foray
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Tampopo
The delightful old Japanese film ?Tampopo? is a showcase of both high- and low-end Japanese food with delectable close-ups of Peking duck, braised meat wrapped in cabbage leaf and a whole lot of ramen. Making up the central story is a widow who is determined to cook and serve the best ramen ever for her restaurant, from the smooth texture of the noodles right down to the clear tasty soup. Various minor stories are built around this central one, most not really correlating with each other or making sense, save for the fact that they?re connected by the main theme of food.
One tale that was both sad and odd was of a man who rushes home to his three children, his dying wife and the doctor who is waiting upon her. She is on the verge of death when her husband shakes her and shouts at her not to die. He is desperate and tells her to do something, anything? maybe get dinner ready. To the astonishment of all, she gets up like a robot, albeit one who is low on batteries, goes to the kitchen and starts slicing up spring onions. The children lay out the table, their mother serves dinner, and the father eats vigorously while watching her nervously. He compliments her cooking, as if he had never done so before and regrets it now. She smiles faintly before collapsing onto the floor, after doing her final task for her family. The doctor pronounces her dead, to the shocked wails of the children. The father knows nothing else but to continue eating vigorously, telling his children to ?Eat! Eat! This is the last meal mother cooked! Eat!?
I guarantee this film will make you crave noodle soup upon watching it! <drool>
Afterlife
If you're looking for less lighthearted fare, Afterlife is it. This time I'll use Roger Ebert's words:
The people materialize from out of clear white light, as a bell tolls. Where are they? An ordinary building is surrounded by greenery and an indistinct space. They are greeted by staff members who explain, courteously, that they have died, and are now at a way-station before the next stage of their experience.
They will be here a week. Their assignment is to choose one memory, one only, from their lifetimes: One memory they want to save for eternity. Then a film will be made to reenact that memory, and they will move along, taking only that memory with them, forgetting everything else. They will spend eternity within their happiest memory.
That is the premise of Hirokazu Kore-eda's "After Life," a film that reaches out gently to the audience and challenges us: What is the single moment in our own lives we treasure the most? One of the new arrivals says that he has only bad memories. The staff members urge him to think more deeply. Surely spending eternity within a bad memory would be--well, literally, hell. And spending forever within our best memory would be, I suppose, as close as we should dare to come to heaven.
Some of these people, and some of their memories, are real (we are not told which). Kore-eda filmed hundreds of interviews with ordinary people in Japan. The faces on the screen are so alive, the characters seem to be recalling events they really lived through, in world of simplicity and wonder.
foray
------------------
so bounce, basketball, bounce
The delightful old Japanese film ?Tampopo? is a showcase of both high- and low-end Japanese food with delectable close-ups of Peking duck, braised meat wrapped in cabbage leaf and a whole lot of ramen. Making up the central story is a widow who is determined to cook and serve the best ramen ever for her restaurant, from the smooth texture of the noodles right down to the clear tasty soup. Various minor stories are built around this central one, most not really correlating with each other or making sense, save for the fact that they?re connected by the main theme of food.
One tale that was both sad and odd was of a man who rushes home to his three children, his dying wife and the doctor who is waiting upon her. She is on the verge of death when her husband shakes her and shouts at her not to die. He is desperate and tells her to do something, anything? maybe get dinner ready. To the astonishment of all, she gets up like a robot, albeit one who is low on batteries, goes to the kitchen and starts slicing up spring onions. The children lay out the table, their mother serves dinner, and the father eats vigorously while watching her nervously. He compliments her cooking, as if he had never done so before and regrets it now. She smiles faintly before collapsing onto the floor, after doing her final task for her family. The doctor pronounces her dead, to the shocked wails of the children. The father knows nothing else but to continue eating vigorously, telling his children to ?Eat! Eat! This is the last meal mother cooked! Eat!?
I guarantee this film will make you crave noodle soup upon watching it! <drool>
Afterlife
If you're looking for less lighthearted fare, Afterlife is it. This time I'll use Roger Ebert's words:
The people materialize from out of clear white light, as a bell tolls. Where are they? An ordinary building is surrounded by greenery and an indistinct space. They are greeted by staff members who explain, courteously, that they have died, and are now at a way-station before the next stage of their experience.
They will be here a week. Their assignment is to choose one memory, one only, from their lifetimes: One memory they want to save for eternity. Then a film will be made to reenact that memory, and they will move along, taking only that memory with them, forgetting everything else. They will spend eternity within their happiest memory.
That is the premise of Hirokazu Kore-eda's "After Life," a film that reaches out gently to the audience and challenges us: What is the single moment in our own lives we treasure the most? One of the new arrivals says that he has only bad memories. The staff members urge him to think more deeply. Surely spending eternity within a bad memory would be--well, literally, hell. And spending forever within our best memory would be, I suppose, as close as we should dare to come to heaven.
Some of these people, and some of their memories, are real (we are not told which). Kore-eda filmed hundreds of interviews with ordinary people in Japan. The faces on the screen are so alive, the characters seem to be recalling events they really lived through, in world of simplicity and wonder.
foray
------------------
so bounce, basketball, bounce
