Two...Movies

As you can asertain from previous posts, I love movies. In the past few weeks I have seen Memoirs of a Geisha (different but interesting), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (sucked!), Rent (still listening to the soundtrack) and Syriana (much better than Traffic) to name a few. But this Christmas weekend I also watched two excellent films from the far east, Oldboy and Densha Otoko.

Densha Otoko, from Japan, is a sort of modern age tale of romance based on a true story. To explain I need to tell you about the Japanese word: Otaku. Otaku is basically the Japanese version of a nerd taken to the extreme. Otaku (otakus?) usually focus all their energy on video games, animation, computers, internet or some combination of them. They also shun human contact and have very little if any female contact outside of a professional atmosphere.

Luckily for our protagonist, a drunken salary-man on the subway one evening gives him the opportunity for some unscheduled contact when he, unexpectedly, defends a girl from his ranting and harassing. In response to the rescue, in typical Japanese fashion, the girl sends him an expensive thank you gift, which indicate to his internet message board friends that she likes him. Using their advice he pursues her, nearly screws it up and ends up winning her heart. The emotional part of the story is not only his struggle through a world he knows nothing about, but the commitment that the internet friends invest in the situation which ends up paying off for everyone. This entire story was extracted from the boards and published in Japan, along with a few private emails to some of the people involved, in book form. The Japanese greeted it with enthusiasm and later made it into a film, comic and TV form. Recommended for anyone who liked You’ve Got Mail.


Oldboy, from Korea, is another sort of story. Imagine during a normal day you are unexpectedly kidnapped and imprisoned in a sort of apartment. After 15 years of eating the same food you are released and given 5 days to find out why this has happened to you. Without revealing anymore of the story, this is the gist of Oldboy, a sort of action thriller directed by Chan-wook Park, whose latest story can be seen on the screen in Three... Extremes. The story kept me guessing until the end, which I would have never guessed and it included some of the best cinematography that I have ever seen. Highly Recommended. Your homework is to go out and rent this movie before they release the American version with Nicolas Cage...


Wisdom of the Day: Too much Apple Sauce is good for nobody.