Just a reminder that Kubo And The Two Strings will be on the big screen in August. It is an epic action/adventure fantasy story set in an alternate timeline in Japan, where Kubo and his magic Shamisen have to save himself and his village.
On June 28th the World Science Festival posted the results of an exciting experiment in which the person working the joystick was nowhere near the game. His hands were being controlled by a person half way across town, sitting in front of the game with no game controller. Some of the potential applications of this technology are downright terrifying, others could be world changing. If you are interested in finding out a bit more about the experiments, check out the University of Washington page for details. One of the things that leaps out at you is the changes in the bulk and mass of the headsets between the 2013/2014 experiments and the current ones; the new stuff is getting downright portable.
I enjoyed the Jason Statham remake of The Mechanic, and unlike the original, this one got a sequel: Mechanic: Resurrection. It will be in the theaters on August 26th, and I have no idea why the only official web site I could find for it was in Japan and didn’t even include a trailer. Perhaps the fact that it was predominately filmed in Bangkok might have something to do with that. I did find a movie studio publicity page over at Lions Gate, again not a very exciting page. Which is strange, because the movie itself look like the kind of edge-of-your-seat film that one expects when Jason is the protagonist.
The choices are Silly Fun and Scary Fun this time around. The silly is supplied by The Secret Life of Pets, an animated fantasy all abut what the pets get up to when the humans aren’t home, which seems to include a Lost Pet Army out to take revenge. The scary comes courtesy of the latest Steven King book to be turned into a movie, Cell. Myself, I am going for the silly this week.
The 1991 Studio Ghibli classic Only Yesterday is finally being released in North America this week, so our 25 year wait is over. Directed by Isao Takahata and produced by Hayao Miyazaki, everything I have read about this says it is full of the kind of emotional storytelling and beautiful animation Ghibli is famous for. GKids had a hand in getting it finally released here, and they have another one coming out this week: Alê Abreu’s Academy Award-nominated Boy and the World. This is a Brazilian animation which tells its story without a single word being spoken; instead it is propelled with a soundscape of Samba Hip-Hop. It won over 40 awards world wide and was nominated for many, many more, and is often described as the most vibrant and beautiful animation of 2015. There is a live action film this week as well, Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid (Mei Ren Yu), in which a tycoon buys a marine wildlife preserve to develop, not knowing it is the habitat of a Mer colony. He uses sonar to cripple and kill the wildlife, and they fight back by sending a beautiful mermaid who has learned to walk on her fins and pass as human to kill him. Yes, this is another Romantic Comedy from the man who brought us Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, and also it became the highest-grossing Chinese film of all time on February 19th of this year.
In Anime Empire of Corpses is based on an award winning novel by Project Itoh (real name Satoshi Itō), and it is the first story of a trilogy. In an alternate and very steampunk timeline medical student John Watson is trying to duplicate the results achieved by Dr. Victor Frankenstein in order to reanimate his dead friend. In Parasyte -the maxim: Collection 2 humanity has finally become aware of the shape shifting alien invaders, and the shadow war has begun. And while the invading predators may be fearsome warriors one on one, Mankind hunts in packs. Naruto Shippūden Uncut DVD set 27 brings episodes 336 through 348 home this week, I think the episode currently streaming from Japan is 465 or so.
Besides the new releases, a number of previously released titles are coming out with new purchasing options. Sekirei + Sekirei: Pure Engagement puts the entire 26 episodes in a single box set for about the price a single season ran before. Guilty Crown: Complete Collection is also now available as a single box set, but the price I have seen at most places means you can get it for less by buying season 1 and 2 separately; that may change by Tuesday, so do a little comparison shopping for this one. Both Aquarion Evol: Complete Collection and Karneval: Complete Series are coming out in S.A.V.E. editions, meaning you can pick them up for under $20 each if you shop around a little.
When you think of Jazz, CNBLUE and Girls Generation are not the first names that pop to mind, since they are much more K-Pop than anything else. And yet, Lee Jong Hyun broke free from CNBLUE to do Moonlight Swing, a great upbeat Jazz track and one of the songs on his first solo album. Likewise, the 9 member Girls’ Generation begat Girls’ Generation-TTS, a subset of the band comprised of Taeyeon, Tiffany, and Seohyun. They produced an excellent EP comprised of jazz/rock ballads, of which my favorite track was Twinkle. These two songs are only a fraction of the excellent jazz South Korea has produced over the last century, so if you enjoy these be sure to explore its other wonderful offerings in this genre.