2008.08.04
1 Litre of Tears
So last weekend, I planned to have a DVD marathon of a j-drama I chanced upon at Roda’s former room. She must have left it there before she left for Japan. The title of the drama is 1 Litre of Tears. And to confirm what my officemates have said, the drama was indeed well-written and has a definite ending. The **** with them, though, for claiming that j-dramas have light plots! And the **** with me for believing despite the show’s title! Or maybe I’m just plain unlucky for picking such title for my first j-drama; for there was nothing light on the plot. Instead, it was a heavy drama.
1 Litre of Tears is a j-drama roughly based on a book, a memoir actually, of the same title. The memoir was taken from the diary entries of Kitou Aya, a patient diagnosed with spinocerebellar ataxia at the age of 15 and struggled with the illness until she died at the age of 25. Aya started writing in her diary at the age of 14 up until that time when her illness no longer permitted her to write.
Primarily based on the book, the j-drama version establishes Ikeuchi Aya (Erika Sawajiri), a 15-year old freshman, as the young girl plagued slowly by the illness. It chronicles the life of Aya from a young girl full of dreams until all those dreams were threatened to be taken away by her illness. But while threatened, Aya never gave up on her dreams, just as she never gave up on her life no matter how discouraging the situations sometimes became. Her family, composed of Shioka (Hiroko Yakushimaru) and Mizuo (Takanori Jinnai), her parents, and Ako (Riko Narumi) and Hiroki (Yumi Sanada), her siblings, also showed toughness, despite the fact that they were there plainly helpless watching a loved one slowly succumbing to a dreaded illness. The same were true with her friends, Haruto (Ryou Nishikido) and Mari (Saori Koyde), who continuously supported her on her condition while all the others around her were starting to despise her.In a gist, 1 Litre of Tears is a story about the importance of life and of fulfilling ones dreams no matter what the obstacles are. In the memoir (which I hope I will be able to read if there is any English translation of it), it was said that Aya emphasized how life, in itself, is very important. The j-drama, on the other hand, shows Aya fulfilling her dream of being able to help others despite being paralyzed by her illness. It showed that not even death can conquer a person’s desire to be of help and an inspiration to others.
So, was I able to finish watching the drama during that weekend? I sure was able to, but not as fast as I planned it to be. I never would have survived watching it episode per episode for 11 straight hours! No, my tears would have dried up fast and something else would have flown on its behalf! And yes, the j-drama did make me cry… like a child… with all the muscles in my face probably getting worked up! Hehe. And despite that, I am not ashamed. The j-drama really made me cry.
Well, that’s all for my kind-of-a review for the j-drama 1 Litre of Tears. Any suggestions of what j-drama I should watch next? Or maybe you would want to share with me your favorite? Well, the comments section is all for you. I’m hoping, though, that your suggestions for my next j-drama marathon would be, well, lighter than this one. Please!!! Ahehe :p
00:23 Posted in Now Showing | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this | Tags: j-drama, japanese, tv series
2006.11.04
the prestige
A friend asked me last Tuesday if I found The Prestige a good movie and I said it’s ok. Far from being satisfied with my answer, she asked me, in a taunting tone, if the movie is good enough to make its way on my blog. Well, lady, the answer is here.
The Prestige, according to the movie, is the third act in a great magic trick—the part where you see something shocking that you’ve not yet seen before. Applied to a disappearance act, it is when the magician again reveals himself, or an animate object, after having disappeared. Now what if the Prestige did not happen? Or a more interesting question is, why would the Prestige get lost? Now, that’s where the story of the movie revolves.
The Prestige is a story of two friends, two magicians who, because of a terrible incident, became two of the greatest rivals of their time. The rivalry was so great that it has found no bound, with the two trying to outdo each other event by event, trick by trick, up to the point of one magician killing the other… or so I thought at the beginning of the movie. And their favorite way of outdoing each other: stealing the other magician’s Prestige.
Based on my not-so-discriminating-taste, the Prestige is a good movie, or at least it was the best movie I’ve seen after the Pirates of the Caribbean II. But then again, it was only the second movie I’ve watched since then :) I say it is good because it keeps you (me pala) thinking until the end. In fact, I wasn’t able to understand everything until Thursday night (I watched the movie Sunday afternoon). Well, maybe you’ll understand it better than I do if you’ll watch the movie yourself. As of blog time (I didn’t find press time quite fitting), I think the movie is still being screened on some theaters here in Metro Manila.
14:03 Posted in Now Showing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
2006.07.16
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
The movie received a lot of bad criticisms from “movie experts”. Some say the film is boring, lacking the excitement that even the first installment failed to deliver. Others say that the movie is filled with meaningless scenes. Well, after watching the movie last night, I am glad that I was not discouraged by the bad reviews.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is not the type of movie that movie experts, or those trying to pretend to be one, would give a good review. But for simple human beings who simply want to enjoy a movie for what it is made for—and that is for ENTERTAINMENT—the movie is definitely more than just “good enough”.
So if you want to have a good time this weekend, or any time next week, ignore the critics and watch the Pirates movie. Because if you’ll only rely on what movie “critics” are saying, you might end up missing the entertaining movies and only watch the good—according to their standards—but boring ones.
13:22 Posted in Now Showing | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: Pirates of the Caribbean, movie, film, entertainment