#softfrogs

Fic can be read HERE.

Post-Canon, Bonding. Completed. Rated: G. Word Count: 1308

Pairings: Kageyama ‘Mob’ Shigeo & Suzuki Shou

Trigger Warnings: None

I’M SO SORRY THIS ENDED BEING SUPER LONG!! I JUST?? LOVE?? MOVIES!!! *cracks knuckles* ugh it’s so hard to rank them but HERE WE GO:

1. Days of Being Wild (dir. Wong Kar-wai, 1990)

so one of the best classes in my entire undergrad career thus far was about Wong Kar-wai’s filmography. prior to the class, i knew he’s highly regarded internationally but i knew nothing about Hong Kong cinema. and after taking an awesome Intro to Film course with a British Indian prof who stressed a non-Western focused syllabus i figured why not?? the WKW class ended up being SO. GOOD. i will forever rave about it. the discussions were always so interesting. everyone was v smart and passionate. 

ANYWAYS Days of Being Wild is WKW’s second feature and it’s an all time fav bc it’s a lonely and drab film that still stands out to me and signifies my previous, eye-opening experience with the class. the tale of a bird without legs flying on until it dies. the fragility and emptiness of relationships. the loss of a concrete personal identity. moving and transporting through spaces. idk it has a lot of themes that WKW revisits in his later films but i keep coming back to this one and ugh in the moment, it’s hard to verbalize why i feel such a strong connection with this one it’s just V SPECIAL TO ME.

2. Skyfall (dir. Sam Mendes, 2012)*

*yep, the James Bond franchise is sexist and racist amongst other things but it’s one of my likes/interests that i can both enjoy and be critical of. i’m always a fan of combining consumption with analysis like that too!NGL I SAW SKYFALL LIKE 3 TIMES WHEN IT CAME OUT IN THEATERS. and for me to pay to see something that many times means it affected me in some significant way. I’M A SUCKER FOR ESPIONAGE TOO. hmm i was in my senior year of hs and i started getting into the franchise, watching some of the older films and stuff (plus Eva Green in Casino Royale is probs the only reason i ever even took notice of the franchise when i was a kid). 

in the Daniel Craig Bondverse, CR was a great start, we don’t talk about QoS, and then there’s SKYFALL. IT SET THE BAR SO HIGH. it has a lot of the old and the new. hints at (at least) a bisexual Bond. explores MI6 politics, M’s relationships, and a weary, older Bond struggling with the relevance of his traditional patriotism-fueled espionage. i was also a newly minted Ben Whishaw fan so seeing him as Q fucking killed me (cough00Qcough). 

the CINEMATOGRAPHY is GORGEOUS (and honestly a huge part of the reason i kept going back to the theater). Roger Deakins is the well-known cinematographer who worked on Skyfall and after looking him up i found out that he worked a lot of my other fav films so go figure!! when i saw Skyfall i never took film classes and i had no notion of any theory but Skyfall still caught my eye and i became more sensitive of film as a visual medium that uses a variety of means to communicate with the viewer. Skyfall made me want to learn more about film and i was eager to read about terms to describe the things i noticed and felt when watching!!

3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (dir. David Fincher, 2011)

TBH David Fincher is one of my fav directors. his films are cold and cynical and involve a lot of psychological drama and crime while exploring the nastiest parts of people. he’s an incredibly detailed director and i just?? i’m really drawn to the darkness and sleekness of his work.

FIRST OFF, lemme tell you that the trailer for TGWTDT is one of the best trailers i’ve ever seen. i had the privilege of seeing it for the first time on the big screen and that shit was a fucking holy experience wOW. it’s like a hybrid short music video/trailer that doesn’t spoil the story and instead sets the mood/aesthetic by giving you bits n pieces and making you curious about how they all connect.

UNFORTUNATELY i didn’t get to see the film in theaters but i eventually got it on dvd and watched it after reading the book. i think Fincher was the perfect director to have a vision for the book. the freezing bleakness of the setting coupled with an old murder mystery and an eerie, clinical soundtrack from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is all. perfect. i also began my descent into Nordic noir hell with this film.

4. Rebel Without a Cause (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1955)

OH MAN JAMES DEAN. there was always this poster of him up in one of the classrooms in hs and i was always vaguely aware of it (like still an aesthetically attractive dude even by today’s standards!). 16-17 year old me was pretty interested in WWII and post-WWII eras of American history and one of the textbooks had some sections on mid-century arts and culture. 

one day i decided to check out some famous 50s films and was instantly drawn to James Dean when i saw East of Eden. he’s an all-in-one kinda actor to me (V TALENTED). both his life and filmography are tragically short but i wanted!! more!! i watched his audition reels and cameos/parts in radio and television dramas. collected a lot of pics. and finally saw Rebel Without a Cause. despite it being about white upper middle-class suburban teenagers, angsty teen me still related a lot to the feeling of being both lost and stuck as well as unsettling family dynamics and the desire to just escape and find solace in friends. all the performances in this film were top-notch and so endearing bc of how vulnerable the characters are.

5. The Double (dir. Richard Ayoade, 2013)

Richard Ayoade is one of my favorite human beings ever and a damn good director too! i was so hyped to find out that he was a directing an adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s novella.

i love the soundtrack and cinematography (quite a colorful palette despite a strict and impersonal setting). the production design is v intriguing too. think mid-century office aesthetics combined with standardized analog machinery and a crippling sense of hopelessness and paranoia. having your doppelganger engulf your work, social circles, and entire life can be a terrifying thing to confront in the face of a depersonalized monolith of a society focused on results.

Yes, I'll admit that I'm a fool for youBecause you're mine, I walk the line