We were recently in Morocco and visited Atlas Studios, where parts of the Odyssey were filmed. Our guide was very knowledge about it’s filming as well as about the many of the movies filmed there since 1930.
Thank you for the info about the documentary. I plan to watch it even if I’m not sure about the movie itself. a
My niece was adopted from china as a baby, she’s now 19 and still in touch with the other families who were on this journey together. I’m interested in watching. Ironically her boyfriend is Chinese with parents who came over from china, and they’re teaching her a lot about the culture, and cooking.
Lovely novel called Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Lisa See. It also addresses the Chinese girls adopted and how they push to please their adopted parents. I really liked the psychologist who ran a group for some of these girls.
The documentary sounds interesting.
It can be a hard watch for those adopted from China.
I am guessing they have watched it, now I’m curious if they did a dna test, I think some of our family has on both sides.
We saw Odyssey at IMAX this week at 10am - the only show with next day tickets available. It was lonnnng (2hrs 45 min) but good. It was also LOUD. I had earplugs… could still hear the dialog but still found other sound louder than ideal.
When we saw Sinners in IMAX it was uncomfortably loud for all of us! I brought earplugs to see the Odyssey but didn’t need them. I guess it’s theater dependent.
My daughter did a dna test. It confirms she’s 100% Chinese (Han).
I don’t think my daughter has watched it. She went to culture camp for years and for her was a fun summer activity but she didn’t connect with others, who were like her and adopted by white Americans. She played on a Chinese international sports team as an adult and it raised a lot of cultural questions for her but I don’t think she’d like the documentary.
My daughter realizes how different her life would have been had she not been adopted. She’s still processing that from 5 years ago.
I saw the movie Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle (2025) yesterday. This is a movie about the Demon Slayer anime/manga. Most other anime movies I am familiar with are low budget OVA productions that are made for TV. Essentially they target hardcore fans who are going to watch anything from the franchise, even if its garbage. Low budget, low quality, low viewers, low revenue, and disappointment.
Demon Slayer is the opposite. It’s a high budget movie intended for commercial theaters. It was the 7th highest box office movie in 2025, and set a record for the highest grossing international film of all time in US theaters. It set a record for the highest first day box of all time in Japan. It’s almost universally praised, with a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from both critics and viewers. It’s the ~50th highest rated major commercial theater release movie of all time on IMDB. It’s also rated R – apparently targeting adult viewers, rather than children.
I’m puzzled how the movie I watched could align with the outcome described above. Unlike typical OVA anime movies that are largely independent from the anime/manga plot, the plot of the Demon Slayer movie cannot be well understood without having watched the previous 63 episodes of the anime. Without having watched the anime, I’d expect typical viewers to have no idea what is going on, greatly limiting the portion of potential viewers who would enjoy the movie.
Perhaps being familiar with the plot doesn’t really matter, as the plot makes little sense. That’s probably not why people watch the movie. There is also little character development, and several of the most popular characters from the series don’t appear or are only shown for a few seconds/minutes to indicate that they are running somewhere within the castle. Instead the bulk of the 2 hour, 30 minute movie relates to a single battle between 2 demon slayers and the 4th highest ranked demon. With several high ranked demons remaining , it opens the door to Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle: Part 2/3/4 movies.
Where the movie does shine and what may be the key reason for its success is how breathtakingly visually impressive the movie is. There was so much surround sound occurring in so many directions that the movie repeatedly overloaded my speakers, causing them to auto shut off for a few minutes. The movie sets the bar for what is possible in anime, and perhaps that’s the primary reason people view and enjoy it.
While I was impressed with the cinematography, choreographed fight scenes, surround sound quality, … and don’t regret watching the movie; overall I thought it was just okay. I need a more interesting and meaningful plot, rather than just a lot of action and visuals. My personal input was much like my overloaded speakers – too much rapid action, lights, sounds… for too long. I need more breaks in between. I now better understand the common anime warning about triggering epileptic seizures. An example portion of the fight that composes the bulk of the movie is below. If you don’t want to see that continue for a very long period, you probably won’t like the movie.
I know several young adult adoptees who developed a stronger connection to Chinese culture via boyfriends/husbands and their families.
Very late to the party but we just watched Project Hail Mary on Amazon. I’m not a sci-fi fan but H and I both loved it. Movie was interesting, warm, and funny.
Can’t wait to see The Floaters. I went to the same camp as one of the writers so I’m hoping there are some good references. https://floatersmovie.com/
lol, kind of what I think. Haven’t seen it for fear of sleeping through half of it.
gift link https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/opinion/odyssey-nolan-discourse.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4VA.bQrh.A9ZIYt9lUSij&smid=url-share
DH and I saw “The Odyssey” this morning at 10 am. Packed theater. I got only 3 hours of sleep because I offered to give a neighbor a ride to the airport at 4 am. I never dozed off at all during the movie - it was excellent. DH, both sons, and I all liked it - kind of unusual for the four of us to agree about any movie.
You are a good neighbor, we don’t even drive immediately family in our household to the airport that early!).
The woman didn’t ask - she just wanted to know about parking at the airport. She doesn’t travel often. She didn’t realize that you need to plan ahead more than two days to reserve a parking place at the airport! It’s not easy or cheap these days to find transportation from our suburb to the airport. We’re out in the sticks. She’s a single mom and I felt for her.
I saw it with a friend opening weekend. I thought it was a good movie. The cinematography was way above average. That being said, I agree with Frank Bruni (columnist for the NYT). https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/opinion/odyssey-Nolan-discourse.html
My DH saw odyssey tonight with a group of guys. He told me I wouldn’t like it (I don’t care for violence in movies) but said if we see it on a plane I can skip though the violent stuff and might like that.
Good article. Like he said, the movie was fine… just overhyped. At 2 hours and 52 minutes it was rather a long movie for my tastes. I almost made my husband and niece go without me. But I’m not sorry to have seen it.
I ran into Wicked for Good streaming on Netflix a few days ago (no added charge for subscribers) so watched it. I’m not a Wicked aficionado; saw the play once ages ago and watched the first movie streaming. It was technically very well done, but for me, kind of boring. I fast forwarded through a couple of solo songs. The overlap with Wizard of Oz seemed a bit forced. But I did watch to the end!