 What are you drinking there? Your mom. That was way too dark to be my mother. Oh, no. Go back to her stupid ranks as he did some Corbin. I'm Rick. He's got the clitoris. He's got the clitoris. He's got the clitoris. Follow someone personal on YouTube channel. Link's right down there. Just like on a golf course. The links. Link, that's the first thing you think of is... Golf course and Link? So I was just... I think of Zelda. Link is the guy's... Anyway, that's not what this is about. Today we are doing a moody review of our second Asami's film. Oh, I thought it was their second film. I was like, wow, I had a dream we saw a lot more than two films. Is every time you say Asami's do you think Asami's name? I don't know. It's just exactly what I think of. Anyway, but we reviewed a Village Rock stars because that was highly, highly, highly requested. Highly, highly, highly requested. Last time we did the Amamis. Right? But this is directed, written, produced, cinematographed, cost-tuned, production designed, and probably acted. I know her family was in it. Did you see all of the DOS names and the credits? It's all their family. I was like, this is just the family that got together and made a movie. Which is fantastic. And crazy. Anyways, so Village Rock stars, if you haven't seen it, it's 127 minutes. That's like nothing. Just go watch it. Even if you don't enjoy it, it's only 27 minutes. Come on, go watch it. Anyways, 100% spoiler of you just because that's how we like to do things. We like to spoil you. Rick, initial thoughts. We got a paragraph. Hey, isn't that exciting? It's exciting stuff. A Florida project-esque exactly what I thought of. Coming-of-age story that allows itself to do what too many films don't know how to do and that is to simply just be a slice of life you're meant to take little slow bites out of and enjoy. 100%. It was one of those things you're just watching this little girl. It's almost like a documentary. Yeah, it feels very documentary. I did hear that it was basically two people. I think she had a sound person and her holding the camera. Wow. That was all that was there. Wow. That's true. That's really, really impressive. Which is insane. To make a film this way is impossible. Especially this well. This well. This good. When I saw the credits rolling up and I saw I knew the writing and the directing and all that. But then literally like costuming. And then, so like 15 different hats being worn just by Rima, right? Is that how you pronounce it? Rima. Rima. R-I-M-A, right? Just by Rima. And then 75% of the rest of the crew credits are same last name. Yeah. Dots. So yeah, it was just a straight up family affair. But for such minimal amount of crew cinematography was insane. I mean it helps obviously it's like if you film a film in Karala. Karala, right? It's a beautiful country with beautiful waters, beautiful sunsets. But it's like the best cinematography we've seen. And it's probably her holding the camera. Just going around. And it was very and I'll probably use this all of the time because it was part of the template and the framework of shaping Indian cinema outside of the Bollywood expression. And that is so much of this reminded me of the same my dog embarking in my template as Satyajit. I really didn't just freeze and say that all the time. Very because this Satyajit Raya will constantly refer to any film that feels very flying the wall doesn't really take you through a definitive storyline as much as just letting you through an experience in an emotional state. And very much in the same way because we refer to this film a lot. One of our favorite films is The Florida Project. And this had that because of the kids you know that. And I actually the one thing I would this is me being my armchair quarterback I would personally probably if I had been asked call it Village Rockstar Singular because I felt it was far more about her than it was everybody. Now I believe this was done maybe she was saying just the Village Rockstar's are the entire entire community and that's clearly the dedication at the beginning of the film. This is this is my home. These are my people. So it's for all of them. But from an audience standpoint I felt it was really it was just it was just her story. 100% and if this girl was she beautiful? Yeah, she's not an actress. She's related to obviously I'm assuming Rima. Yeah, because it's Bunny Zadas. I don't know how. But to get once we've said this in a few things to get kids to act it's not an easy task to act well. Especially especially kids who potentially I'm not saying it's true who potentially have not been around the camera. They need to be natural around a camera because what happens when anyone's put in front of a camera is they start to not be themselves. It's just the natural thing this mechanism pops up. It's one of the reasons actors train is to get rid of that tendency to suddenly go there's a camera on me there's a camera on me and yeah, they did in like it looked like a documentary. You were following these kids and that might be the case. She just got real people and she was like I go out today do what you're going to do right which would be genius to do. Yeah, yeah, because I was watching. She's never acted before. She's not an actress and she's just just just be even this is the one moment of when they're doing the ceremony for her after she got in her period. Which was heartbreaking and like so frustrating. We can talk about that in a second because there's a couple of messages in this. That's for me. I had to push and pull on but there is that moment when they're forgive me for not knowing what it's properly called but when they're putting the red on her head and they're pouring water on her it looked the proximity of the shot was super close and it looked like she had no idea there was a camera there. No idea there was a camera there. I wonder how big it must not have been very big. It must have been a small I don't know what I would love to know her actual budget for this and what equipment was used would very much love to know that. That would be really interesting if it was done like basically what is it called guerrilla filmmaking? Yeah, guerrilla filmmaking. You and a camera going around there's almost no budget but to do that and make it look as good as it did because that takes color correction and that takes I'm pretty sure I saw color correction you did correct. That is actually one of the most unknown unsung heroes of any video are the color correctors. We are probably really guilty of not giving credit to color correctors but on a film like this you absolutely must because you do recognize the budget was probably non-existent probably and to make it look that good you can get away with lighting mistakes with great color correction. So yeah lighting is obviously one of the most important things but if it's blown out color correctors can make something that looks go from looking like a student film to going looking professional. Which for those of you unfamiliar with it the whole color correction and production design and art design together we often as an audience will take for granted, I'm talking about all of us collectively so you stupid babies, us you can watch a film and be done with it and man just carte blanche go man the production design and art direction were fantastic forgetting that every single frame of film has a level of color correction to it so there is a fluidity to the aesthetic you're getting visually a template because just like you have filters for example if you do a camera on your phone or you do an instagram post and you can choose filters if you don't have color correction it's obvious it looks like okay that was shot on a different camera that was shot with different lighting in the same room because one scene could have taken all day to film but it's only one minute on camera and the lighting is different and people moved and the shot so yeah it was top notch it was so freaking impressive how it did the whole the whole part when she got her period it was so when I was like okay obviously they were telling me how I'm guessing rural villages are when they said multiple times don't hang out with boys all those different times we are totally unaccustomed to here in America unintended, unaccustomed and obviously a lot of parts of India are as well if you grew up in Mumbai it's definitely not the same as if you grew up in a small village like this but they kept throwing in stuff like that and you just felt so bad for this little girl she just wanted to hang out with her friends who just happened to be guys she'd rather go play in the mud Ashley was like that why are you talking about that why are you talking about that why are you talking about that why did you turn into that why did you turn into that I don't know play in the mud what was I saying mud and then when it got to the part where she got her period and then she was doing all this stuff and she was becoming a woman she did all this stuff but you could tell that she didn't actually want to do that but then also allowing them to do it the women brought her to it what did they say she's become a woman I don't remember what the line was that was something obviously signifying the fact that she started getting her period but they were dragging her to her and stuff like that it was just so difficult to watch at certain times why are you doing all this that's where I said I have the push and pull because on the one hand I do recognize this aspect which is a whole other thing we could talk about with the film which is places in the world that weren't deeply touched by the industrial revolution and then the technology revolution but particularly the industrial revolution places that were hit by that which were primarily cities lost much of that tribal culturalism and it became more of a collectivism because of the nature of city life and industrial living there's pros and cons to that because on the one hand you can say you got rid of some things that you don't need to be doing because many times it falls into the realm of something superstitious and empty religious activity however the flip side of that is we miss in cities and we miss in industrial worlds the aspect of rights of passage and I'm really big on rights of passage depending on how they're done I love the idea of cultures I love I love in cultures where they celebrate women having their menstrual cycle and becoming a woman and like they're treated with the celebration in the community and it's a wonderful thing where the boy has become a man for all those rituals and they affirm that because in industrialized city places like here in America the rights of passage there are none it's like you lose your virginity and get drunk there's basically 18 you can vote I guess if that matters if it's an election year and then 21 is probably the biggest that's the big one just because we in America like to drink but it really is a sad thing obviously if you're in the Jewish community as well you've got different if you're in the Hispanic community you have kids and yetas for the women but yeah there's not too many it was very interesting to just watch and that's all you could do in this film is just watch and they let it you're gonna just watch this and you're gonna watch this little girl grow up and then find who she is and I loved I think it was intentional which any of the intentionality in this was deeply so it's very possible you could assume an intentionality by the writer-director and think to yourself clearly that's what you were conveying I didn't mean that but I'm glad that you took from it and that would be at the end even though she had been told don't play with that and don't do that I loved how the film she is up in the tree with the guys and she's not getting in trouble for it and there was something I could even get emotional about it probably one of my favorite moments in the film because you're wondering when it gets to the end you're like what about the guitar we're not gonna leave the guitar alone there's gotta come full circle on the guitar and to see the mom walking back with it and the smile on the face knowing she's able to do this and that's a big deal for her daughter and then the kids dancing and celebrating it's just there's so much I could say about that I'm sure you can too that's probably my favorite moment in the film is that moment of the mom coming back and she has this look on her face that's very clear that for all those other moments and things that she had where she's the very stoic and serious and we gotta survive the mom was clearly happy with what she did I did like the relationship with the mom at the beginning you thought it was gonna be a little stern but then it showed that that was just that situation and then she was very loving she wanted the best she just didn't have a lot that she could give her single mom I love that relationship that the mom even though they were very very poor didn't have a lot of means she still wanted to get her daughter what she wanted yeah it was a beautiful relationship and in getting it for her this is the part that gets me emotional in getting it for her she not only was giving her something she wanted it was continuing to allow and this is a powerful statement continuing to allow her daughter to dream even though many of her dreams had been killed and unfortunately a lot of parents will tell their kids don't do that you're gonna get hurt like I did don't dream it's not practical so for her even in the midst of what she's lost it wasn't just I want you to have the guitar it is I want you to dream and the other thing speaking of the mom I found it providentially ironic we mentioned this just before we started filming that of all the times we watched this it happened to fall at the exact same time when we found out about the flooding that's going on in Assam in the northeast right now we didn't watch it because of that we had already scheduled to watch this and it just happened to fall on that and it actually in the film it talks about the flooding her dad the husband drowned which apparently happens every year every year but all the time this time about 50 plus people last count I heard it was 50 when I woke up and now it's 70 something and it's this is a whole other subject but I find it aberrant and I cannot comprehend why when I went to the telegraph which is a big Indian publication and I went to the Times of India it was basically a sub-story Kanye West not running for president took higher precedent on the telegraph yes and for the Times of India they relegated it to the very bottom of the feed they had photos they had other perfluous ridiculousness at the top when literally millions of their citizens are in the midst and granted it may have a commonality to it but that's been a repetitive thing when the Cycling went through Bengal there was this lack of attention in the media of paying attention and like actually because they happen so often I don't know if that's a flooding because obviously if the city floods that's a big deal here in America that's what I said to Indrani because I told her and she said I'm finding out that my neighboring brothers and sisters just north of me are having this problem from my American boyfriend in Los Angeles he found out before I did I was just watching the news downstairs and there was nothing on I got a lot of messages from stupid babies and it isn't just because it's so frequent because I said to Indrani I said if we had a rain or a flood it rains in Seattle all the time if we had a rain that displaced a few million people and killed 70 something people it would be main news here and why it's not there is very very sad and I got messages because I posted about it on Instagram from beautiful stupid babies basically saying yeah Rick we're used to it we're used to being ignored well not here guys that's the northeast right? not here guys we love you you've been on our hearts all day and give us more information and we feel really powerless we wish there was more we could do for you but know that we're not ignoring it so yeah that's our our review of this film good film we're from Rima Rima first because I know she's a pretty prominent in the Asami's industry and Ms. Das if you're watching we would love to talk with you because we want to we got a lot of questions about how you made this one film absolutely what should be the next Asami's is it that's right Asami's film that we should watch down below and other of those regions I know there's still a few regions that we haven't got to yet Punjab being one yeah we know we feel you but apparently there's not a ton of great films there's a few really good films that they recommend but they make you up for the food and the music the Punjabis are my people anyway let us know down below