Anyone who knows me, knows that I am partial towards the fantasy , sci-fi or historical epic genres. Being Anime fans, its entirely natural that we get the bulk of our sci-fi fantasy fix from Anime. Occasionally, the creatively bankrupt Hollywood system will pump out something potentially decent, but there are a seemingly infinite amount of factors that usually destroy an otherwise good film, chief amongst them:
* “You go girl” power chicks, used to increase the potential female audience, usually at the expense of historical accuracy: (The Queen from 300) (Guinevere; Warrior Princess from King Arthur)
* The need for a PG-13 rating
* Extensive cuts that ruin an excellent film (Kingdom of Heaven)
* Adhering to an utterly overused formula
* The increased thirst for profit at the expense of artistry
Anime is certainly not free of its own inherent problems. Look at any recent season preview: it consists almost entirely of derivative trash. Indeed, many of these factors are inevitable in any entertainment industry, anywhere in the world. Profit is pretty much essential after all. Yet, values around the world differ from one another and thus, often one thing we crave for maybe offered in surplus somewhere else in the world.
Below are some foreign films that I highly anticipate seeing:
Janosik. Prawdziwa historia
Michal Zebrowski, as well as being a genuinely great actor, is the king of Polish historical films. Some of you may recall the translation project on the TV series of “The Witcher” which he starred in.
Bless Poland’s utter lack of American puritan values. Look at this, frankly, awesome trailer. Numerous flashes of boobie in the bloody trailer. Based on the true story of Janosik, a popular figure somewhat akin to Robin Hood. If no English subs are included when this is released on DVD or Blu-Ray, I’ll translate it myself.
The Inhabited Island
The biggest post Soviet Russian budget yet and a huge blockbuster in Russia, The Inhabited Island doesn’t hold back in the violence department, nor should it; it became the highest grossing Russian film of all time.
The sequel just came out and looks equally fantastic:
This, coupled with District 9, makes me happier than ever to be a fan of hard-arse (British spelling!) Sci-Fi.
Aladin
This might be a harder sell to those adverse to Bollywood. I, myself, have never actually seen an entire Bollywood film. Aladin looks like a great introduction to Bollywood. This is, by far, the most family friendly film listed here thus far.
Embedding is disabled, so check it out, here.
Wolfhound (Volkodav)
Before, The Inhabited Island, this was the Russian film credited with having the highest post-Soviet budget ever, and like The Witcher, I also worked on the translation project for this. It has since been officially translated and released on DVD with English subtitles. Wolfhound is utterly savage at the best of times and would by far, constitute a hard-R were it released in North America.
The Witcher
My first ever translation project, which lasted for almost three whole years. You can certainly see my encoding / subbing skills improve over the course of this project. An “alpha” pre-release of episode one got released with subs that took up the whole screen and were not properly timed. I’ll never live that one down.
The Witcher is based on an utterly awesome fantasy book series by Polish fantasy God, Andrei Sapkowski and now, a bestselling PC RPG game which probably was the best RPG since Baldur’s Gate. First released theatrically as an utterly incoherent film consisting of chopped up footage from the 13 episode TV series (which would be released a year later), The Witcher attracted the wrath of thousands of Polish fanboys who were utterly mortified to see their beloved series of books butchered. The TV series is considered infinitely better than the film, especially the episodes that follow the books closely. It was too late to give the TV series a chance however, as the movie, unfortunately, did too much damage.
Regardless, the TV series contains stuff that barely makes it to American theaters, let alone television. Decapitations, boobies and blood galore, and remember, it’s a TV show! The addition of beautiful Polish scenery and the three billion immaculate looking castles scattered across Poland ensure that there’s no shortage of great backdrops.
Honestly, it’s probably the biggest project I’ve ever worked on and I am infinitely proud of it, despite the rookie-level flaws at some of the subs and encodes. It’s been downloaded thousands of times since I subbed it and I still get thank you e-mails to this day. That’s nice. It’s certainly better subbing foreign fantasy TV series than anime; where the bulk of the audience are ungrateful pricks who nitpick the most minute detail.
Goemon
If nothing else, it is an utter feast for the eyes. Directed by Kazuaki Kiriya, who directed the also visually stunning (but Japanese razzie award winning) Casshern.
To be quite honest, I actually enjoyed Casshern quite a bit. It was directed with such hyper-kinetic gusto and panache that I was more than willing to overlook any narrative flaws.
Storm Riders II
I actually found the first one to be a bit of an anti climatic mess. This sequel, with the Pang Brothers taking the directing reigns, looks fantastic. As an avid fan of Hong Kong cinema (of the 80’s and early 90’s) it’s nice to look forward to a Hong Kong film again, instead of the perpetual crap we seem to be getting from Hong Kong these days.
1612
I was actually 25% through translating this Russian film, but was beaten to it. The third Michal Zebrowski film on the list. He can speak Russian too, apparently. This film is in fact, said to be Kremlin published propaganda. The Polish, who have suffered at the hands of Russian more than anybody were certainly rather furious about their depiction in this film.
