My stick is nicer than yours.
It’s been a quiet month. I dedicated practically all of May into the grunt work for it, and since then it’s been a slow, tedious grind to fill out the rest of it, but the Puchi Carat shrine has been revamped. It’s one of those things I was really excited about working on, and now that it’s over, I’m struggling to remember what my aim actually was. I think my plan was to include just as much information as I possibly could, even stuff like the locations and the map and so on, but I ended up either not having much to work from, or lacking the patience to work with it, so I dropped a whole page and spread its content across other pages. Oh well. Let me know if you enjoy it! (I’ll be interested to hear if people think the design should be less pink, or even more pink)
Also, game music. It’s just stuff I left over from last time, I’m afraid.
I’d meant to mention it earlier when it was actually news, but I’ve been helping out the Super Mario Bros. Movie Archive a little by providing summaries and notes for the various early script drafts they’ve provided. I say check it out not just because I’m tooting my own trumpet, but because it’s a very extensive and informative site; the sort of ludicrously extensive project that just screams “labour of passionate, insane love.” Even if you liked the movie or not, it’s a treat just to see all those preproduction materials spread out online, and the interviews are a lot of fun to read. Admittedly my role isn’t much more than shortening stuff down for people who don’t have hours to burn reading film scripts, but I’m glad to be helping out. Check it out!
I watched two movies on Thursday, both pretty much polar opposites. The first was Attack of the Giant Leeches, which was more background noise than anything; my dad picked it up at a pound shop months ago, and I threw it on when some friends were over just because. Why not, y’know? Eating lunch and watching people get eaten by giant leeches is totally appropriate. People in the backwaters of America are falling victim to giant man-like leech monsters! … if they step into the swamp, first. Despite the limbs and all, the leeches never step foot on dry land. After that happens more times than it should, a rescue operation is set about to retrieve the missing people and destroy the monsters. That’s about all there is, really.
Well, it’s a half-century-old black and white horror film; it’s hardly a thrill-a-minute affair. It’s pretty slow going and glacially paced, though there is a creepy scene of the leech monsters feeding on the captured humans, but there’s not much else of worth about it. There’s some drama about a tubby guy’s wife getting into an affair that’s mildly intriguing, but then all three people involved are killed so quickly and that leaves the film to focus on the dull-as-toast protagonist. On the bright side, it did get us conversing about how we would make a film about killer leeches. My proposed title was “Oh No! More Leeches!” and involved a marriage councillor who happened to be a giant leech, in both senses of the word. No, it didn’t make sense in context.
The other film was Persepolis, which a friend gave to us before she moved back to Belgium. It’s a very political, very cultural film that I wouldn’t deem myself worthy of summarising in detail. About the quickest way I can sum it up is as a coming-of-age story for an Iranian girl and the changes that undergo her life and her country along the way. There’s war, there’s drama, there’s angst, and then there’s a few doses of humour that catch you off-guard.
Totally the kind of thing my friend was into.
I thought it was a very intriguing movie, though being a totally ignorant tosspot regarding Iranian history, culture and its political climate, I might not have got as much out of the story as I could’ve done. Still a fascinating and intriguing story, mind you. Being a totally ignorant tosspot, though, I loved the visual style. All monochrome, very sharp with great bold definition between the characters and the backdrops; a great way of getting that stark comic artwork into an animated medium. It’s the kind of movie I’d recommend on that aspect alone, though the content might not be everyone’s cup of tea, though I had no idea what to expect and I still enjoyed it.
I’ve also rented Metroid: Other M for a week. I haven’t reached the bit where Samus freaks out over Ridley, no. Details to come once I can form a decent judgment on it, perhaps?
What are your thoughts ont eh Sector 3 Incident?
The pink is lovely!
Don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but Persepolis is, or at least the graphic novel it’s based on was, autobiographical.
Greybob: I knew that much about the movie, yeah, though I can’t remember if I gathered that just by watching it, or if I read it on the DVD blurb. It didn’t seem like the kind of story anyone could write without having experienced it all firsthand to some degree. How’d you come across the movie, if I may be so curious? I don’t think I would’ve known about it otherwise if weren’t for my friend and her activist interests.
MightyKombat: I only reached that scene today. Didn’t really think much of it, to be frank. If it had come earlier in the game when I was still trying to give a damn about the story then I might have had something to say, but no, it didn’t really do anything for me. I’m at the final boss, so I should probably have some thoughts about the completed game before it needs returned tomorrow.
I thought the Sector 3 incident was dumb.I tend to blame both Adam and Samus though.
I’d also be happy if Samus cut out the Adam masturbation. He wasn’t nearly as good as Admiral Dane from Metroid Prime 3. Or indeed his Adam 9000 self from fusion.
@Ragey I think I first heard about it from Roger Ebert’s site. I’m a big animation buff, so it probably would have come to my attention at some point regardless.