Yojinbo + Sanjuro

Two very good films I watched recently: Akira Kurosawa's Yojinbo and its sequel Sanjuro. Both of them are about a wandering ronin who helps people out of some very sticky situations.

I've heard of these two films here and there, but until this point the only Kurosawa film I've seen was Rashomon. Really glad that I did watch these - they left me with that feeling where you watch something really well-crafted and you're like "Ah, now I understand where people are coming from".

Really enjoyed Toshiro Mifune's performance as the ronin Sanjuro in both of these. Definitely going to have to look up other things he's been in - he has a certain something that really appeals to me.

Though one is a sequel, the films are unrelated, and can be enjoyed on their own. Yojinbo, though it has its light moments, is the more serious and arty of the two. Sanjuro is downright hilarious in some parts, and is more what I'd think of as tropey fun.

Definitely going to have to look up more of Kurosawa's work! I'm especially interested in The Seven Samurai (I've heard it's really good) and Throne of Blood (Macbeth, but set in feudal Japan? Sign me up!) Might be a while since I get around to the latter, since the library doesn't have it, alas....

Fortitude S2

Finished watching the second season of Fortitude this evening.

The first season* was entertaining in a batshit sort of way, so I figured that I'd give the second a try, even though I wasn't sure where they could go after an end like that. I'm a sucker for stuff set in Assfuck Nowhere, Norway, y'know?

The second season, though. I didn't like that one anywhere near as much as the first. Partly because the scifi element stretched my suspension of disbelief too much. The first season was weird, but the second one was a little too weird. But aside from that, I wasn't a fan of the inclusion of all the shamanism stuff. C'mon, you could have had a perfectly normal batshit serial killer narrative intersecting with local legends and wacky science, but it just had to go in the Sami direction and... I don't know, I was just deeply uncomfortable with all that.

After a certain point, I was pretty much just watching it for the setting. And also for Petra and Ingrid. And vague ideas about Petra/Ingrid - they need to cuddle together and cry over their various traumas, or something. And Petra needs to forget about Dan, Dan sucks.

( More about those two )

Anyway, uhhh the first season was fun, but the second one didn't really work for me. Though I did get a new tiny femslash ship out of it, so there is that. (Naturally, no fanwork exists for it. As usual.)