Add to your movies to watch before you die list
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When I was in high school, there was a time that I decided to watch a hundred movies a year.
(Only the movies that I hadn't watched. The movies that I had already seen did not count.)
To tell you the result first, I failed. I probably watched over 90 movies, but did not make it to a hundred. In addition to that the Japanese busy local video store manager ended up remembering my name.(Sadly this video store does not exist any more. Renting a video sounds such retro nostalgia nowadays.)
I kept my notebook to write reviews on each movies I watched and sometimes I couldn't even comment on a few that were just simply bad so that , with great disappointment, I'd write something like "I want my two hours back" rather than commenting on the story or how bad it was.
Anyway, I confess that I was such a nerd.
Because it is two days before the Pearl Harbor day, I thought that I would share three of the war related movies, two of which that I watched during my hundred movie mission, that would make us think of humanity and how meaningless the wars are.
The first movie is No Man's Land by Danis Tanović
released in 2001.
This movie won numerous awards including the Best Foreign Language Film in Academy Awards and Golden Globe.
It is about two solders from opposing side and one man whose beneath there is a buried landmine that would go off if he moved. The movie depicts the fate of these men with UN and media involved during Bosnian war. (watch trailer)
This movie is pretty amazing how comical and even humorous to depict such complete tragedy with the heavy theme.
The movie will make you laugh but will leave you silent in the end.
And you can watch the full movie on Youtube with subtitle!
The second movie is pretty well known, Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni.
It was released in 1997, but I watched this movie for the first time during my mission.
This movie also won many awards including the Best Foreign Language Film in Academy Awards and Grand Prix in Cannes. (watch trailer)
The story is about this happy family in Italy right before World War II strikes in 1939.
The father is Jewish and as Nazi reaches Italy, the family is sent to the concentration camp.
The father tells his son that this is a game and tries to keep him out from the cruel reality.
This movie is one of those movies that you need a tissue box next to you when you watch.
And you can watch the full movie in English on Youtube as well.
The last one, but not the least, is not the movie that I watched during the mission but I had watched many times before the previous movies.
It is called Grave of the Fireflies by Isao Takahata.
It was originally released in 1988 and has been always voted as one of ten saddest movies in Japan. (Also, British magazine took survey and this was 6th place of the 10 most depressing movies.)
In fact, this movie is just sad besides the fact that it is a great movie, it is just sad.
I remember this movie was played many summers in Japan and that was how I watched the movie the first time.
The story is about two children in Kobe, a 14 year-old boy and his 4 year-old sister who lost their parents during the war, struggling to survive together.
The story is based on a novel, and the author put his experiences through the bombing of Kobe during the war.
This little girl, Setsuko, is the ultimate cute Japanese child and in the original movie she speaks the cutest Kansai-ben. (Kansai region dialect.)
And I cannot write any more because it is even hard to think about this movie, it is just that sad. I mean, I highly recommend watching it, but you need to get ready to get your heart completely broken to pieces.
And you can watch the full movie on Youtube as well.
The last two movies are, to me, not intended to be so "anti-war" type of movies.
They seem to be showing more importance of family, love, and hope.
But in the end, the message of these movies does not contain the necessity of the wars.
Winter is a good time to stay in and get cozy.
These movies are obviously not the happiest movies to watch, rather maybe just make you sad, but definitely something you gotta watch before you die.
Thanks for reading,
When I was in high school, there was a time that I decided to watch a hundred movies a year.
(Only the movies that I hadn't watched. The movies that I had already seen did not count.)
To tell you the result first, I failed. I probably watched over 90 movies, but did not make it to a hundred. In addition to that the Japanese busy local video store manager ended up remembering my name.(Sadly this video store does not exist any more. Renting a video sounds such retro nostalgia nowadays.)
I kept my notebook to write reviews on each movies I watched and sometimes I couldn't even comment on a few that were just simply bad so that , with great disappointment, I'd write something like "I want my two hours back" rather than commenting on the story or how bad it was.
Anyway, I confess that I was such a nerd.
Because it is two days before the Pearl Harbor day, I thought that I would share three of the war related movies, two of which that I watched during my hundred movie mission, that would make us think of humanity and how meaningless the wars are.
The first movie is No Man's Land by Danis Tanović
released in 2001.
This movie won numerous awards including the Best Foreign Language Film in Academy Awards and Golden Globe.
It is about two solders from opposing side and one man whose beneath there is a buried landmine that would go off if he moved. The movie depicts the fate of these men with UN and media involved during Bosnian war. (watch trailer)
This movie is pretty amazing how comical and even humorous to depict such complete tragedy with the heavy theme.
The movie will make you laugh but will leave you silent in the end.
And you can watch the full movie on Youtube with subtitle!
The second movie is pretty well known, Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni.
It was released in 1997, but I watched this movie for the first time during my mission.
This movie also won many awards including the Best Foreign Language Film in Academy Awards and Grand Prix in Cannes. (watch trailer)
The story is about this happy family in Italy right before World War II strikes in 1939.
The father is Jewish and as Nazi reaches Italy, the family is sent to the concentration camp.
The father tells his son that this is a game and tries to keep him out from the cruel reality.
This movie is one of those movies that you need a tissue box next to you when you watch.
And you can watch the full movie in English on Youtube as well.
The last one, but not the least, is not the movie that I watched during the mission but I had watched many times before the previous movies.
It is called Grave of the Fireflies by Isao Takahata.
It was originally released in 1988 and has been always voted as one of ten saddest movies in Japan. (Also, British magazine took survey and this was 6th place of the 10 most depressing movies.)
In fact, this movie is just sad besides the fact that it is a great movie, it is just sad.
I remember this movie was played many summers in Japan and that was how I watched the movie the first time.
The story is about two children in Kobe, a 14 year-old boy and his 4 year-old sister who lost their parents during the war, struggling to survive together.
The story is based on a novel, and the author put his experiences through the bombing of Kobe during the war.
This little girl, Setsuko, is the ultimate cute Japanese child and in the original movie she speaks the cutest Kansai-ben. (Kansai region dialect.)
And I cannot write any more because it is even hard to think about this movie, it is just that sad. I mean, I highly recommend watching it, but you need to get ready to get your heart completely broken to pieces.
And you can watch the full movie on Youtube as well.
The last two movies are, to me, not intended to be so "anti-war" type of movies.
They seem to be showing more importance of family, love, and hope.
But in the end, the message of these movies does not contain the necessity of the wars.
Winter is a good time to stay in and get cozy.
These movies are obviously not the happiest movies to watch, rather maybe just make you sad, but definitely something you gotta watch before you die.
Thanks for reading,
*重要なお知らせ*
Pigeon Dynamiteは11月1日からクリスマス迄の売り上げの20％を
フィリピンの子供を支援する為アメリカンユニセフ を通して寄付します。
詳しくはFacebookのオフィシャルページ、日本ユニセフ迄。
高校の時、何を思ったのか一年で100ぽんの映画を観ようと決意した私。
無謀なチャレンジにも思えず何となく始めた事でしたが、
結果90本位観たところで終わってしまった計画でした。
初めて観る映画しか数に数えてはいけないので、毎回映画館に行く訳にもいかず
地元のレンタルショップの店長に完全に覚えられる羽目になりました。
加えて小さなノートにそれぞれの映画のレビューを毎回書くようにしていた
（何か書くともの凄い暗い子に聞こえますが）ちょっとオタクな少女でした。。
今日は真珠湾攻撃の二日前という事もあり、戦争絡みの名作映画3本を紹介しようと思います。そのうち2本は100本映画鑑賞チャレンジ中に観たものです。
どれも道徳とか戦争の無意味さを考えさせられる映画です。
最初の一本は2001年にリリースされた
ダニス・タノヴィッチ監督ノー・マンズ・ランドです。
この映画はアカデミー賞、ゴールデングローブ賞の最優秀外国語映画賞を含む数多くの賞を獲得しました。
ストーリーはふたりの敵対する兵士と、体の真下に地雷を埋められて身動きが取れなくなった兵士が国連、メディアを巻き込んで描かれるボスニア戦争をバックグラウンドに
予想外にもコミカルに、そして最後は衝撃のエンディングで作られた大変よく出来た映画です。とんでもなく重たいテーマとメッセージを送りつつも、ユーモアを練り込んでいるところが逆にエンディングを余計残酷に見せているように思いました。
予告編はこちら。
この映画はアカデミー賞、ゴールデングローブ賞の最優秀外国語映画賞を含む数多くの賞を獲得しました。
ストーリーはふたりの敵対する兵士と、体の真下に地雷を埋められて身動きが取れなくなった兵士が国連、メディアを巻き込んで描かれるボスニア戦争をバックグラウンドに
予想外にもコミカルに、そして最後は衝撃のエンディングで作られた大変よく出来た映画です。とんでもなく重たいテーマとメッセージを送りつつも、ユーモアを練り込んでいるところが逆にエンディングを余計残酷に見せているように思いました。
予告編はこちら。
二本目は言わずもがな名作すぎて多分殆どの人が観たか聞いた事があると思いますが、
ダニス・タノヴィッチ監督、ライフ・イズ・ビューティフルです。
この映画もアカデミー賞を含め、カンヌ金獅子賞等数多くの賞を受賞しました。
ストーリーは第二次世界大戦直前1939年のイタリアで幸せに暮らす3人の家族がナチスの強制収容所に送られ、そこで父親が息子に全てがゲームと言い聞かせ、残酷な現実から息子を守ろうとする姿が何とも心に突き刺さる映画です。
観るときはティッシュを用意しないといけない映画のひとつです。
予告編はこちら。
最後は、日本人ならば一度は観た事があると思いますが、
高畑勲監督、火垂るの墓です。
1988年に初めて公開された作品ですが、日本では毎年のように夏にロードショー等で放送されていたので、私もテレビで初めて観ました。
映画について書くのも辛い、本当にただただ悲しい映画です。
現に確か日本で最も悲しい映画50本の1本に必ず投票される映画です。
両親を亡くした14歳の清太と妹の節子4歳が神戸大空襲をバックグラウンドに、一緒に生きようとする姿が描かれた1本です。
実際は 野坂昭如の短編小説が元になっており、作家の実体験等を交えた作品になっています。
とにかく節子が健気で、日本で一番可愛い女の子、と勝手に思っています。
彼女の関西弁にかなりときめいてしまいます。
（そういえば明石家さんまの”おなか、びちびちやねん”は節子のモノマネでしたが。。）
でも映画の事を考えただけで泣けてくるのでもう書けません。
予告編が無かったんですが、このクリップだけで泣けるので、泣きたい方はこちら。
更に全編観たい方はこちら。多分スペイン語ですが字幕付き。。
この最後の二作は私的にアンチ戦争、という感じではなくて
家族愛だとか、強く生きようとする主人公の姿に心を打たれる作品になってると思います。でも結局はそこが戦争の無意味さ、人間の愚かさを考えさせられるところでもあると思うんですが。
12月は寒くなるので家にこもってゆっくりするのに最適な季節でもあります。
今回の映画はどれも観て幸せな気分になるものでもありませんが（むしろ泣く）でも死ぬ前に一度は観ないといけない映画です。おすすめです。
読んでくれたひと、ありがとう。
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