This Korean historical epic hits theaters this Friday the 29th, about the Joseon dynasty in 1859, towards the end of its 500 year long reign. Kundo is about a resistance movement that did not appreciate being enslaved by the rulers of that government at that time, and reacted accordingly. The Joseon dynasty was also the source of all the best Cinderella stories for that culture; with a half millennium of events to choose from, there were a few good ones.
Starring Antonio Banderas and Melonie Griffith, Automata looks to be on the cutting edge of the revolution that might be coming if the world evolves in the AI direction. It has a tip-of-the-hat to Asimov’s 3 Laws, and it is a pretty convincing Turing Test if the robots are more human than the people, after all. It says something interesting about the current state of the film industry that it was written and directed by a Hispanic team, filmed in English in Bulgaria, and will be released on October 10th, 2014, with a world premiere in South Africa.
The one choice that will be in wide release this week is 1984’s classic Ghostbusters, in a digitally remastered edition although not, sadly, in 3D. That is to celebrate its 30th anniversary. There are a few films worth noting in limited release, like Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie, an Anime favorite from Japan, and Kundo: Age of the Rampant, a Korean historical epic action film.
In Movies, the animated Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return has an amazing voice cast, if the animation and story were crafted with as much care it just might be a winner. While not exactly genre, Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlaas is a historical epic, taking place in the 16th century as a man tries to get justice for the illegal acts of a nobleman. Finally, Aftermath is 9 people trapped in a basement as the world is turned into a radioactive wasteland, and it will not be coming home with me.
In TV, Haven: The Complete Fourth Season continues the excellent and strange TV show based on Steven King’s Colorado Kid. Elementary: Season 2 brings more Sherlock Holmes goodness from this side of the Atlantic. From the other side we get the UK interpretation of The Musketeers, in which the new Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi, plays the evil Cardinal Richelieu. Remember the 1999 show Now & Again? In episode one our protagonist is killed by being hit by a train, and wakes up to discover the government has installed his brain in a perfect artificial body. Their goal is to make him a black ops super spy that no-one knows exists; his goal is to return to his wife and daughter, whom he dearly loves. After all this time they are finally releasing its single season to disc. I thought it showed a lot of promise, they should have given it a second season. The Walking Dead releases season 4 this week as well.
In Anime Heaven’s Lost Property Forte was the name they gave season 2, and it is coming out in an Anime Classics edition, meaning you can now pick it up for around $25. I haven’t been able to decide if Watamote is genre because it is fantasy, or just delusional because the protagonist is living in her own little fantasy world. But since she is both a Hikkikomori and an Otaku, I guess that makes her officially part of the genre landscape, and therefore in need of a mention here. It is actually quite an amusing twisted little anime series, in the same way that Welcome To The NHK is, and worth checking out.
Disney’s Big Hero 6 already has me laughing and cheering, and the movie won’t be out for months yet. I have commented on it previously from the perspective of the Marvel property it comes from, a graphic novel/manga of the first order with a lot of links to Japans Pop Culture. And that’s without even going into the whole Pixar/Miyazaki/Disney animation connection. As a single example, did you see Totoro in Toy Story 2, and recognize that high-quality animation universe crossover?
The new Terry Gilliam sci-fi film The Zero Theorem gets released on line tomorrow. It is the story of a computer hacker who is assigned by god to discover the meaning of life, if any, and report back so he can understand it himself. As near as I can tell, this is the perfect companion piece to Brazil, another twisted Terry Gilliam project. When we hit the actual weekend we have a number of interesting films in the theaters, starting with Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. If you saw the first movie in this series, I don’t have to tell you about it; if you didn’t, nothing I can say will make sense until you experience it for yourself. A documentary coming out this week I want to see is To Be Takei, all about the man who should have been Captain Sulu decades ago. There are a few more new films this week worth mentioning, but the one I like is the romantic fantasy If I Stay. When you take them all together, it looks like this is the week with the most new and interesting movies so far this year. I can’t wait to see that record broken.