No Taste in Movies for Old Men

A friend of mine emailed me today complaining that there have been no blog posts in a few weeks. Truth be told, tight money and a fairly routine life haven't been sparking the desire to write about Japan. However, being a self proclaimed expert on movies (Movie Snob) I thought I would write a short diatribe about this years oscars.

No Country for Old Men?
Did anyone seriously like this bag of dog shit? The movie was semi entertaining for 2 hours, but seemed to end without an actually ending. It was like driving to Manitoba. Javier Bardem can be commended on his performance (though not better than Tom Wilkinsons), but I think best picture and especially best director is going a bit too far. The Cohen bros did nothing to get me interested in this story, or make me care about any of the characters. As far as Im concerned they got owned by rookie Sarah Polley who wasn't even nominated. She got as much out of Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsett ( I mean seriously, Gordon Pinsett for god sakes) as I have seen any Director get out of his/her actors.

Best Actor
There will be Blood was not Daniel Day Lewis's best performance ever. This catagory could have gone just about any which way, the most notable oversight being Tommy Lee Jones for Valley of Elah. (I'll get more into that later). It seems to me the oscars take a lot of weird shit into consideration when deciding who gets the oscars. It's almost as though they want to project the appearance of being unbaissed instead of actually awarding people for individual work. Javier Bardem and Marion Collitard being a good example. They want the oscars to seem american but not too American. Daniel Day Lewis should have won for Gangs of New York a few years back. That year it went to Denzel Washington for Training Day. Denzel should have got it the year before for the Hurricane. My point is that this show would be a lot more interesting, and respectable if they would just hand out the awards based on individual performances, not previous bodies of work or Politics.

Tilda Swinton
This is about the only oscar that went right. Swinton has had a solid career. She did a good job in Michael Clayton playing a Company Exec, trying so hard to do a good job that finds herself ordering certain people murdered. Her role was layered and intense. The extra pudge she put on worked well and show what a good actor can do when dedicated to her craft.

The Big F***ing glaring oversight
I think the best, if not most important movie of the year got 1 nomination and no wins. Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah. How this movie could be so ignored is not really a mystery to me. It tells the story by way of murder mystery of the mental condition American Troops are returning home from Iraq in. It is truthful, brilliantly written, complex and human. It occurs to me that Americans may not be ready to examine the Iraq war yet, as it still going on. Which is unfortunate because the time to think about these things is now. But I supposed Oliver Stone had to wait 12 years before he could make Platoon.

Wow, that felt good. Maybe tomorrow I'll write something about Barrack and Hilary.

Hasagawa-san's plan

On Saturday, there will be no class at the Ohtomi community center. Instead, the class and I will be attending the funeral services for one of it's members, Yuzo Hasagawa. (Seen here in the pink sweater and blue bow tie. The pic is from Halloween and it's only one I have of him unfortunately). He was a smart man with a rich knowledge of history. His English level was quite high, enough to have been an English professor at the University level at one time.

Hasagawa-san had mentioned a few times that his health was not good. It was only a few weeks ago that I learned how serious his situation was. By then he was not well enough to go to class. I would not have the chance to speak with him again. However, the thing about Hawagawa-san is this. He began attending the ohtomi group about the time I started teaching it. And with almost no exceptions, he attended every class until he could not attend class any longer.

I'm pretty sure that if I ever was to learn that the end of me was nigh, my plan for my final weeks on earth would involve a lot of .... well something.

Hasagawa-san's plan was to work on his English. It may be the greatest compliment I could pay to him, or anyone, that he wanted to keep bettering himself, keep learning until the very end. Maybe he just understood the difference between what you can take with you and what you can't. To me, this is an example of the finest human character.