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Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Late Spring (1949) in Movies
Jan 28, 2021
As elegant, patient, polite and deliberately still as a side of civilised Japanese life that existed both at the time and for decades before and after. Difficult for our modern western sensibilities to readjust to. It is just so slow and seemingly eventless. It concerns the life of 27 year old Noriko, played by Ozu’s muse Setsuko Hara, with whom he made many of his best loved films. She is constantly hassled by family members and friends to get married, but is much more concerned by her relationship with her sick father, who she is content to care for. The more she is pushed the more her polite smile becomes a rictus of hidden sadness and anxiety. Small meetings, quiet words and subtle gestures take on larger meanings, and the story becomes more tragic the more you engage with Hara’s lovely performance.
I did find it hard to relate to, and couldn’t quite find the stillness within myself to just go with it. Its pace made me jittery to do something more exciting, and it wasn’t quite as transcendingly beautiful as I’d been led to believe. Saying that, I appreciated the skill of Ozu’s camera work, in framing and capturing delicate scenes and moments. I also learned the phrase “tatami cam”, which describes the low angle he often uses to demonstrate humility and respect. A gentle tale with great resonance regarding our responsibilities to others and our own repressed desires. Most interesting in how it contrasts with western cinema of the same time.
I did find it hard to relate to, and couldn’t quite find the stillness within myself to just go with it. Its pace made me jittery to do something more exciting, and it wasn’t quite as transcendingly beautiful as I’d been led to believe. Saying that, I appreciated the skill of Ozu’s camera work, in framing and capturing delicate scenes and moments. I also learned the phrase “tatami cam”, which describes the low angle he often uses to demonstrate humility and respect. A gentle tale with great resonance regarding our responsibilities to others and our own repressed desires. Most interesting in how it contrasts with western cinema of the same time.
ClareR (5879 KP) rated Atomic Love in Books
Mar 10, 2022
I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Atomic Love as much as I did. This book does tick a lot of my boxes though: historical fiction, a bit of espionage, a real sense and feeling of the time and place, and a little bit of romance.
I haven’t read much historical fiction set in America in the 1950’s, so it was interesting to see that the women who had worked in important roles during the war, had been moved out to be replaced by the men returning from war - just the same as pretty much everywhere else.
Rosalind’s reasons for not working in Atomic Research are a little different. Her ex-lover, Weaver, had her removed after he wrote a report damning her ability and suitability. So, Rosalind finds herself working on a jewellery counter, doubting her abilities as a scientist. She’s lonely, struggling to make ends meet when two men suddenly turn up in her life: Thomas Weaver (her ex), and an FBI agent called Charlie Szydlo.
Charlie, an ex-Japanese prisoner of war, believes Weaver is spying for the Russians and feeding them important information in their own Atomic research. Charlie asks Rosalind to help him find out for sure if that’s what he’s doing. So against her better judgement, she does.
There’s a lot of tension running through this, both the dangerous and romantic kinds. It’s a great book that would have slipped under my radar if not for The Pigeonhole!
I haven’t read much historical fiction set in America in the 1950’s, so it was interesting to see that the women who had worked in important roles during the war, had been moved out to be replaced by the men returning from war - just the same as pretty much everywhere else.
Rosalind’s reasons for not working in Atomic Research are a little different. Her ex-lover, Weaver, had her removed after he wrote a report damning her ability and suitability. So, Rosalind finds herself working on a jewellery counter, doubting her abilities as a scientist. She’s lonely, struggling to make ends meet when two men suddenly turn up in her life: Thomas Weaver (her ex), and an FBI agent called Charlie Szydlo.
Charlie, an ex-Japanese prisoner of war, believes Weaver is spying for the Russians and feeding them important information in their own Atomic research. Charlie asks Rosalind to help him find out for sure if that’s what he’s doing. So against her better judgement, she does.
There’s a lot of tension running through this, both the dangerous and romantic kinds. It’s a great book that would have slipped under my radar if not for The Pigeonhole!
Sarah (7800 KP) rated Everybody's Golf in Video Games
Sep 19, 2017
Good & Promising but frustrating
You might be wondering why on earth I've even played this game. However my other half and I are into our golf, and are also on the look out for couch co-op games, so this seemed a no brainer. And in all fairness despite a few flaws, it's actually a good game.
Let's start with the negatives. The main flaw is the multiplayer mode, which is the main reason we bought this. To begin with, there is only 1 course available on multiplayer. You have to unlock the rest one single player mode, which takes forever (I'm still at it). Which is weird, as how you do in multiplayer has no effect on your single player rankings. The other issue with multiplayer is your can't create your own player in that mode. You can create one in single player & use it in multiplayer, but there's no direct creation in multiplayer. You also can't use multiple custom players if you're using numerous PSN accounts. The only other issue is that they've tried to throw rpg elements into the single player mode and it really isn't necessary. It's a golf game, after all.
Those criticisms aside, it's actually a very fun and quite accurate golf game. The courses are great looking and fairly challenging, and the different mode options are fairly fun too. The single player mode has lots to do and the character builder is very detailed.
If you're into golf and are looking for a fun game to play, I'd probably recommend this. As long as you can put up with the very Japanese style and the multiplayer niggles.
Let's start with the negatives. The main flaw is the multiplayer mode, which is the main reason we bought this. To begin with, there is only 1 course available on multiplayer. You have to unlock the rest one single player mode, which takes forever (I'm still at it). Which is weird, as how you do in multiplayer has no effect on your single player rankings. The other issue with multiplayer is your can't create your own player in that mode. You can create one in single player & use it in multiplayer, but there's no direct creation in multiplayer. You also can't use multiple custom players if you're using numerous PSN accounts. The only other issue is that they've tried to throw rpg elements into the single player mode and it really isn't necessary. It's a golf game, after all.
Those criticisms aside, it's actually a very fun and quite accurate golf game. The courses are great looking and fairly challenging, and the different mode options are fairly fun too. The single player mode has lots to do and the character builder is very detailed.
If you're into golf and are looking for a fun game to play, I'd probably recommend this. As long as you can put up with the very Japanese style and the multiplayer niggles.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Blood Red Skies in Tabletop Games
May 18, 2018 (Updated May 18, 2018)
Warlord Games continue in their mission to entice Games Workshop's veteran players with an elegant and very engaging game of fighter combat from the Second World War. The system partly involves chucking loads of d6s, as you might expect, but also hinges around a very neat mechanic involving a tilting flying base which indicates your planes' status and places them at a state of advantage or disadvantage. The basic rules are very simple to learn; playing the game well is considerably more of a challenge.
Most of the components in the starter box are very appealing and well put-together; the planes come in different coloured plastic so even without paint they are easy to distinguish. If I had to sling a slight brick at this release it's that the rulebooks are very skimpy and don't cover a number of situations which are almost certain to arise in your first few games; it's easy enough to figure out what 'should' happen but it would be good to have official confirmation. The advanced rules for using bombers and other multi-engined planes are also somewhat confusingly presented.
There's also the point that even a week or so after the game's release, the general consensus is that the points values for some of the starting planes are a little bit hinky - the Spits and 109s seem well-balanced, but Russian Yaks seem generously priced while Japanese Zeroes cost too many points, for instance. However, many supplementary releases of other planes and so on are planned, so no doubt this will be fixed in due time. In the meantime this is a very enjoyable, attractive and extremely playable game.
Most of the components in the starter box are very appealing and well put-together; the planes come in different coloured plastic so even without paint they are easy to distinguish. If I had to sling a slight brick at this release it's that the rulebooks are very skimpy and don't cover a number of situations which are almost certain to arise in your first few games; it's easy enough to figure out what 'should' happen but it would be good to have official confirmation. The advanced rules for using bombers and other multi-engined planes are also somewhat confusingly presented.
There's also the point that even a week or so after the game's release, the general consensus is that the points values for some of the starting planes are a little bit hinky - the Spits and 109s seem well-balanced, but Russian Yaks seem generously priced while Japanese Zeroes cost too many points, for instance. However, many supplementary releases of other planes and so on are planned, so no doubt this will be fixed in due time. In the meantime this is a very enjoyable, attractive and extremely playable game.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Gods Of Egypt (2016) in Movies
Feb 10, 2018 (Updated Feb 10, 2018)
Set Piece Defence
Not-quite-as-bad-as-its-reputation knockabout fantasy that does a serious number on the wonders of Egyptian mythology. Evil god Set (Gerard Butler in shouty mode) takes over the kingdom and sets about harvesting the signature body-parts of his fellow immortals; hapless mortal Brenton Thwaites must persuade wronged heir-to-the-throne Horus (Nicolaj Coster-Waldau) to help get rid of him.
Well, the plot is nothing special and the film often seems to be on the verge of sending itself up, but on the other hand it's visually interesting and the choice to treat the weirder bits of Egyptian mythology as being literally true (boss-god Ra is obliged to drag the sun around the Earth every day, on a length of chain attached to the back of his flying boat) means the story is at least a bit different.
You can, I suppose, complain that none of the people playing Egyptians in this film are actually Egyptian; many did, and I suppose I must have missed them complaining in a similar vein when Japanese and coloured actors were cast as inhabitants of Scandinavian fantasyland in the Thor movies. But c'mon, guys, it's a film about Gerard Butler in a flying space chariot pulled by giant beetles - it is possible to take this sort of thing a bit too seriously. (I look forward to retiring to my bunker and listening to the flaming-torch-wielding mob as they mill around outside.)
Anyway, not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but hardly terrible, either, and at least it is pleasing to the eye and has a certain novelty.
Well, the plot is nothing special and the film often seems to be on the verge of sending itself up, but on the other hand it's visually interesting and the choice to treat the weirder bits of Egyptian mythology as being literally true (boss-god Ra is obliged to drag the sun around the Earth every day, on a length of chain attached to the back of his flying boat) means the story is at least a bit different.
You can, I suppose, complain that none of the people playing Egyptians in this film are actually Egyptian; many did, and I suppose I must have missed them complaining in a similar vein when Japanese and coloured actors were cast as inhabitants of Scandinavian fantasyland in the Thor movies. But c'mon, guys, it's a film about Gerard Butler in a flying space chariot pulled by giant beetles - it is possible to take this sort of thing a bit too seriously. (I look forward to retiring to my bunker and listening to the flaming-torch-wielding mob as they mill around outside.)
Anyway, not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but hardly terrible, either, and at least it is pleasing to the eye and has a certain novelty.
ClareR (5879 KP) rated Build Your Home Around My Body in Books
Jul 28, 2021
I loved this enchanting, horrific, beautiful story. Build Your House Around My Body is a difficult book to describe. There are at least three timelines, all relevant to what is happening in the present day to the main character, Winnie née Ngoan.
Winnie is a lost soul - she has gone to Vietnam to stay with family while she teaches English to Vietnamese students, hoping to find herself, but she seems to become more and more lost as the story progresses. She struggles with her dual identity as her mother is American, and her father is Vietnamese. The fact that she seems to deliberately sabotage her own life is the most tragic thing about her.
The time does jump around a bit, but this didn’t confuse me at all - the chapter headings made sure of that - in fact they gave some interesting history lessons (e.g. French colonialism, Japanese occupation).
It’s a weird and wonderful one (my favourite kind!), sometimes bordering on the grotesque (ditto). Bodily functions and food that I wasn’t sure about, galore! (I’d still try the food though, although I draw the line at dog…).
The supernatural elements showed that these things are still very much a part of Vietnamese culture (spirits and demons both feature).
Some parts are achingly sad, some made me feel a bit ill, and others were actually quite amusing. I couldn’t put this book down. The joy of it was that I didn’t know, couldn’t predict, what was going to happen next!
I’m really interested to see what Kupersmith writes next if this is her debut - what an imagination!
Many thanks to Jellybooks for giving me the chance to read this wonderful book.
Winnie is a lost soul - she has gone to Vietnam to stay with family while she teaches English to Vietnamese students, hoping to find herself, but she seems to become more and more lost as the story progresses. She struggles with her dual identity as her mother is American, and her father is Vietnamese. The fact that she seems to deliberately sabotage her own life is the most tragic thing about her.
The time does jump around a bit, but this didn’t confuse me at all - the chapter headings made sure of that - in fact they gave some interesting history lessons (e.g. French colonialism, Japanese occupation).
It’s a weird and wonderful one (my favourite kind!), sometimes bordering on the grotesque (ditto). Bodily functions and food that I wasn’t sure about, galore! (I’d still try the food though, although I draw the line at dog…).
The supernatural elements showed that these things are still very much a part of Vietnamese culture (spirits and demons both feature).
Some parts are achingly sad, some made me feel a bit ill, and others were actually quite amusing. I couldn’t put this book down. The joy of it was that I didn’t know, couldn’t predict, what was going to happen next!
I’m really interested to see what Kupersmith writes next if this is her debut - what an imagination!
Many thanks to Jellybooks for giving me the chance to read this wonderful book.
Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated High and Low (1963) in Movies
Jan 28, 2021
This movie is often touted as one of the finest non-American crime thrillers out there. It appears on many top 10 lists from renowned directors, and stands untouchable in the pantheon of post WWII Japanese cinema dealing with 20th century issues rather than samurai or traditional religious concepts. Kurasawa is known for masterpieces in both genres, and in this sphere is very much the Hitchcock of the East. The story sees self made entrepreneur Kingo Gondo, played by the ubiquitous Toshirô Mifune, being blackmailed by a kidnapper who believes he has his son, but has taken his chauffeur’s son by mistake. Cue huge moral intrigue and dilemma, leading to a chase and an unexpectedly symbolical climax and resolution.
It plays like two films for the price of one, the first a claustrophobic mood piece with a staged feel, reminding me of Hitchcock’s Rope, and the second a frantic chase movie where the forensic evidence is picked apart in intricate detail, like a less graphic Seven. The print on BFI is not great, so it actually feels older than it is. It is also pretty long at 143 minutes, and feels like it takes an age to get going. Therefore, although some moments and key images have stayed with me, I can’t honestly say I felt gripped or tense in any way. The stakes didn’t feel as high as I would have hoped for, and tonally it is a little uneven. In conclusion, it has much to offer and details in isolation are very impressive, but for me it was something of a let down.
It plays like two films for the price of one, the first a claustrophobic mood piece with a staged feel, reminding me of Hitchcock’s Rope, and the second a frantic chase movie where the forensic evidence is picked apart in intricate detail, like a less graphic Seven. The print on BFI is not great, so it actually feels older than it is. It is also pretty long at 143 minutes, and feels like it takes an age to get going. Therefore, although some moments and key images have stayed with me, I can’t honestly say I felt gripped or tense in any way. The stakes didn’t feel as high as I would have hoped for, and tonally it is a little uneven. In conclusion, it has much to offer and details in isolation are very impressive, but for me it was something of a let down.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Shin Godzilla (2016) in Movies
Feb 10, 2018 (Updated Feb 10, 2018)
He's New, He's True, He's Covered in Goo
Toho's first Godzilla movie since 2004 attempts to square the circle by sticking relatively closely to the feel of the original film while offering a radical new take on Godzilla himself ('Shin', lest you be wondering, is a conveniently ambiguous Japanese word that can mean 'New', 'True', and 'God').
Everyday life in Tokyo is disrupted by the appearance in the bay of a bizarre new form of life, a fast-evolving creature which slithers ashore, causing (but of course) massive property damage, before mutating into something a bit more recognisable as Godzilla. Clearly the government response team have a lot on their hands, but can they come up with a solution before the Americans take charge of the situation and plaster the city with nukes?
Some people may take exception to the movie's very different take on Godzilla (the design of the monster's initial form is unintentionally funny), and it's always a bit of a problem when Godzilla doesn't have anyone to fight in the final reel, but this is still an impressive attempt at a serious Godzilla film that honours the memory of the original. It's also obviously a post-Fukushima movie, fierce in its satire and criticism of useless government bureaucrats and the red tape that surrounds them.
When it all kicks off between Godzilla and the JSDF the special effects sequences are spectacular, and the human characters are quite well-played too. I must confess to missing the sense of fun and imagination that you find in the best Godzilla films - this is kind of like the Batman Begins of Godzilla films, in that it's hard to imagine many of the other classic characters existing in this universe - but this is a smart and serious movie that respects its source material.
Everyday life in Tokyo is disrupted by the appearance in the bay of a bizarre new form of life, a fast-evolving creature which slithers ashore, causing (but of course) massive property damage, before mutating into something a bit more recognisable as Godzilla. Clearly the government response team have a lot on their hands, but can they come up with a solution before the Americans take charge of the situation and plaster the city with nukes?
Some people may take exception to the movie's very different take on Godzilla (the design of the monster's initial form is unintentionally funny), and it's always a bit of a problem when Godzilla doesn't have anyone to fight in the final reel, but this is still an impressive attempt at a serious Godzilla film that honours the memory of the original. It's also obviously a post-Fukushima movie, fierce in its satire and criticism of useless government bureaucrats and the red tape that surrounds them.
When it all kicks off between Godzilla and the JSDF the special effects sequences are spectacular, and the human characters are quite well-played too. I must confess to missing the sense of fun and imagination that you find in the best Godzilla films - this is kind of like the Batman Begins of Godzilla films, in that it's hard to imagine many of the other classic characters existing in this universe - but this is a smart and serious movie that respects its source material.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Where the Wild Things Are (2009) in Movies
Aug 9, 2019
A film adaptation of Maurice Sandak’s beloved childhood tale of the same name, “Where the Wild Things Are” brings to life the worlds of Max a very imaginative child coming to grips with the emotional changes in his life. From his mom’s new boyfriend to his sister’s move into the teen years, Max is feeling very alone and runs away to a place where his needs are the first priority. In his world, Max is crowned king and he begins to deal with the issues of his real life through interaction and play with a variety of wildly imaginative monsters.
Taking a short children’s book and turning it into a compelling full-length film was the job of screenplay writers, David Eggers and Spike Jonzes, who also directed the picture. Among the film’s producers was Sandak and it shows. The film is seamlessly consistent with the original book while providing new and exciting content.
The roles are strongly cast from the lead of Max played by the up and coming Max Records, to that of the monster Carol voiced by James Gandolfini. The visual fantasy presented combines real and digital elements smoothly enough to accurately depict Max’s imagination while remaining realistic to the point of believability. Additionally, the fun yet abstract soundtrack manages to highlight the ups and downs of childhood exploration.
Seeming more like a masterpiece from Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki than an American created live action children’s film, the detailed crafting and imaginatively honest perspective created by “Where the Wild Things Are” takes viewers back into their youth. A delight that is enjoyable, heartfelt and true to the spirit of the book, “Where the Wild Things Are”, is a must see film for any child inside or out.
Taking a short children’s book and turning it into a compelling full-length film was the job of screenplay writers, David Eggers and Spike Jonzes, who also directed the picture. Among the film’s producers was Sandak and it shows. The film is seamlessly consistent with the original book while providing new and exciting content.
The roles are strongly cast from the lead of Max played by the up and coming Max Records, to that of the monster Carol voiced by James Gandolfini. The visual fantasy presented combines real and digital elements smoothly enough to accurately depict Max’s imagination while remaining realistic to the point of believability. Additionally, the fun yet abstract soundtrack manages to highlight the ups and downs of childhood exploration.
Seeming more like a masterpiece from Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki than an American created live action children’s film, the detailed crafting and imaginatively honest perspective created by “Where the Wild Things Are” takes viewers back into their youth. A delight that is enjoyable, heartfelt and true to the spirit of the book, “Where the Wild Things Are”, is a must see film for any child inside or out.
