Issue #360: Cancel Your New Year's Eve Plans and Join the First Ever Paradox Newsletter Movie Marathon
I am doing something unprecedented. Tomorrow (or today, hopefully, depending on when you read this) I will be hosting a movie marathon to celebrate the coming of the New Year. It’s very exciting to bring people together to watch some weird films and TV. I toyed with a few different ideas but, after discussion with Erin and others, came up with kaiju and tokusatsu. Technically, kaiju is a subgenre of tokusatsu, but tokusatsu is associated enough with human sized transforming heroes I feel it’s worth talking about them as separate but interconnected.
Although there are proto-works and very important antecedents, the beginning of the kaiju genre as such is coincident with Ishirō Honda’s Godzilla (1954). The movies that have followed the kaiju blueprint are inextricable from the atomic anxieties fundamental to the original Godzilla film. What kaiju so often represents is the cathexis of a larger than life, but non-corporeal social problem worked out in the course of an invasion by some creature from within or without Earth. Whether it is a subterranean creature or an invader, the creature is always alien to the social order which it disrupts.
However, kaiju have also become emblems of social cohesion. Take, for instance, the turn of Gamera from malevolent and destructive to benevolent and protective in his later film appearances. Even more so than Godzilla, Gamera often acts to the benefit of children. Despite Gamera being a giant creature with no grasp of human social structure, he intuitively acts in accordance with the belief that a child’s life has an outsized significance compared to the lives of others — the kind of ideological structure theorists such as Lee Edelman critique. While kaiju films often have the component of social commentary, they can also prop up ideology when the giant monsters are cast as heroes. Daimajin, Gargantuas directed by the father of kaiju himself, and Daigoro run the gamut of kaiju themes.
Regardless of whether a kaiju film might critique or endorse a social structure, usually they involve an element of collectivity. The small, vulnerable human characters must collaborate to overcome whatever is the film’s obstacle — whether it’s defeating a titular kaiju or aiding it. Metal hero tokusatsu series, by contrast, present an individual uniquely equipped to achieve something. These works follow the logic of U.S. superhero fiction, trading in collectivity for exceptionalism. Jiban, especially, presents a world where an individual has the unique qualification to enforce the law.
This event will be streamed through the new Paradox Newsletter Discord server. This server is brand new and only available as a perk for paid subscribers. If you upgrade your subscription to paid, you should get a link to the server where you can watch the films on the 31st.
Having a Discord server for the newsletter is a big change in its own right. I’m hoping it will offer the opportunity to have some less structured conversation with other readers. I’m also going to be trying out some events through Discord over the next year, including other movie marathons if this one goes well. If there’s appetite for it, there will be plenty of time for discussion of these films tomorrow night.
If you are a paid subscriber and have any issues getting access to the Paradox Newsletter Discord, let me know ASAP.
The programming will begin at 7pm Eastern Time. Start times are approximate, with the schedule as follows:
Daimajin (1966) @ 7PM ET~
Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Runtime 84 minutes
Will be screened in Japanese with English subtitles
Kidou Keiji Jiban episode 48, “Year-Ending Bioron Extermination Party!” (1989) @ 8:30PM ET~
Directed by Takeshi Ogasawara
Runtime 23 minutes
Will be screened in Japanese with English subtitles
The War of the Gargantuas (1966) @ 9PM ET~
Directed by Ishirō Honda
Runtime 88 minutes
Will be screened in Japanese with English subtitles
B-Robo Kabutack episode 44, “Celebration!! The New Year Kite Lifting World Cup” (1998) @ 10:30PM ET~
Directed by Katsuya Watanabe
Runtime 23 minutes
Will be screened in Japanese with no subtitles
Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972) @ 11PM ET~
Directed by Toshihiro Iijima
Runtime 85 minutes
Will be screened in Japanese with English subtitles
Tetsuwan Tantei Robotack episode 41, “The New Year's Bell is Hated” (1998) @ 12:20AM ET~
Directed by Naoki Iwahara
Runtime 23 minutes
Will be screened in Japanese with no subtitles
You can view the schedule in your local time in the Discord.
If you’re able to join, I’d love to see you there. Here’s to more online and in-person moving picture programming from Paradox in the new year.
Best Paradox Newsletters of 2024
There is a reason people do top ten lists at the end of the year. Aside from the stated reason of reflecting on how far we’ve come or what kinds of topics you may or may not have read about over 2024, it should be a little bit easier to just briefly gloss what I have already written and point you to it instead of writing something new. This is a list of six, rather than ten, of the newsletters I wrote this year. They are among the ones I like the most and also happen to be ones that occasioned a strong response from readers.
Thanks for being a part of it all. More to come next year.
https://www.paradoxnewsletter.com/p/issue-309-the-art
I came out swinging in 2024. This was my most viewed edition by a lot. Particularly my writing about the idea of a favorite film is what got people going: https://www.paradoxnewsletter.com/i/140500063/what-makes-a-favorite-film
It’s an idea I have reflected on a fair bit this year, too. One might say that a big part of how I approach film evaluation (as opposed to hermeneutic analysis) is trying to reverse engineer the mechanisms by which a film gives me a certain experience. But, at the same time, my relationship to the film outside of its form or content also has a role in my experience. Where did I watch it? Did I come to the film with certain expectations? Do I view the film as beloved or reviled by the majority of those who have seen it? I don’t always bring the same tools to bear on every film, either, but rather the tools that feel appropriate to the task. There’s probably a whole other taxonomy to come up with that would give an account of how I think about different films. More to come next year.
https://www.paradoxnewsletter.com/p/issue-343-academic-horror-stories
I am not a partisan of the personal essay, but I did enjoy writing this story of setbacks in obtaining my PhD.
https://www.paradoxnewsletter.com/p/issue-346-the-substance-of-the-substance
The Substance (2024) is one of the biggest films of the year, so it makes sense this would be one of my most successful newsletter issues of the year. I will have more writing on The Substance released through a different medium appearing in 2025.
https://www.paradoxnewsletter.com/p/issue-342-kiyoshi-kurosawas-hitchcock
In which I finally write about Anno’s people-walking-down-corridors shot.
https://www.paradoxnewsletter.com/p/issue-323-an-interview-with-sugi
In which I interviewed Sugi. It was awesome.
https://www.paradoxnewsletter.com/p/issue-341-how-to-earn-money-from
Another genre experiment for me, this is hopefully one of the few occasions I will feel the need to write about the publication organ through which this newsletter currently appears.
The Rivera/Cawthon Christmas Movie Tradition: An Oral History
My immediate family doesn’t have that many traditions maintained from my childhood. Most of them that have endured til today came about during my adulthood. We have often gone out to eat at one of the limited dining options on Christmas Eve. But the strongest tradition we’ve managed to maintain is seeing a movie, or two, on Christmas. We started it in 2011, and have done it more or less every year since. From then to now, we’ve seen:
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Les Misérables (2012) and Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)
Big Hero 6 (2014)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Aquaman (2018)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Babylon (2022)
Ferrari (2023)
Nosferatu (2024)
This list is not without its wrinkles. In 2012, I saw Les Mis and Silver Linings Playbook with some friends rather than my family. The tradition hadn’t really caught on yet. And in 2020, I watched Wonder Woman 1984 at my father-in-law’s house instead of with my own parents. But I have been watching a movie on Christmas Day with family or family adjacent parties since 2011. This year, for the sake of minimizing logistical complexity and making sure my brother is included, we did Nosferatu (2024) on 35mm on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day — though it was a little bit of a shame to revise the tradition. But all the outings except for 2012, 2020, 2022, and 2023 have included all of my immediate family. In 2022 and 2023, it was just me, my mom, and Erin.
2011, the first year, was a barnburner. Two movies back to back, well above our standard. We also had a family friend with us, Ion, who is my younger brother’s age. During dinner at a restaurant across from the movie theater, Ion ate salsa straight out of the bowl with his bare hands. Not a utensil or chip in sight.
The selection process has been mixed. Disney franchise films are overrepresented. We have veered away from studio tent poles to auteur movies in recent years. There is no way in hell I am seeing Sonic 3 (2024) or the CGI Lion King monstrosity movie, so Nosferatu seemed like the only choice.
Nosferatu this year brought me back to the Coolidge Corner Theater for the first time since their renovation. The new segment of the theater is really depressing in contrast to the historic facade that faces Harvard St. But the concessions still get full marks. They are pouring the same soda as the Brattle. The movie itself also didn’t get rave reviews from any of my family. I didn’t love it either, but the 35mm print of the movie was cool. There was a lot of acrimony in the audience because Coolidge didn’t give out whatever promotional trinket was supposed to come with the ticket to a 35mm screening of the film, but I didn’t even know we were supposed to get anything.
It’s reasonable to ask why seeing a movie on Christmas has become a tradition for my family. But, it’s probably not that surprising to newsletter readers. What else would I do? I don’t really have a great sales pitch for duplicating this endeavor for you and yours other than: on Christmas, movie theaters are open and serve food. But the real sticking power is the benefit provided by any art object. Watching movies together contributes to a shared social and cultural fabric. I feel more connected to my family because of the discussions we have after these movies. Even the stupid ones.
The tradition will continue next year.
Weekly Reading List
https://kodansha.us/series/origin/ — The other day, I saw a pretty ambiguous looking page from Origin (2016). People more clever than me were able to immediately identify the artist: Boichi. Boichi is known for his work on Dr. Stone (2017), a manga I love. But I’ve never read anything Boichi actually wrote — he only handled drawing duties on Dr. Stone.
He is as talented a writer as he is a visual artist. Origin is remarkable. Japanese comics are full of terse, stoic heroes navigating a world they are somehow set apart from. Origin, the android protagonist of the manga, is one such hero. Like Katsuhisa Minami’s The Fable (2014), Boichi makes Origin’s movement through the world humorous. There’s pathos, too, from the robot who is trying to figure out how to feel something.
https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule/52 — AGDQ 2025 will begin before I get the next newsletter out: Sunday, January 5th. I only have my eye on the Alan Wake II (2023) runs at the end of the schedule on Sunday, technically starting at 12am on Monday the 6th. But from there, I’ll be looking to watch a lot. Also on Monday, Final Fantasy Legend II (1990) and Yakuza (2005). Tuesday at 7am they’ll be playing G-Saviour (2000), a video game I didn’t know existed based on a live action Gundam film produced in Canada. Also on the docket: one of the best games of all time, Ys VIII (2016), along with Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (2024) and Silent Hill 2 (2024) later that night. Apparently there will be a New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009) run that will be played on piano? That will be on Wednesday the 8th. The arcade rhythm game jubeat copious APPEND (2012) will have a showcase at 9:50pm on Friday the 10th. And there’s going to be some Elden Ring (2022) playing that somehow involves a saxophone at 3:50pm on Saturday. All times listed in Eastern Time. I’m sure there will also be some unexpected joys during the marathon I’ll touch on in the next few letters.
The absolute best.
Until next time.