“We need emotional content.”

In what is a strange turn of events, the Wife is the one that ended up seeing a DVD at the store and insisting we buy it and watch it that night. What makes this stranger still is the fact that she wanted this particular DVD for reference purposes, and it ended up being Enter The Dragon starring Bruce Lee.

It’s actually been over 10 years since I’ve seen this movie, and what blew me away about it is despite the fact that it’s over 30 years old, the fighting in this film is actually superior to much of what is seen in cinema. I think the easiest way to account for this is that the fighting is more practical than cinematic (This being a major sticking point with Bruce Lee) and so while it’s glammed up somewhat to make it look a little bit more palatable for the screen, these are still genuine techniques that can be used to kill a guy, or, at the very least, make him unrecognizable to even his mother. I was also shocked by the fact that when the fights were filmed in this movie, I could actually see what was happening! It made me realize I’ve gotten used to a different standard of presentation in combat in film. I suspect it’s mostly just to cover the fact that most fights in cinema today are not done by masters at the top of their game in a chosen form of combat, so you get a lot of fast cuts, extreme close ups, slow motion up the wazoo, strobing and other effects to mask as much as possible what is actually happening.

On the other hand, when Bruce Lee smacks a guy in the face, the reason you may not see it is because Bruce Lee is just that damn fast. There were moments during the tournament fights where I had to rewind it and just watch a hit again, because it was blink-and-you-miss-it moment. The speed he had was phenomenal, and it’s made all the more impressive because the nature of the choreography in the fights makes it clear that these people actually did know what they were doing.

It may not be fashionable, but I find myself actually preferring this method of presentation for fighting in film. I like these long shots where they show kicks and long, sustained sequences of skill and power. And I like the fact that while it may not be flashy with wire work, all kinds of whirlwind kicks, and extended sessions of “block, block, block, block, duck, duck, kick, KICK!” the brevity of the fights, mixed with the strength and brutality of some of those hits makes these fights far more interesting than, say, the burly brawl of Matrix Reloaded fame.

Either that, or I’m just old.

After 3 Months Of Semi-Regular Practice

I STILL cannot complete Bark At The Moon by Ozzy Osborne on the expert setting of Guitar Hero.

I feel bad.

Also, I have finally seen Neil-O’s Mirrormask and while I liked it, I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. More on that later.

Straight From A Part Time Game Journalist

I was recently made aware that someone with the local version of Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote a little editorial about how game journalists are a sad, lonely, misunderstood lot. There are two ways to take this. Either the writer was being sarcastic (In which case he wasn’t much of a writer since the sarcasm didn’t take too well) or else he was a rather overinflated sense of his own position in life and rails at not being taken seriously by his peers.

I dunno, man, I write reviews and play games too, but I’m not so lofty about it that I think game journalists are somehow supposed to be on the same plateau as Woodward and Bernstein. It’s not like this is “pure journalism” where you report events to keep the public informed, this is opinion pieces about a relatively new art form that is itself still not taken seriously. And it’s a art form that is all about play and enjoyment. We’re talking about fungames, for God’s sake, why SHOULD people who are paid to play them be taken seriously with so many other things going on in the world that are really deserving of respect.

I don’t think that gaming journalists are the dregs of society, but I think that when most people have mind numbingly boring jobs that they can’t really abide and someone is giving you money to try out a game and then wax lyrical about its merits… buddy, you’ve got a pretty sweet deal, and you should appreciate that. You cannot expect an elevated perception or a high level of societal respect when your field of criticism isn’t even regarded that way. Now that might be a might hoity-toity for something that ain’t real serious no-how, but I reckon it’s time people that fancy themselves respectable artist types just be quit with the whining and carrying on about being misunderstood and really show some gumption; if they’re serious, they ougghta’ get out of gaming to begin with and go where they really belong, like writing for a fancy magazine or newspaper.

Uh… Yeah. Been watching too much Firefly. Oh well, back to the commentaries…

Why Superman Is A Goody Two-Shoes

It recent days it has come to light that the upcoming movie Superman Returns will have a brief cameo by Hugh Jackman of X-Men movies fame playing young Pa Kent. Upon reading this bit of news, it immediately set off alarm bells in my head that crossed comic universes, and it dawned on me, with complete certainty, that I had stumbled upon the reason why Clark “Kal-El” Kent would be so abnormally dedicated to playing it as straight as he possibly could; he was a victim of the usual rebellion we all go through where we try to end up nothing like our parents. Witness:

About Truth:

Ma Kent: Honey, where’ve you two been?

Clark “Young Superman” Kent: Dad was busy talking to Mrs. Lang about meeting him for drinks at the-… I don’t feel so good…

[He slumps to the ground as his father pockets the kryptonite he'd put on the back of his neck]

Pa “Wolverine” Kent: Uh… Clark ain’t feeling so good after all that excitement, he touched a girl and all, you know how traumatizing that can be for the boy.

CK: Dad… that’s… a lie…

PK: Sometimes you gotta’ hide the truth from the ones you love.

CK: Can’t… be… right…

About Justice:

PK: C’mon, bub, do it.

CK: But dad, that’s not very sportsman like.

PK: “Sportsman like”? Listen, bub, this ain’t sport, this is huntin’, I’m the best there is at what I do, and what I do ain’t very nice at all.

CK: You’re a farmer.

PK: Shut it, runt, I’m talkin’ here. Now you see that deer? That deer may be fast, might even be too fast for me with my augmented speed and mutant healing factor, but you? Ain’t no way that thing is going to outrun them lasers in your eyes.

CK: YOU’RE SUCH A LOUSE, I HATE YOU!

PK: Yeah, yeah, cry me a river, and pass me that beer.

CK: I’m never going to drink beer like you!

PK: [Burping] Great, more brewskis for me.

About Patriotism:

PK: AMERICA CAN SUCK ON MY BIG, HAIRY, ADAMANTIUM LACED BUTT.

CK: Geez, dad, if you hate this country so much why are you here?!?

PK: Taxes, kid. Back in Canada the taxes are way too high, but these suckers, hell, they’ll always cut you some slack provided you scratch their back. Or impale the back of an undesirable political thorn that needs an adamantium claw running through it. Heh, pigs.

CK: I don’t think that’s right, dad! I think you should have more respect for this country!

PK: CANADA IS BETTER, AND THAT’S FINAL, BUB.

CK: NO! IT’S ALL ABOUT THE AMERICAN WAY, EH?

PK: Oh, shut your yap and hand me that cigar.

CK: I swear to God, I’m never going to smoke and smell like you.

About The Sanctity Of Life:

CK: Oh my GOD, WHAT ARE DOING?!?

PK: Disembowelling someone for fun before slipping into a psychotic, cannibalistic rage and eating their steaming entrails raw, what does it look like?

CK: BUT… WHY?!?

PK: Bub, sometimes people, they just need killing.

CK: What’d he do?

PK: Nothin’, I just didn’t like the look of him.

CK: You can’t just kill people because you feel like it, dad!

PK: Son, this is America, you damn well can. You think you’re still alive at school because you’re a good kid? It’s ’cause you’re BULLET PROOF, that’s why…

CK: Life is sacred and killing is wrong!

PK: You will kill indiscriminantly and you will like it, bub. I raised you to be Weapon Y, and you will do your father proud and become the greatest covert ops mutant assassin that world has ever seen!

CK: NO! I HATE YOU! I’M GOING TO RUN AWAY AND FIGHT FOR COMMON DECENCY AND NOT WEAR A MASK AND DO NICE THINGS FOR PEOPLE, AND DO SOMETHING NOBLE LIKE… LIKE… JOURNALISM! I’LL NEVER BE LIKE YOU!!

PK: FINE, BE THAT WAY! DON’T COME CRYING TO ME WHEN YOU CAN’T GET LAID, YA’ PANSY…

Firefly & Bloggers In Real Life

Not much of the exciting or high-larious to report except that I am now in severe depression/withdrawal over having finished watching the final episode of Josh Whedon’s Firefly and have truly lost all hope in humanity. How the hell a television show this genius could get cancelled is completely, utterly beyond me. I’m a character and dialogue whore, so this show was practically made for me, the way it sucked me in with one amazing line after another and compounded it with characters that I gave a damn about and wanted to see come out of scrapes okay.

Alas, poor Serenity. We hardly knew ye. But they can’t take the sky from you.

I still haven’t seen Serenity yet, but now that I’ve watched the series (Why, American viewers? WHY? WHY DID YOU LET THIS SHOW DIE?!?) it’s something that I mean to rectify in very short order.

I also did one of those you always sort of wonder about but are never quite sure how it would go and met a blogger. Or at least a blogger I liked and who’s stuff I’ve been reading since I got acquainted with him last year over Neil-O’s arrival in south east Asia. His name is Adel Gabot and I only got to know him through mutual comments on each of our blogs after I went hunting around the internet to see how Neil-O was faring after he left Singapore. Since Adel is also a writer, and since we’re both pathetic geeks, we hit it off amicably, and when he came over to Singapore for business over the course of the week, it seemed like a good idea to meet him, so the Wife and had a milkshake with him at the Bug Eyes and it was all good.

It’s a weird thing having to reconfigure your brain though. I mean, when you read someone’s stuff for months, or even years, and get a feeling for who they are, that idea is filtered through your own prejudices and imagination, so naturally, if you’re never met the person, you create mannerisms, rhythms, cadences and characteristics that may not actually be present in the real, living, breathing person. Like even though I got on well with Adel and like him, there was that shock moment when I first heard his voice and realized all this time, his mental image in my head had included a North American accent, which was stupid since he’s from the Philippines, but my natural inclination is to mentally assign everyone a North American voice, since, well, that’s the one I’ve got.

But once you get past the initial perception you’ve formed, and start paying attention to the person in front of you, things become much easier and more pleasant and that was certainly the case here. It’s always good to just sit around and geek out about everything from how lousy the new Star Wars trilogy was to watching an uncensored version of V for Vendetta in the Philippines to just showing off the majesty and lunacy that is Feel The Magic XX/XY on the Nintendo DS. There was even a little shop talk since, we’re both writers, though he’s considerably farther up the food chain being an editor while I’ve mucked around as a happy go lucky gaming journalist.

Speaking of which, these are the topics I would like to address in future posts over the next few days: Gaming Journalism and how it’s NOT supposed to be taken seriously, Were Animals, and the real reason Superman turned out to be such a big blue boyscout.

There. I’ve written ‘em, so now I shouldn’t forget them. Now it’s back to Firefly and going through commentaries so that I can stretch and delay the post-partum depression out a little bit more…

Say You Want A Revolution

Holy Hell.

Saw V for Vendetta tonight.

Not much to say at the moment, I’m still reeling, except that I want to bomb a building incredibly badly and stick it to… well, anyone in charge. And I’m not even particularly oppressed, but man, I feel that sense of righteousness that comes from being oppressed.

My New Find

I popped this into the DVD player last night and was completely, utterly blown away. I feel incredibly bad now, because I know there’s a ton of great anime floating around out there that I haven’t watched, but THIS… my God, this is definitely one of the harsher and weirder ones out there, I’m sure.

It’s called Elfen Lied, though that last word is pronounced “leed”.

The series has been around for a while now, but of course, I’m hopelessly out of the loop on these things, because I’m not plugged into that anime livewire like I used to be in university, and anime has gotten a lot bigger and more complex than the days of yore that I remember when we would all quiver over a bad VHS recording of an episode of Zeta Gundam that had been recorded straight off Japanese TV, no subtitles, and made into a million buzillion copies, of which we got episodes 12 and 26, as 45th generation dub. These days you can you just peruse a copy of Newtype USA and walk into a DVD store and the choices, as well as the pseudo-wannabe-new-American Otaku culture that has sprung up in its wake, are a little overwhelming.

Anyway, all that aside the series itself concerns a psychic mutant by the name of Lucy. Or at least it starts out that way. The opening sets the tone for the rest of the series, that is dark and brutal at times and sweet and adorable, randomly and unpredictably taking turns from one into the other. Lucy can rend human beings to shreds simply by thinking about it, and is in confinement at some high tech research facility, and the first episode is about her break out. The level of violence is staggering and ends with Lucy making her way outside only take narrowly avoid death when a sniper bullet grazes her and instead of killing her, gives her amnesia to the point where she is now effectively a tabula rasa, a sweet, wide-eyed girl who can only say “Nyu” and doesn’t even know how to eat, use the bathroom or put on clothes. She is eventually discovered by some college students who take her in, and the government begins its intensive search. Because all she can say is “Nyu” that is the name given to the sweet, innocent, tabula rasa version of Lucy unaware of its powerful homocidal psychic abilities. Giving away the rest would be a disservice, but I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything, let alone a cartoon, balance such a seemingly psychotic combination of domestic, soap operatic emotions with an unimaginable level of brutality. I actually flinched at certain sequences in the anime not simply because there was blood or severed limbs but because of the deliberate, sadistic intent behind the suffering.

But it’s that weird balance Elfen Lied has struck that has me most impressed. The show perfectly manages to mimic the psychotic break of Lucy/Nyu’s personality in terms of tone and mood. It seems like the mundane, every day concerns of the two college students, Khota and his female cousin (who has a thing for him) Yuka are in stark contrast to the epic psychic warfare and sadistic, nihilistic underpinnings of Lucy and her pursuers. These two narrative elements shouldn’t be in the same story, working together like this, and yet they do. I’m blown away by that, and keep thinking there’s something I can learn here for my own writing if I just sit down and absorb it enough.

Suffice to say if you’ve got a strong stomach for both melodrama and ultra-violence, then this series has got a lot to offer. It’s been a long time since an anime story really punched me in the face like this and left an impression, and it’s because of the emotion that they’ve successfully worked into the tale, rather than an excess of character or mecha design that sells it.

Microsoft Launches Xbox 360: Journalists Consume Free Food And Booze

It was the official Singapore launch of the Xbox 360 and Microsoft pulled out the stops. I wouldn’t say they pulled out all of them, since this is an island of 4+ million people, and so marketwise, it’s not a huge percentage of their global earnings, but since the south east Aisa regional HQ is here, I guess they felt they needed to make the effort. It was an event that was open to both the public and the press, though only the press got to enjoy the free food when they received stickers in the shape of the expanding green circles that signifies the 360 logo. Putting one of these stickers upon your person meant that the hired help was authorized to give you as much finger food, Coke, or Heineken as you wanted.

On the whole the event was the usual run of the mill turgid gathering. The public was more amusing, because… well, they weren’t “industry” and so for them getting a chance to see the Xbox 360 at long last was kind of interesting because they were so genuinely happy to be there. The “industry” on the other hand, in this case, people from advertising, media, television, whoever, were either too busy networking to care about anything going on around them, or, if you happened to be me, so exposed to the Xbox 360 as a result of having access to it in an office for a couple of weeks that it was extremely underwhelming to see games you’d just been playing four hours earlier.

The event took place at a building adorably named the Red Dot Museum, a former police station that has now been painted red, at least on one side, and turned into an exhibition space for design (the government’s new agends is to promote the idea that there are people here with talent in visual design, rather than just a bunch of bureaucrats) and offices for design agencies. The launch was presided over by Her Cuteness Denise Keller, an MTV VJ person, and had events such as a couple of Chinese girls dropped by bungie cord from the ceiling to simulate the athletic intrigue of Perfect Dark Zero, a girl dressed AS Joanna Dark of Perfect Dark Zero fame, and Denise Keller herself parroting the script given to her that Joanna Dark is in fact the number one babe in video game-dom.

Loud music, rotating lights, huge crowds, and lots of industry people in business attire trying to pretend they were being casual but actually on the make to network and advance their personal agendas made the whole affair one of those ugly little gatherings I have grown to loathe and detest over the years, so I didn’t even manage to last ’till the end of it. Having the Wife and a few friends there made it marginallyh tolerable, but at the end of the day, my personal truism still reigns: I Hate This Shit, and I left once I couldn’t stomach it anymore. There’s just something about too many people pretending to care, pretending to smile and exchanging business cards while pretending they’re all great friends that makes me want to stick my head ina toilet bowl and vomit out all the pretense I’ve been soaking in.

I’m sure other people actually enjoy these kinds of outings, but I just don’t have the personality type for it. I’ve always done parties incredibly, INCREDIBLY badly, and have occasionally left people so unhappy with my behavior that they’re actually angry with me after they decide to cut their losses and get me out of there before I start calling people hypocrites. I’m much happier at a genuine press conference, or better yet, an industry event where developers and others who actually make games and care about them are there to talk with. Usually when I meet people at such events, like the World Cyber Games last year, the first thing that comes out my mouth is, “I hate all this hype and marketing, pr shit” and whoever I’m supposed to interview usually lights up at that point and we get a classic geek/nerd rapport going.

Upon Watching It

I have decided that I do, in fact, like The Brothers Grimm. Then again, I’m sort’a prejudiced towards Terry Gilliam anyway (Translation: I think he’s a damn genius) so this is the final nail in my film critic’s coffin that confirms once and for all that I have no taste or sound judgement. Oh well.

More Work, And, Video Games Are Eeeevil

Aside from writing articles and playing the likes of Quake IV and Dead Or Alive 4 on the Xbox 360, the rest of the day was spent mulling over the mild disbelief over Tennessee. It would seem that the democratic party in that state has proposed a bill to ban “extremely violent” video games. At first I thought they meant “from sale to minors” but no, they mean just make them plain illegal to sell or own in that state, thus putting video games into a whole other realm.

It amazes me that a country that has the first amendment, video games are now considered somehow more morally bankrupt than hard core pornography, which is still legal to sell and buy.

Man. Games are now on the same footing as contraband drugs. I here I thought playing games was geeky and loserly. Now I find that I’m actually a hard core rebel with major criminal tendencies. From now on when people piss me off, I’ll just say, “Don’t mess with me, man. I play video games.”

To which the only sane reponse is, “OH GOD, PLEASE DON’T KILL ME, I’LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT, BUT SPARE ME DEATH AT THE HANDS OF YOUR UBER L33T SKILLZ!!!11!!ONEONEONE!”