Posted inArts & Culture

Zoom In: Sex Apartments

The 1980 Japanese film is part of Impulse Pictures’ “Nikkatsu Erotic Films Collection,” which would equate to a hard-R rating here. While nudity is often, it’s all above-the-belt, frontally speaking, and this work in particular is like a Skinemax flick with an actual plot, and where sex is integral to the story. Well, sorta. That […]

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Mutant Girls Squad

It’s told “relay”-style, with one of three directors each taking on a different chapter, although you can’t really tell: Tak Sakaguchi, (Yakuza Weapon), Yoshihiro Nishimura (Helldriver) and Noboru Iguchi (Karate-Robo Zaborgar). That three cooks are stirring the pot matters as much as the plot, which is minimal — at least a lucid one. Just know […]

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The Shock Labyrinth

This is surprising, given that the Japanese horror feature was directed by Takashi Shimizu, the guy who birthed The Grudge franchise. Not that he’s an infallible filmmaker by any stretch of the imagination, but Labyrinth finds him revisiting those reliable themes, with the added dimension — literally — of playing in 3-D. (Well Go USA’s […]

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Redline

While director Takeshi Koike’s (“The Animatrix,” TV’s “Iron Man”) animated extravaganza depicts a world where aliens and animals walk and talk and dine on Hexagonal Worm Spaghetti Soup, our hero is an old-school human named JP, who’s cast in 1950s Elvis Presley mode, complete with Johnny Bravo pompadour.  With a Patrick Warburton-esque delivery in the […]

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The Sylvian Experiments

The U.S. moniker refers to the film’s plot point of the “Sylvian fissure” of the human brain: Apply electricity to it, and the subject hallucinates astral projections and out-of-body experiences. This, posits mad-scientist female Dr. Hattori (Nagisa Katahira), opens up a whole realm of spiritual evolution. To study her theories, she has a team member […]

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Bunraku

With an unfortunate Burt Reynolds mustache, Josh Hartnett (“30 Days of Night”) plays a drifter — that’s literally his character’s name — who rolls into town, which looks like the Old West has been given a face-lift courtesy of “Moulin Rouge”’s Baz Luhrmann. His fists are supposedly as mean as his game of cards. Sporting more […]

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Phil in

John-Paul Philippé (pictured) departed Henryetta decades ago for the art hubs of New York, London and Japan, but Eastern Oklahoma’s hilly landscapes left an enduring impression that has re-emerged in an exhibition opening Friday at [Artspace] at Untitled, with a 1 p.m. Saturday artist talk and walk-through. “Being back here brings up all these associations […]

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Live from Tokyo

The live scene is healthy, although with so many bands, there aren’t enough rewards to go ’round. As with here, the Internet has taken a huge bite out of CDs, but low album sales doesn’t mean a lot of people aren’t listening. They are. And thanks to the Internet, followings can be built overseas without […]

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Dream Home

Cheng (Josie Ho, “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li”) has her heart set on a flat appraised at more than $5 million. There’s only one problem: She can’t afford it on her salary as a bank telemarketer, even with her part-time job as a shop salesclerk. Oh, there’s a second problem, too: The apartment is […]

Posted inFood & Drink

The Zen approach

I usually answer, “In what category?” Steakhouses, barbecue, Mediterranean, Italian, Indian, French, Mexican, Cajun, German, Greek, Asian and on and on. They look at me and sigh. Believe me, I’ve tried them all. Could Zen Asian Dining be the top spot for Asian food in Edmond? It is darn near. Husband-and-wife team Lesly and Jamil […]

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