Patrick Drazen

Haven't seen this movie, but I can provide a bit of background. This was based on a fictionalized memoir by Laurens van der Post (1906-1996), a South African officer in the British Army during WW2. Captured and placed in a Japanese prison camp, he tried to detach from his treatment and reverted to his training as a psychologist. As such, he realized that Japanese cruelty toward their prisoners waxed and waned with the phases of the moon; this ratified his belief in the teachings of Carl Jung and gave him a measure of compassion. He discusses his experience in this context in his book "Jung and the Story of Our Time". Make of this what you will.

WICKED! "Roujin Z" is a social satire on a number of levels and works on all of them! In a high-tech future a company is creating a VERY automated hospital bed for the elderly, handling all the patient's physical needs without the bother of human interaction. But then a group of old-age pensioners in a retirement home hack into the bed and give it the personality of a Japanese granny... Directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo (after doing "Black Magic M-66" and before doing "Blood: The Last Vampire") and written by "Akira"'s Katsuhiro Otomo, this is an insane comedy as well as a social commentary from a decade that did both very well. The English dub is absolutely brilliant and catches the zany spirit of the satire.

I've only seen this movie in chunks, but the idea of shape-shifting afterlife cops, and a cast including Jeff Bridges and James Hong, kept me watching to see how it would shake out. I think it needed some serious editing; there's a neat little Tim-Burton-Meets-LA-Confidential under all that film.

The films of Hayao Miyazaki aspire to genius and usually hit the bull's eye; "Howl's Moving Castle" is a great example. Taking place originally in a magic-based world from the novel by Diane Wynne Jones, it was expanded and enriched, oddly enough, by America's invasion of Iraq and overthrow of Saddam Hussein. This prompted Miyazaki to flesh out the anti-war subplot of the film, which brings excitement to the love triangle between Sophie the seamstress, Howl the wizard, and the wizard's true love; except that there are other players here that keep the audience guessing what will come next.

Sports anime are very common; coming of age stories are very common. Mashing them together might not seem like a good idea. "Princess Nine", however, pulls it off pretty much seamlessly by providing a large and well-defined cast of characters and pacing them in their time in the spotlight. There are other titles which mix sports and soap opera, but this one adds feminism to the mix in a non-threatening manner. The lead character, high school freshman Ryo Hayakawa, is the daughter of a student pitcher who had a blazing fastball but who died under a cloud. Inheriting her father's arm and little else, she's recruited to a prestigious girls' high school to lead a proposed all-girl baseball team whose goal is (of course) to play against the boys and get to Koshien--the high school baseball world series that is Japan's equivalent of the Final Four. Some of the characters are comic relief, and the big reveal of one of the players is held back until just before the last act. Well done, completely engrossing, and Ryo's mother is voiced by the classic Sumi Shimamoto, who also voiced Nausicaa, Princess Clarice of Cagliostro, and other anime classic characters.

I've described this as "Hunchback of Notre Dame Goes Steampunk": a 2010 CG animated movie about the 1910 flooding of Paris, which really just sets up a multi-layered romantic comedy featuring a nerdy inventor, a gorgeous chanteuse, the Obligatory Corrupt Politician, and the monster of the title: a gigantic flea with a great singing voice. This gem is definitely worth searching out!