Alas, I was let out of the greys under the old i09 management, I have no idea how it works now—though I can de-grey individual comments.

Oh very cool. Thank you. Someone needs to let you out of the greys.

Of what?

Interesting—do you know anything more than the title for that one? Souls is so simple and so haunting. I even the love way it starts with the what-the-hell drag race.

Whoa, how was it? Was it in color? I also don’t want to see Carnival of Souls in color.

Seriously, though, Carnival of Souls is like Night of the Living Dead—good for inspiration, but shouldn’t be remade.

Acting is a lot more than speech coaching. There are a lot of nuances in any language that go beyond accent. Asking a studio to build a hundred-million dollar production around a low-profile actress (in the U.S.) with limited English skills is asking a studio to take a hell of risk.

Fact is, this film was only going to…

I am also weirdly okay with this. For some reason, the Creature from the Black Lagoon was the monster in our house—my brother’s insult du jour, or the creature we pretended to be. I think even as kids we recognized that it wasn’t a really good movie, but it sort of does the best it can—it has a bit of that classic…

Sounds like a remake of Robo-Cop more than GITS. Too bad, I always thought one of the more interesting aspects of GITS is how the cybernization has been accepted, but it raises deep existential questions for Major. Unlike this version, Major never seems to be unhappy that she’s a cyborg or wistful about not being a…

Yeah, I’ve always wondered how much I was losing in translation on that one. I find the first two series more interesting to watch.

My impression from the series is that there’s been a WWIII and the casualties from it led to a large spread of cybernetics, but full cyborgs like the Major are quite rare—and, thus, is at the root of her questioning her identity, sense of self. She’s one of the very, very few who became a cyborg as a child and is thus…

I thought Togusa didn’t have a cyberbrain, just a hook-up to cyberspace, same with Aramaki. Togusa has sort of the basic minimum—the Major recruits him because of that—strength coming from diversity—since the other members of Section 9 are mostly cyborg to varying degrees—according to the series and the films.

Hold it, the boot is gone? I loved the boot—I tromped around many a Monopoly board in my youth, losing to my brother, with that boot—it was the right choice for someone who ended up repeatedly bankrupt and homeless.

Funny, I think LeGuin’s reaction has way more resonance than the very forgotten series does. I love the way she points out most people on Earth aren’t white, so most people on Earthsea aren’t either.

She wasn’t being casual about this. I remember when Earthsea came out (yeah, I’m old) and, wow, I noticed that Ged…

There will be one secondary Asian character who’s part will be 2 minutes in the American release and 20 minutes in the Asian market releases.

Funny, I immediately thought of that cover when I saw the headline. I remember reading the book and thinking—so what does the cover have to do with it—since it’s so clearly NOT the main character.

I’m actually one of those people not bothered by Scarlett Jo.’s Major (mostly because the Japanese aren’t bothered by…

Yes, GITS is a Japanese anime set in Japan. How much bitching do you think there’d be if Hollywood had tried to make a fully Asian movie— a la Memoirs of a Geisha? Answer: A lot.

To me, the telling thing is that the Japanese don’t give a damn about the Americanization of this version. They know they have plenty of…

Ugh, I mean “any other way.”

Why’d you have remind me? Haven’t seen the Korean one, but can I throw in Grave of the Fireflies to go with the other two. Let’s watch cute little anime kids starve to death.

As I recall, the teacher’s last thoughts in the book are “She wouldn’t have it anyway.” She does, after all, choose to save Melanie in the first place. She recognizes Melanie’s humanity and my sense is that at the end, she sees her imprisonment as a sort of atonement.

They do, actually—to their creators. They just don’t look Asian to *you.*