You Weren't Supposed to Know

This piece of work seems to me to be a unique blend of alienated attractions.  On the one hand, the film is going to be mostly enjoyed by a younger generation than the Smashing Pumpkins fans who, like me, have a dated coming-of-age story of our own.  That's why it took me a couple of years before I even watched the movie.  I haven't the attention span, nor the type of friends keeping me well informed of the pop culture going on.  These differences in taste and generations, no doubt, will leave a rift flowing between the uninformed and any phenomena to to be experienced.

Even Pumpkins fans have moved on to a certain degree.  It's a given, no matter how great an album is, it's easy to wear it out, and I wouldn't expect anyone to be looking for this to suddenly rise out of the moist graves of the 90's because of a trippy flick characterized as a live video game.  The movie is a blindside any associating fan base of the Pumpkins.  Although I find it interesting that just after finding out this hidden movie game, there has been a certain revival of their "exclamation mark" alt-rock juggernaut.

I don't know if this means there will be a new upsurge for the pumpkins, but Wright's experiment definitely adds some interesting new flavor to the pallet.  Watching a reenactment of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is fucking crazy.  The way the director associates the visual with the audio is so esoteric at times, you feel like the emotions are forming words in a language of impulse.  I have trouble differentiating the two from each other now.  When I hear a MCIS song, I think of Scott Pilgrim fighting for his life.

Edgar has managed to make a story out of the album, that's the bottom line.  He immortally disguised this film triumph however, and its a wonder that it even exists.  It's simplified organization, jutting up against a cocky decisive move, creating an inflexible code for a feature that has a strange breadth of land to cover.

You see kids, dear Edgar picked a big twist of track... did I say track? I mean fate... to chunk his melodrama into.  It's a cypher wrapped up in an enigma, and considering which accidental circumstances that must crop up to be able to detect such hidden treasures... well, that's to be debated.  In this case, it has to do with a screwed up meta-tag because, yes, I downloaded the album because, yes, I already bought it five times probably.

You're not gonna believe this, but Scott feels like a RAT IN A CAGE
You can play Bullet With Butterfly Wings to this video and see for yourself

I cut this clip EXACTLY 8 seconds before where the 00:00 mark of the song should be.
In other words, when the video hits 0:08, that's the time to play the song.
I would do it for you myself, but EMI doesn't like it when you upload their copyrighted stuff.

The Evil Xs

You may of noticed, of course, that there is some bit of circling around this frequently used mark, but it is important not to get confused about the number.  It's the placement of that mark that should stand out.  Here's one you might have missed:

If you know anything about film editing with ACTUAL film, that is, cutting and splicing frames together in a series, you'll know that this is one way to keep track of the millions of frames and their correct order.  In theaters long ago, switching reels during the middle of a film was the job of that guy in the window behind everyone's seats.  They'd have to mark the corners of the frames, sometimes circles, sometimes x's, to signal when the end of the reel was coming up.  This is a frame from the opening credits.  As the background whizzes by, this appears as fast as a flash, but instead of a little corner, it fills the screen.  Your eyes will see it though most likely its nothing to remember.  

How is any of this relevant?  It's not.  But it is a BIG chalky X I wanted to talk about.  In fact it may be misleading in the end.  There is actually something very striking about this X, but it's not the one in Sex Bob-Ombs. 

The funny thing about eyes and ears is they can work together in so many different ways, but if they don't harmonize, a lot can be missed.  People generally use their eyes first before any other sense, that's why consciously we discard so much visually.  Eyes need more than light to effect the brain in much more moving sorts of ways.  Like the "tale" of a tree falling in the woods, only the other way around. When things are appropriately in sync will your ears tell your brain that what you just saw was coming from what you heard.  

Take the twins for instance.  They never say a damn word! ...and now they're dead.  The twins take the Sex Bob-Ombs on with their hair and pop-synth.  Pretty evil.  As big and loud as the electromagnetism that's bringing down the house, they try to "scorch" the band.  Oh but the comeback is epic.  Scott proves his heart is bigger than emo!

As silly as it seems, this ninja-move-X is right in the middle of an audio-visual masterpiece.   You will know the tree has fallen to the "earth" then.

Now, I know what you're thinking... but if I told you there were 7 Xs hidden through this movie that tell you what to do and that was your way to find everything you need to know about this film, I'd at least be fooling you in a good way.  Luckily Edgar Wright has already done a good enough job at that already.  His confusing placement of symbols and mood will throw off even the most perceptive. 

3 unmistakably direct incursions of bold Xs positioned to line up with the album is more-so the truth.  And these 3 unmistakably obvious placements of Xs will drive you prematurely insane if you're up for it.

If you're a "night" person like me, playing into the wee hours of the morning is a little more like prime time.  There are less distractions anyway. 

Zero

When I first "fell" upon my discovery I went searching online for support only to find that there was actually NO talk about this whatsoever... besides that E.W. likes to do weird movies ...Specifically that he took special care with this particular film, which for some reason most assumed it to be of an unimportance.  (I'm guessing this because no one has come up with any idea why.) 

The Internet is full of talk about the video game mostly, which is something I still have never looked into.  All the information that seems to surface across various websites are quotes about Edgar Wright stylizing his films by placing hidden Easter eggs in them, so people could uncover them and point them out, trending as people do about trivia and whatever.

The merchandise and consumerism have almost created a wall between the deeper content laying hidden beneath the slapstick heroism performed by Michael Cera.  The role of his character is in a play, a musical drama if you will, and a shrouded and non-detectible one. 

Following the film, The video game's release takes precedence over other topics.  Fan's have looked more to the "spin-off" game as the continuation of the film's legacy. I have to say, those are just distractions to the real underpinnings this film was being envisioned as.

Underpinnings...
or maybe under-torpedo. Take your pick.

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Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic

Take a look at this...

Why does it seem as though these titles are all getting switched up?
Which came first, the chicken or the Easter bunny?

Perhaps the first clue goes back to before the movie was made...
The comic, from which the film was based, features a title that alludes to another familiar title.  Turns out, Bryan Lee O'Malley's "coming of age" comic series, has Smashing Pumpkins references all over the place. That's because he was heavily influenced by them growing up.  Here's a helpful review with the author: http://www.fluxblog.org/2010/08/interview-with-scott-pilgrim-creator-bryan-lee-omalley/

In it he mentions briefly his influence by the band, as well as other life situations gathered around him at the time of writing his epic SP story.  He also talks about Edgar Wright getting a hold of it and beginning the brainstorming process that would eventually become his famous title.  This has no real relationship with what I'm going to tell you though.  It says nothing about the gigantic cock-up Edgar Wright was really dreaming about.

HAVE YOU SEEN SCOTT'S SHIRT?

That heart shaped SP doesn't stand for Scott Pilgrim, in case you didn't know.  That is one of the first logos for The Smashing Pumpkins if not THE logo.  Was it just intended to be a pun for Pilgrim's initials?  Or because of some wacky connect-the-dots symbolism Wright decided to throw in? 

I don't know about anyone else, but there's a cliff hanger here to me, a drop off, a silence hushed over with a finger neatly pressed against it's lips.  But then perhaps that's because I know something you don't.  If Edgar wanted to put parallels between his film and the original, then why leave it empty?  The problem is that there is discontinuity in referencing a reference from a comic book when there's a lack of content in the film.. I mean...  HE'S JUST WEARING THE SHIRT!

Perhaps fans have taken this in stride for only being a hint of the idolization Scott carries for the Smashing Pumpkins.  Or maybe it's just the director's simple stylization after the comic itself.  Either way, it's vague.

What I'm trying to point out is that, to the viewer, Edgar's only playing with the idea behind the comic series.  So far the relationship with the Pumpkins is comical, and I do mean that as only having the comic series to support any notion about the band.  It's Bryan Lee O'Malley's love affair with the Pumpkins that's shining through, but only on TWO T-SHIRTS?

There's no context without the dialog as is featured in the printed series.  By all rights it appears to be a shoddy attempt to link the two works together.  It's almost as if it's a joke.  A weak one.  If you read any kind of source from the Smashing Pumpkins side of the fence, you might find that to a real fan of their music, this is a turn off.

In the movie, Scott doesn't really talk about his interests.  Apart from being goo-goo for Ramona, there's not a whole lot to go on as to why Scott's a Smashing Pumpkins fan, or anything else attributed to them for that matter.  After knowing how much time Edgar spend on the set directly with the actor's parts, creating very specific parameters for them to work in, it would seem that he would of put a lot more though into it. 

Why would the director so explicitly include such references as vague as the ZERO shirt?  Is it to compliment Bryan O'Malley's love of the Pumpkins?  Is it because Scott like's Coke Zero so much?  Does the movie not deserve to get the same transcendental love experienced by the comic author when he was first writing the series?

Could it be that there's more to it than it appears?

Edgar Wright and the Infinite Sadness

For some reason, Edgar Wright has intentionally hidden the meaning behind an obscure relevance between the star of the film, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World and The Smashing Pumpkins.  The relationship of the comic, which the film is based upon, and the Pumpkin's hit album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, has trickled into the foreground without detailing any secure intentions.  What those intentions were have remained somewhat of a mystery, and I am thus far the only person to my knowledge outside of "the know" who has figured it out.  Fans who have scavenged the film for the so-called Easter eggs Edgar repeatedly drops into his works have turned up only mild speculations.  This is a work in progress to reveal the true nature of Wright's take on O'Malley's tale of epicness.

It's been years, and although the hype has dissolved and interests have cooled, perhaps there is another scale to this supercharged, musical adventure.  One that just may bring the whole thing into another deeper, explosive and heart-driven manifestation that reveals a master-work far more worth the consideration than it's previous form.  The film itself is a remarkable piece of work, delving into an uncategorical genre and pulling off a unique view of a pre-to-post coming of age story.  But everything sought after to enjoy about this rouge film has been completely checked off, thus far, and all of the current reviews seem to be, at best, a weakly supported afterthought when it comes to any hidden languages appearing within the film.  What I want to do is start the fire on a major oversight that I believe the world has sadly accepted, so that this amazing discovery that I have been thrilled to uncover may finally make it's glorious début.

However, as hard as it was for me to believe that I was viewing solely by myself this phenomenon, it has been even harder still to piece together the combination of clues with the strange.  I discovered the reasons why this has escaped the public for so long; without fate playing a part, it would have never happened.  Because of the nature of the beast, there is no easy way to show anyone not personally nearby, so the best way that I can deliver the notion is by giving everyone the chance to pick it up for themselves.

Look at it this way, Edgar left a trail of egg shells for you to hunt, but he was more worried about the end result and so the pieces got half buried in the path.  I am simply going to point them out the best I can.  After getting such great satisfaction from discovering something of this magnitude myself, I'd hate to deprive anyone of the same opportunity anyway.