So I watched Audition again last night to see if it was still as… good? as I remember. It was. This is by far Miike’s best film that I have seen, head and shoulders above anything else he has done.

Also I get mentioned in this blurb.

I have only taken one semester of Film Crit, and that was in high school (’98). As you can guess High School film crit is probably not the most expansive or in depth of analytical forums. This fact aside I have always been in love with film. If you have been a long time reader of my LJ you may remember my period of reviewing films. I stopped doing that after realising I was a bit pretentious about it with my analysis and lack of background.

I needed to learn more about film (even with my broad history of viewing) so I purchased some books and attempted to expand my viewing range into films I had written off or not heard of. I also started saving up for some Criterion Collection DVDs.

I really love Criterion. They take such great effort to deliver the best possible product with some of the best information they can find. You can really feel the love of the product and the customer with this company. Better than most special edition or collectors editions from other companies, these come with well tracked down historical and analytical information.

Most of the DVDs they put out can be used as a self study of the film, and I can really appreciate that. Now, with a small film vocabulary, I don’t really get lost in these items and I can get into the meaning behind the façade of the film. I have saved up a few times to purchase Criterion DVDs and I will usually buy 3 to 5 at a time with the total between $100 and $150. So far all purchases has been worth every penny.

Let me give you an example from one of the skimpier DVDs I own; Onibaba. I paid $25 for this film and it has probably the least amount of special features that Criterion offers. First the film is restored to excellent quality — which I appreciate a lot, especially after watching a great film like My Left Foot last night which has hundreds of shots with hairs on them, dirt specs and fuzzy audio at times — through a process that is extremely tedious. They also re-translated the English subtitles which are not too big a thing, but it helps the integrity of the film. This is standard with every Criterion along with audio restoration and enhancements. All of this is very important to me, and sometimes enough on its own to warrant the higher price tag of a Criterion DVD. DVDs will frequently have horrible audio where the action (explosions and the like) are extremely loud and the talking is very quite, resulting in horrible balance and an unpleasant viewing experience. The Last of the Mohicans is a recently watched example of this: I had to literally turn on the subtitles with the hotel TV volume all the way up.

I know many people who never watch the extras on DVDs. Generally speaking I don’t either because they are poorly put together and mostly unimportant to the film. For Onibaba they tracked down the original Buddhist fable that inspired the film and retranslated it, giving an unfamiliar viewer a better grasp of the background and relevance of certain aspects. They also tracked down the director and conducted a new interview with him recalling some very interesting points and symbolic choices with the film. Included is some personal footage of the filming of the movie from one of the actors which they found and restored. You also have standard fare trailers, production photos, and promotional material on the DVD.

This is going above and beyond what is needed to put out a historical DVD, especially a little known foreign DVD. I have near total comprehension of the film after two viewings, the interview, filming footage and reading the insert. Well worth the money for a good (not great, though important) film.

I recently had a gift certificate for Best Buy and found the Criterion Collection edition of Ran, a film I had passed on purchasing after watching it a year or so back because of the low quality of the transfer. The new transfer and translation excite me enough about this film, but the special features really get me going. I’ve been a big fan of Akira Kurosawa after receiving The Seven Samurai Criterion Edition for Christmas of ’98 after completing my Film Crit class. I am really looking forward to this full study of Ran.

I guess what I am saying is that Criterion is a really great thing for people like me. I don’t like the price of the DVDs, but no one does. I can respect, and understand it at least.

Well I did not know that the animated cut scenes from Zero Mission cut into your game time. So I ended up with about 17 min left to beat the Samus Gear Solid part of the game. Luckily I got some well aimed shots off at Mecha-Ridley and managed to do the run in 2:27:49. I have no idea how people beat the game with 100% and the speed run. Very rarely did I waste any time. Mostly if I got lost or went in too wrong a direction I would load the game up from a save spot. I never once looked at a FAQ so I am pretty happy with my time.

If I go for it again I am going to aim for 100% run, which I understand is quite the pain in the ass. Also, what are the clear conditions for Metroid: Fusion?

EDIT: Yea! 6 LJ userpics. New one up for this entry.

Well my wife got me my second gift and I can’t say more about it than the images that speak for themselves. I was really pissed off when I first found out that this version of the micro was coming out in the US. I mean, this style of controller has almost no relevance to the average (ok, mainstream) gamer. I had also had mine for about a month and the price of the regular had just dropped. I felt a little betrayed. I left the micro homepage up on my laptop to remind me of why you should wait and not be an early adopter.

Well she got it for me after all my pouting on the subject, or something like that. She claims that we are not buying each other Christmas gifts, but I know that is what she said last night that it was. Anyways, luckily I did have some experience with the micro and know that the faceplates scuff really easily. So the first thing I did was take dozens of pictures of the micro. Different angles with different lighting, all that jazz.

So I took one of my extra faceplates (the black one) and carefully changed them out. I safely placed the retro Famicom faceplate into the stryo-wrap (you see the GBM sitting on it in the first picture) and then into the box for safe keeping. It still looks really sharp with the red metal and the black faceplate. I am a little sad that it only comes with one retro faceplate, as that compulsive need inside me wants to keep it in the best possible condition. This also means I can’t actually see it on a frequent basis. Damn

My wife took over the other micro and plans to use it as a distraction at school. I don’t know how many of you know or not, but on the 15th of January I will be going back to New Orleans for anywhere from 1 to 6 months. My wife will be staying here alone in St. Louis, until I return, so she can stay in school. It is kinda sad so we are just tiring to keep each other company and do things that are fun, like purchase overpriced Nintendo products that I will compulsively keep in its best condition sacrificing it as I see it on a day to day basis. And watching movies. 40 Year Old Virgin was actually quite good. You should see it.

Well, I received my first seasonal gift of the year. The complete works of Shakespeare, leather bound. The pages are about as thin as rice paper and it is longer than a Bible. I have attempted to read Shakespeare 3 times; twice for school and once as a final attempt for personal reasons. I just can’t read Shakespeare, it does not flow well with me. So, I am now forced to - or guilted into it - because “no person who can claim to be literate should be without a healthy knowledge of Shakespeare” as I am informed by the gift giver.

I am going to start with Hamlet.

This always happens after editing each issue, I find a game I now want to play or remember a game I have not played in a while I wanted to give a second chance. So I tried to speed run Zero Mission last night (I will fail at it becaue I am just past Kraid and the clock is at 58min, but give me a break I have not played it in over a year now) and while I was in the options menu I noticed something I completly forgot about earlier: Zero Mission to Fusion link up.

Now all you get for doing it is the Gallery from Fusion, but I didn’t have a linker cable when I first got the game so I put it out of my head. Lastnight though, I was really excitied about it. I thought it may give me another reason to take a look at the game (like hard mode for example). What I got was the standard fare (more and more removed armor from Samus) ending shots then some weirdness came up.

I am not really sure how to get these endings (?) or Plot elements (?) but there were pictures of Samus getting trained by the Chozo (is that right? Those owl like creatures that inhibited Zebes before the metroid invasion). There was not just one either, it was more like Kraid killed Samus’ Father (who was trying to use a small gun) then the Chozo take her and train her from a snotty little kid to a ripped-jean-daisy-duke-style teenager.

Now I am left with more questions than answers. Some are related to the Metroid cannon and others are related to Nintendo. But mainly, what the hell these images from the gallery really are and what unlocked them in Fusion?

Then of all the messed up things that happen this morning I run across this from :

In order to thumb my nose at Sony I purchased the Myst 10th anniversary DVD editon. Really I just wanted to play Riven after reading Ajutla’s article in issue 4. Might as well play the first one too.

There is a fishing tournament today! I practiced a few tournies last night with when I was in his town then when he was in mine. So I should win. Also I now have cherries and coconuts. This is going to be a good Animal Crossing day.

I can now easily access and read Gmail on my cellphone. This makes my cellphone (sadly) twice as useful now!

Well, I finally got it finished. I am sure there are still some errors, but I am overall very pleased with the quality. We made some large changes to the style of the magazine and I attempted some new ways to do layouts. There is a new writer who I would like to really thank for the great articles he put together: . Also I would like to thank as well for the excellent job he did editing.

Anyways, enough of that. Please head over to www.gamersquarter.com and download the new issue (or click on the image). I would love any and all feedback you guys have.