Asian racquet sports double feature

I was going to possibly choose Lurker as the second half of my double feature at the cinema on Wednesday, since I've heard great things about it and I don't know that I'll have access to it through rental or steaming before my ranking deadline next month. 

But then I thought, why pass up an opportunity for an Asian-themed double feature, especially since my rankings are light on foreign language films? And because it might spur me to write a post on this blog, which I have been neglecting lately?

See the first movie was Park Chan-wook's latest, No Other Choice, which is one of a couple movies I've seen at advanced screenings that won't be coming out in Australia until January, when I will be quite busy trying to cram in all my other "must haves" before my list closes. It's a bit of a black comic riff on Parasite, and I think I'd be saying that even if the directors of both films weren't Korean. 

And besides, Elizabeth Lo's Chinese documentary Mistress Dispeller was starting 20 minutes earlier.

I knew both movies were from Asia, but I didn't realize they would both feature racquet sports -- and that they would both spell the word "racquet" differently in their English translations.

Tennis is a very small part of No Other Choice. It's a pastime enjoyed by the wife of the main character, one she decides to give up when he loses his job and their family falls on hard times. It isn't integral to the plot, but it comes up enough in conversation that her hopeful husband talks about buying her a new "racket" when he gets back up on his feet.

In Mistress Dispeller, a documentary about a woman who helps break up extramarital affairs, the couple she's trying to save are badminton aficionados. We see them playing this multiple times, and at one point someone talks about the correct way to hold the "racquet."

I'd say "racquet" is correct, yet I'm sure for many years in my life I thought it was "racket." 

Though looking at it just now, I'm not so sure. AI tells me that "racket" is the "older spelling, preferred in American English." Which would have been why I wrote it that way for so long. "Racquet," AI explains, is preferred in other countries. 

But I'm pretty sure I would have stopped writing "racquet" long before I moved to Australia. See, "racket" already means something else. It wouldn't be the first word to be spelled the same way and have two different meanings, but "racquet" clearly tells you what it's talking about without any ambiguity. I mean, a "tennis racket" could technically be a corrupt enterprise around the sport of tennis -- you know, point shaving or something. 

Both movies in this double feature also got 3.5 stars from me, which qualifies as a mild disappointment. (It's funny how I've come to think of this is a "disappointing" rating, when some people would use it as a signifier of great affection.)

This is actually a step up for Park, since his last film, Decision to Leave, was such a disappointment to me that I could not even give it a positive star rating (2.5). I've never seen another Elizabeth Lo movie, but I guess I hoped this one would blow my mind. I did really like it, but I spent entirely too much time questioning how someone makes a documentary about a cheating husband and his mistress, with tons of footage of them, without them understanding that this documentary is about someone trying to break them up. 

So I guess I won't be raising a racket for either of them when I review them (har har). 

A change of projector locale

I didn't originally think I would "take advantage" of my wife being out of town in any way, except maybe leaving some dishes unwashed for longer than I ordinarily would, or never making the bed.

Then I realized that our bedroom would make a perfect location for the new portable projector screen she got me for my birthday, and that shelf that runs along the length of our bed, above the pillows but under the windows, would be the perfect height to hold the projector.

And so it is that I set up the screen in front of our bureau, which she accesses more than I do, and that's where it's been since Friday evening, with a few more days expected since she's had to extend her trip. 

This is a picture from the first film I watched, After the Hunt, which I didn't particularly care for. I've subsequently watched Until Dawn, Yi Yi, First Blood, Rolling Thunder and Freakier Friday. Quite the mix of films there. 

It's fun, and unusual, for me to watch movies from bed. I usually take the living room, and my wife winds down her night in bed with her device, on nights we aren't watching something together. 

However, I have to admit it is not as comfortable as I might have thought. I need one of those pillows with the arms that used to be all over the place when I was growing up, so instead I'm kind of slumped over, scrunching up as many normal pillows as I can to try to recreate the same effect. Suffice it to say, I won't miss it when I have to take it down when my wife gets back on Wednesday, but it's been a fun novelty. Change is as good as a holiday, or so they say. 

Not a lot more to say today, just wanted to let you know I'm still here, and already feeling a bit snowed under -- though not in Australia, where today is the first day of summer -- by end-of-year obligations at work and with Christmas coming up.