The Android's Conundrum

Thirst is the newest film from Korean director Park Chan-Wook. I loved his Vengeance Trilogy (the loosely connected films Sympathy For Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) and his vastly different but equally good film I’m A Cyborg. This one is about a priest who is accidentally turned into a vampire after received blood as part of his participation in a medical experiment. Over the course of the film he gradually strays further and further into sin as he has an affair with the wife of an old friend, eventually killing her husband, and turning her into a vampire too. Song Kang-ho is excellent as the priest, and the whole film brilliantly shows the horror of the situation in a very human way. Along with Let The Right One In, it’s an excellent modern vampire film that avoids the cliches and instead focuses more of the interest philosophical side of things. I really thought it was an excellent film.

As I’ve said before, I’m not hugely into anime, but one anime film that I really liked was Ghost in the Shell, and so when I found out that my local arthouse cinema was going to one of the few places in the UK to show Skycrawlers, the newest film from the same director, Mamoru Oshii, I figured I’d have to go see it. It’s set in a version of the world where while the major countries are at peace, war is still faught under controlled circumstances by private companies as a form of entertainment and as a way of settling conflicts. The fighters are kildren, genetically engineered humans who are perpetually adolescents. The main character is one of there kildren fighter pilots, who spends the film unravelling his own existence and past in an attempt to figure out who he really is and what his purpose is. The film is quite bizarre, confusing at times, and very bleak, but overall I liked it a lot, and I thought it did a great job of exploring one of my favourite questions - what it means to be human.

Book Read In October 2009

1. The Dark Tower Vol 3: The Waste Lands – Stephen King
2. Paperweight – Stephen Fry
3. The Golden Apples of the Sun – Ray Bradbury
4. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out – Richard Feynman
5. The Dark Tower Vol 4: Wizard and Glass – Stephen King

Black Sheep is an indie horror film from New Zealand, about, well, killer sheep. I’m not a big fan of the horror genre, and I usually wouldn’t have picked a film like this to watch, but when I was watching movies with some friends on Halloween and some of them found out that a few of us hadn’t seen this film, it was immediately added to the list of things to watch that night. It’s a bit gory for my tastes, but pretty funny, and not a bad film for watching under the circumstances. It didn’t help my general fear of the outdoors though!

I wasn’t expecting Monsters Vs Aliens to be particularly good, and therefore was rather taken by surprise when I ended up really quite enjoying it. It’s an animated film about a woman who is accidentally transformed into a giant, and who is forced to team up with a group of similar monsters, to defend earth against an alien threat. It’s nothing original, nor is the humour particularly sophisticated, but it’s nonetheless a fun film. Particularly the film benefits from some great comedic vocal talents, such as Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett and Stephen Colbert. I doubt I’d watch it again, but it was good enough and everyone I saw it with liked it a lot.

My poor dead headphones. :( These ones have lasted almost exactly a year (according to my records I got them on November 8th 2008) which is a bit disappointing as the ones that I had before of the same make (Sennheiser CX300) lasted over two years. But these are really fantastic headphones so I just ordered a pair of Sennheiser CX300-II as a replacement, which’ll hopefully be as good.

The Lolfather

I’ve been watching a lot of Monty Python’s Flying Circus recently. I’ve owned the films on DVD for ages and watched them repeatedly, but I just picked up the boxset of the complete television series and so I’ve been going through that (then planning to rewatch the films yet again afterwards). It’s hard to sum up what I love so much about it, but I think it comes down to the fact that Monty Python had such a big role in influencing my sense of humour that I can’t help but find it funny. For me it’s almost the definition of comedy. I adore it and rewatching so many classic sketches over these past few days has managed to shake me out of the bad mood I’ve been in for a few weeks. Now if only I could stop myself from constantly quoting it!

This swan gave me a very withering look when I walked past it as it was preening, so I took revenge by photographing it with my shitty phone camera. Fun times.

Between watching Black Books and lots of video clips of his stand-up on Fuck Yeah Bill Bailey I decided to watch some of Bill Bailey’s stand up DVDs, and so far I’ve seen Part Troll, Cosmic Jam and Tinselworm in the past week (leaving me with only Bewilderness to watch when it finally arrives). I’ll confess that in general I’m not a huge fan of stand-up comedy, but Bill Bailey is one of the few happy exceptions to that rule, as he’s a great comedian. I really like his nerdy humour and the way he incorporates his musical skills into his shows. I also can’t wait to see him on the new series of QI later this year, as he’s one of the best guests on that show too. See here and here for two of my favourite clips.