Yakuza Apocalypse - A Vampire Yakuza is the Least Weird Concept in the Film

So if you haven't heard of Takashi Miike, he's considered to be quite the prolific director.  The guy has put some great serious films, to great action, to OMFGWTF moments.  Yakuza Apocalypse falls into the batshit crazy realm. A new Yakuza idolizes his boss who helps the neighborhood by keeping out big chain stores and enforcing a "no hurting the civilians" rule.  The boss is a vampire, and it isn't long before some wacky...hunters?...show up and take out the boss but not before passing the dark gift to the new recruit, who vows to avenge his boss.  But then a frog-type mascot shows up and kicks everyone's asses.

It's a fun ride, even if everything doesn't make much sense.  The action is good, but a little underwhelming given you have Yayan Ruhian from Raid fame.  I wasn't expecting this to be Raid quality fighting, but you have this amazing martial artists and he's not given the room he deserves.  There a good number of laughs, but most are from how bizarre some parts are...like the frog mascot.  It will kick some ass...then needs help going up the stairs.

This is good example of a midnight screening type of film.  It's kooky, you'll enjoy it, but it's not going to win any awards.  And the batshit crazy is a even throughout the film, but doesn't compare to the ending of The Lesson of Evil, which is still my favorite film of his that I've seen.

Overall, I'd say a 7 out of 10 for entertainment value.  I would have paid a normal ticket price to see this, and I'd see it again if it played as part of a Miike double or triple play.

February - A Slow, Cold Burn

February is the directorial debut of Osgood Perkins, who wanted to invoke some of the 70's horror films in terms of pacing and vibe.  Set during the end February at an all girls boarding school, Kat and Rose are left at the school since their parents are late picking them up for break.  Rose told her parents pick up was a different day so she could try to deal with a personal issue, but the headmaster and two of the faculty are trying to keep Kat's spirits up saying that maybe her parents were delayed.  During the night, not all is as it seems.  Outside of the boarding school, Joan is on the run and is aided by Bill and Linda on a journey of their own.  Everyone's stories revolve around the school.

This is very slow burn, and may not succeed in keeping your attention before things pick up.  It's not perfect, which the director agreed with, but for his first time, it does show a little promise.  There is a decent story here, but it is kind of clunky getting there.

Performances are ok.  Lucy Boynton is solid as Rose playing the older classmate trying not to care...but is a little worried about her issue.  Emma Roberts as Joan is subdued most of the film...not physically, but is just kind of there until her part get relevant...though even then we've seen more of her in American Horror Story and the Scream Queens premiere.  And finally Kiernan Shipka as Kat is the quiet freshman with maybe something to hide and a little creepy.  The rest of the cast are just there as support...except maybe James Remar as Bill, whose intentions are a little vague for awhile.

As I started to piece everything together, there was a moment I was hoping the film would take on path, which would have been a little refreshing than the path is ended up taking.  I don't want to spoil things, but I was hoping [redacted] would have [redacted].

Overall, like the performances, the film is just ok.  I wouldn't recommend spending money to see this in the theatres, but could be a good Netflix watch, especially if Perkins improves on his filmmaking.  I'd give this a 5 out of 10.

The Assassin - Subtlety and Beauty on 35mm

The Assassin, direct by Hsiao-hsien Hou, is about a woman who was taken as a child by a "nun" and trained to be an assassin.  While unmatched in combat, she fails a mission due to the target's child being with him.  Her master sends her back to where she was born and orders her to kill the man she was promised to marry, a man she cared for before she was taken.  She must now decide where her loyalties are; with her master or with the man she loved as a child.

From the beginning of the film, it is unbelievable has beautiful this film is...even as it starts in black and white.  The setting of rural China with majestic mountains, fields, forests, and marshes is a pleasure to watch, enhanced by the clarity of the 35mm print.  Hou, who won best director at Cannes for this film, lingers on scenes longer than most, but it allows one to soak in at all in.

These shots also serve another purpose, I think, in that it allows you to think more about the plot.  This is a slow paced movie that does not spell everything out for you.  The story is there, but you will need to pay attention to characters and names.  It also allows you to appreciate how certain scenes are shot.  There were a few scenes shot with sheet drapes in front of the camera, sometimes layered that would barely obscure your view...with the actors barely out of focus.  But once the wind moved the drapes and the characters could be seen with pure clarity, I had to wonder if this effect was done to mimic how the characters, and the audience to a degree, weren't seeing what exactly was happening.

The fight sequences are few, but very well done.  Apparently Hou only really shoots a scene once, wanting to keep things as real as possible...even if a little bit flawed.  I didn't see any real flaws in the fights, so great work to Hou and his actors.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie.  Probably more so for how well Hou and his team shot the film than the story, but I would watch again and pay more attention to the plot. As we are given a voting slip after each film with scores between 1 and 10, I gave this film a 6 out of 10.  The first film is hard, you don't have a reference to what else can be seen.

The Assassin - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3508840/

Fantastic Arrival - Leading up to Day 1 of Fantastic Fest 2015

About Fantastic Fest

Fantastic Fest, held in Austin at the Alamo Drafthouse's South Lamar location, was started by Tim League of the Alamo Drafthouse in 2005.  The fest shows primarily films in the horror, sci-fi, fantasy, Asian, cult, and action films in addition to special and/or "secret" screenings and wide array of activities and events over the 8 day festival.

I've known about FF for the past couple of years, thanks to my go-to film and culture website, Birth.Movies.Death (formerly Badass Digest).  I've read great reviews of the fest as well as the films and the events, and some of the pictures have looked insane.  While I got to see one film last year while I was in town for MondoCon, I had been late to the game in terms of getting a badge and that was all I could get together.

Around April of 2015, I noticed that the Alamo Drafthouse had an auction up, and one of the items up for bid was a 2015 FF Fan Badge.  I bid on it when it was about $10 below cost ($300) and set a max of $310.  Luck was on my side and I got it at the $310 range.  Since I have some friends living in Austin and a goof amount of Virgin America points built up, I was able to make it this year...even during the 10/15 deadline for work...well I am working remotely anyway.  :)

So here I am now in Austin, starting this blog to review the fest, films, and events.  I am also working...multitasking!

While the films do not start until 5pm tonight, I wanted to provide a quick explanation on how the Fest works.

FF runs from Sept 24th through Sept Oct 1.  It operates in two phases: Phase 1 is Sept 24th through Sept 27th and Phase 2 is Sept 28th to Oct 1st.  Almost all of the films play once each phase with a couple exceptions like the secret screenings, which may differ, the opening and closing films, and special events.  Each day there 5 rounds of films, with 3-5 films playing per round.  By my rough count...that is about 70+ films overall.

You can attend FF in a number of ways:

• Super Fan - You are guaranteed your first choice at each round.  This is the most expensive badge, but you get to see exactly what you want to see.
• Fan - You are guaranteed a seat at each round, but might not be your first choice of film.  
• Individual Tickets - if there are seats available for any films in any of the rounds, they will be available on the FF website.

If you have a badge, you are given access to the FF ticketing website.  You must log in each day to select the films you would like to see, in order of preference for each round, for the next day.  You have until 4pm the day before to complete your selections, otherwise you are SOL.

The exception is opening day, which was open from Monday Sept 21st to Wed Sept 23rd until 4pm.  This was to allow people traveling to have ample time making their selections.

Coming Attractions

For opening night, I was able to get 2 out of 3 of my first choice films, which is a great start.  I also have already made my picks for tomorrow's rounds.  For now, I'll just give a heads up what I'll be reporting on later tonight once I finish with all the films.

• Round 1 - The Assassin 
• Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien (won best director for this film at Cannes 2015)
• During the ninth century, a general's young daughter is kidnapped and trained to become an exceptional assassin. When she doesn't execute a mission, she is ordered to kill her betrothed, forcing her to choose between love, family and the assassins.
• Initial thinking is that this will be an awesome film, which is good because this was my 2nd choice for the opening round.  
• Round 2 - February
• Directed by Osgood Perkins
• Two young students at a prestigious prep school for girls are assailed by an evil, invisible power when they are stranded at the school over winter break. 
• Opening Night film.
• Looking forward to seeing more of Emma Roberts, as I've liked her in American Horror Story and recently Scream Queens.
• Followed by Opening Night party, which is a demonic Xmas party with people dressing in ugly Xmas sweaters.
• Round 3 - Yakuza Apocalypse
• Directed by Takashi Miike
• When Kageyama is bitten by his dying vampire boss, he must get used to his new powers before seeking revenge.
• I'm a fan of Miike who puts out an ungodly number of films a year, and the ones I have seen have their moments of batshit crazy.  Also this stars Yayan Ruhian, an amazing martial artist from The Raid films.

Thanks for reading, and I'll be back later with a report on how the first day went.

Welcome to the Flying Tower!

Welcome the Flying Tower

At the beginning of 2013 I had the idea to turning my garage into a bar.  Until that decision, it was really just a storage area in complete disarray.  So I cleaned out my garage, got rid of a bunch of stuff, and bought storage shelves to organize  the stuff I kept.  It's mostly camping stuff that I have accumulated...my own little REI section haha.

The the building phase began.  Like any noob in home improvement, I went to the mecca...Home Depot.  Lots of lumber of purchased, rented a truck, made a few trips, bought some tools.  I had a lot of help from friends, especially my buddy Jeff who not only helped on a ton of work, but also had some of the bigger power tools that were needed.  

Fast forward about 10 months and I had the first opening of the bar for my birthday!  There was still some things to be done, mainly hanging two pictures to hang.  One got hung in January 2014, and this weekend I finally put up the second.  So a little over a year with the base of the work done, I thought it was time to debut it, provide a little information, and post some pictures.

• Name: The Flying Tower
• Name is a mixture of two of my favorite fandoms: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King and the Firefly series.
• Addition reference to Neil Gaiman's MirrorMask movie, in which one of the leads, Valentine, who has a tower that flies haha.
• Seating Capacity - 10:  Four at the bar, 4 at the table, 2 on the couch.
• Bar - Redwood plank bar top, natural stain, sealed with super glaze with white oak base stained with black.
• Bookshelf holding all my books and cool nerdy stuff. (not this was just assembled, not built haha)
• Framed Mondo art: The Dark Tower by Drew Struzan and Howl's Moving Castle by Olly Moss (signed and picked up at SDCC '12)
• Pictures: The Flying Tower

Coachella 2014 Performer Spotlight: Bastille

Bastille
Style: Synth Pop Indie Rock
Notes: Starting as a solo project of Dan Smith, Bastille was eventually formed once he added Chris Wood, William Farquarson and Kyle Simmons.  The name of the band derives from Bastille Day...which is on Smith's birthday.  This UK group caught early attention mid 2010 with songs "Flaws" and "Icarus", followed up with the Laura Palmer EP, and after releasing songs/videos on YouTube and MySpace, the finally garnered an internet following before securing a deal with the Young and Lost Club record label.

Personal Thoughts: I came across them on SiriusXM, who were playing their hit "Pompeii" on frequent rotation.  At first I didn't feel the song, but liked it enough to not change the station most of the times.  But eventually, I caught on and looked into their catalog.  They is a lot to like here.  The heavy 80's inspired melodies and raw lyrics sung by Smith are amazing to listen to.  Plus their acapella and acoustic work are fun to listen to, and they have a myriad of covers/remixes that are even more of a blast to listen to.

Should I see them at Coachella: This is one of my must see bands and pretty much nothing will cause a conflict to see them.

Fun Facts: Both the tracks "Laura Palmer" and "Overjoyed" are both inspired by the TV show Twin Peaks!  Laura Palmer was the murder victim discovered in the beginning of the series.

Dining with the Lazy Bear

My quest to dine at one of Lazy Bear's highly regarded pop-up dinners started over a year ago.  I cannot even remember how I came across their dinners...the best I could come up with was Yelp-ing unique dinner experiences.  And I tried multiple times, but never gotten chosen.  Their usual process is for people to submit a form online with their preferred date for that weeks upcoming dinner, which of the other dates can they make, how many in their party, diet restrictions (which they may or may not take heed), and if they have "a lot" over the past few months (greater than 6 times or so in the last few months).  The lucky winners are chosen at random to fill the spots with some extra consideration if you had "tried a lot".

However, this time they were doing something different: a ticketed event.  At noon on Thursday Jan 16th, tickets would go on sale for Friday, Saturday, and Monday night dinners at $125 for dinner (see menu to the right & linked HERE) which included gratuity and tax.  Add an extra $5 fee for Eventbrite.  At noon, or about 15 seconds after noon, I clicked on the link (damn work email haha) and the tickets for each day were "Pending".  Both Lazy Bear and the ticketing site said to keep trying as long as each day did not show Sold Out.   I kept hitting refresh every minute or two in hopes that a ticket or two would become available.  After 45min, I finally scored 1 ticket.  Great...solo dining.  Not familiar how the seating worked, I thought well at least I can bring some good beer and try to make friends.  So I picked 6 beers that I thought would be well paired with the meal.  Then all I could do was wait until Friday!

After taking BART to the 24th Street and Mission station, I made my way to the address provided...near the intersection of Mission and Cesar Chavez.  I followed a couple into the building and was warmly greeted by a hostess (who would later be one of the waiters) and asked to pick any seat along one of two long tables, seated social style.  I was informed that there was another solo diner, who would be sitting across from me.  A waiter came to ask if I had any bottles to be refrigerated and to let him know when I wanted it brought to me.  I'll take the time here to say that service was impeccable...not only friendly and well informed but were taught well on the serve from the left and cleared from the right.  I learned they were all volunteers, so I offered the couple of waiters who served me some beer...they could not during service but one shared a glass afterwards.

Now for the fun stuff!

Chef David Barzelay (rearranges into Lazy Bear don't you know) came out and told us that he was glad to have everyone there, that we were all welcome back in the kitchen and could ask questions as well.  He then surprised everyone that the 6 stated items on menu was only about half of what we were going to be served.  Our faces lit up and smiled, and then it began!  What follows is what I could remember from Chef Barzelay's intros to every course, my tasting notes, and pictures.  Enjoy!

SNACKS

Whipped Scrambled Eggs with Bacon, Maple Syrup, and Hot Sauce 

This was served in a tall/thin shot glass and it was delicious.  The bacon, syrup, and and hot sauce were at the bottom.  The eggs were whipped to an almost pudding texture that was very good.  You could just taste the maple and bacon (which was a small amount) and the hot sauce added just the right amount of tang.  Most of the diners were scrapping their glasses with the little metal spoons provided. Sorry for the partially eaten picture haha.

Toro Largo Style with Fried Parsley, Pomegranate Seed and Fresh Olive Oil

Served in a spoon, the toro was tasty, but the real star was the fresh olive oil...you could taste olives actually, which for me is a different experience from the store bought, base olive oil I use to cook.

**Beer Note - Alesmith Decadence

Dobbelbock Lager - 10% - This was an amazing dark amber beer.  A slight sweetness to it, which matched well with all the SNACKS!  I highly recommend it.

Thai Style Beef Jerky with Obo and Chilis

The Thai flavoring was really good matched well with the heat of the chili peppers.  It was freshly dried that week or day (cant remember what he had said).  It was chewy like good beef jerky, but I took it in one bite.  Would have been better to gnaw at, but being at a proper dinner I tried to remain proper.  

                                                                                                          

Bone Marrow and Cheddar Sauce with Carrot, Radish, and Sugar Plant

The sauce tasted like a good mac and cheese sauce, but I couldn't taste the marrow really.  The veggies were fresh and I never had sugar plant before, and it was good...and looked cool too!  Good overall, but I would have liked to taste more of the actual marrow flavor.

Dungeness Crab Schezuan Style with Ponzu Sauce

Lightly fried crab leg meat which was good. The sauce was tasty if not a little subdued.  Good, light fry on the crab.

Black Bread with Buttermilk Salted Butter

Muli-grain style bread, which was freshly baked and really good.  The butter was make taking buttermilk and making into curds and adding salt.  Then they added warm buttermilk and poured it over the top.  It was soft and tasty, with a slight tang taste like an almost gorgonzola.

MAIN COURSES

Rock Cod with Salsify, Sunchokes, Scallions, and Grapefruit

Fish was cooked well and definitely the star here.  The other ingredients were ok, and the cream sauce was pretty tasty.  You could definitely taste the grapefruit which added a nice acidity to the dish. 

Poached Sturgeon with Potatoes, Caviar, Black Truffles, and Black Olives

Very decadent dish with the caviar and black truffles.  First time tasting caviar, and it tasted good in the small amount on here.  Again fish was very tasty and cooked well.  The only thing lacking was that some of the potatoes were a little under cooked...just the round balls, the chips and wedges were done just fine and would have sufficed.  This was the only "negative" critique I had all night.

Quail with Ham, Cabbage, Sherry, and Raisins

Quail delicious with nice addition from the ham and sherry and raisins.  The cabbage was kind of just there for color and texture.

**Beer Note - Mikkeller Crooked Moon DIPA

Double IPA

Switched to a very nice double IPA from Mikkeller, a Danish brewery.  This is an amazing beer and paired well with the Quail and the following dishes.  Good hoppy flavor but also well balanced.

Lamb - Rib and Sausage, Mustard Greens, Cumin, Schezuan Peppercorns

First the mustard greens were lightly flash fried and added a good crunch.  The lamb...the lamb was utterly amazing.  First the rib was cooked perfectly and a good pink in the middle.  The sauce with the cumin and peppercorns went really well with the lamb and the seasoning on it  But even better was the sausage...probably hands down the best sausage I have had...and all I had was one slice just bigger than a half-dollar coin.  My only complain is that there was not more.  

Rice Crisps with Saffron, Honey, Oranges, Burgamot 

This was the first of the dessert courses.  Very fresh and tasty.  Great pairing of the honey and orange.  There were three crisps with the other ingredients layered below them.  Good and mellow sweetness from the honey.  Saffron was nice addition as well.

Giant Carrot with Chocolate and Chicory 

Basically they got the biggest carrots they could find and lightly candied them. Then there was a mixture of chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate mouse.  I kind of dug in before taking a picture...sorry.  The cake was really moist and the sweetness of the carrot mixed with the chocolate was nicely done.  Another problem of that I wanted more :)

TREATS

Quatro of Truffles - Caramelized Cookie Dough, Candied Fruit, White Chocolate with Sake and Green Tea Matcha, Bear Papa

After taking the picture and digging into the caramelized cookie dough truffle (as good as it sounds!) that I missed the 2nd one.  It was pretty tasty, but no idea.  I really enjoyed the white chocolate with green tea matcha...though I couldn't taste the sake.  The bear papa was a nice custard inside a pastry...their take of the Beard Papa puff.

After dinner was completed, Chef Barzelay came out and talked to everyone in small groups and told us about how he got started...he was a lawyer who got tired of it and wanted to do something he was passionate about.  Really nice guy, was glad we had an awesome dinner.

Overall, it was an amazing dinner.  I felt that I had gotten my money's worth which is saying something at a $130 dinner.  I highly recommend you try to attend one of these at some point.  It is well worth the time and money to do so!