＼(＾▽＾*) Angry Gaijin Understand Understanding. (*＾▽＾)／
David Bowie: the sexiest man ever.
(link)
Battle Royale (2000): the most brutal movie ever.
(link)
Both apart by not even 3 degrees of separation!
How so?
Enter Kitano Takeshi. Some of you may know him from MXC (or Takeshi’s Castle, as it’s known in Japan). They refer to him as Vic Romano in the American version (LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL). Seriously though, the dub is HILARIOUS.
This same Kitano Takeshi is a big name in Japan: he is a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts, owns his own talent agency, production company(#), and FREQUENTLY appears on television and in film. In fact, he was a member of the cast of Battle Royal, playing the role of ‘Kitano Sensei.’ He is known for his dark sense of humor:
Kitano Takeshi (link)
In 1983, Takeshi starred in his first major film role. The film, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, was ”based on Laurens van der Post’s experiences during World War II as a prisoner of war” (&). Coincidentally, the score of this film was by Sakamoto Ryuichi, and has influenced musical artists up until today: in 2009 Utada Hikaru covered the song in her album, This is the One.
Ryuichi starred along side Kitano in this film, along with (interestingly!) Tom Conti (who speaks Japanese non-stop throughout) and, yes, DAVID BOWIE!
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
A very interesting film…. interesting like watching an alien plant bloom in the light of 5 suns after the death of time. Yep, that kind of film. But worth a look for sure.
And why am I bringing any of this up at all?
Because on January 15 of this year (2013) , the director of this inspiring and intriguing film, Nagisa Oshima, passed away.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Nagisa Oshima. You have had played a big role in my time in Japan. You will be missed.
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Happyuan
David Bowie IS the sexiest man ever, & I would click any post with David Bowie in its title. Alas, the first picture doesn’t show… :(
As for Kitano, Sakamoto bizzaro! These Japanese are very unique. I don’t know how else to say it!
Great post! Big fan of Bowie, Kitano, Sakamoto. Was also sorry to hear of the passing of Nagisa Oshima. According to Tom Mes of midnight eye, the theme for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence played throughout the service. Hadn’t heard the Utada cover though… pretty cool. I also love the theme from Sonatine (by Hisaishi).
Huh! No way~ What a tribute to play the song during the funeral. Musta caused a lot of tears.
It gives me goose bumps to see the awful pic of Takeshi on this post.
(>_<)
Takeshi’s gotta dark sense of humour, eh?
My appetite for breakfast increased when seeing the first picture, but then it decreased dramatically after seeing the second picture. :D It was like in a roller coaster.
Hahaha, sorry about that~~
You learn something new everyday! Mr. David Bowie, just keeps getting cooler and cooler. Awesome post~
Oooh yeah! I hope to be one of those lucky guys who stays just as sexy/gets even more sexy as they get older! Lucky Bowie <3
This was so interesting! Never saw David Bowie in that movie!
Right? :D I had no idea either until maybe half a year ago~
Hilarious and crazy fun. Wow, you captured David Bowie at his sexist. I remember him in Labyrinth although I watched it for Jennifer Connely. Wasn’t she super gorgeous then? Teenage crush….ha, ha, ha. As for the question in hosting, I pasted my response. I’m still new to it and pretty struggling to understand to terms and other instructions.
Thanks. Some of my blogger friends had been recommending hosting way back then but I was just learning how to blog. Then there was a time my blog started acting out, sometimes it goes slow, others times I have problems with the some of the features of WordPress or the viewers do. Then a few of my blogger friends have a similar problem and one good friend was hacked. That scared me. I invested 2 years of time, memories, images and I can’t afford to loose it or recreate it from scratch. Hosting gave me extra protection/assurance that my blog’s posting have a back up and that another service tracks malicious, harmful hackers/virus. Honestly, I still have no idea how it goes and so far I just filled out their basic requirements. I was never a computer wizard and reading those computer tech stuff makes me dizzy. I don’t know if you know Jackie Paulson, she has a great blog and very knowledgeable about similar issues with hosting. I think she wrote about it in 2011. That long. As for which host, I just read the internet and found an article that shared his experience with the other companies and so far hostgator was the one that works for him. I just started December and learning the ropes.
Ahhh, I gotcha, I gotcha! Thanks for the detailed response, man! So that hosting stuff is kinda just like back up or extra security. I noticed that your blog’s URL no longer contains ‘wordpress’ in it. Is that related??
Lol, sorry for the tough questions. I’m new to this too.
p.s. Jennifer Connelly is a looker!
I am going to check out that movie. I has all things awesome!
I enjoyed both BR movies and I love MXC. I’m a dork, I know. I wish I could check out Takeshi’s Castle but then again I wouldn’t understand most if any of it. But I want to see the contestants as the numbers dwindle down. I like that it is edited the way it is but I would love to watch a full episode.
We Dorks are awesome!
Haha, I have never seen a proper episode of Takeshi’s Castle either, actually. I suppose they must be downloadable..??? Or maybe not…. Japan is still big on rental stuff.
Nice series of connections there!
I’m a big fan of Ryuichi Sakamoto, he’s walked so many musical paths and composed so many beautiful melodies in his career. I only recently discovered his work with Yellow Magic Orchestra, their first two albums are absolute classics which I highly recommend if you haven’t already heard them!
Ooh! I haven’t! Yellow Magic Orchestra…. I lie the sound of that~~ Thanks for the info, man!