"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.