Japanese Story.

i just watched this movie today. miss parts here and there but caught most of it. and even though i missed bits and pieces, i still found the movie ultimately captivating. this is 'lost in translation-esque', and is therefore utterly unconventional. this of course, for me, makes it damn cool already.

this quote (below) is a very good description of the movie. (click on it to read the review.)

"It's a poignant, unsettling motion picture that will baffle those who have become used to Hollywood's compact, tidy endings."

it's a 2003 movie, and i've only just watched it. so i'm a little late on the bandwagon. but hey, better late than never. to find out other miscellaneous info (like trailers and actors and such) - click here.

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the movie is basically about an Aussie gal played by the magnificent Toni Collette falling in love with a Japanese dude (played by Gotaro Tsunashima) who seems a little stereotyped in the sense that he is described as 'only being used to docile women' & 'imperialistic' with the Australian Pilbara Desert as the background setting. sounds like an excellent romantic little hollywood outing right? however, as described above, it far from the conventional hollywood treatment type of movie. in a nutshell, i'd say, "It's quite deep lah." lol

2 trains of thought basically stuck on me after watching the movie, besides the fact that i think it's a bloody good movie...

1. Promote and show M'sia to the world! : movies are an excellent way to introduce something to the world at large. remember the hype that people were going on about when Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones came to M'sia all those years ago for the movie Entrapment?

in the context of the the movie, Japanese Story, i googled Pilbara Desert and the movie came out instantly. i knew the Australian deserts can be quite harsh and beautiful but to be absolutely honest (because i'm shite with Geography) - i didn't know of Pilbara Desert per se...but after watching this movie, now i do.

if we were to use this formula in Japanese Story, lets get some international star who is not *that famous yet - so that he/she wouldn't cost a bomb to hire and have that star act alongside a true blue local actor. the reason i say 'true blue' is that this person playing the local has to be identifiable with the general demographic of what is M'sia. that being said, the dude doesn't have to be a Malay - he could be Chinese or Indian. in fact, it shouldn't matter. he could even be a mixture of anything - as long as he's lived in M'sia for most of his life. as long as he loves going to the 'mamak', familiar with what it's like in Petaling Street (our very own Chinatown), semi familiar(at the very least) with all the cultures of all the races in M'sia besides his own, appreciates M'sian forests, our food!... etc.

i'd hate to see some actor or actress who's lived most of their lives overseas who speaks with an 'ang moh' accent try and play a 'true blue' local. it just wouldn't work as well.

if the movie is good - hopefully, that means no Hollywood type treatment, it'd be excellent publicity for the country.

oh well, it's a thought...

2. crying / pain : as we grow up, i believe we grow a healthy respect (or fear) for pain. i'm referring to the emotional distress type of pain, not the pain you get from a 'cut' or a 'bruise'. i'm talking about those emotional scars you never really totally shake off.

i'm talking about that pain you feel when it hurts to even cry. when you bawl your eyes out and you're sobbing inconsolably and your mouth is open (but no sound comes out) because you're crying so hard, you can't even breathe. it's those tears that you can't stop and you're sniffing your damn nose off and you struggle to breathe but the tears won't stop and your body convulses even when you try to stop yourself from crying.

the first time this type of pain hits you - you grow to fear it. you begin to protect yourself by not allowing yourself to open up so easily for this kind of hurt to come in again. you build walls. you become more afraid. no longer the wide eyed child who feared little - life becomes a rather dangerous entity to be approached timorously rather than with intense anticipation and excitement. you grow up.

the pain Toni Collette's character felt in this movie reminded me of this pain. it reminded me that the experience that caused the pain caused that much *pain to begin with because it was worth something. an experience that causes that kinda pain is an experience that *meant something, it was real and it would last a lifetime.

would you rather have something that probably wouldn't hurt you at all but you would probably forget about, the week after it ended?

that would just be a waste of time innit? oh well. i guess i'm just a sucker for punishment. *grin.

signing off, the commonjack.