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Archives for February 2010

Fine, Totally Fine Review

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First time director Yosuke Fujita has done a very good job with Fine, Totally Fine, picking a strong cast of actors and putting together a rather impressive comedy. There’s something really very likeable about the film, with Yosiyosi Arakawa’s performance as Teruo particularly impressive.

Teruo is the son of a bookshop owner, whilst he works in his father’s shop he has dreams of creating the world’s scariest haunted house however, and is forever testing out scary pranks on his friends and family to see how they’ll react. When Akari (Yoshino Kimura) gets a job working at the bookshop, Teruo starts developing feelings for her but his good friend Hisanobu (Yoshinori Okada) also finds himself attracted to her and friction therefore develops between the two of them as they both look to win her love and affection.

Fine, Totally Fine has some great moments of comedy, and with some excellent central characters Yosuke Fujita manages to establish himself strongly as both a writer and director with this film. Yosiyosi Arakawa plays his awkward character to perfection here, and Yoshino Kimura as the incredibly clumsy Akari also works extremely well. Yoshinori Okada’s performance as Hisonobu is overshadowed a little by the excellence of both Yoshino Kimura and Yosiyosi Arakawa , he still plays his part well though, managing to put across a great sense of life in his character.

Whilst Fine, Totally Fine could be described as a romantic comedy, to label the film as such would almost certainly give people the wrong idea; Fine, Totally Fine is not your typical romantic comedy, and if you don’t generally enjoy romantic comedy films then that doesn’t necessarily means that you won’t like this one. With some great acting and fine quirky comedy, Fine, Totally Fine is a film that most people will probably enjoy; place your genre issues aside and watch Fine, Totally Fine with an open mind and a great deal of enjoyment is bound to be had.

There’s a very natural feel about Fine, Totally Fine, an excellent achievement for Yosuke Fujita with his writing and directorial debut. There’s not a single character introduced here that feels forced, just a great flow about the film and the way in which the plot line unfolds. Fine, Totally Fine is an absolutely brilliant debut effort from Yosuke Fujita, and having already gone on to write and direct the teleplay Saba since finishing this film; I’m sure that Yosuke Fujita is a Japanese director that we will be hearing plenty more from in the future.

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Day of the Dead due for Blu-Ray Release in March

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George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead is getting a Blu-Ray release through Arrow Video on March 29th, with the film all set to be made available as a two-disc release. A number of world exclusive extras are to be featured, including a restored presentation of the film, a new hi-def soundtrack (the original ‘uncensored dialogue’ version, completely restored), four alternate sleeves, a double-sided poster, a 24-page collector’s booklet ‘For Every Dawn There Is A Day’, plus a very special collector’s comic – ‘Day Of The Dead: Desertion’ – featuring a brand new ‘Bub’ storyline. Documentaries ‘Joe Of The Dead – Acting In A Romero Classic’ and ‘Travelogue Of The Dead’ are two further very exciting extras that are to be included in this double disc Blu-Ray release of the George A. Romero classic.

This Day of the Dead Blu-Ray will be priced at £24.99, and for big fans of George A. Romero’s zombie films it really is something that you should definitely be looking to invest in.

Lala Pipo DVD Review

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Written by Tetsuya Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, Memories of Matsuko), Lala Pipo is the directorial debut from Masayuki Miyano, based on a collection of short stories by Okuda Hideo. Six characters are focused on here with their stories all interwoven, all in some way related to the sex industry.

Hiroshi is the first character focused on here; an overweight writer that very much enjoys masturbation. Hiroshi has conversations with his penis (played by a green puppet) and sometimes listens through the ceiling to the couple upstairs having sex. Hiroshi’s character is quite an interesting one, with Hiroshi the film is merely warming up though and we soon move on to the next character, Tomoko. Tomoko is a shop assistant before she’s introduced to the sex industry by Kenji (another character focused on in the film), and her life is then changed forever as she slowly finds herself becoming more and more heavily involved within the industry. Tomoko is arguably the best character that the film has to offer, and Yuri Nakamura’s performance as Tomoko and Hiroki Narimiya’s as Kenji really do stand out from the pack here. Yoshie, Koichi, and Sayuri are the other three people focused on within the film; Yoshie has her moments, Koichi has a rather bland sexual superhero storyline, and Sayuri creates amateur porn videos to fund her way through life as she looks to embark on a career as an anime voiceover artist.

The film begins brilliantly and offers so much in its opening, after a bright start the quality level seems to drop a little here however and some of the transitions between storylines feel slightly awkward. Some of these six characters storylines just seem to work better than others, and although there are a few amusing moments here, Lala Pipo is certainly not consistently enjoyable from start to finish. First time director Masayuki Miyano is obviously enthusiastic about his work and this is something that comes through here, with so many storylines going on it’s hard not to have your favourites however, and when a particularly strong part of the film comes to an end and a less interesting character is introduced this is always a little disappointing.

The quality of acting here is at all times excellent, particularly from Yuri Nakamura and Hiroki Narimiya as previously outlined; despite some great performances and some very funny moments though, Lala Pipo is not a great film from start to finish, and there is definitely room for improvement here. Some of the characters could have done with a little extra work to bring them out and grab you a little more, Tomoko I personally found to be brilliant though, and although not necessarily a particularly likeable character, Kenji was another that I really did enjoy watching on screen, probably in large part down to the supreme acting talent of Hiroki Narimiya.

Having read some extremely positive things about Okuda Hideo’s book of short stories I now feel inclined to give his work a read to see how the book and the film compare, something tells me though that Lala Pipo doesn’t translate anywhere near as well on film as it does in the written word.

DVD Extras:

Extras include a making of featurette ‘Loveable People of Lala Pipo’, interviews with the cast and crew on the subject ‘What is Sex?’, and a trailer for the film as well as 16 others in the Third Window Films collection. The interviews bring up some pretty interesting (and in some places amusing) answers, the half hour long making of feature is quite enjoyable to watch, and taking a look at the trailers you may just spot another film from Third Window that captures your interest. All in all there’s a pretty solid selection of extras here, and this rounds things off nicely, providing you with a little more to keep you occupied once you’ve finished watching the film itself.

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Southern Softies DVD Review

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With its BBFC rating of U, Graham Fellows’ Southern Softies provides strong evidence that you don’t have to be crude to make people laugh. Following on from his 2006 mockumentary It’s Nice Up North, Graham Fellows once again sets to work as his comic creation John Shuttleworth as he looks into the idea that southern people are soft. In order to test out the theory that the further south you go the softer people become, John Shutteleworth heads off to the most southerly point of the British Isles; the Channel Islands.

So does John Shuttleworth discover that southern people are soft? Not exactly, that’s not really the point though, Southern Softies is simply a comic journey through the Channel Islands taken by John Shuttleworth (Graham Fellows) as he meets up with various people for interview, catches flights from one Channel Island to another, and ultimately runs out of film on a boat journey attempting to find a Barclays bank (but failing as all he manages to find is the Barclay brothers’ castle on the island of Brecqhou).

John’s agent Ken Worthington is quick to abandon John as he goes off in hope of finding single women, and for much of the film we therefore not only follow John Shuttleworth as he seeks to answer the question as to whether or not southern people are soft, but also John’s quest to find Ken. Every so often we’re shown footage that Ken has taken on his own journey around the Channel Islands, and this contrasts well with John’s own footage from around the Islands.

Graham Fellows’ John Shuttleworth character provides a lot of laughs throughout Southern Softies, and this is most definitely a mockumentary that provides for a very satisfying viewing experience. Whether John’s interviewing people, performing his music, or travelling from place to place; always Southern Softies delivers in the comedy department, and a lot of fun is crammed into the film’s 78 minute run time.

DVD extras include a trailer for the film, videos of John Shuttleworth’s music, and a number of deleted scenes. The deleted scenes are definitely worth watching as they include a few amusing moments not captured in the film, and if you’re up for a bit more of John’s music then the songs should also please.

All in all, Southern Softies is a film that really is worth investing in, and if you’d like to support this fine northern comic then Southern Softies will be available to purchase on DVD from March 1st 2010.

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Lostprophets – The Betrayed

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After a wait of three and a half years, Lostprophets is back and has released its fourth studio album ‘The Betrayed’. After the release of ‘Liberation Transmission’ in 2006 the band set to work on its fourth studio album in early 2007 with the hope of releasing a new album later that year, recording in LA didn’t quite go to plan however, and with the band unhappy with the material that had been produced, all was scrapped and it was time to start again. Heading back to Wales the band was able to get to work with a fresh head, with bassist Stuart Richardson at the recording desk to take care of the production and mixing duties with the help of Justin Hopfer. ‘The Betrayed’ is the album that Lostprophets has ultimately put together, with the band taken a heavier approach than with previous album ‘Liberation Transmission’.

‘The Betrayed’ kicks into action with ‘If It Wasn’t for Hate, We’d Be Dead by Now’, providing a quality start to the album as the powerful drumming hits you straight away followed by a brilliant dirty guitar sound. Straight away the album grabs you, with the band providing a supremely satisfying opener for the record. Flowing into ‘Dstryr/Dstryr’ the band continues to impress, and after this we’re treated to singles ‘It’s Not the End of the World, But I Can See It from Here’ and ‘Where We Belong’. ‘The Betrayed’ quickly establishes itself as a fantastic return from the band, and throughout the entirety of the album the drumming of Ilan Rubin really does impress. Sadly Ilan Rubin has moved on to join Nine Inch Nails since this album was recorded, he definitely makes a massive impression on this album though, with his incredible drumming technique always coming across to perfection throughout the album.

Aside from the questionable use of the “lalala” in ‘Streets of Nowhere’ there’s little not to like about ‘The Betrayed’, and put down on record here are eleven largely impressive rock tracks. With catchy choruses aplenty, great rock guitars, and powerful drumming throughout, ‘The Betrayed’ has everything you could possibly want from the Lostprophets, and is an album that should impress the vast majority of the bands fans. It’s not quite perfect, tracks such as ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Felon’, ‘A Better Nothing’, and ‘It’s Not the End of the World, But I Can See It from Here’ are sure to have you singing along though, and closing track ‘The Light That Shines Twice as Bright’ is an excellent one to finish with as the band winds things down with one of the album’s highlights.

If Lostprophets’ ‘Start Something’ sits proudly in your collection then ‘The Betrayed’ is most definitely an album that you should be investing in. There’s a lot of absolutely fantastic material here, and Lostprophets has once again pulled it out of the bag with a good solid album. Ian Watkins’ vocals are as impressive here as ever, instrumentally the music always has much to offer, and it just feels as though the band has put a lot of care into putting this album together. ‘The Betrayed’ may not have the rawness of debut album ‘Thefakesoundofprogress’, and was most definitely recorded on a bigger budget; a lot has changed since the release of the band’s debut in 2001 though, and the fact that the band had the luxury of being able to scrap its first draft and start afresh just shows how much this band has moved on since the early days. Much may have changed, Lostprophets still remains a band very capable of recording impressive rock music though, and ‘The Betrayed’ is an album that you should certainly seek to listen to.

Label: Visible Noise
Release Date: January 18th 2010

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You Me At Six to Play Free Acoustic Show and Meet Fans at HMV Oxford Street

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You Me At Six is to play a free acoustic show at HMV Oxford Street on Monday 8th February, and you’ll be able to catch the band from 5pm. The show is being played in celebration of the release of the band’s second studio album ‘Hold Me Down’, and after the show the band will be sticking around to meet the fans and sign posters and albums.

A big turnout is expected for this acoustic show and as such it’s going to be wristbanded, with 350 wristbands available on a first come first served basis. If you’re hoping to attend then it’s therefore advised that you get there early (wristbands will be available from 9am on the day).