Isle Of Dogs

I love the films of Wes Anderson and his quirky brand of directing has resulted in many of his works entering my faves of all time, especially The Royal Tenenbaums,. I also, as you all know, love Japanese culture, re: J-pop, J-Movies and of course J-Dramas, and I was excited to see this blend of two of my favorite things in Wes Anderson's latest film "Inu Gu Shima~Isle Of Dogs", a film about a Japanese boy going to rescue his dog when all dogs are exiled to an island due to a plague scare...

The first clip I ever saw of this movie was this excerpt of a sushi chef slicing and dicing up a plate of sushi, and I was thrilled by how great it looked...

I have to say though, having just finished watching the movie...that I was underwhelmed.
Sure, it was very detailed with bits of Japan,, but them being in Japan seemed so secondary. I mean, though the background characters speak Nihongo (with the voice of Frances McDormand voicing over the important parts in English) all the dogs not only speak only in English, but have English names. I'm not sure why this even needed to be set in Japan? And having the hero of the show be a feisty white girl exchange student just...bugged me?

Meh. Next time I feel like watching another stop-motion show from Anderson, I'll watch the infinitely superior Fantastic Mr. Fox again.
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Just Finished "Sputnik Sweetheart"

...and can't say I was too impressed by it. A lot of the themes in this I'd already read in other novels: The idea of a Miu being only "half" of her whole (like Nakata in  Kafka On The Shore), the narrator looking at the moon and taking comfort knowing that the one he loves is looking at the same moon (like Aomane and Tengo in 1Q84), etc.

In my opinion the story seemed so loose. The narrator doesn't even seem to react with much feeling when the love of his life disappears, never to be seen again. A sub-plot with his student getting picked up for shoplifting...why was so much detail put into that arc?

And that ENDING... I mean, I can make my own assumptions of what it means, but really when it ended I was like "Huh???" Argh, Murakami, sometimes you too frustratingly vague.

Edit: Just finished "Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End Of The World", and that was much, much better...In fact, it was pretty great!
Say, only have to finish "Wind/Pinball" and I've read all of Murakami's novels! Never thought i'd accomplish THAT one!

Utada's "Hatsukoi" is Here!!!

I was just about to run out and do my errands for the weekend when i saw my copy of Utada Hikaru's new album 'Hatsukoi" had just arrived in the mail from CD Japan!

I ran back in the house, turned back on my computer, ripped the CD and loaded it up to my Ipod so I could listen to it on my night ride home!

Well, just came home from my very first spin with Hatsukoi and the Utada we know and love is back and as awesome as ever! Gonna be spending the next few weeks soaking in this one!