TL;DR – I take a walk through Osaka and find a Pokémon Center.
Disclosure – I paid for my flights, accommodation, entry, and everything you see purchased in this article.
I had always planned to go back to Japan one day, and had started making plans to go back in 2020, and then 2020 happened. But late last year, I finally had the chance to put those plans back in motion as I flew out of Melbourne for Osaka, and thus my time in Japan began.
Continue readingTL;DR – I visited one of the Wonders of the World at Himeji Castle.
Disclosure – I paid for my flights, accommodation, entry, and everything you see purchased in this article.
Exploring Japan –
I had always planned to go back to Japan one day, and had started making plans to go back in 2020, and then 2020 happened. But late last year, I finally had the chance to put those plans back in motion as I flew out of Melbourne for Osaka, and thus my time in Japan began.
Continue readingTL;DR – Time to fly and begin my visit in Osaka by going under the sea.
Disclosure – I paid for my flights, accommodation, entry, and everything you see purchased in this article.
I had always planned to go back to Japan one day, and had started making plans to go back in 2020, and then 2020 happened. But late last year, I finally had the chance to put those plans back in motion as I flew out of Melbourne for Osaka.
Continue readingTL;DR – This is a stunningly beautiful portrait of a man’s life that feels both deeply personal and universal in what drives him. It is profoundly moving and full of narrative grace that could have been all melancholy but is instead full of heart and joy.
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.
Disclosure – I was invited to a screening of this film.
I know this is only August, and there are many films I will see this month, let alone by the end of the year, but today, can I say that we are looking at one of my films of the year. If not, the film of the year. This is such a stunning work that it has sat with me the whole time since I first watched it. I mean, Touch is such a beautiful film that I am getting emotional from writing about it now.
So, to set the scene, Kristófer (Egill Ólafsson) is going through the motions of his life in Iceland at the start of the COVID pandemic. He is a famous restaurateur on the island, but he has now closed his restaurant and is spending time at a local choir and trying to invoke his past diaries. But as the world starts to close up, Kristófer sets on a mission to answer one of the great questions of his past when he (Palmi Kormakur) was a young student in London and one day, he walked into a Japanese restaurant and met Miko (Kōki).
TL;DR – This is a polarising show in that it will either suck you into its world or create barriers that make it hard to be connected. I was the first, but I could understand why you could be the latter.
Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.
Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.
When you hear that an American studio is going to take on a Japanese story, that raises some alarm bells, but then it is a story about Japan written by an Australian in the 1970s. Well, you take a moment to have a grave concern. However, the more I heard about the series and the role of Japanese creatives like lead Hiroyuki Sanada, the more I had to check out, and I am glad that I did.
So, to set the scene, it is the year 1600, and only Portugal has been able to make inroads into the closed society of Japan. But there is a change in the air, with the reigning Taikō dying and not clear succession. This is an opportunity for both those within and those without to change up the status quo. But in all times of change comes chances for great riches and terrible defeats. One such entrant into this Dutch merchant led by Englishman navigator John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), whose convoy was hit with storms, starvation, dehydration, and despair when it crashed into the Japanese coastline, with only one ship of five remaining. But Blackthorne arrived in the Japans at an exciting time. For there is a power vacuum, and many people are trying to fill it, one of which is Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), the local bushō and lord over Kantō. Blackthorne cannot speak a word of Japanese, but he is fluent in Portuguese. This is good because Lord Toranaga has a Portuguese speaker in his entourage, Lady Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai). The bad news is that the Portuguese are Blackthorne’s enemies. In religion, in regional competition, and can control if Blackthorne lives or dies. Now, from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.
TL;DR – We chart all of Jet Lag as they galivant across the globe.
As we continue our project to Map Pop Culture, I thought I would step away from the video games and movies of the past and into new territory. One area of Pop Culture that we have yet to explore is the world of Internet Culture. However, what would be the first step into this new space? Well, it needed to be something that respected maps, and I knew 100% who that would be.
If you have never watched Jet Lag, can I tell you that you are missing out on some joy as Ben, Sam, Adam, and often a guest run across the world playing games like tag across Europe. There is a frantic, joyous energy to everything when someone looks dead into the camera and states, “Of course I brought a disguise!” It is that joy that we present our maps today.
Back in 2022, there was this odd film that popped into the world, Bullet Train, which took place on a Shinkansen travelling from Tokyo to Osaka. For some, it was their film of the year, but I ended up being much more mixed on the movie. However, there was one thing I was thinking about when I sat down to watch the film – is it geographically accurate? This is what we will look at today.
I have taken the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka before, so I thought this was something I could tick off in the cinema, but some of the station locations are shown very briefly or only in part. It took seeing it on digital release to nail this map down.
TL;DR – Several interesting ideas are going on here, but they never coalesce into something worthy.
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Disclosure – I paid to see this film
When you are making an action film, there are many different styles that you could employ. There is the grizzled machismo of movies like Rambo, the high-octane yet safe for families action of the Fast and the Furious films, or the grimy rawness of films like The Northman. But one of the more recent action styles has been this smooth, free-flowing, and fast-talking style of cinema that was thrown into the spotlight with Deadpool. While that style has been divisive, I have generally enjoyed it, and today we see another example of it in the form of Bullet Train.
So to set the scene, it has been a long road of recovery for ‘Lady Bug’ (Brad Pitt) since he got shot doing a job in Johannesburg. But he is finally ready to take on a new mission, and his handler (Sandra Bullock) has picked an easy one for him. He must go on to a bullet train stationed in Tokyo, Japan, retrieve a briefcase with a train sticker on the handle, and remove it before the train reaches Kyoto. The only issue is that ‘Lady Bug’ is not the only operative working a job on that train as “Lemon” (Brian Tyree Henry), “Tangerine” (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), “The Wolf” (Benito A. Martínez Ocasio), “The Prince” (Joey King), “The Father” (Andrew Koji), and “The Hornet” (Zazie Beetz) all have their own plans in how this will go.
TL;DR – A really good film up until the point it gets bogged down in its own worldbuilding
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene
Review –
It has been a long road trying to adapt video games to the big screen and so far there have not been many (if any) that have actually pulled it off. Some have got close and today we take a look at one that also is very close, even if it just does not quite get there.
So to set the scene, in Japan, there are three good friends Kotona (Abby Trott), Haru (Alejandro Saab), and Yu (Max Mittelman). Kotona and Haru are a couple and Yu is the third wheel, but not really, though he is confined to a wheelchair after a childhood accident that killed his parents. Life is great, school is good, however, all is ripped apart when one-day Kotona realises that she is being stalked by a creep. Yu and Haru rush to help her but they are too late when they arrive a masked figure stabs Kotana with a weird blade. They rush to try and get her to a hospital when in the middle of the street they are ripped into another world and now Kotona is missing, their phones are compasses, and everything is different.
TL;DR – Starts of being a look in how people explore trauma and then becomes a case study in abusive relationships
Score – 1 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – I don’t know if there is a no post-credit scene
Warning – This film has extensive depictions of abuse
Review –
I have watched a lot of films in my life and I have review hundreds of them over the years on this site. There have been a number of films that had I not been watching them for review I probably would have turned off the TV or walked out of the theatre but I haven’t because of a sense of professionalism. However, today we view a film that finally broke me. I have not seen the end of this film before writing the review, nor do I care to find out what happened.
So to set the scene, we open in on Japan, beset by news of a serial killer, as we see a certain Joe Murata (Kippei Shîna) being creepy as hell. Elsewhere there is a guy that is new to Tokyo and quickly befriends a bunch of filmmakers. They find out he is a virgin and so they take him to their friend, who then takes all of them to help get an old classmate to appear in their next play. That same classmate who Joe Murata has just set his eyes on.
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50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong
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freelance film critic with an interest in multilingualism, feminist perspectives in cinema and crime dramas.
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