Eminence of Shadow is fun steampunk anime series
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Be sure to watch Sympathy for Mr Vengeance! Much better than Oldboy imo. Iām not a fan of that movie.
And, even better, Burning, which I mentioned before. Just be sure to ignore the cringy Great Gatsby scene.
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first, Iām fairly experienced in and good with film analysis in general, this isnāt my first rodeo. I got the distinct feeling there are some things meant to be left unclear, I also read that thereās a deleted scene which is very telling at drawing a distinct line like the aforementioned skeleton key and I can only assume the omission was 100% intentional.
Regarding the history, it dates back very far to a time in like the 17th century or something when the 2 countries were on good terms and Japan was supposed to provide military support on a korean inland campaign and japan failed to show up to the party. My understanding is the bad blood starts there, and then more obvious connections can be drawn to the animosity between the 2 cultures. I didnāt know it was so bad in a modern context until a korean american friend of mine educated me to how the cultural dynamic is still very tense and itās not something that korea has let go of. I can only go off what Iāve been told or my own perspective as an outsider, but I also can only assume the stranger being japanese is no coincidence. But rather than taking the entire piece as social/political commentary, I do feel like that was only used as a mcguffin to get the intended audience riled up a bit and put them at odds when the stranger seems like the victim. The movie blends a lot of genres very well, and the red herrings donāt cease, all the way up until the reveals at the end. But even the reveals are easy to question because theyāve thrown you so many misdirections up until that point. I might have to process and watch it again, looking for the things that I was too busy to account for in the first viewing. It did have some rather offputting gore, but at times I felt like they almost did it in a way that was so outlandish that it was meant to have the sort of evil dead/dead alive aspect where itās noticeably over the top, they did it to subdue some of the seriousness of a few scenes. Overall, the level of disorientation created by the director was quite masterful, thanks again for the recommendation.
I actually also watched sympathy for mr vengeance, it was also a long time ago. Iāve seen a few more korean films than I mentioned but mostly japanese films and anime I guess would be my area of indulgence.
Iām not a fan of the ātwistā in oldboy, however I thought the movie was quite well done, far superior to the american interpretation of it.
Iām looking forward to the second season of kage no jitsuryokusha ni naritakute. Iām not sure Iād call it steam punk given that nothing is steam powered, but itās certainly a good/fresh take on isekai. Given that itās categorically shonen which I typically dislike, I felt like it was exceptionally well acted and the humor is great. All the members of shadow garden are likeable for their own unique personalities also, thereās really no boring characters in the plot, even the lesser characters are pretty entertaining.
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Certainly wasnāt implying youāre new to any of this! Just wanted you to know you werenāt āmissingā anything.
Redditors love a good deleted scene! But it doesnāt answer anything imo. All sorts of reasons filmmakers film extra material. As you already know, that material can be elaboration of existing narrative choices, or it can be contradictory material that allows a director to select among a range of story possibilities in editing. Worth checking out on YouTube but it has no bearing on the plot questions, for better or worse (better I think!).
I hope you enjoyed it! My opinion of the movie really grew with time the more I sat with it (and also compared it to the very bleak state of film in the last 10-15 years).
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I knew what you were saying, my statement was more along the lines of that I know a film has more substance when I donāt have the plot completely figured out after the first act. Iām a ruiner of plots, people donāt want to ask me for early film analysis because itās usually too accurate. I think what I read was on screen rant, but it might as well have been a summary of reddit posts or something along those lines. The deleted scene mostly sounded like
minor spoiler
it drew a hard line between the shaman and the stranger, more than just the possession of the box of photos.
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It looks like the majority of castlevania is only available in English language, I usually make a point not to watch anime with dubbed diologue but should I understand that the original cast is the English language cast, and any other language dub was done for export only? Iām just trying to decide how to start watching this because I donāt want to get used to one cast and switch over to another after a few episodes.
Yeah the show was made by an American studio with English speaking actors
Iāll fox wit it.
I watched a classic Japanese horror movie last night - Pulse, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa in 2001. I used to collect all the movies published by Tartan Asia Extreme, but this one slipped the net.
Itās a lo-fi, amusingly clunky but surprisingly engaging story of loneliness, isolation and despair, told in the form of a ghost story which grows in the telling. Someone on Reddit coined the term āfull-blown ghostpocalypseā which I feel is an apt description.
If you like your films to be fast-paced, action-packed and well-acted, donāt bother. This is psychological, slow and wooden as hell. But itās unforgettable! It has the feeling I associate with the early Silent Hill games. Check it out if you havenāt already.
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This is a great sell! Wow you caught me in the trap with that one line! Iāll check it out, thanks.
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It would have sold me as well haha, SH1, 2 & 3 were griz as nuts. Rusted metal, harsh noise and a perennial fog full of twisted nightmares.
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yeah, I honestly donāt understand what it was about pyramid head that freaked me out so much as he slowly follows you around in all his polygonal glory but man those games had me shitting myself late at night. Really a masterful first 3 games I think, then maybe the 4th wasnāt so good. was that āholesā? Anyways, the forced camera perspectives which refuse to move with the character until you actually go to the next screen were nervewracking, especially when you could hear something was just outside of your field of vision or the radio starting making static.
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The concept of the fourth game was cool but the execution left something to be desired. It wasnāt awful, it was actually a fun game, it just lacked the polish of SH3, which represented the high-point of a series whose star just kept rising.
Pyramid Head messed me up as well. And as time went on, I began appreciating the story more. To this day I still hold SH2 as one of the best stories of any form of media, itās just so captivating. No goodies, no baddies, just grey mush and broken souls. And that music. God, that music.
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To be real, the puzzle solving and implementation of the various routes was extremely high level, up to that point I think the alone in the dark series (on PC) may have been the standard I held other games of that type to, and then silent hill really smashed it apart because it took it beyond mystery and into something mystery plus haunted horror, I donāt even know what to call it other than artful disoriented paranoia and ghost stories. Hell on earth or something of that nature is probably a more accurate description though.
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yea me too! I would say it has some thematic items of steampunk. But Princess Principal definitely is steampunk anime.
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Even though they use that green mystery gem for a power source instead of actual steam, princess principal is steampunk in spirit. I enjoyed the first part of it. The series itself and the first couple installments of crown handler were pretty good, last couple of installments have been a little less well scripted I thought. I hope that they can bring it back around since they left the last one on a cliffhanger. Iām so tired of the voice actress that plays princess though, sometimes I have to mute it when her scenes come on. There are some anime I enjoy the actual production and story but there will be a voice actor I canāt stand, I always watch the japanese versions anyways so if it bothers me sometimes Iāll watch it on mute and just read the subtitles.
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I still need to watch the films and hope that they make new seasons of it.
Iāve finished cyberpunk and really loved it! Actually feel a bit sad that itās done! Loved the tone, anything with a similar vibe that youād recommend?