Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 19/09/2026The 40 Steps assassination in NOWHERE TO HIDE m.youtube.com/watch?v=KX6f...m.youtube.com[Movie] 인정사정 볼 것 없다 Nowhere To Hide 1999 HDYouTube video by jangvisual 000
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Granted that this was a very special case, but: Years ago in Nagoya I was talking with a girl at a barbecue. My Japanese was bad and her English wasn't much better, but she managed to convey that she was interested in politics. Did she like the DPJ? "Minshutō?" I asked. "No." 120
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 29/08/2026"We are asked to sympathize with these two 'people'—the quotes are advised. [...] Both the male and the female are presented as Little People, maybe not too bright, but thoroughly decent and wholesome. What can you do, after all, in a big insurance company?" 100
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Fantastic news. One of these tracks was completely lost, and the other used to be in such poor quality that you could kind of make out that it was a Bobby Goldsboro parody, but that was about it. Now both sound great. I hope "We Are Two of a Kind" is still out there somewhere. 151
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Finally figured out why the subtitles for French movies often give prices in francs two orders of magnitude away from what the actors are saying. 020
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 08/08/2026Every summer I look forward to this funky dance theme being pumped through loudspeakers for the local festival. m.youtube.com/watch?v=iMsy...m.youtube.com太陽おどり（新八王子音頭）YouTube video by 斎藤浩一 010
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 03/08/2026I'm Googling a book I saw mentioned here, and I have to wonder: Why are British book covers almost always better than American ones? In the local import shops I see plenty of both, and the contrast is always striking. 010
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 02/08/2026I'm reading The Samurai and the Prisoner, and this translation, man, I don't know. "Prithee" and "forsooth" and "it doth please me." I'd think you can convey a certain amount of archaic formality without going full Ivanhoe. And the mediaevalisms don't really pair well with insults like "rat fink." 000
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 25/07/2026John Collier's "The Chaser" is just four pages long and has the good sense to end before the love interest even turns up on page, and I guess that'll do for my review of OBSESSION. Except: Was it meant to be so dark that even the college admission letter was illegible? Or was that just my theatre? 000
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Just bashed my thumbnail bloody trying to kill a 12-cm centipede in my kitchen. It got away behind the cupboards, I'm not sure how badly wounded. Might be years before I go barefoot in my apartment again. 010
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 18/07/2026The Kinks' "This Time Tomorrow" in Les Amants réguliers m.youtube.com/watch?v=qabT...m.youtube.comLAR · ThisTimeTomorrowYouTube video by toldo 000
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 14/07/2026The headline is less ambiguous *without* an Oxford comma, though it should still be rearranged. (With or without a comma after "vigilante," Plath can't be the Shah, as there's no comma after "Iran." In the current headline she's not a vigilante either, but with an Oxford comma she might be.) 010
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 08/07/2026R.I.P. Tony Rayns. Everybody's rightly praising his crucial work on Chinese film; I'll also remember his fantastic writing on Fassbinder and his role in introducing Suzuki Seijun to western audiences. 011
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 25/06/2026Just logged HUMINT at Letterboxd, and I'm feeling geriatric after seeing review upon review referring to the Woo/Tarantino-style Mexican standoff at its climax as "the Spider-Man pointing meme." 000
Reposted by Matthew ButcherRoy Edroso @edroso.bsky.social · 15/06/2026Armond White, watch your ass. 7476
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 06/06/2026Reportedly Orson Welles's favourite book. He adapted it for radio, never film, though you can see the influence on MR. ARKADIN. There was a Hungarian movie ten years ago that took the title and not much else, but the book deserves better than that. 030
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 20/05/2026Quote with a fictional band that is not Spinal Tap 010
Reposted by Matthew ButchermatteoB @matteob.bsky.social · 06/05/2026As a tribute to Tony, I hastily translated an interview I did with him in 2021, the conversation went on for much longer though...he was so passionate and generous with his time ... read it, share it, let's keeps his name and legacy alive... asian-docs.com/2026/05/06/i...asian-docs.comInterview with Tony StellaI was very shocked to hear the great artist and illustrator Tony Stella has passed away. He was not only an artist working in film posters and illustrations, but also a vulcano of knowledge about i… 04021
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 28/04/2026Do I need to break out the Russell Lynes charts? "Middlebrow" is a moving target that depends on the cultural environment as much as the work itself. 110
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 20/04/2026BETTER WATCH OUT. So the premise here is "HOME ALONE but Kevin is evil," and you spend 90 minutes of moronic plot contrivances watching this asshole kid getting more and more annoying, just waiting it out in the faint hope that he'll die horribly, which (spoiler) he doesn't. 010
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 06/04/2026Mark Wirtz is great! But there's a rock opera (with a plot line throughout the album) from March 1966, predating Tommy, S.F. Sorrow, The Story of Simon Simopath, "Grocer Jack," and even "A Quick One While He's Away." 000
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 04/04/2026The original version of Kurosawa Kiyoshi's SERPENT'S PATH is playing in North America now, so here's a bit of useless trivia: The math you see throughout the film is homological algebra. I'd bet it was chosen because one of the fundamental results in that area is called the snake lemma. 210
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 01/04/2026"This is Ultimate Pandas. By definition, all other panda DVDs are penultimate or less." 010
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 31/03/2026Solidarity with everyone correctly voting for DEATHSTALKER II. m.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Av...m.youtube.comDEATH STALKER 2 (Movie Title Name Drop)YouTube video by MentionTheMovie 012
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 27/02/2026The past couple days on Letterboxd I keep getting this Cloudflare pop-up. (There's no actual "challenge.") The hell is this? Looks like a very belated promotional tie-in for INTERSTELLAR or something. Google turns up nothing. 110
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 04/02/2026Likewise, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter were into Soka Gakkai. 031
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 28/01/2026I walked into a Disk Union while Margo Guryan's "Love" was playing, and bought Take a Picture immediately. The rest of the album isn't as psychedelic as "Love" — it's more jazzy baroque pop — but I had no regrets. 000
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 31/12/2025Lots of people have already posted "Sledgehammer" and "Weapon of Choice," so let's go with this one. m.youtube.com/watch?v=xR5x...m.youtube.comPulp - Bad Cover Version (Radio Edit)YouTube video by PulpVEVO 010
Reposted by Matthew ButcherKomdehagens @komdehagens.bsky.social · 13/12/2025Director Masato Harada (Gunhed, Helldogs, Badlands) sadly passed away. t.co/36rbDSReLst.cohttps://www.asahi.com/articles/ASTDD1RP7TDDUCVL00RM.html?ref=tw_asahi 002
Reposted by Matthew ButcherBen Fletcher-Watson @bfletcherwatson.bsky.social · 30/11/2025Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found. 161465511
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 24/11/2025You dare call me a son of a bitch? Sir, I have seen many examples of perversion in my time, but your erotic obsession with your carpet is probably the most grotesque and certainly the most boring I have ever encountered. You're more to be scorned than pitied. Good day, Charlie Brown. 000
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 17/11/2025R.I.P. Clearsky, at least in any usable form. People complained about it, but without it, how would I have ever learned that an Asylum sci-fi director had blocked me for arguing that Paul McCartney sang "in which we live in" and not "... we're livin'" in "Live and Let Die"? 000
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 04/10/20251. Lee Marvin 2. Anna Karina 3. Mel Gibson 4. Robert Duvall 5. Michel Constantin 6. Jim Brown 7. Mark Wahlberg 8. Peter Coyote 9. Jason Statham 110
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 31/08/2025Best first watches, August Old: TRAP FOR CINDERELLA (1965) — An amnesiac burn victim (Dany Carrel) learns that she's a wealthy heiress (Dany Carrel) with a newly dead cousin (Dany Carrel). Okay, you can see where this is going. And it gets there, and then it careens right on past. New: SEVEN VEILS 010
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 31/08/2025Best first watches, July Old: THE SMALL WORLD OF SAMMY LEE — Great, seedy drama about a Soho strip-club comedian frantically trying to scrape up enough cash for his gambling debts. New: Um. FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES, I guess. 020
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 30/08/2025I am the only person on Letterboxd who's seen TOKYO TWILIGHT. That's TOKYO TWILIGHT the not-terribly-good horror comedy from 2013 and not, you know, the other one. 030
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 31/07/2025Best first watches, June Old: DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS — Stands out from other Hammer vampire pictures thanks to Christopher Lee's atypical performance; he embodies hungering menace without speaking a word. Andrew Keir's also great in a Van Helsing-ish part as an irascible priest. New: SINNERS 010
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 06/07/2025One of the weirder bits of subtitling I've seen was for RED POST ON ESCHER STREET. At one point a guy says 「俺お前の映画大好きだったよ!」, which pretty much anyone would translate as "I loved your movie!" The subtitler went with "I totally respect the aesthetics of your work." The hell? 020
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 06/07/2025This fuss over THE SALT PATH has me wondering — has anyone ever asked Herzog about FAMILY ROMANCE, LLC, and how the supposed "rental family" business that inspired it turned out to be a hoax perpetrated by the film's lead actor? Mind you, it wouldn't shock me if Herzog knew the truth all along .... 100
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 04/07/2025You'll be interested to learn that the Japanese titles for the Final Destination movies are as follows: FINAL DESTINATION DEADCOASTER FINAL DEADCOASTER FINAL DEADCIRCUIT 3D FINAL DEADBRIDGE It's looking like the new one will just be FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINE (with no terminal "s"). 100
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 03/07/2025I like the Hungarian cover art for William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy better than the British or the American, but they never published Burning Chrome. The upshot is that I've spent two hours making a fake Hungarian e-book cover for a book I haven't read. Maybe not the most productive use of my time. 000
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 30/06/2025Best first watches, May Old: SPL II — A conceptual "sequel" to SPL. The melodrama reaches atmospheric heights this time — feuding brothers, anguished cops, involuntary organ transplants, a small girl with leukaemia — and the action scenes are propulsive enough that it all works. New: BLACK BAG 010
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 15/06/2025I've been plugging away at the Amicus Productions filmography — JUST FOR FUN was the hardest to track down — and tonight, with MADHOUSE, I thought I'd finally watched them all. But it turns out they're back from the dead and have a new horror anthology coming out this year. Ah well. One to go, then. 110
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 08/06/2025An interesting piece about subtitles that convey an uncertain grasp of regional dialect 100
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 31/05/2025Best first watches, April Old: PLAY DIRTY — A cynical heist movie transplanted to the North African campaign in WWII. Distrust and backstabbing, long procedural sequences of professionals doing their jobs, and no heroics. New: IT'S NOT ME — Yeah, it's a Godard pastiche. But it's a great one. 030
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 28/05/2025Replace a title by a string of random alphanumeric characters and ruin a movie: bhGjMQzicSkK5aJw 100
Matthew Butcher @lanius.bsky.social · 27/05/2025Today I learned that Albinoni's Adagio in G minor was not written by Albinoni, with the possible exception of the bass line; Remo Giozotto composed it in 1958, and when the piece turned up in LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD it was only three years old. 000
!['Disclosure Day': A
Gnostic Re-Enchantment Tale
Spielberg's Alien Film Is Only Okay -- But It's Important. And It's Something Close To Evil
ROD DREHER
JUN 15
[poster for SPIELBERG DISCLOSURE DAY
06.12.26
SCREENPLAY BY DAVID KOEPP
DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG]
Promotional poster for 'Disclosure
Day. Notice the one eye.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:aq6ucuguuc67yqwu4x4eipro/bafkreieezbc2h7mtbhiqxxufvcufcklqf42r6shodpaedlswx4gm5q4qfi)
