Okay, so I just got back from the movie Speed Racer which came out today in Japan. The reviews were mainly thrashing the movie and with some good reason. But, I'll talk only a little bit on impressions of the movie and more of the day and some things I found interesting about Japanese cinema.
Originally, it was Yoshiko, Laura, Beth, and I, but Yoshiko had things to do and was recovering from being sick, so she left slightly before after dinner. When the rest of us got to the movie theater, we found out that the showing we picked only had Japanese dubs. Beth decided to go home and I like listening challenges sometimes, so I decided to stay with Laura to watch the movie. We entered the theater, and it was really small and narrow. The interesting things I noticed were that at this particular theater, the curtains were strung over the screen until the pre-movie ads/movie started. About a minute before the started, a chime played signaling moviegoers to get in their seats. I thought that was amusing, because it was exactly like the chime or tune that is played when a train is about to leave a station.
Anyway, from what I understood of the plot is that Speed was the next upcoming star and this guy wanted to sponsor him. However, this other guy did shady deals with another guy that was the main bad guy in the movie, but speed declined before all that is shown. The racers that are sponsored cheat like hell, and this Rex X guy decides to help Speed and this other dude to form their own team against the bad guys. Yes, I didn't remember names real well because of the fact that it was dubbed in Japanese. Nor did I understand why the bad guy was doing things sometimes. But, other than that, I can understand general plots of American movies. Especially, one as pretty straight forward, packed with action and less storyline. The art was pretty amazing in the sense it was like I was on LSD or something. Lots of bright colors and such. After the movie was over (omg, it ran over 2 hours long), Laura had to catch her last train, so we left. It was amusing to note that the lights in a movie theater in Japan don't come back on until the very end of the credits. Nor do Japanese people leave before the end the credits. I was confused. Maybe it is out of courteously or something, but I felt we take for granted movies and we didn't really care about the names of actors that actually were in the movie. I don't know, but it was interesting to see anyway.
Anyway, planning on going to see another movie tomorrow called 花より男子 or Hana yori Dango (Boys before Flowers) a romantic movie based on the best selling manga with Yoshiko and possibly Keleih. Another thing to note is that Japanese movies can be expensive and don't usually change prices depending on what time of day you go. At least not the movie theater at Oyama station. It's 1200 yen normally or 1000 yen if you show your student ID.
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