Eiga Sai 2008: "Linda Linda Linda"

Saturday at the movies: "Linda Linda Linda"

Jul 16, '08 1:37 AM
for everyone

On July 12, 2008, a bunch of us J-Club members went to see one of the films being shown on Eiga Sai 2008 and indulged in some girly-girl activites outside of the office.

We agreed to meet up between 11 to 11:30 am at Shangrila mall. I ended up taking a taxi because I thought I would be last however it is good not to rush too much.

Chelle and I met up the graphic novels section of National Bookstore.

Luckily she came in before I could be tempted to buy more books or graphic novels. After we queued for the tickets, and the other girls Grace, Hannah and Alyson arrived, off we went to have lunch at Green Tomato.

Trying to decide among the many dishes of pasta and pizza and the other dishes on the menu, the lunch talk was full of teasing and stories.

Pasta and its sauces and ingredients were varied, with plain OO, tomato-based,  pesto, brandied shrimp, spaghetti, penne, fetuccine etc. while the pizza was for meat-lovers.

Too bad no dessert was on the plate :-(

We had enough time before the 2 pm movie and ended up comfortably ensconced in the middle aisle though we at first kept on moving around due to the "Reserved" signs (which turned out to be disregarded).

Humming "Linda Linda Linda" after the movie was finished, we proceeded to walk around and do some shopping. Some of them apparently were going to go on a run the next day, therefore new running shoes were a must.

Of course, when one walks around with fellow girls, one gets sucked into buying some things too, even if it wasn't on the agenda at the start *looks at credit card dolefully*

Before splitting up and heading home, we also decided to go to Glorietta and have coffee at Gloria Jean's...there was an ulterior motive for that, which I shall not disclose here *wink* but the conversation during that coffee break was like an interview for each of us girls...hehehe...plus some other perks *sticks tongue out*

The Film: Linda Linda Linda

Japanese Title: Rinda Rinda Rinda
Director: Yamashita Nobuhiro
Cast: Bae Doo-na as Song, Maeda Aki as Yamada Kyoko, Kashii Yu as Tachibana Kei, Sekine, Shiori as Shirakawa Nozomi, Mimura Takayo as Marumoto Rinko, Komoto Masahiro
as Teacher Koyama

Synopsis partially taken from  the brochure:

This film about youth is set in modern-day high school just outside of Tokyo. A couple of days just before the school’s culture festival, a girl’s music group is facing a dilemma. They planned on playing an original piece of music but, three days before the festival,
the guitarist appears to have broken her finger and an argument breaks out among the two band members who founded it. They need to find a new guitarist and a new vocalist. While the remaining three girls are pondering who to ask to be the new vocalist, they hear the song, “Linda Linda Linda” by the famous Japanese rock band Blue Hearts and decide they want to sing it instead of an original song.

A Korean exchange student, Song, misunderstood and said yes when they ask her to be their vocalist.  Her Japanese is not perfect, and she’s never sung in front of an audience, but she listens to the song and says yes. The girls practice a lot but they don’t seem to be improving much. They spend a lot of time at Kei’s ex-boyfriend’s studio and at the school practicing late into the night..and with all these practicing a deep friendship develops among the four girls.

The night before the festival, they practice late into the night and exhaust themselves. They suddenly wake up the next morning and realize that they are late for the festival. They arrive at the school just as the festival is finishing and perform as the last act. The audience loves them and the four girls play their hearts out.

Linda Linda Linda was ranked as the 6th best film on the 79th Kinema Junpo best ten list for 2005. Director Yamashita Nobuhiro’s other films, Hazy Life (“Donten Seikatsu,” 2001), No One’s Ark (“Baka no Hakobune, 2002) and Ramblers (“Riarizumu no Yado,” 2003) also deal with the lives of youths.

In Linda Linda Linda, the film uses minimalism and a level-headed approach to convey his ideas to the audience. The Korean character in the film, Song, is played by a Korean actor, Bae Doo-na. She has starred in such Korean films as Park Chan-Wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and Hyeon Nam-Seob’s Saving My Hubby (2002). The actress who plays the role of the bassist, Nozomi, is a real-life musician.

Well, I enjoyed the film. I am not really into drama and I honestly was dreading seeing the films being featured this year as some of the girls had attended the first night of the festival and according to Hannah it was "bloody" (aka dumugo ilong nya or maybe there were bloody scenes?). hehehe...

But this one film was light, youth-oriented, feel-good, enjoyable.

It's simple, direct approach to telling the story is refreshing and the song's tunes and lyrics were catchy too. Makes me wanna see what other Blue Hearts songs are out there.

The film reminds me of "Stand by Me" but on a lesser scale. It is more of a tale of friendship developing between these girls who worked hard so that they could perform in the festival. There are no tricks to how its presented and its strangely fun to see this kind of film these days when those marked as good or blockbuster films (not necessarily exclusive descriptions) we queue for feature either camera tricks, CGI or a bunch of confusing turns in the story. I had a good time watching it with the company I was with.

There were hilarious moments in the film - and when I least expected it! I emitted a couple of giggles in some scenes even if I was busy reading the subtitles. One was when this Japanese boy who apparently had a crush on Song arranged for them to meet so that he could tell her his feelings. Aside from the girls and the boy's friend spying on them, the guy was trying his best to speak in Korean to Song (with matching script or kodigs or cheat sheet pa ha!) of how he felt, and the oblivious Song was answering in her not-so-fluent Japanese.

Another unexpected (somewhat icky!) scene was when Kei was gifted with a hand. Yes, a hand! I thought at first maybe the film had some horror twist when I saw the hand inside a box and being gifted to her on her birthday (?).

It looked real, big and hairy. Urgh!! Enough said. Apparently its because she needs help because her hand was small and she needed a bigger hand to play her guitar. WTF?

Though it was a somewhat rainy day in the end, this Saturday was a nice break from routine.

Instead of having classes, we had played hooky *grin* and watched a movie instead, and got to know each other a little bit more. I felt like a young woman again...este..correction much younger woman..again.

Japan (2008): Of Timely Trains & Forgotten Bags

Describing Tuesday (May 6, 2008) as a hectic day for one traveling cat would be an understatement.  On that day, I traveled between Osaka and Kyoto.

The good part? I had a guide with me, who helped ensure that I was able to visit some touristy spots in Osaka which would not make me unhappy with just a one (1) day stay in that bustling city.

At the end of Tuesday, I had at least 5 Kyoto shrines/temples, garden viewing, tea ceremony set and macha (green tea powder), free dinner, yummy strawberry cake and a Gion visit tucked under my obi (figuratively speaking as I wasn’t wearing a kimono).

Aside from a marathon visit to castle/temple in both aforementioned cities,  I was also  prepped with advance information so I could henceforth continue with my plan to visit the Kyoto Imperial Castle, geisha performances in a cultural show in Gion the next day and a trip to the manga museum, to name a few places.

The bad part?

I left one of my bags on the train going to Kyoto. I suppose since I had somebody with me I was a bit relaxed and only remembered the missing bag when I checked in the Kyoto hotel I had chosen.  The bag contained my tripod, leather jacket, castelle (Nagasaki cake) and some other food, and the brochures I had collected.

All of my available cash and credit cards were distributed among the other 2 locked bags and my usual purse so while I was dismayed at the idea of missing this other bag, at least I could continue on my trip without too much worry.

I didn't bring a lot of cash as I was dependent on credit cards. In a country where many of its people still bring cash along with them which they use instead of relying heavily on credit cards, it says a ton of things of how safe and reliable an environment Japan has.

I was assured by my new friend and Kyoto-frequent-visitor Calvin and the JR train officials - the former told me that the bag would be found and returned, the latter told me they would contact me or the New Miyako Hotel I was staying in for news. Since Calvin already had a prior experience of inadvertently leaving his wallet on the JR train, well...he may be justified in his statement.

I admit I was itsy-bitsy-teensy-weensy bit skeptical. On the other hand, I was also 50% more optimistic than I was cynical at the idea of my bag being found.

Guess what?  I did get the bag and all of its contents intact after 2 days.

The first day I inquired at the JR Information desk in Kyoto station, I had Calvin to translate and ask for help.

The next time I visited, even though different people manned the desks (volunteers who probably wanted to practice their English), they were quite helpful. With some lengthy exchange of English and Japanese sentences, I managed to get some good news (though I missed visiting some other sites and my Philosopher's Walk). I was amused by the elderly woman who attended to me...she smilingly told me that my Japanese was probably better than any English words spoken at the Lost and Found office when I asked how I could follow-up on my bag if I were just to venture by myself to that place.

How polite and sweet of her...but yes, they do not speak English that much at the Lost and Found - so a note of warning to future lost-bag owners.

I could say my Japan trip was a compleat travel experience in the sense that I had this kind of incident happening to me.

In all of my travels and trips both local and abroad, this was the first time I left a bag on a public transportation vehicle. I was lucky though, that it happened in Japan.

Although my liking for Japan was spawned by my anime/manga interest, there are also a few things about Japan and its culture which do not appeal to me. Considering all I've experienced both good and bad during this trip, a very favourable impression was stamped indelibly on my mind with how this all turned out in the end.

- Jul 3, '08 3:36 PM