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40,
04:23,
2008-04-22 10:36:58
Description: At the age of eleven, I was painfully dragged to my first wedding. I tried everything in my arsenal of excuses to get out of it. My fourth grade heart was recently broken and I would have rather (More) At the age of eleven, I was painfully dragged to my first wedding. I tried everything in my arsenal of excuses to get out of it. My fourth grade heart was recently broken and I would have rather stayed home and live vicariously through Zach Morris while being curled up next to the television watching reruns of "Saved by the Bell." I tried to fake sick so I didn't have to attend. Not a good idea. I should have known better. Way better. My mother has always been quite judicious at detecting my real cough from my fake cough and the morning of the wedding was no exception. Out came the thermometer, I was escorted to the showers, and when I got out, my tiny tux was waiting to be put on. The car ride was quite painful and I remember I kept asking my father if we were there yet. It wasn't because I wanted to be there, but I felt that the sooner we would get there, the sooner it would be over. I had a busy schedule to keep. Zelda wasn't going to beat itself and what would I tell my friends if I was late for Hide go Seek? Come on...Really. Church was a place that took time away from me. Sunday school robbed me of a considerable chunk of my weekend and I sort of resented my parents for making me attend. When we walked inside the church, I was the Grinch personified. I had a scowl pasted to my face and I was all set to ruin the big day with my frowny face and my "I don't care if there's gonna be cake," attitude. While I was standing at one of those little tables that have piles and piles of free reading material that is supposed to get you addicted to God, a girl around my age passed by me and gave me the biggest smile I'd ever seen. That's what I remember. The smile melted my heart and as I looked outside myself, I saw that everyone was wearing a happy face. The smiles weren't those fake smiles that people just kind of hand out because they feel like they should be smiling, but these were real smiles that were summoned out of the bodies of the friends and families of the married couple because this was the day that they had decided that they would formalize their decision to unite themselves as husband and wife and live in matrimony forever! Many years passed. I grew up and moved to New york, graduated from film school, and have been busy making videos since my graduation in 2004. I've directed videos for AdamSandler's website, Hugo Boss, Rollingstone.com and even for Comedy Central. While I was visiting home last year looking through old photographs and videos to be used for my personal website, I ran across a copy of the wedding video that I've been telling you about. I anxiously popped it in the VCR, turned off the lights, sat down, and pushed play. I was terribly disappointed. The wedding video and the memory of the wedding were completely different. The video was a collection of people in artificial poses participating in staged events. As I watched the video, I could almost hear the videographer say to the bride and groom, "Walk along the beach with your shoes off, stop about ten feet into your stroll, turn towards eachother, lock eyes, and kiss. Now that's great if that's what really just happens, but when you tell somebody that they have to do this and they have to do that, all of the sudden, acting is involved. Very bad acting. By choreographing movement, the videographer missed out on the true beauty of the day. He staged events when there were a plethora of real events right in front of him that would have made a much more emotionally satisfying and honest video! When I got back to New York, I kept thinking about the video and by chance a girl that I grew up with was getting married. I contacted her and told her that I'd love to make her video. The thought behind "Big Day Films" had been brewing in the back of my brain for quite some time and I was ready to make my first wedding video and take this from concept to final product. I've had the pleasure of shooting many beautiful weddings, but this one was the seed that grew into "Big Day Films." (Less) Channel: youtube
![[TR] Memories of Tomorrow Trailer JP](http://img.youtube.com/vi/q48opILsQYs/2.jpg "[TR] Memories of Tomorrow Trailer JP")
24,
04:38,
2008-03-02 03:31:36
Description: Ken Watanabe and Kanako Higuchi in "Ashita no Kioku"
One recent film, Nobuhiko Hosaka's "So Kamoshirenai," is about an elderly couple who both expire -- Izumi (More) Ken Watanabe and Kanako Higuchi in "Ashita no Kioku"
One recent film, Nobuhiko Hosaka's "So Kamoshirenai," is about an elderly couple who both expire -- Izumi Yukimura's wife by Alzheimer's, Harudanji Katsura's husband by cancer. A three-hankie two-fer, you might say.
The usual point of view in Alzheimer's films is that of the caregivers, who may suffer agonies of impotence, frustration and grief, but at least end their ordeals with their minds intact -- and their characters strengthened. The elderly they are tending, on the other hand, are typically shown from the outside and, by the last reel, become the lovable, harmless boke rojin (senile oldies) of cultural stereotype. The object is to inspire sighs and tears for human frailty -- at one remove.
"Ashita no Kioku (Memories of Tomorrow)" falls into the medical melodrama genre category, but its Alzheimer's victim is a man not yet 50, in what should be his professional and personal prime. Also, director Yukihiko Tsutsumi takes the victim's perspective with a gut-wrenching specificity. This, I thought as I watched the film, is what it's like to have, not just the occasional senior moment, but one's entire mental world dissolve away like ice crystals in the sun, leaving nothing but a puddle, mist -- vacuum.
Ken Watanabe, who is now Hollywood's best-known Japanese actor for his work in "The Last Samurai," "Batman Returns" and "Memoirs of a Geisha," plays the afflicted hero with the sort of heart-and-soul performance that wins Oscars. The technical and emotional grandstanding common to these performances, however, is conspicuous by its absence. Instead, Watanabe, who has fought his own life-or-death battle with leukemia from age 30, plays his character -- a successful ad agency executive -- from the inside, in all his confusion, terror and despair.
Those who know Watanabe only from his more macho roles will be surprised (or shocked) at how convincingly he declines to a shrunken, prematurely aged shell. Think Nicholas Cage in "Leaving Las Vegas," minus the booze pallor and shakes. Watanabe, who also executive produced the film from a novel by Hiroshi Ogiwara, may have bulked down for the part, but the core of his performance is spiritual transformation -- a terrifyingly natural emptying out.
The story begins with the exec, Saeki (Watanabe), directing a pitch for a major account. He and his team snag it, but his chronic memory lapses -- a forgotten name here, a missed meeting there -- begin interfering with his job. Together with wife Emiko (Kanako Higuchi), a dutiful but much put-upon sort, he goes to the hospital for tests and gets the devastating diagnosis. Tempted to end it all, he is dissuaded by his young doctor's vow to do everything possible, and Emiko's reminder that their only daughter (Kazue Fukiishi) is about to get married and have their first grandchild.
With the goals of a wedding and childbirth to spur him on, he begins treatment, but despite all Emiko's efforts, including health foods and detailed memos, his decline continues. He manages to get through the wedding speech -- an ordeal for even the healthy -- but finally realizes he can no longer keep up pretenses at work -- or anywhere else. He resigns first as department chief, then from the company.
Meanwhile, Emiko is beginning a new career as a saleswoman at an upscale pottery shop, continuing an interest both of them shared in their youth. Saeki starts to make pottery himself, but becomes increasingly confused, lonely and angry. How could this be happening to him, so relentlessly and soon? He lashes out -- but finds no escape.
This downward spiral is standard for an Alzheimer's drama, but Tsutsumi, a maker of hit commercials who recently directed the horror sensation "Forbidden Siren," takes us into his hero's mental world, whirling the camera, distorting the image and otherwise expressing Saeki's disorientation and isolation. The result is reminiscent of the last scenes of "2001: A Space Odyssey," when Dave Bowman is alone in an alien world, watching his life slip away with an eerie rapidity.
As Emiko, Kanako Higuchi first impresses as a strained, sexless paragon -- but as her husband disappears before her eyes, her mask of empathy and composure shatters -- and she explodes with anger and resentment over what she is losing -- and never had. She still loves him, though, with a fierceness that is all the more powerful for being so contained.
"Ashita no Kioku" may smooth over certain aspects of the disease, including the final, irreversible descent, but it also captures something of its horror and pathos. And it also proves that Watanabe can act, in a role he was meant to play. Who knows if he will find another, but this very personal film proves that, in at least its movie stars, Japan is exporting its best. (Less) Channel: youtube
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