Summer Wars (2009)

114m. Japan, 2009. Directed by Mamoru Hosoda. Starring Ryunosuke Kamiki, Nanami Sakuraba and Sumiko Fuji.
 
Summer Wars is a masterstroke: it is quite possibly the finest Japanese animated feature film since Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. It is beautifully designed and animated, genuinely warm and emotional, populated with richly drawn appealing characters and strung together with one of the most original and unexpected narratives in recent years. For general fans of Asian cinema it comes strongly recommended, while for fans of anime it should be seen as an essential purchase.
The film is based around Kenji Koiso (voiced by Ryunosuke Kamiki in the Japanese version), a gifted mathematics student who also works part time as a moderator for OZ, a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game through which the people of Japan not only play but also conduct business, banking and even international diplomacy. When classmate Natsuki Shinohara (Nanami Sakuraba) asks him to accompany her to her grandmother’s 90th birthday party, Kenji awkwardly agrees – only to discover that she’s already announced to her family that he’s her fiancée.

Free Enterprise #16: "Fusion"

While exploring a nebula, the Enterprise makes contact with a lone Vulcan starship. Its crew have left their home planet to freely explore their own emotions - something that T'Pol claims is extremely dangerous. As the Enterprise team help make repairs to the Vulcan vessel, T'Pol is convinced by one of its crew to experiment with emotions herself - with unsettling results.

I am not going to beat around the bush with this one: this is an episode about rape. It's unsettling, difficult and more often than not deeply seedy and upsetting. There isn't a physical rape in sight, instead it's all telepathic. The tone, the emotional beats and the damage, however, are all clearly recognisable. If you find dramatic depictions of rape upsetting I recommend you give this episode a miss. If you can handle such material okay, I'm honestly still unsure on whether you should watch it or not: despite some good scripting and performances, the entire episode left an unpleasant taste in my mouth.

The Pull List: 26 September 2012

With this fourth week completed, DC's Zero Month has come to an end. I'm not quite sure what the purpose was. For the most part these issues were entirely redundant, either telling us information we already knew, or telling us information that we didn't need to know. They don't, on the most part, work as jumping-on points, since anyone picking up one of these titles next month is more likely than not going to encounter the resolution of a cliffhanger from August.

We're now 13 months into the New 52 and, a few individual titles aside, I'm sad to admit it's been an enormous creative failure. The problems are mostly at the editorial level: the new continuity is visibly being written on the fly and simply doesn't mesh together from one book to another. In some cases they're actively going back and rewriting earlier issues when they're produced in trade paperback collections (Teen Titans being an obvious example).

This relaunch is a big problem for DC, because I think it's going to hurt their books in the long run. When the sales start dropping from 40,000 to 30,000, or 20,000 to 10,000, there's no reasonably opportunity to relaunch things again so soon. Readers already annoyed with the New 52 will become more annoyed, and those actively enjoying these new books and continuity will be angry to see it dropped.

My comic shipment was late last week, hence the delay in posting this. I also haven't had a chance to read the entire pull list this week, so purchased but not reviewed were Aquaman, The Flash and Prophet. Underneath the cut are reviews of All-Star Western, Batman Incorporated, Debris, Happy and Talon.

Eiga #2: Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010)

狄仁傑之通天帝國
122m. China, 2010. Directed by Tsui Hark. Starring Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Fan Bingbing, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Deng Chao.

Recent years have seen Hong Kong’s most popular directors of the 1980s and early 1990s make their respective comebacks. John Woo returned from a lengthy period directing in Hollywood to helm the magnificent two-part Red Cliff. Ringo Lam rebounded from a fallow period with such hits as Fire of Conscience and The Stool Pigeon. Finally Tsui Hark, who directed and produced some of Hong Kong’s most outstanding and popular hits – including Once Upon a Time in China and Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain – has returned to form with the bright, energetic and engaging mystery adventure Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

The coronation of China’s first Empress is fast approaching. To commemorate her ascension, the Empress (Carina Lau) has commissioned an enormous statue of Buddha to be constructed in front of the royal palace. Construction is proceeding according to plan when two leading imperial dignitaries inexplicably burst into flames and die. To solve the mystery of the ‘phantom flame’, the Empress summons Di Renjie (Andy Lau), a talented detective whose political opinions have seen him imprisoned by the Empress for the past eight years. 

Mulan (2009)

2009, China. 113 mins. Directed by Jingle Ma. Starring Zhao Wei, Chen Kun, Hu Jun and Jaycee Chan.

The legend of Hua Mulan, which is a significant one within Chinese pop culture, is almost certainly best known to English-language audiences in the form of the 1998 Walt Disney animated feature film (just run a Google image search on the word "mulan", for example). It's perhaps refreshing then to find a new, Chinese-language take on the story in Jingle Ma's 2009 live-action feature Mulan.

This is the sixth motion picture to be based on the story of Hua Mulan, although previous attempts have included not just Disney's animated effort but also silent films and motion picture operas. This is Hua Mulan as seen through the lens of Chinese sword-fighting epics, and the result is visually attractive, emotionally stirring but also a little bit by-the-numbers. It's my arch-nemesis when it comes to reviewing films - an average one.

Judging the New 52 #19: Animal Man

Under Jeff Lemire and Steve Pugh's watch, Animal Man has been one of the most widely acclaimed titles of the New 52, not only gathering strong critical love but also selling exceptionally well as a trade paperback.

It's part of a broader incorporation of classic DC Vertigo characters back into the DC Universe. Swamp Thing received a relaunch at the same time, while Justice League Dark has incorporated John Constantine and Tim Hunter (of Hellblazer and The Books of Magic fame). It could have been disastrous, and in fact I was expecting it would be disastrous, but some fantastic writing and sharp artwork have made these books among the better titles of the New 52.

House Calls #5: "The Angels Take Manhattan"

The Doctor, Amy and Rory are in New York, but in different decades. Using a pulp detective novel to guide them, the Doctor and Amy travel to Rory's rescue, finding a crime boss with an unusual collection, Professor River Song and the Weeping Angels. The Doctor and Amy come armed with foreknowledge, and rapidly discover that a little too much foreknowledge can be a very dangerous thing indeed - and this time the Ponds may not survive.

A continuing problem that has plagued Doctor Who since its return in 2005 is a lack of time. Put simply, there's not enough room in a 42-45 minute episode to introduce a new setting and guest characters every week, tell a three-act narrative and leave room for depth and characterization among the regular cast. Generally, its the narrative that has lost out and that's certainly the case here. While there is a plot, it's a relatively truncated one, and would have benefited enormously even from an extra 10 minutes to let it breathe and have the ideas play out. In a perfect world it would have been a two-parter, and I certainly could have survived without "A Town Called Mercy" or "The Power of Three" to get it.

Popular Posts: September 2012

I really should write more reviews of Clint Eastwood westerns, since for the third month in a row that review of Pale Rider was the most read post on this blog. Here are the five most-read articles of the month:

1. Pale Rider (1985) (link)
2. On Wonder Woman's costume (link)
3. Secret of Mana (1993) (link)
4. House Calls #1: "Asylum of the Daleks" (link)
5. Sleeping Dogs (2012) (link)

And here are the five most popular posts that were written in September.

1. House Calls #1: "Asylum of the Daleks" (link)
2. Sleeping Dogs (2012) (link)
3. House Calls #2: "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" (link)
4. Judging the New 52 #16: A look at some trades (link)
5. Babble on #25: Season 1 in review (link)