Happy happy year of the rabbit! It’s been an eventful year so far: college applications, decisions, friends’ birthdays (lot’s of my friends are born in January, it’s actually abnormal if I think about it), and I went on holiday to Xishuangbanna, a beautiful place in Yunnan. So overall, a busy time, and it’s why I haven’t had a lot of time to post reviews of things I’ve watched and read. However, I did still watch a lot of things, so I thought I’d post a general review of everything so that you guys could have that, at least.
First, TV shows I’ve watched:
January 11th, The Glory Season 1
I loved this show. My friend recommended it to me, and she told me to wait until March (when the second season comes out) to watch the show but I didn’t listen and started it, which I now regret full-heartedly. Because I’m obsessed with the show. The show is about a woman who is getting revenge on her childhood bullies. That’s the premise of the show, but lines like, ‘“I just give her some money and I become her god” and “I thought you’d remain poor trash, marry poor trash, and give birth to more poor trash”, really made the show completely something else for me. The discussion of class (in South Korea in particular), childhood trauma, as well as general PTSD is done so sensitively in this show that I would definitely recommend this to everyone.
From a technical standpoint, the show is fast-paced and remains so the entire season. It doesn’t have a boring moment, which means that even if you binge it (which I did, sorry eyes, I needed the story), you won’t get bored at any point. The story is griping, the characters are compelling, the plots are innovative. I loved the way that the main character and her love interest aren’t actually there to save one another. It’s more like they’re ready and prepared to burn in hell with one another. It’s poetic, and I think more realistic than the age-old story of an angel-like character coming in to save a damaged protagonist.
Anyway. Go watch.
2. January 13th, The White Lotus Season 2
Don’t ask why I watched season 2 first. If I’m honest, it’s because of Aubrey Plaza. But I won’t tell you that. Instead, I’ll just tell you that I watched to watch the most recent one first and since The White Lotus isn’t a continuous story, I could start wherever and no one gets to judge me.
This show is basically about a few groups of protagonists (it’s an ensemble show) and their experiences at The White Lotus hotel resort in Sicily, with the show starting with one of the character’s dying and the entire show a buildup to the ending. It focuses a lot of screen time on sex and the relationship between men and women, power dynamics and wealth as well. The main groups we have are the son group (three men from three different generations, grandfather, father, and son, that have come to Sicily to find their roots, because they’re Sicilian), the friend group (Aubrey Plaza, her husband, her husband’s college friend, and his wife), the rich lady (Tanya, played by the magnificent Jennifer Coolidge, and her assistant), the prostitutes (two young Italian girls who have dreams), and the hotel staff (the hotel manager Valentina in particular).
From a storytelling point of view, The White Lotus weaves a fantastic storyline of all these different characters. Each plot is compelling in its own right, and each storyline unfolds right next to each other, so much so that you really begin to wonder, after you watch the show, if everyone around you has some sort of sordid story in them the way that all of these characters did. And I loved the focus on sex: whether that was between Aubrey Plaza’s character Harper and Ethan, her husband, or Cameron, her husband’s friend, whether that was between Valentina the hotel manager and one of the prostitutes, whether it was between Alfie and his struggle to not be a “toxic masculine” man despite his sex-addict father and his downright misogynistic at times grandfather, the discussion of the way that sex grips all of these characters in a hold so tight they all suffocate sometimes is done with nuance.
Watch the show. No comment.
3. January 18th, The White Lotus Season 1
I watched season 1 next, and this time I will be honest and say that I can see a trend in what I watch. It seems that 2023 is a year of me thinking about wealth and class disparity? I think so. I don’t know,
Anyway. Season 1. I think it was good. The general plot structure of season 1 is the same as season 2, still one person dies at the beginning, still the buildup to who could die towards the end. I loved the two girls, and I think their relationship as well as the usage of books to symbolize their fake ‘woke-ness’ really works well with the theme of the show this time around (wealth).
Next, the movies that I watched. I can’t say I loved all of them, but I will say that I was really impressed by the Chinese film I watched. You’ll see,
1. January 19th, Parasite
Clearly, year of the rabbit is also year of K-Dramas for me, because I don’t actually watch a lot of K-Dramas and here I am watching all of these. The story is about a poor family who begin to infiltrate a rich family’s home (mother becomes housekeeper, daughter and son become tutors, and father becomes driver). Parasite is so good: the characters are amazing, I was genuinely shocked by many of the turns in the storyline, and the verall theme of wealth and class inequality was more obvious than the stench I imagine the family’s house had.
I also want to say that I love the cinematography of the film? I don’t know, certain scenes (my mind goes to the scene where the owners of the house leave and the son is lying on the ground outside) are so beautifully shot.
2. January 27th, Smile
I watched this because TikTok assured me it would be good. I assure you, it is not. The scares are jump scares, which, first of all, is such a cheating way to do a horror film. The plot is weird: suicides and gruesome deaths and somehow no one’s noticed yet? There’s been twenty people in a short span of time. It’s weird. I just think that the premise itself was boring. Was disappointing, would not recommend.
3. January 27th (also), Hidden Blade
I generally have very low expectations for Chinese mainland films. They often have similar topics, similar actors, and similar plots. They’re often, for lack of a better word, boring. But this film, even though it is still about spies during the Chinese civil war, is actually shot beautifully, acted relatively well, and has very few plot holes.
I will say that there were some scenes in particular that shocked me: I often think of Chinese mainland films as less cinematic than other films (It’s why I understand Harry Styles when he said his film ‘felt like a film’. Trust me when I say not all films do.). It’s not for lack of talent, that’s for sure. Because this film is shot beautifully. Certain scenes, the placement of characters, the way the lighting works, the symmetry of the scene, even just the general feeling of the way all the components of the setting and camera work together, were beautiful.
I don’t know if I would recommend this film solely based on plot. I think certain points were weak: why would the spy feel the need to continue acting like an antagonist even when the antagonists lost, why the characters all manage to survive, and I dislike the way the actresses were used during the promotion but all of their characters had about five minutes of screen time combined and all either died or were distant from the plot. But generally speaking, I was pleasantly surprised, and I hope more and more Chinese mainland films begin to at least look like this film did.
Finally, the book I read in January (sorry, I meant to read 4, but then I guess… I don’t know, I don’t actually have an excuse).
January 22nd, Earthlings
This book is what would be labelled ‘Dead Dove’ on AO3, because it has a lot of taboo topics inside. Incest, murder, sexual assault, cannibalism, you name it, it’s got it. And yet the general premise of the book is so weird and yet it’s so gently written that you’re drawn into the storyline and before you know it you understand why the main character does all of what she does? It’s a bit crazy.
At some point, you wonder if it is the main character who has lost her mind or if it is the world. (Although, let’s be honest, from my point of view she has definitely, somewhere along the lines, lost her mind.)
And that’s it for January. See you for February!
Happy Wednesday (Friday Addams)!!
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