Collab, and other thoughts

[winterkoninkje]

Well, it looks like collab.freegeek.org is down for good now, so until I find a new host (another *.freegeek.org, hopefully) my weblog'll be limited to here. Well, collab's not responding to ping or whois, though it does still show up in my browser. Heh. Well, anyways...

I've always loved Japanese movies, and not just anime either. But every so often, as with all things, it gets lost in the sieve I've appointed as my memory. But recently I've been seeing a number of good ones. One day in Japanese class 内田先生 returned a dvd to one of my classmates. After class I asked him what movie it was and so he let me borrow it. Zatôichi (Takeshi Kitano, 2003), the tale of a blind wandering swordsman masquerading as a masseur, who must, of course, single-handedly take down not one but two gangs pestering a defenseless village.

A few days later, me and Eric went out to rent a movie and picked up 赤影参上 (Akakage something-something. Hiroyuki Nakano, 2001), or as the english would have it: Red Shadow, thinking it'd be a good ol' bad american ninja movie. As it turns out it was actually a japanese movie, they just redid the box for the american release. The movie definitely didn't take itself too seriously and was an excellent very modern spoof of ninja movies, including itself. (It ostensibly takes place in AD535 though I don't think it ever sticks to any one timeframe.) For those in the know, it's done by the same guy who did Samurai Fiction, a movie now very high on my list to see.

The last stop on my recent rediscovery of japanese movies, also borrowed from my classmate: Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000. Also starring Takeshi Kitano), a bizarre combination between highschool coming-of-age movie and japanese horror flick. Premise? 42 highschool students are put on a deserted island and forced to kill each other. Perhaps more importantly, I didn't know that this was the plot going into it. Which lead to a number of delightful WTF? moments early on while they're laying out the premise. If any of you haven't seen this, I highly recommend it; Japanese horror movies are the best there are. And apparently there's a sequel which just came out a couple years back, the last by 深作氏。

Well, I think that's about it for me. This is the last week of classes, it'll be nice to have a break from the wretched scheduling. I need to find the email of the guy who's giving me a job this summer so I can ask when it starts. じゃあ、また。

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[paracelsus626.livejournal.com]

I LOVES the Rock Lobster. Wish I was listening to it right now...