Film — Ghost in the Shell 2 — Innocence

Shiro Masamunes' Appleseed was my gateway drug into the whole Japanese anime/manga scene; so of course I'd go see this UK premiere.

Loosely inspired by the themes of Shiro's work, and set in something more like the continuity of the movie than the manga (I haven't finished the recent anime yet!), it asks around the question of what is identity as technology begins to blur the boundaries of the individual, both implicitly, and in the dialogue, as characters trade quotations and interpretations. Unfortunately the film is too busy being pretty to explore the issues even as deeply as Shiro does.

And a very pretty film it is too — several longuers with choral soundtrack as CGI cityscapes or carnival processions flow past, screaming out how much budget was being consumed every second, as well as making a valiant attempt at some of the visual metaphor from Shiro's own Ghost in the Shell: Man-Machine Interface v. 2. But it's not all in-yer-face — when Motoko manifests in one of a horde of identical gynoids, there are enough subtle visual clues that this one is different.

Oh, and if you missed the credits, the extensive gratuitous basset hound scenes yelled “Oshii Mamoru film” out loud.

Film — Night Watch

This was a heavy-duty premiere, complete with piracy-paranoia searching of bags and surrendering of videophones, as the Murdoch Empire condescended to permit the film to get its first outing here at the festival.

To a first approximation, this film is a Russian-made Underworld, loud, brash, driven by heavy dance music; a synthetic myth of conflict between hidden supernatural factions. But there is no glamour-girl in tight leather here to lead things off; rather a somewhat socially challenged chap who has become a reluctant vampire hunter after getting sucked into the secret conflict. And instead of refined high society, there is a run-down, almost 1950's air about this contemporary Moscow.

It is a visually effective piece of cinema, both in the images in the story; and also in the way that subtitling has been used — a vampire's call in red text that dissolves like swirls of blood in water; elsewhere sliding around the screen almost like thought balloons

Although the film boasted the only start-in-your-seat moment so far this season, there seemed to be an air almost of everyone sleepwalking through the plot, as things are thrown into look cool (like the owl presented to the protagonist, with no real back-story to her situation; Zebulon's sword), or to be sardonic Russian humour (the power-plant engineer cooking his supper on one of the steam pipes) and what looked like the main plot almost incidentally resolved as the film reaches an ending that had everything but an explicit “To be continued…”

Verdict: Mostly harmless

Film — The Hidden Blade

Another mid-19th century samurai film from Yoji Yamada, the director of 2003's Twilight Samurai; and very much in the same mood, as a lower rank samurai wrestles with the obligations and restrictions of his station. Son of a disgraced father, unable to marry the woman he loves, Munezo Katagiri is finally ordered to kill his one-time closest friend, who has been condemned for fomenting rebellion.

As in the earlier film, this comission is the central dilemma, and its consequences form a fitting conclusion to the film. Sure, there is the obligatory slapstick retainer; and the comedic sight of traditional warriors just not getting it when being trained in modern military drill — such as having to be yelled at not to bow to each other while passing the artillery shells — but those act to throw the whole state of turmoil into sharp relief.

Film — The Adventures of Arsene Lupin

Lupin is the French character with the MO of Raffles and the public profile of Sherlock Holmes; this film is really a "secret origin" story, with the young Lupin caught up between a royalist plot and the machinations of Josephine, Countess Cagliostro. As expected, it's all very stylish and French; however to the viewer unfamiliar with the character, it is clear that some things (the Mission Impossible style masks appearing without any reason) are there because that's part of the greater myth, and are what the French audience will want to see. It also has great difficulty knowing how to stop - the royalist plot is foiled, but the film keeps going into a revenge sub-plot that is then left only partially resolved in the aftermath of an assassination attempt on Archduke Ferdinand, after a fast-forward montage of many years.

Annual puncture

That time of year again. Get to wheel the bike out, and find the back tyre's flat. This is probably a relapse of the puncture just next to another patch that I fixed last week. Given there's no bike shops in Cambourne, this means driving to work and then into town at lunch-time for a new inner tube, and maybe upgrading to an a super-marathon while I'm at it.

I'm dreaming of a what!?

A couple of years ago, I heard the first Yuletide adverts in mid July.

That's been beaten this year - the first tentative enquiries of where/what about the office bash here have just come around!

Film — Phone

Korean horror in the same broad genre (phones, and other modern technology as catalyst for horror) as Saturday's disappointing One Missed Call; but more stylish and psychological, not relying on deliquescent walking dead to spice up the supernatural threat; and actually resolves itself.

In a couple of places, it was possibly too clever for its own good — when we see the main character suddenly awaking at her desk, it's never certain quite how much of the preceding events were “just a dream”, including the apparent resolution of the normal-world context plot that kick-starts the chain of events (acquiring the new mobile with the significant number, moving into the empty house).

Film — Touch the Sound

Documentary film about profoundly deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie by the same director who made the earlier documentary Rivers and Tides about Andy Goldsworthy's art. Unfortunately, sound is not a visual medium, so we cannot just view what is done.

This does lead to some longeurs where all we have is Ms Glennie looking contemplative at various locations around the world, as the background noises are turned up — people walking, tapping their feet, dragging cases over tiling, that sort of thing. It takes a long while before there is even any speech; and music comes very late in the proceedings.

The scenes where she was instructing a deaf girl in percussion was fascinating; but, like Goldsworthy, the interviewer encourages his subjects into vague mysticism about their art.

Gobsmacking moment — her brother, with a gentle Scots accent, barely stronger than hers, was subtitled, presumably for USan audiences.

Film — Whisper of the Heart

An unusual Ghibli film, being a down-to-earth story of first love; against a tale of love lost. For once, the only fantastical elements are in the imagination of the young girl who we follow; and any connection to The Cat Returns are more that the latter is hommage to a minor but catalytic part of this film.

But. heck, it's Ghibli — what more do I have to say?

Film — One Missed call

Japanese horror, with people getting calls from the future from their own mobiles, indicating their imminent death. Tries to lull you into thinking it's all over a couple of times, but is overall not scary.

Film — Steamboy

Steampunk anime — but for reasons of scheduling I had signed up with trepidation for the dub. I was gobsmacked, then, to hear real Northern accents being used for many of the characters, and everyone had appropriate accents. Best dub ever!

A big loveable high adventure; nothing profound.

Film — The Ritchie Boys

A moving documentary, made in Germany, about German Jewish refugees to America, who were assigned to US Military Intelligence in WWII, told by some of the surviving members of the teams trained at Fort Ritchie, Md. A fascinating bit of the hidden war revelaed through many engaging characters.

Film — Millennium Actress

The 25^th Cambridge Film Festival started last night; and I took in the UK premiere of this 2001 film by Satoshi Con.

It's my sort of romance film, weaving through real life memories and movie scenes of elderly, one time movie star Chiyoko Fujiwara, searching for lost love, as a long time fan of hers makes a documentary interview. I'm not ashamed to say that my eyes were leaking copiously (if discreetly) in synch with Tachibana-san (the interviewer).

Poignant and haunting, a marvellous start to this year's program.

Better than expected

Despite the best attempts of the media, life goes on. A marvellous collection of quotes in response to yesterday.

Return of the bad old days

Bombs in London, though 7/7 looks to be orders of magnitude below 9/11, closer to the worst of the 1970's IRA campaigns — well that'll be goodbye to the recently reintroduced rubbish bins and Left Luggage facilities, then.

And Blair says “terrorists will not destroy "our values and our way of life"” — of course not. That's the Home Secretary's job (house arrest, assault on jury trials, proposed national database …), not one we've offshored.