Shorts, 5/29.

"Ringu (The Ring) is adapted from the last of a trilogy of Japanese horror novels ... what were the first two parts called?" Take the Guardian's quiz on Japanese cinema. If you score ten out of ten, you probably don't even need to read the accompanying interview with Takeshi Kitano; on the other hand, you might be just the sort to enjoy it most.

Brian Hanson guest-writes the "Shelf Life" column at Anime News Network, reviewing, among other new titles, Read or Die ("a bespectacled, nerdy librarian for a quiet, local bookstore... WHO KICKS ASS"), Berserk (Vol. 6, "the finest fantasy anime series ever created"), Dai-Guard (Vol. 6, "quirky office humor combined with giant mecha heroics"), X (Vol. 5, "still great"), Fruits Basket (Vol. 4, "an amiable show that... I find intensely boring"), Mahoromatic (Vol. 3, "just enough visual flair to make it worth watching"), Neo Ranga (Vol. 3, "truly a bizarre creature"), Sakura Wars TV (Vol. 1, "absolutely huge in Japan"), Space Pirate Mito (Vol. 3, "pure, unadulterated wackiness by the boatload"), Yu Yu Hakusho (Vols. 13 and 14, "great show"), Genma Wars (Vol. 2, "downright wretched"), Knight Hunters ("intensely dramatic"), Madara ("simply does not hold up"), Dark (Vanilla Series, "leaves me physically ill") and Variable Geo ("creepy").

David Thomson is everywhere all the time and it's up to us to keep up. Today, it's the LA Weekly where he's reviewing Connie Bruck's When Hollywood Had a King, a "first-rate business history (so long as you stay wary about which gossip or recollections to trust)" built around the life and deals of Lew Wasserman.

Speaking of deals, Michael Sippey has spotted a masterpiece in the making. "Leave it to the Weinsteins," as he says. "Miramax Films is shopping the largest automotive product placement deal ever in a feature film," begins the report in AdAge.com. Whose car will Cato, the Green Hornet's chauffeur and bodyguard, drive? The movie's slated for a summer 2005 release and bidding starts at $35 million - despite the fact that, as Michael emphasizes, there is no screenplay yet, and no director attached.

Four movie-related posts in a row over at kottke.org: Jason catches A Mighty Wind, watches his Matrix Reloaded thread explode, enjoys Microcosmos, but most fun of all, passes along readers' celebrity sightings in and around New York City, all building up to the one featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman "leading a rousing game of Who's Keeping It Most Real?"

For Film-Philosophy, Paul McEwan reviews a collection of essays that appeared in the journal Close Up between 1927 and 1933: "The discussion is primarily in the realm of what might be. That desire to prescribe a future for cinema is what gives the essays in this collection most of their bite, and what makes them so interesting 70 years later."

Back to the future. Sony's PSX aims to be an all-in-one media box you can use to play games online or off, record and watch DVDs or regular TV, listen to music, and I'm sure I've forgotten something, given that the Mercury News and LA Times reports seem to be interested in such different aspects of the new machine.

Hm. Earlier today, a huge CFQ cover story on The Hulk was up on the Superhero Hype! site. And though Movie City Geek is still pointing to it, it's not there anymore. Fairly easy to figure what's happened, I suppose.

To wrap on a bittersweet note: "Darth Vader Made Me Cry." Via SignalStation.

Online viewing tip: Helluva site for the film Saved by the Belles. Posted by dwhudson at May 29, 2003 9:34 AM