First love – Tomorrow’s champions
Hosted by
KT & Oti
Show Notes
Breathe in humanity and breathe out retaliation. Deliver the wicked punch of First Love this week.
Episode Details
- Duration
- 0:00
- Released
- February 27, 2023
- Category
- Episode
- Hosts
Transcript
Transcript (5,822 words)
Full transcript of First love – Tomorrow’s champions.
KT: It's another week in the For Your Reference household, and it's another course. It's actually the last fourth and final course of the 2023 Reference Degustation
Oti: Mm-hmm.
KT: Yay ha.
Oti: Finally made
KT: You know that one degustation we went to, Oti. Um, that had like the past nip uh, ice cream cone. That's what this feels like, Um, but if you haven't watched or if you haven't caught up on the Miike run, um, I just wanna take the opportunity to say love splooshes and all the thanks to all of our friends and lovers for joining us. We have made it two, four years. I'm very excited for the Splooshies Awards, but just like vegetables in our dessert, we need.
KT: Through this so we can get to the nasty. Mm-hmm. . Let's go on with the show. . Friends and lovers, welcome back to the For Your Reference Household. You got your host KT
Oti: And Oti.
KT: Breathe in humanity and breathe out. Retaliation deliver the wicked punch of First Love this week.
Oti: Mm-hmm. .
KT: Wow. Um, , let's just get into general stats and information. If you just joined us hot off of our Ichi the Killer episode, we're riding the same sad wave, friends and lovers.
Oti: Mm-hmm.
KT: Director Takashi Miike. In regards to writers for the screenplay, we have Mao as well as for story qui in regards to when it was released. This was very interesting because we've dabbled in late nineties, early two thousands, and this is, I guess, a nice. Sort of revisiting Takashi in May of 2019 in regards to actors. We have Masataka, who I told you looked very, very, very familiar. Death Note as well as Tokyo Ghoul. Yeah, We're sniffing and splooshing into handkerchiefs.
KT: Mm-hmm. , if you know, if you're a, we, you know, friends and lovers also revisiting, maybe continuing to permeate our urethras Nao. Our Ichi, uh, continued on, um, as well as chatta, so Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Let's get into the rankings before we talk about first impressions. Where are we? We are certified Reference Degustation WANs, so we have been to a few.
KT: Some of them give you, not necessarily scorecards, but they give you the sort of notes and the sort of journey. Story that the whole degustation is wrapped into. You know, some, some degustations are a mystery, a tasting platter of the world, sensations, if you will. Um, this collection was definitely the most, um, diving into without any sort of context, right?
KT: Mm-hmm. , I bet you're wishing for your dogma. Guillermo del Toro now, aren't you? Your Pinocchio was starting to feel it, Oti. Um, but let's, let's give a final, I, I guess you could call it a definitive, in the For Your Reference household ranking of all of the films that we've covered, Audition, Visitor Q, Ichi the Killer, as well as First Love,
Oti: Visitor Q has to be the first one for me, followed by
KT: Audition, agree.
Oti: then First Love, close off Ichi the
KT: Do we also need to put a caveat that there's a massive, massive gap in between Audition and First Love or not?
Oti: Yeah. there's a minor kanyon in between, but
KT: a mic Yeah, I, I pretty much agree. Um, so you know, then even if you listen to Ichi the Killer, Oti made clear Ichi the Killer and our God to Reference Degustation rankings is at the bottom, and I don't think I disagree with you either, unfortunately.
Oti: either. Mm-hmm.
KT: The highs were super high. The lows unfortunately continued to linger. We have like half an hour left of First Love . We were struggling Well, I guess that doesn't, um, speak well too, but let's get into first impressions. How did you feel about First Love? How was your first love, Oti? I
Oti: I sort of actually was excited going into. It felt different straight off the bat.
KT: Yes, I agree.
Oti: And I was like, okay, I'm in for this. Yeah, I'm in. And I think somewhere in between I got lost. But it started off very strongly, which was a positive. And yeah, I was, I was eager to see his take on what First Love is. I thought it would be a romantic spinoff, but that's just stupid me.
KT: That's as romantic as it gets I think.
Oti: Take on, um, on Romcom. Aye. . Yeah. What about you
KT: First Love offered a lot in way of updated production as well as budget. Um, there was definitely. Story compared to other offerings. however, it did f it, it, it was hard to keep my attention, um, throughout the duration of the film. Mm-hmm. There, i, I, I guess you could say there were some interesting sort of elements. What I will say, there were some genuinely laugh out, loud funny moments in this film.
Oti: Yeah. I think a lot of those moments for me were brought by Kase, who was just such a ridiculous character.
KT: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. spoiler. Spoiler, spoiler. Final course. Final course. Final course. Um, before he got shot in the shoulder, he was shouldering the whole film. I would say he brought a lot of the, he brought a lot of What would make you want to stick around for the film? Absolutely.
Oti: Oh, a hundred percent.
KT: I think it was a nice way to end this Reference Degustation, um, having that separation of almost 20 years from 2001 to 2019.
KT: Um, I don't think I'm ready to get off the Miike train just yet. You, by no means do you have to join me. Oti or friends and lovers, but with the amount of catalog that he has, I definitely want to give it another go. I'll be , I'll be very surprised. But I also wouldn't be very surprised if JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is one of the best fucking things I will ever watch. Also, um, we've been so busy doing the degustations Happy 200th review episode, Oti,
Oti: Woohoo.
KT: how exciting. Right? We just buried it in there, just like the slapstick comedy in this film. Mm-hmm. , um, we've incorporated Ref Maxes, so there's been instances, or even with our Halloween, I think it was like seven to nine films that we did as a part of that one review episode. So we've definitely reviewed more than 200 film and tv. But for the actual like podcast episodes that we've released, this is our 200.
Oti: noise.
KT: Hmm. So, uh, let's get into our common and recurring theme, shout outs to our patrons that were brave enough to join us on this journey. We're gonna get into general sort of questions. Um, how did you feel, because I even hinted on it when we talked about the first impressions. How did you feel about the general sort of production, the cinematography, the directing, because I think I even mentioned in Ichi the Killer, it felt like they had more of a. They definitely did a bit more in regards to like visual effects in Ichi the Killer.
KT: Obviously with the 2020s lens it looks a bit cringe and cheesy, but at the time I guess you can appreciate the visual effects and the budget that went into it. And then if you go all the way to First Love, there's definitely a difference in production
Oti: Yeah. Um, it was super vibrant, this one. Um, from the color grading, you could tell how much it, it had this modern look to it. Yeah. I think even emphasizing most of the violence in a, in, in a more modern take. Yeah. Um, I'd say a lot of the handheld shots also stood out to me.
Oti: It didn't feel like Liam Neeson's, Taken, but but you know, it was somewhere up there, which is cool to see him exploring these new techniques that I've not seen in his movies yet. So I quite enjoyed everything. It, it just felt different to give a different aura.
KT: Well, I'm actually just Googling what the actual rating is for First Love, because Audition wasn't as as much balls to the wall as like Visitor Q or Ichi the Killer, but this film definitely felt a bit more, I don't even know if restrained is the word, but it didn't go full Miike it, if that makes
Oti: Mm-hmm.
KT: So according to, um, Don Cheeto's internet, it's saying MA 15 plus, which might be a rating that's more specific to, the Australian sort of region, but it's somewhere in between like M and R, which I'm even surprised that it even made it that high in the rating. It's definitely not a PG 13 film, but, I'm actually surprised it got to that rating.
KT: But I guess to come to that, I don't know. And, and maybe it's the same way that like you listen to like the bigger sort of, money budget produced podcast, and I'm really into like indie podcasting because of, if I can wink us so spiritually, um, the, the way that people can be real and the way they can dig deep into talking about particular issues or even, you know, reviewing films and entertainment and not feeling.
KT: Sanitized sort of, um, sheen to a lot of it. So what I would say to that is what I would draw to, um, First Love is it looked great. It obviously looked a lot smoother, um, than the other offerings that we've watched, but neither does that make a compelling film be,
Oti: I hear you. But I think it, it, it captured a lot of the essence of what the movie was, um, better than I think Ichi did.
KT: Oh, absolutely.
Oti: Um, and hopefully No, I, I, I was gonna say, hopefully we get to see another Ichi, but No, please,
KT: What do you mean? Are you not the inspiration
Oti: but it did get my attention for quite a while, and I did find the characters interesting until, you know, it, it sort of lost its footing and its pacing, um, towards the final thought. But yeah,
KT: Just to clarify, I don't think this was a bad
Oti: Exactly.
KT: Um, and this is, we literally just watch Ichi the Killer. So we watch these two back to back. So I think I am feeling the onerous, the, the, the, I guess the flavorings of Ichi is still on my palette. If you are, pardon the pun.
Oti: the podcast. Mm-hmm.
KT: and as we know, that's not a great place to be. All right, let's get into the next theme. This is something that I injected commentary on Japan slash the world. This was a very interesting film because out of all of the offerings, aside from like a couple of lines in Ichi the Killer, it all felt very insular. Whether it was specifically about Japan or it was just insular to the stories that were being told in the four films that we're exploring. This felt more pointed outward. If that makes.
Oti: Hmm, I guess so. To me it felt more sort of pointed inwards in terms of the urbanization of sort of how Japan looked. Cause we remember when they're talking about Shinjuku in Ichi the Killer. Yeah. We get to, you know, we are still in Shinjuku. Yeah. So it, it felt different. We get to see other sort of the, the relations between the Japanese people and the Chinese people. I think we also saw, uh, was it Philipp?
KT: Yeah. The decapitated Filipino drug dealer. Yeah. That felt pointed. If you are, pardon in
Oti: of me
KT: But that's what I mean, like that I felt a very us against them in this film.
Oti: I just felt like it was, oh, look out the state of Japan now.
KT: I felt like all of the other countries in Asia can get it. . That's
Oti: Okay.
KT: Because I pointed out in Ichi the Killer, it was like a throwaway line about Chinese pimps, , and I'm like, what's the go with this? And then we apparently we're following that thread all the way to our first love.
Oti: Yeah. it does definitely paint a picture between the relations between the two countries. Right. So yeah, it, it definitely does feel like that.
KT: I don't think it's malicious, but it feels, I wouldn't say political either, but for a filmmaker that just kind of stayed in his wacky, sort of borderland world, it felt really interesting that it, it focused on the Chinese and the Filipino. And you know, it, I, I, I just thought it was like, it came a bit outta nowhere to me.
Oti: Well, like you said, we, after watching Ichi, there was definitely semblance of that in there, so it didn't come as a total surprise to me.
KT: I'm not saying they got the Dian treatment, like, I'm not saying it was like super malicious to other, um, ethnicities, but I just thought it was interesting. It was curious to me that all. Let's get into the next theme. Uh, what is real and what is not. Did you feel any sort of distortion between fantasy and reality in this film?
Oti: No, it didn't. It felt really grounded to me. I think focusing on Leo and Monica Uhhuh, , um, yeah, felt really us getting different viewpoints from their, you know, from their sort of side.
KT: But it all felt real. Yeah, yeah,
Oti: Yeah. Nothing outlandish or anything that felt, Ooh, this is a bit removed from reality.
KT: There was outlandish things particularly that Kase did, but it all felt real.
Oti: Yeah,
KT: He just did not die, did he?
Oti: Oh, what is that? Even man,
KT: Yeah, I agree. And then I think we even talked about in Ichi the Killer. It didn't matter whether it was real or not because it wouldn't have changed how he felt about the film. But I think it was very much grounded in the reality. I think it was, uh, of the four films, I think it was the most grounded in reality. because Audition definitely had its distorted sort of themes where you could argue whether it was real or not. Right? Yeah. All right. Well, let's go into direction and stylistic choices.
KT: This is from Rob Unflinching graphic Nature of the Violence. This is interesting. Of all the films, how do you feel the unflinching graphic nature of the violence played?
Oti: This was a tamed version of everything that we've seen so far. Right? It felt very held back. Yeah. Like, Ooh, maybe let's not go that gung-ho with this one.
KT: You know what's interesting about this film? I feel like the body count was higher than his other films. Like I feel like more people died but they didn't die
Oti: But somehow more muted.
KT: Yeah. At the gruesome sort of intensity that we come to know and linger with.
Oti: Yeah. I hear, I think the difference as well with this is the women, the role the women played in this movie Right. Was also completely different from what we've seen. Um, they had their own decisions to make, they could hold up a, you know, they could hold up a fight. Yeah. And the iron brutalized left, right, and center.
KT: No. And the, the men actually listened to them. Yeah. Miike the feminist after all. check out our Audition episode if you want more context. Uh, friends and lovers. I absolutely agree with you. It was interesting, but also I guess even, you know, recently we talked about M3GAN, um, and. I don't know, maybe in time we'll check out the unrated version right now. I'm not necessarily interested, but we talked about in M3GAN how having a, I guess a lower sort of rating for it really cut the legs off of what it could have been, right?
Oti: been. Mm-hmm.
KT: I think we were still able to feel the full mechanisms without it going full balls to the.
Oti: the war. Oh yeah. And, and, and somehow I think the movie did better in that regard as well. Like it performed better
KT: Because we talked about unnecessary moments that kept repeating in Ichi the Killer. Like at some point we fucking got it, right?
Oti: Mm-hmm.
KT: So yeah. So I, I guess that's good to see that. But then maybe that's where the create like the creativity that maybe that's where the juicers are for Miike, because that's where you get films like Visitor Q. You know what I.
Oti: Yeah.
KT: So maybe it's traversing. I really hope in the plethora of Miike Madness that I can, I can find another film that really gives me something to latch onto.
Oti: off. Oh, there's like 80 more to go. So
KT: yeah, I've, I've definitely
Oti: we'll find one
KT: that could be its own side podcast. Absolutely. And I'm sure a Takashi Miike, um, podcast already exists. Otherwise we can fill in the nipple come squat market, right? Mm-hmm.
Oti: Mm-hmm.
KT: Um, but yeah, I absolutely agree with you. There was still violence in the film, but it wasn't unflinching at all. And we talked about how gratuitous, Ichi the Killer was. It wasn't that. It definitely got its point across, um, but I guess it opens up to other audiences as well. Let's go into the next theme, the interaction between sex and violence from Ben. Was there sex in this?
Oti: Yeah, those innuendos as well when it comes to Monica.
KT: Okay. Was there sex or were there innuendos?
Oti: Uh, there was not really actual sex, but there it definitely a lot of innuendos about what was going on. We knew Monica was sold to the Yakuza
KT: fucking disgusting father.
Oti: Yeah. Really ridiculous father. And I think there's also assemblers of arby brought by the father to Monica as well. Yeah. Yeah. So,
KT: that's also interesting as well because in other Takashi films, they showed you absolutely everything in regards to that sort of abuse. Right. In this film we didn't see that. Yeah, but you still got it. Like you didn't need to see it. It's interesting cuz when we did our Taika Waititi run, We talked about how, you know, there's a theme of like, uh, an absent sort of father or you know, a parent that has passed away. I think Takashi Miike's theme for fathers is that they're fucking shit
Oti: and
KT: all deserve a mic up their ass.
Oti: Yep. I think another example would be Julie with Yasu, with that a, again, this is all innuendo, you know, they, Julie cared super or Yasu. Oh yeah. Um, yeah. Other than that, I don't think there's a lot of that.
KT: It's interesting when a director is like you, you come to know a director by a, a particular styling, and it's not present in the film. Kind of when Miyazaki where people kept saying, oh, he is got elements of like flying in planes.
KT: He's like, fuck you guys, . He just, you know, he proves otherwise, I don't know if this is the instance of, um, First Love, but yeah, sex was still a motivator in this film, but it wasn't depicted cuz for a lot of it, it was, it wasn't consensual a lot of the scenes that we had throughout all the films. So again, maybe it's great that we didn't. Let's move on. This is from Rob. Brutal justification to right the wrongs. I think this fits a bit more better than Ichi the Killer
Oti: agreed. I think this would apply to, uh, Leo in his pursuit to free Monica from the clutches of the Yakuza.
KT: I, I must say, in my list of fortune tellers in film, this is my second favorite after Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost Hey, we need to acknowledge how ego love and sploosh is forever.
Oti: We sure do. Yeah.
KT: you, Tara
Oti: because Leo does. Um, well, part of it is Leo thinking that he has nothing else to lose and is going to die, so he might as well help protect and save Monica. Yeah. And even when he did find out that, Ooh, I'm not gonna die, it was just a clerical error. Then he still had this decision to make where he. Oh, I didn't need to die for me to do the right thing.
KT: Yeah. Or you can still have that, um, I guess braveness, yeah. Being bold, you can still demonstrate that. Um, but I wanna talk about the fortune teller for a little bit. What did you think about him? Did you think he was full of shit or did you think that he knew more than the doctors, which is a very dangerous quenton thing to say, but I just wanna know your thoughts.
Oti: Based off the movie alone, it seemed like he knew . He, he had his mojo running through. He had all the right answers to the point where, oh, you live a very long, healthy life. And Leo was like, fuck you man. He knew his, he knew his stuff
KT: And he also, something he said that you repeated while we were watching the film, he needed to find something to fight for, and Yuri was ab Absolutely that. Let's move on to the next theme. This is in regards to casting in characters. Um, I would also say the brutal justification of the means also applies to Julie getting, um, revenge for Yasu.
Oti: Yeah, she goes hard on Kase,
KT: Like that final scene. I think I will always remember when I think about First Love, it definitely should have cued bodies. because everyone just kept dying. And I guess they set up a very interesting sort of dynamic because you have the Yakuza on one end and then you have the Chinese sort of mob on the other
Oti: Mm-hmm.
KT: And as we established the crooked cop as well, on the other hand,
Oti: definitely a lot of people playing a part in this. And yeah,
KT: I was hoping we would confront Yuri's dad though.
Oti: Yeah. I, I think the fact that she went there and he was missing and the place looked kind of torched, maybe it's a indicator that he had been killed.
KT: I hope so, but I just wanted that moment. I wanted her to have that moment,
Oti: moment. Yeah.
KT: Let's move on. Unchecked desires and passions. This is from Ben.
Oti: Well, I think, uh, could we, could it apply to Monica's addiction?
KT: Okay. But that's as a result of her abuse.
Oti: True. That
KT: Which is more of the conversation.
Oti: It is, it is to be fair. Um, I think my other example will be Kase and the crooked cop. They have unchecked desires and passions of being corrupt.
KT: Oh boo.
Oti: They planned everything. They planned. Everything they planned went completely wrong. Like it, it was so ridiculous. The first, the first 10, I think it was first 10. Within the first 10. Of Kase coming up with the plan. It was so hilariously flawed that I loved every aspect of it.
KT: I think you're stretching it by saying corruption.
Oti: I know it's still a desire.
KT: Boo. Super woke. Mindy Kaling. Velma Boo.
Oti: Wow.
KT: Um, let's, let's move on to the last theme, um, that we have this from Ben, women in Dominant Positions. This is great. This applies the most, I think,
Oti: yes, from I think the two I see in the Chinese gang. Mm-hmm. , uh, we had, we had Julie as well. Mm-hmm. . And to some extent, Monica, she stood the ground. You know, she, she faced, she, it, it came to a point where she faced her father and be it, uh, hallucination or whatnot. She still was able to kick him up the balls.
KT: Do you hallucinate and face your father? Is that, are you projecting right now her
Oti: Well, she did manage to fight her demons and, and that's the most you can ask of a person, man, who's been through what Monica has been
KT: Actually I see that. I appreciate that, sir.
Oti: Apparently there's only one feminist in this house,
KT: there's only one consistent feminist in this house, Oti. I would say Julie is the best. Like, she's like, she's a fucking MVP in this film. Um, the way that she's just so swiftly, uh, she might have even gotten the first kill in this film as.
Oti: Yeah.
KT: then she went back to the Yakuza again, surprisingly. But if the Yakuza are able to listen to a hysterical woman, anyone can do it. Friends and lovers. Mm-hmm. . But when she was like, I'll fucking kill, and then it's like she could probably take them down more than the men in the room.
Oti: A hundred percent. She was driven, man.
KT: but can I just say I've, I've, I'm putting some, I'm putting some knowledge in my holster. Are you telling me some bean flicking and, um, bean sniffing is a way to get me out of a dangerous situation. Yep. No nostrils are safe, friends and lovers. You wanna catch these splooshes? But she's great. I, I really, really thoroughly enjoyed her.
Oti: Yeah, me too.
KT: Okay, well just, um, let's finish off with some general thoughts. Ka Okay. Okay. Julie and Kase are the best things about this film, I think is the best way to say it.
Oti: way. Yep.
KT: Even though Yuri and Leo are the main part of this, and if you go by the title First Love, they're the ones that you should be focusing on. They weren't, they were probably the least interesting of the core sort of characters. I really enjoyed Julie and Kase and. Going to Kase. There were two again of the funny moments in this film. I would say 99.9% were from him when he was trying to that plan. Like you said, everything that could have gone wrong in that plan absolutely went wrong.
Oti: Orum raises our shit
KT: but one of them was him trying to get in the door and his wrist gets caught on the doorknob.
Oti: Mm. Yeah. I was like, that's you man. it's
KT: I've made it very clear I'm not a ride or die. Yeah.
Oti: Put yourself in that situation and you, the first thing you do with that taser is get knock yourself out with it. that
KT: I guess, came in handy, um, throughout the film as well. And then there was also him punching the old lady.
Oti: Yeah. And then getting surprised that she's dead. Yeah.
KT: She fucking frail mate. It's probably a fifth fall of the week.
Oti: Uhhuh. Definitely one of the best characters in the movie and as soon as Julie and Kase died, there was nothing else to watch Really. Yeah. You know, always loved seeing Ichi in a different screen, but Nah. Yeah. Really didn't add anything to it. I think even the end, it was good.
KT: What did you think about the animator sequence?
Oti: I think it was just a way to not have to do , the stunt in live action sort of production. And yeah, it's just a cheap way to get around it.
KT: It felt as out of place to me as the one in Kill Bill
Oti: Oh,
KT: because it's, I, I don't know, animation is a sort of medium to me. It works well if you weave it throughout. Otherwise it does feel a bit like you said, et cetera, et cetera. Dot, dot, dot, budget, um, I don't know. It was pretty, it was colorful. It didn't really add anything, especially since we were near the end of the film anyway. Um, again, friends and lovers, I'm sure it wasn't malicious, but the commentary about other Asian countries just felt very weird to me.
KT: Um, but I will also give grace that there have been commentary about people in, like Japanese people as well. So, um, I guess on balance. I'm not, I'm not trying to challenge or call out, but I just, mm. There was a bit of a cringe, like even the way they said decapitated Filipino drug dealer that just felt weird, Chinese pimp, all of that sort of stuff kind of felt a bit weird to me.
KT: Um, but you know, again, I, I'm not, I'm not going to meet him. At dawn, there was a Wim Hof method that they had. um, and then there was also the moment where, um, Yuri saw her former sort of proxy hero.
Oti: Yeah. And she does get closure saying that he ended up happy. Yeah. With a pregnant wife and
KT: Oh, what? Pregnant wife, he forgot she was there.
Oti: That's
KT: first love that they were talking
Oti: Mm-hmm. , and at least she did get closure on both fronts. Mm-hmm. , the two things that she kept on fighting for, uh, when it comes to her dad and her first love, pretty much. Or false protector. Yeah. Before Leo came into the picture,
KT: I, I would've liked a bit more compelling themes in this film because again, I think we can both agree that there was a more, more of a story and a through line, um, for this film compared to Ichi the Killer. But I wish there were more sort of stronger and more compelling themes. There were a couple of lines that I thought were interesting, but they didn't necessarily go anywhere again because there weren't necessarily any sort of compelling themes here. Um, but it had to do with the wicked. Which is very biblical.
KT: It takes me back to biblical times, Oti, old Testament, if you're nasty.
Oti: name. Mm.
KT: Um, this was said to Julie when Yasu died. This happens when you fall for the Wicked. Um, and then this is also near the end. The morning light doesn't suit the
Oti: Yeah. It doesn't suit the wicked, but they own that shit. True.
KT: Yeah. True.
Oti: But, but I think the, the takeaway from me when it comes to Takashi Miike is sort of the four run movies that we've done is most of the time the main characters are indeed mm-hmm . And in the supporting roles you'll find the gem. This is particularly true for Ichi and, and First Love. Yeah. Because we just talked about Kase and Julie who were really good about what really the best thing about the movie. Yeah. Leo's storyline was just not that good.
KT: like Cole Young in Mortal Kombat. 2019
Oti: Exactly. And Cole Young was a boxer as well or some shit, right?
KT: Yeah. We're gonna see, um, Johnny Cage soon. Woo. Excited. Yeah. It's not gonna be Joel Mikel, though.
Oti: I don't think I care.
KT: wow. Do I, I guess this is, um, maybe this is the more pertinent question, especially for our film Loving friends and lovers. Do you think it's fair to have an overarching opinion of Takashi Miike's Filmography in four films?
Oti: I don't think he can, just by the sheer number of movies he is done. Mm-hmm. , he does a movie every six months And to some extent , we have to go through half his catalog to get a proper picture of exactly who he's like, or, because I think four, movies does not a sample make.
KT: No. And, um, if we can break the For Your Reference matrix for a second. The Reference Degustations that we do are informed by the number of episodes we do in the year. Because we had so many episodes we didn't need to do a Reference Degustation that was like six or seven movies long. Django, um, being our last, I think a hundred and 50th episode. Right. Um, and then I think even before that, what was the last one?
KT: Hunt for the Wilderpeople. We also had Howl's Moving Castle as well as like our 50 plus milestones. Right. Um, so it would've been interesting to explore more of Takashi, but I also feel at the same time, this is like when you go to like the gelato. Sobe ice cream parlors and they give you samplings of different flavors.
KT: Like, I think we're good now, like we just need to chill for a bit. I definitely want to come back, um, and revisit my unchecked desires, be it corruption or otherwise. Um, and just to state myself a bit more in the filmography, I feel like Takashi Miike is a, is a bit more different in the directors that we've covered so far in. Like you said, the breadth of his work kind of deserves a bit more of the watching experience, but also this is a sampling platter and I'm glad that we took this journey together.
Oti: Me too. It, it has definitely been a journey. I think one of the wildest movies I've ever watched is thanks to him. Yeah. And it's something that I won't forget. Yeah. At all. Uh, , we've watched it twice now. Yeah. And that's, we're talking about Visitor Q here. it definitely turned something in me. I didn't know I even needed to watch. Yeah. Or expected to see the ebb and flow has definitely been there with the flows being higher .
KT: Yeah, absolutely. And I guess in the FYR curriculum, you know, when you think about like Goku on Planet dynamic, or even most recently Ichigo in the Thousand-Year Blood War, where, you know, where, where you have protagonists going through particular instances of training and they only go through particular stages when they're ready.
KT: Hit. If we had watched Visitor Q very early in this podcast, or even us just being casual, sort of moviegoers, I don't think we would've felt it to the sploosh depth level that we felt it now. I think it came at a very beautiful time in our lives and also as a part of the sort of film critiquing that we do at this podcast, A beautiful intersection of all of the film sensations, Oti.
Oti: A hundred percent.
KT: friends and lovers, thank you so much for joining us four years of the For Your Reference Podcast.
Oti: Ooh,
KT: Are you excited for the Splooshies, Oti? Got some very tasty nominations on the way, friends and lovers. Um, if you want to check out the rest of our Reference Degustations, please feel free to go ahead. Usually this is where we do the For Your Reference segment, but again, this is a set menu. So the recommendations are Audition. Visitor Q, Ichi the Killer, and First Love. If you would like to love, sploosh and fight with us on Twitter and Instagram, we're @ForYourRefPod.
Oti: Write us an email at hello@fyrpodcast.com.
KT: We're also on. We hit four years motherfuckers
Oti: Woo
KT: podcast, if you like to leave a rating and review and we'll see you guys at the Splooshies
Oti: see ya
KT: Dress corruption sexy. Bye.
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