About a month back I purchased House of Flying Daggers, a movie we had rented and I had to have. Last night I finally got to watch my copy of it. I still love this movie, though I am slightly puzzled as to why. The choreographing is good, but not great, the cinematography likewise is good, but it is the story that gets me. Every time I have seen it the end of the movie grabs me in a way that forces me to call the movie beautiful, and that is why I am confused. This is new to me.

This is rather old news, but as life has been terribly busy of late (more on that later) I have time now to talk about this. Some time ago the Sci-Fi channel aired a movie based off of two of the Earthsea books by Ursula K. Le Guin which looked captivatingly interesting so my wife and I watched it. It was a fairly good story, though we thought the ending left much to be desired. I have had her books on my “To Read” list for a while, and facing our long trek south I purchased the first two books from Audible.com so we could listen to them and enjoy the stories. Before I even got to do this I found an article online by Le Guin in which she expressed how upset she was about the movies. Among the details of what they got wrong and how things went askew (more can be found here at her site) I found this quote which still angers me to no end.

A Whitewashed Earthsea - How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books. By Ursula K. Le Guin:

Early on, the filmmakers contacted me in a friendly fashion, and I responded in kind; I asked if they'd like to have a list of name pronunciations; and I said that although I knew that a film must differ greatly from a book, I hoped they were making no unnecessary changes in the plot or to the characters—a dangerous thing to do, since the books have been known to millions of people for decades. They replied that the TV audience is much larger, and entirely different, and would be unlikely to care about changes to the books' story and characters.

It was a dark and rainy night. . . . Well it was, the perfect kind of night to light some candles, build a fire in the wood stove (to warm our bones), build a fire in our fireplace (for ambiance), and to settle into one of my favourite movies, and one of my favourite genres of movies. October has always been my favourite season out of the year, mainly due to the weather in my neck of the woods. I love the rain, the gloom, the fog, the clouds, the distinct absence of the Sun, and the wind which pushes the leaves and drives the rain against their will. These sort of days always warm me, despite their chill, and I can think of no greater pleasure than to sit in a cozy room, filled with all manner of flames, watching a classic Noir Gumshoe tale. Tonight it was the ever famous and popular Maltese Falcon, a film my wife had never seen. If only I could share such a moment accross the Internet; if only one could bottle moods such as this.

Tomorrow, I would be lucky if I could repeat the setup, this time watching The Big Sleep.

My friends probably see me as a man at odds with the movie industry. Time and time again they listen to me critique and rant about this movie or that movie. Often times I find myself engaged in an argument about the merits of a particular film, and I'm usually the one pressing the attack against the movie. After watching a rather popular, even famous, movie last weekend I began to put myself to the question in order to give a definitive answer for my attitude toward films, movie theatres, and the craft of storytelling in general. While this is by no means complete, I hope to show what things I find important, what things I disagree with, my rational behind my decisions, and a driving passion of mine.

This will raise the dander on some folks but I need to get it off my chest. I am sick and tired of watching these so-called family movies, or movies that are obviously filmed with "impressionable" children in mind. It infuriates me to no end that Hollywood thinks they know what is best for children, especially considering they do not even know how to behave like good adults! Life is not as sugar coated as these sappy movies, nor are they as non-violent as they are portrayed. Life is not full of stunts when you are in a duel to the death. Cut out all the fanciful crap!

Today a friend very lovingly alerted me to a new service called GreenCine. GreenCine is an online DVD rental company (like Netflix) which offers 3 simultaneous rentals for $20. Normally I would not be tempted by this, and I would not expect any of my good friends to inform me of a service like this. There is only one thing that I would use this for, so I investigated it to see if it had it, and if it was any good. Now the temptation begins.

I have long said I want to find a place where I can rent anime. I do not want to spend money on an anime I have not seen or previewed, and I do not like the legal and ethical issues that come with fansubs. My natural inclination with this service is to see how good their advertised anime selection is, and it is overflowing. Almost all the anime I have ever wanted to see is in their list. New releases as well as some older stuff. And unlike my experience with Netflix GreenCine appears to have entire series in their inventory and not just a few volumes! This could be the service I am looking for!

The crisis comes in the form of the monthly fee. Would I really use it enough to justify the money spent? Would I have the time to watch enough of the anime, or would I become a nazi couch potato bent on watching my DVDs in one evening? I do have one Ace in the Hole, as it were. My wife enjoys anime almost as much as I do, and she prefers the dubs over the subs, so this service would be worth it to her over digisubs. If I get it, I may never see the light of day again.