CJ: February 2008 Archives

• Cast:
Saskia Reeves ... Maria Ann McCardle
Christopher Eccleston ... Gary Ellis
Kate Hardie ... Tess Ellis
Rhys Ifans ... Alex Madden
Anna Chancellor ... Nicola Farmer
Matthew Rhys ... Sean McCardle
• Director:
Charles McDougall
• Genre:
Drama / Thriller
• Plot Outline
A woman, plastered in blood, is arrested by a grave, and a tale of loss, lust and jealousy slowly unfolds.
• Comment:
Christpher Eccleston from Cracker. The story starts with Maria carrying a bag dripping blood with a lot of blood stain on her clothes.
From the beginning, we can easily guess what happened to her and it seems a part of someone's  body is in the bag though, actually it's not like that. There are some twists and in the end of the story you'll find out what exactly happened to her and the other people.
I didn't know this story at all and I expected to see Matthew Rhys a lot, but he was a dead son, so a little.

• Cast:
Alan Rickman ... Phil Allen
Natasha Richardson ... Shelley Allen
Rachel Griffiths ... Sandra
Rachael Leigh Cook ... Christina Robertson
Josh Hartnett ... Brian Allen
Bill Nighy... Ray (Raymond) Robertson 
• Director:
Paddy Breathnach
• Genre:
Comedy / Drama / Romance
• Plot Summary
The annual British Hairdressing Championship comes to Keighley, a town where Phil and son Brian run...
• Comment
I watched this on TV first, then I bought DVD. Alan Rickman & Bill Nighy are a good combination.   It was better if there were a little more surprise.   I hadn't noticed Rachel Griffiths was in this film as of today.

• Cast:
  Liam Neeson ... Alfred Kinsey
  Laura Linney ... Clara McMillen
  Chris O'Donnell ... Wardell Pomeroy
  Peter Sarsgaard ... Clyde martin
  Timothy Hutton ... Paul Gebhard
• Director:
  Bill Condon
• Genre:
  Biography / Drama
• Plot Outline
  A look at the life of Alfred Kinsey (Neeson), a pioneer in the area of human sexuality research, whose 1948 publication "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" was one of the first recorded works that saw science address sexual behavior.
• Comment
  If such a man was my father, I would be very unpleasant. I don't deny having a sexual conversation is needed for us sometimes and it's not evil though, he, Alfred Kinsey, is talking about too much, I mean he is very direct and he also has neither delicacy nor grace.
  Actually the main reason which I watched this film is to see Luke MacFarlane as Bruce Kinsey, but he only appeared a few minuites and a few lines.    In the delated scene, there was a scene he was swimming.
  The historical background of this film is in late 40's and early 50's and was strongly influenced by Christianity. I think many people who is living now never thought about such a practiced asceticism situation.
  Anyway in this film, Alfred Kinsey is written as a man who is a little strange but research ardor though, real he was a bit different from normal person.

• Cast:
Rachel Griffiths ... Annie Mary Pugh
Jonathan Pryce ... Jack Pugh
Ioan Gruffudd... Hob
Matthew Rhys ... Nob
• Director:
Sara Sugarman
• Genre:
Comedy / Musical
• Plot Outline
After her father suffers a stroke a woman is forced to take care of him but uses the circumstances to emancipate herself and find the courage to sing once again.
• Comment:
I'm just watching right now.   Rachel Griffiths sounds like speaking Welsh accent.   I like it.   Matthew Rhys and Rachel Griffiths play together in Brothers & Sisters, USA TV show.
It was a moving film.  Welsh accent made me a little difficult to catch small conversations, but it didn't matter. As a story, one thing I couldn't stand was she used money all into horse racing after they won by their performance. They came back to their village and almost all people came to celebrate their prize, but they learn Annie Mary used all of them into horse racing.  They went back to their home one by one, even her best friends Hob and Nob. Next day, she went to Hob and Nob's coffee shop though, they were very cold and told her they couldn't talk now. She was devastated.  After her leaving, since Nob started sobbing, Hob has approached him and when Nob said, "Never.." while sobbing, Hob embraced him from his back while saying, "Shi shi shi".  I don't know what he wanted to say because of my poor understanding of details of story, but I had sympathy with Nob's sob. It's not the reason I like Matthew Rhys.

• Cast:
  Tom Courtenay ... Harold Smith
  
  Michael Legge ... Vince Smith
  
  Laura Fraser... Joanna Robinson
  
  Stephen Fry ... Dr. Peter Robinson
  
  Lulu ... Irene Smith
  
  David Thewlis ... Nesbit
  
  Matthew Rhys ... Ray Smith
  
• Director:
  Peter Hewitt
  
• Genre:
  Comedy
  
• Plot Summary:
  Harold Smith, a quiet middle-aged Englishman becomes an instant celebrity when he suddenly starts exhibiting psychic and telekinetic powers...
  
• Comment:
  It's 70's story. Actually I've never seen Saturday Night Fever though, I know this background. At that time the place where they danced was called Disco and songs that were played were called Discothèque music (I'm not sure spellings).
  
  
  In this film, Matthew Rhys has got long hair with.   And it's kind of cute.
  
  
  Anyways This film is fun. You can enjoy comedy with feeling about old good days.

• Cast:
  Matthew Rhys ... Frank
  
  Kelly Reilly ... Cherry
  
  Justin Salinger ... Johnny
  
  Matthew Dunster ... Pete
  
  Sophie Okonedo ... Pippa
  
• Director:
  Nick Grosso
  
• Genre:
  Comedy
  
• Plot Outline:
  Frank leaves college and faces a Summer of discontent.
  
• Comment:
  Actually I didn't get nearly half of it because of their accent and slangs. They speak young men's words so mostly I couldn't guess. And their way of speaking is young's one, so it was very difficult to me.
  
  
  If they had an English subtitles, it helps me, I suppose.
  
  
  Story itself was OK though, I'm not satisfied with.

• Cast:
  Alice Evans ... Catherine Kennedy
  
  Daniel Lapaine ... Garrett Byrne
  
  Sophia Myles ... Anne Kennedy
  
  Matthew Rhys ... James Strang
  
• Director:
  Stefan Schwartz
  
• Genre:
  Comedy / Drama / Romance
  
• Plot Outline:
  A group of Irish noblemen kidnap girls in order to marry into their fortune and avoid becoming priests or soldiers.
  
• Comment:
  It was fun. The story itself is very predictable though, anyway I like Matthew Rhys, so it doesn't matter, lol.
  
  
  There are some twists and it breaks our expectations. Beginning of the story, I was wondering why an older guy were looking at younger daughter so much, then around Three-quarter has passed we learn what's going on her life.
  
  
  Catherine and Byrne's love is very predictable, but Anne and Strang's is a little twisted. As I wrote, I like Matthew Rhys and it's not only a reason I like better than Catherine and Byrne's couple, I liked Anne and Strang better.

    As I wrote a bit ago, I've been thinking about studying Welsh, so I decided to learn by myself using BBC website, but I realized no one can check my pronunciation because Welsh has some unique pronunciation, so I need a person who can correct me and teach something.
    So I put an ads on Fukuoka NOW's website though, no one applied to, then I found a person whose CV has Welsh teaching on a web, so I paid for Senseisagasu.com and I got his address.
    Fortunately he is so nice person, he is only twenty-one years old and a uni student though, he is very polite and he speaks and writes and reads Japanese well. I had a trial lesson on Friday evening and decided to take his lesson.
I don't think I can speak Welsh fluently even in the future though, I could be able to understand a little bit. That's my target at the moment.

    I've been writing a diary in English since Jan. 2003 to make me think something in English. I wanted to put some article here, so I checked my diary, then I found I wrote about English Conversation School pretty much every day. I suppose I was obsessed about it. It's me. Always if I think it's fun, I'm very into it. Now I'm into watching films, so I bought a lot of DVDs from Amazon. Some of them I bought from Amazon.co.uk and some of those don't have any subtitles, I mean English subtitles. Some part of that they have an accent, so I can't get it well though, I can understand what is going on.

    I like to make database. So I decided to make film database, and actually I made it. But normal database is insipid, so I decided to make them with blog, then I can put some comment on. I'm not sure how long I can keep it though, I'd like to keep it for a long time.

     The person whom I respect most is Mother Teresa.    From my high school days, I felt her near myself, but I'm not such a good person.    I'm not such respectable.    But my role model is her.
     My first film which I watched at cinema was Romeo & Juliet by Olivia Hussey, then it has past almost three decade after that, I watched her Mother Teresa.     Actually she is famous in Japan, I guess, of course it's not for young people though, she used to married to Japanese singer Akira Fuse, and she mentioned her kids in the interview, then I thought they were his.
    When I saw her in the film, I thought it was her, Mother Teresa.     I believe she performed very well.    I don't know much about award things though, she could've gotten a lot of prize.

• Cast:
  Olivia Hussey ... Mother Teresa
  
  Sebastiano Somma ... Father Serrano
  
  Michael Mendl ... Van Exem
  
  Laura Morante ... Mother Cenacle
  
  Ingrid Rubio ... Virginia / Agnese
  
• Director:
  Fabrizio Costa
  
• Genre:
  Biography / Drama
  
• Plot Summary:
  Mother Teresa - the movie: the inspirational portrayal of Mother Teresa, a simple nun who became one.
  
• Comment:
  I wanted to watch this film for a long time.   Actually there were several opportunity though, I missed them.
  
  
  Finally I rented it and watched it.
  
  
  Some of the part, I couldn't stop tearing.

    Once I think I like something, I become very enthusiastic for it.    Recently I'm very interested in Welsh because of its minority.    As you know, Japanese is a sort of popular language to learn these days according to Wikipedia though, it's never be an official international language obviously.    Basically only Japanese use Japanese.     Welsh is a kind of very minor language because it's spoken by only half of Welsh people.    But I'm a kind of a person who is not like to be same as others, so I want to learn Welsh and if I could I can understand a little bit of their language.
    I'd like to write more though I can't find how to write them, so I'll write later.

    Recently in Japan, a new home drama from USA, Brothers & Sisters, has been airing.    This is the show about family things with struggling, fighting, loving, etc.
    Basically they love each others though, they have a lot of problems individually, then they can't keep secret so they show their concern about themselves and about families.
    I'm a kind of fun of this TV show, even though it's an American.