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Reviews
Dreamgirls (2006)
So real, vivid and powerful !!!
It's based on a Broadway musical. The story is about a trio of female African American singers who want to be a star and their producer who used to be a car dealer. It's set in Detroit in the 1960s, when the civil right movement just started.
At the time, it was very difficult for black artists to step to the nationwide stardom because white people took over like plagiarizing songs of black people who were popular in the black's music charts.
The main actor was Jamie Foxx and he acted a bad person who is ambitious and cold like "business is business".
The main actress was Beyonce and she was pretty and she sang R&B songs. Her voice was very high and light.
I applaud the supporting actress, Jennifer Hudson. She acted a fat and not good-looking singer who has amazing talents of singing but her position as a lead vocal was replaced by another member (Beyonce) for less physical attractions. She sang soul music. Her voice was low and heavy and very powerful. Her songs touched me.
Characters conveyed their emotions by singing. I like "Listen" by Beyonce and "One night Only" by Jennifer the best. I had listened to the music on the official cite of Dreamgirls before I went to the movie, but their songs heard in the movie theater were much better than those. They were so real, vivid and powerful. I bought the soundtrack after I saw this movie and am listening to it, but it's not worth for what I heard in the movie theater. I really recommend watching this film at the movie theater. Don't miss it.
It was an amazing movie and the music was great. I didn't want to leave the movie theater when the movie finished because I was so excited.
Baburu e go!! Taimu mashin wa doramu-shiki (2007)
Communication & Fashion gap between a girl from 2007 and people in 1990
It was an amazingly wonderful movie. You must see it a hundred times.
This movie is about the time travel to the 1990 in Japan, where Japan had the Bubble economy.
The Bubble economy started in the late 1980s and lasted until the early 1990s. During the period, people spent as much money as possible, it was very easy to get a job like students chose a company unlike companies choose students now, workers' salary was very high, young girls' fashion was very unique. Ex. they had long black hair and their hair was the same length. It was called Wanren. They didn't put layers. At first, they had no bangs, but later they started to put a few pieces of bangs down and curled the rest of bangs backward and some girls got a very fine curly perm. Female players wore a very tight dress that emphasizes their body line called Body-con. Young people liked going to a disco. There appeared boys who pick up and drop off girls and had no more progress than that. They were called Asshee. The dessert, Tiramisu was popular at that time.
Talking about this movie, it's set on March 2007. In the movie, Japan has a financial crisis like it has 800 trillion yen debt. One guy(Hiroshi Abe) who works for the Finance Ministry asks the daughter(Ryoko Hirosue)of the inventor(Hiroko Yakushimaru) of the time machine to go to the 1990 to save her mother, who hasn't come back to the present and stop the breakdown of the Japan's bubble economy.
It's a comedy. I laughed a lot. And, some TV personalities such as Ai Iijima, Naoko Iijima, Akiko Yagi, Hiroko Moriguchi, Ramosu Rui act themselves at that time.
Communication gap between a girl from 2007 and people in 1990: 1.Club: it means a place to dance and drink now, but in 1990, it meant a hostess bar. 2"....nakunai?: people in 1990 were confused wondering it has a positive or negative meaning. 3."Yabai": it's used to mean very good among young people now, but people in 1990 thought it was a bad meaning. 4. Hirosue from 2007 said to Abe in 1990, " I will call you when I get to the station" It's a natural conversation now because we have a cellphone, but people in 1990 didn't have a cell phone, so when they met up with someone, they had to set a specific meeting place.
Differences in fashion: Hirosue(from 2007) said to the girl(Kazue Fukiishi) in 1990 mentioning her fashion. 1."Mayuge Futo! (Your eyebrow is very wide and hairy!) 2."Fiku Pitapita!(Your clothes is too tight!) 3."Dasa! Sono Buatsui Pansuto!"(Your stockings are too thick and not cool!)
During the Bubble economy, I was little, so I didn't remember or know about it very well, but I've heard of it on TV or something, so when I saw this movie, I felt kind of nostalgia. I want to know more about the society in the bubble economy. If you experienced that age, please tell me what you remember about it.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The pictures are very beautiful
It's a science fiction romance, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. It got Oscar's for the best screenplay.
My plot summary: Joel and his girlfriend, Clementine have an argument and break up. She wants to escape from the severe situations, so visits a psychiatrist's and asks him to erase all her memories about him. One day, the letter, which says: "we erased Clementine's memories about you, so we would like you not to tell her the memories about you." He also goes to the same doctor's to ask him to erase his memories about her, But during the procedure, he realizes that he still loves her and doesn't want to lose her. So he struggles...
The pictures are very beautiful and it has an interesting plot and a good twist. Jim Carrey usually acts a funny and humorous person, but in this film, he acts a quiet and boring guy. Also he looks different like cool and chic, so I think it has novelty. In my opinion, this film teaches us that we want to forget about someone who hurts us, but it will be probably more important to forgive them.
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Holly in the book is more attractive
I've seen the movie,Breakfast at Tiffany's and read the book. After I read the book, I watched the movie. The stories were different. In the book, "I" and Holly are friends till the end. But, In the movie, they love each other at the end. In the book, Holly doesn't want to be possessed by anyone or anything. ''I'' gave her St. Christopher's medal, which was a charm of travel, as a present. But, in the movie, she wants to find a nice husband. In the end, she settled down to be married.
And, She lived up to people's expectation. I think Holly in the book is more attractive. But Audrey Hepburn was so pretty. Capote wanted Marilin Monroe to act Holly, but I don't think she looks elegant like Hepburn. She has high sexuality. It's too much.
In Japan, Audrey Hepburn is very famous and popular, so a lot of people know the movie. Mickey Rooney acted a Japanese neighbor who were wearing glasses, short, not cool, annoying. It's kind of discrimination. I've heard they used yellow face( It means applying yellow paint to white actors face). Now it is banned because it is discrimination.
Capote (2005)
Two extremes met in his mind
It's a biographical film about Truman Capote who wrote In Cold Blood. Philip Seymour Hoffman got the Oscar's for the best actor. He did a great job because he copied Capote's style: the gay character and fashion, high-pitched voice. I saw some movies where Philip Seymour Hoffman appeared, but Capote he acts is completely different from all of the characters he acted before.
This film depicts how Capote got into a horrible murder of a family of 4, which happened in Kansas(USA) in 1959 and he interviewed the local people, including the two killers and finally wrote a novel about it. Capote is said to be the first person to have established non-fiction novels. And, he claimed he was gay in public. It was not common in those days. Capote came over to the killers in the holding cell and prison and talked to them a lot as their friend. Capote had the two feelings for Perry, one of the killers. On the one hand, he wanted to use him to get a story. On the other hand, he had compassion or love over him. Just before the death sentence was executed, these two extremes met in his mind. He visited the prison to talk with them and witnessed the excution. He was traumatized by this experience. So he couldn't finish another book.
I've never read his book, In Cold Blood. So I think I have to read it examing the background of the murder and Capote's bias about the killers.
Hura gâru (2006)
excellent Hula dance show
Hula Girl is based on a true story, which a female coach from Tokyo teaches Hula dance( Hawaiian dance) to girls living in a rural area to make them professional dancers for the Hawaiian Center. It is set in Fukushima Prefecture in Tohoku area about in 1965.
The place, Iwaki was famous for coal mines. At that time, coal was replaced by oil, so the coal mines were almost closed down and workers lost their job. So, some people decided to make a Hawaiian center for a new business. The main feature was a Hula dance show. They hired a coach (Matsuyuki Yasuko) to teach local girls professional Hula dance. The local girls were very naive and spoke in strong Tohoku accent (not stylish ). Their dance performance was terrible,whereas the coach from Tokyo was very cool, fashionable and confident, and her Hula dance was amazing and breath taking.
Interestingly, local people were prejudiced against Hula dancers like strippers. One of the students said in the interview, "My tits are small. is it OK? It's very embarrassing, but I don't care because my father was fired, so I have to make money." The coach said," you don't have to be naked." When one girl put on her costume and showed her brothers and sisters at home and her father found them, he got really mad saying " what a shame! you are almost naked" and hit her many times and cut off her costume and hair. Local men were a sexist. That made the coach really angry and she went to a men's public bath and hit that father bathing in a bath saying "you don't have the right to do such a terrible thing." She was very strong.
The coach was not a kind person and very strict, and sometimes critical to her students. But, she liked her students very much. They influenced each other. Their parents didn't accept that their daughters danced Hula, but in the end, they were re-conciliated and cheered them up. One mother said, " I thought working means to make money doing something tough or hard like to live or to die as your father has done. But after I saw you dance in front of people, what entertains people is also a job. This is also a feel-good movie where you can see relationship between the coach and her students, daughters and their parents.
The ending was an excellent Hula dance show by local girls. It was amazing! But, I personally think the girl who danced solo (Aoi Yu) shouldn't have been that too slim. Hawaiian dance doesn't look great if the dancer is too slim.