nickchanger's blog - Category: "Films"

Been one-and-a-half month since my last entry...! Probably a good indication that I'm kind of busy :) . So here is an update of what I've done since then.

Last week I passed the 3 months limit at work, basically meaning they need a proper reason to fire me :) . It also means that they will pay for my internet and phone bills. The internet have been ordered but have not been set up yet. Together with the phone bill I could get a new smartphone real cheap so I did, and I have been playing with it for the last few days. It is an HTC Desire Z. This means two things: It has an unfoldable QWERTY keyboard which, of course makes it a bit thicker and heavier than most other phones, and it uses the Android OS. One of the first things I did was to login to Facebook using the HTC Sence app and bamm all of my Facebook friends where added to the phone with picture and everything o.0 . So far the phone is great, but still have a bit of trouble knowing exactly what I am going to use it for - and damn it sucks it battery dry in no time :( .

One cool thing about my new phone is that I can set it up as a Wi-Fi hotspot and then use the wireless network in my computer to connect to the internet through my phones 3G network. The stupid thing is that it is actually a hell of a lot faster than my crappy mobile internet I am currently using :o .

A few weeks ago my parents held a party with my family and friends to celebrate that I was done with school, have found an apartment and gotten a job. As a bit of surprise to me people brought gifts :o . Most of them had asked my mom what I needed which was a good choice as I have no clue what I need >_< . That meant several gift certificates for cloths and different more practical stuff. My friends got me a book on "How To Draw Manga", so now I have to draw more :P . Already have but have not setup my old computer with the scanner in the new apartment yet so cannot show you any :P .

Friday I was at my first non-family Christmas dinner with the people from work and their wifes/girlfriends (and one husband). It was quite fun, great food and lots to drink. We filled a restaurant for the whole evening and cleared their stock of Snaps - which is kind of scary as most of us hate it. I do not understand how several kinds of Snaps all can taste so awful and still be produced in such amounts. Sweet to see co-workers, project leaders and bosses getting wasted though!

In the last week amazon.co.uk have held a black Friday sale. I did not find any interesting stuff in the lightning deals (others from work did though), but I suddenly got inspired to search for anime DVD's and I found some. Two new in the Studio Ghibli collection: "Ocean Waves" and "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea". I also found two other films of interest: "Little Norse Prince" and "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time". The last of which might be my favourite anime film so far (so I got the collector's edition :P ). Hopefully they will arrive in the upcoming week.

Back in October I did something kind of insane (for me at least). I pre-ordered an anime figurine from Japan. First time I order something from outside Europe and North America, first time I order something that is supposed to just stand there doing nothing, and only the second time I pre-order something :o . When I placed my order it was set as an October release. When the 1st of November came it was changed to a November release. Mid-november they changed it to a December release, so now I'm not sure I'm even getting it this year :( . I considered pre-ordering another figurine as well that would be released in January, but they have changed the pre-order date from November 2nd to December 2nd, and now I am not quite so sure any more. If only there was a bigger market for such figurines in Europe and North America :P . Oh and for the curious the figurine I have ordered is of Hitagi Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari and the one I am considering is of Mio Akiyama from K-On!

I am still a noob when it comes to watching anime and reading manga, but I am getting there. According to AniDB I have 82 animes, but several of these are second seasons or OVA's and others are films. So a more correct unit would be episodes of which I have seen over 700. That is the same as 12 days and 20 hours! I currently have six series and one film waiting to be seen. According to MyAnimeList.net I have read 10 mangas or a total of 662 chapters which they estimate to have taken almost four days!

I should really get another hobby?

Anyway, I have compiled a small list of some of the stuff I have learned about the world from watching anime and reading manga. It must all be true, right?

• Girls gives you a nosebleed, one way or the other.
• All girls are embarrassed by their bust size, no matter the size.
• You cannot die from an epic fight - you just get really really tired.
• At least one of your female friends is a ghost.
• The first kiss is extremely important - so is the first touch.
• Kawaii!
• Eating food prepared by someone bad at cooking can often be fatal.
• Girls and women have much bigger eyes than boys and men.
• Parents are rarely ever home.
• All girls wear skirts and they are always to short.
• For some reason girls with cat-ears and a tail are really cute.
• There is a rabbit on the moon
• Tears are huge.
• Hair can sweat.
• If a girl gets sick, and it is not a cold, she is either pregnant or terminally ill.
• If you have a childhood friend you will eventually start dating her.
• All boys are being accused of being perverted no matter what they do.
• The Japanese word for panties is "pantsu"...
• "Saving" a girl from something even slightly dangerous will make her fall in love with you - even if you are a girl.
• Small children are often really smart while teenagers are stupid as hell.
• If you are afraid of getting robed, assaulted or raped on your way home it will happen!
• Magic exists but you need a card or some other device to use it.
• All guys who does not realize it, or look for it, have at least two girls who are in love with them.

... that really is not the question. You cry when you cry and that is it. If you feel like crying go for it for crying out loud! ... no pun intended - ok maybe a little.

I am not sure about when the last time I really cried were, but I believe it were quite a while ago. More precisely at the funeral of my grandmother (on my mothers side) around 12 years ago. Think it was the culmination of seeing several people around me suddenly in tears that tipped it over for me. Since then I have felt it to be close several times but never really done it. Most memorable is the funeral of my other grandmother (on my fathers side). It was a very moving event, with one of my cousins singing and all, but I was almost ten years older and apparently more prepared.

I have never cried from watching a film. One cause might be that I have not really seen that many really really sad films, so there have probably never been a reason to do so. Even though I have not seen that many I have seen some and although I have noticed a reaction, it has never been big enough to really bring forth the tears. Lately I have seen several anime series with quite sad and moving story lines and the latest have been the most brutal so far, Clannad After Story. It is the second season of the Clannad story. The first season were the first of this kind of theme I have seen and it were a bit supricing to me as it is marked as a "seinen" anime, which means it is targeted at men. The reason for this however is probably that Clannad were originally what is known as a visual novel - a computer game with lots of talk and often several cute manga/anime girls. The whole series is basically about one boy, a senior at high school, who gets to know several girls who all have a tragic problem of some kind which he helps them with. In the second season this style continues for the first episodes but it soon shifts to more or less only focus on this boys life as he struggles with several tragic events happening to and around him. Another anime I have seen which have the same kind of theme is Kanon (2006 edition). It is created by the same team who is behind Clannad, and is basically the same. Were also originally a visual novel. The main difference here however is that this time the boy have met all the girls before (when they were 7-10 years younger) but he have forgotten about it. While he starts remembering stuff some tragic events from the past are unfolded and at the same time happening in the present.

All series are actually quite good, but not exactly my kind of theme so even though I considered seeing Air, a third anime series created by the same team (and again originally a visual novel), I am not sure I really feel like it at the moment. I probably need a lot of comedy for a while :P . As mentioned Clannad After Story have been the most brutal I have seen so far, but it is only because of its length and thereby the amount of tragic events. There is no doubt in my mind that the absolute most emotional and sad film I have ever seen is still Grave of the Fireflies, yet another anime. It is weird to believe that it is by the same company who is behind My Neighbor Totoro! :o

One good thing about all this is that seeing these have proven to me that anime expands over so many different areas, from the very sad (mentioned above) over the more serious (e.g. Planetes) to the mindless fun (e.g. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Azumanga Daiou and School Rumble), and from the dark thriller (e.g. Death Note) over an ecchi magical world (e.g. Zero no Tsukaima) to some aimed at children and/or the whole family (e.g. Kiki's Delivery Service). So no reason not to watch anime! Btw, all animes mentioned are recommended :P .

Some months ago I watched the documentary Zeitgiest. It is a film released for free online, and can be seen at Google Video. The author is kind of paranoid but nevertheless the documentary is interesting, artistic special and worth a look. It is split into three parts: Religion, 9/11 and The National Bank.

The 9/11 part is about how the author believes that George W. Bush and the government was behind the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. He shows several "proves" of this and it does make you think. Back in 2001 George W. Bush had just won a controversial election (the missing ballots of Florida and the Supreme Court ruling stuff) and his popularity was decreasing. After the attack he got much more popular, or at least the people started to support their leader. Back then I did get the idea that maybe George W. Bush had been behind the attacks just to gain popularity, but I must say it seems very drastic and way to risky to do in the world we live in today - it might have worked some hundred years ago (of course if he was behind it, it did work and I got fooled :P ).

The National Bank part is about how the National Bank creates the money (the paper) and loan it to the state with interest. The state then needs money to pay the National Bank back which they get by loaning more money. This is the cause of inflation as the more money is created the less value they have. It is an endless spiral that only benefits the National Bank. The author attacks this pretty hard explaining how the system got into place and that it is created by big businessmen who only wants more money. It seems like a stupid system but so does many others.

Even though these two parts are interesting the first part is the most interesting. It basically explains how religion is used to control the masses. According to the author both the 9/11 attacks and the National Bank system are their to have the same purpose. He also explains how the character Jesus Christ is a big fat metaphor for the Sun which civilisations have worshipped for centuries. He explain the astrology behind it and how many other religions follow the exact same pattern. It also explains how much of the Christian religion is a copy of the Egyptian religion. I find this very interesting and I looked a bit more into it. One of the books used as a reference in the film, which is also mentioned several other places as an interesting book in this area, is The Hero With A Thousand Faces written by Joseph Campbell in 1949. This book explains how mythologies, religions, folk tales, etc. all follow the same pattern - the human life cycle. It focuses on the hero of the story and what he must go through. It has been used by many of today's authors for when they created their hero and his/her journey. One everybody know is George Lucas who have used the book when he created the Star Wars films. Several Disney films, and maybe even The Matrix, should also have been based on the book!

That was a long way just to tell you that I have bought a new book! :o

A third edition of "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" were released in 2008 and I started to search the web for places to buy it. First thing I noticed was that it seems to be only available in English, so guess I could go international when looking for it. I found it on Amazon for $14.93 (~75 dkr), but Amazon have a ridicules high shipping rate for books (~65 dkr) which almost doubles the price. Then I found it on the Danish site Saxo.com for 129 dkr, where I had ordered both Dan Brown's Angels and Daemons and the complete Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Together with the much lower shipping rate it was almost the same price as Amazon, so I rather buy it from a Danish company if anything should happen :P .

I received it last week, but so far I've only read two chapters - I have a shitload of other stuff to read, you know :P . It is not the easiest English I've read but it is still quite interesting. Looking forward to finish reading it and maybe learn something o.0 .

In the future I will try to add at least one image to my blog entries. Of course only if it is possible to find an image that fits the content. I have also changed it so that each line will try to fill the whole page by stretching, also known as justified margins or something like that.

Yesterday I finished reading the book "Män som hatar kvinnor". Since I had already seen the film the ending did not come as a big surprise - or did it. Because when I reached what I remember as the big ending in the film there were still around 1/5 of the book left. The few short clips the film ends with is a very quick summary of some of the elements that takes place in the last part of the book.

Before I saw the film I heard it followed the book very well. After reading the book I can say that it is not entirely true. The overall story is there but many elements, even some crucial to the plot, have changed. To avoid spoilers I will not start mention everything here, but I will talk about the relationship between Mikael and his business partner and long time friend Erika. In the film I got the feeling that Erika were interested in Mikael but Mikael were to busy thinking of something else to notice it - but in the book they have a really weird relationship where they get "close" to each other on a regular basis even though she is married, the husband even knows about this arrangement. Mikael is sentenced to prison and in the book he serve his time in the middle of the story. In the film however he does it at the end. Quite a plot change but it works in the film giving an acceptable ending.

Other parts of the film illustrates elements of the book but they are interpreted, at least by me, completely different from what is actually happens. A common mistake made by someone who have read the book and starts to cut in the screenplay without remembering that people who watch it might not know the book.

So how was the book? Extremely detailed! Stieg Larsson uses several pages to describe a flower which is seen a couple of seconds in the film. This trend continues through out the whole book where items and situations are described in extreme details. The characters are not that interesting. Only Lisbeth is "special" meaning that the rest are basically just regular people with different jobs. Other than that it was a good book with a good story and worth a look if you like crimes that contains more than just a body.