Winter’s Bone

Missouri, present day, 17 year old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) has to take care of her mentally ill mother and younger brother and sister after the disappearance of her father. One day the Sheriff shows up and tells her that her absent father, Jessop, a notorious crystal-meth producer, has put the family house and land up as a bond but is close to breaking bail. With time running out and the threat of homelessness, Ree seeks help from her uncle, Teardrop (John Hawkes), and sets out to find her father, asking around family and a closed community addicted to cooking crystal meth and withholding a lot of secrets.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

When sitting in the theatre listen out for any laughter at the chip-tune Universal theme. Those guys are the audience who will get the film. The others? They will probably be mildly amused at the visual hyper-activity.

Toronto, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is an aloof and self-centered slacker suffering inertia. When he’s not playing bass guitar in his band Sex Bob-Omb, he’s dating cute 17 year old Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) or crashing at his gay friend’s, Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin), house. Going nowhere fast he suddenly meets girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

I had a similar 'whoa, heart in mouth' moment

Unfortunately, he has to battle her seven evil exes including Chris Evans and Jason Schwartzman.

Resident Evil Afterlife in 3D

This review is pretty easy to write. The film is fun and has a snappy pace and any fan of this cross-platform franchise will be entertained by the action.

The fourth entry in the movie franchise sees the return of Paul W.S. Anderson director of the first two and the use of monsters and imagery from Resident Evil 4 and 5.

Alice and her clones track down Wesker to Umbrella Corporation’s Tokyo headquarter for an explosive battle. Barely surviving that and deprived of her powers she travels down the west coast of America to locate other survivors, linking up with Claire Redfield in Alaska then finding herself besieged by zombies in a Californian prison with another group of survivors and her escape options running out fast.

Kanji

We have previously learnt about hiragana and katakana (collectively known as kana) but now we have the much more complex Kanji – the one Japanese alphabet that is scary – and I try to introduce just what it is and how to read it (thereby exposing the depths of my ignorance). That said, despite my fearful words and negativity, Kanji was what I did well at during my last exam so if a dunce like me can learn it you can to!

Brace up for what might become boredom or enlightenment (depending upon how literate I feel).

So What is Kanji?

Quick history lesson. The origins of Kanji go back to the Chinese scribes of the Yin Dynasty, which lasted from 1700 to 1050 BC. 

Pontypool

I love zombie films. As a teen I watched Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead probably way too many times. Now with the advent of The Walking Dead coming to UK television via the FX channel it seems like as good a time as any to talk about the scariest zombie film of recent years.

Pontypool

At Work

In an extreme example of my lackadaisical nature I have stopped writing despite having a surfeit of ideas due to watching and reading a whole lot of cool stuff. With the approach of my birthday there are more things to come. Some highlights (or lowlights depending upon what you think about my writing)

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

The Sky Crawlers

Arkham Horror

Occult Academy

High School of the Dead

Time of Eve

Arcade Fire

Pontypool

Writing in Japanese

A trip to see Certified Copy (because my cinema isn’t showing it) 😉

 

More Canadians and Zombies than you can shake a stick at. Half of them are written, some are just notes but I will complete them!

Until the next post, forever yours,

   Genki Jason…

Katakana 2

The second part to the katakana lesson, where I quickly explain contracted katakana and provide a link to a webpage which has a vowel pronunciation guide and goes through the basics of the Japanese alphabets.

 Contracted Katakana

Soundtrack to a Genki Life

It is summer and I’m searching for a job and practicing writing out my kanji so I need a soundtrack. Here’s what has caught my attention. A top 18 if you will.

My Bloody Valentine – Blown a Wish

I used to listen to Jazz, Hip-Hop (real stuff like Big L and Wu-Tang) and anime soundtracks and despite the fact I break those albums out I’m increasingly listening to electronic/ambient/shoe-gazing music. This track in particular is like a cake with a rich filling, it’s one to close your eyes and savour. I feel like this is my entry to a dream realm.