Movie: Departures and April 2nd

Departures

(Original unabridged Post from my Media Blog)

Departures was released in 2008, and won the Japanese Oscar and Foreign Film Oscar for its year.  Takita also won praise for the earlier samurai period piece "When the Last Sword is Drawn".  To understand Departures, you have to understand a bit of Japanese traditional culture.  In Japan, only the lowliest of those on the social ladder dealt with death.  One of the biggest taboos of Japan is the touching of a dead body.  This is juxtaposed with the tradition that a body must be washed, properly dressed, and ritually prepared before it is cremated.  In Japan, one must trust the last rite of their loved ones to the lowest of society.  For many it was a thankless job that meant they would be shunned.

A musician, Daigo, learns that he will not be able to continue his life as a paid musician and must look for a new job.  He is attracted to a job because of its high pay, and before he knows it, he's presented with the choice of being a mortician by and aging man that will soon not be able to perform his duties.  Daigo must make the choice between not only being shunned and money, but also keeping this deeply personal practice alive in the modern world.

The movie is powerful, emotional, and at time funny.  Takita is heralded as a champion of traditional ideas in the modern world, and this movie makes a good, sentimental case for why keeping some traditions are important.  Do not expect action, adventure and kung-fu in this foreign film, this is a story about loss, love, and human dignity.  Its uplifting and inspiring, and is one of my favorite films of all time.

Just one warning: Takita is not only known for understating what is going on screen, he is lauded for it in his home land.  Be prepared to try and decipher body language, facial expressions, and comprehending cultural nuances that are not part of your own culture.

April 2nd

Another wonderful day, made even more wonderful because I got to spend the evening with my girl.

This Game_Jam debacle has got to be one of the most interesting things I have read in a while, and its made all the more interesting because we have not seen the fallout of it yet.  Someone has lost $400,000 of some pretty big corporation's bank accounts, and I do not know if its the naivety of those "regular people" involved, but that does not just happen and become "written off".  If you do not know what I'm speaking of, here is a link to the expose' Jarod Rosen's Game_Jam article .  Old media is powerful and have political ties, things are going to get crazy for some people, and trying to blame the big corp's inside guy is not going to save anyone.  Out of everyone that participated, he'll probably be the least affected.

Today was another good Spring day, though the air was calmer and more cooling at the same time.  Our fake plant hanger is filled with birds making nests, and we have a new nest being built in the bushes next to the steps of the porch.  These are very intelligent birds and I enjoy watching them do their thing.  I'll have to tell you about their interactions with our dog, Ginger, a few years back.  Its too long to feature in these little single subject paragraphs.

Craig Ferguson switched places with Drew Carey yesterday for The Price is Right.  I DVR'd it because Ferguson is actual quality television.  I watched it and he had just as about a happy show as you could for his one day there.  He brings all his friends with him when they did the show, and there was even an embarassing drunk contestant.  I made the joke that Ferguson will have to turn in his 20+ years sober badge just by standing next to the guy.  Good going Craig, I know a few people were like "and we thought the switch from Bob to Drew was bad", but I thought he was awesome.  Oh and Drew did Craig's show.  The best part was that Joan Jett performed and was great.  That's not a slight against Drew, I'm happy for the guy, saw his biography a while back.  Drew and Craig are two guys that prove you can't give up on yourself even mid-life through.  Both are late bloomers when it comes to success and overcame many hardships(Drew with his suicidal depression and Craig with his suicidal addiction to recreational drugs).