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Ping Pong, Gohatto and life generally
Jan. 15th, 2006 06:03 pmLast night I watched an episode of the The Professionals; I've still got no idea how Bodie and Doyle manage to run in such tight trousers. Bless them.
I switched over to watch a film called Ping Pong and was spent the next couple of hours being pretty much thoroughly charmed. It's about two Japanese teenagers and their friendship, told through a series of table tennis tournaments. Apparently it has been described as The Matrix of Ping Pong, although that description doesn't really give any idea of the character of the film at all. I thought it was anything but.
It did have some CGI and some beautiful, quirky ping pong action sequences (the director was visual effects director on Titanic) but I thought it was a very quiet, private sort of film where the changes in the friendship between the two young men were subtly told and left a lot up to the viewer to interpret. the ending was bittersweet in the best sort of way. It also didn't hurt that the character 'Smile' (who never did), looked like a miserable teenage Cho Hakkai (played by the actor Arata).
The BBC is having an Asian film season, so I've also watched Gohatto, about a beautiful young samurai who causes intrigue and bloodshed when he joins a dojo. The actor playing him, Ryuhei Matsuda, is an extraordinary looking person and the film is very very pretty. The plot is a little baffling, but I rather liked the way that the intrigue surrounding him and the questions about his role, either as manipulator or manipulated, were left unclear. Also, the idea of this person throwing a community of militaristic, regimented men into emotional uproar is fascinating.
In other news, two parental units visited today and I made a butternut squash, leek and goats cheese crumble that wasn't quite as successful as I'd hoped. Using olive oil instead of butter for the crumble mix made it very slightly bitter and more floury. Also, I forgot to put the goats cheese in. *face, meet palm*. My emergency measure was to slice it and place it on top of the cooked crumble, then let it melt in the oven for a few minutes.
I switched over to watch a film called Ping Pong and was spent the next couple of hours being pretty much thoroughly charmed. It's about two Japanese teenagers and their friendship, told through a series of table tennis tournaments. Apparently it has been described as The Matrix of Ping Pong, although that description doesn't really give any idea of the character of the film at all. I thought it was anything but.
It did have some CGI and some beautiful, quirky ping pong action sequences (the director was visual effects director on Titanic) but I thought it was a very quiet, private sort of film where the changes in the friendship between the two young men were subtly told and left a lot up to the viewer to interpret. the ending was bittersweet in the best sort of way. It also didn't hurt that the character 'Smile' (who never did), looked like a miserable teenage Cho Hakkai (played by the actor Arata).
The BBC is having an Asian film season, so I've also watched Gohatto, about a beautiful young samurai who causes intrigue and bloodshed when he joins a dojo. The actor playing him, Ryuhei Matsuda, is an extraordinary looking person and the film is very very pretty. The plot is a little baffling, but I rather liked the way that the intrigue surrounding him and the questions about his role, either as manipulator or manipulated, were left unclear. Also, the idea of this person throwing a community of militaristic, regimented men into emotional uproar is fascinating.
In other news, two parental units visited today and I made a butternut squash, leek and goats cheese crumble that wasn't quite as successful as I'd hoped. Using olive oil instead of butter for the crumble mix made it very slightly bitter and more floury. Also, I forgot to put the goats cheese in. *face, meet palm*. My emergency measure was to slice it and place it on top of the cooked crumble, then let it melt in the oven for a few minutes.