The Unwritten: Volume 02 (2010)

Inside Man (2010)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrator: Peter Gross | Page Count: 168

"Sometimes... even if it's a game... it's real, too. Sometimes, it's not up to you to choose."

Tom Taylor, son of the famous author Wilson Taylor, shares a name with his father's most famous creation, the boy wizard Tommy Taylor™. But, in light of recent events, some fans of the books are beginning to believe that Tom is in fact the living incarnation of his fictional counterpart, and not the other way around.

The social media websites, chat rooms and internet forums are alive with activity, discussing the possibility.

For Tom, life goes from bad to worse. There are people who want to kill him and people who want to keep him alive, but he doesn't know why that is. What does seem clear, however, is that the 'literary geography' that Wilson drummed into the boy's head is proving to be even more of a curse as the days go on.

Ghost in the Shell (2017)

Ghost in the Shell (2017)

Dir. Rupert Sanders

If I was in a charitable mood I'd maybe feel a little sorry for Hollywood. Why? Because it had been ripping-off Mamoru Oshii's anime adaptation of the original Ghost in the Shell manga for about two decades by the time their version of the story came out.

As a result, instead of looking original and excitingly new to modern film audiences, it looked simply like it was ripping-off all the movies that had ripped-off Oshii's film.

Some days you just can't win. Not that I'm suggesting it in any way deserves to win, it really is a bad film, for many, many reasons, but it's fair to say that it was kind of boned before it even began. And then the terrible casting nailed the heavy coffin lid even tighter.

But I'm going to back up a little. As stated, I'm not feeling charitable, but I am feeling fair. With that in mind, I'll wholeheartedly try to judge it on its own merits, touching a little on how successfully it adapts ideas from its source text.

Coma (2005)

Coma (2005)

Dirs: Various | 5 episodes, approx 55 minutes each.

A South Korean miniseries set mostly inside a hospital that's almost completely abandoned, having recently been marked for closure.

A young professional woman named Yoon Young (Lee Se Eun) is sent into the hospital to check insurance criteria are being met by the few remaining staff members, all of whom are suspiciously reticent about why there's a single female patient still in the ward. The patient, Lee So Hee (Cha Soo Yun), is in a coma, unable to speak for herself.

Investigating why So Hee is there and why she's in a comatose state opens a door to a horror/mystery that leads to a dramatic and creepy conclusion. If you have a morbid fear of hospitals, you may want to avoid watching.

Memories (1995)

Memories (1995)

Dirs: Kōji Morimoto / Tensai Okamura / Katsuhiro Ôtomo

A trio of anime shorts by creators whose names will likely be familiar to fans of the genre. The works are labelled as episodes, but they're unconnected, except for each one being based on a manga by Katsuhiro Ôtomo, creator of the seminal Akira (1982-90).

01. Magnetic Rose

Dir. Kōji Morimoto. Approx 42 mins.

Four space-faring garbage collectors respond to an unexpected mayday call. Hoping for a big reclamation score, they end up getting a lot more than they bargained for. It's written by Perfect Blue (1997) director Satoshi Kon, who adds his reality-bending skills to Ôtomo's. Music is by Yoko Kanno.

02. Stink Bomb

Dir. Tensai Okamura. Approx 39 mins.

For a regular bio-lab worker, what starts out as a simple cold turns into the worst day of his life. It's more comedic than the other two, but it nevertheless has a serious side with a grave message.

Alan Moore and Tim Perkins: Snakes and Ladders (2003)

Alan Moore and Tim Perkins:
Snakes and Ladders (2003)

With spoken word performances it's natural to give your full attention to the work upon first listen, but I feel there's a different, no less valid, appreciation attained from repeated listens; as with Snakes and Ladders.

When the listener's mind drifts or loses focus, or when the words lose their distinctiveness and become hypnotic triggers, there's a semi-unconscious feeling that what's being spoken is deeply poignant, magickal and filled with enduring mystery.

Eventually, stand out words will inevitably draw one back in, but the musings birthed in the interim will hopefully have served their purpose.

Like a rhetorician, Moore never falters, letting up only when a change of pace suits the telling. In those instances the music of Tim Perkins takes centre stage whilst never betraying its primary supporting role of providing an aural chalice within which the words reverberate.

Toy Instruments: Design, Nostalgia, Music (2010)

Toy Instruments: Design, Nostalgia, Music (2010)

Author: Eric Schneider  |  Page Count: 192

'Adorned with bizarre color schemes, always happy families and boys and girls immune to gender disharmony, the toys and the packaging create a Shangri-la sheen; albeit one that is out of tune.'

You can't put a price on the warm, fuzzy feeling that accompanies nostalgia. It's like an all-singing, all-dancing ferret has crawled inside you (a figurative ferret, let's be clear on that). But in publishing you can put a price on a picture book designed to encapsulate and encourage the ferret.

In the case of Toy Instruments it's an extortionate one. RRP is £13.95 for a 16.5 x 16.5 cm HB book with content that's 99% pictures. I paid 99p in a clearance sale, but for what it's worth I sincerely hope that author Eric Schneider still gets his royalties.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Dir. Nicholas Meyer

Watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan makes the disappointment of The Motion Picture (1979) seem even worse than it was, by comparison.

Regarded by many fans, including myself, as the best of TOS's big-screen adventures, TWoK is what a Star Trek film ought to be. Respectful of the series history, it uses the Kirk, Spock and McCoy triumvirate as a strong foundation to heap layered levels of danger and tragedy atop. The story recognises that the steadfast closeness of the Trek family is its greatest strength.

The villain of the piece is the titular Khan, played with aplomb by Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbán. Full name Khan Noonien Singh, he's a character first seen in the TOS episode Space Seed (S1, Ep 22), but you don't need to have seen it in order to enjoy Ricardo's spectacular performance because the screenplay manages to recap his backstory successfully, without it seeming like some kind of info-dump or intrusive exposition scene.