There he sat. Not the usually type of sitting mind you, but a very particular one in which the right leg is bent "just so" leaving said sitter free from the possibility of sudden life-affirming jolts of pain ripping through his knee. He chose this option from a short list of "natural" and his own trademarked "like that" position. Although "like that" could indeed be deemed to possess some therapeutic value, the very fact that it could possibly improve his life despite the possibility of pain was enough to make him take the lazy route on this cold and dreary night -- "like that" was right out. As for "natural"...well let's just say that his painful shortcomings are such that he felt obliged to embrace his false air of iconoclasm in order to dismiss any possibility of commonality being introduced into his daily actions.

"La la la la la la!" spake the Daemon beastie. "There's no way I could possibly lose my job!" he spoke in a tone so insincere that no sane person over 10 years of age would believe. "La la la la la la la!" he repeated in a rhythmic outburst of giddy confusion. "Gosh but I do so love to bike for an hour and half everyday to work and back!" he added doubling-up his lies against reality and further compacting his personal universe of disdain and hate. "La la la la la!" he went on adding all of his life's woes real and imaginary until they soon resembled a rather oddly shaped origami chicken.

But the origami pity party chicken, multi-faceted though it was, did not have nearly enough surface material too encompass the sheer volume of self-loathing and despair unleashed this particular night. On and on the rant went and soon the sad paper avian ended up twisted and confused in an Escher-like room full of lies and bluster with no ending and no beginning until it was hopelessly lost yet interconnected to the make shift life frame in an embarassing Borg-like fashion.

The only creature witness to this entirely unprofessional outburst was the cat named Shoes. Far from being afraid of this localized vocal antic, Shoes was becoming increasingly sure that these babbling words were simply a prelude to the act of his being chased around the apartment and then perhaps a spot of tuna -- such is the ego-riddled world of the cat. But just as the moment arrived when he was sure his keeper would lunge and strike, the babbling halted as the mail arrived heralding some well-timed movie news. No tuna would be had this day.

Times have been a little tough for arguably the most famous man in all of Asia. Sure he's still making money but he's just not doing that well in his homeland and it has begun to irk him somewhat. Reluctantly Jackie appears to be accepting the fact that he's not quite limber enough to play the perpetually child-like kung-fu clown and he has begun to turn to more serious fare.

This time out Jackie is teaming up with veteran director Derek Yee and he is taking on a completely serious dramatic role well away from any martial arts choreography. I quite enjoyed the more serious tone of Jackie's New Police Story and I really liked the short, but well done, appearance he put in as the doomed general Meng Yi in the somewhat forgettable The Myth so I have some hope that this will turn out well. If Jackie can stifle his tendency to revert to his silent film cliched type of overacting then it might turn out rather interesting in Yee's hands.

Official English Site

Hey kids! It's the fun loving and hardest working director in all of Japan Takashi Miike! Just what does he do when he's not thrusting lactating villians at us and constantly redefining just what is an acceptable way in which to end a movie? Why...he makes a kid's movie that's what!

Enter the childhood favorite anime series Yatterman! Hooray! Cue the confusion amongst casual fans and the years worth of smug satisfaction from the Japanophiles out there! Not that this is totally without precendence of course as any Miike fan will be keenly aware of his kids movie The Great Yokai War. Considering how many films Miike churns out I suppose it's almost surprising that he hasn't got around to making another one before this but here it is in all it's technicolor color!

Official Site (Japanese - the trailer is the fourth button over from the left).

Despite it being a kiddie flick I'll probably still give it a spin as...well it is Miike and you never know what to expect. Still though, it be nice if they had some kind of nudge-nudge type of humor (visual or otherwise) ensconced within all the bright color madness and posing. Something that would probably fly over the heads of the younger kids....

Why hello there miss?...Kyoko Fukada? You say you helped to design the costume yourself? Why aren't you just the most helpful movie super villian ever! This of course in no way will influence my decision to watch this film.

Last up is an animated CG movie from Thailand called Nek from the good folks that brought you the martial arts brawler Ong Bak. Yes you read that right.

The Story

"Ghost and spirits surround us all, invisible most of the time. Some good ghosts help us, some evil ghosts tease us, but generally the worlds of humans and ghosts leave each other alone.

Until one day when Tee, a young human boy, suddenly gets targeted by an evil force because he is the key to a ceremony to open a large portal. This will allow a large army of evil spirits to enter the human world and reign supreme for all eternity. Bwoohahaha!

Thankfully, the boy is guarded by a group of good spirits led by the legendary and powerful Nak. When Tee still gets kidnapped, his little sister Kaem travels with Nak to the heart of the evil ghost empire to retrieve him in a desperate attempt to save the world."

This film is an extensive who's who of asian ghosts and spooks with all sorts of in-jokes and appearances made with famous ghosts from all over. But the real fun starts when the evil ghosts start to attack our heroic ensemble of benevolent spirits. The main villian in this film is none other than that damned long black-haired girl from the orginal Ring movie! Apparently, in the animated film there is a screening of the Ring movie and the evil Sadako crawls off of the movie theatre screen and begins a reign of terror upon mankind.

The word on the street is that it all comes together rather well and is very enjoyable. Not the highest production film in the world, but it's Thailand's first big entry into the animated CG market so here's hoping it does well enough to get the ball rolling on future productions.

Did I mention that they're in the middle of production on a new animated CG Astroboy movie? Ahhh! You already knew that didn't you? Oh well.

La la la la la la! I'm so bloody happy!