I’m starting to get some more free time, so I hope to write several reviews in the next couple months.  I actually haven’t been watching all that many movies and my bluray collection is way backed up.  Just starting to go through them any night that I don’t have plans already.

Two interesting vampire movies I watched recently: Thirst (Park Chan-wook / Korean) and Let the Right One In (Swedish).  Both are great!  But totally different styles.  I think I will compare these two in the next post, though I’ve already forgotten a lot about Thirst since it was in theaters several months ago.

Recent purchases include:
Gojira (US bluray)
28 Days Later (bluray)
Nikkatsu Noir – Eclipse DVD collection
Audition (US bluray)
Tokyo! (US bluray)
Tokyo Sonata (UK import bluray)
Kagemusha (Criterion bluray)
Ghost in the Shell 2nd Gig (Anime Legends DVD box)

Also, if anyone comments, please do so in a way that doesn’t look like spam… I think it’s 99.9% spam and so it’s hard to filter out.  I may change the settings so you can’t post links.

Here are a bunch of mini reviews of things I watched from the festival and since then:

All Around Us (Gururi no Koto) -4/5 (CIFF09)
Great, though quite slow.  A family-drama that leaves many messages about living life and the connections between loved ones, especially a spouse.  Some characters were a bit annoying, though it can’t be helped if art imitates reality.

Surveillance -3/5 (CIFF09)
Not horrible, but could have been much better, in my opinion.  Some twists in the plot, some of which are predictable.  But this is no action movie.  It’s almost all dialogue, and awkward dialogue at that, for the first three-quarters of the film.  Probably would have been better as a short.

Chaser (Chugyeoja) – 5/5 (CIFF09)
Excellent thriller.  Korean movies contain some of the best psycho-killer/ detective movies and this is one of them for sure.  Though not as epic as a Park Chan-wook film, it has great pacting, characters, tone, and is interesting to watch.  Some gory parts.  Worth tracking down.

Sparrow (Man Jeuk) – 2/5 (CIFF09)
Too slow, and too long.  The plot is not interesting enough to make a whole movie out of, though it did hold my attention.  What was there was executed well and had some nice imagery.

White on Rice – 4/5 (CIFF09)
Good feel-good comedy.  You kind of root for the main character, and definitely grow to like his quirks.  You can see a lot of miscommunications that a Japanese-American may come across, and this really hits home if you have some familiarity with a non-native English speaker.  Plot is a bit uninspired, but serviceable for fun.

Meatball Machine – 1/5
After seeing the excellent Machine Girl, and iffy Tokyo Gore Police… I knew that Meatball Machine could go either way.  And it was bad.  Bad in a bad way.  Even for a B-movie, there is nothing really interesting that goes on.  The characters are beyond boring… enough to make a user manual seem a worthwhile use of time.  Gross out moments are not realistic or that gross if you’ve seen either of the mentioned ultra-gore movies.  Unfortunately, I can’t recommend this movie to even gore fans.

Tale of Two Sisters (Korean) – My 2nd viewing – 4/5
Although it’s probably one of the best Korean horror films I’ve seen, the rewatch isn’t that great.  The characters are a little boring and the pacing slow, but the ending and mystery is pretty good.  Although it’s a must see for asian horror fans, you really probably only need to see it once.  Compare with Ju-On, which I can watch many times and still enjoy.

Hi all.

Once again, I will be attending the Cleveland International Film Festival.  This year I will be seeing 5 films over 3 days.

They are:
All Around Us (Gururi no Koto) – Japan
Surveillance – USA
Chaser (Chugyeoja) – Korea
Sparrow (Man Jeuk) – Hong Kong
White on Rice – USA

I will be twittering from Cleveland this weekend, but will probably not be able to see any replies until I return or get access to a computer.  You can expect reviews of the above movies when I’m back!

Playstation 3 (for bluray and region 1/free DVDs) – HDMI
Platstation 2 (for region 3 or other DVDs) – Component/Optical
Yamaha RX-V663
Infinity Primus 6.1 – 1x center, 2×6.5″ fronts, 3×5.25″ surrounds, 12″ sub
Panasonic 42″ 720p plasma

If anyone is interested in my thoughts of the picture/audio quality of specific blurays, please feel free to ask.  Otherwise, I will just mention when it makes a noticeable difference.  I mention the format reviewed at the start of each write-up.  So far, I am impressed with the “high-fidelity” sound of the lossless audio formats.  But it may just be the increased loudness and me trying to justify the new purchase =)

I’ve also made a number of purchases & pre-orders on DVD and bluray, so you may expect most of the following reviews over the next couple months:
Slumdog Millionaire (film)
Equinox Flower (DVD)
Sukiyaki Western Django (bluray)
Chungking Express (bluray)
The Machine Girl (DVD)
Meatball Machine (DVD)
Tokyo Gore Police (DVD)
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (bluray)
Death Trance (bluray)

Also, I’ve added a ‘Links to Me’ section, which includes a link to my other blog on video games.  I actually write in that one more regularly.  This one tends to be a little sporadic.

I’m thinking of doing a Best of ’08 list as well, though it would have to be mostly American film, since it takes me a little while to get recent asian DVDs and watch them.  I did recently receive my bluray copy of Swing Girls.  I’ve seen the movie once already, but will plan to review it as well.

Reviews watched movies I hope to do soon: I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK; Slumdog Millionaire