The above image is from The Boxer's Omen , a movie that has stuck with me a lot more than I thought it would. It's one of the films classified in Hong Kong as "Category III," meaning it is not advised for any viewers under 18. The film is pretty tame compared to other films that earned this label, but it's also way more imaginative and mystifying than most movies. I was thinking about it a lot over the last few months because it was Halloween season. I thought of The Boxer's Omen every time I watched a movie marketed as being shocking or gross. They all fell short. Hapax Legomena I: (nostalgia) (1971) This film shows us a series of shots in which the camera simply stares at photographs taken by Hollis Frampton over the course of his career. The photographs are laid over a stove; we get time to examine each, then the stove turns on and they burn. We see them blacken, curl up, and crumble. Each photograph is accompanied by narration....
"We are in the world, not against it." - Ursula K. Le Guin