Shame on Animeigo

Animeigo is an Anime distribution company that's been around since the relatively early days of anime distribution in the West; it's always had a rep for being a scrappy little company, by fans, for fans. That's cool. And recently they released domestic versions of the Urusei Yatsura movies. That's cool. Urusei Yatsura is a goofy comedy series created by Rumiko Takahashi of Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha fame, but the second Urusei Yatsura movie (from the future director of gloomy SF art anime like Ghost in the Shell) was moody and weird in a way I really enjoyed. The second one was the only one I could find until recently, so I was eager to see the others.

Recently Netflix delivered the first one to my mailbox, and in typical Aaron fashion I watched the behind-the-scenes feature of the English dubbing before I watched the film. It's simply footage of the English dub voice actors recording lines, and I found it reassuring; anime dubs are a crapshoot, but these actors mostly seemed like the real deal. Lovely voices and the line readings had integrity.

Then I watched the film, and found the dub disappointing. It was like a patchwork quilt in which the patches were mostly good but they'd been poorly stitched together. The level and nature of the emoting didn't match the visuals very tightly, and that's the directors' fault (there are two credited dub directors) since the director's supposed to be responsible for making sure the actors' efforts are matching up.

Plus there was a lot of "indicating" in the dub. You know how, when you're telling a story about something that happened to you, you'll demonstrate what people said with "angry voice" or "confused voice" or whatever? They're not convincingly angry or confused voices, and they're not supposed to be; they just communicate the idea of anger or confusion. Well, that's called Indicating in thesp-talk and it works in a story but not as a theatrical or cinematic performance. When an actor does it, it seems half-baked and phony. There's a lot of that in this dub.

But that's not why I'm angry at Animeigo; like I say, cruddy dubs are common in anime. I'm angry about another bonus feature on the DVD. It's a half-hour collection of dub auditions that didn't make the cut; it opens with humorous opening titles and hollerin' sound FX that communicate we're about to hear something really painful. Then we're treated to a bunch of audio auditions, some of them actually bad, some just odd. The implication is that we should spend a half-hour scorning the auditionees who weren't picked.

Well. Every working actor has auditioned and been turned down before. Your Favorite Actor has auditioned and been rejected. It's part of the deal, so holding up unchosen actors for scorn is simply wrongheaded. It's also callow and swinish; how would you like it if you applied for a job or school and later found your application on their website under the heading "Check out the essays that didn't make the cut LOL!" A company that treats applicants with such contempt is a company that doesn't deserve to stay in business. Actors should be able to audition without fearing that any uninspired performances on their part won't be trotted out for the sneering amusement of others.

One more thing: although putting this audition reel on the DVD would be rotten even if the actors on it all stank, some of them seemed about as good as the folks who DID get selected, which suggests the real reason Animeigo put this reel on the DVD at all; it's the classic insecure person's tactic of elevating oneself by pushing others down. "Look what a good job we did! After all, we didn't hire these losers!" Actually, Animeigo, you did a poor job on that dub, even with some pretty good actors on there, so screw you. I won't be buying or renting anymore Animeigo products.

TCM: The Beginning

I finally saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. I've been dragging my feet because I was so unenamoured of the remake. Well, this is the real remake. Something of the original film's acid-edge and gallows humor filter up through the basement drain of this flick. The 2003 remake was a pretty thing, but too much a film-school showreel. It felt like a funhouse horror show; this one feels like actually being trapped in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of... well, my relatives, only maleviolent. It took me back to the stomach-clenching anxiety I often felt as a carpet cleaner waddling into disturbing people's homes, and that's all I ask of a TCM movie.

One thing though: R. Lee Ermey's character is conciously and deliberately sadistic in a way the original film's characters weren't. The original Sawyer family was unconciously sadistic, giggling in excitement, but it came bubbling up from inside. It makes for a different family dynamic; one thug lording it over a passive and sheepish family is a bit different from the Sawyer family, in which everyone seems to have infected one another with a poisoned undercurrent of sadism.

The Act Of Seeing With One's Own Eyes

I saw this short Stan Brakhage movie last night. It's simply silent footage of autopsies. He doesn't film it scientifically; if you're itching to learn the ins and outs of forensics, this isn't the place to start. Rather than filming and editing in a clinical and orderly way that allows us to see the whole process from start to finish, he films and edits like Hillbilly In A Hospital: "Gawsh, look at this! Yow, lookadat! An' you'uns ain't gonna believe this..." But there's a poetry to the way he juxtiposes one body with another, one cut with another.

The main thing I walked away with was a rekindled desire to lose weight. They say beauty is only skin deep, but fat ain't. When they cut into svelte bodies everything inside has a certain integrity; glistening red, almost Christmasy, and artfully balanced. Everything inside looks like it's there for a reason. But when they cut into fat people it's like slicing into a garbage bag stuffed with curdled yogurt. I had no idea how close the fat is beneath the skin. When they open a trim person you can almost hear the tinkly bells of a little soul flying out; when they cut into the fat people it's more like an enormous flatulent discharge. I don't want to end up like that, so I'd better go out into the God-mocking heat and waddle around a bit.

Throwing the Bones

Saturday I went to a local Psychic Fair and had a seer Throw the Bones on my behalf. Shut up, it was great. She threw a handful of small talismans onto a scarf and drew mini-ley lines between them to scry out the parameters of my situation. It was actually quite useful. I don't believe there's any supernatural guiding hand behind these things; it's a storytelling system, but taken as such I find it an amusing game, and I firmly believe that a lucid and intuitive storyteller can construct a narrative for me that points out possibilities I hadn't considered. The Seer made me more mindful of the need for hard work and guidance from friends. If she'd just told me to work hard and be open to help from friends, that wouldn't really have stuck; it's easy to shake off good advice. By making a combination game/story of it, though, her advice had sticking power. It didn't hurt that she was HOTT.

Slightly edited to improve grammer (probably not enough, though) and to tell my readers to shut up.

Natural Beauty and Human Horror

This NPR story about an isolated FEMA trailer park is so harrowing I can scarcely believe it made it onto the airwaves. These people describe an utterly nightmarish life. Go ahead and offer up a prayer for them.

The photo gallery that accompanies the story on the website shows a place of real visual beauty. The sunlight filtering through the trees looks so lovely that I almost wish I lived out there. Behind the images of natural beauty and charming homemaking, though, is a story of real horror.

It takes all kinds.

I check local theatre audition listings on a regular basis, and thought this one was amusing. It's pretty obviously someone making smoking fetish movies. I don't have a smoking fetish, but in the interest of egging on such low-key oddball eroticism,
click here to pay for those cancer bills.

Movies and life

My Dad has said that Apocalypse Now reflects his own experience of the Vietnam War. I would not have expected this; when I saw the film I thought it was too stylized and formalist to reflect an authentic experience. I was a naive college boy, though! However much a hothouse flower the film may be it reflects, or perhaps more accurately resonates with, my Father's experience.

It's interesting how a film can do that via poetic rather than documentary means. One reason I love Texas Chainsaw is that it reminds me of how I felt during the year I spent as a carpet cleaner, constantly going into unfamiliar homes which were often populated by erratic, fearful, angry or lonely people. Perhaps I'll share some of the more amusingly sordid tales; although no one ever threatened me with a chainsaw I learned quite a bit about human variety, as well as human frailty.