decide what it wants to do. (It does restore Jerry Goldsmith’s original score, though.) Classic fairy tale, pastoral fantasy, and music video aesthetics likewise tussle for dominance although Scott makes them all look great.—KH
Okay
The Singing Thief (Film, HK, Chang Cheh, 1969) When a mysterious foe starts copying his old M.O., a Raffles-style romantic jewel purloiner turned nightclub singer (Jimmy Lin Chong) matches wits with a wealthy diamond owner (Lily Ho) deputized to bring him in. Swingin’ 60s musical comedy action thriller throbs with omnidirectional bisexual lust. Also, brutal, well-staged martial fight sequences that feel like they belong in a different movie.—RDL
Incomplete
Kingdom III: The Flame of Destiny (Film, Japan, ) When the Zhao army attacks Qin, ambitious warrior Shin accepts General Ohki’s commission to lead a 100-man strike force. Forty minutes of story, and an hour twenty of exposition lead to a non-ending.—RDL
