he's so dramatic. :-)

Please, for the love of god, leave me CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS!!! If you think it’s implied, I promise you that to me it is not. If you give me poorly worded or vague directions I’m gonna spend half an hour stressing over the potential different ways to interpret them and either become paralyzed with indecision or inevitably interpret them the least correct way possible

HEAVY SPOILERS FOR MONKEY MAN!!!! GO WATCH THE MOVIE IF YOU HAVENT ITS REALLY GOOD DAMMIT!!!!!!!

Anyway

I think an overlooked bit in Monkey Man is how bleach is used as imagery and association. Bleach is often use is to remove stains from clothes/surfaces, disinfect things, and just generally clean stuff. I think this plays a lot into the revenge narrative central to the film, as well as offering a comparison/contrast to the villians’ methods of “removing India’s scars”

When the Kid first shows his hands he says they look that way from bleach and chemicals and calls them his CV. Now, without the mention of bleach this scene is still impactful within context, bc the Kid is indirectly saying that his life is defined by his trauma and the death of his mother (and maybe even his inability to save her). Hands are also a reoccurring symbol throughout the film in an of themselves. But back to bleach. I think mentioning bleach is important bc it depicts bleach as corrosive and something higher ups don’t want to engage in. “Give me the job no one wants to do, and ill do it.” No one at Kings wants what the Kid wants, and no one there is willing to cleanse the city and the establishment of its own corruption.

There’s also the fact that Kid’s pseudonym comes from the brand of bleach he uses at his job. By naming himself after the bleach he uses, Kid associates himself with an aggressive way of cleansing, which is kinda the whole message of Monkey Man as a narrative. It’s telling that the closest thing to a conventional name we have for the Kid just reinforces his purpose within the story.

Finally, the Kid bleaches his monkey mask before he goes to Kings for the final act. I think this is symbolic of him stripping away his persona of “Kong” that he used as a fighter from the mask, replacing it with the identity of Hanuman he has come to inhabit. The lighter fur looks more like the fur Hanuman is shown to have throughout the movie, both in the children’s book and the puppet in the stage play. It could also symbolize the Kid “cleansing his mind” of what remains from before he was saved by the hijras, and fully embracing his purpose.

Am i thinking about this way to much? Obviously but i don’t care bc its fun lol. Love this movie.

His shitty attitude and grabbable waist have bewitched me

Seeing people drive drive big lifted and totally pristine giant pickup trucks as just a car to get to and from work on fully paved roads is like watching a high energy working breed dog be forced to live in a 1 bedroom apartment and only go out for poop walks.

If you cant provide them the home they need its abuse. That truck should be hauling bricks, it needs to be maxing out its suspension hitting ridges at 65 mph. It should be dirty and dented because they love it. Theres no enrichment in your 1/4 mile drive to the gas station. Youre torturing it, youre killing that truck.

i am NOT trying to stop people from celebrating girlbulge and other aspects of trans bodies, but, like, theres literally nothing inherently sexual about being able to see the lump of a flaccid penis in pants that fit the way all modern pants are designed to. its so normal. its so fucking normal and they should be allowed to wear jeans in peace. its not sexual when cis dudes dont tuck, or when trans dudes wear packers, so lets stop sexualizing women who are literally just standing there. trans women with the very reasonable "not wanting to risk damaging their testicles by tucking" stance arent open season for unsolicited sexual comments. please get normal about penises

(explicitly clarifying a second time so no one twists my words, if some lady wants sexual attention re: her dick, thats her choice. obviously. but i feel like "talking about a woman's genitals when shes literally just chilling is sexual harassment" should be common fucking sense in 2024)

whenever i like your vent post pls don’t imagine me standing there with a thumbs up pls imagine me bringing you a warm blanket out of the dryer and a cup of your favorite drink bc that is what i am doing mentally in my own mind

Here’s a quick and comprehensive video of how I made paper 📝

Why hasn’t this been done before?

As with many things TikTok has me baffled and bewildered

Okay, so, either the trailer for Monkey Man was horribly put together, or I completely misunderstood what was presented, because I had NO IDEA what I was getting into. The entire plot took me completely by surprise several times.

This film is deliberately political. I can't recall the last time I saw an action film have such a clear focus on government. It's relatively common for the Big Bad to be a person in government -- that makes them an even bigger threat because in addition to the Criminal Thugs they employ they also have the Police and Media on their side -- but when this happens their actual politics don't matter. They're also a drug dealer, or human trafficker, and that's what the hero is fighting against. Usually we don't even learn what their politics even are. We may see them give a speech saying "Family values!" intercut with them doing drugs and having sex so we know they're a hypocrite, but that's the extent of it. In this film we know that the villains are part of the Hindu Nationalist movement, and are encouraging violence against religious minorities and gender-nonconforming people throughout India.

The condemnation is so direct that I'm not surprised Netflix backed out of distributing out of fear of the backlash in India. The only way the film could have been bolder would be if they used actual political party names instead of the "We're not actually saying 'Bharatiya Janata Party'" angle.

I was also completely unprepared for the inclusion of the hijra temple commune. I was already surprised just by the mention of crime against trans people on the news in the film, but then the main characters finds himself rescued and rehabilitated and welcomed into their society with open arms. They counsel him both philosophically and physically, and prepare him to resume his quest. And then they join him!

A literal army of trans women toppling the oppressive power structure was not on my BINGO card, I'll tell you that.

This movie was intense and an experience, and if you can see it in theaters I say you go right now!

Dude I just watched Monkey Man and…

ITS SO FREAKING AWESOME!

THE CINEMATOGRAPHY, THE STORY, THE SYMBOLISM, FREAKIN EVERYTHING!!!!

I cried, I laughed and I fucking thoroughly loved the movie. If you’ve been thinking about watching it, or if you haven’t, please, give it a chance. It is a masterpiece of a film and deserves all the credit.

Maybe the real treasure was the boops we made along the way

I had a dream last night that since the boops were so successful, staff created a game called “Reverse Boop Tag” where a specific blog was “it” (marked by some symbol next to their name) and you had to find their blog and give them at least 500 boops to get the “Boop Hunter” badge.

Everyone descended on some poor user and blew up their notifs. Then the “it” blog would change every 12 hours for a few days. It was a lot of fun.

hope is a skill