Month in Review: April 2022

[elenothar]

Still a busy month, work and life-wise, so most of the sections will be pretty bare.

TV and movies

Unusually many things to say here, since I did two long-haul flights and watched 4.5 movies during those.

The flight out was an overnight one (ish), so I was tired and just wanted easy fare, which resulted in Encanto (enjoyable) and The Etenerals (typical Marvel fantasy nonsense - I wouldn't say it was a good film, per say, but it was pretty diverting).

I had some more braincells to spare on the flight back, so I watched The Wandering Earth, which is a Chinese scifi film based on a Liu Cixin novel that surprised me with actual budget and a lot of interesting language use, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which now has the honour of being the Taika Waititi film I've enjoyed the most - it was both serious and funny, and not so much of the parody/over the top humour that usually doesn't gel for me in his stuff. The .5 movie was a Donnie Yen one called Iceman: The Time Traveller - the bit I saw was entertaining enough (and I am always a sucker for time travel stories), but I was starting to feel and the Cantonese was doing my head in, so I didn't watch the entire thing.

I barely watched any TV, just continued the watchalongs I'm already doing (Nirvana in Fire, Detective L, Guardian, Lost Tomb Reboot, most only sporadically) and bounced off my attempt to join the Joy of Life watchalong, though that was partly due to the timing on Sunday evenings.



Books

Also quiet, since I was doing a lot of academic reading. I read The Outside by Ada Hoffmann, kindly provided by tinny. Fascinating worldbuilding, but probably not something I'll read again. And the first Chrestomanci book by Diana Wynne Jones (Charmed Life), which wasn't particularly to my tastes - I just found all the characters too annoying. Then again, I'm also rather past the intended age range...

Fandom activities

Even quieter. I published one short fic

Nameday (Guardian, 2.8k, Zhao Yunlan investigating the matter of Shen Wei's birthday)

and otherwise mostly worked on my 520 exchange fic.

Comments

[yaaurens]

Oooh I love Hunt for the Wilderpeople! And The Wandering Earth was definitely interesting but seemed to trip over its plot holes a little bit.

I'm looking forward to reading your 520 fic!

[elenothar]

Yes, I was wondering if the novel it's based on (which I haven't read) brought those holes or if the adaptation created them. Still, it was interesting watch.

Reveals day is going to be great, I'm really looking forward to it!

[naye]

I adore Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

[elenothar]

I'm already thinking I should rewatch it at some point when I'm not on a plane and headachey with it :D

[velithya]

I remember seeing adds for The Wandering Earth, did you enjoy it?

[elenothar]

On balance, I'd say yes. I'm glad I watched it - the scifi worldbuilding was very cool and I continue to find it fascinating how concepts get approached differently from a Chinese context. That said, it's not a movie I feel I'm likely to rewatch it, so I didn't, like, love it. None of the characters were all that interesting to me, which is what really gets me invested.

[velithya]

hmmm okay! So maybe worth watching at some stage but I won't go out and rush. Thank you! ♥

[tinny]

Oh, man, I still have the Wandering Earth lying around here somewhere and I never watched it. Maybe I should make time for that. (Right after Jia Ling's "Hi Mom"... lalala).

not so much of the parody/over the top humour that usually doesn't gel for me in his stuff

That does sound promising!

I really liked Encanto, too. Lin Manuel Miranda is a great composer, and I loved loved loved all the code-switching. Bilingual people ftw.

[elenothar]

I think The Wandering Earth is definitely worth a watch, though I wouldn't say it's the best thing I've ever seen. It was certainly interesting to see what a Chinese production with actual money can turn out, in terms of scifi.

Yes! Both Encanto and The Wandering Earth had a lot of lovely language stuff going on (predictably, my favourite parts). And Hunt for the Wilderpeople was enjoyable because New Zealand accents.

[nnozomi]

I hope May is proving more restful, sigh. This year (too) is a lot.
I'm sorry the DWJ book, a favorite of mine, didn't work for you--I think you may be right: if you read it at the right age it's gripping and stays that way, but it may not work so well if you come to it as an adult.
Looking forward to lots of reading for 520! <3

[elenothar]

I started the Chrestomanci series because Magicians of Caprona possibly falls under my research purview of magical music - unfortunately, I only made it a third into that book (I did finish Charmed Life) before giving up, though I may revisit it later. I think it's quite likely I would've enjoyed the books if I'd read them as a child - it's an interesting world, and I wouldn't have minded the child characters then, I think. Ah well.

Only 9 days to go (I can say, comfortably, since I'm done with my offering)! With so many people signed up, it'll be a whole extravaganza :D

[achray]

somehow I was summoned back onto DW by someone mentioning DWJ, so I will say that in the Chrestomanci series The Lives of Christopher Chant, Conrad's Fate and maybe The Pinhoe Egg all work better for older readers, I think. And The Lives of Christopher Chant has magical music in the background, too XD

[elenothar]

*quickly scuffs summoning circle*

Oh, that's good to know (I have read and enjoyed other DWJ, most notably Fire and Hemlock, so I was a little disappointed this didn't work for me) - I'll put The Lives of Christopher Chant back on the list :D