Netflix Showdown checks out the relative merits and flaws of two ostensibly comparable things seen on Netflix streaming. First up, two talking animal family films, Vampire Dog and A Talking Cat!?!
Drake Majistral is a minor aristocrat, traveling the area of human space that once was conquered by the alien Khosali but now is independent. He is not particularly well off, even given his rank of nobility, and so he makes his living as a professional “Allowed Burglar.” The rules are relatively simple for Allowed Burglars. Keep what you steal for 24 hours without getting caught; there’s no crime, and you can sell the item free and clear.
If you want to be politically aware or saavy, the member states of ASEAN (Associaton of Southeast Asian Nations) are Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Phillippines, Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. ASEAN spreads over a region with diverse, complex and vivid cultures and ethnicities. It is also a region where migrations and intermingling of cultures and identities play an important role. Phew, now that just sounded like one of my lessons in school. But there you have it: Southeast Asia, explained in gist.
Here’s what’s on the tour docket for February: Holdovers from January (already dropped): Torture Cinema review of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and an interview w/ Myke Cole (published 2/1 and 2/2, respectively). 2/7 (already dropped): discussion w/ Tansy Rayner Roberts and Marienne de Pierres on Australian Speculative Fiction 2/11: discussion w/ Helen Lowe, Norman Cates, & Stephen Minchin on New Zealander Speculative Fiction 2/14: WISB discussion of Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson) 2/17: an interview w/ Adam Christopher about Hangwire, out from Angry Robot Books 2/21: WISB discussion of Babylon 5 (season one; disc three) 3/2 or 3/3 (technically not a Feb. date, though it’s supposed to be): Torture Cinema review of Sons of Steel So, there you go 🙂
Warning: there are some graphic images in this post. NSFW. Not too long ago, I set myself the goal of viewing every SF/F film released in 2010. It figures that the first non-American film I decided to view would be one of the most ridiculous, violent, and bizarre films I have seen in a while. After being bullied by her classmates, high school student Rin (Yumi Sugimoto) returns home to discover that her father is actually a humanoid mutant known as a HILKO (or hiruko — the subtitles use HILKO, but descriptions of the film use “hiruko,” so I’m not sure which one is correct). But before she can take in this surprising news and its implications for herself, she and her parents are attacked by an anti-HILKO military unit. What follows is an all out bloodbath as Rin tries to escape not only the military, but the blood-thirst of her home town. Later, she is picked up by other HILKO members and trained and indoctrinated into a violent counter-revolutionary force run by Kisaragi (Tak Sakaguchi), who believes his pack of teen girl HILKOs are the perfect fighting force for making Japan a human-free zone.
I had an interesting conversation with a good friend of mine the other day. She’s far more educated in Feminism than I — I never took a Women’s Studies course at the University, nor did I have many Feminist friends in college. (I was a geek.) Therefore, I read as much as I can on my own, talk with other Feminists, and form my own opinions. My friend stated that she firmly believes that men cannot be Feminists. They can only be Feminist Allies. She believes that men who claim the Feminist label are prone to use their male privilege to define Feminism, which is, in itself, a form of oppression. In short, when the oppressor defines for the oppressed what is oppressive there’s an instant conflict of interest. I’m conflicted about this, I have to admit. On one hand, she has a point. I think of this argument whenever white people declare whether or not something is ‘racist.’ It swiftly mutates into dictating to another person what their feelings are — dictating to them the words (and situations) by which they’re allowed to be insulted. So. Not. Cool. On the other hand, I believe Feminism must be inclusive in order to work, and telling men they can’t be Feminists is being exclusive.
