Opinion: Millenium Actress

Well it's been like what feels like a whole week since I promised a review of this film. On the other hand I'm glad I took the time to watch it while wide awake because the whole thing goes by with a "blink and you'll miss it" style.

The tale is written by Satoshi Kon - director of the hit Perfect Blue. I had a certain resistance to watching this movie because his previous work was just so damn creepy - parts of which (to me anyway) didn't seem to make any sense. Either that, or Perfect Blue was just too trippy for my sensibilities. Millenium Actress however is fairly straight-forward in plot, yet maintains Mr. Satoshi's unique visual style blending the audience's third-party view with the cast's collective mind's eye.

The story's about a starstruck documentary-film-maker and his young camera-man who's tracked down a legendary actress for an interview. His secret motivation however was to return a single copper key he's held onto for most of his life... And it's this very key that was the center of the actress's personal obsession for many years long ago. She came by this key as a young girl living in the early 20th century - given to her by a political fugitive who promised that one day, when they would meet again, he's show her his paintings... So the young girl, through what seems to be happenstance discovers that she could travel abroad by becoming in actress.

The film follows her story while leaping in and out of the film-maker's imagination as he interjects himself (and his partner) into her memories. The movie's reality-bending perspective goes really weird when the actress reveals that most of the films she performed in were in actuality reflections of her own real-life chase for her mystery love. At this point, the film starts to blend together present-day reality (the interview at her private residence), the tale of her personal life (a rivalry with a senior actress, a relationship with her director, etc), and all the period-films she played in (everything from feudal Japan to science-fiction) and all the while, the same "cast" of people appear in different versions of themselves.

Nevermind the amazingly editted jumps from one reality to the next, but the movie was very thought-provoking too. Sometimes you just need to decide what you need to hold onto. And what needs to be let go...

I definitely have to give this film a thumbs-up.
[psst: I should mention by the way, this film is only available sub-titled in English and French as Dreamworks never dubbed it from its original Japanese form]

Meanwhile on "eBay West"

The day dragged on this afternoon and I was desperately trying to remain more or less busy... you know how it is. The place was dead and you know the drill... hit eBay and browse a little.

Placed a bid for Kill Bill on UMD. Not sure if I already mentioned this, but it's like the one movie I wouldn't mind having on UMD (since I've already seen it and a portable action-flick would be neat). And yet, as an odd stroke of coincidence, it's not available in Canada. Copies are all over eBay and local stores carrying the new UMD format never seem to have it around.

Anyway, found it today at a decent price with shipping so I bid what I felt was a fair price. I disagree with the pricing scheme on UMDs in general (some retail higher than others), but base prices are okay. Any higher and I feel like I ought to be watching it on my home-theatre than on a tiny 4.5-inch LCD.

We'll see if I win. The auction's out west so their idea of 9pm is actually several hours away...

Opinion: Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence

Well, I had time to sit down after work today to watch the rest of the film. I must say, although it's not the best movie in the world, it certain is one of the more thought-provoking anime I've watched.

General themes include a love lost, prejudiced to things that are just creeping us out, and mankind's obession with remaking ourselves (through robotics). Not too preachy (not much more than Appleseed).

Plot is about Batou - the big guy from the first movie. He's been feeling out of sorts ever since his partner Major Kusanagi left. He's now been assigned a new partner, Togosa, the detective without any cyborg enhancements... It's the classic investigative tale about a cop trying to follow a trail of malfunctioning murdering androids and all the while trying to avoid the typical cyber-punk snares like attmepted cyber-brain hacking, etc...

The film as a whole thus becomes a very surreal affair - you're never quite sure if what you're seeing is real, or the result of the hackers messing with Batou's brain. And the whole time, Togosa comes off as a complete technophobe, showing a distrust (and almost disgust) at any technology he encounters during this mission.

Presentation is typical of Mamoru Oshii. This director time and again has proven that he's a big fan of atmosphere and eye-candy. His trademark long-winded "scenery shot" is back just like it was in his Patlabor movies and the previous installment of Ghost in the Shell. Unfortunately, while it doesn't break the pace of the film (since the entire film is rather slow - even the fight scenes), it does make an already slow-moving show feel even slower.

That said, it's a mood film. You want to watch this when you're ready to sit and think for a while rather. Don't be putting this on when it's rainy out and you're feeling drowsy - it'll likely put you to sleep.

SIC23: Ken comes thru again!

Well, got an email from Ken at Toy-Wave - seems he was able to locate one last "Super Imaginative Chogokin" (23rd Edition) Ryuki for me! Sweetness. He just tacked it onto my existing order so I didn't pay any shipping overhead for it either. That was cool of him.

Now it's time to twiddle my thumbs waiting for this stuff to arrive...

Also got a shipping confirmation from YesAsia so I gotta guess that my stuff will arrive at my parent's house next week... (I have that particular shop ship there so that my folks get to watch my Chinese movies if they choose to). I think they'll get a kick out of "House of Fury" - my father has a thing for comedies... especially action-slapstick.

A colleague stopped by my office today. Must've been one hell of a short week for her considering we just had Victoria Day but she was on her way out for the weekend (it's Wednesday for cryin' out loud!)... Anyway, said she was looking forward to taking some course with me... and that was when it dawned on me that I have next week off! Yay! I'm off-site for technical training so I won't be at the ass-end of town for a change.

Speaking of being in the middle of civilization, I stopped at Best Buy after work today on the way. Scored a 2-pack of anime this time for the insane price of $22. Something called Millenium Actress (I read about this before but I don't remember anything about it - I think it's a super-natural thriller). And the other was Ghost in the Shell 2 (the long-awaited sequel to a mid-90's cyberpunk classic)... And yeah, I made sure the spine on Ghost was marked with "V4" indicating this was one of the discs that was issued after the factory recall when fans made an uproar over the wacky sub-title job they did. Nobody's sure why Miramax replaced the official translation as seen in theatres with a set of "closed-captioned" text based on the English dub dialogue. It's not like they had any real work to do since all the translations were already done.

Anywho - will post some reviews after I've had some time with these.

random: civil engineering

Now hear this:

A civil-engineer is not just a well-mannered train driver.