I've been geeking out a little bit lately with a game called <a target='_blank' href='http://pc.ign.com/articles/369/369060p1.html?fromint=1'><i>Moonbase Commander</i></a>. Couldn't sound much geekier than that, huh? Well, yeah, ok, but it really is pretty fun and addictive.

This is a turn-based strategy game in which the idea is to construct a base on the moon and blow up your opponents' bases. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, the mechanics of it are very fluid and intuitive, but the twist is that your base ends up being a big directed graph: each node in the base is connected to the node that 'launched' it. If any node is destroyed, all of it's descendant nodes are also destroyed; if the root is destroyed, it's game over for you. This makes for a lot of subtle strategizing in how you build, defend, and attack. It's easy to learn, hard to master, as they say.

The main downside is that AI is pretty bad; after learning the basics, it's only interesting to play against other people over the net. Unfortunately, it hasn't really reached a critical mass of players - finding a game is sometimes difficult. Maybe that will change, though, since its <a target='_blank' href='http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000645ZI/qid=1051725064/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-1528347-0558513?v=glance&s=software&n=507846'>only <i>10 bucks</i> at amazon</a>.

<center><img src='images/moonbase1.jpg' border='1' />&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src='images/moonbase2.jpg' border='1' />&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src='images/moonbase3.jpg' border='1' /></center>

I've seen four films at the SF International Film Festival, with one more (<i>Spanish Apartment</i>, tonight) to go. Here's what I saw and what I've thought so far:

<a target='_blank' href='http://us.imdb.com/Title?0318725'>Fear and Trembling</a>
A French film about a Belgian expat in Tokyo who lands a job at a large Japanese corporation and then proceeds to do everything wrong. Though it's obstensibly a comedy (and it is quite funny), it's also a little bit like watching a horror movie: instead squirming in your seat thinking "No, no, don't go into that house alone!", you squirm in your seat thinking "No, no, don't correct your boss in front of the whole office!". Suffice it to say, I loved almost every minute of this film.

In the Q&A session afterwards, a few people gave the director a hard time about the film being racist. Never mind that the plot choices were not his (the film is faithful adaptation of a French novella), I thought these comments were absurd. The film goes out of its way to demonstrate the humanity of people who are just doing their best to survive a dehumanizing corporate grinder - to my mind, that sort of effort is the antithesis of racism. Man, I shoulda stood up and told those jokers a thing or two, but I guess that wouldn't really be a question for the director.

<a target='_blank' href='http://us.imdb.com/Title?0332381'>The Sea</a>
Mix equal parts <a target='_blank' href='http://us.imdb.com/Title?0237993'><i>101 Reykjavæamp;shy;k</i></a> and <i><a target='_blank' href='http://us.imdb.com/Title?0154420'>The Celebration</a></i> and you've basically got The Sea. Filmed in Iceland, this story of dysfunctional families and decaying villages is not exactly pleasant to watch, but I liked it quite a bit nonetheless. The characters are richly textured, though some of the exposure of their flaws is a little over-the-top at times. The screening was followed by Q&A with the director, Baltasar Kormákur, who seems like a really cool guy (and who bears a striking resemblance to <a href='http://us.imdb.com/Name?Mortensen,+Viggo'>Viggo Mortensen</a>).

<a target='_blank' href='http://us.imdb.com/Title?0338564'>Internal Affairs</a>
This latest HK cop thriller with Andy Lau and Tony Leung was all the rage in China last year. I was definitely entertained, but the plot twists were all pretty predictable; I couldn't help but feel like I'd seen this one before (<a target='_blank' href='http://us.imdb.com/Title?0093435'><i>City on Fire</i></a>, <a target='_blank' href='http://us.imdb.com/Title?0216165'><i>Running Out of Time</i></a>, et al.). Still, the direction and cinematography were top-notch, and the plot was tight and focused throughout (a rarity in the genre, IMHO).

<a target='_blank' href='http://us.imdb.com/Title?0300620'>So Close</a>
A revival of late 80's/early 90's kung-fu catfighting and only slightly less exploitative; <a target='_blank' href='http://us.imdb.com/Title?0105619'><i>Heroic Trio</i></a> gets a <i>Matrix</i>-style makeover. It opens and closes with some pretty great computer-assisted action sequences, but the plot loses steam in the middle. Karen Mok is convincing as the no-nonsense cop, but barbie-doll assassin sisters Shu Qi and Zhao Wei grow a little tiresome. Good, but not great.