超賢 Chao Xian : I BATMAN

2024 Cultural Stuff

(8 minutes reading time)

Hello Kitty cuddling a cushion with the caption 'my mood for 2025' Here are my reviews for 2024. Let’s start with the cultural stuff.

Holidays

Me with two amazing gals in a Berlin nightclub

Back in 2022 after my last breakup I made two trips abroad, my first in 4 years. I also made it out of the country twice in 2023. This year I managed it again! The first trip was on invitation to Berlin from my pal Alki, who suggested I also asked Hannah Mac to join us and we both jumped at it. I hadn’t been on a holiday with people in such a long time, and I think it strengthened the bond between the three of us.

My next trip was an epic I decided upon after feeling more than fed up at vicariously, and enviously watching so many of my friends venturing around Japan. It’s still beyond what I can afford, but Canada was always near the top of my bucket list and I have family out there so I decided my life is too short to not experience the world. I made the trip to Vancouver and also hopped on a flight to see my cousin in Arizona, with a road trip to the incrdible scenes of the Grand Canyon. I did a short flight over to Seattle too to visit Bruce Lee’s grave to pay tribute, then experienced Amtrak back up to Van City.

My family were so kind and generous and I hope to be able to show them the same when they visit Europe.

Music

Here’s my Spotify Wrapped. I made Spotify pay pennies towards Palestine 🇵🇸 by playing Maclemore’s Hind’s Hall over and over (interspersed with Public Enemy’s Fight The Power). That’s why it’s my top song, but not really my top song of 2024…That goes to Borai and Denhem Audio’s Make Me as I’d discovered La La’s Mixmag Lab set several years late.

I somehow ended up buying tickets to see her twice this year… and flaked out both times from sheer exhaustion and not fancying solo clubbing (yet).

Gigs/clubs

I went to a lot more shows and club nights than any year. My favourites were DJ Yoda with SMess, Book Club Radio with Hannah Mac, Rally Festival with SMess and gang, and Charli XCX with my daughter.

  • DJ Yoda’s 50 Years of Hip Hop at the Fox and Firkin
  • Book Club Radio at NT Loft
  • Tate McRae at The Apollo
  • Rally Rally Rally at Southwark Park
  • Bloc Party at Crystal Palace
  • The Roots at Crystal Palace
  • Lauryn Hill at the O2 Arena
  • Griff at Alexandra Palace
  • Charli XCX at Birmingham NEC

Movies

My Letterboxd Best of 2024 includes movies I saw for the first time in 2024. Highlights for me were Baby Assassins, Revenge and Carol.

Chisato and Mahiro eating BBQ at home

Baby Assassins are two young female psychopathic, proficient and efficient killers on a payroll. But bored out of their teenage minds during the day when not doing their real job. Their friendship is super sweet and there’s really nothing like this that I can think of.

Matilda Lutz as Jen surveying the desert landscape, dressed in her underwear and a haul of weapons

Revenge is (The Substance) Coralie Farget’s previous movie from 2017 where a gorgeous Matilda Lutz suffers SA and is able to enact very, very, tremendously bloody revenge. A truly satisfyingly cathartic and sumptiuous picture.

Turez and Carol sat in a room putting on perfume

Carol popped up on indie lists of Christmas movies, and that led me to dig into it. I was surprised to see the average of 4 stars on Letterboxd and thought well it must be good. Indeed it is. It’s beautiful and bittersweet (my favourite genre) plus spellbinding. Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett have great chemistry and I felt their love and pain. It’s a must watch.

TV

Batman The Caped Crusader with Harley Quinn

Quite a bit to say on my top show of the year: Batman The Caped Crusader. I was sceptical. I don’t think Bruce Timm is the animation Svengali people believe him to be. The sausage factory string of graphic novel adaptations with his name have been so boring I’ve stopped watching any of them (especially since Killing Joke). So I had low expectations. Aesthetically I could see this was already inspired by the incredible Strange Days short of 2016 which was a good thing, but themes and story were my main worry.

It’s clear though that this is more of a Matt Reeves and Ed Brubaker project. They’ve perfectly tapped into noir, and not just added a decorative filter. I’m impressed by the pacing, character development and drama this show carries. It’s an animated Batman that’s gritty and moody. A diametrical opposite to Brave and Bold (which I love. Fun fact: the voice actor for that Batman is the voice behind Caped Crusader’s Harvey Dent).

Harvey’s character has always been fascinating in Batman lore. This show initially depicts him as a 2 dimensional character and I was surprised by the end of the season what I felt for Harvey.

By far the best character is lesbian-Asian Harley. It’s extremely reductive to describe her with those labels, but it’s also far deeper a character compared to former victim of Joker’s abuse anti hero psycho Margot Harley. For real. This girl is a true baddy with actual motivation, not just a giggling punchbag.

Critics love this show, yet audience scores are low. At first I was baffled but realised this show is too sophisticated for the majority of feeble brained bat-fans (ask me why I left the Batman subreddit some time). There’s too much detecting and not enough Pow for them. For me it’s a refreshing, clever and worthy addition to Batman’s wonderful catalogue. Happy 85th Birthday Batman.

  • Batman The Caped Crusader
  • Star Wars Acolyte
  • Agatha All Along
  • Pop Star Academy
  • Big Mouth

Games

I had a bit of a Metal Gear Solid resurgence as I finally learned of the Chicken Hat cheat that allows you to play through missions completely invisible to enemies. I am too impatient to care about playing the game as intended and have no issue (or shame) as I just want to get through to the end of the game. I’ve had this since 2018 and never got past more than the initial opening mission. I’ve also had more fun on my Nintendo 3DS than my Switch and always take that with me on the move. I ended up getting Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3DS but it’s not that instantly pick-up and playable. So I always end up playing Street Fighter IV 3D.

Snake in MGS V wearing the Chicken Hat

  • Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain
  • MGS 3DS Snake Eater
  • Street Fighter IV 3D

Exhibitions

A replica of the first ever Sanrio product featuring Hello Kitty

Here are my two favourite exhibitions of the year as well. The first one was Cute that overall was pretty flat but the highlight was the special section with a lot of Hello Kitty stuff as part of her 50th Anniversary.

The Batmobile

Also celebrating an anniversary, Batman’s 85th year meant that London hosted the Batman Unmasked exhibition that my daughgters and I popped to for my birthday. There were a lot of pieces I’d never seen before that I really geeked out over, but the middle sections of interactive… idk what you can call it except drivvel. One room was literally a bed, and a voiceover soundtrack that went on for 10 minutes droning about someone losing their mind (yes it’s meant to give you the “experience” of being in the room with The Joker 🙄). It’s so utterly diabolically one dimensional.

I’m going to the Barbie exhibition at the Design Museum in the first week of 2025. Starting as I mean to go on!