Saturday, November 20, 2004
random japan thoughts

It's about 2:00 AM here in Japan. My friends have made me eat, drink, sing, and give speeches... but they haven't been able to keep me from feeling chotto kanashii (little sad). I came to Japan by myself, but God really provided many good people to shepherd, support, encourage, teach, and guide me along the way. So I can't help but feel very grateful as well... the world's a smaller place now.

Random things i'll miss about Japan (besides people and in no order):

-trains.
-being anonymous (everyone thinks I'm Japanese)
-100 yen (one dollar) stores.
-pimped out cellphones.
-People apologizing even if they just lightly bump in to you.
-cold tea, especially mugi-cha (wheat tea)
-azuki / an (red bean).
-nori (dried seaweed) and wakame (kelp)
-cheap, good Japanese cuisine.
-cheap booze.
-the hot towel every restaurant gives you before you eat to clean your hands.
-the fact everybody bathes religiously.
-watching little kids play jan-ken-pon (rock-paper-scissors)
-used CD stores where the used CDs are as nice new ones
-pimped out video arcades
-funny Japanese TV
-xylitol

The list goes on and on... but I can't think about it now.

.:.

More movie reviews... super quick style.

My Sassy Girl (Director's Cut). I've seen this movie before I bought it... the original at least. The director's cut adds some extra scenes, but they pretty much are just a little bit of extra fluff - the original still stands as a great flick. I dislike romantic comedies, but this movie is great... I still always get choked up during the scene on the mountain where the girl is calling out to Gyun.


Silmido. I had pretty much zero knowledge of this movie before seeing it, except a friend of mine (ms. heh) said it was better than its hyped counterpart "Brotherhood". After watching, I can say:

This movie is good. Really, really, good... and even though it has some familar themes (how brotherhood and friendship between men develop; politicians and immoral governments screwing over soldiers and normal people), the movie presents them in a fresh and interesting way.

It's interesting, in a interview the director mentioned he's a fan of The Rock (Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery). It shows in the movie.

The plot is based on a true story where after a failed North Korean assassination attempt, the South Korean government starts a secret project to train a special forces assassination squad of its own - the members being social outcasts, death row inmates, and other undesirables.

The first half of the movie follows the group's transformation from punks to SpecOps badasses; the second half focuses more on the group's relationships and the story. I found the ending scene poignant... and I'm not ashamed to say that I even started tearing up and crying.

Korean movies must be making me weepy.


2046. The much-hyped sequel to "In the Mood for Love" is an interesting movie... good characters, excellent cinematography, and great music - but unfortunately, it's a SEQUEL to a very good movie. Tony Leung continues the same role he had in "In the Mood", but 2046 lacks the chemistry / relationship with Maggie Cheung and a coherent story line. It's still a good movie to see if you're a Wong Kar Wai fan, but casual viewers will probably be disappointed... especially if you've seen "In the Mood" before this.

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Comments:
xylitol... i love that stuff. fortunately, you can get xylitol at korean grocery stores in the US.
 
In Hawaii, we all call it jan kan po...none of this rock-paper-scissors crap...
 
Xylitol... i used that name in a short story.

and i downloaded 2046 but it didnt have subtitles so i couldnt watch it. boo.

-fonic
 
what evan said about xylitol.. was exactly what I was going to say too!
have you heard of taeguki? it's like a korean version of saving private ryan.. kinda... but that might be interesting for ya.
g
 
happy travels, bro... enjoy the long flight and i'll see you stateside!
 
welcome back. I considered coming to the airport... but I didn't want to block any uh.. family time.
 
taeguki sucks. don't waste 3 hrs on that movie.
 
this girl wrote a great review on it --

http://www.livejournal.com/users/wrathfulgrape/22616.html
 
p.s. i got your package. thank you!~<3

signed,
ms. heh
 
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in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
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4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33

the facts.
name. Gar AKA "that Chinese guy" "Sleepy.McSleeping"
ethnicity/nationality. Chinese/American, 4th gen.
location. Sea-Town, WA, USA Kawanishi, JAPAN
occupation. less-cynical poor grad student
age. younger than you think, older than you know

 



 

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