Reading and Writing AP Fall 2015

ESL MDb

Reading and Writing AP Fall 2015 Issue #3

TABLE OF CONTENTS Movie Review 

The Way He Looks (Brazil)



In the Name of Love (Vietnam)



Comrades Almost a Love Story (China)



Godzilla (Japan)



Not One Less (China)



Rurouni Kenshi (Japan)



Miss Granny (China)



Case Closed (Japan)



Monkey King (China)



Pom Poko (Japan)



Monkey King Hero is Back (China)



Water Boys (Japan)



Go Away Mr Tumor (China)



Crayon Shin-Chan (Japan)



The Sorcerer and The White Snake (China)



A Better Tomorrow (China)



Farewell My Concubine (China)



Kung Fu Dunk (China)



Lion of the Desert (American)



Wadjda (Saudi Arabia)



Hope (South Korea)



The Beauty Inside (South Korea)



Killer Toon (South Korea)



Cozy Dens (Czech)



3 Idiots (India)

By Lucas Rezende Almeida

THE WAY HE LOOKS In Brazil, we have a popular moto that says: “If you can’t see, you can’t feel.” “The Way He Looks” is a Brazilian coming-of-age romantic drama film, that was released in the cinema to show the opposite: love is a perception by itself, you don’t need to hear, to touch or even to see to be able to love someone.

“The Way He Looks” is a 2014 Brazilian movie based on the 2010 short film called “I Don’t Want To Go Back Alone”. The short film was so famous in Brazil that the director decided to create an extended edition. It was written, produced and directed by Daniel Ribeiro and the full version was revised by Guilherme Lobo, Fabio Audi and Tesse Amorim.

Besides that, the movie opened in the Panorama section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival in 2014 and it was ranked as the 5th most viewed film in Brazil, in the first day alone. Also, “The Way He Looks” won three awards, one in the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, other in International Federation of Film Critics and the last one in Teddy Award as the best LGBT-themed feature. Furthermore, it was selected as the Brazilian movie for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards.

During the whole film, we can appreciate the romantic soundtrack that inspires us to believe that love is an wonderful experience. For instance, one of the songs is sung by "One Direction” called “What Makes You Beautiful”. The song talks about a person understanding

their own beauty and how it can effect the way the people look at them. The music and the lyrics are really important to support the plot. But, the sounds effects and also special effects are not the strongest point in the film, the most important in the film is the conflict between the main characters and how they reflect the real life of the audience.

The plot of the movie is a romantic triangle between three teenagers: Leo (Guilherme Lobo), Giovanna (Tess Amorim) and Gabriel (Fabio Audi). Leo is the blind main character in a high school and he is also requesting for his independence as a normal person. Giovanna is his best friend and she always helps him to return back home. Gabriel is the new student of the class, he sits behind Leo and they start to have a strong friendship. When Gabriel appeared in the class, Giovanna starts to have feelings for him; but, when the story continues, the audience realizes that Leo is also interested in Gabriel. Besides that, there is a girl, her name is Karina (Isabela Guasco), who has a promiscuous reputation and is always trying to pursue Gabriel.

Furthermore, the friendship between Leo and Gabriel started to grow when the teacher gave an assignment that they need to make a project with same-sex pairs. Leo and Gabriel started to get very close and Gabriel started to show the world to Leo and to give him the opportunity to feel more free and independent, as he always wanted. Together, they watch a lunar eclipse, while Gabriel explains to Leo what an eclipse is, using the placement of rocks; they go to the cinema and Gabriel whispers the action to Leo during the movie, Gabriel gives a ride to Leo on his bike, on the other side, Leo tries to teach Gabriel how to read in Braille. At the same time, Giovanna feels that she is losing Leo’s friendship and she begins to get angry and decides to stop talking to them. But a special blind kiss can change everything and resolve all the problems…

My favorite scene is the blind kiss. After a horrible night, Leo comes back to his house angry because he figures out that Gabriel is on a date with Karina, and also because Giovanna is always trying to control him. But, suddenly, someone enters in his house, give him a surprise kiss and goes away quickly. Even though Leo couldn’t see who the person was, he felt who had given him the special kiss.

An excited world with a lot of emotion, new experiences and different feelings happen in an easy and gentle way in “The way he looks”. It is a story not just about love or a blind teenager, but a story of how love does not have any kind of prejudice, barriers or limits.

life. However, Hong Kong was a community where imbued with repulsing

the

Chinese

mainlanders on that time. For the “nobody”, it was not easy to make their dreams come true.

Even

Comrades, Almost a Love Story

By Qing Wang What is true love? Do you believe the love exists between friends? After you watched “Comrades, Almost a Love Story”, you will know the answers.

“Comrades, Almost a Love Story” tells about two normal young people (Xiaojun and Chiao) who left Chinese mainland to settle down in Hong Kong under the British in 1980s.

Hong Kong was mainlander's dream because its prosperous economy offering better chance to achieve success. Xiaojun had his heart set on earning money to marry his fiancée, a girl in his hometown. Chiao had her heart set on a better

though

life

in

Hong Kong was distressful, Xiaojun and Chiao were still supporting each other by the friendship. As the time passes, two lonely souls finally got together. They lived together like a couple but they admitted that they were just friends. They were merely each other’s soul mate, so the happy life was still far away from them.

In this movie, Xiaojun and Chiao’s love story is deserve to be accepted commonly.

When you watch this movie, you will even forgot Xiaojun had made a promise to his fiancee who was in his hometown, you would just want Xiaojun and Chiao could be together.

Therefore, the narrative techniques of this movie guides the viewer’s moral cognition naturally and that is why I love this movie.

My favorite scene is when Chiao lost all the savings by the stock market crash, she had

praised as the second place for annual world excellent films in top 10 by Time magazine.

to work on a bath center as a massage girl. She

As a girl, I really adored Chiao’s

met a gangster who marked with ferocious

personality because she never gave up no

animal tattoos on his back. This gangster teased

matter how hard life was. She worked as many

Chiao and asked her whether serve any sexual

as four jobs at once because she knew what she

service. Chiao walked away and the gangster

wanted——a better life, built a house for her

asked her: “Do not you afraid of me?” Chiao

mother and not to be looked down upon by

replied: “I am not afraid of anything except

others. To be sure, “Comrades, Almost a Love

mouse.” The day after, this gangster marked a

Story” not only talks about a love story, but also

Mickey Mouse on his back to please Chiao. Who

motivates woman to be independent and to

would believes that a gangster has such a sense

pursue personal goals.

of humor and romance?

Furthermore, all of the music of “Comrades, Almost a Love Story” is very renowned in China, indeed whole Asia. “Tian Mi Mi” is the theme music and sung by Lijun Deng (Teresa Tang) who is a famous singer wielded a lot of influence in Asia. No one does not know “Tian Mi Mi”, says in “Comrades”. On the other hand, “Comrades, Almost a Love Story” achieved nine awards in The Sixteenth Hong Kong Film Awards, the best film award in Seattle International Film Festival and be

Yalong Ai

From Life to Film Premiered in the year of 1999, directed by Zhang Yimou, the most renowned Chinese director who created the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony, Not One Less is a quasidocumentary movie based on the Chinese novel The Sun in Sky written by Shi Xiangsheng. It revealed the problems in Chinese society by what happened in a school in a rural area in China. The movie won ten International awards including the Gold Lion from the Venice Film Festival, the Golden Rooster from Chinese International Film Festival, and it also won an award from the Sao Paolo International Film Festival.

The story takes place in a school in a small village in China. Wei Minzhi, a 13-year-old girl, was asked by the head of village to be an interim teacher for a month in Shuiquan Elementary School when teacher Gao, the official teacher, had to go back to his hometown. Wei Mizhi had no teaching experience. Teacher Gao asked her to just look after the students and make sure no students would drop out of school by the time he came back. Her class started with big chaos as she didn’t know how to be a teacher. A rebellious student Zhang Huike always made trouble in class. When Zhang Huike went into a town to make money to pay off his mother’s debt, Wei Minzhi determined to keep her promise to teacher Gao and decided to go into town to find Zhang

Huike. The town was far away from the village and she had no money to buy even a one-way bus ticket. How did she manage to go to town and how did she manage to find Zhang Huike is where her tough journey just began….

Zhang Yimou is a big-time director not only in China, but he is also famous internationally.

Every Chinese actor will consider the opportunity of acting in his movie great honor. Yet, he didn’t use any professional actors, instead he only used actual students from the school and actual people from the village and the town where he shot the movie. Furthermore, he even kept their real names, which is a huge shock to the audience. Though the acting in the movie is not nearly as smooth as acting that professionals could have done, it brought audience to a real life scene. Zhang Yimou didn’t try to create entertaining effect. Another point shocking to the audience is that the whole cinematography is very simple and plain: no special effects; no flashy scenes; no stimulating lighting; no manipulative music. We were left completely free to go wherever our thinking take us to. Thus, we wouldn’t feel our emotions were kidnapped by the director.

The reflection of Chinese society is throughout the whole movie. How primitive the school facilities were; how much attention the head of village, as a representative of government, paid to school; how much people tried to help each other, such as the bus conductor, the tractor driver, the radio woman in the train station, the owner of the small restaurant, the gate keeper of the TV broadcasting station, the head of the TV broadcasting station and the TV program producer. The most ironic scene is how director Zhang Yimou, as a media person, portrayed the Chinese media who appeared to be really helpful to Wei Minzhi, but whom they really try to help? After all of Wei Minzhi’s tough experience, what would be our prediction of the future of this girl who worked incredibly hard, who tried to do a great job and tried to be a responsible teacher; who brought a great deal of attention to school from media and public and who caused the school to receive a great deal of donation. The end of movie unfolded the girl’s fate after her interim was over.

For viewers who are only interested in movies that have visual and sensational stimulation by special effects and modern technology, this movie may not be the right fit for them; but for those who like to actively think in depth, I would strongly recommend the movie Not One Less. Don’t get surprised if you think it is too simple, bland and rather boring when you watch it first time. The more your think about it, the more you would discover the complexity beyond. Great movies normally take more than one time to appreciate.

Miss Granny

By Doris Li

I have watched a lot of different kinds of movies, but this one I have watched three times.

I always cry when I watch it. This movie is named “Miss Granny”. The director is Ieste Chen, and this movie has 6 writing credits. It won an award from the Beijing Student Film Festival.

It’s a story about a 70-year old woman called Mengjun Shen who was living unhappily with her son’s family. One day, she was magically restored to her beauty from 50 years earlier.

The most amazing scene in the movie was when Mengjun took a photo in a special photo gallery. After that she become very young. She didn't know the change until some strange people asked her for a kiss. If you see that scene, you will laugh because Mengjun was so funny.

She was invited to her grandson’s band and when she was chasing the dream, she fell in love with a music director. She was enjoying herself, but life can be unexpected. When her band was going to perform in a musical festival, her grandson had had a traffic accident. What’s the most critical thing was that her grandson was lacking blood and she was the only one who had the same type of blood. However, if she gave her blood to her grandson, she would become old again. Finally, love conquer hers happiness. She decided to save her grandson’s life.

Although people always say humans are selfish, family love is selfless. The director uses this story to tell us that we should respect old people. Everyone will become old. Sometimes they might be nagging, but they usually want to try their best to help us.

After watching this movie, I always think of why we are often rude with elders. Just because they are old and they do everything slowly? That’s unfair for them. They use half of their life to pick us up. When they become older, their children grow up and don't need them any more. They begin to dislike and avoid their parents. That’s so crazy. In this film, the director shows us how the youth treat their parents and how their parents treat their children when they are in trouble.

This movie is not only a funny movie, but also has many educational things. Nowadays, it is a hot issue that youth always disrespect elders. I really love the way that the director shows this big issue to us. It will let people think about themselves. Have we ever done the same things to our parents or grandparents before? Have we ever disrespect our families? If we have done, we should reflect.

I think I will give 4 out of 5 to this movie because it was deeply educational. There are some shortcomings. The development of the story was not clear, and sometimes I am a little confused about the plot. In general, this is a very good movie and it’s worth watching. I love it and I hope you love it too after watching it.

The Monkey

king

Every time my father mentioned cartoons, he always talked about the movie “The Monkey Kinig”, which is a film that was adapted from a famous novel， Journey to The Westii. The novel was written in the 1550s in China and the film was finished in 1964. A lot of stories happened when making the film that made me really fall in love with it. The film is full of Chinese painting styles that are very beautiful. I recommend you to watch the movie, and hopefully you will like it!

The movie is about a monkey, who was born from a magic stone and has a lot of special abilities such as flying in the sky, holding extremely heavy things easily, and changing into 72 different kinds of figures. He regarded himself as the “Great Emperor Equaling Heaven”. The authorities of heaven wanted him to work for heaven against his wish, so the monkey fought against them.

The creators of the movie began to draw in 1959. The reason for this was because the new China had just been established and it was really poor. The computer was not widely available and most of the people in China could not use the computer.

Furthermore, China was suffering from the great drought that lasted for about 3 years at that time. iiiThere were no crops being harvested, so the financial support was limited then. However, the movie required adequate financial support because every 10-minute show needs about 7000 to 10000 pieces of pictures in order to make sure the movie can be shown perfectly. Because of that, the whole movie lasted 113 minutes and had to be separated into two parts. The first part which lasted 47 minutes was shown in 1961, and the second part was shown in 1964. When the second part of the movie was finally shown, all the people that joined together to make could not help but cry right in front of the screen. It was

O

a huge project but it turned out to be worth it. ne of my favorite scenes is when the monkey attended the emperor’s party without being invited. The emperor of heaven gave the monkey a job in order to use him for his strength. The emperor claimed to have invited all the people in heaven, but the monkey never received the invitation. The emperor only wanted the monkey to work for him but didn’t want to admit the monkey as a member of heaven. All the people in heaven humiliated the monkey and treated him as a joke. The monkey king was angry, so he did a lot of funny things, such as making the waiters fall asleep so that he could do everything he wanted to do. He took all the things that were prepared for the party back to his mountain in his magic bag and distributed them to his monkeys. The scene vividly shows how the monkey hid himself and did all the crazy things without being noticed. I like its creativeness because

it is full of Chinese style artistry. The reason why I like it so much is not only because of its imagination, but also because it showed some positive parts of Chinese civilizations. For example, Chinese civilization dared to rebel when the government was exploiting their residents too much, and they shared good things among each other. However, it also reveals how authorities looked down on those that are not in power. They are not able to deal with things so they have to rely on others to do things for them instead of doing it themselves.

The authorities just wanted to exploit more. It mirrors the true status of the 16th century in China.

When the first part of the movie was shown, it was so popular that almost everyone saw it no matter their age. Though they were all suffering from hunger and drought, they were looking forward to the next part. The movie has influenced several generations in China. It opened a new era of the cartoon in China. Under its impact, many people chose to learn how to paint, such as my father. My father is a fan of the movie, and he is pursuing an artistic career. The spirit of the director touched many people.

Making the film for the novel Journey to the West was the director’s life wish. When he was young, he always dreamed about making a film one day. He worked very hard in order to make a perfect movie. The figure of the monkey king is constantly being discussed in his work.

The process was tough and there was little financial support, so the project was almost discarded. But he never gave up. The whole movie cost about 1 million RMB which was a huge amount of money then. He finally did it. He devoted himself to The Monkey King,iv and it won a lot of awards all over the world.

To sum up, it is a really fantastic movie that is suited for people of all ages. It may be a simple cartoon but it influenced millions of Chinese people such as my father. The storyline about The Monkey King is not only entertaining but motivational. I am strongly recommending you to view it, it gave me a lesson about the human rights and the relationships between people. It is excellent and you will not regret seeing The Monkey King.

i

Wan, L (1961~1964). The Monkey King

ii

Wu, C. (1592). Journey to The West.

iii

(2004) The Monkey King. Retrieved from: http://people.wku.edu/haiwang.yuan/China/tales/monkey.html iv

(2015) Wan Laiming. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wan_Laiming

Hantao Yang

May the dream be with us, monkey king is back. As an animated film which published at the same time as Stand by Me Doraemon, this film seems hasn’t any superiorities. When the Doraemon was on in the cinemas in China, a lot of people sighed that it is a recollection of their childhood. But the real memorable character which stands by us is not Doraemon, but Monkey King. Can you imagine a movie with eight years preparation and three years in the making, and the seed money was paid by the director: Tian Xiao Peng. This is a different century now, animated film is not only for kids. And if you want me to introduce you to one of them, this one is the best for everyone to watch. No doubt that different Monkey Kings live in every Chinese’s heart, he is Chinese’s hero!

Monkey King is a myth logical character, his story happened in the Tang Dynasty which is the peak period of ancient china. What’s more, it is also the rapid development period of Buddhism in China. So the story has some part is depend on Buddhist legend. The main plot is about a new challenge for Monkey King. The all-powerful Monkey King once roamed freely between Heaven and Earth, but after angering the Gods, he was imprisoned by Buddha deep within

the mountains. 500 years later, monsters attack a small village to catch the kids for worship. A small monk save a little girl and be chased by monsters. By the fate, he come to the Marble Mountains.

Unknowingly, the child releases the Monkey King from his curse which led to a funny story between them. After experience some challenges together, Monkey King’s attitude to Tiny Monk from annoy to gladness. With the help and encouragement from this special child, Monkey King saves the village from the evil monsters.

Before I watch this film, I already have a mind-set for the animated film which made in China. The original reason for me to pay attention to this film is because Monkey King is my hero when I am a kid. However, when the film began, I was completely attracted by the movie. The beginning music is really a good choice which include Chinese traditional music and some nature music. The excellent 3D rendering made me feel like walk in the ancient Chinese street and enjoy the temple fair. As the first 3D animated film which is adapted from the famous book: Journey to the West, it is a template for other Chinese animated films which maybe come soon. The picture is full of texture which is more natural than the animate for kids.

This film succeed to depict a vivid

image of the Monkey King.

Apart from the other parts, the dialogue between the Monkey King and the Tiny Monk is my favorite part of this movie. The Tiny Monk’s pure personalities reminded everyone of their life in childhood, asked question to parents when we wanted. Even if some of the questions are silly, our parents were never impatient to us.

The Pig Zhu Bajie’s appearance enable the further of the funny extent of this animated film. When the Tiny Monk: Jiang Liuer ask the Pig that he is not good as the god of land, the Pig’s reaction detonated my laugh point. When you watch this movie, even if it’s very funny, please not treat it as a comedy movie like Ant-Man. The biggest difference between this film and other film which was also adapted the book: Journey to the West, it change the traditional values and some part of religion which the book want to show. This change enable the movie become closer to our daily life. And the use of dialect also become a good point to make audiences laugh. It get rid of the heavy traditional burden, make the Monkey King become like a real man beside us. Which surprised

little Monk’s native question about heaven and Monkey King’s shrug face and the opposite answers really made me laugh a lot. The me a lot is this movie is really use a little change to change the keynote and atmosphere of the whole story.

As the saying goes, nothing is perfect. This movie’s end is actually a point which need to be criticized. The most important final fighting with the biggest villain is only 2 minutes, I can’t believe it’s the end when the music was sounded. The suddenly end made me feel awful. In addition, at the last part of this movie, it still walk on the way of other hero movies inevitably.

In sum. Monkey King is the feelings of Chinese, this film explain this perfectly. Due to the lack of exposure and coverage, it still have some defects. However, it is still the biggest step of Chinese animated film’s progress.

As a film mixed with comedy, hero, action and animated elements, it’s the best choice to spend your spare time to watch this movie. Don’t forget, Monkey King is back!

Go Away Mr. Tumor

By Huanya Zhang “Go Away Mr. Tumor” is a Chinese comedy and inspirational film. It’s based on a Chinese comic series which was created by cartoonist Xiong Dun who suffered a lot from her illness. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkinlymphoma (NHL) in 2011. While she was fighting with the tumor, she recorded her life by drawing comics.This is a true story from herself. Because of her strong and optimistic personality, the comics were an immediate hit; people from all over the country sent her their best wishes, even some popular stars. It was Xiong Dun’s wish to make it a film according to her comics. It came out on Oct. 13th this year in China and the audiences were deeply touched by the optimistic girl. This is one of the five films our President Xi Jinping brought to participate in the cultural communication when he came to visit America this year. It will also compete for Oscar’s best foreign language film on behalf of China next year. It is a film that is totally worth your time to watch.

It was directed by Han Yan, an emerging director. This is the first time that I have ever heard about him. The movie tells a story of a twenty nine year old girl Xiong Dun who lost her job because she had a quarrel with her boss, and broke up with her errant boyfriend. She is played by Baihe Bai, a mainland Chinese actress who is appointed by Xiong Dun to act in the film as the main heroine. I love her because I saw a lot of her work. She is such a lovely girl that I think is suitable for the character. When she was having a birthday party with her friends, she fell to the floor. In the next few seconds her friends sent her to the hospital. Then, her fight with the tumor began. With a tenacious personality, she never gave up her life. Although she was suffering pain from her illness, she loved her Doctor Liang whose girlfriend died from a disease, and wanted to be his girlfriend in her imagination. Doctor Liang is played by Daniel Wu, a famous actor from Hong Kong, China who has a charming face to girls. He was born in San Francisco and grew up in California. He won a lot rewards from his acting career. Xiong Dun did some funny things in order to attract doctor Liang in the hospital; she also hung out with friends to have fun; she met Mao Dou and Xia Meng who stayed in the same ward and became best

friends with them. It was a painful process to fight with illness, but Xiong Dun added interesting moments to it and brought happiness to people around her.

Unlike other comedies, “Go Away Mr. Tumor” not only makes you laugh a lot, but also makes you cry. There are lots of moving scenes which made me cry. My favorite parts are every time when Xiong Dun shared her experiences. The most impressive scene is when Xiong Dun was having a conversation with doctor Liang. Xiong Dun said, “We shouldn't be scared to live just because we are going to die some day. Death, is only a result. How we live is the most important part. To have experienced life, loved, fought through difficulties, and overcame ourselves. It is only when we have experienced all these, can we really know what life means.

Therefore, we can’t give up just because we are afraid of losing, right?” (Go away Mr. Tumor).

Life is always full of mysteries; we never know what happen next. The only thing we can do is to use every minute to experience all the moments in our lifetimes. I appreciate that I learned this lesson from Xiong Dun in my teens. I’ll cherish every minute in my life.

The movie has an interesting idea which is that it compares tumors to zombies. The scene in which the main character was fighting with zombies, indicates that she was fighting with her illness. It is creative because it makes the movie more interesting by adding an action part to it.

The make-up of the zombies isn't too scary but strong enough to show the audience that they are zombies. Another great part is the music “Closer” and “I’m Sorry” are my favorites. They use them in the proper time which really makes a difference in audiences’ emotions. When Xiong Dun was saying the touching words at the end of the movie, “Closer” was the background music which is more cheerful and light-hearted. This makes the audience still enjoy the optimistic personality of the girl. The moment when the movie ends, “I’m Sorry” plays which is a little bit help the movie get the audiences attention.

“Go Away Mr. Tumor” is a great film to watch. You may learn a lot of life lessons from an optimistic girl. You will find out the importance of friendship. You will appreciate the ability of love that you have at the moment. It is a powerful movie based on a true story and the actors really did an excellent job in the film. It’s worth your while to watch. I bet you’ll learn something from it.

Chinese Myth Movie Review Jiayu Zhang

“The Sorcerer and The White Snake” is a myth in China. Almost everyone knows this myth. It talks about a human and a shape-shifting snake’s love story. It was made with high technique and special make up and runs about 90 minutes in 2011.

The best news is the movie followed the traditional myth; they have not change the story too much. The beginning shows two ancient sisters, the white and green snake playing under the sea. The techniques of the director and CGI workers helped make the lower part of the body of the woman become like a snake. When they transformed, the sisters become human beings hunting for men for so they may eat their souls to survive. The white snake meets a naïve young physician and falls in love with him. The white snake uses supernatural powers to help the physician heal the human. They have a very sweet time for a while, but a master monk tries to protect the physician from the snake. Because the monk thought the white snake wanted to kill the physician, he tried to talk to the physician and gave him resistance for against the white snake.

The physician does not believe that, and continues relationship with the white snake. Finally, the monk grabbed the physician to the temple to protect him. A great fight scene then occurs at the temple.

The amazing scene is the master monk against the white snake fighting for physician.

The white snake uses supernatural powers to change the sea in order to reach the physician, as the monk has taken him to a temple on the top mountain. The monk wants make the sea very high to protect the temple but, the white snake wants met with physician and nothing will stop her. The waves that were made feel as though they are real and scene is awe-aspiring due to the life-likeness.

Jet Li is the main actor in this movie who is the master monk. He is famous action actor of the world and this shows in this movie. He shaved off all hair for the role of the monk, but still looks very striking. The CGI worked well with his acting skill and it all felt very natural. The other main actress is Shengyi Huang who is the white snake actress. She is a famous actress as a child. She did some special make-up and works hard for the action in this movie. The director Siu-Tung Ching kept his high standard of film in this movie. CGI helped for the snake transform and use supernatural power. The scene, voice, and music all bring the audience into the movie and take you through the story of the white snake together.

Maybe you do not care about the Chinese myth or the technique and CGI of the movie, but the moral of movie lets you know love can conquer anything. Whatever or whoever you are, when you fall in love, you forget the external factors. After that, the important thing is you will have something to talk about with Chinese student!

Waiting For You Wenqian Fang It is hard for people to choose a favorite movie in their heart but for me, it is easy because A Better

Tomorrow

is always my precious

one. Maybe when I was eight or nine years old, I watched this movie so this movie is very old and classics. Although at that time, this kind of movies were very popular and flush in Hongkong, I choose this movie as my favorite among a sea of movie because this movie shows the most authentic feeling and actors are all very good at describing the inner world.

family ties because the development of economy was too fast. People only cared about themselves at that time. This movie was like an alarm to

remind

people

of

this

phenomenon. The most powerful moment in this movie is that “XiaoMa” a man who was very rich became very poor and pitiful. When “ZiHao”, a main character in the

This movie shows a story about

movie, saw that “XiaoMa” was in

pure friendship and kinship. It was

this position and he said “ I has

released in 1987 a time when it was

been waiting for you for three years

very tough for people to care about

that we can create our own sky again.”, which moved me strongly

because I think whatever happened,

When I watched this movie, I had

friendship and kinship are still

to concentrate on the plot because

strong in our life.

it

Furthermore, the actors in this movie

are

very

famous

and

professional. The most prominent roles in this movie are acted by Chow Yun-Fat and Leslie Cheung.

Their performances are brilliant.

They acted many different kind of they had abundant experience to act their roles in the movie. The reason why I like this movie not only because their good acting skill but also because they all devoted themselves in philanthropy. Due to this reason, the movie has a strong continuous influence.

this movie as my favorite one is this

movie

so

wonderful

and

the

meaning of story was so food for thought that every fragment has its appropriate space to put in. After I watched this movie, I felt I had more positive emotion to share with others, which let me feel I can influence others to perform noble deeds. I think this is the conceptual power of this movie.

This movie is very wonderful because of the actors, plot and continuous influence. When they combined together,

there is a

mysterious power to influence the audience to feel touched and they

The final reason why I chose

because

was

has

some

mysterious power to clean my soul.

may think about things in a passive aspect and trust love again.

FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE

ZHU

1

Anyi Zhu

Farewell My Concubine

F

arewell My Concubine remains to date the only Chinese-language film

to win the Cannes Film Palme d'Or. When I first knew that I would write something about a film from my own-language, I felt worried because I did not think there were some popular and interesting Chinese films that I could show to others. After I asked my friends and my parents, what surprised me is, they said the name of the same film, and that was Farewell My Concubine. Even though I have watched this film several times, I can always get something new.

Actually, Farewell My Concubine comes from a Beijing Opera. This film uses this opera to describe the lives and relationship between Duan Xiaolou and Cheng Dieyi. This film comes down to homosexual and some political scandals so it was banned from showing it in China, but I knew it is a great film and tried some ways to watch it. Now I recommend it to you, and hope you will enjoy this film.

FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE

ZHU

2

This film was made in 1993.

The director chose one of the most famous actors in China, named Leslie Cheung, to play the role of Cheng Dieyi. This film showed the rude domination from the Communist party in the 1970s and exposed the ignorance of the Great Cultural Revolution. This film also talked about Cheng Dieyi’s taboo love. Homosexuality had never been discussed before 1993 in China, and this film let more people know about these things, which we did not accept before.

In Beijing Opera Farewell My Concubine, concubine Yu chose to take her own life because her husband lost in the war. She was single-minded. Cheng followed his role as concubine Yu. He wanted to sing Beijing Opera with Duan Xiaolou forever, but Duan Xiaolou did not think so that he had his own family and belittled Beijing Opera in the Great Cultural Revolution. After the Great Cultural Revolution finished, Cheng Dieyi also took his life his life to achieve another kind of eternity. I remembered that scene deeply because it shocked me the first time when I watch Dieyi take his own life. I can understand his sadness from the film. His sadness is a combination of disappointment and liberation.

I like this movie because the director was brave. He criticized Chinese political party and chose a topic, which nobody in China dared to choose. I learned my basic knowledge about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people from this movie, and then I knew that there are some disadvantaged groups in China now. I began to expand my horizon to the world and to everything that I did not know before.

I am sorry this film is forbidden in China, but I recommend it because it is one of the movies, which dared to tell the truth for that period of China.

I recommend this film to you for its brave topic and excellent acting. It is a story with many dark aspects, including taboo relationships, oppressed personalities under former government policies and indiscreet promises but it let me know that I should never give up. Hope you will like it.

KUNG FU DUNK ZHONGKAI YE

I

always tell other people that basketball is one of the most important things in my life.

All my love of basketball is from a movie that I watched 8 years ago. It is called Kung

Fu Dunk. After watching this movie, I was really moved. The protagonist realized that the coolest thing on the basketball court is not the dunk but teamwork between teammates.

The protagonist of this movie is called Fang Shijie, acted by Jay Chou. He is my favourite Chinese singer and actor. That is the main reason I wanted to watch this movie. Fang Shijie is an orphan who has been thrown to the ground which beside the basketball court. A kind person enthusiastically found Fang and sent Fang to his brother’s Kung Fu school, but his master died because of an accident when he was practicing a new Kung Fu technique. Fang became an orphan again. A man called Chen Li discovered his gift for basketball, he never missed any shot.

So Chen let Fang play basketball as a rookie in the First University, but Fang did not know anything except how to shot. Through his hardwork and combining Kung Fu with basketball, he finally learned how to dunk and become a superstar on the court.

My favourite part of this movie is when Fang used his Kung Fu to turn back time and win the game. In the last second of the final game, Fang shots the last ball, because he never missed any shot. But what was beyond his expectation was that an opponent bribed the referee. The referee rushed to the hoop, and used his fist to hit the ball out. Fang was very angry, he used the

Kung Fu which killed his master to turn back time. He succeeded to turn back to the past and have another chance. This time he chose to pass the ball and let his teammate dunk to win the game. After that, he learned the importance of teamwork.

Although this movie’s score is not very high on Chinese or American review and also move viewers. It takes me to the basketball world and teaches me what teamwork is and how important it is.

Even today, it still influences me a lot. As a point guard on the court, I need to have wide sight and to be selfless, because of the teamwork, I do it very well.

If you are a basketball fan just like me or you are Jay Chou’s fan, I really recommend you watch this movie. It will never let you down. It is not only a basketball movie, if you are interested in funny movies, this movie will also meet your requirements.

​ LION OF THE DESERT

​

Omar Mukhtar is an Arab Muslim rebel who fought against the Italian conquest of Libya, just prior to World War II. It exposes the savage means by which the conquering army attempted to subdue the natives.

This desert epic about a Libyan hero who helped his nation fend off an Italian invasion in 1929. Anthony Quinn stars as Omar Mukhtar, who organizes Libyan forces to hold off the encroaching Italian troops under General Rodolfo Graziana (Oliver Reed), who are trying to gain a foothold on Libyan soil under direct orders from the Italian dictator Mussolini (Rod Steiger). With the persistence of Mukhtar, the Libyans, battling the tanks and guns of the Italian army with their Bedouin troops on horseback, managed to hold off y the Italians for twenty years, until Mukhtar was finally captured and executed.

Lion of the desert movie Director: Moustapha Akkad Writers: David Butler Stars: Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Rod Steiger. Lion of the Desert (1981) 173 min Biography,Drama,History 16 May 1981. No awards. The movie take place in Libya and USA. The film takes place in the Libyan desert between the Libyan people and the Italian occupation.At the start to set the scene of the Italian conquest of Libya from Turkey in 1911.Where the Italians attacked the Libyan land for several years.Then talk about the emergence of resistance and led by Omar al­MukhtarBut the Libyan.people refused to surrender them.And there were many opponents against the Italians , despite that there is no equivalence between the people and the occupation in ammunition.At the beginning to the middle of the film tells the extraordinary events of what actually happened between colonialism and the people.

And all the events of the film then you talk about starring Lion of the Desert Omar

Mukhtar.And how he became the main target of the Italian occupation.

Omar Mukthar is honored in Libya as an Arab hero who offered staunch resistance to imperialism. I think anyone will love to watch this movie, I will not tell you what is happened in the film I will advise you to watch. I love him he is my hero. I didn't like Italian occupation to Libya. I have lesson of this movie:We should respect each country each other.All people the right to liberty. stop the war​ .

The First Saudi Arabian Film Ever Made Alwaleed Al-Harbi (Dee)

Wadjda is the first Saudi film ever made. It was nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) film award. In Saudi Arabia there are no cinemas or theaters. This film talks about a Saudi little girl who wants to get a bicycle, but her mother cannot afford it. Also, the community she lives in judges her for having similar interests as boys.

The film was the first Saudi movie ever, and then it surprisingly made a huge success because they film tackles women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. The film was released in May 16th 2013. It was directed and written by the Saudi female director Haifaa Al-Mansour. The top-billed cast includes Waad Mohammed, who plays the role as the girl Wadjda, Reem Abdullah, who plays Wadjda’s mother, and Sultan Alassaf, who is the father. The film took place in the capital city of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. After that, the movie was internationally released in several countries such as the U.S., Netherlands, UAE, Germany and Jordan.

My first impression of the film was that the movie is unexpectedly great. I had a pre-judgment that the actors would not perform well enough, because Saudi’s are not well known for acting. The film depicts a story of a Saudi girl named Wadjda who lives with her mother in the suburbs of Riyadh. Her father is constantly working, which makes their life a little bitter and difficult. In addition, her mother works as a teacher and faces the ugly reality of not being able to drive, which makes her work-life harder to maintain. The film shows us how Wadjda is different from other girls when she wants to get a bicycle, but the society she lives in

makes it difficult as there is an idea that bicycles are only boys’ toys. She becomes very obsessed with the idea of buying a bicycle, but she cannot afford one due to her family’s financial status.

The film shows us how Wadjda is a very fun and loving person that lives in a conservative community, but would not give up her ambitions. Wadjda is a thirteen year-old-student in middle school known among her friends as a trouble maker because she always sneaks her headphones with her to listen to music during class time. One day, the school makes a contest to recite the holy Qur’an which catches Wadjda’s attention. After that, she signs up for the competition that has a prize of 1000 Riyals in order to raise the funds she needs to purchase the bicycle. She practices hard every day with her mother’s help and encouragement.

One of my favorite scenes is in the middle of the movie. One of Wadjda’s friend’s brings Nail Polish to school, and Wadjda tries to protect her friend from punishment. The teacher sends Wadjda to the principal to talk to her because bringing nail polish is against the rules of the school. The scene addresses several social issues in Saudi Arabia, such as women’s rights, life in the suburbs of Saudi Arabia and how most things are taken over by men only. For example, the mother struggles every day to find a stable ride to her job in time, otherwise she could lose her job. Also, it discusses how life becomes harder when fathers are always away from home working to help improve the family’s needs.

The movie “Wadjda” is a great movie to watch; although it does not represent all Saudi Arabian families. Some will think that Saudi Arabia looks like this in real life, but it does not because this is only in the suburban regions. For a first Saudi film the actors performed very well, it is incredibly a strong movie.

“Hope� movie review By zhike Gan

huge physical and mental trauma.

But the court sentenced the man to only 12 years in jail. This incident caused public indignation in Korea.

So-won's parents Donghoon

"Hope" is a 2013 South Korean

and Mihee, who live in a quiet and

film, also known as Wish. It is a

happy life in a small town. One day,

drama film, starring Sol Kyung-gu,

their 8 years old daughter So-won

Uhm Ji-won and Lee Re, directed by

was snatched by a drunk stranger on

Lee Joon-ik. Lee Joon-ik is a excellent

her way to school, who rape and

Korean director, this film marked a

almost killed her. Their happy life was

highly successful comeback for him,

destroyed and her parents were very

and it won Best Film at the 34th Blue

angry and almost crazy. After that

Dragon Film Awards." Hope" was

day, So-won refuses talk to anybody.

released in theaters on October 2,

In order to help her, her father tries

2013.

many way to make her happy, he "Hope" is based on a real story

from 2008. In Korea, a 8 year old young girl "So-won" was sexually assaulted(raped) and beaten by a drunk old man. The girl suffered

hides into the costume of his daughter's favorite cartoon character to play with her and go to school with her. Though a long time, Sowon's condition gradually get better, and her family begin to change and

starts a new phase in their life. They are looking for hope in sadness and despair.

This film has many touching details, such as So-won refuses talk with her father after she is injured, so her father can only be close to her by hiding into a cartoon character quietly. Because So-won is physically hurt, she can only excrete by use

years, I think that the criminal deserves to be punished with the full rigor of the law, he should be condemned to death. If I was Sowon's parent in the movie, I will kill the rapist by myself.

artificial anal, but the plastic bag This is a very good film, it is make sounds, so her father gave her worth to get the best film at Dragon a packet, which filled with sugars Award, although it covers some packaging in plastic paper. sensitive topics. An old Chinese After I watched this film, I felt sad and angry, because she is a pure and kind girl, she is only 8 years old, but she suffered such a cruel thing.

She will remember the hurt that the criminal brought to her forever. The criminal was sentenced to only 12

saying goes," Kindness never gets praise, malice will never be punished." But with time elapsing, no matter how big the hatred will be forgotten, like So-won's family, they looking for hope in sadness and despair.

By Hye Rin Yang

The Beauty Inside day before. Starting on his 18th birthday, this rare disease began making his gender, age and even nationality change overnight.

He quit school at 18. However one of his friends “Sang-baek” knew about his disease.

Sang-baek became his only friend. They started their own business. It is called “Alex”, an online furniture shop. Then one day, he became interested in Yi-soo after The beauty inside is a South Korean film directed by Jong-Yeol Back in 2015.

The genre of the movie s drama and romance. This movie is based on the cannes lions grand prix winner film of the same title. The film stars Hyo-ju Han, Seo-Joon Park, Jin-wook Lee, Yeon-seok Yoo, and etc. There are a total of 123 actors to portray the role of main character “Woo-jin” in the

seeing her at a furniture store. Finally, he decides to speak his mind. Then, they developed a romantic relationship. After first dating, he did not sleep for few days, because Yi-soo did not know his secret, but he dozed off and changed form again. After that, he could not meet Yi-soo. He told the truth and she struggled to come to terms with what happened. However, eventually she accepted his mind and they were happy

movie.

Men, women, children, seniors and even foreigners, everyday Woo-jin wakes up in a new body completely different from the

together.

Soon people around her said that she is an easy woman. She has a hard time. Finally,

she begins to worry seriously about their

probably have some physical problems. For

future when they are together.

instance, he might have to use a wheelchair

My favorite scene is where Woo-gin

or a cane but they did not showed this

asks to Yi-soo for a date, because of the

scenario of physical problems. They only

touching dialogue. He said “Do you prefer

showed his sight and appearance. If they

steak or sushi?” She said, “What?” Then he

showed more details, the movie would be

said, “I practiced this sentence so many

more interesting.

times today because I wanted to take you out

Overall, the movie was great because

to eat.”I felt that he was so pure and he

there are many different looks of Woo-jin,

really loved her. Also, one of the things that

so it was not boring. I would like to

hurt most was that Yi-soo said “I can

recommend this movie. Also, you will hear

remember where we went, what we ate, food

one consistent male voiceover throughout

and even restaurant name, but I cannot

the movie. It tells Woo-jin’s feelings.

remember his face” I think the theme of the

Although his appearance changes everyday,

movie is beauty is only skin deep and love

his sincere heart never wavered. “Beauty

conquers all, because no matter how his

Inside” will let us all re-think about the true

appearance changes, she is always treating

meaning of love.

him the same way. The movie wants to tell people appearances are not important.

However, this movie left much to be desired, because they usually focused on the film’s heroine. Also, if Woo-jin were to wake up as an old person, he would

I

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characters

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MOVIE OF THE DECADE

COZY DENS

By Denisa Sokalova Czech Republic In the world of Czech cinematography there are a lot of movies in which we find lot of memorable messages. However, if we look for Czech movie which is like national treasure then I have to choose the Cosy Dens. Petr Jarchovsky wrote a brilliant screenplay according to the book by the author Petr Sabach and Jan Hrebejk direct this tragicomedy in 1999.

Maybe sense of some situations and black humor in the movie would be difficult to understand for foreigners. So let me give you a little inside information about that. It is about period of Czech history which was really painful for many people. The Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies sent 200 000 troops into Czechoslovakia on 21st August 1968, and we lost national independence for more than 20 years.

The story takes place before this event, in the second half of the 60s.

It is Christmas 1967, just few months before Soviet tanks rolled into Prague.

One of the main characters is Michal. He is son of police officer Mr. Sebek and he is in love with Henrietta Kraus, who is his neighbor. But it is complicated because she is in love with Elien, son of Czech immigrants, lover of the Beatles and wearer of American boots. Michal is constantly trying to get her, but she refuses repeatedly.

Their pubescent story takes place parallel with stories of their parents. Michal's father named Mr. Sebek is committed to the communist regime and worships all things from Germany. He doesn’t understand his son Michal.

His neighbor is Mr. Kraus, who is a war veteran of WWII, hates communists wholeheartedly, in love with all from USA, but he doesn’t understand her daughter Henrietta as well. His role was played by George Kodet who was absolutely exceptional.

Both these families are celebrating Christmas and we can watch lot of funny scenes. Many key comic moments became classics in Czech culture and people know it by heart.

LEGENDARY CZECH MOVIE

"MORE THAN A MILLION OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC'S 10 MILLION CITIZENS SAW "COZY DENS" IN CINEMAS, MAKING IT THE SECOND-BIGGEST BOXOFFICE HIT HERE OF THE 1990'S, TRAILING ONLY TITANIC." THE NEW YORK TIMES

By Josephine Schmidt

My favorite scene is when the whole family comes together, has a coffee break and decides to use the new plastic spoons from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) that were given as a gift. Obviously plastic spoons melt in the hot coffee and Mr.Kraus (American lover) says: “I am just wondering where comrades from GDR made a mistake?".

However, on the other hand, this movie makes you cry. The moment when Henrietta´s mother dies is so emotional. This death causes that two families are becoming in one. Because after few months widower Mr. Kraus finds a new wife – she is sister from Mr. Sebek´s wife. The two men who have totally different political ideologies and ideals suddenly have to find way how to tolerate each other. The entire movie climaxes with occupation. Elien emigrates for their parents to abroad and the same possibility is chosen by Kraus with his new wife and Henrietta. Character of Sebek feel frustration and lose confidence in the communist regime. He even tries to commit suicide.

Director Jan Hrebejk said, “For the generation that lived through it, it was not a topic for comedy. But because we are one generation younger, we came with a little different view.

We could laugh at the absurdity of it while also seeing the darker side." According to my opinion they did a really good job. It's incredible retro comedy without any mistakes. Cozy Dens movie became legendary in Czech Republic and won many awards. Also it was more popular movie in the Czech cinemas than Star Wars or Armageddon.

I highly recommended to you watch it!

NOMADIC

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24

Akane Jishage

The Indian movie “Three idiots” is my favorite movie that I want to recommend everyone to watch at least once in their life. It’s a comedy drama that was came out in 2009 and won 40 awards including the “Best Film” in Filmfare Awards, and got 42 nominations. As you can see from these facts, this movie made a big record as a Bollywood (Hindi) movie. The story starts with three people gathering up 10 years after their graduation to start finding their best friend who they couldn’t meet at all for all those 10 years. On the way looking for him, they recall their college memories with the weird best friend “Rancho” who changed their lives. Just like their lives were changed, I can assure that this movie changes lives of people who watch this movie because it includes many meaningful lessons for life.

The setting is in the cleverest engineering college in India. On the first day of college, the school principal told all the freshmen the only way to be successful in their life. It was to be the number 1. in the college. From that day, their competitive race started. Everyone tried to win the race with so much effort such as cramming all the information in his head, praying to god, or even disturbing others, but Rancho didn’t. He was not trying to win the race; he was just fascinated so much with the engineering and loved it a lot, and it resulted in being better at it than anyone else. One of the lessons we can learn from this movie is that no one can win the person who is fascinated with it. He says, “Follow your passion, and success will chase you.” I personally agree with it so much because I think learning something must not be the thing that we don’t want to do, but the things that we just enjoy. However, because his way of thinking was very different from others, he was called “idiot” by others. But while spending time with Rancho, the way of thinking of people around

him were gradually changed.

Ten years after graduation, what on earth is he doing? Can they find him at last?

I like the story because it includes a lot of meaningful messages in various themes that anyone can related to such as school issues, friendship, and love. The other thing I especially like about this movie is its music. There are several scenes which are like a musical; people sing and dance to catchy and rhythmical songs. After I watched this movie, the songs were repeated in my head again and again.

Also, the fancy and beautiful Indian costumes in the songs let us know about Indian traditional culture.

The actress who plays the main character Rancho is Aamir Khan, a talented actor, producer, director, television personality, and social worker in India. Surprisingly, 3 out of top 5 Bollywood movies’ main characters are played by him. As you can tell from this fact, his way of acting makes people laugh, cry, and get excited a lot. I especially like dialogs of Rancho because they’re always very funny and full of wit at the same time.

I especially recommend students to watch this movie because I’m sure it changes their attitude towards studying and the way to see it. I want to give 5 out of 5 to this funny and very meaningful entertaining movie, Three idiots.

Ngan Nguyen

others. It is not just a horror movie or the movie about a huge monster.

This movie starts with several mysterious incidents in Pacific Ocean near Japan. and fishing boat sunk one after another, and no one knows its cause. There is an island near the accident point, called Ohdo-shima and the oldest “Godzilla” is one of the most famous monster

man in the island expected these accidents were

films in the world. This movie was filmed in

due to Godzilla, the legendary monster in Ohdo-

Japan in 1954 and it is the origin of other 27

shima. A few days later during a storming night,

Godzilla movies. Although this is a black-and-

houses in the island were attacked by something

white movie and there are no computer graphics,

huge and some residents died. The government

it is the best of 28 and it Japanese cargo boat is

sends a research group to the island to find out

worth watching. The director is Ishiro Honda,

the cause of a series of mysteries. Then, one of

who made another Godzilla movies such as

the research members, Kyohei Yamane, who is a

“King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)”. The main

doctor of paleontology, announced in the

actors are Akira Takarada (he acts Hideto Ogata),

government public hearing that they found a

Momoko Kochi (Emiko Yamane), Takashi

huge monster “Godzilla,” named after the legend

Shimura (Yamane Kyohei), and Akihiro Hirata

of Ohdo-shima. He set up a hypothesis that

(Serizawa Daisuke).The length is 96 minutes

Godzilla is a survival of ancient reptiles and it

and its genre is horror, Sci-Fi, and Thriller.

was awakened by repeated H-bomb experiments.

Recent Godzilla movies do not have horror

In response to this announcement, government

tastes and mostly they put emphasis on action

decided to kill Godzilla. Although his daughter

like monster against monster or monster against

Emiko and Emiko’s boyfriend Mr. Ogata

human. Because recent ones are made for entertaining the audience, they are just very exciting. Yet, “Godzilla” (1954) is totally different from them and its theme is deeper than

persuaded him, Dr. Yamane didn’t quite agree with the policy because he was curious about Godzilla’s survival power as a researcher. He looked at Godzilla as an animal, not evil monster or the enemy of human. I think his point of view makes this film deeper and more thoughtprovoking. From the different viewpoint, After considering, finally he revealed it only to Godzilla is kind of a victim of human activity

Emiko. He didn’t want to make it public at the

and Dr. Yamane’s words suggests that. However, time because he was afraid of the future. He after military attacked Godzilla, the situation knew that something cruel would happen in the was getting worse and finally it landed on Tokyo. near future if he reveal it publicly. However, As Godzilla is destroying building and killing Emiko gradually realized his research would be people, Dr. Yamane’s mind gradually changed. the only hope for human to survive from the At the same time, there seemed no possibility to threat of Godzilla. defeat Godzilla because any military weapons didn’t affect it. This incredible toughness and

To sum up, this movie has deep lessons and

destructive force of Godzilla inspires human’s

morals. We might feel something or have some

fear and hopelessness in the movie. I think it

thought in our mind. By using monster, it

suggests the cruelty and misery of wars and

enables us to realize the fear of the war, nuclear

nuclear power. Godzilla takes a role of

power and weakness of human. Actually this

visualizing these fear effectively. By the way,

movie was made over 60 years ago, but it never

there is another key person, Dr. Serizawa, who is

seems like an old movie. It still tells us a deep

Emiko’s ex-fiancé. He was continuing research

story and it never is out of date. Even though

secretly for a long time.

you are getting used to high-tech movie, you will not regret at all and have a positive impression of this movie after watching.

I

t is said that Japanese action movies are inferior to Hollywood movies, because they are less powerful, dynamic, and large-scale. However, Rurouni Kenshin could change that image of Japanese action movies. When I watched it for the first time, it was much more exciting than I

expected, so it became one of my favorite movies. This movie is an important chapter in the history of Japanese action films.

This movie is based on a famous manga named ‘Rurouni Kenshin’, and has two series set in Tokyo and Kyoto. It was trilogy (second volume in Kyoto was separated into two parts) and released in 2011 and August and September 2014, and the director was Otomo Keishi. The first volume, set in Tokyo, won the prize for the best action movie at the first ‘JAPAN ACTION AWARDs’. In addition, Sato Takeru, a Japanese actor played who played the main character, Himura kenshin, won the prize for the best action actor. It tells the story about the end of the Edo period, about 150 years ago in Japan. Himura Kenshin was once an assassin trying to overthrow the Shogunate government and people were afraid of him. However, he wondered about his way of life as an assassin because he killed a young man who was expected to have a bright future, so he made an oath that he would never kill people after the Meiji restoration.

My favorite scene was when Kenshin fought against a lot of enemies at the Kamiya fencing-hall. They attacked him to try to kill him all together. However, he was so strong, and he defeated them one after another without breaking the oath, so he did not kill them but just knocked them out. The action in this scene was so exciting; he kicked the wall and turned a somersault. When I watched this scene, I was so excited that I nearly lost breath. It takes your breath away. This scene also won the prize for the best stunt. It was so speedy and dynamic.

Every action scene is really worth seeing. The movie does not use computer graphics; actors perform in real life. They practiced many times and trained themselves in creating the part.

Therefore, audiences can feel more dynamic and powerful. Furthermore, many famous Japanese actors and actresses played in this movie and they performed very well. The theme song by ONE OK ROCK, a Japanese rock band, is also so perfect and matched this movie very well, and it makes the movie more exciting. Another reason I like it is that we can feel the mood of Japanese old culture through watching it. These movies are based on the era of the Edo period to Meiji era of Japanese history, so many historical people appear in this movie.

It is such a great Japanese action film. It is more powerful, dynamic, and large-scale than people expect. It was revolutionary for the Japanese action movie genre. You will get goose bumps as you watch it.

Ko Homma

“Case Closed”, “Detective Conan” in Japanese title, is a popular cartoon created by Gosho Aoyama, a famous Japanese cartoonist.

The movie series already

have had the twentieth one next year, but “The Last Wizard of the Century” is the third one, which came out in 1999. The main character is always same, Conan Edogawa, his appearance looks like seven years old, but he is actually Shinichi Kudo, a high school student who has high intelligent detective skills.

The main topic of the last wizard of the century is about a memorial egg, a treasure of Romanov dynasty made during the Russian revolution. Phantom Thief Kid, a famous character in Case Closed, sent a message that is including a mysterious code to the Metropolitan Police Station. The code roughly meant that he was going to steal the memorial egg from Suzuki Corporation. Suzuki Corporation was planning to exhibit the memorial egg at a museum in Osaka. Conan headed to Osaka with his guardians, Mouri Ran and her father, Kogoro, in order to protect the memorial egg from Phantom Thief Kid. The important setting in this movie is that some conflicts are happening at the same time. They are about the memorial egg, the criminal, Phantom Thief Kid and Conan himself. The memorial egg is the core of this story related to why the criminal aimed it and why the title is “the last wizard of the century”. Conan’s guardian, Ran

Ko Homma

suspects that Conan’s real identity is Shinichi from what Conan mentions himself and how he acts in this story. Ran is a friend of Shinichi, and thinks that Conan is too similar with him. The last scene is interesting because Ran’s serious talking about the identity of Conan is focused. The relationship between Conan and Kid makes this movie more exciting. In the story of Case Closed, they are rival each other. Personally, the scene of chasing Kid in Osaka is cool one, and it will make audience pay attention to this story.

The movies of “Case Closed” always have features that make stories more fascinating. In case of this story, the variety of characters is remarkable because a lot of famous characters appear and each of them has important roles. Some characters who appear only in this movie have creative background related to the plot itself. Also, sound track is one of the necessary aspects in this movie. Moreover, the setting of locations helps this movie develop. The first half begins with Osaka, and the latter half is set in Yokosuka. Osaka is used as an original city in this movie, but Yokosuka actually does not have a western castle in reality. In this movie, real and designed settings are combined naturally. People can enjoy even the setting of locations that this movie has.

film, they are struggling to get along with the

THE WORLD OF TANUKI Yuka Hoshiba

humans, who are threatening the lives of the tanuki. Furthermore, cute and amiable tanuki leave us with a meaningful message that even tanuki are workin g hard to survive as well as human beings. Therefore, the mixture of both lovable characters of tanuki and the strong message is this movie’s beauty and the reason why I really love this movie.

Have you ever imagined life not as human but a sparrow, an elephant, or an ant? My favorite Japanese movie Pom Poko would take you to the unknown world of an animal and make your heart warm. Pom Poko is a Japanese animated fantasy film created by Studio Ghibli in 1994. This is a tale of tanuki, which is a typical Japanese raccoon dog. The tanuki are portrayed as highly sociable and cultural animals that are able to use “illusions” to transform their appearance into anything including stones, dolls, bicycles, and even humans. This is why the animation of tanuki is varied in three ways: as realistic wild animals, as anthromorphic animals that temporarily wear clothes, and as cartoony figures living their own sociable life. In the

The background is set at the beginning of the 1990’s, during the early years of the Heisei era, in New Tama on the outskirts of Tokyo.

The tanuki in this film are threatened by a large-scale land development project that plans to cut down their trees and cultivate the area for housing people instead of accommodating the tanuki. Hence, some tanuki try to exclude humans from their forest by threatening them, by using “illusions” and scaring developers by taking the shape of monsters and blocking the road with a huge tree actually consisting of a bunch of tanuki.

On the other hand, even in such a situation, some tanuki prefer to try to get along with humans by occasionally transforming into

anthromorphic figures. Although they

frightening such monsters and ghosts once

sometimes have an argument and even fight

were. Now, their appearance seems more like

in the village community, you can see their

an entertaining parade rather than horror

cooperation and consideration even if they are

haunting.

under such physical and mental struggles. In addition, you can enjoy their cunning, weird,

The movie Pom poko does not really have a

and funny shapeshifts throughout the film,

happy ending because the tanuki are almost

and so there is never a point where you can

powerless against the humans even when

hate their mischief.

they rack their brains and work hard. However, their warm, funny, weird and silly behavior as

Later in the film, the tanuki try to carry out a

well as their struggles would entertain and

big haunting in order to scare the hundreds of

touch you regardless of age. They laugh, sing,

new citizens in New Tama away. This is my

dance, study, grieve, fight, and fall in love

favorite part of this movie. Tanuki cling

showing no differences from human beings.

together and disguise themselves as

Whenever I watch this film, I cannot help but

Japanese typical monsters and ghosts called

to think that there is a real tanuki society

yokai. This includes a rokurokubi, a woman in

somewhere in Japan and I easily say hello

kimono whose neck comes off the body and

without knowing that they are tanuki disguised

flies freely, and an oni, a creature which only

as humans.

has one huge eye and two long horns. Though the families living in the new houses or apartments see the apparitions, instead of fear, they react with wonder and even delight because the yokai, disguised by the tanuki, are too comical to scare people who live in a world where they have forgotten how

The Brightest High School Life Yusuke Nakada

I

f I was asked about my favorite movie, I would come up with many answers because I like watching movies regardless of genre. However, if the audience were foreign people, I would like to recommend “WATER BOYS”

to them. I am always impressed by this movie because it reminds me of my high school life. It tells us the beauty of friendship and the importance of firm belief.

This movie describes the story of a high school boys’ swimming club. What is unique about them is that they are doing synchronized swimming. When this movie was released, few men had been doing synchronized swimming in Japan. In this movie, at first, the main characters who started doing it were mocked by other students. However, as the story passes, their passion influences other students, and finally, about 30 boys aim for one goal: performing at the school festival.

The movie was released in 2001 and was directed by Yaguchi Shinobu. His works are really popular in Japan because they are so comedic and touching that all generations can enjoy them. Moreover, the reason why this movie was a huge success is the main actors. For example, Satoshi Tsumabuki and Hiroshi Tamaki have become popular because of the acting in this movie. Tsumabuki won an Academy Award for Best Actor in Japan that year. All

actors’ swimming skills in this movie are also amazing. They do not use stunt doubles, they swim on their own. They look like professional synchronized swimmers.

My favorite part in this movie is the scene of the performance of synchronized swimming. About 30 boys make various formations and dance to pop music in the pool. The movement is dynamic and synchronized with music perfectly. Their performance makes me happy and excited, so I always get goose bumps. I want to join them even though I am not good at swimming.

The theme of this movie is probably the mindset of never giving up and the importance of friendship. The main five characters were made fun of by others at first, but they never gave up their goal. Then, their passion moved others’ hearts. I learned the importance of having goals. In addition, their friendship is really strong and they spend most of their time together.

Sometimes their opinions clash, but they overcome it and their

relationship becomes stronger. I played a team sport in high school, so when I watch this, I always miss my teammates.

“WATER BOYS” is a happy and touching movie. Even when you are depressed, you will be happy after watching it. It reminds us of the brightness of youth, the importance of making every effort to achieve your goal and the value of your friends.

A MASTERPIECE MASATO SUZUKI Crayon Shin-chan is a Japanese manga

experience for themselves what they went through

and anime series written by Yoshito Usui. Shin-

in the 1970s. A notification from the theme park

chan is a main character in the series and always

says “We will pick you up” through a TV adver-

makes me laugh out loud whenever I am depressed

tisement. The adults in Kasukabe town where Shin-

or frustrated. He is always so truthful to himself

chan lives are glad to know about it and they all

and he loves the way he lives his life. It is his silli-

stop working and abandon their children to go to

ness that gives rise to my happiness. Crayon Shin-

the theme park. The park is owned and operated by

chan also has been adapted for the screen both as

a secret society “Yesterday Once More.” The ring-

movies and as a television series. Episodes of this

leader tries to let people be reminded of their old

TV animation series are usually for children, but

days and take them back to their past. The next day

their movies are for both children and their family.

the secret society steals the adults from Kasukabe

The director Keiich Hara said that Crayon Shin-

town. They also try to get their kids to the theme

chan Arashiwo Yobu Otonateikoku No Gyakusyu,

park to have them grow up as servants. Once Shin-

one of the movies, was created for adults, especial-

chan and his friends question their scheme, Shin-

ly those who used to live in the 1970s. The reason

chan tries to get his parents back from the theme

why I like this movie is that you can definitely feel

park.

the Japanese atmosphere. The songs, toys, and

My favorite scene is when the kids try to

townscapes in this movie bring back memories. In

escape from the crowd of the secret society by bus.

addition to this nostalgia, you can see the love of

Nobody knows how to drive, but one of the kids,

family. This is a movie that makes me laugh and

Boo-chan, says, “I have seen my school’s principal

cry.

driving. I can probably drive the bus. ” He starts The 20th Century Exposition, which is a

theme park for adults, enables them to re-

driving, but his legs cannot reach the brake or the accelerator. I thought they were not going to make

it, but they all put their knowledge and bodies to-

goodbye to your glory days in order to enrich your

gether to drive the bus. They are so cute in this

life. Shin-chan hopes that he will live happily. It is

scene and you can see each kid’s personality by the

impossible to make his dream come true without

way they drive. For example, the quietest boy be-

his family: Hiroshi, Misae, Hima, and Shiro. Over-

comes arrogant when he drives. All of the children

all the funny and emotional scenes are great in this

are individually outstanding and their funny and

movie.

cute jokes kept me on the edge of my seat.

This movie is nostalgic for the period of

Watching this movie has been helpful in my life. When I feel lonely, I watch it and sing a

high economic growth in Japan. The Osaka World

silly song that is featured in this movie and laugh a

Expo symbolizes this rapid growth and the quality

lot. When I watch this movie with my older brother,

of the 20th century which was pretty good. If I was

I really want to be kind to him. I highly recommend

born in the 1970s, I would be more excited to

this movie, and I think it is a good movie to watch

watch this movie, but men and women of all ages

regardless of how you are feeling. After you watch

have a high opinion of this movie. This is because

this movie, you also will think how important your

they all can look back at their own good old days.

family is for you.

In addition, Crayon Shin-chan movies always let us think about our family and our love for family. The sense of nostalgia and familial love make me cry. I think that this movie belongs to the comedy genre, but it also made me cry. I did not really understand what the movie wanted to tell audiences the first time I watched it when I was 9 years old. I understood more after I became more mature following my parents’ divorce. I suddenly cried without any consciousness while I was watching this movie again. I noticed that I had been longing for a family like the Shin-chan's family. This story also shows you that it is easy to stay in the fantasy of the good old days, but it doesn't mean that you live in the real world. You sometimes need to decide to say