"Women can forgive insensitivity, but being insensitive to your own feelings is no good."

Before I talk about the movies I've seen since I last posted, here is a brief gaming update. Finished Metal Gear Solid 3 and God of War 2 finally, and I've bought MGS4. I'm giving myself a while to adapt to MGS4 after beating GoW2, so I might really pick it up tomorrow. And though it goes without saying, it's an extremely beautiful game.

I've gotten pretty good with my T6 Asuka at my arcade, so much so that I'm usually ranked somewhere in my arcade's top ten every week. I can't wait for it to come out on the PS3, so I can stop wasting $30 a week on it in the arcade.

In any case, here are the movies:

手紙 (or Letters) - Good actors, good subject, great movie. Letters is about the correspondence between two brothers after the older one is sent to prison for murder. The movie deals with the harsh reality of the older brother's crime and the discrimination the younger brother takes for simply having the same blood. One thing worth mentioning is the actor playing the older brother is great in this movie, even though he isn't on screen long. While I had two small plot annoyances (if you are trying to avoid discrimination and recognition, why would you become a comedian and date Richie McRichness?), the story is very well held together by excellent acting all around and the last 20mins are absolutely fantastic (I just keep rewatching it). Verdict: With the choice of English subs, this is another 'must-see' movie for anyone. I watched with Japanese subs and understood most of what was said (they were two conversations that I had to replay with Eng subs to get everything).

そのときは彼によろしく(or At that time, say hi to him for me). 純愛, a pure love movie. All you need to know about this genre can usually be summed up in two words: magical illness. While SonoKare is not exempt from that... trait, it does a lot of this differently than your avg Jpn love movie. I'm not going to spoil anything, but the movie is about 3 childhood friends who have drifted apart over the years and who are trying to make things like they used to be. No particularly good performances (the main actor of Letters is the main actor of SonoKare, but doesn't bring the same calibur of acting sadly), but the story is decent and it does something new with the genre. Verdict: If you're tired of the generic Jpn love movie, then this comes highly recommended. No English subs, but not hard to watch in Japanese at all, even when they start describing aforementioned magical illness.

しゃべれどもしゃべれども(or Talk Talk Talk). A movie about 落語 which are Japan's traditional one-man comedy routines. In brief, a Rakugo artist in training takes on 3 very different students who, while learning rakugo for their own reasons, help him perfect his art. Hilarious movie with some poignant scenes (nothing over the top though). Strong performances all around (particularly the Osaka-ben speaking kid), and a very interesting subject that I didn't know much about. Verdict: With English subs, I'd suggest this to someone with an interest in Japanese culture and art. In only Japanese, there were a few tricky parts and the stories were a little hard to follow at first, but with repeated tellings they became much easier to understand.

Also, if you happened to be interested in Japanese movies, but would rather watch them with English subtitles, look for 英語字幕 on the back of the case. A lot of the newer Japanese movies seem to have subs.

Let's Movie Talk!

...But before that, obligatory 'earthquake' post. So, at around 9am, while I was still in bed, I was woken up by a tremble. I immediately knew, "This is bigger than the others have been" so I got up immediately and rushed to the door frame (interesting fact, prior to the earthquake, I'd never seen or heard that you should do that from anyone, but in a Simpsons episode, Grandpa runs to the doorway after he feels a tremor and before his retirement home sinks underground. So there you go, when I panic, my brain switches to Simpson mode). On the way to the door, I slip nice and good, before rolling to the door frame and getting up. I see my LCD TV shaking perilously and wonder if I should go support it, but eventually decide my life is a smidge more important (also, I had no glasses, so I might have tripped on the kotatsu on my way to the TV). The earthquake eventually stopped, then after about an hour, after I clean up the soy sauce which has fallen around my fridge, I notice my knee is bleeding. The End. Oh, there are still lots of tremors. Not Quite The End.

In all seriousness though, I'm glad that most people were safe and I hope we don't get hit again.

Now, on that up note, I want to talk about the movies I've seen since my last post. I've really become addicted to Japanese movies, now that I realize I can understand them (of course, my e. dictionary comes in handy for words like 'false accusation' and 'tone deaf'). These movies didn't have English subtitles btw, but that's one of the main reasons I picked them.

So the movies were:

あなたをわすれない or, I Won't Forget You. The movie is based (loosely, I'm sure) on the life of a Korean student who loved Japan and decided to study Japanese there (here?). It mostly deals with the love-hate relationship he feels with Japan. Considering it was a joint Korea/Japan movie, it surprisingly leaned to the side of "Geez, why are the Japanese such jerks to Koreans?". Slow, methodical Japanese made it very easy to understand (but damnit if his Japanese didn't get all fluent in the short time he was here (there?) *shakes fist*) and the story was ok. But, for a movie that seemed to deal a lot with music, there wasn't much of it in the movie, but the last song was pretty good. Verdict: Good for someone stepping into Japanese movies without Japanese subtitles as the conversations are basic and slow.

犯人に告ぐ or, Message to the Criminal. This is another 'listening comp. only' movie. The budget seemed pretty low on this movie, and it seemed like they were desperately trying to set up a sequel, and the end happens a little too fast, but the movie still worked. It's your basic game of cat and mouse, where a disgraced detective directly confronts a child serial murderer by using news broadcasts. I enjoyed the beginning, but it slows down after it's first act. It picks up towards the end, but leaves something to be desired. Verdict: Ok 'thriller', except that it doesn't thrill too much. Language level is a bit high, especially without Jpn subs.

キサラギ or... Kisaragi (I got nothing here, it's a name). Great, great, great movie. An excellent dark comedy. The basic premise is that a D-list celebrity has died, and her 5 fans have come together for a farewell party. From there, the murder accusations fly and the twists begin. What works is that the plot is extremely smart and it constantly balances between being hilarious and sad. While a comedy, it carries itself seriously to it's conclusion. I laughed, then cried... then laughed again. Verdict: Go watch it. The plot and the acting are top-notch. One of the best movies I've seen in a while. I watched it with Japanese subs, though I probably could have done without. The language level is medium, I'd say.

That's about it! If you have any Japanese movie suggestions, lemme know! (Anything that's not Shunji Iwai, I've seen too many of his movies)

"Get your own candy you fatty fat, fat fat."

So, Wii Fit update. Without changing very much in my diet and life expect the adding of Wii Fit and the recent idea of simply eating/drinking less* (ridiculous, I know), I've lost 2.7 kgs. At this rate, I'll be fitting into Japanese clothes within the next 10 years!

*To be more accurate, I've cut 500 cals out of my meals and I turn down the food that magically shows up on my desk. I started this about 2 weeks ago.

"I'm your son, don't you believe me?!" "It's because you're my son that I can't believe you!"

Movies! I had decided when I came to Japan that I would watch at least one Japanese movie a week sans English subtitles. I outdid myself this week by watching two! I finally got to see the new Evangelion movie (You are (not) alone) and a movie I picked up cause the description looked interesting (それでもぼくはやってない　or, I Just Didn't Do It). The Eva movie is the first of a tetralogy where the series is retold with new 3d effects, slightly different plot points at certain times and a new ending. Having seen the show already (albeit about 6 years ago), I expected the movie to be fairly easy to understand with Japanese subs... of which there weren't. While I still understood most of the movie (It usually revolved around Shinji saying "I can't do it!" over and over), the discussions with very few visual references were tricky. The movie was good, but nothing terribly new.

As for the other movie, I was surprised by how frank a commentary it was on Japan's flawed judicial system. Even more surprising was that it was Japan's representative at many a foreign film exposition last year. That aside, the movie covers the wrongful arrest and imprisonment of a young man accused of 痴漢 on a crowded Tokyo subway. The movie follows him through the arrest, imprisonment, trail and sentencing. Fairly moving, well acting, rife with interesting facts, and surprising understandable for even someone at my level, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about Japan's justice system, or if he/she justs wants a good movie.

"Are you getting enough vegetables in your diet?" "Well, that depends. Is seaweed a vegetable?"

I fi-fricking-nally finished MGS3 last. In short, it was as fantastic as everyone said, and I eagerly await MGS4 next week so I can wait 4 years to play it as well. Next games up on the list is God of War 2 and Beyond Good and Evil.

Speaking of games, I’ve been getting into free MMORPGs lately. It’s a bit of a long story of how I got into them, but it basically started with me buying an EEE 701 ultra portable laptop from Akiba (this makes laptop #3 if you’ve been counting). To test how strong that little beast of a PC was, I started throwing many mid-spec games at it in the hopes some would stick.GTA3, Beyond Good and Evil, Ether Vapor and Warcraft 3 ran perfectly on it, to my surprise. Then it started. It dawned on me that having a strong machine which a good wifi card and ultra portability meant MMO games were a perfect fit. While it took a bit of display finagling, I’ve gotten the following games to run near perfect and find myself playing them when I have time to spare: GunBound, Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, Maple Story, Ghost Online and Arad Senki (I’ve tricked myself into thinking this is a form of study by setting the games to Japanese, but it’s a lie I tell you!). I’ve also started on Grenado Espada (Sword of the New World) and Rohan, but that’s on my bigger PC. So that’s that, don’t test games on a new PC or you’ll find yourself swooning at their siren songs when you should be learning archaic verb forms.

Speaking of archaic verb forms, I’ve officially studying for 1-kyuu. I have no delusions of passing it, nor do I have any need for the certification, but I find that I have to take it. I took 2 kyuu and did ok, so not taking 1 kyuu now would be a retreat (and we all know you can’t go back), a ‘Game Over’ if you will. At least when I fail it, they’ll always be the ‘retry’ option. Even though I say all this, I don’t want studying for a test I don’t need to mess with my real Japanese studies. My speaking skills still suck, I’ve been hovering at 700 for Heisig for a while, and my everyday vocab is still weak. If anyone knows of a good speaking test, let me know. Maybe focusing my energies on something like that will break me out of this rut.