Inception Friday July 30, 2010
Just saw this movie yesterday with Larry and Mike. I really liked this movie so there’s a lot to talk about. The first thing you’ll notice is the all-star cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page (Juno), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Cilian Murphy, and Michael Douglas! Not to mention it’s written and directed by the mastermind that made Memento, The Dark Knight and The Prestige. The acting in this movie is off-the-charts good. Now let’s get into the story a bit…
The story is not very complex, but the concept the story is based on is. That might be hard to understand, but it’s simple if I compare it to a movie that everyone knows: The Matrix. In the movie the Matrix, when someone entered the Matrix the rules of the normal world no longer applied. There are many different rules inside the Matrix and they must be learned throughout the movie. With Inception, the concept is very similar — except instead of the Matrix, the characters are entering their own dreams.
Inception is at first about the idea of extracting hidden information from inside the minds of important individuals by entering their dreams. An illegal act, the people that can do this task are highly valued, especially by corporations. Leo’s character, Cobb, who has landed himself in trouble from doing this has been forced to flee his country and is searching for a way to clear his name and go back home.
He finds hope in the head of a major corporation who has a lot of power. With one phone call, he claims, his record will be wiped clean and he can go back home to his family. What he wants in return is the opposite of extracting information, inception. He wants to plant an idea in a rival corporation head’s mind through his dreams.
As I said earlier there are a lot of rules to learn as the story progresses. Cobb assembles a team of other dream navigators to infiltrate the man’s head and plant a deadly idea in his mind. When they enter his dreams, anything can happen. To plant the idea deep enough they have to go deep into his mind by dreaming while in the dream. This is where things get a bit complex and I don’t think I can adequately explain how it all works. Basically falling asleep inside a dream will start a new dream inside of a dream and bring you a level “deeper.” The deeper you go the farther from reality you get and the harder it is to get back.
The reason I bothered to explain in such detail about the concept is because of how interesting it is. It’s not only a unique concept, it’s a very entertaining movie. The movie is filled with edge-of-your-seat action and puzzling concepts. It’s a movie you have to actively watch, but it’s very stimulating. That’s something special that not many movies have. For these reasons, Inception is at the top of my recommendation list this summer. See Inception! See it in theaters. You’ll thank me.
Posted at 12:45 am
Kiyoko, my Nagasaki host mom has been staying at our place for the last week. In the meantime, she is sleeping in my room and I have been relocated to the basement. I have my laptop down here, my summer class work (Trigonometry), and a TV. She brought us some clothes from Japan as a gift and gave them to us today. Her son, Hideko also made us some pottery.
Mom and Kiyoko with Hideko’s pottery.
Mom got a jinbei.
And so did Dad.
I already had a jinbei, so she got me a yukata.
Mackenzie was at work when we got these gifts, so her pictures are at the end. Today, we all made sushi together!
Kiyoko doing some preparations.
Kiyoko taught Mackenzie how to fold paper cranes. Here are some of her creations.
Sushi ingredients.
Mom made the first roll. She was excited to go first.
We each made our own. This one was mine.
Mame’s roll.
Sierra loves sushi, too.
Mackenzie made a simple cucumber and sesame roll.
All of our sushi.
Mom’s rolls after cutting.
Cutting.
All cut!
My sushi again.
いただきまーす
Sierra.
Mackenzie’s yukata. It suits her well.
Posted at 12:21 am
Sierra Relaxing Monday June 28, 2010
Posted at 2:28 am
I just finished reading this book today. It’s the third book by Murakami that I’ve read and I’ve loved every one of them. Murakami is a Japanese author and he writes very beautiful books. They usually have very dreamlike stories and contain a lot of unexplainable events. Wind-Up bird is no exception. It follows a fairly linear story in the first third of the book. It is on the surface a story of a man, the narrator, and his wife.
They live a fairly normal life, but the man meets many strange people throughout the story and heading into the second part of the book, things take a turn for the bizarre. His wife mysteriously never returns home from work one night. Completely lost, the man resolves to find out what happened to his wife and, if possible, bring her back home. Relying on a cast of strange allies with their own special quirks, he ventures into dream-like worlds far away.
There are a lot of mini-stories that are in this book as well, mostly about World War II. Those were my personal favorites. Murakami is a master writer and always leaves the reader wanting more. Even once the book is over, some things are simply left unexplained. This is done I suppose to make the reader reach their own conclusions or at least think about what is missing a bit more. I was sad when I reached the end of this book because I enjoyed it so much.
I found out after doing a little bit of researching that the English translation of this book, done by Jay Rubin is actually quite different from the original Japanese. Two chapters have been eliminated completely as well as many passages from the rest of the book. This was done because the book is very long and the publisher told Rubin he had to cut the book by 25,000 words. I don’t see how they could do such a thing to an award winning book such as this. I really want to read the missing content, but reading it in the original Japanese is pretty much out of the question. I can speak Japanese and read it, but reading a novel is an entirely different thing.
I was disappointed when I heard this news, and there is no uncut version published in English. In Russian and a few other languages, I know for sure it is uncut. Maybe sometime in the future an unabridged version will be released in English. Someday I may be able to read the original Japanese, too. So, whichever comes first. I am waiting for that!
If you’ve not read a Murakami book in your life, I recommend reading one. This is the third book I’ve read by him and if I could pick one to recommend it would either be this one or
Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. This book is definitely at the top of the list. If you are interested or curious about popular Japanese fiction, this is an amazing book.
Posted at 1:10 am
Today was Mackenzie’s Graduation party. My host mom from Nagasaki also came to America and this was my first day seeing her since I lived in Japan. Here are some pictures from the party…
The family.
Mackenzie’s cake.
Carol, Mame and Kiyoko, my Japanese host mom.
Kiyoko and I.
Badminton net.
Andy.
Dad and Peter setting up the cotton candy machine.
Fruit and food. There was a lot of good food.
Cotton candy.
Mackenzie and I.
Party overview.
Mame and Kiyoko playing some lawn games.
.
Posted at 12:34 am
