Hope (2026)

Directed by Na Hong-jin (The Wailing, The Chaser), Hope is a chaotic, long (2 hours and 37 minutes), dark comedy and sci-fi action film set in Hopo ("Hope") Port, a remote Korean mining village. And that's where we join the story.

Everyone's getting paranoid in the village and signs near the border warn residents to watch for infiltrators, the inference being clear! Local police chief Beom-seok (Hwang Jung-min) and hunter Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) find a huge cow or bull on a rural road, which has been brutally mutilated. The locals start a hunt, convinced at first that it's a bear, before ruling that out in favour of a tiger!

They are alerted to chaos in the middle of the village where most people live and the shops reside. It's chaotic because people are being mauled, killed, maimed and disfigured by what they still think at this stage to be a tiger. Our police chief bravely goes on the hunt, assisted by various people along the way, running through the streets and leaping into buildings while dodging flying debris and victims, with the perpetrator always just out of sight. In fact, we're teased for 45 minutes into the film before we start to get a peep at the alien creature - but the tension is often handled well.

Our chief's sidekick at the station is Sung-ae (Hoyeon), a spunky young woman who turns up on the scene in a police car packed with weapons and ammunition to help him stop this creature once and for all. We then enter a stretch of the film where the pair are in the police car, blazing at high speed through the streets, pursued at equal speed by the creature as they lean out of the windows to try and shoot it! I didn't time it, but it felt like nearly half an hour of breakneck car chasing and shooting!

The creature is an oddly shaped, giant 10-foot-tall alien warrior with some features that look almost human. Sung-ae manages during the car chase to blow off half of the creature's leg, which slows it down a bit, but the village is destroyed because of all this - with most of the population dead or in the local makeshift hospital space!

While all the above is going on, Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) and a posse of his hunters venture into the forested mountains, where they are conducting their own series of chases as we discover that our alien wrecking the village wasn't alone. But enough of the spoilers, enjoy the unfolding for yourself! I will say, however, that two of them are played by some familiar non-Korean names. The pair are even married in real life - J’aur is played by Alicia Vikander and Ma’veyyo by Michael Fassbender. So there's that to watch out for.

The film switches rapidly from a straightforward tale of monster-invasion/hunting into a dark comedy of errors, in fact. Other villagers come forward with new information about what they have seen in the woods over the previous weeks, which pads out the story and gives the reveals and outcomes some substance. And there is an explainer at the end (as well as a cliffhanger of sorts, leaving the door open for a sequel), bonkers as it might be!

There are also some half-arsed "messages" in the mix about humans, relationships, power struggles, rage, family values, racism, selfishness and selflessness, as well as understanding and kindness. Not that it's in any way soppy! It's very much a high-octane survival actioner with explosions, crashes, death, gore, blood, decapitations and body-horror bits that will keep a person on the edge of their seat for much of the duration - and yes, for me, that long runtime flew by, even with subtitles slowing my brain down a bit!

Having said all that, it is quite an absurd plot with plenty of inconsistencies along the way for those who want to pick at it, but it is also very funny at times. For example, there's an unfeasibly long dialogue in the middle of the film when a man describes his recent experience in the woods when he had seen some of the above, but was desperate for a shit and couldn't do it while trying to keep quiet! So there is plenty of good, nutty entertainment all round!

In terms of acting, everyone played their part and played it well. The main leads did an excellent and absurdly convincing job! On production notes, it seems that Na Hong-jin spent years developing the film with primary backing from Plus M Entertainment and it was mostly filmed across South Korea. A final word goes to cinematographer Hong Kyeong-pyo (also the cinematographer of Parasite and Burning) for having made the most of the landscape and working with the team to make the special effects somewhat convincing too. Great film. Really enjoyed it. It's only at cinemas just now, but apparently coming to streaming in the UK in about a month from the time of writing.

The Social Reckoning (2026) - A Guest Review by Chad Dixon

This is a dramatisation, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, covering important true events from very recent history that highlight how a certain social media platform has allowed the very worst of humanity to extend well beyond its grasp.

Starting just before the global pandemic of 2020, Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) was a highly intelligent young data engineer who was quite new to the Civic Integrity team at Facebook. She soon started noting that company analytics showed people were quickly being radicalised towards extreme political views by the types of content pushed into their feeds. It became clear that the social network she had initially looked up to was starting to seriously lose its way.

The man at the very top, Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong), held a position on free speech absolutism that looked very much like it was allowing the organisation to platform increasingly dangerous groups using the site to spread the worst kinds of misinformation. Meanwhile, Jeff Horowitz (Jeremy Allen White), a well-respected investigative journalist at The Wall Street Journal's West Coast Bureau, was looking to expose what was happening at Facebook, but needed an inside source.

After much effort, he finally made contact with Frances via LinkedIn. During an eventual clandestine meet-up, it was clear it would be difficult for her to explain exactly how the company's engagement algorithm works, but after a few more meetings, the initially reluctant Haugen became more open as her disillusionment grew.

Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong (a total acting chameleon) are all brilliant in a nicely paced film that definitely doesn't outstay its 1h 52m runtime. I could easily have handled another half hour or so of the instantly recognisable Sorkin screenplay. I'm not too sure if his attempt here as director is quite as good as his writing, though, as David Fincher's work on The Social Network (2010) is far superior. (The two films certainly make a great double bill, though.)

Tenzing (2026)

Directed by Australian filmmaker Jennifer Peedom (Sherpa, Mountain) and written by Luke Davies (Lion), Tenzing reframes the historic 1953 Everest expedition by focusing the story on the Nepalese-Indian Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, rather than treating him as a secondary sidekick to wealthy British aristocrats with nothing better to do with their money than seek out adventure!

The film opens in the 1920s with a young Tenzing working as a yak herder in Nepal, mesmerised by Mount Everest - known locally as Chomolungma. After early encounters with British climbers like George Mallory, he builds a reputation as an unparalleled high-altitude porter and climber. Years later, burdened by personal tragedy, including the loss of his wife and raising his daughters, Tenzing is hired for the 1953 British attempt on Everest by expedition leader Colonel John Hunt (portrayed by Willem Dafoe, who plays the stuck-up ex-British Army toff admirably). Facing class discrimination and imperial arrogance from the British establishment, Tenzing fights to be recognised as an equal member of the assault team rather than simply hired labour.

High on the mountain, amid mutiny among porters, severe hypoxia, frostbite and closing weather windows, Tenzing forms a deep bond with New Zealander Edmund Hillary (played with equal warmth and charm by Tom Hiddleston), a fellow outsider. Hillary is portrayed as being just as disconnected from the monied upper-class Brits as Tenzing. Together, they brave the summit push, reaching the highest point on Earth on 29 May 1953, as history tells us.

The film jumps in and out of Tenzing's personal life through flashbacks, telling the story of his youth, how he was abandoned by his family against their will, how he met his wife Dawa (played by Thinley Lhamo), and the prejudices he suffered as a non-native in Nepal. The film tracks his spirituality and deep-rooted inner connection with the mountain, but it's not done intrusively, nor does it detract from the flow of the story. Genden Phuntsok plays Tenzing Norgay outstandingly well in the lead, capturing Norgay's quiet dignity and physical resilience admirably.

It's a very well-delivered drama, a thriller at times, a compelling slice of history and has some sharp things to say about the British mentality of the day: prejudice, power, money and enforced class differences. It's deeply moving at times and brilliantly acted by the whole cast. It's certainly a step up from any other film I've seen depicting this tale of courage, and well worth a look. It has just landed on Apple TV+.

There are some details in the dramatisation that meander away from the truth, but the bones are all in place. For example, his first wife, Dawa Phuti, passed away in 1944 in Darjeeling. During the 1953 climb, Tenzing was actually married to his second wife, Ang Lahmu, who played a key diplomatic role in managing expedition relations - all of which was left out. However, the production was developed with direct oversight and approval from Tenzing's family, including his son, Tenzing Norbu, ensuring the film respected Sherpa spiritual tradition regarding Chomolungma as a sacred entity rather than just a peak to be conquered. Following the historical event, both Norgay and Hillary maintained for years that they reached the summit together as a team, though Hillary later clarified he stepped onto the apex a few paces ahead. The film, however, rightly focuses on their mutual dependency and joint triumph.

Director Jennifer Peedom brought decades of high-altitude documentary experience to the project. Principal photography took place on location in Nepal, including Kathmandu and the Khumbu/Everest region, before shifting to New Zealand for alpine visual sequences. Rather than relying solely on green-screen soundstages, the production shot real physical environments in extreme weather conditions, giving the mountain sequences palpable tension, severe wind, and true physical strain.

Moto Sound Flow Speakers

I reported on these great-sounding and clever speakers within my review of the Razr 70 Ultra recently when I declared them as being fabulous, even if there were a few software quirks needing sorting out. That's not been done yet, but regardless, for a person not changing phones every 5 minutes, like me, the issues won't be a problem. As a reminder, the issues were that when changing phones, by far the best way to switch these speakers is to simply reset them and start again. As I say, not a problem for most people with a single phone.

I see that they're still £179 each on Motorola's UK website, but they're currently available on Amazon for £145 and I've seen them on eBay, for example, for as low as £99. At that price, if you have an UWB Moto phone which supports all the clever stuff, it's a no brainer - get a pair! Even if you don't have a Signature, Razr 70 Ultra, Razr 60 Ultra or Edge 50 Ultra, they still sound fabulous once you set them up with the Moto Sound Flow app. The clever stuff you miss out on, I'll come to. At the outset, I'd suggest heading for the online manual and following the steps very carefully!

The speaker features a twill-textured fabric around the outside, giving it a lovely feel with some heft at 581g, accompanied by an IP67 rating. As a single standalone unit connected via standard Bluetooth, it delivers 30W of output (10W tweeter, 20W woofer, dual passive radiators) tuned by Bose. Classical music, orchestral, solo piano and jazz sound quite superb, with plenty of volume on tap.

In the box you get a delightful disk-shaped desktop dock with pogo pins providing 15W of power via USB-C, alongside an extra USB-C port on the speaker itself for direct charging. The 6,000mAh battery is rated for up to 12 hours off-base, though in my tests at 33% volume it lost about 5% per hour, meaning 20 hours is achievable at lower volumes. The top controls feature a illuminated Moto 'M' logo that handles play/pause, pairing, and call management, flanked by volume buttons, a microphone mute switch and a light ring that indicates status and volume levels in various colours. Downloading that Moto Sound Flow App gives you EQ controls, battery monitoring and unlocks Wi-Fi/UWB playback (if you have the right Moto phone, see above).

When you fire up a second speaker and pair them with a compatible UWB-enabled phone, you unlock those unique spatial features. Dynamic Stereo uses UWB to track your phone's physical position in 3D space between the two speakers, micro-adjusting phase, balance and spatial delay so the virtual soundstage centre stays pinned directly in front of you as you walk around the room. Room Shift allows audio to automatically hand off to whichever speaker you are closest to if placed in different rooms, while Proximity Handoff transfers audio directly from your phone or Moto Buds when brought near a speaker.

To test this, place the speakers about 7ft apart facing into the room, open the app, create a 'Stereo Pair' and toggle Dynamic Stereo on. Standing 5 or 6ft back, you hear the singer's voice right in the middle. As you walk toward the left speaker, instead of the sound collapsing into that single channel, the UWB chip detects your movement and adjusts timing so the soundstage remains floating directly in front of your face. It tricks your ears into perceiving that the main channel stays centred wherever you stand - a subtle, acoustic transparency trick rather than a flashy gimmick.

The software is very smart as it throws the sound around bringing new life to words 'stereo' and 'soundstage'. I'm not sure that I've heard anything like it before without headphones in the mix and I'm constantly amazed - so much so that I have one at each end of my desk and use them all-day, every-day! If you don't have a supporting phone, you still get amazing stereo but, yes, miss out on those higher-reaching functions. So there's an excuse to buy a new Moto as well!

To be fair, I should not that this very clever stuff is built into these specific Moto phones so having a phone which has a physical UWB radio isn't enough. Motorola’s Dynamic Stereo and Room Shift rely on proprietary code built into Moto's firmware. Connecting a non-Moto UWB phone still delivers rich Wi-Fi/Bluetooth stereo playback, but omits the dynamic spatial tracking. And it's also worth noting that the setup process inside the app requires patience, as I hinted earlier. It operates as a bit of a black box with long, uninformative pauses between steps where users might assume it has frozen. My advice is to get one speaker set up, turn it off, pair the second individually, turn both back on and then create the Stereo Pair in the app.

Furthermore, there is an Android media routing quirk when playing audio across the room. If you tap the Quick Settings media card to switch audio back to "This Device" and stop playing music for 30 minutes, Android clears the temporary override. The next time you hit play, Android sees the active Bluetooth standby link and routes your audio right back out to the speakers in the other room! To reliably break the hold, you need to quickly toggle Bluetooth off and on, or explicitly disconnect via the main Bluetooth settings menu.

These software quirks aside - which Moto will undoubtedly refine through firmware updates - the Sound Flow speakers sound fantastic, and the Wi-Fi streaming integration means incoming phone calls stay on your phone without interrupting music playing for everyone else in the room.

I highly recommend these speakers. Even if you only want one, it sounds great, has protection from the elements and a good battery life - you'll love the sound, I assure you! But yes, for me, the system comes to life if you grab a second one. Even more so if you have a Moto phone to make the most of all the smart stuff these speakers are capable of. And on top of that, the 'cloth' that surrounds the speakers is gorgeous to the touch - very classy - and each one comes with that charging dock and cable.

Body of Lies (2008)

Ridley Scott’s film here is a frantically paced, globe-trotting espionage thriller that doesn't waste any time letting the viewer settle into their seat! It's relentless and leaps unceremoniously between countries and situations in the blink of an eye. All sorts of world cities - one minute our main characters are in one place, the next across the globe somewhere else - breakneck speed! So important to pay attention so as to not miss a crucial part of the complex puzzle, double-crossing and counter-intelligence schemes. Hold onto your hat!

Roger Ferris, played by Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another, Catch Me If You Can), is a CIA operative working on the ground in the Middle East, attempting to track down Al-Saleem, the mastermind behind a series of terrorist bombings across Europe. Ferris’s immediate supervisor is Ed Hoffman, played by Russell Crowe (Nuremberg), a cynical, armchair-bound CIA chief who manages operations via satellite link and earbud from the comfort of his suburban American life, dropping kids off at school while casually greenlighting high-stakes tactical strikes!

To penetrate Al-Saleem’s elusive, low-tech network - which deliberately avoids digital communications to bypass American surveillance - Ferris must form a fragile alliance with Hani Salaam, played by Mark Strong (The Captor/Stockholm, 6 Days), the suave and impeccably-dressed head of Jordanian Intelligence. Salaam operates on a strict moral code: total honesty and absolute control. However, Hoffman’s constant interference behind Ferris’s back threatens to destroy the operation. Amidst the chaos and deception, Ferris develops a connection with Aisha, played by the lovely and talented Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson, About Elly), a compassionate Iranian nurse who happens to treat him in Amman for an injury, adding a personal touch to the story (and actually one which ends up switching the bold and in-control Ferris into something more human)!

The film shows us a very interesting snapshot of mid-2000s military tech, contrasting drone feeds and encrypted satellite comms with the low-tech counter-tactics of terrorists operating entirely offgrid - and being stuck with Nokia 'dumbphones' to communicate with! It offers an interesting commentary on modern warfare (for the day) - Russell Crowe’s Hoffman barking ruthless orders into a headset while pushing a baby stroller in Washington, while Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ferris gets his hands dirty in the dust, violence and chaos on the ground.

There's a great ensemble cast here. DiCaprio turns in a great performance as a man constantly caught in the crossfire of competing agendas. Crowe is almost comically insufferable as the detached, manipulative bureaucrat. However, it is Mark Strong who effortlessly steals every scene he is in as Hani Salaam - portraying a quiet, lethal authority with impeccable style. Golshifteh Farahani brings a much-needed warmth and nuance to the story as Aisha, offering a human contrast to the cynical stuff going on around her - and she even introduces some more comic moments as she takes Ferris to dinner at her sister's house!

Because it leaps about all over the place, it doesn't help the viewer to keep up really. The threads of the plot and who's who can feel a bit tangled on a single viewing, but the super direction, brutal action stuff here and there and great performances keep it engaging from start to finish. Despite the 'old' tech, it really doesn't feel that 'dated' and is certainly an edge-of-the-seat thriller from start to finish. Consequently, the two hours and 8-minute runtime simply flew!

A bit of background research also brings out a few interesting elements. The satellite surveillance sequences were rendered with high visual authenticity. Ridley Scott worked closely with advisors to portray CIA drone feeds and tracking software as accurately as possible for the era. While the story spans Iraq, Jordan, Qatar and Dubai, much of the Middle Eastern footage was actually shot on location in Morocco, taking advantage of its varied urban backdrop and established film infrastructure.

The film was shot in around 65 days, moving at a relentless pace that mirrors the frantic energy on screen(!) and Russell Crowe gained about 4 stone in weight for his role in order to reflect the sedentary, middle-aged bureaucrat who spends his days eating fast food and managing covert strikes from an office chair or family car.

Apparently DiCaprio did many of his own stunts, including a brutal interrogation and explosion sequences - even suffering minor injuries - and then there's Golshifteh again, who became the first Iranian actor living in Iran to star in a major Hollywood production since 1979. Her appearance in the film created significant political backlash at home, ultimately leading to her relocating to France. I was only really in it for her, as usual!

Last Night (1998)

This film takes place on 31st December in Toronto during the final six hours before an anticipated global catastrophe, which is due to happen at midnight. The year is not stated, but it feels very turn-of-the-millennium, especially based on its release date. What is coming is never explained - the what, the why or the how. When interviewed, director Don McKellar said that the perpetual sun, even near midnight, implies some kind of cosmic event, like a shift in Earth's axis, the Earth heading into the Sun or a supernova! But as we find out later, it doesn't really matter much.

The initial waves of panic, rioting and social chaos have passed (so presumably people had plenty of notice before the film's 6pm start time), leaving a quiet, eerie calm as ordinary people choose how to spend their last hours. We follow a group of individuals, focusing on the drama unfolding around and between them.

Sandra, played quite brilliantly by Sandra Oh (Killing Eve, Grey's Anatomy), is trying to get across town to meet her husband, Duncan, played by the David Cronenberg (The Shrouds, Shivers, The Brood, The Fly). He's not in it much - more of a cameo, really, as the head of the local gas company - so they can fulfil a formal suicide pact together at midnight. She leaps from disaster to disaster on her quest to get to him, eventually hooking up with Patrick Wheeler, played by Don McKellar (eXistenZ, Blindness), a grieving widower who wants nothing more than to spend his final hours completely alone in his apartment. He leaves an awkward 'last xmas' dinner with his family and avoids his hedonistic best friend Craig, played by Callum Keith Rennie (Star Trek: Discovery, Memento), who is systematically crossing off every item on his sexual fantasy bucket list by shagging one woman each hour!

Amidst this chaos, Sandra's car gets written off, which is why she ends up with Patrick, who reluctantly tries to help her reach her husband. In a nutty subplot, Patrick is also wildly attracted to her (and maybe she, him)! Meanwhile, husband Duncan remains stuck at work, meticulously calling every gas customer to assure them their utility service will stay on right until midnight.

The early scenes in Patrick's house are remarkably well-observed and funny as the family tries to pretend that the end of the world is 'like' xmas. It must therefore be treated as such, complete with a huge turkey dinner, a decorated room and wrapped presents containing family mementos from the past, accompanied by plenty of reminiscing. The two old ladies in this scene are genuinely funny, too. So anyway, we race across town with Sandra and Patrick, interrupted by Craig here and there, fending off people behaving badly with no inhibitions - given there are clearly no consequences left for their actions.

So what's it all about, apart from the obvious blurb above? McKellar left the details of what was happening unstated because he felt sci-fi explanations would distract from the film's core theme: if humanity has no power to stop the end, the how and why don't matter. What matters is how we treat one another when there are no long-term consequences left. The bright, washed-out sunlight reflects the fact that there are no 'dark corners' left to hide in and the tragedy of the characters' focus isn't dying - it's dying alone. A suicide pact, fear, obligation, warmth, vulnerability and the human touch in the final hours of existence.

Sandra Oh's performance as Sandra earned her the Genie Award for Best Actress (Canada's highest film honour at the time), apparently. Her frantic energy provides the perfect foil to Don McKellar’s deadpan, introverted performance. David Cronenberg’s character's quiet, tragic obsession with customer service during the apocalypse is one of the film’s best subplots. The supporting cast features a raft of Canadian icons, including a young Sarah Polley (Dawn of the Dead, eXistenZ) as Patrick’s rebellious sister Jennifer and Callum Keith Rennie delivering that delightfully wacko performance as Craig!

Made on a modest budget of $2.2 million CAD, its claustrophobic, ambient Toronto soundscapes and overexposed cinematography were designed specifically to stretch every dollar. And a final bit of trivia: Edgar Wright cited Last Night as a key influence on the tone for Shaun of the Dead, showing how mundane, everyday human behaviours persist even in catastrophic settings.

It's a darkly funny take on the apocalypse, sad here and there, poignant and moving at times, but always prioritising human connection over Hollywood mega-disaster tropes! It is certainly worth a watch, and the hour and a half flew by as we await the deadline to see what happens! Available on physical media if you can track it down, widely available on streaming in North America, and at the time of writing, someone has uploaded it to YouTube as well.

PodHubUK Podcasts: End of an Era

       

...a roundup of our month of podcasting. Links to the team, communities and podcast homes on the net at the foot, so scroll down!

End of an Era indeed as I realised that I've been posting these lists of our podcasts on 1st each month now for exactly 6 years. September 2020 I started.

...and not once has anyone commented on the posts or shown any interest in the slightest, so - well, I give up. Let apathy follow lethargy. Or is it the other way round?! Either way, I can't be arsed any longer for no return. Clearly nobody is interested! If you are, and I'm wrong, then just bookmark my blog, and/or join our MeWe Groups as they're all posted there anyway. Links are all below. See you around. Or maybe not.

The Podcasts

Phones Show Chat (PSC) - Whatever Works - Projector Room - Tech Addicts - PSC Photography

The MeWe Community Groups (follow the links to join up)

Phones Show Chat (PSC) - Whatever Works - Projector Room - PSC Photos - PSC Camera Creations - Tech Addicts

The Team
Ted Salmon - Aidan Bell - Steve Litchfield - Gareth Myles - Joe Hickey - Chris Clayton - Ian Bundey - Charlie Winston

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

This was one of the few Studio Ghibli films I had not seen up to now - strangely, as it might be one of the titles most admired and talked about, apart from perhaps Spirited Away (2001). This one's a harrowing tale of war, poverty, pride and loss based on the real-life experience of the book's author (more on that later). Once again, I'm not going to try and hide spoilers here in order to have my say fully. So Spoiler Alert - watch it first!

The film's original Japanese title is Hotaru no Haka, and it's a story set at the very tail-end of WWII in Kobe, Japan. We join a small family - mum, son and daughter - as they duck and dive into shelters with air-raid sirens blasting while wave after wave of American B-29 Superfortress bombers drop their payloads. The campaign targeted major Japanese industrial cities, including Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka and Nagoya, between March and August 1945. The family lives in a large residential district in houses made of wood and paper, making matters worse and the bombings ended up with over 100,000 people left homeless and thousands dead in a single day.

In actual fact, we need to step back a bit because the real opening scene of the film depicts tragedy in advance of our story. A teenage boy named Seita (the son) dies of starvation surrounded by indifferent passersby. A janitor clears Seita's belongings and throws away a rusty fruit-sweet tin. When it hits the ground, the spirit of Seita's four-year-old sister, Setsuko (the daughter), emerges alongside a cloud of fireflies. Reunited as spirits, they board a ghostly train, reflecting on the months leading up to their deaths. So there's the major spoiler to end all spoilers!

Anyway, back to June 1945 during these air raids: we see Seita bury some supplies in the very wet yard of their home while sending his mum ahead to the bomb shelter. The air raid destroys their home and neighbourhood. Afterward, Seita finds his mother at an emergency medical station, critically burned across her entire body. She dies shortly after, though Seita hides her death from Setsuko to shield her from grief. Seita is significantly older than Setsuko, so amid all this chaos, it's up to him to try and protect her as they slip into survival mode.

Incidentally, their dad is a sailor away serving in the Imperial Japanese Navy. With little choice, the siblings head for their aunt's house in Nishinomiya. At first, things are manageable, but as food shortages worsen, the aunt grows increasingly bitter and resentful. She criticises Seita for not working or contributing to the war effort and accuses both of them of eating food they didn't earn or deserve. She's a nasty piece of work when under pressure and eventually forces Seita to sell his mother’s silk kimonos to buy rice. When Setsuko tells Seita how unhappy she is there, they decide to leave. They make home in an abandoned, damp lakeside bomb shelter. Initially, life feels peaceful. They catch fireflies at night to illuminate their shelter. However, the next morning, Setsuko digs a small grave for the dead fireflies, revealing that she already knew their mum had died because their aunt told her.

As summer progresses, their food runs out completely. Seita starts stealing crops from local farmers and looting homes during air raids. When caught and beaten by a farmer, the local police release Seita, recognising his desperation. Setsuko's health severely deteriorates - she suffers from chronic diarrhoea, skin sores and even hallucinations caused by malnutrition. Desperate, Seita withdraws all the remaining money in his mother's bank account to buy food. While at the bank, he learns that Japan has surrendered unconditionally and the Imperial Navy fleet has been completely destroyed - meaning their father is almost certainly dead.

Seita returns to the shelter with food, only to find Setsuko hallucinating and trying to eat marbles and mud-cakes. He feeds her a small piece of watermelon. She thanks him, closes her eyes, and dies shortly after. This is clearly the scene in the film with the most emotional impact and, by this stage, the outcome that the uninformed viewer fears but hopes against. Seita uses the remaining money to buy coal and straw, cremating Setsuko's body on a hilltop inside a straw basket. He places her ashes into the Sakuma drops sweet tin. Alone and weakened by starvation, Seita wanders back to Kobe, where he dies at Sannomiya Station, as seen in the opening scene.

Directed by Isao Takahata (co-founder of Studio Ghibli alongside Hayao Miyazaki), the film was released in 1988 as a double feature alongside Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro. Studio Ghibli released them together to balance the heavy tragedy of Grave of the Fireflies with the lighthearted optimism of Totoro.

The movie is adapted from the 1967 semi-autobiographical novella by Akiyuki Nosaka. Nosaka survived the Kobe air raids as a child, but lost his adoptive father and his baby sister to malnutrition. Nosaka wrote the book as a personal apology to his deceased sister, feeling lifelong guilt that he had prioritised his own survival over hers.

While widely viewed internationally as an anti-war film, director Isao Takahata repeatedly stated that he did not intend it as a political critique of war. Instead, he meant it as a cautionary story about extreme social isolation and pride, showing how Seita's decision to cut ties with society rather than endure his aunt led directly to his sister's death.

It's clearly a deeply sad film, but in between the moving sadness, we spend time with the siblings during moments of happiness and hope. But there's no getting away from it: it's a harrowing tale which all but the most hard-nosed viewers will be reduced to shedding at least one tear over - especially when it is known that this was all based on the true life experience of the author. So be warned. But enjoy it for the usual amazing Studio Ghibli animation, characterisations and soundscape. It's a bittersweet experience, but well worth the viewing.

Below (2026)

This is no ordinary review - more of a deep dive with Gemini in tow, to understand more of what was going on in this intriguing and somewhat sinister Newfoundland mystery. If you want a teaser review then this isn't it, so spoiler alert! Anyway, I was fascinated by this Netflix show, which aired this month in six fairly succinct episodes.

First up, I looked into a bit of the history of why there's a kind of mixture of Irish and Canadian accents. Turns out that there was a migration of Irish labourers during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Unlike later migrations driven by the Great Famine (1840s), the early migration to Canada (especially Newfoundland) came almost entirely from the southeast counties of Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, South Tipperary and Southeast Cork. British migratory fishing vessels stopped in southeastern Irish ports to pick up seasonal labourers, provisions and salt meat before heading across the Atlantic to harvest cod in North America.

Over time, these temporary workers settled permanently along the bays and coastlines of Newfoundland, parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Once settled in remote outports, these communities had virtually no contact with outside populations for over two centuries, and many ports were accessible only by boat until well into the 20th century. The Irish-Canadian communities preserved archaic 18th-century Irish English phonetic structures, vocabulary and grammar. So there's that! They never taught us any of this in history at school. Or maybe I wasn't listening! So, anyway - onto the giant squid story!

The series starts 40 years before the rest of the series' current events, all in the remote coastal town of Snook's Arm, Newfoundland. Calvin, a boy at the time, is on a boat with his family, pulling their 'floating' home to another location due to pressure - which we'll come to later - to relocate. The 'house' is attacked and starts to sink. Calvin's dad tries to rescue it but only gets himself trapped inside and subsequently drowns. The quick-thinking lad cuts through the tow-rope in order to save himself and the other members of the family.

So now, yes, leap forward 40 years and Calvin is all grown up and has two sons and a daughter - and his sister, Ruth, who was also in that tow-boat, is part of his life as well, acting now as the harbour-master of sorts. Calvin tries to scratch a living from fishing and anything else he can think of. His daughter, Mary, played by the very cute Ruby Stokes (Una), lives away but arrives back for a 'homecoming' event. She has a boyfriend with her, Noah, played by Kaleb Horn. One of the sons, Jay, played by Rohan Campbell (The Hardy Boys), has gone off to make money working on the rigs, but it turns out that he owes money to some people who, throughout the series, hound him for it. The other son, Wade, played by Charlie Heaton (Shut In, Stranger Things), has not left the town and supports his dad in whatever venture he's involved in. So those are the main players and characters.

One morning, the town awakes to see a huge iceberg in the bay; they discover a mysterious toxicity in the water and suffer power cuts. To make things worse, the town is haunted by historic trauma - decades prior, the wealthy Crocker family pushed for the town’s resettlement (back to that tow-boat and opening scene), ruining local livelihoods. As boats start to go missing and townspeople suffer strange symptoms, Dr Fonda Howander, played beautifully by Mackenzie Davis (Station Eleven, The Martian) at the Ocean Science Centre, investigates. Turns out that there's a huge, preternatural giant squid-like cephalopod defending that iceberg in the bay. She further discovers that the giant iceberg isn't just ice - it's an egg sac/nest. The sea creature isn't attacking boats and people out of malice, she is a mother protecting her unborn offspring, driven into warmer waters because of melting glacial ice caps (aha - the global warming 'message')!

While the town fears the sea creature, it turns out that the true villains are the Crocker family. Our leading man, adult Calvin, played by Josh Hartnett (30 Days of Night, Black Hawk Down), discovers mining permits proving the Crockers have known for years that vast reserves of cobalt and copper lie directly beneath Snook's Arm. They want to scare people off the land so they can buy it up cheap, mine the stuff, and make a fortune. Scooby-Doo episode, anyone? "If it wasn't for those pesky, meddling kids..!"

So the Crockers use the creature's attacks as an excuse to bring in the military, force an immediate evacuation of the town, and declare Snook's Arm uninhabitable. Realising what's going on, Calvin and his family defy the evacuation order. They take Calvin's boat (High Hopes) out into the bay, break the iceberg free from the harbour and tow the giant egg sac out into deeper, colder international waters. So the military stands down. In the deep ocean, the mother squid protects her egg sac until it breaks open. Because cephalopods reproduce semelparously (mating/spawning once before dying), she expends the last of her strength guiding her eggs into the deep and dies. Due to the warming ocean temperatures, Fonda later notes that none of the newly hatched baby squids survived.

However, back in Episode 5, Fonda had chipped a live baby squid out of an ice sample in her lab, which escaped into a cooler. That single hatchling remains unaccounted for. Aha - Season 2 afoot! A year later, Snook's Arm has survived. Armed with the truth about the mineral deposits, the townspeople refuse the Crockers' buyout offers and Calvin and his family open the "Big Squid Distillery & Brewery". There is a grand finale and a very final scene which certainly sets it up for a new season to be shot, as you might imagine. I hope they do it!

A word of warning about Episode 5. Apart from Fonda finding the little squid, the episode largely follows Calvin heading to a remote island after Wade goes missing following a sub crash. On this island, the story turns into a kind of folk horror, hallucinogenic hippy-trip with bizarre cult-like stuff going on. I got totally lost in that episode as to what was going on and how it fitted in, but I think I got there in the end! The family living there refused to be relocated 40 years back and developed a twisted local cult centred around worshipping the sea creature, which they call "Mudder", drugging people to keep them docile and impressionable! Calvin manages to snap Wade out of it and escape back to the mainland.

It's all quite complex, so keep watching and working out what strings fit where as you view, and you might keep up (better than I did)! It's very nicely shot, very well acted - certainly by the main leads - but the whole cast does well. It was created by Jesse McKeown, who made the whole series atmospheric and nicely produced. The word eerie comes to mind as low-lying fog often sweeps across the waters, and at any minute, we don't know what the creature might leap out of the water and do! There were clear nods to Jaws here and there - in fact, plenty of them, so that was fun to discover too.

It's a nice little series and kept my attention, even if it did meander off a bit during Episode 5! The six episodes and most are under 45 minutes long, so it's bingeable if you fancy. I watched it over two evenings and would recommend a viewing very much.

Starve Acre (2023)

As I headed into this film, I immediately thought of Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb (2021), in which Noomi Rapace played a blinder. It captures that same slow-burn, grief-driven, atmospheric, isolated situation with something bonkers, surreal and unsettling going on (which I won't spoil here), wrapped up in a folk-horror envelope!

The tale is set in Yorkshire in the 1970s, and we are introduced to teacher/archaeologist Richard, played by Dr Who himself, Matt Smith! He's married to Juliette, played by Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud, Crawl), and living in the house with them is their son, Owen. Their son starts exhibiting disturbing and gruesome behaviour at a local school event, hearing voices before suddenly dying from a severe asthma attack (we see him with his inhaler during the early scenes).

Juliette falls into a deep depression, staying in bed mostly while local yoga/spiritualist folk try to cleanse the house and get her back on track. All a bit odd, and it plays out more like a séance than anything! Richard buries himself in his work, in more ways than one(!), on his late father’s land, searching for the remains of the Whistling Tree - an ancient, legendary oak associated with pagan rituals and a spirit named Dandelion Jack/Jack Grey.

While digging, Richard unearths the skeleton of a hare. Back in his study, the bones mysteriously begin generating tissue, muscle, and organs - eventually reanimating into a living, breathing hare! When Juliette discovers the creature, she becomes obsessively attached to it, viewing it as a chance to have something to love and care for following her loss. We now start to find out some stuff about Richard's father's abusive antics, and Richard becomes obsessed with his journals, which depict all sorts of folklore regarding the land and that tree.

We then head deeper into the 'needs' of said tree and land and what it is demanding of the people around the scene - by this time including Juliette's sister, Harrie, played by Erin Richards (Gotham), Richard's teaching colleague, and some neighbours (whom Richard and Juliette had previously distanced Owen from, as they claimed he was filling his head full of unhelpful stories). Things start to get a bit gory into the bargain, with some surprise twists!

The film is quite chilling in many ways: dark and sinister, perfectly set and filmed on those bleak Yorkshire moors, highlighting their isolation. Don't forget, also, that this was the 1970s, so no mobile phones or other mod cons - at one point, we see Harrie having to drive to an isolated phone box to make a call. The music and audio/sounds generally support this kind of eerie atmosphere too.

It's called Starve Acre because it was a derogatory name given by local farmers to a piece of land that was barren, infertile, corrupt at the root, or so poor that crops and livestock couldn't survive on it. The land is 'starved' because the ancient woodland spirit (Dandelion Jack/Jack Grey) trapped beneath the roots was drained of life when the tree was felled. As Richard's neighbour notes, "There's not an inch of soil that's still alive".

It seems to have been produced by House Productions and BBC Film, distributed by the BFI, written/directed by Daniel Kokotajlo (Apostasy) and adapted from the 2019 novel by Andrew Michael Hurley (known for rural gothic horror like The Loney). Morfydd Clark is great, delivering a haunting performance, and Matt Smith plays the quiet, repressed grief-ridden role - turning into obsession equally well. Don't give up, though - slow-burn as it is, the finale is a great payoff! The film is just over an hour and a half long and available widely on streaming services, especially BBC iPlayer and BFI or course.