Back at the Mawr
Oct. 20th, 2003 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksIt was a good break. I enjoyed Boston (yay for seeing Ryenna et al.-- when Ruth and I move up there we must spend lots of time with you two) and despite not getting enough sleep I feel rested and ready to face school again. As always, it was good to stay with the (oh dear-- Weirdquark, ask Thrud how to *spell* everyone's favorite derivative of ibassho, okay?) people I intend to spend the entire rest of my life with. You know someplace is home when you walk in the door after two months away and they say 'o-kaeri' and your first reaction is 'Yup. Been away too long. Tadaima'.
(For the few people I know who have not been taught some Japanese by anime: ibassho= home, both the place and the people, the place one belongs; tadaima is what you say when you come home and o-kaeri is what you say to say welcome home after someone has come in.)
And B. and I went to see Kill Bill. It was *beautiful*. All the critics completely missed what was going on in that movie, and so, I think, did ninety percent of the audience, because if I hadn't been studying Japanese philosophy I would have, but I have never seen a better action movie just on the surface anyhow, so the fact that it is a magnificent analysis of the ways the samurai code of bushido does, should, and can apply to women who are serious warriors was just icing on the cake. Also I need to buy the soundtrack because it is on my brief list of great live-action soundtracks with Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge, True Stories and The Pillow Book. However, all those reviews that say Kill Bill is one of the most violent movies ever made? They weren't kidding. It's a samurai flick, of course it's drowning in gore, and then there's the fact that if the primary motive for the plot is revenge, there needs to be something for which revenge must be taken. And so there are those separate types of violence combined, so it's twice as bloody as the standard American action movie. I was happy, though, because the women kicked ass. So lovely. But I wouldn't recommend it to people who can't deal with actual buckets of blood. Or to people who can't deal with the extreme abuse that is heaped on the heroine at various points for which she is out to get some justice. (In fact, nii-chan, don't see this. The heroine and some of the other women take amounts and types of damage that I just think you wouldn't really be able to get past so that you could enjoy the movie at all.) I liked it, because I can see both types of violence as expressions of the philosophical point, but if it had been gratuitous it would have been so far over the top that I would probably have been ill. As it is, it redefined how much violence I can stand in a film. But then, it was Quentin Tarantino. Should have expected that.
And now I get to go back to work.
(For the few people I know who have not been taught some Japanese by anime: ibassho= home, both the place and the people, the place one belongs; tadaima is what you say when you come home and o-kaeri is what you say to say welcome home after someone has come in.)
And B. and I went to see Kill Bill. It was *beautiful*. All the critics completely missed what was going on in that movie, and so, I think, did ninety percent of the audience, because if I hadn't been studying Japanese philosophy I would have, but I have never seen a better action movie just on the surface anyhow, so the fact that it is a magnificent analysis of the ways the samurai code of bushido does, should, and can apply to women who are serious warriors was just icing on the cake. Also I need to buy the soundtrack because it is on my brief list of great live-action soundtracks with Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge, True Stories and The Pillow Book. However, all those reviews that say Kill Bill is one of the most violent movies ever made? They weren't kidding. It's a samurai flick, of course it's drowning in gore, and then there's the fact that if the primary motive for the plot is revenge, there needs to be something for which revenge must be taken. And so there are those separate types of violence combined, so it's twice as bloody as the standard American action movie. I was happy, though, because the women kicked ass. So lovely. But I wouldn't recommend it to people who can't deal with actual buckets of blood. Or to people who can't deal with the extreme abuse that is heaped on the heroine at various points for which she is out to get some justice. (In fact, nii-chan, don't see this. The heroine and some of the other women take amounts and types of damage that I just think you wouldn't really be able to get past so that you could enjoy the movie at all.) I liked it, because I can see both types of violence as expressions of the philosophical point, but if it had been gratuitous it would have been so far over the top that I would probably have been ill. As it is, it redefined how much violence I can stand in a film. But then, it was Quentin Tarantino. Should have expected that.
And now I get to go back to work.
