June 22, 2003
Movie Review: Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold (Zatôichi senryô-kubi)
This may have been my least favorite of the series. Zatoichi gets accused of stealing a village's tax payment and attempts to clear his name. This movie didn't have the regular rhythm of the others, although it did have the dramatic look in lots of scenes. I felt like they never resolved the story of the boss that hid on the mountain, and the ending would have been a little better if they had showed Zatoichi walking away, like they usually do. I'm not sure I have really figured out what felt off in this, since it seems very strange for me to be complaining that this didn't stick to the formula when I usually complain about how it doesn't deviate from the formula.
George Orwell's 6 Rules
William Gibson was nice enough to post the six rules online. But just in case I'm copying them here:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
"If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one's own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase...into the dustbin where it belongs."
June 10, 2003
Meep meep meep!
How lucky must I be to get this in the mail today from my favorite girl?
June 07, 2003
Movie Review: The Third Man (Reed)
Set in Vienna immediately after WW2 (the movie was made in 1949, so it wasn't too historical) this tells the story of an american writer who goes to visit a friend, only to find out his friend recently died in a car accident. As he tries to find out what really happened, including getting involved with an actress who was his friend's lover, the story gets a little more complicated. It isn't really the story that makes the movie, though, it is the wonderful sense of place and all the good actors involved. The final chase scene wasn't quite as gripping as I would have hoped (why did they even need the chase scene?) and made me think that for all the flaws of modern movies they have gotten better at dealing with faster-paced scenes. I also really enjoyed the lack of subtitles despite all the languages being spoken. The main character didn't understand it, so neither should the audience - it helped to identify with what the character was going through. Overall, an enjoyable film, nice to look at, with some interesting characters, but don't expect the central mystery story to be what makes it special.
June 03, 2003
Links
I hear these weblog things are supposed to contain links. So here are a couple items of interest.
Want to see our artistic culture preserved better instead of having it locked behind a neverending copyright? Sign the petition. It isn't everything one might hope for, but it may be good to show that people are interested in these issues.
The combination of words and pictures has an obvious worldwide appeal, but this article about "picture books" for adults in Taiwan was particularly interesting to me because of this part:
Other group members made story books with three-dimensional illustrations, devices inside pages for readers to play with, exquisite paper sculptures and even illustrations of noodles that actually felt soft and elastic.
Illustrations of noodles that feel soft and elastic? I want to know more!