It came. Yes siree, it finally most definately came. My PC hardware. You may remember me moaning about it a while back, wondering what was keeping my order from arriving. There came an abrupt change to the silent situation when I received an "order update" from the store friday a week ago. The update wasn't a send confirmation unfortunately, but an "end of life" update instead. Apparently Samsung had, over night, decided to drop their Spinpoint 250GB hard drive. Meaning I could no longer hope for it and instead change the item, or cancel it. There was steam coming from ears upon reading that. After well over a month of no contact I get this bs, fck em is what I thought so I send them a mildly angry e-mail saying I wanted to cancel the entire order and receive my money back. Sod this crap.
My mood lasted all through the night. But when I woke up, back to my more reasonable senses, I decided that it was best to keep the order and just cancel the hard drive and DVD burner. The rest of the items were already in stock for a price I simply couldn't let go, so I didn't. The same day I changed my order and went to another webshop for the hd and burner. I ended up with a 200GB Samsung drive instead of the 250GB version and an AOpen burner (bit speedier), and saved myself about 10 wh00ping euro. Yay me! Tuesday, a mere 3 days after the order changes, I received everything at home and prepared myself for an entire format. Bleh. It's not that I hate formatting my Windows drive, I love it actually, but it takes a lot of (reinstalling) work and sometimes ends up in a less than desirable situation. Like this time :/
Right now sometimes when I boot my system my monitor stays black, it actually turns itself off, when I get to Windows. I'd say it's not a faulty video card that's the problem, because I have no problems seeing/reading the start-up, BIOS or Windows load-up screen displays fine as well. There's something amiss with a driver install it seems, which means I have to format yet again and be careful with what I install. Sometimes I get to the Windows desktop fine, and other times I just don't. And I was hoping to play some VirtuaTennis3 on my PC with the Xbox 360 controller before leaving to a state of happiness this week :(
Some quick other news: Tekkon Kinkreet is the mutts nutts. I loved it. Apparently it doesn't stand up to the movie-book comparison, so a lot of people are dissing the movie because of it, but I haven't read the manga and thus couldn't say. I just liked what I saw. Go read this little review. It'll give you a better idea on it. Recently I got the urge to just download some movies I had never seen, but always had a sort of "want to at sometime" feel about. I decided on giving Silent Hill some attention. When it came to the theaters way back when I read it was better than expected, which surprised me quite a bit. And, when put next to that other horror game-movie adaption, Resident Evil, this deserves oscars, nay medals. While it sticks to most basic horror rules and quirks it's still a really decent watch. Quite a scary deal, with a not-so happy end to top it off. Go find a review on it yourself, I'm sure you can and than go and give it a watch. I wonder how it stands up to the game.
Saturday November 03, 2007 -- #11
Dear gosh darned! Wasn't that a fitting end to the already shifty Formula 1 season? Hamilton's apparent cock-up at China was already dodgy, but what he and McLaren managed on the Interlago track defies all cock-up logic!
I was sure that with him in second place on the starting grid nobody could, realistically, pose a threat to his championship. The bigger was my surprisement when he tried to overtake Alonso in the corner 4/5, trying to make up for his lost 2 places. I thought he would have learned a bit from China and stick behind Alonso for a while at least and take it from there. Neither Raikkonen or Alonso were a threat with Hamilton himself safely in fourth. But nnoooo, of course he has to try and overtake Alonso... and fail. At the time I thought how lucky he was to have normal tarmac there, else he'd already be finished, barely 1 lap after race start. I'm not sure what happened to his car a few laps later, but at that point I was convinced it was all over. In hindsight it did kill his title chances, but when his car started working again it appeared he could still reclaim top spot. Up to his technical problem he had no real trouble overtaking people, showing once more that the only cars to really cause Ferrari and McLaren drivers any stress are their own teammates.
The rest of the race was a nervous deal, I was sure Hamilton would actually get up far enough to take the title after all, but lo and behold, he didn't. The real dealbreaker probably was the decision to go far a 3 stop strategy, instead of the more used 2 stops. That probably really cost him a couple of places and points, and the #1 on his car next year. The funny thing about Raikkonen becoming worldchampion is that, despite me being really pleased with it, I don't really see him as a worldchampion Formula 1, I didn't really think he could pull it off as the season progressed this year. Perhaps it's because I can't remember him doing anything extraordinarily in races, apart from his good run in Fuji perhaps. Hamilton and Alonso created all this talk with their actions on and off the circuit that Raikkonen really seems to have gone under the radar to snatch it. It didn't really strike my until after the race that Hamilton, in spirit, really is the champion of the season. Luckily for me, that doesn't count for much :) I hope Alonso will make a move from McLaren to another team (BMW?) and inject them with some speed and fighting spirit, it would be a very welcome surprise to see 3 teams fight over the win next year.
So the race was all cool and exciting, but what about my job? Is it just as cool and exciting? Well it is blimey cold yes. First I'd like to say that having to get up at 5.30 is no picnic. Secondly, getting up at 5.30 stinks to high hell and back. And thirdly, getting up at friggin 5.30 blows major chunks, 5.30 means cold, lots of darkness and it's considered to be bloody night for crying out loud!! No man should have to get up for work at that hour,it's insane. The rest is pretty cool so far, I'm being paid by Holland Jachtbouw, this is a company that builds and rebuilds yachts for people who have more money than... boats. At the moment there's only 1 yacht in the dock, which is a rebuild sort of project, it wasn't really up to the standards the owner, lovingly called a filthy rich mad Russian, was used to, which is what the shpyard is now working on. Nice. As part of this overhaul the machine room has to be painted completely white and this is where I come in, people bring me parts from the main engine and machine room and I paint them white. That, in nutshell, is what my job is all about. I do like it so far as I'm on my own almost all day (love it, I'm my own best friend) and I can make up my own work pace and flow. That really suits my demands.
Unfortunately because of the mad hours I haven't been able to watch Tekkon Kinkreet yet. The little stuff I have seen so far looks very promising with a nice mix of traditional and computer animation intwined, not completely sure what the story is about, but I think it's up to par. I hope to write a little review on it sometime tomorrow.
Wednesday October 24, 2007 -- #10
I'll be honest with you, I'm a bit of a cleanfreak. It's not that I wipe away every fingerprint I leave or see, and I certainly don't wash my hands 20 times a day, but I do like to have things, like my room, nice and tidy and throw away needless things. Needless things such as video tapes. Now I haven't seen many technologies come and go in my life, but I think this is 1 of the first real tech to have become really obsolete, and this fast. At the moment we have a DVD/video combi in the living room so I can watch tapes there and tape programmes if desired. But ever since my mom and I have gone to a store with my sis to buy (amongst other things) a DVD/HDD recorder we've decided to get us 1 of these as well and get rid of the video player. And of the video's too? I wasn't sure at first, but who in their right mind wants video tapes these days? I found about 25 of video's which I own, most of them are normal Hollywood movies (Men in Black, Sphere, Event Horizon etc) so they must be out on DVD as well which renders my hope of selling them to a near zero. It's not like any of them aren't out on DVD yet, maybe there are special versions/editions? Nope. Did they even have special edition video's? So they're not special versions, and the probably all have a big brother on DVD, any hope of a sell at all? After a quick look at ebay/marktplaats.nl I came to the quick and decisive conslusion that nobody is looking for them. Several running ads had as little as 3 views while being on the site for over 2 months. Pointless. So I threw them out. I did think about putting my anime video's on an auction site, but on second thought I didn't think they would create any interest either. It's not that I hope to make a killing on them, but some petty cash would be nice as they're not making me any money now as they're in the bin. But alas, even as cool as my Ghost in the Shell 2 video version looks it really isn't anything special. I thought about saving the box or just the paper inlay of that and some others (Fist of the Northstar), but for what purpose, they'd just get put in my closet and be forgotten. And take up space! So nay, they went in the bin as well. My parents have also build up a small video library as well of about 30 pieces. Junk.
On a better note though I have finally found a job! A job agency rang me and asked if I would be interested in painting boats. Boats? Yup, boats. I didn't even think they were still being painted, sprayed more like and I never paint-sprayed anything. Come to think of it I've hardly painted anything, let alone a frigging boat either. But it beats packing beernuts in bags, and the good thing is I'll be making some money now. The very very very pitch black downside of the story is I have to start work at 7am... and it's easily 45 minutes away from my house so I'll have to get up 5'ish... that's a killer. Sure it's only for 3 months and 3 days a week at that, and true the money will make life a lot easier, I just wish it would all come without this big sizzling downside :C
Still no pc hardware either, they're not having any luck with stocking up and there's nothing in store I can replace my ordered parts with so I'll just be left waiting. Once I do start making some money from my job I'll buy a new motherboard and processor as well, that would mean a very decent upgrade of my system (with all ordered upgrades in as well) over the current setup. Counter Strike: Source, Team Fortress 2, VirtuaTennis 3, Call of Duty 3, Colin McRae DiRT, GTA: San Andreas and Rainbow Six Vegas here I come! Sweeeet.
Saturday October 20, 2007 -- #9
I just went outside, and boy is the weather crappy! It's actually rather dark today, almost like we're heading into a storm or like we're stuck in a fogcloud, no actually it's darker than that. If you had woken me and asked me about the time, I'd have guessed it to be near 6pm with dawn setting in. But it's not even 1pm yet! Freaky. There's also this nasty wet drizzle all over the place that doesn't actually require cover, but it still makes you feel dirty and nasty. I went outside to walk the dog and she didn't feel like going out at all, despite seemingly needing to do her business. I did take an umbrella with me, but didn't use it, just letting the water drop on my hair and touch my head felt good. On the 1 hand it just looks nasty: dark, wet and desolate, not a dog in the streets, apart from ours of course. It doesn't look very inviting. On the other, sinister, hand however it looks really interesting, at least there's nobody else outside walking the dog, or outside at all, and the eerie atmosphere is rather pleasent, in a "gotta run home" kind of way. It almost felt like I was walking in a John Carpenter movie :)
The rest of my day will be filled accordingly: First I'm going to play some Virtua Tennis 3 on my notebook. I finally have my character in the top10 ranking and that should finally make for some harder, thus more fun, games and tournaments. I will talk about Virtua Tennis and its shortcomings in the future, and unfortunately it has a lot of shortcomings :/
After that I'll put in some time on the programming of a new HipHop Chicks site. This is a webshop that was thought up and founded by my GF (GirlFriend), and then realised by us together. There are some issues with the current version online, which hopefully will be sorted with a newer version along with some wishes we had, but will also leave some open I'm afraid. This will be followed with me spending some more time hitting a little yellow ball left, right and centre court (hahahaha get it?!). After that I'll probably make my way to the local mall, shoppingcentre, to put some money in the bank. My account is like a fish on the dry right now, begging, rasping for some moist. I'd thought I'd go give it some.
And then the day will be rounded up by some munching and watching football. Holland are playing Slovenia for their EC qualification. And with the national squad in pretty dire form, and perhaps ditto coach, this should make for an interesting game. I'll have to see how this pans out. Tomorrow morning I've got a driving lesson planned, so I can't make it too late tonight, I'll need my wits to avoid crashing into pedestrians and all that jazz of course. Plus I'll finally, really, be opening my hunt for a job tomorrow. I suppose it's about time
Wednesday October 17, 2007 -- #8
As I mentioned yesterday I was hoping to get a look at Meet The Robinsons, and with a little luck and a speedy line I managed that today. I was hoping that with Pixar (mainly Steve Jobs) sticking with Walt Disney the quality would somehow skip over to them, but alas the worm hasn't quite turned yet. I've never really loved Walt Disney movies, apart from The Emperors New Groove, I'm not sure why not, but perhaps it has something to do with the stupid overly in-your-face way they've always been trying to force a message about moral righteousness across. Love this, do that, don't care about failing, the world is a big happy place. *ugh* Now Pixar too makes movies with similar messages, but they never seem to annoy me that much, in fact I loved Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and (of course) The Incredibles and they didn't shy away from showing us our "errors" either. But at least they brought it in a way that I could muster. Not Meet The Robinsons. Whenever the lead character, Lewis, finds himself in a tight spot there's some sly message cooked up about family, friends or pink pony's to save himself *force smile here* >_<
It's a shame they brought the whole story (which isn't up to much either) in such a corny way, because the character and animation design is awesome! The futuristic city, the flying time machine and the Bowler Hat Guy (villain) are just a few examples of excellence. The Bowler Hat Guy has some scenes which I thought were awesome, especialy the scenes with his younger self and him trying to find a victim for sidekick were really fun to watch. If only they could have maintained that level throughout the movie, it would have saved it.
Tuesday October 16, 2007 -- #7
Sorry sorry, I am still getting used to the idea of keeping something like this updated, so I tend to forget or just feel "meh" about it. I'll get the hang of it I'm sure. In a way it's not even such a big deal, because little interesting has happened to me or with me last week. Actually something that didn't happen, but should have happened, was the main deal in my life. It is of course the muck-up that is my order of some PC components. Yes, I'm rambling about that again. I would have gotten everything in if the webshop wouldn't have trouble getting 2 of the products in stock. The problem lies, apparently, with a 250GB Samsung harddisk and a DVD burner also by Samsung. The other 4 things, X360 gamepad / ATi Radeon 1650PRO videocard / multimedia front (USB connection) and a stick of RAM, have all been lying and waiting for me at the store for well over 4 weeks now. The thing that actually hit me just earlier today was that I haven't received any updates on those last parts, or anything at all, for almost 2 weeks. 2 weeks!! Surely that can't be considered kewl? Not in my kingdom it isn't. I have tried getting in contact with them before, but to no avail. Something they offer is an online order system where you, the customer, can place and replace items on an outstanding order so I've been thinking about using that. They do seem to have a 200GB harddisk in stock and I'm sure they have another (black) DVD burner for me to grab. I wasn't planning on the 250GB hdd in the first place, but my first choice (200GB version) wasn't available at that time. So with a bit of luck I can find proper replacements, have my order in this week and perhaps even save a little bit of money. Only to waste that on something trivial I'm sure. I do still (somewhat) feel they are trustworthy, but their customer support is super crap.
Other than occasionally wondering and pondering about that I've been only a wee bit busy getting "my" movies viewed. I had planned on getting Paprika done this week, and by golly, I did just that! Paprika is a Japanese animation (anime) movie about... erm... well dreams really. For a more proper intro on Paprika go read this little article, it gives you a much better idea on what the movie is about than I could. What I will say is that what I love best about the movie is the actual animation, perhaps no surprise seeing as it's an animation movie, but often they still leave a lot to be desired. In Paprika they make wonderful use of drawings combined with computer technology to create a very smooth and colorful world. Where I thought they went wrong in Ghost in the Shell 2, they went rather super-duper kick ass here. In GitS2 they actually used computer graphics at times, with rather bland/plain/simple/computer-made looking graphics, in Paprika they seem to use silicone power for the actual fluid animation, and my god does that work. From big in your face elements (a large moving carnaval looking parade) to the little things like characters and cars moving around it's all smooth as silk. And for me that hits the exact spot. Don't get me wrong, I love the older style anime where the only computers are the drawn ones in the story, but I love the overall effect of smooth animation in, dare I say it, cartoons. Smoothness keeps the attention away from clunky movement and merits, but on the good things.
I think it was in a Ghost in the Shell special that they mentioned using hand drawn cells within computer animation, but here I can be, as most of the time, completely and utterly wrong. Whatever the case, Paprka animation rawks! I thought the story itself was decent enough, but characters and the major plot are rather just thrown in there without real proper introductions or motivation. And although that seems to have been done, so we're meant to find out throughout the story it still feels a bit lacklustre, and even a bit shallow. Actually I felt the entire story seemed little more than a placement for the top notch animation, just an excuse to go nuts with the freedom a dreamworld gives the animators. Thankfully, that's perfectly fine by me. Perhaps there's more to the story than I picked up in 1 viewing, but throughout the movie I kept waiting for that snazz where everything clicks or the story takes a dive into another direction and leaves you wondering why you didn't see that coming earlier or just wth just happened. It does try, but it fails. A serious recommendation to anyone in love with the animation side of Japan, but the story didn't stick with me.
Staying on the same tack, I actually dreamt of Lewis Hamilton mid-week.
"you wuht?!"
No no no, it wasn't erotic or anything like that, dear mother-of-Billy-from-around-the-corner-with-the-cookies no. I dreamt of him winning the Brasilian Formula1 Grand Prix and thus the World Championship. Sorry, did I say dream? I meant nightmare of course, I woke up with beads of sweat streaking down my face and belly button and... never mind! Ok, so I don't hate or dislike the guy, but I do love those cars with little black prancing horses on them an ounce or 15.000 more, and I really want them to take the title right now and not McLaren or their cuddlybear. It actually took me a moment or 3 to fully realise that it was nothing more than a silly dream and the fight is still on, but boy was that a rude awakening.
I'm still getting through The Stand, but unfortunately time spend reading is still far too little to actually get anywhere with the book. I've so far done a little less than 400 pages, but after I realised the book is over 1400 pages long, rather than the 1100 I first thought, it still seems like a very little step in the The Stand world. In the book a virus, somewhat lovingly called Captain Trips, which looks/acts a lot like a common cold, whipes out just about the entire population of the Americas. So it's rather funny, with a pinch of terror, seeing and hearing people sneeze their brains out on the train and in the streets left and right. But I do sure hope those people have just got a cold... how are you feeling? >_>;
I was hoping to get a look at Meet The Robinsons tonight, but I had some trouble reeling the movie in so it'll take another night before doing that. It's said to be a decent Walt Disney effort after the horrors that were Brother Bear and Chicken Little, or whatever their last jokes were, but I'll be finding out about that tomorrow. I suppose it's not just Pixars finger, but its entire hand, joint and arm in the porridge now. Perhaps not such a bad thing, at least they seem to have their proverbial "shit" together. Also I will try and bring more frequent, and smaller, updates to this blog in case you're interested. Reading and writing long entries like these aren't what I initially had in mind.
ps. I wrote this lengthy entry listening to William Orbits Hello Waveforms and Airs Talkie Walkie, such is the music that soothes me.
Monday October 15, 2007 -- #6
Don't fret, I'm still alive and kicking! Alive anyway. I have yet to find the axe slinging mass murdering psycho which buys model cars through the net. Lucky me :)
The F1 race on sunday was decent I thought. I actually got up at 8am for the race, which is a rarity these days. Usually if the race isn't at the more do'able time of 2pm I just don't bother it, and even then it's a doubt. So I got up for it expecting a corker really with the possibility of rain, Raikkonen a little heavier than Hamilton, Hamiltons' shot at fame and fortune and perhaps a steaming Spanish bull raging after those two. Well the race wasn't as fascinating as that prospect or the Fuji waterballet, but Hamiltons mistake/mishap/cock-up made up for a lot. I'm a rather avid Ferrari fan, I wouldn't go as far as fanboy, but it's always been "my" thing. So I was, and am, still hoping Kimi packs that punch, and wins it alll. The way Lewis has been all season he would have had enough with a second spot and to be very honest it looked like that was going to be easy for him with a 15 second gap to Alonso in third, but at that time he was even in first and all was sunny. Even as his car slowed in the gravel with him fighting for it not to get into the tires I couldn't believe him stranding there. But then obviously he did. And he blew his first chance at the world championship. Amazing. The race after that was pretty much made for Kimi and Alonso. It was rather unfortunate that Massa couldn't match the pace and fight for pos 2, giving Kimi at least a good chance at the second place in the WC.
Lewis will probably still get his title in Brasil, seeing him perform all season, but I wouldn't be surprised if Kimi gets away with the GP victory there. Maybe, just maybe Felipe will dvivide the 2 McLarens, which could give Alonso a positive edge, but then again he hasn't really been in front of Lewis in a while. So Kimi needs a miracle to get the title and Alonso needs more speed than Lewis which he probably can't find, so Lewis for president? Hope not.
As for a reading note: I'm well into Stephen Kings The Stand right now. Still, even with 204 pages behind me I'm not even on a fifth of the entire (extended) novel, so it will still take weeks to finish. Despite that I am really loving it so far, you can click the link in the footer if you want to know what it's about, I will just tell you that I am greatly enjoying this King thing. Isn't that magic, somebody loves a Stephen King book, mask your surprise please! I've read about 5 Kings so far and I greatly enjoy his storytelling, I couldn't probably tell his writing from an Albanese horse, but whatever the thing is with his books, they do read superb. They seem to hold an edge over many other writers that I come across in the way that I really don't want to close the book. But then maybe that's why his star has been shining so violently for so long. King for president? Yeah!
I still grumble at my computer parts missing from my actual PC right now. I ordered a couple of hardware items on the tenth of september, just 2 days after my birthday, hoping to play the soon to be released (or out already?) TeamFortress2 and Virtua Tennis 3, which my GF got me (sweet!). I got the stuff at a webshop which seemed proper, and some reviews over at a site I frequent told me the very same, but things are starting to turn grapes now. The thing is the shop still looks decent, and probably is, but they have problems getting 2 of my purchases in supply. They're doing all contact through automated e-mails which in a way is mighty handy and fine, this way I get proper updates on supplies, but it seems that once supply can't be reached all goes dire. They don't even bother replying to my mails asking what the bloody pompons is with the dodgy dates. So I am in the dark as to when I will finally get my schtuff!
Thankfully I still trust the shop to come through and give me my sweets, but I wish they'd get a move on. The buffoons have been living off my money for almost a month already. I'll keep you updated on my predicament. My problems are your problems. Don't forget that. Weird little dodgy webshop for president? Fck no!!
Tuesday October 09, 2007 -- #5
Goddamnit Hamilton, stupid British teddybear! Raikonnen has to be heavy, he can't just be six tenths of a second faster than anybody in Q2 and be this much slower than that time and other drivers in Q3. This could be rather exciting tomorrow if Ferrari can up the speed and lessen pittime. Give Hamilton a hard time for once will you? Please.
On another note I finally did get the toy I wanted, now I have my very own Rolitoboy. Wahey me. It took some planning, but I went into town after school on thursday and got it. Had to avoid the many football fans roaming Amsterdam, but I didn't see anything bad. Apart from the actual game later that night of course, which Ajax lost (friggin tossers...).
Later today somebody should be picking up some car models which I'm selling, should you never hear from me after that it means the deal has gone bad. Else, I should be still alive and a little bit richer. Fingers crossed. The way the deal has come to be has been a bit odd. I put about 20 models on Marktplaats.nl (Dutch marketplace) on wednesday thinking few people would look and even fewer would be interested, instead within literally minutes I had e-mails and bids coming in left and right. I put an amount with the ad thinking that would be it. Instead bids were already exceeding that within little time. Others however emailed me phrases like "sold!" "mine!!" "ohmygosh I will totally buy it for that price!!" (dramatization may have taken place for exaggeration purposes) thinking they could buy the cars for that amount. So I had to tell quite a few people I was waiting for the bids and see where that would lead. I did get a few annoyed reactions back, but I did try to be as honest and friendly as possible. Sure it sucks to hear a no when you think you get to buy something for a certain price, but if at the same time the bidding price is going beyond it than surely I can't say no to those bids! We live in a capitalist world after all and I sure can use the $$$.
And I'm bloody still waiting for my ordered PC parts to come in, I ordered and paid for them almost a month ago fgs. Oh and I still have to watch Paprika. Maybe tonight, I think the movie should be a very interesting watch. Unfortunately I only make time for it at nights and I also choose to sleep a bit during the dark hours as well. Decisions decisions...
Saturday October 06, 2007 -- #4
So I get up all early, dress sharp, clean out my ears, make sure there's some cash in my pocket and I travel _ALL_ the way to Amsterdam (10mins by train), just to find that the item of my desire is sold out.
Bugger.
So I walk through the stinking cold and wetness that is fall in Holland just to find that very few shops sell designertoys and I'm pretty much stuck with waiting for a new shipment, if there will be one, with the one store. Sure, plenty of other toys in town, but that would create quite an upset with the family. I even went through the trouble of reaching the, once, greatness that is AmericanBookCenter, but since they, for some reason, don't seem to have LoneWolf&Cub in their catalogue anymore I didn't spend much time or money there either. So I just packed up shop and ran home.
And just as I think I can ease my pains with some Ti
Wednesday October 03, 2007 -- #3
I saw the second half of Letters From Iwo Jima yesterday. For those who don't know it's about the attack of the allied forces on the (small) island of Iwo Jima, which falls under Japanese soil, during the final year of the seconds World War. It basically shows an understaffed force, with bad preperations, few supplies and even fewer reinforcements (none) battle it out against a superior American side. The island itself doesn't seem worth dying for, a couple of hundred people seem to have lived there during WW2 and it doesn't seem to grow anything but sturdy grass, but the allied forces can use it as a proper base for their planes, stocking supplies and what not. So obviously Japan isn't too keen on it falling in the wrong hands. The battle however picks up in 1944, near the end of the war, so the Japanese forces overall weren't up to much anymore. Especially on Iwo Jima.
To have at least something of a fighting chance the new Japanese commander (general?) decides that the J-forces need to create tunnels in the hills/mountains on the isle and dig themselves in. Throughout the battle this doesn't seem like such a bad plan. They haven't got the guns or naval support to attack the American frigates near the shore, so had they put up defences outside they wouldn't have stand a chance. In the tunnels however they seem a lot better protected against the bombings, and the Americans can't sneak up on them. Of course with the vastly superior amount of soldiers, supplies and power the Japanese are washed out of their holes by the Americans, but that's not the point. It's rather evident that they won't make it, not in the least because we all know how the war ended for Japan. No the point of the movie seems to be to show us how some soldiers need to make up their mind about giving their lives for father and country (for the Emperor in fact) or see their families again. 1 of the key roles in the movieis about a Japanese baker who never even wanted to end up in the army, but lives through the entire battle constantly facing this question himself and seeing others make the same choice. For some Japanese soldiers this doesn't seem like a choice at all, even when they get the order to retreat and fight on they decide that they can't live with the disgrace of losing their ground and chose to die "honorably"... which means holding a grenade to the heart. Classy.
Overall it was a good movie to watch, the story itself seems solid enough and the second World War always makes a great (wrong choice of word?) backdrop for such tales. At times it reminded me of The Thin Red Line., but unlike it Iwo Jima never seemed to go that deep or have the extra punch which the Line did. Maybe the characters just weren't that strong, or it was the setting (dull little island), perhaps it was even the music which (while good) wasn't as impressive as heard in The Thin Red Line. Whatever it was Letters From Iwo Jima just didn't make that much of an impact that I thought it would. I've always been interested in the Japanese struggle, because of their undying (pun!) will to give everything for their Empire. Even when it's not much of an Empire anymore. But I felt it kinda let down in this movie. I would however recommend the movie to everyone, the story is strong, interesting and sad enough to steal a little bit of everybody's time and just maybe it will empower stronger emotions with other people.
Next up: Paprika
Tuesday October 02, 2007 -- #2