JUNG_E

 

tags: Korean movie, Netflix, sci-fi

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Set in the year 2194, JUNG_E portrays a desolated Earth in the 22nd century that is no longer habitable due to climate change where humans are forced to live in a man-made shelter built for survival. Amid the chaos, an internal war breaks out in the shelter.

Victory – meaning the end of the war – now hinges on finding a way to clone the legendary mercenary Jung_E into a scalable robot.

The Korean movie shot up to #1 on Neflix in USA after just 1 day of streaming. I'm going to watch it again. I love it for the visuals specially the scary robots that can walk, skate, and leap to kill their prey. The emotional sequence between mother (JUNG_E) and daughter makes this AI movie a little different from other sci-fi movies and I like it. The ending reminds me of one of my favorite AI movies, Alex Garland's Ex Machina.

Highly recommended for sci-fi fans.

A Death In Tokyo

tags: Japanese, mystery, police procedural 

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From Goodreads

In the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo an unusual statue of a Japanese mythic beast - a kirin - stands guard over the district from the classic Nihonbashi bridge. In the evening, a man who appears to be very drunk staggers onto the bridge and collapses right under the statue of the winged beast. The patrolman who sees this scene unfold, goes to rouse the man, only to discover that the man was not passed out, he was dead; that he was not drunk, he was stabbed in the chest. However, where he died was not where the crime was committed - the key to solving the crime is to find out where he was attacked and why he made such a super human effort to carry himself to the Nihonbashi Bridge.

That same night, a young man named Yashima is injured in a car accident while attempting to flee from the police. Found on him is the wallet of the murdered man. Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga is assigned to the team investigating the murder - and must bring his skills to bear to uncover what actually happened that night on the Nihonbashi bridge. What, if any, connection is there between the murdered man and Yashima, the young man caught with his wallet? Kaga's investigation takes him down dark roads and into the unknown past to uncover what really happened and why.

Keigo Higashino never disappoints. This recently translated from Japanese to English, the third featuring Inspector Kaga, has numerous characters, and many twists and turns that only Higashino can write without readers getting bored or frustrated. 

Highly recommended.

Kirin is a Japanese mythical creature, Qilin in Chinese literature.

The Pale Blue Eye

tags: gothic, historical fiction, mystery 

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From Goodreads

At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet's body swinging from a rope. The next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has removed the dead man's heart.

Augustus Landor—who acquired some renown in his years as a New York City police detective—is called in to discreetly investigate. It's a baffling case Landor must pursue in secret, for the scandal could do irreparable damage to the fledgling institution. But he finds help from an unexpected ally—a moody, young cadet with a penchant for drink, two volumes of poetry to his name, and a murky past that changes from telling to telling. The strange and haunted Southern poet for whom Landor develops a fatherly affection, is named Edgar Allan Poe.

This book was recommended to me when it came out many years ago but I didn't read it because I was disappointed in some books with fictional version of real people *cough* The Alienist*cough*.  After watching the Netflix movie based on this book, I immediately borrowed and devoured the book in 2 days. 

The movie is mostly accurate and some of the dialogue are lifted from the book almost word for word. My only regret is I should have read the book first to know if I would miss the early clues scattered here and there, beginning at around page 50. Maybe I noticed them because I already know the outcome. 

Knowing the ending did not lessen my enjoyment of the book because the parts with Edgar Allan Poe are the highlights of the novel as well as the movie. The book is so much better IMHO and there are many parts from the book that are altered for the movie. Both are highly recommended.

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Bob Dylan Playlist

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I'm a late bloomer with Bob Dylan music, never listened to his songs until he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His songs are familiar to my ears but I never paid attention to them. Only three songs he wrote are in my music library and all 3 are covers - Jimi Hendrix [All Along the Watchtower], Waylon Jennings [It's Alright] with title and lyrics altered, Guns N' Roses [Knockin' On Heaven's Door]. I started downloading his earliest songs from Freegal and we have a few CDs too. My Bob Dylan playlist has grown.

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I just finished reading The Philosophy of Modern Song written by Bob Dylan. He wrote essays on 66 songs and I know at least 85% of them. He is a good writer and has a great sense of humor. I laughed out loud often at his candid observations. 

Highly recommended.