(no subject)

My review for Organize Your Corpses is up on Reviewing the Evidence.

Also, I found the TSA "Hi, we riffled through your bag" note at the bottom of the Barbie Memorial Suitcase when I unpacked. And I do mean *bottom* - they took stuff out to put it in. I suppose that a brand-new, eye-catching suitcase full of plastic rectangles (it had all three bento boxes, plus books, plus the huge cardboard box with M's birthday present) might raise eyebrows at the scanner. But I'm still a bit miffed.

However, there's nothing missing and very little disarranged. Still glad I put the foil pouches in my carryon, though.

Fic Recs, once removed

Both fajrdrako and wendymr have a huge list of fic recs up. I have no idea when I'll be able to read through 'em, but I trust their judgement, so I'm passing the links on.

Lots of Jack fic, both Who and Torchwood.
Fics recommended from Teaspoon. I particularly like posts like this because I barely have the time to keep up with LJ and thus use Teaspoon mostly to just archive my fic. I have no idea who the good writers are there who don't also post on LJ, and appreciate the pointer. (Do keep doing that, Wendy!)

Hooray for Bollywood!

This is actually a message to jennetj pursuant to a conversation in Stratford, but I'm assuming that all y'all are just fascinated by my every wierdness and opinion. :>

Bollywood Movies What I Recommend:

Lagaan - the granddaddy of 'em all; the one that got me and many another person into Bollywood. (And if you were a Dresden Files fan, the same guy who played Harry plays the villain in this. And in Bollywood, the villains are amazing stinkers.) Back in the days of the British Raj, the young man of the Indian village has had enough of being smacked around by the snotty British leader of the local outpost. A cricket challenge is proposed. If the Indians win, they get off from paying their taxes (lagaan) for the year. If they lose, they owe triple.

For Bollywood, this is low on random melodrama and pasted-on songs. The plot keeps ticking along, throwing in wrinkle after wrinkle. It's an Indian movie made in India about Indians - is it really a surprise how the game turns out? - but the movie still had me on the edge of my seat for every wicket.

Lage Raho Munna Bhai - another gateway movie that I recommend. Much lighter than Lagaan, this is about a low-level hoodlum who has a crush on a DJ. When she announces that the winner of a contest about the life of Ghandi will get to meet her in the studio, Munna Bhai rigs the result. He manages to impress her so much that she invites him to start giving discussions on Ghandi. To make sure that he isn't outed, he starts studying... to the point that he suddenly finds Ghandi himself appearing to give him advice.

This is a flat-out comedy, and thus the plot isn't as tight at Lagaan's. But it's really hilarious, so if your interests are lighter, go for it as your gateway.

Mujshe Dosti Karoge - Cyrano de Bergerac, with a gender flip and as a comedy. Three kids were growing up together; the boy moves to England, asking the pretty girl to keep in contact with him. It's her "plainer" friend who actually does all the writing for the next 10 years, but does he realize that when he comes back to India? Does she declare herself? Not with 2 more hours of movie to go!

Chori Chori - a ripoff of an American movie that I've never seen, he's an architect who's building his dreamhouse. She's a con artist who needs a new place to stay in a hurry, so she heads out to the remote village where his house stands and announces that she's his wife while he's away...

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai Very famous. Very corny. Very fun. Boy has a tomboy best friend in college who loves him, but *he* loves the pretty girl. So when he proposes to her, the tomboy takes herself out of his life. But the pretty girl dies in childbirth, leaving behind eight letters for her daughter, to be read on her birthday. Letter number eight tells the story of their college days, and orders the child to find the tomboy and make sure they marry...

The fromage factor is huge, but how can you not love a movie that has a scene of a woman playing basketball in full sari?

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge - reputedly the longest running movie in the world. If you liked the couple from the previous movie, here they are back again in a different movie. (Not as the same people.) She promises her ultra-traditional father that she will go to India for the marriage he arranged if he'll only give her one last thing - a trip to Europe with her college friends. While on the trip she meets a loud, rude, annoying (besotted) boy who will follow her to India, promising to marry her, but only when he can convince her father to agree to the wedding. The fromage factor is HUGE, the the dance numbers colorful, and the plot is both thin and rather incomprehensible... but you'll be having too much fun to quibble.

Some of these movies I've also reviewed under the Bollywood tag. All of them are available on Netflix.