Roses Are Red, Spacemen Are Blue

You know, I have done holiday posts for this blog, but I’ve never done a Valentine’s Day post. Maybe it’s because I think of Valentine’s Day as a crass commercial holiday, pushing an artificial and hamfisted idea of Romantic Love on the populous so that they can consume all of their sugar-coated crap. Or maybe it’s because I would have to review a romantic comedy, a genre I generally hate outside of a few movies like The Princess Bride.  Or maybe it's just because I have no love life and and I project that through refusing to honor a holiday that reminds me of my constant failure.  Well, in my continuing quest to do away with the negativity in my life I’m going to actually do a Valentine’s Day Review this year and talk about a romantic, heartwarming film from one of America’s most underrated directors. Prepare to feel the love as I review

Film, 1984 

Director: John Carpenter 

Story 

After a Voyager space probe is intercepted by aliens they send one of their own to planet Earth to check us out. Things don’t go so well though as its spacecraft is immediately shot down over North America (where else?). This alien then clones a body from the DNA of a dead man and enlists his widow’s aid in getting to Arizona where it can make a rendezvous with its comrades and go back home. Along the way the Starman will learn about the gamut of human emotions, from fear and hate to joy and… love. 

Review 

Sometimes you come across a movie that’s not good, but not bad either. It’s… okay. Starman is one of those movies. I was mildly entertained for two hours but at the end of the day couldn’t claim that I had just seen something special. On the plus side this film has some great acting, especially from Jeff Bridges as the titular alien. Watching this guy you really will believe that he’s from another planet. Everything, from his curiosity and attitudes to his gradual grasp of English will seem completely realistic and exactly like what would happen if an extraterrestrial were to visit our planet.

In addition, there are quite a few laughs to be had at Starman’s misunderstanding of Earth customs, which means that this film never gets *too* somber. Karen Allen does a good job too, ably portraying a woman who sees an alien morph into her dead husband right before her eyes, freaking the fuck out and then gradually learning to accept and even love the strange being that is dragging her halfway across the country on a road trip that is as far from normal as you can get outside of a Hunter S. Thompson novel. Special effects are generally very good (including the aforementioned morphing scene) and don’t overpower the story, as some 80s sci-fi flicks are wont to do.

Unfortunately, this movie completely lacks subtlety… everything is in-your-face and obvious – as is the norm for most Eighties movies. The US Government is EVIL as they attempt to track down Starman and capture him for medical experimentation or worse. I hate it when movies do this. If we did encounter a being from a civilization more advanced than our own, wouldn’t we want to be more diplomatic in case they would take violent offense to our actions? Watching this you clearly know who the good guys and bad guys are. Everything else is obvious too. You can definitely tell when you’re supposed to cry or laugh or go “aww.” The religious symbolism is hamfisted as well. Okay, I get it, Starman is Jesus – could we move on please?  The romance is pretty sappy and obvious too, but most movie love stories are.

I guess my biggest beef with Starman is that it doesn’t feel like a John Carpenter film. Most of his movies you can watch and tell who the director is (and not just because he puts his name before the freaking title for every one)… he’s a very individualistic director who usually makes (or made, I haven’t seen any of his latter-day movies which aren’t supposed to be that good) unique and entertaining celluloid gems. But Starman just seems like your average 80s Hollywood movie. Carpenter has said that he made this film so that he could continue to work in Hollywood, but couldn’t he have put a little more effort into it? Come on, man, you made Escape From New York! Oh, and the music score is bland and forgettable – and in a movie called Starman they didn’t even include the David Bowie song anywhere in the movie. What’s the problem guys, too obvious for you?

In the end I can only recommend Starman for someone who is a John Carpenter completest or someone who wants to watch one of the best acting jobs of Jeff Bridges’ career (just behind, you know, his Academy Award winning performance in Tron). Oh, or anyone who want to see either Karen Allen in her panties or Jeff Bridges in the buff.


Well, that's my Valentine's Day post.  Don't expect another romance movie post for a long time, because I can only take so much Hollywood lovey-dovey sugar in one year.

First Post

About a week ago I ran into a copy of the complete series of "Brain Powered" at the used bookstore.  I had watched the first volume of the previous DVD release a few years prior, and actually wasn’t too thrilled with it.  I picked up this set though as I was a) intrigued by the premise and thought that the show showed some potential despite the mediocrity of the first volume and b) a longtime fan of director Yoshiyuki Tomino’s other works so I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and see if he could improve the rest of the show.  Well, I took it home and watched it over the next couple of days and found out that a) the show didn’t get better it actually got worse and b) I wasted my trade credit (luckily I didn’t waste any actual cash on this piece of crap).  Well, I took it back to the store and traded it for a newly arrived copy of the original OVA series of "Oh My Goddess".  I definitely traded up.  OMG was a refreshing river that washed away the memory of the fetid filth that was "Brain Powered".
I want to take some time to vent on all that was frustrating and wrong with a show with great potential and botched execution, but I don’t want to make my first review a negative one, so let’s review "Oh My Goddess".



Oh My Goddess 

OVA, 1993 
Director: Hiroaki Gōda
5 Episodes (approx. 2.5 hours)


The Story:

Keiichi Morisato is a lonely college student who is taking calls for his overbearing upperclassmen in his dorm one afternoon when he gets hungry and tries to call for take-out.  Instead he reaches the goddess Belldandy, who appears and offers to grant him any one wish he desires.  Being single and male, he wishes “to have a girl like you stay with me always.”  His wish is granted, unfortunately his dorm is male-only and both he and Belldandy are kicked out.  They find refuge in and make a home out of an old abandoned temple (this is probably the biggest fantasy aspect of this series: rent free housing).  Later on Belldandy’s sisters Urd and Skuld come to Earth and decide to freeload, essentially killing any chance of Keiichi and Belldandy making any little demigods.


Review For People Who Haven't Seen It:

This is an anime classic.  It’s sweet without being too saccharine (a flaw with the TV series and later manga), it’s funny without being too over-the-top (a common flaw with comedy anime) and while it does have some good moments is not too fanservicey (which is a major flaw with a LOT of anime).  The art and animation are good for the time.  The music is also pretty good (the opening and ending songs were fluffy but catchy).  Basically this anime is just one big happy pill, even though it does get dramatic in the last two episodes.  The only thing I didn’t like was that the animators made Keiichi look like he’s twelve years old (he’s supposed to be 19 or 20 – I mean, I know that he’s supposed to be shrimpy but come on).  Minor quibble, really.  This show is highly recommended!


Analysis for People Who Have (aka Spoilers):

I had actually seen OMG prior to getting this DVD set.  I liked it, and it helped to get me into the original manga (by Kosuke Fujishima) and the other anime based on the manga.  Watching it for a second time helped me appreciate it more.  Some fans complain that this OVA is too short but I think the length is perfect since it’s a self-contained story, different from the manga.  I realized this while re-watching it.  Little scenes and bits of dialogue suddenly take on a different meaning when viewing it again.  I like the way that everything tied together into a cohesive story, something that no other version of this franchise (save the movie, which is also great) has.
I used to be ambivalent about the revelation that Kei and Bell met as children but now I know that it’s essential to the drama of the whole thing.  Their meeting as children is what makes their relationship as adults possible, however it also causes pain and threatens to separate them.  Belldandy’s careless promise to Keiichi as a child results in her having to erase his memories of her by sealing them in a tree (which apparently had a leak since Keiichi did display hints of remembering from time to time – maybe that blue ball of light Belldandy made in the very beginning was a spell to unlock a tiny fraction of his memories so that he would be influenced to pick the wish he did?  Hmm.  It would help explain her line about her “sin”).  Even though they are able to meet later (which if you think about might have been set up by Belldandy - she's a rather manipulative woman, isn't she?  Maybe she's not all cookies and cream....) this tree and its memories contained within very nearly force them apart.  I like this conundrum.  Even though everything ends up being alright in the end (come on, did you expect anything other than a happy ending?) it’s refreshing to see a more complicated view of love and its highs and lows in this version of OMG as opposed to the later incarnations of the anime, which are pretty simplistic and rather saccharine.  This whole scenario also helps explain how and why Belldandy falls in love with Keiichi (The reasons that he falls for her aren’t an issue --- they’re very obvious to see and it’s easier for men to fall in love with women than for woman to fall in love with men).  In the original manga it actually comes off as rather convenient that she falls in love with him; we never see the reasoning as to why she does.  Oh sure, he’s a nice guy and all but just spending time with someone (especially in a contractual situation like the one portrayed) isn’t going to make you fall in love with someone.  The later TV series tried to explain it by showing that Keiichi’s overwhelming kindness towards others and selflessness are what leads to him being eligible for receiving a wish in the first place, as well as attracting Belldandy’s love.  But the manga never showed him in this light, just an average student who had no luck with women.  The OVA at least offers the idea that Belldandy has loved him since meeting him as a kid, and that fact that he was even able to see her was special (“You must be a friend of Nature”).  Interestingly enough Fujishima has said that this is how he originally wanted to end the manga but decided against it having now used it in the anime.  It makes me wonder how he *is* going to end the manga, if it ends at all.
Another thing I liked about this OVA is that Keiichi is actually willing to *gasp* touch Belldandy and while a little nervous around her (which is understandable, I mean she is a freaking goddess) does not seem to have a complete phobia about physical contact or intimacy like he does in the later TV show.


The DVD:

Animeigo’s now out-of-print DVD collector’s set replaces the previous releases which reportedly had video transfer problems.  I can’t say as I never saw them.  Seeing OMG on DVD after seeing it on VHS though was an almost divine experience.  Wow, is the video so much better.  The Collector’s Edition also packs a bunch of extras which are fun to read and watch.  I only have a couple of gripes.  One is that the playback is locked out, meaning that you can’t skip to just any part of the DVD on your computer DVD player.  You must essentially play your DVD like a VHS and fast-forward and rewind if you want to go to a certain part of the show in-between chapter stops.  This made grabbing screenshots for this review time consuming to say the least.  The other complaint I have is that Animeigo put this on 3 DVDs when they could have easily pared it down to two.  I think they did this so they could charge more money.  They did the same thing with the old VHS, putting out one episode per tape.  Skinflints.
About the dub: I’ve never been a fan of Animeigo’s English dubs and Oh My Goddess is no different.  It’s not hideously bad, but it’s not good either.  It is definitely my least favorite OMG English dub (I actually kind of like the TV series dub, and the movie dub is alright).  I stuck to the Japanese.



Screenshots:

Our three goddesses: Belldandy, Urd and Skuld.

See what I mean?  College student or middle-school student?

Keiichi's little sister Megumi.  I love the sleazy look on her face.

I wish I had a little sister who was trying to get me laid.

 There's an object in this shot which makes it utterly friggin' hilarious.

Hint: it's not the old top-loading VHS deck.

Long live the new flesh!

That last proposal was just a little too kinky for Belldandy.