Recently David Madison posted an article on Unreality Magazine listing The Most Memorable Fictional Drugs in Movies and Television. The list itself is interesting, and I have to admit the author did a fine job finding screen captures for each of the drugs mentioned.

However, I had the feeling that there must be other well-known, fictional drugs in cinema. A little bit of research (thanks to Google and Wikipedia) turned up a plethora of pharmaceuticals the author neglected to mention…
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Gathered friends, listen again to our legend, of the Bionicle. In a time, before time, the Great Spirit, Mata Nui, fell from the heavens, carrying we, the ones called the Matoran. We were separate, and without purpose, so the Great Spirit illuminated us with the three virtues: Unity, Duty, and Destiny!
– Turaga Vakama, Bionicle: Mask of Light

As the father of two boys, I have just finished watching the four Bionicle movies with them. A strange experience to say the least; the Bionicle movies describe a world of heroic, living machines possessing a bizarre blended theology of polytheism and Eastern philosophy. Since I sat through all four, (some more than once) Goozlepipe presents the first of a four-part review.

When I was a child LEGOs were brightly colored, nearly indestructible plastic blocks that you could use to build anything your wanted… as long as it was roughly rectangular. But times have changed. Sleek and stylized, LEGO’s Bionicle (“biological” + “chronicle”) is a line of toys marketed primarily to 6 – 16 year-old boys.

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“Tales of typically normal excitable youngsters going on epic adventures that lifted the heart stirred the soul and haunted our dreams. But it was the palpable sense of adventure that really convinced, giving us youngsters an achievable sense of daydream adventure” — Oliver Pfeiffer
For those who were young in the 1980s, the decade’s movies hold a special place in their hearts. CGI was just coming into its own on the silver screen and fantasy adventures were a staple for children and teenagers alike.

Oliver Pfeiffer takes us back to those halcyon days with his list of the “Top 10 Cult Classic 80s Fantasy Adventure Flicks.” We’ve added IMDb plot summaries as well as a bonus list of movies we thought deserved recognition as well.

1. The Goonies (1985): A young teenager named Mikey Walsh finds an old treasure map in his father’s attic. Hoping to save their homes from demolition, Mikey and his friends Data Wang, Chunk Cohen, and Mouth Devereaux runs off on a big quest to find the secret stash One-Eyed Willie.
2. Return to Oz (1985): Dorothy Gale has recently come back to Kansas from the land of Oz is now almost back to perfect health since the incident of the tornado, only she cannot get that wonderful place out of her head. She talks frequently about it and cannot get any sleep at night. Her Aunt Em worries about her health/well-being. Thinking that her niece is suffering delusional depression and acute insomnia, she decides to take Dorothy to see a special doctor in another town. While the doctor tries to treat little Dorothy with electro-shock treatment and take away those nasty dreams from her head, Dorothy is rescued by a mysterious girl who leads her back to the land of oz for a new adventure.
3. Labyrinth (1986): Grown angry about the fact that she must watch over her little brother Toby, Sarah (Jennifer Connely) wishes the child to the goblins. They translate this careless statement into action: The Goblin-King Jareth (David Bowie) announces that soon Toby will mutate into a goblin. There is only one hope: Sarah has to find the way to Jareth’s castle – through a dangerous labyrinth – where she will find strange creatures.Young Sherlock Holmes (1985): Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meet as boys in an English Boarding school. Holmes is known for his deductive ability even as a youth, amazing his classmates with his abilities. When they discover a plot to murder a series of British business men by an Egyptian cult, they move to stop it.
4. Explorers (1985): Ben Crandall, an alien-obsessed kid, dreams one night of a circuit board. Drawing out the circuit, he and his friends Wolfgang and Darren set it up, and discover they have been given the basis for a starship. Setting off in the ThunderRoad, as they name their ship, they find the aliens Ben hopes they would find… but are they what they seem?
5. The Lost Boys (1987): Financial troubles force a recent divorcee and her teenage sons Mike and Sam to settle down with her father in the California town of Santa Carla. At first, Sam laughs off rumours he hears about vampires who inhabit the small town. But after Mike meets a beautiful girl at the local amusement park, he begins to exhibit the classic signs of vampirism. Fearing for his own safety, Sam recruits two young vampire hunters to save his brother by finding and destroying the head vampire. (more…)

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We know this may be considered heresy by the loyal Star Wars fans out there, but we just had to repost this clip.

YouTube - Link toDarth Vader Hoedown

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“As you told me, I wanted to find out if he was my destination. But I didn’t think it was right. So I let go of him from my heart. And I walked for a long time.”

Release: 2000
Runtime: 1 hour, 50 min
Genre: Romance, Sci-Fi
Language: Korean, English subtitles
MPAA Rating: N/A
Starring: Ji-tae Yu, Ha-Neul Kim, Ji-won Ha

Amazon Link: Ditto

SYNOPSIS: Bearing a slight resemblance to 2006’s The Lake House, and the 2000 father-son film Frequency, Ditto follows college students So-eun (Kim Ha-neul) and In (Yoo Ji-tae) as star-struck lovers who can never be. So-eun, living in 1979 South Korea, begins using a ‘damaged’ ham radio and contacts In, who unbeknownst to her lives 21 years in the future. The two realize that they attend the same school, and still not aware of the time discrepancy, begin a friendship that leads to romantic feelings. As well as a love story, the movie touches on seminal political events occurring in 1979 South Korea.

If you have heard of this film, it may remind you of The Lake House, a cheesy love story starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra. It revolves around them communicating a year apart from each other by magic mailbox realizing they’re ‘meant to be’ love for each other.

The main difference between The Lake House and Ditto is the two characters are separated by 21 years. This allows the story to be handled less like a love story between the characters and more as an exploration of how their ‘long distance’ relationship affects the two characters lives and in unexpected ways.

After connecting via ham radios one night, college students So-eun and In, find with each other a willing confidante to share their burdens. However, when they decide to meet on campus and miss each other, it is revealed that they are separated by 21 years, with So-eun in 1979 and In living in the present day, 2000. Eventually, they reconcile themselves to accept the implausible reality that has brought them together. She relates her camaraderie with her best friend Seon-mi and her pining for fellow student Dong-heui, while he talks about the unwanted attention he receives from fellow a co-ed. However, as the on-air relationship deepens, it is revealed that their ties go far deeper than ever imagined. Yes, there is a twist to the story beyond the 21 year gulf between them.

Because it is a foreign film, most American viewers will fail to understand the significance of the two timelines in “Ditto”, 1979 and 2000. For those interested, Wikipedia’s South Korean entry can provided a starting point to recent South Korean history. In Ditto, the writer places the young So-eun in the month of October of 1979, a period of major political upheaval that was triggered by the assassination of President Park on the 25th of that month. Juxtaposed is In, a member of the Internet era, who perhaps takes the relative stability of modern South Korea for granted. As the story plays out, it is made very clear in one of the film’s genuine twists that the destinies of these two are irrevocably intertwined, with the decisions made and actions taken by So-eun having significant implications for In, paralleling how South Korea’s political strife during the 1960s and 70s helped set the stage for reform during the 1980s and 90. Unfortunately, like much of the ‘lost generation’ of Koreans during the Park and the ensuing governments, So-eun ends up becoming a casualty of history, which is eloquently conveyed in the film’s sad present-day ending.

In conclusion, Ditto is a better film than The Lake House, providing a more realistic foundation to the fantasy as well adding political and social commentary to the storyline.

Note: The subtitles, necessary unless you are fluent in Korea, were lacking at times: bits of the movie were ‘lost in translation’ with background details like signs not being translated to English and no translations for what characters wrote down. In addition, some of the language is awkward and ill fitting when translated; however, this is only a mild complaint because the events in the story were portrayed beautifully.

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