Hindsight

Matchstick Men was a nice catch today. I realize as I write this that I am suddenly conditioned to get a mild headache anytime I am near a computer. This is the result of working 12 hour shifts everyday last week and making a doctor’s visit because of a recent health condition. The overtime and illness is not a coincidence, that’s for sure. So stopping all activity related to both eBay and computing was ultimately relaxing.

Alison Lohman is fantastic, and so is Nicolas Cage. Sam Rockwell had me chuckling good, as his character was rather believable from start to finish.

Also interesting was the making of featurette. Whether or not you like him, Ridley Scott seems to have good work ethic. At least the documentary paints him as such.

The film was really strengthened by it’s editing. The frenetic pace of an otherwise boring scene here and there made the view pretty arresting. I was engaged. It’s worth catching.

My friend Kevin came down to visit on a whim and brought Justin Lin’s “Better Luck Tomorrow” with him on VHS.

First impressions were good. This is another anti-climatic film I’m happy to watch again - it makes me want to get the DVD.

It’s interesting to lurk about a few message boards regarding BLT. Many call the film “unrealistic” regarding Asian Americans. I wasn’t quite the overachiever. But I could relate to some of the onscreen personas. I can say that the acting was done rather well (albeit a few horribly cheesy lines here and there, but nothing too overdone).

According to some trivia, “Better Luck Tomorrow” was based on the murder of Stuart Tay. Cheryl Chen from the University of California, San Francisco, writes an interesting article about it here.

Cheryl says in her article that “ Better Luck Tomorrow, by failing to honor its inspiration, crosses the line between respect and exploitation… . She investigates a Justin Lin interview about the film and its relation to the Stuart Tay murder. Lin claims that his film was not based solely on the events of the murder and that the character profiles are disparate. Still, a lot hits very close to actual events that occured.

It’s scary finding something of fiction and realizing that it could well be based on something real, especially when the film makes no mention of it whatsoever.

Thinking of the film in this new context still makes it a film worth watching, in my opinion. I would like to think that the film does raise questions about Asian Americans who’ve grown up here in the burbs. No one should say that the film is representing the typical mindset of Asian American high school students, but there are facets in each character worth noting anyway, even if they may be stereotypes. Some are true, I should know - I saw them when I went to high school.

My Saturday was not so relaxed. The morning consisted of getting my car jump started, driving back home to La Verne, noticing the copper sky and then realizing that fires were breaking out all over southern California, and spending the rest of the day fixing my nephew’s PC and cursing over setting his computer over wireless network.

Today, Sunday, seemed a little better. Daylight savings time ended, allowing me an extra hour to stay up and tend to my web hobbies.

And then I popped in “Lily Chou-Chou no Subete”, or “All About Lily Chou-Chou“. A film by Shunji Iwai.

I’ve not seen Iwai’s previous works, but I can relate to this one on several levels.

“All About…” revolves around the world of Japanese junior high school students. The bullying, confusion, peer pressure. And a few other Japanese JHS phenomenon. Well, mostly the darker side if it exists in the kids’ lives. On top of this is the connection of every character to Lily Chou-Chou (Riri Shushu as pronounced by the cast). Her music creates a web (pun intended) of interaction between everyone. The film ends in an anti-climax which I found satisfying. But that’s just me.

I wanted to see this film when I heard about it sometime a year and a half ago. Recently it showed up on eBay: it was officially released in Hong Kong. I got my hands on a region 3 copy. The transfer is a little dim, but generally acceptable. The subtitiles are pretty decent - I never found myself doing any major double takes trying to re interpret any badly translated text

Because a lot is taped on school locations, I found myself nodding or smiling when I saw something familiar. Namely, a rebellious school kid here and there, or the uniformity of the gym (I really do think that most school gyms I’ve seen in Japanese junior high schools look exactly the same). So those who have had some experience seeing school life in Japan will see glimpses here.

Opinions are mixed. Still…

For a film that is full of sadness, it was extremely uplifting for me.

I must be the only person I know who didn’t like “Kill Bill” as much as everyone else.
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Lost in Translation isn’t so much about Japan. In fact, there is very little of Japan itself in the spotlight. It is about relationships. Loneliness. Dealing with decisions, personal lives, abandoning them for a night or three, finding out more about yourself. Japan serves as a backdrop to place two of these people in a situation where they have more of a reason to connect and look into their own lives. In a way, watching “Lost” was a way to reflect on how I felt at times living in Kitakyushu.

I loved it. My ability to understand most of what the Japanese cast said (subtitles are not provided in the entire film, which makes perfect sense) was an added plus. I brought with me to the theater the bit of enthusiasm and nostalgia I’ve always had for Japan since I returned.

Can’t say much more. I was pretty moved by the final scene. I recall having a note jotted down for a video project very similar to it. I want to see it again sometime, so I’ll most likely acquire it once it’s out on DVD.

Instead of going to bed at 1am yesterday morning I stayed up and decided to finally put in “Happy End” into my DVD player. I bought it while in Thailand, ecstatic to actually find an “official” release there.

It’s been a long time since I’ve watched Korean films. “Happy End” isn’t exactly new, either.

I was interested in “Happy End” after seeing “Failan” - that is, I knew nothing of Choi Min Sik until I saw “Failan”. (it became one of my favorite films a few years ago when I bought the DVD).

I have to say that Choi’s performance was, as always, excellent. So was Jeon Do-yeon’s.

Choi plays an unemployed husband, searching for work. He finds out that his wife Bora (Jeon) has been having an affair and finds a way to end it. I know, that’s a rather short/terrible synopsis but it’s a bit late to go any further. I enjoyed the film quite a bit.

The film is not afraid to show the intensity of both sides during the affair. Not for children, “Happy End” features strong sex scenes (the first scene could be classified as softcore porn) and gory, violent acts of revenge. The dark humor strewn throughout is a nice touch. A piano/violin driven score puts the finishing touches on a beautifully shot film.

Has anyone else seen “Happy End”? Would like to discuss some of the scenes that I haven’t quite grasped yet. Many are beautifully composed…

A review of “Happy End” is available here at Rotten Tomatoes.

Got around to watching the 2 VideoCD version of “Ong Bak”, an action film that made quite a bit of money last year in Thailand. It’s definitely for all action and martial arts buffs. Another fun, mindless romp. My father stayed up late to watch it all, too.

“The Thai movie “Ong-bak” is the type of film that sane movie stuntmen avoid. Why? Because “Ong-bak” is a vicious and violent (although not very bloody) martial arts film that is less concern with the men doing the stunts than it is with showcasing the power, brutality, grace, and effectiveness of Muay Thai….”

The rest of the review is here. A more critical view here over at Rotten Tomatoes.

Two posters.

The website for “Lost in Translation” is online, it seems. It has a limited release here in the U.S. on September 19th. I’m compelled to watch it for obvious reasons of living in Japan for a year. I want to see if I can connect strongly with the film.

http://www.lost-in-translation.com

I borrowed the Superbit DVD of Panic Room (Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker) from my sister, who lives just a few houses down. It would be safe to say that I am thinking about starting something akin to Roger’s NetFlix rental history.

First, randomosity:

Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
Quicktime Trailer (11mb)

“…the more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you…”

This was first spotted by Nej at jeansnow.net

Bill Murray plays a washed up actor doing Japanese CMs (commercials) in Tokyo and meets a soul searcher in the process. The film will be released stateside in September, and I’ll be sure to catch it.

The new Sony CLIE

http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/PEG/PEG-UX50/index.html
Japan is good at making me lose money.

***

The last few days have been mellow yet intense.

Sunday night I went to Koichi’s one last time at around 6pm. I had little to do so I figured some yakitori wouldn’t hurt. Alex came down eventually from his own engagement and we ate and drank. And drank more.

It was about 8 or so when we headed down the small streets to meet up with Stacey, who had joined up with a Taiko group. Drummers were “feeding” others more and more Asahi. Both Alex and I joined in and, believe it or not, I drummed myself some. Alex accomplished this as well. Go beer.

Amber wanted to meet up once before I left, so we shared our recent stories at McDonald’s by the station. About an hour and a half later I said a brief farewell to Tim and Yuki.

Later in the evening I went to Kameyama sensei’s home along with Dion and Livia, where we ate yakiniku, talked about teaching experiences. It got very intense at one point: what will make the system better, what needs to be changed and so on and so forth. I ended up listening quite a bit, but it was arresting throughout.

I got a tie from Kameyama sensei that had repeated imagery of a matsuri. An outline of a taiko drum here, a festival-goer there. It was neat.

Tomorrow I have to cancel my J-Phone service, send in my DSL to terminate my Yahoo BroadBand access and turn in my textbooks to the BOE (in addition to my inkan and other personal documents). It’s all coming to a close.

While I originally wanted to post something about this entire experience, this year of being in a foreign country, the story isn’t really ending per se. It’s just going to continue as I move forward. So I’ll end there, and I’ll weblog again when I get to a net connection either in Osaka or Tokyo.

Until then, I am swimming in thought of moments with kids at junior high, drunken discussions at Yakyuudori and times of revelation.

As I say in e-mails to friends…

More to come.

Viva granted me access to his VCD of Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” so I watched it this evening. It turned out to be a gorgeous film. Fluid fighting (never enough but then again never too much either) and a moving story and soundtrack. The use of slow motion never seems quite overdone - it’s all quite the poetry in motion.

I realized later after doing an imdb.com search that Yimou is responsible for “The Road Home” and “Happy Times” - both are films I’ve been wanting to see.

I just did a double take reading user comments at imdb - someone had the same thoughts and observations that I had while “Hero” progressed: I thought to myself “…Rashomon”.

Rashomon is Akira Kurosawa’s film that was probably recently adapted as a modern tale through Edward Zwick’s “Courage Under Fire”. The same event is told from the three characters involved. Each perspective is different. The same happens similarly in “Hero”.

I suppose after seeing the same, predictable Hollywood movie, seeing recent films like “Solaris” and “Hero” are extremely refreshing and, more importantly, challenging.

While I’m at it, I noticed that imdb lists Wong Kar Wai’s next film, “2046“, as in post-production. I’m curious to see what his next work is - I still need to see “In the Mood for Love”.

It hasn’t stopped with films. I am still addicted to Beck’s “Sea Change” album. Undoubtedly a downer, it’s so beautiful I can’t help but listen to it over and over. Lonesome Tears and Lost Cause are undeniably infectious.

Yesterday when Takashi sensei pulled out a CD to show us I tried to remember why the name on it sounded familiar. George Winston. And then I realized that he was on the Windham Hill records label - publishers of instrumental and piano works.

When I was in junior high school I used to listen to 94.7 on the FM dial. At the time it was simply called “The Wave” and they played new age and ambient music. Although I was 13, some of my friends could not understand why I liked instrumental and new age music so much. They just thought I was weird.

Years later they re-themed the station to play “smooth jazz”. I didn’t listen to the station anymore.