Monday, August 18, 2008

Review on Noriko's Dinner Table

After watching Suicide Club, I have decided to watch its spin-off film directed by the same director, Sion Sono. Unlike the "action-filled" Suicide Club, Noriko's Dinner Table was a lot different as the only thing that two films had in common was that Noriko's Dinner Table was looselybased on the mass suicide event in Suicide Club.

The films' main protangist, Noriko was a normal high school girl who was living a normal life in Toyokawa, Japan. She found her life boring and meaningless in the countryside of Japan. She did not have a boyfriend and she had an authoritian father that tried to tell lecture her in a way that she did not like. She seemed to live in a life that forced herself to be a happy normal girl but she was more adventurous than that. Her boredom with her life led her to make internet friends through the computers in school. She eventually ran away from home to Tokyo, hoping to persue a happy life.

I would not like to spoil the rest of the plot as it was unpredictable and I would certainly like you to enjoy the film yourself. Noriko's Dinner Table went more depth than Suicide Club as it talked about the lack of communications between family members, lonely teenagers, and lonely elders that could spend much time with their family. The film was very emotional as both daughters showed different attitude toward their father when they reunioned. The ending was not told explicitly and was left for the audience to speculate.

The film was a good example to show the hidden bomb behind a seemingly-happy family. Tetsuzo was a responsible and protective father on the surface. He loved his family so much that he moved into a peaceful place in Toyokawa. The film showed its sacarsm when Tetsuzo neglected his daughters' feeling and eventually cause them to runaway from home. The peaceful place of Toyokawa was the boring place that caused his daughters to runaway. This problems in the film are realistic to the problems in Japan. Japanese men usually work for long hours and are only able to spent little time toward their family. As a result many Japanese teens are emotionally distant with their father. I would definite this film to those who are interested in psychological films and films that reflect family problems. 7.5/10

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Words on Le Scaphandre et le Papillon

I started to watch some indie/foreign films lately, as they are usually more surprising, inspiring, and more educating. The Camelview 5 Harkins theatre just north of Scottsdale Fashion Square (sharing the same parking lot) is my favorite in Arizona (because the movies and quality of audience are better). There is a film that I cannot forget, and it is Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Betterfly). I watched it on January 29, as a treat for the birthday of my friend.

The film is based on a best-selling memoir from a real life story of the aftermath of a disease called "locked-in sydrome" on a middle-class Frenchman named Jean-Dominique Bauby. He had a successful life, being the editor-in-chief of Elle and has three children until he became paralyzed on his way to see an opera with his eldest son. When he woke up after the coma he realized that he was in a hospital and found out that he had lost control of his entire body saved some basic movement on his head and his left eye. He became suicidal at first, but did not have the ability to do so. After the encouragement from his friends and relatives, he realized he could still do two things in his otherwise boring life: Imagining and remembering his past. He was persuaded to write a memoir of his experience on his "locked-in syndrome", using the hard way - being dictated every single alphabet by his assistance using his eye blink. He finished the book couple days before he went into coma and passed away.

What was really touching me about the movie was his spirit to live on and not giving up. Surely he was giving up in the beginning, because he went from an editor-in-chief to a patient that has to be taken care of 24/7. After a while he accepted his disability and was able to face the people he loved, including his children bored by his former lover, his father, and his girlfriend. The title suited this movie well, the diving bell was the physical situation he was in, because he could not communicate with the outside world; and butterfly being the state of mind of his after the initial depressing period he had, and that he can see his seed - children being well taken care of.

One of the saddest parts of the film was the part when Mr. Bauby's father tried to phone his son, and cannot hear his voice because Mr. Bauby was not able to speak. He was crying because he was in his 90's, and he had to withstand the pain of losing his son to the dreaded disease. That part really touched me, as I can feel the sadness that old Mr. Bauby had, and him being "locked-in" because he cannot walk down stair to the outside. It was strongly emotional, but without the melodrama most Hollywood films would have.

I admired the determination of Mr. Bauby's will to finish his book. Just couples day after his book is finished, he fell into a coma and leave this world for good. He might have left away, but he left his imagination and legacy for the living people to live a better life.

Wickenburg

Wickenburg is a small town with a population of around 6,500 100km northwest of Phoenix located at Hassayampa River. It was once of the transportation of traffic in Arizona before the Interstate 10 & 17 freeways were built, as it is where US 91 meets US 83 and US 60.

It is a typical Western mining town in the Sonoran high desert. It has a small downtown with Western-theme shops and Desert Caballeros Western Museum that talks about the history of the town. The museum is a good starting place for Wickenburg as it tells its visitor the origin of the town and their mining history.

Wickenburg has a famous dude ranch that allows visitors to stay over for a weekend. It also has a Vulture Mine that is located half-way between Buckeye and Wickenburg. I have not visited there but it might be interesting to those who likes ghost towns.

Hassayampa River Preserve

May 31 (Saturday) we went to Hassayampa River Preserve & Wickenburg for a day trip. HRP is located in 90km northwest of downtown Phoneix, on the west side near Mile Post 114 in US Highway 60. It is a piece of natural sanctuary that is protected and managed by National Conservancy. It is on the Hassayampa River so green plants were grown and wild lives thrived because of the abundant of plants.

According to the guide found in the preserve, 250 different species of birds can be found inside there. We first found a javelina in the path, but were too slow to capture it with the camera.

Inside the preserve, there are 6 different trails, one man-made lake made by the irrigation of water from the river. The temperature was very cool, considering the surrounding landscape was mainly desert.

The office visitor center was a really small, by informative, nice buildings. It had a section talking about the history of the preserve, a section displaying certain specimen of the lives that exists inside the preserve, and a television with VCR to show videos about the nature.

I am glad that Nature Conservancy bought the land and maintained it into the current state. Human had took so much from the nature, it is now our for us to give something to the nature back.

Last Day of My Job

May 30 (Friday) was my last day in Four Seasons Sushi. I was scheduled to work all day.

David and his friend Terry came over around 2PM. I was surprised that he ordered an Arnold Palmer instead of his usual diet coke. Anyway, it would be the last time to see David as a customer and I will certainly miss him. I hope he still goes to Four Seasons and enjoy the sushi made by Moon.

At the start of the night shift around at 5:45, the couple from San Diego came over and ate, they said that they came because Moon told them that Friday would be my last day in Four Seasons. Their kids were in San Diego so that they were not able to come. I had served them for more than half a year, and Friday night would be the last time serving them. They still remembered the fact that I commented them as a "weird family". I gave the wife a little more portion on her red wine and she drank the whole bottle (750mL) of her Merlot. We talked about movies, including chessy, realistic, crappy, and classic ones. They even invited Ryanne to hang out with her to watch Sex and the City. They hung out and stayed in the restaurant for 3 hours.

At 9:30, Moon held a farewell for Juan and me. Juan was an awesome and intelligent person and I think would do well one day. He ordered two jumbo pizzas from Corelli's next door. We hung out and talked about different topic for about an hour. Then I left Four Seasons last time as an employee. I think I will miss it, but it was my time to go on to start another page of my life. I have to thank Mika and Yuka for came over to join the party. Also thanking BK, Ryanne, Juan, and Kimberly for staying longer to hang out with me. Lastly, I thanked Mr. Moon, for hosting the party.

Hopefully, the next time I enter Four Season's door I would be a different person, having learn more about chemistry and with a different mindset.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

American ways to eat sushi (Warning: some contents might be offensive to some people)

How the Japanese sushi would look like
Nigirizushi
After working in a sushi bar for more than a year, I have found out some hilarious American ways of eating sushi.

They tend to use low sodium soy sauce for a "more healthy" reason, but they also like to dunk their sushi onto the soy sauce to a point that the rice falls apart, and the end up consuming more soy sauce than good sushi eaters who use full sodium soy sauce.

They think eating sushi is health, perhaps because the Japanese have the longest life expectancy in the world and good marketing, yet a majority of them also love the deep-fried rolls, tempura rolls, and rolls that uses a good amount of mayonnaise sauce. Yummy!

They love oversized rolls because they think the bigger the better.

They do not seem to like the traditional sushis (which are actually more healthy), like the nigirizushi, cucumber rolls, and tuna rolls, but they crave the fancy looking rolls with loads of fattening sauce like eel and mayonnaise sauce.

Similar to Chinese food, once healthy Japanese sushi had changed its face into the more fancy-looking, high fat and calories content Americanized sushi rolls.
Deep-fried roll
Another oversauced roll that was marketed as healthy

Thoughts on Boat People

Boat People is a political drama film released in 1982 about the lives of people under communist Vietnam by Hong Kong director Ann Hui. The protagonist is Shiomi Akutagawa, a Japanese journalist who travelled to Vietnam in 1975 to report the lives in post war Vietnam. Like other communist countries, he was escorted by officials to take photos that the government want him to take, in order to show the Japanese a "good" image of Vietnam. He thought Vietnam is a peaceful country until he ran into a Vietnamese girl, Cam Nuong. As he spent some time with her and her family, he started to learn the painful lives that common people faced daily in post-war Vietnam...

I do not want to spoil the movie, so I will only put my thoughts about the film and the political status of post-war Vietnam.

The film reflects a good example of a bad government: people are so used to be around with dead bodies that they do no longer feel anything when they see dead bodies, rather, they will take away the valuables from the dead; government take away young men and to "recreate" them into "revolutionists" by send them into dangerous missions, like removing land mines; government do not want foreigners to speak to the commoners, afraid that the foreigners will report the bad things from the country and tarnish their image. I have not traveled to Vietnam to see if the present Vietnam is still like this, but there are still many countries in that world that have a horrible government, for example, Burma. The Burma junta finally allows foreign aids into the country to rescue the victims, but after almost a month. I think as I live in a safer country, I should not take peace as granted, as there are still many children that are suffered in wars, poverty, and hunger.
I think Ann Hui wanted to use this film to relate the Vietnamese lives with the people that were under the rule of communist China. Because of the nature of the film, the film was banned in China. 8.5/10.

Thoughts on July Rhapsody

July Rhapsody is a 2001 Hong Kong movie directed by Ann Hui. It is a drama film that focus on
several social problems of Hong Kong faced during the 1990's to 2000's.

Lam Yiu Kwok is a secondary school teacher that teaches Chinese literature. He is living as a good student, a good father, a good hyusband, and a good teacher (as he said in the film, and chronologically). He tries to make the boring lecture topics exciting by giving his students vivid lectures (although none of his students seems to pay attention). He also went to the reunion with his secondary school schoolmates and he has sharp contrasts comparing to his old schoolmates (although he was the best student in his class, he was far less successful than his friends, after he chose his career to become a teacher). He chose to accept the crush from Wu Choi Nam, after finding out that his old schoolmate and wife Chan Man Ching is trying to visit his dying estrange Chinese literature teacher (Mr. Shing) that once loved and later hate.

The plot was well written. It shows the audience the secrets behind a perfect family. The contrast between Lam Yiu Kwok and Wu Choi Nam was also great - Lam being a conservative, boring man and Wu is a girl that does whatever she wants to.

This is what Lam Yiu Kwok wants to do in his life, and that is why he continues to accompany her because he wants to observe why Wu can do whatever she likes, while why he has to stick to his role. Lam was hurt by Chan's decision to visit their old, dying literature teacher and audience will find out the secret behind their teacher that will tear their 20 year marriage apart. The three main characters did very well to make themselves as deep, multi-dimensional characters that made the audience feel for them. This is film that is definitely worth to watch. 8/10.