u/Micro_Pinny_360

Alterations:

- Some scenes depicting genuine animal slaughter have been removed. Be warned, though, that the slaughtering of a cow is prominently featured throughout 12:44-14:05 and is flashed on-screen intermittently at 14:49-15:03.

I first watched this film throughout a history of cinema course that I took at university. The second section of the course was based on a selection of films from the 2022 Sight & Sound poll of the greatest films of all time, and Touki Bouki (Wolof for Journey of the Hyena) was one of the films selected; although it was the lowest-ranked film of the course at #66 out of #250 for the critics' poll and a tie for #72 out of 100 in the directors' poll, this was the highest rated film from the entire African continent in the former poll (and the only one in the latter). If you wish to own it, it is available in North America from The Criterion Collection and in Europe from Trigon Films.

Alteration:

The film is presented here with a voice-over in Russian. Although the original Spanish dialogue is still present, it is in the background while different voices read the translated dialogue.

Modificación:

La película se presenta aquí con una voz en off en ruso. Aunque el diálogo original en español sigue estando presente, se escucha de fondo mientras diferentes voces leen el diálogo traducido.

Изменение:

Фильм представлен здесь с закадровым голосом на русском языке. Хотя оригинальные диалоги на испанском языке по-прежнему присутствуют, они звучат на заднем плане, в то время как переведённые диалоги озвучивают другие голоса.

With my recent hyper fixation on Soviet cinema, I've been decently surprised learning about Elem Klimov. Yes, I have watched Come and See (Иди И Смотри) before and have Criterion's DVD, but when I checked out his other works, I was surprised to find that he was kind of a one-hit wonder (at least outside of the former USSR).

In fact, part of what drew my attention to this was the top review for his 1981 film Agony (Агония), written back in 2021: "If you want proof that auteur theory carries no weight whatsoever amongst modern cinephiles: consider the fact that Come and See is the second highest rated film in the Letterboxd Top 250 (...) while Klemov's second most popular film has just over two thousand." A little hyperbolic, yes, but it's 2026, and the new second most popular Klimov film, Welcome, or No Trespassing (Добро пожаловать, или Посторонним вход воспрещён), sits at an audience of only 11K compared to Come and See's 610K.

So, in your opinion, what are some of your personal favourite one-hit wonders in terms of filmmakers, actors, or anyone in-between?

Edit: In case I made the gap sound a little too narrow, it's doesn't have to be that they made one great film and dipped. Mary Harron, for example, would count as a one-hit wonder with American Psycho (though I Shot Andy Warhol did get some indie traction).

Here is the MST3K episode, as well (with a bonus of The Truck Farmer by Encyclopedia Britannica): https://youtu.be/o-Y4J62isw8

Mosfilm también ha subido la película con subtítulos en español: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXtJWq5ZEeg

Alteration:

• The film is presented here with a 4% speedup, which is necessary to properly display on PAL/SECAM televisions.

Modification :

• Le film est présenté ici avec une accélération de 4 %, nécessaire pour un affichage correct sur les téléviseurs PAL/SECAM.

Изменение:

• Фильм представлен здесь с ускорением на 4 %, что необходимо для правильного воспроизведения на телевизорах стандартов PAL/SECAM.

Rumour has it that they're looking for sweeper agents

For more context, I've been looking to check out some of the films from director Sergei Parajanov, and while Sayat Nova (better known as The Colour of Pomegranates) is accounted for thanks to The Criterion Collection, the other films by Parajanov are still unavailable on Blu-ray... at least in a version with English subtitles. I do know that Kinokuniya have released a boxed set containing his main four (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Sayat Nova, The Legend of Suram Fortress, and Ashik Kerib), but unfortunately, the lack of English subtitles are my biggest hurdle.

As such, I have considered going for some of the DVDs even with their technical limitations. For what it's worth, the TV in my room is an RCA 720p that I had from childhood and will use it until it croaks, so DVDs don't show their age as much. As tantalizing as it may be, I still have one last possibility: import the Japanese Blu-rays (which thankfully are Region A), and watch them from my PC after downloading an English subtitle file. However, I don't even know if that's possible, and I have a feeling that it might be more trouble than what it's worth. What would your opinion on the matter be? (Side note: If I do decide to just stick with a DVD, it looks like RusCiCo did some great work, and maybe I should do a separate application post.)

I remember getting into the show back in 2022, and when I first got into it, I remember identifying so much with Huey Freeman. Perhaps it was just because of how badly I was struggling that year mentally, especially with the news weighing on me, but I feel like I fell into a weird position. You know how when the show was airing, there were a concerning number of viewers who failed to grasp the satire with Uncle Ruckus or Riley, some of which used it to justify their own prejudices? That's what I did with Huey Freeman; however, it was more so because I was becoming increasingly left-wing, and I just remember wanting to be like him so bad. The more I thought about it over the years, the stronger I was in coming to a specific conclusion about why: perhaps Huey Freeman is on the autism spectrum.

Of course, I want to make it clear that this is not explicitly canon to the show. However, I will preface my explanation by saying that for us on the spectrum, discussions of autistic portrayals in the media generally tend to favour characters that aren't explicitly stated as such, but rather characters we identify and headcannon as autistic. The main reason is because of how lacking confirmed reputation is/can be, in part due to the scope of officially confirmed characters being limited, but mainly because of just how bad official representation can be. Of course, as autism is a diverse spectrum, some might not feel as strong about if they're caricatures as others, but I (as well as many others) find ourselves strongly at odds with media like The Good Doctor (the American adaptation, can't comment on the Korean original), Rain Man, The Big Band Theory, or Music (though tbf, that last one also attracted criticism from neurotypical people, as well). Often times, characters written and designed to be autistic either fall into two patronizing categories: savants with encyclopaedic intelligence or child-like (if not outright children), one-dimensional plot devices. That's why headcannons are often preferred, as they give us a chance to identify with certain characters that aren't pigeon-holed into these categories and are simply allowed to be themselves.

As for why I personally headcannon Huey Freeman as being autistic, allow me to discuss some traits I noticed:

1. Special interest - This is the one that is front and centre. In fact, I'd reasonably say that perhaps he's best defined by his special interest - (leftist) politics/black identity. After the 9/11 attacks, most of the comics were about Huey and Ceaser commenting about relevant news events to the point that characters like Jazmine and the other members of the DuBois family got sidelined quickly. This also carries over to the TV show, as although the focus is much more split between the Freemans, Uncle Ruckus, and the DuBois family, when Huey does get major roles in episodes, they're often the harder-hitting, political ones where ideological reasons drive his actions (EX: A Huey Freeman Christmas, Return of the King [even if it was a dream], ...Or Die Trying, and The Hunger Strike to name a few). Within his room, he has posters of Che Guevarra and Malcolm X in his room, which show a level of strong admiration; while that is certainly something neurotypical people would do, I have a harder time believing that it's something a neurotypical 10-year-old would do. (He also has a special interest in martial arts, as well as Star Wars in the comics.)

2. Failure to grasp social cues and norms. Now, this is one I could see being a little more abstract; one of the most concrete examples I could think of was A Huey Freeman Christmas, in which he turns the school's Christmas pageant into a broadway-level production with his own tract of what Jesus was like, and he even admits in the end that he missed the mark. I feel like infodumping could fall either into this or the previous category, as earlier in that same episode, we see him infodumping about the pagan history of Christmas, and later in Season 3's A Date with the Booty Warrior, we see him infodumping about the Prison-Industrial Complex. (Granted, he was asked about what he knew, but it was quite extensive, and the prisoner who asked him even followed up with, "did you just say what I was tryin' to say but smarter?") When I first made this headcannon, I included the very first episode, The Garden Party, as an example, where he tries to convince everyone about Jesus being black, Ronald Reagan being the devil, and the government lying about 9/11 at the titular party; however, upon rewatch, I realized that perhaps he was deliberately trying to get a rise out of the people. (Still not the best place to preach, though.) This often leads to him being rather isolated from his peers, with Jazmine often being the sole exception as his only real friend.

3. Struggling with expressing and regulating emotion. You can quite literally count the number of times on one hand that Huey has smiled. His scowl is a trademark for his character, no doubt a result of always letting the world get to him. With the already-established special interest in politics, I completely get it, as that can be one of the most depressing interests to have, especially when everything is so absurdly stupid (as is satire). However, even when isn't feeling this way, he still maintains this scowl.

Those were the main ones I wanted to point out, but I also do want to note a few things that I think could go either way. In The Hunger Strike, we see Granddad tempting Huey to eat something by making Veggie Burgers, and while this could imply that he's vegetarian, it could also be interpreted as him having sensory issues with his regular burgers, as veggie burgers do tend to be a lot more consistent. In addition, I also want to make one disclaimer: I haven't watched the fourth season and have only scratched the surface of the comics, so perhaps there are some stronger examples of certain traits there.

Lastly, I do want to emphasize that autism is a spectrum, meaning that individuals may often struggle in certain areas, but be completely fine in others. In addition, when it comes to the three levels of support needs, Huey would undoubtedly be level 1 (low support needs).

That all being said, what do you think about this? I could very well understand arguments that he isn't, especially since this isn't a common headcannon.