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Comments
I've learned to shut down my social justice voice when I'm watching stuff and rating it, because otherwise, man, watching old movies would be physical torture, i tell ya
@Stormtroper: Could still count as "Flench" on the basis that Engrish counts really silly misspellings coming from foreigners misreading the spelling and not necessarily due to pronunciation.
^^ I guess so.
On a different subject, lately I've been hearing people use "exponential" to refer to constant (and big) figures. *shudders*
^^ If that was the case, it was lost on me -- at least initially. It gets pretty weird later on, but the beginning sets a genuinely good horror tone in my opinion.
GMH - Yeah, that headstone inscription is French from someone who can barely speak French and probably got told to "just draw something that looks French, no-one will actually read it" by the head animator (or whatever you call them).
I wonder if French is widely taught in Japan. I assume if they study a second language, it'll likely be English or (nowadays) Mandarin Chinese.
^^The original Re-animator was a commission given to H.P. Lovecraft by an editor who wanted a Frankenstein ripoff, which is a story Lovecraft hated. He only took the job because of how much the editor was paying (something ridiculous for the time like nine dollars a chapter) and decided to get his own revenge by seeing how silly he could make it until it got cancelled, which is why it gets super-ridiculous near the end. It might just be the world's first stealth parody.
In any case, I find Lovecraft's Re-Animator a fun and curious piece, but it's one of his weaker works and I feel that Re-animator the movie elevated the aspects that made it interesting (namely the basic insanity) and ran with it. I'm not going to deny that there's an undercurrent of misogyny but as ridiculously over-the-top as the film is, it's hard for me to see the 'worst' scene as anything other than an elaborate set-up for a crappy pun. (though I can see how people would find that more offensive)
And there's a lot that's great in the film, most specifically Jeffrey Coombs. The dude's been sadly typecast as the quiet mad scientist (or in JLU conspiracy theorist) but it's easy to see why. The guy sells his insanity perfectly and he can be pretty haunting in some scenes despite the craziness (Like the scene with the zombie cat) The effects are also pretty great. They aren't real, but they are satisfyingly grizzly and grim looking, and I enjoy the alternate look into a medical school we rarely ever see. The movie made it into 1001 Movies You Must Watch Before You Die for a reason. (A courtesy not extended to Army of Darkness which I actually like much more)
@captainbrass: For what it's worth, I am not sure whether the animation was done by the Japanese or the South Koreans. Element Hunters was jointly produced by people from both countries.
But yeah, probably someone did a babelfish translation of the text in question.
Someone actually noticed that each main character seems to have a different nationality. Homi Nandie is Indian, Chiara Ferina's dad once said something in Italian, and it seems that Ren Karas's grandfather's epitaph is in French. Then you get the strange case of Ally Connolly, who has an Irish (I think) surname but is canonically Egyptian (and slightly dark-skinned).
^^ One of my problems with the film is that it doesn't actually get as mad as the written version, which has what might be the first example of a zombie army in modern literature. Also, the film replaced digging up corpses from a graveyard with morgue theft, which is pretty boring in comparison. The written version also makes the initial monster seem more threatening because the perspective character never actually observes it -- he hears it from a great distance, then finds his friend psychologically wounded but otherwise "normal". No matter how you slice it, it was a great setup, parody or no.
That set-up is fairly standard Lovecraft and pretty boring set-up compared to his stronger stuff like Whisperer in the Dark. Doing subtlety in a movie like Re-animator would be tonally schitzophrenic, plus that scene with the zombie cat is cinematic genius. It sets up an inital danger without any clue why and you have no idea if it's actually a danger or West just being West.
As for the switch to a morgue robbing, the original book was pretty boring and that morgue scene actually has a lot going for it in terms of stuff happening and makes the work more than a Frankenstein ripoff.
As cliched as the original book was, I appreciated it for just that -- graveyards, stormy nights, screeches in the dark and all that. And I also felt the general environments were more oppressive, more like the poorly lit, outdated interiors you might find in Amnesia: The Dark Descent than what was in the film.
The cat scene was great, though. That much I will give you.
I can get behind the cliches, but again other stories of Lovecraft (and other writings) use those cliches so much better. The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Statement of Randolph Carter.
I can see the appeal of the story, but I can't see it any light of critical acclaim, particularly in comparison to its other stories.
Also, it's one of the stories where his racism is a bit more in your face, which kinda bothers me.
Though I found the story fun overall.
My mom told me a funny story today, but I feel kind of bad for laughing at it.
See, she me told me how one of her friends got into a car accident about 20 years ago. He wasn't hurt, but the car got turned upside down in the ditch. When the police and ambulance came, he was desperately trying to turn off the radio, which was playing Wham at near-maximum volume.
Regardless of how tragic it could have been, I still find that pretty funny, but I'm a bit bothered by that.
^^For some reason I have a hard time being bothered by Lovecraft's racism. It's so overt that it's easy to ignore.
^^ Sorry, I laughed.
Also, my mother told me a similar story.
Back when she was in her 20s, two of her friends were involved in a motorcycle accident that ended with one fatality. They were riding together through the bush when one fell behind. Eventually, the one who had kept going realised this, turned around and started riding back. Meanwhile, the one behind had begun riding to try and catch up with the one who had gone ahead. They collided.
It sounds horrible, but I laughed because my mother made it sound like a Monty Python sketch.
According to my friends, I am Ashur from Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
I wasn't suggesting that you watch it, really. There are plenty of other shows I'd tell you (or anyone else) to watch first. Just saying that I watched it and liked it. Most of the things that were good about it were already done (with the same director even) in Cosette no Shouzou anyway, so I'd probably just say to watch that instead if you would have any interest in Dance in the Vampire Bund if it weren't for the loli fanservice.
Also, I still haven't watched Haganai yet since if I watched it on Youtube it'd be censored.
I know. I was just giving my opinion.
Hmm. I tried Black Butler for a few minutes, but I can't swap the languages on Netflix, and in any case it was probably going to be silly.
Also if you're watching anime on Netflix you should clearly be watching Princess Tutu. Because seriously.
Wait, Princess Tutu was on there?
Hmm. I suppose I'll try to watch it (again; I dropped it two episodes in the first time) once I'm done studying for AP exams. Which I should be doing now, I guess.
What APs are you taking?
Literature and Composition, Physics, and Statistics. I'm mostly worried about Physics.
Which Physics?
C. We covered Mechanics in the first half of the year, and Electricity and Magnetism in the second half.
You're talking BOTH exams?
Yeah. Probably should've just taken the Mechanics test, but I figured, if the program's gonna make me spend half the goddamn year on the other subject, might as well see if I learned sufficiently in spite of consistently getting sleepy at about 1:10.
Don't worry too much about Physics C. You don't actually have to do all that well on it to get a high score.
^ True. But I'm still worried, because . . . well, I really am not doing all that well.
The really sad thing is, I'd probably be fine if I had it for any other block but fourth. I'd be able to take better notes, at least.
Let me put it this way: on the E&M part, you get a 5 if you get more than half of it right (at least, that was the case when I took it)