Thale

           

 

   Title – Thale

             Language – Norwegian

             Genre – Supernatural, monster

Thale starts with Leo & Elvis cleaning up a dead body form a house (It’s their job) when they discover a hidden cellar.  It is obvious that some one use to live in the cellar as it is furnished. The pair soon discover a number of out of date tinned food, an old cassette player, a bath full of a creamy liquid and a sealed fridge all of which are coved in grime and don’t seem to have been used for a while.  As they explore, Leo & Elvis discover a naked woman who is, to begin with quite aggressive.  The woman never speaks but they learn from the old tapes that she is known as ‘Thale’.  As the cleaners wait for their friends to check out the basement it becomes obvious that there is more to Thale then meets the eye but can they find out what before what ever is in the woods outside gets in, maybe there is a clue inside the fridge.

Thale is a slow paced yet atmospheric ‘Cabin in the woods’ movie with a small but effective cast.  For most of the movie we only have the 3 main characters, Leo, Elvis & Thale.  As Thale never speaks most of the movie is made up of the other two characters trying to find out why she is in the cellar from the old tapes and this does lead to the film having quite a slow pace but it is never boring as the atmosphere inside the cabin is quite claustrophobic as, to begin with we never know what Thale is going to do.  Then, as the film progress’s the atmosphere becomes more oppressive as the creatures in the wood seem to be getting closer.

In some (small) way Thale reminds me of the original ‘Evil Dead’ with the atmospheric cabin and the mysterious tape player but, Thale never need’s the use of gore in the same way as ‘Evil Dead’ as it relies more on the mystery of Thales past and of not knowing what is outside.

There does seem to be a couple of unnecessary plot lines (without giving two much away Leo’s secret & Elvis’ secret) in Thale which I think were in to help build up the characters and (in once case) to show something of the true nature and power of Thale herself but I believe that, whist there was point to Leos secret the film would not have lost anything with out it and, although Elvis’ secret really didn’t have much bearing on the main plot of the film it felt a little bit of a lose end, it could either have been brought into the main story a bit more or left out.

I would highly recommend giving Thale a watch, it is very atmospheric film and the part of Thale is especially well portrayed by Silje Reinåmo who manages to develop the character with out saying a word or, for a lot of the movie wearing any clothes.

Cat Planet Cuties

Title - Cat Planet Cuties
Language - Japanese
Genre - Anime, harem, Sci- Fi

Cat Planet Cuties is part Sci-Fi, part harem, part parody and all fan service.

Kio is at his Grandmother’s funeral when he spots an uninvited guest, a girl with cat ears and a tail and who is not in cosplay, the girl introduces herself as Eris, an alien from the planet Catian who has come to visit Earth.  Kio is not the only person who is aware of Eris’ presents on earth and she is soon captured by the CIA, who are aided by Janes, a member of the Dogisia race.  Kio, aided by his two female friends, Aoi & Manami  race to rescue Eris but are hindered by members of ‘Beautiful contact’ a terrorist group who want to get rid of Eris because they believe that she is not fit to be the first contact Earth should have with an alien race because she does not look alien enough.  Kio and his friends rescue Eris but are soon set upon by the ‘Underside of the kitten paw’ a cult who worship cat ears & tails and who believe that Eris is the ‘divine embodiment’.  The Underside of the kitten paw are attacked by Janes who is determined to drive Eris and the rest of her crew from earth.  After this the kitten paw team up with Eris to help protect the Earth for Janes.

 

On the surface Cat Planet Cuties is a fun, mindless fan service.  Eris, Aoi & Manami are all romantically interested in Kio.  All the aliens are female and the Catian’s use weapons that use quasi anti-matter, a substance that disintegrates any non organic matter it comes into contact with (normally clothes) and there are many reasons to get the main cast into skimpy out fits (including the almost mandatory ‘beach episode’).  There is a good amount of action with Eris and friends squaring off, first against the various agencies that are after her and then against Janes and her army of robots but, because of the use of the quasi anti-matter the violence is more fun than dangerous.

 

If you start to dig a bit deeper into the stories you find that there is a cleverness to Cat planet cuties that could easily be missed.  The series parodies and plays homage to a number of other TV series with the opening scenes of almost all the episodes parodying those of other shows but also covering subjects like how people would react to androids and intergalactic politics.

 

Cat Planet cuties is a fun series that well worth a watch but not for kids due the nudity and Boobs.

 

Attack girls swim team vs. the undead

Title -

Attack girls swim team vs. the undead

Language - Japanese

Genre - Zombie, horror

Contains spoilers

I had high hopes for a film with a title like 'Attack girl swim team vs. the undead' but I have to admit I was left a bit disappointed, the problem is I'm not really sure why.  The film starts three days before a cross school swimming competition.  Everything seems to be going ok for one of the competing schools, they've been training hard, the school has been vaccinating students against the new virus that’s going around and there is a new student who they are going to recruit to replace their sick team mate.  Then things take a turn for the worst, the team's coach is found dead and then shows up alive again and the rest of the school start turning into flesh eating zombies until only the girls swim team and the new girl, Aki are that is left.

I think that, if the films plot stopped there it would have been better, they could even have kept the 'mad scientist' cause of the zombie the same but, the inclusion of Aki's back story seemed to add more complication than was necessary, especially as the main point of the back story was just to get more sex on the screen.

Parts of the flashback scenes didn't seem to make to much sense, how could he talk and play the flute at the same time, I think it was supposed to be Aki remembering things slightly wrong and it was the twin who was speaking if so then this seems to be another example of the film trying to be more intelligent than it was.

Girls swim team also seemed to be lacking a bit in the zombie department, putting most of the focus on the two zombie teachers who were quite entertaining but they failed to get across the same sense of threat that could been produce by giving the horde of other zombies that were lurking a bit more screen time.

With the exception of the first scene with the zombies in the in the classroom the other 'normal' zombies seemed a bit pathetic.  I can live with cure for the virus as it fits in with the good part of the plot but for the most part, when we see any normal zombies they are just pushed out of the way and they don’t even swarm, after the first zombie scene we only see about 4 zombies on screen at one time.  With that said I will admit that the little gore that is in the film is quite good.

The swim team is also a bit to pathetic, whilst it is good to  see a film where the survivor's can't automatable pick up any weapon and know how to use it to its full zombie killing capability some zombie killing would have been good.  Part of the problem in this area may have been the lack of zombies I mentioned earlier.  You can't have your side cast killing off your main monsters but, the action could have been improved with more normal zombies.

Now we come to the main villain, there is not too much I can say about this except when he is revealed it’s like something out of a bad Scooby Doo episode and the ‘twist’ with him at the end is just a bit odd.

In saying all of that I would probable give ‘Attack girls swim team vs. the undead’, maybe knowing what to expect may up the enjoyment a bit more.

witchblade the anime

Title - Witchblade
Language - Japenese
Genre - Anime, comic, bad girl, action

Witchblade started life as a comic from image/Top cow comics and follows the story of the current warer of the 'witchblade' which is an ancient artifact that has existed since the beginning of time.  The Witchblade can only be worn by women and then only by ones who are compatible with it and it is a weapon.

Since the release of the comic Witchblade has had a few incarnation and this is about the anime.

Before I had seen the series I had read a couple reviews which had been complaining that the series was mainly just a show full of fan service which, if you have ever read any of the original comics would not come as any surprise as it is full as t&a and any type of fan service that done in an American comic can be done better via anime. 

                                                                     Comic book witchblade

 Anime Witchblade

The anime is set 6 years after a large earth quake has devastated Tokyo and we are introduced to Masane Amaha and her 6 year old Daughter Rihoko.  Masane was found at ground zero of the great quake and can’t remember anything of her life before it.

Almost as soon as they arrive in Tokyo Masane is approached by the NSWF’s child welfare department who feel that Masane is not a suitable mother, they take Rhioko and Masane is arrested for attempting to stop them.  Whilst in prison another prisoner, who has been arrested for a number of bizarre murders suddenly transforms into a robotic killing machine and goes after Masane.  As she is attacked, the bracelet that Masane wares glows and the witchblade is activated enabling her to stop the killing machine.  After defeating the killer Masane  escapes the prison with the  intention of going to the NSWF and getting Rihoko back but the strain of using the witchblade leaves her exhausted and she collapses, this is seen by two people, an employee of a company called ‘Douji Group Industries’ who are looking for the witchblade and a photographer called Yusuke Tozawa.  Masane is picked up by the Douji employee   and taken back to their head quarters where they tell her the killer was a weapon designed by Douji known as an ex-con.  A number of the Ex-con’s escaped during the great quake and Douji have been trying to find them ever since.  Douji tell Masane that the Ex-cons are attracted to the witchblade and, if Masane helps them find and destroy the last remain units they help her get Rihoko.

The first few episodes of the series are   basically a ‘monster of the week’ style show as Masane takes on different Ex-cons and the occasional clone blade whilst looking for Rihoko and this is full of fan service especially after the introduction of the ‘clone blades’, who are women from the NSWF who are equipped  with  artificial witchblades. 

I can only assume that the previous reviews that I have read had only seen these first few episodes as the series soon takes a change of pace and becomes more of a soap opera as Masane and Rihoko move into a guest house and Masane tries to keep her job a secret from Rhioko.

From this point on witchblade starts to concentrate on the relationships of its characters   and the internal politics of Douji and the NSWF and asks questions about the nature of family and whether some new stories should be kept secret.  This is not to say that the fan service stops, there are still battles between the witchblade and the clone blades and Masane is nicknamed Masamune as a reference to the chest size (Masa-mune means Undefeatable Breasts in Japanese).  There is also the staple trop of fan service that is the beach episode but, insted of coming up with a way to get all the main [attractive] female cast together they bring in 3 new characters who have never even been mentions before and who are never seen after that episode, a strange move as they already have a cast of large breasted women in skimpy armor that they could use.

Witchblade had a surprisingly deep story and a good cast of characters so if you like your anime with action and story and a not to distracting amount of fan service then i recommend that you give it watch