Notes of a Desolate Libra

This is sort of where I deposit all of those in the middle upper, which is why this list is soooo long. I mean seriously, you try not to watch something if you know you wouldn't enjoy it right?

NICE, pretty good, worth watching:

Calling Out Love in the Center of the World - Similar to Love Letter, which was one of my favorite movies of all time. Unfortunately, that was its downfall. It's somewhat similar and these Japanese movies always try to grab you in the most subtle way and send you bawling. This movie was predictable, but has a very delicate touch to its direction and translation of the mood. If you're the sentimental type, it'll tear you apart, but gently and gracefully.

Sunset on Third Street - Such a cuuuute movie. It has that special Japanese touch of turning the ordinary into something pleasant for you to "awww" over. If you're looking for an uplifting movie with plenty of cute kids (that sounded wrong...), go for this one.

Pursuit of Happiness - Pretty inspirational. I mean, ok, I know people are sick of these "inspirational" movies, but really, if you think about it, are you having such a rough time? Have you really gone to the bottom? The answer is probably no. And really, if you are not there, you have no excuse. There're plenty of people worse off than you are. Just get yourself up and keep going!

Cape 7 - I think what touch me the most was the rough/tough friendships that people form when they are thrown into a situation where they have to work together closely to reach a common goal... and do well. When you get over the "I want to kill him/her/them" phase, you accept reality and start to find ways to work with these people, who are obviously in the same situation because they had a reason to be. It's similar to the Shounen spirit that I am a huge fan of, and I always am a sucker for that. My friend Jeremy had requested a translation of the title song The Southern Country, which I thought told the story of this movie perfectly.

Departures - Ok, I thought this movie was Good, not OMG GOOD like everyone else. Perhaps I am just tired of the Japanese style? Everything flows really well in the movie, there's no awkward moment, no super huge surprises, lots of touching moments and revelatory dialogue... but for some reason, I think I've grown used to it. So therefore, even though there's nothing wrong with the movie itself (it's a very solid and touching movie), it got pushed down because it did not wow me in a special way.

Slumdog Millionaire - Lots of people raved about this movie, plenty of people asked me whether or not my yellow scarf was inspired by this movie (answer would be no), but it didn't make it to the top of my list. I really enjoyed the younger parts, but when they got older, the movie hopelessly fell into the contrived category. The freshness was gone and enter the conventional doomed love storyline. However, I still give it much kudos for its creative storytelling and the actors were pretty good in their own ways.

Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince - This was the most recent movie that I watched. I liked it, of course. There's no way they could change the fact that the books were awesome. However, the teenage angst sort of turned me off a little. Not in their existence, but in their indelicate portrayal. The pieces of love-[shape] were thrown in there without a plan and just seemed awkward in such a dark movie. Perhaps I'm asking too much. That's the general feeling I had about this movie, that many things were awkwardly put together, which really disrupted the flow of the movie. However, the parts with Dumbledore were pretty well directed. I actually may watch this again just for those parts.