My absence, my laptop and my Japanese film phase

As you may have noticed my promised comeback to the internet has not happened ;-P (apologies to anyone still waiting for replies to e-mails, you will have to wait longer ;-P). In fact this month it got so bad that I haven't even been using my RSS reader which has resulted in a total ignorance to current events (and I'm usually totally addicted to my RSS reader!).
If anybody wants an explanation for this behaviour (am I correct in thinking that nobody gives a damn? ;) ) then lets blame it on me having bought a laptop. I've become totally obsessed with it, or should I say obsessed with tweaking it (it's been 2 weeks - I still haven't tweaked it to the state I want it to be in ;-P). Does anybody care that I have a distribution called 'Arch Linux' on it currently? ;-P or that is has a firewire? ;-P oh, and it's an IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad R61i and it has a trackpoint, wheee! Anyway, my laptop has become such an important existence in my life that I just had to mention it ;)

In terms of other stuff, I've been slipping in and out of a Japanese film phase for the last few weeks. It started with Japanese TV dramas and Matsumoto Jun (courtesy of Kinga ;) ), but I think it's going to lead me into the territory of cinematic films also. I've revisited what was my favourite Japanese film uptil now - Gohatto - and reminded myself of how much I like Matsuda Ryuhei. This in turn has resulted in me hopefully getting a DVD of a film I haven't yet seen called Big Bang Love, Juvenile A by the end of next month (also starring Matsuda Ryuhei).
Frankly, it seems like the kind of film only me and Ziggy could enjoy (it seems artsy enough for Ziggy's snobbish side to appreciate it and if his snobbish side fails then there's still hope in the homoerotic content ;) ). I do have some hope for Kinga too (after all, she's weird enough to enjoy Peter Greenway films), but I'm fully expecting them to be the only people in my acquaintance, who have a shot at liking it ;-P However, I've been surprised before ;) so I will post a list of reasons why you may be interested in the film even if you are not Ziggy or Kinga ;) (the trailer will for sure scare you off, but you haven't gotten that far into the post yet ;-P):
1) There is Matsuda Ryuhei in it ;) ok, maybe that's not an interesting enough reason for somebody who has no idea who I'm talking about ;-P But I think he's pretty much the only actor I've seen, who is *truly* eye candy to me. Usually I cannot tell whether I find a guy attractive or not just by looking at a photo. I have to see them move, talk, smile and so on and then I can tell you. Matsuda Ryuhei is the only guy I know of who I can just see a photo of and say he's beautiful (perhaps beautiful more in the way that I would find a woman beautiful, but that's still something, right? ;-P). His effeminate looks are probably why he keeps getting cast in homoerotic films (if I'm not mistaken this is his third such film). What is more in this film they've cast him alongside a guy who looks more masculine and rough, so the aesthetics of his looks are going to get even more showcased. If I have gotten you curious about him at all then check out some pics - this is from Gohatto, the only film of his that I've seen and incidently his debut film (he was only 16 at the time) and this is from Big Bang Love which I hope to own on DVD in about one month's time (it was made 2 years ago, so he would have been about 23).
2) You get to see sexy Japanese men naked ;) (you can see a little bit even on the trailer ;-P) Oh, and in case anyone's curious - yes, you get to see Ryuhei in the nude too (not on the trailer though).
3) It's a Takashi Miike film. For some people I guess that will be a turn off rather than a turn on, but I thought it was worth mentioning ;-P Frankly, for me when I initially hear a film is by Takashi Miike it is a bit of a put off (I know him as the master of gore since the only film of his I've seen is Ichi The Killer - which I didn't dislike, but it did nothing to convince me I want to see more). Big Bang Love, however, doesn't seem to be of the gory sort at all (at least none of the reviews or clips seem to indicate this) - so if it's the gore putting you off (as I assume it would be for most people) I think you are safe :) (yes, Kinga - this is largely directed at you ;) ).
4) It looks a bit claustrophobic. For some reason I have a soft spot for films which have a "trapped" sort of atmosphere. I can get through even a bad prison sort of film for this reason (and prison is precisely the setting of this film). So for any other weirdos like me I guess it's worth mentioning.
5) It's homoerotic, but I guess you've gathered that by now ;-P I guess for many people again this would be a put off, but I think there's quite a few people reading this blog who have either a contrary reaction or a neutral one.
6) Aesthetically it looks beautiful (and I'm not just talking about Ryuhei - though he adds to it ;-P).
Having done my best to get anybody other than Ziggy and Kinga interested enough to at least see the trailer (and probably doing the contrary - i.e. putting off even Ziggy and Kinga ;)), here it is:


I imagine that more of my Japanese film phase is to come on this blog as I have yet to gush about Matsumoto Jun ;) (who I actually like more than Matsuda Ryuhei ;-P).

P.S. As Ziggy has been heavily mentioned in this post, you may be interested to learn that he has updated his blog for the first time in about a year ;)