Apr
30th

Live-Action Anime movies

Posted by Kristen Barghout

By now, most of you who read this must know of the Live-Action Dragonball movie that is to released around July 2009.  Well, it appears that we are in for another shock on the live action band wagon, as we are informed that there i now going to be a live action Evangelion movie with a release date of 2009.

Unlike with the Dragonball movie, the evangelion movie is actually going to be written by the Hideaki Anno, the writer from the original anime, so lets hope that they dont mess this one up, as America is so prone to do so.

ADV films announced the production of the live action movie at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, however, since then, there has been no work on the film.  However, the film is now in post-production phase, so even though its not 100% definite that the movie is to be made, its definitely looking likely, and with the release of the Transformers movie last year, and the upcoming Dragonball movie, it seems likely that the Evangelion movie will go ahead.

Sadly, as of yet, there are no confirmed actors, producers or synopsis which I can share with you, however, as soon as information is made available to me, I will be writing an update.

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Apr
29th

Lolita

Posted by Kristen Barghout

More recently, animes have become more appealing to the male gender.  This is from the semi-recent introduction of Lolita’s within anime series’ and movies.

One of the most famous Lolita characters is Chii from Chobits, with her flowing dresses and sometimes gothic attire.  The question I want to ask is what gave the japanese the idea of creating such characters.

The first adult (Hentai) anime to come out came out in 1984, the english title being "Lolita Anime".  It is believe that the reason Lolita’s are used in more anime’s is because a high quantity of anime fans, more or less usually male, seem to have developed a Lolita complex.  This means that they are attracted to adults, with either a child like personality, or a very young appearance…so someone who is 24, but looks about 16ish.

Unlike Lolicon, I dont really see any problem with Lolita’s…in actual fact, its no different from people dressing up in school uniforms in order to seduce their partner.

Here is a list of some anime’s that may appeal to you, if you yourself have a lolita complex, though I think it necessary to tell you most of them are hentai.

Lolita/cute factor

Angel Core

Lolita Anime

Maids in heaven SuperS

Maids in Dream

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Apr
25th

4 Horror Tales: Forbidden Floor - Korean Horror

Posted by Kristen Barghout

hidden floor.jpgWell I finally got round to watching the third installment of the 4 Horror Tales stories, and in actual fact, I think this is the best one so far.  It was kind of like Ju-On in its style, but the story was told in a very unique way to this type of horror film. 

The basics of this story are (spoiler free) ,  Min-young moves onto the fifth floor of a new studio apartment with her six-year-old daughter, Joo-hee. She’s concerned when her downstairs neighbour, HAN Chang-soo, says that he cannot tolerate the noise above him, even though the two women live tranquilly. Furthermore, she is anxious about other residents’ strange behaviors and their mysterious deaths.

Min-young hardens herself mentally after the move into the new house, largely because of her daughter’s unprecedented odd behavior and continual run-ins with a bizarre woman. Convinced that Joo-hee has fallen sick and perturbed by the mysterious events around the studio apartment, Min-young looks to disclose the truth by herself.

The little girl in this film is a brilliant actress, being able to switch instantaneously from a cute and well behaved child, into a demonically possessed monster, making the film that much more convincing to the viewer.  There is also a twist to the story right at the end, which I did actually suspect, but it wasnt exactly made to be obvious.

This movie was actually really good, its not exactly scary, but it shows human nature to be what it truly is…every man for themselves.

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Apr
24th

War of the Worlds 2

Posted by Kristen Barghout

Today I have decided to write about a subject of a different sort…American movies.  The reason for which is that yesterday, I had the harrowing experience ofwotw2_large.jpg watching the new War of the Worlds 2 movie, that was released 18th March.

The reason I have decided to write this blog about such is simply because I was so astounded at the film that I wish to save you, the readers, the horror of sitting through what is actually, no word of a lie, the WORST film i have EVER seen…and i have seen a lot of poor movies *cough* Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer *cough*, but GOD, at the end of this movie I wanted to gouge out my eyes, pull off my ears and cut off my tongue…those were my exact words to the people I was watching it with!

You may be asking why is this film so poor.  I will go through that in great length, because in all honesty, there is a lot to say.

For starters, the visual effects are so appalling (especially in contrast to the previous film) that the ‘Walkers’ dont even have shadows.  Now as an animator, I know that that is a very basic technique, that NO-ONE should forget.  Secondly, the lighting used on the ‘Walkers’ was poor, and just made it look like it wasnt even part of the film.

Now, I have mentioned these ‘Walkers’…in the previous film they were those big metal tripods that devestated the city…well the producer of this film, interpreted this as, "Oh, they aren’t metal, despite how they look…they are made of flesh"…well done you…well done!  What an absolutely poorly implemented and structured concept!

The biggest thing that annoyed me though about this film is the constant re-use of scenes, proving the film to be an extremely low budget movie.  Honestly, within the first 5 minutes, a scene is repeated at least three times of people running through the city…the same people, in the same places.

The worst use of this scene repetition is used with the walkers…now his scene repeats over 10 times throughout the film…if you ever have the misfortune of watching this movie, you will know what I mean by my description of the scene.  Basically, the scene is, a walker passes a bridge towards some trees…randomly, they will include a laser shooting from it…but that scene is the exact same one used every time.

There are also some ridiculous inconsistencies within the film.  For example, the army have some F22 ‘Raptors’…for those who know anything, that is the aircraft StarScream in the new Transformers movie transforms into…however, in this movie, they are not actually Raptors…they arent even anything like them.

Secondly about the Raptors, the army actually only has about 6 of them, and when they go to attack the mother ship, the guy actually says "Hurry up, we’re all dying out here"…but in the next scene, despite for the last 10 minutes you have seen a maximum of 4 ships, there are HUNDREDS of them…everywhere.  What the hell!  Where did all these ships come from?????  It doesnt make ANY SENSE!!

Next, the Raptor crashes to Mars, completely busted up…but at the end of the film, he says "ill just reverse throttle it and we’ll be otta here"…what?  Thats like me writing off my car, and then driving it home with no wheels and no engine…it doenst make sense…Honestly, this guy needs shooting with a common sense dart!

Finally, the other thing that annoys me is the female scientist with the "What the hell is that" accent.  Honestly, I have no idea…I was told she is from south Texas or something, but she sounds Canadian half the time, the Australian, and then, half the time I cant understand what she is saying cos she doesnt seem to want to form her words…her mouth works like a puppet!

Anyway, thats my review of this film…basically can be cut down to DO NOT WATCH UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!  WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK OF SANITY and WARNING!!! MAY INDUCE FITS OF AGGRESSION.

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Apr
22nd

4 Horror Tales: D-Day - Korean Horror

Posted by Kristen Barghout

Well, thankfully I managed to watch this horror movie yesterday so I can tell you all about it.  The movie is basically about girls being sent to a school to study, but this school is a very strict and indoctrinative school, where everyone must wear the same clothes, and compete to be the best.

posterphoto20387.jpgAs the story goes, four girls find themselves in a room together, in which they bond over their current situation, that is except Woo-Jin who is the rebellious type.  In order to scare the other girls, she tells them about how the school burned down three years ago, with all the students inside, locked in their rooms and unable to escape.

This is just the beginning of their weird journey.  As the story progresses, some of the girls begin to have visions of the death that surrounds them, and strange things…not exactly paranormal on the whole, but psychological things begin to happen.

Watching this film as a nice change of pace from the usual Ju-On type horror movies that I have been brought up with.  It is not often that I get to watch the psychological breakdown of individuals, and the acting was fantastic, and added to the belief that you truly are watching all this happen.

The story itself is actually very basic and drawn out, but not in a bad way.  It allows you to witness people disintegration into madness, and see jsut how horrific the conditions they are expected to live in are.

So all in all, this film is actually very good.  The acting, from people so young, is absolutely fantastic, and in some cases I think they gave a better performance than their older co-stars.  This is definitely a film to watch if you are looking for a change in pace in the horror movie scene.

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Apr
21st

4 Horror Tales: Dark Forest - Korean Horror

Posted by Kristen Barghout

Once again, I am writing about an Asian horror movie that I have had the pleasure to watch.  The film is called 4 Horror Tale, and is a series of movies, consisting of: Dark Forest, D-Day, Forbidden Floor and February 29th.  As of yet I have not watched the other three movies, but I am sure that I will get around to it eventually, and as ever, you can rely on myself to provide you with a review.

The film starts off where a group of friends are travelling into the forest for a camping trip - a forest that three years previously burned for days, though you cannot tell.

The things I liked about this movie is that almost instantely, things take a turn for the worst, and within the first 20minutes, two of the characters are missing, presumed dead.

The best thing about this movie is it is actually like a Korean Zombie movie, and I love my zombie movies.  They are my favourite ‘genre’ of film, and scare me to death…but who doesnt love a fright now and again?  The story follows the remaining youths as they try to find their missing comrades in order to proccede to leave the forest.  But as we know, the Koreans dont like happy endings, and as soon as they make the mistake of searching for them, things start to heat up.

For obvious reasons, I cant say any more without spoiling the whole story, but what I can say is that this film was awesome.  It had everything that you would want from a horror movie, and I really enjoyed watching it.  The fact that its not all, “Oh, don’t worry, everything will be fine” is something that American movies seem to miss out on these days, with the exception of Stephen King, but that guy really likes people to suffer!

So, if you can get this movie for cheap, or even the compilation of them, I would go for it.  Thats what I plan on doing soon, just so I can see the others in the series.

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Apr
18th

Suicide Club - Japanese Horror

Posted by Kristen Barghout

I recently had the pleasure of watching the movie Suicide Club (also known as Suicide Circle) and was possibly the weirdest, most wonderful film that I have had the pleasure of watching in a very long time.

The story begins when 54 Japanese high-school girls decide to commit suicide by throwing themselves in front of an oncoming train.  Noone knows why they have done this, but the Japanese police try desperately to find out, as more and more deaths occur.

Only one person knows what may be going on, after coming across a website that has red and white dots on the screen.  She figures out that these dots signify people, red being girls and white being boys.  And as the true horror of the matter unfolds, she sees that everytime a death occurs, the red and white dots increase…and she finally realises…its a counter.

The best part is, thats just the beginning of the movie, and I havent actually given any of the truly gruesome details away.  This film is just that awesome.  There are lots of blood, guts and gore, and we are even given a suprise visit by ROLLY, the famous japanese rock star.  Look out for his character called Genesis!

So there you have it, definitely a film to watch, so if you can get hold of it cheap, i woudl seriously tell you to go for it.  this filmis seriously messed up, and has a brilliant message behind it all, that apparently not too many people understand

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Apr
17th

The Eye 10: Thai Horror

Posted by Kristen Barghout

Despite the name, this horror film actually has nothing to do with ‘The Eye’.  The story revolves aroun a young man finding a book that describes the 10 ways in which you can summon ghosts to yourself.

When he takes the book to his friends, they decide to participate in the rituals descibed within the book.  At first everything seems to be going ok, and no

ghosts make their presence known…that is until they try to summon the hungry ghosts using a ritual that requires you to site a cross roads with a bowl and chopsticks, enough for five.  You must tap the bowl, and when the ghosts appear, you must continue to tap the bowl otherwise they will notice you and aim to torment you.

Once this ritual goes awry, things gets even worse…

I really liked the idea behind this movie, and the ending is definitely something that you dont see every day.  The ghosts in this are extremely creepy, and I guess the closet I can describe them is that they are like the Ju-On, however, they produce ectoplasm…in other words they are extreremly slimy.

Sadly it is really hard to get this on dvd, as no where I could find in the UK sells it, other than ebay…which very rarely has it available anyway.

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Apr
14th

Megatron!!!

Posted by Kristen Barghout

This is a bargain, and I have to tell EVERYONE about it.  www.animeexchange.co.uk have a Cybertron Leader Megatron for sale.

Just to let everyone know why this is so cool I have to tell everyone…well, the Cyberton Leader Megatron is really rare, so rare, even on ebay, it is hardly evermegatron_med.jpg there!  And yet, somehow,  Anime Exchange has managed to get a hold of a few.

The best part about this, is that even though they know just how rare this item is, they are selling it for only £44.99…I know that that is in fact a lot, but not in comparisson to ebay where I have seen people bid up to £75 for this one item.

Obviously, the price doesnt include the p&p, but come on, its a real bargain.  Now I would buy myself one of these, but however, I was one of those foolish people who decided to purchase it on ebay for an extraordinarily large amount of money, considering how cheap it is here.

seriously, all you transformers out there, get hold of this whilst you can, because soon you wont be able to get hold of them at all…even Play.com doesn’t have them anymore…neither amazon, and only very rarely does ebay.

I have used this company before and they are brilliant.  Fast delivery, and a perfect service, so trust me when I tell you to go and buy this now!!!

 

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Apr
11th

Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro - Japanese Horror

Posted by Kristen Barghout

The translation of this is "Tales of Terror from Tokyo" and is made up of Fifteen 5-minute horror films from Japan,Terrifying and sensational tales of ghosts hold

Japan in the grips of fear.  These horror films are meant to be made up from real ghost stories…creepy.

This begins with the story of the Bus Lady, an old lady that gets on the bus, and always asks "Do you want to hear a scary story?", and she will not accept no for an answer.

The next story is that of the "Elevator", when a young woman enters into her apartment block and selects the elevator to go up, however, as she watches the elevator decend, the doors in front of her randomly open up…but why is the lift here when it is still decending?

"The School Excursion" is the next story in this series, and is about a school trip to an ancient inn, however, upon visiting the bathrooms late at night, one of the girls finds an occupant of a different kind.

The third story is "Kengo Nishioka" and is about a wife alone at home whilst her husband works late.  She hears some noises coming from the wardrobe.  when she builds up the courage to confront it, it tells it that it is a former employee of her husbands and wishes to know where he is so that he can take him to hell.  But what happens when the wife refuses to divulge the location of her husband?

 The next story, "The Visitor" is my personal favourite, mainly because it is so creepy.  When the doorbell rings, the youngest daughter Mika is told to go and open it.  When she asks who is at the door, the ‘thing’ claims to be her Aunt Machiko.  Mika doubts this as the voice is different so goes to look through the letter box and is greeted by a zombie-esque entity.  Will the entity simply go away upon refusal of entry, or will some foolish individual open the door and grant it access to the abode and its tennants?

"Covering the 1000 Tales" is about a journalist who goes to take part in this event where people take turns to tell stories late at night.  As she sits there they begin to talk about how they died, and she notices characteristics of such a death presenting themselves on their bodies.  She can’t believe what she is hearing.  What will happen when it gets to her turn?

The next story, "Cassette Tape" is about a guy who can’t sleep so decides to reminice about his past.  He finds a cassette containing songs he wrote and sang in his youth.  As he is singing along, he receives a phone call from his old friend, informing him of the recent suicide of one of the female members of the band.  But who is that talking on the cassette?

"Split Water" is the story of a young girl who’s fatehr died when she was merely a child.  She remembers only his shoes about him as she had an interest in these when she was very young.  As the anniversary of his death comes around, her mum and herself decide to buy a melon for her father as it was his favourite fruit.  As they buy the melon and make their way home, the young girl stops and looks down, and sees a pair of shoes she recognises…but who do they belong to?

The story "Backward Suit" revolves around a young girl living with her drunkard father.  Every night he comes home drunk, until one night, he takes a different route and when he enters the door his suit is back to front, something that his daughter is not amused at.  After this event her father stops coming home drunk.  However, one day, the daughter takes the same route home from work.  Could it be her dad is making it all up, or will the strange event happen to her as well?

 "A Forgotten Item" is about a young girl who moves into a new flat.  However, every night at about 1am she receives a phone call telling her to "Give it back".  This phone call occurs every night, so the girl decides to unhook the telephone, thinking this will solve the issue, however, the caller simply calls her mobile.  What is it that has been left in the flat?  And will the previous occupant simply enter to find it?

The next installement,  "Video", begins with a girl being invited to her sisters apartment for a house warming.  As she enters the apartment block she sees a man walk behind her and up the stairs.  And as she gets to her sisters apartment, she sees the man walk in.  Upon entering, she sees that the man has left his shoes in the hall, but upon asking her sister if there is anyone else there, she is informed that she is the only other person there.  Who is this mysterious person, and will they make themselves known?

 "A Drop of Blood" is my least favourite of the short stories.  A girl is heading to an interview, however, when she gets there the place is empty.  She also notices that instead of getting there on time (as she set off an hour early) that she has actually arrived an hour late.  She tries to find someone to give her CV to, but the store is completely empty…until she receives a phone call.  Who is on the other side of the line?

In "Enlightenment", we are brought back to the young woman from the first story "Elevator" as she enters into her home.  She decides to look back over the years as she is about to get married.  Upon looking through old belongings, she finds a book that she wrote, informing her to read it when she was older.  Upon reading it, she is shocked to find a message that couldn’t possibly have been there.  What is this message and what does it mean?

The final story, "Waiting Time", is simply the conclusion to the preceeding story.  It explains what the message means and where it came from.  For this reason I’m afraid I cannot tell you any more about it, without revealing spoilers.

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