Optimus Prime kicks ass!!

Hollywood has transformed (pun unintended!) yet another 80s kiddy franchise into a box office monster. Transformers owe their origins to a Japanese line of toys that was acquired by Hasbro; it was then subsequently animated into a popular TV cartoon series in 1984 and drawn into comics by several publishers including Marvel Comics. Dreamworks became intrigued by the possibilities of creating a live action version with the maestro of over-the-top mayhem Michael Bay helming the project.

In the early days of production, when pictures of a re-vamped Optimus Prime leaked out onto the web, hard core fans were enraged. Many film buffs were also sceptical of whether Michael Bay could make a decent film out of the rather ludicrous back story created for kids in the 1980s. All these doubts were more or less swept away when the film finally hit the streets in early July. Transformers, the movie, did extremely well and topped the box office charts in numerous countries.

I finally saw the movie yesterday. I must admit that the film exceeded my expectations: the plot was not totally horrendous; comic relief moments weren’t corny; and the special effects were of course awesome. Although the film’s running time of over 140 minutes means that Bay could probably have trimmed it down, Transformers nevertheless did not feel boring and there weren’t really many filler scenes at all. As the robots are the stars of the film, Transformers does not feature an A-list cast and probably the only one who is receiving decent exposure is Megan Fox, the other major eye candy apart from the computer effects. The stand outs among the robots are Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Blackout, Frenzy and Megatron. I did find the battles between the Autobots and Decepticons truly dazzling and this proves that with ever improving computer visuals, animation action can now be realistically recreated as live action.

The major complaint I have regards the transformation process of the robots from their various camouflage identities. Growing up on Japanese animation, I expected a logical twist and turn of the car parts when the Camaro transforms into Bumblebee. The movie, however, gives us a “disintegration” of the Camaro, lots of camera shaking and loud sound effects, and cuts back to a robot that has finished transforming!! I can’t see how the car becomes a robot, how the doors become the arms or how the hood becomes the torso. Definitely unsatisfactory.

Overall, an enjoyable robot movie that lives up to the blockbuster label. Recommended.

Here’s a video clip of the commercial for the original Japanese toy on which Optimus Prime is based.

Furtwangler’s famous 1942 performance

I recently heard Furtwangler’s performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 on MP3. His rendition of the 3rd movement is very slow – over 20 minutes compared to Karajan’s 16:50 on his 1977 DG recording. The sound quality was not as bad as I thought. I then did a search on YouTube and found this amazing clip!

I’m impressed by the performance and might have to acquire the CD someday.

Yokomizo Seishi : deserves his rep as a master

In my journey towards discovering more Japanese detective fiction, I came across the fiction of Yokomizo Seishi 橫溝正史. Noted for creating the extremely popular character Kindaichi Kosuke 金田一耕助, Yokomizo remains one of the most widely read authors in the genre today. Yokomizo plays an important role in the development and popularization of detective fiction in Japan. He became a professional writer before the start of World War II but fame came after the war ended. Publishing his works in serialized format in weekly magazines, Yokomizo quickly established a large following. A large number of his novels have been adapted into films including the famous Village of Eight Tombs 八墓村.

Japanese detective fiction can be sub-divided into many sub-genres, and Yokomizo is considered by critics and readers to be one of the masters of the “orthodox” or “classic” school 本格派. The detective fiction of writers from the “orthodox” school largely resembles the works of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle – murders take place, detectives strive to unravel alibis or motives of key suspects and the novel ends with a scene in which all the mysteries are explained. This narrative format continues to be popular today in Japan as can be seen in the popularity of the Detective Conan manga and cartoon series.

For my first Yokomizo novel, I chose the decently lengthy 惡魔前來吹笛 [literal translation would be something like "When the Devil Comes, He Plays the Flute"]. Originally published in 1951, I found the novel a very entertaining book and it did not feel dated. The story starts off with the death of a wealthy aristocrat, but as the investigation progresses, Kindaichi discovers the hideous truth behind relationships within the victim’s family. Some authors of Japanese detective fiction opt for preposterous plot mechanisms (I finished reading one last week*, and the ending REALLY pissed me off), but Yokomizo’s novel remains grounded in plausible plot elements. A fast read despite its close to 500 page length, the novel starts off interestingly, takes a detour and ends on a high note in the typical Agatha Christie a gather-in-the-living-room-for-the-truth moment. Overall, a recommended read.

* Natsuhiko Kyogoku’s 京極夏彥 Ubume No Natsu 姑獲鳥之夏. Considered to be “new orthodox school” 新本格派 author, his mysteries tend to feature seemingly supernatural occurrences, which he then debunks. Although the myths, yokai 妖怪 and folklore he writes about is fascinating, I found the novel slow and bogged down by pseudo philosophizing about religion and perception. The ending was horrendous – apparently the narrator suppressed what he saw and all along the reader (i.e. ME) had been presented simply with a unreliable account of what happened. And I hate it when the murderer turns out to be committed by a person with 3 split personalities, thus making it easy to explain away the motives of killing.

Aztec Camera’s Love : perfect for a hot summer day

What music should I play to this rather hot weather? That’s the question I asked myself this afternoon. Somehow, Chicago blues doesn’t work when the temperature is above 25 C. So, today, I searched my Foobar album list for something that suited this heat – and I came out with one of my favourite summer albums, Aztec Camera’s very breezy mid 1980s album Love. Although generally derided as being lightweight and inferior to their debut album High Land Hard Rain, I have a particular fondness for many songs on the CD. Much of this has to do with my associating the music with the summer when I graduated from secondary school. I liked the lyrics then, don’t really mind them now, and Roddy Frame plays some of the best guitar solos and fills among my pop albums.

Standout tracks : #1 Deep Wide & Tall, #2 How Men Are, #4 More Than A Law, #5 Somewhere In My Heart, #9 Killermont Street

Death Proof : Tarantino aces this one!

Palace IFC has been organizing midnight screenings of Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof over the last few weeks. Originally the second half of the Grindhouse project with Robert Rodriguez, Tarantino re-edited his part of the double bill and debuted this cut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival as Death Proof. The version currently showing in Hong Kong is Tarantino’s newer cut – in essence Tarantino expands the original version from Grindhouse with more back story. New scenes not in the Grindhouse cut include a lap dance, a sexual negotiation on a rainy porch and a more detailed intro to the characters the latter part of the film focuses on. This extended new cut clocks in at 114 minutes, a substantial 27 minutes more than the “compact” version in Grindhouse.

Death Proof is the kind of film that my parents would not understand. There isn’t much of a plot like most 1970s drive-in exploitation films. Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) drives a reinforced stunt car around the backwaters of the US and aimlessly hounds and runs over cute chicks. This is not the type of film that cares about the psychology of a maniac; the film much rather focuses on the ridiculous thrills of reckless driving and cute chicks. Old folks are also likely to be thrown off by the intentional jump cuts and audio drop outs that mimic the atrocious drive-in experience.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting very much with Death Proof, mainly B-grade guilty pleasures and a decent soundtrack. But the film turned out to be surprising well written and fun. Tarantino’s trademark dialogue remains sharp and fascinating and apart from the references to cult favourites, the fast cars and hot chicks also prove to be crowd pleasers. While the film is dominated by a group of relatively unknown actresses and there are certainly some T&A moments, Tarantino manages to steer the film from the exploitative roots of the films he pays homage to. Death Proof can be split into two halves, and I definitely prefer the second half : the actresses seem looser, have more chemistry and the dialogue was funnier. Kurt Russell is excellent as stuntman Mike and Zoe Ball, a real life stunt double actually delivers a very entertaining turn in the second part of the film. Also of note is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who is also currently getting quite a bit of exposure as Bruce Willis’s daughter in the new Die Hard film. Very highly recommended.