Episode 21 - Kakabakaba ka ba? With Pearl from Kani! - Punk Vacation: An Unofficial Vinegar Syndrome Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You are now listening to the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast Network.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
All right, here we are, y'all. June first, Partner Month.
Welcome to episode twenty one of Punk Vacation. This is Chris.
If anybody doesn't know yet, Humpf Vacation is a podcast
dedicated to finding the joy and unfettered creativity. I want
to make this a podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and
context to movies of any budget, from anywhere in the

(01:11):
world and during any time in history. I'm going to
do it a little bit differently. Today. We have a
really fun episode coming up mid month, which I'm just
finalizing the plans on now, but given that it's Partner Month,
I thought I would do just a quick view of
what's come out today. I'm recording this on June first
and on Highlight Kannie, so i'll highlight Kanye, which is

(01:34):
one of my favorite partner labels, and then we'll, you know,
right after, I talk about the releases, and I'm excited
about some of these today. There's some really cool, interesting ones,
and just like always, I won't really talk too much
about the ones that I don't want to get for
whatever reason, because you know, if there's twenty two or

(01:56):
twenty three movies coming out, there's going to be some
that don't appeal to you, right, So I'll talk about
the ones that interested me instead, and why if I
if there's any questions about a particular movie, or if
you want to sell me on a particular movie. I'm
in the VS. Discord. I'm on Instagram under Punk Vacation Podcast.

(02:18):
I'm on Reddit under personal history of film. It's not
hard to find me. I'm everywhere. I'm on letterboxed under
personal history. I believe it's a roth Go picture that
I have as my profile pick. So anywhere you want
to find me, come talk and tell me why I
should have bought one or been excited about one or
the other, or why I'm crazy for liking a certain one.

(02:42):
I'm open to it all. All right, So we are
getting a jump in right before we do, I just
want to say thank you all. So this episode that
came out in May first is just performing phenomenally. It
has also sker Becker, it has Bescher, sorry, it has

(03:03):
Ross from Saturn's Core, obviously a segment from the last
and it's just like every week there's just another huge
chunk of listens and so I'm so happy y'all are
finding that. Thank you. And then the twenty twenty four
Extravaganza end of year one is still shocking me with
how many it's getting. It's twenty five percent higher than

(03:24):
any other episode in terms of listens, and every week
it gets a bunch more. So, if that's the kind
of stuff y'all like where there's a bunch of different
voices and it's a little bit of a longer episode,
but there's a bunch of different perspectives and a bunch
of different you know, people coming on, let me know.
I can certainly tailor it more that way and make
the episodes longer. It's just it's fun to watch the

(03:46):
ones that seem to click and resonate for whatever reason.
But anyways, I won't, you know, spend too much time
on that, but I just wanted to say, if y'all,
if there's something y'all really like in those episodes for
some reason, let me know, and I'll be happy to
adapt and do more of that. All right, housekeeping over

(04:07):
new partner label is announced, and uh, you know, I
know that it's so tempting to be like, dude, come on,
because there's so many partner labels. This one I'm excited about.
It's called Glass Eye Picks. For those of y'all that
don't know what that is by name, that's a label
and a distribution house and a production house that Larry

(04:29):
Festenden is very involved in. Larry festened In. I hope
y'all know that name, just you know as it is,
but in case you don't, he's a New York based
horror mostly horror director, and a lot more, which I'll
get into in just a second. But he he started
kind of in the nineties is when he started making

(04:50):
a lot of these actual feature length films, and he
he loves to do movies that have a little bit
of a twist on the on the universal monster classics.
So so what if it's a werewolf but in New York,
Or what if it's a vampire but in New York.
He likes to kind of play with these expectations of
well known stories and make his own twist on him.

(05:11):
And if it sounds hokey, it's not the way that
he makes that it's not. It's just a playground I
guess for him to kind of play. And I'm a
huge fan of Lawrence T. Fessenden, and in fact, thinking
about the fact that he's on Glass Eye Picks, I
might try to get him on here one time, because
hearing him wax on cinema is something of truly inspiring.

(05:33):
He just loves movies, loves independent movies. I don't want
to speak for him, but I imagine he's a huge
fan of SOOV. He's just somebody who kind of feels
like one of us, somebody who would really love vinegar syndrome.
Other than being a director and a writer, he also
got into production, which is the Glass Eye Picks. And

(05:55):
his probably most famous protege is Ty West, who's now
making a bunch of horror movies on a massive scale.
And Ty is very open about his relationship with Larry Festenden,
and they have a great relationship, and you know, I think,
just in case anybody doesn't know he you know, he

(06:15):
made the Second Cabin Fever, and then he made VHS
which was a pretty big hit, and then recently has
got into ex Pearl and Maxine are the ones that
are Ty West is directing, and he's kind of a
golden child right now in Hollywood for horror. So Larry
Festenden is a not director of everything with Glass Eye Picks,

(06:36):
he's a producer. The first one coming out from them,
so spine one is a movie from ninety from excuse
me two thousand and six called Automatons, And this is
a this is one that I don't know too much about,
but I'm excited to get James Felix McKinney on here
talking about the film and a commentary, and there's a

(06:58):
sixty minute behind the scenes document menory interview with the
cast and frestened Well, the director comes on and introduces
the movie, and then Simon Abrams, who's a well known
film critic, comes in and talks about the film as
well in a booklet. So this Automatons is basically a

(07:18):
science fiction film, a low budget science fiction film, and
it's one that was an instant buy for me, both
to support Glass Eye Picks as well as the movie
sounds interesting and I can't wait to watch it, So
that was an instant order for me. The one from Okay,
so I haven't bought a cartoon of release yet. I

(07:39):
know they did that hundreds of Beavers thing and everybody
was freaking out, but I'm just you know, y'all can
throw tomatoes at me. I'm just not huge animation guy.
It's not that I hate it. I mean I grew
up on Disney, just like the rest of us and
Pixar and stuff. It's just not something I really typically
buy as a blind buy. I have to see it first,

(08:01):
and so I haven't bought anything from Cartoony yet. But
this one is. It sounds it's like a dark comedy,
and the description hooked me. It says, in the fall
of twenty twenty, a struggling actor explores early Mormon historical
sites as he anxiously awaits the national broadcast of his
Domino's pizza commercial. It just sounds like a good comedy.

(08:23):
It's Oh. The movie's called cash Cow, by the way,
and it has huge praise. It's made for you know,
almost no dollars. But apparently it's just really fascinating look
into this, this character study, and so I gave it
a shot. It's my first cartoon I released. They're up

(08:44):
to number six now and this one on the first day. No,
it's not never mind, it's not a mad rush. It's
selling okay, but it's not a mad rush. Then moving
on the next one. I'm excited about Saturn'score. This one
is selling well. They've already sold five hundred copies. There's

(09:06):
a thousand of it, so this will I don't know
if it's going to sell out necessarily in June, but
it'll probably sell out pretty soon. It's volume two of
David the Rock Nelson Collection, so that's great. There's the
first one's sold really well for us, and there's another
one coming out here which is really great. These this

(09:27):
one takes place between all the films and shorts and
everything in here take place between nineteen ninety two and
nineteen ninety nine. There's as typical with Saturn'score, there's just
a ton of special features. They get David Nelson to
come on and do commentary. It's it's moderated by die

(09:47):
Cast movie podcast Steven Turk, which is great. That's as
a podcast that's worth checking out if you if you haven't,
Steven does a good job. There's outtakes, there's you know,
just a lot of archival footage. There's extra shorts on
here on top of what's being shown. The special features

(10:08):
are stacked as always and I cannot wait to dig
into this. Okay, one I'm going to call out even
though I'm not going to buy it. So I have
a little bit of a bias against buying Shutter stuff
just because, honestly, I just I feel like it's going
to be streaming on Shutter, right. I know that. I

(10:28):
know we're all about physical media here, and I get it.
I don't feel the same urgency to get Shutter stuff.
So y'all tell me if I'm wrong about that. I
do want to support physical media, but clearly I am.
I mean, I've already talked about two I'm buying. I
just I just I don't know, like I don't feel
the same urgency with Shutter stuff, So i'd love to
hear how I'm wrong about that. The Shutter title for

(10:51):
this month is Destroy All Neighbors. Now. To be fair,
this movie kind of looks awesome, so I'll probably watch
it on Shutter. It just looks kind of the best
type of batshit crazy, and the special features on this
disc are awesome, all sorts of comment there's three commentary,

(11:12):
there's five commentaries on this disc, so it's crazy like
there's a ton of stuff on here behind the scenes
feature atts. So if you like Destroy All neighbors. This
is definitely a disc. It's worth picking up. I did
not get it. Let's see slip there's two different slip covers,

(11:34):
so they made two thousand total. Slipcover A is already
half sold out and Slipcover BS about a quarter sold out,
so there's still some copies left. One of my one
of my quiet waves is Canadian International Pictures love If,
just in case y'all don't know. The people that started

(11:56):
Canadian International have been working in another well, are still
working in another production house as well, called Arbelows, which
is not related to vinegar Syndrome, but I highly recommend
you check out Arbelows. They have some of the just
very like esthetically just beautiful packaging. I really like it.
So anyways, they have a second project in where they're

(12:17):
putting out a lot of Canadian movies and they are
up to Spine thirty six now, which is great. This
one sounds good too, The Double at Your Heels. It's
essentially the story of a daredevil who wants to jump
his car, and it's a very popular movie. They it's

(12:38):
it's so popular that they pressed two thousand of these,
so y'all prove them, you know, don't don't let them
suffer for doing a little bit extra trying not to
have this go out of print. This is definitely one
at a minimum to try before you buy. But I've
actually heard about this movie before. I haven't seen it,
but it's supposed to be amazing. They do. They get

(12:59):
Robert Fourtier for commentary, and they there's behind the scenes
features about him. They get you know, some of the
cast and crew on for interviews. I mean. Canadian International
is another one that does just stacked releases, and this
one has the same thing. It just has pages and
pages of special features. Pure Cinema Podcast is all over

(13:21):
this release. They include four short films, so yeah, it's
a it's a celebration of one of the more popular
films to come out of Canada in the eighties. It's
supposed to be just amazing and I can't wait to
finally see it both as a documentary and also just
an interesting story and and a good movie. So I

(13:44):
can't wait to see this one. Okay, Film Movement Classics
is a company that I'm excited about. I've mentioned it before.
I really like their their role in the kind of
OCN universe because you know, you get to come on.
And they've put out a lot of I guess Hong
Kong movies and like Asian cinema coming out of the gate.

(14:08):
And now they're opening up their repertory line a little
bit more to include some European movies. The one that
just came out this month from them, there's a couple
from Film Movement overall, but the Film Movement Classics title
that came out is Edward the Second by Derek Jarman.
So the interesting thing about this one is that it's

(14:30):
a queer cinema. Look at the story of Edward the Second,
and so this is a it's a nineteen ninety one
it came out. There's Tilda Swinton's in it, Derek Jarman,
they're obviously directed. Stephen Waddington is in one of the leads.

(14:51):
Andrew Tiernan is a big role, and there's Annie Lennox
is here. She doesn't act in a lot of movies.
This is a This is a queer classic and one
that I'm hoping it sells well to show them that,
you know, just to show support for this, I'll definitely
get it. Bruce leb Bruce has an essay in this,
which is cool. So he's you know, very active and

(15:13):
contributing to queer cinema, both as a director and a producer,
and also now as somebody who's you know, being a
comment or commentation, being a commentary or like writer on
these discs, which is great. So Edward the Second has
pressed a thousand copies on the limited edition and they're
selling Okay, but I would I strongly encourage people to

(15:36):
at a minimum, you know, try this, but it's a
it's a great movie, a little bit of a tricky one. Next,
so I f C Films is putting out Gaspernoe's Into
the Void, Okay, love that, and of the Void is
getting a region A release. So for anybody who's not

(15:56):
region free, this is good news for you for sure,
because as far as I know, the only kind of
boutique release of this was from Aero Video a year
or two ago. I in total honesty, I don't know
if I'm going to buy this version because I do
have the Arrow, and the Arrow release is really really
good for this. I mean, credit where it's due, right,

(16:18):
I think it's a better release overall. Now that being said,
they did get a new commentary on there, which is nice.
They did get a new video essay, which is nice,
and they got a new booklet with film critics and
three different film critics talking about the release, so there
definitely is new supplements on here. If you're a huge

(16:40):
fan of the movie, you know it's probably fine to
have both. I guess it's you know, we all have
six copies of Evil Dead, right, But yeah, I probably
won't be getting this one. However, I am very excited
that it's getting a region A release, and good on
IFC for putting it out. If you haven't seen Into

(17:01):
the Void or you don't know much about gas Bornoue
outside of Irreversible, let's say I think this is firmly
in the category of try before you buy. Okay, it's
the movie, it's very experimental, and I just just trust me,

(17:21):
it's not something you would expect from him if you're
new to him. So I would try to stream it
if possible. There's a chance it's even on the aeroplayer.
I'll have to check on that, but anyways, yeah, I
think this is very much a try before you buy
unless you already know what the movie is and like it.
I love the movie, but I wouldn't recommend it to everybody,

(17:44):
okay up next to his Umbrella Entertainment, So this is one.
You know, it's an Australian distributor and in addition to
some of the sick special editions they have coming out
of huge Hollywood movies that that ship from Australia, they're
also a partner label on Ocean. So the movie they
have coming out this month is the twelfth release from

(18:05):
them through OCEN. It's called Final Cut. It's from nineteen eighty.
It's a thriller, kind of horror sort of movie with
murder and intrigue and you know, beautiful scenery. It's a
movie that was I think I'm pretty sure this is right.
I think it was the very first movie that was

(18:26):
given money by the New Queensland Film Corporation like a
like a regional you know, film like promotional arm of
the government. And I think this is one of the
very first movies to get funding from them back in
nineteen eighty. And it's it's a supposed to be a

(18:49):
very good movie. I have not seen it, but this
is one that I'm interested in and I do like
a lot of the curation from Umbrella, So this is
one that I'm going to take a chance on and
just trust that their curation has been pretty strong for
me so far, so I'll try it. And I like
the history of it and it's yeah, it's kind of
a erotic thriller, so it's an interesting release for me,

(19:12):
so I'll be getting that one. There is not a
lot of risk of this selling out. I don't mean
to say it quite so bluntly, but there's two thousand
pressed and of the first day they've just sold a
few hundred, so I think you can either wait on
this one or try before you buy, however you want
to do that, But it is one I'm going to
take a chance on. Then VHS hitfest. Let's see, these

(19:36):
are selling pretty well, So this one looks awesome. It's
fine number sixteen. There's going to be a thousand copies
of it. Looks like it's already sold about three hundred
and fifty or so. I'm recording this two hours after
it went live. This the movie is called The Killing Tide.

(19:59):
It's from nineteen nine, and it's just it looks awesome.
It's I don't know exactly what's the best movie to
compare it to, but A corrupt sheriff schemes with city
officials to obtain lucrative lake front property. In a web
of lies and intrigue, the sheriff tricks two killers into
murdering his partners in the deal, all in one night

(20:19):
over the fourth of July. But it's just David Dubay
is a name that probably should get more love. He
really knows how to put together He's a regional filmmaker
that really knows how to put together a story. The
Killing Tide is one that I'm excited about. They do
get one of the actors in to do the commentary,

(20:39):
and they do interview the director and one of the
other actors, and there's a documentary on there that's about
thirty years old at this point, which is chronicling some
of the Clinton River work, which is fun. So Yeah,
there's even a Japanese VH rip of the movie. It's
included with subtitle. So Dan, good job in finding that. Yeah,

(21:02):
The Killing Tide looks awesome and I can't wait to
see it the next one. Okay, So Jesus like certain
movies that either Vinegar Syndrome or Ocen puts out, I'm like, Oh,
for Fox, I've there's a movie. So there's a new

(21:23):
partner label called Kimstim. They they're not a new company.
They've been around for a while. It's they've been around
at least twenty years, I don't know. But this is
a new line of Ocean titles they're release this month
is called Mamere. Now uh okay. There's a theme in

(21:48):
OCN of like incest titles, and this is probably one
of the more controversial ones in that regard. The director
is Christopher on Alray, excuse my French Christophe on Alright,

(22:09):
But I really don't want to spoil this movie because
it's just even for the vinegar syndrome crowd, it's going
to have people being like, what the fuck. Yeah, I
would just say, if you can stomach really out there
plot points, this is one that has made well, but

(22:35):
he's just all over the place in terms of shocking content.
And of course it has Isabelle hu Hupere and she
plays a horny mom and there's incest in it with
her son, and I'll just that's all I'll say about it.

(22:56):
But that's, you know, sixty percent of what's shocking about it.
It's just I am very curious to hear what people
say about this movie. I have no idea what to say.
If this is a try before you buy, I would say,
if you don't like shocking content, think of like the

(23:18):
kind of stuff that Gaspernoe would make from earlier or
you know, Varentshreier or you know whatever, these these movies
that are made well but have just really shocking stuff
in them. Then I would say give this one a skip.
But if you're curious like I am, I mean, I'll
watch it. I bought it, I'll watch it. And curiosity

(23:41):
got the best of me. I've heard about this movie
for a long time. The ending has been spoiled for me,
but I don't want it to be spoiled for y'all
because it's just crazy and actually seeing it would be fascinating.
So here we go, mom Maye. So etr Media is
one that I don't collect a lot, because they do

(24:01):
a lot of the nostalgia ducks. If anybody from me
tr is listening, please no offense. I know there's a
big audience for that and they sell well. I can see,
so that's great. Not really my thing. However, the one
this month is tempting. If anybody knows the story for
Samurai Priest Vampire Hunter. Let me know. It's a comic
that I guess got turned into a movie. It's released

(24:23):
this year, I believe. I think it's a this year release.
And the special features are awesome on this there's two commentaries,
there's behind the scenes work, they talk about the comics.
I mean, this is it seems like a great release.
I am not gonna buy it, but if y'all think
I should, let me know. It is selling pretty well,

(24:44):
pretty well. I think there must be an audience for this,
and Samurai Priest Vampire Hunter is a pretty sick title,
so I'm sure that that's getting some attention. The AGFA
title for this month is Let's see there out up
to sixty six. This one is selling very well. The
limited edition probably will sell out in June if you

(25:07):
want to get it. It's a Robert Kaplan movie. It's
called Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers. This is so
I don't know if you all know the name Hollywoodlawn.
She was famous as being kind of a close collaborator
with Andy Warhol. She's a trans female and this movie

(25:30):
is comedy musical, sort of roughly based off of What's
the one scare what's the Scarecrow? A Wizard of Us?
Roughly not fully. It does have Bette Midler, and it
does have Lily Tomlin in brief appearances. This is a

(25:53):
wild film, and I think this is one that, if
I remember right, was lost for a long time. So
the fact that they found it and restored it as
a big deal. And there's a bonus movie which is
a Jaws parody on there called Gums. So I'm a
big sucker for Jaws parodies, and this releases a slam

(26:14):
dunk for me, both for an obscure comedy musical with
the trans female as the lead and also for a
low budget Jaws rip off. But it looks like I'm
not the only one. This is selling very well and
I'm sure we'll sell out by within a few days.

(26:36):
Let's see the next one that I want to call out.
So the Bleeding Skull release I did buy. It's called
suro Elien Hitchhiker Patrick McGinn movie. I don't know much
about this, to be honest, but which is true for
basically everything from Bleeding Skill there is any choice is

(26:59):
all over this. The directors on it, they have one too,
except eight seven or eight short films from the director,
all from the eighties all the way up to twenty two.
You know, this is a typical Bleeding Skull release. It's
a seventy four minute film. It's quick, it's super interesting,
and I can't wait to see it. I haven't had

(27:21):
a real true miss from them yet. If it, you know,
if it says a wash in LSD, tinged visuals and
pulsing acid house soundtrack. This is a beautiful synthesis of
experimental video art and queer exploration. So I have no
idea what to expect, but I can't wait. And I love,
obviously Annie and Joe what they're doing over there Bleeding Skull,

(27:44):
So this is a no brainer. Okay, getting back to
two more and then we'll get into the Kanye releases here.
So Film Movement has not Film Movement Classics, but Film Movement,
which is they do newer movies as well and just
more kind of festival fare. So they're putting out one

(28:09):
that I'm buying strictly because of Rachel's Sinnat. So I
have not seen Tahara yet. I will say that everything
I've seen from Rachel's Sinnat that puts her in an
awkward comedy or a uncomfortable comedy I've loved, and this
sounds like another one of these. With just the first sentence,

(28:29):
a funeral becomes a battleground between best friends. That was
enough right there. If Rachel Senna's in it to sell
me on it, so I'm going to be checking out
ta haa. And this one is selling okay. It's only
five hundred units pressed, and it's only about not even
half sold out yet, so it doesn't seem like it's

(28:50):
flying off the shelf. But I become a big fan
of Rachel Sanat and so I will watch this and
let y'all know. Okay, So the last one I saved
was specifically because I want to talk about Connie. So
let's let's get into well, I guess I'll start by

(29:15):
talking about the release and then just open it up
talking about Connie overall. So this is one. They are
up to twenty seven with Vinegar, well with Ocean at
the moment. This one is pressed at a thousand. It's
selling okay, They've sold about two hundred already, so it
seems like there will be some left if you need
to buy it later. There. This is an interesting one.

(29:39):
It's called Tokyo Uber Blues, and it's from what I
can tell, it's a very like Verite style semi documentary
where there's somebody who's like a gig worker and he
putes a puts a go cro a go pro on
his helmet and records a lot of content between his
phone and the go pro and and he just is

(30:01):
a delivery driver and he records a lot of his
rides throughout the city, and you hear the conversations he has,
you know, and it just finds interesting people to talk to.
It's just ninety three minutes of what life is like
in Japan as a gig worker, and that's enough to
hook me, especially knowing if Connie gives their seal of approval,

(30:24):
so I will get this as well. This was not
a trial before you buy for me. I got this
one and I can't wait to see it. I will
report back as soon as I get it in Okay.
So thank you all for doing that journey with me. Here.
Now I'm going to talk about Connie a little bit
because I want to highlight them just as a label

(30:45):
that I think has a risk of getting lost in
the you know, dozens of releases coming out every month
through OCN SO. Connie is run by Pearl and Ariel.
They live in Asia and go back and forth between
US and Asia, but they do a lot of work
in from their home in Asia. And they are two

(31:11):
of the most sincere and sweet and just like earnest
people in this game. In the Boutique Game, I did
an interview with them on They Live by Film, which
I might link. I always feel a little bit guilty
about trying to cross promote, but I might link just

(31:31):
so you can hear them. They are so genuine. I
love these two so much. All of the films they
put out have a heart to them. So there are
some that are sad or tragic, but there's some that
are more action, and there's some that are quirky sort
of comedies, like offbeat comedies. But they all have this

(31:54):
amazing depth of heart and like a sweet spirit to them.
They are I just okay. Just take for example, number
one title being Natural. It's a movie that is slow
in the beginning, and as it unfolds it becomes like
the way that it is kind of talked about is

(32:15):
it starts off like an oadsum movie and it ends
like a Takashi mik a movie, and I think it's
a pretty good representation of it. They just they always
find these they're always Asian films, Southeast Asia, mostly a
lot of Filipino movies. This one is a Japanese film,
but I mean, Being Natural is a Japanese film, but

(32:38):
they put out a lot of Filipino as well. But
it's just like everything they do is so sweet and
interesting and sincere, I keep using that word, but I
don't know that there's another label that has quite the
same ability to capture a consistent vibe from movie to movie.

(33:02):
A huge fan of Connie, and I hope that people
give them a chance. Being Natural, for me, is one
that is absolutely I must own, even if you don't
want to try before you buy, I think it's worth
the risk. They also put out a movie called Viva Erotica,
which is a fantastic movie because it's like a dark
comedy that plays into the Cat three movement in Hong

(33:25):
Kong and this whole cast. It just shows their journey
of like accepting that they're going to be Cat three
producers and actors versus versus the traditional kind of studio films.
But it's done in a very dark comedy way, just
a very split again has a very sweet spirit to it.
They put out two sort of experimental movies from Masashi

(33:48):
Yamoto that are very poetic and beautiful visually, called Robinson's
Garden and then What's Up. Connection. They have a really interesting,
like almost like folklore kind of film that they put
out called a New Old Play, which is a I

(34:12):
think it's a Chinese movie, but yeah, I think it's
from China, but it's some of it shot on like
a stage and it's just a very creative way of
telling a story. I love New Old Play. They have

(34:33):
movies like Sellout, which is like just a pretty straightforward
dark comedy and it's also a musical and it's very
catchy songs, and it's kind of a satire of Kuala Lumpur,
and most people didn't know they needed a satire of
Koala Lumpur, with the largest city in Malaysia. But they

(34:56):
find these gems. That's my point with Connie. They find
these gems, they put them out out there, you know,
because of OCN. They're selling a thousand to two thousand
copies of them. There's a ton of films they have
from Filipino directors like Lino Braka. They I don't know
they even have a Patrick Tamt movie. My Heart is

(35:16):
that Eternal Rose. They're just lovely people. Their films are lovely.
There's there's another really great one called Beijing Watermelon. I
would highly recommend. It's a Japanese movie from Nobuhiko Obayashi,
who's you know, the House Su guy. And this is

(35:36):
a movie from nineteen eighty nine, which I'll know I'm
a sucker for as the most fun year in cinema.
I think Beijing Watermelon fits well within that as another
great example of that. The good good news on that
one is the limited is sold out. I mean some
of their titles so well, which is good. Some of
the ones, like there's a Filipino director called Mary Lou

(35:58):
diaz Abaya who's extremely influential early Filipino female director. Movies
that she made called Moral Carnal. There's a lot of
films that they've some films they've put out from her
that really need to get seen. They really need to
be seen, and they're here championing them for it with

(36:18):
great special features that add context of why it's important. Recently,
they put out Butt on West Side, which is crazy
that they did that. It's a four or five hour
Love Diaz movie film both in the US and Philippines,
or maybe fully in the US, I can't remember, but
Love Dias is fully fully a Filipino. Look. I mean,

(36:39):
I don't want to go on and on and on,
but to say, if you're wanting to if you're feeling
like you've seen a lot of Japanese and Italian films
and a lot of French movies and you're wondering what
else is out there, there are a few companies that
are just killing it in discovering film from countries that

(37:01):
are less common. You know, def, Crocodile is doing a
good job in Europe. I know it's not it's a
former partner label, but you know, they're doing a great
job in Europe. And the one that I would put
right next to them in terms of really quite beautiful
movies that are under discussed would be Connie in Southeast

(37:22):
Asia and in Asia. And if you like Deaf Crocodile,
I'm not saying that you're gonna like Connie. I'm not
saying that movies are the same, but you know, Mano
Macabro is another company that's doing this at where they're
really truly going and discovering countries and filmmakers and regions
that are just not commonly put out. And I want
Connie to be in that conversation. I think it's important

(37:44):
that they are. Pearl, who's half of the company, does
a lot of subtitle translations for a lot of other
partner labels if they're putting out Asian films. So she's
this really intelligent and thoughtful a person who's got an
encyclopedia knowledge of film, but is also really good at

(38:04):
understanding cultural context around Hong Kong and Asia, and so
they have that. Yeah, I just they're lovely people. Their
collection is fantastic and if you look at the filmmakers
in their catalog, and you look at and you go
a level deeper and discover who these people are, it's
surprising at the quality of filmmakers they're getting and it's

(38:28):
sad in a way that they're not more well known.
And so Knie's doing their part to push them. And
I would just strongly, strongly encourage people to do it,
so to give them a chance instead of to do it.
So Connie is a partner label that I want to highlight.
If you have any questions, Like I said, you know

(38:49):
a million places to find me online, please ask. If
there's a specific movie you want to ask about, I'll
tell you Otherwise I'll even watch it if you want.
We can watch it around the same time talk about
it if you'd like. I want to do my part
to promote Connie and get their name out there. And yeah,
I just I thank you for letting me go down

(39:11):
that tangent. But since it's Partner month, you know, I
think AGFA does a great job of selling out. Bleeding
School does a great job of selling out. People know
what they want. In Saturn's Core VHS hit Fest, like,
there's a lot of these labels that people know exactly
what they're getting and they like it and they go
buy it and that's awesome. And I'm a huge fan
of all the labels I mentioned, But I don't think
that Connie has that quite just like dedicated core of fanatics,

(39:36):
and I think that's a shame and that should be fixed.
So I'll do my part in helping them out. So, yeah,
thank you for letting me go down that tangent. Let's
see what else we have in store for today. Oh hey,
actually speaking of what's on the agenda. Hello, Pearl, are

(39:56):
you nice to see you? This is Pearl from Connie.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Hi, Hi Chris.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
It's so nice to be here in Texas with you
and to talk about some movies.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
One not in Hong Kong, right here in.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Texas with Yeah, this is great teleporting machine.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
I just thought it the internet.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Well, well, it's so fortuitous for you to be here
today of all days. I just got finished gushing about
Connie for about fifteen or twenty minutes and how much
I love the work you're doing.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Wow, thank you so much. That's that's really nice to hear.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
We work, as you know, normally in Hong Kong and
a little little bubble and we don't get to hear
a lot, and so it's quite exciting to talk about
our films with you.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Good. Well, how are you and Ariel doing?

Speaker 3 (40:45):
We're doing well.

Speaker 4 (40:46):
We just got back from can where we saw a
lot of good friends, such as Joeannick and yeah it
was with Yellow Veil, who are good friends. And yeah,
it was a really good time to see movies and
catchup other friends.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
That's awesome. Do you go to festivals? Quite a lot.

Speaker 4 (41:04):
Yeah, because because before doing this, our work did have
us going to festival's area. Was a programmer or is
a programmer film programmer, and I did international sales and
so we actually met on the festival circuit. And so yeah,
we go to can every year, Berlin we're used to,

(41:26):
we go to Pusan, Tokyo, and of course Hong Kong.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Wow, amazing. Yeah, but now you're more into the distribution game.

Speaker 5 (41:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:36):
Yeah, but it's still really nice to go and see
new films and see what we can work on and
also catch up with old friends.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah, I imagine. Did you have any favorites from the
festival this year?

Speaker 4 (41:48):
I have to say, well, I have to say that
we started a festival off with the new restoration of
gold Rush, which was incredible. Yeah, and there was also
a new restoration of the Arch which was also very interesting.
One of my favorite films out of the festival was
Left Handed Girl, and also Heads or Tails, which is

(42:11):
an Italian Western which I really really enjoyed.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
No Way, a new Italian Western.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
Yeah, with John c Riley as Buffalo Bill.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
Oh wow, Okay, it's fantastic. I hope it gets picked up.
That sounds interesting, actually.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
Yeah, it's really fun.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
Well, we have met once before when you came on
to a different podcast I run called They Live by Film. Yeah,
I'll point people to that either way, either officially or
through social media. But one of the things that I
was really I always have gushed about with Conny was
just that I think there's a even though the movies

(42:53):
you put out are across genre and like across countries
and like we're going to get into way I love
you all in just a moment, but there's like a
really nice like heart behind them all do you? And
I'm just wondering, like when you and Ariel are sitting
down to watch movies, like do you have like a
formal process to select what you're going to put out

(43:15):
through the line or is it just more of like
an emotional reaction to something like this is a kind
of film.

Speaker 4 (43:22):
We don't have a formal process, and most of the
curation is Ariel's job through his background as a film programmer.
A lot of the especially older films, he's already familiar with.

Speaker 3 (43:38):
And the one.

Speaker 4 (43:40):
Criteria we do have when we decide to pick up
a film is whether one of us be it him, me,
or are especially for Theatrical our colleague Aaron Hunt, if
one of us feels like we really want to carry
it or we really really love it, because sometimes there
are films that are really good and really fun and

(44:01):
would be a perfect fit for us, But does none
of us feel so passionately about it, and because we
are so time poor that we really need to be
working on things that, you know, really just like really
keep us going. Yeah, well, yeah, we could talk a
bit about the criteria if you want.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
I don't know if we touched on that last time,
But generally speaking, we have a two prong process, being
that we do restorations and contemporary filmmakers, and in terms
of h and the idea is that we're doing things
that potentially no one else would maybe pick up and

(44:46):
really want to champion certain filmmakers. We do also really
want to champion working filmmakers because it's it's really great
to be able to work on all these older films,
but we do want to support the careers of new
and upcoming filmmakers, like our recent release of Desert in
Namibia Desert of Namibia in theaters where we had Yoko

(45:09):
Yamanaka in New York in.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
La Yeah, so how much of the business is theatrical
versus home video?

Speaker 3 (45:18):
I would say at this point it's.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
I would say mostly still home video, but we are
focusing more on theatrical.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
We really think it's fun.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
It's really nice to have this sort of direct.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
Contact with an audience.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
We came to New York, LA and then well basically
we came to North America last fall, and we're able
to meet a lot of audience members, and we took
Tacu Aoyagi to LA for Tokyober Blues, which just came
out on Blu Ray, And we took Kamyazaki to New

(45:55):
York for Plastic and up of Cinemas are actually running
little retrospectives on his work, and it was really good
to see our filmmakers who we've become quite close to,
really meet an international audience. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
One of the ones that jumps out to me that
I feel like should be a household name based off
of being natural is Tadashi Nagayama.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
Yeah, he's the sweetest.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Oh my gosh, like that movie has such an amazing
kind like interesting, intelligent kind of spirit to it. I
love it so much.

Speaker 4 (46:33):
Yeah, he's marvelous and he's looking for funding for his
next film.

Speaker 3 (46:36):
If anybody would like to fund his new film call.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Us, Yeah, please please let him make more movies because
I push everybody i can to being natural, Like it's
just it's one of these ones that really catches you
up guard and it's so charming.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Yeah, it's really something that you don't expect.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Yeah, And that was that was an interesting thing for
me because like I saw that and then the next
thing I saw coming out from me was canon Ybell
from Lino Braca, which I thought was like, oh cool,
like they're getting into like you know, these kind of
classic Filipino movies. And so I think if I can
say like there is although there's a lot of films

(47:15):
from Japan, and you have some Chinese films as well,
like I think mainland China right.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
As well, we have two Chinese films, that's right.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
And then but there is quite a lot actually from
the Philippines as well.

Speaker 4 (47:27):
Yes, So the Philippines have done incredible work on restoring
their films. The weather has been very difficult for them
to keep their elements in good condition and so the
work is even harder plus limited resources. Unfortunately, ABSB and

(47:48):
Restoration Arm just closed about two months ago, and so
that process will slow down or has slowed down. But
their government body FDCP is also picking up some black
and restoring in the brook of films.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Oh okay, so a lot of it was actually done
by like an independent company, but now the government's going
to pick up some of the work.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
So ABS CBM was restoring something like ten to fifteen
titles a year. They were a TV network. They are
a TV network, and so really important work was being
done by them.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Yeah, that's great. So that's why there's so many of
these amazing films getting restored. And I don't think there's
too many other people by people, I mean labels, I
guess putting up Filipino cinema like I don't see that
a lot.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
Yeah, Criterion does some.

Speaker 4 (48:41):
And then of course our friends at Carlota and France,
who we work closely with, have put out a number and.

Speaker 6 (48:49):
Yeah, so it is a also a very appreciative audience.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
We're always really happy to provide something for the Filipino
American audience.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
Yeah. Yeah, well is there recently you were talking about
Tokyo over Blues, which I want to talk about, but
the one that came out last month was actually one
that I think is a huge title from the Philippines,
which is Butt on west Side. So did you get
to and I'm sorry, I hope love Dias is still around.

(49:22):
Did you get to work with him at all?

Speaker 5 (49:24):
Yeah? He is.

Speaker 4 (49:25):
He just had a filming can Oh beautiful?

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Okay? Yeah, how to make sure like he died ten
years ago, Chris or something, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
I don't say that.

Speaker 7 (49:36):
He just had a fantastic film and can named Magellan okay, Yeah,
which which I understand has US distribution, not us, But yeah,
La Diaz is a fantastic filmmaker, one of a kind.

Speaker 4 (49:49):
But Tim west Side is his very first Lave Diaz film.
He did make a couple of films before that that
are typical length, but this is this is the beginning
of his work of epic proportions. And it's five hours
long and it's in New Jersey. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
It's a really.

Speaker 4 (50:13):
Fantastic film about immigration and youth and drugs and gangs
and really came out of his work as a reporter
in New Jersey around that time.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Do you there's a there's an interview with him on here.
Did you get a chance to sort of sit down
with him a little bit and get.

Speaker 5 (50:34):
To know him.

Speaker 4 (50:34):
Yeah, it's kind of wild.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
It was because.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
I don't know if you know the programmer Marko Mueller,
but there's this programmer named Marko Muller who is also
one of a kind, and he put on this festival
in Macau where the programming Marco's like programming is really stellar.
And so he put on this incredible program including including

(51:01):
like filmmakers Hamagucci and Diaz and and also Wang Bing's
West of the Tracks, which we decided if we were
going to see, which is nine hours, we would have
to go see in cinemas because at home you would.

Speaker 8 (51:13):
Just turn it off.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
So we went to Macaw to go see this film
and Lav was there to show.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
I confess, I don't remember which one he was showing.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
And so we met him and had an interview there
and and love Is is just marvelous, and he knew
he had already met everyone in the mall who was
Pinoy and working there as an overseas worker and was
super kind and was able to talk to us about
the film.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yeah, so he like he just went out of his
way to go find people that speak the Gallu and
go talk to them and yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Make them feel at home.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
Yeah, that's kind of what he does.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Yeah, well he's another filmmaker speaking of kind of this
ongoing theme here. Now. He just seems like he has
a huge heart, like he loves people. It seems like
in stories.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
Yeah, I think he's really interested in, if I may say,
like cause and effect, like how little actions or big
actions can impact individual lives. Yeah, and I think that's why.
But Tom west Side is just so interesting. It's really

(52:25):
about trauma. It's really the genesis of all these themes
that he continues to develop and consider.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Yeah, I can't wait to watch it. It's my shipment.
Should be here today or tomorrow, So I can't wait
to see it. Yeah, I don't know if I'll do it.
Is it is? Do you recommend doing it all at once?
Is it worth?

Speaker 4 (52:43):
Like I mean says Lap says, take breaks as you need,
you know, go pee if you want becaut's just leave
it running. You can you can watch the interviews on it.
We interviewed a lot of the cast, including Glory I Diaz,
who was the first this Universe from the Philippines and
so she plays the mom in it. We interviewed Joel Torre,

(53:07):
who was an incredible actor and proprietor of my favorite restaurant,
J two Menukin's, and he was also acting as a
theater actor during the evening and then he would shoot
a town west side overnight and then he would start
all over again.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
It's incredible. Arta Kunya we also interviewed.

Speaker 4 (53:28):
He was an American Filipino American actor. He then eventually
moved back to the Philippines. And Abi Viduya, who plays
a girlfriend who's now in politics, and you can. They
all talk about their first experiences watching it, and some
of them did not finish it, so so you don't
don't worry. You're in good company.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
No, I want to see it, though, I am. I'm
very interested to. I hope that you get to put
out more from him, because there's a few directors that
I think they have this like slow cinema kind of
stigma to them or whatever, or a stamp to them,
and the ones I've seen, I've loved all of them, honestly,
Like I'm just thinking of even something that's a little shorter,

(54:07):
but like Long Day's Journey in Tonight.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
Yeah, yeah, we saw in kind this year.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
It's also very beautiful.

Speaker 6 (54:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (54:16):
One thing about Battan that we really wanted to do
is to put it on one disc so that you
could play it continuously without giving yourself an excuse to
get up.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (54:26):
So I don't know how much longer we can go
because of the limitations of the medium.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Okay, okay, that's a fair point. Well, anyways, it's I'm
excited to see this one before we move on from
the Philippines. I'm really excited and sort of impressed that
y'all are putting out a couple of films now from
Mary lu diez Abayo.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
Yeah, she's she's also great. So we did get to
meet her husband, Manolo, who shot a number of of
her films, and he was also a professor, and so
actually his student is one of the people restoring a
lot of films these days in the Philippines, Manette David. Yeah,

(55:13):
so it's like a great lineage of film in that aspect.
But yeah, Mary Lucy as Abaya.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
Has a very interesting.

Speaker 4 (55:25):
Opus and we're really lucky to have put out two
of her film so far.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
When you go into somebody like that who is more
of like a in the Philippines like a canonical type filmmaker, right,
is it difficult to find access? Like are these an
archives there? Or like are her films pretty easy to find?

Speaker 5 (55:47):
She?

Speaker 4 (55:47):
So her films, Okay, she has at least one film
that's lost, which is her very first film, which may
exist as a real under like a bed okay somewhere.
But but basically her first film is lost, which is
a film that was self financed through her and her

(56:10):
husband Manolo's parents at the time, and then after that
she went to work for other people. We've also been
trying to find some of her later work. It's a
bit difficult.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
And then, of course there is.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
The film that we have not yet released as part
of the trilogy, Brutal, which is in rights purgatory.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
Okay, yeah, okay, Well, I hope that gets sorted out.
Do you not?

Speaker 5 (56:39):
Not you?

Speaker 2 (56:39):
I guess, But Aeriel speaks to the gull ry.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
He doesn't.

Speaker 4 (56:42):
He's not Filipino, despite people thinking.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
So okay, okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
Yeah, he's actually Panamanian.

Speaker 3 (56:50):
And Quebecua.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Filipino cinema. Yeah, yeah, I'm a I'm glad I asked
them for so. A couple more things I want to
just highlight really quick, and then I want to give
you a chance to see if there's anything that I
missed that you really want to highlight. So I am.
I'm very happy that Beijing Watermelon sold out for you

(57:18):
at least.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Yeah, it's a great film.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
Yeah, it's so good, and that's a way she's having
a little bit of a resurgence right now. Yeah, so
I was really happy that y'all got that. Did you
get to work with anybody that's like his wife right
is kind of yeah?

Speaker 4 (57:40):
So she we spoke with his daughter, or rather, we
had Mark Schilling speak with his daughter, Chigumi, who was
really helpful. We were able to access some of the
scripts and so we were able to show the parts
that they were unable to shoot in Beijing at the time.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
Yeah, great question.

Speaker 4 (57:58):
It's another anniversary in a day tomorrow is another anniversary
for Jion fourth, So it's a big reason why we
wanted to put out that film.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
Nice. Yeah, well that's a wonderful one. I was like
jumping out of my seat excited when I saw that
you're putting up my heart is that eternal rose?

Speaker 5 (58:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (58:17):
It took forever to get it out, but I'm so
happy it made it.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
I am really disappointed in I mean, there's only nineteen
copies left, so it'll sell out. But like I was like,
how is this not selling up right away? This is
like a massive one.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
Yeah, I mean that that release really took years off
my life.

Speaker 6 (58:36):
I think, really yeah, because it was a lot of
work to get the TV episodes oh, both in terms
of I really didn't think they would give it to us,
and so like on a whim, I asked.

Speaker 4 (58:51):
Them and they're like, yeah, this sounds interesting, and so
we had to keep delaying the release until that was signed.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
But it's a really.

Speaker 4 (59:02):
Yeah, Hong Kong TV is not well preserved because all
the effort that we do have has gone into preserving film,
and all the new wave directors in Hong Kong came
out of television, and so I did think it was
important to include some of these more experimental or rather

(59:24):
the filmmakers experimenting with form in it. In this case
Patrick Tam and especially the story of us On, which
is really quite.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
Experience, Like he plays a lot with the.

Speaker 4 (59:36):
Form and storytelling in that one.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Yeah. Absolutely, yeah, you're saying in the TV as well, these.

Speaker 4 (59:44):
Are the TV episodes that we included and and and
Patrick TAM's career, A lot of it was him struggling
with the producers to to actually see his vision through,
like for instance, No Mad like tre Heart came and
shot the final scenes and things like that, and so

(01:00:05):
a TV, I think he almost had a bit more
freedom to play because the stakes were also lower, and
so it was like really important to include those.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Yeah. Anyways, the only other one, I mean, I could
go for a long time, but the only other one
I really wanted to highlight and then I'll turn it
back over to you is I think I was just
so I like hat three movies, and it's I've always
enjoyed them, and I wasn't sure what to expect with
Viva Erotica. But I was just blown away by that movie,

(01:00:39):
Like it's so sweet and funny and great, Like I
really hope like everybody gets a chance to see that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
Yeah, Viva Erotica is another film that we were lucky
enough to work with. The there was the Lochi Lung's
first film, I believe, and so we were able to
sit down with him e Beijing.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
To speak about.

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
To speak about the film and his career and how
he had been an assistant director for Derek Ye, who
is listed as a co director, but it was part
of the ploy to get the funding for the film,
and so it's like kind of the tail end of
this apprenticeship system that we had, and so really like
Derek Ye giving him the opportunity to make this fabulous film.

(01:01:30):
And it's also one of the only films I believe
that Leslie Chunk shot himself, like he shot the art
film inside the film. And of course, yeah, he's grew
up under his both his star and also his his suicide.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Yah, right, right, right, But that's interesting. So I think
that that one has a few copies left. But I
really hope people give it a chance because I just
I don't know, there's something I think what I want
out of this, and I just spent you know, twenty
minutes telling people this, but since you're here, I'll say
it again, Like I just want people to understand like

(01:02:08):
the depth that's in y'all's movies, because I've never seen
something from Counnie where like I watch it and then
forget it, like I'm always thinking about it a few
days later. You know, there's like a nice depth of
emotion there, even though they're usually quite entertaining to watch.
So you get the best of both worlds, Like you
get something that's easy to watch and enjoyable and then

(01:02:28):
but it kind of stays with you afterwards.

Speaker 4 (01:02:32):
Yeah, I think I personally have like an interest in
I mean, what I really love about Blu Rays is
our home video in general is just being able to
dig into the history of things, looking through archives or
I mean, which is why I really enjoyed the thing
with my heart. My heart is that Turno Rose is
like looking through all the history and trying to figure out,

(01:02:52):
like where these lineages come from, but Viva Erotica as well,
like looking into Catherree and looking into how these filmmakers
got their brain and also what it meant for the
the industry at the time. The self referential parts about
like Wang Jing slash Anthony Wong and like all these
things that make the film really of its time and
yet timeless.

Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
It's it's just so fun.

Speaker 4 (01:03:14):
But yeah, this is what we're really hoping for, is
that films are both fun and they really do bring
more to the table.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Yeah, it's working, it's working. Well, what are some movies
that I left off that you want to highlight. Just
you're either proud of the work or you love the
movies or what are some things I did not mention
you wish I did.

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
Oh, I really love Kisa Mata or Mike dellion work,
Mike Dillon's work in general. He so his grandmother was
was the head of a studio, LVN Pictures, and so.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
He is also.

Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
How do I put this like he is a big
supporter of the archive or he basically like self, manages
the archive of LVN Pictures and really is trying to
keep this work alive through both writing about it and
providing the films for people to see. And so we

(01:04:17):
released two of his films, Quisa Mata and Kaka Baka
Baha Bah, which is will your heartbeat faster also because
it's just so fun to say, and they're both great films.
But on Kaka Bakah Blah blah blah, we also included
Miss Philippines, which is a nineteen forty seven film from LVN,
and he wanted to include a film from the LVN

(01:04:41):
archives because Kacabaka Blackabah is the last film to be
shot on the LVN studios. Yeah, and so he really
wanted like a like a good bookmark of that.

Speaker 9 (01:04:52):
And so Teddy Coo, who is who was a archivist,
it's a film archivist in the Philippines suggests in the Philippines,
which is a really fun.

Speaker 4 (01:05:05):
Meta film about making a film called the called the Philippines.
It's just like really one of my favorite And so
Mike has been a great supporter, and so in both
of the mic releases, we've been able to include snippets
from his uh memoir Last Look Back, which really gives
a good history on the making of these films in

(01:05:26):
the political context.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Yeah, that's amazing. Okay, I'm really glad you caught that up. Yeah,
I haven't had a chance to see that one yet.
I do want it, but I'll prioritize that and try
to see it soon. Yeah, any other ones that you
want to call out? Oh, I really loved a New
Old Play? How is that selling? Kreole?

Speaker 4 (01:05:45):
Yeah, New Old Play was a great surprise that sold
out immediately, and so we really love the film. It's
another one of these kind of longer films. It's three
and a half hours. I believe the filmmaker is working
on his next film and he's actually a very close
friend or his partner is rather a very close friend,

(01:06:08):
and we just love to see his work out there.
It's really painterly and all the sets are painted and
he really creates this like incredible, incredible world for you
to inhabit. And so this film is about his grandfather,
who was a very famous clown in Schwey's Opera, and

(01:06:30):
it's about twentieth century China or twentieth century Sichuan through
the eyes of his grandfather.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
It's such a beautiful movie too. I think painter is
a great word to describe it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:43):
Yeah, he is a painter, so it makes yeah, yeah,
there's yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
I mean I feel like I could spend another hour
just going into each film. But that's maybe a nice
Oh we didn't get to talk about the okay, So,
but we have to talk about Tokyo Uber Blue because.

Speaker 3 (01:07:04):
New release. So, Tokyober Blue is our newest release and it's.

Speaker 4 (01:07:11):
It was part of pbss po V season last year
and that was really incredible in terms of getting a
bit more exposure because it's a really small film.

Speaker 9 (01:07:22):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:07:22):
It's a self shot documentary by the director who decided
during COVID that his in order to pay back his
student loans, he would go to Tokyo and become an
Uber writer because it was available as a job and
he wasn't going to just sit around at home and
do nothing, so he did that and and and yeah,
it's a really difficult time and really a trial by

(01:07:46):
fire in terms of figuring out what it what what
this sort of lie we are told about gig economy.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
Is the premise of it sounds really fascinating and like,
I love the kind of di y n sure of
it too. It's unds like the way he shot it,
just like whatever he had kind of around him.

Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
Yeah, yeah, he shot it with GoPros and iPhones, and
he did have a producer who shot some of the
shots of him biking and so. And also he continues
to ride for Uber eats between shootings because he he's
really incredible. He's shot to films since and he's working

(01:08:27):
on another one. He just can't be stopped. And so
in order to fund all this stuff he does do.
He for a while he was doing traffic control like
around what's it called construction sites, basically like moves your
car kind of thing. But then he decided that like
ultimately riding for Uber allowed him a bit more flexibility,

(01:08:51):
and so the film is not necessarily just like Uber Bad,
but but he really talks about what it does to
your body, what it does your psyche, what it does
to or in his particular case. And we have seen
other films that touch upon this topic and sometimes we
wonder like who they're for or who they're by, and
what they're trying to share. But we think with Tokyob Blues,

(01:09:13):
what makes it really special is that's really from his perspective,
and he lives it right, and he doesn't he's really
just trying to share it, and it's important for him
that you're entertained as well. And so in recent interviews
or in recent q and as, he'll talk about like
just being so far removed from that person now that
it's five years ago, and just like now that he's

(01:09:35):
just doing it for like basically rent money, like he's
no longer thinking about these things, and in this way,
not that his mind has changed, but that he no
longer has to think about like, yeah, what would make
it interesting for the camera and how that changes his

(01:09:55):
ideas as well?

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
Yeah as well, yeah, yeah, And also COVID is such
a unique time that is another layer there right that
is not there now, so.

Speaker 4 (01:10:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, just how empty the streets were in
Tokay that was really freaky as well.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
Yeah, fascinating. Well, I can't wait to see it. Pro
Is there anything else that you're working on that you
think would be interesting to talk about or that you
want to highlight out?

Speaker 4 (01:10:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
I think in particular, we have.

Speaker 4 (01:10:23):
In theaters right now Desert of Namibia, which is Yoko
Yamanaka's second feature, which we really really love. It's a
film following twenty one year old Kanna, who is a
Peutian and you know, if you've ever been just like
mad and angry at the world, especially if you are

(01:10:45):
a young woman, which I suppose neither of us are anymore,
but just a sort of like rage you get being
a girl in this world. Like yeah, like, it's the
film for you, truly. If your boyfriend is a screenwriter,
you know, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:11:03):
The perfect film for you.

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):
That kind of Yeah, it's it's really one of a kind.

Speaker 3 (01:11:09):
And we've been following her work for a while.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
The very first time we saw her work was Amiko,
which played at FOURUM in twenty eighteen, and she was
twenty at the time and she's just so good on stage.
I just remember somebody complaining about one aspect of her
film and she's like, I like it. Next no time
for this. Yeah, but she's a fantastic filmmaker.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
And we're really excited to see what she's going to
do next.

Speaker 5 (01:11:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:11:38):
And also in cinemas, we have Atan West Side, which
you know you mentioned already. It's doing spot screening, so
if it's screening in your city, don't miss it, and
later today so by the time this goes out, it'll
be over. But we're screening Looking for an Angel at
Music Box, which is of the director calls it an

(01:12:05):
anti hetero sexist film, okay, And it's about a gay
porn star who passes away and so his friends are
you dealing with grief and they.

Speaker 3 (01:12:18):
Go back to his hometown and try to try to
deal with it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:22):
Yeah. It's really experimental, really beautiful, and it's sixteen minutes long.
So you know, double bill with that's on West Side
and you have two full movies.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
Or rather hellong films.

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
Yeah, we have going on. And in terms of other things,
as you mentioned earlier, off Mike, I do do subtitling
for Vinergo syndrome, and so I wanted to highlight in
particular Her Vengeance, which I really love, really fun film.
They had several cuts and they're all just really angry

(01:12:59):
and really wild. But I also really loved Corpsmania, which
was shot on the Shaw studios, and so almost every
film you see of that era is always in the
same house. And we were able to talk to Guaisi
Holme's son, Beaver Guy, who who just gave like wonderful
stories about his dad and how influenced they were with

(01:13:22):
Italian Giallo and and playing with lights, and we talked
also to the cinematographer who was talking about how there
were lights that were specifically used by Run Run Shaw
to light up his driveway and they were the best
lights they had, and so they had to go and.

Speaker 3 (01:13:41):
Be like, please give us those lights.

Speaker 4 (01:13:45):
Yeah for the shoot.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
Yeah, it's too funny. I think I've said this before
about Frank Jang, and that his commentaries always have an
element of context that you don't get from a lot
of other commentaries, and I think a very similar thing
about you. I think subtitling might be an underappreciated skill

(01:14:07):
because a lot of times there's no direct translation right,
So you really have to think through like Okay, what
are they trying to say, or like what's the what's
the most efficient way to kind of say this to
get across like the meaning of it? Right?

Speaker 4 (01:14:19):
Yeah, So I think there are a couple of things
that are really fun and difficult about translating subtitles. And
I guess like as a as a so I'm it's
called like second generation Canadian. So I spent a lot
of my childhood translating from my mom and so you're
really thinking about like, hey, what is this person actually saying?

(01:14:41):
Like how do you get like all the emotions across
and how do you actually get what you want? And
so with subtitlings, a lot of the times I have
to do a couple of passes because like they may
be saying one thing, but they really meet another. And
then and also like can Chinese insults are like really wild,
like really colorful, really specific.

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
And so there was actually.

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
This one subtitle that like Santa Hine posted online and
I was like, no, I did that, and it was
for ice man comments. So if you ever want to
go see some fun subs, you can go there. And
and yeah, so I also want to get like Hong
Kong is actually if in reality and also in language,

(01:15:26):
like a really homophobic and sexist and racist language or
not the languages, but the people can be. And so
a lot of the films have these qualities to it.
Sometimes it's specific to the character, like an ebola syndrome,
a guy is really quite nasty, and so I really
want to I don't want to sanitize these films either, right, Yeah,

(01:15:53):
then I'm lucky that don't really release too many of
these like really really sexist, tomophobic films.

Speaker 2 (01:15:59):
So yeah, but it's like a tricky thing because you're
just trying to present the like what it's actually saying
without judgment, right and then like yeah, the viewer can
make the judgment if it's if it's bad, but.

Speaker 4 (01:16:12):
Like yeah, so I just try to present it as
they say it instead of making it comfortable.

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
Yeah. Yeah, well it's amazing. It really brings life to
these movies. So thank you. I even yeah, I think
I can't. I'm trying to remember if there's ever been
I haven't seen Icepin coming, so I need to go
watch that now, very specifically for the subtiling.

Speaker 4 (01:16:37):
But it's a great film, like Maggie Chung is a
great comedian, like if you loved her in the Mood
for Love, like get ready for like young and funny Maggie.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
That's awesome. No, I can't. I mean, I definitely it's
on my watch list, but I'll try to prioritize it. Yeah,
I just think, like I'm really I'm glad you're kind
of going public with the fact that you do. These
people to hear from you, because it's really excellent work
and you're really bringing these movies to life.

Speaker 5 (01:17:05):
So thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
I really enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:08):
Good anything else, let's.

Speaker 4 (01:17:14):
See, I'll be quick. It's just been a really big
whirlwind of Oh. I want to highlight Maybe It's Love actually,
which was our first Shaw film, and so the director,
Angie Chen, Maybe It's Love is actually the very first
female directed film in the Shaw catalog. And so Angie

(01:17:34):
was actually a assistant director of Dragon Lord, the Jackie
Chan film, which is how she got her start. And
so she came back to Hong Kong and pitched this
film to Mona Fung Uh and and then you know
it basically started Shaw hiring five female directors, of which
Angie was one, Mabel Chung and Hoi Clara Law, I believe,

(01:17:57):
and the fifth filmmaker who always forget. You may have
to double check those names to be honest, but I
want to put that out there.

Speaker 3 (01:18:06):
And and so it's like it was part of their.

Speaker 4 (01:18:08):
Like attempt to revitalize the studio by having these new
blood directors come in and and so we were really
happy to work with Angie on Maybe It's Love, and
she's been a friend for a while now. And so
we're now working on the restoration of My Name med Susie,
which is Anthony Wong's first starring role with Pat Ha

(01:18:29):
and it's this epic of of basically Wan Chai clubs,
and I'm really excited for that one. But the restoration
process has been a little bit difficult, but we'll get
through it and hopefully you'll get to see this great
film soon. Okay, awesome, Yeah, so that's that's that's it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
No, that's wonderful. I just did a quick Google search.
You have to affect check Google. Okay, So the ones
that Google set are Angie Chen obviously, yeah, which you said,
oh yes, and then I don't Actually there's one name
that I don't know. Actually it's called one thing Zong.

(01:19:11):
You have to fact check Google, though I don't know
if this is right. This is the name that came
up on a quick search.

Speaker 4 (01:19:17):
The best thing I check is actually Eliza Ma did
a program called the Shaw Sisters at Metrograph where she
highlighted the female filmmakers working at that time.

Speaker 3 (01:19:27):
And so you're right.

Speaker 4 (01:19:28):
So it's Angie Chen, Angela mock An Huy, Mabel Chang
and so.

Speaker 5 (01:19:36):
Perfect popular. Yeah, great, yeah, look.

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
Thank you so much for doing this. You know, people
don't know behind the scenes, but I gave you like
a few hours notice essentially to come on. So thank
you for doing well.

Speaker 4 (01:19:53):
It's great because we just we just met all our deadlines.
So you guys have this coming up. Time to put
money in the Peggy bank for this fall. And yeah,
it's a couple of days of just recovering until trying
to meet the next deadline.

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
Well, it's wonderful to spend the free time with you.
And yeah, I hope that every you continue to sell
well and continue to put this up for a long time.
So thank you so much for what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:20:19):
Thank you so much, and have a good evening.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
Thank you see ye, thank you so much. Pro and
I'm so glad you'll got to see firsthand why I
love Connie so much. Pearl is so great, and Ariel
is equally great, although he was tied up today and
that's my fault. Like I told her, I literally gave
him like half a day's notice so they could they

(01:20:42):
could actually record, which is lovely. But yeah, let's see.
We are lucky to be rejoined by Ryan and Jeremy
for merch Maids. So let's see what's going.

Speaker 5 (01:20:53):
On the whole merch Mats. It's been a couple of months.
I'm vrel here with the stand up comedian and writer
mister Jeremy Long. Jeremy welcome. Oh hey there, maybe hey Ben,
other than you know, having somebody wreck your car. Oh yeah,
I don't know if we're going to talk about that.

Speaker 8 (01:21:14):
At the time of this recording, I had just participated
in a hit and run.

Speaker 5 (01:21:19):
You should say you participated in That sounds sort of
leading into a joke, but it's ruined now. So I'm
really great at ruining things, so.

Speaker 8 (01:21:28):
Jamie as I'm miserable and I am having to deal
with insurance. Anyways, here we are with you all.

Speaker 5 (01:21:33):
What a transition we have had a couple months off,
primarily because don't tell anybody, but the merch has not
been super interesting, and now we've got kind of lots
of stuff to talk about. There's been a recent Vinegar
Syndrome sale, which means they've revealed a bunch of new stuff,
and then of course Partner Label Only Month, which means
there's a bunch of partner labels that have thrown up

(01:21:55):
some stuff that we're going to talk about. But first
let's talk about these deg Gausser Limit did led Deluxe
VHS releases that they've done for Criminally Insane, Criminally Insane too,
and Satan's Black Wedding. Again. I know that we've said
repeatedly before that these really aren't for us, but I
got to say, these things look beautiful, especially these three.
I love the way they look. I agree.

Speaker 8 (01:22:16):
I mean, I don't collect VHSS, which is whether or
not for us, and I know you don't either, but
if I did, and I know a lot of people
who do, these would be one hundred prized possessions in
that SAD VHS collection because they put a lot of
effort into them.

Speaker 5 (01:22:33):
For sure, they look great, absolutely, and then following that,
one of the things I've been most excited to talk
about is they put up the first Vinegar Syndrome zine
that they're calling Vinegar zene Drome Number one. It is
a paperback zine. It is well. At the time of
the sale, it was up for six dollars and sixty
six cents. It was limited to two thousand units. It's

(01:22:54):
got writings from a whole bunch of people. We've got
Robert Samlin art and writing. I believe we've got I'm
gonna re record that because that was wrong. They talked
to Vinegar Syndrome restoration artist Brandon ups In that, they
talked to John D. Hancock, the director of Letzker Jessica
to Death. They take a guided tour through the cinema

(01:23:15):
of Norman Jay Warren, and then Scoptafoya has some writing
in here. There's a bunch of new art. These things,
unfortunately are like Heroin for me, and I likely will
not be able to resist them.

Speaker 8 (01:23:27):
Despite it seeming and awfully similar to a certain other
zine which we talked about on your show.

Speaker 5 (01:23:32):
But I mean it's not super similar. Mine is one
higher quality. But time is this sold out already? No,
it is not sold out. Last I saw before the
sale went down, there was still some available, and I
believe during Partner label only month it is still available
to purchase. And as I check another tab, I can
see that that is correct.

Speaker 8 (01:23:54):
Oh, amazing, fantastic. I might have to pick it up
as well. I'm a sucker for zines. I got the
not to talk about the competition, but I got all
the radiant sturdy art House scenes and some other ones
as well.

Speaker 5 (01:24:06):
So yeah, I'll probably be picking this up. At the
time of recording, down to less than eight hundred and
fifty remaining, but I'm sure they're not going to fly
off the shelves when the store opens or continues over
the next month, so I think you'll be all right,
don't worry it.

Speaker 8 (01:24:20):
Well, watch this episode of merch Maides is released and
they hear us talking about it.

Speaker 5 (01:24:25):
We don't have our own show, Jeremy, I promise, thanks
to Chris for allowing us to be a part of this.
You're the best, That's what I meant. He knows what
I meant. One thing that was new in a couple
different ways during this sale is that suddenly we are
seeing the emergence of vinegar syndrome getting into the soap game.

(01:24:45):
Over on mail, you see they're selling a soap that
they're calling Orgy Butter that says a sudsy, sensual interplay
of tender peaches, luscious cream, and warm honey in six
Shades of Naked. But the other one that is really
funny to me is on the Vinegar Syndrome site, they
had gaus or video soap, and on the back it
was listed I still can't believe this is real movie

(01:25:06):
theater popcorn scented so that you can scrub your undercarriage
with popcorn smelling soap. How do you feel about these? Indeed?

Speaker 8 (01:25:15):
Well, I know, I know we talked about this on
the show too, but for those who didn't attend that
I had said that I certainly love movie theater popcorn.
I'm pretty much at the movies almost every day of
the week these days, at some kind of screening. But
do I want my body to smell like that any
more than it already does from just the amount of
it that I consume. No, so as much as as

(01:25:41):
much as I like their packaging and their gesture, I
will pass. It feels like I used to work at
the movie theater. I'm pretty sure people probably did assume
that I bade the movie theater popcorn when I worked
at the movie theater and I had to clean out the.

Speaker 5 (01:25:58):
Oh that's disgusting. I do want to point out, as
much as these are like appealing to the eye, eighteen
dollars for a bar of soap seems quite high, although
I understand they're not a soap company and so the
price of bringing it on the overhead is going to
be quite a bit higher.

Speaker 8 (01:26:14):
Of course, I mean, and it is a cool, you know,
unique little item. I also feel the same about it
as I do like when they sell candles or you know,
even a twenty four when they had they sell a
lot of candle related movie things, and it's like, I
don't know if I'm going to be spending the amount
of money that somebody like Binerger Syndrome is charging for

(01:26:38):
a bar of soap or a twenty four is charging
for a candle. I wanted to be something I can
treasure forever, not something that will disappear after a couple of.

Speaker 5 (01:26:45):
Uses, right right, Both those things will next thing that
they put up a brand new screen print. I feel
like they've been doing a lot less of these than
they used to, which I was kind of a big
fan of these. I love posters myself. This one is
called the Siren of Death. Really beautiful color work on
this one. Have you gotten and put up any of
their posters? I don't remember seeing any in your place.

Speaker 8 (01:27:06):
I have not. I certainly I think I've enjoyed every
visually everyone that they've put up for sale. But I
purely just am running out of room, as I think
many of us are, and so without replacing something that's
already up. And everything I have up is usually something
of sentimental value. I don't think I can buy a

(01:27:29):
new poster unless it's something I really really want.

Speaker 5 (01:27:32):
It's a good thing you live in a giant mansion
in LA and make a ton of money so you
can afford all these, Thank goodness. Next up, they put
out another skateboard deck. We've talked about these before.

Speaker 2 (01:27:43):
Cool.

Speaker 5 (01:27:44):
I'm old. I don't need a skate deck cinematograph though,
coming out with a pulp fiction limited holographic foil screenprint,
this thing is pretty as well. Justin's got a pretty
good eye for art that he puts out for merch
stuff for sure.

Speaker 8 (01:27:59):
Yeah, I like that's one lot again. If I had
the room easily something I would. You know, it almost
looks like a Jackson Pollock.

Speaker 5 (01:28:07):
That sounded dirty for some reason, I get it. They
also put out for the first time a vinegar vinegar
syndrome tumbler. This is a pretty nice looking cup. And
then they also have with that a cinematograph camp mug
with what I believe is Justin's cat on there and
a whole bunch of cat pun themed VHS tapes. I

(01:28:31):
feel like you had to purchase I don't know eleven
of these.

Speaker 8 (01:28:34):
Maybe, as anyone who tuned into the show knows, yes,
this was extremely tempting for me. I have yet to
pull the trigger. But as we said earlier, I also
have yet to pull the trigger on the zine, so
I might be putting in an order of at least
the zene and this cat mug before the month's end.
But very very tempting. I don't even drink coffee.

Speaker 5 (01:28:58):
Then cinematt put out a bumper sticker made to look
like their Breathless art, which is beautiful. I'm sure a
lot of people have had fun with that. But I
want to talk about the thing that I saw as
the most controversial and that is that they put up.
Oh man, they put up a dog bowl, which I'm
all about. This is this is a great idea, I see.

(01:29:19):
This is a perfect situation to brand for your company.
That being said, it's a thirty five dollars dog bowl,
a little high for.

Speaker 8 (01:29:27):
Pen lovers everywhere that also love physical media. You know
those two overlap.

Speaker 5 (01:29:32):
Yeah, I absolutely know that they do. However, two a
situation that don't overlap much is dogs and things that
can read. I want to know why Vinegar Syndrome decided
to print the words dog bowl on the side of
this thing. I guarantee you the dog is not looking
for an invitation, not.

Speaker 8 (01:29:52):
Just dog ball vs. Dog ball, So you have to
train your dog to know what vs. Means and this
partic regular instance, maybe it's a.

Speaker 5 (01:30:02):
Fight dog versus dog bull.

Speaker 8 (01:30:06):
You say, oh, you want your treats there in the
they're over there in the av dog bowl. You want
your If you want your regular Pellett food, go to
the vs.

Speaker 5 (01:30:15):
Dog ball. Yeah, this is a this is a choice.
I again, I think it's a great move and they
absolutely did the right thing by selling it, But super
weird to put the words dog ball on the side.

Speaker 8 (01:30:29):
Now, something else before we dive into the shirts, Ryan,
because it's not for sale, but I think it does
qualify as a piece of merch and therefore to talk
about on the show. In the rewards section, they had
a vinegar syndrome, crock giblet.

Speaker 5 (01:30:51):
I was not expecting the word giblet there.

Speaker 8 (01:30:53):
For some reason.

Speaker 5 (01:30:53):
What they're technically called, right, Okay, that's that's hilarious.

Speaker 8 (01:30:57):
I don't I call them pieces of flair because I'm
grew up with office space, but yeah, vs crock jubblet,
which again not for actual sale sale on the website,
but something you can get on the website if you
have enough points. I think it's only five hundred and
technically a piece of merch. Therefore, I think it qualifies
in our merch Mates segment and it will be something

(01:31:19):
that I will be picking up as a crack wearer
because that was actually my most exciting piece of merch in.

Speaker 5 (01:31:26):
In this dump. Well, speaking of dumps, we got some
more shit it go. The first one is the Dragon's Layer,
which is a picture of a dragon and of course
a busty woman to go with it. The next one
is the vinegar syndrome helium lobotomy, which shows a skeleton's

(01:31:47):
head opening in a balloon coming out of it. And
then we've got the Vinegar Syndrome through Space and Time
long sleeve shirt, which is actually pretty nice and we
don't see many long sleeves long the sleeves from them,
so that's nice. In a Matagraph also put out an
Apparatus schematic shirt and their pulp fiction design was.

Speaker 8 (01:32:04):
Placed on the shirt as well. I actually didn't know
they put that on the shirt, and I might have
to pick.

Speaker 5 (01:32:08):
Up solid month of shirts if I did not have
eighty four Vinegar Syndrome shirts already, I would be tempted
to buy at least one of these.

Speaker 8 (01:32:17):
Maybe I will, and I'll also use my eighty four
shirts and sew it into a nice throw blanket.

Speaker 5 (01:32:23):
Ooh, that's not a bad idea. So yeah, that was
most of the stuff that went up during the sale.
Of course, there was a couple of alt slip covers
for We've got Showgirls that popped up, We've got the
Amberville Whore that popped up, and then we've got the
third one that popped up. Of course, I'm certainly not

(01:32:44):
just scrolling through to find it. It was from Beyond,
which I know a lot of people reacted to these
without having looked. The big difference this time is instead
of selling these for eight dollars on their own in
case somebody of the standard edition, they're requiring that they
be purchased with the film. This time. It seems like

(01:33:06):
there's some sort of rights problem with MGM and they're
not allowing them to be sold separately, which really sucks.

Speaker 8 (01:33:12):
But I don't know if they're all a lot cooler
than the ods.

Speaker 5 (01:33:17):
Well, a lot of people are very unhappy with the
ambil Horror one, but I don't mind it. I think
the minimal design is pretty nice. But Showgirls specifically is
really great. Yeah, and From Beyond is really really cool. Yeah,
it's it's decent. It's a little less frenetic, which a
lot of people had a problem with on the first one.
I think this one's pretty pretty red. But then other

(01:33:40):
than that, we sprung into Partner Label Month for the
month of June and we got some to cover here.
We got some shirts from Bleeding School, one a logo
t one, a blonde death tea, their fastest selling title
by a long shot. I don't know about you. I
like Bleeding school quite a bit. I'm glad they're doing

(01:34:00):
a logo TA and this is my plea for a
lot of these partner labels. A lot of us like
these partner labels and would absolutely support a T shirt
for a smaller company. If you have an opportunity, please
get one printed. I mean something like I would love
to rock at Saturn's core logo T Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:34:18):
I'd rock a Factory twenty five to one or a
Connie one and a heartbeat.

Speaker 5 (01:34:23):
Kannie would be fun for sure. And then you know,
we talked about the Deluxe led vhs. They got two
more of those. They've got Calvert and then Skateboard. That
is a pretty decent slate for partner label month that
usually we don't get a ton of merge. But one
of the big things that we were just talking about
was the Alt slipcovers, and the pattern continued for partners

(01:34:46):
in that We've got two new slipcover variants, one for
one of your and my favorite films, Shiva Baby, and
the other one for Canadian International Pictures release of Gina. Now,
I gotta say I do prefer the original ship a
Baby slip. This one's not bad in any way, but
I do prefer the original, but Gina, this slip is

(01:35:08):
incredible or this is a beautiful piece of art.

Speaker 8 (01:35:12):
Just purely because of how much you know, I love
the movie Have a Baby, and how gorgeous the Gina
Alt slip looks. Given the option, I would be picking
these bad boys up in a heartbeat, and I'm very
disappointed that we don't have the option anymore too, get
just the alt slip.

Speaker 5 (01:35:28):
Yeah, and again that's where this sort of gets odd
because these were not licensed from MGM, and it seems
like an interesting timing that suddenly five in a row
can't be purchased on their own. So I wonder if
this is going to be what we see moving forward
or if they will return if you know, some title
is not MGM in the future in another sale. Maybe
they'll go back to their old way. But yeah, this

(01:35:49):
is for those that have bought Shiva Baby after it
sold out, which is many people, so I'm sure they
would have been very happy buying this new slip over.

Speaker 2 (01:35:57):
Now.

Speaker 8 (01:35:57):
Do you feel like if they don't sell as many
as they would like, which I have a feeling will
be the case, then they'll open it up to folks
to buy just the alt slip.

Speaker 5 (01:36:05):
No, highly doubt that's the case. I have a feeling
that they will absolutely hold tight to the new rule
that they've put in. Son of a Beasting, all right,
Any any major thoughts on merchan the last couple of
months that we have missed or that we covered today, Well,
I don't know. I guess books don't qualify as merch,
not really, because these go in and out of stock

(01:36:27):
a month to month. They're not released by VS.

Speaker 8 (01:36:30):
I was very tempted to pick up that gasper No
book is all.

Speaker 5 (01:36:33):
I was going to say, Yeah, it looks like a
fun book. I would consider the same for those of
you that ever miss out on a book that's on
the Vinegar Centroom website. Honestly, you can usually get that
on Amazon or your local bookstore or Barnes and Noble
or something at the exact same time, and usually it's
honestly a little cheaper.

Speaker 8 (01:36:50):
Well honestly, I know, I don't know if we I mean,
I guess everything's fair game. I was going to say
the exact same thing when I said it was tempting,
I mean, I very much want it and saw that
it was cheaper elsewhere. So the truth comes out but
thank you to Vinegar Syndrome for bringing it to my
attention that I otherwise would not know existed.

Speaker 2 (01:37:10):
So you know, bonus still chuckling at this popcorn scented soap.
That's wild awesome. Thank you all so much, and y'all
so episode twenty one in the books. We've got a
special episode coming up in the middle of the month

(01:37:32):
that I hope we'll get some good conversation and we'll
be an opportunity to really kind of figure out how
you stand about where vinegar Syndrome is today. They're going
to be few different voices. We're going to try a
panel discussion, so hope it works and hope it's a
good listen, okay, cil, and thank you for everything that
y'all do as far as listening. And for those of

(01:37:53):
that do comment on Instagram and find me on Reddit
and find me on discord. Please keep doing it. I
love it, I love the feedback, and I see you
all online.

Speaker 1 (01:38:54):
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Speaker 4 (01:39:07):
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Episode 21 - Kakabakaba ka ba? With Pearl from Kani!

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 21 - Kakabakaba ka ba? With Pearl from Kani!