A Golden Week of Movies

Wow! Golden Week is nearly over! What happened?

As most of you probably know, Golden Week is a collection of unrelated holidays that all fall around the same time. Depending on the year, they can result in either a couple of long weekends or an entire week off. The name comes from a promotion carried out by the cinemas on one of the years that they had a whole week off. The promotion is long gone but the name lives on.

Since our son was born, we haven’t been able to watch many movies, even at home. Luckily, this week he let us watch two.

The first was "American Splendor." Most movies are about extraordinary [special] people (like Superman or Spiderman) or ordinary people who do extraordinary things. “American Splendor” is a true story about some pretty geeky people [A “geek” is a strange person who is often very unfashionable – in Japanese you say “Otaku] who lead ordinary lives. The movie is part drama, part animation, and part documentary. It seems very depressing at first but it has a surprisingly uplifting [it makes you feel good because it has a positive message] ending. Do yourself a favour [I recommend you watch it!]

You can get information about this movie in Japanese by clicking on "American Splendor"
There’s also an interesting short review in the style of the movie (in English) at "American Splendor” Review

We rewarded our son for his patience by watching "Superman Returns," which, while set in Metropolis, was actually filmed in Sydney. It's another surprisingly good movie (directed by Bryan Singer, who also directed "the Usual Suspects"). The highlight – for us at least! – was when Superman, having saved the world from disaster by exposing himself to lethal [deadly] doses [amounts] of Kryptonite [a special crystal that can kill Superman] (believe me -- It's better than it sounds!), passes out in space. His body re-enters the atmosphere and he falls to earth, landing in a park, on almost the exact spot where my sister got married last October! What a hoot! [It was very, very funny]

You can get information about this movie in Japanese by clicking on "Superman Returns"