November is looking set on becoming a happy month for my fandoms!
Although, for my own part, some of the happy things may happen much later than that. =/
So, for some time we've known that Thor 2 is going to be released on 8 Nov (in the US). All the ladies are so fabulous in this trailer, they're reviving my fading excitement for the movie. ^_^
Even more looked-forward-to is Ender's Game the movie, on 1 Nov (again, in the US). I'm afraid there are too many good parts in the book to all make it within the length of a single movie, so I'm telling myself I'll just be there for the null-g stuff. And shiny visuals.
And I've just found out that the next Discworld book will be out on 7 Nov (UK, I suppose). Obviously I haven't been a good enough fan because I hadn't heard about its release before its delay was announced. But no matter! What's important is there's going to be more Moist von Lipwig!
But of course, I won't be seeing that book anytime in November. T_T In fact, NLB, I'm still waiting for The Long War. Pretty please? (Entry title has to do with the fact that I've recently started reading Hunter x Hunter. Another fandom in the making? =X)
So there's been much raving about the awesomeness of the Iron Man 3 trailer and I agree; some called it "emotionally scarring" and I agree with that, too ("PEPPER!! NO!!!") --> making an exception with the caps and multiple exclamation marks, just for you, Marvel. Please make everything all right again come April 2013.
I've been thinking that the Skyfall poster I've been seeing at bus stops is also very cool. So are the TVspots. I admit that back when Daniel Craig first assumed the role, I'd shared the opinion of those who thought him rather too short, but looking at the list of all Bond actors to date, he is sorta the coolest-looking in my opinion, heh. That said, I've never had the interest to watch a Bond movie -- the female-objectification image from the old-time Bond movies kind of ruined this series for me -- and I'm not going to start now. Out of interest, though, anyone can tell me how the Craig-verse is on the subject of women?
Since I've decided that this post will be about trailers (and URL dumps), here's a link to a Honest Trailers clip for The Avengers (spoiler warning!) that I've recently enjoyed, by DIsk's recommendation. (When I said I liked deep voices, I didn't mean it quite like that one, but it's awesome anyway. And in case that put you in the mood for more lols as it did me, have some crack!vid.)
And, why not, a quote involving trailers that actually has nothing to do with a trailer:
% <Meuuh> pleasehelp : are you trying with a dolby trailer ? <pleasehelp> no... using windows
-- #videolan
Um, yeah, that's an IRC channel quote taken from VLC's fortunes.txt. I confess to downloading VLC source code just to get updates on the amusing fortunes, even though I'm no longer using it for work. =P Besides, I'd definitely want to know if and when they reach "Vetinari" with the releases.
Huh. That made me Google Jeremy Irons' Vetinari, who's a pretty good fit with Kidby's, i.e., the canon (at least until I find Kirby's, if he ever drew him). But I should stop now before this leads to a Discworld trailer, as I'm really most content just worshipping the purely textual manifestation of m'lord. (For that, I do have The Discworld inspirational p...rintout on my office cubicle wall, in hope to net a fellow fan to squee together, but alas, it's yielded nothing so far. The colleague with the Angry Birds plushie sure has it easy! Maybe I should get me an A'Tuin plushie.)
TITAN: "This town isn't big enough for two supervillains!" MEGAMIND: "Oh, you're a villain all right, just not a super one." TITAN: "Yeah? What's the difference?" MEGAMIND: [makes a grand entrance] "Presentation!"
So, my dad and I were choosing something to pass the afternoon among my movie collection.
DAD: "What are these about?"
ME: [look over the list of Batman and Marvel movies] "Oh, mostly movies made from comic books." [after we decided on Megamind]
DAD: "Is this from a comic, then?"
ME: "Eh, no, it's an original movie, but I'm guessing a comic has been made out of it."
DIsk and I have had a few discussions regarding story adaptations from and to books / comics / manga / anime / movies / etc., and the level of purism involved. We generally agree that each medium excels in a different aspect and should be exploited accordingly (presentation!), and that while introducing plot changes could sometimes ruin the adaptation, staying strictly true to the original material at the expense of readability / watchability may not be a good thing either. Well, I myself might still be a purist about certain works, in which case I just stick to the original form, no trouble. =P
In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an epoch with Annie."
Ann Druyan is Sagan's co-author and wife. He'd always had a poetic disposition, I gather, but when you're Carl Sagan, you get to be romantic with astronomical* facts to back you up.
* Double meaning is not really intended but probably works just fine.
"I wrote it in a weekend, a gift from the gods, easy and sweet as anything. Suddenly I was a writer transformed: I laughed in the face of danger and spat on the shoes of writer's block. Then I sat and stared glumly at a blank screen for another week, because the gods have a sense of humour."
Gaiman's stories are a hit-and-miss with me, but his side-notes tend to capture me with his penchant for describing his plot-bunny conception and writing struggles that we all can empathize with ("...staring at a blank screen, occasionally writing a word... Then I'd exit without saving"). Which means he is one of those authors whose book introductions are worth going through; in fact he did hide a story --which happens to fall under my 'hit' category-- inside the introduction of this book.
I am all warm and fuzzy after watching this romance movie called "Oto-na-ri":
The main premise revolves around two neighbours ["otonari"] who become familiar with each other only through the sounds ["oto"] they hear through the thin separating wall of their apartments. As such, most of the movie steers attention to sounds -- daily activities, nature stirring -- sounds that we rarely notice consciously, yet (as a character puts it) "you'll feel something is missing if they are not there" (this reminds me of what DIsk said about rendering natural scene effects). I'm usually more of a visual person, so this is a bit of an "ear opener"... It's beautiful.
Most of the characters are sincere and likable-- the only exception feels rather unnecessary and smells like plot device... but I can tolerate that. =D I like how the movie also stirs thoughts about taking responsibility of one's life (or another's) and what might be thought of as "fate". The psychological twists are a delight, while the event twists might have felt randomly convenient had I found it in a lighter content, but they work fine for me here as the other aspects are well connected.
It also helps that I happen to appreciate the sweetness of most of the gestures portrayed, but I think it's really quite recommendable as a drama. Please watch [listen to] it. *bows*
Fullmetal Alchemistthe manga has ended! That's one month of excited waiting since I found out it would be ending. ^^ (I feel little need for me to re-summarize the series =P so please just click on the hyperlinked title for the description.)
The series started (9 years ago) with good humor, interesting scientific angle and cool action scenes, then it grew darker as the serious plot unfolded, at which point I stopped following it closely. ^^0 I picked up again when the climax drew near, and got firmly hooked until the end. The whole thing is really quite well developed, I think, and with a reasonably happy ending -- not "everything is all right" perfect but one that does see to the deserved fruition of the characters' effort.
The [remade] anime has 3 more episodes to go, and I'm still quite looking forward to watching the rapid-fire climax/ending in animation. (That reminds me that I may have forgotten to advertise the ending of Cross Game, the manga as well as its pretty good anime adaptation, although I have felt totally adequate with the manga alone, given Adachi-sensei's delightful story-telling.)
Here's a selected opening sequence to further entice you:
In the past week, I also managed to watch Ao no Honoo (The Blue Flame), a movie I've read some good reviews about. The lead actor is the younger self of one of the main actors in the critically acclaimed Letters from Iwo Jima.
I think the film is good in several aspects, but boy is it depressing. =X I should have anticipated it since the suitably haunting The Post War Dream was playing in prelude to the first scene, but I thought things would be resolved somehow. Instead, the ending left a feeling of despair that made me think of the word "finality" for this entry.
Trailer for those of you who may be in the mood for something angsty and sobering...
On real life news, Commencement is drawing near. In my mind, my student days have been practically over for some time, but there have been "echoes" of it when the School contacted me for something or other... All these will probably be laid to rest once I get through the Commencement. Not that I want to cut off these ties -- I do gladly stay in contact with my supervisors and ex-labmates (and if needed, my juniors), but when those links have to do with my results from back then, it sometimes feels like hanging on to "past glory" (not that it's particularly glorious either!) while I have been trying to pick up speed on my current career. A chapter closed, I guess? =)
This final point doesn't have much to do with "finality" except maybe the winter theme and the fact that I discovered it through Last.fm recommendation, hoh. I just like this song and the vocals that sing it. =D
Watched Summer Wars with DIsk over the weekend. It's nice and entertaining, but I guess the technical sophistication is somewhat below our expectation. =P; With a geek as main character and the "virtual world" as central theme, the "wars" feel only slightly above game level to me. I suppose they do need to simplify things to keep it mainstream? All in all it's still pretty exciting to watch. ^^
Some reviews promised a twist, but I didn't really see any unexpected turn that isn't already in the synopsis. Because of such anticipation of my own, when Kazuma (sidekick character) first showed up, I thought he might be a girl (well yeah, we only got to see his back the first time) and that maybe the main guy would fall for 'her' instead. =D; That of course is nothing novel either because many a manga have employed that plot, lol.
The unexpected thing, however, is to find that the ending theme was by Yamashita Tatsurou, whom I knew through KinKi Kids because he wrote their debut song (he sounded like an influential musician from the way they talked about him).
Probably chosen because of the "summer" in the title ("Our Summer Dream")? =) That compelled me to list out all J-pop (or related) songs with "summer" in the title that I know.. =DD
* Kobukuro, "Summer Rain" Kobukuro + Cross Game is double awesomeness, even though this one is not my favourite out of all Kobukuro songs nor of all Cross Game soundtracks. =)P
* Tackey & Tsubasa, "Ho! Summer" I wonder if this group goes for the 'silly' image or if it's an unintended effect, lol.
* YUI, "SUMMER SONG" To be honest I don't know her music well, but she's got a quiet lovely feel.
(Since those already included the Japanese word for "summer" by chance, let me also slyly take the opportunity to recommend some more.. =3)
* DEEN, "Kimi ga Inai Natsu" (A Summer without You) A 'regular' in my playlist when I'm feeling selective. I think DEEN-san sounds slightly less nasal in the PV than live. xP
* Yuzu, "Natsu Matsuri" (Summer Festival) Cheerful-sounding guys. I'm easily baited by the harmony-style duet and harmonica accompaniment. ^^
* ZARD, "Natsu wo Matsu SAIL no You ni" (Like a Sail Waiting for Summer) Not my favourite ZARD song, but it's nostalgic to hear her voice, and the video is nice. From one of the Detective Conan movies.
Update entry accumulating the several past weeks. =) 'Woman' happens to be a common thread running through the rambling that follows.
-- be an evil woman --
So... I finished watching Yume wo Kanaeru Zou ('Dream-fulfilling Elephant') some weeks ago. It's a comedy about the elephant god Ganesha (ah, ITB mascot!) who appeared to people wishing to change themselves, and taught them how to do so by giving 'tasks'. Some of these tasks felt like the points in a self-improvement book, but there were also some that were pretty thought-provoking. The prelude special starred Oguri Shun as a salaryman who wanted to be successful, while the proper 13-episode series starred Mizukawa Asami (i.e. how I found this drama =3) as a woman who dreamed of a happy (married) life. There were plenty of parodies including one of Death Note I still feel like laughing at, cheesy as it might be. xD
Of all the tasks I particularly remember a rather peculiar one: "Be an evil woman". It certainly puzzled the main character, as she was on a mission to charm men. The task meant for her to say and do what she wanted instead of suppress her true opinions for the sake of being perceived polite or nice. The application in the drama was of course exaggerated for comedic effect, but I think it was a pretty good advice actually, for people with sheepish personality like mine, and also in the context of the Japanese society where one is always careful not to be rude or to inconvenience others. It means acting as oneself instead of merely reacting to the surroundings. It is, contrary to what it may seem, an appeal.
My watch-list then moved on to Majo Saiban ('The Witch Trial') -- that is, the real 'evil woman'. =) Well, deciding whether or not this woman is evil is a major point in this court drama, revolving around the lay judge system that was apparently newly put into effect in the country this year. (Anyone recall John Grisham's The Runaway Jury?) The case is of a woman -- an awe-inspiring one in many ways! -- accused of murdering her lover in order to inherit his wealth. As one of the characters said in the drama, though, "the verdict has nothing to do with the truth", because the judges were manipulated via threats as well as vague evidences. The string of twists was mostly quite intense (though I wished they hadn't played on the 'psycho villain' thing too much), and even the ending was... should I say... riling. =P In Indonesian term, 'geregetan', lol.
-- woman's day out --
As for life off-screen, I had a fulfilling me-outing last Saturday. Ehm, nothing particularly womanly in the activities (in fact, most were rather unwomanly-geeky if we were to stereotype) but... yeah... I'm a woman, and let's focus on the singularity of that noun instead of the gender implication? ^__^
It started with The Blue Mansion movie, which I've been wanting to watch. Eka only wants to know who kills the guy. xD As it turns out, this dark comedy focuses more on the family dynamics rather than the murder mystery. I think it is pretty well done and enjoyable. Being a local movie, it didn't lack the hilarious Hokkian moments, too. =D The only thing I have against it is the paranormal angle in the resolution, but I am quite content to apply my own interpretation to it.
Afterwards, I couldn't find my fave Korean hotplate tofu set in Plaza Sing kopitiam -- did I remember wrongly? -- so I ended up having a Yoshinoya lunch. Somehow I still feel a little insecure eating alone in malls =D; (while canteens are of course okay) but I liked the meal so it wasn't difficult to ignore the other customers who weren't watching anyway, lol.
My errands for the day were to get my watch battery changed [*check*] and to get a gift [*check*]. Speaking of which, I owe the good ideas for the two most recent gifts I've bought to the just-in-time suggestions from Yesie and Eka, respectively. Casual mentions of such things have good results! Thanks, gals.
Quite a number of stores were having 'moving out sales' in Plaza Sing, that I wonder if something is happening.. I took one round each in Fila and Hang Ten but didn't get anything from there. The more tempting one was Sembawang's half-price deal for all their CDs. The store corridors were not wide to begin with, and at that moment they were filled with stacks of CDs as well as (probably many times the amount of their usual) customers, but still I spent an hour or so scouring the title lineup, and honestly, felt kind of a bonding with the people there as we kept excusing ourselves while carefully maneuvering our bodies around each other. xD That and our love for music and our opportunistic kiasu-ness? Ahahaha.
I of course hovered back and forth the Asian pop section mostly, and was considering to get one of the albums by one of my favourite artists just for collection, but in the end decided there wasn't really a point to it. =P Not a very good fan, huh. But I figured I'd save my money to buy more worthy collectibles that they would still be producing. =3
-- girl-talk --
Moving on... yesterday, had a mini picnic at Vivocity with the choir bunch initiated by Rebecca, after the rehearsal. Two guys and four girls, and we still managed to have some women-talk. =3 Well, men-talk too, as Julia, as always, had a lot of gender observation stuff to share, on top of her very unique recent experience. I think I've always been too attracted to gender-defying views to not be skeptical about such categorizations, but as a generalization those are interesting and useful knowledge. And oh, August also linked us to this very funny 'lecture' on men's vs women's brains:
-- lady in red ...or blue? --
Last update... got a new pair of spectacles today because I (accidentally, of course) added one more crack to it a few days ago, and this time it was not quite negligible. =P While choosing the frame I was attracted to a flexible kind with modern-ish design, but it had to go with impact-resistance lens which were costly. For my second choice I hesitated between a red-black one (striking!) and a navy blue one (more 'general-purpose'). Red or blue -- warm or cool -- right or left -- 51 or 244? xD (Ahem, ignore the last one, just my random fandom bit.) In the end, my pragmatic side won, so...
-- masculine-feminine --
To close off! (Woooo, longest post in a while...) Just got this hilarious Rose of Versailles parodying commercial from DIsk (a 'childhood shattering' discovery, to borrow his term, so RoV purists please consider that a warning) and since it involves the all-female musical group Takarazuka, I thought it'd be appropriate. (Come to think of it, the story itself is already a gender-bender, and now that both 'men' are acted by women, it gets even more twisted!) Enjoy!
I've been more selective with movies lately, and I'm happy to say that most of what I've watched I would gladly recommend to others. =) Today, it is My Sister's Keeper. It is sort of a 'dark horse' to me; I've seen the poster but haven't been attracted enough to check it out before Eka asked if I'd want to watch. The promise of non-straightforward moral issues in the synopsis got me interested, and while the movie did deliver those, they were not the strongest impression I got by the end of the movie, because the story had much more. Well, we cried a whole lot. xD The runny nose I got was quite reminiscent of Okuribito..
After Wiki I found out there were differences from the original book. I kinda like both versions in this case. The movie's soundtracks are very nice too...
Life is beautiful We love until we die
Let the monsters see you smile, Let them see you smiling.
Do I hold you too tightly? When will the hurt kick in?
Life is beautiful but it's complicated.
We don't need to understand There are miracles, miracles
I will hold you tightly When the hurting kicks in.
Stand where you are We let all these moments pass us by.
This is ours just for a moment There's a lot that we can give.
Also invested 21.90 dollars in a foldable umbrella from Umbrella Label today. Quite ex surely, but I've been fed up with under-five umbrellas whose frame snapped broken within the first few times I used them and were close to useless in the strong wind. Hopefully this one will be durable, I'll let you know after a few months maybe. It is baby-blue and has cute giraffes on it... what I would call an 'Eka-approved' feel, lol. Speaking of which, my taste in umbrella colours can run from humble dark green to elegant maroon to striking purple, depending on my mood at time of purchase. Hm..
Went to watch The Proposal yesterday. All for Sandra Bullock, lol. It's entertaining. Not fantastic, but that was expected. Watched it alone, and I realized I've been too used to watching things on my computer, because I commented to myself and physically reacted to the movie as though I were in my own room. ^^;;;
Saw the trailer of The Blue Mansion, which has Adrian Pang and Swee Lin + Kay Siu, among others. Immediately had my eyes set on it! =D The narration in the trailer (see website) has that humorous-thriller Desperate Housewives feel (um, based on what I remember of that series, having watched, like, one or two episodes ^^0) and I think the plot development would be interesting.
...Then, that reminded me of another trailer that really impressed me a while back:
十月围城 (Bodyguards and Assassins)
I went through a few versions to find the exact one I meant (as above) =D; because at that time the powerfulness of the sequence really captured me -- particularly around 0:58 onwards. But teasers aside, I'm not quite into the genre so I'm not planning to watch it, but maybe we'll see. Big-name cast, big budget and all, and I have a soft spot for Donnie Yen, though that hasn't stopped me from missing many of his movies, ahaha...
Also saw the trailer for 余命1ヶ月の花嫁 (Yomei Ikkagetsu no Hanayome / April Bride) starring Eikura Nana and Eita. The original title literally translates to "Bride with a Month to Live" so the story is obvious enough. Ah well... I like both leads, but there have been many tear-jerker movies from this country, and this movie doesn't seem to have anything new. But I am still quite touched by the very first dialogue (see website for trailer): Taro: What do you do from day to day? Chie: (ponders awhile) Live. So somewhere at the corner of my mind there is a tiny bit of expectation that it may have something different. Hm. =)
So far those are the ones that caught my eye from the theaters... As for TV series, I have made the mistake of starting on Orthros no Inu while it is still on-going, so now I'm quite impatient waiting for the next episode sub to be out. xP It is intriguing and has good moral points in my opinion, though I guess stalking-wise I should go for Mizukawa Asami's variety shows more than her dramas because while she is an okay actress, she is really so much more interesting in real life. ❤ Experience it here if hopefully you can be bothered to, and maybe I can drag you down this fandom hole. =)P
Just went to watch UP with Eka. The movie went way beyond our expectation. Indeed Walt Disney + Pixar rarely disappoints?
Just the superb storytelling is enough to make me recommend this. Everything clicks together with no wasted reference. In the first 15 minutes it has managed to tell the whole background and got us emotionally invested in the characters.
I think this deserves a lot of merit especially after my recent experience with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. =P Well, it's surely a different level of complexity looking at the thickness of the later books in the series, but then it at least needs more hours to it... which I guess can be afforded considering how big the hype and the fandom are...? =PP
But back to UP. The usual bonus of Pixar's no-dialogue short story is insightfully creative as usual. (Someone has to be in charge of the unpleasant stuff after all...) Did I once think that the animation world was falling into cliches? I suppose this has just rekindled my faith in its unbounded future.
As probably expected, many tears have been shed. And I'm really really impressed, because watching the movie has made me realize the distinction between crying over something sad and crying over something beautiful.
[Possible spoiler] The view that death is not a 'bad' thing is certainly not new, but the perspective I've had of death has been about letting go. This movie introduced me to a wonderful other aspect of it, that is, being grateful towards the departing ones for what their living years have brought us. I wonder if this has always been the point of view of the Japanese?
Despite the humorous moments, there is a unique sort of quiet atmosphere that I think I felt in a lot of Japanese production of this genre ('human drama'?) -- not that I've watched a lot of them... This one is the serene type of silence; the last memorable one I've watched, 誰も知らない ~Nobody Knows, is the minimalist / undercurrent-disturbing sort; and one I recently glimpsed but didn't think I wanted to stomach the rest of, 2LDK, is the thriller-psychological / downright-disturbing sort. =P
Hunting for the soundtrack now, because of one certain scene that has no particular happening but whose mere music broke me down. Joe Hisaishi, indeed...
Watched Wall-E. Enjoyed tremendously. =) It's impressive how simple the sources of humor are when there are so many hilarious moments in there.
[Warning for indirect spoilers below]
There's the moral message about what modern conveniences can do to us when taken to the extreme, but I'm totally in just for the cuteness. The straightforward, honest cuteness of robots whose idea of romance consists of hand-holding. As TS Eliot asked, "Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" similarly I thought, "Where is the romance we have lost in sentimentality?"
The only thing that kept it from being perfect in my opinion is the oversimplified (or perhaps only unexplained?) resolution to that memory issue at the end. It's not like it couldn't be resolved without 'magic'-- just copy the data over, la. Though it might still require some Evangelion-style Ritsuko-jutsu to do that directly from the chip. (Actually, I think I'll love it even more if they put in this kind of hardware-level sci-fi action. Throw in some more memory corruption problem and I'll be sold.)
The trademark Pixar bonus clip felt a bit longer than necessary this time, but still all of us enjoyed it throughout.
Aside from the movie, was feeling a bit under the weather today with accumulated tiny disappointments in myself, which led to more disappointing acts committed towards various people around me. Should have apologized but the situations were rather too vague and awkward to, so I applied my usual strategy of 'acting normal, moving on'. Ah, sorry~~
I still remember the first movie that made me actually cry-- it was Armageddon. It sort of marked the starting point when I no longer held back from crying over movies or books. =P I suppose that was one of my emotional development stages-- living away from my parents did break a lot of my reserved habits.
In recent years I noticed that almost all of those tear-jerking scenes had to do with parent-child relationships. (Thinking back, the context in Armageddon happened to be the same.) This is probably yet another mental development stage-- connecting with the parental instinct in me, I suppose? =D
This thought particularly stroke me when I cried harder than I laughed while watching Money No Enough 2 today. It was meant to be touching, but I was quite surprised and paiseh at how readily the tears flowed, heh. The Hokkian insert songs at those points were unexpectedly beautiful too, and the mundane words in the lyrics made them all the more heartfelt to me.
Anyway.. the movie was part of a string of pampering treatments I'm afraid I've been indulging in these few days. =) Thank you so much, family and friends. I thought a birthday was the most unearned-for pampering compared to other celebrations.. =D Some say that on such a day we are really giving thanks for the person having been born, leading to them being part of our lives today. That is a very kind thought, but our parents were the ones doing all the work on that day, no? =P
With my Jap-entertainment knowledge overload, that made me recall reading/watching somewhere that Yamashita Tomohisa received that similar birthday message "Thank you for having been born" from his mother. How noble is that? His friends rightfully commented that he should reply to her with something like "(I'm the one who should) thank you for giving birth to me", but he was apparently too shy to do that in the end.
His senpaiDoumoto Tsuyoshi on the other hand really got my respect when he revealed the inspiration behind a song he wrote, that was, the memory of viewing cherry blossoms with his mother; and that just before recording the song, he'd fought off the embarrassment and sent her the message: "I'm glad to have been born as your child (お母さんの子供に生まれて良かったです), thank you."
The birthday person themselves really have more reasons to be thankful about, na. From the Buddhist perspective, being thankful for the precious human birth, too, and taking care not to waste it. *nudges self*
With today comes the reminder of your love With today comes the reminder of all the lives that make up a part of mine 今日まで全てにありがとう 今日からもどうぞよろしく
"Begitu sempitnya waktu, begitu besarnya cinta" ("So little time, so much love") is, as most Indonesians might know, the tagline of the romantic movie Ungu Violet.
The poetic line caught my attention at the time of release and stayed in my mind, even though I never checked out the movie. Now that I've read the synopsis and reviews, the story looked pretty cliched -- very reminiscent of that famous Korean music video "Because I Am A Woman", though possibly with more complex background story. But anyway, I shouldn't comment further seeing as you may know better than me, who haven't watched.
The line just popped into my mind followed by a feeling of belated comprehension ("Ohhh, so that's what it means..") because my life right now is a pile of things I'd love to do but have not done, songs I'd love to learn but have not properly listened to, shows and recordings I'd love to watch but have not gotten around to... and time is never enough.
I thought I was quite an accepting person even in situations when I shouldn't, but for this timing issue I seem to be perpetually dissatisfied, as evidenced by my extremely irregular, lower bound-pushing sleeping hours. Ah.
By the way the above-mentioned belated comprehension may be incorrect after all, because after checking out the (spoiler-free) movie plot, I'm guessing that the line actually refers to some looming character death. Time indeed flows in one direction (or did I just betray my modern physics lecturer? This seems to warrant another blog post by itself) but "little time" in the movie context feels "forward" while my context feels "sideways".. if that makes sense (think duration vs. bandwidth?).
But, that would actually fit just right with the literal meaning: "How narrow time is, how big love is". Ahh, the connotations we lost in translation..
Not sure what to call this -- reflection? fanfiction? Anyway, this short piece of prose was inspired by a line of dialogue in the movie Charlie Bartlett, which both Eka and I have high opinions of after watching.
Yet untitled, and probably a little mushy. =P Fanfiction-ish in the sense that references are made without explanation, so it may be difficult to understand if you haven't watched the movie (well, if you haven't but can still understand, I'd be delighted to know). It also means spoilers.
---
The boy is everything he is not, even back in those years -- sweet talk and refined manners and prim looks that scream at school bullies to get him.
He sees no malice, though, and that is why he hasn't been quite as stern as someone in his position should be. He knows this species: teenagers vying to be recognized as adults, taking charge of things in all the wrong ways, while in truth their stubbornness and cynical perspectives speak louder of how immature their minds still are.
This kid would've been no different if not for his actual capacity to stir troubles at such a scale.
That may have been his mistake, to leave alone a misguided aspiration that ends up robbing him of his job and family and the life he's been trying to piece back together.
Yes, he is game enough to admit his part in this wreck, and that, strangely, is one point where he can connect perfectly with the kid -- they make mistakes; but all their mistakes, they make in earnest.
Yet, seated in the makeshift theatre, he has to admit that the kid fixes his mistakes a little better than he does. It may be an advantage of youth to be so fixated on a dream -- when one road crumbles, he grabs his dream and moves on.
Roads are for destinations, not the other way round. For him who has spent years following a road to a dream that lands him somewhere he no longer wants to be, it might as well be that all this mess has gotten him out of it.
The curtain closes on the smiling face of his daughter, looking straight at him. He assumes it means the worst part is over.
Their relationship might have been fine before this boy came along, and a total disaster after; but without that episode, it might never be as good as it will be from now on.
That may have been his saving grace, to not kill a clumsy flame that later goes on to rekindle the meaning of all that's important in his life.
Actually yes. XD I mean, I've read discouraging reviews of it and still wanted to go, and without much expectation I actually enjoyed it quite well.
Eng Wah put the title as "Deathnote Spin Off: L Change The World", which disoriented me a bit when I tried to find it among titles starting with 'L'. Maybe they did it to make it recognizable as part of Deathnote... like, how many would actually know who L was if not tied with Deathnote?
Hum, that was random. At first I thought the title "Change the World" was quite 'out of it', like the way Japanese songs include irrelevant English words in their chorus, or something. A one-letter title may not be very identifiable, so they need a subtitle, I suppose? (I remember my own confusion with the J-rock band called "X".) But as with "The Last Name", I think it suits the plot pretty well after all. And I like it that this movie still maintained that "God of the new world" theme in subtext.
Was that random again? Anyway... so the movie wasn't much about wits. The climax was indeed quite run-of-the-mill, at which point I checked my watch for the first time. In my opinion it was more about Watari's importance to L, which is a good point to touch on. They deliberately drew attention to the letter 'W' in the title, too. But L being the way he was, I didn't see much of the emotions, and the heart-clinching moments I did feel was probably due to the all the background I already knew.
So... in the end it was like, one needs to know Deathnote to enjoy it, and yet it lacks all the brainy stuff that one likes from Deathnote. (I actually prefer to think of this as a movie by itself, the manga-purist that I am. Besides, L was a strong enough character to grow out of the series.) But come to think of it, the post-L Deathnote saga feels quite like this -- that is, more of the field work. (Somehow I compare this to the thinking part and the implementation part of my own research work.)
The little girl was really lovely and acted well. Her character was to my liking too (i.e. the opposite of a damsel in distress). The English-speaking characters were, erm, not preferable to be speaking English... even L. But his Spanish(?) was pretty smooth in my ears, maybe because I didn't know that language at all. XD
I don't remember if Agent Suruga has been in the Deathnote movies (i.e. the two actual Deathnote adaptations, because, as I said, this one is not Deathnote to me) but I just feel his sudden appearance lacks explanation. As he proceeded to be the comic relief, we see the purpose, but... yeah. Anyway, he was entertaining. Don't care much about the rest of the supporting characters, and in fact, the villain kha-kias were of the pointlessly violent, brainless, 'bundled' variety that I couldn't stand.
L himself was still a charmer. At least we fangirls would love the liberal serving of his adorably dorky scenes to gush at -- can't speak for others heh. Though, hm, rather sorry to say this, but I'm still not struck by Matsuyama Kenichi's charm outside of this role. (Eka said he looked old in the DramaWiki photo (indeed), so I linked to ThePPN instead.) And I'm starting to think that he gets this role working out so well exactly because he is not that prince-like type of actor. By 'prince-like' I mean someone like Takki or Kimutaku or, well, Prince. XP Though somehow the dorkiness doesn't seem to shine bright enough elsewhere...
...Yeah, now you know the kind of influences I'm subjecting myself to recently. Surprisingly though, among this bunch of teen pop idols there are some that I consider pretty good musical findings, like this Kansai group who sang really interesting songs:
Kanjani8 - Naniwa Iroha Bushi
Glad to know that for all the good looks, at least one of them does have impressive vocals. I say at least because I haven't recognized all of them yet... I say, why so many people in boybands who rarely sing more than one vocal parts? XP But Hady explained that it was to trap more fans across wider tastes, and I suppose I'm indeed victim to such a scheme, true enough.
Hum, jump of topic, but if I really try to tie this in, another one of the Kanjani8 boys is the guy who (sort of) gets the girl MatsuKen (sort of) dumps in Ichi Rittoru, so there. =D
Dish once told me that the Singapore transport system is such that we can get (almost?) anywhere within one hour, which is a nice property. The downside of that is, one hour is also the average time we need to travel to (almost?) anywhere.
Shortage of time recently (more than usual, I mean) -- research work + commissioned job + moving out + Soracco concert -- and so I've started to try buying time with taxi fares.
But I once took a taxi from Outram to Vivocity (there are somehow no direct bus from these seemingly close locations) and ended up taking more time combing the Pasir Panjang -- Telok Blangah Road compared to if I had just made that trip to the MRT station and taken the train.
While some of us tend to associate taxis with faster journeys, I guess they really are in the service of providing convenience, not time saving. Time still cannot be bought -- most of the time, anyway...
...But but but, L the movie coming up! I will make time to watch you no matter what! *maniacal stare* Anyway, seeing as it'll be released in Japan in February, we won't get it so soon here.
Saw the poster on the MRT station when I was walking with Yesie and went all excited, which prompted her to ask, "You like that guy?" (referring to Matsuyama Kenichi) in a rather... innuendo-ish... way... huaha.
Haven't dug much into him to properly appreciate him as a person (rather than a character) yet. I even missed him totally in Gokusen -_-0 because, ahem, another Matsu- there is kinda too charm-spreading... huehehueh.
We wanted Stardust, but it was still on those awkwardly-timed sneak previews, so I said, "Let's ogle Jake Gyllenhaal then," which Eka didn't mind (I don't think she's in the fan club though).
That mission kind of failed, maybe because I was kind of expecting the Donnie Darko of six years past. He didn't shine, but other parts of the movie unexpectedly made up for it.
(Warning for SPOILERS below, by the way.)
Rendition was heavier than I was prepared for. The generally available synopsis led me to think it would be mostly a drama of Reese Witherspoon searching for her disappearing husband (Reese did well on her climactic scene, which affected me quite a bit), plus bits of moral issues that were Jake's share. It didn't register to me that such a theme would of course warrant some disturbing torture scenes.
In retrospect, even if I'd been aware of that, I might have overestimated my capacity to stomach them, considering my past exposure to some gruesome dark manga. I hadn't felt compelled to blog about this movie since I saw it two days ago, until just now in the shower when I was promptly reminded of the waterboarding scene. Static ink on paper surely pales in comparison to live action with a real person.
Throughout the story, the audience was led to conclude that Anwar (the suspect) had been wrongly accused. Never mind the breach to the 'innocent till proven guilty' principle; I went by feelings more than principles, and I sympathized with him just because I knew he wasn't the bad guy.
However, when he finally caved in and confessed, I thought for a moment that he might actually be involved after all, and that the torture had indeed brought out the truth. After all, we couldn't help but acknowledge that Abasi (the 'torturer', another great performance) did operate on fair assumptions when he laid out their findings before Anwar and asked, "Tell me, what do you want us to think?" (Not the exact quote, which I wish I remembered.)
As should have been obvious, though, we did find out later on that Anwar had given a false confession only to avoid further torture, and it was like, fiuh, but still.
You know those Knights and Knaves logical puzzles -- wouldn't it be handy if there were a provable way of determining if someone speaks the truth without a precondition to know what that truth is?
Is it the essence of detective work, after all? Lie detectors have the desirable property (context-free) but not the desirable result (provable). I suspect that in this case we might find these two qualities contradicting each other.
At this point I'm rather tempted to discuss a thought from Tokyo Babylon: "In most cases, we only know the reality of what happened. Not the truth behind it." The original context is an emotional treatment of the issue of manifestation versus motivation; throw in the matters of perspective and interpretation, and it's a whole different topic. Hence, I'll refrain for now.
