japanese

A highly interesting look into the life and workings of an award-winning Japanese sushi restaurant. The behind the scenes look is simply fascinating. I would give it another star. However, towards the end, the documentary loses some of its magical quality and begins to come across as something of an advertisement.

Another Haruki Murakami book done and dusted. While 1Q84 certain had its moments, it lacked the cohesive flow that The Wind-up Bird Chronicle had. Barring a couple of sections, it was nevertheless a reasonably riveting read.

Bonus point for writing style :)

A weird and wonderful journey by Haruki Murakami, this is now one of my favorite books of all time! The imagination is stunning and the fact that it all starts with a missing cat is beautifully simply :)

The ending is a touch underwhelming. But I highly recommend this book.

P.S. I find it highly annoying that a couple of chapters from the Japanese edition have been excised from the English translation :/

A production with Miyazaki Hayao handling the screenplay and his son Goro directing, 'From up on Poppy Hill' has all the qualities of a vintage Ghibli wonder. In many ways, this coming of age story is similar to that of one of my favourites from this studio, 'Whisper of my heart', with a school + home setting, two very earnest and driven young teens, and puppy love. Unfortunately, something is amiss as the finished product does not hit home.

A samurai flick that attempts to provide a realistic portrayal of life as a lowly member of the Samurai class in feudal Japan while retaining the action that the audience looks forward to in such movies. Twilight Samurai weaves action, intrigue, suspense and romance into an excellent tapestry which is both striking and moving at the same time. But it could have been a lot better if some more care had been taken with it. This is especially true of the soundtrack which is woeful thanks to artificial keyboard strings etc.