ИМХО. "Песнь моря" ~ художника любой обидеть может

Название мультфильма постоянно попадалось мне на глаза, да причем исключительно в хвалебных статьях. И этот факт вызвал во мне такие большие ожидания, что падать с их высоты было неприятно.

Мультфильм наискучнейший. Он может похвастаться очень и очень оригинальным визуальным оформлением, но на этом его преимущества заканчиваются. Сюжет, хоть и простенький, имел все шансы быть интересным, но не был, так как его развитие вышло каким-то дерганым - то одно, то совсем другое, а между этим тем и другим - очень резкие переходы. Дети вели себя как самые обычные дети - вредный мальчик и не умеющая не только говорить, но и общаться вообще девочка. Их слова и поступки не вызывали ни умиления, ни сострадания, несмотря на наличие целой кучи обстоятельств, которые должны были бы его вызвать. Да и не только дети, вообще ни один персонаж не был наделен харизмой или яркими чертами, которые бы вызвали интерес и сопереживание. Озвучка, которая мне попалась, была абсолютно профессиональной, и к ее качеству не может быть никаких претензий, но вот беда - от нее стало только хуже. Дети стали еще более противными, взрослые - неискренними, волшебные существа - просто недоразумением. На протяжении большей части фильма песни как бы мурлыкались под нос не умеющими петь персонажами, от чего красивейшие ирландские мелодии потеряли всю свою красоту. В конце же все внезапно стало хорошо, но авторы подводили нас к этому концу так же, как мальчик вел свою сестру - тянув за веревку, привязанную к поясу ведомого, и совершенно не оглядываясь, через какие там буреломы вынужден пробираться зритель. В результате логики у этого невыразимого счастья оказалось маловато - просто после детской песенки все залило солнышком и все стали любить друг друга. И так осуждающе говорить я могу именно потому, что ожидаемого катарсиса, и даже простого погружения в атмосферу, не случилось.
Художника любой обидеть может, правда, в данном случае художник как раз единственный человек, который заслуживает похвалы.

IMHO. 'ShakespeaRe-Told ~ The taming of the shrew'

It's probably the fourth time I watch 'Taming of the shrew' as a movie or stage performance. And therefore it should be the fourth time I cannot make myself like this story.

The biggest problem is, I like very much stories about love growing out of  testing, probing, mocking, taunting, 'will you still love me and accept me if I do this?' and if yes, there comes happiness - but here, this is not the way of testing I find very attractive. One reason is that creating such problems as in 'Taming' is not the right form of doing that. 'But he does think the world of you in his own strange way', says the kind-hearted friend. But then you see, it's scary. Supposing that I am still single when I am 38, will I also be as desperate for sex to find just any man as to agree to such treatment?

The second reason, the main one is that I personally prefer give-and-take to just give-in. Up until the very end I couldn't find a single thing she would need in him. The submission is only glorious when it's mutual. And showing the worst of you is only justified when you devote yourself to delivering the best.

Oh yes, Henderson and Sewell were absolutely great, and it's rare to see a performance like that, but then, I didn't care for a second whether their characters would be happy or not.

'Nihonjin no shiranai nihongo' drama ~ maji de gozaimasu ka?

This drama is really strange. It does not go into depth of the Japanese language, but it features things that wouldn't be clear for a beginner. While trying to show the variety of Japanese words, grammar, politeness levels and their relation to Japanese culture, the makers kinda failed to notice that it made the story completely incredible.

story and characters

We have a very energetic young miss who suddenly becomes a teacher. I'd praise the fact the lead character is authentic and has certain charisma. By the way, that's how she's called in school - charisma. However, the words 'charisma' in Japanese has already shifted its meaning slightly.

Not only 'charisma', but many other things in Japanese are ambiguous and need explanation.

On one hand, this drama is very helpful since it gives answers on questions that are really interesting and helpful for foreigners who learn Japanese. But that's only in case you have the same questions that our characters have.
The students were the most incredible detail in the story. They could not write and read even simple kanji, but they knew how to say difficult things. They were doing silly things and asking silly questions, but when they were surprised with what their teacher explained, they all exhaled simultaneously: 'heee?', just the same way the Japanese do.

 I'd say they were no less charismatic than the teacher:

 Most puns were based on language tricks:

What I especially liked were the 'historical explanations' of different things in modern Japanese. It was a surprise even for me to learn about the origin of some words and grammar. And the explanations were extremely realistic

and showed just exactly how it was. Yes. Exactly.

I liked it that the creators were objective and featured even the problems that the Japanese language encounters, such as wrong usage of words. By the way, that's exactly the case when it's necessary to write 'don't try to copy!'. Since not all Japanese are accurate in their language use. Like here, when you have a part-time job in a restaurant don't try to learn from waiters who follow a manual without thinking about language problems.

By the way, most jokes about the foreign students were accurate. Now I'm saying this seriously.

Another great things was that the view on Japan in the drama was not one-sided. The drama mentions a lot of things that foreigners have to deal with in Japan - a certain degree of ostracism, girls who pretend to like foreigners just to have a chance to learn English or have a foreign boyfriend or husband, which is a certain kind of fashion, problems with getting a part-time job, and many other things. In fact, each episode describes how the teacher, Haruko, saves a student from some kind of 'pinch'. 'Cause it's really a problem that there are no more ninjas or yakuza on the streets of Japan, right?
And of course, those famous relations. How can a Japanese drama do without them.

And of course, even when Japanese make a mistake in announcing a client's order in a restaurant, they do it our of their wish to be polite.

 And of course, those morals... (bweeee *throwing out*)

And of course, the favourite word of our Heroine is 'thank you'. Isn't she touching? Of course she is, to the extent that even a successful student comes back to her classes after he's already graduated.

But I'm not really against that, you know? Don't you have that warm feeling when you see a silly happy-end like that? Don't you?

acting
Well, don't expect anything from a dorama like this. It was not aiming at high skies from the very beginning. I'd say I even liked the main actress, Naka Riisa. She was making all those cute faces.

Narushi Ikeda was good at making funny faces, too. Well, all the students were also extremely charismatic. That said, in no way is this manga supposed to be viewed as a piece of art with any depth. It is entertainment to the core.

conclusion

 Yes, they do *nods*

'The Great Gatsby', book ~ the book that made me love Art Nouveau

I just remembered this fact yesterday. This book is responsible for making me interested in Art Nouveau. The reason is simple, but it's not what you'd expect.

A series consisting of three books with Fitzgerald's novels was published in 1996 and so, I remember it on one of our bookshelves since I was small. Not yet acquainted with Art Nouveau, or Mucha, I was simply drawn to its cover, as a child. I imagined the contents to be mysterious and magical, because such beautiful pictures could not be put on covers of bad books. However, I grew to know who Fitzgerald was and what kind of stories he wrote. And I lost interest to the books. The dream to find a wonderful fairy-tale inside those books was gone.

story and characters

Now that I've read it, I feel sympathy towards Gatsby even less than I did after watching the movie. Call it the chemistry of acting, but maybe it were the crew, the screenplay and directing, the actors, finally, who made the story so attractive.

In the end, I pitied the Gatsby in the book much less than in the movie, and Daisy was much less a woman alive and much more a doll who loved rich life. I mean, she was really crying because of fascination by J's shirts sent from England. And he was really a man who loved her image in his mind, but not her the way she was.

One thing that I consider important in the book in contrast to the movie where this detail was left out, is the schedule of young Getz.

Rise from bed……………. 6.00 a.m

Dumbbell exercise and wall-scaling…… 6.15-6.30 ”
Study electricity, etc………… 7.15-8.15 ”
Work………………… 8.30-4.30 p.m
Baseball and sports…………. 4.30-5.00 ”
Practice elocution, poise and how to attain it 5.00-6.00 ”
Study needed inventions……….. 7.00-9.00 ”

General Resolves

No wasting time at Shafters or [a name, indecipherable]

No more smokeing or chewing

Bath every other day

Read one improving book or magazine per week

Save $5.00 {crossed out} $3.00 per week

Be better to parents

To do without trifle and trite comments about 'American dream', this was one more thing that made me sure about what type of information metabolism Gatsby had. A perfect LIE (ENTj) for you.

style

I guess, this was an easy book for me. Well, since I didn't read it in the original. The style was not boring and was not excessively flowery or artificial, and was not straightforward, too. The only strange thing about the translation was that how they perceive the word cool in the following part:

“Who wants to go to town?” demanded Daisy insistently. Gatsby’s eyes floated toward her. “Ah,” she cried, “you look so cool.”
Their eyes met, and they stared together at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table.
“You always look so cool,” she repeated.
She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw. He was astounded. His mouth opened a little, and he looked at Gatsby, and then back at Daisy as if he had just recognized her as some one he knew a long time ago.

“You resemble the advertisement of the man,” she went on innocently. “You know the advertisement of the man ——”

Was is that Gatsby was cool amidst the hot summer day, like the book said? Or that he was an ideal man, like Daisy said in the movie? Or that he was cool even though he was going to have a serious conversation? Or all of that? I guess, it's left to the imagination of the readers, anyway.

conclusion
Most part of American literature is not for me. Hemingway, Shaw, Dreiser... Such books just feel like an obligation, because it's classics, it's not good not to know them. Now Fitzgerald joins the row. However, I cannot possibly deny that it's educating. And I guess I don't have any regrets.
Still, to be honest, I'm not sure I'd decide to read it, finally, if not for the movie.

'The Great Gatsby' ~ I won't write 'will you still love me' in the title, ok?

Probably the second time (ever?) I like a realistic story with a not-so-good ending, to leave my post without spoilers.

story and characters

Like I said, I'm not a fan of stories about how harsh the reality is. I'm a fan of fantastic stories of how harsh the reality is. Or fantastic stories about how great it is to live. Or not fantastic, but stories about how great it is to live.

And still 'Gatsby' is a story that does not leave that terrible aftertaste of 'I don't want such stories to exist' or 'make me unsee it'. I guess the main reason is that the story was extremely logical and there were no 'odd' details, nothing unnecessary, no fillers that didn't affect the finale.

However, it does not mean I liked it very much. It's not that I felt any respect to Gatsby himself, because he's a typical 'American dream', or to Daisy, who's just a 'pretty woman', or Nick, who's just an ordinary man overly impressed with one neighbour because he wasn't ordinary. And as a love story, I prefer different kinds of stories.
And what I didn't like at all was the fact that though separate scenes were good, the general narration was not smooth enough and didn't create an impression of a whole movie. Looked like the people responsible for gluing everything together had no time.
And by the way... it does not make a movie 'true to the original' if you simply use quotations from the book. Just in case you wondered.

acting

My Mom warned me that DiCaprio is a good actor. So I was prepared. I mean, I did think of him as of some handsome guy who knows he's handsome and there's nothing more to it. Until my Mom told me he's actually good. And I had no reason to distrust her perfect sense.

So I was prepared... but I wasn't ready. So I was surprised. Or at least, I was pleased to see it's true. That's a rare gem - a person who can express emotions with something other than repeating words written in the script.

I think I'd also note Elizabeth Debicki, who turned out to be much younger than I thought, but who was like a moving poster from twenties.

Others didn't impress me very much.

music

Since I knew how the creators treated the epoch, I wasn't surprised to see the party dancing to some club music, or to hear 'Crazy in love' turned into a jazz song. And I have to say I'm not against such experiments.

By the way, I didn't understand what 'Will you still love me' has to do with 'Gatsby'. I mean, the lyrics have nothing in common with the story. The song is beautiful, but it's just that I'm not sure in this choice.

visual

Many people are dissatisfied with costumes, interiors and exteriors in the movie. I'll disagree. It's not a classical historical film. It's an experiment that wants to show the world as seen by the director, not how it really was. I guess the idea of the creators reached my mind, and I appreciate that they conveyed their own view to me.

conclusion

The movie is very good. From what I see, people who didn't like it either complain about the story which was written by Fitzgerald, not screenplay writers, or didn't understand the vivid atmosphere which was created on purpose, and not to make fun of the original.

Nevertheless, I guess I'll read the original. I mean, it's embarrassing to say I only know Fitzgerald by movies.