Lately

It's a Saturday as I prepare for my class later.

So, has anyone listened to good music lately?

Recently, this song has caught my ears and thanks to Chun Bok, I managed to get a hang of the tune. An old song for most of our readers, I'm sure :)

Promiscuous
	Nelly Furtado Universal 2006-09-05 Sales Rank : 82209 Average Review Experience Lounge Party Styles! See details at Amazon by G-Tools

It's interesting how Nelly this time is teaming up with the greats of Timberlake. The song's lyrics are really quite interesting and how it has been crafted. Ingenious. How one can work on a theme of promiscuity and showcasing it so glamourously is something I have to take my hat off to hiphop genres. Still, it got the dancing crowd in a feverish sweat as everybody sang to the words and gyrated furiously.

I was a fan of hers since I got this album a few years ago in London:

Whoa, Nelly! Nelly Furtado Dreamworks 2000-10-24 Sales Rank : 2179 Average Review See details at Amazon by G-Tools

Think the single that got me hooked was "I'm like a bird", and this ranks as her debut album I think. Remembered playing it in springtime, opening up apartment windows and blasting the entire album to a Sunday morning sleeping Maida Vale community. Yes, that crazy Asian.. haha! Well. :)

I would recommend this, if you are curious of her initial breakthrough.

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While the entire world is off to watch spiderman (except me *sniff*), currently I'm reeling from one of my favourite films that I caught two weeks ago:

武士の一分
	木村拓哉 藤沢周平 山田洋次 松竹 2007-06-01 売り上げランキング : 108 おすすめ平均 星５つでいいでしょう。 キムタクに武士の貫禄はないけれど 感動です。 Amazonで詳しく見る by G-Tools

The writer is called Shuuhei Fujisawa, famous for writing on the everyday life of a typical samurai. The samurai character has been romanticised endlessly and dramatised in Western eyes like The Last Samurai, but much of it has been inaccurate and void of true emotion.

Though am not a Japanese, there is alot about the culture's delicacy that requires a deeper understanding and I only understood this in my final two years in UK, studying at SOAS. Whilst everybody around me in the Western Music world were giving me dubious looks of whether world music was worth the study, I tredged on and tried to fumble with my Japanese, sleeping in libraries reading old kabuki texts and listening to really old music. It also marked a period for me to start reading modern and old Japanese literature, from English and now, fumbling in the vernacular. Fujisawa's novels are difficult for me because of the samurai language (which is like Shakespeare), but to me, beautiful because of the way it was written.

The writer's feel of typical samurais, or in modern day context, civil servants, is something that I can identify with. Obeying your lord, going home at 5pm at dusk, spending time with your family, and yet defending your honour and name when you are called to battle...this is something I feel is necessary as a man, as a person.

Bushi no ichibun or translated roughly as "Part of being a samurai" or internationally known as "love and honour", is the final in a 3-part trilogy of Youji Yamada's film adaptation of F's stories. Yamada is also famous for his period dramas. The first film, Twilight Samurai, won accolades in international film festivals and tells the simple story of a samurai who lost his wife and had to fend for his children and mother. He meets his old friend who seeks to take care of him, the beautiful Rie Miyazawa, only to defend hers and his honour in a final duel.

たそがれ清兵衛 真田広之 藤沢周平 山田洋次 松竹 2006-11-22 売り上げランキング : 14415 Amazonで詳しく見る by G-Tools

The fighting scenes are natural and very beautifully shot. Very few people would know of this good film as it came out same time as Last Samurai I think, but vs Last Samurai, its recognition around the world showed how people recognised what was real art and truth, vs what Hollywood has been mindlessly dishing out. It is also very touching and made me realise how human the much-feared samurais are (you would if you met a guy who carried two swords at the waist). Not so much sword fighting as realistic sword fighting. If you're into real devel. of characters rather than action, this could be your film.

隠し剣 鬼の爪
	永瀬正敏 藤沢周平 山田洋次 おすすめ平均 武士道 爽やか 隠し剣の謎 邦画も捨てたもんじゃない 娯楽作として楽しめる Amazonで詳しく見る by G-Tools

The second film, The Hidden Blade, stars a favourite actress of mine, Takako Matsu. It is about a samurai living during the period when Japan was investing in Western warfare and ironically embracing it whilst slowly discarding its traditional Samurai fighting swordsmanship. It also showcased Matsu as the samurai's servant girl sent off in an unhappy marriage to a horrible family who abused her as a maid. The samurai defends her honour by bringing her home to nurse her to health but mibun, or social caste, prevents them from being together (samurais do not mingle with farmers, merchants and least of all, the servant class). Love story aside, the main plot is of how the samurai is sent out to assassinate his good friend arrested for treason and to take revenge on his friend's lord, who took advantage of the wife but tricked her and didn't spare her husband's life. The hidden blade focuses on what was the real true fighting skill that was utilised in the film and the final assissination scene is a classic. A must watch!

This film has the best Japanese film music I have heard so far and its huge waves of orchestral music aptly depicts the rolling mountains seen in the backdrop of the film. Again, Yamada shot it lovingly with abundant countryside scenery of Japan. One of my favourite and most moving of films.

Love and Honour stars the big star, Takuya Kimura, happily married and working as a food taster (for poison) in the shogun courts. An unfortunate poisoning incident has left him blind and his beautiful wife, young and at her wits' end, tries to seek for help from relatives. She meets a lord who remembers her as being beautiful and seeks to help her. All is not what it seems. Again, the idea of the corrupted and rich abusing power is shown when his wife is suspected of having an affair with this powerful lord. The truth as revealed was, being young and powerless, the girl was taken advantage of in return for saving her husband. The lord, instead of helping her husband, does nothing. Kimura as the blind samurai, is also skilled, and challenges the lord to a battle after knowing this. "Do not underestimate a blind man" he says. The ending is very touching when he forgives his wife for everything, knowing that true love's price is actually sacrificing oneself. This being the final of three films, showcases a rather light take on love. However, beneath this, the story is a glorious tale of the underdog seeking revenge against the corrupted. (for more reading on synopsis, check out the above link to Tokyo International Film Feste)

Although such dramatic takes of corruption seem to be few in today's society, there are many cases of these seen in modern day Japan. Feudal law, once a thing of the past, cannot be undersestimated as entirely erased. Such can also be seen in struggling third world countries or even totalitarian or communist states where horror stories of abuse and corruption go on in dare audacity each day.

All these thoughts racing through my mind as I watched this touching film. :)

if you like subtle, slightly sarcastic and yet beautifully humane films, try this. :) Unusual period dramas like this are a gem.

Well, am now a Kimura fan too after watching this fantastic drama called 華麗なる一族, tracing the rise and fall of Kobe's top bank in the 60s. Improved my vocab for Economics Hmm.

華麗なる一族 DVD-BOX
	木村拓哉 山崎豊子 鈴木京香 ビクターエンタテインメント 2007-07-06 売り上げランキング : 268 おすすめ平均 もう一度、初回からじっくり味わいたい 久々に見ごたえがあるドラマ!! キムタクを助けるための華麗なる脇役達!? Amazonで詳しく見る by G-Tools

How was your weekend entertainment? :)