impressions of late

Because I've kinda been all over the place this summer (and also was sick and bed-ridden for a while). Sans books because I handle those on goodreads now. I have a China trip post mostly done but still on hold till I find time to sort through all those pictures I took...

Musicals:

A Little Night Music: 
Saw this at the ACT in SF earlier this summer on their last weekend. Even though it's a Sondheim musical, I don't think I appreciated it as much as any of his other works before, but the ACT did a really good job with it here, with some pretty hilariously witty moments, and great singing. According to a female employee (who randomly talked to me on the street because of the playbill I was carrying), this show was the probably the best one they put on this season. Personal highlight that still sticks with me was the moment "Remember?" came on- capturing what it feels like to experience nostalgia from a single glance. But really, it's hard to describe without actually seeing the scene performed in person though; listening to the soundtrack doesn't evoke the same kind of feeling.

Matilda: 
Second time! Still a bit hard to follow at times- dunno if it's because of the British accents or how fast everyone sing-speaks, but pretty enjoyable and nostalgic for anyone who's familiar with Matilda from the book or film. "Naughty" and "When I Grow Up" are still my favorite songs, though the rest of the soundtrack isn't as memorable to me and I wasn't as in awe by the children dancing this time... but I guess that's sort of a novelty first-time experience thing.

Films:

Terminator: Genisys.
Just for you, Sammy. But seriously, it's fun if you go in with no expectations. Just don't try to make sense of the plot too much like I usually do; it's not worth the effort here.

Birdman.
An incredible dive into the psyche of a faded Hollywood actor. I generally am a sucker for long takes even when they're illusory (see also Rope) and this movie just flows entirely like one enormously long one. Probably my favorite live-action movie from 2014 at this rate.

Whiplash.
Intense. Relatable for anyone who's had a strict music teacher (reminds me of the days my piano teacher would slap my hands for playing poorly...) and for the same reasons difficult to watch. Found it interesting how people decry it as a tragedy even though the ending doesn't feel that way at first- but I have to agree with the sentiment there. At what cost do we ought to strive for genius?

The Look of Silence. 
Followup documentary film to 2012/13's The Act of Killing, on the Indonesian killings of 1965, but this time from the perspective of the victims and following a more conventional documentary style. Difficult to stomach at times but not as sickening as Act of Killing was persay, though perhaps because I'd already been exposed to the subject with the prior film.

What struck me the most was the amount of mental gymnastics people are willing to undergo to not take responsibility for the past- and it happened at every level, including the children of the perpetrators ("Feel free to treat my dad as your father [even though he killed your brother]." Seriously, what). You keep following the blame chain until it gets to the point where eventually no one is responsible, if only because "God willed it to happen." It's disgusting.

Moon.
Pretty cool sci-fi. Reminds me of a part of Interstellar (the part where people usually tear up at) except extended to an entire film concept complete with the claustrophobic atmosphere, and to be honest I like this film a lot more. I'm still a bit confused on what the point of GERTY was in this film though- his role didn't seem as fundamentally important compared to say, HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, aside from being convenient for the sake of the plot.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.
Decent, not great as one friend put it. I was fully engaged the entire time, though that might've been partly because I was on a Sour Patch sugar high as it seems like most of the people I was with either zoned out or almost fell asleep at some points where it started to slow down between action scenes. But whatever, the action sequences are good.

Melancholia.
Finally watched this one after friends have been pushing me to for years. Very arthouse, especially the opening (which reminded me of Tree of Life except slightly less annoying), which means good things for people who are into somewhat abstract but beautiful movie visuals and bad things for the rest of us with short attention spans. I enjoyed the first half (sans the opening) more for the social dynamics of the screwed up wedding, whereas I had to force myself to pay attention during most of the second half because I honestly had lost interest in any of the characters by that point. Not exactly my cup of tea I guess, but I've always been more into the plot/character/writing aspect of films rather than the visual and this one excels more in the latter aspect. I don't think I would enjoy any of the rest of Von Trier's films (Antichrist, Nymphomaniac, etc.) any more than this one unfortunately.

TV Shows:

Orphan Black.
Got sucked into this finally at a friend's behest. Canadian sci-fi comedy-drama-mystery-thriller? (shrug, it kinda hits all those points) about a drifting hustler who witnesses the suicide of someone who looks identical to her and then tries to assume her identity... which lands her within some messed-up international conspiracy because her identical twin was apparently involved in some crazy shit. This show is particularly notable because its lead actress does an amazing job of convincingly playing multiple character roles- like Parent Trap x10. Season 1 was incredibly addictive and well-paced enough that nothing felt like filler, though later on I've been having trouble following where the plot is going and the writing quality isn't always that great. On a side note, Alison is hilarious.

Sense8.
8 people discover that they're linked- sensually, almost psychically, what-have-you- in the midst of a greater mysterious plot. The Wachowski's newest Netflix show that feels reminiscent of Cloud Atlas crossed with Heroes crossed with Lost kinda. Pretty unique in that the main cast spans multiple races, backgrounds, and sexual orientations (a Hindu Indian scientist, a Korean businesswoman, a gay Mexican star, a transgender SF "hacktivist", a Kenyan bus driver, a British-Icelandic DJ, a German crook, and a Chicago cop. oh and Sayid from Lost).

Also reminiscent of the Wachowski's works in that it feels pretty optimistic yet corny yet beautiful at the same time, and that the concept has great potential but the execution doesn't always work out so well. Pacing is rather slow and character focused rather than plot focused; I think it finally just started to pick up around episode 7, but really only for one character. Writing can also be cringe-inducing sometimes, but I managed to get past the first four episodes and I'm still enjoying it. Basically, people are really polarized on how much they love or hate this show, but I still think it's worth checking out- at least it's better than the crappy Jupiter Ascending.

Cartoons:

Adventure Time, season 6.
Finally finished this! Apparently I stopped watching last time around the halfway point, which was right when things starting gearing up in preparation for the somewhat bizarre season finale (but no different from usual really). Some episodes are hit-or-miss as usual, and apparently even some of the comet-related episodes were a stretch for some people even though I still loved those. If you aren't familiar with Adventure Time at all, it's colorful and mostly weird but in a way that oddly still makes sense most of the time (compared to shows that are just plain weird). Most of the ten-minute episodes are just random and episodic, but if you make it to season 2 onwards, there actually is a larger overarching plotline that eventually comes out. The show actually has a well-developed series mythology going on, which is what I love most about it, and I like the way that it handles relationships, although lately Steven Universe might have it beat (see below).

Gravity Falls.
Twin Peaks for kids. Seriously. This show is weird and I love it. It's about a pair of twins stuck for the summer at their uncle's mystery shack in a middle-of-nowhere town filled with supernatural secrets and crazy conspiracies. First season's more episodic, not that that's a bad thing (one of my favorite moments is Mabel's crazy illegal rainbow candy-infused acid trip- no seriously, this is what they can get away with on kid's shows these days) but the main storyline kicks into gear during second season and it makes for a great overarching mystery. The writing is clever and filled with random hilarious callback moments that I'm not sure I'd have gotten as a kid (well, Rocko's Modern Life kinda went over my head back in the day... but then again I always had a suspicion something was up after the nudist episode).

Steven Universe.
From the inventor of some of Adventure Time's most memorable songs ("Bacon Pancakes", "Daddy, Why Did You Eat My Fries", etc.) comes this heartwarming and beautifully colored cartoon about a half-human-half-gem kid named Steven and his alien gem friends who protect the earth from alien creatures and stuff. It sounds just like any other kid cartoon, but as the show progresses it delves into some fairly deep and complicated but just accessible-enough-that-kids-will-get-it adult relationship issues, which is pretty impressive for a ten minute episodic kid's series even though other shows like Adventure Time have done it before. Steven starts out annoyingly corny but really grows on you as the series progresses, exhibiting some surprisingly mature moments over time despite his childish personality. Also, the music's great, but that shouldn't be surprising.

Rick and Morty.
The return of Back to the Future on steroids. Season just started, but I loved the premiere. The way this show explores sci-fi tropes and just takes them to their crazy but logical extreme is hilarious and at the same time amazingly creative. Looking forward to the rest of it.

Anime:

Durarara!!x2 Ten.
Similar vibes with last season: not as good as season 1, but I'm still entertained in the meantime. Episodes have been mostly meandering in providing background from one character to another, but the main plots haven't really started yet (about halfway in) and the only big change that really comes to mind compared with last season is Mikado's character for obvious reasons. I suspect the pacing issues are inherited from the plot structure of the novel series itself (they still haven't addressed Celty's head yet), and I realize that most of the continuing appeal for this series comes from "character fanservice"- and by that I mean in the less conventional personality sense, because of how crazy everyone in this series is.

Space Brothers #0.
I haven't actually seen the regular series yet, but this one-shot prequel movie was touching if not a little predictable at times. Was especially fun and atmospheric to see in a movie theater (for the Japanese Film Festival), and brought back familiar awe-inspiring vibes from another spaced-based slice-of-life series, Planetes. The music in particular made my day.

Memories: Magnetic Rose.
Kouji Morimoto is known for working on Akira (the film), Macross Plus, Mind Game, the Animatrix, and a couple of Utada Hikaru's music videos (Passion) among other things. This year he showed up as a special guest for the Japanese Film Festival, and they exhibited a few of his shorts for one viewing with a special live Q&A session after that was quite informative (I was also impressed with the ability of the live translator but that's another story).

Just going to comment on the highlight of this set: Magnetic Rose, a long 45-minute short (oxymoron I know) intended as the first part of a 3 episode anthology series, Memories, based off short stories written by the author of Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo. This particular short was the one directed by Morimoto, in collaboration with Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Paranoia Agent, Millennium Actress, etc.) on script and Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell SAC, Wolf's Rain, too many to list) on music.

The basic premise involves a deep space freighter that investigates a SOS signal coming from an apparently deserted space station,. and what results is a crazy mishmash of deep space cyberpunk, French architecture, opera music, hallucinations, and psychological trauma among other things. The animation quality is amazing by 1990's standards and also stands the test of time quite well even today; the actual story itself is rather haunting- but perfect for cyberpunk; and the music meshes incredibly well with the animation.

During the interview after the screening, Morimoto talked about how his conception of cyberpunk in this film was really an attempt to combine his interest in the unfamiliar, in this case European architecture (which he was obsessed with at the time but aware of his cultural distance to), with the familiar, or the cold, dark alleyways of Japan that he'd grown up with. He also revealed that in the vast majority of his works, he conceived of the overall musical structure first and then molded the rest of the film to fit with the music, which explains a lot about the animation he's directed.

Afterwards, he explained how Kanno, the composer, had likened the process of composing to the process of carving out a Buddhist sculpture within a cliff: it's not so much that you create something from nothing, as it is that you feel out a structure that's already there in the materials (in this case, materials being the basic elements of music itself). Speaking of Kanno as well his other past musical collaborator, Utada Hikaru, in light of this, Morimoto exclaimed, "That, to me, is what makes genius."

The rest of the shorts tended towards being more abstract until Genius Party Beyond: Dimension Bomb, which literally was "visual poetry" as one audience member put it, but unfortunately required more visual sensory receptiveness than my sleep-deprived-self had energy for at the time (-_-). So I won't say anything else on that.