Japan and movies help me to keep the blues away (touch wood!)

120 years ago, master filmmaker Yazujiro Ozu was born

 

Puppet Ponyo at a "photo spot" which allowed people

to pretend they were on a set of Tokyo Story :)
 

Japan has been on my mind in recent months as well as Hong Kong.  It's not only because I was over in the Land of the Rising Sun a few weeks ago and was planning -- and thus thinking about -- it for a couple of months beforehand.  Rather, it's also I've been viewing a number of Japanese films courtesy of the Summer International Film Festival (at which I ended up viewing six Japanese films and zero ones from Hong Kong!) and still ongoing Hong Kong Asian Film Festival (at which I'll again be viewing more Japanese than Hong Kong movies -- though with this fest, I at least managed to get tickets for two Hong Kong offerings!).

 

Of the six Japanese films I viewed at this past Summer International Film Festival, four were works by Yazujiro Ozu -- one of my favorite Japanese filmmakers.  Actually, heck, I'd say he's one of my favorite filmmakers.  Period!  I mean: I've happily viewed his Late Autumn twice on a big screen now, and would quite happily go watch it again on a big screen should the chance to do so come up again!   

So imagine my delight when I happened upon a Yasujiro Ozu 120th Anniversary exhibition going on in a shop in Shinjuku on my recent Japan trip!  (Beams appears to be a popular, international brand -- but I must admit that I hadn't previously known about it and it was very much Ozu's name that enticed me into the shop rather than Beams itself!)

Something that I do very much enjoy is when my movie world and "real" world come together.  I've previously blogged about how part of my love for Hong Kong is that I often feel like I'm on/living in a giant movie set.  (And by the way, a place I frequent featured in a Hong Kong movie I viewed just last night!)  But there have been times now in Japan too where I've -- sometimes inadvertently -- ended up in locales that have featured in Japanese movies I've seen (including Akira Kurosawa's Dreams and Ran)!   

Also, let's face it, I can look at the world through cinematic lenses -- or make/find associations with movies -- more so than others.  As an example: earlier in the day, I had spotted water spiders on one of the ponds of Shinjuku Gyoen and got to thinking of Mon Mon The Water Spider, a short film I had viewed when I visited the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka back in 2006!

In any case: you know the saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"?  Sometimes, for me, it can be a case of "A movie a day keeps the blues away".  And I must say that the combination of film festing here in Hong Kong as well as the recent Japan trip has helped me be to be in a better mood -- touch wood! -- than one would think given what Hong Kong has become in recent years. :)