One of my favourite films of recent memory was Blue Spring by Toshiyaki Toyoda. One of the reasons it stands out so strongly for me in my mind, is it’s captivating soundtrack. There are scenes in the film which look solely composed to allow the Rock & Roll soundtrack to take centre stage. After much research trying to find the band behind the music for this rather obscure Japanese film, I discovered the majority was performed by the oddly named, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant.

It was disappointing to find out that the band had split up in 2003 and even more upsetting that one of the founding members of the band, Futoshi Abe died this year. To celebrate this remarkable group, Univeral Music will be releasing their final performance back in 2003 at the Makuhari Messe, “Last Heaven” tour as a film along with a greatest hits collection.

(Thanks, Nippon Cinema!)

For those who might be interested, Sheffield sees its annual Doc/Fest event starting today and finishing on the 8th of November with screenings at the Showroom Cinema. As usual there are numerous documentaries in the Japanese Strand with contributions from Kazuo Hara, Sato Makoto and Shohei Imamura. Culturise yourself kids!

You can say what you like about Apple but you must agree that the most brilliant thing that they ever did was to unleash the iPhone unto an unsuspecting world. It was a huge kick to the backside of the industry and encouraged manufacturers to either innovate rapidly or to perish much to the benefit of mobile phone users across the world.

It’s been almost three years since the launch of the iPhone and with the inception of the App store, it’s managed to stay relevant and useful. However at this this juncture others are finally starting to catch up and perhaps overtake Apple with new phones that really manage to demonstrate beautiful user interfaces or employ captivating new technology. Of all the recent developments, Google’s Android — not strictly a phone per se but platform — operating system looks the one with the most promising potential, particularly after the demonstration of the recent addition of turn-by-turn navigation on the Motorola Droid.

Sony have unveiled their first Android based mobile phone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 which manages to combine Sony’s renowned industrial design with the cleverness of Android. I’ve never been very interested in mobile phone technology but as they progressively change from simple mobile devices into always connected smart portable computers I find that I’m ever so excited about what the future has in store. Anyway apologies all round for my geekiness!

The BBC reports that while I’ve been away in Sheffield, the crossing at Oxford Circus with Regents Street has been redeveloped with a very Japanese influence. It goes without saying that inspiration must have come from the famous Shibuya crossing in Tokyo.

It’s not something I’ve really put much thought to, but this seems like a really good idea, the bottle neck congestion of pedestrians can be infuriating when you’re in a rush, so if it can relieve some of that pressure that’d be pretty sweet.

As it was Halloween yesterday, I figured it’d be fairly appropriate to give Paranormal Activity a go after it’s highly praised viral marketing campaign found it’s way to me. I’ve never been particularly scared of Horror films, usually because they betray the simple idea of what makes something scary.

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it. – Alfred Hitchcock

So it is with Paranormal Activity, a very slow paced simple idea well executed, it’s shoddy camera work the lack of titles or credits, the natural inane dialogue it all works to make the experience all the more compelling.

I remember watching with both fondness and deep fear Strange But True with my older brother as a child, which I always found disturbing more so than some of the gore-filled-splatter-fests of late night television, which I’d sneak back downstairs to watch after my parents had gone to bed. It was the stories of the spirits, standing over the foot of the bed or the shadows that always terrified me most. Paranormal Activity captures that terror brilliantly.

Japan is the world’s third largest economy. It’s a place where work is taken very seriously indeed – but so, too, is entertainment. And there is nothing the Japanese like better than losing themselves in fantasy, particularly the country’s famous animation films. This film follows the fortunes of Kaori, an animation student, who works long, long hours painstakingly producing frame by frame her animation film.

Moon by Duncan Jones — son of David Bowie — is a curious slice of old fashioned science fiction, with a lovely aesthetic. One that I would certainly recommend worthy of renting if you’re a fan of the genre.

It’s recommendation time again, after speedily making my way through the five series of The Wire that I recently wrote about, I needed something else to keep me occupied in the evenings during my tenure at The Kent & Canterbury Hospital.

Now considering all my other nerdtastic past times, it may come somewhat as a surprise that aside from the distinguished work of Alan Moore on the Watchmen, I have no other comic book experience. This all led me to pursue Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead after hearing whispers across the internet from a broad range of sources, including Charlie Brooker who deserves much credit for his acerbic wit amongst others who praise the series highly.

I’ve had the luxury of being able to catch up on the previous six years within the span of a few evenings and now freshly caught up with the tale, I’m stuck waiting for the latest release scheduled for monthly intervals. The story is on-going and so who knows how long I’ll stick with it but it comes highly recommended by me and many others before me. You can conveniently buy The Walking Dead in collected volumes, which would be the best way to go.