I am a movie buff to the highest degree. Let’s talk about it.

To say I simply enjoy watching movies, as well as quality television programs, would be an understatement. They say film is art and television is a medium, but as a writer, I believe they are truly a “recorded art medium”—a manifestation of stories, tales, and ideas in motion. Beautiful.

My daughter sometimes peeks at my posts and reads the whole thing, so I tend to be careful with what I write (“Hello, sweetie!”). But I have something to admit to her for the record: before you were born, your mother and I watched over 3,000 movies and over 200 different television series together over the span of 10 years. Also, the Netflix account was always mine, stretching all the way back to the days when Netflix posted out rentals (but we’re not going to talk about that). We introduced each other to movies we would never have seen had we not crossed paths, as well as television programs that raised an eyebrow from day one.

Your mother watched British classics—ranging from the troublingly humble The Wicker Man, Gregory’s Girl, and East Is East, to action-packed Guy Ritchie classics. She was also introduced to staples of British soaps like EastEnders, alongside shows already familiar to her like Coronation Street, which boasts decades of history. Meanwhile, I watched Canadian classics like The Silent Partner, Videodrome, Dead Ringers, and Bon Cop, Bad Cop. I was introduced to shows like The Littlest Hobo, The Kids in the Hall, Road to Avonlea, and Corner Gas, alongside some I was already familiar with, such as The Raccoons, Due South, Slings & Arrows, and The Red Green Show.

The shared experience of martial arts movies deserves its own separate post, but I’ll give you a taste of that later.

We haven’t even touched on us watching countless anime movies and series together, such as Angel Cop, Akira, Monster, and Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z (yes, she sat through every single episode up until the end of the Cell Saga, including the movies). There were also Miyazaki classics like Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro—the list goes on, and we’re just keeping things to the well-known titles.

All of the above has just been a small window; it doesn’t even include German, Chinese, Jamaican, Italian, Indian, Dutch, or Nigerian cinema, among so many others I can’t even mention. Run Lola Run is still a top movie I recommend to anyone to this day!

Let’s go back, though, to a younger me: the young lad who would come across my grandmother’s treasure trove of Hong Kong action movies and Chinese opera movies. She had a mountain of feature films in my youth for me to absorb, which we watched and reviewed together. I loved this adapted storytelling filled with folk heroes, mysticism, and dangerous stunts. Three Charming Styles was one of the first movies I saw, as well as The 7 Tyrants of Jiangnan (Big and Little Wong Tin Bar), on what I can only describe as some long-traded, copied footage on a blank VHS tape.

My mother and aunt, keeping with the tradition, had their own collection of mixed media consisting of classic British and North American programs, alongside plenty from other English-speaking countries. Focusing on North America, I was introduced very early on to Frasier, Cybill, The Cosby Show, Knight Rider, and Cheers, sometimes via footage sent straight from the States well before it was distributed in the UK—and sometimes it wasn’t distributed there at all.

It was a true pleasure to eventually be able to write for some of these companies as I aged, seeing my stories come to life in the flesh and characters represented by actors whose career timelines I had witnessed from the beginning. Knowing I’ve left my mark on a medium that gave me so much joy in my leisure time as a youth truly calms my soul.

Hey… are you still there?

Regards,

Alexander/Zenchi