My Cal Poly Pomona Broncos played a hell of a game today but ended up losing in overtime, 53-50, when one of Findlay's players hit a (well contested) 3-pointer at the buzzer. Argh, that's just about the worst way to lose, especially since Cal Poly came back from being down by 14 at one point. Taking into account my boy Bill Simmons' Levels of Losing, I'd say that loss is a combo of the Princeton Principle (underdog team falling just short against a heavy favorite) and a low level Stomach Punch (the opponent makes an improbable play to win the game). You never want to be runner-up, but it was a hell of a season for Cal Poly Pomona.
But I'll feel better tomorrow when I hang out with Laura (Japan86) and Shy tomorrow at Disneyland. w00t!
Before that, though, I have some movies to write about. :O
Air (2005): For the most part, this is a much more straightforward version of the main story, and I actually miss the more mysterious way the story unfolds in the anime. (The main storytelling device is Misuzu (Tomoko Kawakami) finding out about the past of the city through a research project she does for school, and the legend obviously forms parallels with Misuzu and her relationship with Yukito (Hikaru Midorikawa).) It's completely understandable why it's more straightforward -- the movie is only 90 minutes, after all -- but the story doesn't work as well at pulling me in this way. The whole story is clearer, but for me, part of Air's charm is getting wrapped up in the mystery of the connections between past and present. I also miss the more complex relationship between Haruko (Aya Hisakawa) and Misuzu. Haruko is more of a loving mother in the movie, and while it's very sweet and touching, I think the anime story arc of Haruko growing to love Misuzu despite making very deliberate attempts to distance herself from Misuzu over the years better represents one of Air's main themes, which is the strength of maternal relationships. I also love the Tohno/Michiru story, so of course I am sad to see it isn't in the movie. But I don't want to make it sound as if Air is a bad movie, because it is not at all. The story is still quite good, and watching this reminds me how much I absolutely adore Air's setting. Who wouldn't want to spend a week in that town? However, I believe the anime is superior.
Tokyo Godfathers (2003): You know, one of the things that surprised me about this movie is that religious faith is such a strong theme in it. Not that I think it's a bad thing, mind; it just surprised me, is all. Another thing that amuses me is that Tokyo Godfathers is a story of solid, basic family values wrapped up in bizarre covers. I really love that the movie takes mainstream values (religious faith, family strength, etc.), puts them in a decidedly non-mainstream group (an alcoholic, a drag queen and a young runaway, along with an abandoned baby they find) and makes it work for them. Gin (Toru Emori), Hana (Yoshiaki Umegaki) and Miyuki (Aya Okamoto) are the types of people many would look down upon if they passed them on the street, but they're a solid group that genuinely cares for one another, even though they go through some rough patches. I also lol'd at the heavy reliance on coincidence in this movie. Normally that might rub me the wrong way, but it works in the context of Tokyo Godfathers.
Millennium Actress (2001): It's kind of amazing how Satoshi Kon can take a relatively basic story (an actress searching for her lost love throughout her career) and make it totally captivating with visual invention. In Millennium Actress, an old fan, Genya Tachibana (Shouzou Iizuka), films a documentary about reclusive actress Chiyoko Fujiwara (played at various points in her life by Fumiko Orikasa, Mami Koyama and Miyoko Shouji). Fujiwara's story directly demonstrates the power of movies by literally placing Tachibana and his cameraman, Kyouji Ida (Masaya Onosaka), in the middle of the action. Whether it's a flashback to when Fujiwara meets her love, the Man of the Key (Kouichi Yamadera), a samurai flick or a movie about a journey to deep space, Tachibana and Ida are surrounded by, and react to, the vivid nature of Fujiwara's story. It sometimes gets difficult to separate reality from the movies while you're watching Millennium Actress, but if you think about it afterward, it's not too difficult to pluck fact from fiction. But what appeals to me most about Millennium Actress is how it shows the role of movies (and, by extension, art as a whole) in people's lives, and what it says about the roles people play every day.
MirrorMask (2005): It's a solid enough fairy tale/fantasy (although Neil Gaiman has definitely written much better), but the main appeal of MirrorMask is definitely in the visuals. Its world is almost entirely CGI, but it's so well done that it never feels as if the actors are not in a living, breathing world. The visuals are dark, but not so much that they are drab and muddy, and the creatures are pretty inventive. MirrorMask's story is solid enough to pull me along while I enjoy how awesome everything looks. Speaking of looking awesome, the star of MirrorMask, Stephanie Leonidas, is quite cute. I demand she star in more movies.
On the queue for this week: Slither (2006), Splendor in the Grass (1961) and It's a Gift (1934)
Total movies: Total Movies: 47 (Gaslight, The Last King of Scotland, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Darjeeling Limited, This Film is Not Yet Rated, Diary of the Dead, Bullets Over Broadway, Interiors, Husbands and Wives, The Professional: Golgo 13, Lars and the Real Girl, Lolita, Quills, Hamlet, Iris, Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Savages, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Stranger, Love and Death, Harold and Maude, Spartacus, Scarlet Street, Sabrina, Zelig, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Stardust Memories, Barry Lyndon, Be Kind Rewind, Radio Days, Deconstructing Harry, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Creating Rem Lazar, Undefeatable, Ninja Terminator, Ninja Dragon, Rumble Fish, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, In Bruges, The Bank Dick, Marathon Man, Clannad, Air, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, MirrorMask)
