movie nights

My husband has had an operation on his broken wrist this Monday. Since my husband should not move much to heal his wound, he needs to sit down quietly without much movement.
The doctor's recommendation was a "couch potato."

Both I and my husband don't like watching TV. We don't even have a TV set in our house.

Soon my husband got extremely bored from doing nothing.



So we are having some movie nights these days to kill my husband's time.



First film we have seen was "Into the wild."
It is an American adventure movie, and non-fiction. I like non-fiction. I was not sure about an "adventure" though...

For some people, this guy could be a hero who was brave, physical and intelligent. He grew up in a rich but unhappy family. He didn't like to see people having a hatred for each other. After the university graduation, he left for Alaska to live in the wild by himself. He just disappeared without leaving any indication where he went.

He was brave and was a man of spilit. He was also a friendly and nice guy.
People he met on his way to Alaska loved him.

But ........ what if I was his mother...?

As a mother of two sons, I couldn't help thinking of his parents. His adventure was great, but at the same time it was so crucial for his parents.


Since I became a mother, I have gotten a tendency to put myself in parent's place to follow a story. In mother's position, this film was too sad....

I still think that this movie was quite well made over all.


The second movie was "The remains of the day."

A few years ago, I bought the original novel "the remains of the day." The author is Kazuo Ishiguro who is one of the most important modern English novelists. As the name indicates, he is originally from Japan, was born to Japanese parents in Kyushu.

As I live in England, and am a Japanese, I felt I had better read his work...




Frankly to say, it was too boring to finish, and gave up. The story proceeds very slowly. The progress of the story is subtle. Also my English reading speed was slow that made me bored even more.


Unlike the novel, the film finishes in two hours, it wouldn't be as slow as reading the novel.
...That was my expectation.





With a disappointment, the film was again boring both for me and for my husband.




This film was nominated for 8 Oscars.
...Surprising!

Actually the starred actor Anthony Hopkins expressed the butler's character well, and the English landscapes in the film were splendid. I again realized my fortune to live in this beautiful country.

But!!
I really think this movie is boring for those who don't love English people with a good understanding of their folk soul. People in this film are so typical English. I don't understand WHY English are like this...




Anyway, both movies show such beautiful landscapes. Landscapes in America and in England are such a comparison. "The remains of the day" is the story of post war, but the towns and other landscapes are still existing now as they were in the film. If you admire England, you would enjoy the beautiful sceneries in "the remains of the day."


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Half-Term Break

Yesterday was the first day of our half-term break. So we went to Birmingham to stroll around.

First shop we went to was "MUJI" which is a Japanese chain shop. They sell simple items without any logos.

After I bought a kitchen timer at the MUJI, we went to a Japanese restaurant that opened recently. That restaurant serves foods in lunch boxes. It was just like an "obento" that is often delivered to offices at lunch time from some catering company in Japan. The food was not very bad, but it was not good either. Of course I knew it and I did not really expect the taste at all.

But everytime I eat this kind of "fake" Japanese food, that makes me really sad. I imagine people from other countries believe those fake food is REAL Japanese food. I really want to let them know how nice real Japanese foods taste!

In the evening we saw a film at home. That was "Geisha" from 2005. I have read this original novel about 7 or 8 years ago but it was first time to see this film. It was very well-made movie. I have to admit that they(American directors and producers..) grasped the Japanese culture quite well, but I must say this is still American movie with American soul in it. I don't feel Japanese spirit and souls in this film at all.....

This film entertained me a lot but at the same time it made me a home sick..... just a little bit.

I want to see REAL Japan, and eat REAL Japanese food!!!!

It might be about time to have a trip to Japan.....