How's It Goin' with That Light?

I came home from work yesterday to find my desktop computer monitor was broken. It just shows vertical white lines now. At least I still had my old monitor which still basically works except it has a horizontal white line through the bottom of the screen. It's a slightly smaller Asus, the one that crapped out entirely was a Benq. I never had one just die abruptly, my monitors usually go slowly. There's usually a grace period where I can kid myself and pretend there's nothing wrong, like everything in the upper left corner is just normally slightly pink or the random discoloured dots are a software problem.

This came at the worst possible time. October's traditionally a lean month for me because I don't get paid, since there's no school in Japan in August. I won't be revisiting any visually impressive favourite films until November. It's not a good time to watch 2001, that's for sure. I'm glad I finished my latest watch of Twin Peaks a few days ago. Part of me likes to think my monitor going out is related to the power surge in the Palmer household at the end of season three.

Last night I watched the latest episode of Only Murders in the Building on my laptop. I can't remember any previous season being so consistently funny. Even Paul Rudd, guest starring as the stunt double of his character from last season, is dynamite. I don't even think about Ant-Man when I see him.

I have absolutely no prediction for the killer this season. The show never plays fair with its clues so there's no reason why I should have a prediction. But what the hell, I'll throw out a wild guess and say it's Paul Rudd's character with his phony Irish accent. He's the highlight for me so far on this season filled with highlights.

X Sonnet #1886

A boring man returns the rice to fields.
On lifeless feet, the legs of grass would swim.
Controlling bats contrive to foil guilds.
Demented creeps construct a phony whim.
A field of mice computes a sky of cats.
The wayward boat contains the king of shrimp.
When drinking blood, preserve a thought for bats.
A loving thought does not create a simp.
The broken bulb extends beyond the house.
Reliant names were changed beyond the dream.
Though dark, the fire's more than hats can dowse.
With brick and mortar, walls repel a beam.
Refunding snakes was never planned or done.
A dog was sleeping sound upon the bun.

Bats Entertainment

Why worry about vampires when mutant bats are bad enough? Witness 1999's Bats in which Lou Diamond Phillips battles the cgi beasties, occasionally swapped with noticeably less mobile puppets for closeups. It's cheesy!

It reaches a nadir of cheesiness in one scene where the scientist (Bob Gunton) defends making bats into perfect killers because "I'm a scientist. That's what we do! We make everything a little better." The wise-cracking black sidekick character (Leon) says, "I don't know about you but I don't like anything moving higher up the food chain than me. Period!" And the outraged blonde (Dina Meyer) calls the scientist a "son of a bitch!" It achieves a harmony of stock characters delivering hammy lines that assembles a fine, greasy cheese sandwich. I miss Denny's.

It's all set in Gallup Texas so Lou Diamond Phillips can strut around as the sheriff with an accent and proclaim bats will not make mischief in his town. It's a lot of fun.

When Will Becomes Metal

A young man's only chance at saving his family and his future is to win a cross country dog sled race in 1994's Iron Will. It's kind of Jack London nerfed to shaving foam but it is a fairly enjoyable, family friendly flick.

After Will (Mackenzie Astin) sees his father perish after falling through thin ice, his mother gives him the hard truth that they're going to have to sell their beloved huskies to get by. Then Will gets ahold of an ad for the big race with a big prize.

The cinematography is really bland. Snowy landscapes can look pretty dull at midday. There are a couple pretty standard sunset shots but mostly the look of the film gives it a made-for-TV sense of scale. Kevin Spacey is effective in a small role as a newspaper reporter who turns Will's story into something that inspires the nation. There's some really thinly contrived drama in which Will suddenly becomes angry with Spacey's character for no apparent reason, this setup being there just so Will can feel sorry later when Spacey's character turns out to be a true friend. Maybe something was cut.

Iron Will is available on Disney+.

The Sign of Life was a Sign of Death

It's often said hauntings are the result of ghosts having issues left unresolved from their mortal lives. 2001's Pulse (回路) posits the opposite may also be true, that ghosts are a reflection or symbol of issues left unconfronted by those still living. This film by the other Kurosawa, Kurosawa Kiyoshi, comes from that wonderful post-Evangelion period in Japanese media when artists were exploring daringly insightful psychological analyses in their works.

We meet a young woman, Michi (Aso Kumiko), who works at a rooftop greenhouse in Tokyo. She visits a coworker, Toguchi, at home, speaks to him briefly, and then is startled to discover his corpse hanging from a noose, apparently having been dead for some time.

In another part of town, a college student named Ryosuke (Kato Harukiko) is setting up his first computer with an internet connexion (it was 2001, remember). He's confused to find the site continually loads up footage of unknown individuals walking listlessly around their apartments. Freaked out, Ryosuke visits the college computer lab where he finds a beautiful young student called Harue (Koyuki) is surprisingly helpful and interested in him. As the movie progresses, the characters find themselves compulsively discussing loneliness and the possible futility of attempting to achieve meaningful connexions. It's a little startling how quickly Michi and her coworkers are willing to brush past Toguchi's suicide and carry on work as usual, gossiping as they arrange plants. When Harue asks Ryosuke if he got set up for the internet because he wanted to connect with people, he finds himself baffled and unable to explain his own motivation beyond some vague comment about how everyone else was doing it.

The film's intent on social commentary becomes clearer as the scope of the hauntings broadens to include the entire Kanto region. As ghosts become a more prevalent part of everyone's lives, the living exhibit stranger behaviour. Ryosuke and Michi finally meet when he stumbles upon her car sitting idle in the middle of the street while she sleeps with her head rested against the wheel.

The atmosphere is pretty effective and the ghosts are nice and creepy. Pulse is available on The Criterion Channel this month as part of a playlist of Japanese horror movies.

X Sonnet #1885

Returning tubes were jammed with people bread.
We toast the night when yeast discovered wheat.
A rising loaf could float attendant dead.
Descriptions labelled ham a deadly meat.
A circle night began with burning guns.
Throughout the night, the riders only thought.
Across the street, a phantom quickly runs.
With gentle hands, the moth was never caught.
Impressions burnt to walls could move the eye.
Important boats were leaving home behind.
Decisions cut the mollusc monster pie.
Of dreams the normal ghost doth us remind.
Repeated tides have left the clothing pale.
A soup of ghosts has fed the lonely whale.