A game to try again, and again, and again
By Anthony L. Cuaycong
WHEN BLAZING STAR was introduced in the late ’90s, arcades were already replete with shoot-em-ups. In fact, it could be reasonably...
Black Mirror creator on how he (unknowingly) predicted the rise of Donald Trump
Television
Black Mirror
Netflix
BLACK MIRROR is back and ready to offer a fresh and terrifying insight into where society and technology is headed.
The third season of...
Gameplay flourishes where the story languishes
By Alexander O. Cuaycong and Anthony L. Cuaycong
NIPPON ICHI Software distinguishes itself from other developers by the style of its games. Displaying its strengths...
Hamilton: The romance of history, rendered in hip-hop
The Binge
Jessica Zafra
WHAT A COMFORT it is after an intense and contentious election to hear a musical that makes you want to give standing...
On the shelf
COMIC BOOK COMPILATION
Apple Premium Reseller Beyond the Box is collaborating with three diverse and talented female artists — Julienne Dadivas (also known as Hulyen),...
Tips for shows plotting to be the next Game of Thrones
The Binge -- Jessica Zafra
CRITICS explaining the phenomenon that is Game of Thrones tend to overlook the obvious reason: it’s a very good show....
Arundhati Roy: the literary canary in India’s coalmine
NEW DELHI, INDIA — She may have returned to publishing fiction after a two decade hiatus, but Indian writer Arundhati Roy says she has...
In age of Trump, an indie rocker explains Islam
NEW YORK — Distraught by the treatment of Muslims in Donald Trump’s America, indie rocker Ben Lee felt he could seize on his own...
Dirt poor
By Noel Vera
Video
Mudbound
Directed by Dees Rees
DEES REES’s Mudbound (2017), adapted from the novel by Hillary Jordan, tells the story of two families -- one...
And the rest is…
THE FILM BEGINS with the sound of cicadas rhythmically whirring over a black background. The sound cuts out, the film title (simple white letters) flashes on-screen. Cut to a vision of hell: a guard shrouded in steam stands beside a wood shelf containing severed heads. We are at the volcanic springs of Unzen, near Nagasaki, where friars are strung up on crosses and longhandled ladles with holes sprinkle boiling hot water on them, delicately poaching their skin. (Today of course the springs are a popular vacation resort).
Lost and found
By Noel B. Vera
DVD REVIEW
The Lost City of Z
Directed by James Gray
YOU WONDER looking at James Gray’s New York-based dramas where the producers got...
Game On: The most obsessively watched show on television begins its sixth season
The Binge
Jessica Zafra
WARNING: Here be dragons and spoilers.
It ended with a corpse, and it begins with a corpse. Then other corpses. Many, many corpses.
The...