I’ve updated my DVD library.

Previously, I wrote about the Fullmetal Alchemist anime series.  Then, I had only made it through Volume 5; I’m now up to #9 in the list.
 

Volume 6: Captured Souls

Volume 7: Reunion on Yock Island

Volume 8: The Altar of Stone

Volume 9: Pain and Lust

[minor spoilers]

The series is extraordinary, for anime or any other sort of extended cinematic effort. In some ways, it beats Jackson’s LOTR — although, certainly not in every way.  The individual characters are not so much caricatures as Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, and the King.  They’re more fully drawn, and each changes somewhat as the series progresses.  In fact, in my last post I mentioned one villain — Scar — who performed an evil act for religious reasons but perhaps mercifully as well.  Lately, he has begun to seem like something of an anti-hero; he even teamed up with the main heroes, once.  But now they’re setting off to stop him.  Many more villains are coming into focus.  Another, who kidnaps one of the Elric brothers, ends on an unexpectedly high note.  This is the way of FMA.  The story is incredibly complex and has now moved far beyond merely a brother’s love and desire to fix the results of a sinful act committed when they were younger.  The entire land is involved.

The story does tend to lag a bit, from time to time, now that it has somewhat shifted focus away from the brothers’ quest.  Their quest keeps them moving, but now they’re moving through shifting terrain.  Sometimes they act for other reasons.  Story arcs span several episodes, and the growing general story line seems to be extending throughout the remaining DVDs.  (Previously, apparently isolated and self-contained episodes broke up the rhythm.  Now, many of the things that happened in them are being tied back into the overall story.)  There remain moments of extraordinary emotional depth, however, which always seem to come as a surprise.  At times, the unexpected becomes expected, the more the developers shift stride and prevent the viewer’s becoming too engrossed in a thread.  I’m looking forward to viewing the remaining DVDs, however.

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I also previously highlighted Oldboy.  That movie is great.  A masterpiece.  Like many others which rely on surprise endings, it cannot be viewed quite the same way after the first viewing; this is unfortunate.  It’s still a great movie made in Korea.

Director Park Chan-Wook’s follow-up in his trilogy, Lady Vengeance, is also extraordinary.




Not quite as good as Oldboy (which I didn’t review before, merely linking it), Lady Vengeance nonetheless will keep the viewer quite engaged through most of the movie.  The denouement at the end is much, much too long and even a little bizarre, but the rest is well done.  I don’t want to give too much away about the movie, but suffice to say that the Lady in question, upon being released from prison, seeks vengeance against a child murderer whom she helped to kidnap a little boy.  One extended sequence, in an old abandoned private school with a large cast of players, will rip your heart out if you’re human.  (If you’re not, why are you reading this?)  The cinematographic skill, the directing, the music, the acting — everything comes together in that school to perfection.

I haven’t seen the first movie in the trilogy but plan to buy it soon.

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Another foreign-made movie, this one from Australia, deserves a highlight:




As the critics on the cover say, the Western is alive and well. This movie just so happens to be a Western filmed on location in Australia and presents a vision of what the wild, wild Australian outback might have been like in the early days. Three outlaw brothers come into conflict with one imported lawman and his wife, with supporting characters thrown in the mix.  I don’t want to cheapen the movie with such a description, however.  The Proposition, also, is extraordinary.  In fact, it’s poetic.  The cinematography and the writing are brilliant, absolutely brilliant.  (What director wouldn’t give his last thumb for another script from Nick Cave?  Ah, but how many directors have only one thumb?)