Stumble Mumble Trumble

So we have tripped our way into the final quarter of 2008. A couple of days ago, I was involved in a conversation where I was convinced for a moment that Teachers' Day (1st September) had yet to come. Denial or mental degeneration - you decide.

Anyway, I'd been meaning to type out something vaguely like a review for a film I saw about a week ago, The Murder of the Inugami Clan (犬神家の一族). While googling and imdb-ing about after seeing the film, I realised that it seemed really familiar to me because it was showing at the 2006 Tokyo International Film Festival, and I saw it while looking through the line-up. It's a 2006 remake, by Ichikawa Kon, of the film he did in 1976. 

The film was whodunit murder mystery, set in the days just after Japan's defeat in WWII, in the Shinshuu region, which is where the Japanese alps are. The patriarch of the wealthy Inugami family dies, leaving behind three daughters, each mothered by a different woman, and their progeny. When the details of his strange will are disclosed, blood starts being splattered, literally, in wonderfully kitsch old school red-pastel-paint style, and it is up to the bumbling (and just ever so slightly unhygienic) self-styled private detective, Kindaiichi, to unravel the mysteries that stretch back in time, and solve the case.

I suppose the film was slightly stylised, as evidenced by the ostentatiously fake blood, and the state of some of the murder victims. It did have rather happy dollops of humour as well, despite some of the splatter elements. If you squint at the picture I placed above, you can see a creepy white-headed fella sitting near the middle. That's Sukekiyo, the eldest grandson who had his face destroyed in the war, and wears that mask to hide his wounds, which he does show the rest of the family, provoking gasps of alarm and disgust both on and off screen. 

All in all, I thought it was a pretty good film, and really enjoyed the atmosphere and the setting of the story. The luxuriant green of the Japanese summer, the fraying wooden building-lined streets, the click-clack of clogs as our hero runs down them. I love period pieces, though this doesn't go that far back in time. The mystery plot was also rather good, though not exactly the most wonderfully brilliant of revelations. But it was good enough for me to enjoy. ^-^ 

I went to see the film all by my lonesome, quite possibly a first for me in S'pore. It was the last day of school before the one-week long September break, and so the cinema was teeming with packs of uniform-clad teenagers. I think there's something akin to a stigma attached to watching a movie or eating out in a restaurant alone in this society. In Tokyo, I remember eating out alone or sitting in a cafe alone was a tad too common. I think London probably felt like it had the best balance and atmosphere for solitude. Hmmm.

Anyway, I've also seen Wall•E since, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I suppose Naomi's slightly hesitant response to it made me lower my expectations, and so the film didn't disappoint. 

The not so latent Sci-Fi geek in me lapped up the desolate futuristic scape, and I wouldn't have minded if the film spent an hour nuzzling its way through Wall•E's little 'home'. I think this was the best Pixar film since Finding Nemo. And one of the more inventive ones. 

Speaking of Sci-Fi, I -finally- got down to watching the first episode of Gankutsuou, the anime interpretation of Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, one of my all time favourite books. I'd heard of the series before, and was interested, but after finding out that a certain voice is in it, I was determined to watch it. However, it took me something like 2 months to finally get down to checking it out, and I'm glad I did. The setting was transferred to a fascinating space age that retains a period air. The animation was full of rich textures and they employed a strange technique where by the patterns of clothing stayed stationary even when the characters moved. So you'd get the bizarre feeling of feeling as if the characters were walking through pattern-scapes. At first I thought it was a fault with the video, but I'm now pretty sure that was the desired effect. 

The series opened with the moccoletto scene, which I loved in the book. I was inspired to dig up my old notebook where I'd copied out bits from Monte Cristo all those years ago. Will get down to watching the next episode soon. :3 They're releasing the DVD box set in November, and I'm toying with the idea of either buying it, or asking for it for my birthday. Haha. 

My phone is currently attached to the 'umbilical cord' a bit too far for bluetooth to work, so I can't transfer pictures to my computer. The pic-spammage will have to wait, I suppose!