In the Mood for Love
Two neighbors become close after learning their spouses are cheating on them. Wong Kar Wai is a king of visual storytelling, and this film is no exception. The way he uses color and his framing to sell the intimacy and emotional arc of these characters is genuinely masterful, and Maggie Cheung nails that feeling of barely contained despair. I will say that I was hoping for a bit more catharsis by the end, but that's probably the point. Still an incredible watch. A-

Battles Without Honor and Humanity
The story of the Yamamori clan as the fight to make their mark in post-war Hiroshima. This is my first yakuza movie ever, and I watched it pretty much exclusively because I thought the title and poster were rad as hell. This film is about as '70s gritty as they come, with each kill punctuated by wailing horns and strings. The story itself is rather convoluted and disjointed, with characters switching sides and being offed at such a rate that even the narrator couldn't help me keep track of it all. It probably doesn't help that the characters speak in such a thick accent that they might as well be speaking Korean - even with closed captioning on, I had to re-watch some of the early scenes several times to understand what was being said. The cast is also sprawling. Major characters drop in and out of the plot for long stretches of time, and their re-introduction would almost always result in a head-scratching "wait, who were they again?" moment. The performances ran the gamut from solid to "remembering why I typically don't like the typical Japanese style of acting," with Sugawara being a notable standout. Ultimately, once I stopped thinking too hard and just let things flow I found myself having a good time, and I'm definitely curious to explore this genre a bit more. B-

From the last few months:

The Untouchables
Elliott Ness assembles a crew to take down Capone in prohibition era Chicago. I think I've reached a point in my life where I can admit De Palma isn't for me. I get that his movie is beloved, but I just don't think it's held up well at all. The action is stiff, the acting outsized, and the score - while possibly fine on its own - is so overblown it's practically screaming at you to feel something. There's also just some bizarre dubbing issues that pop up throughout the movie that really took me out of it. There's a solid story in there and it's pretty well-paced, but overall it just fell flat for me. I don't know, I wish I liked this more than I did. C

Captain Fantastic
A man living off the grid must return to the modern world with his children so that they can attend his wife's funeral. Solid performances elevate a movie that's about as aggressively twee and mumblecore as they make them. The story almost moves in a direction that could have been thought-provoking, forcing characters to reckon with the consequences of their actions, but it never quite commits to anything in a satisfying way. Still a perfectly fine watch, especially if you just generally want to see Viggo Mortensen in movies again, but the movie lacks any bite that would make it memorable. C+

Penguin Highway
A precocious young boy and his friends try to solve the mystery of why penguins have mysteriously begun appearing in their town. This movie starts as an above-average kids movie about growing up before taking a sharp left turn towards the metaphysical in its last act. Seriously, the story goes to some wild, trippy, and surprisingly melancholic places that I really didn't expect. I later found out it was based on a novel by the author of "The Tatami Galaxy," which makes sense in hindsight. While the relatively simplistic animation style remains visually appealing throughout, by the time I finished watching I wasn't sure exactly who this movie was for. It's certainly too frightening for the youngest viewers, but the story takes so many turns that I think even young teenagers could get lost by the end. Without giving anything away, I feel like recent graduates would probably appreciate this movie more than most, although I think most would be turned off by the art style. Overall a solid movie that I did enjoy, but I'd maybe give it a watch-through yourself before you consider watching it with younger family members. B-

12 Monkeys
A man is sent back in time to gather information on a deadly plague that has wiped out most of humanity... or is he just insane? This has been on my list of shame for a while, and somehow I forgot that the premise involved a pandemic. That may or may not have colored my viewing here. Either way I had a lot of fun with this movie, and really appreciated how it laid out its rules for time travel. I do think they could have played with the "insanity" aspect of things a bit more, but that's more of a personal preference thing. Overall I thought the script was tight and subversive, and the performances were solid throughout. One thing that bugged me was how Madeleine Stowe essentially just spends 2+ hrs getting gaslit and getting pushed around til she does what the plot needs her to do., but that's not just a 12 Monkeys problem. Definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet. B+

The Matrix
A hacker learns that he is actually living in a simulation, and joins a ragtag group as they fight back the machines in an effort to save humanity. I haven's seen this movie in forever, and it was a bit of a trip seeing how much of it holds up. The story was obviously incredibly forward-thinking and hugely influential (albeit borrowing heavily from Japanese animation and manga). Outside of a couple of dud lines ("Welcome to the desert of the real" is not deep or cool, it's just dumb), the script held up pretty well. When this movie hits, it owns. That said, I found myself rolling my eyes at how much "edgelourde cool kid" shit was scattered throughout the movie, especially when it came to the fire-fights and costume design. You can hear the collective nerd-dom of the late 90s screaming at how cool the leather, shades, and slow motion are, but through the lens of modern day it's just kind of cringe-inducing. The soundtrack is also extremely rough, and falls into that same category of "god, did I think this was cool?" I guess what I'm saying is that I have a lot of self-loathing to work through and this movie isn't helping me. Still incredibly watchable. B+

Birds of Prey
Following a very public break-up, Harley Quinn must deal with the growing list of people she's wronged. Hilarity ensues! This movie is perfectly fine, with some good action that ultimately falls apart once multiple characters get involved. The story is pretty nonsensical and the chemistry between characters is pretty non-existent, but the same could be said about most DCEU movies. I liked it better than BvS and Justice League, but that doesn't mean it's a good movie. It was entertaining enough for me to want a sequel. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a treasure and needs more work! C

Weathering With You
A runaway finds new meaning in life after he meets a girl who can seemingly bring sunshine wherever she goes. I'm really not a huge fan of Shinkai's work - I find that they're beautifully animated and relatively entertaining, but lack any emotional or narrative depth. Don't be fooled by his tricks: a montage set to some killer alt-pop is NOT character development! It just serves to highlight the fact that his stories tend to follow the same general structure: boy meets girl through strange circumstances, characters fall deeply in love despite their better instincts, absurdly high stakes are randomly introduced, boy and girl are split apart (possibly multiple times), ensemble that has been building in the background comes together to help characters reunite, love conquers all. It works for some people, but it just doesn't resonate with me. Still entertaining enough for me to have enjoyed my time with it. B-

Onward
A boy and his brother embark on a quest to complete the spell that will allow them to meet their deceased father on last time. Hilarity ensues. Honestly, the script and story in this one were pretty weak to me, and the Pixar formula is really starting to show its age to me. The ending was largely predictable and downright manipulative, but it took a turn that I wasn't expecting that hit right in the goddamn gut. I don't think it earned my tears, but it got them anyway. I'm already a sucker for brother stuff, and this movie just twisted that wrench hard. C+

Little Women
The story of the March family, and the people they've loved and lost. I don't love period pieces, but this movie won me over with its effortless charm and incredible cast. Literally everyone in this movie is magnetic, although I still think Pugh should've been nominated for Midsommar instead of this. I was also shocked at how relatable everyone was, although I identified most strongly with Jo. By the time it finished, I had this strange sense of optimism that I couldn't really explain. A couple moments made me roll my eyes a bit, and I was never that emotionally invested in what was going on, but I was still pleasantly surprised with the movie and really happy I watched it. A-

Palm Springs
Andy Samberg is stuck at a wedding. Hilarity ensues. The less you know about this movie the better. The Lonely Island are stealthily building up a library of cult classics and I couldn't be happier. Andy Samberg is probably the weak link in this one, but overall this movie went places I didn't expect it to and was all the better for it. Is it going to rock your world? Not at all! But it's still imminently watchable, frequently hilarious, and hiding a depth that genuinely surprised me. B+

Fun fact: traffic at Shibuya station was down 98% this year due to the pandemic. More of an indicator on how much of the traffic there is due to tourism than anything else, and it let the makers of this video load in fewer "NPCs" while still being true to life!

Obviously not worth it if you watch alone, but in a group this is an absolute steal, IMO. Ticket prices back home cost $22+, so if I were to watch this with my family (7 people), I'd be saving over $100. Obviously subscription services like A-list add a wrinkle, but with theaters closed that's sort of a non-starter.

Soon the prophecy will come to pass, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons will pass Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, heralding the dawn of a new era: the era of Mario Kart 9.

Finally finished Japan Sinks: 2020. I don't think it's very good, which is disappointing given how much I've like all of Yuasa's other work. The show wallows in its own misery far too much and settles into an predictable cadence that is never particularly enjoyable. The way each "shocking" death is accompanied by an overly-humanizing voice-over only served to highlight the show's greatest shortcoming: the show never gives us enough time to actually care about any of these characters. That said, I did think the ending was solid, and served to highlight why they insisted on using the subtitle, "2020:" the release of this show was very clearly meant to align with the Tokyo Olympics. I think if you watch it with this perspective, you can appreciate some of the subtext that Yuasa weaved throughout the series, ultimately culminating in the final ten minutes. His commentary on Japanese culture and society has been present in some of his other works before, but in a way I think it shines through better in Japan Sinks: 2020 than anywhere else. Without spoiling anything, he does a great job at presenting what he believes to be the major shortcomings of Japanese culture while highlighting what makes the country so unique and resilient, ultimately hinting at a possible path forward. I think it's very intentional that he's centered mixed-race and multicultural characters in much of his recent work, which I appreciate for very personal (and perhaps obvious) reasons. Either that or I'm just reading way too far into things again. Not sure if this is actually worth a watch, but it's also pretty short so you can maybe just try out a couple episodes and see what sticks. C

@tokyoslim dude, your wallpaper is sick. Did you take that shot?

I don't love Suikoden the way other people do (or the way I was expecting to), but this looks fantastic and I'm really happy for the fans of the series. I also love how Iga popped up in the Kickstarter video as if to say, "yeah, we're fully aware Konami blows, but we still got your back."

95 hours later and I've finally finished this game. I don't think I've ever played a game as blatantly nostalgic as this one. From the music cues, set-pieces, short vignettes, and character designs, so much of this game was an homage to the series' history (ESPECIALLY DQ1-5, plus a little 8). That's not necessarily a bad thing - I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff - but I do think some people might take issue with it. I'm still letting things settle, but I'm a little more mixed than I was expecting to be.

Mechanically, this is easily the best entry in the series with probably my favorite battle and character building systems. I do think the crafting system (introduced in DQ8) hurts the central progression loop since it almost negates the role of shops in town, but I also have literally never liked a crafting system in a game before so I recognize I'm viewing that with some baggage. Really, my main issue with this game comes down to the "not really a post-game" post-game. Spoilers below:

I think the whole justification for the final chapter of this game is narratively bankrupt, undoing essentially all of the character development that has happened, which is pretty dang egregious given how strong the cast had been up until that point. Off the top of my head, you negate all of Serena, Veronica, Sylvando, and Hendrik's growth, as all of their arcs were entirely dependent on the sequences in chapter 2. This could have been somewhat remedied with a short campfire scene after the party re-unites where you essentially just tell everyone what happened, but I also think it's entirely unnecessary. The original "ending" is lovely and bittersweet, allowing the characters to save the world having grown from the sacrifices they made along the way. The only possible justification for the post-game is to tie up the "hero's star" storyline that was thrown in randomly near the end of chapter 2. However, in a game that is already as bloated as this one can be at times, I truly believe that the game would have been better served by just cutting those arcs and characters, or at least incorporating them more naturally into the original story arc. In the end, it really felt like the main reason the creators went down this route was to shoehorn in a big old nostalgia-baiting prequel storyline for the original trilogy of games (albeit after fighting a boss clearly inspired by the design of the final boss from DQIV). I know I'm in the minority on this, but that final reveal fell completely flat for me, and is just not why I play these games.

Despite my gripes, I still really enjoyed this game and couldn't stop playing it. 5 is still easily the best in the series for me, but I think this is at least better than 8 for me. Can't wait for XII in 2025!

Excellent article and surprisingly good comment section. Should probably go in the larger GoT thread, though, right?