syphonboa Reviews

Paranoia Agent (2004–2005)

Beautiful Masterpiece About A Human Fallacy

[21 August 2005]

PA is a wonderfully beautiful and mind boggling trip into the minds of people.

People who deal with real problems. There's no alien invaders, no demons, no ghosts, no monsters. Only themselves. There's no gratuitous nudity, no fanservice, no sexual innuendo, no awkward teen hero.

We are given one Miss Tsukiko Sagi, creator of Moromi, a popular dog character that everyone loves and has merchandise of in one form or another (think Hello Kitty). One night walking home, she is attacked by an unknown assailant, to be forever known as Lil Slugger, a boy on rollerblades with a baseball bat.

So begins a series that will make your eyes bug out and go "Huh!? I don't get it?!" Don't worry, its like that. Its a great 13 episodes with an emotional and powerful climax thats a metaphor for life itself.

A MUST SEE for anyone in general, even if you don't like anime, this is a masterpiece.

Fighter in the Wind (2004)

Powerful Drama, but NOT NOT NOT a Kung Fu Flick

[27 February 2005]

OK, first things first; this is NOT a martial arts kung-fu beat em up movie (If you want that, go watch Ong-Bak!). Throw those expectations OUT and prepare to enjoy a very gripping action/drama with some of the most beautiful filmwork i've seen in a while. To keep it simple, this movie is very exaggerated biography of Choi Baedal (Later changed his name to Mas Oyama), founder of Kyokushin karate, starting from before WW2. The fight scenes are not like standard kungfu flicks. They don't fight for 5 minutes. It's realistic in this sense. They trade a few blows and one or the other falls down in severe pain. This movie screams of a comic book feel. Fight scenes are stopped in mid-action to emphasize the form and the impact of the blows, the color and framing of each shot is reminiscent of comics as well. It emphasizes Choi Baedal's super-heroish qualities. The storyline is very interesting, although it runs a little long. Overall, its a very beautiful film to watch. Its great to see a movie really focus on the philosophies and ideas of martial arts rather than just the fighting itself. It also deals with the fears mindset of a fighter. Its VERY sad, and can sometimes come off as corny, but the overall emotional impact is there. Watch it, and remember, its NOT a pure kung fu beat em up movie and you will enjoy it.

Zu Warriors (2001)

This movie should have been a mini-series

[8/10 · 9 May 2002]

This movie is good. It's not the best of the great CG kung fu flicks but its pretty good. First thing first, the story is actually good. The whole idea of gods vs fallen gods type deal with super powers is pretty cool. My problem is theres too many characters! It got very confusing when they switched scenes! The special effects were INCREDIBLE! The fighting scenes were very fast paced and complex. This movie practically all computer generated. The acting is superb, as always expected from such high profile players. Ekin Cheng makes an excellent protagonist, loner character. Zhang Ziyi did nothing for me in this movie. I thought she would have a bigger part but she did one fight scene and a whole lot of yapping. The bad guy, the whole skull army and the whole blood cloud thing is very frightening. The music is also excellent. To me this story deserve at least a mini-series and not just ONE movie. Theres too much story to cram in 2 hours. Maybe if there was a book or something, I would be able to keep up with all the characters and the details. This movie sacrifices story integrity for action. I reccomend Storm Riders over this any day.