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Things might change again now that DCUO has gone live, but Netflix certainly filled the gap, with its impressively-grown library of streaming titles. Last weekend was the superb Kurosawa police procedural 天国と地獄, and this past Sunday I sat down (several times, as resources permitted) to this “seminal ninja film” where Raizô Ichikawa makes you wonder how the stereotype in its progeny, such as 비’s recent namesake, became so gloomy and one-dimensional. First he falls for the boss’s wife—working as the company accountant, no less—then slacks off when he’s supposed to be atoning for his dishonor and instead hooks up at the nearest brothel! I especially liked the closing shots of his jubilant return home, obviously at the same breakneck pace, which isn’t done enough anymore.

What’s amusing about this whackjob is that his end-of-days formula acknowledges the 80’s synth-pop of Anthony Burgess’ Heaven 17 (I’m partial to “Lady Ice and Mr. Hex” myself), whose origin may indeed lie elsewhere.

…Well, not really, and I don’t remember enough of the details to back up the claim, but I did “wake up” from where I had been sleeping no less than six times in succession (as many as ten, though after a while I must’ve tired of starting over the same way after each commercial in Star Trek: the Next Generation’s “Cause and Effect” and drifted off to other scenarios). No evidence of Nolan’s ingenious layering, but as demonstrated before, the effect is to realize you’re dreaming with the second or third and just have at it, such as the Groundhog Day-inspired “Window of Opportunity” episode of Stargate SG-1.

Not the first of the year, because last night was like most these days, USA-network marathons in my mind, but this one I recall: I was playing an FFXI-ish videogame, and like one of those challenges where you have to wait for the proper alignment of mobs before moving (like the low-level run through Delkfutt’s Tower for that first Moogle expansion pack), four Shogun Warriors surrounded me in a small room. My impatience got the better of me, and I made a break for it, with at least two of them in pursuit. There was the usual incongruity between my fleeing avatar and myself, and the latter just stepped out of the simulated world through a service exit. I was, however, still in a foreign environment, and seeing movement at the end of a hall, thought to stay as out of sight as possible. Hugging the back wall led to a restroom, where I hoped to find a spare guard’s uniform. None of the khaki-green outfits were my size, and a cleaning lady asked me where I had come from; I tried to get away with an exotic change of subject by asking her if she was familiar with Japan. Never do that, I would learn, unless you’re sure of where you are, because, as it turns out, we were there: I proceeded outside and a large window revealed a snow-covered mountain and a marvelous high-tech bridge leading to it. The woman reported me to the staff, and soon I was being led away through these offices of the game developer. An old friend from Santa Clara spotted me in the lobby and approached.

Last time I did this I went a disappointing 2 for 5 (and the visiting one foreign country per year thing, well, that’s not going anywhere anymore, is it), but this time at least I got ahead of myself just before midnight by beating Bane!