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October 09, 2005
Notes on the Human State
Yesterday was a good day. Caught two movies from the Japanese Film Festival and it was excellent that they were programmed back to back.
Tony Takitani
To translate any story by Murakami is not going to be easy. Part of the beauty of Murakami's text is the poetic and meandering narrative that delves into his characters' psyche so well. And to retain the meandering narrative with acting is not possible. So the movie started out with alot of narrative, like a narrated play. It felt slow and contrived initially, but suddenly, just like that, I found out I stopped breathing in the middle of the movie. My breath was taken away, by the beauty of the stark cinematic shots of the perfect people. So perfect, so clinical, so beautiful something was missing. And yes - it was what was missing from their hearts -Love and Companionship. The abject loneliness of the characters and the urban world we live in was accentuated by the perfectly beautiful sets and the narrative provided more distance from the characters to the viewer, making them more alone.
So my heart was broken and my breath taken away, but it was a beautiful movie nonetheless. Murakami visualised.
Letter From The Mountain
And then over lunch, you ponder about the bleakness of life and futility of human relations. But Letter From The Mountain challenged all that. With life, friendship and love, Letter From The Mountain showed all is not lost. People can get disillusioned by death in the city, people can get cancer, people can DIE from cancer BUT at the end of the day, it's the people around you and acceptance of the nature around you that makes the difference. Life will prevail. Everything is lush, green - white - red - brown. Life will prevail.
Posted by lainey at October 9, 2005 10:38 PM