Original message (4991 Views )
| |  "Random thread: Non-gaming edition V" , posted Mon 17 Oct 14:21  
Prof, I remember you were very attentive to the aftermath of the Higashinihondaishinsai, and how (un)informed people were in the Tokyo metropolitan area about the risks they faced with the fallout of radiation. In that respect, I am curious on your opinion about Taiyō no Futa, if you get/got to see it. It's still running in a bunch of theaters including the famous Jack & Betty arthouse cinema theater in Yokohama.
I am very curious about its commercial fate outside Japan, especially as I don't see the Japanese government gladly pushing a movie that reminds everyone Tokyo is potentially in the contamination range of a potential nuclear disaster in Fukushima (unless I missed the news that Reactor 2's potential damage has been contained to a shorter contamination range).
Speaking of which, the Japanese Cinema industry had a vibrant summer in terms of box office success, from the resurgence of Shin Godzilla (still frequently rescheduled in IMAX theaters) to the unfathomable success of Kimi no na wa, now on track to enter the all-time Top 10 box office gross above hits such as Ponyo and Avatar, a dynamic which has pulled others in its trail such as the movie adaptation of Koe no Katachi. Makoto Shinkai is mainstream! Hell is freezing over!
Même Narumi est épatée !
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| |  "Re(3):Random thread: Non-gaming edition V" , posted Tue 18 Oct 18:25:
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It's a decent movie, although I struggle to understand why it has such a big impact. My best guess (OK I totally stole this from Fabien) is that there was no Ghibli movie this summer so KNNW looked like the best "date movie" for young couples this summer, and some surprising (←your mileage may vary) turns in the plot led to positive word of mouth among friends. "You have to see it so I can discuss it with you." That sort of stuff. The promotional items and trailers pushed so hard the body switching and romance aspects, but the truth is... The movie surprisingly connects many different topics of Makoto Shinkai's past works. It's hard to discuss the movie in detail without spoiling it, though. See! You'd have to see it so I can discuss it with you!
Having the character designs handled by the Anohana team was also a pretty good idea. There are some great moments of animation and a bunch of makoto-isms for long time fans. That being said, for instance, if you did not like 5cm/second  you are a heartless monster and  I don't think this movie will change your opinion on Shinkai.
Bah this past week has been hell busy! Meanwhile I'm trying to somehow make this BBS more mobile-friendly which is a true headache given that it's so old.. what to do, how to do.
So first up, Kimi no Na Wa. Chaz makes a great point that there was no Ghibili film this year so it took over the top spot. I watched it myself and I liked it a lot, but it was more because of the novelty of seeing familiar areas in Tokyo being depicted so beautifully rather than the storyline itself. I think though the pace of the anime fits the current younger generation a lot better than traditional Ghibili films; it has a similar pace and casualness to using a smartphone. In some ways it almost feels like the opposite of Miyazaki's works; very little symbolism, a lot more materialism. It's like a bunch of footage taken in modern Tokyo, but in anime format.
The film had me intrigued enough to go check the Suga shrine (lots of people taking photos) and the restaurant that the protagonist was working as a part-timer (holy cripes even more people). It was actually my first Shinkai film and I'm certainly going to check out his other works in decending order.
I'm not sure if I'll watch Koe no Katachi. I've read the original series while it was running and it was quite good, depicting the huge flaws of each character and their human side as they get involved with the protagonist and heroine. Not sure if I want to dive into the film and get my memories possibly sullied.
Thanks for the heads up on Taiyou No Futa-- I haven't watched it, or rather to say it's the first time I'm hearing about the film. Given how small its volume of Twitter followers are, I can only assume that it didn't receive that much mainstream support. It might just end up being a Japanese film that receives more attention overseas than in Japan, but I can't see the film industry nor any other domestic groups wanting to push its sales in the international territory either, considering that it'll potentially get themselves into unneeded political(aka financial) troubles.
[this message was edited by Professor on Tue 18 Oct 18:46] |
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| "Re(4):Random thread: Non-gaming edition V" , posted Wed 19 Oct 11:23:
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It's like a bunch of footage taken in modern Tokyo, but in anime format.
Hmm. Sounds like the high-atmosphere low-content works of his I saw, but Chaz and Nobi both promoted 5cm/second so maybe this will redeem him! But speaking of footage that captures the wonder of city bustle and urban spaces:
An internet pal of mine, Michael Vito, ran a wonderful blog on transportation and its role in creating neighborhoods and senses of space, which you may like: The Tokyo Project.
Here's a favorite, a video essay on Shinjuku, the busiest train station in the world, that captures the subtle joy and beauty of the crowd even after you've been there a thousand times. I find it oddly moving on a human level, somehow. Also, a peppy Shibuya.
The blog main page covers these same ideas of transportation and public space, but as they appear in weekly anime. As Chaz can attest, lately I don't care about any music or anime that is later than Showa period (hell with Heisei!), but there is great stuff in here.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Wed 19 Oct 11:24] |
| | "Re(2):Re(10):Random thread: Non-gaming editio" , posted Sun 30 Oct 06:51:
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Oh I meant to say "Bayformers." Michael Bay hated the original cartoons, and that felt evident in the movies.
This really explains a lot of things about those horrible movies.
I'm fundamentally opposed to the notion that humans should be able to damage or destroy Transformers inside the Transformers universe. To me, the Transformers were machine gods that had human emotions and ambitions, and that it was centrally important that the Autobots could relate to humanity. The Decepticons recognize this, but they deny the value of anything that is not themselves.
When I think back to it, that was kind of the feeling of being a little kid: there were bigger people out there with a lot more power than you, and no chance in hell could you beat them in a fight or a real argument or in anything. All you could do was try to convince them of the rightness of what you were doing and how you felt, and you had to hope that they agreed. That the Autobots were big huge cool robots that tended to agree and fought off the asshole bullies and villains helped make the Autobots cool.
It's a kind of thinking that harkens more to ancient religions where people constantly believed we were at the mercy of all kinds of forces far out of our control that they desperately appealed to with offerings, as opposed to the "we can fight and win anything!" mentality expressed in the Bayformers.
That is a very good read of the original shows. In the original show, the Autobots did feel like adult figures compared to the humans they were protecting. Optimus Prime was like a father to latchkey kids everywhere. There's a nice, simple, potentially deep fairy tale quality to that.
The Bayformers movies on the other hand, were filmed with an unprecedented level of cooperation with the US Military. There were so many real state of the art vehicles on display in those films. Of course, part of the price for getting access to all that real world US Military tech was the stipulation that the US Army would never appear weak or in too much danger or lose. The movies were very much a recruitment tool. It would not be hyperbole to call them propaganda.
I have a theory that conscious or not, the Bayformers movies reflect an idealised version of US foreign policy where the Autobots are the ultimate foreign dissident fighters, cooperating with the US to exterminate those of their own kind that go against US interests (like Al Queda fighting alongside Rambo in the third Rambo movie). I believe by the third Bayforners film they go as far as to sacrifice their own beloved homeworld of Cybertron in order to destroy the hated decepticons. I feel this is a very distinctly American kind of narrative. As much as I strongly dislike those movies, they are a good time capsule of the values of their times (as is just about any popular movie so it's not that special, but still sort of interesting)
www.art-eater.com
[this message was edited by nobinobita on Sun 30 Oct 07:01] |
| | "Re(3):Re(10):Random thread: Non-gaming editio" , posted Sun 30 Oct 07:02
I actually felt kind of weird watching parts of the first and second Transformers movies where there were just big glorious shots of US military hardware. Like, watch this awesome wing of fighter jets bank, or watch this awesome battleship/carrier roll in, and it's obvious that the whole point of that shot is to show off super cool modern military hardware.
It isn't exactly Top Gun, but it's kind of there at times.
I don't think anything in recent times has been as powerful of a recruiting tool for the US military as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Playing through the single player campaign, the authentic feeling of the lingo, the presentation is so slick, the emotional beats so brilliantly crafted... make no mistake, it's a really well-made game!
In the past I always admired the cool military machines because... well, they're really cool machines. They're made to be really cool. I still admire them today, even though it comes with the thought that they have been used for terrible purposes. I feel a little more disconnect from more historical armaments, because I guess I haven't seen them used as tools of death and destruction in my time, and so it's easier to admire them without as many misgivings, even though so many of them served as very tools of murderous conquest and subjugation in the past.
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| | "Re(4):Re(10):Random thread: Non-gaming editio" , posted Sun 30 Oct 07:22
quote:
I actually felt kind of weird watching parts of the first and second Transformers movies where there were just big glorious shots of US military hardware. Like, watch this awesome wing of fighter jets bank, or watch this awesome battleship/carrier roll in, and it's obvious that the whole point of that shot is to show off super cool modern military hardware.
It isn't exactly Top Gun, but it's kind of there at times.
I don't think anything in recent times has been as powerful of a recruiting tool for the US military as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Playing through the single player campaign, the authentic feeling of the lingo, the presentation is so slick, the emotional beats so brilliantly crafted... make no mistake, it's a really well-made game!
In the past I always admired the cool military machines because... well, they're really cool machines. They're made to be really cool. I still admire them today, even though it comes with the thought that they have been used for terrible purposes. I feel a little more disconnect from more historical armaments, because I guess I haven't seen them used as tools of death and destruction in my time, and so it's easier to admire them without as many misgivings, even though so many of them served as very tools of murderous conquest and subjugation in the past.
For me what made Bayformers particularly hard to watch was how disconnected the action scenes were. They had very shoddy flow. It was very difficult to follow the action or get any sense of the space that it was taking place in. I wonder if they shot that sweet Military Vehicle Porn first and then built cg action scenes on top of it later! Or conversely maybe they got some of that sweet footage after the fact and had to retrofit it somehow.
It's difficult for me not to find some appeal in the form and function of all those super weapons. Of course I do not love war, but it's difficult to deny the appeal of such powerful, well designed objects. They have an unmistakable beauty to them, in spite of, or maybe because of their utility.
Re: Call of Duty. Those are totally the best recruitment tool the US army has had in our lifetimes. In fact, they are so effective that ISIS has been retooling footage from them for their own recruitment campaigns!
www.art-eater.com
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| "Re(1):Earthquake in Italy." , posted Tue 8 Nov 18:03:
Sorry for my absence. I was dead set on coming back to the Cafe starting from the SNK thread as usual, but I saw you talking about the earthquake and felt the need to change my priorities.
I only felt the earthquake briefly here where I live (Taranto) because it's far away from the epicentre (Norcia), so I'm fine, but it was enough to make me think "if we felt it like this here, a disaster has just happened somewhere else", and sadly, things went like that, entire villages destroyed, so many people lost home. I'm speechless.
Thank you so much kofoguz and Professor for your kind thoughts, I really appreciate it.
Ore no...kachi da!!
[this message was edited by Micky Kusanagi on Tue 8 Nov 18:08] |
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| "Re(2):Re(10):Random thread: Non-gaming editio" , posted Tue 8 Nov 19:11
quote:
Oh I meant to say "Bayformers." Michael Bay hated the original cartoons, and that felt evident in the movies.
This really explains a lot of things about those horrible movies.
I'm fundamentally opposed to the notion that humans should be able to damage or destroy Transformers inside the Transformers universe. To me, the Transformers were machine gods that had human emotions and ambitions, and that it was centrally important that the Autobots could relate to humanity. The Decepticons recognize this, but they deny the value of anything that is not themselves.
When I think back to it, that was kind of the feeling of being a little kid: there were bigger people out there with a lot more power than you, and no chance in hell could you beat them in a fight or a real argument or in anything. All you could do was try to convince them of the rightness of what you were doing and how you felt, and you had to hope that they agreed. That the Autobots were big huge cool robots that tended to agree and fought off the asshole bullies and villains helped make the Autobots cool.
It's a kind of thinking that harkens more to ancient religions where people constantly believed we were at the mercy of all kinds of forces far out of our control that they desperately appealed to with offerings, as opposed to the "we can fight and win anything!" mentality expressed in the Bayformers.
Now that we know Micky is safe, I can now feel a bit better about linking to this lovely perspective of Optimus Prime as a near-religious figure.
...!!
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Platinum Carpet V.I.P - IGGY ARI !  | "Re(2):The night is short, keep walking ladies" , posted Mon 19 Dec 09:56
quote:
It seems to share some thematic relations as well as some characters or at least their archetypes. Makes me wonder how it's going to be different from tatami galaxy...
At some point in the anime of Tatami Galaxy, Otsu teases Senpai by giving him this very book (the night is short etc) and saying "Here's some teenage romance novel you might like. It's romantic, self-centered and cheap, just like you" or something similar (though I believe the novel of Tatami Galaxy was written before this one).
Also, I think the main character is called "Senpai" in both, but the main female character has an actual name in Tatami, while in this one she's called "The girl with black hair". Also, in the novel, both characters share the narration, allowing for a more balanced (?) point of view than Tatami which was only from the point of view of Watashi/Senpai.
Also, Kumeta liked the novel enough to reference it several times (if only by name) in Zetsubô Sensei.
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| "Re(2):Re(10):Sayonara Krispy Kreme" , posted Mon 27 Mar 21:27:
The title thread made me think that you guys were talking about the power rangers movie (I couldn't explain it since incredibely is a big spoiler)
I don't know if my expectations were super low, but I absolutely loved the movie, is the first time than the power rangers are all good actors, and you root for all 5 of them. Also the suits, alpha and zordon were actually better on the movie than the trailers, which also made you though a super dark and gritty movie when actually is really light hearted, yet talks some interesting themes.
The principal negative is that it lacks some more super sentai influence, like innecesary flips, poses and chesyness.
But overall, is a good movie for what it was and I'm actually excited for the sequel
[this message was edited by sibarraz on Mon 27 Mar 21:28] |
| | "Re(3):Re(10):Sayonara Krispy Kreme" , posted Tue 28 Mar 02:54:
He stole something precious, a gigantic $4M Loonie.
The thing they stole seems so silly to exist in the first place that while I'm a little upset that something my tax dollars went towards who knows how many years ago has been stolen, maybe it's a good idea for the Canadian mint to not mint such crazy things!
quote:
The title thread made me think that you guys were talking about the power rangers movie (I couldn't explain it since incredibely is a big spoiler)
I don't know if my expectations were super low, but I absolutely loved the movie, is the first time than the power rangers are all good actors, and you root for all 5 of them. Also the suits, alpha and zordon were actually better on the movie than the trailers, which also made you though a super dark and gritty movie when actually is really light hearted, yet talks some interesting themes.
The principal negative is that it lacks some more super sentai influence, like innecesary flips, poses and chesyness.
But overall, is a good movie for what it was and I'm actually excited for the sequel
I put a lot of weight into mmcafe opinions, so this certainly raises my expectations of the movie above the level of "pretend it doesn't exist"!
[this message was edited by Spoon on Tue 28 Mar 02:55] |
| | "Re(2):Castlevania TV series preview" , posted Wed 5 Jul 23:49
quote:
What a night to have a curse! All things considered, I think this looks kind of promising. Much better than I expected, to say the least.
Apparently there was also a panel at AX previewing Trevor fighting a Cyclops.
Wow, it's looking great! I am really pleasantly surprised by the excellent direction, slow, deliberate pacing and great animation. Heck, it's even pretty funny in an unforced manner. Double Heck, it has the main character doing some very game-like stuff like going into a dungeon, finding secret passages, breaking floors to open up new areas, engaging in a boss battle, saving an NPC, all in a way that feels organic and not "haha! We're a videogame! See???"
The way he uses his whip to fight is really cool. And I really liked the little touches like how using electric lights in the dungeon actually feels menacing somehow. Really looking forward to this now!
www.art-eater.com
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who follow the path of a warrior
"Re(4):Sayonara Krispy Kreme" , posted Sun 15 Jan 16:06
MESSATSU
