Safety Last

Hojung Lee is an Asian-American author and the writer behind Tigerrabit, a new book written in response to the rising hate crimes against Asians since the start of the pandemic. We’ve been planning this podcast for a while and settled on linking our discussion of her book with Letterboxd’s new highest rating film Everything Everywhere All At Once by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, affectionately as The Daniels. In particular, we focused on one aspect of Hojung’s life, her troubled relationship with her parents and how it mirrored the protagonists Joy and Evelyn from the film, and secondly why do the Koreans insist their nation looks like a tiger instead of a rabbit?

What makes a good film?

All power is political, and all politics is power. This idea may not resonate to a lot of Westerners who see different political parties win and lose without really changing the course of the nation. And while that might be the ‘best’ version of politics, the reality is that for 99% of human history has not been like this. So today, I want you to really think about this question. How much power should governments have?

Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle... Studio Ghibli's influence upon Japanese and international animation remains immense. After 19 feature films, several short films, and countless commercials, Ghibli's simple aesthetic has become synonymous with animation.

One single question defines the entire field of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and that is whether or not it is real or fake. Does sticking needles in certain areas of your body, drinking certain herbs or even channeling one's "qi" (氣) actually help improve one's health?

Imagine growing up in an environment where you were expected to wake up before the crack of dawn to feed your farm animals, imagine having no internet until you were an adult, imagine riding your horse for hours after school.

The suburbs and rural areas have long had an interesting relationship with each other, with both envying the other, yet simultaneously condescending the other party. For the people in the metropolitan areas, the wilderness represents freedom but also savagery, with 'bogans' representing the worst of society who cannot comprehend the social etiquette expected in the city. For the people in the country, 'city-slickers' are wealthy and educated, yet lack all connection to the earth and animals, and are too soft to do any physical labour.

So what is truth and what is fiction? Today, I bring on my friend to discuss what it was like growing up in the country before migrating to the city as an adult.

The word that comes to my mind when I think of BTS is meteoric. For what might possibly be the most popular band in the world right now, I had no idea they existed a few years ago (seriously, the first time I heard their name in 2017, I was just confused).

Society has not been kind of vegetarians as their defining depiction is a screaming banshee drunk off self-importance.

[SPOILERS - This podcast will dive and discuss all parts of this manga]

The dominating emotion I felt as I watched the class of 2021 graduate was a mixture of empathy and pity. As a teacher, and someone who has graduated from high school, I understand how important the rites of passage and rituals are to learning. A program without sport, camps or the chance for students to socialise is more akin to a prison than a school.