Movie Review - Ju Dou (1990)

My parents had cable off-and-on in my household.  At one point, the cable became too expensive, and we stopped.  We picked it up again after a while, and stopped again when the cable became too much. Now, with digital cable forcing everyone to pay for stuff they used to get for free, we have cable again.  With the glut of crap on specially generalized cable television (Toddlers & Tiaras, Crocosaurus, all the no-talent shows, occult-themed shows, police procedural shows, etc.), it will never be like it was.  

Back then, we didn't have to worry about having to subscribe to a specific channel to get out foreign movies: we simply were surprised.  It was like this in my high school years when I watched the movie that started my love for Asian cinema: Ju Dou.

Ju Dou was like nothing I had seen before in American film: the new land, the strange people and culture (granted, the only time I had dealt with Asian people and culture was either at a restaurant or a kung-fu movie), the language, and the colors. OH GOD THE COLORS.  The colors weren't part of some forced hallucination or a drug-related trip on my part.  It was simply the way that director Yimou Zhang was able to not only give the set designer and cinematographer the instructions to make the movie visually appealing, but the tension between the characters was believable and tangible.  It would set the rule for me in the future that whenever I watch an Asian film, check if Li Gong is in it first.

"Dear Penthouse Forum..."

The movie is set in early 20th Century China, when the life of Ju Dou (played by Li Gong) is disrupted by her marriage to Old Yang (actor Wei Li) who runs a dye mill.  He paid a handsome sum for such a beautiful bride, so she had better produce him an heir--which she cannot because the old man is sterile.  He treats her horribly in response (an understatement, to say the least) and has no idea that someone has else has had their eye on her, but can't act on it.

Tianqing (Baotian Li) is Old Yang's younger relative, who lives and works at the mill as Yang's ward.  He is also mistreated to a degree.  He takes pity on the woman who is now legally his aunt.  At first, their relationship is deeply appalling... but you come to understand that their common ground is their hatred of Old Yang.  He is wholly deserving of this hatred, which Ju Dou and Tianqing transform into lust and love.  Nature takes its course under the influence of human intervention, and the story seems as if it will develop into an ending scenario that will be considered acceptable.  That's when the film becomes an experience in truly deep heartbreak.  The dynamic changes so hard and fast, you can only stay riveted to your seat to see how it all turns out.

OH GOD THE COLORS, MAN

And so it went, my first foreign film viewing.  

This led to me watching not only foreign films with Li Gong in it (Curse of the Golden Flower, Raise the Red Lantern), but also other foreign fare (Luc Besson's ANGEL-A, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor [yes, it counts], Karan Johar's Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Juzo Itami's Tampopo), not to mention domestic productions with Asian themes (Memoirs of a Geisha, Snow Falling on Cedars).  I can say without any confusion that this is one of the best movies I have ever seen.  This is mostly due to my eyes being opened--not to the flare of an action movie's explosion, the shine of a silver sci-fi rocket or to the horrors of a slasher film--but to the greater expanse of world film and filmmakers outside of America and kung-fu movies.  To you and all those like you, director Zhang, I thank you.

Movie Review - John Carter (2012)

My first exposure to the world of Edgar Rice Burroughs' world of Barsoom came through the works of the electronica band Dejah Thoris.  I lost the track I downloaded from them years ago, but I wanted to know why a picture of a half-naked red woman covered in nothing but gold jewelry was the next picture on Google image search.  I began to look into more about this scantily-clad woman, and I experienced the book A Princess of Mars--and I have never been the same since.  The book tends to gloss over John Carter's Confederate leanings (this would have irked me in my younger years) and makes him so unbelievably awesome and wraps you up in the story about a lost Virginian, his red-skinned princess, and the planet that needed him more than anything else.  It was only natural of me to imagine what a John Carter: Warlord of Mars movie would look like, so I went looking online.
It turns out the Barsoom series' earliest books had lapsed in copyright years ago, and the movie that inspired so many science fiction writers and filmmakers could come to life!  Sadly, the first attempt I found was from the 1980's, with full-out character sketches and marker compositions.  The art reflected the technology that was to be used in those days, and I was dissapointed then happy because Hollywood could just come with CGI and make everything better.  The Asylum, a low-budget film company, tried to make a Barsoomian movie and we got Princess of Mars, starring Antonio Sabato Jr. as John Carter and Traci Lords as Dejah Thoris.  It had only one shining spot, and that was the airship (note the singular form).  Other than that, everything was a poor reinterpretation.

Then Disney changed all that.

Disney came out and knocked it out of the park with John Carter (they left off "of Mars" until near the end credits), which blew me away.  It was a ride to watch and I was well-impressed with the amount of time spent on everything.  I watched and truly enjoyed myself, remembering as much of A Princess of Mars as I could as I watched to make sure nothing was missed.  Granted, I read the book online for one chapter a day until I was done, so I might have missed a few things in between all that was going on.  All the same, I was truly happy for the first time in a long time while watching the movie.  To this end I thank Disney, the people responsible for the production of the film, and anyone else involved.

Movie Review - ROD: Read or Die (2001)

There's a lot of anime out there in the world.  There's folks out there that like their action, some that like their horror and some that love their pr0n (NOTE: I use the Internet term "pr0n" because it's hi-frickin'-larious) or as the Japanese call it, "hentai." I choose my anime carefully, and make sure that I leave certain anime to their own devices if its general presence gets too ridiculous like the stateside phenomenon of Dragon Ball Z/GT/Kai/LOL. Now don't get me wrong: I've geeked out to many an anime and DBZ is no exception. But when I see a grown-ass man in suit and tie whine like a child because the comic book store didn't have the latest bootleg Japanese tape, something is WRONG with the show's fanbase and it goes without saying that I RAN AWAY VERY FAST.
With that said, I wish to acknowledge a certain sect of people since neglected in the wake of the anime revolution of which this anime is subconsciously dedicated to: LIBRARIANS.

ROD: Read or Die follows the exploits of one Yomiko Readman (voiced by Rieko Miura/Kimberly Yates). This young woman is an avid reader and part-time school teacher. She's absent-minded, leaving post-its on the stacks of books in her apartment as reminders to be a productive member of society. While she may not seem like much other than a mousy bookworm on the outside, she harbors quite the interesting life.

As a member of the top-secret, world-spanning British Library Special Operations Division, Miss Readman holds the rank of their best agent. She also had the mental powers to control paper on a molecular level. By harnessing this miraculous skill, she can use the harmless scrap paper in the suitcase she totes everywhere as anything she wants. This has also eaned her the goofiest code name ever spoken: "The Paper". Miss Readman is informed by her dispatcher Joker (voiced by Hozumi Goda/Crispin Freeman) to track down and foil a plot to take over the world by a previously unknown party called "I-Jin". The other thing that is known about the case is a very rare book is involved-- and with that, Yomiko is on the case. Joker's not letting her out of HQ without assigning a partner, so "the Paper" now has to contend with the unflappable Nancy, codename "Miss Deep" (voiced by Michiko Neya/Amanda Winn Lee). Blessed with superior combat skills, intangibility and a fathomless bosom, Miss Deep and the Paper work together with an agency sniper commando named Drake (voiced by Masami Iwasaki/Jason Lee) to take down I-Jin's genetically altered versions of... historical and legendary figures? What kind of methamphetamine grab-bag is this?
Believe it or not, the first enemy they fight is based on French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre (voiced by Junko Takeuchi/Douglas Rye), who rides into battle on a giant grasshopper. A serious case of WTF will grab your brain and not let go, especially if you're not up on academia. Many other important figures also pop up in the three episode OVA, who equally kick ass. But not as much as the music kicks ass.

Very much in the musically sharp style of 1970's action music, the opening music rocks. It's almost as if you look at the opening animation and just feel the city it shows you--I wouldn't be surprised if the neighborhood shown in the opening is none other than the Akihabara District in Tokyo, Japan. I'm probably wrong, but it would be an interesting touch. The bird's-eye view of the city isn't the cherry on top with this OVA, it's something far more affable to my sensibilities. The very idea that an introverted bookworm is the central protagonist to a three-part globetrotting action/adventure filled with over-the-top scenes AND wraps up with efforts to thwart a world domination plot goes against the grain. It damns the traditional hero with a flip of a page, teaches us all the power of books... and that "reading is fundamental".

Movie Review - Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

Snow Falling on Cedars is a movie that means so much to me, yet had absolutely nothing to do with my current situation when it was released. For one, I wasn't in a forbidden relationship and there was no open war fought on two fronts. But I can sympathize with the characters in the movie, given the theme of love in a world that will not have it, despite the gains made in society to facilitate it.

Based on the 1994 book of the same name, the movie is set in two time periods: around the middle of the Second World War and a period ten years later. Our two main characters are Ishmael (Ethan Hawke) and Hatsue (Yoki Kudo), two kids growing up in a small West Coast fishing town. They would grow up to be lovers, but they could never be together because Hatsue is Japanese-American and Ishmael is White. In their teens, World War II comes to America's doorstep. All Japanese-Americans had to report to internment camps due to their being a "homeland security risk" in the war against Japan. While Hatsue is placed in an internment camp, Ishmael joins the fight and finds himself in the Pacific Theater. It is this period where the young lovers are changed.
Hatsue meets her future husband Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune), a man in her internment camp who is shipped out to the European Theater and returns. Ishmael loses his arm--and his love for Hatsue--at Iwo Jima. Yet something inside Ishmael still burns...

Fast forward to postwar America: people are still against Japanese-Americans. Sometimes out in the open and sometimes behind closed doors. It all comes to a head when the small fishing town where Ishmael grew up has a murder mystery. It seems a young fisherman was murdered. The only suspect is the last man to have a dispute with the young man's family: his friend Kazuo Miyamoto. The racism in town has got Hatsue and Kazuo's father Zenhichi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) worried that his son won't get a fair trial, even with the help of Nels Gudmunssen the defense lawyer (legendary actor Max von Sydow). Ishmael, now a newspaper reporter, has evidence that could clear Kazuo's name, but will the jilted love of Hatsue stop him from doing the right thing?

The idea that there's this love story with history being used as a backdrop for a murder mystery is absolutely brilliant. I can't think as to why I went to see this movie... Wait! I think I know why: back then I had CRAZY yellow fever.
I was all about the Asian hotties. Hell, I used to rationalize that I admired the minimalistic beauty of the Asian woman as a man AND as a graphic designer. I used to say, in reference to the Asian woman, that God did so much to create a beautiful woman by doing very little. In many ways, I still feel the same but definitely not as strongly as I did during the time I saw this movie. When this movie ended, I cried quiet tears. I cried for the happiness and sadness of the characters. Most of all, I cried in recognition of Ishmael's silent battle fought to quell the feelings in his heart for Hatsue and to uphold a pillar of the newsman's existence: the truth.

Here be an excellent movie.

Video Game Review - Gunstar Heroes (1993 - Sega Genesis)

I've had many people say that I have the speech mannerisms of a psychologist. With that in mind, I'm going to do some word association with myself. Here we go.

Day. ...night.

Ham. ...burger.

Surf. ...er dude.

Car. ...wheel

Gun. ...star Heroes.

When all the associations were made, one conclusion was clear: Gunstar Heroes is the greatest game out there for the Sega Genesis.

On the planet Gunstar 9, home of the family Gunstar, trouble was afoot. Some crazy-ass space monster was menacing the planet! White Gunstar, patriarch of the Gunstar clan, sent out fighters to deal with the incoming threat. The twin brothers Red and Blue Gunstar headed to the disturbance on foot, while the older Green traveled to the site in his transforming platform, Seven Force. The mission went wrong somehow and not only did Green become evil, but several other members of the Gunstar family have gone rogue under the command of Commander Crimson (he looks like M. Bison from Street Fighter) Crimson's using the robot armies of Gunstar 9 to wipe the Gunstar clan off the planet and take the space monster's power for himself! The fuck is a nigga supposed to do?

One thing left TO do: buck shots.

Gunstar Heroes is what I like to call "Contra on crack." The game moves at a fast pace, with tons of baddies to shoot and bosses that don't hold back. They fight you with style and force. No cheating-ass tactics, these guys. The music's great and and you can combine two separate special weapons to create a better special weapon. What makes the game even better is the fact that when you choose a specific character (either Gunstar Red or Gunstar Blue) that each player has a deficiency in their game play. One guy has better hand-to-hand techniques, but he can only shoot while standing still and the other can shoot on the run but only do minimal hand-to-hand damage. These little design flaws are what make a 2-player game better than a 1-player deal: you HAVE to work together to win. To bring it to the present, such a tactic is employed in the GameCube RPG Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. But who wants to carry around a jug of water when you can save the galaxy!

There are many people who have not played Gunstar Heroes, and it shows when you mention the game. Their eyes are dull when the words finish and still they choose to be lost in supers, specials and combos. For the legion of people whose eyes flare with a gem-like flame when mention of the Gunstar family makes it into a conversation, you can agree with me when I give Gunstar Heroes for the Sega Genesis very high marks.

RATING: 10/10

Video Game Review - Grandia (1997 - Sony PlayStation)

The game Grandia almost didn't get into my hands. It was a decision of either buying this game or Final Fantasy Chronicles, featuring Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger. I figured that the FF Chronicles would be there for a while, so I picked up Grandia. Little did I know that two things would happen to me as a result of buying this game:

1) I would never again have the opportunity to buy a copy of Final Fantasy Chronicles,
2) I would end up participating in the most enjoyable and engaging RPG in this hemisphere.

Grandia plays all the right cards. Music, voice acting, the map system, backdrops, visual design, the battle system (complete with options), the magic system and the storyline of the game all fall in line as what can only be described as a labor of love from Game Arts and Sony Computer Entertainment.
The game's character lineup is a revolving door; a character leaves and another replaces them. Even with that provision, there are two core characters: Justin, our young hero and an adventurous girl named Feena. The two mains are surrounded by friends like Sue, Rapp, Miluda, Guido, Liete and Gadwin the knight of Dight. Even this game's villains aren't all the way evil on a grand scale, thus leaving room for unintentional comedy.
In terms of character development in the game, there are sequences after a long day of battling where the party makes camp and talks around the fire. You'll learn more about each character as the dialogue progresses and have a laugh. It's these scenes alone that will endear you to all the characters as they enter and leave your party. You'll even end up wanting one of the specific characters when they're gone for certain battles. While all of this is well and good, the place where Grandia really shines is the design element.

As a graphic designer and an avid fan of Japanese animation, I found that a lot of anime (cut-scenes and quest ideas alike) were placed in this game to make it flow. Sometimes there were things I had never seen before in either video games or anime that would prepare me for the images I would see in Grandia. Other times, a familiar face(namely the "mystical girl of the lost civilization" role) or item screams of an influence from anime, a lovely little treat for an anime lover. The ancient design schemed and dreamed up by the game artists also work for the idea of lost cities. Giant mechanical guardians, lost magics and the Great Wall at The Edge of the World (!!) all make for grand adventure.

This game needs some awards because of its innovation at the time. This game was made at the beginning of the 3-D revolution and the game designers decided to make the maps in 3-D, but they kept the animated characters as two-dimensional characters, making for an interesting visual juxtaposition. Plus it was fun to watch.

This game was kinda long for the discs it used to complete the game. It was a 2 disc Playstation RPG game, when the standard for PlayStation RPGs was 3 discs(set by Final Fantasy VII)to illustrate to the gamer what they were getting themselves into. Clocking in at 80 hours of game play, the game is a marvelous achievement on all levels. 

I am compelled to call this the happy version of Final Fantasy VII. It wasn't the first big RPG--one might call it a sales failure--but to experience this gem of an RPG will make you agree that this game is AMAZING.

RATING: 10/10

Video Game Review - Shining Force II (1994 - Sega Genesis)

This is the one.

This is the one game that really got me to play an RPG. it reached me because of its ability to involve me in the worlds of the game. The storyline kicked ass as well as did the controls. The most important factor to playing this game and enjoying it had to be the easiest: the fact that no one else rented it at Blockbuster!

Back in the days when most Negroes wouldn't be caught dead with an RPG (for fear of being called [a] a nerd or, God forbid, [b] white) , I could always expect certain games to be checked out. Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter II: Championship Edition and X-Men were among that number and they never seemed to be in. Later I found out that broke-ass Negroes stole the games, yet the staff at my local Blockbuster would keep the box on the shelf. Doesn't make much sense, but what sense it does make outweighs the nonsense. In lieu of being up on the games that everyone would talk about in school later, I'd settle for some of the games that were always there.

Shining Force II was one of those games.

When I started playing, I had no real trouble getting into the game. I quickly adapted to the fact that I was stuck in a forest with an old hag who'd never let me escape unless she finished telling her story…
Said story is about a boy named Sue--or whatever you named him--and his school chums Chester the centaur, Sarah the elf and the mighty dwarven boy Jaha. Sent to assist your school teacher Sir Astral, you're pitted against the forces of the Demon World who wish to resurrect the King of Devils, Zeon. In their attempts, they've turned neighboring kingdoms against each other, possessed our king and run off with the princess Eliza (SAVE THE PRINCESS!) Further investigation reveals that such happenings didn't occur out of the blue; they were the work of the master thief Slade who stole the jewels of Good and Evil, the latter of which has bonded to the main character's neck. As more plot points develop, the amount of people who can join your crew becomes diverse and numerous. To illustrate this point, we'll compare four characters from the roster: Kazin, Peter, Claude and Zynk.

Kazin is the fourth member you recruit in your quest to save the world (man, I love saying that) after you've defeated the soldiers who have trashed his home and mortally wounded his mentor, Master Hawel. He's a versatile mage who can take care of business with his BLAZE spell. The BLAZE spell doesn't compare to the power of Volcanon (the creator of the game's world) or his assistant, Peter.
Peter joins the Shining Force crew to assist our hero with sonic screams and tornadoes from his rainbow-feathered wings. His special ability in the game is that he never needs to be resurrected by a priest--he IS a phoenix after all. While we're on the subject of mythical creatures, we must not forget golems, like party member Claude.
Saving Claude the golem from the nether dimension gets him on your party and he is the ultimate tanker. While not the same as a traditional golem, Zynk the metal golem is from the future. He has stretching arms and a laser cannon in his chest. This may be a fantasy world, but nothing has stopped time travelers from entering and helping out the good guys.

The controls are very simple and allow you to save without having to consult a priest (the save points in the game). This is an option offered during a battle scenario, and well-placed. Time and time again, I'll play this game from beginning to end to see if I can get all 30 characters and if I can stand playing against the final boss ONE MORE TIME. Why is the final boss someone to play again and again? Why, because it just defies all logic to fight this man while standing on his BREATH. That and the copious amounts of secrets. All in a day's work for those bent on saving the world.

Eventually, I had to give this cherished game of mine to someone I really liked.  I met her, we let each other know how we felt about each other, and I gave her my copy of Shining Force II to really let her know.  That may sound geeky, but she was a big fan of the game and she understood.  That's how much Shining Force II meant and still means to me everyday.  It has given me more memories and enjoyment that I can put in this post.

RATING: 10/10