After about 3 weeks of no blogging due to various occasions such as holidays, i return to my small website once more with the same objective of entertainment and information.
Tomorrow, i will start with more Batman anticipation and also i talk about some of my other favourite popular cultural entertainment.
But for now i leaves you with a picture of the new batman animated series which will be fetured in tomorrows article, but until then, bye for now!!!
This issue is about the forth movie in our count down of the best animated movies which is the 1985 Japanese classic Anime Vampire Hunter D
No.4 Vampire Hunter D
VAMPIRE HUNTER D
Year released: 1985
Run time: 80 minutes
Director: Toyoo Ashida
Budget: N/A
Box office take in approx: N/A
Vampire Hunter D is a Japanese animated film which was based on Hideyuki Kikuchi’s classic serialised novels which at the time of release in 1985 had never seen light outside of Japan. This particular movie of Vampire Hunter D was based on the first book of the series which was published in Japan in 1983, and gained mass popularity in Japan, where today Vampire Hunter D is part of Japanese popular culture.
This film when it was first released was only distributed to theatres around Japan and was not seen by the western world until 1992, where it was released by Streamline Pictures between the years of 1992 to 1999, it was then later distributed among the western world in 2000 onwards by the creators of the second Vampire Hunter D film, Urban Vision.
This film is one of the most recognised Anime films in the English speaking world due to it being one of the first solely adult animated films to hit western cultures but also the subject matter attracted a lot of attention as the producers of the film billed it as a “dark future science fiction romance”.
This started Vampire Hunter D to rise in popularity in the western world which eventually led to the books, which also had only been previously available in Japanese in Japan, was officially translated and sold to the western English speaking world, on May 11th 2005.
The film was also restored in 2003 by German Anime distributor OVA films, this was due to the fact that all previous western releases of the film were just transfers from the old VHS version, thus the film suffered from grainy and muzzy sound and picture quality. OVA also changed the frame rate of the film from 24 frames per second to 25 frames per second thus marginally making the film have a shorter run time. The audio was also improved by being pitched up by 4%, thus improving it’s cinematic qualities.
Spoliers warning, story plot ahead!!!
The films storyline revolves around that of a woman who owns a ranch named Doris Lang who on one night while doing her daily work she strays into the Vampire Count’s territory and thus he attacks her and sucks her blood.
The Vampire count, Magnus Lee whom is based on legendary Hammer horror star Christopher Lee, who was famous for his portrayals of Dracula, becomes smitten with Doris and wishes to make her his bride. With this fear Doris finds a Vampire hunter named only D to protect her from count Lee.
D travels to the castle the next morning upon meeting Doris the previous night to warn Count Lee not to pursue Doris any longer, but D is instead led into a trap and is made to fight the three sisters of Midwich, who D vanquishes with ease showing his vampire tendencies in the battle and thus revealing that he is a dhampir, or half Vampire half human.
While this fight ensues Doris is kidnapped by Count Lee and is taken to the castle to be prepared for their marriage, but soon enough D saves her from the castle and kills many of Lee’s monstrous beast’s in the process.
The morning after, Rei-Gisei one of the Counts henchmen whom is a mutant who can shift time and space within his body abducts Doris’s smaller brother Dan, and asks for D to come and rescue him, D goes to Rei-Ginsei, even though he knows it is a ruse so that the count can separate Doris from D.
Rei-Ginsei tries to kill D with some time bewitching incense, but instead it is a normal candle and hence D cuts Rei-Ginsei’s hand off. While this is going on a good friend of Doris, Dr. Fehring visits Doris and tells her of a holy sanctuary where she would be safe from the count and takes her there, but instead the doctor turns out to be a vampire and he was taking Doris to the Count all along.
However the Counts daughter Larmica kills the Doctor and then plans to kill Doris, until Greco the mayor’s son saves Doris with the time Bewitching incense he stole off Rei-Ginsei earlier, Greco tells Doris of his plans to marry Doris and to take Larmica and hold her for ransom to the count and then kill the count aswell.
Greco is then shot by Dan and falls into the chasm below where he later meets Rei-Ginsei and is killed by him for stealing the incense. D takes Doris back to her ranch, but then in the middle of the night Rei-Ginsei comes to the ranch with the real incense and kill’s D and also cuts of his hand in retaliation to doing it to him earlier that day.
D though has a parasite in his hand which revives him, he then finds out that the Rei-Ginsei has taken Doris to the count and the marriage ceremony has begun. D then confronts the count and kills him by impaling the count with a broken off shard of his sword, the castle collapses as the count dies and Doris is finally safe once more.
With his job completed D travels to other distant lands for more adventures.
Spoliers over!!
The film itself pays homage to spaghetti westerns like the film shane as it pays homage to the mysterious lone rider very much like Clint Eastwood.
Join me next time for Part 3 of the best Animated movies ever!!
This new 5 issue special centers around animated movies that everyone should see, the system is based on the depth of story and visuals and also it’s cult following throughout the years.
We start of this new 5 parter with one film that many Anime fans consider to be the best animated film to be ever released, 1988’s Akira.
The original Japanese poster of Akira in 1988.
No. 5 AKIRA
AKIRA
Year released: 1988
Run time: 124 minutes
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Budget: $ 10,000,000
Box office take in: approx. $53,000,000
Akira was released in 1988 and based on the Manga comic of the same name. The film is seen as responsible for the wave of anime fandom which took the western world, it is also one of the first examples of cartoons which are aimed at a mainstream adult audience.
During it’s production a committee called the Akira committee was created, this was due to the fact that of the films high costs. As the director Otomo wanted to use primary, bright colours in many of the night scene’s, but as most of the film is set at night the production cost for more expensive colours made the production cost soar.
Akira was released theatrically in Japan on July the 16th 1988 and set a benchmark for the highest attendance of an animated movie in Japan. This was a good omen for the Akira committee who had sweated and worried previously about the films constant growing cost.
Akira was then released to North America in only selected theatres due to it being seen as risky as no one in the western world had seen animation for adults before. The distribution company streamline pictures, which is famous for it’s distribution of Japanese anime found a copy of English dialogue for the film which was originally to be used for the Hong Kong market, and sent it into selected American theatres.
Akira was then released in the UK in January 1991, in theatres. The film was quite popular in the UK and the company which had distributed it in UK, “Island World Communications” released it on VHS later in 1991, but due to it’s popularity in the UK, the company Manga entertainment was created and, this company took over most anime releases in the UK from thereon.
The original Manga that the film was based on was fist published as a serial in Young magazine, which ran from 1982 till 1990. The story was then collected into six volumes which all together contained over 2000 pages. It was then bought by Marvel, whom colourised it and translated it for an American audience, his particular run of the story ended in 1995. Akira was next bought by Dark Hoarse comics who kept the original black and whit artwork and sold it to a wider western audience in 2000.
The film story sticks closely to the comics, but with many significant changes and many characters where left out due to the Manga’s epic length.
The story takes place in Neo Tokyo in the year 2019, where in 1988, during the third world war the city is destroyed by an unknown cataclysmic force. This then turns to a biker gang in 2019, who call themselves the capsule gang, where one night while fighting a rival gang, they lose one of their gang to the military.
The military then run test’s on the boy who are surprised to find out that he has the same psychic brain waves as, this legendary Akira. The gang, headed by a boy named Kaneda goes in search for their lost friend Tetsuo, whom is being tested upon by the military.
Due to the drugs that Tetsuo is being made to take his powers increase and he escapes the militaries headquarters, which causes the military to go on city wide search for him. While upon seeing their friends escape Kaneda and his gang sought after Tetsuo, but only to find that he is a different person with only anger and hate in him, with one task, to find Akira.
Tetsuo does find Akira, but only his remains are left, this only fuels Tetsuo’s anger and causes him to try and destroy Neo Tokyo. But with thanks to Kaneda, his gang, the military and the other military tested psychic children they are able to awaken Akira and send Tetsuo into a parallel universe from our own.
Unsurprisingly Akira has many key themes and idea’s such as youth alienation, the corruption of people we entrust to run our country. The film contains ideas on evolution and technological dangers, which wee rife when this film was made. This film also touches upon human’s obsessions to reach Godly like powers. Props such as one of the main characters, Kaneda’s motorcycle, which shows the idea of untamed youths. At the end of the film, in the closing shots, which show an expanding bubble of light, shows that the human race have a chance to make their future not as bleak as this one and that the chances of a better world are expanding al the time.
The film is now available in two forms, one of the original 1988 English version, or of the 2001 re-release, with new dubbing and better sound quality, with a dialogue which is truer to the original Japanese version.
Join me again for part 2 of this new series!!
In this last issue of the Dark Knight we will be taking a look at Batman’s new Batsuit and also who is playing Rachel Dawes in this upcoming film, and also we will have a sneaky peak at the new Dark Knight film trailer.
We shall start off with the new Batsuit, which has been vamped up a bit since the Bat’s last major film outing.
This new Batsuit’s cowl is shaped like a motocycle helmet, and is separated from the neck thus the actor (Bale) can move his head around in the Batsuit but still keep the Batman’s iconic image, the suit itself is also more articulated and looks much more protective and armour like, also it looks heavier than the previous Batsuit, so maybe Batsy may struggle running after faster bad guy’s…. who knows?
Also new’s about the casting of Rachel Dawes, well it is definately not Katie Holmes as stated in earlier issues, but it is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal who will be stepping into the role this time.
This is the new face of Rachel Dawes, and dosen’t she look a lot like Katie Holmes, who would have thunk it! hahahahaha!!
Finally without further adue though i give to you the very first Dark Knight trailer:
This trailer does not give away much at all in matter of storyline, but it does show us our first glimpse of the Joker and of Harvey Dent, but the question is, is it fake? That you must decide for yourself.
As this 5 part series comes to an end we must think about all the information that has been released at this early stage in filming and also we should look to the future in anticipation for what adventures Batman will face in his next big budget adventure, and not to the past as Batman hangs his cape in shame over his lurid past, with this as a final thought i leave you with a picture of the person who originally inspired the Joker character all the way back in 1940, Conrad Veidt, a silent actor!!
In today’s issue of Dark Knight 2008, we look at Batman’s new gadgets and vehicles in his upcoming movie and also we look at the expected release dates in different countries.
Batman in the comic book world has never gotten far without his gadgets to get him out of sticky situations, and with this film pitting him against the evil Joker he will need more gadgets than the previous film!!
Batman in the 1966 movie using his Shark repellent to ward off an evil Shark, thus proving Batman would end up as a Shark’s dinner without his gadgets.
In the upcoming movie Batman will still have his trusty Batarangs.
He will also have his grappling hook so that he can swing from building to building with the greatest of ease. (Kids don’t try Batmans actions at home, they are only for trained lunatics like him.)
This is a toy grappling hook from the Batman Begins movie merchandise encouraging kids to swoop down and take out bad guy’s like the Bat…… yeah real safe!!
Batman’s utility belt will also make a come back in all it’s golden greatness, as batman tries to stay in the shadow’s his position is given away by his bright yellow belt….. BANG…… The mobsters got him…….
Now onto Batman’s vehicle’s for his 2008 movie.
Batman’s bulky and uneasy on the eye, tank like Batmobile will return to take out villains and crush police and army cars which get in his way to become the ultimate vilante.
The Batmobile returns to crush all villains expectations in Gotham.
The new movie though gives Batman a new Vehicle which is the Batpod, which looks considerably easier on the eye than the Batmobile.
This will give Batman the advantage of……. I don’t know what this Vehicle eill help him do as it seems small and insignificant as compared to the killer behemoth which is the Batmobile. I uess though it could be much faster and more agile than the Batmobile due to it’s size.
The release date’s for the film are as follows:
It has been stated that The Dark Knight will be released in the USA on July 18th 2008.
It has been stated that the film will be released in the UK on July 25th 2008.
That is all for this issue of Dark Knight 2008!! Tomorrow will is the final issue and it will contain news about Batman’s new suit and also Rachel Dawes lives…… unfortunatly…….. also we will be taking a peak at a trailer of the Dark Knight, so stay tuned.
I leave you now with a vision of Batman back in the 60’s when he was still very camp, and not like he is today, as gritty as a British thriller and as Dark as a haunted house!
In this issue of Dark Knight 2008!! we talk about the upcoming Batman films inspirations from the comic book world, and how they will be translated to the screen, also we shall talk about Batman’s love interest in this new film also.
As in the Batman Begins movie (2005) the main inspiration for the creators of this film is again The long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sale.
The story revolved around the Gotham underworld and how the people of Gotham no matter how pure, were being sucked into Gothams spiralling decline of corruption and evil, with Carmine Falcone at it’s helm.
Carmine Falcone appeared in Batman Begins and may appear in the sequel but it is not confirmed.
This story showed Batman as a disturbed young man who constantly recalls his parents murders and how he feels he is to blame for thier murders as he was not able to protect them.
The Graphic novel shows a time in Gotham where there is change looming as run of the mill Mobsters were falling in numbers to the Freaks and and constumed criminals such as the Joker and Catwoman.
This inspirations carries on into the movie Batman Begins as it shows Bruce Wayne/Batman as a deeply disturbed adult who constantly blames himself for his parents murder and would do anything to have saved them, even to have died to protect them on that night.
The long Halloween: The graphic novel which has inspired the majority of the two new Batman films.
The inspiration for the Joker for the new movie is prodominately based upon Alan Moore’s and Brian Bollards “The Killing Joke” which was a short graphic novel created in 1989, and depicts the Joker as not the laughing happy go lucky personar he had up until this latter period of the 80’s, but as a person who laughs at other people humilliation and losses and fears to hide his own misfortune which made him turn into the madman that he is.
This graphic novel shows the joker as not the happy clown who will burn your face off with acid as soon as he looks at you , but as a sad, remorseful figure who could be either you or me if we experianced such a bad day, that everything in your life had collapsed around you in just a few hours.
This Joker depicted in the novel potrays himself as not feeling anyone misery except his own, but as a matter of fact enjoying it and this is probably how the Joker will be portrayed in the up coming movie.
The Killing Joke: The book which Heath Ledger was given as research for his role as the Joker.
Now onto Batman’s love interest in the Dark Knight. Batman’s love interest is not the same as in Batman Begins, it is not the original character of Rachel Dawes, Whom was played by Katie Holmes (Depicted Below)
Instead the new love interest could be Barbera Gordan who fans of the comics know later becomes Batgirl, who is being played by Melinda McGraw in the upcoming film.
Could Melinda McGraw, the new Batgirl be Batman’s new love interest?
This is the end of issue 3, but in tomorrows issue 4 i talk about batmans new gadgets and possible release dates for the movie.
But for now i leave you with a fake promotional poster, which many people including myself thought was the real Joker, in the early days of production of the Dark Knight!
After Ledger was cast for the role of the Joker the fans of the Batman franchise and the film producers turned their eyes and ears to who was going to play the role of Harvey Dent.
Many actors were thought of as a possability such as Johnny Depp, but in the end one actor emerged as Harvey Dent and the future two face: Aaron Eckhart.
Aaron Eckhart: Cast to play the role of Harvey Dent/Two face!
After casting for the film was completed, Warner brothers knew that they would have to advertise the upcoming movie, and even at this early stage of production where the filming was still in it’s infancy Warner brothers decided to make a small advertiseing campaign.
The first glimmer of advertiseing the fans came across was the new Dark Knight website which consisted of only the new films motif, which turned out to be a link later on to the “I believe in Harvey Dent” website.
The “I believe in Harvey Dent” website was a fake election campaingn created by Warner Bros. to advertise the upcoming film and this also showed the world what the new Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) would look like in the film.
Another such promotional website made for the Dark Knight movie was that of “I believe in Harvey Dent too”, This website was created by the Joker in the films continuity to mock Harvey Dents election campaign, when first on the page viewers will happen to see only a page not found notice, but if you were to highlight the whole page you would see numerous “Hahahahaha” written throughout the webpage.
This website used to have a picture of the new films Joker but it has since been removed and placed with “HAHAHAHAHA’s”.
Join mw next time for part 3of 5 of this Dark Knight infomation series as we talk about the film Makers inspiration for the film and also about Batman’s love interest in the up coming film.
For now i leave you with an early film poster of the upcoming Batman film!!
Today i was surfing the net for news of the up coming Dark Knight film. This film is to be the sequel to the Batman Begins film, way back in 2005.
Here is the new logo for the Dark Knight film.
This new film see’s Batman do battle with the garish clown prince of crime The Joker. Who is being played by Heath Ledger…. Many people said that Ledger would not be good enough to be the Joker or scary enough, and i had to agree with them as i wanted Paul Bettany to be the Joker instead.
You can see why we all had doubts about Heath, as he didn’t look the type to be sadistic and a lunatic, while Bettany i thought would be much better!
Yes i definately thought he would be the joker.
Me and nearly allof the fan community thought Ledger would not be able to pull the joker off…. But we were all pleasantly suprised by his garish look in a photo of him as the Joker some few months later which made most fans think that Ledger was the perfect joker for the job!!
Oh yes!! Ledger did shock us all with how the new Joker looks for the upcoming film.
Now with Heath Ledger cast as the Joker and the new photo of him in character as the Joker many fans worries over the next batman installment were put to rest…. Until they thought about who Harvey Dent/Two face would be in the upcoming movie….
Tomorrow on Dark Knight 2008, we see who was cast as Harvey Dent and How the Dark Knight is being Advertised at this time.
Stay tuned for Dark Knight 2008!! part 2 of 5 tomorrow!
Today is the day many components of a long carried out plan came together. Today i have decided the schedual of my future up coming videos on the place of all video’s…… You Tube…….
I cannot tell you all the details but, first will come a kind of 10-20min documentary and after that project is finished i will continue to make a sequel to the original Mahl talk i made all of 4 months ago.
MAHL TALK
for people who do not know who Mahl talk is and i would say that is most of you who are reading this post, i shall try and give you an idea on what it is about, Well Mahl Talk is a talk show with the host Mahl as he talks to a mad 80’s movie director named Zeke Waldow……. ah…… forget it i shall just put a link to to the original Mahl Talk on my Vid of the day area.
If you are interested in watching any other of my vids, my name is :
Picture of the day
Isn’t that the coolest gun you’ve ever seen!!
Video of the day
I was looking through my archive of ancient word documents, when i cam across this great start to a website article that i never completed. I didn’t complete due to the fact that i got boared and i had two tonne of work to do at the same time , so i scrapped the idea.
It was called 100 geatest games ever and that i did game number 100:
100 Greatest Video Games of All Time
Number 100
Fear Effect
Date Released: 2000 January 30th
Developed By: Kronos
Published By: Eidos
Platform: Playstation
Genre: Survival Horror
Age: 15
We start the countdown of the hundred greatest video games with a game which is not renowned around the world as the best game ever. This game is seen by most as not as good as the other survival horrors on the market such as the Resident Evil series or the Silent Hill series. I feel though Fear Effect is one of the best games on the old Playstation, as this game was the first game to introduce the method of cell shading into the gaming world. Yes Cell shading mainly only really works on kid games to make them seem more colourful and less scary, but the cell shading in this game does hold it’s own and still managers to capture it’s target audience.
The game also sticks in many fans minds as this was one of the first games to incorporate Chinese mythology into the mix of blasting zombies and the usual puzzles that you get in all Survival Horror games.
The story goes that When the daughter of the richest and most feared Triad in Hong Kong is believed runaway from home, a mercenary team consisting of Hana Tsu Vachel, Royce Glas and Jacob “Deke” DeCourt attempt to find the runaway girl and ransom her off to her Triad father. But all does not go to plan and what seem to be a routine operation for the mercenary team turns out to become a much more sinister plot of the worlds destruction with the Devil of Hell Yim Lou Wong at it’s helm.
In Fear Effect the story is also a brilliant and absorbing delight, as with every twist in this game there is another turn. The game also gets the player to become emotionally attached to the heroine Hana as you see that Hong Kong underworld is a dark and terrible thing to be a part of. The scares in Fear Effect come all the way through, and the tense atmosphere last all throughout the game. Any fan of Survival Horror I strongly recommend this Game to you.
Oh yes those were the days when i had time to waste……
Other News
Picture of the day
Scariest bad guy or thing in a game ever!!! He makes Nemesis form Resi look like Winnie the Pooh!!!!!!
Picture of the day 2
Anyone for exploding false teeth and shotgun walking sticks?
Video of the day
