Met last night. We were originally planning to hit Ananda Fuara, but it turns out they’re closed on Sundays (which he fortunately noted before we crossed the bay =). Instead we went to mondo expensive Indian palace which has good indian food (though I still prefer udipi’s). A good time was had. We then hit eudamonia. Turns out he has had some exposure to strategy board games. Excellent. Then we hit comic relief, where I introduced him to barry ween (though he seemed more interested in strangers in paradise). I also had a chat with the guy at the counter about nausicaa. And a little websearching today turns up a reference to the ghibli collection dvd set, region free, for $60. This is so cool, it must be illegal. Pity I’m broke and have nothing capable of playing dvd’s regardless of region. Cruel world.
We then see triplets of belleville. Before the actual show, there was a short which was apparently inspired by a long ago plan by salvador dali and walt disney to make something together. It was pretty surreal. Anyway, triplets is an animated action/comedy from Montreal which takes a critical eye towards the US (and probably france as well). There are only two lines spoken in the entire movie. A little bit of singing in there, too, but the lyrics can’t quite be made out, so it really doesn’t count. But I still liked it, really. It was cute. Don’t know what else to say without giving stuff away. Check it out, if only to see something different from what you’re used to.
But after that, Eric and I went our separate ways for the evening.
lol
you make it sound so final. 🙂
hence the “for the evening” 😉
yes, the Ghibli box set is very very bootleg (they’re DVD copies of the official laserdisc box set). a couple of years ago it was the only hope for versions of the films playable in region 1. Buena Vista in the UK has announced the impending English dubbing and release of many of the films that western fans had given up hope on (Nausicaa and Pom Poko for example), but there’s still no word on whether they’ll see a US release (Pom Poko is especially problematic because of the testicles; too bad since it’s such a good film).
glad you liked Triplets. 🙂
That’s too bad. I don’t know why, but I kinda like the subbed, rather than dubbed versions.
Completely unfamiliar with Pom Poko. What’s it about? Am I missing anything? =)
actually, those are subs in addition to the dubs. Princess Mononoke was the first Ghibli film that Disney released on DVD (through Miramax) and they were originally going to have only the English dub but the negative response was so overwhelming that they delayed the release to add the original Japanese language track as well with original language subtitles. for subsequent releases they have included both languages (although Kiki’s Delivery Service has “dubtitles”, which are subtitles showing the dialogue from the English dub, so sometimes there are subtitles that don’t follow the actual Japanese dialogue, or appear onscreen when nobody is actually speaking on the Japanese language track). by the way, the bootleg set has adequate (if sometimes silly) subtitles. they’re similar to what you’d get on a Hong Kong import film.
Pom Poko is one of Isao Takahata‘s films (he also directed Grave of the Fireflies). his stories tend to deal with realistic contemporary themes (Grave was about two children living in the rubble after the firebombing of Kobe during World War II and Only Yesterday is about a young businesswoman from Tokyo remembering her childhood while working over vacation as a day labourer on a benibana field), and while the tanuki in Pom Poko are cartoony and fantastical, the environmental concerns are deadly serious and the imagery is very beautiful. still, everyone seems to get hung up on the testicles. it’s apples and oranges to compare Miyazaki and Takahata; Miyazaki wants to wow you and warm your heart and Takahata wants to challenge you and make you think about the world more seriously. however, i’d highly recommend his films.
sorry, i got a little long winded again. 🙂