"The Lady Vanishes" is a spy thriller where Margaret Lockwood's character wakens on a train to find her elderly companion missing, and everyone denying she even existed. Is she a pathological liar? Hallucinating? Or beneath civility and ordinariness does there hide dark mystery? A good mix of unsettling suspense, comedy (two of the minor characters Charters and Caldicott appeared in other films,) and drama.

The director John Carpenter also wrote the story and the music for "Escape from New York". The music is great, minimal but mood setting for the dark relentless storyline. The music is a star of the film. The plot has a criminal (Kurt Russell) sent into the future max security prison of Manhattan Island to rescue the President. The President's plane was hijacked, and crashed into the Manhattan skyline in an uncanny foreshadowing of real history. On a tiny budget Carpenter creates a dark Manhattan for his dark story. What could have been a minor low budget quest film is lifted by the strong cast (Donald Pleasance plays the President), by the storyline and setting, and by the ending. At the climax the President shows the Duke who's boss in no uncertain terms, and Snake Plissken asks the President how he feels about all those who died to get him out. I can still hear the music running through my head.

"The Truman Show" is a profound film about film, TV, how we experience what we think reality is through what the camera shows us. Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank who lives in a wonderful seaside town called Seaview. He has a great job, great friends, great wife, great house. The only thing he doesn't know is that his reality is false, everyone is his world is an actor, his entire universe is an artifice of Christof (played by Ed Harris) who is the mastermind of the hit Truman Show. This isn't a story told from Truman's perspective. As viewers we know from the outset that Truman is in a goldfish bowl. We watch viewers inside the film watching the film / TV inside the film. Reality TV, the Truman Show inside this film, exists not because Christof created it - it exists because we watch it. As much as Truman accepts the charade we do so too - such as when Christof writes Truman's father back in after killing him off. Christof defends Truman's goldfish bowl world as being a safe place, free from the deceit and violence in the real world. At the end of the film Truman has a choice whether to leave Christof's world or not. How real is the world Truman might escape to? How real is our real world? That's not an empty question - what we think we know is almost as managed as what Truman thinks he knows. This is a well acted and well directed film, a quality film, standing above the many assembly line efforts from Hollywood. There are marvellous moments in it, from Truman's wife doing her product placements, the surreality of spotlights falling from the sky, to the eerie hunt for Truman and the sun rising early. Jim Carrey gives a stand out performance and Peter Weir masterfully directs.

"Hong Gil Dong" is a fusion "sageuk" TV mini-series written by the Hong sisters, with as its titular hero a Korean version of Robin Hood called Hong Gil Dong. The "sageuk" bit means this is a Joseon period drama. The fusion bit means we get disco music in the brothel. This spin on the Hong Gil Dong story sees Hong Gil Dong becoming an accidental and reluctant heroic outlaw, partly because he is the bastard son of a nobleman. He gets involved with a younger prince thought dead who is trying to reclaim the throne from his manic elder brother. The best performance is by the guy playing the elder brother - real scene chewing stuff, way over the top. The leads are pretty to look at, perhaps their performances are restrained to suit Korean tastes - I found them bland and lacking presence. The production is big budget, a good range of scenes, comedy, drama, and pathos. The hero didn't attract me (I may not be the target audience) but it felt like everything was written to make Hong Gil Dong look good, everyone else inferior. The female lead is written as unforgivably stupid. Great fun to start with, but towards the end it had gone on long enough for me.

Before or after seeing "Pride and Prejudice" read the Jane Austen book. The Jane Austen book is a romance between initially prejudiced Lizzie, and proud aristocratic Darcy, but that is almost a side effect. The book is gripping both as a commentary on Jane Austen's time (now so far from us,) and also on human nature itself which is timeless. This BBC production gives enough time to develop the minor characters so we can see into Austen's world, and revel in her often acerbic wit.

"The Hidden Fortress" is set in feudal Japan: a loyal general tries to see a princess and a gold treasure to safety, after a rival state invades. Two squabbling greedy peasants find themselves caught up in the hazardous escape. On one level a very conventional film about princesses and heroic generals and villainous invaders. But "Hidden Fortress" transcends the genre as characters in the film transcend the ordinary. There is real depth here, and the ending soars. Kurosawa inverts the film to tell the story from the point of view of 'minor' characters (a pair of peasants) rather than the 'major' ones. Ironically George Lucas when he remade "Hidden Fortress" as the first Star Wars film uninverted the film with R2D2 and C3PO (the peasants) as minor comic characters.

In "Spy Kids" Carmen and Juni Cortez have no idea their parents are master spies. But when their parents are captured by Fegan Floop, who plans to take over the world with robot children, they have to suddenly become master spies themselves and go on a rescue mission. A children's movie perhaps, with gadgets galore, Fegan Floop's fantasy fortress, and Rodriguez's showy direction. It has a message about the importance of being family which might have been preachy. But this is clever fun well worth an adult watching.

I remember watching "2001" when it first came out. My parents got me a bag of cashew nuts and the taste blew me away, I wolfed them down and was deservedly sick afterwards. The trip into infinity at the end of "2001" also blew me away, and I became a science fiction writer for a few days. Watching the film again on Blu-Ray blows me away again. After becoming used to a diet of inferior fast food movies one can forget what a class movie is like. But watching "2001" again is like waking up and being crystal clear for once. The film is slowly and masterfully paced, not spoon-feeding the audience. Despite being made before digital computer graphics the effects hold up well, supporting not obscuring the story. The music creates the mood, at times epic with "Thus Spake Zarathustra", at times waltzing with the "Blue Danube", at times alien with Ligeti (who only discovered "2001" used his music when he saw the film!) The film starts with the dawn of mankind. A mysterious black monolith appears, proto-humans discover they can use tools to change their world, mysterious black monolith disappears. A dazzling flash forward to the discovery of another mysterious black monolith buried on the Moon. This sends a powerful pulse of energy to Jupiter and then is quiet. A mission is launched to Jupiter of a combined human and computer crew, the computer being the infallible HAL 9000. What they will discover there will take mankind to the next stage of evolution. The story is an expansion of Clarke's short story "The Sentinel", there are differences between Clarke's version of "2001" and what Kubrick filmed. The high point for me is now the interaction between HAL and the crew of the "Discovery". HAL is no ordinary villain, rather a system tied in knots with fatal results. The film is a kind of mythological fable, and the final showdown between Dave Bowman and Hal is burnt into my memory. A rich film which leaves the viewer with food for thought.

Duck Soup is a Marx Bros comedy lampooning governments and nationalism and war. Groucho Marx plays Rufus T. Firefly who becomes president of noble country Freedonia, and leads that country to a gag-filled victory over scheming rival country Sylvania. Nothing is taken very seriously, everything is a cue for a pun or visual joke or a song. Even in the mime scene where Harpo pretends to be Groucho where the mirror got broken both sides know it's not real, it's a game inside a game. This ludicrousness makes "Duck Soup" a more profound commentary on the senselessness of power politics than earnest works like Chaplin's "The Great Dictator". The anarchy and non-sequiturs keep "Duck Soup" unpredictable to watch, and also inspire later comedians. A film fit for Groucho Marx who said he would never be a member of a club that would have him as a member.

"Rurouni Kenshin" is a Japanese film in a well established vein. A wandering hero with a mysterious past goes around helping the down-trodden people who are unprotected by the police and authorities from nasty criminals. For example the Zatoichi films. "Rurouni Kenshin" does not have the artiness of Kitano Takeshi in his 2003 "Zatoichi", and it could be said to be filmmaking by numbers. But it is an exceedingly good example of the genre, and fun to watch. The events of "Rurouni Kenshin" are set a decade after the battles which saw the era of the Shoguns end, and the Meiji Restoration begin which led to Japan's modernisation. This is a key landmark in Japanese history, with mythic resonance. A decade on the Samurai class have fallen on hard times, some have adapted but many haven't. Japan now sees the rise of the merchant class, and our chief villain is an unscrupulous drug dealing capitalist. You could see some social comment here, perhaps the original source manga had a political subtext to it. Our hero Kenshin wanders into a situation where the villain is trying to take over the Kamiya dojo run by Kamiya's daughter. He is handicapped by having sworn not to kill (his sword has the cutting edge on the wrong side.) Will he yet win through? A lot of varied fights, good set pieces. Lone swordsmen chopping their way through tens of opponents. Villains who know how to dress. A certain amount of mysticism around "sword spirit". Great.

"Miss Conspiracy" is a comedy thriller about a withdrawn young woman who suffers from panic attacks. When her friend / helper leaves her for a few days she gets accidentally caught up in a drug deal involving double-crossing criminals and corrupt cops. The film isn't taxing to watch, and it doesn't have a profound statement to make. But it is watchable, there are twists and turns, and the lead actress makes a good heroine who comes out on top over the male malefactors. There are some darkly funny moments in "Miss Conspiracy".

"Wasteland 2" is a turn-based RPG set in a post apocalypse America. Your squad of Desert Rangers have to deal with wacko cults, lawless criminals, homicidal robots, vicious vegetation, and ambitious androids. The game has a lot of areas to explore, plenty of side quests (I've left many undone for when I replay), a neat selection of weaponry which you will upgrade as the game progresses. The rocketry is particularly sweet to use, but I saved it for the endgame. Unlike some RPGs "Wasteland 2" is quite playable by less experienced RPG gamers like me. It is well balanced, offering worthwhile gameplay on easy levels and I think a challenge on the harder levels. There is plenty of variety in the fights so it never feels like repetitive mining to gain XP. The writing is solid and substantial. Impressive is the branching right at the beginning, where you either save Highpool or the Ag Centre. Your choice is reflected in the dialogue and events following, creating a sense of involvement and interaction. There's a lot of back stories and situations to explore. A great contribution to the turn-based RPGs now being produced which keep this genre alive.

This drama also gets called "My Delightful Girl Choon Hyang". It's an adaptation of a classical Korean drama about a girl "Choon Hyang" born into slavery who despite the odds, and a corrupt official trying to force her into being his mistress, ends up the wife of a police inspector. As such "Choon Hyang" is an archetype of hope, showing that from humble beginnings if you're good hearted and work hard you can go up in the world. The drama makes explicit allusions to the classical legend by parodying or deconstructing it in opening or closing scenes with the actors in period dress. This is very funny, but tends to undermine how seriously one can take the drama as a whole. "Sassy Girl Chun-Hyang" starts as light comedy with the two leads being forced into a fake marriage while at school in Namwon province. The action then moves to Seoul where towards the end we veer into melodrama as the bad guy decides to get the girl by fair or by foul means. Whether this is any social comment in this is up to the viewer. It bumbles along happily.

In the drama "Big" a teacher is engaged to be married to a doctor who caused her to have an accident when she tried to retrieve a bouquet of flowers delivered to the wrong bride. An accident causes a student's soul to end up in the doctor's body. The teacher has to contend with no one else understanding the situation and the complications that ensure. A good farce with likeable characters, Bae Suzy (a singer turned actress) plays a forceful character in love with the student. The ending is a little brief, not everyone liked or understood it. It's a little open to interpretation. There are some familiar faces in this Hong Sisters drama like "Ahn Seok-Hwan". More than other Hong Sisters dramas "Big" is driven by the story within the story, contained in a book "Miracle" which features prominently. This both explains the story behind the story, and also presages the story being told. There are some great scenes in "Big" (I particularly liked the school assemblies in the open air), and some wistful scenes involving minor characters like the uncle and school principal.

Pictures by the office where I currently work on a rare snowy day. Currently being the operative word as my US employers have decided to rightsize us yet again, and I am at risk in a shrinking pool.

There are various rituals which mark the turning of a year for me. I can think of my own birthday halfway through the year, I can think of Christmas and New Year of course which is a busier family time. Virginia would be unhappy if I failed to mention St Valentine's Day which we now tend to observe at the "Phoenix" in Histon, one day out so it's more relaxed. The less common rituals are those like the "Tufty Club Outing" held on the last Thursday in July, or the fireworks at Impington Village College which begin the season of winter. And what's becoming our annual pilgrimage to Thursford for their Thursford Christmas Spectacular. We begin the year with seeing the snowdrops at Anglesey Abbey. A pleasant stroll in an otherworldly place, slightly removed from the stressful society we inhabit. Doors in walls make me think fondly of "The Silver Chair".

"Garo" is a fantasy film about this heroic guy Kouga who makes a deal with a demon to protect mankind, only the demon sets him a quest to get a magical item from a magical land. If heroes didn't have quests where would we be? There's a kind of plot in the film (to add a bit of complexity Kouga loses his sword and cloak and ring on entering the Land of Promise so he has to find those first before he can find the Fang of Sorrow). Kouga rescues a dame with blue skin, confronts an evil queen in a moving castle, and fights a dragon of darkness to save this magical land. So he's a little busy. The star appeal of the film is in the fantasy setting which blends Jim Henson's "Labyrinth" with RPG wizardry with arcade games. The visuals are very imaginative, and playful - at times one could be watching "Lord of the Rings" by a Peter Jackson on a trip. That this is a Japanese film, and not knowing the Manga? the mythos has sprung from only adds to the bewilderment and fun as one watches. I like a feeling of gonzoidness. There's a hint of more depth in the "Land of Promise" scenario - this is a place where "things" end up that humans have forgotten. The denizens of the "Land of Promise" are at risk of not only being destroyed but even their names being totally forgotten. Kouga gives a name to one entity who becomes a comic weirdo in the film. Gonzoid fun.

"Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge" might seem to be another Japanese exploitation flick. Japanese schoolgirl battles monster from the moon who wields a chainsaw. These elements are definitely in the film. And artistically so. But are not what the film (and I assume the source manga) are about. The theme of the film is how to deal with feelings of loss, lack of self-worth, lack of significance. A shiftless student Yosuke is trying to recover from the death of a friend Noto. Yosuke steals meat more to do something than because he has to steal it. One night slacker Yosuke comes across Eri who spends her evenings trying to kill a chainsaw wielding monster who falls from the moon. He becomes Eri's helper in her odd quest. Both Yosuke and Eri externalise their problems - is that running away from or part of dealing with it? Both Yosuke and Eri find a kind of answer in each other, Yosuke finds a purpose in helping Eri, Eri finds strength from Yosuke. The key figure in the film is in a way Noto even though he's dead before the film begins. Noto lived his life to extremes, followed Achilles in a short life but a glorious one. Yosuke tries to emulate to outdo Noto but in the end only achieves moderate happiness. But perhaps moderate happiness is not that bad.

"Dead Sushi" is a tasteless comic film exploitation. The plot has a disgraced company chemist seeking revenge by turning sushi into flying homicidal delicacies with teeth and nerves. The karate idol Rina Takeda stars as the trainee sushi chef who must use her karate moves to deal with the onslaught of raw fish wrapped in rice. What "Dead Sushi" lacks in taste and sense it makes up for in inventiveness. It is in the vein of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", it's no way close to being family friendly entertainment, but if you like watching trash then this is quality trash.

"Alien vs. Ninja" is a collision between "Alien" and "Predator" and Japanese Ninja films which is so bad and risible and tacky and lacking in sense that it merits cult status. The plot has this alien coming to earth and killing people. A ninja clan try to kill the alien. Got it? Many wondrous moments include extracting the alien's offspring from human hosts, the cave fight with alien, and the hero safely leaping to earth after dealing with the unwanted immigrant to Japan at the end. Watch in total disbelief!

In "My Girl" the confidence trickster daughter of a gambling swindler is persuaded to pretend to be the long-lost granddaughter of a rich tycoon who's on his deathbed. Unfortunately her impersonation isn't a one night gig, and she is trapped by her own lies into living the life of luxury. Against her better judgment she and her 'cousin' yearn to be kissing cousins. When her charade is exposed can she lie her way out of it? The leads from the Hong Sisters' first drama (Choon Hyang) appear in a cameo right at the end. There's also parodies of films like "Leon" which are funny, but don't really fit well into the drama as a drama. So less mature (from one point of view) than later dramas by the Hong Sisters. The relationship between lies and truth is a key thread in this drama. If you treat a lie as being true does it become the truth? So the Joo Yoo-rin character (the trickster girl) weaves myths about ways to be blessed, or to get wishes answered, which become part of the logic of the drama like Internet rumours going viral. Watchable enough, if feeling a little unpolished.

We go with Fred Olsen to see ice hotels in north Norway, futuristic cathedrals, and were lucky enough to see a solar eclipse!

Words of Radiance (2014) is the second book in Brandon Sanderson's "Stormlight Archive" series. It's a chunky read, well constructed with multiple characters and relevant interludes, and strong characters who are growing and developing. I liked how powerfully and promisingly the first book ( "The Way of Kings" ) finished, and the second book does even better. It is fantasy SF, but with a designed magical system that combines both magic and mechanics. Classical and classic fantasy.

"Alphabet of Thorn" is the tale of Nepenthe, a foundling abandoned on a cliff edge by her mother who is brought up to be a scholar in the large library at Raine. One day a strange book written in an alphabet of thorns is brought to the library to be translated, and Nepenthe becomes addicted to decoding the story in its pages. Little knowing where that story will go, or what that ancient story will mean for both her library home and the kingdom containing the library. I like stories within stories, and McKillip resolves both storylines in a satisfying way. A beautiful read.

In "Kill Me, Heal Me" the son of a powerful rich family has split personalities as the result of a traumatic childhood. He gets help from an intern psychiatrist, but she comes to be more than a secret doctor. The mystery, and the echoes of the past resonating in the present, work surprisingly well for most of the serial. Yes I felt the characters were rather dumb not to work the mystery out earlier, it could have been more complicated. The beginning is stronger than the end, but most TV serials are like that. There's quite a lot of comedy, and also effective melodramatic scenes. The soundtrack is very good, great at creating moods and enhancing the watching experience. Ji Sung does well to portray the seven personalities, he must have had fun doing this serial. Fun.

"Detroit Metal City" is a delicious black comedy about a well meaning nerd, who dreams of successfully strumming his acoustic guitar and singing boring romantic songs - only he ends up as the overblown foul-mouthed wild lead singer of a death metal thrash band! The film follows his attempts to marry his two rather distinct persona...

My mother died on June 10th, 2012. We had the funeral service, and I found tears to weep. We had her ashes interred at a local cemetery. So there's now a patch of earth with a wooden cross where I can go. But this doesn't seem enough. Enough to mark a life that meant so much to me. So I did a game as a tribute, an acknowledgement of what my mother did for me. At one level the 'game' is an exploration of my inner world. What thoughts run along the tracks in my mind. My mother influenced me in what I read and watched and listened to at an early age. But it wouldn't be a game unless it had some kind of puzzles. So if you're of a puzzle solving turn of mind, and can find the paths through my mental maze, there are puzzles to be overcome. There are puzzles inside puzzles like a Russian doll. For those who will seek them. Most of the game has text describing a place in my inner world. You are able to click on words and move to other places. The text is overlaid on a background of fuzzy words, indeed even the front screen is composed of words rather than images.

"Secret Love" is a highly melodramatic tale of love and revenge. Just as a budding lawyer makes the big time he kills a woman after drinking and driving. His fiancee takes the rap so he go on and be a success. Unhappily the spoilt rich brat whose girlfriend got run down makes life hell for the poor noble fiancee who has a lot of crying and suffering to do. The literal title is "Secret" and several characters in this drama have secrets which they suffer under. The strength of the drama is how it all flows from a single point, seemingly naturally yet unexpectedly as well. Corruption works its way through the people in the story. The lawyer is all too human and flawed despite his heroic goals, and falls like someone in a Greek tragedy. That the rich can buy justice is taken for granted. The rich brat is only redeemed by his love for a good woman. Some great moments when the characters and film almost stop and we see a tableaux vivant. The heroine suffers nobly. The bad guy is torn by inner demons. Quite watchable.

"Liar Game (2014)" is based on a Japanese manga about a naive college student who gets enmeshed into a mysterious game where the players lie and cheat each other for large sums of money. This manga had already been realised as Japanese TV dramas and movies. The Korean drama keeps the structure, but significantly modifies the settings and the background. The "Liar Game" becomes a TV reality show rather than a secret underground happening. The heroine's guardian angel is not an invincible swindler but a flawed ex-college professor. Secrets in the past link the main characters, driving them towards the final showdown. The small number of episodes (12 rather than 16 or 20 or more) keep the drama tight and focussed and strong to the end. Many dramas start well but then just become repetitive. The source manga provides a great series of surreal plot events, out of the normal grind. The extra writing in the Korean version really adds depth to the whole. The heroine develops to be more than just someone to be rescued, her naivety becomes a strength and something that changes others. The hero too goes through a journey as he rediscovers trust to some extent. A gem.

In a different time and place I was a pupil at Norwich School. We had a music teacher called Bernard Burrell who put up with us as he endeavoured to teach music. I appreciate this teacher because one year the syllabus included Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition". This piece started life as a piano composition, people know it best from the orchestration by Ravel. In a certain lesson Mr Burrell was generous enough to play a rather different version, a version with sounds I had never heard before. A version by a progressive rock group called ELP which included the bewitching strains of a Moog synthesizer. It just blew me away! You may debate what is music. You may debate what is Art. All I knew was as I listened to ELP's numbers was my ears heard something beautiful, something on the edge of liberation, something alive and evolving, something alien and frail. From that day I no longer despised rock music, my horizons expanded, friendships deepened. I had a collection of LPs with striking cover. Keith Emerson's kingship of the keyboard inspired me to learn the piano (I'm not sure my piano teachers and examiners consider that a good thing). To this day I still listen to progressive rock, and especially ELP. But I never saw them live in concert, only in dreams.

The cake Virginia did for Charles and Karen's wedding reception.

In "Maids" the heroine starts off as a privileged nobleman's daughter in Joseon Korea, but falls through the bottom of society into slavery when her father is wrongly executed for treason. She undergoes hardships, some cheerfully inflicted by those she offended while an insensitive noble lady. So she's not perfect. But through these hardships she becomes a better strong nobler person. So she isn't a helpless damsel waiting for a prince. The plot involves the lost son of a king, a secret society seeking to restore the Koryeo dynasty, ambitious ruthless ministers. This is high melodrama, a lot of cultivated meanness, a nobly suffering persisting heroine, lovely period dresses, some great believable performances particularly by the lead actress who carries the whole drama. A lot of Korean TV dramas rely on having celebrities in the main roles who cannot act. There is also more structure more shape to this drama, and characters who change as they go through their stories. The drama starts with a powerful flashforward which jumps back to the heroine washing her face before her fall, linked by a water theme which recurs at various points. Another important theme is what the heroine walks in and on, which symbolises the stages in her story arc as she falls and adjusts to having fallen. Her changing costume reflects her declared status in society, she notably copes with her changing status better than those around her who can't let go of what she was. The writing is critical of the slave system in Joseon Korea, of the way the aristocrats lorded it over the dehumanised at the bottom of the system who were trapped there. I suspect at the time itself even the slaves in a way supported the awful system, for instance the heroine's maid is slavishly loyal to her mistress. The writing and direction manage to avoid this being a run of the mill drama. So for me a wonderful drama. Intelligent writing. Lovely meanness.

Virginia has been eyeing up the bathroom for a while as a suitable case for treatment, and its time came this September. Cats were boarded at their usual cattery, and we readied ourselves to be facility challenged. The epochs of one corner of the bathroom - it seemed geological at the time. Our friends Christine and Jonathan very kindly offered us hospitality as our house wasn't quite its normal self. At the time a dramatic changing of seasons but we'll take it all for granted in a week or two!

We take a trip to Somerset, seeing Cheddar Gorge and Wookey Hole.

In "Teddy Go!" a detective gets murdered but his soul ends up in a teddy bear. Which is won by a freeter girl trying to get over losing her boyfriend. Together they solve the case which got the detective murdered. Good acting by the heroine and the teddy bear. Just in case you were taking this seriously at the end it says this is all fiction.

The cake Virginia did for William's 50th birthday.

"Liar Game (2007)" is based on a Japanese manga about a naive college student who gets enmeshed into a mysterious game where the players lie and cheat each other for large sums of money. Compared with the Korean remake this version is more mythic and archetypal, a battle between good and evil, a battle between trust and distrust. The acting may be overacting but it fits the production, the melodrama. The series wins on a number of levels. There is the swindling and lying and cheating and gambling itself, with the arrogant hero saving the heroine perpetually in peril. There is an open subtext about trust, the risks of trusting, and what distrust and disbelief do. The visual impact (perhaps from the manga itself?) is high. The weak point is episodes 9 and 10 which recap a lot of the previous material while giving the background to the Liar Game. Overall I loved this!