What movie does every film lover need to see at least once on the big screen before they die?
There are many movies that should be seen on a big screen such as “Days of Heaven” and “Lawrence of Arabia,” but every film lover needs to see “Singin’ in the Rain” on a big screen. Until last year, I only seen the 1952 classic movie about a silent film production company making the transition into sound on TV–butchered in order to make room for commercials. Directors Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly were both dancers, accounting for the attention to detail in the dance scenes. Doner would become known as King of the Musicals.
The dance numbers need to be seen large. Many people will have seen dance numbers inspired by the “Singin’ in the Rain” dance routine, but one needs to see the original. In the movie, we see a young Debbie Reynolds becoming a dancer as she holds her own against Kelly and Donald O’Connor in the number “Good Morning” and Donald O’Connor performing “Make ‘em Laugh.” There’s also Cyd Charisse in a duet with Kelly. Without seeing this film, how can you truly understand the recent “Silver Linings Playbook” and “The Artist,” or even ”A Clockwork Orange,” “Legal Eagles” or “Wall-E”? Or on a small scale, there’s also the 2005 VW Golf commercial and episodes of “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” and “Glee.”
What beloved movie from your childhood holds up just as well today? And which one doesn’t?
We (my family) were animal lovers, something encouraged by living in San Diego where we frequently visited the world class San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Safari Park. I also grew up in a household ruled by Disney. As a family, we also loved cartoons.
The beloved movies from my childhood would be “Old Yeller” and the 1942 “Bambi.” I still tear up during the last moments of “Old Yeller” despite the acting that marks the movie as family entertainment. “Old Yeller” was based on a 1956 novel by Fred Gipson.
The animators on “Bambi” studied the structure and movement of animals and used Tyrus Wong’s impressionistic backgrounds which had more detail in the center to draw attention to the center of the action. “Bambi” lost money during its original release, but when it was re-released in 1947, it found its audience. This animated feature showed that cartoons can bring to life stories and portray tragedy with such emotional impact that I still ache when I think of the death of Bambi’s mother.
After seeing “Bambi,” I went on to read the 1923 book (first published in English in 1928) “Bambi, A Life in the Woods” which is more heartbreaking than the animated movie. I went on to read other books about deer and other animals.
The movie that doesn’t hold up as well would be Disney’s 1950 animated feature “Cinderella.” As a child the thought of a magic fairy godmother who could sweep away your problems and find you a husband to solve all your problems seems ideal when you’re under 10 and still think marriage is about dressing up, playing house and a chaste kiss. It would be wonderful if I could train house mice to make me ballroom gowns, too, and if I could ride in a coach that was once a pumpkin. While I still have affection for pumpkins, I no longer have the same affection for Cinderella.
Since I was a child, I learned that the Cinderella syndrome is a term used to refer to parasites, the Cinderella effect refers to the theory that stepparents tend to be more abusive toward their step offspring and and Cinderella complex refers to women who is afraid of independence and wants to be taken care of by others, particularly a man. Attempting to embrace meritocracy, I find the concepts of aristocracy and better by merit of birth as part of social Darwinism. Now that the Disney princess has become a commercial brand, I find Cinderella part of a crass and less than magical movement.
The question of just what is black is inescapable in the Australian movie, “The Sapphires,” as well as who can pass. By pass, I mean who can pass for black or white or, more basically, something that you are not. Don’t worry, this movie is a sugar-coated, feel-good tale of a black girl group that finds opportunity and maturity entertaining American troops during the Vietnam War.
Passing, has its advantages. I can pass for Chinese in Hong Kong or Taiwan at a disadvantage because my Mandarin is poor. I can pass as Chinese in Korea where some have prejudices against the Japanese. I can’t pass for white and it’s not easy to pass as American or Japanese. You soon learn that some people look at your face and not your body language.
The movie, “The Sapphires” takes on passing for white as well as four women passing as black Americans on stage. We first see them in 1958 as a group of Aboriginal girls–two sisters and two cousins–who are singing for their relatives on a makeshift stage. We already know that not all is well because we’ve been told by subtitles that there was a Stolen Generation of children. In the crowd, we see some light-skinned faces and know something bad will and has already happened.
History
The Australian government stole away light-skinned children of the indigenous Australians, taking them from their families and putting them in institutions run by religious or charitable organizations. Sometimes they were fostered out. The practice began in 1909 and continued until 1970.
What the movie doesn’t say is that most of the women were trained to be domestics and the men to be agricultural labor. The 2002 Australian movie “Rabbit-Proof Fence” looks at this practice, following three girls who escape and walk nine weeks to return to their Aboriginal families.
To put this practice in perspective, consider that there is also a generation of White Stolen children who were part of a forced adoption policy practiced in Australia between 1930 until 1982. The babies of unmarried women were taken in this case.
The practice of sending off poor or orphaned children began with the British. Vagrant children were gathered and sent to the Virginia Colony in 1618. Large numbers of children were forcibly sent to the colonies to help with labor shortages, only ending in 1757. The Children’s Friend Society (founded in London in 1830) sent children to South Africa, Australia and Canada.
In the United States, post-Revolutionary War, there were similar attempts to force cultural assimilation on Native Americans. While students weren’t kidnapped, there was evidence that some parents were coerced into signing up their children. At the schools and on the reservations, there were efforts to convert the Native Americans to Christianity (until the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act.
The U.S. military had only been desegregated in 1948 (Executive Order 9981). The Korean War (1950-1953) was the first war with desegregated troops. The Vietnam War (1955-1975) was the second military action with desegregated troops.
Black versus black
The question of just who is black in the Pacific Ocean was asked in “South Pacific” and raised again more recently with the casting in “Cloud Atlas.”
“The Sapphires” are black in the Australian and British sense of the word and that covers a lot of ground outside of Africa. In this case, they begin as an innocent foursome singing for their relatives on a makeshift stage but as adults, they have been whittled down to a trio. These three sisters enter a singing contest. Leading the sisters is the bossy eldest, Gail (Deborah Mailman who appeared in “Rabbit-Proof Fence”), who wants to sing lead but doesn’t have the voice. Julie (Jessica Mauboy) is the youngest, but she has the voice. Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell) unwisely loves the attention of men too much. They are the only Aboriginal entrants and though their performance of a Merle Haggard country classic is better than the other white entrants, they lose.
The only two people at this rinky-dink contest who see their talent is one of the white entrants, a boy who has yet to learn the logic of racism, and the drunken white host, Dave, who has been living in his car.
Seeing their raw talent, Dave (Chris O’Dowd) helps them sing “blacker” by exposing them to the Motown sound, educating them on the blues. After a lot of practice and a sudden addition of a cousin, Kay (Shari Sebbens), who has been passing as white in the big city, they audition and win a spot on the entertainment roster for U.S. troops in Vietnam. In Vietnam, they become more confident and learn a bit about show business, American racism and the war.
The movie is as upbeat as the songs so there will be a happy ending and you get to learn more about the actual women this film is based on.
Authenticity
The movie began as a play by the same name written by Tony Briggs. The play debuted in 2004. Briggs based the play on the experiences of his mother, Laurel Robinson, and his aunt, Lois Peeler, who did tour Vietnam as singers in 1968.
Briggs created the fictional character of Dave Lovelace and Irish actor O’Dowd plays him as a charming, drunk. You’ll have to take this as an adult fairy tale to see a happy ending and believe in the happy, lovable alcoholic. Briggs wrote the movie’s screenplay with Keith Thompson.
Director Wayne Blair is an Indigenous Australian writer and actor and was in the original cast of the play. Blair captures the fun and development and keeps the socio-political aspects from getting too serious or grim.
The cast is authentically Indigenous Australian and none of the women is model-emaciated thin. Mailman is both Indigenous Australian and Māori and had the lead role in a 2010 musical movie called “Bran Nue Dae.” In the original play, she played Cindy.
Shari Sebbens is part English descent (father) and Indigenous Australian from her mother’s side.
Mauboy is part Indonesia (father) and part Indigenous Australian. Her talents was recognized when she finished fourth on season four of “Australian Idol.” She auditioned by singing Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.” That should tell yo what kind of power she has in her voice.
Tapsell was born in Darwin, but raised in Kakadu, a national park which is both under the management of the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and the Aboriginal traditional land owners.
Like Native Americans, Indigenous Australians have different groups that are identified based on the regional indigenous languages. So while the women are all Indigenous Australians, they are not all from the same region. That might be an issue for someone somewhere. And for the black versus black, we’ll take our cue from science.
Genetically, Indigenous Australians are closer to East Asians and Europeans than they are to Africans according to a DNA sequencing performed in 2012. The study concluded that their sample indicated the “Aborigine genome was found in one analysis to be genetically closer to East Asians than Europeans” there were also indications that suggested “the Aboriginal Australians split from the ancestral population of Eurasians, rather than from modern East Asian populations.”
Beyond genetics and history, ”The Sapphires” is a feel-good movie with a cast that you can feel good about–no blackface or passing here.
How could I not love Annette Funicello? Funicello died Monday, 8 April 2013, at age 70 in Bakersfield, California. While you might associate her with Southern California beaches, her last years were spent on an inland ranch with her harness racing horse owner/breeder husband Glen Holt.
Funicello was not a native Californian; she was born in New York state, but Walt Disney saw her in a 1955 when she was performing the role of the Swan Queen in a recital at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank. From “Swan Lake,” she became one of the original Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeers. You can rent “The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club” DVD from Netflix.
Having been born and raised in San Diego, I remembers days when attendance would be low in school and high at the beach. Surf was up and many of the swim team and divers would take off for the beach to hang out or hang ten. I wasn’t there, even on senior ditch day. I was too square, too grade-conscious and too much under my mother’s watchful eyes, but that’s a totally different story.
That relative good-girl innocence I had is echoed in Annette Funicello’s character in her post-Mickey Mouse Club role as Dolores, the love interest of Frankie (Frankie Avalon). But I think I got my love of fringe and dance costumes from the dance sequences featuring Candy Johnson.
Funicello was told by her mentor Walt Disney not to show her belly button. We do get to see it but considering her cleavage, her bathing suits are very modest.
“Beach Party”: This 1963 movie was the first beach party movie and introduced Frankie and Dolores. Frankie has rented a beach cottage, hoping to seduce Dolores ut Dolores has invited their whole gang. It’s a pajama party at night and a beach party by day. A cultural anthropologist (Bob Cummings) is studying the behavior and rituals of teenagers on the beach. Dolores develops a crush on the scientist who is able to use pre-Mr. Spock techniques to neutralize biker touch guy wanna-be Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck). Music by Dick Dale as well as Annette and Frankie. “Beach Party” is streaming until 1 May 2013 on Netflix. It is also available on Amazon Instant Video.
“Muscle Beach Party” (1964): ”Muscle Beach” is available to stream on Amazon.com. Frankie and Dee Dee get their gang together and find that muscle builders (led by their coach who is played by Don Rickles) have taken over their favorite surfing spot (Paradise Cove in Malibu). Then Frankie gets distracted by an Italian countess (Luciana Paluzzi) who says she’ll make him a star. Isn’t that usually a Hollywood producer? The movie features Dick Dale and the Del-Tones and a 13-year-old Little Stevie Wonder. This movie is available on Amazon.com for instant streaming.
“Bikini Beach” (1964): It’s summer yet again and Frankie and Dee Dee are at the beach, but their beloved beach is threatened by a rich dude Harvey Huntington Honeywagon III (Keenan Wynn) who wants to turn the beach into a retirement home. That sounds more like the pricey La Jolla, not Malibu. Honeywagon has a chimp who surfs, drives and dances a mean watusi. This time, it’s Dee Dee decides to flirt with a British rocker and drag racer, Potato Bug (also played by Avalon). This movie is available as a double feature on Amazon Instant video (with “Beach Party”).
“Pajama Party” (1964): This movie is Funicello without Avalon (well almost), but it does have a beach. A martian (Tommy Kirk) lands on earth and is taken in by a quirky widow (Elsa Lanchester) who sends him off to the beach where her nephew (Jody McCrea) and his girlfriend Connie (Funicello) spend their days. Eric Von Zipper is plotting revenge against the beach gang while a sinister villain, J. Sinister Hulk (Jesse White) wants to steal the widow’s money. Connie falls for the alien and her boyfriend gets friendly with the sexy Helga (Bobbi Shaw) who is part of the villain’s gang. Features an appearance by Buster Keaton. “Pajama Party” is streaming on Netflix until 1 May 2013. The movie is also available on Amazon.com for instant streaming.
Beach Blanket Bingo (1965): Frankie is back and Dee Dee has to fight off a singer, Sugar Kane (Linda Evans). Sugar Kane has an agent (Paul Lynde) and a stunt double Bonnie (Deborah Walley). Bonnie wants to make her boyfriend Steve (John Ashley) jealous. Both Frankie and Dee Dee take up sky diving and Eric Von Zipper falls for Sugar Head. Then there’s that mermaid Lorelei (Marta Kristen). Featuring Don Rickles, Buster Keaton”Beach Blanket Bingo” is available on Amazon Instant video.
“Ski Party” (1965): Craig (Hickman) and Todd (Avalon) are spying on Freddie (Aron Kincaid) who has a way with women that they want to learn. Following him to a ski resort, they dress up as British women on vacation. Funicello has a cameo appearance.
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) Frankie doesn’t appear much in this one because he’s stationed in Tahiti with the naval reserve. Dwayne Hickman is the romantic lead as the man back home, Ricky, who’s wooing Dee Dee. Frankie pays a witch doctor (Buster Keaton) to get a lovely girl in a wild bikini to lure Ricky away. “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini” is streaming on Netflix until 1 May 2013. Features a cameo by Elizabeth Montgomery and an appearance by The Kingsmen. The movie is also available on Amazon Instant Video.
“Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine” (1965): Mad scientist (Vincent Price) dispatches female robots to seduce rich men, but Craig (Avalon) and Todd (Dwayne Hickman) thwart his plans but not necessarily on purpose. Funicello has a cameo appearance.
“Back to the Beach” (1987): A husband (Avalon) and wife (Funicello) return to the Southern California beaches from Ohio when they learn their daughter Sandi (Lori Loughlin) is making time with a surfer (Tommy Hinkley). Frankie must show that he is still the Big Kahuna and then there’s Connie Francis. Appearances by a lot of popular stars (L.A. rock band Fishbone, Don Adams (“Get Smart”), Bob Denver (“Gilligan’s Island”), Alan Hale, Jr.(“Gilligan’s Island”), Edd Byrnes (“77 Sunset Strip”), Jerry Mathers (“Leave It to Beaver”), Tony Dow (“Leave It to Beaver”),Barbara Billingsley (“Leave It to Beaver”), surf rock guitarist Dick Dale, rocker Stevie Ray Vaughan, O.J. Simpson, and Pee-wee Herman). Siskel and Ebert gave this movie two thumbs up. Ebert wrote: “a quirky little gem filled with good music, a lot of laughs and proof that Annette still knows how to make a polka-dot dress seem ageless.” This DVD is not available on Netflix, but it is available to stream on Amazon.com.
You can buy the “Frankie & Annette MGM Movie Legends Collection on Amazon.com. The set includes: “Beach Blanket Bingo,” “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini,” “Beach Party,” “Bikini Beach,” “Fireball 500,” “Thunder Alley,” “Muscle Beach Party” and “Ski Party.”
Non-Beach Party movies
“The Shaggy Dog” (1959) In this black and white movie, a magic ring turns the wearer into an Old English Sheepdog. Unfortunately, Wilby Daniels (Tommy Kirk) has a father who is a postman and doesn’t like dogs. But as a dog, Wilby hears spies plotting to steal a government secret and has to thwart them as both a dog and a person. Funicello appears. ”The Shaggy Dog” is available on Netflix as a DVD rental.The movie is also available on Amazon Instant Video.
“Babes in Toyland” (1961) The title if stolen from a popular 1903 opera, but the songs are different. Mother Goose (Mary McCarty) tells the story of Mary, Mary Quite Contrary (Funicello) who is about to be married to Tom the Piper’s Son (Tommy Sands). But a villain (Ray Bolger) who wants Mary for himself attempts to prevent the marriage. An army of toy soldiers help fight off the bad guys (and you’ll see them in Disney parades). “Babes in Toyland” is available on Netflix as a DVD rental. The movie is also available on Amazon Instant Video.
“The Misadventures of Merlin Jones” (1964): A college student (Tommy Kirk) develops a helmet that helps him read minds and that leads to what seems to be a crime. A crime is indeed committed when the student uses hypnosis on a judge (Leon Ames). Funicello plays the girlfriend. ”The Misadventures of Merlin Jones” is available on Netflix as a DVD rental. The movie is also available on Amazon Instant video.
“The Monkey’s Uncle” (1965): This movie is the sequel to “Merlin Jones” and finds Merlin (Kirk) and his girlfriend Jennifer (Funicello) with a new invention–a man-powered airplane. He also develops a sleep-learning system. Merlin is the legal uncle of a chimpanzee (I know, a chimp is not a monkey, but what can I say?!) in order to use the chimp in humane experiments (PETA wasn’t knocking at Disney’s door for this one). The Beach Boys make an appearance. This DVD can be purchased on Amazon.com.
“Fireball 500 (1966) Avalon is “Fireball” Owens, a stock car racer who must run moonshine. Funicello is his loyal girlfriend Jane. Fabian appears in this movie. “Fireball 500” is streaming on Netflix until 1 May 2013. The movie is also available on Amazon Instant Video.
“Thunder Alley” (1967) Race car driver Tommy Callahan (Fabian) has an accident on the track and after retiring, he begins to train Eddie (Warren Berlinger) to drive. As Eddie begins to win, his ex-girlfriend Annie (Diane McBain) attempts to steal back Eddie from his current girl (Funicello) “Thunder Alley” is currently available on Netflix as a DVD rental with “Fireball 500.” The movie is also available on Amazon Instant Video.
“Head” (1968): Do you remember the Monkees? This psychedelic comedy is about a group (Peter Tork, David Jones, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith) who finds they do not have free will. Their actions are all pre-determined by a script. Funicello has a cameo. This movie is available for purchase on Amazon.com.
“Troop Beverly Hills” (1989): A rich shopaholic (Shelley Long) attempts to prove her husband (Craig T. Nelson) wrong by following through and becoming the den mother to her daughter’s Wilderness Girls group and teach them survival skills by inventing new merit badges. Funicello and Avalon appear as themselves in a cameo appearance. What do you expect? If you’re in Beverly Hills you need to meet celebrities (like Robin Leach, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ted McGinley, Cheech Marin and Dr. Joyce Brothers).
Rest in peace, Annette Funicello. You brought sweet charm and grace to the movies and a lot of good clean fun. If only the more recent Mouseketeers could have used you as an example.
“From Up on Poppy Hill” is about a daughter who longs for her dead father and every day sends him a message as if to guide him home. Even though I can easily empathize with its theme, “From Up on Poppy Hill” lacks anything interesting to say. Perhaps what is important here is the war that rumbles in the past and the potential Asian conflict that threatens Japan now.
Directed by Goro Miyazaki and scripted by his father, famed director Hayao Miyazaki, “From Up on Poppy Hill” is the second animated feature directed by Goro (“Tales from Earthsea” was the first in 2006).
Based on a 1980 manga written by Tetsuro Sayama and illustrated by Chizuru Takahashi, the original title is “Kokuriko-zaka kara” which uses the French name for the flowers, Coquelicot. These are the red flowers and not the orange California poppy or the popular Icelandic poppies. You’d know the Papaver rhoeas as the corn poppy, corn rose, field poppy or the Flanders poppy. You might plant its cultivar form, the Shirley poppy. Although considered a weed, the flower has come to represent fallen soldiers.
The soldier in this case is the father of Umi Matsuzaki (Sarah Bolger in the English-language dubbed version). Something may be lost in translation. Listening to the dubbed version, I wonder if it’s clearer in the Japanese that the father isn’t just gone, he’s dead. The English script clarifies this later.
There are other things that might not be clear to Americans. Let’s start with the place: Yokohama. I lived in Yokohama for a year as an exchange student. It’s considered somewhat exotic for the average Japanese. It’s the second largest city in Japan with 3.7 million. Although a city in its own right, Yokohama is sometimes considered a suburb of Tokyo.
From Tokyo to Yokohama, it’s about 27 miles or 45 minutes. That’s by car. But in the 1850s, it seemed much farther on foot or by horse. It’s distance from Tokyo and the palace of the emperor was just far enough away from the Tokugawa shogunate to make them feel safer. American Commodore Matthew Perry blew into Japan with a fleet of warships, arriving just south of Yokohama. With his cannons and guns, Perry demanded the opening of Japan. That deal was sealed with the Treaty of Peace and Amity in 1854 which opened up two ports (Shimoda and Hakodate) and guaranteed the safety of shipwrecked American sailors. The United States-Japan Treaty of Kanagawa, also known as the Harris Treaty, established extraterritoriality and import taxes and other unequal conditions in 1858.
Yokohama was opened in 1859 as another base for foreign trade. The first English language newspaper was published there in 1861. An special area was established there for foreigners who were protected by their extraterritoriality both inside that moated area and outside. Amongst the foreigners were not only Europeans and Americans, but also Chinese immigrants. A Chinatown was established. This early foreign influence is what makes Yokohama unique and even exotic to the Japanese. Much of Yokohama was destroyed during the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923. Allied World War II air raids also destroyed much of Yokohama, but the American Occupation used Yokohama as a base for supplies and personnel, particularly during the Korean War. The American military base was later moved to Yokosuka.
How the Japanese conceive of death and the afterlife another point. When my grandmother died, I recall how her younger brother in Japan had been angry that my state-side uncle, the eldest son of my grandmother, neglected to call them when she died. After all, they needed to say prayers for her. Her spirit was returning to Japan, just as I would. That might come as a surprise to my sister and my brother. My sister has only been to Japan once and my brother has never been.
This concept of spirits returning home isn’t just for foreign-born people of Japanese descent or those Japanese national living abroad. The Japanese take care of the spirits during August for O-bon. During o-bon the spirits return to their furusato–ancestral homes–and the household altars. Even the living return to their ancestral homes and the Japanese have a specific verb for to return home. So many people return home during August, business is hard to conduct.
In the movie, one of the first things Umi does in the morning is put an offering of water to her father. You’ll see her place it before his photograph as part of a modest family altar. The 16-year-old Umi is a high school student in Yokohama. Her family runs a boarding house, Coquelicot Manor, that is connected to the old, more traditional-styled family home where her grandmother lives. Because Umi’s mother, Ryoko, is away studying in the U.S., Umi runs the boarding house under the supervision of her grandmother. The grandmother lives in an adjoining building of more traditional architecture. Umi prepares the meals, buys the groceries and makes sure her younger siblings get off to school on time. She also raises signal flags on a flag pole every morning to send a message to her deceased father that she prays for his safe return.
The flags are noticed by someone who rights a poem about them in the school newspaper. The author, Shun Kazama, has a meet-cute with Umi and her sister Sora. Shun is one of the editors of the newspaper which is one of many clubs that are housed in the Latin Quartier building. As the clubs are exclusively run by boys, the building is a mess and will be torn down. The rest of the movie focuses on saving the building and the budding romance between Umi and Shun which has a slight impediment that you know will eventually be resolved.
The girls names are a bit unusual. Umi means sea. Sora means sky. The Matsuzaki family also includes Riku and Nijie. Riku means land as in tairiku which means continent. Niji means rainbow. While there doesn’t seem to be an immediate kanji connection to me between Umi and Shun (the character for Shun means genius), the name of the chairman, Tokumaru (徳丸理事長) has some poetic significance because ships typically have the suffix maru in Japan and the same character is used. Rijichoo just means board chairman.
The movie is set in in 1963 as all of Tokyo and Japan prepares to host the 1964 Olympics. On their black and white television you’ll see what is supposed to be Kyu Sakamoto and this adds a layer of authenticity and sadness. Kyu Sakamoto was a boyish 22 at the time. His hit song, “Ue o muite aruko” was the only Japanese song to hit number one of the American pop Billboard charts as “Sukiyaki.”
Sakamoto toured the world in 1963 and 1964, showing buoyant face of Japan. Sakamoto had been born in Kanagawa prefecture (Kawasaki) and was the youngest of nine children which is why he was nicknamed Kyu (meaning 9). He died in 1985, leaving behind two daughters and his actress wife (Yukiko Kashiwagi).
The words of the song are about loneliness. According to Wikipedia, Rokusuke Ei wrote the song to record his disappointment about a failed protest movement against the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan (日本国とアメリカ合衆国との間の相互協力及び安全保障条約 Nippon-koku to Amerika-gasshūkoku to no Aida no Sōgo Kyōryoku oyobi Anzen Hoshō Jōyaku) The treaty provided for the presence of U.S. military bases in Japan and the central debate was over the U.S. base in Okinawa. In Okinawa the military base covers one fifth of the small isolated island. The concerns ranged from noise and environmental concerns to the more recent anger over kidnapping and rape.
Japan wasn’t officially involved with the Korean War, but was viewed as an important strategic point in the world defense against communism according to some historians. During the Korean War, Japan’s main functions was as a military base for U.S. troops and a place for shipping supplies. Umi’s father worked as part of a transport crew for supplies and was killed during the Korean War. This movie does, like Swedish movie “Simon and the Oaks,” show how war touches people in countries that aren’t actually involved. Korea was much in the minds of the Japanese people when Umi’s father died and under the current circumstances in North Korea, the topic may be at the forefront of the Japanese now.
This isn’t the best movie out of Studio Ghibli and the direction adequate. There are some breaks in logic here and there and I wish I could listen to the Japanese instead of the English dubbing to compare the script to the translations.
In the end, this is a nostalgic look at Japan as it recovered from war and was looking forward into a bright future. The threat of the Korean War was over. Mostly, I came away with the Kyu Sakamoto’s famous song playing in my head for the last few days and that might be the best part of the whole movie. “From Up on Poppy Hill” won Best Animated Film at the 2012 Japanese Academy Awards.
Below are the lyrics with the English translation.
うえ を むいて あるこう
なみだ が こぼれ ない よう に
おもいだす はる の に
ひとりぼっちの よる
うえ を むいて あるこう
にじん だ ほし を かぞえて
おもいだす なつ の ひ
ひとり ぼっち の よる
しあわせ は くも の うえ に
しあわせ は そら の うえ に
うえ を むいて あるこう
なみだ が こぼれ ない よう に
なきながら あるく
ひとりぼっち の よる
おもいだす あき の ひ
ひとりぼっち の よる
かなしみ は ほし の かげ に
かなしみ は つき の かげ に
うえ を むいて あるこう
なみだ が こぼれ ない よう に
なかながら あるく
ひとりぼっち の よる
English translation
I look up as I walk
So that the tears won’t fall
Remembering those spring days
But I am all alone tonight.
I look up as I walk
Counting the stars with tearful eyes
Remembering those summer days
But I am all alone tonight
Happiness lies beyond the clouds
Happiness lies up above the sky
I look up as I walk
So that the tears won’t fall
Though the tears well up as I walk
For tonight I’m all alone
Remembering those autumn days
But I am all alone tonight
Sadness lies in the shadow of the stars
Sadness lurks in the shadow of the moon
I look up as I walk
So that the tears won’t fall
Though the tears well up as I walk
For tonight I’m all alone.
Here’s an English version:
It’s all because of you, I’m feeling sad and blue you went away, now My life is just a rainy day and I love you so, how much you’ll never Know you’ve gone away and left me lonely. Untouchable memories seem to Keep hauting me another love so true, that once turned all my gray Skies blue but you disappeared, now my eyes are filled with tears and I’m wishing You were here with me soaked with love all my thoughts of you now that You’re gone I just don’t know what to do if only you were here, you’d Wash away my tears the sun would shine, once again you’ll be mine all Mine but in reality, you and I will never be cos you took your love Away from me (chorus) Girl, I don’t know what I did to make you leave me but what I Do know, is that since you’ve been gone there’s such an emptiness Inside, I’m wishing you to come back to me If only you were here, you’d wash away my tears the sun would shine, Once again you’ll be mine all mine but in reality, you and I will Never be ’cause you took your love away from me. Oh baby you took your Love away from me
Take time to discover the hidden, and even forgotten is what the 2009 French movie, “The Hedgehog” urges. Think of a prickly, curled up ball that reveals a shy hedgehog. There’s a certain elegance in becoming something people might overlook or ignore. Or think of it as buried treasure.
Too often, during Women’s History month, we think of young women–either women on their way into the world or someone who as a young woman ventured into the world and became a pioneer.
Although we hear an older, wiser Jennifer, we only see the young Nurse Jennifer Lee in “Call the Midwife.” In “Bomb Girls,” we’re mostly concerned with how our young, privileged woman learns about the working world. The young are our future, but without looking at the past, things will not change.
Yet what about the poor, the old and unlovely? French novelist and professor of philosophy Muriel Barbery wrote about one such woman in her 2006 novel “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” (L’Élégance du hérisson) which became the 2009 movie, “The Hedgehog” (Le Hérisson). The hedgehog in question is the 54-year-old Mrs. Renée Michel. Widowed, she has lived 27 years nearly invisible to the upper class tenants of the building she manages. The movie calls her a concierge. In the U.S., she would be something like the manager.
No one notices the widow, except for an 11-year-old misfit girl, Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic), who has decided that on her 12th birthday she will commit suicide. Until then, she records on video the banality of her family’s life. Things might have continued according to Paloma’s plan except someone dies. The death of a critic opens up a living quarters in the building and an elderly widow, Kakuro Ozu (Togo Igawa) moves in. When he meets Renée, she makes an off-hand remark, one that instantly informs Ozu that Renée is not who or what she pretends to be. Kakuro and Paloma become conspirators in an investigation.
Director Mona Achache also adapted Barbery’s novel with sensitivity. The movie respects the intelligence of children by not dumbing things down, but shows us how sometimes adults attempt to dumb down children. Paloma is at the tender age when her intelligence is not appreciated by her parents and makes her the target of ill will from other children her age.
Achache doesn’t take the focus away from Balasko’s Renée. Surely the temptation here would have been to make an easy movie of a beautiful but misunderstood precocious tween and even give this movie a happy ending. Instead, we see problems of economic class and the parallel between two female human beings–a girl and a mature woman–who are both faced with a culture that encourages them to hide away their intelligence.
Isn’t that choice still being made? And not only in France, but also in the United States? How many beautiful minds, minds that could perhaps solve so many problems of this world, been dimmed in order to fit in nicely with the rest of this man’s world?
For that reason, this movie, “The Hedgehog,” well-worth seeing for women and men of all ages. The movie won the Audience Award at the Washington DC Filmfest, the 2009 Special Award, Best Director, FIPRESCI and Silver Award at the Cairo International Film Festival. It also won the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Film at the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival. You might not think hedgehogs are elegant, but in their own way all animals and all of God’s creatures are if they are allowed to be the best that they can be. The movie is live streaming on Netflix and Fandango. In French with English subtitles.
Frank Baum published “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” in 1900, opening up a magical kingdom that would transform his life. He wrote a series of books but Oz was a powerful draw. After his death other authors took over and created characters in this land of his. Most recently, “Wicked,” dragged Baum’s Oz out of children’s entertainment and into a more adult realm as it explained the events leading up to Dorothy’s adventure. Disney’s new delightful movie “Oz: The Great and Powerful,” sweeps the prequel back into the realm of family entertainment in fanciful 3D.
Baum never explained the hows and why-fors of the Wizard in the 14 books he wrote. We know the wizard wasn’t originally from Oz and that somehow he became the enemy of the wicked witches. For most of us, Oz lives in our minds through the images of the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.” Mitchell Kapner’s script gives the wicked witches motivation and director Sam Raimi’s vision pays tribute to the Judy Garland classic.
Director Sam Raimi who helmed the Spider-Man trilogy, may not seem like a good choice for a family-friendly flick, but while there’s no web-slinging, there’s plenty of flying. In this case, we have three witches, a winged monkey dressed in a bellboy costume and a flock of raging winged baboons.
The original 1939 movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” was in Technicolor which was used from 1922 to 1952 in Hollywood. However, the movie begins and ends in black and white. All the scenes in Kansas are also in sepia-toned black and white. Raimi’s “Oz” also begins in black and white. That might sound dull, but don’t miss the beginning credits which feature charming black and white animation.
From there, we descend into live action at the Baum Bros. Circus where a magician of dubious talent, Oscar Diggs (James Franco), performs his feats of magic under the stage name of “The Great and Powerful Oz.” For this stop in Kansas, Oscar is assisted by a ringer–his most current love conquest, and an enthusiastic assistant (Zach Braff) whom he dubs his trained monkey. Although initially somewhat entertained, his small audience turns unhappily ugly after a young girl asks the Oscar to perform a special feat of magic. She is crippled and wants him to fix her legs. Oscar awkwardly attempts to make excuses, but his heart is clearly touched despite his con man ways.
Back in his dressing room, Oscar, in his torn and threadbare costume, rails at how he is better than this. While Oscar has left a long string of broken hearts, he did once know true love, Annie, and she (Michelle Williams) visits him for one last time hoping to rekindle their love although she has received a proposal from another, steadier man.
Unfortunately, their conversation is cut short when a circus strongman discovers Oscar has dallied with his daughter and flies into a destructive rage. Warned by assistant, Oscar flees by hopping into a hot air balloon, but his elation is short-lived. The balloon heads into a tornado, a terrifying ordeal for Oscar, but when he finally gets out of the wind, he finds himself in a land of color with great waterfalls and rainbows and fantastical green hills. Oz has arrived in Oz.
In Oz, Oscar first meets Theodora (Mila Kunis), a good witch dressed in a red jacket and tight black leather pants. She brings him to Emerald City where she tells him he will become their leader, something that had been predicted. Oscar can’t resist seducing the beautiful witch. He also picks up a sidekick, Finley (Braff), a flying monkey who is relegated to carrying Oscar’s heavy travel bag.
Theodora has an older sister, Evanora (Rachel Weisz). Elegant and cool, she has her own agenda and knows just how to push her sister’s buttons. Theodora has a bad temper and that becomes a useful tool. There is one other witch, Glinda (Williams).
Besides the munchkins, Oscar meets China Girl, who isn’t Chinese, but a girl made of porcelain; the Tinkers, old men who can create anything; the Winkies, the tall palace guards and the Quadlings, citizens of Quadling who are ruled by Glinda.
Oscar must discern who is evil and who he is and who he wants to be to help Oz. This is a more mature type of family film, with a few frightening moments (supplied by the flying baboons), but there is no gore and even Oscar’s romantic forays are relatively chaste. As with the 1939 movie, most of the people he meets in Oz are alter egos of people he knew in Kansas.
Franco is comically shifty as the frustrated third-rate magician Oscar who bolsters his ego with a well-practiced romantic routine. Yet we see Franco’s Oscar mature into someone who begins to believe in himself and actually see the needs of others. With three witches, you know there will be trouble and Williams, Kunis and Weisz are certain well matched for this fantastical fight over Oz.
“Oz: The Great and Powerful” has great special effects and a powerful message. This is a charming morality tale, without any overly cute mascots or songs to underline any message. Instead, “Oz” is about doing the right thing and rising to the occasion together as a country. In working together, Oscar forms a family of friends. Who wouldn’t want that?
This square peg-in-a-round-hole romance takes a banana and mixes in an egg and produces a fluffy little well-rounded confection. Call it a rom-com. Call it “about time that the double A guy gets the blonde girl. Writer/director Daniel Hsia called the movie “Shanghai Calling.” The movie opens 15 February 2013 at the Pasadena Playhouse 7.
Hsia gets a lot of things right. You might gripe a bit because this is another case of a hapa (part Asian ethnic) actor taking the role that seems to be meant for a full Asian. We’ve already had Dean Cain, Keanu Reeves and Russell Wong. The lead here, Daniel Henney, was born in Michigan to a Korean adoptee mother and an Irish-American father. He’s worked as a model and played a surgeon in the hit Korean TV drama “My Name is Kim Sam Soon.” Henney is tall, dark and handsome and acts well enough in this role.
In the movie, he plays, Sam Chao, an ambitious ABC (that’s American-born Chinese) who is a land shark hoping to make partner in an international law firm. The partners decide to send him to Shanghai because he at least looks Chinese, but Sam doesn’t speak Chinese (and in this case, he’d have to speak either Mandarin or Shanghai dialect) and is unfamiliar with the business practices. He’s both an arrogant American and a ego-driven litigator which means he’s lacking on the person-to-person working relationship skill. He threatens lawsuit when perhaps a simple “please” might do or even when the best thing to do is leave the situation.
His firm is high profile enough to provide him with a beautiful blonde relocation specialist, Amanda Wilson (Eliza Coupe), who is as white as her name suggests, but she’s the egg here. She may be white on the outside, but she understand Shanghai better then Sam, if he’d only listen.
That’s not to far fetched a situation. My first trip to Japan had me paired with a Caucasian American as my guide. Sometimes, the only thing you really know about your ancestors’ culture is the food. That’s Sam all over.
Sam is working for Marcus Groff (Alan Ruck) who has found a revolutionary cell phone technology. Marcus has a signed contract, but suddenly knock-offs using the technology are appearing everywhere and Sam must find out how to stop the production and sale of these cell phones in a country where he doesn’t speak the language and barely understand the government.
Sam also meets the unofficial mayor of the American ex-pats, entrepreneur Donald Cafferty (Bill Paxton) and the mysterious journalist with all the answers, Awesome Wang (Geng Le). While Sam is rubbing Americans the wrong way with his bull-in-the-china-shop demeanor, he’s also slighting the locals at his company’s satellite office.
This lawyers in love rom-com doesn’t take itself too seriously and you can probably see the ending coming, but the journey is sweet, but not too saccharine. Henney and Coupe have an easy-going chemistry.
Hsia won Best New Directo at the 2012 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and Daniel Henney won Best Actor at the 2012 Newport Beach Film Festival.
“Shanghai Calling” is a slight, but winning romance that opens 15 February 2013 at the Pasadena Playhouse 7. Writer/director Daniel Hsia and the director of photography Armando Salas will be on hand for a Q&A after the 7:10 p.m. screening on Friday (15 February 2013).
If you had doubts about Ethan Hawke’s Shakespeare chops in the first episode of “Shakespeare Uncovered: Macbeth with Ethan Hawke,” Joely Richardson’s stage pedigree should be readily acceptable worldwide. This time the topic is less grim in “Shakespeare Uncovered: The Comedies with Joely Richardson.”
Richardson is the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and director Tony Richardson. She is the granddaughter of Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.
At 24, in 1961, Vanessa Redgrave played Rosalind in a BBC production of “As You Like It.” Vanessa Redgrave began reading at 4 and went on to discover “The Merchant of Venice” and loved the “quality of mercy” speech.
This is more about family–not only Richardson’s family and her theater pedigree, but also Shakespeare’s family. He had fraternal twins (Judith and Hamnet born in 1585) and twins figure in his comedies. “The Comedy of Errors” has two sets of identical twins–masters and servants–who are separated at birth. In “Twelfth Night or What You Will,” Viola is separated with her twin brother, Sebastian. When Viola, disguised as a boy, Cesario, courts the countess Olivia for the duke Orsino, Olivia falls in love with Viola and easily transfers that to Sebastian.
The comedies have strong women and we get to see a lot of strong women. Besides Vanessa Redgrave, we also see Helen Mirren who was in the 1978 BBC version of “As You Like It” playing Rosalind.
Another strong point made is that Shakespeare’s portrayal of marriage for love wasn’t a common concept at that time. As with the previous episode, we near from experts–directors, other actors and historians on Shakespeare and his women. Unlike “Shakespeare Uncovered: Macbeth with Ethan Hawke” Vanessa Redgrave is less the center of the contemplation and research, but our facilitator. It doesn’t seem to be her goal to play Rosalind, her favorite characters, but to explore and express the joy and admiration of such well rounded well written roles for women (even if originally these roles were played by men).
For more information on Shakespeare and his life and very dramatic times, you can watch “In Search of Shakespeare.” For fun, try the PBS quiz to see what character you might be.
Shakespeare Uncovered: The Comedies with Joely Richardson” premieres tonight, 25 January 2013 on PBS at 10-11 p.m. Check local listings.
As preparation for watching the six episodes of “Shakespeare Uncovered” on PBS which begins tonight, 25 January 2013, I’ve been watching “In Search of Shakespeare.” This four-episode adventure into religious tensions and personal problems that surrounded Shakespeare gives you a great background for understanding the man who wrote these plays and the times he lived in or rather survived. “In Search of Shakespeare” also aired on PBS in 2004. If you missed it, the four full episodes are available live streaming on Netflix.
My first Shakespeare college professor wore a sweater vest and tie on a Southern California campus where other professors surfed before, between and after classes. His tidy dress contrasted his wild white hair which wasn’t abundant, but never well behaved. He insisted that Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be seen and the words of his plays and sonnets meant to be spoken aloud. We were required to memorize a sonnet for recite in class and to see videos of different interpretations of the same play.
I hope your first experience with Shakespeare was as lively. And the team that brought you “In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great” and “Conquistadors” also make this history series. Our host, Michael Wood is obviously excited about our journey of discovery.
Wood takes us into the wild wilderness of treacherous kings and queens and their religious politics that Shakespeare’s family was, as all of the people of England, simply helpless pawns. From a well-to-do family, they suffered under King Henry VIII’s policies and the subsequent rule of his daughters.
“A Time of Revolution” sets the stage. His father was a prosperous maker of gloves and lent money and even dealt in wool trade. His eldest son and first child to live was privileged with a nice house, servants and a good education. He had a love for mystery plays, but they were banned when he was 15.
But during his early teens, his family’s fortunes are reversed. Elizabeth is now queen and the official religion is the Anglican church. Unfortunately, Shakespeare’s family was loyal to the Catholic church and his family is persecuted. If his cances of attending a university are ruined, Shakespeare further darkens the horizon of his future by becoming involved with an older woman and getting her pregnant.
Written as a detective story, Wood leads us to discoveries about Shakespeare’s family and a certain family feud.
“The Lost Years” is the second episode which attempts to answer: What was Shakespeare doing between his marriage to Anne Hathaway and his sudden appearance on the London theater scene. Little is known about those ten years besides the couple had three children.
Wood follows up several theories including the possibility that he served in a Catholic family’s house or was part of Queen Elizabeth’s propaganda machine (The Queen’s Men). Wood forces us to consider the kind of world Shakespeare lived in–the time of the Spanish Armada and the death of his great rival Marlowe.
“The Duty of Poets” brings us back to Shakespeare’s family and the problem of religious loyalties. Imagine having one of those embarrassing cousins, who is public enemy number one, searched for by police and taking the time to write a long treatise about the duty of poets and singling out William Shakespeare. Was that man, Robert Southwell a ranting lunatic, a foolish revolutionary or a brave man of principle? Shakespeare, of course, doesn’t write religious poetry. He’s like Paul McCartney to Southwell’s John Lennon. Shakespeare prefers to write about love, but Shakespeare does experience his own tragedy: He falls in love and his only son dies. These experiences and other political problems deepen his emotional intelligence and he writes “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Shakespeare chooses “to speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.”
In the final episode, “For All Time” London is entering a new age under King James I. Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna becomes the focal point of a religious inquiry after she refused to take Protestant communion. And although King James I is Scottish and domestic terrorism is exposed in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, Shakespeare responds with another Scottish problem as posed by “Macbeth.” His daughter Susanna will marry and Shakespeare confronts aspects of the father-daughter relationship in “King Lear” and “The Tempest.” But now looking back on the high drama and cost of religious persecution in England, Shakespeare writes about the treacherous “King Henry VIII” and how “mightiness meets misery.” Would that make Southwell proud? With all that, there’s still the question of Shakespeare’s mysterious will.
Throughout the series, young members of the Royal Shakespeare Company travel and perform scenes of Shakespeare’s great plays as they might have been done during his time (under the direction of Olivier Award for Achievement winner Greg Doran).
“In Search of Shakespeare” is available as a DVD set through PBS or for instant streaming on Netflix.
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