Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

[version]

I've seen three or four of the most obvious ones, but there's something off putting and irritating about it, particularly now that tons of people seem to base their entire online presence around it.

 

[luka]

yes, but i am telling you to watch it and i dont watch anime either just give it 20 minutes of your life and you will understand. just switch it on and enjoy the sounds coming out the speaker lovely sounds

 

[IdleRich]

I don't watch anime.

Me either as a rule... I tried but I can't get into it. Also graphic novels as a rule.

 

[luka]

the invisibles is a masterpiece, the best book ever written

 

[luka]

serial experiments: lain is matrix/invisibles level art and myth making

 

[luka]

it shares some themes with the new twin peaks but its better, the sound is better too

 

[IdleRich]

I've only seen the first two... seems ok so far.

 

[Corpsey]

youve never watched akira? thats weird. everyone has watched akira.

It's more weird that version doesn't watch anime.

 

[version]

I don't watch anime, I rarely play video games and I don't read comics and graphic novels. I might read From Hell one day, but it's not a priority.

 

[IdleRich]

Same. I sort of regret missing out on video games, but then sometimes I'm pleased I haven't sunk loads of time into them. I've seen Paprika and Akira and all that stuff, most of it was rubbish though. I've read From Hell and some Grant Morrison (also rubbish).

 

[luka]

grant morrison is the greatest writer of all time

 

[IdleRich]

grant morrison is the greatest writer of all time

That's exactly the opinion I'd expect from someone who has never read a book.

 

[version]

Same. I sort of regret missing out on video games, but then sometimes I'm pleased I haven't sunk loads of time into them. I've seen Paprika and Akira and all that stuff, most of it was rubbish though. I've read From Hell and some Grant Morrison (also rubbish).

I've seen Akira, Ghost in the Shell, four of the Studio Ghibli things - Grave of the Fireflies, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle - and I watched Pokemon and stuff as a kid. I quite like Akira and the others have their moments, but I find the way the characters speak and the weird cutesy stuff really irritating. That, combined with the internet culture, leaves me not particularly arsed about seeing more.

 

[luka]

i find the way americans speak irritating but you get used to it about 20 minutes into the film usually

 

[IdleRich]

I've seen Akira, Ghost in the Shell, four of the Studio Ghibli things - Grave of the Fireflies, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle - and I watched Pokemon and stuff as a kid. I quite like Akira and the others have their moments, but I find the way the characters speak and the weird cutesy stuff really irritating. That, combined with the internet culture, leaves me not particularly arsed about seeing more.

I don't at all understand the veneration of Studio Ghibli.

 

[luka]

I don't at all understand the veneration of Studio Ghibli.

you dont even like Marvel films

 

[IdleRich]

Exactly. I'm not a huge fan of Disney's talking teapots and singing saucepans either.

 

[pattycakes_]

i find the way americans speak irritating but you get used to it about 20 minutes into the film usually

Original audio with subtitles is the only way to go

 

[luka]

Original audio with subtitles is the only way to go

for sure, but i meant americans speaking in hollywood films i find annoying but then i get used to it

 

[entertainment]

Mubi has one called Cenote right now which is about the figure of water in Mayan mythology but really it's just sequences of these long underwater clips which are absolutely stunningly psychedelic. Most for real psychedelic film I remember seeing. And the clips aren't even manipulated (I think). It's just pure magic of light playing through underwater landscapes.

There are in fact several layers of the way the images worked on me. There is 1) the landscape themselves which are very alien looking. The fish and the plants moving through them. There is 2) the sonic atmostphere, this strangely muffled dream language of the landscapes. This messes with the sense of time for me. There is 3) the light, how it pearls and streams. How it organies the visible and the creeping dark in the distance. And 4) the way the movements of the water warps the spatial sense. You have all these layers working on each other, playing with each other but it's just pure nature. Amazing I thought but I was also very high.

Mubi says the director who is Japanese and is named Kaori Oda is a student of Bela Tarr, which makes sense.