DUNE: Children of Dune: TV Miniseries (2003)

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003)

Dir. Greg Yaitanes | Length: 3 episodes, approx 82 minutes each.

Most of the principal characters return for the continuation of the Dune saga, although not all of them are played by the same actor/actress.

Books II: Dune Messiah (1969) and III: Children of Dune (1976) are merged because it makes sense to do so, Unfortunately, that means it has a lot of story to cover in a short time.

It begins twelve years after the events of the previous miniseries (see Dune (2000)).

The tense political situation is ongoing, and although changed is no less problematic.

The 'abomination' is older and behaving like a Bene Gesserit bitch should, with concerns of her own that have little to do with affairs of state.

The religious beliefs that surround Muad'Dib are beginning to take its toll on the reluctant Messianic figure. His actions will have a direct result on the future of the planet.

The Evil Dead Trilogy (1981-92)

The Evil Dead (1981)

Dir. Sam Raimi

I'll never tire of watching The Evil Dead. It wasn't the first film to use the isolated cabin in the woods scenario, but it remains one of the most successful in the horror genre.

Raimi doesn't waste time with a traditional slow build-up. He goes straight to horror town with the use of low, rushing camera movements. The way it interacts with the environment, even knocking parts of it over, places us as viewers directly into the action.

The point of view shots showing the same scene from different angles, pursuer and pursued, accompanied by subjective audio was a genius idea. It shows that both subjects (or objects) are in the same location but suggests they’re slightly out of sync, like the real and reflected or the breaking of a different kind of fourth wall from the wrong side.

I Am Legend: Filmed Versions (1964-2007)

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Dirs: Sidney Salkow / Ubaldo Ragona

The first filmed adaptation of Richard Matheson's celebrated I Am Legend (1954) novel is more faithful to the book in comparison to what followed. It even has the pit.

Vincent plays the titular man. He walks as if the weight of what's left of the world is on his shoulders, a visible sign that he's a man for whom routine has become a kind of prison.

There's a lengthy flashback to a happier time that could've and should've been emotionally powerful, but some painfully bad dubbing issues leave the scenes feeling cheap and insincere.

Had they been rectified it would've been a better film, because the sense of isolation the story requires is captured well-enough.

The Sisters of Mercy: Official Albums (1985-93)

First and Last and Always (1985)

In my experience, the first TSoM album is a love it or hate it event for most people; indifference is rare.

The nihilistic sounding 80s rock music engulfs the listener, but only really works its magic when played in the right environment. Like Joy Division or Bauhaus it's infused with a gloomy, repetitive atmosphere that can either depress or elate the individual. If you can embrace that, connect with it, it'll never leave you.

It's the album that's most responsible for the 'goth' label that dogged the band for years afterwards, a classification that they hated.

If you buy it new on CD you'll more than likely get the 2006 'Remastered and Expanded' version. That's generally considered a good thing because the previous edition had an inferior sounding mix that was the same as the Japanese vinyl pressing.

Notebook on Cities and Clothes (1989)

Notebook on Cities and Clothes (1989)

Dir. Wim Wenders

It's very much a filmic essay in the style of French auteur Chris Marker, so much so that I'd have no hesitation in recommending it to fans of Marker.

It's the result of one artist using his chosen art form (Wenders - film) to capture another artist at work on his (Yohji Yamamoto - fashion designer), being both a commentary on the image presented and on the method used to achieve that result. Like in Marker's work, narrated assumptions follow observations but are never unwelcome.

I'm not a follower of the fashion scene, so I didn't know anything about Yohji prior to watching. But it turned out that I did know his work: he designed costumes for Takeshi Kitano's Dolls (2002), which is a recommendation in itself.

He's a fascinating individual whose demeanour and sense of self is the opposite of what I expected them to be. I was wrongly expecting to see someone barking orders and stressing out over late deliveries. Instead, the serenity and inner-peace that we associate with Japanese masters is how Yohji appears.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Light Novels (2004-06)

The Lost Memory (2004)

Author: Junichi Fujisaku | Page Count: 212 Pages 

"We still don’t know what their purpose is but I sense they have an aim of some kind, something different from that of the Laughing Man phenomenon."

In the first of a trilogy of GitS: Stand Alone Complex tie-in novels a group of revolutionaries calling themselves the Good Morning Terrorists are hacking cyberbrains and forcing the hapless victim to carry out acts of terrorism against the State. Major Motoko Kusanagi and her team of experts in Public Security Section 9 intervene to find the perpetrators.

Junichi Fujisaku had previously penned a number of episodes of the TV series, so was a good choice to carry the series into a different medium. There's a list of characters on page one with a brief description of their role, but the text offers little in the way of characterisation, so it helps if you're already familiar with the series. Readers new to the franchise may well be left scratching themselves, however.

Uzumasa Limelight (2014)

Uzumasa Limelight (2014)

Dir. Ken Ochiai.

Kamiyama is an ageing kirareyaku, a bit-part actor whose job is to be killed dramatically by a film's lead, to exist just outside the limelight while helping someone else look good.

The waning popularity of jidaigeki films in his native Japan means Kamiyama's usefulness in the industry to which he's devoted his entire life is destined to soon end.

Having a real life kirareyaku (actor Seizô Fukumoto, who's died onscreen over 50,000 times in a very long career) in the role gives the Kamiyama character an authenticity that cinema rarely manages to capture. It's also extremely fitting that he should be the lead actor in a film centred around people who never are such.

Likewise, even though it's from the opposite angle, that same authenticity can be found in Chihiro Yamamoto, who's starring in her first film, as a fresh-faced actress who fits into the new template preferred by producers.