alt.culture: Recent Episodes

Yousef

Welcome to alt.culture! The podcast where we explore the history of art and culture that's off the beaten path, the events that shaped them and the events that they shaped.

Tune in to learn about the interesting history of art and culture of different times and different places, and their lasting legacy.

Hong Kong movies have played a giant role in shaping the pop culture of the world. We'll take a look at the history of Hong Kong and its movies through the lenses of its most popular genres.

In the first of this four part series, we'll take an overall look at the formation of Hong Kong, the growth of the movie industry. The focus will be on the Kungfu genre. We'll look at the legends of the genre. We'll explore the history behind the martial arts and their schools, and how Kungfu took the world by storm.

Movies cited:

The Big Boss, 1971
Fists of Fury, 1972
Way of the Dragon, 1972
Enter the Dragon, 1973
Five Fingers of Death, 1972
Master of the Flying Guillotine, 1976
The Thirty Sixth Chambers of Shaolin, 1978
Drunken Master, 1978
Mystery of Chess Boxing, 1979
Return to the 36th Chamber, 1980
Once Upon A Time in China series, 1991-1997
Ip Man series, 2008-2019

Some great resources:

Accented Cinema: https://www.youtube.com/@AccentedCinema
The 37th Chamber: https://www.youtube.com/@the37thchamber93
Cool History Bros: https://www.youtube.com/@CoolHistoryBros
Never Grow Up, by Jackie Chan
Bruce Lee: A Life, by Matthew Polly
Chinese Martial Arts: From Antiquity to the 21st Century, Peter A. Lorge
The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity
Martial Arts Cinema and Hong Kong Modernity: Aesthetics, Representation, Circulation, Yip Man-Fung

Madness and Terror!

Do you dare listen, to subject your ears to awful tales of murder and brutality? If the whispers lure you in, you will discover in the dark labyrinth of the mind such fearsome figures as:

The most murdered woman in the world.
The mad psychologist who used his knowledge of the human psyche to inflict horror.
The dark master of the art of infernal public attractions.
The sinister former chapel where a secret cabal of the depraved enjoy nightly delights.

You are about to listen to a story of a simple theater. A simple theater whose carnival of blood has driven mad the creative arts, whose long tentacles slowly, silently, creep with sinister intent all over the soul of cinema. Only the bravest will remain unscathed, for the wise have long left for safer places.

Disclaimer: This podcast is not responsible for any fainting that occurs while listening to this episode.

Further Reading:

Grand Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror; Michael Wilson, Richard J Hand
Theatre of Fear and Horror; Mel Gordon
The Most Murdered Woman In The World https://crimereads.com/the-most-murdered-woman-in-the-world/
The Many Deaths of Paula Maxa https://gingernutsofhorror.com/features/the-many-deaths-of-paula-maxa-the-blood-princess-of-paris-by-gg-graham

A genre popular in Japan once upon a time suddenly gains worldwide notoriety decades after it's been forgotten. Music and technology, cultural shifts, the nature of nostalgia- and more!

Notes:

Haruomi Hosono Red Bull Musical Academy Interview https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/haruomi-hosono/

Taeko Onuki Red Bull Muiscal Academy Interview https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/12/taeko-onuki-interview

Yamashita Tatsuro Interview http://kumomi.org/2021/09/28/yamashita-tatsuro-interview-2016/

Chocomusic History of City Pop: https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/12/taeko-onuki-interview

Japanese City Pop and the Rise of Future Funk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Althvag63pw

VisualPolitik How Did Japan's Great Financial Bubble Develop and Burst? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUu2qmOXYnI

“A naked woman sits before a portrait of Stalin and smokes marijuana.”

This was how one critic described the movies of the late 80s. Obviously something drastic has happened. The state of cinema shifted dramatically in such a few short years. We'll see the seismic changes that rocked the last few years of the Soviet Union, and its impact on film and the film industries.

Find out how anti-war film, Mikhail Romm's students, the search for Tarkovsky's heir, "dark" movies, rock music and corpses informed the movies of the late Soviet era, perestroika.

Movies discussed:

Come and See, 1985

Repentance, 1986

Kin Dza Dza, 1986

Letters from a Dead Man, 1986

Courier, 1986

Forgotten Melody for a Flute, 1987

Dear Elena Sergeyevna, 1988

Assa, 1988

Little Vera, 1988

Black Rose is an Emblem of Sorrow, Red Rose is an Emblem of Love, 1989

Fountain, 1989

Is Stalin With Us?, 1989

Asthenic Syndrome, 1990

Soviet Elegy, 1990

House Under the Starry Sky, 1991

After the death of Stalin, the Union went through a dramatic series of transformations. This was felt in the movie industry as well. This episode will deal with the rollercoaster rise and falls of the 30 years after.

In this episode you'll find out:

How youth became central to the movie industry.
How comedies got sad.
The movie that reduced the Party leadership to tears.
The film that inspired music videos
Attempts to challenge and dismantle all previous theories on cinema.

And we'll meet perhaps the most well-known director of the era.

Movies discussed

The Forty-First, 1956

Carnival Nights, 1956

The Cranes Are Flying, 1957

Ivan's Childhood, 1962

I Walk Around Moscow/Walking the Streets of Moscow, 1964

I Am Twenty, 1965

Operation Y and Other Adventures of Shurik, 1965

Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, 1965

Wings, 1966

Andrei Rublev, 1966

Kidnapping Caucasian Style, 1967

The Color of Pomegranetes, 1969

You and Me, 1971

Solaris, 1972

Ivan Vasilievich Changes Professions/Ivan Vasilievich Back to the Future, 1973

Irony of Fate or Enjoy Your Bath, 1975

Office Romance, 1977

The Ascent, 1977

Stalker, 1979

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, 1980

Nostalgia, 1984

The 1930s and 40s were a tumultuous period for the Soviet Union. The Stalinist regime and five year plans transformed the political and cultural structure of the country, and the second World War was looming. Cinema felt these seismic shifts. How would the directors of the era, the ones used to the creative freedoms of the avant-garde 1920s, respond to the challenges?

Movies Discussed:

Enthusiasm: Dziga Vertov, 1931

Komsomol- Leader of Electrification: Esfir Shub, 1932

The Three Songs About Lenin: Dziga Vertov, 1934

Chapaev: Grigori and Sergei Vasiliev, 1934

Circus: Grigori Alexandrov, 1936

Bezhin Meadow: Sergei Eisenstein, 1937

Volga-Volga: Grigori Alexandrov, 1938

She Defends The Motherland: Fridrikh Erlmer, 1943

Ukraine in Flames/Battle for Our Soviet Ukraine: Alexander Dovzhenko, 1944

Ivan The Terrible Part 1 and 2: Sergei Eisenstein, 1944 and 1958

How did cinema develop its own language? In this episode we'll discuss the development of cinema in the early days of the Soviet Union, and the directors who theorized the cinematic techniques that are still used to this day.

We'll talk about:

The beginnings of the country.

The experiment that changed how we view movies today.

The film that caused a stir in 1920s Berlin.

The film that was an attempt to create a plot-less, character-less movie.

How people reacted to this new forms of art.

And much more.

Tune in to part 1 of 4, of the History of Soviet Cinema!