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kat_lair***
Kat Reads Books
Hildur by Satu Rämö - Hildur is the only detective in the sparsely populated western fjords of Iceland, busy dealing with childhood trauma (a mysterious disappearance of her little sisters) by surfing in the freezing waves of the Atlantic and having a casual no strings attached thing with a neighbouring P.E. teacher. Then a local drug dealer and child abuser is killed and Jakob, a police trainee from Finland arrives on a Nordic exchange programme. This was the first of the series that's proven super popular in Finland, and other Nordics I think. No idea if it's been translated to English yet but if you like 'Nordic noir' that isn't actually that dark, then I would recommend. The case is interesting, the characters are all very real, and the book does a really good job at weaving in information about Icelandic society and mythology without slipping into info dumping.
Rosa ja Björk by Satu Rämö - Second in the series, named after the missing sisters, whose fate starts to unravel on the background while Hildur and Jakob get busy with a murder of a local politician. Like the first book, this does a great job at weaving multiple timelines and storylines (the case, but also Hildur's family, and Jakob's custody worries) without getting confusing. The society and landscape play almost as large a role as the actual characters. I've decided that since my own Iceland trip is almost certain for August, this book series counts as like, work related research, which is obviously why I'm moving through it at a pace.
Kat Watches Things
BTS Arirang on Gwanghwamun Square - The Netflix comeback concert which I watched at pushkin666's. It was a spectacle for sure but so lovely to see the guys back and the live performances of the new album song (damn those new choreos). Camerawork was a bit too much on the crowds at times and wasn't always following the singer quite as tightly as I would've liked to see but on the whole it was fire. Special mention from me to the sit-down performance of Like Animals (equal amounts flustering and heart-wrenching, how?)
Stray Kids: Dominate Experience - The concert itself was, as I knew from personal experience thank you very much, amazing and the sit-down mini interview sections causes me Many Feelings. Probably 75% of them are about Chan for reasons I will not be elaborating on outside fanfic fjkdagtwankfmwalnf (please, someone find his off button, I am begging).
Luca - Rewatch but still excellent. Off the coast of Italy, Luca is a seamonster boy looking for adventure. He finds it with Alberto, another seamonster boy with equal amounts of bravado and insecurities. Together they embark on a quest to win the local race with a local human girl Giulia so that they can buy a Vespa and travel the world together. Listen. You will not convince me this is not a queer love story in the making. I have AO3 receipts to prove it. Anyway, this is a love animation about acceptance and found family.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Another rewatch. Well, I mostly put it in the background whilst writing. Fun and flashy, the family dynamics are cute and generally I would watch Paul Rudd read the phonebook so... Phoebie/ghost girl Melody had some potential. It was lovely to see the old crew having a blast.
Madame Webb - In the early 00s a NY paramedic Cassie dies for a bit and activates a mysterious power to see to the future, well, a few minutes only, stemming from her mother being bit by a spider in the Amazon whilst pregnant. She ends up protecting three teenagers who will grow to kill the bad guy in the future. Look. I have absolutely no idea about the Marvel canon for this character so can't comment on the adaptation. Things Iiked: found family of women kicking ass, no romantic subplots, the spider aspects not as creepy as I feared. Things that annoyed me: the logistical plotholes, like I'm sorry but do you know how long it would take to travel from NYC to deep in Peruvian jungle and how unadvisable it would be to go there with like a backpack and a sleeveless top. Also the actual motivation of the bad guy was just... not explained. Sure, he was all 'I will not lose everything I've built' and had some cool spider powers but like... Greed? Was that really it? Boring af. I will give the movie a Very Clever character backstory, which I absolutely did not get until like 15mins after the film ended and I was like '...omg CHARACTER NAME'.
The Curse of Bridge Hollow - A family moves to a small town obsessed with Halloween which suits their teenager paranormal enthusiast daughter well except for how she accidentally releases the spirit of Stingy Jack, who then makes al the Halloween decorations come to live. Yes, I absolutely clicked on this because it was Halloween themed and it provided perfect breakfast watching. Fun little family romp, plus Kelly Rowland as the mother. Very watchable.
メアリと魔女の花 | Mary to Majo no Hana | Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017) - Bored and in a new town, Mary discovers mysterious flower in the forest that gives her magical powers and leads her to a magical Endor College where she discovers dubious transmogrification experiments... And also sort of gets the local delivery boy kidnapped. Rescue mission ensues. This was a beautiful animation with suitably unsettling feel at times. The messages of 'you don't need magic to be special' and 'animal experimentation bad' weren't like, subtle, but they're good messages to deliver to the target audience so. Yes. Liked it.
Migration - A duck family decides to leave their safe pond and migrate to Jamaica, encounter many eccentric birds on the way and one scary chef with obsession for duck a l'orange. Adventures are had, bravery is discovered. This was a fun a fun animation, with shout outs for Danny DeVito as Uncle Dan (I see what they did there), Carol Cane as Eron the elderly heron and David Mitchell as Googoo the yogic farm duck.
Borderlands - Lilith a first grade (not scumbag) bounty hunter gets a gig to find a kidnapped teenager on her home planet of Pandora where she swore never to return, since it's mostly a shithole overrun by psychos and hopeful explorers looking for a mythical alien vault... That the teenager girl in question may just be a key for. A ragtag of people band together to fight against a greedy corporation looking to use the alien technology in the vault for nefarious purposes. Including a snarky robot. Listen, this was So Fun, just a lot of smash bang quip. A twist that I absolutely saw coming. Also, did I say Lilith is played by Cate Blanchett? In a fire red hair. MmmmHhhmmm. Also, I love Jame Lee Curtis.
Zootopia 2 - Ahhhhhhhhh. Okay, I love the first movie so much I was a little apprehensive about going into the sequel but happy to report that my heart-eyes for this franchise remain. Nick and Judy are struggling to adjust to their partnership and like Talk About Their Feelings (not like that in the movie though I would say it's Very Open To Interpretation) due to hiding them behind incessant jokes and trying to save everyone, respectively. The plot involves a stolen diary of the inventor of Zootropolis' weather wall and a hundred year conspiracy that saw reptiles banished and becoming second class citizens. The themes of differences are our strength and looking beyond stereotypes are present and accounted for and I loved all the new characters, and the old of course. BRB, off to check if the fandom on AO3 has my back because I need approximately 348290 post-canon feelings fic.
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