Daitokuji31

Mr. F*Ball likes you., July 19 2004

I purchased _Love & Pop_ Not because it was directed by Anno Hideaki, Neon Genesis Evangelion, but because it is based on a novel written by one of my favorite Japanese novelists Murakami Ryu, _Almost Transparent Blue_ and _Coin Locker Babies_. I had no expectations for the film, but I went in hoping that it would be an enjoyable experience. It was. Definately not one of the greatest films that I have seen, but it was decent and entertaining.

The movie stars 11th grader Hiromi Yoshii, Asumi Miwa, who is a thin, kind of tall pretty girl with short hair. She gets along with her father, who loves his model trains, and her mother, who loves her swimming, and her older sister. She lives in a… Read more

Born to Run, July 14 2004

I am sure that most individuals who read this thick book will have most likely viewed the Fukasaku Kinji film of the same name. I was interested to see how the entertaining, but not so deep, film deviated from from the novel. Let me say that it deviated quite a bit. However, this of course is not unusual, especially with a book clocking in at 600+ pages. The characters are much more fleshed out than in the movie. Kiriyama Kazuo is actually given a background instead of just being evil. We learn why he is so emotionless. Also, the reader learns much more about students who were quite minor in the movie, such as Chigusa Takako and the two girls who were killed on the cliff, Yumiko and Yukiko… Read more

Black Hands, July 6 2004

(...)If one pays scant attention to the news in Japan, seen Iwai Shunji's _All About Lily Chou Chou_, or read short stories and novels by Murakami Ryu, one knows that Japan, like other countries, suffers from an escalation of violence in schools. This violence works in three ways: student vs. teacher, teacher vs. student, and, the most common, student vs. student. Although it is still rare, the newspapers and news programs are peppered with stories of bullies beating someone to death or the bullied killing his bulliers. Murakami Ryu and Yu Miri have both focused on these subjects in their literary works. Toyoda Toshiaki, through his film _Blue Spring_ also touches on this controversial… Read more