Rebecca (1940)

Rebecca is a film about a young girl who meets a rich widower who falls in love with her while they're both in France, and then takes her home with him. When they get there, the young girl discovers that the late Mrs. De Winter, the man's first wife, is far from forgotten, and haunts everything and everyone at the great estate she is now the mistress of.

The new Mrs. De Winter is a timid girl and, after her whirlwind romance, is quite unprepared for the aristocratic life that she's signed on for. She can't quite seem to get used to the servants and the large house and the routine of a 'great lady', or at least can't do it in the way the late Mrs. De Winter, Rebecca, did it. In fact, she's bombarded with traces of Rebecca from the moment she first walks into the manor. Rebecca's initials are embroidered on everything, and the housekeeper, who seemed to have had a very strong attachment to Rebecca, always looks at her with a stern, almost disapproving gaze as she directs her in following Rebecca's footsteps. Her new husband, Maxim, also seems very distant, increasingly so as the pair get to know each other better. She feels like everyone is comparing her to the beautiful, intelligent, genteel Rebecca, and are finding her sadly lacking. What exactly are the details surrounding poor Rebecca's death? Will the new mistress ever find happiness in her new home, or win the love of her new husband? Will the memory of Rebecca haunt her and every other person in the house for eternity? Who knows!!

This was an amazing film. It was two hours long and I was enthralled from the get go. The acting was really well done. Our protagonist emotes such a nervous energy from the beginning of the film, and it morphs wonderfully into a stronger self-assuredness as the film nears its end and as she grows more confident in who she in and how she fits in to her situation. The way Rebecca was portrayed was also very well done. Even though we never once see her image nor are told directly or in great detail about her life, we are subtly made to know her character and traces of her are in almost every scene, and yet not enough to satisfy us. Just enough information about her is provided so as to ensure that the viewer is aware of her distinct importance and impact, but not enough to know in what regard, sparking wild curiosity. The cinematography was also very well done. At one point in the story as Mr. De Winters is reminiscing about Rebecca, the camera is aimed at a couch as he remembers the situation, and then it moves as though Rebecca is there and the camera is following her actions, but there's no one there. You can actually get into Maxim's mind's eye as he remembers, and are forced to imagine the memory he's sharing. Usually that kind of experience is reserved for books, or even radio, as flashbacks are typically shown in film leaving little to the imagination. Everything about Rebecca had to be imagined by the audience, which is what I think makes this film so special. It crosses a threshold in that respect and is truly a piece of art. It makes film not only something to idly watch, but something you can actually interact with and can put your own imagination to work. Brilliant.

This is a wonderful film full of suspense, romance, and mystery. I highly recommend it.

The Fairly Odd Parents

This is a cartoon about a boy named Timmy, and how he was lucky enough to obtain a pair of fairy god parents who grant him wishes. Timmy lives the unfortunate life of a 10- year old boy. His parents don't pay him much attention, his babysitter is the spawn of Satan who's only pleasure in life comes from making people's life miserable and making a buck, both of which she achieves when she babysits Timmy. He also receives the hateful attention of his teacher at school who seems to take great pleasure in giving F's, and who is obsessed with the idea that Timmy has fairy god parents that he must discover. Because of how unpleasant his life is, Timmy was granted fairy god parents to make his life better by granting him almost any wish he makes. The only catch is that if anyone discovers his fairy god parents, Timmy will lose them forever.

This is a really fun, imaginative show. The fairies, Cosmo and Wanda, are funny and the scrapes Timmy gets him into are engaging. Timmy makes a lot of small wishes, but the big wishes he makes either changes the life he's living in some way, or the entire world he's living in. Time and time again, Timmy is initially happy with the wish he made, but eventually comes to regret messing with reality, and tries to make everything the way it was before the wish. Teaching that no matter how bad your situation seems, it could always be much worse, and also that you should be careful of what you wish for because you just might get it... and it may not be what you expected.

The show incorporates several side stories into the plot, such as the fairy obsessed teacher trying to out his secret, Vicky and her evilness, an alien from another planet that he interacts with, comic book heroes, etc. and the cool thing they did with this show is to make these side stories recurring. Ordinarily, we may meet a side character just for one or two episodes, and then never hear of them again, but this show keeps all of the smaller story lines continuously running, making the entire show more intricate than it seems on the surface. They have a lot of room to play with (to stop the storyline from stagnating or repeating) and they make good use of it. Also, as a fan of the original Batman tv show, I appreciated the character of Catman, voiced by Adam West.

It's really a fun show to watch. Mostly for children, but an older audience can also find something to enjoy. It makes fun of itself, it's funny, sarcastic, romantic, dramatic, suspenseful, and more. But still for kids. Good show.

Say Anything (1989)

This is one of those movies that no one has seen, or even knows the name of, but everyone knows the famous scene of the movie where John Cusack holds the radio above his head. It is a good movie though, so if you have not seen it, I recommend that you do.

Lloyd Dobbler is an average teenage boy, maybe a bit less than average if truth be told, no foreseeable prospects or future. In his last year of high school, actually, just after convocation, he declares to his friends that he is going to ask out the valedictorian, the smartest girl in school, Diane Court. His friends warn him away from this because he and Diane movie in different social circles, and there's no way she would give him a chance. They also tell him that he's such a nice guy, and they don't want him to get hurt. He of course disregards this advice and calls her up to invite her to a house party. Initially, Diane is not taken with Lloyd, but on a whim, and because she feels like she's studied so hard throughout the year that she has no social life, she decides to go. Things go quite well at the party for Lloyd, and he and Diane start dating. He is obsessed with her, and she seems to like him also, but not as much. Things seems to be going well, until Diane's father gets nervous that Diane's interest in Lloyd will interfere with the overseas scholarship she's won. Her father is also facing a very troubling audit, and he's being accused of money laundering, and Diane is fighting hard to prove her father innocent, and generally dealing with the stress her father is placing on her and the contradicting emotions she feels for Lloyd and her father. She eventually breaks up with Lloyd for her father, and Lloyd is left with the decision to let her go, or to try to win her back. And Diane is faced with choosing between her father and Lloyd. What will happen to them??!

This is a cute movie. One of the things I noted about it right away was that it's a story about true love in a world where true love is rarely found. All of the people in Lloyd's life are either in bad relationships, or were. His sister (played by his real life sister, uncredited) whom he lives with was left with a child by her boyfriend. His parents are non-existent, his best friend is always pining after a guy who cheated on her and broke up with her, and non-essential characters are constantly breaking up or fighting if they're in a relationship, or sadly alone and lamenting the idea of relationships. So Lloyd is fighting everything he knows innately about relationships to follow his heart and pursue Diane and what he believes is true love.

Another theme of the movie seems to be the value of honesty in relationships. The title of the movie is Say Anything, and this is how Diane is. She is supremely honest, both because of personality and because of her self-imposed exile from teenaged drama in favour of her studies. So she hasn't learned to lie to her dad about anything, or bend the truth to make a situation seem to be in her favour, and she doesn't try to manipulate Lloyd in any way either. As the movie progresses, she discovers that she can't always say anything she wants to anyone, because the trust she places in people may not be deserved. Lloyd has the same kind of naiveté about Diane. He completely opens himself to her, but again, does so in ignorance and is then surprised when his love isn't rewarded or returned as he wants it to be. At the same time however, though both of these characters were burned by their honesty and trust, the fact that they both possess those qualities allowed them to connect with each other, because to truly connect with a person, you have to make yourself somewhat vulnerable to them. And in the deepest relationships, you should indeed be able to say anything to the other person and expect them to return that trust and honesty.

There are a lot of 'quotables' in this movie, but one of my favourites are when Lloyd is talking to Diane's father about what he doesn't want to do when he grows up "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that." For a while I felt this way and it always resonated with me. And that kind of encapsulates Lloyd. He's not a cookie cutter high schooler, and he doesn't want to be.

Though this is a lesser known 80's flick, it's just as good as 16 Candles or Pretty in Pink and all of those. The characters are real and endearing, and it's refreshing to have a romance movie not just be about romance, because it never is in real life. It's a great movie, and you should watch it if you haven't yet done so.

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

I was really skeptical about watching this movie. I always like watching a good fairy tale, but Kristen Stewart... not so much. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised, though not completely proven wrong on the Stewart front.

The story is pretty much your classic Snow White story. Girl grows up with loving parents, mom dies, dad remarries witch, witch tries to kill her, she escapes, etc. They didn't really change the essentials of the storyline much, but they did change the roles of the characters slightly.

Snow White was given a harder edge in this story. Instead of living a comfortable life until her attempted homicide, the queen locked her in the castle prison for years and the first visual we get of her after she grows into a young woman shows her to be an unwashed, grimy, sheltered creature. She doesn't stay that way for the duration of the film, but she does have more of an impulse to stand and fight when danger arrives than do some of the other Snow White renditions. She also rouses and leads an army to fight the queen in a Joan of Arc like charge.

There is also an increased sense of an everyday magical world. That magic is normalized in this world, still to be wary of, but a normal occurrence. The queen is a witch of sorts. She made a sacrifice in her youth and must suck the life force out of young women to stay beautiful and powerful. Despite her girl hunt however, it is not this fact that she wants Snow White... or I should say not the only reason. Snow White is said to have a purity and a strength that is the only thing that could stop the queen from achieving true power and is what makes her weak, so she wants to consume Snow White to ensure her power doesn't wane. Snow White's ability is not as manifested as the queens, but she seems more to have a oneness with nature, to be the physical representation of life, and this is demonstrated in her interactions with non-human life forms.

What is really enjoyed about the film was the visual landscape of the forest. It was very magical and lush at times, and held that latent expectation and light. I thought that overall the characters were well cast as well. The queen was glacial, but you could see how someone would submit to her. The huntsman was running from his own demons, but was strong enough to put them aside to do what needed to be done. The only character I didn't enjoy was Snow White herself. I wasn't bothered enough not to enjoy the movie, but her voice showed too little emotion and was almost flat at times when emotion needed to be shown. Also, she does not seem to be able to display more than a handful of facial expressions, which really limits the character development and believability.

Aside from that however, I enjoyed this film. It was a pleasure visually and the storyline was gripping, as well as were the rest of the cast.

 

Beastly (2011)

This is a cute little story retelling a modern version of Beauty and the Beast. It takes place in a high school and we enter the story on a student election and the most handsome guy in the class is running for the president. The guy, Kyle, promotes himself by saying that he'll be chosen because of his looks, because in the world, people who look good are better off than people who don't. They're treated better, have more opportunity, are more well liked, etc. And he gets elected. There is a goth girl there (played by Mary-Kate Olsen) who it is hinted, he dated in the past, and she doesn't look too kindly on him or anything he does, the kids also joke around that she's a witch. He also meets a girl, Lindy, who was also in the elections, and they end up taking a picture together. She's sort of nondescript, if slightly alternative. Anyway, Kyle ends up pissing off his gothic ex by attempting to humiliate her, and she puts a spell on him. He will become ugly, and if he can't get someone to tell him they love him before a year is up and a tattoo on his arm blooms, he will look that way for the rest of his life. One thing leads to another, and he starts following Lindy around. He's living in a house by himself because his rich father has neither the time, nor the inclination to bother with him. He gave him a house keeper and hired a tutor so that he doesn't fall behind in school. One night while following her, he sees a couple of men attack her and her father, and her father ends up shooting one. The other promises to hunt down Lindy and take her life for the life of his brother, and Kyle then tells the man to give Lindy to him for protection, and after a slight hesitation, her father agrees. Then the two live in the house together, and I'm sure you can take a stab in the dark at how the rest of the story goes.

I didn't mind this movie. I thought the actress who played Lindy was a little too 'nonchalant' at times, too detached from the situation by her 'coolness'. And I didn't see a reason for Kyle to start obsessing over her so much. I understand the intent, but I think they could have set up the situation a little better to explain the obsession, and not have him obsessively covet some random girl he spoke to twice in his life without properly setting the stage. If you look past that though, the story is kind of cute, and it mas a good message, that substance is more important than good looks and that you don't need to care about what the entire world thinks about you... just what the select few you care about think. They didn't really go into Kyle trying to accept himself regardless of appearance, that would have been the next step, but at least it gets the audience thinking, hopefully.

As for some actor comments, Niel Patrick Harris plays his blind tutor, and I can't help but see him as his role in How I Met Your Mother, in which he's hilarious. So that was kind of distracting, but he was still good in it. The girl who played Lindy was ok too, but (and I know this is a weird criticism) she has a beak-ish upper lip that I rather not have had to look at for an hour. She seemed to be a decent actress though.

To sum up, cute teen romance trying to tackle the whole 'image' issue through a modern retelling of an old fairytale. 

You Can't Take It With You (1938)

This movie is about a young couple who fall in love, but are from two very different families. The man, Tony, is the son of a big time banker. The family is wealthy and ruthless, and proud of it, but Tony never felt like he belonged. The woman, Alice, is Tony's secretary and is from a middle class family, but not just any middle class family. Her grandfather is a revolutionary in his perspective on life. He lives every day of his life doing what he wants to do, and encourages others to do the same. As a result, their family is far from normal. Alice's sister is constantly dancing around to crazy music, being played by her husband. Her father and two other men make fireworks in the basement, and there are always minor explosions going off, and her mother writes plays. Not because she wants to, but because a typewriter was mistakenly delivered to the house one day. Needless to say this is a very bizarre household.

Alice and Tony are very much in love, but Tony's parents aren't very keen on having Alice for a daughter-in-law, and Alice won't marry Tony unless she has their consent. After an unfortunate meet the parents episode, they all end up in jail and Alice's grandfather winds up telling Tony's father off, instructing him on what's really important in life. During the court hearing, Alice decides that she's had enough and dumps Tony then and there. How will the two ever be together now?! And will Tony's father always be the heartless man we know him to be? Who knows?!?!?

This is one of my favourite movies. It's a bit of a romance and that's always nice, but the main theme deals with what one values in life, and how one should live in accordance with those values. We all work so hard in life, trying to be happy. Some of us work really hard at our place of occupation while others just worry themselves sick. It's so common to hear people complain about how much they hate their jobs, the dreams they have of what they would do if only they had this or were that, things they could have done but gave up on for various reasons. So many people settle for jobs they hate, people they don't like, places they can't stand, and for what? Because they're too afraid of what might happen?

This film was made 70/80 years ago and it's still relevant. Timeless I'd say. It's funny and romantic, but thought-provoking at the same time. A definite must watch.

Love Boat

This is a really good show from the '7o's/ '80's about the romances that take place on a cruise ship. Each episode features three storylines about three different couples and the troubles they're having in their romantic lives.

The couples are usually passengers on the ship so we never really have a continuous storyline, but we do have a steady crew that we meet each episode and slowly get to know better as the show progresses. When watching this for the first time I was surprised to find how relevant it was. It may have been my prejudice of the time, but I wasn't so sure that what I was sure was to be cheesy romance plots from the '70's would be able to stand the test of time. However, most of the stories are still plausible... even though we may use different language today to describe it.

What I love about this show is the guaranteed happy ending in a short amount of time. Actually, you get three for the price of one. Usually if you want that happy ending feeling you have to wait an hour and a half and you probably have to go through a couple of unhappy scenes to get there. With this show however, there isn't enough time for a lengthy unhappy scene, especially with two other stories to share the space. There's just enough time for one problem to arise and be solved. And you get three happy endings every time!

The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)

This is a movie about two thieves who target an old and wealthy castle for their next gig where they think a counterfeit money operation is happening.

The main character is named Lupin, a charismatic, clever master thief with almost as many tricks up his sleeves as batman. Lupin takes his partner to the Duchy or Cagliostro where the rumoured counterfeit bills are supposedly being made and meets Princess Clarisse. When Lupin first meets her, Clarisse is in something of a predicament and is trying to escape a group of men. Lupin is oddly drawn to her and bumps into her again later, discovering that she is being forced to marry a count. As it turns out, the count is also at the center of the whole counterfeit operation. In addition to the counterfeits, there is also rumoured to be a hidden treasure somewhere in the castle of Cagliostro, a treasure that may be tied to matching rings both the count and Clarissa wear, and the count wants dearly to find it. Lupin gets into more and more trouble with the count as he tries both liberate the princess and wrest the mysterious treasure from his power, after he finds it of course. In addition to all this, there is a police officer on Lupin's tail, hoping to catch him and throw him into jail for all the past offenses he's committed.

I first heard of this movie a while back, but delayed watching it. It was directed by Hayao Miyazaki before Studio Ghibli came together, so I knew there was a good chance the story would be good, but the animation style really isn't my favourite, and the first five minutes didn't really grab me. Fortunately, the story is  done well enough that I was able to look past the animation style and appreciate the story. Once the plot gets going it really draws you in. It's intricate, but fun. There's mystery, suspense, action, and just a hint of romance. A hidden gem, don't pay much attention to the packaging, this one is worthy of a watch. The dubbed version is currently on Youtube.

Mei-chan's Butler (Mei-chan no Shitsuji)

This is a high school drama about a girl named Mei whose parent's die. After their death she discovers that her estranged grandfather is very wealthy  and she will inherit his empire, but first must attend a fancy all-girl reform school to become a lady. This school isn't just any school though. There are no desks, but rather cushy arm chairs and side tables and the campus is a third the size of Tokyo, but the weirdest thing of all about this school is that all of the girls must have butlers.

Mei is sort of resistant at the thought of becoming like these weird people, but eventually finds a reason to stay despite her reservations. Of course there are several people who are against her being there and make life hard for her. One girl in particular, the girl who has earned the highest rank on the lady- scale in the school, turns out to be her rival (in more ways than one), and even after she wins over some of her classmates, it is this adversary who is the real trial for Mei. The girl- butler dynamic is important to the plot. We learn as we watch that being a butler isn't just about waiting on someone hand and foot, but that there is a special bond between master and servant, and that the servants choose to serve.

I thought overall that the drama was interesting in theory, and the story line was well done, but the heroine was kind of pathetic. She was always whining or moping about. When she had a problem she would just stand there dumb-struck until someone saved her or until it was almost irrelevant for her to step forward. I also didn't like the actress who played her. She has one of those faces that seem to always be frowning, or smelling something disgusting, and yet her character was supposed to draw people to her and see how amazing she is. For the most part the characters weren't extremely attractive, but in addition to her unattractiveness, she couldn't act. If they had chosen a different actress to play the heroine this drama would have been much better. As it is though, it's still worth the watch.

The whole thing is actually up on YouTube for the time being, so knock yourself out.

Midori Days (Midori No Hibi)

This show is about a guy who wakes up one day to find that his right hand has been replaced with the top half of a girl. This girl's real body has fallen into a coma and her spirit has attached itself to the guys hand because she has a really big crush on him. The premise is kind of ridiculous, and slightly perverted, but the show was surprisingly decent.

The guy, Seiji, is a sort of delinquent at his school. He's a tough guy who seems to fight more than he attends class. This all changes however when one morning he waking up with Midori as a right hand. Midori is a girl who goes to a different school than Seiji and knows him from the times she's seen him at the train station, but she's always been too shy to go up to him to confess her feelings to him. When she wakes up on his hand however, she's over-joyed. Also, as the figure on Seiji's hand isn't actually Midori herself, but her spirit, she has lost her inhibitions and tells Seiji that she loves him when she first sees him.

Seiji opens up a bit and people at school are less afraid of him as a result of Midori's effect on him. Potential rivals for Midori's love appear when Seiji's softer side comes to light. Of course this is troublesome for Midori because she can't really compete with a real person when she's a hand. Because she's his hand, Seiji has to constantly wrap her up in a bandage to hide her existence from others. Though this routine is a bit aggravating for the both of them, they get used to it over time.

Midori's struggle in the show is ultimately her self-confidence and sense of self-worth. I mean there's nothing abnormal about her emotional state for someone that age, but when she left her body to be with Seiji she ran away from some issues she was dealing with. Part of the show is her ability to regain the strength to brave her situation in life. Seiji on the other hand has no confidence issues he needs to work out. Rather, in the show he slowly opens himself up more to others and finds a sense of balance in his life. Eventually Midori does decide to leave Seiji and return to her own body. After she has returned, will she once again be able to confess her love to Seiji? Will she want to? Who knows?!?!

Overall I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this show, especially after how much I expected to not like it.

 

Here's the intro. You can find the first episode dubbed on YouTube 

Glow of Fireflies (Hotaru No Hikari)

This drama is about a girl of questionable femininity according to Japanese culture who is forced to live with her manager during the summer of her first love (that love of course not being the manager).

The story opens up in the office building of a successful interior design company. We see the employees hard at work, all fashionably and professionally dressed of course. After work a group of female co-workers go out on a group blind date. To encourage some of the younger women who aren't currently in a relationship, the more experienced women say that at least these women are out trying to find a man, unlike an undesirable form of womanhood which they call 'himono- onna' or a 'dried up fish- woman'. A woman who has lost her womanhood. And here we are shown the main character Hotaru. A dried up woman is someone who doesn't go out on the weekends or a night, but prefer staying home wearing sweat pants, drinking beer, and tie their hair in a knot on the top of their head.

By day, Hotaru dresses like a professional and 'normal' woman while she's at the office, but when she gets home to a very messy apartment, she turns into a 'himono onna'. Her manager is going through a separation with his wife and was kicked out of his home, so he decided to go back to his parent's old house to live. As it turns out, his father gave Hotaru permission to live there, so the two decide to try living together.. even though the manager is appalled at Hotaru's himono-ness.

Meanwhile at work, a new and attractive designer returns to the company from working abroad and Hotaru is struck by his handsomeness, but of course doesn't do anything to try to get close to him. One day she went to oversee a project and fell asleep in a chair. The new guy, Teshima, comes in and seems to be struck by her and gives her a kiss, which wakes her up. She's startled and makes a quick escape, but from that point on develops a severe infatuation for Teshima. Another woman at work also has her eye on Teshima, and she is much more lady-like than Hotaru is. Hotaru is clueless about love, but with the help of her manager and a few comments from her other coworkers, she does her best to secure her love and become a woman!

I really enjoyed this drama. It was funny and dramatic and I really enjoyed the main character. However, going into this I was of course somewhat conflicted as the subject matter was suggesting that a woman is only a woman if she is attractive and out trying to get a man. I think it's no secret that the west sees femininity somewhat differently than the east does... and yet it's not so different as you might think. In the west it's currently popular for girls to wear yoga pants like normal pants, but yoga pants are in fact just another type of sweat pant. The top knot/ samurai knot/ get my hair out of my face knot is also really popular and if girls don't wear it out, you know that most wear it at home, and it's considered cute. But at the same time, these girls are still trying to be attractive, for what purpose? To attract men. The western equivalent of the 'dried up woman' might be a tomboy or a woman who doesn't care about men and put's no effort in her appearance, maybe wearing no name, unattractive clothing. In the west, this type of girl is seen as the opposite of the ideal  type of girl... the one who wants a man. The difference between the two might be that in the west the 'dried up woman' is still considered a woman, albeit an unattractive one, while in the drama Hotaru is told that she is no longer a woman. In the end, Hotaru doesn't end up changing her lifestyle and people just accept her as she is.

One of the things I enjoy about watching Jdramas is that there isn't always the same pattern when it comes to love stories, so you don't actually know who the heroine will end up with until later episodes... unlike what happens with western movies. In your typical chick flick you know within  10 minutes of watching the movie what will happen in the end, because they all use the same pattern, but in dramas you never really know. Sometimes they don't end up with anybody at all.

* Spoiler* What I really enjoyed about this series is that we get to see a full relationship, and then get to see that relationship fall apart. The show sets up those characters as the main romantic couple we should be rooting for in the series, but then makes their dates feel awkward, and breaks them up. I love finding stories about heartbreak because it's not a popular topic. We love the happy ending stories so much that very rarely in the west do explore the idea that sometimes what we think is love isn't love, and that's painful. I also like finding stories where the 'unnoticed best friend who really loves her' character gets the girl. I thought this drama did a great job with both of these ideas and tied them in together well. * Spoiler*

This story was well done and gives the audience something to think about in terms of what it means to be strong and what it means to grow. Worth it. And the girl is cute.

My Favourite Wife (1940)

This is a great movie about a woman, Ellen (Irene Dunne), who returns to her family after being shipwrecked on an island and declared dead. When she finally returns to her home, she speaks to her mother who tells her that her husband, Nick (Carey Grant), has remarried on that very day. Ellen goes to the honeymoon suite to try to find Nick, and when he sees her he's shocked and overjoyed... and acquires a whole new set of problems!

He has never stopped loving Ellen, but doesn't quite know how to break the news to his blushing (but of course snobby, potentially mean-spirited) bride. They all end up going back to the house and Ellen tells Bianca (new wife) and the kids, who don't know who she is, that she is a cousin from the south. The new wife gets more and more jealous of the bond between Nick and Ellen, and Nick seems to find it increasingly difficult to tell her that Ellen is in fact his first wife.

In the meantime, Nick finds out that Ellen was not alone for those seven years, but was stranded with a man. Nick completely drops his issue with Bianca and goes out of his mind with jealousy trying to find this man. When he finally does, he discovers that the man is very attractive, and is in love with Ellen!!

Just when things can't get any more complicated, Nick is arrested for bigamy. How will he get out of this scrape and will he and Ellen ever be able to be together!?

I really enjoyed this movie. It was a lighthearted, romantic, screwball comedy with a cheeky heroine and a hilarious scenario. Fun for the whole family!

The Woman Thing

A collection of films featuring women who defied stereotypes and limitations, whether those limitations regarded politics, education, occupation, social order, etc. I always love finding these films because so often stereotypes are supported, not fought or deconstructed. It is more common for women to be weak-willed, whiny and always needing to be saved, more often seen as a love interest rather than a protagonist. It's nice to see main stream culture embrace alternative and stronger pictures of femininity every so often.

A League of Their Own

Mona Lisa Smile

Whale Rider

Iron Jawed Angels

Charlie's Angels - The Complete First Season

Little Women

Lara Croft - Tomb Raider

Kill Bill

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Pride and Prejudice

Road to Avonlea: Season 3 Specifically episode 6 "Aunt Janet Rebels" of this season, but overall this show has very strong female characters.

Coco Chanel

Erin Brockovich

Shakespeare in Love (

Wonder Woman

Elizabeth

Voices of a Distant Star (2003)

This movie was a lot more abstract than I was expecting. Its very short, only half an hour long, so the story can't be developed in any great length, but the film went ahead with the characters emotionally without giving the audience some kind of back story to help them catch up. Basically, if you want to relate to this movie you'll have to do a lot of the work yourself, which isn't necessarily a negative, but it's not what I was expecting and it wasn't done well enough to make me forget that that wasn't what I was expecting.

The story follows two high school aged sweethearts, Mikako and Noboru, who were separated at the beginning of high school because Mikako accepts a mission to fly a mecha man across the solar system to fight aliens on a distant planet (which is interesteing to consider in a gender role sense because most of the time is it the guy who goes away to war or to explore and the girl stays home to wait). As she flies further and further away she tries to text Noboru and the more she travels the more years it will take to reach him. She finally reaches a faraway planet that is 8 light years away from earth and she sends a text, by the time he gets the text he's moved on with his life but they both say that they regret not having lived with each other.

I found that I couldn't really connect with the characters very well, Mikako was curled up in a ball crying all the time, even when she was fighting aliens. Noboru was distant and cool and when the time came, gave up on the supposed love of his life way too easily for the audience to believe that he cared at all in the first place. There are very few flashbacks, but the ones provided show them talking casually as friends or hanging out and were not really emotionally charged enough to set up Mikako's constant tears (which is why I said that you would have to do a lot of the emotional leg work by yourself, in your own head, because its not in the film).

Aside from the plot though, the art was beautiful. The drawing of the characters were not to my taste, but the scenery was stunning. Really beautiful artwork. I believe this was done almost wholly by one artist, which is amazing.

Castle in the Sky (1986)

Pazu is an orphan who works for the owner of a mine and one night after everyone has left he sees something falling from the sky. He runs up to a platform and sees that it's a young girl floating down from the heavens. Just as he tentatively reaches out to catch her, almost as if she weren't real, she stops floating and falls heavily into his arms, almost knocking him off the platform himself. The girl's name is Sheeta and she is on the run from the leader of an organization who wants to get his hands on a crystal Sheeta got from her grandmother and keeps on a necklace. Pazu decides that he'll help Sheeta escape both the man and an unruly gang of pirates who are also after the crystal. This back and forth chase leads everyone to a mythical castle in the sky. Pazu's father got lost in a storm surrounding the island and Pazu has been preparing to go find the floating castle that his father was searching for. The crystal has great power that can be deadly, and has a connection with this mystical castle in the sky. Will the bad guys get their hands on this potentially deadly power? And if they do, is there anything Pazu and Sheeta can do to prevent a most certain disaster?!

This is a wonderful film. There is action, adventure, romance, and suspense. It's both whimsical and grounded at the same time. The movie is about a dream of a floating castle, but that fantasy and whimsy is brought down to earth by greed and power. The characters are wonderful and I enjoyed the dynamic between Sheeta and Pazu. A wonderful film for all ages.

      

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

This book was so adorable! I read it in a couple of hours, I was hooked from the first page.

It's the story about two kids, a girl and a boy, and how they feel about each other as they grow older. It was decently written and was more complex than I initially assumed it would be. At first glance this looks like your typical story of unrequited love, girl loves boy, boy wants nothing to do with girl. But the story is actually much more than this. The girl, Julie, is a headstrong, genuine person who lives her life with conviction. Hearing a summary of the book you would assume that she is some spineless, wilting heroine who feels like she needs a boy to know who she is, but she's just the opposite. The reason she goes after Bryce the way that she does is because she puts 150% into everything she does. She's a dreamer and an activist, one of those people who you meet only once in a lifetime.. if you're lucky. Bryce comes to realize this, and by getting to know her, comes to see how prejudiced and superficial he is.

The story is told by both Bryce and Julie, and they take turns telling the reader what happened chapter by chapter. And, as one might assume, the story starts off with the girl being obsessed with the boy and the boy wanting nothing to do with the girl. Since this is a romance of sorts I would assume that you would be able to fabricate the basic plot line from that information, so I won't 'spoil' it for you.

The characters go through self discovery and heartbreak. There is a theme of 'breaking free of one's old mentality' and embracing a passion for life and the main characters emphasize this transition (or the state of being if not the actual transition itself... though the moving from one state to the other is the most fascinating aspect and would be the crux of the story).

I really love finding stories like this. It's a sweet, innocent romance (in the actual sense of the word, not in the smutty sense), but with some depth to it which makes the story all the more real and palpable. You get to watch these kids grow into the people they will be. Julie is such a free spirit, though you don't quite expect this right away as Bryce starts off the first chapter, I really enjoyed her character. and Bryce gets an inner strength as he grows older that represents a real struggle for the individual's own self awareness.

The ending was somewhat unsatisfying because it kind of left the reader hanging... and it was excellent because of that. this isn't a story about dating, it's about before that happens, when you first discover love. You can tell the author did an excellent job with this because you're left wanting more, you want to know how it will end. We as the western audience we are crave the 'honeymoon' phase, even if it means destroying true love just to have somewhere to start all over again. This book gives the reader hints of the honeymoon phase, but doesn't go into it, leaves the reader at the cusp of what could be.

Much more amazing than I initially assumed it would be, this book is great and I recommend it.

Millenium Actress (2001)

I'd heard of this movie and seen it around on and off for several years, but the clips I'd seen and the description turned me off, so I didn't watch it despite having heard good things about it. After seeing it however, I don't know why I waited so long! The movie is about two guys who want to interview a famous actress for the documentary they're doing on her life. Clips of the movies she has been in are featured throughout the film to tell the story of her love for a man she doesn't really know. This sounded extremely boring to me. The pacing of the movie isn't fast and exciting either, but more of a slower building up to the climax, so if one were to fast forward through to see segments of various scenes... well it just looked boring. But, the movie is actually really good.

First of all, the art is amazing. A lot of attention paid to detail and it's a pleasure to watch purely from an artistic perspective.

So the story is about two guys who interview a famous actress about her life, and she tells this story through movies she's been in. Basically when she was young she met a wounded rebel in the streets and hides him from the police for a night. When she goes to see him in the morning he's gone, but he left a picture of her that he drew saying something like 'until next time'. So she sort of falls for this man and then obsesses over him for the rest of her life. She gets an offer to be an actress and accepts because the job she was offered took her to where the guys escaped to. So we find out that her success as an actress stems from her desire to find this guy. And this sounds superficial and weak as a motivation to do something with your life, kind of playing off the stereotype that a woman needs a man to complete herself, which is why I like this movie so much. When a typical North Amercian thinks of Japanese culture, or for some people Asian culture in general, they think of the stereotypes of weak- willed, submissive women because of how the media portrays them and such, but this movie subtly twists that stereotype on its head. The girl spends her entire life chasing after this guy and during many parts in the movie I wondered why she doesn't just give up on the guy and live her life for herself. At the end of the movie though ... I guess spoiler alert, but if I'd known this sooner I'd have watched it sooner... she tells the interviewer that it didn't matter to her if she ever actually caught up with the guy. In fact if she did catch him she would probably get bored of him because it was the chasing that she lived for. And this is like anything in life. If you chase a man or a job or even an ideology of some kind, the journey is the important thing, meaning that she is in fact living for herself, even though from a supercifical or incomplete understanding of her situation, it seems to be otherwise. That made the movie for me. So I liked it.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

This book was very detailed. I read it after watching the movie, and learned more in the first few pages than I did from the entire film. This is a story about the life of a geisha and the complexities and potential heartbreak and constrictions that come with that distinction. We watch as a girl is first sold to a geisha house by her parents, and slowly molded into a geisha. The girl falls in love with a man, a much older man, and we witness her pain of not being able to be with him because of what she is.

I thought that though the author was very descriptive, but I wasn't compelled to immerse myself in the book. Sometimes I felt the author's writing style to be uncomfortably detailed. I do enjoy detailed writing, and... I don't know what it was but at some points I just felt uncomfortable. Maybe that was the author doing his job well, as I know that if I lived in japan at that time and was in that situation I'd be pretty uncomfortable, but people can write about uncomfortable subjects and not make it uncomfortable to the reader, so I guess I didn't enjoy his writing style. In fact, if I remember correctly I put this down for a while somewhere in the middle of it and then convinced myself to finish it just to be able to put it on the shelf. Of course it didn't help that I knew the basic story line from watching the movie.

The story itself was fascinating though. It covers a very interesting subject and is very much worth the read.

Wild Rain by Christine Feehan

This book is about a woman who goes down to South America, in the jungle, to escape from certain complications in her life. She somehow or another ends up in this house, gets her leg half chewed off by some jaguar and is forced to let a hot stranger take care of her. And it's a paranormal romance, so I guess you'll find out in what respect if you chance upon picking it up.

I guess I should start off by saying I'm not that big a romance reader. I'm not a fan of the caliber of writing and feel that most books like this attempt to pass off a bad storyline/ writing ability with emotional angst and sex, and from what I've read of the genre, most books fill this profile. But they're read anyways. This book also falls under this category as I felt the author developed the characters very hastily and for the purpose of heightening the sexual tension rather than general progression of the story and characters, but then again this is a romance I guess and the whole point of the story. This is more my personal discontent with reading books like these... not really specific to this book, that is to say that when I picked up this book I expected this level of writing (was hoping for a higher lever... but no) and am not overly outraged at finding such.

What I did find successful about the book was that the author did keep me wanting to know what happened next. This book was better than some others I've read in the genre and I think that this author is more affective than some other romance authors out there. She captures a sense of possession well, or I guess I should say a desire for possession. And she isn't too bad with words either, not to say she's a master wordsmith, but it successfully fills the qualifications of the genre.

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

Well, the first book, Wicked Lovely, was a decent read, so I was expecting I guess more of the same in this book. Instead the author attempted to take on darker subject matter and instead of fleshing this out to the full, she skirted around the issues and didn't really address them, Kind of making the story/ characters fall flat. Basically a PG book took on R rated issues but kept them PG, relying on suggestion to get a point across rather than just addressing the issues. Because of this the plot had a kind of cardboard feel to it. I kind of felt like she kind of skimmed through the plot as well. Events took place, but there was no conviction to anything and the author didn't really follow through and finish an event. I thought the ending was kind of rushed.

Overall decent set-up but poor execution.