[Off-topic] 'Sancho Dayu', 'Ginza Gesho', 'Haru no Yuki' and Wabi Sabi's new home

Just dumping everything off-topic in one post. (Such a post is long overdue since last October):

Movies

Sancho Dayu (1954)

A film that totally wowed me. It is by far my second favorite film by Mizoguchi Kenji - my favorite being Gion Bayashi (祇園囃子). You can get a combo of both films here. I know it is probably not very persuasive in recommending it but I really have nothing to say except that it really is a Great Film.

Ginza Gesho (1951)

The film measures up to the usual Naruse Mikio calibre. It is basically the story of a woman who made one false step in life (ie. getting pregnant by a lover who promised to wed but fled on learning of her pregnancy) and everything was one downward slide thereafter.  She ends up running a bar and struggles in the mizu shoubai industry, but nevertheless remaining a woman with principles and a sense of self-dignity. (These women populate the films of Naruse Mikio and Mizoguchi Kenji.) I think it seems fair to every woman could have easily been her. Even if you don't end up in mizu shoubai, it is a bitter pill to swallow thinking what you could have been doing were it not for that one mistake in youth. Makes you sympathetic to, say, Chinese parents who ban their daughters from dating in high school and college.

Haru no Yuki (2005)

I was expecting the film to be a sentimental, dumped-down version of Mishima Yukio's original novel. It turned out to be slightly better than I expected. My greatest complaint is that Satoko in the movie is nothing like the 'beautiful pillow with stinging needles hidden' in the book that I had imagined.

Wabi Sabi's new home

I bought a new apartment and moved in about a month ago. Here are some pictures:

The apartment complex comes with a private swimming pool, a gym for working out, a gym for team sports, sauna, club house restaurant, a barbecue patio, banquet rooms for entertaining guests (and catering services to go with it), game room (ideal for hosting sleep-over gaming parties), and multi-media room (ideal for hosting sleep-over marathon runs of films), and the usual fountains and gardens. My favorite place is actually an artificial waterfall. I can see it from my balcony and I like places where I can see water moving and hear the sound of water.

The greatest thing about it is the security. The place is a gated community and you have to show your ID card through two levels of security to get in. There is also an alarm button in every apartment to call the security guard. This is good for a single young woman living alone.

I hire help to clean the apartment and she comes in when I am off to work.

Life is good.

Comments

[hayase]

wow, nice new place you got there =p

[Wabisabi]

Yeah, not bad at all. Still, I want to aspire to something even better.

[Jordan S.]

It was recently announced – http://chibiyuuto.livejournal.com/194179.html – that CLAMP have been commissioned to illustrate two selections of Mori Ōgai's stories which include 'Sanshô Dayû.' 'Ugetsu Monogatari' is probably still the Mizoguchi film which most appeals to me at the moment, but this news has made me slightly more interested in 'Sanshô Dayû' due to the possibility of using the film to understand and comparing it with the illustrations if they're ever scanned. 'Maihime' on the other hand, has been adapted into anime at least twice already, so they'll have both of those to compete with.

Thought this might interest you as well as a collision of low to middle with something accepted as highbrow art.

[Wabisabi]

Thanks for the news about Clamp's illustrations!