[Destroy All Headphones®] MeccaGodZilla – ERROARS 2.2: Metal Sakura

 

MeccaGodZilla's ERROARS 2.2: Metal Sakura is eighteen tracks of neck snappin', boom-bappin' G-funk. And I don't mean "G" as in "gansta", kiddies. I mean "G" as in... "Gojira". Or maybe it might be much more accurately described as eighteen tracks of E-funk, as in "electronic" and "experimental". Or how about eighteen tracks of I-funk? As in "instrumental" and "intergalactic", or...

Yeah, it's just that difficult to categorize this joint. And this is because ERROARS 2.2: Metal Sakura is all of those things and more. But it should also be mentioned now that the album is also quite good. (Which, by the way, is another adjective that begins with the letter "G".)

If your ears are tuned in to the next level-ish frequencies of music makers like Flying Lotus, DJ Spooky, MeLo-X, and others, then do yourself a big, fat favor and check out MeccaGodZilla's ERROARS 2.2: Metal Sakura. [Sample: "ISA AMBER", "Raye 6.4" and "3rd Ai"] 

[Book Report] Schoolgirl Milky Crisis is a lot more serious than it looks

Do not be fooled by the nonsensical-looking title or by the sugary sweet image of a sailor suit-clad schoolgirl wearing a moo cow headdress and a...mechanized udder. Johnathan Clements' Schoolgirl Milky Crisis (2009) is actually serious business.

Well, as serious as a 400-page collection of writings on the multi-million dollar businesses of Japanese animation, manga, and giant monster flicks can be.

From the pastel-colored front cover to the pastel-colored back cover, Clements fills the pages of Schoolgirl Milky Crisis with informative glimpses into the overlapping realms of Asian popular entertainment that most fans from the West will only get to dream about.

From the pampered life of an anime voice actress to the anime industry-crushing ambitions of a film studio owner from China––to the surprising censorship-related reasons why "tentacles" became so prevalent in anime erotica and several thought-provoking conversations with some of today's best-known makers of animation in Japan, Clements covers three continent's worth of fascinating territory.

The writing is well informed, engaging and immensely educational. But that should probably be expected from the very same author that gave fandom the Anime Encyclopedia, right? Highly recommended.

Mill Creek's 'Gamera Legacy Collection': A DVD box set for the serious giant monster movie collector

This review is from: Gamera Legacy Collection (DVD)

A few weeks prior to its April 29th release date, I was browsing around on Amazon and learned that the release of a new Gamera box set was right around the proverbial corner. I was excited by this news and pleased to see that Mill Creek was responsible for the production of this DVD set. Those folks have given hardcore Japanese giant robot show fans like myself excellent collections of old tokusatsu (special effects) programs like Super Robot Red Baron, Iron King and, best of all, Ultraman.

Having first seen them as rentals, for many years I had wanted to have in my library the Heisei era Gamera films that were made between 1995 and 1999. Prior to their inclusion in Mill Creek’s Gamera Legacy Collection, those films had been previously released in a super affordable Gamera Trilogy Blu-ray box set, also produced by Mill Creek. I, however, don’t own a Blu-ray player and wasn’t ready to scoot out to get one just so that I could finally have the aforementioned films in my video library.

As it often does, though, the heavenly virtue that is patience paid off and I now have all three of the 1990s Gamera films in DVD format. But I also have a whole lot more, and all for a really great price. In addition to those films, Mill Creek’s Gamera Legacy Collection gives me all eight of the Showa era Gamera films made between 1965 and 1980. As a kid growing up in Chicago in the 1970s, I had actually only seen four of those on TV.

When they were released roughly a decade ago, I bought the Alpha Video releases of Gamera the Invincible, Attack of the Monsters, Destroy All Planets, and War of the Monsters, which completed my small collection of the four versions I once saw on TV as a kid. And, since I already owned those, I was pleased to learn that Mill Creek was releasing all of the Gamera films in the original Japanese with subtitles, since the pangs of youthful nostalgia had already been satiated by the Alpha Video releases.

Also, I think I’m becoming something of a purist when it comes to foreign films. This first only applied to American remakes of foreign titles, but it now lends itself to old movies that I first saw as dubs. As such, the DVD issues that I find myself liking most are those that, like some of the recent Godzilla issues, feature two discs that provide the original Japanese and also English dub of a film. This way, whether I’m feeling snooty or nostalgic, I have a version that will feed either need.

I’m also quite aware, too, that the visual masters for the American English dubs aren’t always available for licensing. Taking into consideration that maybe not all of the eleven films included in this collection have even been dubbed into English, I applaud Mill Creek for just releasing them in their unadulterated form. I’ve always wanted to see all of the Gamera films and now I have them in their pure form for a price that I would have happily paid just for three of them.

Yes, Mill Creek has done it again, daikaiju fans, by releasing yet another great collection that will please the hardcore fans of Gamera who also happen to be…literate. The picture quality on the older films in this collection is the very best I’ve ever seen, considering now what is very noticeably lost in the DVD transfers of the old Americanized versions. It’s almost like seeing these movies for the first time. The sound quality and the subtitles are also top-notch, contrary to any reviews posted to Amazon that may whine otherwise.

Read the fine print

At the time that the review that precedes this posting was written to be shared on Amazon, there were a handful of critics -- probably true blue impulse buyers -- whose 3, 2, and 1-star ratings were dragging down the overall product rating on a DVD release that I thought deserved much better.

The main gripe of the negative-leaning critics -- who apparently also had to be among to the very first in line to buy the DVD collection when it came out in April -- was that the films featured were all in the original Japanese language with English subtitles. And most Americans, as we all know, really have this thing when it comes to watching foreign language films with subtitles. "I don't want to read a movie", is the now-seemingly mandatory mantra of this crowd.

But their dislike of reading subtitles must also extend to simple product descriptions as well. Had any of those savvy spenders spent a measly 30 seconds reading the information provided by Amazon on the product page, they could have made an informed decision, instead of buying first and then negatively critiquing later a product that didn't live up to their own ill-informed expectations.

When I was a boy, one of my favorite cautionary punchlines was the one that warns us to read the fine print. But as an adult, all too often I find myself wishing that people would read the not-so-fine print too. 

The Harimaya Bridge – the fine art of storytelling

Even without knowing in advance that filmmaker Aaron Woolfolk was heavily inspired by the legendary director Akira Kurosawa, something about his debut feature THE HARIMAYA BRIDGE called to mind films by Kurosawa like DREAMS and RHAPSODY IN AUGUST. It's nothing on the surface of the movie that can be quickly interpreted or discerned. It's something much more subtle and nuanced that comes through in the very natural pacing of the story and the sensitive development of its characters. It also seems to come through in the deep level of attention that Woolfolk, like his cinematic inspiration, pays to the sumptuous rural settings chosen for this film that reflect the Japan of old through modern eyes–as opposed to the country's more often seen urban environs. All this, however, isn't meant to say that THE HARIMAYA BRIDGE, Woolfolk's first feature, is a flawless masterpiece. It isn't. But it is a very masterful directorial debut that is often as visually stunning as it is emotionally stirring. With a fantastic cast that includes Ben Guillory, Saki Takaoka, Misa Shimizu and Danny Glover (also the film's producer), THE HARIMAYA BRIDGE is a densely layered portrait of the extended human family that touches on a complex variety of themes, including romantic and familial love, bigotry, loss, sorrow, discovery, tradition, and the unexpected bridges that can lead us to redemption and forgiveness. I highly and enthusiastically recommend this film. SP

KFG4 Reviewed by Broken Pencil

Kung Fu Grip!
Perzine, issue #4: Things In Life, St. Paco, 7730 East Broadway #925, Tucson, Arizona, 85710, USA, kungfugripzine.com, $2

With a title like Kung Fu Grip! and plenty of cheesy vintage comic book ads, I was expecting to find a zine mocking '70s culture. Instead I got a tremendously thoughtful, introspective, intelligent, well-written zine. This zine made my day.
In the intro, Paco discusses the time lapse between issues three and four, how he lost his job and has struggled to get published in other mediums and the passing of his father. The latter is just mentioned briefly but, as you read on, you can feel its influence ripple through the pages.
Included in this issue is an article Paco wrote about the historical treatment and presentation of Negritos (Asia's "little blacks") that originally appeared in Giant Robot and an extended piece in which he writes about his final months with his father and the influence his parent had on his life. "I told myself that I wasn't going to eulogize my father," he writes, but once he realizes he is doing just that, he doesn't shy away. What he ends up creating is a beautiful tribute. " I have experienced nothing as rewarding as having the chance to help my father as best I could during the time when he needed me most. If I never accomplish anything else worth writing about, I know that I accomplished that," he says. Ironically it is something worth writing about and provides a moment all too rare when we're reminded of the power words can have and the perfect simplicity of the medium of zines to convey those messages.

– Harley R. Pageot
Broken Pencil Magazine (Canada)

Syndicated Zine Reviews: KFG4

Kung Fu Grip! #4
Paco Taylor
7730 East Broadway #925
Tucson, AZ 85710
$1ppd, or two stamps

Kung Fu Grip is a time machine, or time ma-zine. Reading it brought me back to my 70’s era living room sitting in front of the furniture-sized-fake-wood-framed television watching ‘Enter the Dragon’ on Betamax while eating American cheese and miracle whip on white bread sandwiches. Of course, I never had a Betamax player, but that’s beside the point, the point is that this is a great zine that captures a past cultural aesthetic in an effective and very satisfying way. Contained within are stories about the Onge, Satun, and Pahang people of Asia, a tribute to his father, and some history of the zine. It’s well written and informative. My only complaint is that it’s too short, but, as the author explains, this is a special ‘free’ issue of KFG that is designed more for trades and is significantly shorter than past issues. Those past issues are now on my search radar of ‘zines to get’. Dig it.

– Randy Spaghetti, Syndicated Zine Reviews