Today

[benlehman]

Saw "Howl's Moving Castle" today, in a theater bootleg DVD by way of Taiwan. No subtitles, thought I was able to follow most of the plot, until the end, when it diverged from the book. The first half hour was almost spot on the original text, with a gorgeous, gorgeous "Hal and young Sophie flying together" scene. Calcifer (the fire elemental) ruled, as is to be expected.

The overall verdict: It's Miyazaki, so it is good. He's really beginning to show his age, and that's a good thing. I think that half of this movie was about growing old, and half of the movie was his own lovesong to animation and a deconstruction of animation as artifice. There are some amazing scenes which were clearly done just to watch things move.

On the whole, I would put it in the middle of his movies. It isn't a Totoro or Nausicaa, but it is easily better than Porco Rosso. When I see it and can understand it, perhaps I'll have a better judgement.

Other than that, work in building my library continues, my mother got the first proofs for her book (exciting!) and I had a lovely dinner with Marc and Akemi.



And what is it with me and Asian girls ten years older than me, anyway?

Comments

Re: *giggles*

[foreign-devilry.livejournal.com]

Well, when it comes to real Asian girls (from Asia, not raised in other places), I always find that their maturity level is about 6-8 years younger, at least as far as relationships go, so I only really feel comfortable going after people who are a fair bit older than me.

Just my experience.

Re: *giggles*

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

And a broad generalization from the cultural studies guy!

(Ahw, dawg, I'm just shitting you.)

Let me take a moment to agree that we are talking about a set of cultures here, not a racial type.

You're true... maybe some of the time. A city girl from Tokyo is probably going to be more romantically experienced than a girl from, say, rural Iowa.

yrs--
--Ben

Re: *giggles*

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I have a tendency to be attracted to somewhat older girls in general for precisely the same reasons.

yrs--
--Ben

Re: *giggles*

[foreign-devilry.livejournal.com]

See it's definitely cultural and not just the relationship thing either. Because of the intense focus on schooling and the likelihood of them being an only child, kids in North-East Asia (China, Japan, Korea) are likely to never have had a job before graduating from college, to have lived with their parents for much, much longer, to have gained true independence either much later or not at all, etc. So when I meet them they're always in the middle of doing their teenage rebellion thing when they're like 23. And then there's the general lack of critical thinking training, because of the nature of the education system, and the widespread racism against the Japanese (in China), blacks, minorities, foreigners, etc. So I find it much easier to wait until they've been out in the real world for a bit, gained some experience, become more relativistic in their thinking (hopefully), and have had a few broken hearts. I guess that might sound a bit patronizing.