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[Fantasia 2024] When A Samurai in Time Isn’t Like Enemy Mine. It’s About Absolutes.

What’s unique to this dramatic comedy is that we’re left wondering what caused A Samurai in Time to travel to the future and decide to remain?

A Samurai in Time Movie Poster — **Played at Fantasia Film Festival 2024 on July 28, 2024**

Even if you know nothing about Jidaigeki, a genre of Japanese action films set during the Meiji period, A Samurai in Time will make you a fan! It’s twice as good as Rurouni Kenshin and as a modern day drama about what’s worth fighting for, that’s up to Shinzaemon Kosaka (Makiya Yamaguchi) to decide. After his warrior class got disbanded, he’s a soldier without a cause. After a lightning storm interrupted a duel he was going to have with Yamagata Hikokuro of the Choshu Clan (aka Kazami Kyoichiro), just where he lands is modern day Kyoto.

All those conflicts between the factions from his days are now the stuff of entertainment. And sometimes, we delve into the historical significance of who is in the right for the unification, but what matters more is what this warrior class does if any individual loses that stewardship. This theme gets a soft exposition as Kosaka finds a new career as a Yamaguchi, a type of stuntman who performs an absurd pose as he dies.

Continue reading “[Fantasia 2024] When A Samurai in Time Isn’t Like Enemy Mine. It’s About Absolutes.”

In Time Patrol Bon The Future Isn’t Written Back to the Future Style

Although Ream Stream is a hokey name for the heroine in Time Patrol Bon, she’s a better “Doctor Who” type of character than the current one on Disney Plus/BBC.

Part Two Will Be Available on July 17, 2024 on Netflix

Time Patrol Bon is a fairly faithful look at various legends and unsolved mysteries from around the world. Whether that is concerning a moment of history, part of mythology or a missing person, just how Bon Namihira (Akihisa Wakayama and Griffin Burns in the dub) gets involved is because he’s seen things which can put his timeline in peril.

As a result, a young time lord is watching him and has recruited him into the agency she works for. They monitor anomalies that can disrupt history. In some ways, what’s presented is like early episodes of the Irwin Allen series, Time Tunnel. And for spicing it up for fans of Marvel’s Loki to enjoy, there are some shared aspects I liked.

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Introducing DSTLRY and the New Wave for Comic Book Afficinados

DSTLRY is ready to take the independent comic book world by storm with even more titles added to their roster of fantastic fiction in their second year of operation.

Time Waits Cover A by Marcus To DSTLRY is a new boutique comic book publisher that’s a little over a year old, and they’re making waves by promising that the creators have full control of their properties, and 3% of company equity will be distributed amongst them as long as they get ideas released within the first three years. It’ll be based on how well these titles sell, and so far, I’m taking notice!

In their first year of operation, they released titles like Spectregraph by James Tynion IV and Christian Ward and also Somna by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay. They’re worth tracking down, and if you’re a fan of modern horror, I feel they’re worth picking up. I’ll offer up reviews of these at a later date, since I don’t feel its fair to offer up impressions after a single read. These creators put in a lot of effort to layer in more than just a simple visual narrative, and I want to do justice in what I’m discovering upon successive reads.

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Talking About A New Generation with Doctor Who’s 14th Season (or is that one?)

There’s some revisionist changes to the changes of Doctor Who that few will appreciate, and what’s explored here concerns the misaligned episode “The Devil’s Chord.”

Doctor Who Season 14 Poster A lot has changed with The Doctor over the years. And to say which Doctor Who incarnation is better depends on whom you ask, which generation they’re from and if the show can survive the test of time. As for why The Beatles was chosen over the The Who to market the new era under Disney’s distribution network, that’s because the British Invasion with the former really changed the landscape of the music industry. Both gained recognition around the same time (1964).

With today’s woke culture inspiring Russell T. Davies to further change all that was classic with the series, I’m not as keen to call myself a fan of everything new. The Doctor’s reward of getting a new set of regenerations (“Time fo the Doctor”) is because he saved his homeworld from complete destruction. Unlike The Master, when he transferred his essence to other bodies to extend his own cycle (this character was originally male), the Doctor was keen to expire and let someone else save the universe. But the BBC said we can’t put an end to their best known media empire.

To explain how regenerations work, it’s all because of the power a black hole contains. If one can harness the energy from the singularity, it can supercharge the cells of a Gallifreyan body. The Eye of Harmony was made to contain all this power, and as for why this is important, perhaps Ruby (Millie Gibson) has some ability to tap into that or be a storehouse of energy too. Continue reading “Talking About A New Generation with Doctor Who’s 14th Season (or is that one?)”

In Max Beyond, There’s No Such Thing as Infinite Lives

The idea of going back in time to change the future is nothing new, but in this take, Max Beyond seeks to locate another universe where fate isn’t prestined.

Coming to Digital Platforms on April 22

There’s a young hero in town, and his name is Max (Cade Tropeano). He can travel to alternate universes and his only desire is to stop Leon (Dave Fennoy), his big brother, from being killed in the line of duty. In the movie simply titled, Max Beyond, this former marine is determined to rescue the kid from a tech firm intent on finding out how he gained ths mutant ability–and exploit it too–but in every other world, this attempt always sees the soldier ending up dead.

However, I get the feeling that every time Max uses his mutant power, a part of him is lost to the Aether. Pretty soon, he has to consider if his life is worth sacrificing, too. This sombre animated film got me wondering why he needs his brother so bad? That’s because without him, he may well not exist at all. Just how they managed to support each other during this strange time makes up for the better part of the narrative.

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Nobody is Crazy in this Charming Coming of Age Tale

The best way to show how Nobody is Crazy is in showing how everybody should be treated even when adversity is everywhere.

Please check local film festival listings for screenings near you.

Anyone with an obsessive-compulsive disorder is easy to deal with. People just have to be more compassionate and know what to say in order to help them manage the everyday. But for Rafa (Manuel Gutierrez) in Nobody is Crazy, what he has to do is face what makes him the odd man out. He has no friends or people to turn to, and this actor does a remarkable job at selling the fact he can do better.

But when nobody believes that he has made a friend, a masked individual (who prefers to be recognized as Nobody) who claims to be from his future, the film by Federico J. Arioni is masterfully crafted to not let anyone in on the secret. It’s a very thoughtful low-fi time travel cum existential work that deserves continued film festival screenings worldwide. Even though this work was released back in 2019, getting noticed by well known movie celebrations is tough.

Also, I was amused at how this Argentine director puts himself into this movie by playing this hero who pops in and out of existence, like a conscience to offer sage advice to a lost boy.

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