2023 Movies and TV
SPOILER ALERT
I watched Where the Crawdads Sing (movie) this afternoon.
A film like that is a perfect closure for all the miseries this year started in January. At the beginning of 2023 I was blocking myself out in that dark room, watching the whole 7 seasons of Elementary. Crawdads came into my attention as I was looking for Daisy Edgar-Jones’ works. Her portrait of Marianne in Normal People was quite intriguing.
It is E who first introduced me to Ecofeminism. The idea of connecting Women and Nature, who are both under the yoke of dominant human males, was a bit far-fetched yet fascinating due to its mystical spirituality that she loved. By that time people just started to recover from covid, when female medical workers’ contribution was under-valued. She guided me through different schools of feminism, and we were proud to explore what we could do to revoke certain groups of people’s compromised positions.
How Kya fought from a repressed youth and seek nature as her natural company delivered a perfect portrait of Ecofeminism. Stereotypically, women and nature always co-habit harmoniously, while the combination of men and nature often implies conquer. Love the words Kya said: “I don’t know if there’s a dark side to nature, just inventive ways to endure.” She endured, and she fought smartly. For a moment I was disappointed that she married that guy who abandoned her once, but then I realized perhaps I’m not in the right position to judge.
Back to Elementary. I watched its first episode countless times years ago when it piloted. An Asian female Watson was never appealing to me, and now it seems funny that a female Watson could have pure friendship yet other same-sex modern Holmes-Watson duo usually contains sexual innuendos.
After that there were some big life decisions (or shall I say delay?). I finished season 1 of Masters of Sex. Interestingly my friends usually know Michael Sheen from Good Omens, but for me he is the scum lawyer Roland Blum in The Good Fight. The stories of discovering the mechanism of orgasms and women’s fight for improving status in sexual behaviors and workplace were truly inspiring, but the series lack some drama that could push to watch on. Same happened to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I skipped the last season.
Similar topics, Sex Education is my favorite series which I finished the last season in early December. I watched the first season in astonishment while being quarantined in Leuven. What a sex Utopia it is! Gladly we had a great biology teacher who vividly taught us how to us condoms, and we should do more to educate young people how to respect our partners, ask and listen to each other’s needs and feelings, and be open to pioneer ideologies. Happily, knowledges were learnt, mistakes I had were pointed out, and some tips were even put into practice. I’m proud to quote that “we don’t restrain ourselves into biological gender roles and we explore, communicate, and respect what we like as two sexual comrades.”
I always imagine that I were the leading male character in shows I love. So, when Issac deleted Otis’ message, it marked the lowest point of my Leuven months. Anyway, I had expressed to E many times that in case of gender equality, I do believe in over-compensating the ‘repressed-side.’ I was glad to see Maeve finally decided to stay abroad and pursue her dreams while Otis was still somehow immature and stuck in his little hometown. Also, I truly resonate with Maeve’s last letter to Otis – “dear you, you cracked my heart open, you introduced me to an equal, unconventional, empathic relationship, and I will never be that bit-traditional-head young guy again, and I will carry a part of you with me wherever I go.”
Through out the year I watched a lot of Marvel productions, but all of them were extremely terrible, including Loki 2, which was quite well-received online recently. In the past years my favorite one was Shang-Chi, which has a better-than-average plot and perfect spoken mandarin. Sadly, Simu Liu looks too much like our Big Brother.
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Honorable mentions: LC recommended two movies that we watched during summer. 1898 Los últimos de Filipinas, a Spanish film about the empire’s last days holding their Philippine colonies, and El Norte, a tragic story of a Guatemalan brother-sister duo who fled their homeland for United States, where immigrant fantasy eventually was shattered.
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Vigil season 1. I kind of developed a taste for lesbian romance. I like Rose Leslie, aka Ygritte in the Game of Thrones. She already delivered an outstanding performance of Maia in the Good Fight as a lesbian lawyer. Watching submarine/enclose space-related shows in Munger room was quite a unique experience.
Reds, an American film about their most famous socialist activist and journalist John Salis “Jack” Reed, made me cry. It was produced in the 80s, thus it was still during cold war. The story focused on Reed and his partner Louise, and their adventures reporting WWI and the Russian revolution. I was still in the break-up mood that time, and the scene of Jack and Louise, comrades and lovers, holding hands in Eastern Europe prairie, against the strong winds, irritating sands and heavy snows, against all the odds, is the most ideal representation of a romantic relationship, and I feel that I once had that.
There seems be a lot about feminism. On plane to the US I watched Barbie and Little Women (2019). I believe one of the core ideas is to give confidence to people who were systematically discouraged, and to offer equal or even more opportunities. Allan, and some other details, perfectly demonstrated that people are not born women but becoming women. I myself, having been in compromised or vulnerable positions several times, either voluntarily or unwillingly, may have encountered something similar and been somehow able to sympathize. Interestingly Barbie and Sex Education share a great number of cast members. By the way, I recently had a huge crush on Irish accent and people overall. Saoirse Ronan motivated me to watch Little Women, O played by Thaddea Graham, a Northen Irish adopted Hunanese actor, has such a lovely accent, and Mark Allen the professional snooker player from Northen Ireland has the sexist voice when he is doing game commentary.