Quarantine Control #96: Aye of the Tiger

You know we’re in a bad time when even medical experts can no longer feign optimism regarding fighting and potentially emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. The story itself, however, is nothing new, with the potential for new variants being around forever unless much of the world gets vaccinated. The vicious combo of hesitancy thanks to anti-vaccine sentiment combined with richer countries continuing to hoard vaccines (and letting unused supplies go to waste) means the chance of the world truly emerging from all this in the near future is lower than ever. The small saving grace is the death count remaining low among the vaccinated populace.

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Geoffrey Barnes

The Shots (2022)
Source: The Local Pharmacy
Episodes: Infinity

Throughout the years, I’ve read and heard plenty of stories about people who’ve gotten a little sick after getting vaccines for various diseases, including the flu and recently COVID-19. I never thought these stories were false, but I figured I was among the lucky ones thanks to never getting the worst of the side effects. I’ve never had any issues after getting flu shots, though while I felt similarly invincible after getting the first Moderna COVID-19 shot, I was a little fatigued after the second one.

So, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to get the flu shot and the Moderna COVID-19 booster shot over with yesterday, and… well, you probably know where this is headed: My streak of near-invincibility has come to an end, because Holy Sweet Maria am I going through it. The 5G is intense this time.

It was perhaps the combination of the two this time that is wrecking me. In addition to tiredness, the “fun” includes a fluctuating headache, occasional chills, and overall deliriousness that’s given me low energy despite being well rested.

This is all, of course, considerably better than actually catching the flu or especially COVID, both of which are dangerous diseases that everyone should take as seriously as they can, though too many don’t. This isn’t me encouraging anyone to go without the vaccinations because the side effects can sometimes be fierce, unless someone has blood-related health issues that prevent vaccines from working as well as they can. Doing this is a better alternative compared to being violently ill for days or, in the worst case, dying.

Anyway, this is just a break for this week. I will return to discussing the most recent TV shows or movies I’ve watched or games I’ve played lately for next week’s Quarantine Control post. Not that anyone ever doubted that.

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Joseph Daniels

Last week, when I made mention of several movies that should be watched to celebrate the Year of the Tiger, you may have noticed that there were a few that I left off of my list, for pretty good reason: none of them are actually readily available right now.  These otherwise obvious tiger movies are…

The Jungle Book (1994)
Tiger content: Shere Khan

There are actually several different movies called The Jungle Book, many of which Disney had a paw in making.  The 1994 version is the one that is the furthest from the original source material, but it’s also the one that seems to honour Shere Khan the most.  In other films, the tiger is seen as a straight up villain, but in this film, Shere Khan is more like a respected force of nature, and having Mowgli face the fierce tiger at the end and the two acknowledge each other’s strength is one of my favourite scenes out of all of the Jungle Book movies.  It’s just too bad that this version isn’t available on Disney+, but every other version mentioned in a blog post I wrote several years ago are available.  The original Disney animation, the CG remake that followed their original version very closely, and a 1997 version that they made and had to differentiate from the 1994 version by giving it a subtitle.

Two Brothers (2004)
Tiger content: Kumal and Sangha mainly, plus other tigers

Two Brothers is basically about the bond that a family of tigers has with one another, a bond that cannot be dulled with time spent apart.  There’s also a lot more tiger action than in any other movie on my list, and yet even this film is unavailable on anything except as a rental or a purchase right now.  It’s a little disappointing that I can’t even share this film with anyone.

I think my favourite scene from Two Brothers is right at the end when the kind hunter Aidan McRory chooses not to shoot Kumal and instead remembers that he used to offer the tiger candy (because in this story, tigers seem to like candy made from honey).  When he tries to offer the tiger one like he did when they were both much younger, he finds he’s run out and he asks the tiger to forgive him.  It feels a lot like he’s asking for forgiveness for more than just running out of candy in that scene, and I wish you could see it.  It’s just so well done.  It’s probably my favourite of all the movies I’m talking about this week.

A Tiger Walks (1964)
Tiger content: Raja, unnamed tigress and cubs

It’s amazing.  Nearly everyone in this movie is an idiot or an asshole, and the tiger mentioned in the title barely appears.  He’s seen walking around over the opening credits, but other than the upsetting scene of seeing him receive abuse from someone who shares my first name and eventually escapes, and a scene with him on a farm, we don’t see much of him until he’s being shot at by the military.  Here’s a scene for you all to watch for: a gun happy idiot looking forward to bagging a tiger shoots another human in his eagerness to capture glory for himself and then tries his hardest to beg avoidance of responsibility for his actions.

Well, I mean, it would be a scene to watch out for if the movie was available anywhere.  But don’t worry, the tiger has a happy ending because due to the efforts of a girl and a spreading movement across the country to save the tiger, Raja and his family are bought by a zoo and can live the rest of their days free.  It’s actually a pretty unsatisfying film because the asshole abuser gets killed off camera, and the “save the tiger” message is handled so ham fistedly that even I feel hit over the head with it and you know how I feel about tigers.

But let’s not leave everyone empty pawed this week.  I would like to also make mention of…

Aladdin (1992)
Aladdin (2019)
Source: Disney+
Tiger content: Rajah

This is another tiger named Rajah in another Disney film where the tiger doesn’t make a lot of appearances, but what I find interesting about the live action remake is that, due to the fact that they wouldn’t have to hand draw all the stripes on Rajah, they added him to several more scenes and it worked in the movie’s favour.  I love in the opening credits when he’s eying the leg of meat that someone’s eating and they decide to toss it to him and he catches it happily and eats it.  He was clearly waiting and hoping for the delicious meat!

Rajah was still not utilized very much in the remake, but that’s okay.  For a two hour + movie, it didn’t feel like the movie dragged on.  It was just right in every scene except Princess Jasmine’s final song, Speechless, which took “show stopping” literally.  For the same reason that I don’t like how songs are used in Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, the song Speechless in the new Aladdin just doesn’t work, and might’ve been better as a much shorter version, with the full version saved for the end credits.  But that’s the only part of the film I thought could’ve been improved.

Anyway, this is the only film I’ve mentioned in this week’s Quarantine Control column that is actually available to watch without having to fork out an additional fee to rent or buy it, and I promise I’ll have a better selection of stuff next week.

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Meanwhile, it shouldn’t be long before the COVID-19 vaccine is ready for younger kids, with emergency approval from the CDC likely coming after a short time. There, then we can have even more nonsense debates about dangerous chemicals poisoning children from the same people who ignore the actual chemicals poisoning them thanks to regulations that have either been undone in recent years or never existed in the first place. As someone might say: It’s the same as it ever was. See you next week, as the feature slowly approaches the 100th post.