What are you watching?

The Usual Suspects (1995) Great movie to start the new year with.

Portrait of Jason (1967)

At the moment, I'm watching "おんな城主直虎" (Onna Jōshu Naotora, or Lady Lord Naotora). It's a taiga drama, one of the yearly historical drama series aired by Japan's major TV network NHK. This one is from 2017. It's about Ii Naotora, a female daimyō who lived during the Sengoku Jidai (warring states period) in the 1500s. I'd actually never heard of her before. Which is surprising, because female rulers are very much the exception in Japanese history, so you'd think she'd stand out a bit. Then again, she only ruled a small domain and she wasn't one of the major players of the era like, say, Oda Nobunaga or Takeda Shingen, but still.

I like the concept, the subject matter is pretty interesting, but honestly the show is really hammy and the overacting is kinda hurting my enjoyment of it a bit. The series starts during her childhood, and of course it's difficult to get child actors to act well, but the adult actors have the same problem, just really overdoing it. Cheesy background music isn't helping either. This is a common problem in Japanese TV dramas, which is part of why I don't watch them much. But lately I've been on a history kick, so I'm checking out some of the taiga dramas. Whatever else can be said about them, they're considered very historically accurate.

Dexter: New Blood

i just finished watching 'the helpers' (2012) - apparently also goes by 'no vacancy' after falling asleep with 15 minutes left in it last night. i kinda watched it 'accidentally' - i picked it off a list of found footage films, but found out very quickly that it's not ff at all.

rating:
start with 3
-1 for not being found footage.
+0.5 for gore
+0.5 for cute girls.
+1 for nudity
-0.5 for no goth girls.

therefore 3.5.

The Take aka Bastille Day (2016) with Idris Elba. I really liked it. As good as anything with Jason Statham or Liam Nees0n. Lots of action, interesting plot, not too ridiculous.

The last episode of Dexter New Blood. Amazing.

Kramer vs Kramer