If ever you want to show a character go “evil”, please, for goodness sake, don’t make him dance! (Spoilers below)
Review: Korean Monster horror movie in the vein of Shaun of the Dead.
I kept hearing about how good a monster movie this was supposed to be. Best horror movie in decades, some said. Hey, it’s playing locally, I think I’ll go check it out!
Watching the latest volume of Planetes I got from Zip.ca, I couldn’t help thinking: “This may be the hardest science fiction I’ve seen in years.” Planetes follows the lives of the Orbital Debris Collection division of the fictional transnational Technora. The series starts off slow, but gets better as we delve deeper into the flawed, but likeable characters. But that’s not what I’m writing about. It’s the science that’s gotten me excited about this series.
“I liked Infernal Affairs more than The Departed.”
If I was drinking something I would have splurted it out. Infernal Affairs is a very good movie, but it has a fraction of the character exploration of The Departed. Infernal Affairs is nearly pure plot with a last-second character growth spurt. But I’ve heard this from several people now, and I was having a hard time understanding this.
“Anime sucks!” Or so I’ve heard over the years. True a lot of anime is crap and frankly embarrassing, but there is a small subset of anime that I think is every bit as good as anything in live-action. Better in most cases. I’ve recommended some of the anime below to my friend, the anime hater, and he rather liked them.
“Did you know it was based on the comic strip?”
“Really? I thought it was just coincidence.”
“I can’t recommend it.”
“Why?”
So the conversation with my friend went. Not content to leave well enough alone, I received Over the Hedge in the mail from Zip.ca. I thought maybe he was being over-critical, but man, is this movie ever mediocre
If you’re a new anime fan, or even an old one, you’ve probably watched an anime based on a manga by Rumiko Takahashi, probably Inuyasha. She’s the grand old dame of Japanese comic books (manga to us otaku), and easily the most famous manga-ka outside of Japan.
Rumiko’s creations are so popular in so many countries that she’s one of the wealthiest women in Japan. Why, you ask? Let’s look at her works.
So Rome finally ended. Controversy and all.
I got to admit, I did like this series. Normally I get annoyed at historical inaccuracies, but Rome’s inaccuracies were blatant but trying to be authentic inaccuracies, if that makes sense.
The producers have openly admitted they weren’t trying to create a super-faithful history documentary. They were making Entertainment based upon history, like Shakespeare did numerous times. I still felt they mostly got the gist of the history while ignoring all the details (How many people care that Pompey was killed by two assassins instead of one?)
It was a fun ride through that tumultuous period from Julius Cesar to Octavian, later the Emperor Augustus. Using the everyman characters of Pullo and Veranus, the show did a good job of drawing us into the life of Ancient Rome (which was well documented by writers in Rome). Following their arc through to their conclusions was very satisfying, especially for Pullo.
Also, the portrayals of the really famous historical characters were pretty much in-line with their historical descriptions with the exception of the Roman women, of which precious little is recorded. And the main events were covered. That’s better than Braveheart. 
Haibane Renmei is a pretty unusual anime in many ways, but the biggest difference is the themes. No guns, battles or sorcery. Just a gently story about girls with wings, called haibane, living in a town surrounded by a wall they cannot even touch, let alone pass through. The series begins with the “birth” of a new girl, Rakka, at the Old Home: an all-girls dormitory for haibane. It then follows her development and relationship with the oldest haibane there, Reki.
Mushishi is a beautifully drawn, if somewhat dry, anime with some interesting ideas. It’s being turned into a live-action movie starring Jo Odagiri. The trailer is up and it looks like they might have capture the impressionistic look of the anime:
http://www.mushishi-movie.jp/trailer/trailer.html
A fan-made music video shows the art work from the anime.
