Does Anyone Enjoys Japanese Movies???

1. Tamako in Moratorium

Year: 2013
Director: Yamashita Nobuhiro (Also directed The Drudgery Train in 2012)
Cast: Maeda Atsuko, Yasuko Tomita, Suzuki Keiichi

Tamako, who is the heroine of this movie, is 23-year-old college graduate. Instead of getting a job, she stays at her father's place and doesn't do any work. She plays games and read comics all day and let her father do all the house chores and cook for her.

However, when her father is not looking, she searches for what she really wants to do: She applied to idol audition etc.

I guess the movie delivers a message to a young generation who are not sure with their future dreams.

And the most important thing is that Maeda Astuko who played Tamako in the movie was the most famous member of the prestigious Japanese idol girl group AKB48. She graduated from the group now, but she was my favorite member....and she is really cute hahaha.




2. Helter Skelter

Year: 2012
Director: Ninagawa Mika
Cast: Sawajiri Erika, Mizuhara Kiko, Ayano Gou

The movie is based on Okazaki Kyoko's comic book with the same title, Helter Skelter.  It is about a girl who became a superstar after grandiose plastic surgeries. She becomes so obsessed with staying as "the fairest of them all" and destroys herself at the end.

The movie is violent, obscene, and grotesque, but those elements are portrayed really beautifully since the director, Ninagawa Mika, is the prestigious photographer in Japan and she is talented in using colors in her films. Ninagawa definitely made enchanting images in this video.




3. Rurouni Kenshin

Year: 2012
Director: Otomo Geishi
Cast: Sato Takeru, Aoi Yuu, Takei Emi

This movie is also based on the comic book with the same title, Rurouni Kenshin. It was the masterpiece that was published serially via one of the most renowned comic magazines in Japan, Shonen Jump. It gained a great popularity in Japan because it is based on Japanese history about Meiji era.

The main character, Kenshin, is the one who hates to kill people after he killed so much in the war. The movie basically follows the formula of typical hero movies: Hero fights with villains and the hero meets a girl and finds out that the life is worth living.

But if you want to watch an oriental Japanese style action scenes in high quality, you should definitely watch this movie.

Six word Story

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
                             -Ernest Hemingway

Father & Daughter (2000)


This is the 2000 Academy Award Winner for Short Animated Film.

 It expresses the power of short films -- and since we read a few short stories during last week's meeting, you can see the differences between short films and regular films, and the differences between novels and short stories. What is this difference, in your opinion? What strengths and flaws do both have? 

 I found this so touching. As someone with a strained relationship with her own father, it definitely struck a few heartstrings within me. Check it out :) 

November 12th 2015: thoughts

Our meeting today is taking place in the computer lab of Academic Building A (A704). 
We are to discuss random topics pertaining to our club, and post to the blog.
Please post your thoughts about books, film, or life in general in the comments section below.

TIME.

Discuss below via comments the following:

1) literal definition aside, what is your definition of time?

2) what is time's purpose in our existence?

3) if you could go to any point in time, where would you go, and why?

4) what does time mean to you? are you a nostalgic person? a future-oriented person? do you live in the past, future, or right in the present?

5) what meaning does time serve humanity? what if time did not exist?

you do not need to use full sentences... or proper grammar rules, for that matter. just go crazy.

YESTERDAY WAS BACK TO THE FUTURE DAY! #BTTFD

Hey, everyone! I just wanted to make a quick announcement about the movie we watched at our club last week. In the 2nd movie of the trilogy, the characters are blasted to the date of October 21st, 2015. Yesterday.
Social media buzzed about this for sooooooooooo long. They're still at it. I'm tickled, honestly. I had never watched the movie before (nor had I even heard about the trilogy, I'm ashamed to admit...), but I'm glad to have learned about it here. Now, whenever I think about this famous film trilogy, I'll have fond memories of you guys. 

Here are some cool links about BTTFD! 





Movie suggestion and a plan for a small presentation

Hello, members of the Utahta.
I am suggesting a movie called, The Seventh Seal (1957).
This is a truly cult classic, black and white film made in Sweden.
It is about a knight facing Death, literally, who tries to find significance in life.
The movie deals with themes such as death, life, void, hope, innocence, and redemption.
The film is only an hour and a half long, so it is relatively short and we can finish it on one day if we start our meeting 30 minutes earlier than usual.

The week after we finish the movie, I can give a short presentation about the general concepts of death; its themes and depictions in our culture. We can have have discussions about the ideas the film portrayed and what impressions it gave you . It will be fun.

Time travel in movies and animations

Doc Brown: Yes, the way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?

As we watched Back to the Future (1985), the theme of time travel is very popular and fascinating. In order to go time travelling, one must use a special power or a special device like a time machine. What are some famous movies that depict time travel and how do they go time travelling?  Let us take a look at few examples of time travel in films and animations.

<Mild Spoiler Warning>

The Terminator (1984)
The cyborg assassin from the future is one of the most recognizable character in film history. In this movie, the Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back to Los Angeles in 1984 from the dystopian future of 2029, where machines and humans are in war. When a sudden ball of lightning strikes, the Terminator arrives naked out of nowhere.




Looper (2012)
In the year 2074, time travel is invented, but becomes illegal right away. However, criminals use the time travel device to kill those who they want to get killed by sending the victims away to the past. In the film, the main characters fight his own self from the past and the future.

 
 
The Butterfly Effect (2004)
This pyschological thriller derives its title from a theory that small change can lead to a vastly different consequence. The movie shows the protagonist's ability to go back in time of his younger self when he reads his past journals. In order to change his traumatic past and for a better future, he goes back in time. However, his attempts of good intention seem to lead into suffering of another.

 
 
Doraemon (1969)
The blue cat-like robot Doraemon (which is many times mistaken for a blue raccoon) is sent from the 22nd century to help out the miserable boy, Nobita, so that he may have a better life. Doraemon has many interesting tools in his 4D pocket, and one of them is a time machine.

 
 
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) 
This animated film is about a teenage girl who accidentally acquires the ability to leap through time. As she has fun with her new found ability, she learns that her power is limited in numbers. Where did her power come from and how will she use this new ability after knowing it is only limited? Watch and find out for yourself as this film will make your eyes watery at the end.
 
 
 
Dragon Ball (1984)
From the dystopian future, where the world has been destroyed by the androids, a young man named Trunks comes to the present day to warn about the upcoming dangers of the androids. Trunks uses the time machine to travel in time and writes the word "HOPE" outside of his time machine in wish for a better future.

 
 
Among these examples, it looks like the main cause for someone to go back in time is to take care of something in the past, either to kill someone or to make change for a better tomorrow. If you have the power of time travel, would you go back in time or move to the future?

Sharing my favorite books

Hey, guys!!! I thought it would be great to share my favorite books with everyone☺

Hope you read:

Lolita
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Phantom of the Opera
Imperial Woman

Movie Suggestion & Sixth Sense review

A movie I would like to recommend for watching would be "Back to the future" because the day that Marty and Doc arrives 'in the future' is supposed to be around this time! And since the movie was set in 1985, I thought it would be pretty cool to watch it!

The sixth sense was really nothing new for me since I did watch several times already, but one thing that was different was the doc himself. As I am a psychology major, the way he was dealing with the child was something I looked more carefully this time.

Movie Suggestion: Totoro


Although this movie may seem very lighthearted and maybe childish, recently I have learned that the story of Totoro is based on a murder of a little girl in Japan. I was thinking that as a group we could watch the movie and also read about the murder, then think about any underlying themes of death that may have happened in the film. I thought this would give us the opportunity to watch a cute movie but also pick our brains on darker themes happening beneath the surface. Just food for thought!

Posting

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Welcome to Hakuna Utahta's Blog

This is the place for H.U. members to discuss the films and books watched and read at the club. Suggestions for possible future films and books, as well open discussion for anything related to books and film, are fair game as well.

Go crazy! (but not too crazy)