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Ross (3284 KP) rated The Change 4: London: Dirt in Books

Nov 2, 2020

The Change 4: London: Dirt

Guy Adams | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

6.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Still unsatisfying

This second London-based book sees Howard and Hubcap on their way into London. They stumble across a strange scene at a supermarket and find themselves the hostages of a private army of a post-apocalyptic drug dealer, whose experiments are going wrong more by the day.
The book was as short as the others but again had next to no real plot or purpose, other than people getting in a situation and getting out of it again. We do start to see some of the New World Order type rich people running the world, post-Change, which is built on in later books, but again there is no real insight into the world, the change, Howard's background or where his dreams suggest he has to go. I hope the final, Tokyo-based book closes this all off or I will be a little miffed.

Kudos

Moscow Metro Map

Navigation and Travel

(0 Ratings) Rate It

App

FREE - The Moscow Metro app has the latest Moscow Metro and St. Petersburg metro maps that you can...

Fire Force

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

TV Show

In Year 198 of the Solar Era in Tokyo, Special Fire Force's are fighting against a phenomenon called...

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) in Movies

Mar 5, 2018

Largely superfluous entry to the F&F series doesn't feature any of your favourite characters, probably, was only retconned to have any connection to the rest of the series some years later. Identikit bad-boy teen gets packed off to Japan to teach the locals a thing or two about driving on the famously non-congested streets of Ikebukuro.

Really a film struggling to find a reason to justify its own existence: the plot is very forgettable and the rest of it rather so what - film attempts to make quest to go round corners sideways at high speed look like some kind of spiritual mission; essentially fails. Surprisingly unflattering to the Japanese characters, too; wouldn't happen nowadays. The movie's fascination with the fact some people have cameras on their phones is charmingly quaint, too. All the important parts of Tokyo Drift are recycled in later F&F movies, so you only really need to bother with this one if you're a completist.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2015) in Movies

Jun 6, 2018

Indie drama (with occasional mildly comic overtones) with a rather convoluted genesis (I'm not going through that again). Lonely Japanese woman believes she can change her life by locating the lost ransom money from the (wholly fictional) movie Fargo, sets off for Minnesota.

Brilliant, vanity-free performance by Rinko Kikuchi, who draws you in as a troubled but still engaging character; there are many moving moments. Much of the film is set in urban Tokyo and captures a real sense of the alienation which has such a negative impact on many people in Kumiko's situation. The US end of the film is slightly lighter in tone, equally well written, directed and performed.

Still, even if you've seen Fargo, I imagine this is a rather different and unsettling film, particularly the conclusion. It's ultimately about isolation, delusion, madness and death, and cheerful writing and polished production can only mitigate that so much. But still a very watchable oddity.