Media Report: Running on Karma, Generation Loss
The first 45 minutes of Running on Karma is a hilarious Jackie Chan-esque action/comedy/supernatural/romance smörgåsbord that is awful in all the right ways, and if that's what you want, you should stop watching at the 45 minute mark (you'll know when; it's when you think you just watched the end of a movie). After that point, it takes several abrupt right-turns. The middle of the film is unnerving and creepy enough to make you think it was directed by Takeshi Miike by way of The Blair Witch Project, and the ending reveals that (not really a spoiler, as I'm not actually saying anything about the plot here) the movie is a Buddhist parable. Directed by Johnny To and starring Andy Lau (star of many, many movies, notably House of Flying Daggers) in a bodybuilder muscle suit. I still have no idea what I think of this movie. As far as the number of themes and styles it attempts to cram in, I can only compare it to Bollywood movies. Either brilliant or Not Very Good: you decide!
Elizabeth Hand's Generation Loss is fucking brilliant. That's my review in a nutshell. It's the best book I've read in months. It's about photography and punk rock and murder and death and the damage that people accumulate over time, and it's written with the clarity of a shining needle. Surprisingly, enough hope is woven through it that it isn't a depressing read. It's a hybrid literary novel/thriller, with flourishes of magic realism. I can't recommend it highly enough: particularly for you, gunn, if you're reading this.