Jumi on tour: Camera Japan part 3: WATCHING

After visiting the museum we had to rush to the cinema to see the movie Solanin. When we arrived at the cinema, it was already too late. The movie started twenty minutes ago... Too bad that this festival had a tight schedule, as a result that some visitors have to miss other activities or movies. We missed the movie, even though we would make it on time according to our schedule. It might be an idea, to organize the program in that way, that there wouldn't be planned two or more activities/movies at the same time at the same city/place.

I really needed to see Solanin, and luckily i saw that one my favorite websites dramacrazy.net, uploaded this movie. So, I could see Solanin eventually.

WATCHING

Solanin
Solanin is a mangabased movie of Miki Takahiro. It's about a young couple who are living together and trying to find their way in this world. The boy is a musician and forms a band with two friends, while his girlfriend has a boring officejob. The band hasn't been really successful, until something happens. Could this mean that it will change the band? Some scenes were really recognizable, that's why I love this beautiful doramamovie.  Jumi's recommendation!








Parade
Imagine living together in a house with three people. You get along with each roommate, but how much do you actually know about each other? Do you want to know, do you need to know everything about your roomie? This is the story of Parade (パレード) of Yukisada Isao. Four young people living in the same house, having the same routineday every day, until a new mysterious guy is moving in. The roomies are trying to find out who this mysterious guy is. It turns out that they all are kind of mysterious to each other..
This movie was awesome!! I really liked the way how the acting was done, so naturally and it flowed. A must watch!!





They call us aliens
In this documentary of Veit Helmer, different people are being portrayed. They all have one thing in common: they (temporary) live in Japan. Experiences and differences with their own culture are shown. There was a portrait of three girls from eastern Europe, who went to Tokyo to do some modellingwork. It was their first time ever, traveling outside their own country, on their own, so this trip experience was extra weird. Another portrait's about a man who has a Japanese girlfriend and they're about to get married. The whole arrangement is ofcourse totally different when you arrange a marriage in another country. This doc. reminded me a bit with Cityfolk, a doc. that portraits citizens with different lifestyles living in Europe. It's nice to see how these people manage to handle and live with these cultural differences.


Pool

Imagine a movie scene, just long enough to make you realize you have been watching a clothes line with no movement at all. You even have time to think it over and asking yourself if you are really watching a clothes line. This movie is about a difficult relationship between a mother and a daughter and their misunderstandings. The movie was really too long and became boring.







King of Thorn
This anime, nominated for the 2010 Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA),must be one of the highlights of Camera Japan. Katayama Kazuyoshi adapted the manga of Iwarahara's King of Thorn into this film. It's about a girl who got seperated from her twinsister because she was selected to be one of the 160 people to be placed in a special project of a chemical company, where the selected ones have to sleep in a seperate closed section, away from everything, everybody for years. Why? The world has been infected with a pandemic virus. So they have to sleep until there's a cure. After years, the selected ones wake up in the dark future. Earth became another world with monsters. The girl hasn't forgotten her twinsister and wants to find out what happened to her. This anime is definitely not suitable for children under 16, because the story might be too difficult to understand and probably a bit scary. So I also don't recommend you to watch this anime, when you're sleepy or tipsy or else it would be impossible for you to follow the storyline. Yet, it's beautifully made and I'm definitely going to watch King of Thorn again soon.