at the moVies
Sunday afternoon I met up with Ripley-san, a girl from my Japanese classe, and some of her friends (whom I'd seen and talked to on occasion at school but never hung out with) to see V for Vendetta at a movie theater near Fuchu Eki. Yes, I did something social. And yes, I had fun. ^_~
Ripley-san is one of those women who knows who she is and what she wants and doesn't take crap from anybody. She's a kenkyusei like me, graduated from Ursinus a year or two ago, and is studying East Asian religion. A little eccentric, but not at all in a bad way. I have to admit I was resigned to never liking Americans ever again until she joined Intensive 3 last term, because I could immediately tell she was intelligent and proud of it. Her friends K/Christina and Hanna/h were fun too. They are all into comic books (Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, etc), though only Hannah had read V for Vendetta before. And they were all chatty and cheerful enough that I didn't have to put in too much effort... although, as we were talking about "V for Vendetta" and similar things, it wasn't really "work" anyway.
We also talked a lot about just being in Japan: The impractical way that women always wear skirts and heels, even with injuries, and how school girls hike up their skirts even in winter (no wonder there's a groping problem, and what exactly does "dress code" mean here anyway? just that you have to have the required articles of clothing *on*?). The bizarre illustrations of African people that conjure up, for us, images of blackface; sweatshirts that sport the n-word (how can they willfully remain so ignorant of the long and painful history of such artifacts?). The skepticism foreigners are met with when trying to rent an apartment or the twisted-fascination ("I dare you to touch the gaijin" "I can do it" "okay, so do it" "I can" "so do it" "I will" a pat on the shoulder as they pass by us, and then "see? I told you I could do it!") when we're walking down the street. The way that people gave Ripley-san and her father weird looks when he visited or that someone referred to Hannah as her father's wife (because people here, fathers especially, don't spend time with their children). The sexual repression that finds an outlet in the eroticization of youth and the gross and absurd waste of money, neither of which are seen as a problem (or if so, only superficially).
It was so refreshing to be able to talk about these things with someone. So often I've suspected the other students just walk around in a little bubble, only seeing the Japan they *want* to see... maybe most of them do, but at least there are a few who are more aware than that.
Oh, and the movie was good I thought. I love Alan Moore, you know, to whom I was introduced by Darren (he also gave me V for Vendetta). I mean it wasn't *great* and there was a lot that changed between the book and the screen, but... it was powerful in its way. Still, I wish they hadn't "censored" it like they did. They toned it down a little, humanized it, made the bad guys more bad, the good guys more good. Maybe that makes it more understandable, more palatable for the average movie-goer but... if you're going to take *THIS* story to the screen... part of the POINT is that it be shocking, appalling. It's supposed to jolt you out of complacency, make you think, make you change. And the movie lost a lot of that. Ah well. I still think I want to own it. And I want to reread it too, but I lent my copy to Trey.
Ripley-san is one of those women who knows who she is and what she wants and doesn't take crap from anybody. She's a kenkyusei like me, graduated from Ursinus a year or two ago, and is studying East Asian religion. A little eccentric, but not at all in a bad way. I have to admit I was resigned to never liking Americans ever again until she joined Intensive 3 last term, because I could immediately tell she was intelligent and proud of it. Her friends K/Christina and Hanna/h were fun too. They are all into comic books (Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, etc), though only Hannah had read V for Vendetta before. And they were all chatty and cheerful enough that I didn't have to put in too much effort... although, as we were talking about "V for Vendetta" and similar things, it wasn't really "work" anyway.
We also talked a lot about just being in Japan: The impractical way that women always wear skirts and heels, even with injuries, and how school girls hike up their skirts even in winter (no wonder there's a groping problem, and what exactly does "dress code" mean here anyway? just that you have to have the required articles of clothing *on*?). The bizarre illustrations of African people that conjure up, for us, images of blackface; sweatshirts that sport the n-word (how can they willfully remain so ignorant of the long and painful history of such artifacts?). The skepticism foreigners are met with when trying to rent an apartment or the twisted-fascination ("I dare you to touch the gaijin" "I can do it" "okay, so do it" "I can" "so do it" "I will" a pat on the shoulder as they pass by us, and then "see? I told you I could do it!") when we're walking down the street. The way that people gave Ripley-san and her father weird looks when he visited or that someone referred to Hannah as her father's wife (because people here, fathers especially, don't spend time with their children). The sexual repression that finds an outlet in the eroticization of youth and the gross and absurd waste of money, neither of which are seen as a problem (or if so, only superficially).
It was so refreshing to be able to talk about these things with someone. So often I've suspected the other students just walk around in a little bubble, only seeing the Japan they *want* to see... maybe most of them do, but at least there are a few who are more aware than that.
Oh, and the movie was good I thought. I love Alan Moore, you know, to whom I was introduced by Darren (he also gave me V for Vendetta). I mean it wasn't *great* and there was a lot that changed between the book and the screen, but... it was powerful in its way. Still, I wish they hadn't "censored" it like they did. They toned it down a little, humanized it, made the bad guys more bad, the good guys more good. Maybe that makes it more understandable, more palatable for the average movie-goer but... if you're going to take *THIS* story to the screen... part of the POINT is that it be shocking, appalling. It's supposed to jolt you out of complacency, make you think, make you change. And the movie lost a lot of that. Ah well. I still think I want to own it. And I want to reread it too, but I lent my copy to Trey.
posted by Bibhatsu at 05:13
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