Monday, June 11, 2007

Japanese Movie Day

And free burritos.

Today I saw three Japanese movies in a row. I'd meant to see this French movie, but I got to Beleview a few minutes later that I should have and couldn't find parking in time. When I did though, it was this nice tiny little space made by a big SUV taking up two spots, and I thought, I can fit there, so I did. I hope they had to climb through the passenger side.

Chipotle, who is sponsoring SIFF, was giving free burritos to all SIFF pass and ticket holders, and there was one right around the corner from the theater in Bellview, (I'll spell it a few different ways, hoping to get one of them right) so I picked one up for lunch, and saw Retribution, about this cop who was investigating a string of murders that were all related, but were not carried out by the same murderer, and who himself gets a little more involved that he expected.

After this, I headed to another Chipotle location in the U-District and got another burrito for dinner (eating that one now), then to Capital Hill for two more Japanese movies. Mushishi takes place near the turn of the last century, as Japan is modernizing. Don't know why that part was relevant, since the entire movie took place in rural mountainous areas where modernity hadn't reached yet. A Mushishi is a sort of bug/spirit charmer, and that's what the main character did. Kind of weird, a bit slow, and didn't really get to a point where the was a point.

The last movie was Tekkonkinkreet, an animated film about two orphans (the theme for the night?) who try to keep their neighborhood from falling to the Yakuza who are trying to redevelop it into a theme park. A bit trippy, (but it's anime, so I think that's a requirement) but very good artistry, and a pretty good story.

And just for clarification on my last post, I do actually know what a Hasselblad looks like. They look like over rated, expensive cameras that wont make your photos look any better.