Brian Zhang Larsen’s Blog

“…in Nintendo Wii fashion, the new PlayStation 3 controller will also have motion-sensing capabilities. [...]“

I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these. I have spent a lot of time during the last couple of days checking the new games out for the PS3. I must admit that at one point I slightly considered the Wii, but only because of the motion sensing controller. I have always been a SEGA/sonic person and would feel bad to betray the speedy fellow by going to the dark side (or is it the light) of Nintendo. And now it seems like it isn’t necessary. I totally have the cravings for another console now, my last one was the PS1, which feel like a looong time ago. Before that I had the Sega Master System I and after that the Mega Drive…. amazing machines, and I spend a large amount of my childhood/youth in front of these. Of the latter, i had the Japanese version (black/purple in contrast to black/white), which meant that sometimes when i bought game it chose the japanese language setting. It didn’t mean so much though, because the stories and the understanding of it where always a minor part of the game for me.

I am also looking forward to the Gundam game for the PS3. I am crazy about those big robot/suits, and have watched a couple of the Gundam Seed series (…well all of them). Strangely enough I never much cared for transformers. About 7 years ago I played the PC game slave Zero, which I really loved. A guy in a gigantic mobile suit, fighting in a futuristic megapolis. Even though the player didn’t have much choice of where to go, the game still had its own specific mood and atmosphere. I hope the Gundam game can bring some of that back. I have always thought of consoles as drivers for social gaming, so I hope for some really great multiplayer/party games. And i cross my fingers for another Micro Machines release which must be the greatest ps1 game ever (MMV3).

The Only thing I could get myself to do this Sunday morning, with slight hangovers, was to write about some movies. I have already written about some Chinese and some Japanese movies, so I might as well complete the Asian circle with some Korean movies, in this “3 of a kind” category. You can roughly say that the Japanese are good at bizarre/horror movies, The Chinese at action movies and the Koreans at romantic comedies. For the diversity of it I have once again chosen some very different movies for this one.

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“MAAAYN BOAT”, which is my totally wrongful translation of the movie title “Otoko-tachi no Yamoto”, is a new Japanese WWII movie about the battleship Yamato. A more rightful translation of the movie title would be “Yamato’s men”. Yamato was the biggest Japanese battleship, and was the Gundam of the 40’ies. I am really looking forward to watch this movie, because it seems like there has been put a lot of effort into this one, first of all of building that immense construction (out of plywood though). But also because I generally like Japanese movies off course :)! I don’t expect it to be 2 hour intense action, because Japanese movies are seldom like that. But I do expect some kind of MECHA MONSTER PUNISHMENT…And I also look forward to compare it to Pearl Harbor, which was not the most popular Allies Vs. Japan movie ever made.

A funny sidenote is the text “baffering” on the movie website, which indicates a small waiting time. A Class One example of engrish. Another quite hilarious thing is the English parts of the title song. It is so typical Japanese to drop an English line or two in the middle of a song. You’ve gotta love that.

The model of the boat can be seen in Onomichi – Hiroshima, if you incidentally should be nearby. It looks like it is a visit worth. I am sure that some Japanese scientists are working on a mobile suit Yamoto somewhere. Or maybe even a totally autonom flying-mecha-killer-ship, made by combining the terrifying panzer and size of the Yamato, with the advanced AI of an Aibo…and maybe some laser.