telophase | (no subject)

Hey - whoever it was that recommended the movie Onmyoji, thanks! I watched it a few weeks ago, and I just got Onmyoji II from Netflix and watched it while working on art this evening, and I love them. :)

I'll have to get them again later on when I've got time to actually watch them without doing soemthing else at the time so I can watch them with subtitles and not the dub.

I don't think I've watched a movie subtitled for months now. And I hate that. Arg.

Anyway, I want icons of Seimei and Hiromasa now. Oh look! Here's some!

Nomura Mansai playing Seimei:

Ito Hideaki playing Hiromasa:

Hiromasa needs a caption, but I'm too tired to think of one. The character is sort of similar to Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho, at least I think of him that way - a bit on the slow side, prone to falling in love, with a kind heart and courage when it counts most. He's not as tough as Kuwubara, but he's the character that allows people to explain things that would be obvious to all the other characters in the scene but not the audience. ~~and he and Seimei are so doing it.~~

And a slightly larger, though not by much, picture of Nomura with the director, where you can see his Heian robes (those of you who just started reading Hikaru no Go will recognize the clothing that Sai wears).

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

(ETA: I'd just like to say that I adore the Heian-era quivers that make everyone carrying them look like turkeys. XD Didn't find a better picture - imagine those dolls with a few more arrows, and all of them fully fletched and you'll see what I mean about turkeys.)

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My perception of Abe no Seimei has been drastically warped by running across him first in "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi".

*adds Onmyoji to Netflix queue to balance Abenobashi out*

Ha! I've never seen that. Nomura is actually some sort of well-regarded traditional Noh actor. I like the way he portrays Seimei, even though I've never run across anything with that character in it. And Hiromasa is just stupid enough to be amusing - Ito plays him with this gawping expression on his face for most of the film.

You should definitely watch Onmyoji. The magic system is pretty much how anime envisions traditional Japanese magic stuff, only done live-action...er, that's not quite what I mean, but I love the way they envision the traditional fantasy elements; it just struck me somehow. The special effects are pretty good - you've got a lot of standard wire-work in there and some fake-appearing stuff, but there's a lot of really nice elements.

Seimei of Abenobashi bears about as much resemblance to his mythical counterpart as the Saiyuki boys do to theirs, for similar reasons. But the anime is cute regardless of how it has made me giggle hysterically at every Dramatic Guest Appearance of Seimei I've run across in anime since.

Thanks for the rec! I've been nosing around a bit in Japanese film, but my knowledge of it doesn't go much beyond Kurosawa and bloody horror movies.

I just watched Onmyoji. It definitely was strange seeing Seimei in a semi-serious role, having first seen him in Abenobashi.

Some Japanese movies you should consider are: Nobody Knows, After Life, All About Lily Chou-Chou, The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (the recent remake), and Battle Royale. If I manage to get off my lazy ass, I'll post brief thoughts about them in my LJ and let you know. (Or, you could just friend me :)

He and Seimei are, indeed, so doing it. If you look closely at the last scene of the first movie, you will notice that their hakama ties are undone in the traditional just-been-fucking fashion.

Oh, mymymy. The subtext you miss through cultural differences. Yet another reason to re-add it to the queue and consider buying it if I find a good price.

By traditional, do you mean modern Japanese movie conventions, or do you mean something else?

Also, do you know what the Japanese think about homosexuality back in those days? (I suspect like in America now, there is no monolithic common attitude, but hopefully a helpful summary is possible....)

Oriental movies!!!...ME WANTS. ME LOVES. I haven't seen this one. This weekend I rented and saw the House of Flying Daggers. Beautiful girl on it (Ziyi Zhang).
I think I shuld get a Netflix account since Blockbuster rarely have good titles. (Just the commercial ones who I detest.

I'm loving my Netflix subscription to bits. I've got a membership to my local Blockbuster, but they have almost no anime. They've got a larger selection of Asian movies than most Blockbusters, but I'm also within five miles of the big Asian section of Arlington, so I'm not too surprised. They still don't have all the foreign films that Netflix carries. So I mostly rent the big commercial ones from Blockbuster, once a month or so, or when I'm settling in for several days of art and need more than three movies.

I love Mansai's work. I refer to his character as Mr. Smarm as he's both smarmy, yet charming.

It's a beautiful movie, isn't it? I have the soundtrack from a friend and it's so soothing ♥

How's NetFlix working for you, btw? I've been curious to sign up myself.

Netflix is great - I've got the $17.99/month for 3 movies at a time plan, and that's just about right - the times I manage to watch a disc every other day or so, I can send them back one at a time and have a new one showing up every couple of days. Most of the time I end up watching all three at once and sending them back in on Monday. I tend to get the movies quickly - there's a Netflix center in Coppell, in the DFW metroplex, and so they get the ones I turn in the day after I mail them and send most of the movies that I want out by the next day, so it's only about 3 days between them - the ones I sent in this morning will get there tomorrow and I'll get the replacements Thursday. Occasionally they don't have a movie at that center and it takes a day or two longer to get, but they've always arrived on or before the day they say it will.

Your queue also lists upcoming movies - I have Yu Yu Hakusho and Inu-Yasha on there, and they list the dates the next DVD is coming out, and a couple of days before it's out I move it up to the top spot on my queue and I get it ASAP. The one time I had a disc arrive cracked, I reported it online and sent it back and they sent me a new one, no problems. I know someone who had a problem with lots of DVDs going missing and they eventually cancelled his account on him, but I expect he had someone in the neighborhood stealing stuff from mailboxes. And no late fees! I had Shaun of the Dead out for a month because I wasn't watching many movies at the time, and it didn't matter. :)

It does sound like a good plan. I'm considering using it to catch up on anime I've been too broke to watch ^^ I may just go for that one at a time deal $10/mo.

When I started they only had the 3/time plan, and I got too used to that one. XD But if I start getting panicky about money again, I'll drop down - they make it easy to change your plan online.

And you can add 'friends' in your account so you can see what your friends have watched and liked. :)

"Wait, what?"
"Say that again, slower this time"
"Small words plzkthx"

Sounds like a good movie.

*wanders by a year late to plug

onmyoujium*