Movies

Sorry! I have been a little behind the 8-ball so far this week so I lost a couple of days of posting!

On Sunday afternoon in the middle of my lazy afternoon, I happened across an old movie on Wowow the local equivalent to HBO. The movie was called The Collector, and I just kind of stuck on the channel and realized I was slightly interested in it. The movie was made in 1965 and starred Terence Stamp (General Zod from Superman I and II or more recently as Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars episode 1) as a sociopathic maniac that kidnaps a girl and tries to 'collect' her like his collection of rare butterflies with the hopes of her falling in love with him. Other mentionable names tied into the film was director William Wyler who is most known for directing Ben Hur and Roman Holiday. Usually I find the acting in old films to be quite campy and exaggerated (much like modern Japanese dramas) but I was quite impressed with the performances in this one and it was an interesting study in the mind of a madman many years before Hanibal Lecter was even created by Thomas Harris. While watching the movie I remembered that I had actually read about the book before one night while meandering through the Internet. Apparently the book rates up there with The Catcher in the Rye for influencing real life mad men ( actually I am making a big leap in assumption here, I have never researched Catcher in the Rye fully- I am basing this on the part of the movie Conspiracy Theory when the FBI had flagged the book...). According to this highly reputable source (well maybe not - it is Maxim a magazine geared towards single men...) the book has inspired at least 5 serial killers. Well either way if you stumble across this one on afternoon TV one day, give it a watch, the pace is a little slower than modern day thrillers, but I thought it was alright.

Tonight I watched a movie that I remember loving when I was a kid (well 30 minutes of it)- Clash of the Titans. All I can say upon re-watching it is terrible! The special effects are obvious, poorly done and so blatantly clay-mation and blue screening I can't believe that even as a 9 year child I liked it. Is it that the film is aged so it loses it's quality over time, is it that the other special effects at that time were horrible too (nope- I can still watch Star Wars Episode IV and marvel at what they achieved) or is that as a child I was just stupid? I will have to think about that for a few minutes.

Okay, back to some more Japan related blogging next time!