The film of interest this week is The Giver, about a boy growing up in utopia, who reaches a point in his life when he is chosen to be the one of his generation to learn about the real world. When he does, he realizes his community is fake, artificially insulated from reality, and it forces him to make some serious choices. Based on the book by Lois Lowry, this one explores the nature of discovering the world is not like the one your parents created to keep you safe as you grew up. I should also mention that the The Expendables 3 comes out this week as well; it may not be genre, but it is cult, and that counts for something.
In movies, Veronica Roth’s #1 best-selling novel-turned-movie Divergent holds pride of place. A lesser known film, I’ll Follow You Down, looks to be a very interesting time travel story, somewhere between Safety Not Guaranteed and π. While I don’t see anything genre coming out in TV, I do have to mention that Top Gear 21 is becoming available, since that is always a fun show to watch.
In Anime, Katsuhiro Otomo has done it again. in 1995 his anthology Memories collected the short works of a number of animator/directors who were about to take over the Anime world of their day. Here it is a generation later, and he does it again with a new crop of award winning creators in Short Peace, just as amazing as the first collection. BTW, the Japanese version of that web site has a lot more information with a better trailer set, and a lot of it is in English. If you don’t already know about Katsuhiro Otomo, his Manga creations include Domu, Akira, Batman: Black & White #4, and Hipira: The Little Vampire, while his Anime creations include Akira (yes, he got to do his own Manga as an Anime, and he did it right), Neo Tokyo, Robot Carnival, Metropolis, Steam Boy, and Mushishi. He was both screenwriter and director on everything except Metropolis (he only wrote that one), and I should probably mention that was the 2006 live action version of Mushishi. If you haven’t seen any of those, do yourself a favor and watch them all soon.
Sengoku Collection takes place in a parallel Earth where a magical battle rages for world domination. Suddenly the primary characters from both sides, generals of the Warring States period reincarnated with completely different appearances, personalities, and genders, are transported to our own version of the planet, where they have to contend with technology they don’t understand. Some adjust better than others, and one is determined to get home at any cost. Freezing: The Complete First Season is a story about Pandoras, the genetically enhanced schoolgirls with enough superhuman strength to slaughter aliens, and their Limiters, partners in the battle to save the Earth. If they don’t do serious bodily harm to each other first. This has previously been released, but this is it’s first time under the Anime Classics Funimation imprint, which means you can get it for half the previous price, and only about $6 more than their S.A.V.E. editions run.
Over on the PotterMore site, J.K. Rowling has returned to the world of Harry Potter for a new short story that reunites now-adult Harry with his old friends. You can read the full story here on PotterMore after registering, or over at Today Dot Com without the registration process. She is a wonderful writer, the Potter series is amazing, and I am hoping for lots more from this fun universe. Thanks to Open Culture and another double dozen sites for the heads up on this one.
In Spring and Chaos we see the animated biography of Kenji Miyazawa. He was Japan’s most read and beloved modern poet. The film was released as a TV Special in 1996 to mark the 100th anniversary of Miyazawa’s birth, and while I do not know how they got permission to mirror it, it seems TokyoPop TV apparently did. Enjoy, and learn a bit about one of the worlds best artists, if you do not already know about him.
Outlander is the story of Claire Randall, a girl from 1945 who suddenly jumps to 1743, not exactly what she was expecting. She is forced to marry Jamie, a young Scottish warrior, but she is an already married combat nurse in 1945, which she may or may not be able to go back to. The show is based on Diana Gabaldon’s best-selling books, and put together by Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore. It kicks of on Starz on August 9th. If you’re going to be at the San Diego Comic Con you can enter a drawing at the Starz site to attend the world premiere screening there to take place on July 25th.
The latest live action version of Lupin The 3rd is going to be hitting the big screen in Tokyo on August 30th, and I can’t wait to see it released in the US. The mastermind who created most of the original season was Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, and the rest of season 1 was built by Masaaki Ōsumi. But they were building on strong foundations, taking the original 1905 character Arsène Lupin created by the brilliant French author Maurice Leblanc. Maurice’s Lupin was a perfect match for Doyle’s Sherlock, and the two contemporaries shared a rather large audience between them. When the 1971 TV series kicked off it was his grandson Lupin 3rd who incorporated all the James Bond elements and dragged the show into modern times. If you are not already a fan of this program, now is the time to learn all about it.