15th Japanese film festival

Helooo, heello......?? Oh god im so lonely...

After exams, everything went by infinitely slower. But I finally gathered enough strength to go to the annual 15th Japanese film festival! Last year we watched Confessions :)

This year, I believe the amount of good quality movies increased. Some included Gantz live action, Buddha: The great departure, A ghost of chance and many many more.

We initially planned to watch The Secret World of Arrietty...

Except it was sold out ;-(

The screenplay was by Hayao Miyazaki! Who also made Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle~~

Now's a good time for a Howl inset!

Next year I'm booking a month in advance....
Anyway we decided to watch a random movie where the title sounded cool.

Milocrorze: A love story

OHH WHAT LOVE STORY??

After watching the entire movie, it felt like something was missing...

The only thing stuck in my mind was the crazy man


extrait:Milocrorze: A Love Story

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I knew it was going to be something similar to The butcher, the chef and the swordsman.
BUT don't worry, it wasn't that horrid. The scenes weren't repetitive and as vulgar as the Chinese one. I guess Milocrorze would rate about 6.5 on my scale.

Again there were 3 stories which were in no way related at all. Except in the 2nd arc the man ran himself over(same actor lol) who was the samurai in the 3rd arc. The last arc was the most interesting. A samurai was looking for his long lost love-- who was taken away by aliens LOL. I won't spoil it for people who will watch but it was a fast paced, violent and sad arc. All the character's lives were either sad or silly anyway. The cramming of three plots into one which weren't related at all made the movie too blasé. You can't retain any feelings for the characters and it was pretty much a comedic impromptu.

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Anyway in between that we went to that Korean bbq down the dark alley just like last year ♡
I see this is becoming a ritual. Finally remembered the restaurant lol, it's Kozy.

Our hot pot this time with kim chi and pork.


The seafood pancake was sooo delicious!

We drank soju again. For some reason my eyeballs felt like exploding.
Anyway this is with my friend I knew since beginning of high school.
Yet now I only see her 2 times a year :(

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Some other movies sounded very interesting.
I should have skipped work and watched....

It's about Kei Kurono and his friend Masaru Kato who die in a train accident and become part of a semi-posthumous "game". They and several other recently deceased people are forced to hunt down and kill aliens armed with a handful of futuristic items of equipment and weaponry. (From wiki lol)

It sounded like another version of The world ends with you - DS game. My friend who reads the manga said it is too violent and gory for silly girls. I asked how so and he said because aliens cut people up and vice versa ;( I will still watch it anyway...

Another animation that got astounding reviews was

Buddha: The Great Departure

Such beautiful animation! And the scenes were well scripted too, I heard. It's based on Buddha but dramatised. It starts when Siddhartha, the Buddha, who starts to search for the truth in life and all the obstacles and betrayal that follow after abandoning his royal life to commence his great journey.


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A Ghost of Chance


Unfortunately this movie already screened when I found out about the festival.
Ghost of Chance, a comedy, involves a lawyer who acquired a murder case and has to defend a man who supposedly killed his wealthy wife. There are no alibis or clues................. save for a ghost only she can see! What will she do to save this supposedly innocent man and what shocking secrets will she unearth as she inquires deeper? Man I really wanted to watch this!

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A while ago I watched another Tetsuya Nakashima movie

Memories of Matsuko

(who also made the great psychological thriller CONFESSIONS!)

The description is as bland as always.

When the body of a female tramp is found in the park, her nephew, Shou, is given the burden of cleaning out her apartment. Shou was given the impression her life was meaningless. The initial history of Matsuko's life was corny. She was a well loved school teacher but a few sandwiches short of a picnic~~ really stupid in an innocent way. But why was she murdered?

The movie reflected what was beautiful about human life, the emotions and the events that even a nobody like Matsuko could achieve. It was so sad, you cannot stop tearing up at least once!!! The actress was amazing because she was bullied by the director to act the part he envisioned ;/ And in the end she said she never wants to work with him again. Even though the movie was a success lol.


I think this is the most beautiful scene in the movie, even though a body is there ✩~
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Anywho.. It may seem like my life is boring and only revolves around movies. But I still have friends and coworkers who kick the hikikomori-ness out :D

There was the annual Christmas work party again!! WOW time really swishes by!!
The bosses hired a place close by this year so it was much more easier to get to and it was much more fun because all the girls I worked with were there. Unlike last year it was just fobs :( AHAHA I won $50!! Then spent it all on perfume ;/

A boss whose wife I had once admired for her fringe is now pregnant!! She still looks so young and she still has that fringe which I still admire lol.
The workers from the other store seemed like they downsized..
The Yuki (from perfect girl evolution) lookalike had quit and my coworker said it was because she repeatedly called in 'sick' right before her shift and actually wanted to work at our store LOL. She even applied for our store first but got kicked over to there. If she worked here I can just imagine the staring I would give her...... "Your haircut is so cool! We are deprived of manly figures here!"

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I am going overseas this year. It is exciting but anxiety inducing because I'll definitely become home-sick and get food poisoning and maybe some sort of incurable disease... Yes, it's time to visit family in China again. In complete honestly if I didn't have certain nice family members from there, I would HATE that place. It is a dirty and an extremely degenerate place!! Other than hating certain mannerisms, I also hate the pollution. I have to eat Yum Cha all the time(MSG overload!!) because my grandparents suck at cooking and will be meeting my cousins (extremely geocentric brats). Also people like to cheat you as often as possible and everyone showcases their wealth with LV bags which are like normal bags rolled in mud. Ok time to stop the hating :(
It's just a love/hate relationship :/
I'm still excited!
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Time to prepare for New Year~~

Au revoir!

Japanese fiction

There are plenty of popular and translated fiction books from Japan which have world wide acclaim. There are authors you can't look past when you are about to endeavor on the road of strange Japanese fiction. But what sets them apart from Western fiction...?

The notable Haruki Murakami is unmissable.

IS it the storyline? The writing style? Well I can't really tell because I haven't read enough highly acclaimed literature worthy books :(

BUT to me it's like reading graphically and taking the whole picture at once. Compared to western fiction which is like reading illustratively, the minute details seemingly an afterthought. Whatever, with that explanation, I wasn't even talking about manga but it sounds like reading manga with only words.

The first Japanese fiction I ever read (and notably remember) was from Murakami - Kafka on the shore. It is still my favourite now even though everyone likes the more mature Wind-up Bird Chronicle or Norwegian Wood (his break-through novel). This excludes 1Q84 the latest trilogy from Murakami. It is currently his bestseller!! Anyway, this is by no means a literature review post but to share some of my favourite books.

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1. Kafka on the shore - Haruki Murakami

This is still my favourite because compared to Norwegian wood it is the complete opposite. The people in Norwegian Wood had substantial free will, except marred by a bad past which led to their unconventional choices. In Kafka on the shore, everything just flowed like it was part of fate. I could sense a happy ending! If you like reading about tragic dramatizations of life - and come out feeling better about your real life... this is not the book for you.

Anyway this is about a boy who has a strange father (who eats the hearts of cats), and a parallel story about an old man who is a container - but empty of a soul. The young boy, Kafka, runs away from home because he is adamant about filling a prophecy relating to Oedipus. And the old man really really likes cats
and I'm sure Murakami really likes cats too so he decided to include this amazing story of an old man who catches cats for a living.
Really, when you read it you'd want to become a cat hunter too!!



2. Spring snow (Sea of Fertility tetralogy) - Yukio Mishima


Just read this recently! Someone from kinokuniya recommended it on those slips of recommendation papers they attach to the side. I'm glad they did!

The plot is basically a complete tragic dramatization of life. This is, in complete hypocrisy, the core of what I would hate to read. It was very difficult to finish mainly because I would become as melancholic as Kiyoaki after being exposed to his exceedingly elegant depression.

The crux of the story is Kiyoaki being in a love/hate relationship with Satoko. Well actually, there is no other mentionable plot. Please let this eloquent gentlemen explain what is so significant about this novel:

"His characters are so tragic, yet so ordinary; so privileged, yet so doomed; so foolish, yet so much more introspective than you. "

The translator must have had a difficult time with this book! But he did a marvelous job and even retained what the author tried to convey.

"Mishima ... can isolate the most fleeting, awkward, and yet noble emotion, gesture, or thought, and hold it up to you like a jewel, and allow you to view it from all sides and savor it.

And he does not hold these gems up to show you how ugly they are; what is so beautiful about his writing is that even the ugliest, basest, most "human", emotion, he gives nobility and honor, so that his characters seem deific, holy... like we should see ourselves." - Ryan

DID I MENTION the author Mishima is of noble samurai bloodline and frequently expressed he would commit suicide after completion of this series. Which he did in 1970. I don't know why it is shameful to write this series because committing suicide would mean he did something bad to betray the emperor. But what a commitment to the series!!



3. Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami


A man who is simply the narrator works as a calcutec. Basically, it's like his head is a magical box who can attach and reattach itself (in the sense of being conscious) to make complex streams of coded data. Which he uses his hand to write out. And this is a professional job.

Again this series of events is not because of free will. He meets a quirky professor who is into the research of sound. Including reading people's mind after they die because their bones emit a sound close to their memories.

The beginning is exceedingly slow. Even skipping pages should not be a crime when you say you read the entire book and said it was good. I am still angry and confused about the ending. Much like Inception. Please read to the end! Skip pages when it gets boring and give it a second chance before putting it away without finishing!


4. After dark - Haruki Murakami


This is a short story about a girl who meets a guy in a cafe. None of this pulpy romance crap but a real, one in a lifetime snapshot of what could happen after midnight in a city like Tokyo. There are many questions still unanswered but still a very interesting read. And this entire story took place only in one night, wow such detail and introspection!


5. Memoirs of a Geisha


Well if you haven't read this, you sure are missing out.
And I am sure the in the book Chiyo's eyes aren't blue but grey like a wizards ;/

It might not be by someone Japanese, but it's still related.

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10. In the miso soup - Ryu Murakami
What a psychedelic title!

Well, if you want sadistic torture to be part of your reading list, then you may find this interesting. I was captured at first. But then it went downhill. If only I could selectively erase memories. This seems to be sidelining fat, balding and weird smelling American tourist. Stop reading after they go into the hostess bar, skip that part, then go forward about 10 pages :) then it may be bearable. I like how he captured the sadness of the sex industry. It is a very sad world in there. But it contains a lot of gore.

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Ok well these are the ones worth mentioning. SORRY they are just one Murakami after another!! I am just finishing 1Q84 book 1 and it sure feels like his magnum opus. After finishing I might knock off Kafka on the Shore as no.1 :/

Here is a site for top 216 Japanese books by Goodreads
If you feel slightly cheated by my short list ;/

It's rated by users and I am sure you can find one that suits your taste. Here is a short guide:

If you liked One flew over the cuckoo's nest but wanted more romance: Norwegian Wood
If you like Wuthering heights but wanted more melancholic feats of love: Spring Snow
If you liked Lord of the flies but wanted more violence: Battle Royale
If you hated 1984 and wanted a less depressing storyline : 1Q84

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If you are lazy and just want to watch the movie, it's likely you will not find it as fulfilling as the book. If only everyone were educated and willing to become educated. Then our society might be doomed because we could all become pessimistic. Anyway, please read good stuff such as the above so you don't become clouded by too much introspection.


Au revoir ~~