Buys
My inventory of unwatched Asian cinema was running a little low, so I bought a handful of movies... the just-released Ong Bak 2: The Beginning... Dog Bite Dog... Legend of the Shadowless Sword, from Korea... Jackie Chan's New Police Story... and Jet Li's The Enforcer (I'll suffer the English dub, I guess). While I was at it, I picked up Chased by Dinosaurs, the "Crocodile Hunter" version of the Walking With series.
And the university improv kids held a fundraising auction last Monday in which I bought a photo shoot for my cat (expect Gazou versus the Daleks SOON) and half a stake in a short film. Carolynn and I are finally gonna make that Suffer-agettes! movie trailer we've been dreaming about. Scriptwriting starts in a couple weeks. I'll let you know about the suffragettes vs. robots details when I have them.
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: On Kung Fu Friday, we finished the Once Upon a Time in China trilogy (after that, Jet Li jumps ship and so do we - unless you convince me otherwise, gentle reader). The law of diminishing returns is in place, but it's still a very colorful , if at times confusing, chapter of the story that makes impressive use of dragon dancers. Wong Fei Hung defeats an army with a towel, and I loved the pathetic and somewhat touching character of Clubfoot. The Russian subplot and gloating villain are less interesting. No extra of note on the DVD, and the picture suffers from the same transfer problems as the other two releases. Shame.
I also watched the first two series of Hustle, a British tv series about a crew of con men by the makers of Spooks. The first series was fun. It introduced the characters and the style of the show, with cons often explained by breaking the fourth wall. And yet, I could almost always see where it was going, maybe because I've seen so many con films. I'm a Mamet fan, after all. The second series was much better. Now we know and care about the characters, and we know the basic cons, it's all out of the way. What we get are better stories, more complex cons, more improvising from the characters as things fall apart... It's just more exciting and satisfying. Great stuff, and I don't think Series 3 and 4 will stay on the shelf for long. Each set has a half-hour's worth of making of, and disappointingly, no subtitles. I don't think the accents are too difficult, but I've got a trained ear. If Brit-speak is beyond you, beware.
Big Finish Doctor Who audios: Gary Hopkins' Other Lives is an 8th Doctor story with a 1st Doctor plot. It's completely in the style of Hartnell historicals like The Aztecs and The Romans, in which the crew of the TARDIS is split up and basically visits various iconic things of the era while trying to get back to the TARDIS. No aliens, no temporal anomalies, no monsters, just history as a playground. That playground is Victorian England, so we have Wildean mistaken identities, Dickensian coincidences, freak shows, royalty and a sense of great endeavour. Plus, the dialogue is incredibly naughty, with an abundance of double-entendres which seem perfect for the repressed Victorian era. A gem.
New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: 18 cards as I completed my commitment to The Deadly Assassin, including a dessicated Master.
Hyperion to a Satyr entries this week include:
Act I Scene 3 according to Olivier
My inventory of unwatched Asian cinema was running a little low, so I bought a handful of movies... the just-released Ong Bak 2: The Beginning... Dog Bite Dog... Legend of the Shadowless Sword, from Korea... Jackie Chan's New Police Story... and Jet Li's The Enforcer (I'll suffer the English dub, I guess). While I was at it, I picked up Chased by Dinosaurs, the "Crocodile Hunter" version of the Walking With series.And the university improv kids held a fundraising auction last Monday in which I bought a photo shoot for my cat (expect Gazou versus the Daleks SOON) and half a stake in a short film. Carolynn and I are finally gonna make that Suffer-agettes! movie trailer we've been dreaming about. Scriptwriting starts in a couple weeks. I'll let you know about the suffragettes vs. robots details when I have them.
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: On Kung Fu Friday, we finished the Once Upon a Time in China trilogy (after that, Jet Li jumps ship and so do we - unless you convince me otherwise, gentle reader). The law of diminishing returns is in place, but it's still a very colorful , if at times confusing, chapter of the story that makes impressive use of dragon dancers. Wong Fei Hung defeats an army with a towel, and I loved the pathetic and somewhat touching character of Clubfoot. The Russian subplot and gloating villain are less interesting. No extra of note on the DVD, and the picture suffers from the same transfer problems as the other two releases. Shame.
I also watched the first two series of Hustle, a British tv series about a crew of con men by the makers of Spooks. The first series was fun. It introduced the characters and the style of the show, with cons often explained by breaking the fourth wall. And yet, I could almost always see where it was going, maybe because I've seen so many con films. I'm a Mamet fan, after all. The second series was much better. Now we know and care about the characters, and we know the basic cons, it's all out of the way. What we get are better stories, more complex cons, more improvising from the characters as things fall apart... It's just more exciting and satisfying. Great stuff, and I don't think Series 3 and 4 will stay on the shelf for long. Each set has a half-hour's worth of making of, and disappointingly, no subtitles. I don't think the accents are too difficult, but I've got a trained ear. If Brit-speak is beyond you, beware.
Big Finish Doctor Who audios: Gary Hopkins' Other Lives is an 8th Doctor story with a 1st Doctor plot. It's completely in the style of Hartnell historicals like The Aztecs and The Romans, in which the crew of the TARDIS is split up and basically visits various iconic things of the era while trying to get back to the TARDIS. No aliens, no temporal anomalies, no monsters, just history as a playground. That playground is Victorian England, so we have Wildean mistaken identities, Dickensian coincidences, freak shows, royalty and a sense of great endeavour. Plus, the dialogue is incredibly naughty, with an abundance of double-entendres which seem perfect for the repressed Victorian era. A gem.New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: 18 cards as I completed my commitment to The Deadly Assassin, including a dessicated Master.
Hyperion to a Satyr entries this week include:
Act I Scene 3 according to Olivier
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