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

For this Sunday Kino Night, first up is Tea and Sympathy (1956), one more round of 50s melodrama, though from director Vincente Minnelli this time; we watched his film-noir The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) previously. This one follows a college student with many effeminate mannerisms who others bully for not being masculine enough. His housemaster’s wife (Deborah Kerr) is the only person who sympathizes with him. Most reviewers and commentators have interpreted the protagonist as a closeted gay man, and this appears to have been the standard line at the time of release, too, since the play on which it is based was considered transgressive in its time. Excellent reviews for this one, so let’s check it out.

Next up is Postman Blues (1997), a Japanese comedy-action-thriller about a mild-mannered mailman who meets up with an old friend who has entered into the yakuza; shortly afterward, he finds that someone has slipped drugs into his mailbag, prompting the police to brand him as a dangerous criminal, and pursue him. Can he prove his innocence? We’ll have to watch a bunch of humorous chase scenes to find out. and This is widely considered the magnum opus of Japanese cult auteur director SABU.

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

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

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

  • Tea and Sympathy: https://letterboxd.com/film/tea-and-sympathy/
  • Postman Blues: https://letterboxd.com/film/postman-blues/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

  • Tea and Sympathy: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049829/parentalguide/
  • Postman Blues: Sorry, nothing on DTDD or IMDB.

CWs for Tea and Sympathy:

  • Bullying.
  • Male character mocked for crying.
  • Homophobia.
  • Implied prostitution.
  • Cheating.
  • Smoking.
  • Alcohol.

CWs for Postman Blues:

  • Gun violence.
  • Blood and gore.
  • Beatings.
  • Cutting of flesh.
  • Finger mutilation.
  • Drug use.
  • Police brutality.
  • Anxiety attacks.
  • Mental illness.

Links to movies:

  • Tea and Sympathy: https://tankie.tube/w/qtW5q6FyPpRQCNNDyawucJ
  • Postman Blues: https://tankie.tube/w/rrx18HtHnh69a4YEWfTzhz