Tag: Asian history

Midweek Mongol Madness

The Portly Politico2 Comments

I’m getting into the Mongols in the next unit in World History, but our current unit on the Byzantines, Russians, and Turks has already run into the Khanate of the Golden Horde.

The vast Eurasian steppe is one of those parts of the world that seems like a big, open, empty area in which nothing of substance really happens.  However, the exact opposite is true:  it’s a virtual spawn point for nomadic, horseback-riding invaders.  Long before the Mongols, groups like the ancient Aryans (the historic people, not the mythologized Nazi ones) and Scythians drove down from the steppe into Europe, India, the Middle East, and even China.

History YouTuber WhatIfAltHist posted a video earlier this week covering the “anti-civilization” of the steppe, and how various invaders have shaped civilizations around them.

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Exhuma (2024)

The Portly Politico12 Comments

There must be magic in Korea—and, according to the subject of today’s Monday Morning Movie Review, there might actually be—because the Korean film industry just keeps hitting homeruns.  Since the release of the Oscar-winning Parasite (2019) and the smash series Squid Game (2021), South Korean movies and television shows have been on the West’s radar.

Koreans seem to excel in the horror genre; indeed, I’d argue that both Parasite and Squid Game, while not precisely “horror” films, certainly have very strong horror and thriller elements.  They’re good, too, at putting messages into their art that feel both timely and organic, but never overtly preachy; Parasite and Squid Game both touched on issues of class, for example.

This week’s film, 2024’s Exhuma, is overtly a horror film, and also has a message embedded within it, as most horror does.  Instead of pointing out the disparities of class, however, Exhuma is a thoroughly nationalist film, in the way that East Asian nations embrace their national identities with a deep, ancestral reverence.

More importantly, it is an excellent—and scary!—film.

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