Compromise and Conceit
Infernal adventuring…
Category: Movies
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Or both? Last night I had the pleasure of watching Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwojima, which is a superb and beautiful movie with a genuine sensitivity to both Japan’s sad war history and to its wartime culture. It’s all the more impressive for having been directed by an American (and from a generation not renowned…
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I finally got to see the Avengers today, and a fine romp it was too. I’m still chuckling now about the encounter between Loki and the Hulk, and the movie has much to recommend it. It has good characters, excellent explodiness, very snappy dialogue, and some very smooth cultural references. I know nothing about the…
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I watched this movie on the plane returning from Germany, a situation so desperate that even watched two thirds of Battleship. Needless to say, Thermae Romae was much better. Thermae Romae is a Japanese comedy about an ancient Roman public bath (thermae) designer, Lucius Modestus, who somehow slips through time into a modern Japanese bathhouse…
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I watched Titanic in its 3D release about a week ago, on the strong urging of my partner. I missed it the first time around so it was all new to me, and I’d somehow managed to avoid learning anything about the story. It’s a great movie, very nicely paced and with an excellent combination…
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John Carter came out late in Japan, but I got a chance to watch it last night after a day of role-playing, and while I was impressed by the authenticity of its representation of Barsoom, I wasn’t so impressed by its general cinematic properties. It was a fun romp but it suffered from what seems…
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The Artist is superficially a silent film about a love affair between two movie stars in the 1920s. On a deeper level it’s an exposition of neo-liberal, or even Randian, industrial policy. Essentially the movie charts the entrant of a new company into an established industrial sector. The new company offers a new production mode,…
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Gamers from Britain of a certain age may recall the educational videos released by the government about various saftety topics – stranger danger, farm safety, getting crushed by trains, what happens if you slip on a rug, etc. I remember being terrified by the farm safety video when I was at school, and having to…
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This is an excellent interpretation of Stieg Larsson’s page-turner of the same name. For my sins, I read the novel and enjoyed it despite its sometimes crappy writing, because the story is compelling and the characters are fun. Both the main male character, Michael Blomquist, and the eponymous female lead Lisbeth Salander are excellent depictions…
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I saw The Adventures of Tintin, aka Tantan no boken in Japanese, in 3D at the Kichijoji Toho Cinema on Friday, and I can report that it was a great deal of fun. It’s basically a mystery adventure that takes Tintin from his hometown to the desert town of Baggar and back again in the…
Compromise and Conceit 