The shameless marketing of Hollywood schlock reaches a new low in the print advertisements for Pulse, which feature a blurb declaring it “unlike any horror film you've seen before or will ever see!” Leaving aside the abundant precedent for such barrel-bottom junk, and the fact that you'll surely see more of its kind, the film is a remake — a remake! — of the 2001 cult hit Kairo by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
It is true that this new Pulse is nothing like the original, although it does mimic the plot fundamentals (ghosts seep through the Internet; teenagers freak out; the world comes to an end) and several visual ideas (spooky streaming video; bright red tape used to ward off spirits). Gone, however, are any traces of Kurosawa's creepy minimalism and conceptual rigor, the combination of which suggested any movie Michelangelo Antonioni might have made were he reincarnated as a Japanese horror maestro with an AOL account.
The essential mystery of Pulse has nothing to do with diabolical text messaging and what Mattie (Kristen Bell), our bimbo heroine, can do to stop it, but rather what took this remake so long. Bob and Harvey Weinstein acquired Kairo when its technophobic premise still felt timely, and then suppressed its theatrical release so that Wes Craven could make a remake. (Last year Magnolia Pictures acquired the rights to the original and released it.)
PHOTOS COURTESY OF APPLAUSE
Craven (now credited as co-writer) has since dropped out, replaced by an unknown named Jim Sonzero, whose witless direction feels understandably exhausted, given the circumstances. Perhaps the delay was the result of the producers' working up the nerve to demand that posters of their other movies (Chicago, Sin City) be prominently displayed in the production design.
Japan is celebrated for its exceptional levels of customer service. But the behavior of a growing number of customers and clients leaves a lot to be desired. The rise of the abusive consumer has prompted authorities in Tokyo to introduce the country’s first ordinance — a locally approved regulation — to protect service industry staff from kasuhara — the Japanese abbreviated form of “customer harassment.” While the Tokyo ordinance, which will go into effect in April, does not carry penalties, experts hope the move will highlight a growing social problem and, perhaps, encourage people to think twice before taking out their frustrations
Two years ago my wife and I went to Orchid Island off Taitung for a few days vacation. We were shocked to realize that for what it cost us, we could have done a bike vacation in Borneo for a week or two, or taken another trip to the Philippines. Indeed, most of the places we could have gone for that vacation in neighboring countries offer a much better experience than Taiwan at a much lower price. Hence, the recent news showing that tourist visits to Pingtung County’s Kenting, long in decline, reached a 27 year low this summer came
From a Brooklyn studio that looks like a cross between a ransacked Toys R Us and a serial killer’s lair, the artist David Henry Nobody Jr is planning the first survey of his career. Held by a headless dummy strung by its heels from the ceiling are a set of photographs from the turn of the century of a then 30-year-old Nobody with the former president of the US. The snapshots are all signed by Donald Trump in gold pen (Nobody supplied the pen). They will be a central piece of the New York artist’s upcoming survey in New York. This
Oct. 7 to Oct. 13 The Great Dragon Flags were so lavish and intricate that it’s said to have exhausted the supplies of three embroidery shops. Others say that the material cost was so high that three shops quit during production and it was finished by a fourth. Using threads with pure gold, the final price to create the twin banners was enough to buy three houses in the 1920s. Weighing 30kg each and measuring 454cm by 535cm by 673cm, the triangular flags were the pride of the Flying Dragons (飛龍團), a dragon dance troupe that performed for Chaotian
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