Categories
Debaser

T2 Trainspotting

I was really nervous about watching this, because I was so worried that it could never live up to the original film — which is one of those films that defined the era it came out in, in terms of cultural impact. Did I like it? Yes, I really enjoyed spending time with these characters again. Sure, it doesn’t have the urgency and drive of the original, but it does some interesting things in how it revisits these people, and in the end, even if the overall tone feels more subdued than the original, it sorta suits the subject matter (and the age of the characters). It’s interesting to see this around the same time as I’m watching the new Twin Peaks, that we’re in a place where things like this can happen (revisiting cultural touchstones of 20-30 years ago), and that they still work so well (at least for someone my age). I’m glad this got made, and the final scene is just perfect.

Categories
Debaser

Get Out

As everyone has been saying about this movie, man, it’s great. I won’t go into the details of what makes it so great to avoid spoilers, but I really love where it goes, how it treats the whole situation, and where we end up at the end. Definitely one of the best horror films I’ve seen in years.

Categories
Debaser

Twin Peaks (2017)

It’s been less than 24 hours since the airing of the first 2 episodes of the new Twin Peaks series (followed by parts 3 and 4 which are available on streaming services), and I’ve already watched all 4 episodes twice. What to say. Yes, I like it, but it’s definitely very far from what I was expecting — and I kinda love it for that. Frost and Lynch have not gone soft, and instead have amped up the weirdness and supernatural elements, to a degree we never saw in the original series. It’s definitely darker than the original show, more on par with the film (which I’ve said I don’t quite like), but it’s still adding more whimsy than we saw in the film — and I think that despite all the darkness, it works best because of the serialized form we’re offered (instead of in one concentrated 2-hour chunk). It’s a slow start, but Lynch has said that for him this is to be taken as 1 movie, separated in 18 parts, not episodes. I think it was good that they gave us 4 episodes right away, because it lets you take in more of what this series is going to offer — more than what you get from just the first 2 episodes. And I thought that the second viewing was even more interesting, but that’s maybe because I had so much pent up anticipation and excitement leading up to the premiere, that I was probably in shock while watching most of it, and so the re-watching let me take in everything better, with expectations already in check. What they are doing here is definitely ballsy — I can’t imagine what it must be like trying to watch this if you’ve never watched Twin Peaks before (never mind countless times like me), because this is the deepest dive yet we’ve seen into all of the supernatural mythology that has surrounded the series. In fact, it’s now the main focus (at least in these first 4 episodes). The best is that there’s just so much mystery going on that my wife and I have already had multiple discussions trying to dissect everything (we’ve both watched it twice together). I think they’ve managed to push the envelope just like they did back in 1990 with the original two seasons, instead of just playing nice and doing a retread of what those seasons were like, and that’s something I can definitely get behind.

Categories
Debaser

Logan

I finally watched this yesterday, and as many people were saying, this is indeed quite a good flick, and I’m confident to add it to my list of favorite super-hero movies (that includes Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Deadpool, and Guardians of the Galaxy). Even though I had heard it was good, I still had doubts, since it’s the same team that did The Wolverine, a film I thought was awful. But no, they really did an amazing job and told a compelling tale, and the performance in the film by the young girl who plays Laura/X-23 is fantastic. Kudos to Jackman on finally getting a proper Wolverine film out there.

Categories
Events Games

A 5th of BitSummit

And another BitSummit has come and gone in Kyoto. As with last year, I’m quite sad I couldn’t be there, and seeing so many of my friends (through social media) have a blast — during and after hours — was a pain. But I am happy to see that it looks like it’s been the biggest edition so far, and I am looking forward to catching up on what happened on the main stage through the Twitch archives (I think everything was streamed). Big ups to the gang for putting on what is one of the most exciting developments in indie gaming in Japan in recent years, and I’m sure we’re going to see them coming in strong again for the next edition. The photo above (tweeted by Jeremy Parish) is of the opening speech by James Mielke, the event’s founder and creative director.

Categories
Games Music

Ninja Gaiden: The Definitive Soundtrack

Nice to see Brave Wave getting coverage for their Ninja Gaiden: The Definitive Soundtrack release over at Time Out Tokyo.

Categories
Design Events

Duncan’s Pop-up Shop

I missed posting this in time for Duncan‘s pop-up shop that he did this past weekend at Kanno Coffee, but I still love seeing all of his products in one image like this. Via Canvas.

Categories
Photography

L’appel du vide

L’appel du vide” a beautiful photography project by Lukasz Palka that offers up a rooftop view of Tokyo.

Categories
Art Games Web

Kazutoshi Iida

For its latest episode, Toco Toco TV revisits the gaming space through a profile of Kazutoshi Iida (Doshin the Giant). He produced three games (that was always his plan), before turning into an academic. The episodes features a great look at some of Kyoto’s art spots.

Categories
Debaser

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks is my all-time favorite TV series. I first watched it when it originally aired, and since then I revisit it on a regular basis. Because we were about to get a new season of episodes (kicking off tonight), I decided to re-watch the series yet again from last month (I think it’s maybe my 6th viewing), which I finished last week. I also re-watched the Fire Walk With Me movie, which I don’t really like — because of the overly dark tone (and lack of Mark Frost) it just doesn’t feel very Twin Peaks-y (but that said, I’ve still re-watched a bunch of times). I had heard that the new season would pick up a lot of stuff from the movie, and it was indeed interesting to re-watch it with that in mind, since it did introduce things that we hadn’t seen in the TV series. So yeah, I’m now completely ready for tonight’s season premiere — including today’s purchase of cherry pie and donuts.