Month: January 2019

They Shall Not Grow Old

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91lwssevehl._sl1500_That movie has been hyped so much that when I finally got to see it I was rather disappointed. It is not really a documentary as the picture are shown as it is without any context (places, dates or names). It is just footage of the First World War (the war to end all wars they said, but it ended up being the most useless, senseless war of all time) with voiceover by survivors who describe their experience. Not all footage has been restored, retimed and colourized — but most of it. And I am wondering when those testimonies were recorded — as the voice sounded like old men and the recording seems of pretty good quality, so it must have been done at a time when they already had good equipment, although the sound had probably been restored the same way the pictures were. Both the original footage and the audio recording of the British soldiers come from the archives of the Imperial War Museum and the BBC.

All in all, the movie is still pretty interesting as it give us the chance to witness the Great War in colour, as it was experienced by the men who fought it. It gives a really good impression of what it must have felt like. The war is not an impersonal historical event anymore as we get closer to the soldiers. It is a fit tribute for the 100th anniversary of the end of the war. I was expecting more visually, but Peter Jackson’s team did a really good work (it’s a great technological feat to gather, edit and restore all this footage) and it is therefore a must-see movie. Through this those young men will indeed never grow old and hopefully such horror will never be repeated.

The movie was shown on the BBC and is already available on Blu-ray & DVD in U.K.. It was shown in theatre for one day in North America and hopefully will be picked up for broadcast (Netflix? Amazon?) and released in DVD/Blu-ray soon. The critical response was very positive (8.6 on IMDb and 98% on Rotten Tomatoes). stars-3-0

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[ Amazon — Google — IMDb — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

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Mujirushi: Le Signe des rêves 2

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signe-des-reves-2-covLe récit, débuté dans le premier volume, se poursuit. [Attention: SPOILER] Kasumi et son naïf de père Takashi ont un plan pour voler La Dentellière de Vermeer au Louvre: distribuer des masques de la présidente américaine Duncan (une sorte de mélange entre Trump et Hilary) dans le cadre d’un faux exercice d’évacuation et profiter de la confusion pour cacher le tableau dans les combles du musée. L’escroc Iyami, ce prétentieux personnage aux dents saillantes, espère profiter de la disparition du tableau pour vendre son faux à haut prix… Le pompier Michel tente de les en empêcher mais de toute façon Takashi ne réussi pas à saisir le tableau et le plan échoue… Toutefois, l’incident est perçu comme  une manifestation éclair anti-Duncan et, comme un scandale impliquant la président éclate au même moment, les masques de la présidente reviennent populaire et l’usine de Takashi suffit à peine à répondre à la demande. Sa femme revient et sa fortune est retrouvée!

signe-des-reves-2-bcovEntremêlé au récit principale on retrouve trois autres histoires: celle de l’inspecteur japonais à la poursuite d’un trafiquant de tableaux volés qui fait erreur sur la personne; deux journalistes qui “suivent” la présidente Duncan et révèlent le scandale; et finalement l’histoire de Kyôko, une japonaise qui a vécu à Paris et s’est occupé de Michel quand il était jeune. Finalement, l’histoire qui lie Kyôko et Iyami n’a rien de mystique et, si elle est un peu rocambolesque, elle est même plutôt décevante tellement qu’elle est banale. 

signe-des-reves-2-plancheLe manga nous offre quatre planches en couleurs et se conclue avec les fiches signalétiques de deux des oeuvres du Louvre représentées dans le récit (La Dentellière de Vermeer et la statue égyptienne du couple Sementaouy et Rouiay), une postface de Naoki Urasawa (qui explique la genèse du manga) et la présentation du personnage de Iyami. C’est sans doute cette dernière qui est la plus intéressante car elle donne une nouvelle optique au récit. On y explique que Iyami est en fait un personnage très populaire du manga Osomatsu-kun par Fujio Akatsuka. Le récit est donc rempli d’inside jokes que seul les gens familier avec cet aspect de la culture japonaise peuvent comprendre  et apprécier. Cela m’avait échappé…

Si le dessin de Naoki Urasawa semble un peu ordinaire, il est très efficace à exprimer l’action et l’émotion des personnages. Et, si la conclusion de l’histoire est un peu décevante, le récit est bien mené et captivant. Le signe des rêve demeure donc une bonne lecture. C’est du Urasawa, après tout!

Mujirushi: Le Signe des rêves 2, par Naoki Urasawa. Paris: Futuropolis / Louvre Éditions, octobre 2018. 136 pages, 19.5 x 26.5 cm, 20,00 €  / $39.95 Can. ISBN 978-2-7548-2581-8. Sens de lecture original (de droite à gauche). Pour lectorat adolescent (14+). stars-3-0

Vous trouverez plus d’information sur les sites suivants:

[ Amazon — Biblio — Goodreads — Google — Wikipedia — WorldCat ]

© 2018 Urasawa Naoki • N Wood Studio / Futuropolis • Musée du Louvre Éditions.

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Indexes Update January 2019

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I am catching up with updating my Bibliography and the blog indexes for Books and Movies/TV reviews for the May 2018 to January 2019 period (132 entries in 9 months). Sorry, I should have updated them more often (the previous update was in April !).

It’s clear that I am commenting on more movies & TV series  (47) than books (24). I really have to change that and read more books!

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Découverte: Suggestions d’achats

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En octobre dernier j’ai fait une liste de suggestions d’achats pour le bibliothécaire adulte de ma bibliothèque. Elle comprenait quelques mangas récents qu’il me semblaient essentiels d’avoir, des livres de cuisine japonaise en manga (une curiosité) ainsi qu’une série d’anthologies de littérature de l’imaginaire japonais que je trouvais intéressante à lire (particulièrement parce qu’elle contiens des histoires courtes de l’auteur KAJIO Shinji, dont l’oeuvre n’a pas encore été traduite ni en anglais, ni en français). Je la partage ici avec vous:

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Moriarty vol. 1-2, Hikaru Miyoshi, Kana (Coll. Dark), Juin/Septembre 2018, 212/204 pgs, 9782505070733 / 9782505070740, 6,85€ / $12.95 Can ch. [ Amazon / Biblio / Goodreads ]

The Manga Cookbook: Japanese Bento Boxes, Main Dishes and More!, The Manga University Culinary Institute & Chihiro Hattori, Japanime Co. Ltd, December 2007, 158 pgs, 978-4921205072, $16.95. [ Amazon / Goodreads ]

The Manga Cookbook Vol. 2: More Popular and Delicious Japanese Dishes!, The Manga University Culinary Institute & Koda Tadashi, Japanime Co. Ltd, June 2017, 160 pgs, 978-4921205362, $16.95. [ Amazon / Goodreads ]

The Manga Cookbook Vol. 3: Japanese Fusion Food with Character!, The Manga University Culinary Institute & Ryo Katagiri, Japanime Co. Ltd., September 2018, 192 pgs, 978-4921205393, $19.95. [ Amazon / Goodreads ]

She and Her Cat, Vol. 1, Makoto Shinkai and Tsubasa Yamaguchi, Vertical Comics, Aout 2017, 180 Pages, 9781945054402, $12.95 US / $13.95 Can. [ Amazon / Goodreads ]

Le signe des rêves Vol. 1 & 2, Naoki Urasawa, Futuropolis (Coll. Louvre), Août/Octobre 2018, 144/136 pgs, 9782754825771 / 9782754825818, 20 € / $39.95 ch. [ Amazon / Biblio / Goodreads ] Voir mon commentaire du vol. 1 et du vol. 2.

Speculative Japan #1: Outstanding Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Gene van Troyer (Editor). Kurodahan Press, 2007, 290 pg. ISBN 9784902075267. Anthology that contains the short story “Reiko’s Universe Box” by KAJIO Shinji. [ Amazon / Biblio / Goodreads ]

Speculative Japan #2: The Man Who Watched the Sea and Other Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy. Kurodahan Press, 2011, 282 pg. ISBN 9784902075182. Anthology that contains the short story “Emanon: A Reminiscence” by KAJIO Shinji. [ Amazon / Goodreads ]

Speculative Japan #4: “Pearls for Mia” and Other Tales. Kurodahan Press, 2018, 272 pg. ISBN 978-4-902075-84-7. Contains the short story “Pearls for Mia”「美亜へ贈る真珠」by KAJIO Shinji. [ Amazon / Goodreads ]

Vampire! Tales of Blood and Roses from Japan. Kurodahan Press, to be released late 2019, pages TBD. ISBN 978-4-909473-00-4. Contains the short story “干し若” by KAJIO Shinji. 

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Deadpool

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deadpool-posterA comedic take on the superhero movies (and particularly the X-Men). It offers the usual plethora of stunts and special effects, as well as the usual story [¡SPOILER! although it’s all in the trailer…]: mercenary boy is madly in love with girl, but has to leave her to go seek a cure for his cancer which turn him into a super-healing anti-hero with a new ugly face so he cannot come back to her but instead seeks revenge against the vilain who did that to him however in counter-action the bad guy kidnaps girl therefore he has to save her and they ends up back together in a happy ending but the guy remains a jerk.

It’s all rather ordinary but what’s distinguish this movie is the dialogues (actually, mostly the monologues, performed by Ryan Reynolds) which are rather funny. Frankly, the movie should have been titled “deadpan”… It’s another brainless action movie. Nothing serious (the good thing is that it doesn’t take itself seriously at all) but it offers some twisted entertainment. A fan-boy movie.

It is based on a Marvel comic book set in the X-Men’s universe. Despite being called vulgar, infantile, obnoxious, irreverent, etc., it was well received (mostly by  the comics book fans) with ratings of 84% / 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.0 on IMDb ! Rated R…stars-2-5

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[Amazon — Biblio — Google — IMDb — Official — Wikipedia — Youtube]

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Snow storm aftermath

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This week-end we had the first real snow storm of the season (about 20~30 cm) as well as some very cold temperature (in the -20s °C or in the -30s °C with the chill factor). Apparently, it is the first time that we have this combination of snow storm and extreme cold weather since 1920!

Here is a time-lapse video of the storm taken between 2019/01/19 16h00 and 2019/01/20 16h00. So there you have twenty-four hours fast-forwarded in a little less than a minute:

Of course, the borough is in no hurry to pick the snow. Like I previously mentioned, in early January, the snow had not been picked up at all since the beginning of the season which caused piles of ice to form on he street making it quite challenging for the car to park. And when they did try to pick up the icy snow piles in the second week of January, the ice was so hard that it was practically impossible to remove it all, leaving an ice layer as high as the sidewalk (4 to 6 in.)! And when it snows on that, try not to get stuck when you park your car. I understand now why so many people have SUV despite living in the city!

The borough also had trouble removing the snow from the sidewalks. Yesterday I have seen the sidewalk tractor actually working only early in the morning — it passed in front of my house around 7h29. With the wind drift, the people cleaning their driveway or cars and putting the snow on the sidewalk (with total disregard for their fellow citizen who are walking) the sidewalks quickly became completely unpassable for pedestrians. I did see a sidewalk tractor around 15h37, but it was driving in the middle of the street without any snow-plow in the front or even a salt-spreader in the back. In the evening, the sidewalks had not been cleared for over twelve hours and I was worried that my wife would have trouble walking back from the bus stop after work, so I called the city’s public works to let them know and a sidewalk tractor did the job around 22h45…

It really seems that this new administration in city hall is either incompetent or inexperienced or too eager to save money. I don’t mind paying more taxes year after year if the quality of service is maintained or improves. However, if I paid more taxes and the quality of service decreases (and the quality of services has clearly decreased since the beginning of this new administration), then I am really not happy. And since, on top of that, this administration has not been treating its workers well, I seriously regret having voted for them…

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Mrs Wilson

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mrswilsonThis three-part historical drama is set in Britain during and after WW2 (in the ‘50s & ’60s). When her husband dies, in the early sixties, Alison Wilson is already distraught. They lived comfortably in their little cottage. She’s a typist and Alexander is a spy novelists (and retired MI6 officer). They have two sons, Gordon and Nigel, and they were happy. However, as she tries to come around organizing her husband funerals, she receives the visit of a woman, Mrs Gladys Wilson, who claim to be Alec’s widow! Her happy world quickly crumbles as she struggles with one question: was her husband really the man he claimed to be? Was it just a lie? 

She knew Alex/Alec was a spy because they met at the Secret Intelligence Service headquarters where they were both working during the war. She starts her own investigation, questioning Alex’s handler at MI6, some colleagues in the Intelligence Service, Gladys’ son. She becomes obsessed with this quest to discover who the man she thought she knew for twenty-two years really was. The deeper she digs in his past the more secrets she discovers! Through flashbacks, she relives their history together until she understands who he really was. When she comes to term with the truth, she becomes a nun, but she never could tell her sons about their father until after she died—she had written everything down. 

It is a beautiful and compelling story told in the manner of a spy or mystery novel. The most interesting part is that it is a true story — and the cool twist is that Alison Wilson is played by actress Ruth Wilson, he own grand-daughter! Alexander ‘Alec’ Wilson wrote twenty-four novels, mostly inspired by his career in the secret service and his huge imagination. He was a bigamist who had seven children with several wives. Many aspects of his life are still a mystery as, even today, the Foreign Office still consider his files as ‘sensitive’.

Mrs Wilson is a very interesting historical drama, beautifully filmed and cleverly told. I enjoyed it greatly and recommend it warmly. It was well received by the critics (with rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.4 on IMDb). It aired on BBC One in late November / early December and will premieres on PBS Masterpiece Sunday, March 31, 2019, 9/8c (and will subsequently be available on Dvd, iTunes Store and Prime Video). Don’t miss it! stars-3-5

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[ Google — IMDb — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

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Tomb Raider

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tomb_raider_(2018_film)This reboot of the video game adaptation is neither better nor worse than the previous one with Angelina Jolie. Unfortunately, the story is not very inspiring, but it offers good action (despite the impossible stunts typical of Lara Croft), as well as very nice acting from Alicia Vikander and Daniel Wu. I was quite annoyed by the fact that all the aspects of the supposedly Japanese ancient culture presented in the story is completely bogus and actually looks more Chinese than Japanese. (WTF!?) However, [SPOILER ALERT] I like that the ancient curse turned out to be a disease [SPOILER END]. It offers a nice breath of realism in the movie. Unfortunately, to make it cinematically palatable they had to make the disease’s symptoms completely, absurdly improbable. 

It is safe to say that Alicia Vikander comfortably slips into the Lara Croft character (despite not having her exaggerated physical attributes which she thankfully compensate with great stamina and charm) and delivers a performance that saves the movie from a complete wreck. The movie received mixed reviews (6.3 on IMDb, 51%/56% on Rotten Tomatoes). All in all, it’s an average action movie that offers brainless entertainment. It’s worth watching, whether you are a fan or not, but only if you have time to spare. stars-2-5

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[ Amazon — Biblio — Google — IMDb — Official — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

Damn! The trailer is showing all the best scenes of the movie!

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Z Nation

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znation-s05-poster

Season 5

“A group of survivors must cross the country with a possible cure for the zombie apocalypse. The holder of the cure, a zombie-human hybrid named Murphy, may not be so cooperative.”

That’s the premise of this 5-season series. At first I thought, “Not another zombie show!” but it grew on me because of its humour, its clever ideas and the fact that it was able to reinvent itself season after season. Hell, it tackled every zombie cliché, and sometimes it was boring or stupid, often repetitive, but the producers had the sense to give it mercy before it becomes worse.

The fact that the series is a gross comedy doesn’t prevent it from touching serious subjects. It is particularly the case in the fifth and last season which is more political. The series talks about Native American rights and the zombies (who have evolved an intermediary stage where they still have cognitive and language abilities before becoming murderous brutes) are an allegory pleading against prejudice and discrimination (racial, sexual, religious, etc.). We must accept the difference in other people, whatever they are.

The series was relatively well received (rating of 6.7 on IMDb and if the first season was dislike by critics on Rotten Tomatoes with a rating of 45%, the over-all audience score is nevertheless 77%). It aired on SyFy in the U.S. and on Space in Canada, but can still be viewed on Dvds and on Netflix. A prequel, titled Black Summer, will be airing on Netflix in early 2019. Over all it is a nice, funny entertainment, that changes us from The Walking Dead. I have always been partial to post-apocalyptic stories, so I guess it is binge-watching worthy. stars-3-0

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[ Amazon — Biblio — Google — IMDb — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

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Pacific Rim Uprising

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pacificrim2-posterAs bad as this movie is you cannot but love it if you are a mecha (or giant robots) and a kaiju fan — which I am. There’s plenty of action (although not very realistic and playing loose with the laws of physics), not much story, a hint of human drama, and a bit of humour. There’s not much originality either, but let’s call it an “hommage.” The term Jaeger reminds me a little of Heavy Gear (although it could come from so many other sources: it means hunter in German, could refers to infantry troops, a bird, a car, or several anime or manga), some designs seems inspired by many giant robots anime (Giant Robo, Mazinger, The Big O) and, of course, the kaiju part if inspired by Ultraman, Godzilla and Gamera, but the biggest “influence” is without contest Neon Genesis Evangelion — and this is probably the closest we’ll ever get to an Evangelion live-action movie. The alien monster attacking Earth, using alien technology to develop weapon against them, the synchronization part, the tall slender design similar to the rogue jaeger Obsidian Fury (damn! I love that design!): that’s seems all “inspired” by Evangelion. Although they’ve gutted all the really interesting stuff (mystical bits and human drama) it is still pretty entertaining.

There is plenty of cool stuff in this movie. No transforming robot but instead a combining kaiju. Not a bad idea. And I’ve certainly LOL when the pilots of Bracer Phoenix have to eject and land at the feet of a statue of a… Gundam! Beautiful and really funny. I couldn’t fail to notice the heavy Chinese presence in the cast and crew (not surprising since producer Legendary was bought by the Chinese Wanda Group and some of the shooting was done in a studio in China). It did relatively well at the box office but was not particularly liked (rating of 5.6 on IMDb and 44% / 41% on Rotten Tomatoes !).

All in all, it offers brainless sci-fi action and lots of mecha & kaiju nostalgia. If you are a fan. stars-3-0

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[ Amazon — Biblio — Google — IMDb — Official — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

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The Bill Murray Stories

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billmurraystoryApparently there are lots of stories on the internet about Bill Murray doing some crazy spontaneous things where he crashes a party or a wedding picture session, comes behind someone in a public toilet and puts his hands on the person eyes saying “No one will ever believe you”, or ends up doing the dishes in some kid’s apartment. He just shows up out of the blue, acts like he is just a normal guy (not a celebrity) but in a way that touches people’s life. Could those stories be true? That’s the question which Tommy Avallone asked himself and decided to make a documentary about it. 

The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned From a Mythical Man is a documentary that retells those stories and interviews the people who experienced them. It really seems that most stories — at least those told in the documentary — are true and there is pictorial or video evidences to prove it. Avallone then goes on asking himself: why? Why someone like Bill Murray would do such things? To goof around? As a publicity stunt? Not at all. It is just who Bill Murray is. It is part of an improv thing and part of a life philosophy (something like taoism or zen). He just like to live in the moment and make people happy.

Personally, I am just wondering what makes people wake up in the morning and decides to make a documentary about Bill Murray. You are in movie school and need to do one as an assignment? Or really want answers to those questions and decide to just films everything and try to make money out of it? Or you just have the “reporter” gene in your blood? I guess someone should make a documentary about that.

It’s not a very good documentary (it’s clumsy, particularly toward the end, and I dislike when someone makes a documentary about themselves looking for something) but I enjoyed it because I not only learned a lot about who is Bill Murray, but it was also quite entertaining (lots of funny anecdotes and movie excerpts). It reminds me of this book that I once saw in the library: The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing, by Gavin Edwards and R. Sikoryak, which was basically asking the same questions. [ Amazon / Goodreads / Library ]

Apparently, Bill Murray is quite an interesting person. But whether you are interested or not, whether you like documentaries or not, it doesn’t matter: if you just take the moment to watch this sixty-seven minutes movies you will certainly enjoy it. And maybe, maybe, you’ll take something out if it and wonder, like me, could I ever be that spontaneous and really live in the moment? stars-3-0

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[ Amazon — Google — IMDb — Netflix — Rotten Tomatoes — Wikipedia ]

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Watership Down

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watershipdownWhen I told one of my colleagues that I was watching a TV mini-series about a bunch of rabbits, she laugh at me saying “You’re watching a kid’s show on Netflix?” I replied that it was far from being a kid show. “Sure, it is about rabbits, but it is a very dark tale of survival”. 

This 2018 four-part TV mini-series tells the story of a group of rabbits who flee their warren and seek a new home. They are led by Hazel after his brother Fiver had a vision of destruction. Indeed, the sandy hill that was their home was invaded by bulldozers and backhoe excavators to create a new neighbourhood for humans. The journey is full of danger as rabbits in an open field can become prey to numerous predators (birds of prey, cats, dogs, foxes and… humans!). Before finding the ideal down (a gently rolling hill) to start anew, they will encounter two other rabbit communities which — having somehow lost their natural ways and surrendered their freedom in two opposite manners — will bring unimaginable perils to the group.

watership_down-movieposterI never read Richard Adams’ novel, but from what I’ve seen by browsing through it, the animated mini-series is a faithful adaptation. However, what I have seen, many years ago, it’s the 1978 animated movie adaptation by Martin Rosen (with John Hurt voicing Hazel). For the time it was a stunningly beautiful animation that was characterized by it’s strong graphic violence that made it clearly aimed at an adult audience. It became for me a sort of cult movie, proving that animation could be taken seriously by adults. Therefore, I was quite curious to see how this new TV series would fare in comparison and I was a little sceptical that it could be as good. In fact, after viewing the first episode of the mini-series, I was rather disappointed that none of the characters had died yet! However, after viewing the whole series, I am happy to see that it compares well with the movie. It even manages to update the adaptation for the twenty-first century (replacing traditional animation with 3D CGI and putting more emphasis on the ecological theme) while making the story more accessible to all audience by giving a more gentle version of it (with far less graphical violence).

watership-down-posterIf it is far from being perfect, the 3D animation is nonetheless excellent. The animation of the rabbits, of the landscapes and the movements is all nearly perfect. However, the animation of the humans and of other animals (cats & dogs notably) really needed more work and is quite disappointing.

The voice-acting is excellent and includes many great actors like James McAvoy (Hazel), Nicholas Hoult (Fiver), John Boyega (Bigwig), Ben Kingsley (General Woundwort), Tom Wilkinson (Threarah), Gemma Arterton (Clover), Peter Capaldi (Kehaar), Olivia Colman (Strawberry), Anne-Marie Duff (Hyzenthlay), Freddie Fox (Captain Holly), Miles Jupp (Blackberry), Daniel Kaluuya (Bluebell), Rosamund Pike (Black Rabbit), Daniel Rigby (Dandelion). However, it is not perfect. For example, as far as I remember, the voice of Kehaar (the seagull) sounded rather German in the movie whilst it was supposed to be Scandinavian. This time, it sounds Scottish (Capaldi)! It also feels strange that all rabbits from the same warren have different accents — but I guess it helps giving them different “personality”.

What I found interesting is that Adams created a culture for the rabbits, a mythology (or at least a creation myth, based around the Sun-god Frith, the folk hero El-ahrairah [the Prince with a Thousand Enemies], and the Black Rabbit as death-figure), and almost a language (the Lapine, or at least a vocabulary that sounds foreign). It is fascinating as it grounds the story in reality, but also gives it the mystical aura of legends.

Beside the very obvious ecological message (the Elils [rabbits’ natural enemies] kill by nature, by necessity and never more than needed, while men kill by pleasure, or simply because they can and will never stop “till they’ve spoil the earth”), to me Watership Down’s story feels like an allegory about the danger of totalitarianism (the later ’30s German fascism for example). However, Adams said that it was rather based on the theme of the classical hero inspired by the epics of Homer (Odyssey) or Virgil (Aeneid).

All in all, it is beautiful, rich, riveting and intelligent. Well worth watching and highly recommended. stars-4-0

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[ Google — IMDb — Official — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

The mini-series’ trailer:

Now, compare with the 1978 movie trailer:

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Mujirushi: Le Signe des rêves 1

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signe-des-reves-1-futuropolisKamoda Takashi est un japonais crédule et malchanceux qui se fait constamment embarquer dans des magouilles où il se fait exploiter financièrement. Acculé à la faillite, sa femme le quitte. Mais un corbeau lui apporte un message d’espoir… mais ce n’est que pour se faire embarquer dans une autre magouille par un japonais francophile et mystérieux. Il se retrouve à Paris en compagnie de sa fille Kasumi avec mission de voler La Dentellière de Vermeer au Louvre! Kasumi raconte tout à Michel, un pompier parisien qui parle japonais et qui semble lié à leur mission par un mystérieux destin…

planchea_341960Le dessin d’Urasawa, sans être désagréable, est tout de même assez ordinaire. Par contre son récit — souvent empreint de fantastique — est toujours captivant. Si ses personnages sont peu crédible (l’éternel “looser” pathétique et l’amateur d’art manipulateur aux dents géantes), sa description des salles du Louvre est plutôt charmante. Dans l’ensemble c’est un très bon manga mais la première partie se termine abruptement sur un suspense. La suite au deuxième volume!

Cette série est intéressante pour deux raisons: d’abord il s’agit d’une oeuvre de Naoki Urasawa qui a produit de très bon manga sur une base très consistante (Yawara!, Master Keaton, Monster, 20th Century Boys, Pluto, Billy Bat). Deuxièmement, elle fait partie de la série de BD sur le Louvre publié conjointement par Futuropolis et Louvre Éditions (dont nous avons déjà commenté Les Gardiens du Louvre et  Les chats du Louvre). Le Signe des rêves vaut donc la peine d’être lu — mais je réserve mon jugement définitif en attendant d’avoir lu la suite.

Mujirushi: Le Signe des rêves 1, par Naoki Urasawa. Paris: Futuropolis / Louvre Éditions, août 2018. 144 pages, 19.5 x 26.5 cm, 20,00 €  / $39.95 Can. ISBN 978-2-7548-2577-1. Pour lectorat adolescent (14+). stars-3-5

Vous trouverez plus d’information sur les sites suivants:

[ Amazon — Biblio — Goodreads — Google — Wikipedia — WorldCat ]

© 2018 Futuropolis / Urasawa Naoki.

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Golden Globe: No Japanese winners

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At the Golden Globe 2019, held on January 6th, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has awarded Bohemian Rhapsody for the Best Motion Picture (Drama), Green Book for the Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Glen Close for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), Rami Malek for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama), Olivia Colman for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Christian Bale for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), and Alfonso Cuarón for Best Director.

Surprisingly (or is it, really?), I have not seen any of the nominated TV series either for Drama (The Americans [the winner], Bodyguard, Homecoming, Killing Eve, or Pose) or for Musical/Comedy (Barry, The Good Place, Kidding, The Kominsky Method [the winner] or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). And I am not sure I am interested. Although, I’d like to see  Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite or Crazy Rich Asians (when they comes out on dvd)…

However, the categories that interest us the most are those where Japanese movies were in nomination. Unfortunately, no Japanese movie received any award this year.

The Best Animated Motion Picture award went to Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse. It is quite disappointing because I thought that Mirai had some chance. Even the heavily Japanese-inspired Isle of Dog [on which I commented] deserved the award better. That’s a shame.

The Best Foreign Language Motion Picture award went to the Mexican movie Roma. However I was really cheering for Shoplifters [the latest film by Hirokazu Kore-eda, which was shown at the FNC and commented by Claude R. Blouin — AsianWiki / IMDb / Wikipedia]. It is just bad it didn’t win.

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Difficulté élevée de stationnement…

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La mairesse de l’arrondissement VSP annonçait récemment “un chargement partiel de la neige“ (car la “quantité de neige accumulée au sol ne justifie pas un chargement complet”) en vue de  “minimiser les contraintes de stationnement” !

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Comment vous appelez ça devoir se stationner 2 pieds dans les air sur une pile de glace pcq la neige a pas encore été ramassé une seule fois depuis le début de l’hiver? C’est beau économiser un peu d’argent mais tout même! Et on parle pas des trottoirs casse-gueule…

Dans un autre billet FB l’arrondissement recommandait aux citoyens de stationner leur véhicule à un pied (30 cm) du trottoir pour faciliter les opérations de déneigement (et protéger vos rétroviseurs!). Avec toute cette glace et neige pas ramassée encore faut-il trouver où est le trottoir! Dans mon coin certains ont plus l’habitude de se stationner un pied SUR le trottoir…

Étrangement, je ne retrouve plus ce billet: apparemment, il aurait été enlevé car il contredisait la réglementation municipale (qui stipule qu’un véhicule doit être stationné «à au plus 15 centimètres» du trottoir) !! Bravo VSP!

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Flickr F*ck

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It’s the Dropbox rip-off all over again!

I’ve just been reminded today that my picture albums are about to be taken hostage. Not long after Yahoo had sold Flickr to SmugMug, they announced drastic changes in their policy. Their offering was too good and not profitable enough so they decided to jack up their price and radically reduce the advantages of free accounts. By doing so they are seriously screwing up their existing customers in what amounts to nothing less than corporate highway robbery!

The free accounts will be reduced to 1,000 photos and videos (instead of 1 Tb). Customers can update to Flickr Pro to have unlimited storage for C$65.88 (C$5.49 / mo) in a scheme that is basically upgrade or die! We have until January 8th to decide, after that our accounts will be frozen until February 5th, when the excess pictures will be DELETED! That’s outrageous!

This puts me in quite a dilemma. Since it has been one of the best sharing photos sites, I’ve been using the Flickr free account a lot for a while—although I’ve almost stopped using it since I upgraded to MacOS Mojave because the Photos app doesn’t allow us to easily upload to Flickr anymore. However, I still have 57 photo albums on it, which contains over 3000 pictures (0.6% of 1 Tb). 

So, should I upgrade or not? If I don’t I will lose my albums—but it doesn’t really matter since all those pictures are still in my Photos libraries anyway. It is just that there, I cannot share those pictures. And I don’t really want to pay yet another subscription service (I am already paying for several of them) and I am already using other services that could serve as Flickr alternative — although not as good… What are the photo sharing options that I already have?

  • Adobe Portfolio — included with my Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan (US$137.83 for 20 Gb, Photoshop, Lightroom) but seems to double the use of WordPress. Although the whole Adobe Creative Cloud offers A LOT of potential that I still have to explore…
  • Amazon Photo — unlimited photo storage (plus 5 Gb for video and files) already included with my Amazon Prime subscription (C$79), but you can share only links and is not web-based like Flickr was… (Ex.: Cats 2017-18) 
  • Dropbox — free (using 37% of 6.8 Gb) but not able to easily share files anymore (unless I pay C$129 for 1 Tb or C$279 for 2 Tb & Showcase)
  • Facebook — free, but not very practical (any limits?)
  • Google Photo — free (using 6.3% of 15 Gb) but not practical because you can share only links (ex: Blogger album or Flower 2018 [from Flickr])
  • iCloud — I am already paying $3.99 for 200 Gb (so far using only 40%) to host my pictures, but there’s no real option to share pictures or albums…
  • Imgur — free, no limit (sounds great! But doesn’t look very elegant)
  • Instagram — free & cute, but again not very practical for photo albums
  • Photobucket — free, slow, offers only 2.5 Gb (2% used) with very intrusive ads (or pay $48.36 for 25 Gb)
  • Pinterest — free, but not very practical for photo albums (good to pins pics from other sites though)
  • Vimeo — 250 Gb included with my Plus subscription ($108), but it’s for video only and would be superfluous and redundant if I go with WordPress Premium…
  • WordPress — included with my Personal hosting ($48) I already have 6 Gb (using only 48%), but I am considering upgrading to Premium for 13 Gb ($96 but it also includes advanced social media, simple payments, site monetization and video support), but no nice way to share large albums. But I am sure I could work out something… (there are widgets for Gallery or Instagram)

After testing (again) all those alternatives (wasting an entire afternoon of writing doing so) I sadly report that none of them seems totally satisfactory. However, I refuse to pay the ransom that Flicker is asking for my picture albums… F*ck you Flickr !

I’ll probably workout something on WordPress, either directly or create a page that forward to a subsidiary site (Amazon, Google or Imgur) through links… We’ll see.

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CAM Construction

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Entre novembre 2017 et juin 2018 nous avons fait faire des travaux de réparation sur la maçonnerie et le balcon arrière de notre duplex. Ce fut un vrai calvaire parce que la compagnie choisie pour effectuer les travaux, CAM Construction, s’est beaucoup trainée les pieds, n’a pas toujours tenu ses promesses et n’a pas été très honnête dans son interprétation du contrat sur un ou deux point. J’en ai parlé à plusieurs reprise sur le blogue (dont dans cette entrée sur le fait que les services à la clientèle des compagnies ne sont plus ce qu’ils étaient)…

Chose amusante, ce matin, j’ai reçu un appel téléphonique d’une dame de la Régie du Bâtiment. Apparemment, la compagnie en question est sous enquête (je ne sais pas si c’est par routine ou si c’est parce qu’il y a eut des plaintes contre eux) et la RBQ contacte des gens qui ont eu des contracts avec eux ces dernières années pour effectuer des vérifications. Je lui ai un peu raconté notre calvaire et, comme j’ai tenu un journal détaillé de l’évolution des travaux et des problèmes rencontrés lors de nos rénovations, je lui ai proposé de lui faire parvenir mes documents. Suite aux travaux j’avais également rédigé une évaluation des travaux effectués dans l’idée de la faire éventuellement parvenir au BBB ou à des sites qui suggèrent des listes d’entrepreneurs (ce que je n’ai jamais pris le temps de faire). Je lui ai donc aussi fait parvenir cette évaluation. Je suis pas mal content d’avoir l’occasion de repayer cette compagnie pour tout le temps qu’ils m’ont fait perdre et tout les soucis qu’ils m’ont donné! Karma pay back time!

J’avais d’ailleurs l’intension de mettre ces information disponibles sur le blogue mais je ne l’ai jamais fait. Je vous épargne le journal des travaux (qui fait douze pages!) mais voici mon évaluation des travaux effectués par CAM Construction:

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Murder on the Orient Express

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268x0wA murder on a luxurious train forces a Belgian detective on vacation to get back to work. It is an entertaining and beautiful movie (with nice CGI scenes of old cities or of the train slithering through the snowy mountains) but it is mostly unremarkable — beside the many inconsistencies, the average [over-] acting (despite an all-star cast) and the outrageously grotesque moustaches of Hercule Poirot. Frankly, I did not like Kenneth Branagh’s interpretation of Agatha Christie’s landmark character. I guess it was one adaptation too many for this famous 1934 detective novel… Over all, despite a Box Office success (revenu were more than six times the movie’s budget), it’s a rather disappointing movie. It got a lukewarm reception with ratings of 58% / 54% on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.5 on IMDb. stars-2-5

To learn more about this title you can consult the following web sites:

[ Amazon — Biblio Mtl — Google — IMDb — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

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Capsules

Notable News (w42-w53)

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It has been a little more than two months since the last entry of our journal. The weather has been relatively gray, since we’ve had very little snow so far, as it was—more often than not—rain and freezing rain, and lots of ups and downs in the temperature. The most notable events on the domestic front included a strange saga over the video of a panel at the book fair, where I also attended the launch of Solaris #208 and did a capsule interview with Catherine Sylvestre. We had again a problem of flicker in our electricity (strangely only on one side of the house), so bad that one night I thought my apartment had become a disco! Finally, we found the source of the problem (old wirings) and hired an electrician for a temporary fix but we will have to change the electrical entry in spring.

Somehow my sister’s cats managed to start the shower while she was on vacation. It lasted about twenty minutes before we realized that water was dripping from my bathroom’s ceiling. Luckily this small flood was relatively contained but we had to mopped the floor for a couple of hours in the middle of the night. The damage is limited but we will have to redo our bathroom’s ceiling…

The work-place was not too much a strain on my mental health, beside the continuing problem with the ventilation and heating system (strangely when this happens at another library of the borough they close immediately while we have to endure and work in very unpleasant conditions—that’s so unfair!) and some dubious decision on age classification of some mangas (Bride Stories, Nausicaa & Mafalda for kids! Are you joking?)!

readings2018Apple announced new Macs and iPads. We attended the vegan fest again, visited the Book of Hours and the Calder exhibits. I reached my reading goal for the year (fifty books! But, as usual, it was mostly comics and mangas). This allowed my to comment on  a few books (C Comme Cthulhu, Le Chat du Rabbin 8, Isabella Bird 3, Nous rêvions de robots, Pline 6, Ross Poldark, and a book about the New Yorker’s cartoons). I also wrote about the works (bande dessinée) of Philippe Gauckler: Convoi, Prince Lao and Koralovski. Unfortunately, I still watch too much TV and movies (A place to call home season 6, Mars season 2, Murder on the Orient Express, Outlaw King, Picnic at Hanging Rock, RBG, Solo, Transformer: The Last Knight, Traverlers season 3). Finally, I took some time to reminisce about the fanzine era and the old Protoculture days.

2018blogstatsI just completed my first year with WordPress.com so I don’t have much basis to compare this year’s statistics (although I remember that with Internic’s hosting I had ten times more traffic so either they were calculating it differently or I lost some followers in the switch or WordPress is not promoting the traffic as well). There is also a slight difference between WordPress’ and StatCounter’s numbers. Anyway, in 2018 I posted 319 entries (a 16% increase), acquired 68 followers and received (if we round up a little) an average of a thousand views per month or 350 visitors per month (about 135 returning visitors per month). It is not as much as I would I’ve liked but it is a beginning. The most important is that it keeps increasing from month to month. I’ll keep improving the blog and (hopefully) writing more so it will be at its best when I retire and make it my main occupation (in about 3064 days!). 

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Doonesbury (2018/10/21)

On the world stage, the months of November and December had their lots of typhoon, floods, wildfires, tsunami, and violent protests in France, but it is mainly the U.S. Mid-term elections that retained the attention. In reaction to Trump’s insane White House, people went to the ballot with numbers not seen in nearly a century allowing the Democrats to retake the House by electing many young candidates, including several women (95), members of racial minorities (two Muslim and two Native Americans) or of the LGBT! Space exploration was also in the news as we landed another probe on Mars, explored more asteroids and mini-planets, and China landed a probe on the far-side of the moon.

All in all, 2018 was a very challenging year for everyone, so let’s hope that 2019 will be much better.

Through all this I tried to stay acquainted with the affairs of the world and gathered a few notable news & links — which I now share with you (in both french or english, slightly categorized, but in no particular order — note that, to save on coding time, the links will NOT open in a new window as usual), after the jump.

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