Blambo

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Posts posted by Blambo

  1. Posted

    I believe Marnie was also adapted from a book, so that might explain a lot about how it was executed.

    I really enjoyed Arietty, though! I had a stronger opinion of it before. I remember thinking that it was pretty layered, that it did the classic Ghibli thing of melding environmental themes, a coming of age story, and a things-might-not-work-out-in-the-end-but-life-goes-on message in way that was more taut and more effective than, say, Nausicaa. But I have to rewatch it to supply specific mechanics of what it did well.

    I also watched Kaguyahime recently and I love it to death. It had bits where it had to verbally address plot points to catch up to its exposition taking way too long, like

    the fact that she came from the moon, and that she's a reincarnation of a goddess/spirit, are both just explained by her

    and that's disappointing considering how subtle and communicative the rest of the film is. I feel like its trying to keep the presentation linear is messing with its storytelling since

    the story itself is significant in that it's cyclical, where a goddess reincarnates to escape heaven but is ironically trapped when man tries to create for her a perverse heaven on earth with all of the suffering of earth and none of the pleasure of heaven, then is recommitted to heaven.

    It isn't that big of an issue on balance though.

    I don't know how much of my experience is affected by my not knowing the folktale before watching it, and I expect that it's a lot. It feels like a fleshed out version of a well known folktale, almost as if you took, say, Cinderella and gave her agency, thoughts, and feelings.

    Still it's so good. My favorite cinematic touch Takahata gave was the repeated orthogonal sequences of Kaguya running and escaping.

    I'm really happy that they used the classic Ghibli flying through the sky sequence in a way that was incredibly sad. It's this cruel, beautiful dream of freedom that gets yanked away and ends in a crash down to earth, rather than a generic feelgood victory dance at the end of a movie. I liked Arietty's ending for that reason too.

    I also laughed when Literal Buddha, with his punch perm, appeared on a cloud. Buddhism in the post-classical world is so morphed.

    Concerning the podcast: I'd actually be kind of interested in being on if I'm not dragging down discussion due to lack of literacy. Gorm, if you can afford it, I would recommend the Yeti over the Snowball (I bought mine refurb for about 80 bucks). If not, pm me about my mic.

  2. Posted

    I just finished When Marnie Was There by Ghibli. I liked it, and I cried a bit, though I'm pretty disappointed by how it was directed. I've complained in this thread before about how Studio Ghibli films almost always telegraph their plot points and overindicate, which are mostly silly complaints because these are kid's movies, but this one was just ridiculous. The main character won't stop talking to herself in a way that's unnatural and explicitly expresses her feelings. This annoys me because it doesn't commit to the non diagetic narration like Only Yesterday does, and it doesn't attempt to express the characters' feelings through any other means, like visual cues or character dynamics. It feels like it wants to tell a layered, emotional story but present it as straightforward and milquetoast as possible. It's kind of like it has none of the Miyazaki visual and temporal flair and creativity, none of Takahata's subtlety and edge. It's just weirdly straightforwardly presented for a psychological ghost story. I guess I wanted it to jump around like the Wind Rises did (Miyazaki made a biographical story feel dreamy while Yonebayashi made a dreamy story feel biographical). That said I really like how the story unfolded itself and how it focused tightly on the main character and didn't indulge in the potential lore, and also

    how it had a little twist at the end. It's NOT a ghost story and it's all in Anna's suppressed memory. Also how it all ended up being about this sort of generational curse of loneliness and misfortune

    IDK cartoons are dumb and hard to make.

  5. Posted

    Obviously this isn't the Hotline Miami thread, or the Fight Club thread, but Film Crit Hulk has a piece about Fight Club which I remember liking a lot, basically arguing that the movie fundamentally fails by making Tyler Durden really appealing and never adequately tearing down him out his ideology. In other words it's the film's own fault that people take it the way seemingly many do.

    http://badassdigest.com/2012/01/22/film-crit-hulk-smash-hulk-vs-fight-club-and-the-work-of-david-fincher/

     

    Totally granted. I'm not really saying that Fight Club is a masterpiece that profoundly (or even effectively) conveys its intended message, I'm more trying to say that Hotline Miami is (as far as I or anyone I've read can tell) really nothing beyond a celebration of violence and all of its empowering and disempowering effects with nothing more below it, while Fight Club at least attempts to say something. Like I wouldn't put Fight Club and, say, Wolf of Wall Street in the same bucket (which is an "objective" telling of a story wrapped in a presentation that comedically glorifies a way of life). But that's really a moot point in the context of Apple Cider's article, which I think is more about the cultural effects and image that the perceived message of both pieces have on people, correct or incorrect.

     

    I really hope I'm not missing something, Apple, I really liked the article!

     

    Edit: also didn't mean to derail any shit plugging, please carry on.

  6. Posted

    Ahem. It's over!

     

    Anyway I haven't really spoken up yet but I'd be interested in doing a 'cast thinger buuuut I've done a VOIP 'cast before and gosh it is rough.

     

    I've seen remote casts work well if each host tries to replicate each others' recording situation and record their voices independently, and use some VOIP software that doesn't do the muting thing.

  7. Posted

    http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/03/hotline-miami-maybe-it-wasnt-as-great-as-we-all-th.html

     

    My piece on Hotline Miami and masculinity, nostalgia just went up on Paste Games. 

     

    Awesome article, though I kind of fundamentally disagree with you concerning the core themes of Fight Club, which are kind of anti-whatpeoplethinkit'sabout under a fair amount of scrutiny, since

     

    in the end, the extremities of Tyler Durden, along with the philosophy he exemplifies, are thrown out in favor of something (and someone) less destructive but still as existentially fulfilling.

     

    Which is a lesson more narratively supported than any popular interpretation of Hotline Miami's violence and message. Though in terms of how it was received, I totally agree with it being the pretentious patriarch's pleasure. Tyler Durden, like Andrew Ryan, still kind of remains the sexist role model for those who don't think more than 3 seconds into what they're watching or playing.

  9. Posted

    Recently I haven't had much time to enjoy anime so what I have been watching has mostly been very light, half-cour shows. The format seems perfect for pure gag series, but really bad for more plotty shows (Kuragehime was really bad), so I'm not sure if an episode by episode podcast thing is worth doing for those series.

     

    Speaking of barf-cour shows I just watched Love Lab because I really like the animation and gags:

     

    tumblr_mplbdhMZYx1r53yzko1_500.gif

     

    But beyond that it's just girls spending 13 episodes looking for boyfriends. So boring, so stupid, so impenetrably pointless. Why did I watch all of it.

     

    Side note: it also has a crazy amount of joke explaining and indication disguised as tsukkomi, and doesn't make up for it with wit, originality and unpredictability. That kind of thing seems to be endemic, even in shows that I really like and think are funny.

  12. Posted

    Mayo imparts a wonderful flavour, especially when blended with mustard. It must be used carefully though, for it is easy to overdo. And it's hilariously unhealthy if it tastes good.

     

    Toshiro-Hijikata-Gintama-Mayonnaise_zps1

  16. Posted

    Knowing absolutely nothing about this show, this sounds vaguely interesting, given the context of Japanese society and the societal expectations.

    I feel like a lot of the reason why it's good is because the plot of every epsiode moves forward with the main character trying to fulfill an expectation/ritual in her society and how they don't necessarily fit her and her happiness because of the way she is. Stuff like having the whole "whoops I forgot my umbrella let's share one and get to know each other" plot fall apart highlight how much social dexterity is required for some people to do something that is viewed as easy/natural, and operate within the expectations of society.

    It also does a lot to reverse/subvert normal slice of life motifs, and give the "quiet dark haired girl" trope some more depth. It's a kind of pandering to a less mainstream, nerd audience that seems less therapeutic and a more "face your problems, they're real" kind of thing.

    Come to think of it when I watched it originally I really liked it. I think my postreflective detesting moe is tampering with my original reaction to the show, and it's been a while since I watched it.

  17. Posted

    My perception of Watamote straddles "laugh at the social anxious kid" and "laugh with the socially anxious kid" and could be really mean spirited or comforting depending on how you relate to the main character.

  18. Posted

    Crusader Kings 2 except you play as a character is an environment that you can see and walk around in is mega cool, but this kind of small scale version of that system for some reason only exists in porn games/dating games/this.

  21. Posted

    You should definitely not play XCOM while drunk. That bottle of whisky in the commander's drawer cost us the membership of two countries and a satellite array over Canada.

    Haha weird that I never noticed that the commander of a huge multinational defense agency is also a mission by mission tactician. It feels less like being in a modern chain of command and more like being a samurai general fighting in every battle.