Crouching Tiger Exit Wounds

The first movie with subtitles Alan watched was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I think I asked for the soundtrack for Christmas that year, and so Alan would have heard the CD in the Saturn on one of his trips to and from Milwaukee or Great America when I was in med school.

When the movie came out, Hollywood Cinema's sign had a curious setup. There was a movie title per line, but there were only outlines separating every other title, so it read something like this:

----------------------------
CROUCHING TIGER
EXIT WOUNDS
----------------------------
BLOW
THE MEXICAN
----------------------------
BLOW
POKEMON 3
----------------------------

I think Marianna Allen has a photo of this somewhere. Let's not even talk about the "up your butt" game with this group of movies.

Alan would only have been 8 at the time, so the parents and I weren't sure if he was following the plot. He insisted he did, and proved it by describing a scene:

  Deep man voice: And you will die!
  Evil lady voice: So will you!
  Deep man voice: [pulling imaginary dart from neck] Oh, how'd that get there? I guess I will.

Alan was my movie buddy. We saw so many films together. Action film? Call Alan. Weird foreign film? Call Alan. Of course, sometimes I would tell him I wanted to see a movie with him, and at the last minute, he would inform me that he might go see it with a friend instead. Nice.

As time goes by, I realize I lost so many different things when he died, not just a brother, but my Star Trek buddy, my movie buddy, my music buddy, my video game buddy, my internet meme buddy, my keep me up to date on "young people stuff" buddy, my piggyback riding buddy, my complaining about parents buddy, my complaining about society buddy, my best friend, the kid I raised with Mom and Dad. I know I can never replace him as a whole, but I find myself searching for fill-ins for some of the smaller roles. Anyone want to see a movie?