The Japan Foundation has a similar remit with respect to language and culture from the Japanese government as the British Council has from ours. The London office organises an annual touring film festival in the UK which I posted about earlier in the year and this month, organised I assume by Tokyo, a worldwide free of charge event in which a selection of films and TV series is available on the internet for a limited period. The precise selection varies by country.
In the UK there were over a dozen films online for a fortnight with two TV series following on for a second fortnight. I saw all but one of the films and would have seen that one had I not miscalculated the expiry date and time. The TV series remain unseen so far.
Since I also watched a lot of the French Open Tennis Tournament I'm approaching teenager levels of screentime this month. There were some engrossing tennis tussles but the matches that I thought were the most entertaining to watch were the men's and women's doubles finals.
Coming back to the films the two posters above are of two excellent films, different in almost every particular but linked in one respect.
On the left is We Made a Beautiful Bouquet. It's the story (fictional) of a young couple who meet, fall in love, live together for five years. Then as romance wears off and various difficulties arise they consider whether the next stage in their lives should be to marry, have children and settle into family life. They (primarily the young woman) reject the idea and part fairly amicably. It was in my view a really fine film.
On the right is another love story but of a rather different kind. First of all I Go Ga Ga: Welcome Home Mom is not fiction. It's a documentary about the film-maker's parents as her mother succumbs to dementia and her father takes on all the domestic burden and cares for his wife. She has a stroke and goes into hospital. Now in his nineties, bent double he pushes a sort of zimmer to the hospital to visit her every day and consistently urges her to get better and return home. She does start some rehabilitation but has a second stroke, is transferred to a long-term geriatric unit where she's bedridden. He continues to visit daily. At 98 years old he undergoes an abdominal hernia operation and the day after surgery is on his feet starting rehabilitation so that he will be fit to care for her when she gets home. What a man.
His wife's condition deteriorates and ultimately she dies with husband at her bedside. In the Japanese fashion he creates a little shrine in their house and carries on alone. There's a small celebration and presentation of a scroll from the mayor on his 100th birthday shortly after which the film ends. Touching doesn't say the half of it.
All the other films were of interest one way or the other but my outright favourite for entertainment was The Handsome Suit.
Here's the poster
The simple story is that a not very good-looking but exceptionally kind and lovely chap believes that his appearance puts people off and despairs of ever finding true happiness. He gets hold of a suit that when he puts it on turns him into a handsome hunk. All sorts of thrills and benefits come his way but ultimately as you might guess true happiness comes when he finally reverts to his proper self.
The film is brilliantly done. It's colourful, riotously funny and tearfully smaltzy. So good.
In the theatre I enjoyed the Lyceum's Sunset Song. The stage was nicely turned into the ploughed fields of Kinraddie and there were some good touches in how they handled things like the father beating his son. The "gender blind casting" wasn't too much of a pain in the tonsils but the ideas expressed about it at the post show discussion (first I've been to in a while and very enjoyable) didn't seem terribly cogent. By the bent or otherwise the acting was excellent and the cast made the closing scene of the play very moving.
The National Theatre of Scotland's
Maggie and Me at the Traverse was a brilliant production. Acting, direction, staging etc was great. It was inventive and imaginative. But it raced on without engaging or moving me. Claire wrote a
very good review of it and her summing up hits the nail on the head - "
It’s great fun and – makes for great theatre – but for the generations
of people who see themselves in Barr’s story, his quest to find himself
could be given a little more room to breathe."
The RSNO's last two concerts of the season were very good. The penultimate concert was rather poorly attended. Who knows why. A little gem of an overture from a lady called Bacewicz, a Saint-Saëns piano concerto, a symphony from Lutoslawski. All rounded off by Ravel's Bolero. All except the last unknown to me but all a rewarding listen.
In contrast the following Friday the Usher Hall was bursting at the seams, not only with audience but also with 165 musicians, 132 singers, 18 timpani and four brass bands. The work was Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts one of those giant choral pieces that I like to hear. This one was new to me but it lived up to the forces employed. At the same time, as for example in the Sanctus, the piece was gentle and so quiet that the proverbial pin could have been heard.
Before the concert I managed to have a drink at Whighams with friends up from Wales for the weekend for a wedding.
Ballet Black are a group I've missed for one reason or another on their visits to Edinburgh so I was glad to catch them this week with their double bill
Heroes. As is often the case with modern dance, while I generally enjoy and admire the stuff as I did this show I come away a bit in the dark as to what it was all about. I turn to
reviews like this one to tell me.
I was pleased when I read it that the reviewer had no more idea than I had about where all those crowns came from. Magic?
The end of term approaches for students at Napier and once again I had fun being the father of an obstreperous post-operative cerebral palsy daughter in a patient simulation exercise for physiotherapist hopefuls. Next week it's my hip replacement routine.
Siobhan has recently reached the magic bus pass age and a group of us celebrated with her by enjoying Contini's tasty food and tasty wines.
Like Contini's Vittoria's is an Edinburgh institution. It's Leith Walk restaurant has recently undergone a transformation that was not necessarily devoutly to be wished but llooks as though it's a commercial success. In essence they've cut the place in two. One half, entered from Brunswick Road, is the old Italian restaurant albeit somewhat remodelled. The other half which delights in the name The Brunswick Book Club is entered from Brunswick Street with its overflow of outside tables. It's a pub with food. Not Italian food. Books are a gimmicky way of presenting the drinks menu and the bill.
Ewan and I ate there on the eve of his return to the States. The food was fine. The service was excellent. The ambience was pubbish, they held a quiz as we ate. I doubt that I'll be a frequent customer with the possible exception of having a drink at the outside tables on sunny days.
Finally
Almost all the UK selection from the Japan Foundation.
