Sniff, sniff

[robinturner]

One thing that does not fit well with my Stoicurean persona is that I can get weepy over the oddest things, like the final scene in Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August with granny running along in the rain with her umbrella inside-out. Jesus on a pogo stick, just typing that made my eyes start to get itchy. Last night, coming out of the cinema after watching The Golden Compass my wife asked "Why were you crying at the end?" "Beats me," I replied.

The latest weepy episode came when I looked at the forums I'd set up for my course and found that one student had started a thread with the topic "I love Robin because ..." I was tempted to post: "DON'T LOVE ME! I'm your teacher, and I'm going to fail a lot of you!"

Comments

[solri.livejournal.com]

I definitely recommend The Golden Compass. Here's something I wrote on a mailing list in response to the most common criticisms of the film ...

1. "It's confusing - they try to drag in too many different elements."
This is a film adapted from a children's book, and made at least partly with children in mind. Kids can handle that kind of stuff.
2. "Dakota Blue Richards can't act." I thought she did a pretty good job for a thirteen-year-old with a silly name. Even Jodie Foster wasn't that great an actress at thirteen. And it's her first film - give the kid a break!
3. "It's just a set-up for the sequel." Well, you could say that about The Fellowship of the Ring if you wanted.
4. "It's evil atheist propaganda." / "They took out all the good atheist propaganda." These two criticisms pretty much balance each other out, and besides, kids tend not to see theological messages - the Narnia books are blatant Anglican propaganda, but I didn't notice it until I re-read them as an adult. The message it does give is to be suspicious of religious and state authority, and if kids get that message, then all the better.

[yetibuddy.livejournal.com]

The things I learn about the man upstairs...the mysterious man in black...

Of all the things I regret not having done ...

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

... my X and I were working on plans for a Kurozawa festival.

Oddly: she's from Chile, very very SA by nature, and resonated to Kurozawa deeply. We wanted to explore that ... an odd cultural conjunction of some sort.

Re: Of all the things I regret not having done ...

[solri.livejournal.com]

Hmm, Japan and Chile aren't two cultures that I'd immediately associate, but then part of Kurosawa's greatness is his universality, hence the ease with which he adapts Shakespeare and with which his films become Westerns.

Re: Of all the things I regret not having done ...

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

I've often remarked at something [Warning - hippie.dippy.trippy ahead!] at some sort of harmony / consonance in the Pacific ... from the Maori to the natives of the American NW, with Japan being a long stone's throw from Hawai'i.
One theory is that SA was populated by folk from that area.