IMPORTANT NOTE: please use a VPN whenever visiting Hextube, or anywhere else on the internet, for that matter. Protect your privacy.

For this Friday Movie Night, first up is Kagemusha (1980), one of the most critically-acclaimed films of one of the most renowned filmmakers of all time, Akira Kurosawa. It is a war epic set in feudal Japan, concerning a petty thief who finds himself enlisted to impersonate a deceased warlord. As he cements his place in his new role, he is torn between his inability to fit in with the social mores of the military-nobility class, and his drive to inhabit the warlord’s life seamlessly, so that he may exert his power to its fullest extent. Universal praise for this one, so let’s check it out.

After that is Lovers Rock (2020), a romance from Steve McQueen, whose films Hunger (2008) and Mangrove (2020) we previously watched. It is part of the “Small Axe” collection of five films (all centering on Black British life, though otherwise unrelated) that he released simultaneously in 2020. The film is set during a wild house party in 1980s London, and sees a dude and a lady meeting and beginning their romance while racial, class, and political tensions threaten to explode around them. Excellent reviews for this one, so we’ll give it a try.

We’ll start at 8PM EST on Hextube, right here:

https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

• Kagemusha: https://letterboxd.com/film/kagemusha/
• Lovers Rock: https://letterboxd.com/film/lovers-rock-2020/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• Kagemusha: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080979/parentalguide/?ref_=tt_ov_at_stry_4
• Lovers Rock: Sorry, nothing on DTDD or IMDB.

CWs for Kagemusha:

• Blood and gore.
• Deaths of animals.
• Cutting of flesh.
• Gun violence.
• Infidelity.
• Implied sex.

CWs for Lovers Rock:

• Kissing.
• Grinding on dance floor.
• Racism.
• Alcohol.
• Drugs.
• Shaky cam.
• Fistfighting.
• Implied sexual assault.

Links to movies:

• Kagemusha: https://tankie.tube/w/sTqcSFRMXP7c1KgWWVKV5w
• Lovers Rock: https://tankie.tube/w/7DLkwbJ4Z71b5FyfCdPxjN