> The surprising thing is not that in the silent era Japanese audiences opted to watch films with live human mediation. What is strange is that no other countri

> The surprising thing is not that in the silent era Japanese audiences opted to watch films with live human mediation. What is strange is that no other countries — apart from Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, all then under Japanese influence — adopted such an excellent and fun idea. Since these performances are noted as including ad-lib commentary and anachronistic (to the film) references, seems like MST3K is pretty close, though they comment over talkies. [edit] I’ve also been to a couple showings with people who were on the production calling out jokes and commentary over it, and have been at film festivals where live-riffs or commentary were done by some set of podcasters or another. I’m in a trash-tier city so these are rare, but I bet they can be found in major US cities on a pretty regular basis, if you’re not picky about the sort of movie you’ll be seeing.