Here’s another film by the British duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as the Archers, and it’s likely to be the last one in a while since the rest of their filmography isn’t as notable. This one is about a group of nuns who set out to establish a convent in a remote part of India near the Himalayas. Since there’s a dashing Englishman involved, it’s easy to guess that there might be some romance involved. But there is so much more to this film and it genuinely flummoxed me for a bit as to what it is trying to say. Multiple interpretations are plausible, yet it is undeniable that this is a unique film.
I’d mistakenly believed that this was the original version of the 2003 English-language film by François Ozon but it turns out the resemblance is only superficial. This one does feature major French star power and sizzles with erotic tension. It’s even more meaningful once you learn about the behind-the-scenes relationships and events during filming. Unfortunately I wouldn’t consider it a great film. It drags on just a little too much and the eroticism peaks at the beginning instead of ramping up as it should.
This is the newest version of a film that Hollywood loves to remake again and again. I’d never seen any of the previous ones but my wife asked to watch this one so here we are. I have to admit that this is a well-executed film with strong performances, solid music which is especially surprising from Bradley Cooper, and so on. Yet its heart is still the kind of fairy tale that Hollywood loves so much along with a willingness to forgive the excesses of the lifestyles of artistes because they are special. I just can’t buy into this kind of story these days and so this doesn’t work for me at all.
In every post about fighting games, I always note how awful I am at them. Well, I still am but I picked this one up specifically because it’s said to be beginner-friendly. Indeed, not only does it have simple buttons so that you don’t have to learn complex technical inputs but it also includes one of the most comprehensive in-game tutorials I’ve seen. Not being familiar to the franchise, the characters are all new to me and feel like generic rip-offs of better established characters. But the gameplay seems solid and the art looks nice enough. I’d planned to learn this better but unfortunately I’d hurt my hand recently and that cut my time with it shorter than I might have liked.
I actually do have vague memories of the earlier 1984 adaptation of the James Clavell novel even though I was far too young then to understand any of it. This new version is by all accounts far better especially as rather than framing John Blackthorne as the protagonist, it really only puts him in the position of a witness to the rise of Yoshii Toranaga. Production quality and especially the performances are all excellent. This is faithful to the novel so it uses the fictionalized versions of the historical characters. But part of me so wishes it used the original names instead as it would have been so cool.
If this weren’t just released on Netflix, I probably wouldn’t have watched it but we do watch lighter fare once in a while. This Korean animated film may feature slick visuals and a science-fiction setting but don’t be fooled. It’s an old-school romance which doesn’t hesitate in pouring on the melodrama to wring out your tears. Still, I can’t be entirely dismissive as newcomer director Han Ji-Won knows exactly what he is going for and does a great job of filling the screen with spectacular if not entirely realistic imagery.
I’ve been following the Forge of Destiny / Threads of Destiny forum game for many years now though these days I’m just a reader and rarely participate in voting. I still consider it the best xianxia story I know of. This book is set in that same fantasy world but features stories about other characters other than Ling Qi, the protagonist of the main series. Many of these are Ling Qi’s friends and associates but there are also plenty of those from other times and places. I’ve already read most of these stories before as almost all of them are available online for free but I bought this to support the author and it’s nice to have them in a single volume. I will note that many of the stories don’t really stand on their own but feel more like worldbuilding snippets. Those who aren’t already following the main story might not get much out of this book.
