Arrietty - Ghibli's latest masterpiece had me from hello

Finally I got the chance to watch the movie "Karigurashi no Arrietty", Studio Ghibli's latest animation movie. Being a fan of most their previous work, I couldn't help watching this movie with a great bunch of expectations.

The plot is based on a novel by Mary Norton ("Borrowers", never read it) and describes a short span in the life of Arrietty, a 14-year-old girl only a few inches tall, who has been living under the floorboards of a house with her family - unseen and unnoticed - for as long as she can remember. One day, the cardiac (human, just to mention it) boy Sho moves into the house, merely strong enough to walk, and by coincidence sees the girl.



Arrietty is Ghibli in all its glory : With endless love for Detail, the artists depict life in all its little imperfect ways, showing the beauty and fulfillment a simple life offers. Though being technically up-to-date (Ponyo was created completely traditional, Arrietty uses digital art as well), the main focus of the movie is the characters' relation to nature and life. I've always loved the way Ghibli teaches us modesty, and Arrietty is one more in the line of their movies doing so. Vibrant and harmonious colors dominate the tone, and as in Totoro or Ponyo, there's no villains as such (just the odd, mislead but generally good-hearted family member).

This time around, the director's chair is filled by Yonebayashi-San, who gives an incredibly stunning debut with it. He must be a really devoted fan of Miyazaki-San's work, since the movie is filled with references to it all over. Just to mention a few:

- pathway up to the house looks very much like the Totoro one
- When Sho enters the garden for the first time, a cat and a crow fight there (The cat returns)
- Sho's Grandma is called Haru (The cat returns)
- Fish passing under the Teapot remind of the giant beasts in Ponyo after the city is inundated.

Like Miyazaki-San, Yonebayashi-San is a great observer and shows exactly those things that matter, for example when a 14-year-old girl dresses up for meeting a boy.



The music in this movie comes from the feather of Cecile Corbel and sounds rather light-weight and joyful (not symphonic, sounds rather celtic in many ways), compared to the stuff Joe Hisaishi delivers. This adds to the relaxed atmosphere, and really leaves nothing to wish for (although I'm a fan of Hisaishi's work and hope to hear from him the next time).

I say : Yes, I've found another movie I can have my kids watch without the fear of spoiling them, and that's a rare find these days. It is great to see that Ghibli remains true to its love to nature, and I hope that this masterpiece will get all the claim it deserves.

X-Japan - Berlin - July 4th, 2011

Looks like this year I'll be celebrating independence day - in Berlin!

It's the return of Mortal Kombat 2 (and no kidding)!

It's been a while since I've blogged about games, and I don't really want to spend much time on that now either. So, here's just a brief side-note:

Mortal Kombat 9 is basically a Mortal Kombat for friends of Mortal Kombat 1-3, as it depicts the fighters and story of those parts. 3D graphics are used as means to create great visuals, but are completely left off the gameplay plate - that hasn't worked out so well since MK4, if you ask me.

Instead of inventing an abundance of new fighting feats, the developers have built on the solid base of those used in the early parts of the series. Creating MK3-Style juggle combos using exact timing of jump kicks and punches is just plain fun.

Story Mode is great fun, and you'll have to play characters that are not your faves every once in a while. All gaps left open in the story of MK I - III are quite neatly closed. Unlike other MK games released in the last decade, you have no free world to traverse or stages to clear, just a long sequence of fights sewn together by some storytelling.

To my mind, a large portion of the blood-gushing and bone-shattering violence that I see myself confronted with could have been left out and we'd (still) end up with quite a unique (but no so perverted) game, but it's either sex or brutality that sells, and the game has an strong accent on the latter.

What you get here is a visually perfect 2D beat 'em up and a nice treat for nostalgic MK game fans like me - I remember standing in front of the MKII Koin-Op when playing this...For all those new to the series it's still a good game, although most of them will probably just want to check out the gore.

Long-awaited 'Final Fantasy XIII' kills my PS3...

...and I'm sad to say I'm not kidding.

Ever since Thursday I banned Modern Warfare 2 from my PS3 to make room for FF13, but after 2 hours of gameplay on each thursday and friday my playstation won't read any blurays anymore. How can this happen?

Since Sony won't see themselves responsible for this, I guess I'll have to contact Square Enix to cover the damage their software has caused me. The internet is full of reports of the same problem!

F**K!!!!

Why Ong Is Not Really Bak (Or: The Not-So-Sequel By Tony Jaa)

When I first heard the words "Ong Bak 2", I thought to myself "What, you mean Tom Yum Goong?". But I was taught it was true, a real Sequel! How grand must this be?

I have to admit I don't keep track of Martial Arts movies that much anymore, but Ong Bak 2 came to me as a real surprise. In fact, I only ever heard about it
when it was already released!

So I did all I could to get my hands on this movie, cough, and watched it with expectations that were impossible to fulfill, even by Tony Jaa standards. During the course of the movie, I felt my enthusiasm die away, bit by bit, until after the whole length of it a kind of "so, that was that..."-feeling remained.

The Sequel, as it turned out, is only a sequel by name, a marketing trick. Other than that, nothing even references to Ong Bak. To be precise, I even wonder whether the meaning of "Ong Bak" may be something like "Kick Ass", since that is the only thing the two movies have in common.

It's not a bad movie at all, It's just not Ong Bak. And it is way below Tom Yum Goong, as well. Much more swordplay and Jaa performing too many different styles altogether (It's hard to surpass what he's done in his previous movies) make it hard to see the real badass stuff that we used to get.

My new ride - GEM PRP800

After playing on my really lovely Yamaha CLP 860 for more than 6 Years, I wanted to go mobile, more or less. For that reason I was looking out for a stage piano.



After having spent some time at the music store in cologne, I have fallen for the Korg SP 250, which has a great keyboard and really quite good sounds.

One alternative I had heard sound samples of was the GEM PRP800, highly credited among musicians for its realistic sound engine. Yup, you haven't misread: It has a sound rendering engine (called DRAKE), and features the sounds of a 7 Foot Steinway and Sons and Fazioli F308 grand piano, among others. I really liked that sound, but the price (899 EUR list price) was a bit off bounds.

Recently a used one of them popped up on ebay, and so I thought to myself, why not give it a try? So I got it for a total of 462 EUR , a deal I won't come to regret so soon. It's really an awesome sounding digital piano, the best I've heard so far (which is probably due to the price range I usually check).

Want to buy a Clavinova CLP 860 ? Contact me...

Yadda Yadda!

all's clearing up.spring is due, the air is full of birdsong, and the sun comes out more daringly.
we have moved and, despite all the remaining work, are happy to live through the year in our new home.The kids love it, and so do we.
I'm in a mood i can only call positive, although my laziness draws me to my PS2 rather than to the good-old PC in the evening hours. I'm taking some timeouts, which is a healthy thing, if I'm any judge.

Last friday, March 16th, I visited CeBIT with Steve and Roberto, which was a fun trip, but only little revealing on the products side. Seeing all those Chinese (sorry for summing up taiwan, PROC and HK like that) fair booths really made me consider opening up a cableshop and selling those cheap imports...The idea is dead, though.

My music production has suffered severely, but I spent a few evenings with my Clavinova and made up or refined some of my ideas, so that now I've got a pretty close-to-the-intended version of "Holding Back (What Walls Can't Hold)" ready for recording and a more concrete idea of "New Beginning". The mood of the former is also defined, the instruments are picked, now it's just a matter of time.
Another song called "Sands Of Time" is in it's early stages of being written, got chords, melody and first verse. it will be written as a duet.

Money, money, money!

it hardly ever seems to stick with me for too long...is it me, being a techie?

Top urges for spending my money (updated as of May 3rd)
1) Sony PSP (Firmware version 1.5/2.0) - got it. momma, worth every single penny, that thing.
2) 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo -ordered one from HK. Remains to hope that it's a good fake and works properly.
3) Netgear WPN824 (RM) Wireless Router or similar (better : WRT54G)
4) Netgear WPN511 (RM) PCMCIA Card

Suitcaseputer (SCP) Projectt has been kicked for various reasons like time and money, to mention the most important ones.