Movie Night
It's been a long time since I wrote the last entry.




Hmmmm? Were you expecting some sort of recap of my adventures?




Last night and tonight I finally sat down to watch 'Sakuran'. I had previously read the first volume of the manga, and had been following the film since almost it's conception. Four great women made it possible, mainly. Anno Moyoco, the manga-ka, Ninagawa Mika, the director, Tsuchiya Anna, the lead, and Shiina Ringo, the musical director.

I had downloaded a preview copy (meaning the word SAMPLE was printed in the upper left hand corner, and every twenty minutes or so Japanese text saying to buy the DVD would scroll past) very shortly after it's release, and I had stored it away for almost a year.

I have a tendency to do that with films I have to download little by little. Watching the progress creep by through the month does something to my desire to want it instantly, I don't want to waste that waiting, and so I wait some more.

...Sakuran was good. The first half of it followed a predictable pattern, having read the manga I knew most of it. Things were in a different order, but still more or less the same. I was annoyed that they never used her kamuro name, Tomeki, and wished that the kamuro in the film had their little top knots, but honestly? What little girl would let you shave their head for a film role?

The second half was completely new to me though, as it would be to just about anybody, since the manga is only one volume, left open-ended. Suddenly I had been dropped in a familiar world but I had no idea what would happen next. I really anticipated the worst after she lost her baby, I really did. I expected that it would end in the fashion that seems so Japanese, the woman would marry the man who could give her a life, but she could not love, and the man would do the same.

But no! For some strange reason it all turned out...alright. Happy. Free. The world did have limits after all.

Maybe because events were out of order, throughout the film I felt like I was watching deja-vu, I mean more than just having similar events repeating themselves. It was...confusing. The dizzying array of colours and mish mash of patterns was almost blinding. It very much lived up to it's name. ...from aesthetics, I prefer the looks of the men in the film to the ones in the book, but the ones in the book to ones in the film for the women. Anna Tsuchiya is of course, pretty, and convincing in her role, even looking a great deal like the drawn image, but she was just too foreign. Or...not foreign enough? This is purely aesthetically speaking a comparison, there is no denying that she did brilliant job making the character come alive. In fact, many people mention that she almost specializes in tough girl roles, but a side by side comparison of the source material will reveal that the violence was toned down! Well, I aside from the scene where Takao dies...that was just straight up Tarantino.

The way the Oiran walked on the promenade made my ankles hurt, I kept waiting for her to fall and sprain. Also, to confuse you the main character.

Tomeki = Kamuro > O-Rin = Hikkomi > Kiyoha = Shinsou > Higurashi = Oiran
Kiyoha = Kamuro, Hikkomi, Shinsou > Higurashi = Oiran

Above is manga, below is film. Neither is simple! At least Seiji is always Seiji.


On the other spectrum of film we have 'Gake no Ue no Ponyo', the translation I prefer being 'Ponyo's Fjord'. It is the newest in the Ghibli canon, following the tale of a little fish girl (She might be a goldfish! How symbolic!) who wants to be human. Containing none of the painful elements of reality Sakuran did, I fully anticipate a story that will tug at my hearts strings even more, and leave me feeling happy, but slightly melancholy, like I always do after I see a film that I wish somehow I had been involved with. Unless of course I use my mad skills to somehow weasel my way into the production staff or cast! Do you think I could be the voice of a little fish girl who likes ham? I know, I'm dreaming.