Oh shit I remember watching cloud atlas like a year ago and also being blown away that it was basically dialectical materialism in movie form. Really good movie.
Yeah, the race switching goes both ways, and considering the W Siblings, their gender swaps I imagine are pretty well thought out. I enjoyed the reincarnation angle- or the 'everyone has the possibility to be everyone else depending on their circumstance'.
Idpol wise- I'm pretty into portrayals of anything, depending on the context. Spoilers: I was so so surprised of the Game of Thrones rape controversy (wow, that was half a decade ago). The rape is extraordinarily fucked up in the books, and was considerably more toned down in the show, the portrayal obviously being negative, but also implied- (not explicitly shown onscreen), and yet a lot of people reacted really negatively. The show started with a woman being raped by a husband she was forced to marry- who eventually then loves him...? The idea portraying 'uber villain Ramsay as uber evil' as crossing the line was very odd. I understand as a culture we might have been over rape stories (i know I am) but in a show as a critique of medieval society...? Medieval setting combined with adaptation of books? It's kinda necessary. Especially when you view the show in a broader scope- where a season later Ramsay gets viciously murdered by Sansa- probably leading a lot of viewers to have catharsis, however manufactured.
I'm very into portrayals of women however, I forgive GOT because there's such a variety of women, with a lot of commentary on the limited roles they were allowed to have during medieval adjacent setting. I'm very pro anti-slut shaming, very pro funny women, very pro bizarre women. I disagree with the idea we should be promoting 'strong female characters' if we're talking literally. I'm not interested in a woman being flawless, i'm more interested in seeing how people cope with problems differently to me (or in ways I agree with) I saw Network recently, and while I agree with its politics and thought there were great scenes, the two female characters are filling two annoying archetypes. Both academy award winning! Very disappointed. I hope it's an 70's culture thing rather than the writer's views of women.
True. The porn was definitely on its way out by S4/5, but the switch might've been too much.
The problem with the rape scene is that they had already botched up the Cersei/Jaime sex scene at the cathedral, so it looked like rape, and the directors and writers did not do themselves any favors later.
Hardly a groundbreaking opinion but the book is very good, far superior to the film.
I get that the movie makes good points and has a lot of merit, but I can't get over the perpetuation of the erasure of Asian men in Hollywood.