Too many ways to write, means this blog gets neglected; time to stop twittering focus!
The last couple of weeks have been a combination of a couple of my favourite things; Japanese culture and a film festival. This time of year brings the Japanese Film Festival to Sydney. With Sydney having 40 degree days right now it is perfect.
We get very little Japanese film in Australia, apart from the normal Anime and a few very big releases, so the festival coming means lots of time spent in a dark room.
We managed to get tickets for the opening celebration; always fun to put on nice clothes, have a few drinks, eat nice food, then go to a movie!
We started with The Handsome Suit (ハンサム★スーツ) , a pretty light comedy that almost felt Italian – very visual. The movie was a good opener, appeals to everyone, enjoyable, a small message that what is inside counts not what is outside, but basically just good entertainment.
Next was Goemon, I think the director had spent far too much time watching huge Chinese war epics of the sort where 5 people take on an army of a few hundred thousand and win! Lots of blood, a bit of Bollywood dancing for some weird reason and of course plenty of wire work . Watchable an identical way to all of these movies but not something I would normally rush to.
Movie number three was K-20 Legend of the Mask (K20 怪人二十面相・伝) . I had no idea of the story so I went in not knowing what to expect, this movie was fun. I was told it was changed quite a bit from the original story so it wasn’t at all predictable. It is cool to see Parque in movies rather than traditional wire work – challenging! I really hope this movie gets Australian general release, everyone should get a chance to see it.
And many good things, they sometimes come to an end; I went to the finale, The Chef of the South Pole (南極料理人). I am interested in Antarctica and this is a true story so I was keen to see this movie, I did not expect it to be so good! I cannot say enough good things about this movie, it’s hilarious, the entire cinema laughed through most of the movie. It gives you a great insight into what it is like to be completely isolated for a long time, 1 year, with a small group of people – how you stay sane. The director and author (the actual chef) were there to answer questions, most of the scenes were real – people actually do get that strange. A lot of it was filmed in the far North of Hokaido, so it’s cold. It’s about a base in Antarctica where the average temperature is -57, and then comes wind chill! If you have any chance at all, do yourself a favour and see this movie, you won’t be disappointed.
So after lots of Asahi, Ramen, and Sencha that’s it for the festival for another year, roll on the next one…
