Last weekend, I participated in two fantasy football league drafts. Unlike past years, I went in wholly unprepared. I hadn’t read any articles, done any research. I just sat down, logged in, and selected my players by hunch.
So, how’d I do?
Well, if the post-draft rankings are any indication, not bad. Not bad at all.
Both sites I consulted had my Snow Monkey at #1 in the power rankings.
Ah, if only the season had ended on Sunday – a full eleven days before the start of the actual NFL season.
My second draft wasn’t quite the rousing success, but I attribute this to NFL.com’s insistence on auto-correcting Ertz to Hertz so that, instead of landing Philly TE Zach Ertz in the 4th round, I ended up drafting Carolina Panthers TE Chris Manhertz who racked up a whopping 11 yards over 16 games last season. As a result, my Snow Monkeys ranked #5 out of #12 in that league.
But it’s early. We have a long way to go before the championship.
Or maybe a comparatively shorter way if the season ends up being called due to this pandemic.
Hey, Crime Clubbers, what did you think of A Bittersweet Life?
Absolutely loved it.
Back in the day, Hong Kong produced the very best in crime and gangster films. Today, it’s South Korea.
Lee Byung-hun is brilliant as Sun-woo, the mob enforcer tasked with keeping an eye on the boss’s mistress. He has specific orders to take her out if he catches her cheating. But a moment of sympathy sets his life and career down a bloody and bullet-riddled path.
Amid the action and mayhem, there is humor, humanity, and some truly heartfelt moments as our hero struggles to come to terms with, what seems to him, an unjust turn. You can’t help but feel for him when he confronts his boss at film’s end and demands to know “Why?”. And “No, the real reason.”. He’s incredibly sympathetic, so the scenes that track his quest for revenge really pack an emotional (occasional cinder block) punch.
This movie is full of great little sequences as well. The first awkward meeting with the mistress. His initial encounter with the drug runners. The race to assemble the guns. The levity of these scenes are in marked contrast to the movie’s visceral violence – the warehouse sequence, the ice rink set-up, the final showdown – casting those elements in a much darker light by comparison but offering viewers some much needed instances of hope. Because, at the end of the day, these things never end well.
For most anyway.
So, did any of you check out A Bittersweet Life? If so, what did you think?
A Bittersweet Life did not disappoint. I’ve come to love Korean films in the last five years. I’ve even visited the CGV Buena Park Cinemas which specializes in asian films the last couple times I was in California. I highly recommend the theater. I did feel out of place because the theater and asian mall it is located in does not appear to get a lot of traffic from non asians. However, the films and state of art cinema more than made up for feelingof being out of place.
At first A Bittersweet Life seemed a bit predictable with the main character, Kim Sun-woo, a devout gang member developing a romantic interest in the person he’s supposed to be watching and investigating. However, that feeling quickly disappeared with Kim Jee-woon’s take on this classic plot.
My favorite scene is the race to assemble the guns. Very subtle comedic scene in a life and death moment for Kim Sun-woo.I don’t want to give away the films ending scene, but hopefully you catch the disappearing Kim Sun-woo.
Great choice for Crime Club. Hopefully, more are in store for us as I did notice no new selection to watch. 😔
Glad your first draft went well. Mine did as well. Looking forward to my second leagues upcoming draft. Sorry to hear about Zach Ertz. I hope you found a good replacement. Like yourself I’ve given up on pre-draft research except for injury/covid research. One year I was bitten when the day before the draft my star running back was injured in training camp and for some reason Yahoo’s fantasy site did not reflect the injury in his profile. So I’ve found it best to be prepared from that standpoint. Best of luck in the coming season to you!!
No Crime Club selection yet as I want to see how tomorrow goes as I’m starting work on a new project. If it’s a good day, I may announce a selection for Friday discussion.
P.S. Hope you didn’t draft Fournette.
Enjoyed seeing you and Suji on Gatecon reunion today. It was disappointing that you didn’t get to talk more; but we got to say hello to Suji. 🙂
We had an auto draft last night. NFL Fantasy gave my draft a D ranking and predict I’ll win one game. I like a challenge. I’ve won championships when they didn’t rate me. Let’s see what I can do.
My team: Lamar Jackson, Joe Mixon, Patrick Lindsay, DeAndre Hopkins, Cooper Kupp, Darren Waller, Calvin Ridley, Evan Engram, Ka’imi Fairbairn, Buffalo Bills, Damien Harris, Joshua Kelley, KeShawn Vaughn, Brandon Cooks, Michael Pittman and Ian Thomas.
I got the league to move around the divisions to mix it up so now I’m in the East.
Now to see what players I can pick up and analyse my team.
Cheers, Chev
Gotta catch up on some of these films if I can find on Aussie Netflix.