Kino Update

We gathered around ye old dvd player for the first of our Anime Evenings featuring Katsuhiro Otomo’s Steamboy, a cautionary tale of technology’s double-edged promise. A thinly veiled allegory to nuclear energy, Steamboy tells the story of a young boy Ray, whose father and grandfather have together invented a small spherical device (bearing much resemblance to The Transformers' "creation matrix") capable of creating tremendous amounts of steam power. Set in nineteenth century England, as London prepares for the opening of the Victoria and Albert Exhibition of the Sciences, the occasion becomes the site for a battle between two leading British arms manufacturer's, both of whom are grappling for control of the device. Gorgeously animated, Otomo, whose other work includes Akira, is a little short on storytelling as he borrows liberally from movies such as Star Wars (the scenes involving the infamous Steam Tower bear an uncanny resemblance to the interior of the Death Star), The Last Crusade, and of course Kubrick's 2001. Ray's steam powered high speed mechanized wheel device found it's way onto an episode of South Park, and it proved difficult not to think of Mr. Garritson's infamous ride while we watched Steamboy.

Other movies from the Matinee series over the past few weeks have helped make this a Kino Update in a very Germanic sense, as we viewed the German Big Girls Don't Cry, a sort of up-dated Heathers or Mean Girls, but without the comedy, more like the coming of age drama Thirteen. The Spanish Killing Words also put in a somewhat lacklustre appearance, while the highly accaimed Chinese The World, gave us much to consider. Not that the movie, set inside a Chinese theme park along the lines of Epcot Center was deeply profound, but its naturalistic style and seemingly self-contained nature, continuously left us wondering whether we were watching a documentary at all. Having spent a considerable amount of time working at Calgary's major theme park, The Stampede, many us experienced flashbacks throughout the film. Rounding out the foreign films was the Paris-based Look at Me, about the difficult relationships brought about by success, or lack thereof, between a successful author in decline and his daughter, his second wife, one of his leading admirer's, who happens to be his university-aged daughter's vocal coach, and whose husband, a struggling author, appears set to replace him as the "new voice of a generation". Complex and emotionally intense, like a good espresso.