Only Yesterday (1991)

Only Yesterday (1991)

Dir. Isao Takahata

A twenty-seven-year-old Tokyo resident named Taeko takes a summer trip to the countryside. It's a holiday away from city life, but Taeko plans to work whilst there, helping with the annual safflower harvest. What she hadn't planned was that her ten-year-old self would choose to accompany her.

It's the same person but in two different eras. The adult Taeko (Miki Imai) replays and relives her memories of fifth-grade Taeko (Yōko Honna), reflecting on the trials of youth, the hopes and dreams she had and how they stack up to where she is now in her life. When combined they make one complete story – one lengthy journey toward an unwritten future.

The deliberate undefined edges that some scenes employ suggests that feelings and situations we thought were complete at the time might actually have lines that aren't filled in until years later, provided we're wise enough, and perhaps even daring enough, to make the connections.

The Sandman Presents: The Dead Boy Detectives (2001)

The Dead Boy Detectives (2001)

Author: Ed Brubaker | Illustrator: Bryan Talbot | Page Count: 96

"At that moment, Edwin Paine remembered exactly why he used to be afraid of the dark."

The DBD miniseries features Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, characters first introduced in The Sandman: Volume IV: Season of Mists (1992). Some other supporting characters from the Sandman universe pop up and will leave new readers confused because the book offers no explanation as to who they are.

It's set in England. The dialogue is supposed to reflect that, but it doesn't quite hit the mark. It's more like an outsider's view of how they think English people sound.

It can be overlooked when you consider that the characters existed before author Ed Brubaker was given the reins, so he was tied to them having a different geographical origin (and dialect) than himself.

Stephen King's The Shining (1997)

Stephen King's The Shining (1997)

Dir. Mick Garris | 3 episodes, approx 90 minutes each.

TV miniseries based on Stephen King's 1977 novel of the same name. It's essentially the story of a family forced to confront the underlying feelings that threaten to tear their already not very happy home apart. The addition of a supernatural aspect turns the process dial up to dangerous levels.

Jack Torrence (Steven Weber), a struggling writer, ex-alcoholic, and regular screw-up takes a job as caretaker of a large, remote hotel that's routinely closed over the winter months. He brings his wife Wendy (Rebecca De Mornay), whose over-protectiveness of their seven year old son Danny (Courtland Mead) is justified somewhat because young Danny has a gift, or a curse depending on your point of view: he can sense emotions, danger, and even occasionally see the future.

The quiet, creative retreat that Jack hopes for turns out to be more eventful than he'd predicted. The Overlook Hotel has many ghosts and they'd just love to get to know the Torrence family better.

Mortal Kombat: Conquest (1998)

Mortal Kombat: Conquest (1998)

Dirs. Various | 22 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

It's ridiculous to me that so many of the fantasy and/or supernatural TV shows that were aimed at a young adult demographic in the 1990s had secondary characters who were proficient in kung fu, or some other kind of mixed martial arts, no matter their alleged social background; vampire series like Buffy and Angel were the worst offenders.

With MK: Conquest, however, there's a reason so many citizens know kung fu: it's key to their survival. 

Villagers that haven't learned how to defend themselves aren't going to be safe for long. They may as well carry around a sign saying 'easy prey!'

(Alternatively, if they can't fight but are important to the plot, they get temporally saved by the chivalrous heroes... and then usually end up dead anyhow.)

It's set "...centuries ago, in a time of darkness and fury," which translates to an undefined pre-industrial era, in a place called Zhu Zin.