I was leery about the premise behind this novel when I first heard about but hey if people like a genderbent version of the Chinese classic Water Margin, why not? Then it was a finalist for the Nebula Award and was recommended by a bunch of critics, so I thought I should give it a shot. Specifically I was curious about web fiction not being widely recognized and wondered how a properly published book lauded by mainstream critics would match up. My verdict is not well at all. It’s an entertaining action-adventure that can be sometimes quite amusing but I wouldn’t consider it a deep book or even good writing.
I’m pretty sure this is the very first film from Bhutan I’ve seen and it’s a good one too that has wowed audiences in international film festivals. It uses the country’s natural beauty to great effect as anyone would expect but more than that, it offers a salient commentary on its politics. It could be argued that this constitutes propaganda and I don’t like how negatively it characterizes democracy. Still it’s a very funny film that keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering how it will end and perhaps it’s not an unfair portrayal of the country so I’d rate it very highly.
We’ve watched Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of King Lear a couple of years back, and now here is his version of Macbeth. Not only was this made nearly 30 years earlier, it’s a much shorter and simpler film. It makes significant changes from the original and eschews the Shakespearean language in favor of Japanese themes. Yet it is arguably faithful to the intent of the play and is widely considered one of the best film adaptations. For us, even though we already know exactly what will happen at every step, Kurosawa’s lavish production and the excellence of the acting ensure that the emotional impact remains potent.
Again opting for a slower paced game after Sifu, this is a simple fishing game that I’ve heard good things about. The twist is that it’s also a horror game with distinctly Lovecraftian vibes. There’s no combat so the gameplay really is just about fishing or carrying things around in your boat but nasty things start happening if you stay out too long in the water after dark and you can die. It’s a short game and that’s usually a plus with me these days as that means it doesn’t force you to grind meaninglessly to reach its ending. I like it.
This being the first television series made by Wong Kar-Wai, I thought I should at least check out a few episodes of it. I thought for sure that it would be released for foreign markets given Wong’s fame and so waited a while for it but it never did. In the event, I had to watch the original version with the Shanghainese language and Chinese subtitles, which is a real pain for me. The first two or three episodes were downright terrible. Too fast paced, too much posing and too little of substance. It gets better when it slows down by episode four and we can finally tell who’s who and what is going on. Even so I stopped at episode five because the full thirty episodes is way too much and there’s a lot that I don’t understand. Watching it properly would be a fascinating but rather taxing project.
A valuable painting is stolen from a museum in 1985. Thirty years later it turns up in the estate of a deceased couple who are seemingly ordinary retired teachers. I don’t much care for the painting itself but the story that this documentary pieces together about the secret life of this couple is extraordinary. To supplement the interviews with the people who knew the couple and those familiar with the theft, actors reenact key scenes in a bold style that looks almost like something by Wes Anderson. I had doubts at first that it would hold my interest, but by the end I agree with the maker of this piece Allison Otto that someone should make a full feature film about this.
