With the first season of Solo Leveling in full throttle, I wanted to share a little insight on some themes that it touches and possibly explain why it became so popular. Some Technical Details Solo Leveling is a web-novel or webtoon/webcomic written by Chugong and illustrated by Jang Sung-rak, serialized between 2016 and 2018….
The G.I. Joe Chip
This movie will end the triad of “dive into childhood nostalgia” – just a last gem to unlock a core memory from way back when; so let’s jump back to 1998 with Small Soldiers by Joe Dante, another movie about toys coming to life. Instead of a magical cupboard, this time it is about a…
The Indian, the child and the cupboard
This is to continue the dive back into nostalgia with the movie-of-the-month-column – so let me start this introduction differently: A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, when children still played with toys and did not watch YouTube videos about Minecraft our story takes place. Sorry, maybe children still do play with…
Night, the time of freedom
Call of the Night is a manga written and illustrated by Kotoyama; it premiered in 2019 and just recently, at the end of January, ended after 200 chapters. It is a peculiar piece of work and in my opinion, it is hard to confine to a single genre: it is much about growth as it…
Paging the Master
Let us start the year with a classic, a real ‘page-turner’ but for movies, one that in 2024 celebrates its 30-year anniversary. The Pagemaster is a hybrid between live-action and animation starring Macaulay Culkin and Christopher Lloyd with the voices of Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nimoy and many others. It is a dive into…
Zombie-19 pandemic
Quick question: did you ever hear any of your friends just saying point blank “Man, I miss the lockdown period/COVID”? Afterwards they usually proceed to explain that obviously they don’t mean the full two years, but just a month or two – working from home, unwinding , getting some rest in. Just imagine how distorted…
A five star story
Stardust is a 2007 fantasy movie starring Claire Danes, Charlie Cox and Michelle Pfeiffer, directed by Matthew Vaughn. There is not much to be said about the movie: the plot is simple yet perfectly fluid and functional and the fantasy and fantastical elements, such as magic and witches, feel on point. The lore is appealing…
Under the olive tree
So anyway, there I was, taking the not-so-midnight – it was more like the ten fifty-five – not as much a train rather than a bus, and not as much as taking me anywhere rather than taking me to Athens. Did I just fashion that build-up to misleadingly quote Journey’s Don’t stop believing? Yes, yes…
Virtual Beauty
Belle – also known as Ryu to Sobakasu no Hime (which translates to The Dragon and the Freckled Princess) – is an animation movie that premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. It is one of those movies that in my opinion passed under the radars and deserves some praise. While the movie could be…
Mythical
“I am the lord of darkness. I require the solace of the shadows and the dark of the night. Sunshine is my destroyer; all this shall change. Tonight the sun sets forever. There shall never be another dawn“ I should not have to introduce this movie: it is somewhat of a classic, a cult really,…