Naika Reviews “EXHUMA” (2024)

It’s been ages since I’ve written a review here, but after watching Jang Jae-hyun’s EXHUMA last night, I think it deserves a spot on the old blog. Simply put, I CANNOT stop thinking about this film. The scope, cinematography, and sound was outstanding despite my crappy theater experience in suburban Maryland (the bottom edges of my screen were filled by light reflected off of the Exit signs). But what gripped me the most about EXHUMA was how well it wove occult superstitions, detective work, and, dare I say, history, into its tight story without any hiccups, pauses or stops (this was a 2+ hour movie and I wasn’t bored AT ALL).

But today’s write-up will be a quick one, and I won’t provide any spoilers or analysis because, frankly, it’s best to just watch this film cold…assuming you have a decent enough grasp of East Asian politics. As some of you know, my Wife is from China and she’s well versed in a lot of Chinese folk horror where intersections with history, daoism, magic, demons, jiang shi and such are commonplace. Per her reflections last night, this film follows these ideas closely, even when it comes to the use of sticky rice, chickens, animal blood and other rituals. EXHUMA is chock-full of Korean shamanism and its intersections with other occult ideas found across East Asia, but manages to illustrate them with unsettling intensity and dread.

And despite all this evil littering the film’s runtime, nothing is taken away from our four leads. Comprised of 2 young leads and 2 old ones (including the venerable Choi Min-sik of Oldboy fame), EXHUMA’S heroes are the kind that ply their dark trades in the rampant inequality of South Korea. They’re not charity workers or wizened experts shunned from society mind you, but schemers engaged in enterprises that tend to benefit the wealthy, and the film actively criticizes their greed in a unique way that I won’t spoil. This for sure is one of the reasons why I’m in awe of this film – it’s dense in lore and mysticism, yet it still finds ways to poke fun at everyone (keep an eye out for Choi Min-sik’s blurbs about a future German son-in-law).

And despite the wanton capitalism that our leads risk their lives for, EXHUMA has enough heart to show you how each of them develop as characters when faced with demons and death. Yes, they’re all money-grubbing bastards, but when faced with certain doom, they’ll bat for each other in ways that I found moving…almost as if they’re a family. Yes their camaraderie is muted, but if you look closely, it’s all there, plain as day.

Lastly, I do need to talk about the horror of EXHUMA. I don’t want to spoil anything, but frankly, I was floored at how well the camera captured so much when it came to the effects. Fog machines, tall trees, dim lighting and some CGI animals are a plenty here, but I have to commend how well Jang’s cameraperson captured the enormity of the film’s ghastly proceedings. Whether it was through a slow zoom during a tense exorcism, or a low shot capturing the dark surroundings of an unmarked grave, EXHUMA used every frame it had to tell a foreboding tale of horror hidden deep in the wilderness. It’s a mystery of epic proportions that requires patience, attention, and a good gag reflex as well.

All in all, EXHUMA is a must-watch film. If you adored Jang’s earlier effort, SVAHA THE SIXTH FINGER, then you need to steel yourself for this. Now I’ve heard folks compare this to The Wailing but that just goes to show you how horrible we are in North America (sometimes) when it comes to watching Asian cinema – we tend to categorize things in vague monoliths by whittling out a work’s nuances…literally, ‘you all look the same’. Both are folk horror films with Korean shamanism, but that’s about it. I would argue that EXHUMA takes things in a different direction from that of The Wailing, but again, I’m not going to spoil things here (on a separate note – my Wife first alerted me to this film thanks to Chinese social media). If you’re looking for an engaging horror film from South Korea packed with a relentless pace, then what are you waiting for? Take the plunge, watch EXHUMA while it’s still in theaters, and unearth the darkness tonight!

Scripting Sucks

Well folks, I’m just coming on here briefly to say that I miss this place and that I do have something lined up to write. Currently I’m learning the ropes at my new job while writing a new script for a YouTube video on my free time. Sorry for not having anything for Halloween or the New Year last year. A LOT has happened to me but we’re doing alright. We are surviving.

Hope you all are as well.

~Naika

Nostalgia From Those Lonely Days

If you’ve never heard of this album and have some passing interest in jazz fusion, I urge you to listen to the link below. Will have something to write about next month folks, so I hope you’re all well.

Naika’s Year in Review – 2022

Vox’s 2022 in 7 Minutes

2022 was a year filled with gray for me. Whether it was work related or socialpolitical, there was just so much that I’m not even sure if I’m ready for 2023 now. My Supreme Court rolled back Abortion rights here in the U.S., lots of famous people that I looked up to passed away from a Pop Culture Perspective, and the rest of the world is dealing with fascists pretending to be governments. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so let’s go!

The YouTube Channel

The YouTube channel’s output has slowed down a bit thanks to work and unfortunately, the Recording Industry Association of Japan reared its ugly head my way once again and removed my Plastic Love / City Hunter video. You can find it on my Vimeo here, but let me tell ya, I’m not way more reticent to make more music videos, and if you couple that with more CityPop channels getting canned this year, I may have to be more careful in the future. However, I am still scripting content and I’m finally reviewing my draft of my 1st tokusatsu video so hopefully we’ll start filming soon. For those of you that have visited and supported my new channel after all these, I am eternally grateful.

Work & Adulting

Work was punishing in 2021, and it remained that way for both me and my Wife for 2022. I’m coming home later, I’m getting older, and I’m way more tired from the Clinical Research grind than I used to be. I’m lucky that I can work from home a few days a week but even then, there’s just so much to juggle. The fact that I was able to churn out 2 long-form YouTube videos amidst my work schedule was an absolute miracle and hopefully I can keep it going for 2023. 2023 is going to be another busy year of work and adulting (hoping to get a new car this year too), so I’m gonna cross my fighters and hope it all works out!

Arsenal in Baltimore!!!

We spent a LOT of money for this but we finally did it. We went to Baltimore (was easier than we thought it would be) to go see Arsenal play again Everton in the Ravens Stadium and it was A-MAZING!!! Seeing Gabriel Jesus score and watching Martinelli, GJ, Saliba, Matt Turner, Saka and seeing others like Hector Bellerin, Reiss Nelson and Granit Xhaka was amazing. I did my chants, we saw goals and we saw a LOT of Arsenal fans too. One of the biggest surprises for both me and the Wife for 2022. Here’s to hoping the Gunners will visit the DMV again this summer and I hope to God their form continues this year in the Prem. Fingers crossed!

Blu Ray Madness:

2022 was a banner year for me and my Blu Ray collection and I swear to God I massacred my wallet numerous times because of it. More horror, more martial arts, and more Criterion Collection craziness and I’m still parsing through my acquisitions. So much of what I saw was very surprising, including Righting Wrongs, Demon Knight, Quatermass and the Pit, the Boxer from Shantung, and Gavan so far. And thanks to Arrow Video and 88 films, 2023 looks to be another crazy year for me and the wallet. Overall, 2022 was a great year for physical media acquisitions and hopefully, I’ll get around to finishing ’em all up soon.

World Cup 2022

The 1st World Cup in the Middle East will be remembered in many ways. Groundbreaking for the Middle East? For sure. Terrible from a labor perspective? Most definitely. Earth-shattering from a Footballing perspective? Indeed. I shared ALL of John Oliver’s love and frustrations with this year’s tournament because it delivered all the good and bad that made it synonymous with the tone of 2022. Full of upsets, we witnessed giant-killings from the likes of Morocco & Japan, all the hilarious drama from CR7, Bukayo Saka being held back by an underwhelming England, the failed promises of Belgium’s golden generation, a humbled Brazil, and arguably, the best Final ever. World Cup 2022 will live long into my memory, for both good and bad.

The Passing of Great People

We lost Ichiro Mizuki, Coolio, Pele, Nichelle Nichols, Anita Pointer of the Pointer Sisters (if you’re an 80s kid, you PROBABLY at least heard 1 or 2 songs from them), Barbara Walters (I grew up with her on TV), the great Angelo Badalamenti of Twin Peaks fame, Kristie Alley, Gallagher the Watermelon Slayer, CNN anchor Bernard Shaw (like he was always there when I was young), Queen Elizabeth and hell, even Anne Heche (that was a shock). Olivia Newton-John was also sad news since she frequented the Cancer Center I used to work for in the 2000s for her treatments. Yu-gi-oh creator Kazuki Takahashi was also a big shock too. I also didn’t know that Mark Shields died…I used to watch him in the 2010s on Shields and Brooks on PBS and I always loved what he had to say about stuff. Genre film staples like musician Vangelis, and even Ray fucking Liotta passed away. Jason David Frank from the Power Rangers was a big blow for me however because he was a big big part of my life growing, so losing him was quite hard. Shaw Brothers legend Wang Yu also died, and he was instrumental in my newfound love for all things Shaw during the 2000s for me. Even folks like Sidney Poitier, Meat Loaf, William Hurt and Louie Anderson passed away. But for me, the biggest blow this year was losing Kevin Conroy. He’ll always be the Batman for my generation, and to know that I’ll never hear his voice as the Dark Knight again will hurt for a long time.

And that’s as far as I’ll go folks. Thanks again for your support over the years everyone and I hope you all have a wonderful 2023.

~Naika

Naika Reviews “Vicious Fun” (2020)

I’ve watched a LOT of horror this year from all sorts of categories and platforms. Whether it was Netflix Found Footage with Incantation or big screen thrills like Jordan Peele’s NOPE, I had a lot to choose from for this year’s annual Halloween Movie review. So, why the fuck am I choosing Shudder’s 80s throwback called Vicious Fun?

Well, quite simply, because it’s EVERYTHING that a horror film SHOULDN’T be. PERIOD.

I try my best to be positive on this blog when it comes to film reviews, but the Wife and I were so upset by this that even its indie sensibilities and loving odes to 80s horror couldn’t save it from the truth – that it’s all fluff and no fun.

Everything about Vicious Fun is supposed to ooze loads of odes to the 80s. From our hero’s Marty McFly get-up to his job working for a Fangoira-esque magazine, the film is, in essence, stylized as every 80s horror fan’s wet dream. However, its novelty stops there as the film not only bombards us with every anachronistic 80s trope that never existed (save for the male chauvinism), it rarely has anything to say from a horror standpoint. The gore works, but the film creates absolutely no tension to get us there, leaving us with a vacuum that’s filled to the brim with overlong tracking shots, good-but-pointless dialogue, and a synthwave score that’s so “I’ve never experienced the 80s but here’s what I THINK it sounds like” that it’s unfathomable.

The film’s most terrible sin however is that our protagonist is a self-righteous asshole who should be playing second fiddle to the film’s best character, the badass serial killer avenger known as Carrie (played to perfection by Amber Goldfarb). The film would’ve been tighter all around if it focused on her and retooled its premise as an 80s siege horror, but instead it’s saddled with nostalgia porn that’s so off the mark that it almost feels like the director riffed off both Kung Fury and Commando Ninja while boldly proclaiming ‘this is the 80s!’. Had the director watched something like the unjustly cancelled Netflix TV show Archive81, he would’ve known that it takes more than just filters and synthwave to cash-in on our nostalgia for tactile pop-media. To do so with a killjoy like our lead not only kills the film’s momentum when the saucier moments emerge, but it really eats up space for the cool things Carrie does do in the film.

Speaking of characters, the film unfortunately does the disservice of not only taking a shit on Amber Goldfarb, but David Koechner & Julian Richlings as well. I love Julian and he was one of the brighter spots of the film, but Vicious Fun’s terrible use of expository, Kill Bill-esque introductions for our league of serial killers goes nowhere. And for all the big talk the film has about how maniacal these guys are, they’re all dispatched in ways that are totally forgettable. And don’t get me started on how they film a fight because its choppy, poorly edited and provides no pay-off after all the exposition.

All in all, Vicious Fun is hot-air horror that goes down hard like a burning zeppelin. The film clearly is meant to be a lot of fun, but given its pedestrian filler, misplaced nostalgia, terrible synthwave score and lack of tension, it can’t even muster that. Campy horror in the 21st century has to be more than clever nods and pink/blue filters for window dressing. It’s got to have the kind of narrative meat that deserves to be hacked up by a gang of maniacs and if Vicious Fun couldn’t do that, than I guess it’s your cue to move on to the next film that can.

July 2022 Updates!!!

Yeah folks, it’s been a long time since I returned to the blog. Work’s kept me pretty busy. So much so that even my YouTube stuff is slowing down a bit. Hoping that it’ll taper off a bit in the second half of the year but we’ll see.

But let me be clear and say that 2022 (at least from a sociopolitical lens) is still in the ‘this is hell’ category. Living in the DMV area, you can kind of feel how angry folks are with institutions that are ‘supposed to protect us’, especially when it comes abortion and women’s health care. It’s hard to stay positive from a sociopolitical lens but it help to talk with friends and advocate for voices that do their best to amplify progressive ideas. Just don’t expect those kinds of thoughts from the Manchins and Sinemas of the world (and don’t ever expect that from crazies across the aisle – they’ll legislate ANYTHING that will hurt, imprison or kill people).

At least my love of film is helping me out here. My Wife is also inundated with work so we commiserate by eating out, watching shit on TV, movies or snuggling. In times like this, it’s what cha’ gotta do to survive.

Hope to write again on here soon folks. Until then, stay strong.

~Naika

2021 was Terrifying

Not gonna lie folks, I was not in the mood to write one of these last year because 2021 almost destroyed me from a professional standpoint. My coworkers and I lost a dear team member early last year (not COVID related) which devasted us when we got the call on a Sunday. Despite adding new coworkers to our research team, our morale was impacted massively. We were then hit with back-to-back research audits that literally killed us, with the most egregious one being an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ scenario with some of my pals working until 3am. The last of these audits finished around July but more questions persisted from August to September. Work was difficult last year, and it was the main reason why I didn’t want to write.

Which brings me to my next reason why I held off from the blog, and that’s YouTube. As of this moment, Naika Video is up to 282 subscribers and overall, I think the channel is doing well. I’m slowly working my way back up to 500 subs per the old channel, and with a few ideas lined up, I’m hoping we’ll add some more variety to the proceedings later this year. Movie reviews and the like will still persist here, but that’ll depend on how my free time unfolds. Twitter’s also eating up some of my blogging time since the algorithm makes it hard to gain a YouTube following, and the 2 avenues that are helping right now are Reddit & Twitter. I apologize to the few of you that still visit the blog but I hope I can at least drop some reviews here and there this year.

And lastly, 2021 was a long and winding road per my personal life. The Wife & I are doing fine but she’s had a job change and you can probably imagine how stressful that can be during a pandemic. I’m also proud to say that she’s finally a permanent resident here in the States and that despite the Trump’s best efforts, no one deported her (ROFL). However, I still haven’t seen my parents in over 2 years (she hasn’t seen them since 2014!) and the pandemic is still wrecking havoc for travelers, so much so that the both of us are too afraid to fly. And every time we ARE ready, another variant emerges, so I think we’ll be holding off on air travel for a while.

There are so many things I should’ve covered last year, given the blog’s 10th anniversary, but blogging is a contemplative exercise for me and given how thin work and life have stretched me, I found it difficult to just sit down, relax and write. The Horror of Dracula review last October was my first post in a long while and I hope to at least write-up a few things at some point this year (possibly a review on Van Damme’s Cyborg and a few other gems I saw last year). I hope I can write more this year, but for now, if you need anything from me, you can find me on Naika Video.

2021 also took away so many people from the world last year, including many in the film, music and comic book world that I greatly admired. From Hirotaka Izumi, one of T-Square’s longtime pianists, to Sonny Chiba, Golgo-13 creator Takao Saito, Kentaro Miura of Berserk, DMX, Yaphet Kotto from The Running Man, filmmaker Richard Donner, actor Dean Stockwell from Blue Velvet, Interview with the Vampire author Anne Rice, Desmond Tutu and Golden Girls legend Betty White. When you add my coworker to that list, I can tell ya that 2021 was just not a good year for me in that front. Many of these people, my buddy included, were people that I aspired to be and I’m still gutted that they’re gone.

So yeah, I apologize if anyone is expecting another big new year write-up, but that won’t happen. 2021 was just too much.

~I luv ya all, Naika

10th Anniversary Post: Naika Reviews “Horror of Dracula” (1958)

It’s been awhile folks, and since this year is my 10th anniversary on WordPress, I thought I’d spice up my annual Halloween Movie review with a whack of da’ hammer. Hammer Horror that is!

That’s right you bastards, I watched my first Hammer Horror film last month & I loved every minute of Terence Fisher’s Horror of Dracula (or Dracula in the U.K.), starring Christopher Lee as the Count himself! It’s a gothic, theatrical thriller that’s a bit out of sync with the gory stuff I generally watch, but it nonetheless delivers & here’s why.

First of all, the film’s a masterstroke in production design. Though much of the film is lit conventionally, the sets & props combine to give off an eerie mood that’s hard to describe, with the standout being Dracula’s castle. It’s a foreboding structure that plays a pivotal role in the horror found here, where every corner or crevice hides a shadow that haunts its halls. The castle’s surrounding towns & villages look devoid of warmth during nightfall, and though all our actors are lit as bright as you like, the backdrops behind them feature so much stark color & contrast that there’s this unspoken dread hovering in each scene. The film’s mise en scene is so good that it heightens the suspense once Dracula enters the fray, where the shadows that surround him seem to darken further as he closes in on his next victim.

Secondly, the acting here is superb. All major & minor cast members earn their bread thanks to a fine script that even allows a few of them to bare fangs, so to speak. Michael Gough, Christopher Lee & Melissa Stribling are all wonderfully cast as Arthur Holmwood, Count Dracula & Mina Holmwood respectively, but the man who really steals the show for me is Peter Cushing as the great Doctor Van Helsing. Erudite, calm, and full of wit & drive, this was my first sight of him in a horror film and he does not disappoint. He eats up every scene he’s in, and when he’s not ramming a stake through a vampire, he’s hatching a plan to fuck more of ’em over. Hammer fans weren’t kidding about Cushing here, and I finally see why.

In addition to the film’s set design & acting, its rousing music deserves a standing ovation. For some of us 21st century horror fans who love the extreme, it’s nice to see how much a score punctuates a scene once its perfectly timed to a scare, a revelation, or a grisly action than renders a vampire dead at last. From Dracula’s first appearance to the horrors that overtake his victims, the strings and horns of James Bernard’s score set the stage for a different kind of horror that’s less about overt gore on a visual level, and more about how a scene, on the whole (through its pace, lighting and music), imposes dread upon you with every twist, death or unearthly discovery that befalls our heroes. It’s chilling music meant for that languid scourge we call Dracula, and it all fits like a fucking glove

But the last reason why this film delivers the scares this Halloween is ‘cuz its got ALL the classic tropes we grew up hearing about! Garlic, stakes, sunlight, crosses & dreadful scenery are mainstays of bloodsucking cinema, but what gives this film teeth is, well, Lee’s fangs! Though it ain’t the first film to feature Dracula with fangs, it’s the first to feature fangs & blood IN COLOR, making it the grandpa of vivid vampire visuals. Though it’s tame by today’s standards, these tropes were controversial back in their day and earned the film an X rating in the U.K. Prior to this, Dracula was an ‘exotic beast’ who simply frightened us in black & white, but thanks to Terence Fisher & Hammer, he became a tall & brooding wraith whose thirst for female blood was both graphic & sensual, making many a moviegoer blush. You can’t go wrong with these tropes, but it takes one helluva villain to tie it all together, and Christopher Lee’s Dracula is the king of the crop.

Overall, I had a blast watching Horror of Dracula, and thanks to its acting, production design, music & attention to Drac-tastic details, I’ve now begun my dive into more hits from Hammer. Though it’s easy to dismiss this movie as a bygone relic, I myself see it as a piece of horror history, and one that’s as entertaining as The Thing, Hush or Get Out. It might be the kid in me talking, or maybe it’s my knack for camp, but nothing about Horror of Dracula is an eyesore. If anything, it’s a sight to behold because I finally see why countless weekday cartoons & shows from the 80s & 90s referenced Dracula as a well-dressed creep who hates garlic. I’m sure Bela Lugosi had a bit to do with that, but I’ve got a hunch that it’s got a lot more to do with Christopher Lee. Furthermore, TV wasn’t the only place where you’d see references to Hammer’s Dracula. In 1986, Hammer’s Dracula films influenced Hitoshi Akamatsu, a Konami game designer who used the alias Trans Fisher (a parody of Terence Fisher) to help create a Nintendo classic: Devil Castle Dracula (or Castlevania in the West). This title became such a worldwide hit that it spawned one of the greatest franchises in console gaming history, giving Horror of Dracula way more street-cred than any food appropriator on Instagram.

All in all, I love this damn movie, but don’t take my word for it. If you want to celebrate some horror history this Halloween, then go and watch Horror of Dracula tonight. Be shocked, be mortified and be amazed at the sights, sounds and scares of this one-of-a-kind triumph in Technicolor terror!

The 100 Subscribers Special

I’m still shocked that I survived these past 5 months but here I am, alive and well. And guess what? The YouTube channel passed a 100 subs a few months ago so it’s time to celebrate. Hope you guys check it out, along with the newest citypop music video below. Will hopefully return to blogging soon!

OMG, John Oliver did an AAPI Segment!!!!

After a shitty AAPI Heritage Month, I can at least say that someone out there knew and decided “Hey, let’s devote an episode to the AAPI community”. This is a must watch peeps! This is definitely a good way to learn about us and unlearn the damaging stereotypes that are killing us today.