[Rating: 7.5/10]

It is the late 12th century an archer in Richard’s army makes a promise to a dying knight, only to find himself saddled with a task that will seal his fate.

This is the beginning of the outlaw known as Robin Hood.

When one who is familiar with movies and english folklore and asked to picture Robin Hood, what do you think of?

Lush green forests, a group of men making merry, clad in brown and green? Robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Maybe singing at every opportunity and wearing tights. Perhaps not even men, forest animals (ala Disney). We think of an evil and sly sheriff. We think of an innocent young maiden who falls for the outlaw.

Well, all I can say is that is not that Robin Hood you will be seeing in this movie.

Here he is a simple  archer who has an adventure thrown upon him because he decides to assume the identity of a dying knight (Sir Robery Loxley) and escape safely back to England – sure he made the promise to take the sword back to said Knight’s family and such, but on the whole, he was just doing what he needed to survive. Here Robin Longstride is a middle-aged battle-worn soldier who has apparently lost the memories of his childhood. His ‘merry men’ are the band of fellow soldiers who have escaped with him, later including a group of orphans in the forests of Sherwood. Maid Marion (Lady Loxley) is a headstrong woman who has been left in charge of her war gallavanting husband’s estate; and England is bleak and gloomy yet enchanting at the same time, but definitely not all green fields and clear skies. Of the versions of Robin Hood I’ve seen, I have to admit this is probably the most realistic and believable, should there have been such a figure in history.

I feel an important thing to note is that this movie is not about Robin Hood the Outlaw, but rather how he came to be an Outlaw, for he is only exiled right at the end. It may not be clear from the trailers (though I haven’t seen all of them), but this movie focuses on the French vs. English conflict and the Crusades. There is a whole host of new characters and Prince John plays a more active role as the main villan as opposed to the Sheriff of Nottingham, who hardly appears, and everytime he does, he’s pretty much a spineless coward. Which could be quite disappointing if you were expecting a character similar to the one Alan Rickman played in the past. He is assisted by Sir Godfrey, a fictitious English knight who is secretly plotting with the French King. Interestingly, Richard also dies pretty much near the start of the film so this plot point veers quite drastically from other versions where Richard was in hiding as a mysterious knight and emerged to claim his throne back later.

The cast was really good, and while I’m not a huge fan of Russell Crowe, his chemistry with Cate Blanchett who played Marion was simply electric and built up nicely (ie, they did not fall for each other immediately and it actually had time to develop).  I really like Marion as an independant widow rather as it gave her more depth and added to the more realistic tone of the movie. Blanchett always has this wonderfully poised sort of air about her and her figure just commanded presence even though dressed in simple gowns and often caked with dirt due to the farm work and labour Marion had to do. She balanced the survivor traits and shyness of Marion very well. I like how everyone had to help out in the fields. Prince John’s character was also given a whole new angle as while he was generally as a spoiled and arrogant  bastard, he did have the odd moment where you felt nearly pitiful towards him, and when he led the army into battle against the French for a moment, I did wonder if the script would go a different way (as it already had taken a direction I had not expected from the start) , and perhaps there might be a very slight chance than he might change… Unfortunately not, but it was expected. Still, to feel something for his character after his rather standard cookie cutter versions in other adaptations, I’d say it wasn’t a bad thing. The female cast was quite strong, with John’s mother,  Queen Eleanor and his first wife, Isabella being notable. I would’ve liked to see what happened to his first wife but she disappeared after he remarried. The plot also had a lot going on to keep one interested, even without the storyline about Robin’s past, I really enjoyed the efforts at merging it with historical events and feel it would have been quite substantial.

That said, a fine adaptation of this tried and tested story. I was debating on whether to say this is ‘family friendly viewing’ as it has themes like death, war and betrayal in it, but considering movies like Harry Potter, I think it would be fine for older children as well. Probably not for you if you prefer something more ‘merry’. For History buffs and period movie fans, it is a good piece of entertainment.

Genre: fantasy, historical

Satomi Hakkenden SP is a two part drama based on The Legend of the Eight Dog Warriors, a classic Japanese text. A wicked enchantress (Tamazusa) curses the land of Awa and the future children of Fusehime, the princess of the Satomi clan. Fusehime kills herself to relieve the land of the curse and the eight glass beads she wears disappear… to be found years later by eight men all whose sirname contain the kanji for ‘inu’ (dog). The pieces fall into motion as the hero of the story, Shino, is searching for his beloved Hamaji, who has gone missing with his family heirloom, Muramasa, a sword which is gushes out water out when it is used by the right owner.

I’m probably one of the few people who enjoy watching book-to-film adaptations. Granted many of them aren’t that good but it’s always nice to see someone’s intepretation and for a story that has alot of things happening and lots of action, I prefer to watch the action. If you actually look up the novel of Nansou Satomi Hakkenden I can tell you that it is very long… 106 volumes anyone? So parts were obviously changed and cut for this drama, but it did look alot better than screencaps I’ve seen of the adaptations produced in the 50s and 80s. In the cast you’ve got some pretty big drama-screen names – Kanno Miho (Tamazusa), Nakama Yuki (Fusehime) Ayase Haruka  (Hamaji) who has been appearing in quite a few historical-ish productions lately (Ichi, JIN etc), and of course Takizawa Hideaki who plays our hero, Shino. I find it interesting how this was his role right after his success in the historical epic, Yoshitsune. The cast was pretty alright, though their characters’ bonds felt rather rushed (well, they did only have 2 episodes). While I don’t normally go for the villans, I must say Kanno Miho gave a stellar performance as Tamazusa. All along I’ve only seen her in the lead heroine roles and she was downright creepy as the vengeful enchantress. She also probably had the most character depth, especially at the end. As for the other things, the graphic effects were pretty cheesy, I swear the monster in the woods can’t compete with killer rabbit in Monty Python look. After hearing the talk about the feared beast what you get is an oversized black cat that looked really fake. I was hoping it’d be a spider considering Tamazusa and the black widow imageries thrown about in the earlier part of the show. Another thing was Inusaka’s real identity… I was hoping there’d finally be at least some girl power on the good side but… But despite those two letdowns I think the show was pretty good on the whole, hence my rating. Historical epics have always been a favourite of mine (even though this was more of a mythic legend type story than actually based on true historical events). I think it’s good for people who don’t want to sit through 40-50 episodes of NHK drama (NHK being where they show the big historicals, Hakkenden is a TBS production).

[7/10]

Genre: War, Drama

Seita is a teenage boy who loses his mother to an air-raid that destroys their home as well.  As a result he is forced to look after his kid sister, Setsuka on his own. The pair end up staying with their distant and widowed aunt who is struggling to survive as well, but she has her own agenda…
Firstly I’m quite glad I have yet to see the original animated film version because hearing how good it is, I bet my view on this 2008 live action remake would be coloured by opinions on the anime as well. Though it’s a rather slice-of-ww2life show, the pacing is good and the character interactions are pleasant enough.The scene where Seita finds out his mother has died and hides his emotions from his sister by running around in circles pulling the cart was very poignant. Seita is a heartwarming character who manages to put up a rather calm and collected front despite his situation and his asthma problem.   Another scence that tugged at the heartstrings was when Setsuka sees a dead body on the beach and thinks the man is asleep, and Seita just tells her to look away and continues cleaning her body.

About the aunt, although she is just another person trying her best to survive in the worn-torn country, I couldn’t really stand her. She did refuse to take in Seita and Setsuka at first, but only changed her mind when she saw they were carrying some hard-to-get foodstuff and materials with them. And she blatantly lied about not knowing their mother, and even tried to sell their mother’s things. Even though she had her reasons, she should have just discussed the situation with Seita first, out of respect for his mother. I can’t say much about Setsuka because she is too young to understand what’s going on but Seita displays lots of patience with her. The scene with Setsuka pretending the stones were food was really sad… it was so harrowing to see her wither away like that… The two sibling’s little hidey hole was rundown but quaint. And the fireflies were very pretty.

For the length of the film it was a good watch. I recommend it to people who like war films without it being too bloody and violent and want more of the common people’s perspective. I’d have liked to see what happened in the end though. Maybe I’ll watch the anime version sometime since this was not bad.

[Rating: 8/10]

Genre: time-travelling romance drama

Amanda Price, a huge Jane Austen fan, thinks that she has gone crazy when she finds Elizabeth Bennet standing in her bathroom, claiming the cupboard where the pipes are is a portal of sorts. That is until she goes through the said portal and is stunned to find herself in Elizabeth’s world (aka the novel of Pride and Prejudice), and to make things worse, she is trapped there and cannot go back; and Elizabeth is trapped in her world. So Amanda has no choice but to live with the Bennets. Her presence causes chain of events that threaten to change the whole story, but as much as she tries to prevent that from happening, Amanda grows attached to the people there and wonders if she could just accept things as they are.

Let me start off by saying that while I do think Austen did something right with her novels, I actually prefer watching film adaptations of them then reading the books (at least Austen film adaptations have been pretty decent in comparison to some other book to film attempts). While I have seen both versions of Pride and Prejudice, the BBC tv series with Colin Firth and the more recent adaptation starring Keira Knightley, I must say I like Lost in Austen the most of the three! It was actually really well made and the sets were lovely. This series is underrated! Also it was funny to see Amanda’s reactions and thoughts as her ‘perfect’ world turned out not to be as perfect as she had imagined it to be. Though I did expect the ending it still left me a little surprised. I thought it was daring of the show’s producers to go the non-conventional route. Something they did not address afterwards which I pondered over was – with that ending, does that mean the book in Amanda’s world was re-written? Because time-traveling to me usually comes with a price of sorts. I’d also have liked to see a bit more of Lizzy’s adventures in 21st century London. I felt she just more or less completely disappeared and randomly popped up in the end. I’d love to have seen her find a modern man for herself, since Amanda ended up with Darcy. Another interesting change was Bingley’s sister, Caroline… that was just really random and kind of extra if I must say, like a bit of fanservice thrown in for the male viewers or a weak attempt at spicing up the Austen created world, but it was an unexpected twist no less! And I do think that Elliott Cowan made a better Darcy than Colin Firth (never really got the hype about that lake scene haha). My favourite character of the show was Jane, who sort of took over Elizabeth’s role of responsibility since Elizabeth wasn’t there. I’m so glad she did not end up with Mr Collins. The fact that the actor for Mr Collins managed to make me repulsed by his character means that he played the role well I guess… seriously, the most repulsive version of Mr Collins I’ve seen so far. But yeah, I really recommend this short series (4 episodes) to any Austen fan out there~ or any literary fan. The through the pipes cupboard scene was rather reminiscent of Narnia~ It was just fun and original, and a delight to watch.

[Rating: 4.5/5]

Genre: Regency Romance

Order:
Once Upon a Summer’s Night, It Happened One Autumn, Devil in Winter, Scandal In Spring

Summary:
Four unlikely women who are tired of being casted aside at the ton’s parties band together to find each of themselves a husband!

Okay, despite the very typical regency romance plot it a very worthwhile series to read! Why did I not start on it sooner~ There were bits in each book which made me smile, laugh and feel a tug at my heartstrings. Every character had their own personality and weren’t cardboard cutouts at all. Each story was different in it’s own way and writing quality stayed consistent throughout the series, an important point for me. It’s one of those things which sound so cliche (I mean, women looking for husbands, sounds like some Jane Austen rip-off) but it was very refreshing and not as light-hearted as they look. They have nicely driven plots with enough action, adventure and romance to keep me satisfied. And recently I realized that there were spin-offs which involve minor characters in the series. I’ll update on my progress when I’ve finished them. I could bundle them together with the series but they aren’t exactly the same as the main Wallflowers series is about well, the four wallflower girls.  My favourite of the series was The Devil in Winter. It’s always fun to read about rakes falling in love. Devil in Winter had my favourite heroine of the quartet and It Happened One Autumn had my favourite hero of the series. Another strong point for me were the lovely covers because they cleverly (okay actually it’s been more common amongst romance books of late) hid the stereotypical racy covers behind the front cover (which were of landscapes in the four seaons corresponding to the titles) so it’s a romance series you don’t have to be shy about reading in public.

[Rating: 7.5/10]

Genre: Historical, Paranormal

Kuroshitsuji is a somewhat dark anime that takes place in Victorian England. It centers around the main chracter Sebastian Michaelis, one demon of a butler (pun intended!), who has a binding pact with Ciel Phantomhive, the young and remaining heir of the powerful Phantomhive family. Due to the Phantomhives’ strong ties with the throne, Ciel is often sent to investigate mysteries for the Queen and Sebastian aids him, often ending up being the one to save his life. Of course, there’s always more to it than meets the eye…

Ok, given that I have not read the manga, I found that the anime was rather mediocre in terms of plot, three main things kept me watching:

1) Sebastian Michaelis is one of the more compelling lead anime characters I’ve seen. Ciel was nothing in comparison to him and indeed he’d have been nothing (aka dead) if Sebastian hadn’t saved his ass those years ago.

2) Most of my bachelor’s degree centered around the historical and literary studies of Victorian Gothic literature, so the setting itself was an attraction to me, and to my delight, they did attempt to throw some actual historical events/places/people into the fray of the happenings, even though most of it was wrongly dated. Then again I closed an eye because I believe Kuroshitsuji is meant to be set in a parellel world of Victorian England rather than actual Victorian England (sort of like the city in the Golden Compass trilogy mirroring real Oxford but with daemons and steampunk technology).

3) On a lesser level, I was also curious to find out what happens in the end. Would Ciel honour the pact with Sebastian and would Sebastian actually take the soul of his young master who he had grown somewhat fond of? Since I was rather impartial towards Ciel, I wasn’t really bothered at the end, but still glad that it was done gently. Dare I say it was somewhat poetic?

Also, a couple of the secondary characters were not bad. I actually quite liked Ash before it turned out that he was Angela. Can I please deny his boobage~ Ash is actually quite cool whereas his counterpart is a psychotic bitch. I admit that was certainly a twist I did not expect. I thought they might be related or something, but that was about it… And Plu is a pretty awesome dog, his fire breathing destructiveness aside, he was like this huge puppy who just wanted some TLC. I wish that there had been a bit more about the Undertaker because he was wonderfully eccentric and insane. I think he had the best voice actor of the lot. If there is a second season, I do want to see Undertaker’s face! I won’t be surprised if he’s actually quite good looking despite the scar running across one side. The three servants in the Phantomhive mansion were really annoying at first, but the episode that showed there background made me soften up to them a bit… I know people can be clumsy (myself included) but it’s just that from the beginning those three were so incompetant! They’re awesome at kicking butt though… and Ciel will never know how much he owes them his precious life every other night. Ciel wasn’t the most likeable character to me because he was generally bratty, naive and selfish. Sebastian practically did all the hard bits of the investigation for him and the way he treated Elizabeth was pretty harsh. I dunno, but I’ve never really understood the whole ‘living for the sake of vengance’ thing before. And concerning the music, it was one of the few times I’ve actually enjoyed an opening or ending song. Usually I just skip past the credits at the start and end. The sequence of chibi Sebastian getting prepared for the day was cute~