[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to five minute film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library system.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to another episode of five minute film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library system. This is the podcast where we take five minutes to sell you on a movie available on the streaming services hoopla or canopy. I am one of your hosts, Jamie, and today I am very excited because I've got Kendall with me.
[00:00:35] Speaker C: Hello. It's been a while.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: It has. We are back in the style again. I am very excited to be talking movies with you today. Yes, we've got a couple of. Very eclectic.
[00:00:46] Speaker C: Sure. That's a word for it.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: You know, I'd hesitate to say, like, high and low art, but I think that is a valid, you know what is cult classics? Why not? These are both cult classics.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: There you go. That's perfect. But yes. So we each chose a movie, and we're going to talk about it for five minutes to kind of hope that it piques your interest and gets you to check them out. Before we start, I do want to say a reminder that even though the content of the podcast is for everyone, the content of the movies we discussed may not be for everyone. So parental discretion is advised. I guess so. So we've got Wilhelm, who is going to watch the clock for us, and I'm going to tell you about my movie first. So, Wilhelm, start your clock.
Okay. So my film that I chose is Miami Connection, which is a 1987 martial arts film. It is rated r, and it's available on canopy. And it was directed by Richard park and Yk Kim. And YK Kim, apparently was. Is a taekwondo grandmaster.
[00:02:09] Speaker C: Oh, wow.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: He'd opened a taekwondo school in Orlando, and a lot of the. And they filmed this movie in Florida, and a lot of the cast and crew, apparently were his taekwondo students.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh. That makes so much sense.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Yes, it does. Like, once you kind of. You can see what some of the acting explains a lot. So. But, yeah, so he. He stars in it, along with Vincent Hirsch, Joseph Diamond, Maurice Smith, Angelo Giannotti, who all I could think about when I looked at him was John Oates look alike from hall and Oates from a hollow notes.
But, yeah, they. So I'm going to read the IMDb description.
A martial arts rock band goes up against a band of motorcycle ninjas who have tightened their grip on Florida's narcotics trade.
So we got a lot to unpack here with this movie.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: The synopsis alone is.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: I know, it's amazing. So we've got this motorcycle group of motorcycle riding ninjas, and they're led by a man named Yoshido.
[00:03:22] Speaker C: Yoshido. Okay.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: Then there's another gang led by a guy named Jeff, and Jeff and Ishido are associates.
[00:03:31] Speaker C: Sorry, just really quick. I love the two names.
And Jeff.
Such a normal sounding name.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: Right. Well, you know, and then we've got the band Dragon sound, and they are our protagonists. So the band is made up of a group of five friends. They live together, they go to college together, and they take taekwondo together. And then friendship.
[00:03:56] Speaker C: Friendship, I know.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: And they get a gig as the house band at a club.
Well, then we got another band, another group of guys, and they had the gig at the club. And Dragon Sound, I guess, took that job from them. They got fired from the club, and then the owner of the club liked dragon sound better, I guess. So basically, the plot of the movie is that the band that got fired, they're angry about Dragon Sound getting their gig. They go to Jeff and want him to take out Dragon Sound. This band, they tried to fight Dragon Sound, but Dragon Sound's taekwondo skills just were no match for them.
Also, side note, Jeff's sister Jane is also. She's joined the band, and she's dating, I think John was his name in the band, and he does not approve.
And then, of course, Jeff's gang, when they fight Dragon Sound, some things happen. Don't wanna say too much.
[00:04:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Well, then the group of motorcycle riding ninjas, they then go decide they gotta get revenge.
[00:05:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Of course.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: For some things that have happened. And so they go to fight Dragon Sound. So, yeah, this is movie is amazing.
[00:05:15] Speaker C: I love that. And I know you're probably gonna get into, like, more about it, but I love that these bands. Midnight as taekwondo.
Yes.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Yes. So, yeah, the movie, of course, was. It was not successful. It was only in theaters for about three weeks, but it got new life. And around 2009, a guy named Zach, I think, Carlson, I gotta look at my notes here. He was a programmer at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. He bought a five reel, 35 millimeter print on eBay for, like, $50.
[00:05:49] Speaker C: Amazing.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: He screened, like, the first 20 minutes at Drafthouse, and the audience loved it.
[00:05:54] Speaker C: Oh, wow.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: So then Evan Hunsney, who was the creative director of Draft House's distribution arm, draft house films, he called YK Kim and wanted to re release the movie Ykim, who.
He didn't believe him. He didn't believe Evan, and apparently, like, thought it was a joke. And so it took several months before a deal was made.
[00:06:19] Speaker C: Oh, wow.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: And now Alamo Drafthouse screened it. And there's. It kind of. Yeah. Gained this whole.
[00:06:27] Speaker C: This, like, second life.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. It's amazing.
It was featured in a 2015 riff tracks event.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: I think that's where I first saw it, actually. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: And then also, the music video for pharrell Williams song Happy features a dancer wearing a dragonstein t shirt and. Oh, man, now I'm out of time.
[00:06:47] Speaker C: That is amazing. Really quick, though. I know you're out of time. You brought some, like, memorabilia, and you have some memorabilia, like, in your life. Will you talk about that really quick?
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Okay. So I first learned about this movie from our coworker and good friend Jason. He actually has. He got from drafts house. He has a signed movie poster from Miami Connection. It's in his home office.
[00:07:10] Speaker C: Amazing.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: And he has the cut off red shirt that says dragon sound. He let me borrow it. I brought it today. It was like a little show in town.
[00:07:18] Speaker C: It's here. You all can see it, but I can see it.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: And I actually thought about wearing it, but it's a little too cold for that, but, yeah.
[00:07:26] Speaker C: So you have, like, a personal connection.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: Yes, I do. So. And when I told him I was gonna be discussing this movie on the podcast, he got a good laugh.
[00:07:35] Speaker C: Yeah, well, and this is maybe a present for him, right, exactly.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Merry Christmas, happy holidays. Yeah.
But I know I'm supposed to be done, but I just gotta say, I mean, this movie has it all. You got martial arts, you got a little bit of romance, and then you got an eighties synth band.
[00:07:54] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: It's just. What more could you ask?
[00:07:56] Speaker C: Motorcycle taekwondo, motorcycle riding ninjas.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, I just don't know.
[00:08:02] Speaker C: Where they find the time.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: I know, so.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: But, yeah, that was a fantastic pick.
[00:08:07] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:08:07] Speaker C: Thank you. Yeah.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: All right, so we are going to take a quick break, and when we come back, Kendall is going to talk to us about his choice.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: This spring, pioneer library system continues our initiative to spark curiosity and inspire change in ourselves and our communities. With Sparka change resilience, we are supporting the spring read from scratch, a memoir of love Sicily and finding home with events with the author Timby Locke. Events will take place at select locations April 20 through 22nd. Check the event
[email protected]. For details.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: Welcome back to a five minute film finder. So I just told you about Miami connection, and now Kendall is going to tell us about his choice. All right, Kendall, what do you got for us?
[00:09:01] Speaker C: Yeah, so mine is kind of.
You know what? I'll start it off with a quote, and then I'll tell you what the movie is.
There's a quote from this movie and let's see if you might know it, you might not. But it says, you know, there are things that have never had names before and are now easily described, and that makes conversation easier.
So in the vein of that, things that are hard to describe. Hard to describe. We're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about the movie. True stories came out in 1986, written and directed by David Byrne. It was actually written by David Byrne, Beth Henley and Stephen Tobolowski. I'm sure I murdered that name. Yeah. Do you know.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Do you know him? I think I've met him. Is he the guy from Groundhog day? The same actor?
[00:09:44] Speaker C: I believe so. We might look that up.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Ned from Groundhog Day. If so, I have met him.
[00:09:49] Speaker C: But yeah, it's like a pet project. This entire thing is a pet project of David Byrne, from talking heads to the band Talking Heads, if you're not familiar with the name. So that by itself was a selling point for me. I am a huge, honestly, as of recent talking Heads fan, obviously they've been around for a while.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Right?
[00:10:08] Speaker C: But this movie, before I really dive into it, I just want to highlight. It's starring David Byrne. It's also starring John Goodman.
As you said. You were reminded when you saw John Goodman in it.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Yes, I had forgotten I had read before I watched the movie. I'd read up on it and then I completely forgot he was in it and then watched it. I'm like, oh, my gosh, it's John Goodman.
[00:10:25] Speaker C: And real quick, I'll talk about his character. But it's like the prime John. Like, just so lovable and endearing. You're just like, I love John Goodman so much. But this movie, true stories, it's kind of the same as Miami connection where it came out. It did not make any money. And if you see it, it'll probably make sense why it didn't make a lot of money. It's kind of all over the place a little bit in terms of story, but it was bought up and it was released by. Oh, my goodness. By criterion. They did a criterion release of it. And so with this, I also wanted to talk about this movie because they also announced a 24 is going to re release stop making sense by Talking Heads, which is their famous concert anyways. Talking heads, all that stuff. But the movie true stories is very interesting, first off. Cause it's a pet project of David Byrne. But I'm gonna hop into kind of the meat of it a little bit. The synopsis from IMDb is a small but growing Texas town filled with strange and musical characters celebrates its 150th anniversary as they converge on a local parade and a talent show. And when I tell you that's what the movie is about, that is what it's about. That is verbatim what the movie is about.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: Which automatically kind of reminded me of waiting for Guffman.
[00:11:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: The town's anniversary.
[00:11:34] Speaker C: Yeah. They're all kind of waiting on something and, like, it's, it's, the movie is very, well, I'll just kind of hop into it. So the movie. So David Byrne, if you know anything about him, if you know anything about talking heads, I always see this phrased phrase being talked about, David Byrne, that he's very anxious. Very anxious and very, just kind of irreverent and kind of all over the place. And it's purposeful, I would say, like, I think that's definitely something that he goes for in his art, but that's what this movie is very much, too, is, I feel like kind of being almost, if you could step into David Burton's mind and being so quirky and kind of the way that he is, it's almost like he's looking at all of these people in a Texas town and, like, trying to wrap his head around what he's seeing.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:13] Speaker C: This actually was kind of the base of the movie. I don't know if you read up on it, but while they were touring with talking heads, he would read tabloids about certain towns they were in, and he started drawing pictures of these people, what he thought they looked like.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: That's really cool.
[00:12:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. And so it kind of turned into this movie that is essentially a series of vignettes of these characters existing in this hyper realistic, like, 1980s Texas town.
I mean, we're talking about, like, blues and pinks and big hair. Big hair. And it's just, and so it's really, it's just jumps from character to character. And I kind of wanted to point out a couple, but the biggest character that it jumps to is Louis Fine. That's John Goodman's character. He's a clean room tech. It's funny that it mentions that when I was researching, because you see him in a clean room for, like a second, you know, and then you're like, it never comes back to that. His whole point is that he's literally just a man looking for love. There's a fantastic shot of his house, and there's like a, like an open. I don't even know what you'd call that? Like a sign out front, but it just says wife wanted. Oh, my gosh.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: And didn't he do like, it was like a dating video or something?
[00:13:19] Speaker C: Yeah, he did a dating video describing what he. And then he went to that woman's house and it was like. Yeah, it was just. It's hard to describe. I encourage you to look up stills. This movie, beautiful. It's gorgeous. Or watch it. It's a gorgeous movie.
I have a couple of seconds left, so I'll kind of hop it. I have a lot to talk about, but I'll skip ahead a little bit. Essentially, this movie doesn't really have a beginning and doesn't really have an ending. And I think that's important for people to know because I want you to kind of go in with the expectation that this is a movie that's very meditative in their own way. It's very much David Byrne trying to make sense of this town again in the eighties, to make sense of why people do things, how people communicate and don't communicate. But it's very abstract. Very David lynch. So I am just out of time. So my recommendations, if you guys enjoy movies like this, if you like anything. David lynch. Very David lynch. Very. I would even say very like early Wes Anderson. I would say that's a really good comparison. Yeah, yeah. Very. It's just kind of quirky characters and quirky situations. They all kind of have a beat they're trying to play to. But again, it's, there's not really a plot that they're really aiming for. It's really just to meditate in that space. So true stories, you can find it on canopy. It is, like I said, criterion released it, so you can find it there, but you can also find it online. I highly encourage you to watch it, especially if you like talking heads.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: They also, I mean, there was a really good cast besides John Goodman you had, which I forgot the swoozie Kurtz was in it. And, oh, my gosh, I'm blank. Oh, spalding gray.
[00:14:52] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Good catch when I saw him and I was like, oh, my gosh, I really recognize that guy.
[00:14:57] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, I only say one or two, but I know I'm out of time. But I just wanted to say some really quick quotes because David Byrne is just hilarious. He's the narrator in this film and the movie really kind of goes in between him driving to locations and talking, and he'll start a thought and then he'll just completely, pardon me, abandon it. Or he'll just go like one of the lines as he's driving, he's driving on a freeway, and he's kind of talking about how life has kind of evolved. And he said, some people say freeways are the catholic cathedrals of our time, not me. And that's all. He just leaves it there. That's it. That's it.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: You have no idea what he thinks of freeways.
[00:15:32] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, it's like leaving us hanging. Yeah. And like the quote I used earlier about, you know, now things that never had names before are more easily described.
There's a fantastic last quote I just love from John Goodman that he describes himself as a six foot three man who maintains a very panda bear shape.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yes. I love that line. When he said panda bear shape, I lost it.
[00:15:53] Speaker C: Yeah. It's just very funny, very quirky. Check out true stories where you can find it.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: All right, well, thanks, Kendall, for being here today. I'm really glad that we got to talk about movies. This was a lot of fun.
[00:16:03] Speaker C: This was a lot of fun.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: So, yes, check out true stories and Miami connection, both on canopy. And if you enjoyed listening to our show today, please be sure to leave us a like and subscribe to our channel from wherever you receive your podcast. If you have any questions or you would like to share your thoughts or on the films we've covered, feel free to leave a comment and a rating. Or you can email us at podcast ioneirlibrarysystem.org dot. That's podcast, singular. So podcast ioneirlibrarysystem.org dot. If you have any recommendations for us that you movies you'd like us to cover, let us know. All right. Thank you again, Kendall.
[00:16:45] Speaker C: Thank you, Jamie.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Thank you, listeners.
[00:16:47] Speaker C: See you all later.
J.
