Hey Look, She Reviews!
When I wrote my last post, I totally failed to write about Tuesday, so here:
Tuesday: worked all day, rushed to Shibuya to get part of Halloween costume, rushed back to Kichijouji for two-hour ballet class, rehearsed for nearly two hours, didn't get home until past midnight.
It was a good rehearsal, though. We got some new stuff done, and polished up some things. I was glad I'd been to the Saturday rehearsal, so I already knew the new bit.
Next Wednesday is a holiday, but I have a rehearsal. That means I'll have class and rehearsal Tuesday evening, will get home and collapse into bed, then (hopefully) sleep in, and go back to the studio in the afternoon for another rehearsal.
Last night I had to finish hemming my costume. Of course it took longer than I'd anticipated, so I had time to watch three movies. None of them were longer than 1 hour 40 minutes, but still. Three movies in an evening! You'd think I went out of my way to find the three most different movies that I could, but I could have done even better. I was just limited to movies in English by the fact that while hand-sewing, I really can't keep my eyes on the screen enough to read subtitles.
Murders in snowy Minnesota:
Fargo
This movie is from several years ago. I really can't say why I remembered the name of it, apart from the fact that it was nominated for Oscars and that was one of the few years I watched (part of) the ceremonies with my parents. I remembered the clip they showed, of a cop getting out of her car on a snowy prairie highway; for some reason, the image stuck with me, and a while back, while trying to think of what movies to download, I found this one. And last night I was in the mood for something snowy, so there you go.
If you haven't grown up in a place that has snowy winters, you probably can't appreciate how the sound of ice being scraped off a windshield instantly produces a feeling of, oh, what a pain!. I hadn't even thought of that sound in a long time, but it's something, along with the feeling of your toes going numb, or the memory of how bright snowy winter nights can be, that lives on deep in my soul, and I actually missed the feeling of sliding into a freezing cold car and wishing it would warm up, already. All those scenes of snow and ice and cold made me miss home, but not enough to miss noticing that for all that the characters talk of the cold, and are shown bundled up for it, you can't ever see their breath, which is a sure sign that at least some of that snow is fake.
Apart from the snow, I really liked this movie. It was understated and funny, and in spite of the realism of the violence, I didn't find it disturbing (except for the final bit, which did leave me feeling a bit queasy, I must admit.) The characters' accents were great. It's rare to hear regional accents in American films, except for those of the south, so this was a treat.
I think I may have seen a Paul Bunyan statue myself when my family drove through Minnesota years ago. My main memory of the state is that we camped through the most violent thunder storm I've ever witnessed, typhoons included.
Final verdict: 8.5/10
An ultimately uplifting documentary about religious homophobia:
For the Bible Tells Me So
This documentary spotlights several different religiously conservative Christian families (of different denominations) of which one child has come out as gay or lesbian. In spite of their upbringing, and in spite of what they've always been told and believed, i.e. that homosexuality is a sin, the parents have all made incredible strides toward acceptance. Some are completely accepting and are doing the whole activism thing, and some aren't quite there yet (one mother says something like, "At the moment, I look at is like my daughter and this woman are incredibly close friends who complete each other. That's where I am right now."), but overall, it's very hopeful. The people you would think the least likely to understand are able to examine their beliefs, question what they've been taught, and decide that their holy book might not say exactly what people have been led to believe.
In spite of this, of course it's heartbreaking at times. Can you imagine feeling responsible for your daughter's suicide, after she'd written to tell you that since you wouldn't accept her as she was, she wanted nothing more to do with you? I can't imagine how that woman must feel. To her credit, she's used her tragedy to make sure it doesn't happen again, and is an outspoken activist in her church now.
Not having been raised with any kind of religion, I can't completely understand, of course. On an intellectual level, I can sort of grasp what it must be like to believe that something is evil -- not because it harms anyone else, but because God (or someone speaking for him) Has Said So -- and to be completely thrown off balance when a loved one turns out to be that way, but I was always taught to question things and to come to my own conclusions. And my own conclusion, even before I fully realised I wasn't heterosexual myself, was that unless the gender and/or sexual orientation of a person you're romantically/sexually interested in is incompatible with your own, why the hell should it matter to you who they go for?!
Wow, I can't really write coherently about this subject, apparently, so I'll stop here. Maybe one day I'll write an essay about it. XD;
Final verdict: 7.5/10
1930s elegance in a cloud of smoke:
Shanghai Express
Ah, to live in the days when men were men, women were women, Westerners thought they owned China, everyone smoked all the time and it was all right to call people "yellow". It all looks very glamourous, though!
I downloaded this because I wanted to see a Marlene Dietrich movie. And oh, is she ever beautiful in this. Maybe the cinematography and the black and white film do it, but I loved the angles of her face. Also, her voice (her French accent is smoother than her English one!), and the fact that she swans around a train in improbably fancy evening wear, at times wearing most of a bird on her head and around her neck.
The iconic shot from this movie is probably of Dietrich looking up, but I like this shot even more:
Also lovely, though she doesn't get half as much screen time, is Anna May Wong. Before the rest of the plot was revealed, can I really be blamed when, upon seeing the two leading ladies sharing a train compartment, my first thought was, "How absolutely hot would it be if they had a romantic train journey affair!"
I liked this movie. I'd like to watch it again, and there aren't a whole lot of movies that make me want to do that.
Final verdict: 8 + 0.5 for the fabulous outfits = 8.5/10
Also, last week, I finished watching Alexander Senki, another title I put in my mental list of "Things to Watch" ages ago and only just now got around to.
Alexander Senki
The character designs were done by Peter Chung, who created Aeon Flux (which is why I was interested in this series in the first place), which you'd figure out in a second; that's how distinctive his style is -- if the weirdly angular faces and extremely lanky bodies, the physically impossible, bizarre bondage-inspired outfits give it away. Sadly, none of the characters come anywhere near Aeon levels of awesome, or Aeon & Trevor levels of chemistry.
The titular Alexander is indeed the Great, and it is a totally historically accurate retelling of his story, from Aristotle's niece Cassandra being one of Alexander's besties, right down to the Pythagorean ninjas. Diogenes is pretty much Yoda, but not as cute and not as green.
Oh, and this is the Persian army:
The series is based on a Japanese novel, which explains a hell of a lot. XDDD Also, it seems I was right about the drastic shift in the voices mid-series. (Read this if you care to know more.)
This was a good thing to sew and knit to, because it didn't require too much concentration. I don't think I would have come away liking it any better even if I had hung on every word of the prophecy explanations or the weird take on Plato's teachings.
Final verdict: 5.5 + 0.5 for amusement derived from wildly improbable sets and machinery = 6/10
And the Halloween costume? Apart from the inexcusably bad job on the corners of the hem, I'm very pleased. Here's a teaser, because I wouldn't want to spoil it for those of you who'll see me tomorrow!
(We took sexy pose pictures at work after the kids and parents had gone home.)
In other news, I'm still wearing the false eyelashes I got for my costume. I really like how they look! Maybe I should wear false eyelashes every day! (This enthusiasm has been brought to you by the realisation that when I wear make-up, I don't look quite so much like a teenaged boy.)
All right, time to take them off and start relaxing. I've got two kids' Halloween parties tomorrow and then a birthday dinner, so I need some rest!
Tuesday: worked all day, rushed to Shibuya to get part of Halloween costume, rushed back to Kichijouji for two-hour ballet class, rehearsed for nearly two hours, didn't get home until past midnight.
It was a good rehearsal, though. We got some new stuff done, and polished up some things. I was glad I'd been to the Saturday rehearsal, so I already knew the new bit.
Next Wednesday is a holiday, but I have a rehearsal. That means I'll have class and rehearsal Tuesday evening, will get home and collapse into bed, then (hopefully) sleep in, and go back to the studio in the afternoon for another rehearsal.
Last night I had to finish hemming my costume. Of course it took longer than I'd anticipated, so I had time to watch three movies. None of them were longer than 1 hour 40 minutes, but still. Three movies in an evening! You'd think I went out of my way to find the three most different movies that I could, but I could have done even better. I was just limited to movies in English by the fact that while hand-sewing, I really can't keep my eyes on the screen enough to read subtitles.
Murders in snowy Minnesota:
Fargo
This movie is from several years ago. I really can't say why I remembered the name of it, apart from the fact that it was nominated for Oscars and that was one of the few years I watched (part of) the ceremonies with my parents. I remembered the clip they showed, of a cop getting out of her car on a snowy prairie highway; for some reason, the image stuck with me, and a while back, while trying to think of what movies to download, I found this one. And last night I was in the mood for something snowy, so there you go.
If you haven't grown up in a place that has snowy winters, you probably can't appreciate how the sound of ice being scraped off a windshield instantly produces a feeling of, oh, what a pain!. I hadn't even thought of that sound in a long time, but it's something, along with the feeling of your toes going numb, or the memory of how bright snowy winter nights can be, that lives on deep in my soul, and I actually missed the feeling of sliding into a freezing cold car and wishing it would warm up, already. All those scenes of snow and ice and cold made me miss home, but not enough to miss noticing that for all that the characters talk of the cold, and are shown bundled up for it, you can't ever see their breath, which is a sure sign that at least some of that snow is fake.
Apart from the snow, I really liked this movie. It was understated and funny, and in spite of the realism of the violence, I didn't find it disturbing (except for the final bit, which did leave me feeling a bit queasy, I must admit.) The characters' accents were great. It's rare to hear regional accents in American films, except for those of the south, so this was a treat.
I think I may have seen a Paul Bunyan statue myself when my family drove through Minnesota years ago. My main memory of the state is that we camped through the most violent thunder storm I've ever witnessed, typhoons included.
Final verdict: 8.5/10
An ultimately uplifting documentary about religious homophobia:
For the Bible Tells Me So
This documentary spotlights several different religiously conservative Christian families (of different denominations) of which one child has come out as gay or lesbian. In spite of their upbringing, and in spite of what they've always been told and believed, i.e. that homosexuality is a sin, the parents have all made incredible strides toward acceptance. Some are completely accepting and are doing the whole activism thing, and some aren't quite there yet (one mother says something like, "At the moment, I look at is like my daughter and this woman are incredibly close friends who complete each other. That's where I am right now."), but overall, it's very hopeful. The people you would think the least likely to understand are able to examine their beliefs, question what they've been taught, and decide that their holy book might not say exactly what people have been led to believe.
In spite of this, of course it's heartbreaking at times. Can you imagine feeling responsible for your daughter's suicide, after she'd written to tell you that since you wouldn't accept her as she was, she wanted nothing more to do with you? I can't imagine how that woman must feel. To her credit, she's used her tragedy to make sure it doesn't happen again, and is an outspoken activist in her church now.
Not having been raised with any kind of religion, I can't completely understand, of course. On an intellectual level, I can sort of grasp what it must be like to believe that something is evil -- not because it harms anyone else, but because God (or someone speaking for him) Has Said So -- and to be completely thrown off balance when a loved one turns out to be that way, but I was always taught to question things and to come to my own conclusions. And my own conclusion, even before I fully realised I wasn't heterosexual myself, was that unless the gender and/or sexual orientation of a person you're romantically/sexually interested in is incompatible with your own, why the hell should it matter to you who they go for?!
Wow, I can't really write coherently about this subject, apparently, so I'll stop here. Maybe one day I'll write an essay about it. XD;
Final verdict: 7.5/10
1930s elegance in a cloud of smoke:
Shanghai Express
Ah, to live in the days when men were men, women were women, Westerners thought they owned China, everyone smoked all the time and it was all right to call people "yellow". It all looks very glamourous, though!
I downloaded this because I wanted to see a Marlene Dietrich movie. And oh, is she ever beautiful in this. Maybe the cinematography and the black and white film do it, but I loved the angles of her face. Also, her voice (her French accent is smoother than her English one!), and the fact that she swans around a train in improbably fancy evening wear, at times wearing most of a bird on her head and around her neck.
The iconic shot from this movie is probably of Dietrich looking up, but I like this shot even more:
Also lovely, though she doesn't get half as much screen time, is Anna May Wong. Before the rest of the plot was revealed, can I really be blamed when, upon seeing the two leading ladies sharing a train compartment, my first thought was, "How absolutely hot would it be if they had a romantic train journey affair!"
I liked this movie. I'd like to watch it again, and there aren't a whole lot of movies that make me want to do that.
Final verdict: 8 + 0.5 for the fabulous outfits = 8.5/10
Also, last week, I finished watching Alexander Senki, another title I put in my mental list of "Things to Watch" ages ago and only just now got around to.
Alexander Senki
The character designs were done by Peter Chung, who created Aeon Flux (which is why I was interested in this series in the first place), which you'd figure out in a second; that's how distinctive his style is -- if the weirdly angular faces and extremely lanky bodies, the physically impossible, bizarre bondage-inspired outfits give it away. Sadly, none of the characters come anywhere near Aeon levels of awesome, or Aeon & Trevor levels of chemistry.
The titular Alexander is indeed the Great, and it is a totally historically accurate retelling of his story, from Aristotle's niece Cassandra being one of Alexander's besties, right down to the Pythagorean ninjas. Diogenes is pretty much Yoda, but not as cute and not as green.
Oh, and this is the Persian army:
The series is based on a Japanese novel, which explains a hell of a lot. XDDD Also, it seems I was right about the drastic shift in the voices mid-series. (Read this if you care to know more.)
This was a good thing to sew and knit to, because it didn't require too much concentration. I don't think I would have come away liking it any better even if I had hung on every word of the prophecy explanations or the weird take on Plato's teachings.
Final verdict: 5.5 + 0.5 for amusement derived from wildly improbable sets and machinery = 6/10
And the Halloween costume? Apart from the inexcusably bad job on the corners of the hem, I'm very pleased. Here's a teaser, because I wouldn't want to spoil it for those of you who'll see me tomorrow!
(We took sexy pose pictures at work after the kids and parents had gone home.)
In other news, I'm still wearing the false eyelashes I got for my costume. I really like how they look! Maybe I should wear false eyelashes every day! (This enthusiasm has been brought to you by the realisation that when I wear make-up, I don't look quite so much like a teenaged boy.)
All right, time to take them off and start relaxing. I've got two kids' Halloween parties tomorrow and then a birthday dinner, so I need some rest!