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Something to Watch: DVDs

In movies, the one this week that tells a story worth watching is not genre; Norwegian Wood is an amazing wake-up call straight to the heart, based on the 1987 novel by Haruki Murakami. I can think of a very few movies from the 1960s and 70s that had a touch of this same spirit, like Harold and Maude, King of Hearts, and Butterflies are Free. But the story this one tells is unique, and deserves a place in your awareness. The book has been translated into at least 33 languages so far, the director was nominated for an Academy Award, and the film has won awards at Venice, Toronto, and Dubai.

In genre, Chronicle is the tale of teens with superpowers who fall into the trap you would expect of anyone thinking with their hormones instead of their brains. Descendents tells the story of a virus that turns people into zombies. I don’t see anything here we haven’t already seen done to death many times over, so I will be passing on adding these to the collection. The other title available this time is Dirty Blondes from Beyond, which may at least be silly and sexy, but again shows no promise of anything actually new and interesting.

There is a TV classic becoming available for the very first time: Ghost Story: The Complete Series was William Castle’s attempt to follow his role model Alfred Hitchcock into TV. It only lasted one season, but the actors involved included Sebastian Cabot, Jason Robards, Helen Hayes, Jodie Foster, Angie Dickinson, Geraldine Page, Martin Sheen, Stella Stevens, Karen Black, Rip Torn, Mariette Hartley, and many more. Just as impressive, the writers included Richard Matheson, D.C. Fontana, Robert Bloch and Harlan Ellison. I approve of the fact that this series is being released in a MOD (manufacture on demand ) production model, meaning they don’t burn the disk until you order it. While it may not work in every player or computer (you have to be able to do DVD-R disc format, which most but not all do), it is wonderful to see any RIAA/MPAA organization facing the inevitable and embracing the decades-old changes in the media distribution system. The fact that it also means there is no waste, no warehouse full of discs no one ordered, no pile of money spent on things they can not sell, no resources turned into a finished product that might end up gracing landfills, is nothing but bonus points all the way as far as I can see. Of course, the flip side of that probably means you will be hard pressed to find it on sale anywhere, since there will be no overstocked stores looking to dump it cheap to minimize their loss; but such is the nature of change.

The other TV programs of note this week are much less fictional, but just as entertaining. Mythbusters: Buster’s Biggest Crashes is silly fun for the science/adventure geek from beginning to end, and I probably need to pick up a Buster T-Shirt by now. The Universe: The Complete Season Six is another wonderful History Channel production telling you more about the world you live in, with some high quality simulations to give you visual examples of the various processes driving the stars and galaxies. And the Smithsonian Channel: Air & Space Collection is a DVD version of their online website which I for one want in my permanent collection. If you have any doubts, go to each web site and play the videos; these ARE the Droids you’re looking for!

In Anime, The Book of Bantorra – Collection 1 is about a world where when you die, your soul becomes a book, with all of your secrets there to be read by anyone. It is the job of the Armed Librarians to keep those books out of the hands of evildoers, and they definitely have their work cut out for them. Also new this week, Cat Planet Cuties: Complete Series has sexy alien cat-girl Eris setting up her planet’s embassy in Kio’s house, with various secret agencies and enemy dog-aliens all circling round, looking for an opening. I watched this when it streamed from Japan on Crunchyroll last year and it was silly fun all the way, but see if the dog’s laugh doesn’t remind you of another famous cartoon canine.

Finally, D.Gray-man – The Complete Second Season has been released in a S.A.V.E. edition, so you can now pick up all 26 episodes for around $20 or less.

Kickstarter Projects

Kickstarter is a way to mobfund projects that might not otherwise ever get made, a social media variation of the good old Begathon that public radio and TV go through all the time. In it’s simplest terms, if there is a project you think should be done, you can vote with your wallet, offering as much or as little as you think it deserves within the limits of your own budget. Some of the projects entered are just silly, and some of them will be world changing if they get the correct backing. As usual, most are somewhere in between, offering an interesting result if enough people are willing to contribute.

Since nothing of value ever happens in a vacuum, many of these projects have rewards, with different returns for different levels of monetary commitment. The fail-safe here is that you can only achieve these rewards if the project actually gets fully funded and goes forward. If a project does not get fully funded, it does not go forward, you do not get billed for your contribution, and there are no rewards to share in. To date there are something like 20,000 projects that have been funded and created, with many more failing the test of support.

Yes, all of that was just the intro, and most of it you probably already knew even though it will be new to some of those reading here. I made the preliminary comments to give you the background, because there are some projects I think will be worth your time to consider, and today I have two of them for you to think about.

The one that could be a real game changer, or at least a first class creators tool, is in fact a game creation toolset called Storybricks. If they are allowed to bring this into the world, you could find yourself in possession of software that could potentially allow you to create your own online interactive RPG environment on a par with anything Steve Meretzky ever cranked out, at least in terms of game logic and environmental consistency. Assembling a game that was interesting enough to draw an audience would still be all up to you, of course. I have already contributed to this project, because I would love to have this toy to play with.

A different kind of Kickstarter project is Project: 13, an animated music video attempt where the music will drive the animation, 3 songs done as 3 music videos. The desired result being a video, the appeal for funding is also a video since that is what the creators understand, as you can see below. There are thousands of additional projects all hoping for funding over at Kickstarter; check them out, find the ones you want to support, and pass the word along. This kind of crowd sourcing is how we help create the future we want to live in, and support the people and groups who are trying to make that future happen in the way we want to see it come down.

I Just Want To Exterminate

This is a real contestant entered into the Britain’s Got Talent competition with his opening salvo song, which he hopes is going to propel him into the contest. Whether he got in or not, I absolutely love the concept, and I will be practicing my Dalek voice so I can sing this at parties. In fact, I loved it twice as much when Simon hit the FAIL buzzer and the audience BOOed Simon, not the singer! You are going to have to watch the video to see how it all worked out.

Fish Story: a review

I wanted to mention a movie you may have overlooked, a quirky combination of science fiction, punk rock, generational legacies, and living your life with true heart. Fish Story is all of that and more, a wonderful visual outing from Japan that is difficult to describe but surprisingly enjoyable. And yes, this is one of those movies that will have you cheering at the end (OK, I might have even jumped up and down a few times while cheering). I don’t know if it ever got any screen time in a movie theater in North America, but it has been released on DVD, so you can pick it up at places like Amazon, or watch it streaming online at places like Netflix. There are other things out there with the same title, so you are looking for the 2009 release from Japan.

New Spiderman Trailer

It will be a few months yet before the Amazing Spiderman reboot comes out, but a third trailer has now been released. I really liked what they did when they rebooted X-Men, because it took you right back to the core of the question facing each of our characters. It made each one a bit more human, showing what went into turning them in to the person they became, so even when you disagreed with their decisions you understood why they made the ones they did. I can only hope they do half as good a job with this one.