Only Yesterday (1991)

A few days ago I saw an anime called Only Yesterday or おもひでポロポロ (Omohide Poroporo).  It aired in Japan in 1991, so you could say it’s pretty old for a movie.  Be that as it may, it really struck a chord in me and made me think of my own situation and what I would like to do with my life. 

Taeko is in her late twenties, unmarried, and yearning to get away from the city, having lived all her life in Tokyo.  She takes a vacation in quiet and provincial Yamagata, to help in the saffron harvest and around the farm.  While traveling, she begins to reminisce about when she was eleven years old, recalling memories of friends, crushes, impending womanhood, and dreams of the future.  As she spends busy but peaceful days helping around the farm, she deepens her friendship with the family she stays with, as well as becomes good friends with Toshio, her brother-in-law’s cousin.  She finds much comfort in the peace and simplicity of life there and starts to contemplate her childhood memories and the kind of life she wants to live from that moment on. 

I’m so glad I gave this story a chance.  I felt so close to Taeko, seeing myself in her situation.  For the longest time now, I’ve had this deep yearning to get away from it all – to abandon the city, my so-called-cushy job, the oftentimes suffocating care of my family – and leave myself to the whims of chance.  I did just that, and I was rewarded with a blessed interval – I was free for a while.  Japan took me in its arms and set me free even as it held me so close.  But my reality just won’t allow me to keep dreaming; it just had to wake me up and pull me back.  So I came back here and still I keep trying to resign myself to the painful choice I made.  But the yearning never left me.  I carry it always like weights attached to my wrists and ankles. 

Recently I went to an island on a very short vacation, and there I found the dream once again.  I saw what I really, really want to do with my life, just like Taeko did.  But of course, Taeko got her wish and I didn’t.  I couldn’t.  Reality and the city keeps pulling me back and won’t let me go.  Now I let every day carry me along and the only comfort I can give myself is the knowledge that my dream actually does exist and I know where it can be found – I can at least fantasize about swimming in clear, deep waters, my skin browning under the sun, and living at the mercy of the beautiful and terrible ocean.  I’m glad Taeko got her happy ending.  I don’t begrudge anyone that particular joy.  And while I cannot have mine, for now, perhaps the dream would be enough. 

Lament of the Lamb (OVA 2003)

Based on a manga called 羊の歌 or "Song of the Sheep", the story revolves around a boy named Kazuna who begins to suffer from a strange illness.  He remembers being left behind by his father as a young boy to the care of an uncle and his wife.  In order to find out more about his strange condition, he seeks out his father and discovers that he has died and that he has an older sister with the same illness.  She reveals to him that they are a family afflicted with vampirism.  Thus begins the two siblings' painful journey of accepting their fate, confronting the demons of their past, and trying to separate themselves from the rest of humanity in order not to become monsters that constantly crave blood.  They try to live together and to find solace in their shared suffering, but in the end they could only succumb to the terrible conclusion that awaits their lives. 

I rather liked this anime at the beginning.  I felt like it had really good atmosphere, one of mystery and sadness.  What was disappointing was the pace - it was simply too slow.  They could have told the entire story in half the time it took.  There were too many unnecessary flashback scenes, too many dramatic pauses, and repetition of other melodramatic elements.  It felt more like a Korean drama than a Japanese story.  Although the themes were touching and somewhat thought-provoking, the story would have benefited from a plot with more motion and eventfulness to it and less of the internal struggle from the characters.  It's not too bad, but sadly, I can't say it's on my list of favorites.

Rurouni Kenshin (Live Action Movie) 2012

Finally the long-awaited live action film has been released in Manila. This movie was released in Japan in August of this year, and so many Filipino fans have been waiting for it to come to our shores.  The anime adaptation (then called Samurai X) gained so much popularity here, that it was run and rerun on TV several times over.  If you ever were a follower of this series, you must not miss the live action movie!  It's absolutely worth the wait. 

It's a nearly perfect adaptation.  From the characters, the plot, the nuances and the overall atmosphere of the story-line; it strove to be as faithful to the original as possible and I really appreciate this fact.  It makes me want to see the entire anime series from start to finish all over again.  The fight scenes were really cool, not exaggerated or spoiled by too much obvious computer magic.  I'm glad they managed to show the variety of fighting styles that were such a big deal in the anime version, especially Kenshin's Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu (how quickly he moves, etc., it was really exciting to see it). The portrayals were also as good as I hoped; the actors played their parts well.  There were even a good number of comedic moments which the original versions had plenty of.  Takeru Sato was great as Kenshin; I think it quite suited him to play the part.  He was able to show the many sides of Kenshin's complex tormented character - torn between his nature as a killer, and his deep-seated yearning for peace and belonging.   

My favorite fight scenes: the fight between Kenshin and Gein (the guy with the guns and the dagger), the fight scene between Kenshin and Jine (the one who pretended to be Battousai), and the fight between Sanosuke and Inui (the priest-type fist-fighter).  Those are just my favorites, but generally all the fight scenes were thrilling and bloody and splendid.  The only thing I would have wanted to see more of, really, was Saito (the samurai-turned-police chief) since in the anime he really had a lot to do with Kenshin's life.  But I suppose the film would have gone a little too long if even more character development was expounded upon.  As it is, I personally think it's perfectly awesome.  Obviously, I'm a fan. 

More information on Rurouni Kenshin (Live Action Movie)

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea - Yukio Mishima

The premise goes:

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea  tells of a band of savage thirteen-year-old boys who reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call “objectivity”.  When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship’s officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic.  The regard their disappointment in him as an act of betrayal on his part, and react violently.

This book reminded me so strongly of another favorite, William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies because of the particular feature involving youths exhibiting unrestrained cruelty.  In this book, the scene where they brutally slaughter the cat is one of the most horrific that I have ever encountered.  As I read it my heart pounded madly and goosebumps rose on the skin of my arms – it was rendered in such gruesome detail and the narration felt like it would never end.  I asked myself how anyone could have justified what felt like such an unnecessarily violent scene, but as I read the book to the end I realized of course that it was important and was actually a stroke of genius on the author’s part.  Mishima was indeed a great literary master.

The main characters are Noboru, a thirteen-year-old boy with a fascination for ships and the sea.  He belonged to a gang of smart, yet disillusioned boys of the same age, led by “The Chief”.  Noboru’s widowed mother, Fusako, runs a shop that specializes in western luxury fashion items.  She enters into an affair with Ryuji, a Second Mate, when she and her son tour the ship that he works in.

The novel is very much character-driven.  You feel that the story moves because of the very nature of the lives that people it.  And although it is quite a depressing, emotionally taxing tale, I couldn’t help but admire how gracefully it was delivered.  The language was just so poetic; and I’m sure that even more beauty had been lost in translation.  You get to know the characters, how they thought, the motives behind their actions, their loneliness, their anger and frustration, and the way they cope with the world they are faced with.  You feel for them and come to understand them somehow, even those lost boys who feel that they have no hope and no other choices left but to do what their lives have led them to believe must be done.  Some people say that this novel is largely allegorical, that this is how Mishima saw Japan during his time, and it is how he expressed his disappointment with his country.  Perhaps they are right, because if you look closely enough there certainly are many parallels.  Ideas such as fascination with western luxuries, the abandonment of Japanese traditions, trading off one’s ideals and dreams of glory, the feeling of helplessness and being compelled to move along and face the “realities” – these are all represented in the book.  If this was indeed Mishima’s way of venting his anger at Japan, then he did it through such a thought-provoking and unforgettable masterpiece.  I recommend the book for the provocative insights it gives, and the emotional turmoil that it allows you to experience.  For what else is a good book for, if not to disturb your soul? 

More on this:

Information on Yukio Mishima 

Another review of "The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea"

Eiga Sai 2012

映画祭 2012 The Japanese Film Festival is on once again!
Come enjoy these Japanese movies at the Shangri-La Mall in Ortigas.
I just saw the three movies featured for tonight, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them.
I am determined to see as many of the featured films as I possibly can.
I LOVE EIGA SAI!


Here is the link to the synopsis and schedule.  Enjoy!
Eiga Sai 2012

Katanagatari

Quite a while back I finished the anime series "Katanagatari" and I enjoyed it immensely.

It's the story of Shichika and Togame's search for twelve legendary blades.  Togame conscripts Shichika, the swordless samurai, into the search.  Eventually a deep bond between the two of them grows.  As time passes and they endure the hardships and challenges that come their way, they learn more and more about respect, pride, power, friendship, and love. 

This is one of the most memorable anime I’ve ever seen. It is at par with "Ninja Scroll" in my book. I just love the character development - the slow but sure awakening of Shichika and Togame’s humanity. I also loved all the villains, especially Nanami and Emonzaemon. The drawing and animation were no less magnificent - caricature enough to be cute and entertaining, and yet vicious and sharp enough to be chilling and merciless. I don't know much about art, but I think this style may be called avant-garde (?), I'm not too sure.  It's all very artsy and surreal.  I have only seen a few anime before that used such a radically different art style in the rendering of the story.  If the artist had used the more or less "usual/common" anime style, it would have made the series much less remarkable indeed.  I also loved the fact that it had one-hour episodes so you are never left hanging and still eagerly anticipating the next chapter. Each episode is absorbing and gracefully paced: alternately tip-toe-around-the-corner and edge-of-your-seat at all the right moments.  Truly superb, I highly recommend it to all anime lovers. Cheerio!

Bambino!

Based on a manga of the same name, the story revolves around the challenges faced by a young Japanese man aspiring to be a chef at an Italian restaurant.  Ban Shogo is played by Matsumoto Jun in this series, which completed in 2007.  I didn’t have any particular reason for starting with this drama, but being the quasi-obsessive-compulsive that I am, I couldn’t stand not finishing what I started.  In this case, being OC did not help, as I didn’t like the series much.  There were too many unnecessarily over-done melodramatic moments for my taste.  There are more out there that are much deeper theme/story-wise and better executed in my humble opinion.  Nevertheless, this one did have some redeeming characteristics.

It focuses on the importance of work.  It goes to show that no matter how lowly or menial one’s job is, each and every one has as much value as all the rest.  No matter how small one’s part, the whole will not be able to function without it.  This show demonstrates the Japanese way of looking at work – how highly they value it and how they take pride and show their dignity through the part they play.  They place importance on each individual’s contribution to society as a whole.  Their selflessness is clearly manifested here and I can’t help but compare it to the self-centeredness of Western thinking.  In the west, it’s more of work for personal gain and financial superiority – it’s all so materialistic.  In this story, Ban learns to rein his personal ambition and channels his energy and zeal into learning from others and becoming a valued contributor and member of a community.  He becomes less self-centered, learns to make sacrifices, and develops a lot of patience.  He arrives at his desired achievements with the help of his friends, and comes out of the whole thing with a lot more humility, respect, and understanding of what it means to be a professional.

Matsumoto was so young here, but he pulled off the role quite well.  You really do get annoyed with his boastful arrogance at the beginning of the series, but he eventually earns your empathy.  Favourite characters:  Yonamine – for being cute and winky, and Katori – for being consistently bad-ass from start to finish.  Oda was good, too.  Oh, and yeah, all that Italian food did indeed make my mouth water.  They DO make good Italian in Japan – I can vouch for that.  For the series, 6/10.

Stars and Dandelions - Kaneko Misuzu

A friend of mine, a Japanese lady, gave me this poem today.  
It is so simple and elegant, and yet so profound. 
My friend told me that it's about the things we take for granted - we may not see them, but still they're there.  This is such a beautiful poem.  I thought I'd share it with the rest of the world. 


Stars and Dandelions
(Kaneko Misuzu)


Deep down in the blue sky

Like pebbles on the ocean floor
They lie submerged till dark comes
Stars unseen in the light of day.
     You can't see them, still they're there.
     Even things not seen are there.


Petals drop and withered dandelions
Hidden in cracks between roof tiles
Wait silently for spring to come
Their strong roots unseen.
     You can't see them, still they're there.
     Even things not seen are there.


星とたんぽぽ



青いお空の底ふかく、
海の小石のそのように、
夜が来るまで沈んでる、
昼のお星は眼にみえぬ。
     見えぬけれどもあるんだよ、
     見えぬものでもあるんだよ。


散ってすがれたたんぽぽの、
瓦のすきに、だアまって、
春のくるまでかくれてる、
つよいその根は眼にみえぬ、
     見えぬけれどもあるんだよ、
     見えぬけれどもあるんだよ。

Departures (おくりびと)

This is one of the most gracefully told stories I have ever witnessed.  Upon having seen it, it’s really no wonder why it won all that acclaim.  The plot revolves around Daigo, who lost his job and ended up going back to the countryside and landing a job that he assumed had something to do with being a travel agent.  This is a story about the trials that people face in life, a search for a purpose, the human concept of death and the loss, grief, and acceptance that go with it.  It is about family and the relations we have with those people around us who shape our lives.  All of these and more wrapped in an exquisite presentation of Japanese culture and tradition.  How precise and elegant every moment of this film is!  Nothing was overdone.  The music, the performance of the cast, the pacing of the story, everything just flowed smoothly and went straight to the heart.  Every laugh and tear that the movie elicits is well worth it.  “Departures” will be one of my high-ranking favourites from now on.

Hyde - Season's Call

Karami tsuku kazeni sakarai
Ushinatta kisetsu wo sagashite iru
Wazuka demo mesasu houkou he
Azayakana kioku ga tsuki ugokasu

How many cuts should I repeat?
How many fates should I accept?
Does it have an end?

Itsumo karada juu wo kimi ga kake meguri afuresou
Dakara kowaku nai yo asu mo
Because I always feel you in me.

Kawaki kitta nodo he nagashita kimi no me de
Kokoro wo uruoshiteku
How many cuts should I repeat?
How many fates should I accept?
Does it have an end?

Haruka ano tori no you
Sora wo tobi koete yuketara
Itsumo tsutaetai iyou ai wo
Because I always feel you in me.

You taught me how to love. I feel.
I can do anything.
Yume ni egaku sekai wo kimi no me no mae ni hirogetai
Dakara kowaku nai yo asu mo
My beloved season calls me.
Because I always feel you in me.