Notice, how in my last column, on several occasions I said “largest post-Soviet budget…”? This is because the amount of money the Soviets put into the arts, especially motion pictures. The 1968 Soviet adaptation of War and Peace cost one hundred million 1968 dollars; around seven hundred million 2009 dollars. The sheer amount of manpower they could muster for a film is utterly staggering, making some of the battle scenes, still to this day, the most majestic caught on film.
This resulted in a lot of highly experimental films and to a greater extent, animation, most of which are something to behold. Naturally, film makes fantastic
propaganda. Naturally, that rings just as true today as ever, and the Soviets are no great exception there. The sheer scope of it, however, puts them in a league of their own!
Among some gems:
What Hitler Wants
Pioneers Violin
White Army, Black Baron
Silver Hoof
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.
Thank God for the Japanese.
If anyone tried to do this in North America, there would be an outcry from womens groups, followed by politicians grandstanding and calling for Congressional / Parliamentary hearings.
More information here. It is in Japanese, but it is pretty visual (obviously) and self explanatory.
Alex
Hey, Hey It’s Saturday was an Australian variety show which made America’s Funniest Home Videos look like something co-produced by Shakespeare, Wilde and Hemmingway by comparison. Recently I was shocked to find that it had been resurrected, further proof that the dumbing down of society is indeed a global phenomenon. The audiences reaction to this travesty is certainly a further testament to this. Then again, it certainly should not be indicative of Australia as a whole, should it? Intellectuals are far from the target demographic, after all.
In a scene reminiscent of, say, 1860, one hundred and fifty freakin’ years ago, a (severely tone-deaf) mock version of the Jackson five was performed in blackface to uproarious applause from the audience. Red Symons, in which this segment, “Red Faces” is named after, bangs on the gong, prematurely ending the segment. The audience boos. Special guest judge, Harry Connick Jr, appears utterly mortified and berates not only the performers, but the show, and by extension, Australia itself; gaining my immense respect in the process. Host, Daryl Somers, reminds the audience that this skit was actually performed by the same people twenty years ago, and WON.
After the commercial break, Daryl “I have to have the largest portrait in the studio” Somers, apologizes, “I know that to your countrymen, that’s an insult to have a blackface routine like that on the show, so I do apologize.”
As someone with an Australian passport, Daryl is insinuating that this shouldn’t be insulting to me.
As I found this video on youtube, which is renowned for its grammatically sound, eloquent, intelligent and overall, well thought out posts, I decided to see the comments below. Clearly, youtube user MrBurkey90, no doubt invoking the spirit of Athena (and Minerva for good measure) eloquently writes:
Absoloute wankas! Racist and offensive its not. A bit of harmless fun…didnt jacson sing doesnt mater if ur back or white? whites cant dress up as a black person? connick ur a tosser! These performers did the same act 20 years ago and all was fine, dont be so petty.
Americans typically thinking the worlds against them! this show is australian heritage and wasnt targeted at the u. s or none the less a u.s audience
Fantastic performance had me laughing!
Darryl you had nothing to apologise for.
No doubt via automatic writing by the late Ted Kennedy, one of the finest orators of our time, annkus3 had this to say:
Black americans are only up-set because white man it better than the jacksons family.
lionhead619 writes in what could potentially be Pulitzer prize winning material if expanded upon:
Im Australian as this is aracist all ur americans get off ur high chair, as if you did not find this funny, loved the act, love hey hey its saturday, good work guys.
In truth, there were quite a few eloquent posts and dare I say it, they outnumbered the tripe; a rarity in Youtube.
In case you hadn’t noticed episode 78 is going to be delayed, possibly until the weekend due to technical problems.
We have recorded the show, however, some of the audio files I emailed Dane were corrupt. Now, if I were at home this would be no problem. I would just email them again. However, I am out of town, and will not be back home until Sunday, so I can’t resend the files until then.
So unless Dane finds a way to uncorrupt the files, the next episode is in limbo.
Alex
P.S I am crossing my fingers that I didn’t delete the originals off of my HD after emailing them to Dane. I can’t quite recall.
update: I have re-sent Dane the episode 78 files. So I am sure Dane is now editing the show as we speak.
Well as we mentioned on Episode 75, Sankaku.com posted a bunch of cosplay pictures. I thought the one above was the best one.
But, do you think it is better than the current, long reigning champ? :
Or what about the following contestants, who came close to toppling the champ:
Alex
DuoMatrix may have vanished from the podcasting world, but it was for JUSTICE. I’d recognize that voice anywhere!
The Boston Globe had a rather fascinating picture series detailing the two Mongolia’s. What’s that you say? Two?
Inner Mongolia is in fact an autonomous region in Northern China. I actually lived rather close to it at one time and was fascinated with Mongolian culture and people. Ethnically, they are actually quite different from the Han Chinese population.
Hey, ruled the world at one stage! Do check out the link.
Anime Pacific Episode 75 is also now out for download.
As usual, take a look at our podcast page for the anime podcast show notes.
Anime Pacific Episode 74 came out last week, if you haven’t already noticed.
