2025/12/27
Quoth Jung in his Modern Man in Search of a Soul:
Everything that is unconscious in ourselves we discover in our neighbor, and we treat him accordingly. [....] What we combat in him is usually our inferior side.
One of the problems -- perhaps the greatest problem -- of late modernity is that the convoluted ratiocinations of intelligent yet goofily unrealistic (and let's be honest, drugged-up) white men renders advice that's ridiculously inapplicable. I've never found myself in combat with a neighbor, but if I had, he started it, so why abuse my inferior side with an accusation just when it's as much under attack via axe or rifle as my superior side? Stupid. Well, maybe there's relevant wisdom to be had in this quote by Josh Billings, who apparently suffered a crippling stroke before he wrote On Ice: and Other Things:
Men judge each other bi their suksess, not bi their undertakings; but the Lord judges bi the undertaking, not bi the suksess.
Uh huh. Well, excuse the shit out of me for not surveilling people's undertakings in the ample spare time that Billings probably had while drooling in his wheelchair, but I don't. Maybe success is the only publicly available metric by which I can adjudge (and hopefully lambaste) others and their suksess. I mean, duh. On a side note, the above quote rather explodes the notion held among many white nationalists that our crisis of competence is anything new, or necessarily non-white. Evidently, some leftarded copy editor in the 19th century was so terrified by contingent accusations of ableism or whatever that he (or probably she, if we're going to be honest) just let all those typos slide right into print. Again, stupid. Anyway, Hillel suggested:
Judge not your neighbor till you've been in his place.
Now, that's practical advice. Not only would I have the opportunity to get a stiff drink and maybe some snacks during that first visit to his home, but I can scrutinize not just him but also how he lives, eats, excretes, and maybe sleeps before I render judgment. I can pore over his books and discs to assess his probable taste or lack thereof. Why didn't I ever think of this? Thanks, Hillel. Finally, here's a typical load of shit from the (frequently violent, petty, pedophilic, psychotic ethnosupremacist) Talmud:
Judge every man in the most favorable light.
Counterpoint: there's no "favorable light" in which to view Israel or its hideous, disgusting, blackmailing, warmongering, sex trafficking, diasporal advocates. Nice try, rabbi.
Whatever. What matters is that from January 26th though April 23rd, 17 of Shunji Iwai's movies will be screened in select theaters in tricennial celebration of Iwai's debut as a director of theatrical features. Alas, in this thirtieth year since Love Letter first bridged the cultural gap between Japan and South Korea, and dragged Japanese kicking and screaming away from their TVs into theaters to watch something that wasn't big, dumb, and American for a change, I'm still too lusk, impecuneous, and frankly terrified of air travel (at a time when planes are exploding on runways during takeoff, or their wings are falling off in mid-flight, proably due to DEI), to attend any of these. Ergo, I won't get to see my hero's corpus vivendi on the big screen, or receive one of the bitchin' collectable cards (pictured at right) distributed to patrons of these screenings.
Since this doesn't at all pertain to AI, crypto, politics, your stupid smartphone, or your precious drugs, what do you care? Most of you didn't read or watch anything worthwhile this year because you're plugged into a shitty little device that's irradiating your pre-retarded brains, enabling coporations and governments to track, document, and exploit most of your activity, and further removing you from the real world, which is weirdly, maybe terrifyingly more honestly and realistically depicted or addressed by some movies than it is on social media. Yeah, I know: I'm old and out of touch because I care more about the next chapter that I'm going to read or disc that I'm going to spin rather than the latest developments involving LLMs, or which memes are most hilariously calling Trump a brain-dead pig, or what it was like when Elon Musk or Cristiano Ronaldo last took a dump. I'm so ancient and passé, which is why you care more about moronic trends and overpriced, insidious, proprietary technology than you do about companionship, love, sex, art, profit, or dreams. Fuck you. Fuck you and your gay, brain-dead ethos that comp>:=[====[=~~~~~~~ <"MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH"
=]=:< <"Hello, again! It's me, Allen. RoBu was going to introduce me anyway, so this was as good a time as any to high walk on in and gobble up some text before he alienates all of you."
Good thinking. Excuse me. As your co-hosts, Allen and I will be
=]=:< <"You know the drill: he reviews, I opine, we discuss. We operate a lot like the dipshits who penned the long-defunct critical site Dumbass and the Fag, except that I'm not a moron and he actually knows something about the medium."
Very true. Cinephiles famil
=]=:< <"Rest assured, we're as sharp as tacks this year, and we've tackled some of the best and worst movies out there. Not just old Japanese stuff from the '50s, but plenty of note from the past 20-odd months."
Okay, Allen. Thank you. Cinephiles familiar with Iwai's oeuvre may have noti
=]=:< <"One more thing. I ate two babies' corpses and a few vials of Adderall XR this morning, so I am toasted to the teeth and ready to roll. Yeah!"
Great. Just great.
Cinephiles familiar with Iwai's oeuvre may have noticed a certain omission among the 17 shorts and features selected for these screenings. That's right; Swallowtail Butterfly was elided from this selection, to be screened separately next year for its 30th anniversary. But why, you may ask? You'll find out on the next page, which discloses a stunning (albeit presumptive) revelation that vindicates and aggrandizes me!
Here's the schedule for this year's roundup:
You may notice that this feature contains less than half as many reviews as last year's gargantuan undertaking. Well, I viewed fewer movies new to me, and was preoccupied with numerous projects. That's it. That's the only reason.
All set? No? Okay, empty your bowels and bladder, grab a snack, and open your mind so that I can pour My Right Opinions into it. Let's go.
© 2025 Robert Buchanan