ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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I'm up to the halfway point in series 1 of Ergo Proxy and my enthusiasm for it's been blunted somewhat.

Having started out very strongly, it's gone rather flacid and now resembles a dislikable cross between Highlander and Ben 10. Plus it's also descended into the fist-gnawingly crap habit that so much anime seems to--namely one-dimensional navel gazing studies of The Human Condition. But with perhaps even less insight than the not-fucking bits the bastardised Western versions of Urotsukidōji had in them 15 years ago.

I'm hoping it picks up again, but while the characters remain away from civilisation I expect it'll continue to flounder. Badly.

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Tokyo! was an excellent recent watch of mine.

It consists of 3 shorts, 1 each directed by Michel Gondry, Bong Joon-Ho and Leos Carax. Each was a fun little take from an outsiders view of the Japanese city. While some had dramatic elements I would say that each were lighthearted and easy to watch.

tokyo2.jpg

I really dug this too. Especially the story about the agoraphobe.

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Being a projectionist does have its benefits. One of these was about two years ago when I put on a private after-hours showing of Brazil for myself and about 10 friends. Simply awesome. So yes, I am a Gilliam fan. And yes, seeing it on the big screen is amazing, no matter how many times you've watched it.

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While we were still in college, the Seditious Industrial Complex threw together these surreptitious movie nights all over campus. We would wander around looking for unlocked amphitheaters with unsecured media cabinets or the ones with exposed wiring where we could plug a laptop into the system. Twas fun.

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Terry Gilliam might be the only director that I'm completely partial to, because my enjoyment and fascinations for movies is directly linked to watching his movies.

I mean, discovering Munchausen when I was 10 felt like having my imagination being completely unlocked and discovering that you could layers of layers of different emotions at once.

Also, when I was 14, I fondly remember playing geeky Indiana Jones with a friend as we hunted down for a whole summer a VHS of a rumored trur-er version that we weren't sure even existed (namely Brazil's directory). And being blown away when it turned out to be awesome

And then, I remember stumbling upon the Pythons, and seeing other movies I loved instantly and discovering there was a single guy behind all of those, Terry Gilliam.

And finally when I was 22, I ended up in Melbourne the very day Tideland's preview was screened in a 30's theater. It was a rainy day and of course, it was sold out but a shady guy in a raincoat offered me a ticket 10 minutes before the beginning of the movie and Tideland was the most thought provoking film I had seen in a while.

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Having started out very strongly, it's gone rather flacid and now resembles a dislikable cross between Highlander and Ben 10. Plus it's also descended into the fist-gnawingly crap habit that so much anime seems to--namely one-dimensional navel gazing studies of The Human Condition. But with perhaps even less insight than the not-fucking bits the bastardised Western versions of Urotsukidōji had in them 15 years ago.

That problem seems absolutely endemic throughout almost all anime (the only counter example I can think of is Kaiba, which managed to naval gaze in two dimensions). It leads me to wonder if the very nature of Japanese philosophy is somehow inherently incompatible with western sensibilities.

Although more likely, I think, is that the creators of western entertainment are just as philosophically dense as their Japanese counterparts, but they more often have the good sense to shut up where the Japanese tend to pontificate.

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That problem seems absolutely endemic throughout almost all anime (the only counter example I can think of is Kaiba, which managed to naval gaze in two dimensions). It leads me to wonder if the very nature of Japanese philosophy is somehow inherently incompatible with western sensibilities.

Although more likely, I think, is that the creators of western entertainment are just as philosophically dense as their Japanese counterparts, but they more often have the good sense to shut up where the Japanese tend to pontificate.

I enjoy the philosophical parallels of PKD/Masamune/Oshii. While they do not overlap a great deal there is enough to flow between the two artists to follow them through any of the mediums that have expressed their thoughts.

I don't mean to reason that the Japanese have a golden ticket to philosophical musings through film, just that I've enjoyed both artists a great deal and I can find similarities in their works. I will concede that the Manga pales in comparison to PKD's novels though.

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Brazil is maybe the most depressing film I have seen, but it also utterly fantastic.

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Brazil is maybe the most depressing film I have seen, but it also utterly fantastic.

The ending was horrendous the first time I saw it, but now I realise it's a "happy" ending of sorts.

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I'm not trying to be a douche but I'll probably come off to some as one. I absolutely hate it when people title baba o'reilly incorrectly.

edit: removed vid.

Well, you're not alone. I was going to post something along those lines earlier, but decided against it.

I second ThunderPeel's linkage of the We'll Know When We Get There blog post, though. That's a really touching piece.

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I'm not trying to be a douche but I'll probably come off to some as one. I absolutely hate it when people title baba o'reilly incorrectly.

Well I didn't make the video... so a more useful post might have been: "The name of the Who song is actually Baba O'Reilly, not Teenage Wasteland! (For anyone who cares.)"

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I'm hoping it picks up again, but while the characters remain away from civilisation I expect it'll continue to flounder. Badly.

It's been a few weeks since I've seen it (too busy) but I've heard it does sag a bit in the middle, yeah. It picks up again. Think of this as set-up for the last third.

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It's been a few weeks since I've seen it (too busy) but I've heard it does sag a bit in the middle, yeah. It picks up again. Think of this as set-up for the last third.

That's somewhat encouraging. I would guess that it'll pick up when

Rei and Vincent presumably reach Mosko..?

I'm planning to finish the series this month at any rate.

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That problem seems absolutely endemic throughout almost all anime (the only counter example I can think of is Kaiba, which managed to naval gaze in two dimensions). It leads me to wonder if the very nature of Japanese philosophy is somehow inherently incompatible with western sensibilities.

Ah as a crazy Masaaki Yuasa fan, I have all of Kaiba but still have not gotten around to watching it.

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Just finished both the second series of The Wire and the first series of Dollhouse.

The Wire was excellent! I have no idea what those earlier series two criticisms from some of you guys were about. Granted it did leave some things very unresolved, but I think that kind of resonates well with the general realism of the show — in the real world this kind of thing often does end in such a way. Series three starts next week so definitely looking forward to that.

Dollhouse is also something I'd give an overall thumbs up. It does have some cheesy moments, but I'd say these were mostly concentrated towards the beginning as things were being set up. The character development is what really makes it so gripping, but sadly when everyone was introduced they kind of all came across as shallow dicks — which changes.

I'd say that endeavouring with the series beyond the initial so-soness is absolutely worthwhile as some episodes are truly terrific. During the later half of the series the 'Echo gets imprinted and goes on a wacky adventure' formula completely fades, and the final episode (Which weirdly hasn't aired on US TV yet?! Download it or something if you haven't seen it.) that depicts 2019 takes the series to downright epic proportions.

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That problem seems absolutely endemic throughout almost all anime (the only counter example I can think of is Kaiba, which managed to naval gaze in two dimensions). It leads me to wonder if the very nature of Japanese philosophy is somehow inherently incompatible with western sensibilities.

Although more likely, I think, is that the creators of western entertainment are just as philosophically dense as their Japanese counterparts, but they more often have the good sense to shut up where the Japanese tend to pontificate.

I find nearly all anime nigh-unwatchable for this reason. I detest it. I also detest abuse of extreme poses, female voice acting that sounds like the actress is constantly on the verge of orgasm, insufferable whiny and unassertive male characters who inexplicably end up becoming irresistible to the opposite sex, choreography that regularly includes jumping dozens of feet into the air and doing a lot of spins for no reason, that idiotic maneuver where characters fall from great distances and hit the ground kneeling (usually after killing somebody) with their eyes downcast then pause and look up into the camera (usually accompanied by a snap zoom), and the trend of increasingly-massive eyes to the point of grotesqueness.

Some anime avoids a few of these things. Hardly any of it manages to be rid of all of it. I hate that shit.

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Some anime avoids a few of these things. Hardly any of it manages to be rid of all of it. I hate that shit.

I'm pretty sure Cat Soup does none of those things you listed except maybe the big eyes.

cat-soup-12.jpg

But I know what you are saying.

I get the feeling though that it's more of a case of you not seeing the right ones that are very good in spite of the idiosyncrasies of Japan's animation industry. Mostly they don't come on DVD to the US or you have to download and find an internet fan sub.

I don't know, I used to feel the same way and would argue about anime for pages and pages on forums around the internet about most of the same things you listed (even on Idlethumbs long ago I made an ass out of myself over some argument about Japanese cartoons... but I've since deleted my posts). I guess I just got exposed to a few shorts and movies in the past few years that were so good that even if they had the regular detestable elements of what a regular Japanese comic artist or animator would learn just by growing up there, I couldn't discount some of the great stuff that has been done with animation that goes beyond any US animated film. It's still a very small selection of good stuff in comparison to the major amount of animated trash that comes from Japan it seems, and I'm not really counting the Studio Gibble stuff, since it doesn't interest me.

But then again, I still kind of hate Canadian animation because they seem to like squiggly lines and dick noses. Lately though it's been adolescent teen drama flash toons they make for Cartoon Network instead.

Edited by syntheticgerbil

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Terry Gilliam might be the only director that I'm completely partial to, because my enjoyment and fascinations for movies is directly linked to watching his movies.

I mean, discovering Munchausen when I was 10 felt like having my imagination being completely unlocked and discovering that you could layers of layers of different emotions at once.

Also, when I was 14, I fondly remember playing geeky Indiana Jones with a friend as we hunted down for a whole summer a VHS of a rumored trur-er version that we weren't sure even existed (namely Brazil's directory). And being blown away when it turned out to be awesome

And then, I remember stumbling upon the Pythons, and seeing other movies I loved instantly and discovering there was a single guy behind all of those, Terry Gilliam.

And finally when I was 22, I ended up in Melbourne the very day Tideland's preview was screened in a 30's theater. It was a rainy day and of course, it was sold out but a shady guy in a raincoat offered me a ticket 10 minutes before the beginning of the movie and Tideland was the most thought provoking film I had seen in a while.

Wicked!

I remember being a kid and going into a video shop for the first time when Return of the Jedi had just come out - Darth Vader was hanging around outside so I knew it had to be a very special place indeed. For some reason I became fascinated by the VHS box for Time Bandits and a film called Wizards which I begged my mother to rent. They both pretty much blew my mind and I was a fan of crazy fanatsy shit from that point on. I recently got Wizards on DVD after not seeing it for a good 20 odd years, any Thumbs know of it?

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Time Bandits is a lot of fun, I think may go back and watch it again with all of you guys talking about it. It starts off sort of plain but gets better and better as the movie goes along. It usually doesn't work that way in most films.

Wizards is that Bakshi directed thing though right? I've heard of and have seen the VHS for rent many times, but haven't seen it. I'm not really a fan of Ralph Bakshi so I sort of tend to avoid anything he touches and let other people tell me about them.

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Times Bandits is indeed awesome. I watched it for the first time relatively recently (about a year ago) and totally loved it. Brazil is probably my favourite though.

I also just watched the new Baron Munchausen Bluray. That was still pretty good, but not as good as the previous two movies (mainly due to the script, I think, oddly enough). Next movie is The Fisher King! (Which I've seen many times.)

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