Annoying Andreja is fun (aka more Japanese cinema but still no Matsujun)

Being the sadist that I am, I felt compelled to write yet another Japanese cinema post which almost totally ignores Matsumoto Jun's existence. Hopefully Andreja is appropriately annoyed by this - I'll be disappointed if she isn't ;) Actually, even Kinga voiced her displeasure the other day when I told her I was in the middle of writing this post rather than one about Jun ;)
For those of you groaning at the thought of reading more gushing about a certain Japanese actor's face - rest assured, Matsuda Ryuhei doesn't feature much in this post either ;) This time, you will be treated to some Oguri Shun gushing!
As I think only Kinga has any idea who I'm talking about - Oguri Shun is the guy who plays Rui in Hana Yori Dango. That probably didn't help most of you, did it? :] Er... well Andreja should now know who I'm talking about and it's her I want to annoy ;) But just so everyone else isn't left out (and also because introducing him is a good excuse to put in a random video clip), Oguri Shun is another Japanese teen idol kind of star. AFAIK he's best known for his cool and brooding romantic heroes in Hana Yori Dango and Hana Kimi.
As for the random video clip - it's under 40 seconds, all in Japanese, but despite not understanding a word I still find it very amusing (actually there's a lot of clips from Japanese TV that keep my attention despite not understanding anything :] I'm not sure why that is). They're clearly joking about his height. In Japanese standards he's very tall - one source has him at 184cm.

Anyway, my latest study evasion tactic has been browsing the net for random bits of info about Oguri Shun. I thought Shun would be a lot less interesting to investigate than Ryuhei or Jun, but the very existence of this post proves that I was wrong ;)
I had assumed that his filmography would just be filled with brooding romantic hero types and maybe some comedic roles here and there. The most adventurous thing I considered was that he may have done a slasher film or two - he's got the physique for it and the brooding persona would fit in well. All of these (including the slasher bit) were there, but there were some things I hadn't expected and I'm weird enough to be amused by them (especially when there's too much school work to do ;-P). So here goes...

There are more vulnerable, pushover type characters in his filmography than cool, brooding ones
Apparently, the first part he got noticed in was a small part in Great Teacher Onizuka - a very popular Japanese TV series from 1999. Shun played the part of a boy who was bullied by the whole class. He was 16 at the time, but looked around 12 (and in direct contrast to the present day was shorter than most of his co-stars ;)). It's weird seeing him playing a wimp, but it works. From what I can make out (I'm far from having a full idea about his filmography :]) he got to play quite a few vulnerable, sensitive characters after that.
One thing that I'm particularly surprised with is that he's actually a good crier ;) I couldn't picture him doing big, unrestrained crying scenes well - maybe because what I saw of him was rather reserved and restrained (and when I saw him do something less so *cough cough* Gokusen *cough cough* I hated him in it :] ).
I don't think he got to play a cool and brooding kind of character until Hana Yori Dango (2005). This perhaps explains why the gossip is that Shun got the part only thanks to Matsumoto Jun threatening to leave the project if they didn't give the part of Hanazawa Rui to Shun. I always thought it was a bit strange that the producers didn't want Shun for it. If it was quite different to what he had played before it makes much more sense.

A psychological vampire movie
His first cinematic film - Hitsuji No Uta (2002) (and also his first lead - most of his career consists of supporting roles) is also kind of in the vulnerable, sensitive vein, though it has a darker twist.
It's the story of a boy, Kazuna, who is brought up by his uncle and aunt. His parents kept his older sister with them, but gave Kazuna away. He's never told why and doesn't get to see any of his family. When we're introduced to the character he's in his teens and his mum is dead. He's not seen his father or sister since the age of 2.
He starts having strange dreams and then one day he passes out all of a sudden at the sight of blood. He thinks he's just anaemic or something, but of course he's not or we wouldn't have a story ;) His sister (who he meets for the first time in many years) finally tells him the dark family secret. Their family has some sort of practically unheard of hereditary disease. It causes them to have attacks during which they crave other people's blood very, very strongly. The disease is incurable and in the end fatal (the attacks are very weakening), but also dangerous to people around because the cravings can get so strong that the person cannot control them. Kazuna was given away because it was thought he didn't have the disease, but it looks like in his case it just took longer to surface.
The trailer is here:

Usually I would go the legal route to see it, but there is practically no way to see it legally :] I mean no DVD with English subtitles exists. There is a Japanese version without subtitles, but it's been out of print for years. It's hard to find on-line, so if any of you think it sounds interesting you can check it out here.
The bizarre thing about this film is that while it might sound like your regular vampire film, it's so totally not. Usually in a vampire film you get lots of action, blood and gore and of course the sexy female vampires trying to seduce some poor innocent guy to get his blood. This film in contrast is very slow with almost no action at all. The gore is barely there - the scenes in which Kazuna has his cravings are about him trying to restrain himself rather than about him trying to attack somebody. In terms of sex it's more about sexual tension than anything else (and no seductive female vampires either).
The film deals primarily with Kazuna's insecurities. He's very ashamed and scared of the blood cravings to the point of withdrawing from normal life. It's also about the relationship with his sister - two outcasts, who need themselves because nobody else can possibly understand what it's like.
It's a rather strange film as you may imagine... Judging by on-line reviews I seem to be in the minority in liking it, but if it sounds interesting to you at all then I would recommend it :) Shun is really great in it and also, for any Hana Yori Dango fans - you get to see the girl who plays Shigeru in season two as Kazuna's older sister. It's a very different (muuuuch quieter) part and she's really good too :)

He's a stage actor
Apparently Shun loves doing stage work and has done quite a bit of it. Titus Andronicus which he starred in even played in the UK and was very well received there. There's a number of English reviews of the play on-line and all the ones I found were positive both about the play and about Shun. If you want to check some out then here's a selection - Reviews Gate, the Guardian, BBC and a nice one on somebody's blog. For pics see here. The play is very visually spectacular, so the photos are actually really worth seeing - I've certainly become curious about what Japanese theatre is like now. Also you get to see Shun being kissed and groped by a man on those photos, but that might not necessarily be as interesting to you as it is to me ;-P

And now the best part...
It looks like despite his teen idol status he's totally up for taking his clothes off ;) This is partly demonstrated on the poster for Caligula - one of his stage plays (ok, the important parts are photoshopped out with fancy, white, flowy bits, but still...).
However, you may be interested to find out that in the same year he was shooting Hana Yori Dango season one (one of his most popular teen romance roles), he was also shooting this:

The scene is from Neighbour No 13, which I hope to see soon. It sounds like an art house horror movie - I honestly have no idea how that's supposed to work, which is why I really want to see it :]
It's about a guy who was bullied at school in a very extreme manner when he was little. According to the amazon reviews, the bullies even go as far as forcing him to eat excrement, but the worst is when they hold him down and pour acid on his face.
X years later, the main character is a young man and he's working on a construction site only to find that the bully who did all of this to him is in charge of him. The bullying starts all over again and the main character snaps - he develops a dual personality, one personality is very vulnerable and the other is a murdering maniac. The two personalities are played by two actors.
Every now and then the two personalities appear in frame together. Specifically, the inner fight between those personalities is represented in that red room on the clip. Shun is naked because he's the vulnerable one.
When I wrote about Big Bang Love, Juvenile A I said that out of all my friends probably only Ziggy and Kinga might enjoy it. Well, with Neighbour No.13 I get the feeling that I am totally the only one ;) Ziggy is eliminated because in the end it's a violent horror movie - he's too snobbish for that ;-P Kinga is eliminated because it'll probably be too violent for her. So I'm totally alone with this one ;)
Apparently most of the film festivals turned the film down because of the excessive violence. At the same time the people who like gore didn't enjoy the film either because firstly they said it wasn't gory enough and secondly it was a bit too psychological and weird. According to what I read the violence is not *that* heavy in terms of gore levels (some of it even happens out of frame - not something you'd see in your typical exploitative horror film). But emotionally the violence is supposed to be extremely heavy and there's a lot of it.
For me hearing all of this is actually all the more of a turn on, but I think everybody knows by now that my film taste is just weird :] Anyway, the trailer is here:

The neighbour no.13
Uploaded by kazenoasia

P.S. If anybody reading this (though I doubt it ;-P) actually wants to see Oguri Shun in his "I'm too cool" mode to compare against the clips I put up then you can check out this fan video (very appropriately the clip author has a Shahrukh avatar *grin*).

How To Get Back At Film Critics: A tutorial by Ram Gopal Varma ;)

One of the latest trends in Bollywood is blogging. Some of the biggest Bollywood names that are now blogging (much more regularly than I do btw!) are Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. The latest person to start one is Ram Gopal Varma - one of the more "auteur" directors in Bollywood. While I have blissfully ignored the blogs of Aamir Khan and Mr Bachchan (whenever they write something more unusual the Indian tabloids report it anyway) I think I will seriously have to consider subscribing to Ram Gopal Varma's because his is so hilariously bitchy ;)

Anyway, RGV has just had a new film (Sarkar Raj) released and once again the reviews are bad. His response is hilarious:
The critics have a tendency to be bitchy to ridicule, to make sweeping statement to camouflage their ignorance of cinema with profound sounding lines and the reader for want of an opposing view might get taken in. So as long as the critic or anyone else has a right to review I think I have a right to review the reviews. So read on my review of reviews of SARKAR RAJ in my blog.

He then proceeds in totally taking all the reviews apart, sentence by sentence - it's hilarious ;)
I think my favourite one is when he takes apart the review of Mr Subhash K Jha. Some of the highlights of that one:

1. Sarkar is about the lacerated life of a Thackeray like family with the concept of spatial harmony acquiring a surrealistic meaninglessness because of the disembodied camera movements.
Ans: Does it mean that if the camera movement were embodied (whatever that means??!) it will become meaningful reality?

2. In Sarkar he observed, studied and pondered.
Ans: What did I observe, study and ponder?

3. He drags the uneasy relationship between Subhas Nagre and his kicking, screaming and wailing son into an arena of heightened scenes no exacerbated emotions.
Ans: I am impressed with your English. I would be more impressed if I understood what it means.

(...)

14. Prabhavalkar is a bizarre representation of Gandhism in these troubled times when fathers kill daughters and ministers go to prison.
Ans: Whatever that means.

15. Amit Roy’s cinematography and Sunil Nigvekar’s art are a raga pf rusty browns.
Ans: You want it to be blue or what?

So if you ever make a film and need to get back at the film critics giving you bad reviews, this is the way to do it ;) I'll be curious to see if he gets a response to this from the media lol

A story from Guantanamo Bay: "I didn't know how to pray. I didn't know anything."

Continuing my June trend of posting things as I read them rather than saving them in my drafts with the intention of writing giant posts I don't really have time for, here's another article/video I came across. It's about Murat Kurnaz, who was detained in Guantanamo for 5 years and released without charges. Guantanamo is nothing new (even on this blog), but I found the video really informative and to the point, so have a go at it :)

“My name is Linus, and I am your God.”

I have this feeling that I'm not going to write anything long or meaningful this month, so I figured that rather than not writing anything for a month I may just as well do a few totally random and very short posts ;-P
So here's proof that computer geekdom is way more interesting than it sounds ;-P Or to be a bit more specific it's 10 quotes by Linus Torvalds - the father of linux. Apart from being an extremely intelligent man, he is of course totally insane (I think one has to be to be the initiator of something like this) and has a very sarcastic wit. This makes reading through his 10 best quotes entertaining regardless of whether you have any idea what he's talking about ;) Enjoy :)

FOLLOW UP: Escaping North Korea

Just thought I'd follow up my previous post on North Korea with a BBC article I came across. It's about the lengths to which North Koreans go to to get out of the country and features some video material to go with the text.