NANA the movie

Hachi (Aoi Miyazaki) & Nana (Mika Nakashima)

Manga version of Nana(right) & Hachi(left)

Ai Yazawa's famous manga series 'NANA', which's now adapted into movie is high on Japansese box office chart. The story is centred around two girls with the same name 'NANA' who happen to meet and live together under a strike of fate. One of them(the cool looking one) is a promising punk singer with a complicated past and a wild ambition to make her name in the music industry; and the other chubby and cute one is an ordinary girl who struggles for a decent living and falls in & out of love all the time. It's a story about two women with the same name and entangled fates, but more of life and reality itself.

To make the differences easier to see, the punk singer goes with the name 'NANA'(meaning 7 in Japanese), and the chubby one is nicknamed 'hachi' ('8' in Japanese)

Mika Nakashima (NANA), who's already a popular singer in real life, is perfectly tailored for the role. Cool looks, good voice and a hell of lot personality to go with. Aoi Miyazaki (Hachi), a young rising star on the other hand, is sweet enough for the role although not as spontaneous as depicted in the orignal manga. About the main male character Ren (Nana's lover), well... they could've chosen a less feminine looking actor.


Hachi(voice over): Ne, NANA, atashitachi no deaiyo omoideru?
[Hey, NANA, remeber the first time we met?] -> Trailers

- Links -
Official Japanese Movie Website
TBS NANA the movie[in English]

shunji iwai collage

 


Yeah, Picasa is cool! Thanks for the recommendation Jady!

Shunji Iwai the aestheticist. You probably notice these trademark elements in his films: beautiful looking actors & good use of lighting.

Lighting is important. (although it's probably not Shunji iwai himself in charge of it)

The most striking scenes I remember in which extravagant lighting is used:

All About Lily Chou-chou - the boy's trying to play Debussy on piano. He strikes a few keys, misses just as many and later crouches on the chair. The picture freezes for a few seconds. Morning light is pouring through the open door and his profile shrouded in a warm embrace.

Hana & Alice - that, you can see in the photo above. Hana dancing in that bright room, bright to the point of blinding.

April Story - she slides open the window. It's April and she just moves in her new apartment. It's such a heart-warming start.

Picnic - at twilight , near the coast line where they watch the sun set, she shoots herself. Black feathers flying. An angel falling.

Beauty - a word Shuji Iwai knows well. 

wonder land

 


yesterday's adventure retold in a short summary

So you see we get the back of our hands stamped. That's where the craziness started. Huge human-made pendulum swinging to unimgainable height(althou we didn't go for that) and a crab like megarobot that suddenly jerked its arm up and just as abrupt dropped you down when you were least prepared! There was a man sitting opposite me when we rode the crab. While the ladies screamed their voices coarse, his eyebrows went 8:25 and his head shook in awkard disconsent, 'Oh C'mon laides' was what he was silently suggesting but of course nobody heard.

There was also a 'drop zone' where mad people who wanted a taste of bungee jump were brought up to 20 storey height and whoosh! in a matter of 2 seconds, were back on the ground. The only visible difference was their facial expression. Stunned, horrified or totally erased. 'Holy mother of god!'A man shouted after finally getting his senses back.

The fact that I puked after 3 rides wasn't comforting. I was plainly too scared to torture myself with anti-gravity/acceleration/centrifuge games, where all knowledge on kinematics came back but made no sense.

Humans are the crazist masochists - good lesson learnt. Still, I might just go there again some time ^^ 

nonsense & wonderland

two elements in the title don't corelate in any way.
I'm plain too tired to write any sensical stuff on our trip to wonder land today.

Here comes the most nonsensical msn conversation between guizi and me, which took place somewhere near 1 o'clock midnight.

We were saying something about 'Beware! You're in big trouble' and on we moved to the topic of 'how to murder'.(we're in no way violent though)

GUi Zi:
but i have a much bigger one

ZhU:
i know u r gonna beat me with ur super big knife
but i'll hide it before u get to it

GUi Zi:
even u melted the two and make them into one, mine is still bigger

ZhU:
i also have a pen knife, one big scissors and a small one
and a super big nail clipper

GUi Zi:
what are u going to do?

ZhU:
the more the better

GUi Zi:
i didn't say i m going to kill u using knife

ZhU:
not sure wat to do yet, but materials are important

GUi Zi:
there are plenty of ways

ZhU:
including reminding someone the thrill of bungee jump or free fall

GUi Zi:
i can tell a joke, and u may die of the coldness

ZhU:
there you have me, i claim my loss
i worship u

GUi Zi:
i can shou mai the front desk and ask them to cut ur internet, u'll die within 24hrs

ZhU:
if they cut mine, u r so so so dead

GUi Zi:
due to extreme boredom or yu men

GUi Zi:
or extreme anger

ZhU:
i'm gonna come back from the dead and take my internet revenge on u

GUi Zi:
now i know .i should know it earlier, u take internet more important than ur future daugher/son's mother-in-law

ZhU:
without internet, there's no me, if there's no me, there's no 2nd generation and no you-know-what mother-in-law that ever exists

GUi Zi:
你与网络共存亡！

GUi Zi:
great!

GUi Zi:
nobel prize on internet worshipping

ZhU:
i hope there IS one

ZhU:
what abt u go sponsor that

GUi Zi:
nobel prize from me

GUi Zi:
hehe how did u know what i was thinking abt

ZhU:
coz u r mean

ZhU:
i'm mean 2

GUi Zi:
let's just cut it

ZhU:
yes, time for bed

ZhU:
i really can't make it, gonna faint tmr

GUi Zi:
rmb come over to knock me up

ZhU:
or beat u up more like it

GUi Zi:
if u happen to wake up before lunch

ZhU:
or else no use

GUi Zi:
i'll lock the door definitely

ZhU:
then i can tell u right now: just sleep and dun bother

GUi Zi:
sure

GUi Zi... 说:
good idea

strange quote

Someone (who?) said a pianist is either a jew, a gay or an all-thumb. Who can hate pianists to such extent? Whatever.

The comment bar is not up-to-date. Sorry I missed all the comments.

Diet these days is fantastic. We bought shrimps,fish,dumplings,strawberry,grapes etc etc. Can't imagine we're eating so good at such cheap price. Saves about 300 bucks per month compared to school meal plans. But if you say time is money, then the time we spent on cooking is something else to consider...