Northern Darkness

In recent years, the vampire subgenre has had something of a renaissance.  Of course, this is also one of the more polarizing aspects, since much of that has to do with the Twilight series of books and movies, both of which are quite boring.  And save the hate mail because I will set it ablaze.

One movie that brings back some of what a vampire movie should be is Let the Right One In.  Set in Sweden, the movie has no choice but to adapt to the cold that the country typically encounters most months.

The story centers around a really pasty young boy by the name of Oskar, who naturally is often bullied by his larger peers.  The often expressionless Oskar could be anyone who has been picked on in their younger days.  One evening, he encounters Eli, a young girl with a secret.  At first, neither one really want to talk to one another, but the next evening, they strike up a friendship.  The secret that Eli has: she's a vampire that has been 12 years old for about 200 years, and her "father" is in fact, her stooge that goes out to try and get blood for her survival.  The friendship eventually leads to Oskar to start defending himself from his tormentors and even goes farther than that, though given the circumstances of the friendship, it often causes more problems.

If you can read some of the criticisms on the picture posted, then you should follow through and watch this movie.  For once, the criticisms aren't very far off when it comes to the good kind of criticisms.  Dark and cold, the movie plays out like a minimalist movie that often leaves the viewer to try and interpret what is going on in the movie.  And vampire purists will also love Let the Right One In because it holds true to what a vampire should be.

And for those who still think Twilight is the best thing since sliced bread, someone has a message for you:



A Message To America from Aesop Dekker on Vimeo.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

No, it's not Monty Python that I will be talking about.  Instead, it is a more serious effort from Jackie Chan (Yes, that Jackie Chan) in the form of the Shinjuku Incident.  Most people might not have heard of this movie, as it saw a rather limited release in the United States.

The plot of the movie is that Steelhead (Chan) has come to Japan illegally from China in search of his fiancée.  He meets his "brother" and  sees his fiancée with another man, which leads him to try and become a  citizen of Japan legally.  One incident between the "brother" and a gang leader later, Steelhead decides to take revenge and in the process, saves a different gang leader, which leads to him finding out that the fiancée is married to the gang leader he saved and has a daughter.  Soon, he is head of a gang, but his ideals aren't going over well with the other immigrants that he travelled with, and a civil war breaks out.

Shinjuku Incident is a far cry from what people expect from a Jackie Chan movie, in that the action isn't nearly as abundant and the movie takes on a darker, more serious tone.  This is actually one of Chan's better efforts in recent memory, as people finally get to see him outside of the norm and do so admirably.  However, if you're in the U.S., you're likely going to get a badly dubbed version of this movie, so looking for the original version would be your best bet.