Sorry-ology

The other day we watched a BBC costume drama, North and South , a 2004 TV adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel.   I have owned the DVD for a couple of years, which was bought together with another BBC period drama, Cranford . At that time, I was unaware of either Gaskell the author or her work. I still haven’t read the original of North and South but have heard that the TV adaptation is quite faithful to the written story. The drama itself is worth watching for its romance, social concerns, its first-class acting, great chemistry between the main actors and atmosphere-creating cinematography.     The story takes place in England in the nineteenth-century when English society was divided between its industrial north and the middle-class south. A young lady, Margaret Hale, moves to Milton with her middle-class family from a southern town, Helston; she then struggles to overcome her shock at the ruthlessness of the northern culture, learns to ada...

The new Ghibli animation, The Tale of Princess Kaguya: A Princess's Crime and Punishment , tells a story of a girl born inside a bamboo, adopted by a couple in the country, and educated to transform herself from a peasant girl into a lady. In the end, Kaguya is revealed to be a kannon (kuanyin, or bodhisattva) and has to return to her duty. The animated film is an end result of Isao Takahada’s years-long effort. Distinct from Hayao Miyazaki's works, which are known for their full-bodied and bright colors, Princess Kaguya is drawn in water color. The characteristic loose lines, soft-toned shades, and the spaces deliberated left blank contribute to the breezy and fabled atmosphere of the work. It is a simple story, like most folklore much narrated in one’s childhood, and a great watch. The story goes like this: a baby is discovered inside a bamboo by a farmer. The farmer and his wife adopt her and are simply overjoyed with her presence, a hopeful addition to ...

K and I watched Hannah Arendt as a birthday treat to him. It was a good story provoking its audiences to think beyond themselves. I am quite charmed by the portrayal of Arendt's powerful character as a philosopher and her independent spirit as a woman. Intriguingly enough, however, she also seems to be totally confident in her relationship to her husband, who apparently, to every one's knowledge, is having an affair with one of their common acquaintances. She is able to greet the mistress and to invite her to a house party. She appears to be immune to the disturbing (to the standard of the general public) reality of the affair as if her relationship to her husband has already assumed a Platonic form. They are each other's intellectual counterpart and therefore insusceptible to any worldly distractions. They can still love and respect each other even if the relationship might be tinted with a scandal of unfaithfulness. Is it the power of intellect that has empowered...

Youtube source Further info on EYE Title: De Groeten Van Mike!           (Mike Says Goodbye!) Director: Maria Peters Country: Netherlands Language: Dutch  On a KLM flight back to Tokyo last March, I watched this Dutch film, Mike Says Goodbye! This is probably something that I will not have easy access to in Asia.  The story succeeded in tickling the soft part of my heart, which had been battered and benumbed by academic training.  It is a feel-good family movie telling a story which evolves around the central character, Mike, and his friends in the section of paediatrics in a hospital.  From a critical viewpoint, the plot is not special, ordinary, I would say. However, the story itself feels real and moving right because of its simplicity.  What really got me in the film is a poem written by a supporting character, Mike's roommate in the hospital. That little boy is paralysed in the lower part of his...

Source of Image Japanese Title:  トテチータ・チキチータ Director: Atsushi Kokatsu Information about the movie in English at Asian Wiki . I watched this film, A Gentle Rain Falls for Fukushima , on my outbound flight to Taiwan.  Fukushima, a keyword to me these days, immediately caught my attention and triggered my curiosity. Before the play button was pressed, I knew well that it would be about the post-quake nuclear disaster as the production date suggested. There has been a lot going on to protest against the nuclear power plant issue, while no much progress has been made with regard to the problem. Apart from some documentaries that I had watched, it was the first time for me to see a dramatic reflection on the disaster.  The flow of the narrative and the art of narration remind me much of Ishiguro's novels. Much is implied, or suppressed, in a rather undramatic and slow story; sometimes tensions are washed away with comic reliefs.  I was struck by t...

Cinema at Home ちえ(Chie) M, my course mate in a Japanese course, is a big Miyazaki fan. He recommended Chie to me, a Gibly studio-associated production. The style of drawing is not typically Miyazaki, and the reality setting, in spite of the appearances of 3 superpower cats, is far from the colorful and unconfined imaginary worlds that Miyazaki's works usually feature. I watched it in French (M's DVD only provided 2 choices: French or Japanese) and managed to understand most of the story, but, inevitably, I must have missed some details that are only disclosed in dialogues . Some episodes and transitions remained unexplained to me, I am afraid. I like the story which develops along with Chie's simple and everyday life, especially when she struggles to run a barbecue business in order to support herself and her lazy father, and when she acts her optimism when being faced with her parents' divorce. Yet, I don't quite understand another story line which intro...

Cinema at Home K and I watched some films together to celebrate the end of the year. I haven't been to the cinema much after I left York, and much less after busy everyday life and language barrier have inconvenienced my leisure life. Well, language barrier is just an easy excuse. The main reason is probably that I have tried to avoid the feeling of disappointment that might inflict on me after unsatisfactory viewings. It is rather a stupid reason somehow, as so many good stories are simply missed. Perhaps, there is no such a thing as 'bad' story, as I have often argued with K in the aspect of literature. The deciding factors to one's enjoyment are his/her preference and interpretive approach. Whatever story gives pleasure, whatever pleasure it is. More precisely displeasure is also a kind of experience, I would think. The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon is a BBC documentary about Mitchell and Kenyon's business of filming their town people around a century ago...