P2 to the HK...
You guys should probably know that your friend and mine, Mr. Ploom 2, is now residential in Hong Kong for six months. Should you need anything in the way of bizarre toy based tings from that part of the world, he's ya man.
http://www.ploom2.com
Nic.
'Sky High'...
I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I watched Ryuhei Kitamura’s ‘Sky High’ recently. So far I’ve pretty much liked everything he’s done. However I always feel his movies are about 20-30 minutes too long – and this is no exception.
‘Sky High’ has all the Kitamura trademarks. Low budget - but high in ambition, and the all important girls and swords. And what a fine ensemble of girls with swords he has assembled for this movie.
It stars ‘Yumiko Shaku’ – who also held a sword pretty well in the below par ‘Princess Blade’. However it’s ‘Eihi Shiina’ that shines here for me. Best known as the girl with the man in a bag and a fine collection of needles in Takashi Miike’s ‘Audition’ (Odishon) she somewhat steals the show as the keeper of the gate of wrath.
It’s a simple story about a girl who is murdered by a serial killer who her husband to be is trying to catch. Now, any violent death sends the victim straight to the gates of wrath where they are given three choices. 1: Move on into heaven, 2: Roam the Earth as a ghost, 3: Attain revenge on a single living person but enter eternal torment once complete.
The film is shot real nice, if a little understated during the fight scenes, but overall it maintains a decent momentum. There’s enough interesting back and forth between the real world and the afterlife to keep things from ever dragging.
Special mention must go to the girl who plays the ‘white witch’ (not sure which of the actors that is). She comes in late in the day and totally kicks it. 5 kick ass stars for her performance.
In relation to other Kitamura films it compare more with ‘Alive’ in terms of scope than say ‘Azumi’. But it looks better (but no necessarily is better than) ‘Versus’.
Overall – if you’re a Kitamura fan then it’s work getting hold of. If not then there still might be enough in this to get you excited – especially if you like watching girl slice the hell out of each other with sword. 3.5/5
I got a few more Kitamura films to watch over the next few days including ‘Down to Hell’ (the prequel to Versus), ‘Heat After Dark’, and ‘Aragami’. I’ll chime in on those when I get a chance.
Nic.
Could this be...
...the greatest movie ever made?
http://www.tatu-paragate.jp/index.html
I'm thinking it might be.
Nic.
Browser... didn't he have it in for Mario?
Apparently there is a scare over Microsoft's Internet Explorer having a big security hole (or so the rumour spread at work). This lead everyone to try alternative browsers for a change. I've settled on 'Mozilla Firefox' as my new browser of choice. It's quick and pretty much the same as IE. Try it - ya might even like it...
Nic.
I feel the need...
...to buy a 'GTI Club' arcade machine (circa 1997 - Konami). Please stop me before I blow £700 - or God forbid £1400 on a full sit down version. Thing is - I think I have enough room in the house for the sit down verion... argh... must stop hand clicking on 'BUY' icon... must resisit urge to have GTI Club machine...
Nic.
Can I just say...
...I hate wireless networks. Okay – that’s not entirely true. I like the fact t that I don’t have to drag network cables all over my house. What I hate is that if you change one thing... it takes you hours to set it all back up again.
I just stuck a wireless G card in my main desktop PC to try and take better advantage of the 2mbit line I now have... Could I get it to work? Nope... on the phone for an hour to tech support and for no reason it suddenly starts working.
Cool – so I’m all like – well I should probably move my study around a bit and tidy up since it was getting to be a bit of a shit hole. So I move everything round, turn on the PC, guess what. Yup – damn thing had stopped working again. So more hours of mindlessly messing with settings and guess what, Yup. It miraculously starts working.
The worst thing is I’m only getting a bit more speed over my old wireless B set-up.
Man I have computers on days like this…
Nic.
"Shoot it in the head!"...
Here's anther cool little Japanese game for the PC.
Get it
HERE.
Nic.
I feel kinda bad (Genki ja arimasen?)…
...because I’m listening to a band called ‘WHAT noise’. Why do I feel bad? Well – I saw these guys (and a gal I seem to remember) about 14 years ago when they supported ‘Fishbone’ on tour, and I hated them – as did most of the audience.
Now in retro – probably not the best band to place before a ska-punk-funk band. But... I kinda like what I’m hearing now... which is weird cos they remind me of ‘Hula’ (little known Sheffield industrial outfit) who I did love back then.
Anyway – should any member of ‘WHAT noise’ pass my blog. I’m sorry for hating you at the Leeds warehouse in 1990. You were actually quite good.
Oh yeah - and I'm learning Japanese again. Watashi wa nihon go ga wakarimas!!!!!
Nic.
It’s like – the bomb – B...
My buddy Barnaby (
http://www.fleafall.com) turned me onto this game about a month ago – but I just gave it another quick play… very, very, cool, and very, very, free.
Go here from some Japanese PC gaming goodness:
http://nagoya.cool.ne.jp/o_mega/product/e2.html
Oh yeah - it's also the 'fabulous'
Kat Denning's 18th birthday today... a milestone in anyone's life. Who's that - what's that? The future queen of Hollywood I'll have you know...
nic.
Oh Yeah...
How much am I loving Reason at the moment... another 1 hour tune... might actually expand on this on though cos I quite like it.
http://www.medullacorp.com/mp3/ha-ha-oh-yeah.mp3
Nic.
What do you get if...
...you cross J-Pop with Reason, and a bottle of wine...
http://www.medullacorp.com/mp3/He-Her.mp3
As you may guess from this - I'm still messing around with Reason.
Nic.
Fear of a Black Rabbit...
Good lord it's hot hot hot in the UK today... gonna be one of them 'sticky' nights I guess (no -not like that).
To cool down, here's an interesting interview with Chuck D and Hank Shocklee (Public Enemy) about copyrighting beats:
http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18830
Fear Of A Black Planet is surely one of the greatest albums ever constructed...
Nic.
