Movie: Reincarnation

I saw this movie last night on late night SciFi Channel - it's what's called a "J-Horror" flick, directed by the same guy who brought "Ringy" and "Juon" to the screen - both which were remade into US productions (and he directed the US productions, too).

I missed the first half hour or so, but whoa, some interesting visuals and jumbling of past and present, "real" and movie...it's very meta, and it has some kick-ass effects going on in it, as well. The ending is a real kicker, too.

It involves, as the title suggests, Reincarnation. And the vehicle is an inexplicable set of eleven murders, caught on 8mm film by the killer, a college professor who apparently wants to test some theory of reincarnation. The professor murdered his two children, and his wife, and several staff and other guests at a hotel. Then, years later, a young director decides to produce a film of the killings, on a set AND at the actual site of the murders. That's where reality gets skewed. Are you watching the filming? Are you watching the actual murders filmed by the killer? Are the actors playing the victims reincarnated, only to repeat being murdered all over again? If you're the type to love meta, this is the movie for it. And, of course, the final question is, if the professor doing the murders killed himself, and he was expecting to be reincarnated, who did HE reincarnate into? It's not exactly a ghost story (but it is) and it's not exactly a mind-thriller (but it is). When you find out, at the very end, what you've actually been seeing and what's real and what's not (or is it?), it's a good payoff.

If you get a chance to see this, watch it. Have patience. It's slow to start, and builds to suitable creepiness.

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( Heroes: spoilers and what-not and thoughts  )

LA Wildfires

 I'm in the La area, in the San Fernando Valley, and we're okay here. 

The Santa Clarita fires are North of us by about fifteen miles, I think? We can smell the smoke, and see the smoke when it blows this way, but that's about it. I'm not sure how far the fires are from our location, but I'm pretty sure they won't reach this far. However, that doesn't mean that in my head, I'm not mentally packing what I want to rush into the cars when/if it comes time to leave. 

There were some nasty fires last year that left lots of ash and smoke and stuff all over the Valley, at least in our section of it. It's going to happen again this year. 

I wasn't even quite aware of the fires until the voracious news coverage finally leaked through my "I hate LA News" net, and saw some entries on LJ about it. Yeah, pitiful, but if you lived here, you'd know how awful the news is most of the time. Awful and fluffy and completely bad and celebrity centered. Nat and Chet of Boston, where are you when we need you?