©Courtesy of Sony Pictures Instead of ghost-busting, demon-slaying could be the top movie profession of the 2020’s. Five years before the KPop Demons Hunters became a breakout sensation, the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba anime franchise (based on Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga) released the #1 global box-office champion of 2020. Admittedly, that year came with an…
©Courtesy of GKIDS “Linda Linda” is one of the biggest hits from Japan’s most popular punk bands, the Blue Hearts. Yet, this Japanese high school garage band totally makes it their own, despite their new Korean vocalist’s spotty command of the language. A lot of Americans discovered the real band indirectly through this film when…
©Courtesy of A24 In Wan Laiming’s classic 1961 Chinese animated film, the Monkey King created real Havoc in Heaven. Similarly, in this film, Ne Zhe, the Buddhist guardian folk hero, eventually leads a genuine insurrection against the celestial rulers, worthy of John Milton. Both films illustrate the Mainland Chinese movie going public’s continuing preference for…
©Courtesy of Watermelon Pictures “The Great Ravine” boasts valuable mineral deposits and fertile agricultural soil, but it is claimed by two rival nations. Frankly, it sounds a bit like the Kashmir Valley, especially since it appears in an animated feature produced in Pakistan. Unlike his neighbors, master glassworker Thomas Oliver wants nothing to do with…
© DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved. Gru and the Minions had little trouble going straight. Deckard Shaw also convincingly crossed over to the good side in Fast and Furious franchise. It just doesn’t seem fair that Mr. Wolf and his colleagues have so much trouble putting their criminal pasts behind them. Maybe people just get…
©Courtesy of Japan Cuts There is no “I” in “government bureaucrat,” but you cannot spell “DIY” without it. Ichiro Yamada once aspired to become a kaiju filmmaker, but his disastrous first screening crushed his schoolboy confidence. Years later, Yamada has a second chance at filmmaking when tasked with directing a promotional video for local tourism….
©Courtesy of Paramount Pictures These little blue guys were Belgium’s biggest export since Belgian waffles. Peyo created them way back in 1958, but they became a breakout American sensation in the early 1980s. Their hit Saturday morning cartoon even inspired breakfast cereals and Ice Capade shows. Four decades later, the franchise remains healthy, even though…
©Courtesy of Toei Princess Chao is not exactly the “Little Mermaid,” at least not the one you might recognize. For one thing, she usually presents herself to the outside world as a giant fish. That is just how merpeople look when they are out of the water—unless they feel sufficiently safe to reveal their true…
©Courtesy of Netflix This twisted underground game really ought to retire Seong Gi-hun’s number: #456. Just like Patrick McGoohan’s unnamed character should be the only #6 in the world of the trippy British science fiction series The Prisoner, #456 should be exclusively reserved for Seong, the sole champion in game history to ever return to…
Many Gen X’ers grew up with Superman and the Super Friends on Saturday mornings. Before that, the 1940’s Oscar-nominated Fleischer animated shorts established many iconic elements now intimately associated with Superman, like the “faster than a speeding bullet” intro and his use of phone booths for quick changes. Clearly, the character, born out the pages…
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