happylife

Unhappy DVDs

I'm uncommonly busy now because I have to watch three DVDs by tomorrow morning. The rental video shop in my neighborhood runs a regular campaign every Tuesday, in which we can rent one DVD for just 200 yen except brand new films. So I usually go to the shop every Tuesday and rent 5 to 10 pieces. Last Tuesday, I rent five movies and I have watched only two of them by now. There remain three more DVDs to be watched in twelve hours. I'm a little bit sleepy but I hate to waste money for the rent. It's my fun to watch movies but It's rather unhappy to be obliged to watch them.

Mr. Incredible

Yesterday, I saw "Mr. Incredible" at Shinjuku. I had been looking forward to watching this movie since I was in Vancouver last month. It was released in North America soon after I left Vancouver and was also released in Japan soon after I got a slipped disk. So I couldn't see it for a long time until yesterday. Anyway, the work was incredibly great. I can't find even a slight fault in this picture. I really love this kind of movie which has its own, wonderful, happy and dreamy world of view. Pixer's technology has perfectly established the all 3D graphics movie. It is so natural and super-natural that I didn't even mind that this film is all made of CG. This film is of course my most favorite one in this year and maybe in this decade.

A samurai drama

The TV in my room was broken, and there are several TVs in my house. So I used the one in my parents' bed room and watched a samurai drama for 10 hours without break. The title was "Kunitori Monogatari" meaning "The story of dominating countries." It is a story of fighting between samurai about 500 years ago. Around that time Japan was in a state of anarchy and tens of daimyo were fighting each other seeking for the domination of whole Japan. There are a lot of stories about this age and they are told in various styles such as novels, films, plays, and TV dramas. Most Japanese know the outlines of the story and they watch or read them again and again. One of the reason for the repetition is that the story is closely related to our modern life. The world of samurai resembles to those of "salaryman" in Japan. All the samurai was bound tightly to the master and servant relationship which is just like the relationship between corporate employees in Japan. They both work very hard for the sake of their master or company sometimes throwing their lives or families away. It is incredible I think, but it was one aspect of Japanese people at least until several years ago. I can't agree with this kind of idea because my most important thing is myself.

"24"

As I can't still walk, I'm spending most of my time in my room. It's nothing but boring that you have to stay in your room just lying down on bed. I found a little entertainment. I'm watching DVDs with my lap-top computer. "24" is an American TV drama series. It's a story about incidents on the day of the the Presidential election. The story runs on real time, that is there are no flash back scenes and just some things happen in a real time scale which makes the whole story to be very speedy and thrilling. It's such thrilling suspense that I can't help tensing my muscles. I don't think this film is good for my recovery but at least I can forget the pain while I'm watching it.

Private theater

I will be in an airplane at this time tomorrow, so this is my last diary in Vancouver this year. Unfortunatelly it was rainy today and I couldn't ride on bicycle nor sail. I went to Sivercity Riverport, which is a large theater in Richmond. It has about 20 theater within a large, flat building. As it was weekday and raingin hard, there were few people in the building. I chose "Team America" as my last film in Vancouver. It is brand new and popular puppet play. But unbeliavably there was no one except me in the large theater room. I felt lucky because it was literally my private theater! But on the half way of the film, I felt something strange; no one laughs at funny scenes. It isn't like a theater. The space and the screen of the theater is too large for one person, and I felt a bit of lonliness.

Anyway, the film itself was a very bad and very funny, ironical comedy. I couldn't count the number of f-words, violent scenes, and sexual expressions in it. If real actors and actresses played the same things, this film would be prohibitted in most theaters, but all the actors and actresses are marionettes, and that allows the film to be ultimately abandoned.

The Motorcycle Diaries

It was Tuesday today, and I was a little bit tired of facing toward the laptop. So, I went to Tinseltown to see a movie. The movie I chose was "The Motorcycle Diaries", which is a story based on a real adventure by two Argentine medical students. They traveled around South America on a ragged motorcycle named "Mighty One." They slipped so many times that the motorcycle got broken on their half way. Then they continued the travel by hitch and on foot. It is interesting to see how they grew through their various experience in the travel. And the people they met are all tasty. As I like traveling on a motorcycle, this movie seemed more fascinating. And what I have to say is that this movie is a Spanish film with English subtitles. So, I could understand much more than usual English movies.

The Princess Diaries 2

"The Princess Diaries 2" which I saw at Tinseltown tonight was great. It is of course the continuance of "The Princess Diaries". The Princess Mia who was an American highschool girl in the last film, has grown up to graduate from college in the U.S. and has come back to her country Genova. According to the ancient law of Genova, The Princess has to be married, and she tries to marry before her coronation ceremony which is to be held 30 days later. She tries to get married with the gentleman whom her grandmonther found. Though she likes him, she can't have any love passion with him. And she has another boy friend with whom she feels something like passion, but she isn't sure wheter that is love or not. And at last, the day of the ceremony has come, and she makes one great decision. This movie is much greater than the last one because Mia has grown up and become much more cute. The only one thing I am sorry about is that "The Princess Diaries 3" cannot be produced because of the title; In the end of this movie, Mia has become The Queen!

The Princess Diaries

Last night, I watched a Disney movie, "The Princess Diaries" on DVD. It's a story that a 15-year-old school girl, who has been living in San Francisco with her mother, is one day noticed by her grand mother that she is an heir of the throne of one small country in Europe. Her grand mother teaches her every thing necessary for being the Princess, but she doesn't get used to that. As it is a comical and cute movie, I enjoyed it very much. And fortunatelly, the DVD includes a bonus ticket for "The Princess Diaries 2". So, I'm going to see the continuance in the theatre next week.

Dancing dragnet

Because of the persistent backpain, instead of sailing or cycling, I stayed in my room and watched "Dancing dragnet" on DVD. This is one of the smash hit movies in Japan last year and I got the pirate edition of it in a chinese mall. It is a comical story of the police station in a new town in Tokyo and it takes up the problem of bureaucratic organization in Japan. I think it is well designed and full of funny scenes, but I couldn't really enjoy it. Though I cannot explain it well, I felt somewhat out of place with the movie. It is true that this movie describes the Japanese society right now, so it may be concluded that not the movie itself but I am out of place. As many years have passed since I escaped from the bureaucratic organization in Japan, the problem which this movie deals has become none of my business. And for that reason, I couldn't feel any sympathy for the problem in this movie.

踊る大捜査線 THE MOVIE 2...

The Terminal

Yesterday I watched Tom Hanks' new movie 'The Terminal'. This is a story about a poor man who lost his nationality because his country has just been in a coup just before he arrived at the JFK airport. He was obliged to stay in the transit area of the airport. Though he had no valid money and he could not speak English, he managed to live in the ariport. Inspite of some obstructions of the unkind airport director, he gradually got his friends, supporters and even a girl friend of a flight attendant. I think this is a heart-warming comedy which encourages people in adversity.