Innocence Part II

Yes, the soundtrack is still amazing in my mind. Currently featured is the ending theme song from the movie Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. The song, sung by Japanese jazz singer Ito Kimiko, is a reinterpretation of the version by Demis Roussos (an Egyptian-Greek singer) in 1982. The music is based on the Concierto de Aranjuez, composed by Joaquin Rodrigo (Spanish) in 1939. It captures the mood at the end of the movie so intimately.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence Soundtrack

Finally got around to it (or finally got slightly fatigued of listening to Bonsai Hada by Shiina Ringo (yes, that is the name of the song and the artist that has been featured for the past 2 months)) -- I am at last featuring a song from the soundtrack of the Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. I honestly love all the songs on the soundtrack, and about half of them are my favourites (? how does that make sense?), and the featured song is one of them. Kawai Kenji (the composer and arranger) is a genius, hands down. (And you'll notice that the names associated with all the music I feature will be written in their native languages in the sidebar.)

The name of the song means The Ballade of the Puppets: Flowers Grieve and Fall. You can find the lyrics and the translation here. It's very forlorn, despairing and angry, yet somehow hopeful. And it is hair-raising (to me at least). The minyoh and taiko combination is brilliant. It is absolutely perfect for the movie. And you'll kindly notice I coordinated the colour of the player to be the colour of the eyes of the gynoid dolls from the movie.

More information concerning the song and the soundtrack can be found here.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
8/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
8/10

Year released: 2004
Runtime: 100 minutes
IMDB page: here


I should start out by saying that I'm not a big anime geek. I know I'm quite a geek, but anime just doesn't hit the spot for me most of the time. It's usually because I think the original comic is much better looking (e.g. Detective Conan aka Case Closed), since in order to churn out the anime every week, the quality can go way down. Or because the anime, even though it is based on the comic, can take some crazy turns that differ significantly from the original comic. Then you don't know which plot you believe in more, or you just resent the possibility of anything else happening in an alternative universe.

Ghost in the Shell is a name that has been floating around me for quite some time now. I should say that I'm also not a giant sci-fi geek, which is why initially I was turned off by Ghost in the Shell. All the robots, the cyborgs... it's just too much. But something about the cover of Innocence just seized me and made me get the movie in spite of myself. Definitely shows you the power of a well-designed DVD cover.

But after I got it, it was a LONG time before I saw it. Boy am I glad that I saw it eventually.The graphics are absolutely dazzling, with shimmering metallic hues and soothing water colours. The movements, whether human or robotic, are fluid. The character and set designs are appropriately vibrant and dim at places. It is a true visual fest.

Plot: obviously this is a sequel, and I did not watch the first installment. But it is stand-alone enough that you'll understand most things fine, but there will be a few nagging details that will greatly benefit from watching the first installment, which I did after watching Innocence.

The setting is such a huge part of the story. Robotics have become an irreplaceable part of human society. Lots of humans are now cyborgs consisted of both machine and organic parts (I know, sounds pretty sci-fi, but the movie makes it a lot more interesting and philosophical). Even the more organic humans have physical portals that hook into computer systems.

The story begins with problems that a recent line of robot gynoids show by... killing their owners. They are made to look like teenage females and are used implicitly as sex dolls. Their victims are dismembered in the cruelest way and show no connection to each other. Batou, a member of the special police Section 9 (and owner of that adorable Bassett hound on the cover), and his junior partner Togusa (the most organic member of the unit, a family man), are assigned to investigate the cause of the robots' malfunctioning.

The film quotes a lot of philosophical sayings from Japan and all over the world. Some of the quotes are pretty obscure and very interesting upon further Internet investigation. Quite thought-provoking overall, the film requires careful (re)viewing to get the deeper flavours out. Otherwise you can just ogle at the pretty colours and shapes. And trust me, they are pretty.

The soundtrack... is hair-raisingly good. A children's minyoh choir with taiko, very authentic. The jazzy theme from Batou's music box, the end theme song... perhaps I should feature some of the music just to give you a taste.

Even if you are normally not a fan of the genre (just like me!), you will still appreciate this very beautiful film.

Sure thing, hon

I swear I'm still alive. Look, I'm still breathing (*puffs on mirror... which does not fog up... uh-oh...). Anyway, point is, I'm still watching movies and reading comics and listening to music. Though I haven't done it properly for a while, thanks to my wonderfully malfunctioning hard drive. But no hard feelings toward the more-often-than-not faulty hard drive... mostly because I'm trying my best to pull all my life's worth of music and comics off it right this moment and I need to flatter it for it to behave. So together now on three... one... two... three... *YOU ARE THE BEST HARD DRIVE IN THE WORLD, YOU ROCK, MAN!*

Okay, aside from that, I'm sure no one is holding their breath over my triumphant return. That's because I usually return defeated. No, that's because very few read this thing so if you just did, you should feel elite. (Yes, I recently learned this thing called "flatter your readers as well as your hard drive.")

But honestly, it has become shocking how much of my life is documented by the forms of entertainment I enjoy. I remember important occasions by what movies I watched or what music I was listening to. Re-reading certain comics makes me feel young again. Virgin blood makes me immortal. No. Actually, non-virgin blood would do. No, just kidding. Jeez, I'm not even a Twi-hard.

The main reason I don't write down as many movies and comics as I watch and read is sometimes it's so hard to put a feeling into words. That fleeting feeling as the material connects with you on some neural level or another... I suppose that is why I need to try harder, but when you don't even like the subject matter that much (as in some of the movies I watch)... it gets more difficult.

Also, I just can't shake off the feeling that no one is reading this (Ha! I successfully put a feeling into words! Good-bye, uncommunicative, anti-social cavewoman. Hello, new, eloquent me!). If only I get some divine sign that someone is actually paying attention to this... like a comment after a post or something.... I would be much more motivated. If you like what I ramble about, show me some love. Everyone needs love... All we need is love, all we need is love *going off to sing "All We Need Is Love" from Moulin Rouge*

Heads

Romanticization: ヘッズ (Heads)
Author: Higashino Keigo 東野 圭吾
Artist: Mase Motorou 間瀬 元朗
Status: Complete
Span: 2003
Volume #: 4
Wiki page: none
Series can be read at: here


I haven't read anything overly serious in a while. Oh, this is not only serious, this is serious drama. Things take some pretty wild turns, and you are forever on the edge of the seat. I suppose that is why Higashino Keigo is such a successful mystery/thriller novelist in Japan. Many of his novels have been made into films. As to the artist, Mase Motorou, I rather enjoy his down-to-earth style. Makes everything more realistic, which is all the more terrifying.

Plot: Naruse Junichi is a gentle, shy young man who loves to draw and paint. Life often bullies him, and he just takes it passively without arguing. One day, he randomly gets the courage to ask out the girl who works in the art supply shop that he always visits (mostly because he's had a crush on her for a while and wants to see her). And she actually accepts. Life may finally work out for Junichi. He and Kei (the art shop girl) fall madly in love.

When he visits a real estate corporation for information on bigger apartments (so they can move in together), he is shot in the head by a robber when he attempts to save a little girl. Of course. The next time he wakes up, he's in a hospital. Apparently he became vegetative and went under a radical brain transplant and was subsequently revived. Everything seems miraculous as the crying Kei runs back into his arms and he recovers and is released from the hospital.

But then he gradually starts experiencing emotions that are not his own. Kei's freckles, which he used to love so much, now seem the flaw on an otherwise unremarkable specimen (yes, even his love for Kei seems to fade). He has random outbursts of reckless rage, and he now refuses to get screwed over by life. What exactly is causing all these changes? Who was the mysterious brain donor? What is going to happen to Junichi as his consciousness slowly loses out to the invader's thoughts and feelings?

The story is based on things that could happen in reality (though we are ages away from successful (?) brain transplants), but it has some faint flavours of science fiction and explores a lot of philosophical questions, all the while remaining a page-turning thriller. Junichi and Kei's love is also heartbreaking. Combined with the very fitting art style, this is one comic series that you do NOT want to miss. I'll also try to track down more novels by Higashino Keigo.

Iona - Sexy Dynamite in Elementary School

Japanese:イオナ―Sexy dynamite in elementary school
Artist: Sawai Ken 澤井 健
Status: Complete
Span: 1999
Volume #: 9
Wiki page: none
Series can be read: none

A shockingly little amount of information can be found on the web regarding this way hilarious comic series. The drawing can be quite beautiful and provocative when it's not gut-bursting, and the leading lady has a killer avant-garde sense of fashion. If you do not have two X chromosomes, do not be turned off -- her sense of fashion also leans dangerously toward the exhibitionist side. This is by no means an erotic series, but you do see quite a bit of skin sometimes.

Iona is a substitute elementary school teacher who has taken over a fifth grade class when the original teacher in charge takes a maternity leave. She comes to her first day of class extremely late and hung over. Oh, and she is also wearing a trench coat wearing only underwear beneath it. No, she's not a pervert exposer (fine, the jury is still out on that one). The pre-first day celebration caused her to drink too much, and by the time she woke up she was already late so she had no time to put on proper clothes. I know I know, sounds ridiculous. Just wait until you get to know her. And her students.

Shuu is the adorable boy she especially favours... for no particular reason. Shuu is a sensitive, occasionally shy boy with a sense of justice who is a pacifist and loves animals. At first he finds Iona's affection embarrassing, but with time he accepts her and develops an early-teen crush on her (honestly, with that body of hers it's no surprise). Shuu's mother died when he was little; now he lives with his widower dad who's pretty clueless and an older brother who takes care of the family (cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc) and seems pretty detached.

Youichi is Shuu's best friend with naturally red hair (being Japanese that's a big deal). Always the troublemaker, he has pretty atrocious grades and is not afraid to cut some corners to make his life easier. He also has an understanding of sex unexpected of an early adolescent. But when the chips are down, Youichi is still a good person. His mother seems a bit overweight, and he always pokes fun at her (accidentally?) for that.

Madoka is the stereotypical feminist class president who is pretty and headstrong and competitive and good at everything she does. She starts out hating Iona because she thinks Iona uses her sex appeal to get what she wants, and this debases all women. She comes from an upper-class family; her dad is a pediatrician with his own clinic, but her family is extremely matriarchal. Her mom basically calls all the shots and her dad lives eternally on tiptoes. It doesn't help that she lives with 2 sisters and a grandmother who are exactly like her. Madoka thinks Youichi is an idiot and the two constantly bicker, and in the comics world that can only mean one thing: romance. Their relationship gradually develops throughout the series.

Tetsuya looks very much like Puck from the new TV series Glee. He has a Mohawk and wears a baseball jacket all the time. Living with his divorced mother, he really misses his dad who has remarried and had more kids. He also does his best to cheer up his mother, who's a bit overworked and sad.

Ujiko. Oh Ujiko, poor Ujiko. She's a smart girl, likes to read (but not exactly nerdy), has good taste, but is a bit resentful toward the world because... she's so ugly. Her hair looks like two bundles of cauliflower and her face... oh her face. We meet her mom and dad, and only in comics can you do this: her facial features are the perfect mixture of her parents. Both her parents are normal looking, but they combine in the WORST way to form the catastrophe that is her face. And to make things worse, her little brother is extremely cute because he has the BEST combination (again, starting with the exact same features from the parents). Her parents seem to only see her little brother most of the time, and she feels adopted-- the fourth wheel on a tricycle. She is also extremely unlucky when it comes to animals (always the one bitten first).

Kimie, the shy clueless bespectacled girl who is nerdy-looking but pretty dumb in reality. Stumbles across explosive situations and sets them off without an idea of what's going on. Constantly being called an idiot, including by her best friend Ujiko. But the greatest thing about her is she's always pretty happy. And she probably has the most complete and functional family out of everybody.

Natsumi is the sickly pale girl who has asthma and is always sitting at the sideline during gym class. She's really pretty and dainty and soft-voiced so all the boys like to help her out. Madoka, of course, thinks she's a weakling and reinforces the negative female stereotype.

Alright, on to the main dish: Iona. She's a bit of a mystery; no one knows where she came from or how she got this job (she seems pretty underqualified, but she does prepare the students for tests really well). The old principal lets her have her way and gives her funding because he's impressed with her... physique (no, nothing too dirty ever goes on between the two). She's ever so glamourous, and she can change her outlandish outfits a few times a day. Weird thing is, her hair length and colour also changes with her outfits, but she doesn't seem to be wearing a wig (we get to know her hairdresser, Kimie's dad). She has a super conductive body and suffers a great deal from electrostatic shocks in dry or stormy weather. She drinks like a fish. She shows extreme favouritism (only toward Shuu). She's a terrible cook and often mooches off the students' parents' kindness. She's cheap on everything except when it comes to make-up and clothes. She lies, she's vain, she's bad-tempered, she's rude (sometimes). But somehow she always comes through when she is needed the most (though sometimes secretly it might be for her personal gain).

So the class has some spectacular (ly impossible) adventures together. There's a lot of brainy spoof on other comics and celebrities. The cover art for each chapter can be astonishingly creative and lively and beautiful. Some of Iona's outfits and poses.... *wolf whistles. And the chapter titles also capture the chapter content succinctly in famous sayings, usually in English, French, or Italian. Toward the end things started getting too mindlessly ridiculous, and I'm really not happy with the ending, but I admit it has a strange flavour and can have a very fitting interpretation. One of the strange things about this series: while it's exotic and impossible and outlandish, it also makes some very shrewd observations on life and has some scarily accurate portrayals of real people. All the families, each with its own problems and quirks, are extremely fun to watch. Adults are not necessarily always collected and calm; they have their extreme emotions too that they try so desperately to hide from each other and from their children. Iona's always honest with herself, and she rubs off on everyone she meets, no matter how much they hate or despise her initially. She may very well rub off on you too.

Night Watch / Day Watch (aka Nochnoy dozor / Dnevnoy dozor)

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
6.5/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
6.5/10

Year released: 2004, 2006
Runtime: 114, 132 minutes
IMDB page: here, here

This is supposed be the trilogy based on the popular Sergei Lukyanenko fantasy novels, but the last installment, Twilight Watch, is still being made. The films were great box-office smashing hits in Russia. And I can see why.

Plot: Anton is persuaded by a witch to curse his wife, who left him, supposedly pregnant with another man's child. This will come to have great repercussions on the Balance between Light and Dark. Through this incident, Anton becomes an Other (humans with supernatural powers who can enter the Gloom, a dimension superimposed on reality). He is on the side of Light and becomes part of the Night Watch (Light Others who make sure the Dark Others don't do anything out of line. Similarly, the Day Watch are Dark Others who monitor the Light Others' activities). The two sides keep a precarious Balance. It is prophesied that a great one will come and break the Balance, because he will choose one side over the other.

Cast: I'm not familiar with the Russian cast, but I'm impressed that they got everyone from Night Watch to come back for Day Watch, the sequel.

Script: The trilogy has been compared to Lord of the Rings, mostly because it earned more at the box office in Russia than LOTR. But the story is a bit more twisted and is like a mystery sometimes. And it actually makes sense at the end in terms of causality of events and the clever little clues that they left throughout the movies, so rewatch values greatly increase.

Production: It has a very gritty feel, exposing the less glamourous side of vampires and shapeshifters and other supernatural beings. The Night Watch drives a beat-up little van around that looks like the van from Ghost Busters. Their uniform looks a lot like Bill Murray's too. The fantasy elements are very much present, but the characters live in dingy little apartments, hold meetings in dingy little offices, have little problems like trying to quit smoking or ... bad hair and shedding. And you'd never know what kind of cool but destructive visual effects you can get from playing with a yo-yo.

I'm a bit pleasantly surprised with how much I liked the movies. Well, you have to be able to stand subtitles, because they certainly don't speak English.

Observe and Report

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
6/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
6.5/10

Year released: 2009
Runtime: 86 minutes
IMDB page: here

Most of the time things are funny in this movie with a slight tinge of sadness (in the pathetic sense). I watched this because it received a much better review than Paul Blart The Mall Cop.

Plot: Er... I'm a little bit confused myself to a lot of the things that happened in the movie. I know, it's supposed to be a not-too-smart comedy, but sometimes things feel so surreal. Ronnie is a security guard at a mall where a pervert has been exposing himself to women in the parking lot. After the ditzy slut Brandi at the cosmetics counter (who is the object of Ronnie's affection) suffers an encounter with the pervert, Ronnie feels his calling: to catch this pervert at all costs.

Cast: Seth Rogen is not the most handsome guy. We know that. But there's something charmingly down-to-earth about it. He's your guy-next-door who may not do the smartest things but can be nice to an old lady. Or give her a kick. Depending on if he's stoned or not. But he's sincere no matter what he does. Anna Faris, as Brandi, is a scary portrayal, slightly exaggerated, of what women can be sometimes. All of us know a few Brandies in our lives.

Script: The characters sometimes act irrationally... like, "Why would you do that? That doesn't make any sense." Yet you somehow understand where they are coming from. They are acting out a hyper version of reality, where you can discard common sense and do the things you want to. Well, not murder, only things that come close. The consequences may still be there, but you just don't have to think about them.

And really, can't we live like that in real life? Who's stopping us?

P2

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
3.5/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
4/10

Year released: 2007
Runtime: 98 minutes
IMDB page: here

A puzzling name for a movie, but once you find out it's a label for a level of a parking garage, there's about nothing left to the movie.

Plot: Angela is a workaholic in a large company in NYC. On Christmas Eve, she's the last one to leave from the office, trying to make it on time to her sister's house in Jersey, where her family is waiting. Her car refuses to start in the parking garage, and she asks the attendant for help. But the attendant is definitely NOT the normal, good-natured young man he appears to be...

Cast: Wes Bentley (from American Beauty) is properly psychotic as the attendant and his talent is quite wasted in this movie. Angela (Rachel Nichols, whose cleavage is impressive and whose profile looks a bit like Jodie Foster in the poster) is also a nice mixture of vulnerability and independence. The whole blond, slender pale limb thing really works to the character's advantage. So acting is not exactly the problem, then it must be the...

Script: Yes, that's where the problem lies. It's cliched, it's predictable, and you just know from the first moment on that the beautiful heroine with a fighting spirit is not gonna go down. Ugh.

Production: I would guess it didn't take THAT much money to make this movie. After all, everything happens in a vast parking garage, which did NOT explode in the end (a car does though). There is a nice visceral scene of a man being crushed to death, and that should elicit some ewww's from the audience. Really, I think the eerie, chilly, lonely, desperate feel that could be achieve in a vast dark cavern of a parking garage was not achieved.

Umm, not to be mean, but I want my hour and half back.

Sunshine

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
6.5/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
7/10

Year released: 2007
Runtime: 107 minutes
IMDB page: here

It's a fun sci-fi flick, a psychological thriller, if you want it to be. It's a philosophical outlook on religion and humanity if you want it to be. It's quite a versatile little gem with different facets.

Plot: A group of diverse (read: a lot of Asians) scientists/astronauts are sent on a mission to chuck a nuclear bomb into the sun to re-ignite the dying star and save all life on earth. The mission's chance of success is pretty low, and the crew's chance of survival is even lower. And their discovery of the spaceship from the previous failed attempt, crash-landed on Mercury, does not improve their odds.

Cast: Cillian Murphy has been one of my favourite actors since 28 Days Later. He can pull off the haunted look so well. Here he is suitably cast as the quiet physicist who reluctantly helps make some big decisions for the crew. And I learned that "Cillian" is pronounced with a "k," unlike my previous assumption. The cast has the special chemistry fermented as crew members who have spent the last 2 years (or something like that) on this isolated ship heading to a dangerous destination. They may not all like each other, but they are professional and oh so desperate to maintain order in this chaotic blackness of entropy. The relatively large number of Asian characters (Sanada Hiroyuki from The Last Samurai, Michelle Yeoh from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Cliff Curtis, Benedict Wong) and the American accent are meant to represent that in the future, China and US are supposed to be the leaders in space exploration.

Script: Despite its sci-fi themes, the film is surprisingly relatable. Fear of death, battle to overcome nature/space, selfishness, guilt, idol-worship, insanity. The sci-fi elements are very much present and important, but the film doesn't get bogged down with esoteric details. It's credibly scientific, but the science is incorporated into the characters' motives and drives the story forward.

Production: Directed by Danny Boyle, before he won the Oscar with Slumdog Millionaire. The shots are distinctly in his style, jerky at times but draws you to connect the dots. The inside of the spaceship looks very serene and immaculately clean, but at the same time you get the sense of imminent doom because the film always reminds you the ship is the only thing keeping you away from the blackness of space, from instant death.

Sunshine shows a lot of details that trace their origins back to Alien and Solaris. And actually, Sunshine is almost a combination of the two: philosophical and dangerous.