KIDS

Sorry for the lag in posts. Busy, busy, busy! Working morning till night with only 4 days off per month (and no national holidays) is starting to take its toll, so I've given away a class to a friend and may have to start finding replacements for the others, ignoring students' pleas to continue teaching them!

A couple friends have their birthdays this month and they decided to have their birthday get-together at my place this coming Sunday, because they want to eat home-made pizza (did I mention I bought a pizza oven on New Year's Day?) and carrot cake (which doesn't exist in Japan - unforgiveable!). Dinner preparation will have to begin after everyone arrives, so I can spend the morning cleaning.... I only have time to clean on my 4 days off, so if I spend a day hanging out with friends or whatnot this place really turns into a dump. At least I'm HOPING this is a dinner gathering. If it's for lunch we might be in for some trouble. I'll have to send out a list of ingredients for people to pick up on the way here. The power of delegation!

In order to go shopping for birthday gifts I got friends to do my evening lessons for me tonight. Shopping went wonderfully and I was done in a little over an hour! This gave me time to see a movie called KIDS that's piqued my curiosity (hence the photo and title).

I like going into a movie without knowing anything about it. Seeing a trailer is sometimes too much information. I want to be surprised and thrilled while sitting in the theater without having any expectations. I chose this movie because the three main characters are played by three of my favorite actors...

Koike Teppei who I first noticed from his playful character in the series DragonZakura. There's something about the quality of his voice and the way that he talks that I like.
Tamaki Hiroshi who a lot of people say is super hot, but I just don't see it. The way he ends his sentences in a slight sigh kind of gets on my nerves, but he plays interesting characters so that makes him alright.
Kuriyama Chiaki who played the crazy girl with the spiky ball weapon in Kill Bill, among other strange roles. The first time I saw her was in Battle Royale, where she played a Middle School student that chases down her classmate and stabs him to death. I love that scene. Such a strong character. With scary eyes.

The premise is simple, but the complicated characters make for an interesting story, which is why I liked it. (Don't read on if you're like me and don't want to know details about a movie before seeing it). Three kids happen to meet randomly and become close friends. Sounds normal so far, right? From the start you realize that they're all kind of weird, then you gradually find out how each one has some kind of psychological hangup that has prevented them from ever making friends with anyone before.

The most interesting of the three is played by Koike Teppei, who moves to the small town to be close to his mother in prison. He can move things with his mind, and shortly after meeting the other two kids realizes that he also has the ability to transfer other peoples' wounds to his own body. His extreme sense of altruism and simple naivete cause him to start absorbing wounds whenever he finds someone hurt, leaving him with bruises and cuts all over the place. He then realizes that he can also transfer wounds to other people, and is convinced to transfer them to his friend's comatose father to save himself from constant pain (and to help his friend satisfy a need for vengeance from having been abused by his father).

This ability is what makes the story interesting, and is what made me think a lot about what the movie might be trying to get at.

Moral #1: All wounds heal, and we were meant to have them because they make us stronger.
Moral #2: Scars become a part of us and we'll miss them if they disappear.
Moral #3: We shouldn't hurt others, no matter who they are.

Pretty sappy, eh?

Just wait till the ending. It's your typical Japanese ending to a film, the kind that spends the last 20 minutes trying to make the audience cry. Come to think of it, that's a Hollywood staple, too.