Dear Yuletide writer!
Oct. 15th, 2023 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorindaHello, Writer! However you ended up writing something for me, I thank you--I'm glad and grateful we share these little fandoms. ♥
A note about treats, in case it's relevant: yes, I am all for them!
(Also, let me say that you'll notice it's very common for me to ask for some of the same fandoms from year to year. If you've written for me previously, please do not ever think this is because I don't still love your gift! I do--it's just that I am still-and-always in the mood for more of these characters and I love them so much. And I am greedy. :D)
If you already have something in mind you think I'll like, go ahead and write it! I want you to enjoy yourself.
If more information about my preferences would help and inspire you, then here's some:
Some of my preferences:
* Hopeful/happy endings. Melancholy/bittersweet tones can work too, just not hopeless/grim please.
* Shipping, if possible. Not mandatory, for the non-canon ships--Optional Details Are Optional--but if you're willing, please pair the characters up romantically/sexually (and if you're not shipping them, please have their connection be at least as intense as it is in canon). On-page sex is fine but not required, whatever suits the story--I'm interested in dynamics like:
Discovery, realization
Breaking through fears and repression and damaging levels of self-denial/self-control
Reaching out, finding refuge
Stumbling/falling, only to find they are safely caught/can catch each other
Those tiny moments of intensity and connection, both emotional and physical
* Some tropes and approaches I particularly enjoy:
Trust
Loyalty
Worry
Protectiveness
Hurt/Comfort
Pining (eventually requited)
Tenderness, especially when unexpected
Angst (with a happy/hopeful resolution)
Uncovering a secret
A shell cracking to reveal vulnerability beneath
Physical care like tending wounds/washing/etc.
Nurturing with food/drink/warmth
Expressing deepest feelings with ordinary words (like, I love when there's some seemingly-innocuous phrase that they both know is actually a powerful declaration)
* Classic frameworks are always welcome! Including though not limited to:
Bedsharing
Huddling for warmth
Pretend couple
Discovering they became a couple without realizing
Undercover as a rentboy
Mistaken for a couple, including mistaken for sugar daddy/trade
Rescues
Suffering/sacrificing for the other
Stranded somewhere
Etc.
One jumps in the way of the other getting hurt? (Especially if the saved one is then mad about it?) One gets attacked and the other rises in wrath, GET BACK HE IS MINE? One awkwardly expresses the depth of his feelings with a painstakingly fried egg on toast? A desire to impress him, an effort to figure out how to be silently vulnerable with him, a need for him that he hadn't understood until now or had hidden while pining? Yes plz.
Big drama is good, quiet subtlety is good. ♥
Here are my signups, in alphabetical order: Hot Fuzz (2007), Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers, Old Fashion Cupcake, The Sting (1973)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Nicholas Angel, Danny Butterman
My signup:
(In case it's relevant: I happily accept treats!)
I am in love with Nicholas and Danny, and even more, both of them together. They bring each other to life, they make each other better, they wear their hearts on their sleeves (even if it takes Nicholas a little while--seeing him belatedly realize just how deeply he feels for Danny is an eternal treat).
The relationship between Nicholas and Danny is the absolute heart and engine of the story, with both of them changing and stepping out of their previous boxes, toward each other. And it's the synthesis of the best part of their native languages (ethical/dedicated community service + flexible/sweet cinematic creativity) that wins the day and ties them together. I totally ship them, and the movie does too. ♥
I'd love something post-canon, whether it's slice of life, another case, an action-adventure, a cozy whodunit, something warm and domestic, a series of movie nights, a series of movie nights in a different genre as the guys get romantic/intimate/sexual, whatever moves you. I'm fine with any level of realism/surrealism, from a more realistic tone like 'danny's dad being in prison is deeply affecting him' or similar, to an utterly cinematic tone that follows "the rule of cool" (or what the Leverage showrunner called "the Fun Train") with no one batting an eye.
Special mention to the way Danny can make Nicholas laugh, and the way they're so prone to beaming helpless heart-eyes at each other.
Happy/hopeful ending please!
DNW: No negative focus on Danny's weight/size, please (especially not any 'being close to death/in the hospital made him thinner and that's good!' thing, oof). He's lovely just as he is.
Additional thoughts:
Hot Fuzz has always been a favorite of mine, and this year in particular it really lived up to its place in my life as a total comfort movie and perfect object. ♥
I love the movie's masterful command of tropes (and Danny's, too, and how he patiently educates Nicholas in them), the way Danny is both the Buddy and the Lover. Danny loves the same things I love in action films, beyond awesome action sequences--the way the action can pare the characters down to their essentials and bond them deeply together, or unearth an explosion of intense feelings (shooting a gun in the air and going AAAAAAA! ;___; ).
I love the transformational vibe of the characters and relationship, the blossoming--Nicholas knowing only regulation and regimentation, until Danny's there to openly fall for him and pull him out into a wider, weirder world; but also Danny being stuck in a parochial dead-end (and treated as dead weight) until he meets Nicholas, and then he's inspired to learn and improve, his knowledge, skills, and sharpness rising by leaps and bounds. But even with that transformation, they remain themselves, Nicholas never losing his focus nor Danny his earnestness.
The stereotypical West Country village atmosphere is really enjoyable, but don't let that stop you if you'd rather have them travel somewhere, to the big city or beyond.
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Mervyn Bunter
My signup:
(In case it's relevant: I happily accept treats!)
I selected only Bunter, because I'd like him to be central--but it's perfectly fine for you to include any other Sayers character(s) you want to, or just Bunter himself. He activates my Competence Kink and wraps it in layers of Loyalty/Fealty kink--all of those undeniable skills and subtleties, yet they're willingly laid at Peter's feet for life, like knight and prince. I'd like him to get the foreground for a change!
It could be just Bunter, before, during, or after canon (here I do have a DNW: please don't include the Paton Walsh books as canon, just the DLS stuff). Some backstory, more of what made him who he is? More about his photography? His POV on any canon events, or times between books?
You could include Peter, and please do feel free to ship them (if you don't, please do have their bond at least as intense as it is in canon, which is considerable!). Bunter saved Peter's sanity pre-canon and surely his life too--more about that, or Bunter handling later relapses? The complex dynamics of their personal and social roles with each other, where Bunter is largely the one in the driver's seat?
You could include Harriet, and her evolving dynamic with Bunter--in canon we get to see a bit of them realizing they're natural allies, and learning how to navigate their mutual care for Peter--more of that, and its growing depth over time? Shipping them is fine, if you like (as long as it connects in some way with Peter, which I feel is innate to both of them).
In any case, suit yourself in terms of characters, as long as Bunter's central and the story is about him. ♥
Happy/hopeful ending please!
DNW: Please don't include the Paton Walsh books as canon, only Sayers.
Additional thoughts:
I've been thinking about Bunter a lot lately, even more than usual (which is saying something). Like I said in my signup, he seriously activates my Competence Kink--I mean, he's good at assisting with detection (especially shadowing) and he enjoys photography (and all its technical underpinnings), but at an even more basic level, I deeply admire his tremendous domestic skills, his eye for detail, his perfectionism, his excellence at running a household--and not just his organization but how by his nature he *wants* to organize things, he wants to handle the logistics and doesn't believe they'll work out as well if he doesn't (he's right about that!).
And the cherry on top is the way he devotes all of this undeniable skill to Peter, harnessing his formidable talents in the service of that one passion--and (to Peter's credit) we see Peter openly marvel at that fact over and over (and even repeatedly seek reassurance in joking-but-is-he-really ways--as in one of the short stories, "The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question": "One of these days I suppose I shall give you something to do which you *will* jib at, and you will leave me and I shall cut my throat.").
But all of this also makes me wonder about Bunter's own vulnerabilities, which he usually keeps to himself. Feel free to spend some time on those--he's a paragon, but he's also a person with feelings. He has endless patience with Peter...does he have any for himself? And what might happen if Bunter were the one needing help, rescue, nurturing, etc., which in Bunter's worldview is NOT THE PLAN?
Old Fashion Cupcake
Nozue Sanae, Togawa Minoru
My signup:
(In case it's relevant: I happily accept treats!)
Old Fashion Cupcake is a big comfort re-watch for me. The quietness of it, the thoughtfulness, the nuanced mature themes, the way the characters willingly (even if sometimes stumblingly) reach out toward each other. And of course the food and drink!
I love the way Togawa starts the whole process by actively jumping in to help Nozue rescue himself. But the rescue isn't about turning Nozue into someone else--it's about helping him remember that he had that energy/ability and can find it again. And I love the way Nozue keeps taking the opportunities and working on himself! It's easier not to wake up and take risks--not to finally figure out what you really want. Because there's the chance you won't get it, and now you'll truly know what you've lost.
Special mention to Nozue's fashion sense (from his sharp three-piece suit to his soft swingy coats and scarf, the man is put together), and to Togawa's bare torso, yowww.
I'd love something post-canon, to see how their life and relationship progress--domesticity, settling in together, food and cooking, bed and intimacy?
Or maybe they travel somewhere together--could be elsewhere in Japan, maybe to somewhere cozily isolated that suits itself to this canon's tone and their kind of nurturing, an inn with hot springs, etc.?--or it could be outside of Japan, someplace new to both of them?
What else does Togawa introduce Nozue to? Is there something Nozue might introduce Togawa to in return, to break Togawa out of a rut he might not have known he was in?
Happy/hopeful ending please!
DNW: Please don't translate "Nozue-san" into "Mr. Nozue", like the less-successful set of subtitles does. I vastly prefer -san and similar honorifics left as they are.
Additional thoughts:
It feels like such an autumnal show, somehow. And not just because of the scenes of them in overcoats, and Nozue's big cozy scarf! It has that slightly melancholy tone, at least to me, partly because it springs from a melancholy premise: Nozue's quiet lost helplessness, the way he's given up without really realizing it. He feels life has passed him by and now all he has to look forward to is his own little rut.
Togawa seems to have been pining for much if not all of this time, and he's brave enough to jump at the first opening he sees--not a simple opening to get closer to Nozue, but an opening to *help* him. But of course the "anti-aging" rescue involves Nozue repeatedly Leaving His Comfort Zone, which turns his passive resignation into active fear. And at first that fear feels worse than resignation--at least resignation was familiar! I don't know if Nozue realizes how brave he himself gets during the show--Togawa (inspired by earlier-Nozue) has already built himself a life of trying new things, but it's all strange now to current-Nozue.
I was also thinking, after a recent rewatch of the "Apple Pie" epilogue (https://adnirod.tumblr.com/post/708436732075458560), about some of the differences in their communication. Togawa is so much readier to, and more skilled at, actually talking about things--emotions, fears, sex. Nozue seems instead quicker to *do* things, as his mode of expression, especially cooking for and with Togawa. (It's one reason why Nozue's climactic decision in the finale was such a great advance for him--openly telling Togawa such vulnerable things!) I'd love to see more of that, and see how each of them might be learning some of the other's style and skills.
The Sting (1973)
Henry Gondorff, Johnny Hooker
Inspirational (and educational!) links from a menswear blog, using plenty of screencaps:
https://bamfstyle.com/2013/12/31/the-sting-newman-tux/
https://bamfstyle.com/2016/08/11/sting-redford-tux/
https://bamfstyle.com/2013/08/19/sting-redford-gray-suit/
https://bamfstyle.com/2013/01/10/the-sting-brown-pinstripe/
https://bamfstyle.com/2013/01/28/sting-newman-brn-plaid/
My signup:
(In case it's relevant: I happily accept treats!)
I love Henry's knowledge and competence, his history and status, his close and loyal inner circle. I love how protective and worried he gets, how he bears such weight on his shoulders. I love Johnny's eagerness to get involved and to learn, his neediness and hunger, even his risky-carelessness. The way he runs like a deer, the way his eyes glow across a crowded room.
Special mention to the way Henry and Johnny look in strap undershirts. Also: Henry's hat.
I love how their partnership changes, from awkward and uncertain to close and trusting, with barely-repressed emotional undertones. But there's that communication issue under the surface--Johnny keeping so many secrets, Henry aware he's hiding things and pleading with him to speak up ("You can't play your friends like marks, Hooker."). They depend on nuanced and wordless connection on the job, but backstage and onstage are different things, to Henry (even though he can still read Johnny either way). In the end he skips to the part where he discovered Johnny's secrets and protected him, but what's the aftereffect? Has Johnny learned to trust him more? Or is it going to take more time and effort?
What do they do after the end of the movie? Does Johnny get impatient? Does Henry teach him new things (and/or vice-versa)? How different are the world of the quick street-hustling Short Con and the high-stakes Big Con, and what's it like for Johnny in this new world?
How was Henry taught his trade back in the day, and does it still work? Why didn't Henry have an apprentice already? Did he before, did it go badly, or is Johnny a surprise exception?
What if something goes wrong? Relying on the grifter community--or, those times and places when all they have to rely on is each other. And what about Johnny being protective of Henry for a change?
A closeup on the Henry/Johnny relationship is great, but I also am totally into the whole parallel grifter society beneath the surface of the regular world, sort of a mixture of a huge extended family and an experienced repertory theater company. So if you want, feel free to paint a larger picture.
A new con, large or small, is welcome, but you don’t have to focus on that if you don’t want to. I’m also into the time between jobs (or offstage during a job), long train trips or fancy hotels or rides hitched in a dusty jalopy, risk-junkies on the road together.
If it becomes relevant, I ask that the good guys’ cons be against deserving targets--fitting the Robin Hoodish tone of the movie, where you go after the well-heeled and greedy, using their own greed to trap them. The con as reparative justice.
Happy or at least hopeful ending please!
Additional thoughts:
I love the True Justice aspect of this movie's grifting, never preying on the innocent, just helping the greedy hoist themselves with their own petards-- and I also love the "us against the world" feeling of these guys (and their grifter community) hanging in there during the Great Depression. So whether they're on a job or not, I love it! And I could really use some successful justice, vengeance, or plain old resilience-in-tough-times right now.
Henry and Johnny are the battle-worn veteran and the promoted minor-leaguer intensely eager to get in the game, whose competence and skill and risk-taking brings a little sweet rebalancing into a hard world. They’re mentor and mentored, but also well on the way to equal partners by the end of the movie--I enjoy Henry teaching and Johnny learning, but also Johnny opening Henry's eyes or otherwise keeping him on his toes.
Train travel is so very of the period--as high-end passengers, Pullman cars, sleepers, etc.-- or suddenly having to ride the rails, in a boxcar, buried in straw, staying in Hoovervilles along the way, the intimacies of the road. Ocean liners, thumbing rides, other kinds of travel, where the journey is the whole point. Luxury suites, enormous bathtubs--or a little cold-water flat, a creaky Murphy bed folding down from the wall. Johnny being brought out into the wider grifter community, seeing and being seen. Is he nervous about it? Is Henry? That feeling of grifting as a show, then the theater folks pack up and move on...is there a worry that wanting to stick together, pair up, is somehow against the script? The movie only shows them in cities...what about small towns, the countryside, someplace rural or rougher?
Thanks again for writing for me--I appreciate it! *\o/*
A note about treats, in case it's relevant: yes, I am all for them!
(Also, let me say that you'll notice it's very common for me to ask for some of the same fandoms from year to year. If you've written for me previously, please do not ever think this is because I don't still love your gift! I do--it's just that I am still-and-always in the mood for more of these characters and I love them so much. And I am greedy. :D)
If you already have something in mind you think I'll like, go ahead and write it! I want you to enjoy yourself.
If more information about my preferences would help and inspire you, then here's some:
Some of my preferences:
* Hopeful/happy endings. Melancholy/bittersweet tones can work too, just not hopeless/grim please.
* Shipping, if possible. Not mandatory, for the non-canon ships--Optional Details Are Optional--but if you're willing, please pair the characters up romantically/sexually (and if you're not shipping them, please have their connection be at least as intense as it is in canon). On-page sex is fine but not required, whatever suits the story--I'm interested in dynamics like:
Discovery, realization
Breaking through fears and repression and damaging levels of self-denial/self-control
Reaching out, finding refuge
Stumbling/falling, only to find they are safely caught/can catch each other
Those tiny moments of intensity and connection, both emotional and physical
* Some tropes and approaches I particularly enjoy:
Trust
Loyalty
Worry
Protectiveness
Hurt/Comfort
Pining (eventually requited)
Tenderness, especially when unexpected
Angst (with a happy/hopeful resolution)
Uncovering a secret
A shell cracking to reveal vulnerability beneath
Physical care like tending wounds/washing/etc.
Nurturing with food/drink/warmth
Expressing deepest feelings with ordinary words (like, I love when there's some seemingly-innocuous phrase that they both know is actually a powerful declaration)
* Classic frameworks are always welcome! Including though not limited to:
Bedsharing
Huddling for warmth
Pretend couple
Discovering they became a couple without realizing
Undercover as a rentboy
Mistaken for a couple, including mistaken for sugar daddy/trade
Rescues
Suffering/sacrificing for the other
Stranded somewhere
Etc.
One jumps in the way of the other getting hurt? (Especially if the saved one is then mad about it?) One gets attacked and the other rises in wrath, GET BACK HE IS MINE? One awkwardly expresses the depth of his feelings with a painstakingly fried egg on toast? A desire to impress him, an effort to figure out how to be silently vulnerable with him, a need for him that he hadn't understood until now or had hidden while pining? Yes plz.
Big drama is good, quiet subtlety is good. ♥
Here are my signups, in alphabetical order: Hot Fuzz (2007), Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers, Old Fashion Cupcake, The Sting (1973)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Nicholas Angel, Danny Butterman
My signup:
(In case it's relevant: I happily accept treats!)
I am in love with Nicholas and Danny, and even more, both of them together. They bring each other to life, they make each other better, they wear their hearts on their sleeves (even if it takes Nicholas a little while--seeing him belatedly realize just how deeply he feels for Danny is an eternal treat).
The relationship between Nicholas and Danny is the absolute heart and engine of the story, with both of them changing and stepping out of their previous boxes, toward each other. And it's the synthesis of the best part of their native languages (ethical/dedicated community service + flexible/sweet cinematic creativity) that wins the day and ties them together. I totally ship them, and the movie does too. ♥
I'd love something post-canon, whether it's slice of life, another case, an action-adventure, a cozy whodunit, something warm and domestic, a series of movie nights, a series of movie nights in a different genre as the guys get romantic/intimate/sexual, whatever moves you. I'm fine with any level of realism/surrealism, from a more realistic tone like 'danny's dad being in prison is deeply affecting him' or similar, to an utterly cinematic tone that follows "the rule of cool" (or what the Leverage showrunner called "the Fun Train") with no one batting an eye.
Special mention to the way Danny can make Nicholas laugh, and the way they're so prone to beaming helpless heart-eyes at each other.
Happy/hopeful ending please!
DNW: No negative focus on Danny's weight/size, please (especially not any 'being close to death/in the hospital made him thinner and that's good!' thing, oof). He's lovely just as he is.
Additional thoughts:
Hot Fuzz has always been a favorite of mine, and this year in particular it really lived up to its place in my life as a total comfort movie and perfect object. ♥
I love the movie's masterful command of tropes (and Danny's, too, and how he patiently educates Nicholas in them), the way Danny is both the Buddy and the Lover. Danny loves the same things I love in action films, beyond awesome action sequences--the way the action can pare the characters down to their essentials and bond them deeply together, or unearth an explosion of intense feelings (shooting a gun in the air and going AAAAAAA! ;___; ).
I love the transformational vibe of the characters and relationship, the blossoming--Nicholas knowing only regulation and regimentation, until Danny's there to openly fall for him and pull him out into a wider, weirder world; but also Danny being stuck in a parochial dead-end (and treated as dead weight) until he meets Nicholas, and then he's inspired to learn and improve, his knowledge, skills, and sharpness rising by leaps and bounds. But even with that transformation, they remain themselves, Nicholas never losing his focus nor Danny his earnestness.
The stereotypical West Country village atmosphere is really enjoyable, but don't let that stop you if you'd rather have them travel somewhere, to the big city or beyond.
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Mervyn Bunter
My signup:
(In case it's relevant: I happily accept treats!)
I selected only Bunter, because I'd like him to be central--but it's perfectly fine for you to include any other Sayers character(s) you want to, or just Bunter himself. He activates my Competence Kink and wraps it in layers of Loyalty/Fealty kink--all of those undeniable skills and subtleties, yet they're willingly laid at Peter's feet for life, like knight and prince. I'd like him to get the foreground for a change!
It could be just Bunter, before, during, or after canon (here I do have a DNW: please don't include the Paton Walsh books as canon, just the DLS stuff). Some backstory, more of what made him who he is? More about his photography? His POV on any canon events, or times between books?
You could include Peter, and please do feel free to ship them (if you don't, please do have their bond at least as intense as it is in canon, which is considerable!). Bunter saved Peter's sanity pre-canon and surely his life too--more about that, or Bunter handling later relapses? The complex dynamics of their personal and social roles with each other, where Bunter is largely the one in the driver's seat?
You could include Harriet, and her evolving dynamic with Bunter--in canon we get to see a bit of them realizing they're natural allies, and learning how to navigate their mutual care for Peter--more of that, and its growing depth over time? Shipping them is fine, if you like (as long as it connects in some way with Peter, which I feel is innate to both of them).
In any case, suit yourself in terms of characters, as long as Bunter's central and the story is about him. ♥
Happy/hopeful ending please!
DNW: Please don't include the Paton Walsh books as canon, only Sayers.
Additional thoughts:
I've been thinking about Bunter a lot lately, even more than usual (which is saying something). Like I said in my signup, he seriously activates my Competence Kink--I mean, he's good at assisting with detection (especially shadowing) and he enjoys photography (and all its technical underpinnings), but at an even more basic level, I deeply admire his tremendous domestic skills, his eye for detail, his perfectionism, his excellence at running a household--and not just his organization but how by his nature he *wants* to organize things, he wants to handle the logistics and doesn't believe they'll work out as well if he doesn't (he's right about that!).
And the cherry on top is the way he devotes all of this undeniable skill to Peter, harnessing his formidable talents in the service of that one passion--and (to Peter's credit) we see Peter openly marvel at that fact over and over (and even repeatedly seek reassurance in joking-but-is-he-really ways--as in one of the short stories, "The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question": "One of these days I suppose I shall give you something to do which you *will* jib at, and you will leave me and I shall cut my throat.").
But all of this also makes me wonder about Bunter's own vulnerabilities, which he usually keeps to himself. Feel free to spend some time on those--he's a paragon, but he's also a person with feelings. He has endless patience with Peter...does he have any for himself? And what might happen if Bunter were the one needing help, rescue, nurturing, etc., which in Bunter's worldview is NOT THE PLAN?
Old Fashion Cupcake
Nozue Sanae, Togawa Minoru
My signup:
(In case it's relevant: I happily accept treats!)
Old Fashion Cupcake is a big comfort re-watch for me. The quietness of it, the thoughtfulness, the nuanced mature themes, the way the characters willingly (even if sometimes stumblingly) reach out toward each other. And of course the food and drink!
I love the way Togawa starts the whole process by actively jumping in to help Nozue rescue himself. But the rescue isn't about turning Nozue into someone else--it's about helping him remember that he had that energy/ability and can find it again. And I love the way Nozue keeps taking the opportunities and working on himself! It's easier not to wake up and take risks--not to finally figure out what you really want. Because there's the chance you won't get it, and now you'll truly know what you've lost.
Special mention to Nozue's fashion sense (from his sharp three-piece suit to his soft swingy coats and scarf, the man is put together), and to Togawa's bare torso, yowww.
I'd love something post-canon, to see how their life and relationship progress--domesticity, settling in together, food and cooking, bed and intimacy?
Or maybe they travel somewhere together--could be elsewhere in Japan, maybe to somewhere cozily isolated that suits itself to this canon's tone and their kind of nurturing, an inn with hot springs, etc.?--or it could be outside of Japan, someplace new to both of them?
What else does Togawa introduce Nozue to? Is there something Nozue might introduce Togawa to in return, to break Togawa out of a rut he might not have known he was in?
Happy/hopeful ending please!
DNW: Please don't translate "Nozue-san" into "Mr. Nozue", like the less-successful set of subtitles does. I vastly prefer -san and similar honorifics left as they are.
Additional thoughts:
It feels like such an autumnal show, somehow. And not just because of the scenes of them in overcoats, and Nozue's big cozy scarf! It has that slightly melancholy tone, at least to me, partly because it springs from a melancholy premise: Nozue's quiet lost helplessness, the way he's given up without really realizing it. He feels life has passed him by and now all he has to look forward to is his own little rut.
Togawa seems to have been pining for much if not all of this time, and he's brave enough to jump at the first opening he sees--not a simple opening to get closer to Nozue, but an opening to *help* him. But of course the "anti-aging" rescue involves Nozue repeatedly Leaving His Comfort Zone, which turns his passive resignation into active fear. And at first that fear feels worse than resignation--at least resignation was familiar! I don't know if Nozue realizes how brave he himself gets during the show--Togawa (inspired by earlier-Nozue) has already built himself a life of trying new things, but it's all strange now to current-Nozue.
I was also thinking, after a recent rewatch of the "Apple Pie" epilogue (https://adnirod.tumblr.com/post/708436732075458560), about some of the differences in their communication. Togawa is so much readier to, and more skilled at, actually talking about things--emotions, fears, sex. Nozue seems instead quicker to *do* things, as his mode of expression, especially cooking for and with Togawa. (It's one reason why Nozue's climactic decision in the finale was such a great advance for him--openly telling Togawa such vulnerable things!) I'd love to see more of that, and see how each of them might be learning some of the other's style and skills.
The Sting (1973)
Henry Gondorff, Johnny Hooker
Inspirational (and educational!) links from a menswear blog, using plenty of screencaps:
https://bamfstyle.com/2013/12/31/the-sting-newman-tux/
https://bamfstyle.com/2016/08/11/sting-redford-tux/
https://bamfstyle.com/2013/08/19/sting-redford-gray-suit/
https://bamfstyle.com/2013/01/10/the-sting-brown-pinstripe/
https://bamfstyle.com/2013/01/28/sting-newman-brn-plaid/
My signup:
(In case it's relevant: I happily accept treats!)
I love Henry's knowledge and competence, his history and status, his close and loyal inner circle. I love how protective and worried he gets, how he bears such weight on his shoulders. I love Johnny's eagerness to get involved and to learn, his neediness and hunger, even his risky-carelessness. The way he runs like a deer, the way his eyes glow across a crowded room.
Special mention to the way Henry and Johnny look in strap undershirts. Also: Henry's hat.
I love how their partnership changes, from awkward and uncertain to close and trusting, with barely-repressed emotional undertones. But there's that communication issue under the surface--Johnny keeping so many secrets, Henry aware he's hiding things and pleading with him to speak up ("You can't play your friends like marks, Hooker."). They depend on nuanced and wordless connection on the job, but backstage and onstage are different things, to Henry (even though he can still read Johnny either way). In the end he skips to the part where he discovered Johnny's secrets and protected him, but what's the aftereffect? Has Johnny learned to trust him more? Or is it going to take more time and effort?
What do they do after the end of the movie? Does Johnny get impatient? Does Henry teach him new things (and/or vice-versa)? How different are the world of the quick street-hustling Short Con and the high-stakes Big Con, and what's it like for Johnny in this new world?
How was Henry taught his trade back in the day, and does it still work? Why didn't Henry have an apprentice already? Did he before, did it go badly, or is Johnny a surprise exception?
What if something goes wrong? Relying on the grifter community--or, those times and places when all they have to rely on is each other. And what about Johnny being protective of Henry for a change?
A closeup on the Henry/Johnny relationship is great, but I also am totally into the whole parallel grifter society beneath the surface of the regular world, sort of a mixture of a huge extended family and an experienced repertory theater company. So if you want, feel free to paint a larger picture.
A new con, large or small, is welcome, but you don’t have to focus on that if you don’t want to. I’m also into the time between jobs (or offstage during a job), long train trips or fancy hotels or rides hitched in a dusty jalopy, risk-junkies on the road together.
If it becomes relevant, I ask that the good guys’ cons be against deserving targets--fitting the Robin Hoodish tone of the movie, where you go after the well-heeled and greedy, using their own greed to trap them. The con as reparative justice.
Happy or at least hopeful ending please!
Additional thoughts:
I love the True Justice aspect of this movie's grifting, never preying on the innocent, just helping the greedy hoist themselves with their own petards-- and I also love the "us against the world" feeling of these guys (and their grifter community) hanging in there during the Great Depression. So whether they're on a job or not, I love it! And I could really use some successful justice, vengeance, or plain old resilience-in-tough-times right now.
Henry and Johnny are the battle-worn veteran and the promoted minor-leaguer intensely eager to get in the game, whose competence and skill and risk-taking brings a little sweet rebalancing into a hard world. They’re mentor and mentored, but also well on the way to equal partners by the end of the movie--I enjoy Henry teaching and Johnny learning, but also Johnny opening Henry's eyes or otherwise keeping him on his toes.
Train travel is so very of the period--as high-end passengers, Pullman cars, sleepers, etc.-- or suddenly having to ride the rails, in a boxcar, buried in straw, staying in Hoovervilles along the way, the intimacies of the road. Ocean liners, thumbing rides, other kinds of travel, where the journey is the whole point. Luxury suites, enormous bathtubs--or a little cold-water flat, a creaky Murphy bed folding down from the wall. Johnny being brought out into the wider grifter community, seeing and being seen. Is he nervous about it? Is Henry? That feeling of grifting as a show, then the theater folks pack up and move on...is there a worry that wanting to stick together, pair up, is somehow against the script? The movie only shows them in cities...what about small towns, the countryside, someplace rural or rougher?
Thanks again for writing for me--I appreciate it! *\o/*
