I'm so glad that these movies got restored. They're excellent and deserve to be rediscovered.

Moody and jazzy and offbeat, with confident visual storytelling and wildly varying tonal/genre shifts that are handled perfectly. My kind of shit.

Yup. A lot of art is more a mixture of problem-solving through applying craft, improvisation, and play (because why bother creating if you can't let yourself enjoy the process) than having an absolute, rigid vision that you stick to.

Maiku Hama is a former delinquent punk turned private eye.

He works out of a tiny office in a movie theater (next to a projection booth), his wardrobe is impeccable, and he has the worst luck winning fights.

His mentor is Joe Shishido played by Joe Shishido.

the Magnolia-esque interconnecting non-linear approach would have worked better if the story explored more of the interiority of the characters

but instead it mostly got used as a tool to withhold information and push away the overt horror elements as long as possible

watched Weapons as my first catch-up horror watch of the season

mixed feelings on this one, mostly regarding story structure

wish it could've brought more of the energy of its last 20 minutes to the rest

"this group of attractive actors from several different European countries dubbed into the same language either needs to start fucking more or dying more!"

the dark secret that horror fans that have actually watched giallo know:

they're mostly just kinda mid murder mysteries with atrocious dubbing, but occasionally you get a scene that's lit and shot really cool

love it when the bloodshed is heroic

yeah, I do the same, because I get these sudden feelings of heaviness and dread, like my body is preparing to be attacked again

but there's nothing there, and I need to tell myself that until it passes

reminding myself "this is an injury," and getting the parasympathetic nervous system to chill the fuck out are super crucial. it's not a panacea but there are some attacks it's very helpful for. Just reminding the body "you are not in danger right now" helps

one thing that helps me through the trauma is to tell myself "this is not happening right now, my mind is attempting to protect me by keeping me vigilant, but I am not presently in danger" and similar

had a "rough mental seas" kind of night the other day, with this voice echoing in the back of my head

and it took me a moment to realize whose words it was guiding me into the storm, and that I had to pull away from it to get into the clear waters

my abuser repeatedly told me I'd never be anything without her because she made sure everyone thought it was all her doing.

so many sequences that linger in your brain afterward, including one of the most haunting final shots I've ever seen (especially after you learn more about the source material and its author)

YESSSSSSS, I remember recommending this one to you and Phil years ago

still need to watch the new restoration

make sure to go to social media and post your GPS coordinates every 30 minutes, to uhhh, inspire future generations

usually my reaction to a lot of newer horror has been "I wish this was weirder" or "it could've been trashier"

I have such a specific sweet spot when it comes to the genre