There’s nothing quite better than 70s kung fu films that focus on the theme of revenge! The Thundering Mantis (Hao xiao zi) was directed by Yip Wing Cho in 1980 and stars Leung Kar Yan as Ah Chi. As you may have already guessed Ah Chi is a martial arts student that is expelled from his school after a fight with some henchmen. Not to give away a spoiler, but here is the final showdown scene from the end of the film: Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 31, 2009 in Animation
Plot: In a world where Japan is spiraling out of control, an enigmatic and powerful man gives twelve Japanese citizens 100 million dollars to spend on “saving” Japan. Using the network he lays out for them, they have merely to issue the command, and it is done. Our protagonist, one of these twelve, begins the story stark naked in front the White House, holding a gun. Its at this moment he loses all of his memories, and must begin to unravel the mystery of who he was, and if that will affect who he wants to become. Read more…
Today marks the birthday of one the cinema’s living legends: From The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly to Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood taught us early not to mess with him. With a career spanning over fifty years, we’ve seen Clint Eastwood direct, act, and on occasion… sing. The most impressive facet of it all is that his most recent endeavors, such as Million Dollar Baby and Grand Torino show us he’s not done for the count yet. Happy Birthday Clint! I’d like to celebrate by sharing a personal favorite scene of mine, from a movie called Paint Your Wagon: Read more…
What makes for good literature? Now, this is only an opinion, but the best stories… the ones that really make you squirm with delight, are never about the guns, the gadgets, or the girls, its about how these objects move our characters. Was the “Final Frontier” about uncharted space, or was it really about how exploring the last unknown effected our heroes? In The Time Traveler’s Wife we see how an all too overused plot device, time travel, is used to stretch a conventional romance to the brink and back. Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 30, 2009 in Pulp Fiction
Isaac Asimov was an engaging speaker. I found myself almost unable to avoid being hypnotized by his soft, yet well modulated tones. Taken from a 1971 interview, Asimov comments on the “Golden Age” of science fiction. This sheds a sharp perspective on this genre during the 1940’s an era before moon landings, color televisions and the internet. Point of incredible interest: In this first excerpt Asimov logically explains why Science Fiction was so “adventure” laden leading up to this time frame. The this second expert focuses on the changes that took place after 1949: Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 29, 2009 in Videogames
Times are hard, and this recessions effects us all. However, we cannot let this economic crisis beat us. People will tell you that “gaming” is just a habit that they can not continue to support, that they should just “grow up.” Well, that’s inaccurate, and those people are capitalism hating fascists. This isn’t to say you cannot get your digital jollies and save a few dollars. Today I’m here to help the destitute gamers amongst you find great entertaining games at a fraction of the cost. To this endeavor, I went to my local gamestop: Read more…
Everyone knows that the two scariest things in the world are puppets and zombies. Now, imagine if these two horrifying objects were combined, ala Freddy versus Jason. Horror masterpiece, right? Wrong! However, what you do have is a novel one minute and forty-eight seconds of your life you can’t have back. You’ll still click it though, come on! It has zombies and puppets in it… Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 28, 2009 in Animation
As most fans of the series will tell you, there’s just something magical about Gunbuster. Also known as Aim for the Ace!,Gunbuster was a six episode OVA released by the mostly unknown Gainax in 1988. The show also marked the directorial debut of Hideaki Anno, who’d go on to create other fascinating shows like Evangelion. True to that form, Gunbuster is also a series where the robots and monsters are merely the pretense to show kids growing up/dealing with their problems. Among them, is Jung Freud, my favorite Soviet. Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 28, 2009 in Animation
This video, by the Japanese group of artists Rinpa Eshidan is one of the coolest things I’ve come across this week! Rinpa Eshidan, which is loosely defined as “To bring people together, art crew,” is a collaborative art effort that I am entirely too enamoured with. Focused on making art for the sake of creating, not the sake of preserving, the group has managed to come up with some amazing projects. This one, for example, is a time lapse video of them, in public, painting on the same wall for a week. Using each completed painting as a springboard to the next, the results are mesmerizing to say the least. Here are some photos of them in action: Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 27, 2009 in Videogames
If you’re like me, you secretly hate all of your friends, but only secretly. If they ever found out you hated them, you’d go, “no I don’t,” and then buy them some ice cream. Well, if you’ve ever wanted to know about the kind of games to make them start secretly hating you too, then you’re in luck. Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 27, 2009 in Comic Books
It strikes me as amusing that Kitty Pryde, the girl who can’t be touched, is being used to touch all of our hearts. I’d complain, but she phased through the soft spot of my soul years ago. In Full of Pryde over 70 artists created new fanart of Kitty Pryde as a part of a fundraiser for the Oregon Hemophilia Treatment Center. Shown above is a purrfect illustration by Aleks Sennwald and below are just a few highlights from the show: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 26, 2009 in Animation
If Pixar did a toilet training video it would look like this! The clip above is from some NHK kids video show in Japan, the subject matter is strictly bathroom humor as you can see. I think the cutest thing about this video are the flying rolls of toilet paper who seem to be playing a bugle.
Posted by John Martone on May 26, 2009 in Videogames
Every person is a player, and every player has their game. Valve’s Team Fortress 2, on top of being just delightfully hilarious and fun to look at, achieves an environment that sums up nine different “Players.” Some people are spies, some people are snipers, I however, am an Engineer.Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 26, 2009 in Videogames
“Free Team Fortress Weekend” just ended, and I’m not sure my body could take any more knives in the back. With the renewed focus on “Spy” and “Sniper” content, swarms of players seethe with a desire to make my game life miserable. However, this video paints a different picture. The wonderfully colorful themes, the delicious one liners, this video reminds me of the game is all about… style. Though I may not like the spy, I respect him, and approve of his relations with the Scout’s mother. Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 25, 2009 in Comic Books
Happy Memorial Day! While most of us usually commemorate this date with hot dogs and hamburgers, sometimes it’s awe inspiring just to remember what this date is is all about: Those who made sacrifices for the rest of us. One such person was Corporal Weinert, a soldier during World War II. Weinert made a habit of personalizing his envelopes sent home with rich cartoony illustrations that can only be described as pure Americana. This amazing collection has a good number of his envelopes, but unfortunately lacks the letters within. Although they paint an charming picture of the thoughts of a GI sharing his insights with his family and friends on the home front: Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 25, 2009 in Television
If there’s one thing I know, its that the United Fictional States of America owe more to Jack Bauer than any other American Figure. Washington? Beat up British tea drinkers. Lincoln? Preserved a Union… once? Nearly singlehandedly, Jack Bauer has saved us from biological attacks, nuclear weapons, and manipulative First Ladies. While in no way a complete account, I’d like to highlight 24 such accomplishments. Oh yes, and spoilers fly like candy…Read more…
What makes this pair of Full Metal Alchemist Coin Banks so interesting is that when you put a coin in, it will trigger a cute low resolution digital animation on the front panel. One coin bank features Edward Elric while the other is themed with Roy Mustang. Here’s a full description: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 24, 2009 in Videogames
Lego Battles for the Nintendo DS is due out this June from Hellbent Games. Firstly I love the idea of anything associated with Lego (which is such a small scale toy) appearing on the ever so cute Nintendo DS platform, and secondly what makes this title interesting is that it will allow you to “build and battle” in terms of the gameplay. And the killer feature is that this title takes advantage of the networking capabilities of the DS so you can battle your friends block-by-block. Here are some images from the game: Read more…
This ultra-moe fan video from Japan combines footage from the anime series K-ON! with a soundtrack from an old Kirby video game. I hate to admit it, but once I started watching this loop I couldn’t stop (there’s something so addictive about videogame soundtracks). By the way for comparison here’s the original beats from Kirby’s Dreamland 3 for the SNES from 1997: Read more…
While I’d be hesitant to say the movie was enjoyable, I’d be hard pressed to point out what I liked about it. As you may or may not know, Terminator Salvation is both a prequel and sequel. Terminator 1-3 took place in a present day world haunted by apocalyptic figures from a future we dutifully marched toward. Terminator Salvation is the first movie to take place after our “Judgment Day,” but hides safely snuggled between the piles of mythology yet to be turned into a movie. (Spoilers from this point forward) Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 22, 2009 in Japanese TV
This vintage Japanese commercial for Parliament Lights looks to be from the late 80s — in fact it feels so cliched that it almost seems like a parody ad from Saturday Night Live. This ad also interesting for me to look at this because cigarette commercials were banned in the United States in 1965, so even seeing a spot for smokes is somewhat surreal in any language.
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 22, 2009 in Science
On this day in 1969 the fourth manned Apollo mission set a record in terms of getting as close as possible to the surface of the moon. Comic fanboys should note that the mission used the callsigns of the Peanuts characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy, who became unofficial mascots of Apollo 10. In fact Charles Schulz even drew some artwork for the mission. So when you look back at photos from this 1969 endeavor every so often you’ll spot a Snoopy or a Charlie Brown hanging around: Read more…
