A Week Of Bizarre Noir.

It's time for another week-long blog-a-thon which, obviously, will not start on a Sunday... just like last time. This time around, I'm going to be focusing on bizarre noir (I can rhyme!), mostly because my next novel is going to be one, and I get my inspiration from movies of similar genre. And because I'm watching all these movies anyway, I might as well post up a bunch of reviews in a blog-a-thon style.

This time, however, there won't be the history lessons before each review, mostly because they're all the same kind of genre (just done in a unique way). So I'll just be doing that now.

What is noir, you ask? Noir is hard to define, really, but it is usually those movies with the hardboiled detectives, voice-over narration, femme fatales, shadowy cinematography, rainy weather, and bleak settings and outcomes. But that's not where it stops. What constitutes a noir is typically a mystery, but not always; instead, a lot of crime/gangster movies can fall under noir. The one thing all noir have in common is that they are usually bleak in some way. Whether it be due to a sad history for the main character, a grimy setting, or a dark outcome, something about the movie is typically dark and dirty. In fact, noir means black in French.

So what do I mean by bizarre noir? I'm talking about those movies that do something different with the genre. They take the same aspects and ingredients of noir, but add another flavor to it to spice it up a bit and make it quite unique. This extra flavor can be any number of things, really, and some of the more in-your-face (and good) examples will be shown via this blog-a-thon.

So there you go. This thing will officially kick off tomorrow. Hopefully this one will go smoother for me than the last one, as I have 5 of the 7 already written (as opposed to the last one, where I didn't have any). Enjoy!

UPDATE: Now that all of them have been posted, I'll just link to all of them here.

#1 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
#2 - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
#3 - Memento.
#4 - Sin City.
#5 - Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.
#6 - Fallen.
#7 - Batman Begins.

A Week Of Recent East Asian Cinema.

With the recent interest in remaking Asian films (The Ring/The Grudge/The Eye), noticing Asian films with awards (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and (finally) bringing together two Asian action superstars into the same movie (The Forbidden Kingdom, coming out next week), I thought of dedicating an entire week’s worth of articles to East Asian Cinema. East Asian Cinema (Japan, China/Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea) has been rather influential throughout the years for American cinema (and vice/versa).

From animation to action to horror and monsters, the movies of the Far East have made it big all around the world, and with good reason. They have some of the coolest action, some of the weirdest stories, and some of the scariest movies ever made. For the next 7 days, for each day, I will chronicle one movie of a different genre of recent Asian cinema. Each posting will include a short history lesson on the genre before leading up to the movie review of the film in question.

These types of movies have been huge in the past, with classics of anything from Seven Samurai to Godzilla. But what these articles will focus on are more recent movies. I won’t be discussing any old classics, but rather newer, more modern movies. The reason being is because the American film industry has just recently begun to really focus a lot on their films… so what is it about recent Asian cinema that is so enthralling? Does it stem from things from the past? Or is it just a new approach being taken? Or is America finally just getting onto the bandwagon and seeing that they aren’t the only people who can make a good movie? These 7 articles will try and figure that out.

I hope you enjoy what’s to come. It all starts tomorrow (because I don’t feel like waiting until Sunday, and I want this to end before The Forbidden Kingdom comes out). Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Now that all of them have been posted, I'll just link to all of them here.

#1 - The Monster Movie: The Host (South Korea).
#2 - Anime: Spirited Away (Japan).
#3 - J-Horror: Audition (Japan).
#4 - Mystery/Thriller/Revenge Tale: Oldboy (South Korea).
#5 - Hong Kong Action Cinema/Wuxia: Hero (Hong Kong/China).
#6 - Hong Kong Action Cinema/Comedy: Shaolin Soccer (Hong Kong/China).
#7 - Drama: Nobody Knows (Japan).