Brilliant. Just brilliant. I’ve been longing for just one good film for so long now and here it is. I’ve been watching Gilliam’s »Brothers Grimm« recently which was one of the »not too bad« movies that I’ve watched so many of in the last time and I expected that »Tideland« would be better but I didn’t expect it to be THIS better. So this is a movie about a young girl with a fantastic imagination, who happened to be born into an American white-trash hill-billy surrounding. You start wondering if it isn’t little odd that this young girl is preparing the shots for her father’s »little vacations« but this is one of the least odd things about to happen. Everyone’s a freak, some are nice and some are not.

This is an elaborated, fantastic, sick, wonderful hell of a film. Watch it.

Yiha, I just ran a backup prog and read about this work that I’ve done as a present for a friend’s birthday in 2006 in the program’s logfile. I always adored Meyrink’s book almost as much for his gorgeous description of Prague as for the mystical parts.

I rarely do collages but this one’s one of the few I was satisfied with in the end (the pic above is just a detail, click it for the whole work).

criticker.com is not the movie-version of last.fm I always dreamed of, the layout/design is totally ugly and the navigation really sucks but it’s still better than a similar German site I discovered recently.

So, I’m gonna go with this, of course they don’t have too many of my favourite films (only the first movie from the »A Chinese Ghost Story«-Trilogy) and some films have strange names (like »Tetsuo – The Iron Man« is »The Ironman«, who will recognice it with that title?).

Anyway, here’s my (ugly) profile

Wheeeee! The Costumes! The Set! The Illusions!

Man, this rocks.

»The Host« is much better than »Renaissance« or »Death Note« (which pretty much sucked either way) or anything else I’ve watched recently. And it is of course in no way compareable to any stupid American monster-movie like the US-remake of »Godzilla« for example. I really liked that it was a drama more than a monster movie most of the time and in the parts where it was a monster movie it was just wonderful archaic one, the heroes not fighting the monster with an army and tanks but with bows, mollotows and spears.

The CGI was pretty good (except for the fire-effect), or rather – considering that it had that much screen time – it was pretty awesome. One of the very few CGI characters that really felt real (nice to compare it with Ryuk from the »Death Note«-movie which is perfectly the other extreme: the lame animation was the last straw that broke the movie’s back).

And again: I totally adore they way of South Korean movie soundtracks just like »Sympathy for Lady Vengeance« for example »The Host« has a solid yet beautiful orchestrated, melancholy soundtrack with lots of solemn string arrangements.

Now for the bad news, Universal has bought the rights for a remake. Just like every other fan of Asian cinema I so much hate them for »stealing« the good ideas and making lots of money with it instead if supporting the original by pushing it in the US with a big theatrical release. »Shall we dansu?« is such a wonderful, warmhearted Japanese movie and expcept for some freaks like me no one knows it but a lots of stupid people know the crappy remake Richard Gere with Jennifer Lopez (I had the pleasure of being forced to kinda watch it during a flight. Gross.).

Who’s in betting that they will change the ending concerning someone NOT dying in the end?

Anyway, a really good watch, I liked the characters, the story, the CGI, the music even the ending! And that did not happen to me very often in the last year.

EDIT: I don’t believe it: »The Host« is getting a German theatrical release on March, 15th. On the other hand, they announced Jet Li’s »Fearless« and Terry Gilliam’s »Tideland« for 2006 and as far as I know we are still waiting for both of them.

Okay, I got the first Audrey album »Visible Forms« for christmas and it turned our to be one of the best albums of the year. Though I am very happy that it’s a wonderful digipack (except for the typagraphy which kind of ruins it by being not as »handmade« as the beautiful graphics) there are no lyrics included. And I seem to be unable to find them on the net. I tried to make a transcription of the track »Vague« becauce it’s my favourite for now but I don’t seem to be to good in doing this kind of stuff. I know that probably no one will ever read this but if someone has the lyrics or corrections on this, please be so kind and leave a comment.

»It’s in the dark,
Be quiet,
Be quiet.

We(?) will recognice you in the dark.
Be quiet,
Be quiet.

It’s in the dark,
Face(s)/Facade(?),

Freezing to death.
Be quiet,
Be quiet.

Bending arms(?), twisting them together.
That’s you…(ah?), …feeling inside out(?)/feed it inside up(?).
Catch me if you can.
Truth …last … sure and stay
In the palm of my hand.

Have you heard Oskar?
He looks on the walls,
He talks like a harp,
He’s open air(?).
We’re freezing to death.

It’s in the dark,
Be quiet,
Be quiet.

Have you heard Oskar?
He walks(?) on the walls,
He talks like a harp,
He’s open air(?).
We’re freezing to death.

It’s in the dark,
be quiet,
be quiet.

Have you heard Oskar?
He walks (?) on the walls,
He talks like a harp,

Be quiet.«

This sure is cool. Like pushing the visual style of »Sin City« to the limit.

I don’t know if I like it 100% but the story is surprisingly good (I really liked the ending, what is something that did not happen to me with many movies recently). And they made human body-movement not look totally stupid in a CGI movie! Can you believe that? Step aside Enki Bilal with your dumb, G-Police/Playstation One-like CGI-characters that f***ed up »Immortel« completly (a movie that is a very interesting darker version of Luc Besson’s »Fifth Element« stylewise beside of that on my opinion, but he totally ruined it with the CGI…).

I haven’t seen »A Scanner Darkly« yet (and I probably never will because I so much dislike Keanu Reeves, but if I have the chance to see it I might try to ignore him) but I think this team has done the better job. Still the shadows, especially in the characters’ faces look a little unrealistic from time to time.

And again neither this nor »Scanner Darkly« will hit the big screen around here which would be the way they ought to be watched. It’s depressing.

This. Is. So sad.

So they’re doing an animated Hellboy-series for TV. And guess what: the character-design is unbelievable lame.

Why can’t the keep the Mignola-Style like they do in »The Amazing Screw-On Head«? Again I have to say: »Please leave mainstream-animation to the Japanese guys, they know how to do the job. Americans don’t. And most other countries neither.« This looks like just another stupid’s kid animation. I really adore Mike Mignolas work but this is a shame, it seems like a sell-out of his work to me.

And what’s with that crappy pop-metal song in the intro? Man, this is so stupid, it makes me angry.

Again.

The video to Rammstein’s »Seemann« (probably my most favourite Rammstein-song) is probably the most stupid Rammstein-video I’ve ever seen.

I hate it when things are like this.

EDIT: Cool, Apocalyptica feat. Nine Hagen’s cover (which was always my favourite version of the song) has a video that is almost as cool as the song itself. Long-haired, moshing guys playing cello, I love them. Okay, actually I don’t, their new stuff is totally overloaded and boring but the concept’s still cool and they’ve been at the time of this video. Plus, unlike Rammstein’s video Apocalyptica’s clip has something that can roughly considered to be a plot: an old guy rowing to a lighthouse.

And there are mermaids too.

Sad thing to see that Nina Hagen which I always kinda liked – not as a person or a musician but as an icon like some kind of German Marilyn Manson – has sold her soul to German brain-amputeed star-search television-shows. I hated her when I saw her side by side with c-prominents looking like a corpse in a world she definitely not belongs to.

Mushishi is probably the most poetic, melancholic and beautiful anime-series I’ve seen so far. In wonderful quiet pictures the series tells about Ginko, a »Mushishi«, someone who investigates incidents that are caused by the »Mushi«, a form of supernatural, elemental life, that has strange effects on people in some cases.

Adapted from a Manga by Yuki Yoshiyama a.k.a. Yuki Urushibara that I’d really like to read someday »Mushishi« tells a different story of which tragic events the Mushis can cause in feudal Japan with each episode. The drawings are stunning, the colors are impressive and the stories leave you with a rather contemplative feeling after each episode. I like it so very much but I can’t watch it too often. Still I am gonna get the DVD someday.

Aside of the official, Japanese homepage here’s a blog with plot-summaries for each episode and wonderful screencaps (but too small, too small…). O yeah, they’re doing a Live-Action-Movie of it, directed by no one less than Master Katsuhira Otomo.

EDIT: The »Mushishi« Manga will be released in the US by »Del Ray« at the end of January 2007 according to information from animeondvd.com. The first volume is available for pre-order on amazon.com.