Departures...

Saw a great movie just before I left Sing Sing. Okuribito (Departures) won an Oscar for best foreign film this year. Its a really beautiful film about a guy who moves back to his home town and answers a misprinted job advert and lands a job as a Nokanshi, someone who prepares the body and puts it into a coffin (in front of the family). The beauty of the film is just how elegantly and sensitively they convey the profession. I was entranced by the elaborate ritual every time it was performed. The acting is superb and the observations on how the younger generation of Japanese are moving away from the country and its traditions is well done.

Whole bunch-a-movies...

13.5 hour flight, video on demand, desire not to sleep, limited tolerance for serious films. Watched:
1. Shin ge jeon (Divine Weapon)- Korean historical film, armies, gunpowder, romance
2. Body of Lies - not bad spy/war on terror movie
3. Max Payne - half baked action movie based on a much better (old) computer game
4. Yojimbo (The Bodyguard) - Fun Kurosawa movie, all swords and samuris...
5. City of Ember - Beautiful kids movie, full of cool machienry and design
6. Pilot episode of 'Burn Notice' - Excellent comedy tv series. Kind of like Nip/Tuck but with a spy stuck in Miami...

Think I've exhausted most of the trivial films on the way here, might have to watch some serious ones on the way back... damn

Working class colonialism...

Finally managed to haul my ass to Colbar this weekend. Its kind of an English bar... kind of. Its stuck completely in the middle of nowhere, off Portsdown Road. The whole road is full of black and white houses and feels very colonial and sleepy. The 'bar' is more of a shed serving English Ales and simple food, mainly English (fish and chips, bangers and mash) but also some chinese and india food. V.cheap food. An impressive array of Fullers beers (I'd never heard of Old Bob until now). Kind of cool to be sitting around rickety tables drinking ale on a tropical evening...