More on Faust

Hardly anyone in the class could think of a story similar to Faust. But this is a very influential story in literature Wikipedia has a long article about Faust, which goes into comparisons of Marlowe's and Goethe's Faust stories. In fact, Wikipedia has a whole category about Faust. It also has an article about other stories based on Faust. Hmmmm. I never knew Osamu Tezuka wrote a manga about Faust. There is another Wikipedia article about deals made with the devil. You'll find a list of other stories with similar deals there. As I mentioned in class, Mephistopheles is such a fascinating character that many other authors have used him in their works of art. Wikipedia features a long list of cultural references to Mephstopheles. Many such references are recent, even current. Some of them you might even know. Check it out.

Your favorite movie!

What's your favorite movie? Mine is The Seven Samurai. I first saw this movie when I was home sick from elementary school in Los Angeles. "Ho, hum" I thought. "Another samurai movie." There are a lot of samurai movies on TV in Los Angeles. I don't like them but Quentin Tarantino became very influenced by them. I don't like Quentin Tarantino, either.

"Oh, well, there's nothing else on [in the daytime]."

"Hey, wait a minute. This is not the usual samurai movie. This is . . . What is this? The Seven Samurai? I've gotta remember this."

I did remember it. It wasn't on TV for a long time, but when it was, and I didn't have a TV (I was in college) I went over to a friend's place and made him watch it, too. I watched any other movies I could find by Akira Kurosawa. He has been a major influence on Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and other Hollywood directors. I have a large collection of his films and even taught a class about him to the foreign students here.

Many people think of Kurosawa as the Emperor of Japanese Film, which he may have been, but he didn't just make Japanese films. He made a Russian film, he made a French film (a samurai movie) and he made many Hollywood films, including work on the disasterous "Tora, Tora, Tora" but more importantly "Dreams".

Kurosawa was a famous perfectionist, and whenever people would ask him what was his best picture, he always said "The next one!" until he made "Ran" which he finally decided was his best film. It is a version of Shakespeare's "King Lear" in Japanese. Kurosawa made other Shakespeare films, and even his stories that weren't taken directly from Shakespeare, (e.g. "The Bad Sleep Well") were often heavily influenced by Shakespeare (in the case of "The Bad Sleep Well" by "Hamlet").

I could say a lot about Kurosawa, but maybe I'll just end by noting that his first film famous outside Japan was "Rashomon". It became a very influential film. It made film makers aware of the possibilities of presenting different versions of the past, a technique which has since become common in film. "Rashomon" has arguably become an English word.

For your assignment this week (due Friday) please tell the class about a film you enjoyed. Be sure to provide links, especially to its page on the Internet Movie Database. (Don't worry if you don't like foreign films. They have lots of Japanese films there, too.) Also be sure to include any other links, photos, or trailers you can find. Here's a trailer I found for "The Seven Samurai".

Japanese weather!

Last class meeting I suggested that people blog their favorite Japanese weather sites on the Internet. Imagine my shock when I found out that students didn't get their weather information from the Internet!

Weather in Japan is important information. Yes, I get it from NHK and even looking at the sky (hey, I'm not an idiot) but weather information online is always accessible with the latest data.

This is the best weather site I've been able to find for Japan. If you know another, please suggest it.

Saint☆ Young Men

Do you know this comic named "Saint Oniisan"?

I really recommend to read it!

Overcoming the end of last century, Buddha and Jesus are coming to the lower world. They are renting an apartment in Tachikawa in Tokyo.

To my fun, they live as if they were university students with little money. Sometimes Buddha gets angry because Jesus buy something on impulse.

When you read this comic, you will be required some religional knowledge.

My favorite movie

I will tell you about my favorite movie.
My favorite movie is "the Lord of the Rings" .
Several years ago, the movie was released. I think there are some people who had seen it.
This movie is the magnificent fantasy movie.The outline of this movie is Frodo, the protagonist of this movie, ventures to "the mountain of the going to ruin". He goes there at the risk of his life.
I was moved by the deep friendship between Frodo and his friends.
I like this movie's magnificent scenery too. This movie was filmed in New Zealand. I thought I want to go to New Zealand when I saw this movie.
If you are interested in it, please see it.

It's funny!

Do you know the length of time since you were born?
This web site "Re-date.com", you will soon know that.
If you put your birthday, the length of time will be caluclated.
My life's length of time is 19 years, 9 months, 3 weeks, 2 days!
Not only the length of time, but your next anniversaries are shown.
I found this site and I was really interested in.
I'm sure you can enjoy YOUR TIME in this site!

Would you like to try this comic ?

Do you know this ? It's comic that sums up 'Genji Monogatari ' written by Murasaki Shikibu . each story consists of 8 -frame comic . And a main character ; Hikaru Genji is drawn as chestnut . It's very easy for everyone to read and very interesting !! You are able to buy this through the online shop easily . If you want to read 'Genji Monigatari ' , What about trying this one ?