pop culture
Modern popular culture topics in the geek sphere.
Disney Movies
When you first walk into a Disney park, one of the first things you see is The Castle. Feelings of excitement, hope, magic, possibility, and pure happiness sprout up, and some people start crying, others laughing, and others shouting for joy. All these feelings are not from The Castle itself, but rather, the memories we associate with it. Typically memories associated with childhood.
By Kayla Willsey8 years ago in Geeks
Groot Is Dead! James Gunn Reminds Us That Original Groot Is Gone
Spoiler alert. If you have not seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 back up, now (and watch it). The internet melted, today, as Guardians of the Galaxy Director, James Gunn announced that the original Groot is dead and will never return to the franchise.
By Tim Horton8 years ago in Geeks
The Importance of Film Within Korean Society (Part 2)
Because of Korea’s violent history, it is no surprise that this affects the film industry through the views of its directors as they attempt to express themselves through their art. Historian Max Hastings' theory, with regards to the reasons behind continued meddling from outside powers, is Korea’s strategic position as the meeting point between three major nations. So it may be because of this that Korea has suffered repression and feuding. The fact that Korea has been invaded several times by Japan since 1392, even with their isolationist policies, is a good testimony to this. Also, Hastings describes the populace as "fiercely nationalistic" (Hastings 1987), meaning the Koreans took great offence in the suppression of their culture and loss of self-identity. With the full effects of the Japanese occupation coming into place in 1904, when the Japanese moved a sizable army into Korea and brought the nation into a Japanese protectorate, Korean independence died. During the oppression, armed resistance came from many different groups, the biggest being the anti-Japanese guerrilla army. Hastings’ description of Korea during the oppression is that, "Korea became an armed camp, in which mass executions and wholesale imprisonment were commonplace, and all dissent forbidden" (Hastings 1987). This kind of environment continued until 1943, nearly half a century later, and as the Koreans thought they may get a taste of freedom, another problem arose in the form of the United States and Russia. Historian Bruce Cumings believed this came about due to a change in circumstances. "What created 'an entirely new strategic situation in the far east,' was not that Russia was interested in Korea—it had been for decades—but that the United States was interested" (Cumings, as cited in Hastings, 1987). Korea was then divided between the two into North and South, denied independence by outside powers, and experienced a three-year American occupation to prevent the Soviets from gaining in the Japanese defeat as they, "might seize the opportunity to include Korea in their sphere of influence" (Hastings 1987). Following this was the Korean War of 1950-53, which saw 16 armies from five continents under the UN flag against China and North Korea. This divided families and brought about tragedy for the people of Korea, and it wasn’t until 1958 that the last of the Chinese troops left the North and left it to its own communist republic. A tense situation had been set up, creating a cold war in itself for the people of Korea with the communist North and capitalist South. With this intemperate history of fighting and antagonizing the Korean nationalistic feelings right at the outset of the film industry, it is fair to say that this animosity would provide a vehicle for the fledgling directors. Looking at
By Ruth Esca Bowmer8 years ago in Geeks
If You Haven’t Read Harry Potter Here Is Why You Should
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out June 26, 1997. I was a fresh two-year-old at this point in time and didn't pay much mind to it. When I was just a little bit older, I remember spending the night with my uncle and waking up to him watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I remember it so clearly because I took one look at the screen, saw the basilisk and immediately left the room. Still a little too young.
By Liz Galante8 years ago in Geeks
10 Characters That Broke the 4th Wall
The fourth wall is nothing new. It exists in cinema, movies, TV, comic books, novels, video games, and more and is a rudimental convention of the stage and screen. The fundamentals behind it describe how the action is contained within a set three walls and an invisible fourth wall separating the actors on stage from the audience.
By James Wright8 years ago in Geeks
The Importance of Film Within Korean Society
In order to define Korean cinema as it is now, it is important to place it into some sort of context given the country's century of oppression, division, and warfare. Historically, Korean cinema seems to have been non-existent, with nothing surviving from the era of silent films (1926-1935), and according to Adriano Apra (as cited by Rist, 1998, online) only three films have survived from before 1946 and these are not considered Korean but Japanese due to the World War II occupational force at the time. It was not until the 1960s that a significant film production could be seen in Korea’s cinema industry. Now Korea is experiencing a "new wave" of film making and cinema fanaticism, which in the Korean language is called "Hal-u" and has been likened to France in the 1960s, Hollywood in the 1970s and Hong Kong in the 1980s in their leap into world cinema. The very fact that the people of Korea have their own term for this phenomenon and are therefore recognising its existence as a part of their society suggests that it has a firm place in their everyday lives. To give an idea of just how popular cinema in Korea is becoming, it has been noted that in the south the number of cinema screens has almost tripled in the last eight years and the attendance is still steadily rising all the time. With these successes within Korea itself, a further key to its expanding popularity is tapping into the international sales. Korea is now exporting at the very least ten times as many films compared with the early 90s. In an interview for Subway Cinema, Korean film director Kim Jee-Woon stated, "Looking at the Korean film industry, they are dealing with a variety of subjects and different genres, and that’s one of the strengths of the current Korean film market" (Kim Jee-Woon 2001, online). He is saying that unlike places such as Hong Kong, where their films are primarily martial arts orientated, and therefore introduced to the rest of the world as such, Korean films have a wider base. This I have learnt is largely due to the wide selection of backgrounds and origins of the directors, as mentioned by Jonathan Ross in his recent documentary series on Asian cinema, Asian Invasion shown on BBC4, January 2006. I will go into greater detail of these varied backgrounds and the reasons for them in the social political context chapter. This fully encompassing genre industry means that so far, Korean films have yet to be classified by the rest of the world, like Hong Kong films have been, and to an extent Japanese films have been classified as that of mainly the horror genre thanks largely to the many Hollywood remakes such as The Ring and Dark Water.
By Ruth Esca Bowmer8 years ago in Geeks
Reboot or Nah?
TV shows in the 90's were amazing. Not to say the ones today aren't great, but there is something about what we call the classics, among our generation that leave no room for competition. There's no denying that. Even 20 years later, some of us can still recount episodes of
By C. Nicole Pierce8 years ago in Geeks
