Comrade Yui

December '25 Review Round-Up

The final round-up for 2025, and it's a big one, here early before Christmas! Thanks again for all of your requests!

Cutie Honey, requested by Riley:

2025-12-20 17:50:38 +0000 UTC View Post

Treasure Hunting Is More Than 'Fortune & Glory'

The professional treasure hunter seems like one of those jobs that the movies made us think was a viable career instead of a strange fantasy. Of course, there have been real 'adventurers', soldiers...

November '25 Review Round-Up!

Lots of noir-ish requests for this Noirvember, got to catch up on plenty of great blindspots! Thanks again to all who requested.

Elevator to The Gallows, requested by Chris:

2025-11-29 16:40:35 +0000 UTC View Post

Another Appearance on Pod Casty For You

This time, Jake and Ian invited me to discuss all the adaptations of The Killers, and we had a very good time together. Their Patreon feed is great, so I do recommend checking that out in addition ...

We Will Not Be Saved From The Fallout

The standard line on the late career of Tom Cruise was created in the anticipation and wake of Mission Impossible -- Fallout: that he will move heaven and earth, and himself, marshal the whole indu...

The Infinite Underworld of B-Westerns

Lately I've spent many hours with the westerns that have been abandoned by time -- before it became a prestigious genre with John Ford's Stagecoach and Cecil B. Demille's Union Pacific, the vast ma...

Man On The Borderland, Premiering at CINECITY!

Man On The Borderland, the short film that my friend Tom Oliver directed from a script that I wrote, will be premiering at CINECITY, The Brighton Film Festival!

It will be on November 11th, ...

The Dying Theatrical Mystique

I'm not any economist by any means -- the numbers surrounding the movie industry have seemed to me to be fickle and arbitrary things, one film's bomb becomes another's belated blockbuster, especial...

October '25 Review Round-Up!

Another month of reviews and requests! We had a good variety here for the spooky season, films about the corruption of the mind, body and soul.

Hunger, requested by Francis:

2025-10-30 12:07:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Don Siegel: No Time For Flowers

The art of Siegel is one that, no matter how much time may pass, how many retrospectives there are, or how many books written about him, will never quite get its 'due'. I first came across him as a...

End of Evangelion, End of Eschatology

Spoilers for Neon Genesis Evangelion and The End of Evangelion are found below.

In retrospect, I do feel that I ended up first watching The End of Evangelion (and Evangelion as a whole) prec...

September '25 Review Round-Up!

Another month, another eclectic series of requests!

Hobson's Choice, requested by Konstantin:

2025-09-27 16:06:31 +0000 UTC View Post

Remembrance, Reflection, and Red Sonja

Yesterday I celebrated my 30th birthday, and the unavoidable cliche of using such a milestone to reflect on the past and present is something I imagine I share with most people. There was a time in...

Preliminary Observations on Keisuke Kinoshita

As of this writing I have seen 19 of Keisuke Kinoshita's 50 films, enough of a survey that I can begin to analyze the broad strokes of his artistic effort. I have not seen all his most popular work...

August '25 Review Round-Up

A great and eclectic assemblage of films this month, many classics I am glad to have seen. Thanks again for your requests!

Beauty and The Beast, requested by Chasen:

2025-08-28 12:09:29 +0000 UTC View Post

The Forbidden Files

Watch closely for what is about to happen.

From 1988 to 2010, television commercial director Jean-Teddy Filippe created a series of 13 short films in a series known as The Forbidden Files, w...

The Auteur-As-Event

An insecurity that plagues cinema as an artform is the dogged question of authorship: that, when you 'boil down' to the 'essence' of a work, who is responsible for it, who is in command?

Beca...

Anthony Mann: The Universe In Contrast

The salutary effect of Anthony Mann's work is that, despite its insistent violence and psychological intensity, he is still a figure in the immediate post-Fordian tradition, not ever working in pas...

July '25 Review Round-Up

Another big month of reviews! Thanks again to everyone for their requests.

Funeral Parade of Roses, requested by Francis:

2025-07-25 16:46:01 +0000 UTC View Post

In Search Of Raoul Walsh

The work of the old vanguard of the film business is intimidating -- when I started out doing this in 2017, I hadn't even heard of John Ford, Henry King, or Raoul Walsh, much less contemplated work...

The YA Bridge To Nowhere

On a lark, my partner and I watched 2014's Divergent and 2015's Insurgent, not out of a particular interest but because both of us needed to watch something that wouldn't prove challenging after we...

The Crowd Audio File

The Crowd Audio Commentary is now LIVE!

Pretty sure this is the first silent film we've done, I hope to continue doing many more!

June '25 Review Round-Up!

A boatload of requests this month; thank you all once again!

Pride, requested by Riley:

https://l...

The Detective and The Vampire

Over the past few months, in my efforts to write a new screenplay, I keep coming back to attempting to pen two types of stories that I am very fond of: the vampire story, and the detective story. R...

Escapism in Screwball, Candy, and Cemetery

When the term 'escapism' is brought up in film discussions, it generally serves to denote two separate but related ideas: the notion of 'empty' escape, a rejection of responsibility, morality, and ...

May '25 Review Round-Up

Kuroneko, requested by Chasen:

https://letterboxd.com/comrade_yui/film/kuroneko/

Blood Tea and ...

They Drive By Night Commentary Audio File

They Drive By Night Commentary is Live!

Hoping this is the first of many Walsh films! There's a lot to get to...

The Far Country Commentary Audio File