The title says this is the first August post for this 'My Current Watches' series but I'm actually writing this post up on July 29th and 30th. For now there will be one American TV show along with a pair of movies but think I'll make that three and watch one tonight(didn't), have so many that I'm yearning to view it's hard to choose one. There is a genre I rarely talk about but at one time was a huge favorite of mine which are Animes. The post will end off with an anime and I do enjoy those immensely but seldom watch them these days. But at one time I did though never did review a show until last year when I did include one Anime series and also a movie, that was "Cowboy Bebop" and that movie is in my top ten of all time! I have a pair of boxsets I bought about five years and you can line up to kick me for I've never watched an episode of either series! But will after I finish off this current one, it's a 26 episode series and for today will briefly talk about half the series. Those other two are oldies, "Blue Seed" and "Noein" which are both supposed to be terrific series, both are sci-fi shows and will get to them soon and some recommendations are always appreciated.
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A new habit I've started on is watching shows and movies with subs, of course needed them for things from Japan, Korea or other countries. But have begun viewing more English language shows and TV series with subs which at times does help me to remember details. You will notice the movies I review from America and the UK often have subs and they do help you follow along with the story/plot. But I seldom have subbed screenshots for TV series as I still have most things on old fashioned DVD's and view those shows on my regular TV. No big deal but bet movie reviews are better because of subbed screenshots, after a five month gap just bought a boxset of a TV series and did notice the first five seasons aren't subbed but the final ten are as it's a long series. One that I had never heard of yet it had over 300 episodes and is a somewhat recent series I will discuss in the next post, a question though is why wouldn't all the seasons be subbed? One other note is that I often burn discs or make my own DVD's, with the burner can hard sub the discs so that's a handy feature. But the disc writer can't read/locate the subs for regular DVD's and does anyone know what I mean(?) as I could use a tip on that.
One other thing is how do you viewers watch TV series, do you binge watch or view 3-4 at one time? By 3-4 at one time mean do you view six episodes of one show, then six of another, then six of a third and then go back to the first show and begin the process over? I used to do that and think it may be a better way of viewing shows as you won't get too tired if you view twenty or more episodes in a row of the same series. The first show to be discussed today will be the second season of "The Vampire Diaries" and I'm really getting into this show! It's so much better than I imagined it would be and have watched 33 episodes to date, each season has 22 so am halfway through the second season. Was thinking of taking a week off viewing in order to watch another show or two and perhaps some movies as not to grow tired of "Vampire Diaries". The last two months have gotten into a habit of binge watching an entire series which does have it's advantages but think for now viewing half a season of a show is good enough and then take a break for a week. It's no massive enigma but when you put thoughts into printed words often a reasonable solution is found.
Above is the link to the previous post in this 'My Current Watches' series, in it gave many details and other tidbits about the first season of "The Vampire Diaries". If you've never seen this 2009-17 TV series then it's essential that you read it first as I don't have enough space to go over everything for a second time. That first season was such a pleasant surprise, went in kind of blind about this show and figured it would be a teen romance series with a bit of action which made me wonder why did I buy the above boxset? Am so glad I did for this has been a very intense, interesting and action packed series up until the 33rd episode or halfway through season two. As terrific as season one was this second has been even better and have a feeling it'll keep improving for a while. The show does have a large cast but at least ten characters get a decent amount of screentime with the above trio being by far the main characters. On the left is the eternal seventeen year old Stefan Salvatore, on the right is his 22 year old(?) brother Damon who also never ages. The pair had been transformed into vampires way back in 1864 so when this aired in 2010 both were over 160 years old! The setting is the Virginia town of Mystic Falls, the brothers had grown up there in the mid-1800's but have to keep leaving the town for a spell as most people would notice they never age!
So in this series after a twenty or so year gap Stefan returned to Mystic Falls to live with his human uncle Zach who was killed in the first season by Damon. The brothers haven't been close for a long time but that hatred between them has softened in this series and they will do most anything for each other. In a way this series reminds me a lot of "Supernatural" which had aired for four seasons when this show began. The shows both feature a pair of 'hero' brothers who save people, towns and even the Earth many times against the attacks of monsters. "Vampire Diaries" is different but there are a lot of similarities with one being they're both must watches! The woman in the middle is Nina Dobrev who plays the main character of Elena Gilbert, she's seventeen in age and lives with her brother Jeremy and their aunt Jenna as their parents were killed four months before the show's first episode. Elena and Stefan quickly became an item and there aren't many secrets between the two as Stefan did admit that he and Damon were vampires, there's been many ups and downs but Elena has stuck by Stefan's side. Most of the ups and downs are because of the constant attacks by vampires coming into Mystic Falls, who would have thought there are so many vampires roaming this Earth?
Elena is a dead ringer for a woman both Stefan and Damon adored to no end in 1864, her name was Katherine Pierce and she too was a vampire! The brothers thought Katherine had been killed or was captured in 1864 when the town rounded up all of the vampires but that wasn't so and this eviler than the Devil Katherine has made a return to Mystic Falls. She has no morals and loves to play with the minds of Stefan and Damon, Katherine has killed many innocent people and it appeared this unbeatable female vampire would be the end of the town! But thanks to Stefan, Damon, Elena, Caroline, Bonnie and a few others Katherine has been locked into a tomb and for now has been there for three shows. Bonnie is a witch whose powers are growing stronger and it was her spell that's keeping Katherine locked in the tomb. Nina Dobrev also plays Katherine so she has by far the most screentime of any character and did she get double the pay for playing two major roles? There's many other vampires who have arrived in Mystic Falls and often it's because of Elena who appears to be a descendant of Katherine but is she? Elijah is a very old vampire who seems to be a decent monster and would like to help out Elena from the very evil Klaus, he's the oldest vampire in existence and has his eyes set on abducting(killing?) Elena! I haven't looked ahead to the rest of this season or the next but think Elena may become a vampire and wouldn't shock me if her brother Jeremy did also, soon there will be more vampires than humans in Mystic Falls!
Keep these recaps mini and no longer than four paragraphs so this is the final one. There's more than just vampires in Mystic Falls as there is now also.... Werewolves! Towards the bottom you will see a picture of the werewolf, above that is Tyler Lockwood who beginning in the eighth episode has become a wolf but you only need to worry about them during full moons. Tyler is Elena's age though the pair have never been close, the Lockwood family has had this werewolf curse for centuries and they can only become one if they kill a person! Which Tyler did but it was an accident though that doesn't matter to the curse, the only person who knows about Tyler being a werewolf is Caroline. Who is my favorite female character and that's her in the bottom photos, Candice Accola plays Caroline Forbes and though she is a stunner she's a person most of us can relate to. Well, perhaps not so much anymore as Katherine had transformed Caroline into a vampire early on in season two and was her personal 'town spy'. But Caroline played such an important role in the capture and entombment of Katherine as she was able to break that spell with the help of Bonnie, Caroline's best friend Elena still doesn't know she's a vampire! That's a brief look at where the series stands at the halfway point of season two and would need at least fifty paragraphs to explain everything but then again the point of these mini reviews is just to give a quick overview of what's taken place. At first I was leery about watching this series as it had been gathering dust on my shelf but am so glad I finally began on this series. The next post won't feature the rest of season two but the post after after will, that means you have time to watch a few episodes and highly recommend that you do! The video after the pictures is almost 27 minutes long but it's worth skimming through it as it just features some of Caroline's major scenes from this season. Her mother Liz is the town sheriff and did find out her daughter was a vampire(!) but they have the ability to make humans forget certain things so the mother Liz still thinks she has a normal daughter....
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As usual have a few very obscure and unknown film reviews for today, it's hard to believe how many thousands(?) of these B- movies came out in the 1950's and 60's. Hardly any I view are must watches but haven't seen a bad one yet, even though they're labeled as Horror flicks there's so little of that in them. Which is fine by me as I prefer suspenseful and eerie films that also have a lot of mystery in them, the current day splatter movies are okay but kind of wear thin after a few watches. Was going to review three movies for today but think I'll hold off on the third and have that in the next post. Both of today's movies came out in 1957, like most back then the pair are in Black and White, they're also a pair I had never heard of until recently. First up for that year is "Back from the Dead" and like I said above and in a few other posts older horror movies aren't too scary yet I enjoy these to no end, the stories are usually very interesting so they're more of a mystery than a gore fest which is hard to have filmed in B&W. The star of this film is right above, her name was Peggy Castle who I've seen in a few other B-movies and she died at the early age of 45 in 1973 so was 29 when this movie was filmed. Though Peggy was the featured star on the posters the character who had the most screentime was Kate who was played by Marsha Hunt, she's sitting in the backseat of the middle card above. Marsha lived to the age of.... 104 and that might be a record for actresses I've mentioned in posts! She was an attractive woman and first noticed that when she did a guest appearance on "Gunsmoke", she was 39 in age when this was filmed. Kate was the older sister to Peggy's character Mandy who had gotten married a year ago to a man named Dick Anthony. Peggy's character was a dual one as after her, Dick and Kate arrived at their new yet old home Mandy's personality became a different one.
Which was of Dick's previous wife Felicia so don't get the two switched, Mandy is Dick's newish bride while Felicia died six years before. But her body was never found as it was presumed she had been eaten by sharks after falling off a cliff which no one claimed to have witnessed.... until later in the film! For reasons unknown to even him Dick has brought the now pregnant Mandy to his ex-home which was located in a small town along the California coast. Also coming along was Mandy's older sister Kate and to me Dick got along much better with her than his wife! Mandy's personality had quickly changed after moving into the home, she would scream at Dick for no reason plus so many of her likes/dislikes had changed into Felicia's! To make matters worse Mandy suffered a miscarriage and the doctor felt it was because of an epileptic seizure yet Mandy never had a history of those. However Dick's ex-wife Felicia did and when Mandy finally arose she had the personality of that ex-wife who could be quite cruel and sinister, seems Dick didn't feel all that bad when she died but he had zero to with that death. Of course Felicia didn't recognize Mandy's sister Kate who she despised from the first second she laid eyes on her! But this personality who claimed to be Felicia just may be who she says she is, Felicia knew everything about Dick and even the fact she called him Dicken, a trip to Felicia's parent's house proved that the impossible had happened.... Felicia's spirit had somehow entered the body of Mandy.
Will try to squeeze everything else that took place into one paragraph. As it turns out it truly was Felicia's spirit in Mandy's body, her personality was still there but how to get Felicia to leave became such an enigma. As it turned out black magic was involved, some of that was from the efforts of Felicia's mother Ada and the rest from a sham occultist named Renault who had been swindling some of the town's older residents but he did somehow have the talent to bring Felicia back to life though just her spirit. When Felicia was alive she was such a tease and flirt, even when Dick was with her she would try to seduce his friends! One person she did that to was Dick's best mate John, he told the true story to Mandy's sister Kate of Felicia's death and how she had fallen off a cliff after a failed attempt to seduce him. That was six years ago, John had never told the story to anyone else and it may have remained a secret between the two even after the mystery was solved. The ending was quickish or I'll make it that way, first Felicia's parents were killed and that was courtesy of the sham occultist Renault who did have an affair with Felicia before her death and the reason for her resurrection was to resume that affair! Which didn't happen as a jealous lover of that creep named Nancy realized the impossible had happened with Felicia coming back to live. That's her in the bottom screenshot, Nancy had just shot Renault and his death resulted in the spirit of Felicia leaving Mandy's body and when she arose Mandy had no clue what had happened over the course of a week! Kind of a quickie ending to the review but didn't want to have a fourth paragraph but all key details were explained. So though the streak of not having a dud movie in my movie watches continues will admit none are must watches though in a way the Santo movies are and will have more of them in the future. There is a trailer after the screenshots which does make the movie appear to be more frightening than it actually was. But if you do like an interesting mystery with some solid acting then this is a movie I will recommend, for now can't decide if this or the next 1957 movie was better but they did make for an enjoyable double feature.... didn't have to leave the lights on!
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The second film from 1957 is "The Aztec Mummy" though the Mummy was only on screen for 3-4 minutes of this film that lasted for eighty minutes. And when the creature was on the screen the quality was kind of bad and it was hard to tell what you were looking at so above added in some pictures from the next movie of this series. There were four 'Aztec Mummy' movies and to save money all were filmed at the same time, not sure if I'll watch the other three but this first movie was decent even though the video was subpar. However a lot of times that doesn't bother me, older films that look like they were shot in the Stone Ages have some sort of appeal to me so as long as the quality isn't atrocious I can take anything and you'll see what I mean in the screenshots. There is a version on YT but it's seventeen minutes shorter than the film I viewed so would skip that YT film and the others that followed this first of four movies. This is a Mexican film and the first one I've viewed from that country that didn't star the immensely popular wrestler Santo but will have more of his films coming up. Back in the late 1950's and for most of the 60's Mexico did have a lot of horror/mystery films and it was such a different country back then. Much safer and do have a few other movies from the country which I may talk about in future posts. Hope I don't leave many details out but want to get this mini review done in three paragraphs, doesn't help I discuss so many other things in the first paragraph. There's plenty of subbed screenshots below to help you follow the story better, as you can see in the first one there's a dangerous bandit on a one man crime wave, he's was called The Bat bandit but in reality was a noted scientist, he didn't have a lot of screentme but that character was a bit important to the story.
That newspaper headline opened the movie, it soon switched to a Mexican congress hearing where the noted scientist Dr. Eduardo Almada was giving a speech about hypnosis. He claimed he's developed a way to tap into subject's minds to learn about the past of a previous person they may have been, perhaps an extreme case of regeneration. The other members said his ideas were hogwash and Almada had never experimented on a human subject. But after that congressional hearing his fiancee Flor Sepulveda volunteered to be his first ever subject and she desperately wants to see Almada prove his doubters wrong. His first wife died five years ago and he's been raising his young son and daughter alone, by the end of the film the wedding still hadn't taken place. Check out the screenshots below as Almada's experiment was successful as he had sent Flor back almost 500 years, what I mean by that is that Flor was reliving the events of her previous life or in this case perhaps about eight lives? In some screenshots are Almada's assistants Pinacate and Dr. Sepulveda who is Flor's father and both truly believed in Almada's theories. In this dream sequence Flor had been a twenty year woman named Xochitl and was in line to be a Goddess. However she had fallen in love with a warrior named Popoca, when that was discovered both were killed for betraying the Aztec Gods. Xochitl was buried in a tomb and guarding it was the mow mummified Popoca who would spend eternity protecting the tomb. Legend has it below the tomb was a huge vault of diamonds and such, these days they would be worth billions! The Bat realized that and began to follow Almada and his assistants around, sometimes The Bat did the tailing but he also had a team of efficient henchmen.
Almada was able to find out the history of Xochitl and what ancient Aztec tomb she may be buried in, his team quickly rushed there. Not to get the treasure but to obtain evidence that Flor's visions were the real deal and have proof for the Mexican congress so they would believe this theories. Unknown to Almada The Bat had followed the group to the cave where the coffin of Xochitl was found, Almada grabbed her noted Breast Plate but failed to bring back her arm band. For that was needed to decipher the legend of Xochitl and also where the treasure was buried. That return to the Aztec tomb was done but unknown to Almada and his mates they had reawakened the Mummy of Popoca, the film quality of when the creature was on screen was so bad but he only was in the movie for 3-4 minutes. Back at his house Almada hid the famous Breast Plate but his young daughter found it and brought it to bed with her. From outside the house's windows The Bat saw that and ordered his henchmen to abduct the girl and grab the plate but there was a huge snag. The Bat had fled the scene and right after appearing at the Almada house was Popoca aka the Aztec Mummy! He took the Breast Plate but left the daughter, instead the Mummy grabbed Flor because Popoca thought it was his old lover Xochitl!
Need one more mini paragraph and things did begin to clear up quickly. For instance the identity of The Bat was discovered and it was none other than a noted scientist named Kupp! He was arrested by the police and now the hunt was on for what could have happened to Flor/Xochitl. Of course the Mummy aka Popoca had brought her back to the tomb where he was going to perform some sort of ritual, perhaps to make Popoca human again? Who knows for Almada made it there in time to save his finacee' Flor, a Crucifix was used to keep the Mummy at bay. In it's rage the Mummy started a fire and before long the tomb was engulfed in flames, Almada's group made it out safely but can't say the same for the Aztec Mummy and that's how the film ended. However there are three more movies in this series so the Aztec Mummy did survive and the other films do look better. There was no trailer for this film but did find a video that has mini trailers for both 1958 movies and those are after the screenshots. Like most movies up until now this was no award winner but was quite intriguing and I enjoy checking out obscure movies, especially ones from different countries and there's no shortage of those.
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Final review for today and in the intro did talk about how I was once a huge Anime fan yet watch so little of that genre these days but want to change that. This is part one for this 2003/04 26 episode series, hope to have part two in the next 'My Current Watches' series and then view the two older shows mentioned in that intro. Ten years ago bought half this series and viewed the thirteen episodes at the time but never saw any DVD's at a store for the other half of the series so did forget about it. But a few months back did get the other thirteen episodes and of course had to view the first half again as I had forgotten everything in this series. The anime isn't too confusing which is surprising as there's so many characters and also much did happen in a fifteen year period. So for today will look at the first half of this series which was based on a 1976-78 manga series titled "Gilgamesh" which was also the name of an ancient hero in the Mesopotamian mythology. In the near future the tomb of Gilgamesh had finally been found after thousands of years and the location was Uruk in the Middle East. The young scientist Terumichi Madoka was the person who unearthed the tomb and it was the find of the century! He invited many noted scientists to the tombs and before long a major excavation plant was erected with thousands of workers, there was more there than just the tomb of Gilgamesh. This huge facility soon had the name of Heaven's Gate and not sure why but this project was supposed to be the biggest boon of all time to mankind!
However dangers were soon discovered and most of the first episode was of what had happened at Uruk fifteen years ago. First this odd form of energy was found which was called Dynamis, that word means power and will discuss it again further down. Also at the ruins was a deathly area called the Tear, soon the government told Madoka to cease all operations at the Gilgamesh tomb and to send everyone back to Japan. But before that Madoka went into an area of the Tear called the Delphys, there he set off a massive explosion which affected the entire Earth! If you go down to about the tenth screenshot you can see what happens to the planet, Madoka's act of terrorism caused a Mirror like object to encircle the Earth which meant there was no sunlight! Soon much of the human population died off and there had been no power for years. But slowly the Earth is recovering though it may take centuries to get back to the point humanity was once. There had been no power for years but that was now almost completely back and at least not as much is needed for 80% of the human race is no longer living! One major problem that's continued on in the fifteen years since the explosion is that there's no communications and that's because the Mirror stops all beams from going into space and then back to the Earth. So that means society has no phones, cable and TV plus only a few computers that operate but cars, trains, lights etc. are working somewhat normally.
After that act of terrorism Madoka fled but is still alive, he took ten test subjects from his facility with him and changed his name to Enkidu. From what I understand we don't see him until the final episode and the ten subjects are under the control of Madoka, now Enkidu. Those ten have the power of Dynamis which means that person has a 'Psychic Power' such as telepathy, teleportation and some others. This group of ten who roam the Tokyo area of the Earth are called Gilgamesh and their main goal is to find a sister and brother. Whose names are Kiyoko, seventeen in age and Tatsuya, he's fourteen but turned fifteen by the tenth episode. Their last name is Madoka which is also the last name of the Heaven's Gate leader and Gilgamesh founder Terumichi! That's no coincidence as the man is the father of Kiyoko and Tatsuya, she was two in age when Madoka did that terrorist act and Tatsuya hadn't been born yet, The mother is dead because of alcoholism and the two children have been constantly been hounded by loan sharks because of the mother's huge debt. For now it's unknown why but Madoka's father needs the pair to be found and delivered to him for they're the key to his new experiment. Which is of 'cleansing' the human race and that's by destroying it, then Madoka plans to start a new human race so perhaps his two children will be similar to Adam and Eve? Not many know about this diabolical plan but there is one powerful woman who does, her current name is The Countess of Werdenberg so I will only use Countess when talking about her. She did have the name of Hiroko Kageyama and at one time was Madoka's top assistant on the Gilgamesh project so she's almost as smart as he is.
After that terrorist attack by Madoka Hiroko disappeared and got married to a very wealthy man, when he died she's had the goal of preventing Madoka, now Enkidu, of eliminating the human race. She assembled a small group of three to keep the order in the Tokyo area, though the Gilgamesh team has ten members The Countess team is stronger and they too use the Dynamis power which only certain people possess and can use. The Countess has taken in Kiyoko and Tatsuya to live with the team at her hotel though Kiyoko did leave in the tenth show but sure she'll be back. She doesn't possess the Dynamis power but her brother Tatsuya does and for now is being trained how to use it effectively by the team of three. That consists of the two males named Isamu and Toru, there's a female named Fuko and she's my favorite character. For now Tatsuya doesn't know why he's being trained and that's because to bring down his father Madoka who Tatsuya and Kiyoko despise to no end. Guess that's enough of an overview and this was not a very popular anime that aired in late 2003, early 2004. Most viewers didn't care for it but to date I've really enjoyed the story, not much action at first but there's been more with each episode. One other negative of viewers is that they thought the show was too 'Dark' and you can see that by the below screenshots, that darkness does give off a gloomy atmosphere. I think being dark really helps this series out and hope the second half of the series is just as good if not better than these first thirteen episodes. Did watch the first half on my TV so don't have subbed screenshots but can have them for the second half of the review which I'll try to have in the next post, after the pictures is a short promo for the series.
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