Honestly, Beautifully : honey blade
latest // older // mail // notes // links // cast list // my rings // rings i'm on
2002-04-11 - 12:21 p.m.
I had a dream last night that freaked me out a bit. I'm not going to give away the details because I barely remember them but the only important thing about it was that it played on one of my longest-running phobias.
Since I was little - and I don't have a clue what triggered this - I've had a phobia about being chased. Especially if the person doing the chasing is armed and/or meaning to do me harm. And it's made much worse when it's in a limited space.
Blame the years of bullying if you want, but in any case I get freaked out by cat-and-mouse situations now.
You know how, in Metal Gear Solid, you fight against Vulcan Raven in that locked warehouse? That seriously freaked me out. You've got a massive great fucker with the widest range of vision known to man and armed with a massive great fucker of a gun running after you and you're trapped in a locked warehouse. Never mind that beating him is as simple as placing C-4 on the crates and claymore mines on the floor and waiting for him to pass by, the principle is much the same - an enclosed space, a heavily-armed enemy and you at something of a disadvantage.
This is one of the reasons why I didn't like Battle Royale, quite apart from the excessive hype and the whole business of being forced to watch it. Those were bad enough but then it went on to play on my longest-running phobia. Bunch of schoolkids. On an island. Instructed to kill each other off. And the two main characters are armed with a pot lid and a pair of binoculars. There you have the formula again - an enclosed space, a heavily armed enemy (in numbers this time, which is even worse), and the main characters (and therefore, indirectly, you) at a rather distinct disadvantage.
Conventional narrative - which dictates that there's a protective bubble around the main character so that whatever happens, they'll be OK in the end - is of no comfort, especially since the film doesn't constantly focus on the main characters; it flits about, so you have several cat-and-mouse games going on and that protective bubble doesn't extend to everyone. You mainly sympathise with the two main characters, but whenever it cuts to a different situation somewhere else on the island, your sympathies change. And my sympathies will inevitably fall on the one who ends up being killed.
As a side note, X, please don't send me a list of reasons why I should like Battle Royale, I really really should, because nothing you or anyone else says is going to change my mind. And I still think Ando looks like a heroin addict.
But back to the topic of conversation.
In my dream last night I was being chased around my parent's house by a couple of people with guns. I was unarmed. Just before I woke up I ran into the garden, hid under a bush and held my breath as one of the people chasing me walked past. Woke up feeling rather freaked out.
I hate when that happens.
Right, I'm going to make some coffee and look for my sculpting tool so I can do some puttying on my current model. Been putting that off for far too long.
.
.