After having watched the original twice and being occasionally reminded of the existence of this version by a poster in a local restaurant here in Seremban 2, I thought it was high time that I got around to watching this. A major impediment to this endeavor is that its running time is nearly three hours, requiring some scheduling to achieve.
When I first added this to my list, I thought this was a movie. I only learned on the day I watched it, from a blog post by economist Scott Sumner, that it’s a documentary by Russian director Alexander Sokurov. Upon watching it, I found it utterly unlike any other documentary I’ve ever seen and has decidedly movie-like qualities.
So I bought this by mistake. I have fond memories of a game that I eventually remembered is actually called Necromunda from my stay in France and thought this was the videogame adaptation. Same squad-level tactical game by the same company, wrong setting. This one is based on the Warhammer Fantasy setting, not the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Being stubborn, I decided I’d play through it anyway though it ended up being a real chore.
I’m pretty sure that this one was added to our list simply because my wife has to watch every last Studio Ghibli film, especially one that was directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki himself. Upon watching however, I found that it’s probably one of his least notable films and is completely missable.
This isn’t an especially notable documentary but it is extra relevant considering how prominent American politics are this year. Anthony Weiner isn’t an especially prominent politician on a global basis but he was considered a popular and up and coming Democrat until his career was derailed by a sexting scandal. This documentary covers his attempt to revive his career by running for mayor of New York City in 2013.
This film by Tsai Ming-Liang is his very first full-length work and the beginning of his collaboration with his long-time muse Lee Kang-Sheng. It shares similar themes with his others works and while it isn’t as sophisticated as his later works, there’s a sort of effortless flow in it that makes it highly engaging. I was also amused that the “Neon God” of the English title refers to Nezha, a god in Chinese folklore.
Back in the early days of fiction being published online, one of my favorite sites was the Infinity Plus repository of quality fiction. The original collection still exists but has stopped being updated ages ago and now exists as another portal for selling ebooks. One of the most memorable stories I read there was Charles Stross’ A Colder War. That’s why I paid attention when Stross later turned some of the themes and ideas from that story into a series of books called The Laundry Files. I never did get around to reading it and since I resolved to read more published fiction this year and less online fanfiction, I thought I’d start here.