This is the weekend we finally get to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and I have been ready since they first announced J.J. Abrams would be heading up the new films. I am definitely seeing it Friday, and will let the film decide if it needs to be seen again Saturday and/or Sunday. Also out this week is He Never Died, the crowdfunded fantasy starring Henry Rollins. And if you are a fan of great Asian films Mojin: The Lost Legend is a good Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider kind of story based on the #1 bestselling series of novels by Zhang Muye. This particular movie is based on his book Ghost Blows Out the Light, and if it does good enough at the box office perhaps they will turn the entire series into movies, one after the other.
The Baseballs are a German Rockabilly band with attitude, and if you are not already familiar with them you should be! They already have a huge library of music to their credit, and I can’t wait to see what they do next. The first track here is Umbrella, the second is Chasing Cars, the third is Hot N Cold, and the 4th is Candy Shop. Sadly, I can’t seem to find a Baseballs video to embed that is anything like a currently acceptable video quality, but perhaps that was a deliberate attempt to invoke those classic days. Or perhaps everyone in Germany watches their music on cell phones only, which would work with these. However low rez the video is, the music remains world class!
The NHK has launched VOD online, and if you love Japanese food you have to watch Dining with the Chef. While the Video On Demand site itself only has links to the last 2 episodes of each of the shows it is carrying, if you go to the main Dining with the Chef web site you can get the final “Let’s Review” portion of the program going back much further. That is where they give you the cliff notes version of the primary recipe for each episode, sometimes including the side dishes like the soups and salads.
You can also Watch NHK Live to see all of their programming from anywhere in the world, and they have a ton of excellent shows they have not yet added to their VOD servers you might want to check out. I have a number of other programs I make sure to never miss each week, including J-Melo for the latest music and Imagine-Nation for news about Anime, Games, Manga, and Otaku Events from all over the world.
Tomorrow Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie is on the big screen, and I will definitely be in the theater to see it! When we hit the weekend, another wacky Simon Pegg comedy comes along: Man Up. All about mistaken identity, blind dates, and taking chances, this British/French film came out last May in Europe and is being released Friday in the US. Sadly, I didn’t see anything interesting that was made in the US this week.
The epic historical fantasy The Assassin has some of the best cinematography I have seen in many years, and deserves to be watched on that count alone. But when you add in the plot and the sub plots, the characters, the costumes, the FX, the sets, the props, and all the other details that go into making a modern film, this one has it all. Well, except for the dialog, and it probably has that for people who speak the language it was written in. The Assassin is worth checking out, if only to find out if it is as good as its advertising indicates.
Well Go USA recently released The Avenging Fist on DVD, a combat fantasy in a future where all weapons are outlawed. The super-powers of the human brain have been unlocked by the Power Glove, which is in the hands of the police. Some of the few remaining survivors of the Glove’s human experiments band together in order to stop the evil it generates. Yes, this is full of over-the-top martial arts silliness, and the comedy this invokes wasn’t actually intended, but that just adds to the fun.