DAILY CALL SHEET: DECEMBER 11, 2025

The Human Vapor (1960) Ishirō Honda takes a break from directing the Big G to helm this smaller scale thriller in which the police find themselves baffled by a series of seemingly impossible bank robberies. It turns out the thief/murderer is a librarian who, thanks to a well-meaning scientist's experiments, can assume a gaseous form. His reason for pilfering the depositories and leaving a trail of bodies? Love. He wants to use the money to help further the career of a talented Noh dancer he is besotted with, even though she herself is horrified when the source of his funding is revealed. Can the authorities find a way to nab hold of a man who can't be grabbed, or is a woman's touch needed? The Human Vapor is a nifty little sci-fi treat with a surprisingly touching performance from its female lead. If only the subtitles in the version I watched didn't keep referring to the titular character as "the gas man."

TIL: Say what you want about "the gas man," but at least he had good intentions, right? Yeah, well. Intentions are one of the three constitutive elements that determines if a human act is a sin. However, as the Catechism points out, a good intention (for example, that of helping out one's beloved advance in her art) does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered such as murder or robbery, good or just. In short, the end does not justify the means. This is because sin is not a matter of subjective motive but an objective offense against truth, reason, and love for God and neighbor. Now, good intentions can sometimes influence the degree of responsibility or gravity of a sin, but they cannot change the fundamental moral quality of an act. As for bad intentions, like deliberately intending to commit a grave sin, that kind of speaks for itself.

Queen Kong (1976) If you thought gender flipping in movies started with the 2016 version of Ghostbusters, you've never met Queen Kong. In a world where women are macho and men are meek, movie producer and captain of the good ship Liberated Lady, Luce Habit, kidnaps small time con artist Ray Fay to star in her next adventure flick to be set in deepest, whitest Africa. Once on site, however, Ray catches the eye of a giant amorous ape who eventually ends up chasing him throughout London. The twist is, he sort of likes being chased. This attempt at feminist comedy was only allowed a limited release in Italy and Germany due to lawsuits from Dino De Laurentiis, who inexplicably thought it might hurt the box office of his own King Kong remake. Of course, this just guaranteed Queen Kong a certain cult appeal, but whether it deserves it will likely depend on if you find its Z-grade versions of Benny Hill jokes funny or not.

TIL: The Church holds to the truth that, while equal, men and women are distinct in their masculinity and femininity by divine design, with complementary differences that enrich human relationships and reflect the relational nature of God (as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). That's why, as Pope Francis explained in Amoris Laetitia, the Church rejects ideologies that view gender as fluid, self-determined, or detached from biology, as such views erase essential human differences and the anthropological basis of the family. However, despite the necessity of the difference between the masculine and feminine, the Catechism notes that men and women share a common vocation to stewardship of creation, work, and service to others, with no inherent hierarchy based on sex. So, there's no problem with a woman being the ship's captain or a man being the "damsel" in distress, just as long as the inherent gender differences are still recognized.