We are joined by none other than friend of the pod and the artist behind all of our DC covers, Justina Yam! Justina comes on the podcast to take us back to the works of Chantal Akerman, with her first feature Je Tu Il Elle. Justina talks about her personal connection to Akerman’s films, and discusses how she continues to play with time in her filmography. Wilson and Eli talk about expressions through body language and narration, and Ben has a theory about Je Tu Il Elle being a non-linear film.
Do you want DC merch? Tell us on the Discord!
Links:
Justina’s recent photojournalism project: 風流 (Feng Liu)
Eat sugar at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:44 Introducing Justina Yam
00:07:09 Je tu il elle introduction
00:08:04 General thoughts on Je Tu Il Elle from Justina and Wilson
00:13:21 General context of the film
00:15:27 General reactions from Ben and Eli
00:18:09 Sugar? Long Takes?
00:20:56 Feminism and Akerman
00:23:30 The three act structure
00:27:44 Blocking and the body
00:34:06 Long takes
00:36:42 Sex scenes
00:41:43 Autobiographical nature of the film
00:47:16 Temporality
00:53:49 The ending and career context
00:58:49 Discomfort within Akerman’s cinema
01:04:03 Outro
Ben got a chance to interview director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke for his film A Useful Ghost (2025) that played at the 36th Singapore International Film Festival, where it also won the Special Mention Prize for the Asian Feature Film Competition.
Learn about Boonbunchachoke’s creative process, how he developed the story, and his approach to filmmaking as a whole that tends towards artificiality, deadpan humour and an engagement with history.
Special thanks to the SGIFF team for helping us with securing an interview time/location, and to Momo Film Co, the film’s Singapore co-production team for helping to coordinate the interview.
Suck less at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:47 Reception
04:00 Queer readings
07:39 Developing story and themes
12:02 Political / historical references
13:24 History, memory, surveillance
18:19 Artificiality, worldbuilding, craft
25:36 Spoilers: Frame story
27:25 Spoilers: Ending
31:43 Other appliance candidates
33:42 Upcoming work
34:35 Outro
Another festival coverage episode? We’re back to back with Asian film festivals and Ben returns to Singapore to cover the hottest films from the festival circuit and the region for the 36th Singapore International Film Festival. Our film coverage spans the most hotly contested tickets (Silent Friend, Girl, Resurrection, Sentimental Value), cinema classics (Matador, Water, Bye Bye Love), and promising first features from the region (Amoeba, A Useful Ghost, Old Man and His Car)
This is a spicy and fun episode where Ben reflects honestly about his festival experience and Singapore’s cinema culture, as well as sharing his optimism with the concurrent ground-up efforts (The Daily, FFIGS) reinvigorating that culture. On top of all that, we also find the time to do a very special celebration in the middle of the episode.
Links:
Ben’s piece on the Cinephile Pass
Luca Guadagnino video on costumes
Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers at MoMA
Madame Morible Wicked Witch meme
Interview with Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (forthcoming!)
Correspond with us at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:03:15 Festival as a whole
00:08:45 Netflix acquisition of WB
00:11:51 Festival operations
00:20:33 Festival passes
00:24:15 Banned films
00:27:48 SGIFilmFeud
00:28:25 Correspondence / The Daily
00:30:56 FFIGS
00:34:40 Optimism
00:38:14 The films / Bye Bye Love (1974) dir. Fujisawa Isao
00:43:10 How Dare You? (2025) dir. Mipo O
00:46:14 Two Seasons, Two Strangers (2025) dir. Sho Miyake
00:48:29 Audience behaviour
00:51:25 Girl (2025) dir. Shu Qi
00:56:20 Resurrection (2025) dir. Bi Gan
01:02:25 Water (2005) dir. Deepa Mehta
01:07:02 A Celebration
01:09:00 Sentimental Value (2025) dir. Joachim Trier
01:11:25 Hamnet (2025) dir. Chloe Zhao
01:14:25 Late Fame (2025) dir. Kent Jones
01:18:07 Matador (1986) dir. Pedro Almodovar
01:21:20 Silent Friend (2025) dir. Ildikó Enyedi
01:27:00 SEA Shorts Programme
01:31:36 The Old Man and His Car (2025) dir. Michael Kam
01:36:50 Amoeba (2025) dir. Tan Siyou
01:43:10 A Useful Ghost (2025) dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
01:51:16 Wrapup
01:57:30 Bonus
While attending the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival, Ben was able to interview director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang and lead actress Bella Boonsang for their film Morte Cucina.
Morte Cucina follows Sao as she takes an unconventional path toward revenge against a man who has wronged her.
Listen in to hear about Ratanaruang’s candid thoughts on his approach to filmmaking, Boonsang’s initial trepidation and determination to tackling this tricky role, and Ratanaruang’s evolving working relationship with the film’s DP, Christopher Doyle (their third feature film collaboration!).
Special thanks to the TIFF team for arranging the interview!
Get revenge at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:22 Inspiration for the film
04:30 Bella’s reaction to the script
06:23 Casting Bella Boonsang
09:45 Cinematography with Chris Doyle
13:15 The movie is made on set
17:30 What is love?
22:17 Outro
Armed with a press pass and the Japanese language level of a 3 year old, Ben took to the cinemas of Tokyo during the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival. Ben’s coverage spans a varied 17 films over 10 days of the festival: buzzy and fresh Japanese films (Bring Him Down to a Portable Size; The Last Blossom; All Greens…) international film festival darlings (Lost Land; Palestine 36…), and a handful of exciting restorations (Demon Pond, Love Massacre…).
And if you haven’t listened to Ben’s interviews from during the festival, what are you waiting for?
114. Sato and Sato (2025): Interview with Director Amano Chihiro
116. Morte Cucina (2025): Interview with Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Bella Boonsang
Other Links:
ようこそto our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:04:23 TIFF38 Press Experience
00:08:55 Demon Pond (1979) dir. Masahiro Shinoda
00:14:28 Pale Flower (1964) dir. Masahiro Shinoda
00:17:55 Floating Clouds (1955) dir. Mikio Naruse
00:23:32 Love Massacre (1981) dir. Patrick Tam
00:29:01 April Story (1998) dir. April Story
00:32:58 3.11 disaster sidebar
00:36:10 Blonde (2025) dir. Yûichirô Sakashita
00:39:35 Sato and Sato (2025) dir. Chihiro Amano
00:43:41 All Greens (2025) dir. Takashi Koyama
00:47:40 The Last Blossom (2025) dir. Baku Kinoshita
00:52:35 Lost Land (2025) dir. Akio Fujimoto
00:58:30 Echoes of the Orient (2025) dir. Yang Liping
01:00:55 Labyrinth (2025) dir. Shoji Kawamori
01:03:46 Bring Him Down to a Portable Size (2025) dir. Ryota Nakano
01:07:18 Morte Cucina (2025) dir. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
01:12:45 Palestine 36 (2025) dir. Annemarie Jacir
01:20:16 The Mastermind (2025) dir. Kelly Reichardt
01:24:23 Hamnet (2025) dir. Chloé Zhao
01:32:55 Wrap-up
While attending the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival, Ben was able to interview director Chihiro Amano for her film Sato and Sato.
Sato and Sato covers the 15 year span of a relationship as it slowly unravels, covering marriage, parenting, and the ways relationships morph over time. In our short interview, we talk about changing gender dynamics as depicted in Amano’s film, how she worked with her cast to create the characters and relationship, and find a little resonance with other Deep Cut director Chantal Akerman.
Special thanks to the festival team for arranging the interview and guiding me around the festival, and to the provided interpreter, Ninomiya Yukako.
Get hitched at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:44 Interview: Same last names
03:50 Working with the cast
07:47 Women’s empowerment
09:49 Spoiler
10:40 Male insecurity
12:44 What is love?
13:56 Outro
We have a very special guest this week: Lee Isaac Chung (Minari, Twisters) brings one of his favorite movies of all time, Steven Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence, to the podcast as his Deep Cut Pick! Isaac chats about his awe and love for the film, what he’s learnt as a filmmaker from working with Spielberg on Twisters, and his own transition into blockbuster filmmaking.
We also discuss Hayley Joel Osment’s all-timer of a child performance, the film’s divisive ending, Spielberg’s masterful blocking, and the film’s worldbuilding and depictions of the future.
Find the blue fairy at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introducing Lee Isaac Chung
00:01:50 Introduction to Steven Spielberg and our connection with his work
00:09:02 Why Isaac chose AI as his Deep Cut
00:13:46 First reactions to AI
00:18:04 Plot summary and production context
00:20:19 Kubrick
00:24:48 Minor Barry Lyndon spoiler
00:26:24 Spoiler ends
00:28:12 Love/hate and Spielberg’s touch
00:35:38 Hayley Joel Osment’s performance
00:41:53 Strategies for directing children
00:46:29 Act 2: Jude Law and Flesh Fair
00:52:03 Worldbuilding and depiction of AI
00:55:46 Ending
01:01:13 Spielberg’s blocking
01:09:24 Isaac’s experience moving into blockbuster filmmaking
01:13:46 Outro
“Kurosawa, you dog.” – Eli.’
“It’s like edging, in cinema.” – Wilson
“What is this, looney tunes?” – Ben
Kurosawa can only make the kind of movie that leaves us both perplexed, impressed and dropping memorable reactions. Listen on as we unpack the film’s critique of the next generation of hustlers and entrepreneurs, figure out what it’s trying to say through its allegory, and finally answer if anything can beat a jet2 holiday.
Links:
The Kinetoscope: Cinemagoing in Japan
Buy our stuff at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
04:36 Ben and Wilson's general reactions
12:14 Eli's experience watching at Lincoln
16:31 Cloud plot summary
20:34 Compared to other Kurosawa films
25:00 Sano and the younger generation
32:41 Nihilism and cynicism
36:42 Locations and spaces
40:50 What is this movie trying to say
42:37 Takimoto
46:31 Akiko
49:04 Dorsality
51:49 Sound
52:56 Productively frustrating critique of late-stage Capitalism
56:22 Kurosawa's reversals
58:26 Odds and ends and questions
Eli joins the other boys hot off of his Lincoln Center press screenings to tell us the must-watches and the maybe-skip-overs of this year’s New York Film Festival. But before that, Wilson and Ben briefly get their words in for the latest Paul Thomas Anderson joint, One Battle After Another. Catch Eli talk about other NYFF titles like Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, Olivier Laxe’s Sirāt, and possible film of the year: Bi Gan’s Resurrection.
Links:
Secret Goldfish - Bi Gan short film
I’m walking here at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
04:46 One Battle After Another (2025, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
13:32 No Other Choice (2025, dir. Park Chan-wook)
16:58 Sirāt (2025, dir. Oliver Laxe)
20:18 Queen Kelly (1932, dir. Erich von Stroheim)
25:29 Angel’s Egg (1982, dir. Mamoru Oshii)
31:27 Japanese Film Festival (in Singapore)
34:34 The Arch (1968, dir. T’ang Shushuen)
35:09 The Mastermind (2025, dir. Kelly Reichardt)
38:03 Mare’s Nest (2025, dir. Ben Rivers)
41:13 Jay Kelly (2025, dir. Noah Baumbach)
42:22 Back Home (2025, dir. Tsai Ming-liang)
44:49 Ecce Mole (2025, dir. Heinz Emigholz)
48:15 Peter Hujar’s Day (2025, dir. Ira Sachs)
50:34 What Does That Nature Say To You? (2025, dir. Hong Sang-soo)
53:10 A House of Dynamite (2025, dir. Kathryn Bigelow)
57:40 Resurrection (2025, dir. Bi Gan)
We are very excited to welcome Prof. Lisa Dombrowski to our podcast! She is a Professor of Film Studies and East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. She’s the author of the books: The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I’ll Kill You! (2008), the editor of Kazan Revisited (2011), and co-editor of ReFocus: The Later Works and Legacy of Robert Altman (2022). (Ben worked on that last one!)
We took Lisa’s fantastic film classes and she’s a big reason this podcast exists, and why we talk about movies the way we do. (You can read more about the podcast’s origin story on Patreon!)
Together, we preview a newly restored film showing at the upcoming New York Film Festival and M+ Restored programmes, T’ang Shushuen’s The Arch, which Lisa teaches in her classes. Lisa shares with us the film’s unconventional transnational production context, and we have an in-depth discussion about the film’s groundbreaking use of film form to portray female subjectivity. Eli highlights the film’s use of deep staging, Wilson compares the film with Ann Hui’s A Simple Life (2011), and Ben explains what he means by an “oyako-don” pantheon.
Links:
Read more about and get tickets for the M+ Restored programme
Screening in NYC for NYFF at Film at Lincoln Center
Obey your ancestors at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:01:36 Introducing Prof. Lisa Dombrowski
00:06:48 M+ Restored
00:09:39 Context on director Tang Shu-shuen and The Arch
00:11:16 Lisa's relationship with The Arch
00:17:16 General reactions
00:23:30 Adaptation and subjectivity
00:26:06 Subtitles
00:28:06 Female gaze and melodramatic situation
00:30:28 The opening setup
00:33:28 Cinematography context
00:40:28 Love triangle and deep staging
00:43:34 Plum scene
00:52:37 Source material
00:55:28 Cultural context and societal norms
01:00:04 River scene and Mid-Autumn Festival
01:03:39 A Simple Life (2011) sidebar, subjective realism
01:07:25 Confucianism and social conditioning
01:10:29 Loom scene
01:13:04 Editing for meaning
01:16:32 The arch, the ending, the takeaway
01:24:57 Fractured images and liminal spaces
01:30:15 Lisa Lu and casting
01:31:32 The film's reception
01:33:56 Tang's approach
01:39:03 Cultural identity, transnational cinema, aesthetic expectations
01:43:32 Tang's career post The Arch
01:46:05 Outro
We are joined by special guest Alex Heeney, the founder and editor in chief of Seventh Row, to dive into Luca Guadagnino's 2017 coming-of-age masterpiece, Call Me By Your Name. They talk about their deep personal connections to the film, with Alex recounting her experience at the world premiere at Sundance and Wilson sharing his obsessive journey preparing for the New York Film Festival premiere of the film. Eli discusses the film's sensual direction, and Ben explains why he thinks this is Guadagnino’s most mature work.
Links:
Find more of Alex on Seventh Row. They are hosting a summit celebrating queer and trans stories called Living Out Loud. Check it out here.
Mina Le: why does hollywood love an age gap romance?
Women around the fountain video
Call us by your name at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:14 Introducing Alex Heeney
00:04:00 Our histories with CMBYN
00:21:50 Masculinity and Romance
00:26:03 Narrative structure
00:32:05 Performances
00:37:39 Scenes and blocking
00:41:00 The statue scene
00:47:44 The parents
00:51:20 The peach scene
01:00:30 Age gap discourse
01:10:42 Homophobia and queerness
01:13:05 Cinematography and Marzia
01:31:00 Editing
01:35:36 The Sufjan element
01:39:15 Outro
We continue our series on Akerman with a double-bill of personal documentaries about her mother, and of home. News from Home immediately follows her seminal Jeanne Dielman, and No Home Movie is the final film of Akerman’s filmography. In this episode, we thread the throughline across Akerman’s career in comparing both films, see the influence of structural and slow cinema, and marvel at her capacity for personal artmaking.
Links:
Celine Sciamma on Chantal Akerman
I Don’t Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman (No Home Movie BTS footage)
Go home to our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
05:32 Plot summaries and Reactions
17:15 2015 critical reactions to No Home Movie
21:00 Structural films and emotional responses
27:07 Power of the cut
33:41 Akerman and her mother
40:33 Comparing Akerman with Varda
44:36 Private artmaking
48:33 Akerman's career arc
52:13 Preview for next eps
It’s about time. We tackle Chantal Akerman’s Sight and Sound topping Jeanne Dielman, and begin our series on her singular career. Ben introduces Akerman’s career, spotlighting her fierce conviction and crystalline vision, Eli loops in a melodramatic reading, and Wilson zeroes in on an ending that explosively caps off a 3.5h opus. And if you’re struggling with how to approach this film, as entertainment or as art, just remember: it’s about time.
Links:
Behinds the scenes of Jeanne Dielman
Stephen Gillespie’s Letterboxd review
Angelica Jade Bastien on Longlegs
Make coffee at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:03:03 General reactions
00:13:26 The S&S list
00:16:24 Akerman's career
00:23:45 Plot summary and structure
00:29:20 Cinematography and spatial representation
00:32:14 Depictions of women and melodrama
00:34:35 How Akerman directs Seyrig
00:37:53 Everything is "real"
00:39:10 Time
00:42:14 Patterning
00:46:40 What triggers the breakdown
00:50:16 Relationship between mother/son
00:57:18 Rituals
00:59:24 The movie exists as many things
01:00:25 It's place as #1 film
01:04:10 Akerman's conviction and vision
01:07:43 Scene dissections
01:13:04 Exterior scenes
01:16:47 Existential crisis
01:19:12 In conversation with cinema and larger culture
01:21:56 Ending
01:30:36 Outro
After a rocky relationship between Deep Cut and Mr. Pablo Larrain, we come back to the final film in Larrain’s “important 20th century white women” trilogy (as Ben describes it). Will Larrain redeem himself with a portrait of the final days of Maria Callas’ life? Or will he and Stephen Knight sh*t the bed again? Wilson praises Angelina Jolie’s comeback performance, Ben praises how pretty the film is, and Eli praises the prop glasses, but is all that enough to get the film over the line? Listen to find out.
Links:
Thomas Flight: Do Musical Biopics Have a Fatal Flaw?
Sing our praises at our free patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
03:33 General reactions
10:05 Saving graces of the film
14:10 Narrative
22:33 The Mandrax of it all
24:53 Supporting characters
27:36 Flashbacks and musical biopics
30:50 We pitch Maria Callas biopics
33:01 Pablo Larrain power ranking
38:18 Outro
We are joined by Asian Film Archive programmer Alexander Lee for our second installment in our Hong Sang-soo series! Alex talks to the guys about pairing Hong Sang-soo deep cuts with Eric Rohmer classics, and specifically the pairing of Night and Day with Love in the Afternoon. Eli chats about the narrative motifs that are on display in this film, Wilson tries to unlock the secret of Hong’s use of zooms, and Ben contends with the slimy protagonist of this film.
Singaporean listeners to Deep Cut you can catch Night and Day on July 13th at the Oldham Theatre. Buy tickets here!
Links:
Hong Sang-soo Notarized: Night and Day
Get drunk on soju at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:17 Alex introduces Twin Tales
00:06:45 Film Context
00:10:21 General Reactions
00:20:58 Hong’s big stylistic choices
00:23:22 Narrative Motifs
00:28:30 Yoo-Jung
00:31:55 Sung-nam
00:33:14 Odd patterns
00:37:22 Night and Day vs. Love in the Afternoon
00:40:41 Tech and sex of the 00s
00:42:42 The male mess of Hong
00:45:52 Dream sequences
00:50:54 The look of the film
00:56:18 Being married?
00:59:16 Hong notarized
01:00:40 Opening of the film and Hill of Freedom
01:02:43 Music
01:04:30 More on zooms
01:05:35 Paris
01:07:52 Other small odd things
01:09:24 Preview of Twin Tales
01:13:11 Outro
Deep Cut partners with Asian Film Archive which is presenting Twin Tales: Éric Rohmer and Hong Sang-soo, a special programme featuring six pairings of films by French New Wave director Éric Rohmer and prolific Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo. Buy tickets here!
We’ve teased this for YEARS! And it’s finally here. The DC Trio break the ice by introducing notorious Korean director Hong Sang-soo to the canon by talking about a 2006 deep cut, Woman on the Beach. We talk about the pairing with Rohmer’s The Green Ray (our ep. 24), discuss why this feels odd in Hong’s filmography, and debate on what shape this movie looks like. Join us for a lively first foray into the work of Hong Sang-soo.
Links:
Film at Lincoln Center: Hong Sangsoo on Woman on the Beach
The New Yorker: Hong Interview with Dennis Lim
Hong Sang-soo Notarized: Woman on the Beach by Ryan Swen
Get drunk on soju at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:13 Twin Tales: Hong x Rohmer
00:05:00 Our journeys with Hong
00:15:34 Hong Sang-soo Overview
00:24:02 Woman on the Beach Summary and Reactions
00:31:40 Notarized Hong
00:34:03 Whose story is this?
00:41:31 Men vs Women
00:43:09 Some scenes
00:45:06 Characterizations
00:47:28 Comparison with The Green Ray, and others
00:54:38 Cinematography
00:57:21 Diagrams
01:00:54 Restaurant scene
01:02:32 Triangulation
01:05:58 The Ending
01:10:36 Outro
I want to podcast with you. Without speaking. On this episode of Deep Cut Upkeep we step into 1950s Mexico City and dive into the lush world of Luca Guadagnino’s Queer. Wilson expands more on his love for the film and why it topped his 2024 film list. Eli talks about the narrative constraints of this (bio)pic about William S. Burroughs. Ben draws links between Queer and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Together, we talk about performance, Guadagnino’s eye for style, debate that Ayahuasca sequence, and end the episode with a quick round of Luca Guadagnino power rankings.
Links:
Natalie’s letterboxd review of Queer
Take a TRIP to our free patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:50 General reactions
08:26 Spoiler warning
09:31 Production context
12:50 Narrative structure
16:30 Craig's performance as Lee
19:12 Blocking and eyelines
21:03 First meeting between Lee and Allerton
25:09 Act 2
27:35 Yagé
29:28 The relationship
36:40 Comparison with In The Mood for Love
40:32 The trip
47:15 The ending
50:55 Comparison to other Guadagnino
58:33 Outro
As voted for on our Patreon, we return to Kelly Reichardt with her 2010 Western, Meek’s Cutoff.
Ben argues that no discussion of the American Western is complete without Reichardt’s film, Wilson highlights the film’s fraught production that miraculously led to its poetic ending, and Eli frames the film within the larger context of America’s problematic Manifest Destiny.
We get serious, analytical and near-academic with Reichardt’s masterwork… all the way until you hear us try on our best impressions of Bruce Greenwood’s Stephen Meek as Wallace from Wallace and Gromit. (?????)
Get lost at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Links:
Kelly Reichardt on WTF with Marc Maron
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:04:42 Plot Summary
00:05:54 General reactions
00:09:22 Eli loves the ending
00:13:24 The film as a Western
00:15:53 Production context
00:18:20 How she got that ending
00:22:10 The Western is distinctly American
00:24:20 American mythology
00:28:21 As "feminist" Western
00:30:59 Stephen Meek
00:33:15 Not your typical Western
00:37:39 Chaos and destruction
00:39:41 Actors
00:40:36 Mishandling of Reichardt's releases
00:45:25 Cinematography
00:50:47 Why 4:3
00:56:33 What's in store for Reichardt
01:00:02 Outro
Wilson comes on the podcast to talk about all the films he saw at the 49th edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Come listen to us talk about the newest films from around the world, including Wang Bing’s Youth Trilogy, Lav Diaz’s Phantosmia, Andrea Arnold’s Bird, and many more.
Join our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:03:17 Festival as a whole
00:08:44 Baby
00:10:25 Youth Trilogy
00:15:47 Bel Ami
00:17:50 Drug War
00:20:09 Bird
00:21:54 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
00:24:46 Man’s Castle
00:27:58 Việt and Nam
00:31:24 Yalla Parkour
00:36:09 Harvest
00:38:55 Never Too Late
00:40:04 Fire of Wind
00:42:15 To Kill a Mongolian Horse
00:44:10 Santosh
00:45:41 I’m Still Here
00:49:21 Bona
00:53:08 Dreams (Sex Love)
00:56:40 Misericordia
00:58:38 The Botanist
01:00:17 Seeds
01:02:05 Blue Sun Palace
01:04:58 On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
01:06:22 Separated
01:09:04 Phantosmia
01:13:15 Outro
Released as an exclusive Patreon post at the end of 2024, we’re now releasing this video podcast to publicly to commemorate ONE HUNDRED EPISODES! What a milestone. See you at 1000!
The summer of 2024 saw Ben, Wilson, and Eli all together in the same place for the first time in six years! To mark the momentous reunion, we recorded a special video episode. It's time to go all the way back to the start by revisiting the work of the podcast's first director, Hirokazu Kore-eda, with 2008's Still Walking. Learn about our history together, hear our musings on the complications of family, and watch as Wilson gets six pounds of blueberries.
Links
Ben’s video essay on Still Walking
We’re still walking over at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com
Timestamps
00:00:00 Intro
00:05:50 Plot summary
00:07:25 General thoughts
00:14:10 Gifting interlude
00:24:53 Still Walking continued
00:27:43 Story and characters
00:37:01 Deliberate cinematography, use of space
00:42:36 Food
00:47:43 Non-judgmental filmmaking
00:50:23 Melodrama?
00:52:22 Yoshio scene
00:54:15 Atsushi
01:01:06 Blue Light Yokohama
01:04:35 Tokyo Sonata comparisons
01:06:10 Stealthy emotional narratives
01:12:02 What does Kore-eda not show us?
01:16:58 Best food, best outfit
01:19:57 Closing thoughts
01:25:29 Longest outro ever