Voice Cast: Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois, Patrick D’Assumcao
A story of Naoufel, a young man who is in love with Gabrielle. In another part of town, a severed hand escapes from a dissection lab, determined to find its body again. – IMDB
French animated features always seem to have a darkness to its overall premise. In this case, this upcoming Netflix France Original film (according to this poster is set to release in the end of November) follows two sides of a story. The first is the story of Nafouel, a pizza delivery boy having a bad day that ends up having a random conversation with a girl through a building intercom during a rain storm outside and is intrigued by this stranger and finds a way to approach her while on the other side, it follows a severed hand trying to go through the city to reunite with the body it belongs to. Its easy to see that these two stories are linked together and who this severed hand belongs to and yet, alternating between the two and having it converge at the end gives this film so much charm. Perhaps of the timeline jumping back and forth between the two that the story sometimes does have moments of disjointedness.
Somehow French animated films have such good grasp hitting those bizarre themes and finding just the right balance of humor to make it work. J’ai Perdu Mon Corps is a fine example of this. While Naoufel’s side of the story feels a bit awkward and maybe a tad sketchy if you think about the almost stalker-ish way he chooses to approach this girl. At the same time, he is somewhat of a rather unpleasant character or simply flawed and fairly shallow which is where this film falls short slightly. It all depends on how his character is viewed although there are some believable moments of clumsiness and his trying to work hard to get her attention and some missteps that he does which makes some funny moments. As I always like to mention, flawed characters to begin with makes for the better development characters as they have so much more room to grow and that definitely applies in this story.
Where it does shine right from the beginning is starting with how the severed hand is introduced and the moments of how it goes from location to location. There’s a lot of dark humor to be had, especially as it meets all kinds of things and dangers along the way and is essentially defenceless. Some come out with mostly unexpected outcomes and that just makes each step of its way back to the body that it belongs to even more rewarding in the end.
Overall, J’ai Perdu Mon Corps is exactly as its title hints at. The winning factor here is how it uses the whole concept of a severed hand and can create a rather charming and humorous story out of it. It fits into the whole charm of French animation that is a tad odd but still works out overall to have those dramatic moments as well. As a feature-length directorial debut for Jeremy Clapin, its definitely one that lands very well and has a unique premise.
J’ai Perdu Mon Corps will be hitting theatres for a limited release in US (November 15) and UK (November 22) and also hitting Netflix (for most countries) on November 29th (all based on research on the Internet, so please check or correct me in the comments if you have other more accurate info).
Welcome to the mid-April Weekly Adventures! Its a bit weird to call this the calm before the storm as we supposedly should have had a rain storm (there was a rainfall warning on The Weather Network) but it was a lot more mild than expected. Regardless, my meaning is that the first half of April was relatively calm but the second half of April is going to be crazy. I sometimes skip the month end April Adventures post because my life is going to be mostly work and more overtime work so just putting it out there in case, things get crazy. For now though, April was a little quiet, mostly because there weren’t any holidays and then nothing huge happened and I didn’t really do a whole lot of anything. Still, let’s see if I can rummage something to talk about. I will end with some little planning things I have set for myself in anticipation for some stuff down the line.
Restaurant ChuChai
I’m going to keep this short since I already did a small post on it before. ChuChai is a Thai vegan restaurant. It was a spontaneous visit to say the least while being in the area.
You can check out the entire Restaurant ChuChai post HERE.
Courses Thematiques Le Tour D’Horloge (& Old Montreal Stroll)
To be clear, my outdoor running season hasn’t started. I’ll talk about that at the end of the post. My friend’s that I help out has. This was a new one for him but it was a nice double race to start with a 5 km and 8 km. To be honest, I’m considering this one for next year, the 5km probably since its still early in the season and on the rare occasion, I’d have time to run in March. Either way, my friend did alright especially for the first outdoor races. However, I liked it mostly because I got to finally walk around during that time and take some nice pictures in Old Montreal. I work around the area but its not the same on a weekend morning or when its gloomy and stuff. The emptiness of it in some areas makes for some nice pictures. I only showed two with actual runners in the background. Talking about the race, the course looks pretty nice.
L’Instant at Casino De Montreal (again)
One of my friends are on a gaining casino points mission so its been all about taking advantage of the bonus points events so on the start of a gloomy weekend, we went out to have dinner. I finally got to try Fish & Chips there which was what I wanted to try last time but decided to choose the pasta instead. It was the special of the day and I don’t think its a permanent selection? I really don’t know the menu here at the L’Instant, the deli at the casino that well. Either way, it was pretty good. I only went to the casino to eat so it was pretty much in and out.
Upcoming Plans: Workout Plan
As the 2 months and one week countdown starts until my best friend’s wedding and I’m one of the bridesmaids, I need to lose some of my winter fat and get a little more in shape (at least to make sure that I can still get into the dress at the end of June. I have started walking the stairs to the office at our building and trying to not take the elevator. Its been pretty nice. The project coming up is finding a cardio and weights workout schedule that I know that I can stick to and try to eat more healthier. I’d like to start clean eating again but I’m not sure that I’m totally ready for it. Either way, I’m going to gradually try to get back to a more balanced diet, more veggies probably. Gardening season also starts soon and weather is starting to be good for running so I’m looking forward to putting some outdoors activities in as well as in May, hiking starts. So, I’ll work it out accordingly. Especially going to try to add in using the park workout stations facilities to incorporate something different to the running path. I won’t do a segment specifically for workout (too many segments right now) but I will do some updates here. 🙂
Cute Kitty Pic
That’s it for this Adventures post! Its been relatively calm lately and its nice since I’m enjoying the staying at home time.
Hopefully I keep up with posting (or getting things done in bulk beforehand) for the second half of April.
2019 is here! While not all movies have had their release dates (or I’m just not looking at the right places), here is my list of anticipated film releases in 2019 in the order of release date and not preference. These are all theatrical releases from various places on where I see from Canadian release dates. I haven’t looked into Netflix Originals or anything else. I would have wanted to spend some time looking at Foreign films as well but I’m going to stick with the mainstream films for now.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (February 22)
I am a huge fan of How to Train Your Dragon franchise. I thought the first film was fantastic and the second film was also pretty strong. At least it still kept the comedic tone and Toothless is always so fun to watch. I even loved it enough to watch the Christmas special. With the recent bit with Kit Harington, I have this newfound enthusiasm to check this one out. It might just be the first movie of 2019 that I head out to the theatres for.
Captain Marvel (March 8)
I’m super behind with Marvel movies. Well, maybe not super behind. I’m a few movies behind and I try to watch them in order of release since it all seems to link together if not it ends up having some plot points that get lost. However, Brie Larson is a pretty decent actress in the current Hollywood landscape so it will be nice to see how this role turns out.
Dumbo (March 29)
Tim Burton has had a bumpy ride on the Disney route. I personally never thought they were all that bad. However, I think that Dumbo and the psychedelic and darker themes works with Burton’s style. I’m interested to see where his imagination takes this film in the live action. I will do all that I can to see this especially since March is my birthday month so I’ve already requested the husband to go see Dumbo with me at the theatres.
Hellboy (April 12, 2019)
I’m kind of on the fence with Hellboy to be honest. The trailer has its issues that I’m not sure I’ll be running to the theatres to see this. BUT, it does have David Harbour and I like his style so maybe this might work out. Who knows, right? Plus, I love Milla Jovovich and she’s in this. April is kind of my crazy month so I might not end up seeing this in theatres but I’ll get around to it one way or another, especially since I’ll be catching up with the previous Hellboy because of Movies and Tea looking Guillermo Del Toro this season.
Pokemon Detective Pikachu (May 10)
I’m going to confess that I’m not much of a Pokemon fan mostly because I’m a Digimon fan. Does it really matter to make a difference? Not really. However, this trailer was so awesome. The voice acting for Pikachu and the whole tone of it works so well. It looks like a fun time and I love having fun watching movies.
John Wick 3: Parabellum (May 17)
I’m not sure which is a legit trailer for John Wick 3 or whether one has been released yet when I searched it up on Youtube so I’m just going to leave it as is for now. I just caught up with John Wick: Chapter 2 over the holidays and loved it almost as much as the first one. As I was talking to my husband about this, Keanu Reeves may have more of a renowned role with Neo and The Matrix Trilogy but in terms of a solid and great character, I have to argue that John Wick is so much better plus the movie franchise is much more solid than how The Matrix unravels. I have to watch a John Wick film in theatres so I’m going to try my absolute best to get to the theatres to see this one.
Aladdin (May 24)
I love Aladdin! I’m not sure how I feel about Aladdin without Robin Williams as the voice of Genie but Disney is doing the whole live action trend of all the animated Disney films. I’m usually pretty happy with most of how it goes, although I have to admit the rewatchability sometimes doesn’t have the same appeal as its animated version. Aladdin’s teaser trailer looks nice visually but the trailer doesn’t really show much else except a nice twist to the music in an orchestral way. I wonder if it’ll still be the fantastic musical elements that are from the animated film because that made Aladdin memorable for me. The story was a fun adventure but still, we’ll have to see when possibly another trailer comes out to see how its going to be approached.
Godzilla: God of Monsters (May 31)
Having a Godzilla film on my list seems odd as I haven’t watched any Godzilla films before and I know nothing about Godzilla except what it looks like and what my podcast co-host Elwood talks to me about it as he is very knowledgeable about it. However, I loved the two trailers that has been released for this. Its look really good and fits the blockbuster grandeur especially with its visuals and its cast as well.
The Lion King (July 19)
The Lion King is an epic film. I’ve seen the animated film a ton of times and I’ve seen the Broadway on Tour when it was at Place des Arts in Montreal a few years ago. So, count me in for this one. This one does land right smack in between Fantasia Film Festival so I might have to get creative to see it in theatres, of course, that depends whether I get media coverage again, right? Regardless, this one looks really cool even if its just a teaser trailer.
Hobbs and Shaw (August 2)
And then we head into the unknown territory which is slated but no trailers yet. I’m a huge fan of Fast and the Furious franchise and some of the later movies truly had a lot of fun because of Vin Diesel but I loved them a lot for Dwayne Johnson’s character as Hobbs. He fits the character so well so having a spinoff with him and Jason Statham’s character Shaw is fantastic. It sounds like a lot of fun just in the action and one-liner department. No trailers yet but definitely looking forward to seeing one eventually to have a better idea.
IT: Chapter 2 (September 6)
I liked IT: Chapter 1 a ton. The more I think about it, the more I think it did a really good job. I still think that a part of me would’ve liked the strengths of the new and the old to combine and then it would have been the perfect movie. However, just for the Pennywise design and the horrors it was able to achieve in Chapter 1 makes me curious to see where it takes Chapter 2 especially with a pretty decent cast with Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy and so on.
Zombieland 2 (October 11)
Ten years later Zombieland was released, we’re FINALLY getting Zombieland 2. I’m a huge fan of Zombieland and I rewatch it every once in a while for fun. That movie was awesome in so many ways. I’m not sure how its going to translate after 10 years or just what direction its going to take. I am happy that the original cast is back and hopefully it’ll be able to still pull off the same fun appeal even if some of the cast has done some cringe-y roles in other films over the last 10 years and has changed as well. We’ll just have to see if they can pull off the same vibe or at least the same vibe but maybe a little more mature. Full confidence in Woody Harrelson being still as awesome though.
Honorable Mention:
Malek (January 18)
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (February 8)
Avengers: Endgame (April 26)
Toy Story 4 (June 21)
The New Mutants (August 2)
And we’re back for another weekly adventures! Excited? Don’t be. I’m being honest. I was looking back at the last two weeks and realized I actually have nothing to talk about today as recap. I got sick for one of those weeks which resulted in nothing much getting done and everything falling behind. Then, the past week has been recovering and massive overtime at work causing everything to fall even more behind. I can’t say its been incredibly productive! HOWEVER….don’t like my sassy self get in the way because if we aren’t looking back, we can always talk about some stuff I keep forgetting to talk about or have been on my mind and some new ideas I’m working on plus some upcoming events I’m heading out to and maybe toss in a progress report.
PC Troubles
And the plague of my PC for myself finally happened. I actually forgot to talk about it in my last weekly adventures post. Its has truly hindered the Game Warp side of things. The short version is that the GPU port on my motherboard died so now my graphics card can’t work. With that said, if I want to keep my current rig, then I have to change my motherboard which is apparently older gen so its hard to replace and if I change it, then the CPU needs to ve changed as well along with something else that I can’t remember. The hardest part here is the whole crytocurrency thing is causing everything in the PC anatomy to be overinflated so I have divised a few alternate solutions since the graphics card side of things needs to get up and running. Either way, Tranquil Dreams is not really affected except my frustration over the situation is getting me a little down so I am digging deep for some positivity. First world problems, right? I know. It just feels like a lot of crap this year especially with some things I can’t talk about.
Now with the crappy part out of the way, lets move on to better things…
Ultimate 70s Blogathon
In the last post, I talked about an announcement and it was the Ultimate 70s Blogathon announcement. Me and Drew’s 3rd installment of the Ultimate Decades theme. If you missed it, you can find the post here. There is still time to participate if you are interested. You can find the info here.
Upcoming Video Segments
In the last Meowbox post, I talked about having a break in the unboxing segment temporarily. With that said, I am getting some slow traction every little while so I will continue trying to capture small clips at events but I have decided to bring back permanently the Whats Up Wednesday segment except in a video format so it will be a quick look at what I’m reading, watching and playing and if there is time then I might do quick reviews of what I have finished. It will not be as fleshed out as the reviews I write. I am currently working on the structure of the segment and hopefully will do every other week that weekly adventures doesn’t happen. I’m even debating whether I would want to do it every week but then some weeks are quite slow. With that said, its not going to just be me staring at the camera because I’m not sure I’m that much fun to look at but I’ll add some fun screenshots and videos for stuff if I can. Like I said, still working on the details. I would however love to hear what you think about this idea.
I’m working on maybe doing more videos since I find some zen in video editing lately so its a direction that I’d like to work on more frequently. I think its a good spot to start since I’ve learned that I’m really not much of a vlogging type as I tend to just sit around and ramble on about nothing much.
Valentine’s Marathon/Torture Fest Take 2
As per our tradition, February calls on the Valentine’s Marathon. For some of you following a little longer, you will know that I go for love and romance but not necessarily romantic comedies all the time. It really depends how I feel. Of course, it was supposed to start today so I’ll try to get something going up today. A few years back, I did a Torture Fest sort of thing where I watched through Nicholas Sparks adaptations. To my surprise, it was not as bad as I expected. But I’m a romantic so I have a fairly high tolerance for it. This year, we’re bringing it back with the very dreaded challenge to watch through the Twilight franchise! Its going to take more than the 14 days till Valentine’s Day but consider it a little side project between the Valentine’s Marathon and Ultimate 70s Blogathon. Ultimate 70s Blogathon will cut the marathon a little short depending on how we schedule things. If you have any movies you’d like me to watch, preferably available on Netflix but then, I owe a lot of movies that I plan on watching if no one suggests anything that I have access to.
A few titles I have right now are: What If, Before We Go, Age of Adaline, Equals, The Vow…all subject to change obviously 😉
Upcoming Events
Events season is just around the corner. With some exhibits that has caught my eye in both Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, we’re thinking about the game plan. One of these locations are already fairly set. Here’s a general list of events we are looking at:
Montreal: Montreal Joue Festival (February 24), The Art of Animation (ends April 2)
Ottawa: Dreamworks Animation: The Exhibition (ends April 8), Mosaivernales (ends March 4)
Toronto: EGLX (March 9 to 11)
There’s some fun stuff coming around and I’m sure some event or another is slipping my mind.
That’s it for this Weekly Adventures! Expect some other posts going up maybe later today as I strive to catch up with all the backlog from 2 weeks of falling behind!
Tranquil Dreams 