Yatta!

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a 2006 Japanese animé film, that is the sequel to a novel of the same name. The novel, written by Yasutaka Tsutsui in1965, concerns Kazuko Yoshiyama, a junior high student who, one day during science class, discovers the ability that she can time-leap.

In the 1983 and 1997 films, Kazuko is the protagonist and the story remains the same as in the novel. In this, Kazuko is the auntie of Makoto, a girl who discovers time-leaping a similar way to Kazuko. Makoto confides in Kazuko and Kazuko offers help and guidance, steering Makoto away from using time-leaping for her own benefit.

The story is a teen drama, about girlfriends and bullying, and the original novel is a classic story amongst Japanese youth. The moral of the story is strong throughout, that things should be accepted the way they are, and manipulating people for your own benefit will only lead to disaster. Unlike american teen drama's, The Girl Who Leapt has no hint of immaturity (beyond the usual animation style of over-large smiles and squints) and plays out well as a parable.

Even if you are not a fan of animation, this is a good film with good morals and a decent amount of laughs.

Das Experiment

I just watched a rather strange film. I don't really know whether I enjoyed it. I think I nothinged it.

The film was Das Experiment, a German film from 2001, "loosely" (for legal purposes) based on the Stanford Prison Experiment (Wiki it)

It concerns Tarek Fahd, a taxi driver and ex-journalist who partakes in a prison-based experiment, in which two sets of people, chosen for their psychological stability, take the roles of guard and prisoner. They are put into these roles for 14 days, or two weeks in ordinary speak, and monitored at all times.

If you are unaware of the Stanford experiment, it basically went tits up. After two days, rioting happened, and persisted, and violence took hold.

The film approaches the subject mainly through the eyes of protagonist Tarek, but the antagonist Berus, who adopts the role of head guard. The story is sidelined at parts by flashes into the life of Tarek's potential girlfriend, Dora. These parts are odd, but are often well interjected into sleep sequences, as if Tarek can see the life he could be living. The juxtaposition of Dora and Tarek's loneliness plays an intersting part in moulding your emotional relationship with the pair.

The film uses a few different techniques to approach the maltreatment of the prisoners. You sometimes see it through Tarek's eyes, quite literally, as he takes in a pair of spy-spectacles in order to film what happens in the mock-prison. It sounds strange, but he is trying to re-spark his journalism career after he crashes his taxi (and then meets Dora yadda yadda yadda), and chooses this experiment as his 'comeback' story. The first person POV shots allow the characters to look directly into Tarek's eyes, attempting to create a closer link between the audience and the characters. The scenes of the guards attempts to create reasoning for their violence and torture are also interesting in the paranoia they encounter, thinking every move of the scientists behind the experiment is a 'test' and they should 'react accordingly' as per the rules.

In short, it's an odd film. I've used that word a lot. It being a foreign language film from 2001, I can't imagine many people will have easy access to this film without a purchase. I can reccomend a torrent, but that's illegal...init. It's worth seeing if you're interested in social experimentation, especially when it involves torture. It falls short of actual connection with characters, but still evokes emotional through shocking actions. I did enjoy it, on second thought, but mostly through winces and gasps than tears and the wrenching of my heart, which I feel it attempted at.

The King that is Darabont

Stephen King and Frank Darabont have hit up some pretty impressive collaborations in the past.
The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. Two of the most impressive films of all time, both visually and methodically.

They teamed up in 2007 for The Mist, an adaptation of King's short story of the same name.

I urge EVERYONE to see this film. The trailers made it out to be a terrible horror/monster movie that it most certainly is not. King has a knack with social commentary, creating characters that reflect his country's and the general human's feelings towards life and death, politics and religion, and other human beings.

This film is not short of such characters. The lead is taken by The Punisher's Thomas Jane, who puts in an incredible turn as the trapped father in the film. His efforts for creating a genuine horror in threats towards his son are incredible. The antagonist is Mrs Carmody, a bible-bashing and slightly insane woman who tries to convince the trapped patrons of the supermarket that this is God's wrath. The supporting cast of William Sadler, Laurie Holden and even the Shermanator is incredible also.

There is very little wrong with this film. It has the typical King feel of impending doom, claustrophobia and conflicting personalities acting against each other whilst people attempt to work together. Many moments have dialogue hooks that would lead up to a bang or a spook in many mainstream supernatural thrillers but Stephen King lets you freak yourself out before anything happens.

It is a hard film to watch. It is, emotionally, very intense, and very slow-paced. You have to take your time with this film, much like The Green Mile or Shawshank, or even other non-Darabont efforts such as The Stand and Misery.

I love this film, I will not stop watching this. I will show as many people this film as I can, it is incredible. It brought me to floods of tears, had me shouting at the screen and left me a shell of a human being.

If you have seen and survived United 93, or any other strongly distressing film, then you will survive this. Sissy's (no pun intended, Stephen King fans) will not be able to stand this, and people who 'don't like talking movies' won't like this either. It is fantastic. Nuff said.

Trick or Treat, Smell my feet

Rob Zombie's Halloween is a film of two halves. The first half is an 'origin story' as such of Michael Myers, the crazy masked killer we all love. The second is the brutal slaying of half-naked girls and their boyfriends in suburbia. I bet you can guess which half is better.

The original Halloween from 78 is a whole 31 minutes shorter than than Rob Zombie's effort. This 31 minutes makes the film better, as it leaves out the utter SHITE that Rob Zombie has put in. And it's jam-packed with the staple Zombie dialogue mix of sexism and sex.

I don't want to say don't watch this movie, because it's so worth watching for the second half. What I shall say is....watch the first 15 minutes, when baby Mike goes tits, then fast forward all the absolute tosh in the asylum that RZ has stuck in for no reason. The best thing about Michael Myers is that we don't know why he killed his sister, other than that he is a bit on the effed-up side. The RZ version adds in mental analysis of Michael Myers as a child that tries to explain why he might have done it. NARR, NEE NEED.

Watch Carpenter's Halloween any day over this, but if you like the original, or horrors in general, this is a good effort for the most part.

I invented dice

I watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang the other night, and all I can say is that it is one slick mother-lover. It's Robert Downey Jr in film form (handy, what with it having him in and all)

KKBB is a murder-mystery film, narrated by Harry Lockhart, played by Iron Man, concerning the lives of Harry and Harmony, two aspiring actors, and their friendship with Gay Perry, a private eye consultant who aids actors with their careers. After Perry and Harry find a corpse in a car boot in a lake, their lives change and become a surreal adventure into investigating the corpse.

RDJ is fantastic, and is sharp becoming one of my favourite actors. In KKBB, he is a witty, cool and petty character, who's actions aren't always well thought out and often lead to more mishap. Perry, played by Batman Val Kilmer, is a sarcastic and intelligent stronghold in the group, his actions are always well thought, but are sometimes selfish and harsh. Harmony is eye-candy, they don't really give her enough depth IMO, not much past the 'independent woman' stance.

Anyway, this film made me laugh rather a lot. I didn't know what to expect from it, I'd heard a mixed bag of reviews, but I absolutely adored it. It constantly makes you smile, makes you love the characters enough to evoke strong emotions through certain actions, and most of all, it's just so cool. The use of the word cool makes me sound so old, but it really is. It's slick, suave, and would definately be a 15-year old me's favourite movie. Fuck Brad Pitt in Fight Club, Harry Lockhart pwns. (I just read he was going to be played by Johnny Knoxville, baaad, RDJ, goood).

I heartily suggest to people that you see this movie. If you liked Lucky Number Slevin, then that is child's play compared to this (child's play as in babyish, not Chucky killing n that). It's just so good. I can't see anyone disliking it, and if you do, you have no soul.