Friday, 30 September 2011
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Day of the Dead, George A. Romero
Romero finest.
Examination of contemporary culture. Strained interpersonal relations. And more zombies than any of his previous films with gore in splendid technicolour.
The setting of a three way conflict between research scientists trying to combat the zombie problem, self interested civilians and an army squad under the leadership of the clearly unstable Captain Rhodes in an abandoned nuclear missile base is a microcosm for America at that time in history.
The thing about this film is that the real enemies are the opposing groups of people rather than the zombies. Although they're a constant menace, the real danger comes from the military.
Out of the two major scientists, Sarah is more reasonable, although ambitious one trying to completely eradicate the zombie problem altogether. Logan through, is trying a quick solution to 'make them behave' conducting bloody and increasingly disturbing research as the film goes on, much to the viewer's delight.
Captain Rhodes is a complete lunatic. Sick of being stuck underground surrounded by zombies with 'Dr. Frankenstein' his behavior becomes more and more pathological until it reaches breaking point.
You do feel like you've been thrown into a story part way through having missed important developments (none of which are part of Dawn of the Dead if you haven't seen that one) but it's still easy enough to get a handle on events.
The only thing I felt let the film down was the appalling soundtrack which as well as being gross jarrs terribly with the tone of the film.
The ending however is one of the best moments in zombie cinema. Enjoy!
Examination of contemporary culture. Strained interpersonal relations. And more zombies than any of his previous films with gore in splendid technicolour.
The setting of a three way conflict between research scientists trying to combat the zombie problem, self interested civilians and an army squad under the leadership of the clearly unstable Captain Rhodes in an abandoned nuclear missile base is a microcosm for America at that time in history.
The thing about this film is that the real enemies are the opposing groups of people rather than the zombies. Although they're a constant menace, the real danger comes from the military.
Out of the two major scientists, Sarah is more reasonable, although ambitious one trying to completely eradicate the zombie problem altogether. Logan through, is trying a quick solution to 'make them behave' conducting bloody and increasingly disturbing research as the film goes on, much to the viewer's delight.
Captain Rhodes is a complete lunatic. Sick of being stuck underground surrounded by zombies with 'Dr. Frankenstein' his behavior becomes more and more pathological until it reaches breaking point.
You do feel like you've been thrown into a story part way through having missed important developments (none of which are part of Dawn of the Dead if you haven't seen that one) but it's still easy enough to get a handle on events.
The only thing I felt let the film down was the appalling soundtrack which as well as being gross jarrs terribly with the tone of the film.
The ending however is one of the best moments in zombie cinema. Enjoy!
Dawn of the Dead 2004, Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer
"You fuckers get up and get on down with the sickness."
It may not try to be profound the way the original does but it pushes my buttons a hell of a lot more. Especially the middle scene where everybody's running freely round the mall to a reworked version of the ending music. People might dump on it and laud the original to high Heaven but in my opinion the original desperately needed a remake and they did a good job.
Incidentally my aunt worked on this film.
It may not try to be profound the way the original does but it pushes my buttons a hell of a lot more. Especially the middle scene where everybody's running freely round the mall to a reworked version of the ending music. People might dump on it and laud the original to high Heaven but in my opinion the original desperately needed a remake and they did a good job.
Incidentally my aunt worked on this film.
Near Dark, Catharine Bigelow, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton
Definitely the vampire film of the eighties. In the bar scene Bill Paxton is absolutely flying. He's like a Sabbat poster boy. There's not too much eighties-ness about this film so it's still fun to watch.
Ichi the Killer Anime
Although it delves into Ichi life before he became recruited it has a very low standard of quality and is good for little except porn, and isn't even very good for that.
Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend
A favourite of moronic pundits. This film is absolute garbage. People who recommended it also like Ninja Scroll which I haven't seen myself but I'm sceptical of by association. The version I saw was dubbed only and the performances made it even worse. People are probably just attracted to this film by the explicit content without any regard for quality.
Akira (the anime), Otomo Katsuhiro
The biggest classic in all of anime. Not my all-time favourite. It's quite a quiet film considering it's content (I suspect Oshii Mamoru might have got a few ideas from watching this.) Pundits have repeatedly cited how they like the 'violence.' There isn't actually that much. I wouldn't pay much attention to such people, they watch Legend of the Overfiend. Apparently there's a lot of subtext that I haven't been initiated into to appreciate, but the film quickly takes a turn for the more bizzare. The presence of biker gangs is hardly the focus of the film. Instead it takes place in a future, post-world war society and is much more to do with social turmoil (mirroring that of the sixties), local hosting of the Olympic Games and fanatical religious groups combined with a secret government project (concerning Akira) and an underground 'terrorist' organisation determined to get to the bottom of it that the hapless members of Kaneda's biker gang literally run into.
Jin-Roh The Wolf Brigade, Oshii Mamoru, Okiura Hiroyuki, Kamiyama Kenji
The most understated film I've seen. Although it's directed by Okiura Hiroyuki it follows the format of Oshii Mamoru's films. More of a spy thriller than an action film. Although there are dramatic moments they're never sensationalised. It's more about turns of the plot and appreciating the characters' motives.
The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson, Mark Wahlberg
A bit like Donnie Darko for the i-generation. I didn't really get into this film at the beginning. It's kind of insubstantial at the start. That improves but I never connected with it that much.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Black Magitech
Black Magitech is a product of imprisoning tormented ghosts in a new body made from their warped and violated remains. Black magitech possessed of an Awakened Animating Intelligence is a truly horrible thing to behold. The spirits trapped within it are fully aware of their own torment. The victims of black magitech are not truly dead, instead they go on living within their bodies and their suffering goes on as well long after they should have died.
Trappings of Death
Abyssals can only wear clothes that 'belong to the dead.' Some take this more literally than others, from wearing the clothes they wore when they were killed, with gory wound marks, to clothes taken from corpses- both buried and unburied- to garments actually made from corpses. The same goes for other items they wear, making them cursed as defilers and graverobbers. Abyssals who spend long sojourns in the Underworld also take clothes from other ghosts.
Magitech
Genesis is the art of manipulating living things' Essence patterns to control and create life. It's used in advanced forms of medicine.
Magitech is about manipulating magical life.
Two types of magitech creatures were common in the West. The first were obviously sea creatures. The second were flying creatures. Both worked on similar principles of motion through a fluid element and flying creatures could quickly span the gaps between isolated settlements on the ocean.
A Warstrider makes a wearer perfectly adapted to the environment the substance suits. Wood Jade is formed into creatures that live in the forest. Adapting to using a Warstrider is handled by it's animating intelligence. The essence of magitech is making an object of one of the magical materials with a spirit, either a little god or a elemental, making it alive and intelligent in a limited fashion. Royal Warstriders carry an Awakened Animating Intelligence. Such a being is able to make command decisions on it's own not just carry them out like the intelligences of lesser magitech.
Magitech is about manipulating magical life.
Two types of magitech creatures were common in the West. The first were obviously sea creatures. The second were flying creatures. Both worked on similar principles of motion through a fluid element and flying creatures could quickly span the gaps between isolated settlements on the ocean.
A Warstrider makes a wearer perfectly adapted to the environment the substance suits. Wood Jade is formed into creatures that live in the forest. Adapting to using a Warstrider is handled by it's animating intelligence. The essence of magitech is making an object of one of the magical materials with a spirit, either a little god or a elemental, making it alive and intelligent in a limited fashion. Royal Warstriders carry an Awakened Animating Intelligence. Such a being is able to make command decisions on it's own not just carry them out like the intelligences of lesser magitech.
Nexus
Vice itself has become big business in Nexus. Business which has it's own set of companies. People with a lot of money turned up at Nexus looking to impress their competitors and live large. People realised there was money to be made in offering clients staying in the market rich service, richer than their competitors. Lower classes of less prosperous merchants started imitating them, establishing their own services around residential districts.
"It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money."
Eventually Nexus grew into a fully fledged city with a complete array of trades and professions to support the populace. In Nexus anyone with a big enough purse can be treated like a king. And there are plenty of ways to get that much money and even more ways to lose it.
Nexus position at the confluence of three rivers gives it another role: it acts as a bottleneck for the drugs trade. All the drugs grown in plantations up country are funnelled down the rivers and delivered to the Guild in Nexus. From there they sell to suppliers representing countries from all over Creation. They grow opium, cocaine and marijuana like corn. Skullweed for brewing Bright Morning is collected by agents who are willing to dare entering the Black Chase. Word has it that the Guild sponsors graverobbers who loot tombs in Sijanfor artefacts and bodies to sell to the Deathlords and soulthieves who abduct powerful ghosts for use in making soulsteel.
The point the market became a city came when people started basing their enterprises in the market instead of their home towns. The sprawling 'market' began to attract it's own resident population. The first merchants to set up Nexus as their base of operations started their own 'enterprise' now known as the Guild.
"It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money."
Eventually Nexus grew into a fully fledged city with a complete array of trades and professions to support the populace. In Nexus anyone with a big enough purse can be treated like a king. And there are plenty of ways to get that much money and even more ways to lose it.
Nexus position at the confluence of three rivers gives it another role: it acts as a bottleneck for the drugs trade. All the drugs grown in plantations up country are funnelled down the rivers and delivered to the Guild in Nexus. From there they sell to suppliers representing countries from all over Creation. They grow opium, cocaine and marijuana like corn. Skullweed for brewing Bright Morning is collected by agents who are willing to dare entering the Black Chase. Word has it that the Guild sponsors graverobbers who loot tombs in Sijanfor artefacts and bodies to sell to the Deathlords and soulthieves who abduct powerful ghosts for use in making soulsteel.
The point the market became a city came when people started basing their enterprises in the market instead of their home towns. The sprawling 'market' began to attract it's own resident population. The first merchants to set up Nexus as their base of operations started their own 'enterprise' now known as the Guild.
Saturday, 24 September 2011
The Recruit Film Review, Al Pacino, Colin Farrell
I only gave this AB+ because of how it compares with Spy Game.
Friday, 23 September 2011
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Fair Folk, World Walking, Shinmas, Nirguna, Assumptions
The Fair Folk are Essences that have passed through shinmaic principles that the five Graces embody.
By passing through Nirguna makes passing through the other four shinmas and possessing all four Virtues possible. It is Nirguna that makes realising the other four shinmas possible.
Pure dream stuff cannot exist in Creation so the Fair Folk must look like something from one of those dreams. The Fair Folk body is just an appearance and it has to expend Essence just to make it's appearance be believed by those in Creation since dreams only exist in people's minds. If no one continues to believe it, it would cease to exist.
Lunars can also manipulate dreams like the Fair Folk do.
Rakshas don't have 'bodies.' They just create the illusion of having one.
Assumption Charms are how the Fair Folk enter Creation. A Creation-born would need some sort of apposite in order to enter the Wyld.
Since their appearance is an illusion they have to spend Essence in order to maintain the lie of interacting with the physical world which as sentient dreams, emotions and desires they are not actually capable of doing. The more like their real selves they are in Creation the more difficult it is.
The more real their appearance is the less like their real selves they are, the easier it is for them to exist in Creation. Their appearances are not real things but only appearances conjured through glamour. The more powerful this work of deceptive glamour is, deceptive to the Fair Folk as well as to onlookers for to appear to have a form when you are a dream is self-deception, the less at odds they are with Creation.
By passing through Nirguna makes passing through the other four shinmas and possessing all four Virtues possible. It is Nirguna that makes realising the other four shinmas possible.
Pure dream stuff cannot exist in Creation so the Fair Folk must look like something from one of those dreams. The Fair Folk body is just an appearance and it has to expend Essence just to make it's appearance be believed by those in Creation since dreams only exist in people's minds. If no one continues to believe it, it would cease to exist.
Lunars can also manipulate dreams like the Fair Folk do.
Rakshas don't have 'bodies.' They just create the illusion of having one.
Assumption Charms are how the Fair Folk enter Creation. A Creation-born would need some sort of apposite in order to enter the Wyld.
Since their appearance is an illusion they have to spend Essence in order to maintain the lie of interacting with the physical world which as sentient dreams, emotions and desires they are not actually capable of doing. The more like their real selves they are in Creation the more difficult it is.
The more real their appearance is the less like their real selves they are, the easier it is for them to exist in Creation. Their appearances are not real things but only appearances conjured through glamour. The more powerful this work of deceptive glamour is, deceptive to the Fair Folk as well as to onlookers for to appear to have a form when you are a dream is self-deception, the less at odds they are with Creation.
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Wyld, Waypoints, Fair Folk, Lunars, Luna, Shaping Attacks, Moonsilver Artefacts, Creation of Moonsilver, Wonders
A waypoint marks the extent a Fair Folk affects an area. That's what defines it's boundaries
When a Lunar receives Exaltation they become something very strange, a coherent form of Wyld energy (to be able to live in their environment and combat the Fair Folk Luna was the same.) Unlike shaped Fair Folk they are self sustaining and do not need to feed on dreams or Virtues in order to maintain their presence in Creation, needing only the sustenance an ordinary mortal does. Likewise they enter the deep Wyld freely existing as a self conscious idea the way other Fair Folk do. Because they are effectively in the depths of the Wyld even when in Creation they can change their form at will.
Lunars make moonsilver artefacts out of Fair Folk Graces (as a questor would make a Wyld artefact) or the Essences of lesser Fair Folk. They can create a moonsilver Wonder out of the Essence of a powerful unshaped Fair Folk. The Fair Folk or it's Grace as an entity is destroyed but it is still dream and is gossamer (such is the fate of the Fair Folk that are vanquished by the Lunars) which is then transformed into moonsilver and formed into the artefact the Lunar wishes to create. Only the most _____ gods of dreams whose power is as terrible as it is legendary, can be formed into the greatest of moonsilver Wonders such as Royal Warstriders.
When vanquished by a Lunar their identity is destroyed and they become nothing but gossamer. The Lunar may then convert this into moonsilver to make their desired artefact. The Fair Folk fear this fate above all others and hate the Lunars for trying to inflict it on them and will fight the Lunars bitterly because they know their very survival is at stake, and consequently they will show no mercy if they win.
By destroying all five of a Fair Folk's Graces they render them, their Essence into gossamer.
One obvious roleplaying idea that comes to mind is playing emanations of an unshaped played by the storyteller.
The Fair Folk take assaults by the Lunars very personally. Since their identity is what they are, it's the difference between them and an inchoate quantity of gossamer, they take any attempt to destroy it very seriously. Other Fair Folk challenge it and try to control it through never ending shaping combat, predators exist who try to consume other Fair Folk and make them their own, but actually trying to undo a Fair Folk so it won't exist even as part of another being is a horror more sinister to them than anything they could otherwise imagine. Luna used to hunt Fair Folk having to overcome raksha who's Essence was as great as her's through guile and trickery and was infamous among the raksha for it. Having ascended to Yu-Shan after the Primordial War, this task she handed down to her champions.
As a person travels further into the Wyld it's power becomes more and more real. In Creation the power of the Fair Folk that does not affect matter is mere illusion, no more real than the onlooker's dreams. In the Wyld however, people are whittled down to their core Essence. Since all is Essence in the Wyld shaping attacks are real and people's Essences are completely exposed to the Fair Folk's magic.
When a Lunar receives Exaltation they become something very strange, a coherent form of Wyld energy (to be able to live in their environment and combat the Fair Folk Luna was the same.) Unlike shaped Fair Folk they are self sustaining and do not need to feed on dreams or Virtues in order to maintain their presence in Creation, needing only the sustenance an ordinary mortal does. Likewise they enter the deep Wyld freely existing as a self conscious idea the way other Fair Folk do. Because they are effectively in the depths of the Wyld even when in Creation they can change their form at will.
Lunars make moonsilver artefacts out of Fair Folk Graces (as a questor would make a Wyld artefact) or the Essences of lesser Fair Folk. They can create a moonsilver Wonder out of the Essence of a powerful unshaped Fair Folk. The Fair Folk or it's Grace as an entity is destroyed but it is still dream and is gossamer (such is the fate of the Fair Folk that are vanquished by the Lunars) which is then transformed into moonsilver and formed into the artefact the Lunar wishes to create. Only the most _____ gods of dreams whose power is as terrible as it is legendary, can be formed into the greatest of moonsilver Wonders such as Royal Warstriders.
When vanquished by a Lunar their identity is destroyed and they become nothing but gossamer. The Lunar may then convert this into moonsilver to make their desired artefact. The Fair Folk fear this fate above all others and hate the Lunars for trying to inflict it on them and will fight the Lunars bitterly because they know their very survival is at stake, and consequently they will show no mercy if they win.
By destroying all five of a Fair Folk's Graces they render them, their Essence into gossamer.
One obvious roleplaying idea that comes to mind is playing emanations of an unshaped played by the storyteller.
The Fair Folk take assaults by the Lunars very personally. Since their identity is what they are, it's the difference between them and an inchoate quantity of gossamer, they take any attempt to destroy it very seriously. Other Fair Folk challenge it and try to control it through never ending shaping combat, predators exist who try to consume other Fair Folk and make them their own, but actually trying to undo a Fair Folk so it won't exist even as part of another being is a horror more sinister to them than anything they could otherwise imagine. Luna used to hunt Fair Folk having to overcome raksha who's Essence was as great as her's through guile and trickery and was infamous among the raksha for it. Having ascended to Yu-Shan after the Primordial War, this task she handed down to her champions.
As a person travels further into the Wyld it's power becomes more and more real. In Creation the power of the Fair Folk that does not affect matter is mere illusion, no more real than the onlooker's dreams. In the Wyld however, people are whittled down to their core Essence. Since all is Essence in the Wyld shaping attacks are real and people's Essences are completely exposed to the Fair Folk's magic.
Friday, 16 September 2011
Coach Carter, Samuel L. Jackson
Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Antonio Banderas, even Tom Berenger. They've all been in films that follow the carbon copy stereotype of a teacher who meets a class of young delinquents and tries to ingratiate themselves to them to make them appreciate the value of education and turns their lives around.
Why am I writing a review of this film? Firstly this is based on an actual story. Secondly the character in question doesn't try to appeal to the students he's charged with by making himself look cool. Quite the opposite. Instead he tries to inculcate them with his values, not only approaching the game he was hired to teach with an intensity that makes a mark on the viewer but insists on them measuring up to academic standards. The result stands out among films of it's type (appropriate for a film about a coach rather than a teacher.)
At times the acting is a little off, even from Samuel L. Jackson, but this has little effect on that this is a film about a person rescuing students from a system 'designed for them to fail' done properly. The fact that it's a true story adds gravity to the considerable weight that the director and cast already imbued the film with.
Why am I writing a review of this film? Firstly this is based on an actual story. Secondly the character in question doesn't try to appeal to the students he's charged with by making himself look cool. Quite the opposite. Instead he tries to inculcate them with his values, not only approaching the game he was hired to teach with an intensity that makes a mark on the viewer but insists on them measuring up to academic standards. The result stands out among films of it's type (appropriate for a film about a coach rather than a teacher.)
At times the acting is a little off, even from Samuel L. Jackson, but this has little effect on that this is a film about a person rescuing students from a system 'designed for them to fail' done properly. The fact that it's a true story adds gravity to the considerable weight that the director and cast already imbued the film with.
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Nexus
In many other cities there are areas where criminal enterprises operate. But no where do they operate blatantly like they do in Nexus. Unlike in other countries, there are no laws against such businesses so all manner of immoral enterprises can operate free of interference from the law. Gambling houses, whore houses and drug dens all exist in the open and advertise themselves freely.
Whole streets are devoted to exploiting the vices of the city's inhabitants.
The city was founded at the centre of a network of burgeoning trade routes making it the place for merchants to buy and sell their wares. Rather than travel all the way to their destination they could simply sell in the new market town and trade for whatever commodity people back home desired. As a result of the shorter trade routes, trade in the area boomed. Soon people started turning up and setting up markets for any new and exotic commodity they could think of, looking for a buyer. It had grown from being a place where people could drop off their goods to where they went looking to start a new market.
In many other parts of the world (or rather all of them) many of the business in Nexus would be considered criminal enterprises and outlawed. In Nexus however anybody can set up a business to supply anything.
Far from being disreputable, 'hostile takeovers' are the usual method of getting ahead and most of the city's leading merchants acquired their power (and maintain it) by eliminating their rivals. Not only re businesses illicit but so are the ways they are run. Management is what would be described elsewhere as gang warfare. Violence in the street is just as much a part of life in the city as the vices it caters to.
Nexus isn't a city in the formal sense, the product of a state with it's own laws and culture.
It's a city that grew from a huge market site where people lived. The docks are the most historic feature of Nexus, the first part of the city to be established by traders who met from three different directions of the River Province. Behind the docks is the vast market that is the beating heart of the city.
Whole streets are devoted to exploiting the vices of the city's inhabitants.
The city was founded at the centre of a network of burgeoning trade routes making it the place for merchants to buy and sell their wares. Rather than travel all the way to their destination they could simply sell in the new market town and trade for whatever commodity people back home desired. As a result of the shorter trade routes, trade in the area boomed. Soon people started turning up and setting up markets for any new and exotic commodity they could think of, looking for a buyer. It had grown from being a place where people could drop off their goods to where they went looking to start a new market.
In many other parts of the world (or rather all of them) many of the business in Nexus would be considered criminal enterprises and outlawed. In Nexus however anybody can set up a business to supply anything.
Far from being disreputable, 'hostile takeovers' are the usual method of getting ahead and most of the city's leading merchants acquired their power (and maintain it) by eliminating their rivals. Not only re businesses illicit but so are the ways they are run. Management is what would be described elsewhere as gang warfare. Violence in the street is just as much a part of life in the city as the vices it caters to.
Nexus isn't a city in the formal sense, the product of a state with it's own laws and culture.
It's a city that grew from a huge market site where people lived. The docks are the most historic feature of Nexus, the first part of the city to be established by traders who met from three different directions of the River Province. Behind the docks is the vast market that is the beating heart of the city.
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