Blank Check with Griffin & David - I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK with Karen Chee

Episode Date: August 6, 2023

From the twisted mind of Park Chan-Wook, it’s…a surprisingly sensitive romance set in a mental hospital? Writer and Comedian Karen Chee joins us to chat about 2006’s I’M A CYBORG, BUT THAT’S OKAY - a real outlier in Park’s career, and a commercial disappointment after the global success of his Vengeance Trilogy. Would it surprise you to learn that this film was inspired by, of all things, TOY STORY? Is this the best Park film to remake with a cast of Muppets? Are any of the film’s mental illnesses based in reality? All that, and more, in a very silly episode. Follow Karen on Instagram This episode is sponsored by:  Passages (mubi.com/passages) and Blank Check podcast presents…Congratulations  Wednesday, September 13th at 8pm at the Bell House in Brooklyn Tickets go on sale on Monday, August 7th at 12pm ET Join our Patreon at patreon.com/blankcheck Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter and Instagram! Buy some real nerdy merch at shopblankcheckpod.myshopify.com or at teepublic.com/stores/blank-check

Psycho. I'm not a psycho. I'm a podcast. Cyborg? Is that right? It doesn't really work. No. No.

So what Griffin will do is he'll take a quote from the movie. Yes. And then he'll put podcast in there. I'll destroy it. And now, obviously, for this miniseries, we're doing movies that are mostly in another language. So it's even worse what you're doing, really. Yeah. But by the way, we're coming off a miniseries where all the films were silent.

That's true. The last miniseries we did, I'm talking to our guests. Yeah. I don't know why you're telling me. I'm so confused, David. Who are you talking to? I know. Is this even a podcast?

Was Buster Keaton. So those were silent. So that was a real challenge for you. Right. That's true. Yes. Sometimes I'll do taglines. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. Sometimes I'll do taglines. Oh, that's nice.

Yeah. Sometimes I do quotes, but it does get more difficult when it's a foreign film. We've covered other foreign films before. The thing that gets more difficult is I'm already bad at impressions. Okay. Right? But when you're doing a foreign film and it's like, I'm going to do the American translation of the line, which means I'm totally losing the line reading. Right, right,

right, right. I can't even approximate how they performed it. Yeah. You know? Yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Wait, where did you watch the movie? Like, on what platform? I, look, I'm not trying to, like, fucking big dog you. I'm not trying to, like, come in here

trying to show off. Okay. You know, you're a first-time guest. We're excited to have you. I'm not trying to like come in here trying to show off. Okay. You know, you're a first time guest. We're excited to have you. I did import a Blu-ray from England. I went, I got.

Whoa. I didn't even know that was possible. It has never. Foreign Blu-ray. And I got David a copy as well. He got me a copy too. I got a deal.

I sent you a copy. You did. Well, I was confused. We sent you a Google Drive link. The Google Drive link didn't have subtitles. So there was a moment

where I was like, are David and Griffin secretly fluent in Korean? Do you speak Korean? I do. I just watched the movie and I was fine. The version I had, but I think there is something tough about sending subtitled. Sometimes it doesn't work.

You have to download it. Oh. I refuse. But I think I did think like, well, Karen probably speaks Korean. So maybe I wasn't as worried. No, it was fine. I mean, I just know you've lived in Korea.

I don't know too much about your life. Oh, no. Okay. That's fine. But I think, you know, I figured, well, anyway, if you hadn't understood the movie, you probably would have gotten in touch. Right. Yes.

But it was still, I don't know, a passive error on my part. David and I are big physical media simps. We are. Okay. I didn't know people still had Blu-ray. Oh, this is disgusting. You have to leave. These two guys have too many of them.

I have so many Blu-rays. I say as someone who's fucking having to move Blu-rays over from one apartment to another. Are you moving them over? Yeah. All of them? No, I'm paring down a little bit. And they buy physical media, Karen, for movies they don't like. Wait, why?

I don't know. This is not okay. I would say that's not entirely true. That's not entirely true. There is a little bit of completism with movies we are covering on the podcast. It can be fun to write. Just have to look and go like, ah, the history of doing this show. I don't regularly buy movies I don't like.

Sometimes there's a movie I don't like by a director we're covering. And I'm like, let me have the disc. How many discs do you have? I can't answer that. It's too much. I can probably find a picture. Wow, do you not have the internet? Is that what's happening?

What if that was the issue? He's like, I've never figured out my Wi-Fi password. I tried to hook it up, but I don't know. The plug doesn't work. Remember when Colin Quinn held up an iPhone charger plug for us? We've never said this on mic. Can we say it on mic or can we not? Let's say this on mic with all respect.

Is this currently recording for the podcast? We're deep in the podcast. We're in it. I'm going to try and find you my DVD show. It's been like two years now. Colin Quinn, who's a lovely man. Lovely man. We'd like to have him back on the show.

And he took time out of his schedule to come on our podcast. And let's say this. We'd love to have him back on the show in person. Correct. That'd be great. That's the adjustment we'd make. Colin was very generous. Offered us time about five minutes before we were about to start recording.

And this is when we're sort of coming out of pandemic. We were recording at Ben's living room. We didn't have a permanent space. We were still doing some Zoom records, but trying to move away from them. Five minutes before recording, he goes, I got a problem. I can't fucking, the microphone won't turn on.

And I said, what is it? And he went, I got the right cable, but it's not. And I go, so what are the options, Colin? And he goes, I go to Best Buy now, and I try to find it. I don't know if I find it. Or, you know, we reschedule for another day. Or we try to just do it with what we have. And I said, OK, let's get on the Zoom. Our producer will talk you through it. And he turned his microphone around and he goes, I got the right. And then I got the cable. And see, it's just not fitting in. It's the right cable. And it was two entirely different

plugs he was holding up an iphone charger from what i remember he was holding an iphone charger and saying this won't plug into my computer and i wanted to be like that's not part of your microphone right and of course it won't plug into your computer it was the back of the mic he wanted a micro usb right right right well my memory was the back of the microphone had like a USB port that was much wider, and then he had the little lightning plug from an iPhone charger, and he was putting it in, and he was saying like, it goes in but then it falls out.

I mean, that's fair. To be clear, lovely guy. The best. The best. It was a great episode. Yeah, it was a fun episode. I feel like after about, you know, an hour, he was sort of like, so we're just going to say the same thing over and over how long you fucking do this karen there are my there are my discs oh my god that's my disc so many honestly they look great are they organized in any particular fashion by director yep same wow and alphabetically a director alphabetically

with and then sometimes i'll be like wait who directed like rambo three like yeah right well that's the thing do you go like do you get the franchise box set so you have them all together And then sometimes I'll be like, wait, who directed like Rambo 3? Yeah, right. Where do I put this? That's the thing. Do you go like, do you get the franchise box set so you have them all together? Or is it better to split the individual entries up? These are really tough questions. These are things that keep us up at night. But this movie has never been released in the United States.

What movie? It never, the film we're talking about today. I'm sorry, but that's okay. Yes, okay. Never got a theatrical U.S. release. Never got theatrical U.S. release, but also never got an American DVD release or Blu-ray release. I saw this movie originally on an import DVD. Whoa.

And now I have finally acquired import Blu-ray. Can you turn your phone off? A lot of cute girls are calling you right now. Hey, wait a second. Hey, wait a second hey wait they heard that news uh can i tell you i just found a um there's no tagline for this in america obviously yeah but i found a french tagline okay uh lfo il est foudel uh-huh which means she's crazy he's crazy about her oh that's the tagline i would argue that he is also crazy he is a little crazy

not to use you know such loaded language but they started it they did start this fucking tagline writer started it um but that is a tagline i found for you it's the only tagline i could find yeah yeah i mean there might be a podcast he's podcast about her. Well, wait. Is there a tagline on this poster? Come over, Karen. Let's see. Deep dive. Close examination. It's just like actor names.

This year's couple? Okay. I guess that's sort of a tagline. That's a good tagline. I don't think it's a tagline, though, because it's in a font that's too big to be a tagline. I wonder if that's like when they were promoting it, they like slapped that on. Or that was like an award it was given. It's in a font that's too big to be a tagline i wonder if that's interesting when they were promoting it they like slapped that on or that was like an award it was given it's not a tagline it's like a film festival laurels the next year barack and michelle obama yeah this year's couple two fictional people in a mental institution next year the president and

first lady of the united states of america listen this is blank Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. I'm David. I'm Karen. Fuck. Oh, that's brilliant. That's cool. She just butted in. That's cool.

Hey, Karen. Hi. Let's just flip it out over. Our guest today from Late Night with Seth Meyers, great comedian Karen Shee. Hi. Hey, Karen. Hello. Welcome. Thanks for coming.

And this is a podcast about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear. And sometimes they bounce. Baby, this is a miniseries on the films. A part-time work. And today we're talking about...

I'm a cyborg, but that's okay. And are we officially just... Because this is the second episode we've recorded. Yeah. Just call it what you want to call it. I think you should. I'm a podcast, but that's okay.

Yeah. He wants to call our miniseries I'm a podcast, but that's okay. Yeah. We had a fan vote that picked Sympathy for Mr. Podcast. Right. In addition to butchering

a line from the movie at the beginning of every episode, I butcher one title in every episode as the larger miniseries name. And this film is not very well known in the United States because it's never gotten... Turn your phone off!

AT&T is telling me that I'm crashing their server? Too many cuties! Cell phone towers are catching on fire? But yes, but I think that's the funniest one. I think it's the funniest one and I also think it's good now to ignore Twitter. Yeah. Which is a bad website. We're going to keep doing

Twitter polls just to ignore them. Right. Take that, Twitter. What about I'm a cyborg but that's podcast? Well, that's fine. That's a good That's a good pun. Doesn't make a lot of sense. By the end of this episode, I'm going to be the new host yeah yeah you know what you're taking over i could take a year you're better at doing this than we are you're just the energy boost we need you know yeah some new life uh karen had you seen this movie before i had not this is my first time

and david you had not seen this before nope certainly not this is actually the only film i had his i hadn't seen apart from the his first two films which are obviously very difficult to find humblebred uh his first two films he basically has disowned they don't really count really wait that's really cool to do because i'm embarrassed by my old stuff oh you should do that you should go on imdb and just like you know draw a line through everything you just don't want people to pay attention to yeah yeah cool that sounds like a good plan you know what draw a line through everything you just don't want people to pay attention to. Yeah, cool. That sounds like a good plan. You know what's fun about the current world? Like, dumb shit you do

when you're, like, figuring your shit out online will never disappear. Yeah. Like, your fucking bad, like, jokes and, like, your early writings and all that shit, if you're any kind of front-facing person, that shit will be on the internet forever. Okay.

Even if the site is taken down, there's like fucking Wayback Machine. Right. So that's good, right? Right. And then if you're working in the entertainment industry, you get to the point where you actually work at the big leagues and you make stuff that you're proud of. And then that gets taken down from the fucking internet forever. These streaming services just fucking dump it and then no one can watch the shit that's actually real.

Wait, Karen, what's the thing you're most embarrassed about? Now I want to know. What am I most... I mean, I am truly embarrassed by everything I've done from three days before today. Okay, but the last two days you've been crushing it. The last two days have been amazing. Today I've been stellar.

Oh, you really have. Best guest we've ever had. You did a great job ordering coffee. I just want the listener to know that I was the guest and I got them coffee. Yes. I want the listener to know I paid for the coffee. Oh, that's true. David paid for the coffee. And then I made David carry the coffees.

Actually, I guess I didn't really do anything. And also, people kept opening doors for us. And I was sort of like, Karen, you have like Disney princess vibes. Like the animals are going to help us out. The initiative was good, though. I think you can take credit for the initiative. No, totally. But you got hired on Late Night with Seth Meyers very young,

to the point that it was sort of the bit of the show, your recurring segment, the sort of generational divide between you and Seth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when you say, like, there's early stuff you're embarrassed by, I feel like you had been doing... For sure, right. I feel like you had, like, a very fast... We were on a sketch team in kindergarten. Yes. Yeah, actually, that preschool. For sure, right. I feel like you had like a very fast...

You were on a sketch team in kindergarten. Yes. Actually, that team was pretty good. I'm still proud of that stuff. But it was a lot of shock humor. What was the name? Oh, The Bad Boys. Oh, good.

The Bad Boys. That does kind of sound like what a kindergarten group would call themselves. Anyway, yes. No, I've never seen this. Anyway, yes. No, I've never seen this film before, Griffin. Is that surprising? I mean, it's not. Here's the thing. I thought this film was more well-known than it is.

I think this is one of the least well-known films. Especially in the United States, where it never really got put out there in any way. But I also thought this film was a big hit and then realized it was like a flop for him. Yes. Coming off of a huge, a couple of huge hits.

Right. And I think the vibe when it came out, people were like, what's this? Like, why'd you do this? Second time invoked in a very short period of time, weirdly. Beware the Gonzo,

which Karen was a aggressively mediocre high school comedy I was in 15 years ago in which I played the horny best friend. Wait, what? Wait, what is this?

A movie? It's a movie. You're in a movie? I mean, it's a movie like according to like the MPAA or whatever, right? It was a drastically released film in the sense that it played

for three days one time a day to no people. Wait, are you a child star? And I know this because my mom was like, there was no one else there. You were a young man star.

1920. This was back in 1920? Yes, this was back in 1920. Wow. I was a child star. We're the Gonzo. What? Yeah.

What, you don't like this poster? No, I love this poster. This is very like Juno vibes. I'm on the poster, right? It is Juno vibes. You are on the poster. My emaciated self. Along with the other misfits. Right. I forget very like Juno vibes. I'm on the poster, right? It is Juno vibes. You are on the poster. My emaciated self. Along with the other misfits.

Right. I forget who the other misfits are. Okay. So I think she's in the photo there. If I'm remembering correctly. You probably are remembering correctly, but who are you talking about? Stephanie Y. Hong. Uh-huh.

Who is in the little box. Mm-hmm. Big Ezra Miller, big Jesse McCartney, big Zoe Kravitz, tiny box with the other three misfits. Correct. Correct. Stephanie Hong's the oneravitz, tiny box with the other three misfits. Stephanie Hong's the one in the middle. You're the misfits. Yes. We're labeled the misfits. His character's name was Horny Rob

Becker. That was the bit. The bit was that I was really horny. And I thought this was going to be the breakthrough. I thought, God, this is the last time I'm going to be able to walk down the street without people yelling out horny rock. Like, I have that feeling on set where I'm like,

this is going to... Hey, you're that horny guy, right? What, Horny Jim? What was your name? People were like, this is going to be like a McLovin problem for you. You could still do that. You could still make that happen now just by being a big perv. I could. Oh, yeah, just be actually famous for your horny rock. and introducing myself as rob to people yeah okay what about stephanie was a uh casting assistant

okay for susan shopmaker who cast that movie did incredibly good job uh outside of casting me and finding a lot of people at the early stages of their career sure and they were auditioning all these people for the other misfit in the group and no one was good and Stephanie would do like the off-camera reading and she was so sort of funny and sullen and dark that they finally were just like,

can you just try doing one in front of the camera? And she did it and she fucking nailed it and she was in the movie and it's the only acting part she's ever done. Yeah.

Wow. And she is from... She continues to work on movies, but not as an actor. So she's from South Korea. She's like a big film nerd. And she, her main job was she would do subtitle translation for Korean films. Wow. In American speaking markets.

And even when we were working on filming this movie, which none of us are very well paid for. She was like in between takes going to her laptop. Wow, wow, wow. And like watching movies and typing them up. I think she moved back to South Korea pretty quickly after filming that. I haven't seen her in a while, but she's a wonderful person. And she was the one who turned me on to this movie. This movie in particular.

At which point, I guess was fairly, this comes out in 2006? That's right. So we were movie in particular. At which point, I guess, was fairly... This comes out in 2006? That's right. So we were filming in 2009. Yeah. It sort of came out in December of 2006 in Korea, and then it had a long festival run around the world in 2007 and 2008. And I was a Park Jam Wook fan.

You're a routine old boy or something? I didn't like old boy, but I liked the other ones. It was the weird thing at the time. But she was like, have you seen this fucking thing? And I was like, no, that sounds so much like my kind of movie. You like emo movies. Right. And weird, like, childlike movies about people having mental breakdowns.

Sure. But yeah, so she gave me her imported DVD copy of it. Cool. And I watched it then and I just assumed like oh this thing must have been a huge hit because of the way she spoke of it and then never realized that it didn't really come out over here and that

no one else had seen it. That's the story. But I've thought of it very fondly since then and big ups to Stephanie Hong for turning me on to it. Well my experience is I watched this yesterday morning. I watched this yesterday morning. Great story, Karen. Wow. Karen, do you

have much of a relationship with this director? You've definitely seen some of his movies because we were talking about which movie you would talk about on this show. I've seen Decision to Leave. That's the only movie I've seen by him because I think everything else he's made is very scary. Yeah, I think everything else he's made is scary yeah i think everything else he's made

is very scary violent more than anything but violence is scary you know what i agree with yeah thank you thank you so much we talked about it was like hey do you want to come on this show and you were like well i don't like scary movies like at all yeah yeah and we were initially talking about you doing a different movie right and uh you said it looks scary and i said well it's tense yeah sure i wouldn't I'm not sure if I would call it scary but now that you've said violence is scary I do think right I also don't like tension

like in your life or just at any point at any point I don't like it in my life so I don't want it for fun you don't even like the idea of sort of like I don't like suspense what kind of movies do you like i love the parent trap and it's a good movie we've covered it on this great done that on the podcast yes wait what you didn't have me on for the parent

it was like seven years ago but i mean you know we can have you it was very i don't know we'll just do it again yeah either way let's do it again that's a fucking blu-ray i don't have because it's part of some exclusive Disney fucking membership program. Really? Their version of like the Columbia Record House. You can't like just get it? Right. You have to like buy six movies a year.

To get the parent trust? On a subscription service. And then some of the things are movies they don't otherwise release. Surely they have it on like eBay. I've come close to getting it on eBay. I'm going to pull the trigger soon. That movie's a masterpiece. Anyway, what else is in the karen sheeh canon um i love the sound of music okay i love mary poppins um i love paddington 2 okay um paddington

1 too much suspense paddington 2 perfect you know what you're right yeah paddington 1 is heavier on the suspense and villainy nicole kid is terrifying. She is an imperious figure. It is funny that he goes to prison in the second one, but Nicole Kidman's performance alone makes the first one scarier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's worse than mass incarceration.

She is, absolutely. She's worse than the prison industrial complex. Oh, my gosh. The prison in the second one, I mean, I know this is horrible to say, is friggin' delightful. I'd move in tomorrow. Obviously, Paddington helps spruce it up and make it nice.

I'd move in post-Paddington. Right, sure. You would move in post-Paddington? I'm saying the place post-Paddington's transformation. Yes. When he shows up, it's a little cold. But I will say when he leaves, he takes all the good people with him, right? So, like, prison is great because of Brendan Grayson.

But then Hugh Grant is there at the end. Oh, you're right. Would that be nice? That's a freaking delight. They're doing musical numbers. Yeah, right. I would love to be in prison with Hugh Grant. Doing song time songs or whatever.

Yeah. And hopefully they're still using like Knuckles recipes in the kitchen. Yes. Even if he's not there. Yeah. Look, I like Paddington. I think he's great. Good guy.

I don't need as much marmalade as he does, if that makes sense. Like, that guy is so heavy on marmalade, and I would love a more diverse diet. I would agree. I don't think I need as much marmalade. I need marmalade sandwiches maybe, like, once a year. You know, like, that's not, like, at the top of my list. Even that, once a year. I can skip a couple of years.

Yeah, right. You're not going to be crying for it? No. I went to the jail that that jail is based on. It's in Dublin. that once a year i can skip a couple of years right you're not gonna be crying for it no i went to the jail that that jail is based on it's in dublin i went to dublin with my friend last fall okay so okay so you're like a paddington super okay yeah i mean i went to dublin because i wanted to visit ireland i didn't go solely because they you know were inspired by that prison um but i didn't go to the prison because i heard that's where the movie was filmed.

That's not true. Sure. They just sort of took pictures of the interiors and made a bigger version of it. That makes sense. Is it an in-use prison or is it like an old? No, no, no. Right, because it's like a very, very old building. Yeah, it's like a historical monument now.

But I went and it's like a real, obviously, as all prisons are, like a really devastating history about various famous people. Good things didn't happen there. Good things did not happen there and at the end of the great music festival here 20 years ago there's no like imagine if imagine if that were true they took woodstock it really i'm looking at it i mean yeah it is quite an impressive building it looks exactly like the one in the movie right and so she was telling us about all these people who got executed there and then i was like hi did they really the movie. And so she was telling us about all these people who got executed there. And then I was like, hi, did they really film Paddington too? And she was like, no.

She's like, no, let me tell you about the Easter Rising. And you're like, but where was the marmalade cook? Which cell was the bear held in? Show me where the bear slept. I'm banned from the country of Irelandireland not knowing if you had seen this before it did i it felt like uh the kind of movie that would be in your wheelhouse because this is an odd case of like most of his films are very intense yeah this movie is about intense things yeah but it's through the veneer of sort of a children's fantasy comedy. I'm a cyborg, but that's okay.

Yeah. Yeah. It does have violence. I think the thing, so I did watch the movie. I, I, the movie is unsettling. Yes. Intentionally. Yes.

I don't like feeling unsettled. Interesting. I love feeling so comfortable. So that was the one thing where I was like, I can tell this is a great film. Uh-huh. Sure. And everything he wants to do, he's pulling off so well, including like every shot I thought was like really well thought through. Like every single thing kind of like crackles with this electricity.

Yes. And then I was like, I just don't want to be electrified. You don't want. No. No. You don't want to plug yourself into anything. No. No.

Nice reference. You don't want to make your your big toe glow that's kind of fun glowing toes is fun the glowing toes was cool it felt very like thanos the colors that's true they are different colors she's got the infinity foot um yes this is his version of a whimsical film but it is quite strange and a little devastating and kind of sad and uh honestly very good i thought i thought this movie was like a fucking victory lap after old boy that this is so funny to me that you're like this is the first time learning that this was not the most successful

film ever made and i think it was just like stephanie was like so exuberant about it but i think also knew like we have similar brains you're probably gonna fucking love this yeah and it is a very griffey movie especially like a younger griff right this is my see i like i like my dream movie i'm not saying this is my favorite movie of all time but this is basically my perfect formula for a movie okay wait which is like the tone and style of a paddington with like really fucked up shit happening underneath it. Oh my God. Okay, so you're saying like- I like the psychologically unsettling subject matter done in this style maybe is like- And by the style, you mean like bright, poppy energy?

Yeah, right. Colorful kind of, yeah. I think I've said before, like children's movies made for adults. Ah, okay, okay, okay. Movies where the subject matter is perhaps very adult mature in some way or another or psychologically intense or probing, but it has the sort of style and the

logic of a kid's movie. I see. I see. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. So I wouldn't say like all of my favorite movies fall into that category. But when I see a movie like that, I'm like, that shit's for me. Had you seen it since? I had not. I had not seen it since because it's hard to see here. It sat well with you. Yes, it sat really well with me. I hadn't seen it in almost 15 years.

I didn't remember all of it, but there's certainly stuff that had really stuck in my mind. Sure. But I think just because like, you know, Stephanie was constantly telling me about the fucking South Korean film industry and who her idols were, who she wanted to work with and all this stuff. And she's like, have you seen the new movie by the old boy guy? And I liked old boy less than most people, but I knew he

was like the big director in that moment, right? And she hands this to me and I think I just assumed, oh, this must have been a fucking home run. This was like the inception to his Dark Knight. This is like he follows up his fucking huge hit with a blank check that like clears even more. And instead, not only was it kind of a flop, but they even basically like pulled it from theaters prematurely to like mitigate the damage of how poorly it was performing. Right.

And the reviews were all like what the fuck is this what is this yeah right and it was sort of like why are you outside of your lane but right and also like why are these fucking things happening in a comedy why is this movie so cartoonish and including things that are this unsettling uh hey it seems to be the common response to this film you know we have a saying in our family, use sports, don't let sports use you. Hi, it's Jeff Merrick from 32 Thoughts to Podcast. Are you a sports parent, rep sports, travel sports, whatever you call it? If you're like me, you know that one of the great joys of having your kid or kids play sports is travel.

You know, our families use sports to see different parts of the world, meet new people, and stay in a number of different places. Recently, we've started using Airbnb. The kids love it because it feels like a sleepover at a new friend's house, while my wife and I enjoy more space, a proper bed, and mostly a washing machine. That really comes in handy for baseball trips. Trust me. In fact, it was on a baseball trip last summer when my wife sent me a text after the first night saying, do you think we could do this? Look, if you've ever stayed at an Airbnb, you've probably wondered the same thing. Could our place be an Airbnb? And now that our kids have also discovered the joys of skiing, in addition to travel hockey and travel baseball, we're on the move even more. Well, our house just

sits there. Why not make a little extra money to cover some costs, right? We have friends who travel south every winter and they Airbnb their place. Why not? Look, if you want to make a little extra cash, and who doesn't need that these days, maybe your home could be the way to make it happen. Find out how at Airbnb.com. Let me give you some context, Karen. We have a

researcher. Give me some fucking context too. You can listen if you want. I'm talking to Karen. Park Chan-wook had made three very dark films in a row. His Vengeance trilogy. Somewhat unofficial, that trilogy, right? Like the Americans kind of dub it a trilogy. Right.

He'd done JSA and the three Vengeance at this point. But he'd been making these very dark films. Yeah. And he has a 12-year-old daughter at the time. Okay. As he's coming out of this. Sure. Out of the Vengeance movie.

So he wants to make a movie that's more geared towards her. Especially after the Vengeance trilogy, I think he's in a sort of like Tarantino-esque position where they're like, you got your own fucking world. You got these weird-ass,

intense, violent movies that people eat up, do your thing. Right? Like, he had almost become his own genre uh yeah sure yeah right wait so he made this movie so that it would be viewed by a 12 year old girl well his daughter okay so so i think his daughter probably you know has more of a sort of twisted sensibility perhaps apparently she had been banned from seeing Oldboy. Well, his daughter, of course,

comes from the twisted sperm apart. Right. But she had just, she'd been banned from seeing Oldboy, but apparently she had seen Lady Vengeance three times, maybe against his wishes or not, but like she was obviously getting into it. You know who I wouldn't want to watch Oldboy with? My daughter.

So, well, basically basically this is his quote but you know if you've done you know three feature films over five years which are very dark and violent including you'd probably want to change as well the main reason is the fact that i wanted to make a film for my daughter to see uh when she was very young a baby it didn't really matter good point when she was a baby it didn't matter what she was watching matters when you're a baby. It didn't really matter. Good point. When she was a baby, it didn't matter what she was watching. Nothing matters when you're a baby. Yeah. So true. But I've been away a lot,

shooting films in different locations. So it's kind of a present to her so she can see and watch and enjoy it. So yes, he absolutely made this film for her. Wow. But he says it was not an entirely successful effort. And, you know,

I wanted to make something she could enjoy their friends but i think she liked pirates of the caribbean more as his uh line and you know what that is a great movie there yeah that's another karen movie uh no but i have seen it's a it's a my it's one of my brother's movies i guess yeah sure is your brother older or younger he's older so you had like a brother watching kind of the more yeah my brother watched a lot of cool stuff and then i was like yeah i like this too but i would never watch it on my own right and then there is peril in pirates of the caribbean and some tension unsettling situation i think i don't like skulls yeah that's the thing i can't believe you made it through that poster of the

movie has a skull on it fucking skull and crossbones is the logo you know what that's why national treasure 2 is better than national treasure 1 is no skulls wow we did those recently i can't believe you're inviting me for the raw movies i'm gonna send you a full list of movies i like and you'll find another one on there yeah 100 percent uh all right beyond wanting to make a film for his daughter which she i think did a bit of an odd job at. I think he just wants to avoid being pigeonholed as like the one type of movie. That's great.

That's a good move. The revenge thriller kind of guy. It's a good instinct. No, I just, the only, like, the only other example that immediately comes to mind of what you're talking about is like Pete Docter being like, I made Inside Out to try to understand my daughter. Like she hit puberty

and I was having a hard time relating to her. And it was sort of this act of like outreach and empathy. And then Park Jung Wook does the same thing. And this is what he fucking makes. Yeah. Yeah. That's why Inside Out was made. That's great.

Yeah. Really? That's why Inside Out was made? Yeah. Okay. He was like my daughter. My daughter like turned 12 and she started being really sad. And I was trying to understand what was going on in her mind.

And then out of that came the movie. That's so sweet. Yeah. All parents should do that. Every parent should make a movie when their kid is at their saddest. Oh, Toy Story is a movie I like. Have you done this? Yeah.

You have? Toy Story 2 is my favorite movie of all time. Oh, I like Toy Story 1 more than Toy Story 2. Interesting. But that's, see, Toy Story, I think, is, like, what I like about Toy Story, it falls in this category. Yes. Even though they're obviously actually presented as children's movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I like that all the toys in Toy Story talk like they're adults. Yes. And they're dealing with like overwhelming existential concepts. Yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah. That it really is just like a bunch of adults sitting around being like, why am I alive?

I feel like that's true for every Pixar movie. Sorry, I'm really derailing the context part of this episode. Whatever. We're having fun. Oh, back to context. JJ, our researcher, did text me in the middle of the night to say, do you know that Park Chan-wook cites Toy Story

as his biggest influence on I'm a Cyborg? But that's okay. Okay, well, let's see. Not to jump ahead. No, I mean, okay. Let's see. He compares this film

to Junior Bonner, a Sam Peckinpah movie that is also like, you know, outside of his usual thing, right? He's sort of saying like, it's a gentle,

almost violence-free, slightly relaxed movie. Not true. This film has multiple scenes of violence. But to Park, I think he's like, to director Park, this is an almost violence movie. But you're like, this movie has multiple mass shootings.

Fantasy. But they go on for a long time and they're bloody. They are? Yeah. So he was sort of thinking Like okay this is the end Of the first part of my career My films are becoming more feminine There's more hope he says The themes of love and hope have become more prominent

And He was developing thirst at the same time As this movie So clearly he was thinking of like two This is a movie he makes later, Karen. Two like sort of ways to go in. And he goes for this one and thirst gets like backburnered. So he could have made thirst next.

All right. Thirst is a vampire movie. Okay. Yes. Kind of a fun movie. Yeah. It's goofy, but it's more dramatic. Dark comedy.

Yes. Yeah. Okay. So, but for the toy story thing so when he starts thinking about this movie because two images come to his mind

he says the first is he was in a car during post-production an old boy and he thought of group therapy and a mental institute and he imagined

what would it be like if there were no medical staff there if everyone was amongst themselves, patients amongst themselves. It's almost like in Toy Story when the toys come to life when there are no humans around. I imagine if there's no medical staff, the patients might have more lively

conversation. That's the beginning of my imagination. That's what I'm getting a Big Andy's Room vibes from this movie. I'm picking up on it. Also Sid's Room. Yeah, sure. Sid's room because they're all a little funny. Yeah. They're all a little funky. But I do I was, I mean, without

making the connection, I was clocking while watching this like, I like that every patient has their own game. That they all have their own character game in the same way as Toy Story where you're like everyone's got their thing. Their thing is somehow like in contrast with how they look, what type of toy they are.

But everyone's got their own internal comedic game. So that's all true. The other thing he thinks about is about a cyborg in a girl uniform, is how he puts it. Cool. With guns in her fingers. Right.

And bullets coming out of her mouth. My dream woman? with guns in her fingers and bullets coming out of her mouth. Green woman? And so he starts to initially think of a movie about like, okay, what if I made a movie about an actual robot girl? And then he's like, no, no, no. How about I make a movie about a girl who thinks she's a robot girl? Like I'll combine these two ideas, right?

The cyborg girl gets to go into the psych ward and instead that's just her delusion that she thinks she's a robot girl. Which is I'll combine these two ideas. Right? The cyborg girl gets to go into the psych ward, and instead that's just her delusion, that she thinks she's a robot girl. Which is what this movie is about. It's about a girl who thinks she's a robot, doesn't need to eat food, and instead just needs to lick batteries. Correct. That's okay. It's okay. Yes, but the movie makes it very clear. It's a self-damage to her health,

her physical health. Sure. Her ability to be alive. Yes. The film starts with the protagonist's mother talking to a doctor as she is about to admit her daughter into this institution. Yes. And it is after a suicide attempt.

Right. Or what they think is a suicide attempt. But actually she was just trying to plug in some wires to her wrist. So she could live longer. Correct. Or recharge her batteries. She slid open her wrist and put wires inside there and electrocuted herself because she was trying to plug in some wires to her wrist. So she could live longer. Correct. Or recharge her batteries. She slid open her wrist and put wires inside there and electrocuted herself

because she was trying to recharge. And her mother is so sort of oddly blasé about everything, dismissive of any sort of answers that they try to offer up to her. Just kind of apathetic in general.

Says she only eats turnips? Or is it the mother who only eats turnips? in general says she only eats turnips or is it the mother who only eats turnips there's someone who only eats turnips mother's mother only that's what it was right she's sort of right that no radishes that's what it is yeah she's recalling right that her own mother also has her own set of i the character that freaked me out the most was this mom though is when she's talking i was like this is i hate this oh she's talking. I was like, this is, I hate this. She's a weird nightmare person. Yeah. She seems to be into awful cut

of meat, like tongue and like eats like, like she's on the phone and I feel like that's a recurring thing of her having this. She keeps ordering.

Right. She's ordering like intestines. So when they see like her. Just a groin and bladder. Yeah. Yeah, when they show part of. Yes, yes. Right. She eats womb, right. She's ordering like intestines. So when they see like her. She has a groin and bladder. Yeah. Yeah, when they show part of. Yes, yes, right.

She eats womb. Yeah. Oh, I didn't realize it was womb. She says womb at one point. She's like listing, I guess, on the phone with her butcher. It was really weird because I feel like everyone is talking about how the main character is a robot or a cyborg. And I was like, the mom is weirder. Like, the mom is freaky.

But I think all this is intentional. And you start the movie out with, like, just this kind of simple two-person conversation with flashbacks as this, the doctor, I mean, is she the head of the institute or is she just admitting doctorate, whatever, is sort of interviewing the mother, trying to get a sense of what's going on.

And the mother's like distracted, kind of dismissive of everything. But you're getting the sense that, right, the mom's pretty checked out. The grandmother really raised this girl. The grandmother had her own mental illness. Yes, and had a lot of rashes. I like radish. Thought that she was a rat.

Or a mouse. A rodent. A radish-eating creature. She thought she was a radish-eating rodent. And at some point, she was just taken away. Yeah. It was sort of ignored, her behavior,

until the point where they also institutionalized her, took her away. The white coats. Right. And that feels like, obviously,

outside of some, you know, genetic disposition for neurotypical, neuroatypical behavior that exists in this family. That was also this sort of traumatic event that the young girl had never gotten over. And that has sort of broken her sense of reality since then.

Right. Because they even ask, like, is there any history of pretending to be something you're not in your family? And the mother's kind of dismissive of the fact that her mother fully identified as a rodent. Like, I don't think that has anything to do with anything. She is a bit of a disconnected person. We're hearing these two characters talk about our lead character for several minutes before we actually meet her.

Right. And just getting these cutaways to little glimpses of her suicide attempt, her behavior, all this sort of stuff. Yes. So the way Park puts it is, he wants the audience to think, what is the purpose of existence? And is life really necessary?

Very nice comedy. Nice themes for a movie for a 12-year-old girl. And so he says, with the main character here, she was wondering why she was born. She wants to know what she should do to become a valuable being. And when you see a mass-produced product, they have clear, obvious purposes. So she starts to want to be a machine

because machines have purpose and manuals and there's a reason for them to exist. That is his thinking behind this sort of delusion. I like that. Sort of a funny way of thinking about it. That makes a lot of sense because I feel like that scene in the beginning where she's like in the factory line of people working. Yes. You're like, oh, instead of working to create something, she's just trying to become whatever it is they are making.

I was like, that makes sense. Right. You're in that setting for that. And her suicide attempt. Nobody cares. No, no one pays attention. Because they're robots working. But it happens on the factory line.

Yeah. Like they're building electronics. Yep. happens on the factory line. Yeah. Like, they're building electronics. Yep. Behaving sort of robotically. Yep. And then she does this absurd action that for her is not a cry for help, is not a self-destructive act.

It was obviously very alarming. Yes. But no, she does it very, very calmly and then, like, wraps up her wrist with tape. Yes. And is like, good job done. Because she's hearing the broadcast. Correct.

She's getting like the sort of. Who's instructing her to do this. From the device that she's constructing, right? It's like speaking to her. Am I? Yeah. I believe so. But her mother is so undramatic about all this.

It's really just kind of like, so you're, you have her under control, right? I don't have to worry about this anymore. Right. She's like not panicked or alarmed by any of this other than just like, well, this clearly needs to be outsourced to someone else. This is someone else's problem. Yes. So she is institutionalized

and she is alongside a boy who is played by the Korean entertainer, Rain, who I feel like is a very famous person at this point in time. He's very famous. Does he continue to be very famous? Well, no, everybody just knows who he is.

He's like on a bunch of music shows, I guess, and stuff in Korea. He's not currently, like, I mean, I feel like BTS is obviously so much bigger. Sure. But everybody knows who he is. Yeah. But I feel like, because like Rain is also in Speed Racer, which is made a couple years after this. Right. And, you know, I feel like he was very, very hot stuff

in the 2000s. I didn't know who he was when I first saw this. And so re-watching it, I was taken aback that oh, fuck, that's Rain. Because, right, I saw him in Speed Racer a couple years later in the Ninja Assassin. A movie that definitely exists, but he's the lead of that. But then also

there were the years where he was a running meme on the Colbert Report. Yes! Colbert had like a running bit about Rain. Oh my God, I forgot about that. Yeah. Rain was on his show.

Yes. And he, Colbert like sang a Korean pop song, right? In response to Rain or something? What was the connection? Like why did that begin?

I don't remember either. Why it started? I do feel like Colbert was very like into like sort of those sort of internet movements or like like into like sort of those sort of internet movements like or like

tapping into other types of culture. But this was also like way before like now we were talking about in our first episode how much like

Korean pop culture feels like it is influencing the world now. Yes. This was way before that. This was way before that. And it was odd that he just sort of

latched on to rain. It might have just been because it was like a country that at that point was culturally kind of irrelevant to the U.S. Right. And then like a random pop star. Yeah. So it kind of was like, oh, here's a fun running joke I could do. You know what I mean? A hundred percent.

Right. And that's a niche thing at this time. Because Colbert also did a thing with like a Swedish pop group. Right. At one point. This is what i was trying to remember i definitely remember him trying to get uh his like a hungarian bridge named after him right because there was like some hungarian town that was like doing an online poll for a bridge and he was like it was that thing where he was clearly like he was like i have a small audience but like if i can motivate them to do you know like if i

could find a thing that's sort of on that level i could probably succeed right small but very devoted he was such a rascal back then which is sort of funny to think about because now he's kind of like this sort of like compassionate intelligent you know kind of like grand old man of late night you know went from like um like a fun rascal to like a gentle dad like a very gentle dad but that was also dad. Right, right. But that was also, it felt like the bit, which is even odder for the character, Stephen Colbert, that he was still playing

at that time. Yes, yeah, yeah. Was that he just like fucking loved Rain. That's true. Right wing Fox News host. Right. But the bit was that he was like,

this guy is magnetic. Wow. Right, right, right. Right? That he was sort of like a Rain super fan. But he would just invoke him a lot. They'd play clips of anything Rain was doing.

And it must have been right after this. Is this sort of like his peak? This movie? I don't know. I don't know. Rain's peak? In popularity? No.

No, no, no, no, no. It continues to. I think his music popularity fully overshadows. I think a lot of people don't think of him as a movie star. Not his career peak. I'm saying like it's 2006 when he's at the top of the mountain. Oh, maybe, maybe, maybe. Okay.

Yeah. It seems like whatever the late two. But as you say, he's still popular. He's still trickless. I think he's like known now. I don't know if anybody would have like a poster of him on his like college, on their college. He's like an elder statesman. Yeah, yeah.

He's like fucking Blake Shelton on The Voice or whatever. He is fucking blake shelton he's having sex with blake shelton on the voice and we're happy for both because mbc is just like i don't know i don't know we'll try anything it's a fucking writer's strike simulated sex between different countries music stars and they're in the chair and the chair spins around they don't say anything horrible ai i think that is definitely going to happen the machine told us to do this yeah we have to pay any price um yeah so rain is in this film uh and uh that's that's nice for him his character is um is in search of meaning right he is empty inside he thinks he may become nothing anti-social behavior feels disconnected from everything yes yeah yes he basically gets joy from fucking steal

he loves stealing he loves fucking with everyone else right i mean he's sort of constantly like teeing them up yeah right for his own amusement yeah right right he's a bit of a rascal as well um he's sort of the uh stephen of... Of the mid-2000s. Yeah, of the institution. Stephen Colbert in quotes. Parks, you know, take a sort of teenager always asking,

why do I exist? Right. And so this is what he's sort of trying to get at here. Yeah. He never made another movie about teenagers. This is like a very unusual

little entry in his filmography. There was no other film in his filmography like this. And it's recognizably one of his films. I think it shares themes and stuff, but tonally and stylistically, this is so different. Are they supposed to be teens? I think it's supposed to be like late teens, but that's actually a good question because they are probably... I assume they were adults because the other people in the institution are adults.

I read them as like early 20s. Yeah. Well, you know what? I'm reading his quotes. I don't know what to tell you. It's traveling to his daughter. Yeah. The other thing that comes out later, I guess somewhere around the middle of the movie,

is that she, when she was born, was born prematurely and was put in an incubator and hooked up to all these wires to be kept alive. Right. Which ties to this thing of like the search for meaning. What am I supposed to be doing? Why am I alive, right? A, she, like, envies robots that are built for a specific purpose and don't have to question these things.

But B, she, like, has these sort of, like, suppressed memories of being kept alive by machinery. You know, that, like, in a world without technology... It's her origin story. Right, in a world without technology. It's her origin story. Right. In a world without technology,

if she had been born 2,000 years earlier, she would have died. It's possible. I think that's a lot. Technology kept her alive and she feels kind of connected to it.

You think about this? I think about that because I have really bad eyesight. Do you? I do. Are you wearing contact lenses? I am. Yeah.

It'd be funnier if you were just like, and I just roll with it. Yeah. But I do feel like if you were a girl, right? And you were born with really bad eyesight, nobody's going to try and get you glasses unless you're like the aristocracy. You mean like in the 10th century.

Yeah. They're just going to be like, all right. I feel like any time before the 18th century, they would not have gotten glasses for women unless you were the queen. Right. Because what are you going to do? You're not reading.

But then I would be attacked and run over by like a wagon well you would definitely have to learn good wagon dodging skills that would have to be very early yeah i i have like made this joke several times before on the podcast and it's not even really a joke but that my continued existence is an affront to the notion of survival of the right darwin is spinning in his grave at the idea of you succeeding. We built a modern society that allows me to stay alive. This is bad. It's bad for humanity. Because nature should be destroying me at all times.

And it tries its hardest. It still does. Even in urban environments. Totally. Right. But yes, she's like very much a product of a culture that is able to keep her alive. Karen, did you have glasses when you were very small?

When I, um... Like, when did you get glasses? In third grade. That's a normal time to get glasses, I feel like. Yeah, I think so. I feel like it really sucks when you have to get them in, like, kindergarten or something. Oh, yeah, then you're just like a dweeb from the get-go.

You have the little rubber glasses. Wait, those are so cute, though. I know. The new, kids' glasses are cute now. They're cute now. I love baby glasses. I think they used to really suck. Yeah.

Yeah. When did you make the contact switch? Oh, yeah. I made the contact switch, I want to say, eighth grade. Wow. Okay, early. Yeah, pretty early. Yeah.

My eyes started getting so bad that I'm nearsighted. So when I wear glasses, the lens was so thick. And also, I would just look like there was an indent on either side of my face do you know what i mean yes yes and so then i was like i don't want to be seen like this and i switched contacts okay yeah but you must have very intense contacts yeah what do you mean i don't know do they have to be thick does this matter no i don't think so right but that would be amazing bottle contacts yeah can you imagine i like can blink. Your contacts stick out like five inches outside of you. This is so much better than glasses.

They are on top of your eyes. So they don't have to be quite as crazy. But I have like a very close friend who is legally blind without her glasses. Like she's got eyes like that bad. Yeah. But anyway, and her glass is very thick, obviously. All right. THICC right

They are yes right they got a lot of junk Voluptuous glasses Juicy glasses That glass That glass is pretty good Am I going to get invited back to the pod Absolutely You're being put on the masthead now

Park the first to admit This is not a realistic portrayal of mental health Back to the pod. Absolutely. I can't. Anytime you want to go on the pod. You're being put on the masthead now. Park the first to admit this is not a realistic portrayal of mental health or mental health institutions. The cast of the ensemble behind the main two characters, he's like, none of this is based on any like actual medical thought. I'm just taking traits and exaggerating them. I feel like he did a research wait but something i will say because i thought that too in the beginning and then i was like wait this is awesome is that they were somehow he he was able to show them in a way that they were more normal than the people who would otherwise be considered not crazy do you know what i mean that's why i think the fucking movie opening with the mom is so important yes it's like this person would never be in solution but she's she's a nightmare she's actually she's a problem right and everybody else in the institution is so sincere

right and then the doctors are also weird like yeah yeah yeah but there's things like it's like the person who is too polite yeah like you know ideas like that legitimately such an asian idea i was watching it like that's so funny that's like two korean dads trying to pay the check i do park says he would call psychiatrists uh-huh and be like would this be possible like someone who is excessively polite give me your funniest patients someone who like is so polite that he can't walk forward so he can only walk backwards and he said they would always just kind of be like i mean no but i suppose in theory such a thing but uh so uh yeah like instead he's just like uh you know forget medical reports i just want to

sort of like exaggerate how the human mind works yeah yeah and i think this movie has a really interesting approach to reality in that it doesn't that often do the thing where you're in her fantasy sequence and then you cut out and see the reality of what's going on. Right. It will sort of stay in her fantasy and then just go to the next scene. Right. Right. So when there are things like these incredible acts of violence and watching 10 minutes of like a mass shooting, you're kind of conditioned to like for most movies you've seen like this be like and then they're going to cut out and she's standing in a room making noises with her mouth and nothing's happening. Right. Right. Right. Right. Or you fear like, are they going to cut out and she actually has a gun and she's shooting people for real? Right. What is happening actually tangibly in this real world? And instead, it's just like, that's the scene. You're kind of like going in and out of her headspace, but they're not delineating that much. I think it's nice that there is no authority figure, really. Like, technically, the doctors should be authority figures,

but they don't seem to really have any power over them. No, this is not really like a one-floor-of-the-cuckoo's-nest thing of like, oh, there's this terrifying, like, matron who they're all like whatever yeah no and your and your introduction to the place and the cast of characters is all from this woman pretending to be right which was such an incredible move right yeah yeah you spend five minutes with her rolling her around and you're like got it i get every character in their game and then a real nurse comes by and she's like take the fucking jacket off i told you not to do this and then you're just so i don't know what anything is now yeah but it does like it feels like like it's like the muppet show like no one here is normal right and

kind of like the muppet show because everybody is a has a game yeah it feels consistently grounded right yeah but in the way that where you're like well kermit's the straight man who's complaining about all these muuppets being crazy. He's also a fucking Muppet. Like, Kermit, check yourself. I love Kermit. He's so good. He should have been in this movie. He should have been. This is fucking the recast

a movie with the Muppets and one human actor. Yeah. This is pretty easy. I mean, one of them is wearing a bunny mask for half the movie already. Yeah. What was I going to say? Oh, you like Kermit. Kermit's cool. Is he your top Muppet? one of them is wearing a bunny mask for half the movie already. Yeah. Yeah. What was I going to say? Oh, you like Kermit.

Kermit's cool. Kermit rules. Yeah. Is he your top Muppet? Is he my top Muppet? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Okay.

I think I wave like Kermit, like a. Like you sort of have like a slightly floppy. Yeah. I really just sort of, I'm like tight at the elbow, loose at the wrist. And then I go ham.

See, all my favorite Muppets now are Sesame Street Muppets. I spend all my time with Sesame Street. Who is your favorite Muppet? Who's my favorite Muppet? Grover? Grover was my favorite Muppet as a kid. I think Cookie Monster is my favorite Muppet. Wait, I changed my mind. I think it's

Ernie. Ernie's great. I love Ernie. He's a little stinker, though. See, David gets annoyed by Ernie and he likes Bert because I'm Ernie and he's Bert. Oh, wow. They keep showing this sketch that I've brought up multiple times in this podcast where Ernie is playing his trumpet as they are trying to go to bed. Right, and that is funny.

And Ernie's like, I have to play my trumpet to go to bed and Bert's like, it's loud. I want to go to bed. David was like ranting and raving about it. He's like, that's psychotic behavior. And I'm like, David, that's a good bit. That's a funny bit. David, get with the program. Big Bert energy over here. My daughter doesn't really like Bert. I think they're too like normal

for her. Like it's like, who are these like regular people? They are like just couples I know. Yeah. Like Cookie Monster, she's like that guy eats cookies. Like that guy has a game. Promise of the premise. He's fulfilling. But she's now, she's like, that guy eats cookies. That guy has a game. Promise of the premise. He's fulfilling. But now she's

fiercely loyal to Abby. Elmo is in the dirt right now. Abby is the queen to her now. Gethard has such a good fucking chunk about Elmo and his new special, his hour, that I guess is coming out soon. But he just has basically like a manifesto on Elmo

being the single greatest fictional character in history that is really convincing. Interesting. I certainly have seen a lot of Elmo in recent year. In recent year. In recent year. Kermit is, I forget whose point this is that I'm stealing now,

but it's like he is the only like main normal character in quotes in like a thing where saying he's your favorite is not a boring choice oh you know yes it's not like my favorite superhero superman right or like mickey mouse or whatever we're like no one fucking likes mickey mouse right we hate him right yeah he's a problem kermit for being the like the center the everyman the sort of balanced character is in and of himself interesting, funny, engaging. Yeah, do you think it's because he's a frog? I do like frogs.

That's a really good question. My favorite animal. Really? Is the frog. Oh. Yeah, you don't want to sit next to this guy while he's watching Princess and the Frog. Freaking out. Don't turn into a prince.

Stay frog. You should both stay frogs. Yeah. Okay. How? Yeah, Ben likes animals. Don't turn into a prince. Stay frog. You should both stay frogs. Okay. Ben likes animal. You like animal the Muppet animal. Yes. The drummer guy.

He's the best. He's like animal. He's got great energy. He does. He's got plenty of energy. Okay. These two young actors. Park is thinking he's going to have fun, cheerful, energetic young actors.

Okay. Instead, he says, they are very serious and thoughtful. He uses a word that I cannot pronounce. I don't know, Karen, if you know that. Is it an English word? No, it's a Korean word. He uses this word.

Do you want me to look at it? Yeah, come look at this word. I don't, which he says means a young person who behaves like an old person. I mean, obviously this is the, I'm an endogony. I've been called this. I'm so glad that you said that word and not me. Cause that is definitely not how I would have said it.

Say it again. I'm sorry. It's an endogony, which literally means like kid. Endogony is like kind of not a nice way to say like an old person. But I've been called this because I tried to like hang out with some friends in Korea and they were like, oh great, it's like nine o'clock. What do you want to do next? And I was like, I'm going to bed.

I don't know what you're doing. You're going to get tagged then. You're going to be called an old soul basically. So it's sort of old soul but with more of a negative connotation. Old soul I feel like is your spirit. I feel like you could also just be like, oh, this person is tired in vibe.

They're breaking down. Sure. They're decomposing. Yes, I guess you said. I mean, look, I think that like my impression of like what it is like to be famous in Korea as a young person is that it is a lot of work. And you are constantly being thrust into various limelights. They're often multi-hyphenate, right? Like they'll act, they'll sing,

they'll host TV shows. And I feel like they must all be fucking exhausted. I feel for them. It's so sleepy. Yeah, being famous sounds really tiring. Yes. Well, you're famous. No.

Are you tired? I am, but separately. Okay. All right. So, yeah, you know, Rain is obviously very well known at this point. Had he done films? Or is this kind of his big acting crossover?

That's a good question. I feel like he must have been in Korean dramas before. Yes, he had been in a movie called Sang-do, Let's Go to School. Oh, no, that's a TV show. Sorry. Okay. So, you know, probably the sort of Saved by the Bell of its day. I have no idea.

And he had had a breakthrough success with his third album, It's Raining, which I just think is a fantastic name. And the confidence to hold on to that title until the third album. Incredible. Yeah. Yeah, well, that's a good point. What were his first two albums called? It's Pouring. How to Avoid the Sun.

The old man is snoring. It's Sprinkling, It's Pouring, It's Raining. He gets to him. Fuck. Now it's raining? Yeah. It's sprinkling. It's pouring. It's raining. He gets to him. Fuck. Now it's raining? Yeah. It's drizzling. He was in a television show called Full House. Oh, that was super famous.

Which was apparently a huge deal. It was based maybe on a comic book or something, like some kind of... There's a very funny... Manhwa. Yeah, manhwa. That means comic. Manhwa. there's a very funny manhwa yeah man what that means comic um manhwa there's like a uh a weird trend of korean shows having the same names as american shows but then having nothing to do with interesting so like full house i think has nothing to do with the american full house

there's also i think i think there's like a while you were sleeping there's like a bunch of stuff where i'm like oh this is iconic american stuff remade question mark it's like a bunch of stuff where I'm like, oh, this is iconic American stuff. Remade? Question mark. It's like, not at all. No, just borrowing the title. Because there also are like American films that get remade. Of course. Yeah, yeah.

I think there was like a Little Women that came out a few years ago. And you read the story and you're like, this actually has nothing to do. But are they very small maybe? Are they like two inches? Yeah, they're so tiny. Borrowing type. Actually, they're giant. Oh, it's ironic ironic they're so big

no i think i meant because there was like there were like four little women movies all around the same time leading up to the gerwig one wait there really yes there were some there was like one that was sort of christian there was a leah thompson i think semi-christian modern day adaptation yeah there was a tv one with maya Hawke and I forget who the mother was. I don't remember. Yeah. And then there was the Korean one. The Korean one I think has nothing to do with the book.

It's like also three girls, which is the wrong number of girls. It is three sisters. Yeah. And they're all like six foot five. Three sisters who play basketball. Well, no, I don't know. Yeah, three sisters who are...

And people online kept saying it was... It was based on... Yeah, but I really just was like, if that's true, they're just using this for publicity. Sure. There's absolutely no way. It is loosely based on

Lizzie May Alcott's novel, apparently. You should edit the Wikipedia page. I'm going to do that right now. Weird, I've been banned from Wikipedia. It's like life and death of Colonel Blimp. Right. Yeah, where it's like, we're going to take that guy... Right....who's like a and death of colonel blimp right yeah where it's like we're gonna take that guy right who's like a character but not really yeah right uh life and death of colonel

blimp is like one of the best movies ever made karen and it's this british film about like the entire life of a man and his his lost loves and his friendships over like decades and wars and whatever oh great and they basically took the title of a very popular comic strip of like about a buffoonish general or colonel rather. And then it took nothing else from it. The character in the movie

is not even named Colonel Blimp. He doesn't look like the cartoon character. I think you'd like it. It's incredible. It's incredible. It's like guys who look like this, you know? I feel like that's your vibe. That is my vibe.

But it's basically if you were like, I'm making a movie about Snoopy and then you made John Wick. Yeah. You're like, well, there is a dog in it. Right, right, right, right. The military is involved, but they just truly coasted off of using a popular comic strip name and then none of it. Nothing used. Who is that old man? He was so sweet looking.

That's the fucking guy who's not Colonel Blimp. He's the main character. I'm going to watch this movie. It's so good. One of the best movies ever made. Yes. Im Soo Jung plays, and I apologize, of course, if I'm getting these names wrong, who plays the female lead, had been on a TV show,

and he calls her one of his favorite actors ever. She's in A Tale of Two Sisters, right? Correct. That was before this? That is from 2003. She's the lead of that. That seems like a very scary movie. That was a very, very, very popular Korean film.

I think it was like a pretty big crossover thing here. Certainly in that sort of early phase of sort of Korean movies crossing over. Look at this. I'm sorry, Karen. I'm sorry to show you these bloody sisters. It was remade, of course, as the terrible English film, The Uninvited.

Right. With Elizabeth Banks and Emily Browning. Yes. So she was in that. He just loves her. He knows the director of Tale of Two Sisters. And that director basically said like come to the auditions

check out some of these people I'm seeing so that they oh so he sees her auditioning for Tale of Two Sisters before and basically knows her and is like she's great I think she is great in this film and this is a tough

performance to be like oh she was charming you know what i mean yes yeah right right and like to play someone who's not really in conversation with themselves yeah yeah yeah yeah is sort of performing oddly the character is performing oddly within the movie but it's all sort of unresolved trauma going on so you need to have the depth going on underneath the surface, even if she's kind of inscrutable. Right. And I was really struck by how much she loved her grandma.

Like, I was struck by how much I was moved by that. Because you kind of, you don't really see her emote. Otherwise. Yeah. Yeah. She is like largely, it's true, she's largely shut off, but they have a connection that's kind of beyond words. Well, that's right.

It's like that's the central trauma of the movie is her grandmother was the person who actually cared about her and the person she actually related to. And then she saw everyone around her go like, no, forget about her. You know what's wild? She can't exist in society. One of the reasons why she complains about her grandma, the mom complains about the grandma, is that she only eats radishes at home. Yeah. And then I don't know if you picked up on this, but when they go into the mental institution, they're served radishes. Right.

Like, that's what the lady's crunching on the whole time. I don't know. That's probably symbolic of something, and I have no idea. I mean, radishes are delicious and crunchy. I personally love radishes. That was probably what the symbolism is. That they are delicious and crunchy. It's product placement for radishes.

Big radish was behind this movie. It was a 20th century radish production. I don't know if you noticed that. Re-Reign, he also says, I wanted someone not technically polished, but who could reflect the pure innocence of the character. A bit of a backhanded compliment there. This is apparently Reign's's first film he'd been in

television he's good in this yeah he's great i was shocked by how much he didn't and this is gonna sound like a backhanded thing but i mean this is a true compliment is he didn't seem to want to seem like a movie star no like and i mean that in the best way like like no ego to this no ego no like trying to be glamorous or handsome. Just straight up like, I want to play the role this movie needs. Right. Yeah. No, I agree with that. It's not a very show-offy performance

at all. He's wearing a mask, especially the first chunk of the movie. A lot of helmets. Yeah, the bunny mask. That's one of his big defense mechanisms, I feel like. He's pretty happy with how the movie comes out But it doesn't do very well

And it's Obviously sort of Heavy on CGI and experimentation For him and all that Like he's trying some new stuff But I don't think he's down on this movie at all Sure And he basically goes right into Speed Racer after this

Well Rain does yes Oh Park you were saying Sorry yes And he basically goes right into Speed Racer after this. Well, Rain does, yes. Oh, Park you were saying. Sorry, yes. Right, yeah, I guess he'd never done something with this sort of amount of digital effects. Not that his films become super heavy with it later on. Well, Decision to Leave uses a lot of visual effects to accomplish kind of strange camera moves and things like that.

But right, right. It's rare. He doesn't really do movies about like supernatural things. No, no. I like, I mean, so Rain's character in this film, he says that he's basically spent the last five years in institutions in different facilities. And he's sort of in this rut of feeling like

I just can't function in society. But he's in this odd in-between place of like he is sort of in this rut of feeling like, I just can't function in society. Yes. But he's in this odd in-between place of like, he is sort of more cognitively together than everyone else around him, but also not together enough to be able to exist outside of these walls. Right, right. He also, sorry, go ahead.

No, no, he knows enough to understand that everyone else is behaving strangely. Right. But he doesn't, his response to that is, how can i entertain myself yeah yeah yeah he also was um kinder i feel like then or or or more willing to try to figure out how to help people than the actual doctors there that's this is what i really like about this movie and i find very touching is that he's like fucking with all these other people. And then he sees her and he really connects her and he becomes the first person to like speak her language.

Yeah. Like he actually everyone else is sort of like, I don't want to do with this fucking woman. Right. She's like off in her own insane world. But her world is also dangerous because she's not eating because she's stuffing wires into her veins right right like all these things she's doing in her belief that she's a cyborg are like causing severe harm they're not harmful to anyone else but they're going to kill her yeah they're absolutely going to kill her right and he's the one person who's like what if i like enter her world right right what if i can What if I can share in the delusion

or however you want to put it, like, entertain the concept she's wrestling with as a way of reaching her. Which, look, as you said, there's no Nurse Ratched

in this movie, but none of the employees of the facility know how to deal with her. No, I mean, to be fair, I also wouldn't know how to deal with her.

I wouldn't either. I would struggle to tell someone who wants to eat batteries that they shouldn't eat batteries. She licks them. Yeah, right. To be fair. But I do feel like it was just an example of a man taking a woman seriously instead of being like, you crazy.

Which is very nice. But there is that moment where. Time to listen. There's like a moment where one of the doctors towards the end of the movie is like talking with her and trying to figure out what's wrong with her. Right. And then you see the doctor get kind of giddy about trying to diagnose this right like what a strange case this is yeah and then you're like oh like that feels ethically bad yeah i mean again obviously this film is not a realistic portrayal of anything but i do think there is that

that element of like she's an intriguing case first and a person second to some people. Yeah. She's like a puzzle for them to solve. Yeah. And this film is a romantic comedy. I do think you can call it that. But it is more like the romance is sort of secondary to just their sort of compassionate friendship or whatever, right? Yeah.

This is not really a, I guess you could call it kind of a love story. It ultimately gets there, but it takes a while before it feels like it really becomes romantic. It takes a while before it really is even about the pair of them. There's so much environmental stuff. Right. He's just kind of hovering around for a good chunk of the movie. Right. It's another thing I find interesting is the movie does kind of

change perspectives several times. It does. You're not always with her. You start with the mother. Then you're sort of from the perspective almost of the employees, the other patient who's giving her the tour. You know, it takes a while before you're in her headspace.

Right. And even then, you're then shifting back and forth between him and her. For sure. Which is part of why you don't know, you can't always anticipate when something's going to turn into a fantasy sequence. Because you might feel like you're in an objective reality

and then suddenly her fingertips turn into guns and her mouth opens up. Right. And for her, that's like reality. Right. Yes. Which is hard to reconcile because how does she feel about what happens afterwards?

Right, right, right. If that makes sense. Yes. But we don't really. Again, the movie is not really rooted in anyone's perspective, like you say. Her hair is very big. Yeah. Yeah. I also think. That was a great observation. Thank you. Her eyebrows are blonde. Oh, another great observation. She does have the light eyebrows. That's very true.

15 years ahead of the trend? I was going to say, yeah, that was popular last year. Yeah, it's very hot stuff right now. Oh, that was popular last year? I really missed out on this trend. Kim went to the Met with blonde eyebrows. Kim Kardashian. First name basis.

Oh, I see. I truly, when you said Kim, I was like the last name of a Korean person. Right. There are a lot of Korean people with that name, of course. Yeah. Okay. Well, good for her. Yeah.

Why aren't your eyebrows blonde? I know. What a good question. David, you should fucking bleach your eyebrows. I think that would look so bad. I just am born this way. Wow. You have fair eyebrows.

You know, we were all thinking it and nobody had the guts to say it oh by the way karen uh ben got uh his ears pierced recently that's true ben's got a stud where's the stud oh yeah you can barely see it at 37 he decided impulsively that's a great idea you have pierced yours i do i do i'm thinking about getting a second piercing for either ear oh you should do it. Thank you. Yeah, definitely. Why not? I don't know. Why not?

That feels great. I see Ben like getting competitive. Like you said second piercing and Ben like sort of like narrowed his eyes. Second piercing is in like piercings three and four. So Ben, you got to catch up. All right. Right. Ben has one piercing right now.

I have zero. Yeah, I got none. Yeah. You guys got to get caught up. Yeah. But Ben's calling this his... I'm just so worried about seeming like a dad who's having a midlife crisis. Are you having a midlife crisis, though? I don't know. The piercing

might tip me in that direction. You're also a dad. That's a problem. Ben can get away with it because he isn't. That's what I'm saying. I just feel like it's a thing dads do. And you're kind of like, okay. That's pretty cool. No, it's, listen, it's acceptable as a 37 year old guy and the first time in my life he's got my ear pierced bad boy 2.0 face that's right um anyway but yes she does have you know she just has big hair the design of her

is i feel like intentionally robot and very sort of jagged bangs yes like it looks like she cut it herself with like childproof arts and crafts scissors. Right. Yeah. She looks like slightly plasticky because her face is because of the bleached eyebrows. I feel like it makes her look. Yeah. I mean, like drawn.

Yes. And she's literally wearing like a burlap sack. Like they're. She is wearing a burlap sack. They're jumpsuits. Not everyone else is wearing a burlap sack. Right. Like Rain is wearing clothes. Yes. She's wearing like a button downap set. They're jumpsuits. Not everyone else is wearing a burlap set. Like, Rain is wearing clothes.

He's wearing, like, a button-down or whatever. I also love the woman whose condition was, I guess, just skincare. Yes, yes. That was so funny. What are the other ones? There's the mythomaniac, who's the one who can't remember her own life, so she compulsively makes up narratives. Right.

Right. And then she says, she tells her that one of the guys, his problem is that he sewed his butthole closed. Right. Oh, right. Yes. Yeah, but that's not true. No, but he does compulsively,

constantly pull fabric out of his ass crack. Right. Yeah, yeah. There's, yes, who else is here? There's the polite person. I don't know. There's a lot of, I'm trying to think of other stuff that happened I don't know there's a lot of I'm trying to think of other stuff that happened in this movie there's a lot of table tennis

right there's a grandfather clock that they're all kind of obsessed with right because someone died inside the grandfather clock yeah the facility itself is very like bright there's a lot of like art on the walls I feel like you know there's a lot of sort of there's like a big water feature with

plants and stuff like it's got this kind of whimsical quality kind of feel like a daycare sort of there's like a big water feature with um plants and stuff like it's got this kind of whimsical kind of feel like a daycare center right sort of like a kindergarten almost yeah yeah uh there's a cute cat um who's the guy with the glasses oh the one who's angry yeah who's got like sort of the cravat and stuff is he the impotent guy who had the furry wife yes that's right yes yes That's what it is. Which he means that literally. He's not saying his wife was into like... Into people dressed as animals.

She had fur on her face. Right. Yeah, I mean, do we think that was true? Probably not. Yeah. But I don't know. It's sort of part of the fun, right? It's what I like about this movie.

Yeah, that it doesn't... Pants for the wife and it's a dog. Yeah. Cool, cool, cool. Good for him. Furriest wife of all. I'm trying to think. Like, what else?

There's this whole section where Rain puts on what I want to call a sort of where the wild things are crown mask. Yes. Oh, yeah. Is he a robot? What's going on there? He's letting the wild rumpus start. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no, it looks, yeah, something.

I feel like that's when he's starting to get closer to her. Right. I view that as him trying to relate to her. Exactly. Cause he wears a lot of masks to sort of. Yeah. Whatever. I did love the moment where,

uh, when everybody sort of starts going feral and like yelling, he just sort of closes the hole on his mask and he's like in his little mask. That was a great move. Um, but he starts really handsome. He's, he's hot.

Uh, Yes. That was a great move. But he starts really handsome. He's hot. He starts really engaging with the rules of her reality, right? I need to recharge in this way. I can't eat food because it will cause me to short circuit. The way I know that my batteries are charged, my toenails light up. Right. All these different things. As her condition is getting worse and worse, she keeps on putting herself in these extreme situations. And more than anything, she's like on this perpetual hunger strike.

Yes. They cannot get her to eat. I mean, she has a little battery in a little lunch pail that she will lick, but that's not really doing it for her. Right. Stomach-wise. Right. But I just like, I'm very moved by the whole sort of section

where he like builds the device for her. Yeah. And it's like this converts human food into electrical currents. This makes it safe for you to eat. Like he really just gets to her level. The scene where he does basically like the surgery on her, where he's going to like rewire her, you know?

And you see him with the, the scalpel and then it cuts to her like wincing in pain as if he's cutting her open. It's a pencil. He's drawing a little door on her back. That scene is also like... It's sort of like the only time the film really brushes against sexuality. She has to undress for him. But he's obviously very shy about it.

And it's not really looking. You're only seeing her back. You only see her back. But there's this kind of tenderness and intimacy to it that is interesting it's very intimate yes there's a funny moment where because he is using that like locket of his mom right that woman is supposed to be his mom i don't know because i didn't want to sometimes i assume it was done well where there's a part where they're sitting together and he like looks at the picture of his mom and he essentially just says his mom was really hot and of course the boys didn't leave her alone. I don't know. I laughed out loud. He looks at this picture of his mom looking. I want to say I'm sure she's a beautiful woman. And that photo, she does not look at all attractive or trying to be attractive. And he looks at it. He's just sort of like, of course, the men didn't leave you alone. Mega babe.

There is something funny though to like, as we're going through like their conditions, right? The like the game that each character has that's sort of their problem, their condition. Most of them are like not bad things, right? It's like this person's too polite. This person's like too regimented about their skincare. Right? This person feels shame about who they loved. Right. And like everyone's trying to like solve her as like a

sport. How do you get this woman to stop thinking she's a robot? Right. And he's basically like, how do I convince her that I've upgraded her robotics so that she can act like a human? Yeah. You don't make her act. Stop acting like a robot. You're not going to snap her out of it. That doesn't seem like. You make her think that the technology's evolving right and suddenly she can do other things she's a cyborg but that's okay in fact um karen does that happen

when you watch a korean film and you see it maybe with english subtitles do you note a disparity between what's actually being said and how it's been sort of simplified for an English language audience? Because I have heard about this, particularly with Koreans. Shout out to Stephanie Y. Hong.

Did this for a living. Oh, yeah, yeah. I do. You know what a funny thing is? I watched Parasite with my parents in the theaters. Our whole family went. My brother was also there. I don't know why I really cut him out of that story.

I went with my parents. My brother also showed up uninvited. I kept complaining that there wasn't enough barbosa in it oh my god truly his favorite character we love him i mean he's a great character we were yeah we were watching it and i remember the four of us realized there we were like oh there must be another korean speaker towards the front of the theater because we all laughed at something that nobody else in the theater had laughed at right Right. I don't remember what it was, but it was clearly like a joke that didn't translate onto the, you know, in the subtitles.

But yeah, and I think there are literally words that exist in one language and the other that don't exist in the other one. And then you're like, well, what can you do? That's just, that's just how it is. Yeah. What else do we want to talk about with I'm a Cyborg, but that's okay? Which is not a really, like, sort of narratively straight movie. It's not like there isn't, you know, like, it's episodic.

There's stuff that happens. I read some, like, I mean, obviously, translations of reviews at the time. So who knows if the wording is being presented to me correctly. But people complaining that this movie was slow-paced. Oh. I wouldn't call it slow-paced. I wouldn't at all. It's a very energetic movie.

It's meandering in its story. It doesn't have a lot of plot. He made three fucking vengeance, revenge thrillers. Right. That are very Hitchcockian and complex. Propulsive. The man on a mission, woman on a mission, here's what you gotta do. You have on a mission, woman on a mission. Here's what you got to do.

You have your target. This movie moves a lot. It just moves in like a thousand different directions at all times. It moves sideways a lot. Maybe is that what, maybe that's what they meant. Like it's not really going to a new place. Yes.

No, no, I would agree with that. It's not slow paced. I love learning that it was, I love learning, but I love learning that it was inspired by Toy but i love learning that it was um inspired by toy story or partly inspired by toy story no it does make sense the sort of like you know

there's imaginative play happening yeah weird way in this place right as much as there is this like which i guess is sort of true toy story too where you're sort of like there is there is a slightly melancholic element to what's happening to this. Toy Story 2 is so sad. Yeah. Oh, my God. It's my favorite movie. Well, I mean, as we've talked about Toy Story in this podcast.

But yes, obviously, as the Toy Story movies progress, and you can only ask more questions about these immortal beings. Yes. Yeah. And like what their existence is, then yes, it gets the other part of it that's sort of very connected to the the characters in the institution in this movie which is like rex's entire existential crisis is like i do not fit the behavior of a dinosaur but i was manufactured to be a dinosaur right this is not my spirit right right and you have these things that are like built yeah i must roar i must roar right right all mr potato i would love to do is for his facial features to stay in place. And yet the curse always falling out.

Yeah. Well, also, he has to keep his frown in his butt. Like, he has a weird sort of thing. My friend, I think he's keeping the smile in his butt. He's frowning most of the time. He frowns often. That's true. I had a Mr. Potato Head.

Me too. What a strange toyowns often. That's true. I had a Mr. Potato Head. Me too. What a strange toy. Incredible toy. I guess so. It's also so funny that it was I mean, you guys know that the original toy was just a box of parts and went, provide your own potato. What? That's why it was called Mr. Potato Head. Wait, really? Yeah, it was just a box

and they were much sharper. Sure, because you've got to get them in there. It was a vegetable. A raw vegetable. Vegetable. Yeah, because you've got to get them in there. They had to go through a vegetable. A raw vegetable. Say vegetable again. Vegetable. Yeah, great. Well done.

Thank you. Yeah, and then at some point, they were like, well, the brand is Mr. Potato Head, but we should start selling the body. Kids, like, parents don't want kids playing with a moldy potato. So then they turn to a plastic potato,

and then you're like, that's weird that it's still just, like, this sort of, like, brown plastic oblong. It doesn't really look like a potato anymore. And you just tell me it is. Yeah. And it doesn't.

I don't know. I just remember he didn't really jive with my other toys. He's such a strange being. He's also very large. Yeah. So like you put him against like an action figure. You'd be like, what are these guys are friends? Like, what am I supposed to do with this?

Well, once again, I think the characterization is on point. He's not really friends with anyone else in Andy's room. Except for Mrs. Potato Head. Well, I mean, she was made for him. I think I love in the beginning of the first movie where he goes like, what are you looking at, you hockey puck? And then after that, anytime I had like a team name, I always was like, we should

be the hockey pucks. Cool. Yeah. Even in basketball? Even in basketball. Which is your favorite of the Toy Stories? The first one you're you're you're number one yeah i also re-watched it because i have a niece and nephew i re-watched it during the pandemic yes um and i was like oh this is just a movie about like jealousy and rage unbridled right right and you work in show business yes you know about that right right yeah but it was incredible of like how jealousy can become evil if you let it.

You know what I mean? Absolutely. No, Woody is quite as we've talked about. He's a pretty green-eyed and petty man. Once again, we've done five full episodes. We love to do this. You got to re-record. I am always happy to talk about it.

Sorry, you were about to say. Oh, no. I was just going to say the only reason he's able to pull it off and be a likable protagonist is I think it's because it's Tom Hanks yes absolutely performance from Tom Hanks do you know do you know the crazy story

where like it was Jeffrey Katzenberg that's like the end of his run I'm retelling a thing but it was on Patreon it was on Patreon so it's fine it's the end of Katzenberg's run

before he leaves for DreamWorks right and his big thing was like I want to make like an animated movie that's more for adults that has like edgier humor and it like basically

Shrek becomes what he was always trying to push Shrek? Yeah I love Shrek but like that was the vibe he wanted of like

can it be like a lot more sarcastic and sort of like in on the joke and whatever and the Disney brand was so strong that when Pixar comes in from the outside

with the Toy Story pitch he's like maybe this is the avenue to be able to do something that's a little more biting and a little more hard edge. And so they're developing the movie and he keeps on pushing them to be like meaner, darker, you know, more acidic, whatever. And then they do this screening where

they like have the scratch template voices and the storyboards and they screen it for all the Disney executives right before they give them the thumbs up and give them the money to start animating. And they're like, it was the most disastrous screening of all time. It was like the darkest film we had ever seen. It was like so brutally dark.

Disney wanted to shut it down. And Pixar was like, give us a weekend. We'll fucking, we'll roll it back. And I find it fascinating. That's the whole story of like the movie almost falls apart because it was too dark. And then you watch it and you're like, in the version came out yeah and was a massive totemic hit that has lasted he is still such an asshole he must have been really intolerable like because yeah he's look he's a relatable you get it you get why what he feels the way he feels of course yeah but he is not the typical

like no if he were to sing an i want song it it would be like, I want this guy to go away because I feel inadequate. Get the fuck out of here. Right. Yes. Right. And he's like, he's petty. Yeah.

He's like rude. He's sarcastic. Yeah. It's all Hanks. We love Hanks. We love Hanks. He's a nice guy. Yeah.

Right. Famously. Yeah. He's got to be nice. Yeah. I think he's pretty nice. He must be. Did you see that quote from him recently where he was, they were like, you have a reputation for being nice. And he's like, it's i think he's pretty nice he must be did you see that quote from him

recently where he was they were like you have a reputation for being nice and he's like it's a lot of work yeah a lot of times on set where i really would have loved to have been an asshole yeah i really really bet that i feel like if you're larry david yeah it's so much easier being larry david than being tom hanks and people want you to be kind of a jerk right and but then if you're nice people are like oh my god God. That's the thing. Everyone says Larry David is very nice. But I bet it's just because he's not as rude as you think he's going to be.

Yeah. Right. Brilliant. Whereas if Tom Hanks doesn't hand you $100 in cash as soon as you meet him, you're going to be like, what an asshole. I was just,

you need to not only be nice. Nice. Where's my money? Where's my money? You need to be balancing my bank account. I heard you're wealthy as hell. Get me out of the hole. I will say,

that's why i bought you coffee seconds into meeting yeah yeah it's just like i better fucking be nice it is nice here for the record i offered you did you did you were reaching for the wallet yeah and i was like you were literally buying more drinks for blank check hosts than yourself right now i will buy these drinks i just i love the admission from Hanks of like, because you read all those stories about him and you're like, is he just wired better than all of us? He's just a relatively well-adjusted guy.

He is, but he also was like, you know what, it takes fucking effort to be nice all the time. Right, he's trying to be nice. I try to do it. You know what, it's hard work being nice. It is. That's true. But that's okay. But that's okay. I think more title should be reassuring in that way. Yes. It was a great title. But that's okay. I think more title should be reassuring in that way. Yes. It was a great title.

Incredible title. Yeah. I am pretty sold by the title alone. Yeah. But I did expect her to be a cyborg. You thought... Going in. Sure.

The only thing I knew about this film was the poster in which she is sort of floating. They're in like this green padded room. Right. Well, because the scene where they finally kiss for the first time, she has to float up to be able to reach him. Correct. Yeah. Well, that's cute. It is very cute. Right. Well, cause the scene where they finally kissed for the first time, she has to float up to be able to reach him. Correct. Yeah. Um, and it is very cute.

Yes. But I thought like, Oh yeah, this is like about a guy who falls in love with a robot. Yeah. Like that's what it'll be about. Yeah. You know,

the other thing this movie isn't is like the K packs of like, but what if she is secretly? She might, they think she's crazy, but what if she's really. There's no winking at like, Hey man, maybe she is.

Right. Like even just the first time you see her, if I remember correctly, is in the mother explaining the suicide attempt. And you see clearly that she cuts in and her arm bleeds. Yes. Like they're not showing you her mind's eye. Oh, it's a bunch of wires and gadgetry. Like you see that this was actually an act of violence. Yes. It's actually a very shocking moment uh so shocking that i did sort of initially have the thought of like this can't be real because what a way to start the movie and then you realize

well no i think the score in this movie is very fun there's basically one main theme he plays over and over and over again yeah that's very whimsical and jaunty music is credited to three different people really i don't know what the vibe is there wow um but one of them is his sort of main composer joe young book i don't know uh you have the end sequence where they sort of go out in the rain yes a lovely lovely sequence yeah opinion um yes where basically well wait like like yeah wait there's this you know okay so she fantasizes about uh going on a rampage in the hospital because he's kind of like you need to stop being sympathetic to the white coats right like that's that's what sort of prompts all of that right um they start giving her shock therapy she thinks it's recharging her like they think it's helping neither of these things are really working. And she's refusing

to eat. Beautiful, sad metaphor for how these interventions often are sort of like, you're checking a box, but nothing's really happening. I don't know. He starts feeding her the food, using the food to electrical converter or whatever, the rice

Megatron. But why do they go into this oh because like she's she starts to think that she's a bomb and like lightning will make her blow up yes because her grandma that's what she thinks her grandma was saying was the purpose of her existence right yes and it was like the purpose of your it's like you are a nuclear bomb you should blow it's like you need a certain like 10 000 volts or something. You should blow up. It's like you need like 10,000 volts or something and you will blow up or something like that.

Yeah. They go out with this giant pole. They go out with a big lightning rod and she's ready to get struck by lightning and he puts a little cork on top of it to protect her from the wine bottle that they were,

you know, drinking out of. And it's this nice little reveal, right? Of his sort of like continued enabling of her delusion, but in this sort of practical way. Is that the best way to put it? I don't know. Yeah, no, because he gets through to her.

Right. Right. But he gets through to her. It's not exactly patronizing even, but like, you know, by like, whatever, by like indulging her, but also helping her in a way that helps her indulge. I don't know. Also, his whole problem is sociopathy, right?

And he learns that he has the capacity to care for someone else, the amount of effort he puts into. Whereas everyone else, he's kind of like winding up to watch from a distance you know as they spiral out into their own shit he's like engaging with her and helping her

he's using the same kind of little stinker instincts that he uses to stir shit up okay right but it's

out of an act of pure empathy right so he's like learning that he has the ability to care for another person. Which is nice. Yes. Nonetheless, this film was a disappointment at the Korean box office.

There's nothing else about the ending, right? Like that's the end of the movie. Yeah. Yeah. There's them in the rainbow. The credit sequence. Appears and then there's the credits. The rainbow connection.

There is the credit sequence, which we should shout out, in which everyone who's involved in the film, their names are projected onto the screen. It's crazy. In an order. Yeah. Spoiler alert. This is the first time this has happened. I'm just trying to place it in a timeline. What the hell is this?

A bunch of words? Yeah. All the actors get a shout out. I know. It's incredible big ups the sound guys yeah yeah right nobody's left out no one is left out boys even the best boys uh we got truly we're the best of the best boys here um also on the back exactly okay um it did uh make about two, I mean, it made about four million dollars

at the Korean box office, which was not very good. Yeah. And it was not very popular with critics. It made like three of the highest grossing local films of all time.

I can see, because I think the idea of like, it would be, this is so embarrassing, who made The Godfather? Francis Ford Coppola. If he was like, I'm doing a rom-com.

I feel like people who normally watch rom-coms are like, I don't want to see a rom-com by this guy. That is absolutely the vibe. And everybody who likes his stuff is going to be like, I don't want to watch a rom-com.

I want another Godfather. And then nobody is going to go watch it. Francis Ford Coppola made a weird, dreamy musical with Tom Waits songs that he self-financed himself and drove himself into bankruptcy what what is it called it's called one from the heart one from the heart but it's exactly what you're describing where he was just like and it's all dreamlike and it's all

these transitions through mirrors and everyone's like when is there a horse's head right yeah and he was just like i know this is what i need to be making and people were like fuck you yeah They were furious. They were furious. And like mocked him for like his foolishness. Right. Yes. This was maybe not quite as epic a bomb as that, but it certainly.

It didn't ruin Mark Jemmok's life for a decade. No, but it definitely got this basically this reaction of like, what do you think you're doing? Yeah. Go back to your lane. And so, but he thinks he at the time of release, he says you think you're doing? Yeah. Go back to your lane. And so, but he thinks he, at the time of release, he says it's one of his favorite films that he's ever made.

He says he has the most fun watching it. He says he put the most affection into it. And it hurts the most seeing it being treated unkindly. His daughter thought it was mid. It was not released in American theaters uh so it was not really reviewed by american critics um but it did play at some festivals i think it was at berlin where it maybe won a prize um but you know not really much to talk about on that front so we're gonna have to play the box office game from its release date, but in America,

which is a box office game we've done before again. But don't worry. You never remember these anymore. No, I don't remember anything. But I think it's going to be fun because I want to see if Karen has seen this movie. The reason we've done this box office game before. How do you feel about the movie The Holiday? Oh, I did love The Holiday.

We've done it on the show. The Holiday is so long. It makes no sense. And I think it's a bad movie okay you are correct but I love watching it you are right

but now Griffin's gonna ask you a very important question because we are divided which half of the holiday do you think is better Cameron Diaz

with Jude Law and you've got Jack Black with you know US or UK when you have to pick between those two US thank you

but here's the ultimate here's the thing that i found so annoying is you watch that whole movie that i feels like it's four hours long i believe it is four epic miniseries the sorrow and the pity that fucking movie at the very end you see for like two seconds kate winslet and jude law just dancing together as siblings and they have so much chemistry that it's disturbing because you're their siblings. But also you're like, that's the rom-com we wanted. We don't want.

You think there should be a holiday too where they're like, should we partner swap again? And Cameron Diaz is like, that's your brother. It's like, but come on. It's like the heart wants what it wants, baby.

Yeah, can you deny? And Renée T. Myers is like, keep rolling. This is gold. Oh, man. I agree with you on all counts. We, you prefer Kate Winslet in America with Jack Black going Scooby-Doo.

No. To be clear, what I prefer is Jude Law in a different rom-com that's good where he is the protagonist. And nothing else from this movie is preserved except for the sweet old man who lives next door. You like the sweet old man. I want the sweet old man in Jude Law. You want the two of them. I want you all to man in Jude Law who becomes... You want the two of them. I want two of them to be best friends. You want Eli Wallach on Jude Law. You're doing some heavy

surgery on the holiday at this point. When I was a kid, we had sex with women. Now I have sex with Jude Law. My dream version of the holidays, Jude Law is the one who comes to the U.S., lives in that house, falls in love with me. Oh, with Karen G. And my grandpa is Eli Wallach.

And then we all have the holidays together. Yeah. Do you still want him to have, like, you know, a kid? He doesn't have a cat. Well, he does have a cow. He has a cow in that movie. But no, two daughters.

Do you want him to do Mr. Napkinhead? Oh, of course I want him to do Mr. Napkinhead. Right, you want all of that. You want him to be daddy. Do you want Cameron Dia, of course I want him to do Mr. Napkinhead. Right, you want all of that. You want him to be daddy. Do you want Cameron Diaz loudly shrieking that she is bad at sex, which she does constantly in that movie? Every time I rewatch The Holiday, I'm like, I remember everything that's in this movie, then I forget that Cameron Diaz is like, I'm so bad at sex! Yeah, but David, she's great at editing movie trailers. She is.

She sure is. Wait, the other movie I want instead of this movie is her two assistants are John Krasinski and Katherine Hahn. I want that rom-com. That's a delight. They may literally be having a, you know, Rosencrantz-Gildersen movie. You know, they might be having a romance within that movie. We just don't see it. Oh, man.

They're two cuties. They're two cuties. Yeah. Yeah. And then Krasinski's in It's Complicated. Yes. Yes. Yes. He's not one of the children. He's in It's Complicated. Yes. Yes. Yes.

He's not one of the children. He's marrying into that sick family. I love It's Complicated. Soon to be son-in-law. You do? Yeah. What's your favorite Nancy Meyers movie? The Parent Trap.

Yeah. I believe I put that as my number one as well. No. I put The Intern at number one. Oh, Griffin once again canceled. Yeah. You put The Intern over The Parent Trap? Parent Trap was my number two, to be fair.

Also my number two. Something's fair. Also my number two. Something's Gotta Give was your number one. That movie's a masterpiece. I feel like the man is too old in that movie. You think who's too old? The guy that's too old. Jack Nicholson, the guy. I'm so sorry. I forgot his name.

Mr. Basketball? As I was watching, I was like, ugh, too old. I don't love that movie sorry is that horrible because here's what i think i think a lot of people thought that a lot of people were not that into i like movies with cute old people falling in love that's great i don't want them to be horny i don't want him to be horny for that for uh what's her amanda pete in the beginning oh yeah well sure that's true i'm out i mean of course that is the plot of the movie is that that is not cool right but then once that happened i was like diane keaton deserves

better than this weird she's literally offered keanu reeves on a plate i know and she and she she dips her bread she gets some gravy on there but then she's like you know what take it back take it back bring me the dry age steak. Dry. This is why I love the intern is I think he's such a sweet character. He's so sweet. Altanero, nice man. There's no romance there. That's the best use of Robert De Niro.

Yes. It's his best performance. He's the pinnacle of his screen career. I'm just trying to think of how many other De Niro movies are better than The Intern, but they're all inappropriate for Karen's taste.

You know what I mean? I'm like, well, but no, no, no, no, no, no. It may just be The Intern. It's the best Robert De Niro. I'm trying to think of it. Meet the Parents, I suppose. I haven't seen that. I should watch it.

He's better in The Intern than he is in The Intern. He's far better in The Intern than he is in The Intern. Meet the Parents is not a movie that has aged well at all. No, but the sequels have aged worse. That is true. Okay. So, The Holiday is in this box office game graph, which I probably don't remember because we did that many years ago.

Yeah, too long ago at this point. But The Holiday kind of bombed. It's lower in the... It did. It opened number three to $12 million in a sort of weird weekend where a lot of movies are opening around that. Right.

Around that number. I'm trying to remember. Number one is a period action horror. November, December 2006. We're talking December 7th, 2006. Okay.

I'm just, I'm trying to play because I mean, we talked about this on that episode, but The Holiday, one of the only movies I've ever walked out of and and not by my choice, my friends stormed out. And I followed them. Right.

I'm trying to remember what else we went. Well, they were hungry. It was hour 82. And they were like, we need to eat. And Eli Wallach was like, meh. No, he's perfect. Back in my day, we didn't eat food. Go on, Eli.

He ate fire. And now I'm just making him the guy from Wet Hot American Summer. Okay. Yeah. But I feel like we walked out into a different movie, which is probably whatever was number one. You may well. Period action.

Is it Pride and Prejudice? It's so hard to describe what this movie is. It's. But it was a hit. It was a mild hit. a mild hit a mild it was the follow it made about 50 million dollars in america it was the follow-up to one of the most successful films ever made the film is mel gibson's apocalypto the um mayan apocalypse drama karen's sort of looking at me sort of angrily i've never heard of this movie before it's a

after he made you know you know, Mel Gibson made this film, The Passion of the Christ. This is the sequel to Passion of the Christ. It's not a sequel, but it is... It's his blank check movie. It is his blank check. It's the movie where it's like,

after that, he's like, great, well, can I make a movie about, like, you know, set in Mayan society, spoken in their indigenous language that is obscenely, insanely violent. Right. You know, kind of crazy. Yeah, with no stars in it and the movie is essentially one 30 minute foot chase

yeah wow it's actually a great movie it's an excellent film unfortunately it was directed by somebody pretty crazy how great it is um but yeah it's pretty fun ben you dig apocalypto i feel like yeah we're all embarrassed that we like that movie. You know what? We're just fools. Especially because the ending is always kind of stuck in my craw. The ending is kind of incredible, I think. Yeah, but it also, it's sort of like a little pro Christianity. I disagree with that, but

we got to save this for the Mel Gibson miniseries. We never do. Our final series. We record, and then we just somehow bury it. We shoot it into space. Okay. Big pivot. Number two. Our final series. We record and then we just somehow bury it. I guess like on the computer we recorded it on. Yes. Okay. Big pivot.

Number two. It's a fun animated film we've covered on this podcast. In 2006. And we've covered it on this podcast. And it's not a celic and it's not a bird. No. It's Happy Feet. It's Happy Feet.

Oh, the Penguin movie. Yes. I haven't seen it. Wow. I. And it's Happy Feet. It's Happy Feet. Oh, the penguin movie. Yes. I haven't seen it. Wow. I thought you might have seen that one. It does seem right up my alley. He's a dancing penguin. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Very happy. See, all of their penguins sing. Oh. And he doesn't sing. He goes tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Oh, that's cute. They cast him out of society because of that. Oh, man.

So he has to dance his way across Antarctica or whatever. And back into their hearts. Yeah. Happy Feet, which we covered on the show. Happy Feet 2, better, in my opinion. Happy Feet 2, a secret masterpiece. Yeah. Brad Pitt plays a gay shrimp in that film.

Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. Yeah. They play sort of existential. Or they krill. They're krill. They're krill. They're bottom feeders, but they love each other. They do. Number three at the box office is the holiday uh number four is uh an action film big

hit big hit major character major character like this becomes an ongoing it's been ongoing for many many years and uh not that and uh stewart little you guys are both silent laughers so i want the listeners to know they're dying right now you should laugh loudly karen recently i've had a cold and i've been laughing like we's laughing which has been much more audible i'm sorry that i'm basically over the cold now i was kind of doing that like that kind of thing. Sort of a Stuart Little Harry Potter. This guy, not Harry Potter,

but he is English. It's the first one with this actor. It's the... Oh, it's Casino Royale. There you go. James Bond's Casino Royale.

Because there was, right, there was one straight month where Happy Feet and Casino Royale were the number one and number two movies in America. And fucking Mumble just kept on tap dancing all over fucking Daniel Craig.

The Penguin did beat his ass. Have you seen Casino Royale? No. Have you seen any James Bond films? No. But you're aware of his general vibe. Oh, yeah, I know who he is. I'll say we watched the Roger Moore.

So if you met him, he wouldn't have to say Bond, James Bond. No, I'd be like, I know who you are. Roger Moore. So if you met him, he wouldn't have to say James Bond. No, I'd be like, I know who you are. I'd never seen the Roger Moore James Bond movies, which are mostly like the 70s and the 80s ones. And we watched them for the podcast

last year. Very silly. Maybe a little more Karen. Wow. Those are the silliest. Reaction shots from animals. Plenty. Not to spoil, but there is a moment where a pigeon sees James Bond doing something wild and does a double take. That's so fun. Yeah, and that's in a film about a British secret agent who, you know, assassinates people.

And we gotta bring it back. Number five of the box office. It's new this week. It's an Oscar-nominated film. Kind of not a huge hit. Blood Diamond? It's Blood Diamond. Leonardo DiCaprio. It multiplied well, but it was kind of not a huge hit. It's Blood Diamond. Leonardo DiCaprio. It multiplied well,

but it was kind of an underperformer. It opens to 8 and it makes 57. Not very good. A movie I've still never seen. I assume you have not seen Blood Diamond. No. Very dramatic, very tense. A lot of violence, a lot of sadness. I don't know. Number 6,

Deja Vu, a full-on masterpiece, I've always said. Vertigo with two extra acts and a time machine. Sorry, rear window, not Vertigo. Sure. Number seven, Unaccompanied Minors, Paul Feig's directorial debut, now forgotten. Based on this American Life segment.

Starring future heartthrob Tyler James Williams. Is that his name? Chris from Everybody Isates Chris Really? Wait Mr. Eddie? I love Mr. Eddie I just love that he Is fucking doing it You know what I mean? Like that Chris from Everybody Hates Chris

Who I was always like Oh he's a child star He was cute on that sitcom He's a grown up now He's a romantic lead on a hit sitcom he's doing great such a good actor he's a really good actor yeah anyway what was it was it a

what's the surprise or was it on Alan I saw him do some late night interview where he did his impression of how he can tell when people recognize him which thing they know him from yeah yeah okay I think it was on Fallon think it was Kimmel. Look, it was a good segment. It would have been better if you had done a pass on it.

But he does like the bit everyone does about like, oh, different types of people recognize me from different stuff and I can tell. But he did his impression of just their facial reaction. And the difference between someone looking at him who watches Abba Elementary, who knew him as a kid and everybody hits Chris or who saw him die in The Walking

Dead. And it was really fun. Oh, I forgot he was also in The Walking Dead! Yeah. I've really been with him from the beginning. I watched every episode of Everybody Hates Chris. Yes. Good show. Underrated sitcom. Yeah. Okay. And yeah, well, that's... The Nativity Story is in the top ten here. A weird flop.

That's a... That's the sort of very straightforward post-Passion of the Christ. They were like, let's do literally the nativity story. And it's Oscar Isaac and Keisha Castle Hughes.

Correct. Is Oscar Isaac Jesus? He's Joseph. Jesus is played by a baby. Joseph, kind of the original cuck. Yeah, got cucked by God. Embarrassing. Brutal.

Had to really just take that L I'm pregnant from someone else Who? The guy over there? No The Lord The big man upstairs Our Lord Our next door neighbor?

Our upstairs neighbor We've got a bunch of other Christmas movies We've also got a film called Deck the Halls Which one is that? and our upstairs neighbor. And comedy points. Guy in the Clubs. We've got a bunch of other Christmas movies. We've also got a film called Deck the Halls. Which one is that? That movie is... Oh, you love it. Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito

get caught in a bitter battle. In their houses. Who can have more lights on their house. Right, right. There glows the neighborhood. Yes. That was the tagline. That was the kind of...

We used to, as a country, as a nation. We used to make garbage. We used to put $50 million towards Matthew Broderick going, I don't know. He has the lights on the house. I'm going to put more lights on the house. It's so bright. My eyes are burned out. Yeah, that's right.

I put the lights. That would have to be a movie about like the business that invented Christmas lights or whatever. Ryan Alton played both of them. Number 10 at the box office. They both be secret Asians. Right. Chris Evans does four cameos. Number 10 at the box office.

Final Christmas film. The Santa Claus 3. The escape clause. The one with Martin Short is Jack Frost. Do you have any feelings on the Santa Clause trilogy, Karen? I know,

but I love Martin Short. I think we would be really good friends. I think if you love Martin Short, you should never, ever see The Santa Clause 3, The Escape Clause. Karen,

I agree with you and I agree with David. I think you and Martin Short would get on like a house on fire. Oh, thank you so much. Have you never interacted? He's always on the late night shows. I've never met him before.

I feel like he's also quite small. We would just be like two buds. I suppose you're quite small. I am. He's smaller than me. He's very small. I mean, you've worked with Martin Short. How small is he? How small am I?

How small is everybody? I'm 5'? How small am I? How small is everybody? I'm five foot six. And you're smaller than you? Yes. Karen, how tall are you? I'm a little over 5'1". So he might be like my height. Oh, between us.

5'4". Okay. Wow. He's got some hair height. Yeah, he does love to stretch the hair. Yeah. Especially in the Santa Claus 3 where he plays fucking Jack Frost

with icicle hair. But Karen, look, I hope the two of you meet and are able to form a happy life together. Thank you. Don't watch that movie. Okay. Not a good movie. I won't. You'll hold it against him. You'll hold it against him. Okay. Last on the list. Now, have you seen Clifford?

I was just going to ask. No. Now that's a movie you definitely must require. Live action Clifford the Big Red Dog? Not that one. No? Clifford the Little Boy. Sorry. I really thought that's what you were talking about. Little Rapscallion. Clifford the Big Red Dog? Not that one. Clifford the Little Boy. I really thought that's what you were talking about. Little Rapscallion. Clifford is a film that we have covered on this podcast.

It's Ben's favorite movie. It's one of. It's not the, but one of. Top tier. In which Martin Short plays a 10-year-old boy. I'll just be like, yeah, 10-year-old boy. But as a grown-up Martin Short, and it's not acknowledged in the film

that a grown-up man is playing a 10-year-old boy. Drives his uncle-up Martin Short, and it's not acknowledged in the film that a grown-up man is playing a 10-year-old boy. Drives his uncle crazy. As you can see by the fact that Charles Grodin is holding his head and going, this kid's driving me crazy. Yes, okay, excellent. No dogs. Just his name is Clifford.

Is there a dog in the film? Probably not. Obviously, Grodin wrestles with Beethoven later in life. Okay, yes. Do you know Beethoven? Yeah, the dog. Clifford was kind of a up in the dog house. He wrestles with Beethoven later in life. Do you know Beethoven? Yeah, the dog. Clifford was kind of a dry run for Beethoven in terms of the Grodin filmography, right?

As far as him interacting with kids and being a grouch. Looking like this on a poster. Yeah, exactly. Always looking like that. But check it out okay I will I will

that's the box office Karen thank you so much for coming on people should well you're on strike right now from your writing jobs yes so sad maybe the strike will be over by the time this episode comes out when does it come out

comes out August 6th I don't know if the strike will be over by the time this episode comes out when does it come out? comes out August 6th I don't know if the strike will be over God I hope so it would be nice if it ended in July with triumphant gains for the writers if Sully was a strike cabin he would have done it or Aaron Ackred that's a better version of that joke

Karen anything you want to plug? no cool I should plug um uh get a costco membership yes i love costco ben and i have been trying to plan a costco run costco is my favorite place in the world yeah do you go to the brooklyn costco listen i've never been to a costco in new york before i was just thinking of my childhood costco well, Karen, if you're, you know, I have a car. Yes! If you want to go to a Costco, because I've never been to a Costco.

David, you have never offered to drive me to a Costco. That's because I see plenty of you in my life. I've been friends for 10 years. It's my favorite place in the fucking world. Well, you used to, like, live next to Costco. To the one uptown. Yes.

I, for a number of years, moved specifically to be two blocks away from Costco, walking distance from Costco. That's the dream. So I could hand cart my way back and forth rather than needing to have a friend with a car. Or get a cab or whatever. Yeah. I guess it'd be pretty annoying to hail a cab and then be like, this pallet of water

is going in your car. Yes, it is, in fact, annoying. I've been in that position before. Well, yeah, big plugs to Costco. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Thank you to Marie Barty for our social media and helping to produce the show.

Thank you to AJ McKee and Alex Barron for our editing. Lane Montgomery. Why am I not able to say that name now? Lane Montgomery. Lane Montgomery. Lane Montgomery. Why am I not able to say that name now? Lay Montgomery. Sure. Lay Montgomery. Lane Montgomery.

And the great American novel. Keep all of that in, Ben, for our theme song. JJ Birch for our research. Pat Reynolds, Joe Bowen for our artwork. Tune in next week for Thirst? Next week is Thirst. We're getting thirsty on Maine.

Thirst. Next week. Absolutely. You can go to thirsty on Maine. Thirst. Next week. Absolutely. You can go to blankcheckpod.com for links to some real nerdy shit, including our Patreon blank check special features, where we do commentaries on film series. And we're now into the oceans, right? We're swimming across those oceans.

Of course, this is coming out in August when we are covering the oceans films. Yes. But also soon we will apparently be doing an episode on the little drummer girl. Parked. Oh, yes. TV miniseries.

Yes. Which I'm excited to watch. Start watching it. Yeah. You can do that. And as always reminder that we've got free Patreon membership. If you want to sign up episodes from three years ago, again,

unlocked every 10 days. Yeah. And as always. Yeah. I'm a years ago are unlocked every 10 days. Yeah. And as always. Yeah. I'm a podcaster, but that's okay. You good, Cam? Yeah, I think so.

I don't have to do anything, right? No, you don't. Okay, great. You don't have to talk the whole time. I'm not going to talk at all. Yeah, perfect. Yeah.