This was one of the last items on my Netflix queue before the disc service discontinued. Once I saw that it was replaying at a local theater, I leapt at the opportunity. In truth, I'd been putting it off before, because people warned me it was grittier than the cover made it look. But anime fans deem it a classic, and I had enjoyed director Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, and to a lesser extent Paprika.
In her early 20s, Mima (Junk Iwao) gets tired of being in a pop trio and takes up acting instead. Her agent, Tadokoro (Shinpachi Tsuji), nabs her a role on a mystery TV series, with increasing airtime. Some fans are displeased with her career shift, and hostile messages are followed by substantial violence against people involved. The prime suspect is a freaky stalker known as "Mr. Me-Mania" (Masaaki Ōkura), but he's not the only cause of trouble in Mima's life. Under stress, she starts to imagine her pop persona as a separate, impish being out to supplant if not kill her....
Saturday, October 11, 2025
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
The Book of Eli (2010)
As I worried about not having enough creepy movies for the month, I happened to find this DVD on a giveaway shelf. Sure, the movie's not a horror or thriller, and even "sci-fi" would be a stretch despite the future setting, but it certainly depicts a world we would not prefer to the present.
Nobody says directly, but evidence suggests that the ruins across America are due to nuclear war. It must have been religious in nature, because people subsequently destroyed every Abrahamic tract they could find. After 31 years, some regret that decision, even if literacy has become as scarce as soap or fresh water. Loner Eli (Denzel Washington) has found the only copy of the KJV to his knowledge, and he believes that a voice has told him to take it westward, where it will be duly appreciated. Gang leader/de facto mayor Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman) will stop at nothing to get his hands on it, up to and including threatening his mistress's daughter, Solara (Mila Kunis), who wants to run away with Eli.
Nobody says directly, but evidence suggests that the ruins across America are due to nuclear war. It must have been religious in nature, because people subsequently destroyed every Abrahamic tract they could find. After 31 years, some regret that decision, even if literacy has become as scarce as soap or fresh water. Loner Eli (Denzel Washington) has found the only copy of the KJV to his knowledge, and he believes that a voice has told him to take it westward, where it will be duly appreciated. Gang leader/de facto mayor Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman) will stop at nothing to get his hands on it, up to and including threatening his mistress's daughter, Solara (Mila Kunis), who wants to run away with Eli.
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Train to Busan (2016)
This was one of the most popular recent horror movies I hadn't seen yet. I would have saved it for later in the month, but I was in something of a hurry to find a Halloween-appropriate movie, and this was the main one left on my Netflix list.
In Seoul, Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) has devoted more of himself as a fund manager than as a husband or father. He reluctantly agrees to take young daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) to Busan so she can spend her birthday with his ex-wife. But news reports of random riots turn out to have been an understatement: Everyone who gets bitten turns just as berserk, and one such victim boards their train....
In Seoul, Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) has devoted more of himself as a fund manager than as a husband or father. He reluctantly agrees to take young daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an) to Busan so she can spend her birthday with his ex-wife. But news reports of random riots turn out to have been an understatement: Everyone who gets bitten turns just as berserk, and one such victim boards their train....