Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

MW ·

Best of TV Party 2010

TV Party is movie review section I put together for each issue of Giant Robot magazine. To compile this list, I simply went through the year's columns and wrote something quickly about what stuck with me. By no means is it The Best of 2010, since I don't get to attend many film festivals or stay up all night watching movies online. In fact, I actually paid for most of them on imported DVDs! Perhaps this isn't as much of a guide to what happened in Asian or Asian-American (no way) cinema as it is what I've been digging. Maybe you'll like some of it, too. The movie titles are linked to the trailers for your convenience. As for full-on reviews, you'll have to track down the magazines. Assault Girls (Japan, 2009) – Mamoru Oshii's live-action depiction of three flawless women in battle armor fighting mutant sand creatures is as simple or complex as you want it to be. But whether you see it as a glorified video game scenario or seamless study and critique on society, it is perfectly executed with amazing production value. Each frame is a visual masterpiece. (Image above.) Barking Dogs Never Bite (Korea, 2000) – Bong Joon-ho's darkly comic debut has (and needs) no budget but carries out his heady concepts with ease. As usual, actress Bae Doona is impossible not to watch, playing the wage slave who is obsessed with tracking down missing dogs killed by a protagonist driven to madness by the system. Finally released in the U.S. by Magnolia. The Darjeeling Limited (USA, 2007) – Yes, Wes Anderson's latest sausage party (but another witty, stylish, and sharp one) was released by Fox on the heels of its theatrical release, but true fans will settle for nothing less than a Criterion DVD for any of his works. One of the main extras is a cool conversation between Anderson and James Ivory about their respective, overlapping Indian soundtracks. Dream Home (Hong Kong, 2010) – Producers Conroy Chan and Josie Ho (who also stars) hired Wong Kar-Wai's production team and charged it with making a slasher film. Over-the-top violence, mangled bodies, and mass quantities of blood have never looked so artistic. There's also a message about real estate and materialism mixed into the plot. Fish Story (Japan, 2009) – Like Miracle Mile or Wall.E, this is an end-of-the-world movie that tightens its focus onto a smaller story rather than create a sprawling epic. What makes Yoshihiro Nakamura's film especially cool is that it revolves around geeks at a record store discussing a pre-Sex Pistols punk song from Japan as a meteor plummets toward earth–and the tune actually happens to be pretty good. House (Japan, 1977) – Although I never found the the brand-new, official DVD that Criterion sent later on, even the hand-burned screener I received is light years better than the VHS copies or YouTube clips of the schoolgirl-eating piano that film nerds worshipped beforehand. Nobu Obayashi's experimental horror movie continues to shock, delight,...
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MW ·

Dum Dum Girls and Abe Vigoda at The Echoplex

I interviewed Sandy, the drummer from Dum Dum Girls, in GR68. Great answers, cool person, amazing band. My only regret was that I didn't get to see them play–something I do for pretty much every group I interview for GR–because they were in Europe. So I had no problem going out on a rainy Tuesday night to see them at The Echoplex. Especially since Abe Vigoda was opening. Last time I tried to see them was in Paris with another Sub Pop band (No Age) and it was sold out. I was stuck outside. Abe Vigoda's new album is drastically different than their previous ones. Gone are the warm “tropical punk” vibrations, replaced by a cold, Pornography-era Cure toughness (although bass player David Reichart's stage presence is actually more Paul Simonon than Simon Gallup). Above: Singer Michael Vidal unleashes. New percussionist/keyboardist Dane Chadwick bust from behind the kit to play some guitar and even sing. Juan is still the man. The new songs that come across as cold (and great) at home sounded way tougher live. Especially the ones with drum machines. I can't wait to re-listen to them loud on headphones. Headliners Dum Dum Girls made a statement by setting up and tuning their own gear: they don't need dudes to do their heavy lifting and they don't need to wear sweatpants when they're doing it, either. What comes across as fuzzed-out post-girl-group sounds on vinyl, is revealed to be a beast onstage. Maybe it's the power of the full band being together? Dum Dum Girls break out the buzzsaws but do it with the coolness of Poison Ivy. The leader of the gang is Dee Dee. Look at that. Not one drop of sweat under the lamps on a damp evening. They went through their material with cool intensity. No BS or posturing needed to blow away the audience–just a ton of attitude and skill, as well as a couple hits. The Echoplex is a large venue, and Dum Dum Girls filled it up with their icy sounds and stares. There's an EP coming soon and a new album about to be recorded, so expect bigger and radder (yet sadder) shows to come. Everyone exited the club after 1:00 a.m. to a perfectly drizzly, cool, and beautiful evening hinting at what's to come.
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News ·

Christmas Past

Mall Santas never die, they just grow real bellies made of jelly. In the process of doing some Lunar Eclipse cleaning, I came across some photos I brought back from a trip to Korea. They were pictures that my grandfather had. The photos were sent to him in Korea by mom, so he and my grandmother could see how our lives in the US were shaping up to be. There were lots of Christmas photos in the mix, and seeing them was the first time this month that I really started to reflect on what Christmas has meant to me over the years.
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