"Accomplishments"
In theaters: Wes Anderson's existential throwback to 1950s B-movie science fiction, Asteroid City, is draped in a Road Runner cartoon aesthetic, but nevertheless plays as his trademark comedy of sadness (it's rather gloomy for such a sunny film). We're in the middle of nowhere, asking questions about our place in the universe, and not coincidentally, our lead is struggling with the death of his wife and what this means for his family. At the same time, the actor playing him (not to be confused with Jason Schwartzman who is playing HIM) struggles to understand the script. Because yes, Anderson adds a meta-textual layer by framing the film as a play, or rather as a documentary on the play that's also unfolding, a play who's second lead (Scarlett Johansson) also plays an actress, also working on a role that tends to blur the line. And yet, it's the younger members of the cast who most entertain, standing at a crossroads that is normal and natural (puberty), and therefore more adaptable to the strange circumstances of an alien first contact. An all-star cast, often in bit parts, strong and distinctive production design, you know the deal by now.
At home: Yorgos Lanthimos's breakthrough film, Dogtooth, is perhaps even more off-putting than his later work. If it's a satire, it's a dark one which mocks parental overprotectiveness by pushing it to an absurd extreme. These parents have locked their now-adult children in a compound and made them believe the outside world is a dangerous one and denying them media (they only watch their own home movies) and name brands - anything that evokes the larger world, except for one sex worker who visits to "service" the son. Any polluting influence is explained away and becomes part of the family's mythology. It's dystopia at the microscopic level, and Lantimos keeps pushing the characters towards behaviors that are worse than whatever the parents are trying to prevent in an effort to examine what is innate and what is learned, especially in the case of the rebellious eldest. A wild and disturbing ride that starts off enigmatically and never entirely answers all its questions. Like, that last shot. And on an entirely personal note, could have done without the cat murder, thanks.
Time... it always catches up to us. In the case of the Ricky Ko film by that name, it catches up to cool grindhouse assassins bathed in 70s yellows, now seniors forced to do business with elders who want to commit suicide by hitman. The making of a black comedy, and definitely a sad one as the indignities of age are piled on to a trio who, it must be said, are all the sadder for not having lived a typical life and are therefore less willing than others to accept their age (I relate with all of this, well, not the killing). Into their lives enters a despondent teenage girl seeking death, but finding a grumpy grandpa instead. The character is so whiny as to almost derail the whole thing - the elders are much more engaging and touching (and they still have SOME mojo left) - but ultimately, it's around her troubles that the group finds new purpose and maybe even a little more than that. Time could have assembled better known action stars and pulled a Hong Kong version of The Untouchables (I'd watch that), but is more sensitive in its portrayal of elderly loneliness and therefore the better for it.
Video Games: In 2013, I announced I had not only finished Sleeping Dogs, but its story-driven DLC (well, almost). 10 years later, I've done it again (and again). I think it would be safe to say Sleeping Dogs is my favorite sandbox game ever as it delivers on the Hong Kong cinema goodness that I already affect as a cinephile and has an engaging storyline. When I switched Xboxes from 360 to One, I saw that the game was available for download (for cheap!) as the Definitive Edition which includes all the DLC. So I went through it again, including the Wheels of Fury DLC which I had not originally purchased (worth it for the supercar, but it has fun missions attached). Though Nightmare in North Point (the horror movie) and Year of the Snake (Wei Chen as a beat cop vs. bomb-setting cultists) are their own mini-scenarios, everything else has been integrated into the main game, like purchasable costumes that evoke your favorite HK movies and sometimes come with new martial arts styles, purchasable vehicles, and integrated tasks and collectibles. The Zodiac Tournament (Enter the Dragon) is now on the map and unlocks when the game thinks you're ready, as does Wheels of Fury. But bugs are inevitable, so when I say I did it again (and again), it's that some of the Achievements failed to unlock normally, including an early mission that you automatically unlock. I used the replay function to do it again and the game crashed. Suddenly, it was like I'd never done ANY missions past the first couple, ANY race or task, it was all reset, but I had all my collectibles, clothes, cars, money and unlocked powers. So I decide to run through the whole thing again, full speed, skipping cut scene. This is how much I enjoy this game. So what have I left on the table at time of writing? There's a supercar challenge that I'll one day get lucky at, but for now frustrates. I haven't tried to finish the karaoke challenges, as they're not my favorites. A few other achievements that require grinding. But yeah, it was well worth the price for the hours of enjoyment I got out of it (again). Sad the sequel never materialized, but bring on the movie version with Donnie Yen attached!
RPGs: Before July hiatus (to accommodate player vacations/travel), we did get a chance to finish Apex Predator, the wild and wacky adventure into the Toon Cosm. The reality is on the line because experiments designed to sell cartoon weapons to the Cyberpapacy have unleashed Unreality itself. Act 2 was silly, but Act 3 had big stakes. And was also pretty silly. One of the fun things about the cartoon reality is how much the players threw themselves into it and came up with gags - often game-breaking, which kept the GM on his toes - and I've got to say that in the final analysis, the adventure is really good at putting the Torg engine through its paces. What CAN be modelled with the game? Practically anything, as it goes on to prove. So this Act had the characters infiltrate the Apex Factory - a dangerous maze of robots and machines meant to teach the players about the Cosm's non-death deaths (once they had it figured out, they were committing suicide to replenish their Shock and Wounds while they sat out), heading for a finale in which Unreality (AKA the Void) was unleashed by experiments in things man (and duck) was not meant to know. Now how are the PCs going to explain this to their superiors!?
Best bits: Lots of cartoon gags, once again. As a fun bit, I included a caterpillar friend who is absolutely useless, turns into a cocoon during the fights, and comes out of it a beautiful butterfly. Our Monster Hunter placed a Romance card on her, and during the climax, spent a good portion of the Dramatic encounter having a candle-lit date with her, sometimes throwing candles (potent firecrackers) into the void monster. She liked him better when he was Vulnerable, and not much when she felt he had "Disconnected". Or how about when the Realm Runner painted a door on a wall to get to a room on the other side, while the chaos rabbit sidekick kept screwing him up by painting bars across the door and such; by the time he managed it, he was in full Bob Ross disguise. Another weird moment from our Monster Hunter: The factory machinery puts him in a box and ships him to another city mid-fight. He uses time travel slippers (one of those crazy Cosm cards) to send himself back to before it happened, has a self-loving interaction with his past self who promptly turns into a cartoon bat (he IS a lycanthrope) and disappears from the story (well, presumably). After one of the friendly toons died a rare true death, our Rocketeer erased the X's in his eyes and drew dots, miraculously reviving him - a nice use of cartoon logic. And our Super Wrestler had the right idea to infiltrate the factory through some masterful fast talk about finding the caterpillar's lost Frisbee, an extended gag they were still talking about in the climax.
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