Michael's Musings

6:11:05 AM EDT
Now this is a brilliant film which could be called the Korean 'Saving Private Ryan' except it is
tighter and better and cost a hell of a lot less.   At the time the highest grossing Korean film
(since passed by at least two others), it tells of two brothers press-ganged into the army at
the outbreak of the Korean war, the younger the hope of the family though not strong and the
elder who has sacrificed his own academic hopes to provide for his brother.   The older one
tries to get his brother sent home and is told (off-screen) that this will happen if he is given
the Medal of Honour for brave and daring action.   He proceeds to volunteer and tries to keep
his brother away from hazards which leads to a certain falling out between them.  Eventually
he gets the medal at a time when  the South Koreans, having almost lost completely and then
reversed the situation by reach the North Korean/Chinese border, have fallen back as China
entered the war.   Sent on leave prior to re-assignment, he sees his fiancee killed by vigilantes for being a communist and he and his brother arrested for fighting them.   Told by
an officer that his brother will not be sent home he sees a hut where his brother is being held
deliberately burnt so he kills the colonel who did this and joins the North Korean army to get
revenge.   The climax is a battle which re-unites the brothers with the younger one returning to his own lines under the protection of his brother who promises to return after the war.
The story is framed by the work of an archaeological team 50 years later.   Brilliantly acted
and directed with almost too realistic war scenes, the film strongly shows the futility of war
for ideological reasons and the strength that the love of family can have.   Not an easy film
to watch, it was one of the best films about war I can recall seeing.

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5:53:19 AM EDT
A change from novels though this film is based on one of the same name by Athol Fugard.
The film won the Oscar for best foreign film and I wish I could have seen why.   It is a nasty
little story of a thug who thinks nothing of killing who shoots and cripples a mother when
stealing her car.  He finds a baby on the back seat and actually cares for it which is the
reason for the story.  Journeyman directing and acting and that's about it.

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7:26:53 AM EDT
I have really enjoyed Fowler's writings both the Bryant and May series and the fantasy/horror
tales such as 'Sparky' so I had great hopes of this one.   The early chapters with the run-down
South Coast resort in the late 60s and early 70s and the contrast between this and the land
to which the hero is transported were well done and kept me looking forward to the next
development.   However, the latter chapters which form Part 2 of the novel somehow fell
short of the earlier promise, almost as if Fowler himself had reached a point where he was
torn between seeing the story through to a reasonable conclusion and getting it finished without further delay.   Having said this, it still proved a better read than many other books
offering some form of alternate world contrast.

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1:43:44 PM EDT
Following the serial killer success in 'Want To Play?', the mother and daughter team have again hit high notes with a sequel featuring the same characters as the earlier novel but with
a difference.   This one is a tale of accidental involvement with the three women finding they
are in a terrorist situation with a race against time.   Suspenseful in all three strands - whether
or not the women will avoid capture in the forests of Wisconsin, whether their male friends will
find them in time and then whether they save the day - of course they do.   The various
participants are well differentiated and any changes in their characters from the first book are
a process of natural development.   I shall return to their later books in due course though not
before too long.

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5:18:22 AM EDT
A documentary film maker is called by his mother demanding his immediate return home - he
does this to find her dead.   From this unfolds a tale of double and triple cross with the hero
finding his recent girl friend is ' one of them', his parents members of an organisation which
will spy and kill to order, this organisation having connections inside the CIA, and his own life
in peril.   He is 'rescued' by a former CIA agent whom his mother had paid to get them out of
the country, who is then killed by the bad guys, he accepts that his girlfriend is not completely
bad but now loves him, meets a CIA agent who is trying to root out the corruption, traces his
parents back to an orphanage in Goinsville, escapes the baddies at the Audubon Zoo in New
Orleans, flies to London and is nearly killed, kills someone, returns to the USA for the final
showdown to find out that his father and mother were actually Russians!!!   Utter tosh and I
did not believe a word of it even though it is by no means the first time I have read of Russian
settlements mirroring US communities in order to plant long-term agents or the use by many
governments of independents to keep certain actions 'unofficial'.

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5:03:23 AM EDT
A policeman is killed in San Francisco and a longterm coma patient suddenly wakes up in a run-down New York facility with the policeman's knowledge and abilities.   Using the considerable wealth that he inherited the policeman (or recovered coma patient) is compelled
to go and work out who killed him and why.   A completely believable story - or at least it is in
the hands of this master writer.   Mixing the present-day reality with Chinese legends and the
science fiction elements that provide the glue, the book is utterly absorbing.   One becomes
involved in the hero's acts, feels for him and sympathises with his inability to tell those around
him just what has happened (even supposing this would not have resulted in his being put away).   The under-story involving earlier Russian experiments fits in seamlessly again with
complete believability.  

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4:52:10 AM EDT
Different to the previous two novels by this author that I have read, this is told in the first person about a criminal psychologist who may or may not be a serial killer.   Whether or not
he is is open to question though a short remark close to the book's ending made my mind up
- though on re-reading it, I can see that the opposite case could be argued.   The protagonist
is not a pleasant person and thus hard to like and easy to dislike but the author manages to
keep one interested in what happens.

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4:42:45 AM EDT
Only 20 years since it was published in this country in paperback but why it has taken me until
now to read it is something of a mystery.   When it came out I think there was something in
the description in the reviews that put me off which has just delayed the pleasure I have had
from now reading it.   I have anosmia so do not relate to smells whether pleasurable or not:
perfume is wasted on me and the nuances of fine cooking are also, alas, out of my reach.   So
I did find the concept of a smell-less person who trains his own highly sensitive sense of small
rather alien but the writing is so well done that I found the entire novel completely believable
and totally compelling.  The novel has been called a masterpiece and quite possibly deserves
this epithet - does great literature have to deal with great subjects? No, otherwise Jane Austen
would have been long forgotten.   Any book that adds to knowledge of the human condition or
somehow sheds light on its hidden corners may well stand the test of time.

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4:33:07 AM EDT
A very strange book set in a mythical present day California with surreal humour and suspenseful happenings resulting in the triumph of good over evil in simple terms.   The
different internal levels at which the story unfolds are well sustained and the total picture that
is given is presented with verve and vigour.   I gather the author is known for short stories
which, if this first novel is anything to go by, will be well worth seeking out.

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4:26:08 AM EDT
A female noir with lots of sex (innocuously described) and totally believable - Thelma and
Louise without the travelling.   It moves along at a good pace and the twists and turns are
not outrageous.  

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