Local Heroes Atg

The Border Magazine

HMS Fearless

The Seventh ship to bear the name, the Assault Ship and Commando Carrier HMS Fearless was first commissioned in 1965. Over the next 37 years she was seldom far from the actions in which British forces were engaged world-wide, be they in Aden, Malaysia and Borneo, Northern Ireland, the Cold War (Norway), South Rhodesia, Falklands, the Gulf, Afghanistan and so on. Thousands of sailors, Royal Marines and soldiers served on board over her 19 commissions. Now paid off, Fearless has a great story to tell and the Author, a former senior Royal Marine who knows her well, is superbly qualified to tell it.

Contemporary Japanese Film

This comprehensive look at Japanese cinema in the 1990s includes nearly four hundred reviews of individual films and a dozen interviews and profiles of leading directors and producers. Interpretive essays provide an overview of some of the key issues and themes of the decade, and provide background and context for the treatment of individual films and artists. In Mark Schilling's view, Japanese film is presently in a period of creative ferment, with a lively independent sector challenging the conventions of the industry mainstream. Younger filmmakers are rejecting the stale formulas that have long characterized major studio releases, reaching out to new influences from other media—television, comics, music videos, and even computer games—and from both the West and other Asian cultures. In the process they are creating fresh and exciting films that range from the meditative to the manic, offering hope that Japanese film will not only survive but thrive as it enters the new millennium.