I just watched a trailer for a movie that's coming out for Christmas, "47 Ronin". It's serious vandalism that approaches sacrilege.

It stars Keanu Reeve, for one thing. According to this, he's playing a haafu. Obviously there wasn't any such person in the real event. (This happened during the Shogunate, when only samurai were permitted to have weapons. No half-breed would have been considered samurai, except for the descendants of William Adams. And no samurai would have knowingly accepted a non-samurai as a fighting companion.)

They also loaded it up with magic and mystical beasts like dragons. The special effects look really good, but. But.

The actual genuine legend on which the film is loosely based doesn't need all that junk. And it doesn't include any token gaijin. About 300 years ago, a daimyo assaulted a court official, and was ordered to commit seppuku. That left his retainers as ronin. 47 of them spent 2 years planning revenge, killed the court official, and then they all in turn committed seppuku in front of their master's grave.

The story is romantic because of the dedication of the 47 to their duty and to their master, and it's been adapted to all kinds of entertainment countless times. Plus the fact that this was a real event.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 06:07 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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クリミナルガールズ プロモーションムービー

Kuriminarugāruzu puromōshonmūbī

By the way, I'm not sure I even want to know what this game is about.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 12:11 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 09:50 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 Also, theft draws more heat than murder. Although the personhood of robots is debated among the populace of that strip, surely people would notice when all the robots abruptly stopped functioning.

It's a weakness of the strip, really; I like villains that seem like "real people" in the sense that "every man thinks himself the hero of his own story", while Mr. Kornada, from his very first appearance, has been little more than a mustache-twirling stock character from a cheap melodrama. The robot that fears the power other robots have over humans is a much more compelling villain.

Posted by: Boviate at October 18, 2013 09:57 AM (CeQ+R)

2 (Stupid typo: theft draws LESS heat than murder.)

Posted by: Boviate at October 18, 2013 09:58 AM (CeQ+R)

3 I should remember this comic next April 15th.
.

Posted by: topmaker at October 18, 2013 12:44 PM (i0rVe)

4 I LOL'ed at the robot's reaction the next panel.  Sam channeling Cthulhu... 

Posted by: Siergen at October 18, 2013 12:45 PM (c2+vA)

5

That's a running joke in the comic.

The thing that looks like Sam's face is a mask; the planet he's currently on has the wrong sort of atmosphere for his species.  He really is a cthuloid horror behind it.

Posted by: Mikeski at October 18, 2013 07:05 PM (Zlc1W)

6 I've long been of the opinion that without his suit that Sam looks like Cthulhu, but I don't think the author has ever confirmed that. We do know that he has tentacles on his face.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 18, 2013 07:12 PM (+rSRq)

7 By the way, the reason for his suit has nothing to do with the atmosphere. The suit was created for him because none of the people could stand to look at his true form. Which adds further credence to the idea that he looks like Cthulhu.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 18, 2013 07:15 PM (+rSRq)

8 His visage makes people vomit (and does have tentacles), and he needs to wear a space suit.  So it's for both air and aesthetics. 

Posted by: Mikeski at October 18, 2013 08:11 PM (Zlc1W)

9 Mikeski, so he's essentially Brian Wilson then?

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 19, 2013 05:49 PM (GE6XS)

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Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 11:22 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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This is truly awesome. Someone cut a modern-style trailer for Monty Python and the Holy Grail and made it seem like a straight Hollywood thriller with no comedy.

One thing I find amazing is that tools to do this kind of editing have become so cheap and widespread that someone with this kind of talent can do something like this, sitting at his home computer.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 03:12 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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We made the WSJ!

...sort of...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 12:28 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Did you know that Puella Magi Madoka Magica is actually about the struggle of girls against the patriarchy?

Good Lord.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 07:59 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I just figured something out about the "Sand" story they're currently telling in Penny Arcade.

Phorr (i.e. "Four") is an android. The reason they couldn't kill him is that he isn't alive. He doesn't breath, so he can't drown. He's made of metal, so his neck can't break and he can't suffocate when hung. And being made of metal and high-tech silicone rubber, fire isn't an issue either.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 08:29 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Is Pixar bleeding talent?

I just read that their three most recent films don't have the old magic. Two of them were sequels (or prequels) and two of them flopped. When Disney bought the place, I wondered if it was the end of the miracle machine. And now it seems it is.

Lasseter seems to have his mind on other things. And based on his CV, it looks like Brad Bird no longer works there. (Which would be a huge loss; Bird was responsible for The Incredibles and Ratatouille.)

When you acquire a place like that, there are material assets (i.e. the software, the rendering farm, the library of releases) which have value, but looking forward the primary value is the talent. But that can easily be a wasting asset if you handle it wrong. It doesn't take too much to set off a stampede for the door, and then the talent is gone.

Did that happen, (partially or fully)?

UPDATE: Speaking of that, seems like the same thing happened when Disney acquired Henson. The magic is gone there, too.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 09:45 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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I don't own a TV. From that we can deduce that I don't watch TV. And therefore I don't watch Game of Thrones.

I'm not likely to, either. But I'm a bit curious. Apparently last night's episode had a shocking event in it. What happened?

All I know is that the phrase "red wedding" is involved, somehow. (It was the title on a YouTube which showed people's shocked reaction to watching the event.)

(Note: the answer to my question is bound to be a spoiler. Please use spoiler tags.)

Ace won't say what happened, but he says it was handled badly in the show, shortchanged. "It was better in the book."

Dork Tower was about it, today.

UPDATE: Oh, and before anyone asks: Anime isn't TV. Anime is life. Anime doesn't count.

UPDATE: Wildassed guess: A major wedding was taking place, and it was interrupted by swordsmen, who killed everyone.

If that's it, Dallas already did that.

UPDATE: I found this on Wikipedia:

As it turns out, Roose Bolton engineered the disastrous defeat at Duskendale, betraying the soldiers under his command by sending them into a trap set by the Lannisters, yet holding his own Bolton forces in reserve. Then as their army was retreating, he marched his Bolton forces first while having the soldiers of other Northern Houses form the rearguard. Bolton then intentionally retreated his army too slowly, ensuring that the rearguard would be stuck on the south side of the Trident when Clegane caught up with them. The combined effect was to kill off the forces of other Northern Houses loyal to Robb (five out of the nine thousand entrusted to his command), while leaving his own Bolton army (numbering three thousand) virtually unscathed, which left Roose with a larger army to slaughter Robb's remaining forces with at the Red Wedding. Between the Red Wedding and Duskendale, Roose has betrayed and killed an immediate family member of every other major House in the North, but his betrayal leaves them too weak to oppose him. Except for the forces of the Boltons and Karstarks (who withdrew earlier), virtually the entire Northern army that Robb Stark led south to war has been functionally destroyed. Tywin Lannister rewards Roose by naming House Bolton as the new Wardens of the North in place of House Stark. The crown also legitimizes Roose's bastard son Ramsay Snow: Ramsay Bolton is named the new Lord of Winterfell. With the King in the North dead, Stannis defeated, and the Ironborn divided, the war winds down as the Lannisters emerge victorious.

So I guess you had to be there, as they say. It would probably be more affecting if I knew the characters and was invested in the show.

UPDATE: Pixy, formatting problem: I used to have a "quote" inside the "spoiler" tag, and it displayed in clear. I rearranged it with the "spoiler" inside the "quote" and now it's hidden.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 04:33 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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