Yesterday i watched the Airbender movie that came out this summer. It was fun. For most of it.
It’s very obviously a kids’ movie, so as long as it has some touching scenes, amazing visual effects and young characters, you don’t need much of a story. Compared to that, the Airbender movie had somewhat of a story, and although i have never watched the animated series nor knew the story at all, it was still fascinating.
Last night as my connection was down, i decided to have some offline fun: watch movies. Thus i watched the two seemingly lightest pieces, two game cover movies, Tekken and Prince of Persia (note here, it’s annoying like hell that sites try to serve me content in japanese based on my location). I decided to write just one post about the two movies together, for the simple reason i can sum them up better this way.
Game adaptations, with loads of action, american movie cliches and practically no story (even less than with the games, not to mention the movies’ storylines are just vaguely similar to the games’). That’s all. Great visual effects, easy to watch, quick to forget. Good exactly for the reason i watched them: light but exciting entertainment. I got it.
Nem vesztem el. Csak szombat délutántól ma reggelig nem volt netem (megint). A három Sherlock részt azóta nagyjából fejből tudom, megnéztem a tavalyi Guy Ritchie-féle filmet is, de ha már úgyis benne voltam a filmnézésben, nekiestem és megnéztem a Fantastic Mr Foxot és a Where the Wild Things are-t is. Ez volt a szombati része. Vasárnap egész nap a Toradora! című animét néztem, egy nap alatt ledaráltam mint a 25 részt. Este kondi után meg még elkerekeztem (mondtam már, hogy megtaláltam a biciklim kulcsát?) a “közeli” kombinibe kinyomtatni a vízumigényléshez elvileg szükséges jegyet.
Ma reggel aztán nagyjából másfél óra alvás után (három előtt lefeküdtem ugyan aludni, nagyon sokáig csak forgolódtam) keltem és indultam Oszakába a kínai konzulátusra. Amit elsőre eltévesztettem, mert persze hogy a honlapjukon az útmutatás valami eldugott oktatási irodához vezetett. Azért megtaláltam, odaértem, beadtam, majd Okinawa után megyek érte meg fizetem ki. Végül a jegy se kellett, direkt rákérdeztem pedig. Ez volt a délelőtt.
Délután próbáltunk, vagy négy óra hosszat megállás nélkül, aztán kajáltunk egy jót – én meg mihelyt hazaértem szó szerint eldőltem és aludtam egy jó másfél órát. Utána próbáltam életre kelni a kondiban (sikertelenül) majd próbáltam a tavaszi felmérés hét és fél perces ezerötjét javítani, de még ez se sikerült (pont ugyanannyi lett).
Amúgy sincs jó hangulatom, a Toradora valahogy megviselt, pedig jó volt, de ez a futós élmény totál levert. Úgyhogy inkább nem is írok a filmekről s egyebekről amiket láttam-éltem a hétvégén, csak remélem, hogy holnapra valahogy helyreállok és neki merek majd állni. Balra el.
Digital Monster X-Evolution is probably the only Digimon movie totally unrelated to any of the anime series. It has some connection to the Digimon Chronicle manga, with the x-antibody and Dorumon, but it’s a wild spinoff even from that storyline.
The main hero of the movie is that Dorumon, a purple furry dragon-like digimon. Quite cute and really desperate to protect a Tokomon entrusted to him by WarGreymon-X. The backstory goes like this: the digital world grew too big for the host computer Yggdrasil to handle, so it decided to cut it back, by deleting most of it using the X Program and saving only a few selected digimon to the new world. But there is a mysterious x-antibody that a few digimon (including Dorumon) have, which makes them immune to the X Program. Also, they look badass and are stronger than usual. But because apparently there are still too many digimon left, the Royal Knights (a few of the ones seen in Savers) are sent to dispatch of the x digimon. Who of course don’t want to be dispatched of…
The movie is done entirely in CG, which is unseen in any other digimon anime before or after X-Evolution. It looks great. The only thing not in X-Evolution that’s in all other digimon anime is humans. This exception in the digital world’s code is caught by digimon themselves. And although it wasn’t my first time seeing the movie (i would’ve sworn i wrote about it here in the blog, but either not or it’s been lost), i still shivered at Alphamon’s summoning of the Ultimate War Blade King Dragon Sword (究極戦刃王竜剣) (i wonder what he’s drawing in the air—according to japanese sources it’s a “magic circle”).
Great one. Watch it!
Today finally i watched the second Rebuild of Evangelion movie, You Can (Not) Advance (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版: 破). I am surprised: the movie is good. What good, great. When i wrote about 1.0, i said the graphics were better and the atmosphere was less unbearably depressive. You Can (Not) Advance is different. The graphics are simply fantastic, and the style and storytelling of the movie is enjoyable even though it still has the key element psychology stuff in it.
I still am unable to understand how the characters lack any real display of anger–i for one would pretty much be raging in those situations. Something how Shinji acts after the mishap with Unit 3. Which reminds me, the storyline differs from the original anime in a couple of points, although i don’t know how the manga story goes. I really like it how people act not as depression embodied but more like people–even if depressed people.
Beside the storyline changes and the great graphics, there is also a new character (or that counts as storyline?) and the music is fantastic too. Also, for some reason, Asuka’s family name Souryu (惣流) is changed to Shikinami (式波).
I pretty much loved this movie. Am looking forward to the 3.0…
Today i went to the Toyokawa Warner Mycal cinema to watch the Suzumiya Haruhi movie that came out this february, following the storyline of the Disappearance (sometimes translated as Vanishment) of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの消失) light novel. It was great. If you’re waiting for fansubbed versions, it’s really worth it. (The above picture is from the movie’s official website. On the left it says “because i’m a member of the SOS Brigade”.)
It’s timeline is pretty complicated, due to multiple alterations of the universe itself and simultaneously occurring time travels. It starts from an ordinary day of the extraordinary life of the SOS Brigade, but then everything changes out of nowhere, of course leaving all the trouble for Kyon to solve. And to do so, he has to go through a lot of trouble (and time planes).
The animation quality is great, as expected from a Suzumiya movie, the story is of the expected quality as well, so i can say, this movie is a success. Of course knowing the two anime series and possibly the light novels as well is very advised.
In the following spoilers may appear, so mind your way.
Not Dream Theater, this time. (I wish.) “Just” friends, Adina and Tung. When i was sitting in the sports hall watching the (semi-)pro people play, and fighting with sleepiness (and was losing), it occurred to me that “we should do something tonight”. Ended up watching Avatar in Kawasaki, and it was great. About the movie separately i shall write later.
I got to the station a bit early, but as soon as i sat down to have a coffee, the other two were already texting me that they’re arriving. We headed for the italytown Cittadella, and started with buying tickets for the 3D Avatar. We had about an hour till the start, so went for dinner, and ended up in a really nice restaurant, where (unusually in Japan) i could have my fill in four digits (actually hardly over a thousand yen). Of course it was italian food. I accidentally ordered myself stuff with a lot of mushrooms, let’s say i was happy when i realised, but it ended up well.
The only downside of the movie was that it wasn’t 3D for me. It used a different technique as Disneyland Paris back in… well before this blog was even started. Because of my left eye, my two eyes are not in sync, so these 3D experiences don’t turn out well all the time. Like tonight. But still the movie was fun, only i couldn’t see the shrapnel zooming out of the screen.
We also got the last train, and i was in my room by one, but couldn’t really get to sleep for a too long while after. (Ended up with three hours of sleep, now that’s really not enough.) I was reading Twilight all the time too, finally there’s something happening. (As Adina kindly pointed out, i’m over the first ten minutes of the movie.)
Jobb a magyar szinkron, mint az angol eredeti? Három lehetőség van: igen; nem; amelyiket előbb hallottad. Különösen az utóbbi időben, nem sokat néztem magyar szinkronos filmeket, mert mit. Nem vagyok otthon, itt meg vagy japánul, vagy angolul. Néhány példa azért eszembe jut. Monty Python. A szkeccs-sorozatot az eredeti angol szinkronnal néztem, a filmeket pedig magyarul. És ha jól sejtem, a “fúj köpködők” rész mindenkinek csak magyarul van meg. Magyarul is jó, angolul is jó, nem kell ragozni. Aztán ott van a rengeteg anime sorozat, amik szereplőit mind mind ugyanaz a tizen-kevés ember szinkronizálja, de megszoktuk. Először komolyan nehezemre esett a Cowboy Bebop filmet angolul nézni, mert csak japánul és magyarul hallottam addig. Az animéknél ezek szerint leginkább az számít, hogy melyiket láttam előbb. Bár tény, hogy volt néhány olyan ordítóan pocsék magyar szinkron, hogy bár nem hallottam más nyelven, azonnal kapcsoltam inkább a híradóra. Ahogy így elemezgetem magam, úgy tűnik, hogy nekem teljesen mindegy, milyen nyelven van az adott mű – legyen az film, sorozat vagy akár könyv. A hetedik Harry Pottert se magyarul olvastam rongyosra (és igazság szerint azt a füles poént nem is tudom, hogy fordították, angolul nagyon poén), a Harcosok Klubját se angolul láttam, az Inuyashát is csak magyarul tudom elviselni (ennek örömére most nosztalgia-kép), ergo vagy jó egy szinkron, vagy csak megszoktam… Sikerült megint nem eldönteni.
Last friday (among others) was the day also for a movie, a new japanese movie titled カイジ·人生逆転ゲーム, Kaiji in short (the above “Gambling apocalypse Kaiji” is the “official english title in japan”, no comment). That’s the name of the main character as well, by the way. Also, that main character is played by 藤原竜也 (Fujiwara Tatsuya), the guy who played Shuya in the Battle Royale movie and Light from Death note. No surprise he seemed so familiar… This time he’s playing a supposedly everyday guy, who has a serious problem with gambling. In addition to hoping to win huge piles of money on lottery tickets, he has problems with controlling himself after losing, hitting and kicking cars and stuff. Then once everything turns out bad, and he has to gamble for his life. That’s about the first two minutes of the movie, but the remaining parts are not much different. As usual with any japanese entertainment product, be it anime, manga, book or whatever, the central point in the plot is how Kaiji grows up and matures. For some reason though, he doesn’t really get the message of the first one and half hour of the movie: don’t gamble. Of course there’s also a multi-chillionaire, who apparently has a fetish (japanese tradition) for life-and-death games, and beside him half-mad CO’s and sadist servants. The whole thing is very japanese, but if someone doesn’t have a problem with that, it’s really entertaining.
Yesterday in Shibuya we watched the sixth Harry Potter movie, and i must say that it was great. I wanted to watch it in japanese, because that’s very funny (i’ve seen the fifth in japanese and it was simply hilarious), but this one was the english original. I remembered most of the story, but i feel i’ll have to read the last two books a few more times. So, the story was great, the acting was great and everything just passed together. Also, it brings back a lot of memories.
I read about the actors since then, and i’m always surprised by these details. I knew that Alan Rickman was Hans Gruber in the first Die Hard, one of my great childhood movies, but i didn’t realise he was the wealthy and powerful lord from Perfume, and i really want to see both the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy in english and the Sweeney Todd movie, since he’s the voice actor of Marvin in the former and acts the villain judge in the latter. And he’ll be the Caterpillar in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Same goes for the strangely familiar and scarily mad Bellatrix Lestrange from the movie, Helena Bonham Carter. She was the fantastic Marla Singer in the even more fantastic Fight Club, she was also in the Sweeney Todd movie and she’ll be the Red Queen in the same Alice in Wonderland.
After reading even more character summaries, i really feel like i have to read the last two books again. And again.