The Silenced

I stumbled across this movie on Netflix one day.  It sounded like a ghost story - and I am a sucker for Asian horror ghost stories - so I eagerly queued it up to play.

During the 1930s, South Korea was under Japanese control.  During this time, the Korean people were forced to adopt Japanese culture and language.  This is actually pretty important for the plot, and not just some random piece of trivia I'm spouting here.

The story focuses on a young girl who has been sent to an isolated private girls' school outside what is known at the time as Keijyo, but we now call Seoul.  The girl goes by the Japanese name Shizuko, and she is suffering from what appears to be tuberculosis.  However, under the headmistress's specialized treatment, her symptoms quickly disappear - in fact, she seems to be even healthier than she'd ever been before - but it becomes clear that all is not as it seems at this sanitorium/private school. Students are acting strangely and disappearing, and then there's the peculiar way that Shizuko's body is getting stronger...

I don't want to give too much of the story away.  It's not really a ghost movie as I first thought, but there are definitely some supernatural elements going on here.  It's really more of a mystery-thriller with a strong critique of the Japanese occupation of South Korea.

I enjoyed this movie, despite it not being what I thought it was.  It takes a little while to really get moving, but the breadcrumbs of mystery strewn throughout the film keep your curiosity piqued while it builds up steam. I didn't really think that the ending fit with the rest of the film, but then again, I don't know how they could have possibly resolved everything.  The only real complaint I have is that the supporting characters never get a chance to develop beyond "girl bully clique that's prone to violent emotional outbursts", and they're largely interchangeable as far as personality goes.  It's hard to get worked up about the disappearance and possible death of a character that's never done anything particularly notable in the short time she's on screen.

Overall, this movie was about average in terms of horror.  It's not a supernatural thriller like it was trying to appear to be, and I'm a little disappointed on that count, but it wasn't a bad mystery-thriller.  I wouldn't mind watching it again, though.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay - J.K. Rowling

One of the most anticipated films of 2016, at least in my circle of friends, was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  It was the first Harry Potter universe film to be set fully outside of Hogwarts and the English countryside, and it gave fans another glimpse into the fantastic world of magic that might exist right beside them on the subway platform, on the street, or even in line at the local deli.  For those of you who were unable to get to the theater, or who just want to relive the movie before its home video release, the screenplay was published and released in an attractively-bound book just in time for the holidays.

It's a turbulent time in the 1920's magical community.  Notorious criminal Gellert Grindelwald has evaded authorities, Second Salemers roam the streets calling for the execution of witches and wizards, and Newt Scamander has accidentally unleashed a suitcase full of strange and fantastical creatures on the unsuspecting city.  With the aid of a No-Maj/Muggle named Jacob Kowalski, Newt must round up his wayward creatures before attracting more unwanted attention on the magical community and the ire of MACUSA (the American Ministry of Magic).  

The best part of this movie was the world-building.  J.K. Rowling has created a colorful world with its own culture and mythology, and I have wanted to ramble around in it ever since I read the first chapters set in Diagon Alley.   In this movie/screenplay, we get more exposure to different aspects of the wizarding world that Rowling didn't get a chance to explore in the Harry Potter series.  Sure, we know that magical creatures, mind-reading witches/wizards, and other magic schools exist, but this movie gives us more exposure to the magical-using world and culture outside of England.  

However, I felt like the darker part of the story involving the Obscurus wasn't developed very well.  There's this monster tearing apart parts of New York, but it's basically background noise for about two-thirds of the movie.  Gellert Grindelwald is mentioned at the beginning and in an argument later, but he doesn't seem to be too important until the very end, and even then it's unclear how Newt was able to figure out that he was there in the first place.  

I had hoped that the screenplay would have more detailed information, or even some "deleted scenes", that might help develop some of the characters and world a bit more.  I would have been happy if it had at least explained/developed Grindelwald's involvement a little better than the ending's "I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for you meddling kids" moment.  Sadly, this is pretty much a direct transcription of the finished film, so you really aren't missing anything if you don't read it.  

If you're a film student, you might benefit from reading this because it has some pretty detailed information about the types of angles and directions used in the film, as well as some cues for the timing and delivery of certain parts of the script, and there is nice glossary of terms to explain some of the specialized vocabulary.  If you're a collector of Harry Potter books and memorabilia, I think you might like to add this to your bookshelf for continuity and collection's sake.  However, if you were hoping for a novelization or fleshing-out of the movie's skeleton, you should skip this one.  

Lego Batman - with pictures!

Lego Batman is everything you could want from a Batman movie, plus a few other movies.  Following closely on the success of The Lego Movie (who would have seen that coming?), Lego Batman tells the story of brick-ified Batman learning to move past his painful experiences and let people get past his cape and cowl again, all while kicking butt and laying down some sick tracks.

This was a great movie for families, though I think parents will probably enjoy it more.  There are a lot of references and jokes aimed at the older audiences, but everything stays child-friendly in terms of language, violence, and message.

For my part, I enjoyed the continued characterization of Batman as a self-centered narcissist, since it gave room for the character to grow and change, unlike the Batman I grew up with.  Plus, you get to have super mature moments like this one:

Batman is a super mature superhero, really.

Lego Robin/Dick Grayson was totally adorable, too.  I mean, look at this face!

I dare you to say no to this face.

Of course, adorableness is not just limited to orphan sidekicks.  Even The Joker, a self-actualized super-villain (think Doctor Phil in clown makeup), gets to look vulnerable and cute for the camera.  

I mean, you shouldn't make the clown cry, right?

The Joker isn't the only villain threatening Gotham City.  Every villain Batman ever faced (including obscure c-listers), and villains from other franchises come in to get a piece of the action.  It's like The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny but without Mister Rogers coming out the victor.  However over-the-top the action gets, the movie doesn't lose its light-hearted tone, and there are plenty of jokes and visual gags for audiences.

As far as weaknesses go, there is so much going on in this movie that at times it feels overwhelming.  The action scenes are very, very active and it's easy to miss stuff.  There's also the odd inclusion of live-action video in the movie - as in clips of Jerry Maguire directly imported into the movie instead of being converted to Lego minfigs.  It's a little jarring, and feels kind of lazy compared to all the other complex stuff they did in this movie.

I would love to go see this movie again, as there were a lot of jokes and visual gags I'm sure I missed, but that's what home-video releases are for.  If you're trying to decide what to go see this weekend, I highly recommend Lego Batman.  

Onion-cutting ninjas

Stories have a lot of unique abilities.  They have the power to transport people from where they are to entirely different time periods, points of view, and even worlds.  They have the ability to both inform and entertain.  They can distract us from our worries or help us feel like we're not alone in them.  They can make us laugh, quake in terror, sympathize, hate, and cry.

But, man, I hate when a story makes me cry.  It just sneaks up on you and ambushes you in the feelings.  Today's post is devoted to some of those stories.

Books

There actually aren't very many books that have made me cry when I read them.  Now, to clarify, when I say "books", I mean actual text on a page (or electronic...field thingy).  I will cover manga in another section.  I don't know what it is about books, but, although they can make me feel a whole bunch of other emotions: angry, joy, relief, etc... there's something too distant about text on a page to make me cry.  There are always exceptions, and I'll go over two of them here.

The first book that made me cry was Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene.  For those of you who didn't have this book assigned to you in middle school, it's about a 12-year-old Jewish girl, Patty, who falls in love with a German prisoner being held captive in her hometown in Arkansas.  When the prisoner, Anton, breaks out of prison, she hides him in the storage room above the garage.  Without going into too much detail, things do not go well with this plan.  The part that made me cry, however, wasn't the inevitable "death of a loved one", but the aftermath of Patty's choices.  In the end, she loses her freedom and her tentative place in her own family.  The only person who comes to see her in prison (aiding and abetting the enemy) is her family's African American maid, Ruth.  Everyone else has pretty much disowned her without trying to understand her motivations or feelings.  Although you can understand her family's reluctance to associate with her, it's still a huge punch to the gut.

Another book that made me cry was Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.  Kitchen was Yoshimoto's Western debut, and if you haven't read it, you really ought to because it's amazing.  The story follows a grieving young woman coming to terms with the loss of her beloved grandmother.  She reaches out to her grandmother's friends for support, and together they become a new family to weather the storms of loss in their lives.  I read this shortly after having lost a family member myself, and Yoshimoto's description of grief hit right on the mark for me.  Seriously, though, if you can get your hands on this one, do so.

Movies

There is no medium better suited to inducing a tear-fest than movies.  The combination of elements - actors' emoting, musical scores, lighting, framing, color - manage to hit all of your "cry buttons" at once.  Children's movies are especially devastating because you let your guard down about them.  You go there thinking "there's no way a story about a bunch of stuffed animals is going to make me cry" and before you know it, the toys are on a conveyor belt heading toward an incinerator and you're bawling into your popcorn.  And let's not get started on the first twenty minutes of Up.

If you're looking for a good weepy movie, look no further than Still Life.  This slow-paced dramatic story chronicles the life of a councilman whose job is to look for the family members of unclaimed corpses.  In this era, where anyone can connect with millions of strangers with the click of a mouse or the tap of a key, it's hard to believe that anyone could be so isolated as to have no one to come to their funeral, say a few words, or even mourn for their loss.   However, even in this interconnected age, there are still people who have very few connections in the real world.  John May does his best to try to find the next-of-kin of these kinds of people, and if there is no one, or no one wants to come for them, he tries to give the deceased a decent funeral based on what he does learn about their lives in the course of his research.  This is the kind of movie that really makes you think about those people who might be on the periphery of your life, and it might even inspire you to reach out to those people.

 Manga

When you think of manga, you probably think of action, adventure, romance, magic, and The Power of Friendship.  You see those big, child-like faces and those colorful splash pages and you think it'll be a nice, light, entertaining read.

And then you read Twin Spica by Kou Yaginuma.  Twin Spica is a science fiction story set "five minutes into the future" in a Japan that has tried, and failed, to send a manned mission into space.  And when I say failed, I mean failed in the most firey and spectacular manner possible - the maiden launch of the shuttle The Lion crashes onto a busy market street, killing the crew and many civilians.  Among those killed is Asumi Kamogawa's mother, but despite this tragedy, Asumi has dreamt of nothing but becoming an astronaut her entire life.  However, the cards are stacked against Asumi - she's short, she's weak, she's poor, and her father - an engineer who worked on the ill-fated space project - bore the brunt of the blame for The Lion's failure and lost his job and any credibility he might have had.  Yet still she dreams and works hard to get into the extremely competitive and exclusive high school program newly introduced into Japan with the hopes of rebooting its space program.

The story doesn't seem all that sad.  I mean, sure, it has sad beginnings, but Asumi doesn't seem to be too hampered by this.  However, echos of The Lion play pretty heavily throughout, and almost everyone involved in the program has some sort of tragedy or hardship going on in the background of their lives.  Plus, not everyone is going to make it into space, and when someone fails, it's hard to watch them see their hopes and hard work go to waste.

That said, I still highly recommend Twin Spica. It didn't do very well in the Western market, but you can still get it as an ebook.

So, those are my Onion-Cutting Ninja stories.  If you have any to share, please leave me a comment!