Thankfully, Netflix says I'm only 23 percent similar . . .

. . . to the person who claims the Pang Brother's 2006 film Re-Cycle is "THE most EMO movie EVER" as if that were a good thing. The film, though, is THE most SOMETHING movie EVER, but I'm not sure what. The list could include:

• THE most BIZARRE film about the unintended consequences of writer's block EVER
• THE most IMPRESSIVE film by twin brothers who, according to Wikipedia, "are in a relationship and rumored to be engaged" EVER
• THE most LIKELY FIRST film to equate throwing away a sheet of paper with aborting a fetus EVER
• THE most UNNECESSARILY SUBTITLED film EVER
• THE most OSTENSIBLY APOLITICAL Asian horror film to take its cues from the American conservative movement EVER

As I said: THE most SOMETHING movie EVER. I'll start with the minor complaints and work my way forward:

THE most IMPRESSIVE film by twin brothers who, according to Wikipedia, "are in a relationship and rumored to be engaged" EVER

Either those two are a little too close, or Wikipedia entries sometimes need editing.

THE most UNNECESSARILY SUBTITLED film EVER

Unless you're being intentionally thick, as Scott McCloud is in the (center) panel from DESTROY!!! below, there is absolutely no reason for subtitles to be duo-specific:

If I can see that the aborted fetus of the protagonist, Tsui Ting-Yin, is screaming and hear its banshee-keening, there is no need to have a subtitle inform me that [TSUI TING-YIN'S ABORTED FETUS IS TELLING ITS WOULD-HAVE-BEEN MOTHER HOW IT FEELS ABOUT BEING ABORTED VIA A HIGH-PITCHED SHRIEK THAT WILL LIKELY CAUSE TINNITUS]. To prove this point, I will continue reviewing the movie in the manner of its subtitles.

THE most BIZARRE film about the unintended consequences of writer's block EVER

 

THE most LIKELY FIRST film to equate throwing away a sheet of paper with aborting a fetus EVER

&

THE most OSTENSIBLY APOLITICAL Asian horror film to take its cues from the American conservative movement EVER

 

Comments

[Jonathan Dresner]

The aborted fetus thing may not be a conservative thing at all: there's a tradition in some Asian Buddhisms (Japanese, for sure, and I think it exists in Taiwan as well) of concern about the results of miscarriages and children's deaths becoming "hungry ghost" or otherwise malevolent spirits. In Japan, the Jizo Boddhisatva is particularly associated with salvation for these souls.

Though somewhat eerie -- Japanese ghost stories are justifiably appreciated by afficianados of the creepy -- the idea of vengeful fetuses and the equation of mental creations with fetuses actually makes a lot more sense to me in that context.