Things that interest me now...

Since I have no particular topic that I want to write about but have many things on my mind, I thought I'd list them. This is mostly going to be movies and manga and things of which my interests basically derive from either of them.

<STOMP THE YARD>
I saw the trailer for this American movie "Stomp the Yard" last night on TV and thought it's pretty cool. I always like to see dancing especially when it comes to dances with fast beat and rhythm, and I also admire all the time the flexibility of muscles and joints of those dancers plus their sense of rhythm. I myself have never learned hip hop or stepping or any of the stuff on that side - all I've ever had is a few years experience of classic ballet and a bit of clubbing - but I wish I could dance like that. Cool.

< Dororo and Bokkou >
Speaking of films, there are a few that I want to go see in theaters. One is Dororo, a film that I have been mentioning several times now in the past entries and also on my website. I hear it's good, and also feel that I should experience the scale in a theater with large screen and good sound system.
Bokkou was released this past weekend in Japan, and this too, I'm very much interested in seeing because I like that unique worldview Chinese fims or films on China have.

<IRYU - Team Medical Dragon>
... is a name of a manga that I am hooked right now. I borrowed it from a friend from high school who is currently a nursing student. The manga is mostly a criticism to Japanese medical treatment, of the feudalistic systems and structure, corrupted doctors, downlooked nurses and disrespected patients. It's an indignant and sad reality we carry. In terms of being a criticism I guess it's not too different from other medical manga like Say Hello to Black Jack (Jpn: Black Jack ni yoroshiku).

Anyway, it reminded me of this conversation several days ago between my boss, my colleague and me, that the more difficult and technical the theme is, the more they should make it into a manga. You see, manga is easier to understand difficult stuff than sentences because it's visual and more importantly because it takes a conversational style. A whole bunch of questions arise within and are answered within. And to my littlest surprise, this one has been made into a TV drama last year.

Reading about difficult themes in manga is good, but sometimes I feel like the criticisms go too far. It's so much easier to make the readers believe what's written. For instance, this manga gives me a feeling that it's trying to grow distrust among the general public against Japanese hospitals and doctors. The work is directed by an experienced doctor and is not a collection of random and irresponsible things somewhere between fiction and non-fiction, so of course a lot of it has to be true, but still I think I shouldn't believe in everything written...... or should I???


I know that a good selection of Japanese manga and anime are being exported, but how about TV dramas? The foreign TV dramas we have are mostly American and Korean. 24 has been popular for quite a while now as well as Desperate Housewives and LOST. The Korean drama Winter Sonata starring Bae Yong Joon made a huge success in Japan and established the Hanryu-boom (Korean boom) which still hasn't quite died out today. Myself... I was quite into Dae Jang Geum...


I mentioned some time ago this manga called Kami no Shizuku (Les Goutte de Dieu: the drops of god) which is about wine. I liked wine, especially red, from before I read this but reading this comic really makes you thirsty... it makes you want to drink different kinds of the same drink that's not necessarily wine. It makes you want to do some tasting (wannabe) of all kinds of alcohol from wine, Japanese rice wine ("sake"), beer, etc. etc. and even tea. Going back to wine, my recent favorite is a Californian red. Can't remember the name though. And the other favorite is an Italian red. Can't remember the name of this either, except that it had a drawing of a cat on the label. That one was good. My favorite liquor is "umeshu" which is plum wine. Sooo good.


All right. I kind of have more to write about, but I'm stopping here since it's getting long.
Today's update on Japan Mode: This Week's Events in Tokyo ... mostly about plum blossom viewing. It's a sign of spring in Japan, but no parties like cherry blossom viewing.