shapermc ([info]shapermc) wrote,
@ 2007-10-16 15:17:00
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B-Games, Half-Life 2, and Criterion
-New post up where I discuss the B-Games Competiton, Narrative and Storytelling in games, and a new found Criterion blog

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[info]daphaknee
2007-10-16 11:12 pm UTC (link)
i love criterion so much
sometimes when im in frys i just take a criterion film off the shelf and take it home and watch it becuase i trust them that much
and its almost always worth it

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[info]seryoga
2007-10-17 02:32 am UTC (link)
There's a new Kurosawa box set? I've got the 7 Samurai and the Youjimbo/ Sanjuro boxes, but if there's anything more coming down the pipe, then I'll be all over it.

Also, the Ozu set really isn't worth it. I've had the thing sitting around for five months now and I've only watched a single film.

On the other hand, Shaper, I did forget to mention that I've recently seen The Bad Sleep Well. It was quite the film. I couldn't believe that it was Mifune in that movie.

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[info]shapermc
2007-10-17 02:53 pm UTC (link)
Yes, Bad Sleep Well is really something else. Mifune was spectacular. The opening is a bit slow, but after the dinner party it's something.

Also, I really like Ozu. If you have the box I'm refering to, watch Late Spring as I think you'd like it best of what I've seen of his. A very anti-american-influence subtext to it. I know that Ozu's a bit boring, but I really like his family portraits, so I enjoy everything of his I've seen so far. For the price of the box, even if I only like two films it's still worth the value.

The Kurosawa box comes out in a month or so I guess. All the films in it haven't been released yet on DVD as far as I know. It's titled Postwar Kurosawa and includes five films. Also Drunken Angel comes out soon from Criterion. I was pretty much all caught up on Kurosawa until next month.

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[info]seryoga
2007-10-17 05:21 pm UTC (link)
Do you mean Early Spring? That's the only film I watched, and it was definetely good(there's another Ozu Criterion release that has that title). At the same time, the slowness of most of his movies has been putting me off lately. If you mean Late Autumn then I haven't watched it yet.

Postwar Kurosawa looks amazing and it's going to be the release that gets me back into buying Criterion DVDs, I think. I am, however, disappointed that Sugata Sanshiro isn't on the list (understandable if you consider the title).

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[info]shapermc
2007-10-17 06:14 pm UTC (link)
Yes, Early Spring. He has too many similarly titled films!

Anyways, I agree with you about the pace. You really need to be in the mood to watch Ozu. A great time to watch them is when you're feeling very melancholy and it's raining outside. All of his movies are structured fairly similarly, so there's nothing that really stands out in his career (that I've seen) which screams "different." Which, I guess, is a good thing.

And yes, Postwar Kurosawa does look amazing. I just figured it was out already since it was announced. I really like what Criterion is doing with their Eclipse series. I also know that a couple of those films have been in Criterion's possession for a while because the liner notes for Red Beard talk about the subtitle translator getting hired for a [couple of Kurosawa films I can't recall off hand but in this set] and when they got hired they knew Red Beard would be the most difficult so they saved it for last. Meaning, I've been waiting for these for a while.

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[info]sheep_herder
2007-10-17 02:21 pm UTC (link)
The paragraph that talks about story and narrative was exceptional. Another reason why I'm feeling underwhelmed, as I wrote in my latest emo entry. I've never realized it until now.

Funny now that today's games, they hold your hand in how to control the game, then hold your hand in how to play the game, then hold your hand on what to do next in the game, and now they hold your hand in storytelling as well, as you're getting a Cliff's Notes version.

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[info]shapermc
2007-10-17 06:43 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, Story v Narrative is one of those theories I've been working with (along with many others who started the discussion) that seems to be getting better defined day by day. It's nice to see these things come up. It unfortunately results in me citing HL2 a lot.

Another interesting thing in games is the difference between Freedom v Liberty. This is a bit more gray territory. Freedom is something like GTA when completely unlocked: do anything anywhere. Liberty is the ability to what seems like a lot in a very defined and straight forward world. For example (this is part of the unfortunate result): in that chase sequence I spoke of in HL2 I felt like I could have done hundreds of things because there were no fake walls or highlighted paths to follow. It's not exactly freedom, but the feeling of it.

Anyways, yeah, good luck with everything man!

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