Monday, February 01, 2010

nobody, everyone

Yeah, I'm late, so sue me. I remember seeing the trailer for Nobody Knows (誰も知らない) a couple of years ago, and wanting to check it out. Now I see that it won at Cannes. Somebody is behind the times.
Finally I got around to it, and I was not sorry. The acting was really good, the shooting beautiful and subtle, and it's based on a true story. (These pictures from the director's website, linked above.) It's about some kids whose mom abandons them and they live alone in an apartment.

I also saw All About Our House (みんなの家), which was nothing special. It was an okay movie about building a house, briefly redeemed by an appearance by Shingo Katori, who might be my favorite SMAP. He plays a bleach-haired Shinto priest. That guy can't act; I've seen a little of his show that's on now, about the dorky cop. I think it's from a manga. Has he had any roles where he was good? I don't care enough to investigate.I watch random J-flicks because it helps improve my listening, you know, rather than actually TALKING to people. This might explain why my listening is so much better than my speaking. And my deleterious habit of listening in Japanese (to my family members, for example), and then replying in English. What a lazy ass.

I also saw Avatar, but we won't talk about that.

5 comments:

  1. oooh, i saw nobody knows about 4 years ago...sad, while beautiful, but well done, i thought.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. i love nobody knows

    2. i love shingo. i think perhaps this is his best role to date
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp8ttwikTEs

    3. you and me both, sister. my answer in a japanese conversation is a lazy half english japanese mish mash

    4. i want to talk about avatar. did you like it? i am scared to see it because a) blue people freak me out and b) i have a tendancy to dislike things everyone else loves and then people judge me

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hmm, poking a bit more around the interweb, I found out that the lead actor from Nobody Knows, Yuya Yagira, got married a couple of weeks ago to his girlfriend. He's 19, she's 21.

    Also it was reported that he tried to commit suicide in 2008.

    Sarah, I love the Shingo banana thing! Thanks! Do bananas need commercials?

    I can talk to you about Avatar, if you insist. The blue people are freaky. I'd say I liked but didn't love it, it's overhyped, and no big whoop. The forest is pretty. I can tell you more this weekend, over hot chocolate. Date?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ha ha. Avatar. Especially the bit where he arrives with a bigger dragon? HA HA HA!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jen, the big tribal orgy communing thing was my biggest WTF moment.

    ReplyDelete