#Richard was certainly very powerful in the north but to claim that he 'practically ruled' or was king in all but name is very misleading

[wonder-worker]

"Because Richard (III) usurped the throne, his retinue is inevitably seen as inimical to the crown and therefore in an important sense independent of royal authority. In the context of Edward IV's reign, in which the retinue was created, neither assumption is true. The development of the retinue would have been impossible without royal backing and reflected, rather than negated, the king's authority. Within the north itself, Gloucester's connection subsumed that of the crown. Elsewhere, in East Anglia and in Wales, that focus for royal servants was provided by others, but Gloucester was still part of that royal connection, not remote from it. In the rest of England, as constable and admiral, he had contributed to the enforcement of royal authority. When he seized power in 1483 he did not do it from outside the prevailing political structure but from its heart."

-Rosemary Horrox, "Richard III: A Study of Service"

[militant-holy-knight]

On a fall day in the early 8th century, somewhere between the French cities of Poitiers and Tours, a Muslim army crashed into the serried ranks of a force led by a powerful Frankish noble: Charles, Mayor of the Palace and son of Pippin of Herstal. In the ensuing battle, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi — governor of the Muslim territories in Al-Andalus (Spain) — was slain, and his troops were routed. This confrontation between two Dark Age warlords echoed through the ages and acquired a potent symbolism, all despite the fact that medievalists know relatively little about the principal protagonists and the respective orders of battle, let alone how the fight actually unfolded.

We do actually know sufficient details about everything in regards to the battle and considering the author used a BBC link (from an outlet infamous for historical revisionism) to prove his point, I really shouldn’t take what he claims seriously. And even if any of these things are true... Should they be dismissed? There are important battles whose details are still obscure like the Battle of the Cataluniuan Fields where the Romans fought Atilla the Hun, but no one knows who won. Yet no one ever complains about it because it isn’t a thorn on the author’s skin. But again this is pointless because we know how the battle played out.

Edward Gibbon famously speculated that, had Abdul Rahman prevailed at Poitiers,

“the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.”

The French romantic writer Chateaubriand made the equally dramatic claim that, “if it were not for Charles Martel’s valor, we would all be wearing turbans.”

“Oh yes, how I wish these Islamophobes had just bowed down their heads and let the Arabs walk over them, violate their wives and daughters, destroy and desecrate their churches. Europe would have been so much more tolerant than today.” - Iskander Rehman, the author of this piece of shit.

Perhaps most importantly, Charles Martel has become an enduring icon of fascist and far-right movements, in France and other Western states. The Vichy regime, for example, reveled in its warped reading of Charles Martel and of medieval French history more broadly. The francisca, an early Frankish throwing axe, featured prominently in Vichy iconography and propaganda, and Charles Martel was presented alongside Joan of Arc as an embodiment of pre-revolutionary Catholic virtue. Meanwhile, a notorious division of French volunteers to the Nazi SS was named the Division Charlemagne after the great Carolingian Emperor and grandson of Charles Martel. In the years following France’s bitter war in Algeria, a far-right group — the Cercle Charles Martel — conducted a string of terror attacks against Algerians and citizens of North African descent in France. More recently, the founder of the French Front National party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, reacted to the Charlie Hebdo killings by proudly claiming “Je suis Charlie Martel,” in defiance of the more republican and inclusive slogan “Je suis Charlie.” “Je suis Charlie Martel” has since become one of the rallying cries of French far-right activists.

This sinister historical crush extends far beyond France. Anders Breivik, the Norwegian neo-Nazi who slaughtered 77 people in 2011, claimed in his online rants to have “identified” with the figure of Charles Martel. In the United States, a group called the Charles Martel Society funds the publication of a pseudo-intellectual and deeply racist journal, The Occidental Quarterly. Charles de Steuben’s famous 19th-century painting of the Battle of Poitiers flashes through one of Richard Spencer’s slickly edited “alt-right” videos, providing a brief and jarring backdrop to a long stream of nativist gobbledygook.

These two paragraphs can be summed up as “Racists, bigots and hate groups love Charles Martel, so you cannot too or else you are one of them”. The irony in all of this is that Adolf Hitler hated Charles Martel for defeating the Arabs because he felt that if they had won, they would have brought Islam to Germans and they would have become unstoppable, since he felt Islam was a more appropriate religion for the Nazis.

Most modern historians are skeptical of the notion that the battle of Poitiers constituted such a watershed moment. While the defeat of the Andalusian army by a Western European force was certainly significant, it was not unprecedented. Only a few years prior, Odo of Aquitaine crushed another Muslim army outside Toulouse, but this battle never acquired the same mythological symbolism of the battle of Poitiers.

The difference is that Odo’s victory was merely temporary while Charles’ stopped any more invasions - that is exactly what makes it decisive. If Arabs had retreated back to Spain after the Battle of Tolouse, you’d be writing this same article except condemning Odo of Tolouse instead of Charles Martel. The Battle of Poitiers happened because Odo asked Charles for his help and in exchange he’d swear his allegiance to him.

The academic consensus now appears to be that Al Ghafiqi’s foray into what was then referred to as Northern Gaul was a long-distance raid or “razzia” motivated not so much by an ambition for conquest as by a desire for plunder. Indeed, we are told that the prime target of this raid was a wealthy religious sanctuary located at Saint Martin de Tours and filled with gold and precious fabrics. Hugh Kennedy has noted that the defeat seems to have had little resonance in the wider Arabo-Muslim world, and he views it as one symptom of many that marked the steady decline of the Syrian-based Umayyad Caliphate. Others have pointed to the Caliphate’s overextension into Spain and to the growing tensions between local Arab and Berber forces as well as rival tribes and clans. 

A lot of Islam apologists use this argument of “plunder” to whitewash it’s militarist expansionism and not name it what it actually was: colonialism. There is no such thing as being there “just” for plunder when Arabs are actively settling the region and governing over it (Septimania was already occupied by this point). The Vikings were motivated solely by plunder and didn’t care about ruling their victims (the Danelaw over England being the exception). I love how he uses “academic consensus” because that is dogwhistle for “what me and my SJW friends agree with”, as well as “Arab Muslim world didn’t care for this battle, but I am so mad about it I am going to write everything I can to discredit it”

Although the destruction of Al Ghafiqi’s field army depleted the Ummayads’ local reservoir of military strength, Moorish troops lingered in some southern French cities such as Narbonnes for two and a half more decades. Meanwhile, Muslim raiders continued their “ghazawat” across the Pyrenees for at least another a century, long after the fall of the Ummayads.

Minor skirmishes don’t mean a whole lot if they can’t even launch another full-scale invasion again.

It would be reductive to present the battle of Poitiers as the military manifestation of some age-old existential struggle between Christendom and Islam. Charles Martel’s Europe was a continent of many faiths and philosophies, not a religiously bipolar system. 

OMFG. You actually went there, you son of a bitch.

Religious differences could cut across tribes, kingdoms, and ethnicities. For example, along the Pyrenees resided the fiercely independent Basques, some of whom were Muslim, some of whom were Christian, and a portion of whom practiced more ancient forms of belief. The “Song of Roland,” a medieval ballad familiar to all products of French middle schools, recounts the cowardly ambush of one of Emperor Charlemagne’s retainers, the noble Roland, by enemy forces in a narrow mountain pass. For centuries, schoolchildren were told that the Carolingian knight had been killed by “Saracens” — Muslim forces based in Spain. It is now believed that Roland — whose prolonged death scene famously inspired Boromir’s in Lord of the Rings — was actually killed by Basques, rather than by Arabs or Berbers. This historical gaffe provides yet another indication of our tendency to overlook the rich tapestry of political and religious actors in early medieval Europe in favor of more binary models.

Admittedly, the Song of Roland is very historically inaccurate - this is obvious to anyone who reads it since Muslims worship Muhammad the same way Christians do with Jesus - but this is explained due to an unfamiliarity the people at the time had with other religions. Rehman expect us to believe that Europe was like this bastion of religious tolerance when the authors of the Song of Roland can even get other people’s religions right.

I am honestly done, this guy is beyond retarded and I feel like genocided more braincells than I should have trying to refute his bullshit. I strongly mulled on whether or not to post this, but I feel like it would have been a waste of time to not expose this shit. Iskander Rehman is the kind of guy who would criminalize celebrating the Battle of Poitiers, the Siege of Vienna or any “triumph of the cross over the crescent” battle (even an obscure one, like the Battle of Vaslui) if he had the power to do so.

[victor-of-latveria]

A Worthy Challenge

Earth had been subject to a cornucopia of oddities during its history. Secret kingdoms, invasions, and wars had painted a unique tapestry in the multiverse. Dimensions and timelines would fluctuate at a whim by the actions of men who did not know the full scope of their power. It was a history and a world that only he, Doctor Doom, could manage. But in all of his years with dealing with Atlanteans, gamma irradiated monstrosities, gods and demons, this would perhaps be the first time he could see a crisis beginning to form.

The energy readings earliest connection point was in Manhattan. He quickly eliminated that a fool like Richards was already dealing with raw multiversal energy. He had hoped to send his own machines to read it when a unique individual came to Latervia’s border. He claimed to another Captain Marvel, but he did not resemble the Kree soldier or any of his affiliations. The man seemed just as confused and instead of wielding alien technology, the man was knowledgeable in the mystic arts. Still, he used his power for brute force and energy blasts. He may have been strong, but Steven Strange, the man was not.

Having successfully stopped the attack and sending the fraudulent Marvel away, Doom had moved himself to his war room to assess the scope of what was going on. Lined with hyper advanced technology the world could not even fathom, Doom had made sure that his defenses would be top of the line for his nigh impregnable fortress. It was here that he could see the extent of the crisis at hand. 

The first of these multiversal energy signs began popping up in Manhattan, then Westchester. Soon the globe had reports of people vanishing and being replaced by foreigners, not noble and vile. After several scans of from his satellites and Doom was able to see the same residue of multiversal energy clinging to these people, such as the Captain he had faced earlier.

“Boris.” Doom called out. His trusted servant came at once, never too far away and relieved that Latveria’s ruler had returned victorious from the intruder. “The city’s defenses must be doubled. We must send a patrol squad and see if our citizens are all accounted for.”

The world was focused on the larger populous. Figures like the Avengers, X-Men, and higher profile individuals would be the first to be noticed. The smaller ones, the citizens of the world and beyond, would be overlooked. If something had managed to penetrate his land’s defenses, to actually steal any Latverian man, woman or child from their homes, Doom would see to it that whoever was responsible would pay dearly.

Boris obeyed, moving quickly to see that Doom’s commands were met. Doom was already working on his plans. The man he had fought used magic in a very foreign way and was powerful. If this was one of several champions this foreign world had to offer, than he would need to arm himself with the best countermeasures. As he surveyed the computer monitors, something flashed for a fraction of a moment. To an untrained eye and mind, it could have been a flicker of the monitor. Doom had neither. With the world erupting into chaos and anomalies cropping up all across the world, it was foolhardy to assume anything was a coincidence. Doom inspected the screen closely. His firewall security appeared to be fine with no detection of any errors. Still…he best be sure.

“Computer, scan for any unauthorized access to our main database.”

“Scanning…” Doom waited, his eyes glued to the monitor. Only a few had access to his personal database, which contained a number of Latervian secrets and plans. He had made sure to encrypt the files and protect the computer security to his exact specifications. Many would covet such information but time and again, Doom had blocked even the supposed best of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four from his database.

“Scan complete. One unauthorized user detected. Shall I expel the user?”

How curious…Someone was sneaking around his files and doing so silently. It quickly eliminated the possibility of someone Doom was familiar with to be doing this. It wasn’t flashy or bombastic enough to have any hint of Stark, Xavier or any of Doom’s other foes. It was more than likely one of the visitors snooping around. Perhaps this would prove interesting and educational.

“Begin to track the signal to its source” Doom stated, regaining his composure. “Quietly of course. We wouldn’t want our guest to know their unwanted quite yet. Create a package to send our curious friend, and be sure to bring their progress up on the main screen. Keep me notified of the trace as well.”

The war room table projector flickered, setting aside the world map that marked all the recent appearances and vanishing. A new globe took its place, hovering and slowly turning as the trace activated. The main monitor was now showing his personal files, all encrypted and monitored. Doom would be alerted when anyone tried to access them and if necessary, halt their progress. However this hacker had not stumbled across any of his traps…

Doom couldn’t help but feel charmed by this fascinating mind. It was very different from what he was used to dealing with.

“Master, the signal is not in Europe.”

Doom said nothing, continuing to watch the screen with morbid curiosity. Each file contained vital information for ruling Latveria. Manufacturing and trade routes, war plans to send his robotic servants and the proud soldiers of Latveria would need them. Even his recent designs on the Doombot models were part of this so he could continue his continued conquest of peace. There were many tantalizing options for this hacker to look over. But what would they choose?

“North America confirmed.”

“Continue to triangulate the signal.” He could see that there was finally some silent activity. Doom watched as the someone was attempting to hack into his machine blueprints and components. The Doombots were there, but so were his more advances such as the modified Time Platform and his Titanium Armor. A host of valuable information was behind these encryptions and not a single tripwire was being undone. Doom was certainly impressed, knowing if he had not been paying attention to the monitors, he likely would not have known this hack was even happening.

“Source of signal located in New Jersey. Continuing to triangulate the signal. The package is ready.”

New Jersey? Doom couldn’t help but feel some modicum of relief, knowing it wasn’t in Manhattan. He continued to watch as tripwire and traps were avoided again and again by this hacker. Their skills were exceptional. It was a pity that they were likely from this other world. They would have been valuable under his guidance.

Surprise hit him when the monitor flickered once again. The file had opened. Project names and blueprints were available to someone other than a Latverian citizen. For a brief moment, Doom wondered if he should cut the feed now. Any second this person saw their plans was a second an enemy of Latveria could undo his glorious conquest.

The games had to come to an end eventually.

“Triangulation complete. Awaiting orders.”

~ ~ ~ 

Barbara Gordon had to count her blessings, even if she was sucked into another world. The technology was thankfully close to her world’s level. The names on the tech didn’t say Kord or Wayne, usually saying Stark or Hammer. The learning curve was hardly an issue and given enough time, Barbara knew she could handle any monitor and keyboard at her disposal.

Instead of her clocktower, Barbara had to set up a temporary base in the back of “Lee’s Crazy Computers!”, a computer store that was eager to move their wears quickly. After a quick cover story about a local library upstate wanting to buy several computers, local librarian, “Ms. Amy Beddoes” was doing a stress test on the computers and modem before placing an order she had to. In reality, if Barbara wanted to find out what was going on and what world she was in, she was going to use every trick in the book and gather all the information she could. This was the first time she had even been to another world, but Bruce had been on enough multiversal adventures to find two surefire ways to determine the history of the world: the introduction of superheroes and any significant Joker kills.

In place of Superman, Captain America, the Human Torch and Namor were the first superbeings of note. Events already played out different during World War Two when they showed up, but there was no hint of any Gotham City or Joker. She began to compare and contrast, jotting down notes and names. There was no Gotham City, but New York housed several superhero teams and practically stepped on each other. In place of the Justice League, there was a team called the Avengers.

Yet in every search she did, one country and one man kept coming up: the leader of Latveria, Doctor Victor von Doom. According to her search, Doom was a super genius whose accomplishments would make Lex Luthor blush. He was responsible for dozens of crimes but saved due to his diplomatic immunity, magical feats, and his technological prowess. He was astonished and knew what had to be done.

Getting into Latveria’s database was hard enough and even harder to sneak around undetected. The encryptions were top notch and she had used every play in the book to make sure she hadn’t been discovered. With Doom’s schematics at her fingertips, she could look them over, print them out, and go from there. If she could get enough information from Doom’s database, she could either use this as a bargaining chip with the Avengers or perhaps even find a way to barter this information leak to have Doom send her home if the information she had gathered was skewed. Bruce had told her enough times to not always judge the world on the loudest voice.

As Barbara went to scroll down, the monitor glitched. She froze, staring cautiously at the screen. Was the modem taxed from the long distance hack? Tentatively, she clicked the sidebar, only to realize the screen was moving at a snail’s pace. After another second, everything came to a halt. Her heart seized, realizing what this meant. Barbara looked around and reached for the modem line to tear it out of the computer, but it was too late.

The once colorful blue/grey screen went completely black. Three words in green appeared in the middle…and then again a few inches to the left, and again right. It began to replicate itself again and again. Soon the screen was littered with the same three words.

Doom is Absolute. 

She’d been found out. Not only was she booted, but Doom had sent her a virus that had fried the modem by clogging it with the message. It certainly spoke to how vain and smart Doom was to destroy a computer with only three words.

Barbara shut off the monitor, glancing around to make sure no one saw what she had done. She had names of projects but that was all. She sighed, shaking her head. Whoever Doom was, it was safe to say he wouldn’t be happy that he had been hacked. She’d need to play it safe until she found a way back home. This world had now had its first encounter with Oracle, and she had just met someone that was her relative match…for now anyways.

[randomrichards]

MOVIES (THAT MIGHT BE) WORTH CHECKING OUT IN JANUARY 2020:

January 3:

THE GRUDGE

We begin with an attempted reboot of the hit horror flick based on another hit horror film.

Based on the Japanese import Ju-On, the film centres around a curse born from a fit of anger that attacks anyone who dares to enter a house. The pale boy ghost and the contorted woman became instantly iconic, especially when they made that crackling sound. Of course, people in North America are more likely to recognize its remake The Grudge. While not on the same level as its predecessor, the American was still a hit. It has become so iconic that there was a crossover movie where it faces off against the ghost from Ringu.

This time, the target is Peter Spencer (John Cho), a real estate agent who intended to sell a house not realizing it contained the title curse. Believing a homicide occurred, Spencer calls on Detective Muldoon (Andrea Risborough) to investigate. But they fail to realize the curse inside dooms all who enter it with a violent and it’s coming for them.

Here’s another of a long list of Horror remakes Hollywood has been peddling in the last decade. For every good one (It, Child’s Play), there are three times as many failures (the recent ones being Pet Semetary and Black Christmas). I’m not having much hope for this one. It can still be good, but it needs a director with as creative a vision as Takashi Shimizu’s.

THREE CHRISTS

Based on The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach, Three Christs tells the real-life experiment involving three men who claim to be a certain savior.

In Michigan’s Ypsilanti State Hospital in 1959, Dr. Alan Stone (Richard Gere) conducts a revolutionary experiment where he brings together three men (Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins and Bradley Whitford) who each claim to be Jesus Christ. He hopes to use this experiment to force them to confront their delusions. It would certainly be preferable to electroshock therapy.

A real-life story like this comes with a lot of potential. But with the director of Fried Green Tomatoes helming this project, it looks like this will be a typical biopic. This is a shame with 4 great actors working together.

January 10:

1917

Sam Mendes, the director of American Beauty and Skyfall, takes us back to World War One and hopes to enter the Oscar Race with his latest war movie 1917.

Generla Erinmore (Colin Firth) tasks young British soldiers Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) with a difficult mission. 1,600 of their fellow soldiers are heading into a fatal trap and the two soldiers must deliver a message calling off the raid before tomorrow morning. And one of them is Blake’s brother. Racing against time, Blake and Schofield are forced to rush through enemy territory to deliver the message on time. Benedict Cumberbatch also

The film is already garnering high praise for its gripping suspense and graceful camera. It’s already garnering nominations at the Golden Globe Awards for Best Dramatic Motion Picture, Best Director and Best Original Score. It’s especially getting praise is how it makes the film look like one long camera shot following the two leads through their mission.

CHHAPAAK

All the way from India is a film inspired by real life acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal.

This film looks at Malti (Deepika Padukone), a woman horribly scared after an acid attack. The film follows her through her physical treatment and eventual trial. It looks like the core of the film will be her journey of emotional healing, regaining her self-worth with the help of loved ones.

Unless you know films that show Bollywood movies, I suspect this film will be hard to find for many people. Kind of a shame

JUST MERCY

Writer/Director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12) brings ups the real-life story of a lawyer who battled systemic racism to free an innocent man.

Harvard graduate Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) heads to 1980s Alabama to assist advocate Eva Ansley (Brie Larson) to defend those wrongfully convicted. His first and most important case is Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), who was sentenced to death for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl despite evidence proving his innocence including a group of people who could vouch for him.

As Stevenson works prove McMillian’s innocence and those of other death row inmates, he faces up against an uncaring political maneuvers and systemic racism.  But neither he nor Ansley will let this stop them.

Audiences love and underdog story and this one is sure to satisfy, especially with Jordan, Larson and Foxx starring in the film. It’s also sure to offer some catharsis for those frustrated with current systemic racism. But this could by a typical biopic forgotten by the end of the year.

January 17:

BAD BOYS FOR LIFE

I’m going to be brief because I don’t think we’re going to get anything special from this movie. This film is pretty much a checkmark of every plot element you see in every Buddy Cop movie. Cop considering retiring. Check. One last job? Check. Training arrogant young upstarts? Check. A forever disapproving superior throwing a tantrum of our heroes. Check. It doesn’t matter how flashy the trailer is, a cliché is a cliché.

But then again, the original two film were also piling of buddy cop clichés. The only thing they had going for them was Will Smith’s charisma and Martin Lawrence’s over the top delivery. Only the second movie was memorable thanks to some well shot, over the top action scenes. But I highly doubt this one will be memorable when Michael Bay has backed out of the film.

We don’t really need another Bad Boys movie, especially when we have the Fast and Furious series and the John Wick movies.

DOLITTLE

The famous physician who can talk to animals returns in a new reboot. This time the Doc is played by Robert Downey Jr, fresh from retiring his iconic role of Tony Stark after 10 years. It also looks like it will be going back to its roots as a fantasy story set in the Victorian era. There’s not much plot summary to go on, but judging by the trailer, it will have him setting sail on an adventure alongside his animal friends. At the core of the film seems to be his friendship with two kills. Also, among the cast are Jessie Buckley as Queen Victoria and Antonio Banderas as a pirate.

There is an all-star cast voicing the animals, including Tom Holland, Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes and Rami Malek just to name a few.

This film seems to rest its shoulders on Robert Downey Jr, hoping his charm will do for Dr. Doolittle what he did for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the film lives and dies on writer/director Stephen Gaghan, who is an unusual choice for a family fantasy considering that his resume consists of gritty war movies like Syriana, Traffic and Rules Engagement and crime drama tv shows like The Practice and NYPD Blue. He’s even written for the video game Call of Duty: Ghosts. It’s strange that someone with this resume would be chosen to reboot this franchise. It’s especially risky considering the original attempts to adapt Hugh Lofting books for the big screen. But if Martin Scorsese can make Hugo, there’s a chance Gaghan can make Dolittle work

The first one was a musical that tried to bank on the Sound of Music’s success but was an epic flop. It didn’t help that lead actor Rex Harrison was a notoriously difficult drunk who couldn’t sing. In fact, his behind the scenes shenanigans were way more interesting than the actual movie as proved by Mark Harris’ non-fiction book Pictures at a Revolution. Decades later, 20th Century Fox reboots the franchise was a hit thanks to Eddie Murphy as the title character and a variety of comedic voice actors (especially Albert Brooks, Chris Rock and Norm McDonald) voices the animals. No matter the quality, there’s a weight of nostalgia for both movies with many people growing up with these movies. This film will face the challenge of pushing past the nostalgia.

WEATHERING WITH YOU

From beloved anime writer/director Makoto Shinkai comes another romantic fantasy about two teens.

Teenage boy Hodoka (voiced by Kotaro Daigo) runs away from his isolated island home for Tokyo. Homeless and desperate, Hodoka takes a job as an assistant for journalist Keisuke Suga (Sun Oguri). His job involves finding “The Sunshine Girl”, a local teen girl who can control the weather. He soon finds her in Hina Amano (Nana Mori), a cheerful teen girl living with her brother. He is in awe with her power when she freezes the rain and love soon sparks. But messing with nature comes with a price and soon Hodoka and Hina are fighting to stay together.

Of all the movies on this list, this is the one I’m most excited to see. Once I saw his recent his Your Name, I was in pure awe. Never has a sunset looked more beautiful than in Shinkai’s anime. Every environment in Shinkai’s films enchant you with their vibrant colours and stunning details. Just as beautiful are his fantastical stories of young people growing up. At the core of each story is teens in love kept apart by unusual circumstances, whether it’s distance or time or even being in each other ‘s bodies.

This film’s already a major hit in Japan, which is very encouraging for anime fans.

January 24:

COLOR OUT OF SPACE

And now for something a little weird.

Nathan Gardner (Nicholas Cage) has moved his family to a remote farm to escape city life and live a life of peace and quiet. Then God was like “LOL No!” and sends an asteroid down their way. Then weird shit starts happening, most with colours mutating everything.

With a crew like this, you know you’re getting into some crazy shit. First, the film is based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, the inventor of cosmic horror and the man who gave us Cthulhu. Then there’s co-writer/director Richard Stanley, known for his odd genre flicks including Hardware and Dust Devil.[i] And then there’s Nicholas Cage, whose as well known for his scenery chewing Kabuki acting as his acclaimed Oscar-nominated roles. Last year, writer/director Panos Cosmatos found perfect use of Cage’s Kabuki acting in the ultra-stylized revenge masterpiece Mandy. Let’s be honest, the only types of films Cage’s Kabuki acting can work are either stylized, unintentionally hilarious or tongue-in-cheek. With the producers of Mandy working on this film, there’s high hopes it will be deliver on the stylized goods.

THE GENTLEMEN

After remaking Aladdin (and making lots of money in the process), director/writer Guy Ritchie returns to his roots with his latest English crime comedy The Gentlemen.

From what I can gather, the films about an American Pot Dealer (Matthew McConaughey) who plans to sell off his Empire in London when a young gang led by Dry Eye (Henry Golding) starts a drug war. There’s not much plot to go on, but with a Guy Ritchie movie, the plot will be way too complicated to explain. What is guaranteed is that there will be lots of oddball gangsters with weird names, hilarious and gruesome deaths and shit blowing up.

The film features an all-star cast including Charlie Hunnam, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant continuing his streak of getting his groove back by playing against type.

So far, Ritchie hasn’t made a film that’s reached the same level as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch. For the most part, he has been unsuccessful stepping out of his comfort zone. Here’s hoping The Gentleman will bring his back on his A Game.

THE TURNING

This day concludes with a modern take of Henry James’ classic novella The Turn of the Screw.

Kate (Mackenzie Davis) is hired as a governess for care for her boss’s orphaned niece Flora (Brooklyn Prince) and nephew Miles (Finn Wolfhard). But as she cares for them in a secluded mansion, she comes to realize they are being haunted by hostile spirits. Can she protect them for what lies in the mansion?

The film has been remade multiple times, with the most acclaimed one being the 1961 classic The Innocents. This once changes it up by setting it in current times, with a notable scene of Miles creeping Kate out with drums. The film also gives some Conjuring vibes, especially with its cinematography. But it should be noted that similarity doesn’t equal copying and there could be some unique elements in this film.

There certainly is a good chance with director Floria Sigismondi will offer a unique vision. She has already directed episodes of stylized shows like The Handmaid’s Tale, Daredevil and American Gods, but she’s already well known for her stylized directing from her work in music videos. Since Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People”, dilating, jittery camera work has become her trademark, working alongside artists including David Bowie, Bjork, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake (just to name a few).

January 27:

BEANPOLE

Here’s the film Russia hopes will be nominated for Best Foreign Language film.

Set in Leningrad in 1945, Beanpole centres on Masha (Vasilisa Perelygina) and Iya (Viktoria Miroshnichenko) struggling to trying to rebuild their lives in the ruins of a city demolished by war. At the core of film is the infertile Masha hiring Iya as a surrogate mother.

There’s not much go on, but with the film winning Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, there’s good prospects for this film. It seems to be a character drama like Roma. Here’s hoping this film’s as quietly engaging as Alfonso Cuaron’s masterpiece.

January 31

THE TRAITOR

We conclude this with an Italian biopic about Tommaso Buscetta, the first Mafia Informant in 1980’s Sicily.

Tommaso (Pierfrancesco Favino) was a member of the Cosa Nostra. Then in 1983, half of his family is killed in a gang war. Now he intends to make them pay using the arm of the law. He knows the mob will do whatever it takes to stop him, but he’s more determined than ever. But as the trials continue, Tommaso will show the rabbit hole goes deeper than the law expected with political figures in the mafia’s pockets.

This is another film that may fall by the wayside, which is a shame because this film seems like a great biopic. It could certainly give overdue attention for director/co-writer Marco Bellocchio, who has remained a criminally overlooked director despite making acclaimed movies since the 1960s.

[i] And being fired from the Brando version of Island of Dr. Monroe.

[newstfionline]

Kim Jong-nam’s Killing: A Geopolitical Whodunit

By Richard C. Paddock and Choe Sang-Hun, NY Times, Feb. 22, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia--The two young women were what South Korean intelligence calls “lizard’s tails,” expendable assets to be cast off after an operation.

Guided by North Korean agents, they practiced at malls in Kuala Lumpur, then set their sights on their target: the estranged elder brother of North Korea’s erratic leader, Kim Jong-un.

With hands doused with toxic liquid, they rubbed the face of their victim, who was waiting to check in for a flight at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Minutes later, their target died on the way to a hospital. The two women washed their hands and fled.

The suspected assassins--one from Vietnam, the other from Indonesia--were swiftly taken into custody as circumstantial evidence mounted that North Korea was responsible for the attack.

The very public killing of Mr. Kim appears to be another remarkable episode in the annals of bizarre North Korean behavior, a whodunit with geopolitical implications. Speculation swirled that the victim, Kim Jong-nam, had been killed to remove him from the line of succession in North Korea. He has long been on a hit list drawn up by his half brother, according to South Korean intelligence, and his death could complicate North Korea’s relations with its main ally, China.

North Korea has denied any involvement in the killing, which is likely to anger Beijing. Kim Jong-nam is thought to have long been protected by the Chinese government. Kim Jong-un, 33, who has ordered the execution of scores of senior officials, including at least one disfavored relative, may have been prompted to act if he believed that Beijing saw his half brother as a possible replacement for him.

Malaysian authorities say the two women arrested, Doan Thi Huong, 28, and Siti Aisyah, 25, were recruited, trained and equipped by four North Koreans, who have since fled to their home country.

On Wednesday, Malaysia’s police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar, said a senior diplomat at the North Korean Embassy and an employee of the North Korean state-owned airline, Air Koryo, were also wanted for questioning. A seventh North Korean, who was not identified, was also being sought. Mr. Khalid also said that extra police officers had been sent to the morgue where Mr. Kim’s body was being kept after an attempt to break into the facility was detected.

North Korea has refused to even acknowledge that the dead man was Kim Jong-nam and has accused Malaysia of carrying out a politically motivated investigation to placate South Korea and the United States.

North Korea has nonetheless demanded that the body be sent to North Korea and, in a statement on Wednesday, the North Korean Embassy said the two women were innocent and should be freed.

If the women really had poison on their hands, the embassy statement said, “then how is it possible that these female suspects could still be alive?”

One possible theory to answer that question could be that each woman used a single chemical that became lethal only when mixed with another. However, Malaysian police said the substance, or substances, used in the attack was still unknown.

If the attack was a plot by North Korea, it would not be the first time it had tried to kill Kim Jong-nam.

In 2010, according to South Korean investigators, a North Korean agent based in China received a special order from Pyongyang: “terminate” Kim Jong-nam and bring his body to the North.

The agent, Kim Young-soo, was told that Kim Jong-nam was going to travel to China from Singapore, where he was then living. The agent’s boss gave him a bundle of cash and ordered him to bribe a taxi driver to run over Mr. Kim in a fake traffic accident.

The plot was scrapped when Mr. Kim failed to arrive as planned. But it came to light in 2012, when the agent was caught entering South Korea and confessed under interrogation.

Since 2011, when Kim Jong-un succeeded his father as North Korea’s ruler, there has been a standing order to assassinate his half brother, South Korean intelligence officials said last week. There was another assassination attempt against him in 2012.

Mr. Kim was so afraid that he begged for his life in a letter to his half brother in 2012.

“Please withdraw the order to punish me and my family,” Mr. Kim was quoted as saying in the letter. “We have nowhere to hide. The only way to escape is to choose suicide.”

The Kim family, which has ruled North Korea since its founding in 1948, has presided over a Shakespearean nest of internecine plots and family intrigue, with rival relatives sent into exile and occasional bloody purges to kill off anyone of questionable loyalty and set an example for others.

Kim Jong-nam was an early dropout in the Kim dynasty’s third-generation power struggle. Sidelined from the race to succeed his father since the 1970s, when his mother was abandoned by his father, he had been effectively shut out of power, and shut off from his father, since he was a teenager. South Korean officials say he never met his half brother, Kim Jong-un.

The final straw for Kim Jong-nam was when he was caught entering Japan on a false Dominican Republic passport in 2001, embarrassing the family. He told Japanese officials that he had wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

Mr. Kim lived in exile, mostly in Macau, but enjoyed the affluent life of a globe-trotting playboy, sometimes traveling with a female bodyguard. While his father was still alive, the government in Pyongyang sent him cash allowances.

His uncle, Jang Song-thaek, became a father figure and his main connection to his country. South Korean officials said Mr. Kim was thought to have used that connection to conduct business for himself, like handling contracts involving North Korean minerals.

Mr. Kim often visited Kuala Lumpur, where Mr. Jang’s nephew, Jang Yong-chol, served as North Korean ambassador until 2013.

Mr. Kim sometimes stayed at an embassy guesthouse and sometimes at five-star hotels, according to Steve Hwang, a restaurant owner who became a friend.

Mr. Kim would often come to the restaurant, Koryo-Won, with his wife, dressed casually and always wearing a baseball cap. A bodyguard would sit outside in the mall, visible through the window.

“He was very humble, very friendly, a very nice guy,” Mr. Hwang said.

Mr. Kim never gave his name, but Mr. Hwang, who is from South Korea and has family in the North, recognized him. To be certain, he said he collected Mr. Kim’s dishes after a meal and sent them to the South Korean Embassy for fingerprint and DNA analysis, he said. The word came back that it was indeed Mr. Kim.

When Kim Jong-un took power, he cut off his half brother’s allowance. In 2013, he executed their uncle, Mr. Jang, on charges of corruption and sedition. Mr. Jang’s nephew, the ambassador, was recalled the same year and is thought to have been executed.

Kim Jong-un may have been angered by reports that his half brother had once considered defecting to South Korea. After Kim Jong-nam’s assassination, some defectors claimed that he had been asked to serve as head of a government in exile. But Kim Jong-nam never formally proposed to defect, according to South Korean officials, and he had told reporters that he had no interest in politics, although he also criticized the dynastic succession in Pyongyang.

When Mr. Kim arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 6, he was using a diplomatic passport with the name Kim Chol.

By then, it appears, the plot against him was already underway.

Four North Korean men accused of organizing the attack had begun arriving on Jan. 31, nearly a week before Mr. Kim, the police say. Each one landed on a different day. The last one arrived Feb. 7, a day after Mr. Kim.

Unlike most countries, Malaysia allows North Koreans to enter without a visa and makes it relatively easy for them to work. North Koreans have established a number of businesses in Malaysia to export products to other parts of the world and earn foreign currency to send home.

The four North Korean conspirators apparently recruited Ms. Doan and Ms. Siti from entertainment establishments. Ms. Siti worked as a “spa masseuse,” the police say, and Ms. Doan as an “entertainment outlet employee.”

Ms. Doan grew up in a small farming village in Vietnam about three hours south of Hanoi and studied pharmacy at a community college. Ms. Siti, grew up in a farming village east of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. She quit school after sixth grade, was married at 16 and divorced at 20, before she left for Malaysia.

There were reports that the women were duped, that they had been told they were participating in a prank. Indonesian officials said they thought Ms. Siti was tricked into thinking that she was part of a comedy video involving spraying liquid onto unwitting victims in public.

But Mr. Khalid, the police chief, said they knew what they were doing. The women had practiced the attack at two malls, he said.

“We strongly believe it is a planned thing and that they are being trained to do that,” he said. “It is not just shooting movies or a play thing. No way.”

The police say the plotters also brought in Ri Jong Chol, a North Korean who had been living and working in Kuala Lumpur since at least August. He was almost certainly a government agent, according to Thae Yong-ho, a North Korean diplomat who defected to the South last summer, because he was allowed to live with his family abroad.

On the morning of Feb. 13, Mr. Kim went to the airport to catch his flight home.

Security videos show him entering the departure hall at Terminal 2 carrying a shoulder bag, checking the departure board and walking toward the check-in counter for AirAsia, a budget airline.

After his encounter with the women, Mr. Kim approached airport staff and security officers, waving his hands toward his face repeatedly as he told them of the attack. They walked with him to the airport clinic one level down.

Within minutes, he was in an ambulance, but by then the poison was taking effect. He was dead before he reached the hospital, the police said.

His last words were, “Very painful, very painful. I was sprayed liquid,” China Press, a Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper, reported.

The police say the four North Korean conspirators watched the attack unfold. Soon after, they passed through immigration, had their passports stamped and left the country before the authorities realized Mr. Kim had been murdered. All are now believed to be in North Korea.

Mr. Hwang said Mr. Kim had stopped coming to his restaurant around 2014, after his uncle’s execution, and may have fallen on lean times--which may explain why he had no bodyguards last week as he prepared to fly home on a budget carrier.