Howls Moving Castle

Howls Moving Castle is your standard wartime tale of girl meets wizard, girl is turned in to a granny, granny becomes cleaner, wizard becomes bird, happy ever after that we all know and love. Another fine animation from Studio Ghibli (that brought you Spirited Away). Not quite as fantastic as Spirited but still good, one good thing (or bad, dependent on your tastes) about Ghibli animation is that it tends to steer clear of the whole tentalce-rape scene that some Japanimaion seems to be preocupated with. One I'd happily watch with my young cousins. Also has nice touch of "the futility of war" moral in there too.

********'' 8/10

"All right Calcifer, lets get cooking.

I don't cook! I'm a scary fire demon! "

More for the list.

Went to buy Versus, but couldn't find it so ended up getting Sky High (by the same director as Versus & Azumi), Steamboy (makers of Akira) and The Cat Returns (Studio Ghilbi). Payed turned round and found Versus, damn it. I'll have to go back next week.

R-Point

R -Point Bills its self as a Korean Apocalypse Now, but sooo not. A team of soldiers are sent back to an area of 'nam to see what happened to a team of soldiers. Obviously as this is a horror/thriller things go pear shaped. A bit too formulaic, some nice touches but generally can see most of it coming. There are also a few bits where you're shown letters or signs with no translation so you left wondering how important a plot device you've just missed. Not the hottest film from Korea in the past few years.

*****' ' ' ' ' 5/10

Source of rekindling

Nice article by Johnathan Ross linked to his Asian Invasion seires. This was the program that rekindled my interest in east asian cinema. Mr Ross and I have very similar tastes, so I blame him for the dosh I go and spend on DVDs just 'cause he recomends them.

What happened in that one again?

I've realised that I can't remember exactly what happens in all of those films so my reviews won't be totally up to scratch. But seeing as my 3G iPod bit the dust and I've replaced it with a shiny shiny 5G video one I thought I'd kill 60GB with one stone and rip a bunch of DVDs to it in order that I can refresh my memory whist freezing my cahones off waiting for the bus each morning.

Currently encoding: oldboy, howls moving castle....

Battle Royale

Battle Royale Once a year a class of badly behaved kids are chosen, told they're going on an away day, only to be drugged and taken to an island, given weapons (ranging from guns to frying pans) and only one will make it out alive. Brilliant. Totally Brilliant. Everyone who has ever worked in a school should be sat down and made to watch it. Quite gory in places, shows how evil kids are can be.

*********' 9/10

"If I survive, can I go home?

Yes, but only if everyone else is dead."

Mr. Chan-Wook

First off, if you're going to get into Korean Cinema you need to be aware of one Park Chan-Wook (or Chan-Wook Park, I'm not quite sure which way round that should be).

Probably most famous for his vengeance trilogy:
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance
Oldboy
Lady Vengeance

In an interview I saw with him he admitted that he never intended to make a trilogy, but during and interview with the Korean press during the release of Oldboy, somebody asked what his preoccupation with vengeance was about, he replied I'm just making the three vengeance films then leaving the subject alone. At that point he realised he'd only made two, so the third was made to save face.