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September 13, 2003
Double L Double N
Anyone seen (or heard much about) Millennium Actress? Think there was a time I'd have known about a new anime hitting the US before the release. . .
From the synopsis:
As her story unfolds, [reclusive former actress Chiyoko Fujiwara] seems to transcend time and space, traveling freely through the corridors of fictional movies and reality. Chiyoko was born when the Great Earthquake hit Tokyo in 1923, as war is looming in Imperial Japan. At a very young age, she is discovered as an actress, and soon becomes one of Japan’s most popular stars. Over the course of her career, her movies and her roles encompass all the epochs of Japanese history, bringing her and her audience back more than five hundred years, and then moving chronologically through the centuries to the present and beyond. Chiyoko’s first major role finds her in the Warring States Period of the 15th and 16th centuries, where we see her as a princess in a burning castle tower. Her movies swiftly carry her into the Edo Period (1603 – 1868), when the Shogun ruled the country. In one moment, she is portraying a ninja fighting against samurais, but another role transforms her into an innocent local girl who confronts a group of elite samurai guards. She runs away, only to find herself being arrested in a scene set against the backdrop of Japan’s Meiji Period (1868 – 1912), at the dawn of a new era when the power of the Emperor was restored. Chiyoko escapes, but in her next movie, we find her in the pre-World War II and war-torn decades of the Showa Period (1912 – 1945). As Chiyoko chronicles her life and career, we come to learn that not only was Chiyoko an icon of the Japanese cinema, but her roles also represented feminine icons of Japanese history.
it sounds interesting enough, and most of the reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are positive. And seeing as it's in limited release, I might have to go by those instead of word of mouth. Ah well.
On the other hand, there's always Frodo-A-Go-Go:
Unite with elves, dwarves, wizards and all sorts of peculiar characters as they take their death-defying (and unscripted) journey into a land where evil reigns and creepiness lurks around every corner. Is adventure in your blood? Or do you cower in the comfort and safety of your Hobbit hole? Join us for this "flight of fantasy" as our adventurers seek The One Thing that can save the world from evil in a land bounded by the limits of the audience's imagination.
Wouldn't even consider it normally -- I still haven't read the books or seen either of the films -- but this is the last weekend the regular cast is joined by Babes With Blades:
Babes With Blades was originally conceived to give women in Chicago an opportunity to showcase their training and talent in Stage Combat. Although, across the United States, women are in the majority in Stage Combat classes, their opportunities for work in the field once they receive the training are practically non-existent.The preconception in both the theatre world, and the minds of the public at large, is that women have never truly wielded weapons, and therefore the dearth of representations of female warriors on stage and screen was excusable and justified. But merely scratching the surface of history reveals a very different picture. Women have been bearing arms, either for personal or patriotic aims, in every culture and every time period on record. In dueling societies, on pirate ships, in jousting competitions, in standing armies, and on every revolution's roster, women have an historic martial presence that is repeatedly denied and ignored.
Babes With Blades is our attempt to revive and revitalize the archetype of the Woman Warrior, the Amazon, and to show the theatrical world the wonderful resource of combat-trained women available to fill that archetype, a resource that remains regrettably untapped.
Since I missed seeing (some of) 'em in Xena Live! a while back, due to my sucking.
You know, between that and the Unused Audio Commentary By Howard Zinn & Noam Chomsky, Recorded Summer 2002, for The Fellowship of the Ring Platinum Series Extended Edition DVD:
Zinn: And what does Gandalf tell Frodo about the ring? "Keep it secret. Keep it safe."
Chomsky: "Let's leave the most powerful object in all of Middle Earth with a weak little Hobbit, a race known for its chattering and intoxication, and tell him to keep it a secret."
Zinn: Right. And here we receive our first glimpse of the supposedly dreadful Mordor, which actually looks like a fairly functioning place.
Chomsky: This type of city is most likely the best the Orcs can do if all they have are cliffs to grow on. It's very impressive, in that sense.
Zinn: Especially considering the economic sanctions no doubt faced by Mordor. They must be dreadful.
I might have to break down and at least see the movies so I can get the jokes.
Or not.
np - Kathy's Song, Apoptygma Berzerk, on Neo's mix cd.
Posted by Aaron at September 13, 2003 09:24 AM
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Comments
after 24 hours you still suck?? I think that's a record.
Posted by: P6 at September 13, 2003 09:45 AM
*sigh*
Chicks with knives RULE, I tells ya.
Posted by: garrity at September 13, 2003 09:52 AM
P6, I have not yet begun to suck.
Garrity, see, this is what I'm saying.
Posted by: Aaron at September 13, 2003 12:07 PM
Michelle is going to be very upset with you...she lurves LOTR.
Longish but the battles are worth it, Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett are excellent elves. Gollum is worth the price of admission and Orlando Bloom is a pretty pretty man with a mean bow.
And that's really not supposed to sound sexual. I already get enough people asking me if I'm gay.
Just because I'm not scared to acknowledge when a man is handsome doesn't mean anything.
It doesn't.
Stop looking at me.
Sigh.
I need therapy.
But black people don't get therapy.
Damn these stereotypes limiting my life.
Posted by: Jason at September 13, 2003 01:10 PM
He and I have already had conversations about LOTR and I decided to be the bigger person and just allow him to live his life without it. You and I know that he's missing out because of not seeing the films but we'll not harp on it or remind him of it frequently. But we'll know. Oh yes we'll know.
Posted by: Michelle at September 13, 2003 05:22 PM
There's a VNV Nation mix of that song, if I'm reading my track labeling correctly -- and I may not be, it was part of a mix CD sent to me, heh -- which truly kicks ass.
Posted by: VASpider at September 14, 2003 09:41 AM
Hey, you want to email me a list of what's on that mix? I can't remember, & I've been wanting to put another one together for you & a few friends I push mixes onto, & I don't want to repeat.
& I may have found a replacement for Scrawl for you, Aaron. Will put some on the new mix.
Posted by: Neogrammarian at September 14, 2003 03:47 PM