What to write? Erm, hot isn't it? That's about all I can say about the weekend at the moment, no pictures I'm afraid - normal service will be resumed shortly.



So, once again - what to write? How about some high brow DVD recommendations to try to pretend I'm more intelligent than I really am? OK, here goes:



Zatoichi

Latest film from my favourite Japanese director 'Beat' Takeshi, this is a bit different to his usual films. Normally he makes very stylised yakuza films, this time he has a go at a Samurai film. He play's a blind masseur, who also happens to be a master swordsman using a concealed blade in his cane to dispatch anyone dumb enough to mess with him. Like all his other films its beautifully shot, full of sly dark humour, but unlike his other films it ends with a tap dance routine... Which is just bizarre.



Naked Lunch

David Cronenberg's take on William Burroughs unfilmable book The Naked Lunch. He takes the wise approach to not make a literal translation of the book, instead taking elements from the book and Burrough's life. I imagine it won't make a blind bit of sense to anyone unfamiliar with the writer's life or the book itself, and the insect typewriters with talking arseholes and sligtly disturbing metaphoric sex creatures may be a bit much for some people, but like Cronenberg's other films I quite like it.



The Kingdom

There's a series being shown on BBC2 at the moment called Kingdom Hospital which is based on this Danish mini-series. It's part horror story, part soap opera set in a hospital full of ghosts and generally screwed up characters. It's all shot in this grainy, sepia hued way which will be familiar to anyone who has played the Silent Hill games. Good stuff, although it does end in a fairly abrupt way which leaves the story line incomplete - which is a bit annoying.