Switch Girl 2011 （スイッチガール！！）

I decided to try this out on a whim because I felt a little bit swamped by some rather serious stuff lately.  I craved for a little bit of nonsense and slapstick humor.  Sometimes you just want to forget about the world around you and laugh yourself silly.  Sure enough, this series gave me that much needed break. 

“Switch Girl” is based on a manga of the same name.  The premise presents us with a heroine, Nika, a high school student who takes drastic measures to put up a façade of perfection and popularity at school while hiding her true slovenly self.  Surely any woman of any age can relate to this.  We all agonize over the image we present to the world whenever we step out of our comfort zone.  I loved the fact that this story pulled no punches.  It threw everything at the world, from “safety panties” to deodorizing one’s farts.  I found it totally refreshing that the main character was perfectly comfortable with her imperfections.  The daily ritual of transforming herself was just another way for her to have fun in her life – it neither defined her nor turned her obsessive and psychotic.  She was perfectly able to let her true self shine through whenever the need for honesty arose. 

As a counterpoint comes Arata, a good-looking boy who in exact reverse of Nika hides behind thick glasses to avoid becoming popular.  He faces abandonment issues from when his mother left their family after he caught her having an affair with another man.  He discovers Nika’s secret and they make a deal not reveal each other’s true selves to the rest of the school.  Their relationship starts from there.  Nika and Arata, trying to get to know each other more, trying to get by in school, trying to outwit those who antagonize them – with their wacky friends and Nika’s equally crazy mother and elder sister thrown into the bunch, make for a perfectly loony series.

It all sounds shallow and silly, I know, but I found the situations rather entertaining.  It felt like it was meant to be that way – coarse, upfront, and exaggerated.  With only eight episodes and each episode at only thirty minutes long, it didn’t feel overdone.  If you’re looking for nothing heavy and just want a few laughs, you’d probably like this one.  Enjoy! 

Ghosts

There have been very, very few men in my "romantic" life. I have long gotten over them; it's been years since I last saw or spoke to them. I wish them well, but don't wonder what kind of life they're living and I don't make any effort to find out. They no longer stir any feelings in my heart. Except annoyance and irritation. 

I'm nothing special. I am just one of billions of people out there, trying to live my days out peacefully in my own tiny little corner of the world. Yet they seem to not have even made the slightest effort to forget about me. They follow me around online. Maybe they google me or something. They send me things.  I hate it. I wish they'd leave me alone. I wish they'd forget about me completely. I don't want them to be thinking about me anymore. I don't begrudge them their memories, but I wish they wouldn't act on them. Why are they so fixated anyway? Are all men like that? Do they constantly update themselves about their old girlfriends? Is it a matter of pride and vanity for them? How stupid! 

Perhaps it's too much attachment, too much fixation. Or maybe too much bitterness. In any case, it's been years. GET OVER IT! People ought to be able to live their lives without dwelling too much on the past, and without getting too attached to anything in this world. We're all dying, after all. Life is too short to waste on people who would rather forget and be forgotten - that would be ME. 

So to all the ghosts out there who keep haunting people from their past, move along. The grass must surely be greener, the fish more plentiful, the honey sweeter, the women less opposed to being the victims of stalking, there on the other side. 

(I wrote the above essay more than a year ago and posted it elsewhere online, hoping that the intended target got the message.  I suppose it's too subtle for him because he still managed to do something really unpleasant and irritating to me recently.  I don't want to name names, but it’s getting to the point where I won't regret naming the guy.  YOU out there, leave me alone already!)

Kare, Otto, Otoko Tomodachi 2011 (カレ、夫、男友達)

This drama centers around the lives of three sisters who find themselves facing different conflicts, and shows how their close family ties helped each of them find resolution for their troubles.  Their “happy family” suffered a blow when their father left them to be with another woman.  And while they still maintained a façade of friendly forgiveness and acceptance with their father, the impact that this event created had undeniable consequences on the three daughters.  

The eldest sister, Asako, suffers from domestic violence and abuse by her husband.  She fears him greatly and wants to break away; yet mysteriously feels drawn to him, wanting to save him and herself at the same time. The second daughter, Haruko, is trying to climb the ladder of career success and while believing herself in love with her boyfriend, succumbs to loneliness and temptation.  Ikuko, the youngest, was most affected by the abandonment and cannot find it in herself to forgive their father.  She feels numb and unable to fall in love, trying to find the answer to her questions in the wrong places.  They often go back to the solace of their mother, who herself silently suffers and tries to maintain the appearance of peace and confidence in order to be the one remaining glue that holds their family together.

The pace of the series was good at only eight episodes.  All the roles were well-portrayed; the women were well-suited to their roles and gave their parts the sensitivity necessary to make the characters come alive.  I really appreciated that the female roles were not stereotyped.  Not one of them was too perfect, good or bad.  I would say that the roles were accurately rendered.  Also, I especially liked the actor who played Asako’s husband – he was really scary and creepy and you just want to strangle him yourself.  All in all a good series that I felt compelled to follow to the very end.  Women would certainly appreciate it.  Men definitely ought to watch it and learn a thing or two about women and what they have to face in the real world.  8/10.

Beautiful Goodbye - Maroon 5

I count the ways I let you down
All my fingers and toes but I'm running out
Clever words can't help me now
I gripped you tight but you're slipping out


And I remember your eyes were so bright
When I first met you, so in love that night
And now I'm kissing your tears goodnight
And I can't take it, you're even perfect when you cry
Beautiful goodbye, bye, bye
It's dripping from your eyes, your beautiful goodbye
It's dripping from your eyes, oh yeah

When did the rain become a storm?
When did the clouds begin to form?
Yeah we got knocked out of course by a natural force
And well, we'll be swimming when it's gone

And I remember your eyes were so bright
When I first met you, so in love that night
And now I'm kissing your tears goodnight
And I can't take it, you're even perfect when you cry
Beautiful goodbye, bye, bye
It's dripping from your eyes, your beautiful goodbye
It's dripping from your eyes, oh yeah

All the pain you try to hide
Shows through your mascara lines

As they stream down from your eyes
And let them go, let them fly
Holding back won't turn back time
Believe me, I've tried

Your eyes were so bright
And I remember your eyes were so bright
And I remember your eyes were so bright
When I first met you, how in love were we that night
And now I'm kissing your tears goodnight
And I can't take it, you're even perfect when you cry
Beautiful goodbye, bye, bye
It's dripping from your eyes, your beautiful goodbye
It's dripping from your eyes, yeah

Beau....oh yeah

* I really liked this song the first time I heard it on the radio.  Maroon 5 is one of my favorites.  They make some awesome music. I hope you like this one, too. 

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

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

I’m glad that I read Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead only now that I’m older, when I can appreciate it fully.  And I must say that it is one of the best works of literature I have ever experienced.  For the time being I will not express much of my reaction to it, for I only finished the book last night and I am still in its thrall.  I still feel entirely too close to it, and I’m afraid that anything I manage to say now won’t make much sense.  I am completely startled, awed and overwhelmed by its truth and power.  I will never see the world and mankind the same way again.  It also left me with so many questions, some of which I beg to posit in the meantime.

1. This book has been around for decades and has been read by so many people.  Have they been struck by it as much as I have?  And if they had experienced the same awe that I did, had it changed the way they see the world and the people that populate it in the same way that it changed mine?

2.  If so many people have read, believe or had been convinced by the ideas presented in this book, then how come our lives are still bound by debilitating collectivism?  How come we cannot live by the truths presented here in this book?  Why can we not win against all the coercive harmony around us?

3.  If the story happened in this reality of ours instead of in pages and in dream, could those characters like Roark, Dominique, and Wynand have existed?  I wish I could say that yes, they could, that it’s possible.  But I’m a great pessimist and it makes me sad to know that they couldn’t possibly be.  Still the question persists in my mind – perhaps I still do hope, after all?

4.  I don’t know if it’s only me, but the concept of individualism presented here makes me think of humanism as well.  Aren’t they both in favor of the potential of man?  Achievement, self-respect, self-fulfilment, affirmation of the ego, the self as the prime mover and the motivation – aren’t all these the ideas that exalt the human in us?  What can we do to find our own fulfilment, our own happiness, and reach our full potential as human beings?

So many questions crowd my mind and I wish there was someone who could answer them all for me; or better yet, that I could find all the answers for myself.  There are many resources one could consult.  Ayn Rand is much respected as a philosopher and her Objectivism is worth looking into. Many authors and critics have written countless treatises and essays about her and her work. www.aynrand.org.  The Ayn Rand Institute, etc.  But I wish to think more about it for my own sake, and for that I will need time.  I might write about it more when I don’t feel so consumed by it as I do now.  But allow me to say that I truly fell in love with the book, and I wish more and more people will read, understand, and imbibe it.  If we can live by it, well then I sincerely believe we could make this world a much better place for each and every one of us.  For me, it is simply beyond awesome. 

UnScene #7

UnScene #7:  I have insomnia sometimes.  I'd love to easily fall asleep.  What if there's a person who didn't want to fall asleep?

The Problem with Sleep

There’s this girl.

She has a problem with falling asleep.  Not in the usual way that people might think.  When we say she has a problem with falling asleep, we mean that she doesn’t want to fall asleep.  The main reason behind which is that she doesn’t want to wake up.

Let’s take the case of last Tuesday night.  Tuesday was a holiday.  Monday was terrible, and she fell asleep the moment she lay on the bed after dutifully brushing her teeth and brushing her hair.  She had looked forward to falling asleep the whole Monday long.  And then she woke up on Tuesday morning.

“No,” she groaned. 

“No, I don’t want to wake up, it’s so horrible to be awake,” she thought.

She spent her Tuesday holiday slowly, taking her time.  She didn’t bother to change out of her pyjamas until she felt she really needed to shower, around noontime.  She made herself a nicely heavy late lunch which she thought was enough for three people to eat.  She spent the rest of the afternoon eating all of it; some while watching TV, some while aimlessly surfing the internet, and some while dutifully working on the preparations for work the next day.  She alternately brewed tea and coffee and sipped them while watching rented videos – all romantic comedies.  When the last of the videos’ credits were rolling, she looked up at the clock and saw that it was 1:30 a.m. and she felt a bit sleepy.

And that’s the problem.  She didn’t want to sleep.

“No,” she moaned, “I don’t want to wake up again.”

But she turned off the TV and got off the couch anyway and dutifully did the dishes, brushed her teeth and her hair, put on her pyjamas, switched off the lights, and went to bed. 

And cried, silently.  And fell asleep.