早稲田渋谷シンガポール校で。
The haunted house was just.
Let’s put it this way – Elen and I underestimated the high school kids. Japanese high school kids. No one would’ve expected two fearless grown ups to be screaming their way out of the dark classroom, hand in hand. That was some good fun we had in a while!
春はもうすぐ来ると桜が美しく咲いて、町にこぼれ落ちます。
そして新しい開始を皆に祈っています。
悲しみ溢れる時でも、暗いときでも、希望と勇気を無くさないで。
頑張って日本！
Like many of you, I am deeply saddened by the spate of disasters that had overwhelmed beloved Japan to such an unimaginable extent, knowing that it would already take them years and years to recover from the massive losses. NHK and TBS had live broadcast channels and I spent the whole of last week just thinking and thinking about the situation in Japan, and how when it boils down to the core of existence, humans can be fragile. Watching footages of entire buildings, highways and towns wiped out, desperate attempts to curb the rising nuclear problem that posed a threat to not only themselves but neighbouring countries as well, and mostly that it has elevated to a level where there are too many bodies for crematoriums to incinerate. So awfully helpless; we overestimate ourselves all the time.
We may never ever understand the grieve they are going through. With the death toll mounting and tens of thousands displaced from their homes, it hit me so hard: you can flip the papers close, switch the television off when you’ve seen enough but the very fact that the country has been devastated remains. Some people can’t, much less have anything to return to or fall back on. The meaning of loss here is at its utmost. Like the Great Hanshin earthquake, this will never be forgotten.
Despite all these, in the face of unforgiving onslaughts, their optimism and brave fighting spirit is admirable. I am awed by how their cultural roots are never easily shaken or swept away.
It’s not too late to offer help, because the least we can do is donate. Donate to the Japanese Red Cross Society or other organisations via Google (you can make payment online which I find the most practical and effortless if you think sending in a cheque or going down to the embassy is going to take time).
Keep praying, keep hoping.
今回の地震で被害に遭われた皆様に、心よりお悔やみ、お見舞い申し上げます。
連日の報道を見れば見るほど、知れば知るほど、被災された皆さんのことが、とても心配です。
沢山のファンの方が、僕らのことまで気にかけて下さっていると聞きましたが、僕たちは全員大丈夫です。ご安心下さい。
いま、節電・節水・緊急時以外の電話の使用を控えること・義援金の協力…、東京にいる僕たちができることに努めています。きっと、小さなことの積み重ねが大きな力になることを信じて。
僕たちの活動の中で、できることは限られていると思いますが、“皆さんが少しでも笑顔になれるように…”と想いをこめて、目の前にあることに全力で取り組んでいきます。
被災地の皆さんにとって、まだまだ予断を許さない状況は続いているとは思いますが、ご家族やお友達、周りの方々と励ましあって、何とか今を乗り越えられるよう、メンバー一同願っています。
嵐
大野智,櫻井翔,相葉雅紀,二宮和也,松本潤
(source: Johnny’s net)
Here is something different from what I’ve only been illustrating – people, basically, all these while for a change; in my slow progressing journey of learning to draw human figures by heart, I’ve somehow forgotten how interesting objects portrayed in a still life can be. These shapes sum up the basics of anatomy.. Even this simple composition cannot, for crying out loud, cover gaping flaw of my perspective drawing, so this is how bad I still am at it.
A mashup illustration of some elements from the psychological thriller Confessions 「告白」(7.8/10 on IMDB) starring Matsu Takako, Okada Masaki and Kimura Yoshino. The murder of a teacher’s young daughter spawns a series of confessions of subjects in matter, each more telling than the other, of questionable motives incited by broken pasts, elaborate plans of sweet revenge, and a resolution bound to question viewers even after the credits have started rolling. Due to the post-production colour treatment, most of the scenes in the 106 minutes of screen time had been tinted a grey-blue, if not desaturated and compensated with high contrast that turned even the most normal environments sombre.. so much so it unsettles, yet done not distastefully, where every single moment was like a piece of art and if laid out consecutively as stills, the story would have the same impact.
大切なものが消える音は「パチン」
Perpetrators are victims, turned because of circumstances they have been forced into, where essentially each one of them, in a way or another, has lost something. Quite a bit of emphasis has been placed on this idea: the sound of something/someone important disappearing. It creeps up on you, ultimately unleashing its hefty effect to full scale when an enraged Moriguchi compares it with「パチン」じゃなくて；「どっーーーーかん！」 to illustrate the magnitude of her suffering.
The film also constantly suggests a theme of anonymity – anonymity that only serves as well as illusions, and shows how acts of evil always have a way of getting found out (especially, especially when you’re an overconfident 13 year old who has never thought of what’s really in your face while being too caught up in watching your back).
In this web of self-deception, perpetual denial and unrepentant deeds spurred by all the wrong motives, confessions may just be allusions of carefully woven lies. The steel voiced narration is there to unsettle, and coupled with the meaningful slow-mo scenes, it makes a beautifully disturbing story. I only had some issues with the odd music and comical effects that didn’t seem to gel, but that’s another thing.
Well I was going to post some general amateurish opinions on the significance of red/warm hues, that is the point of the illustration, in the entire revenge saga, and probably throw in some superficial character studies – then I realised I was losing a lot of details (which Ade’s excited analysis and comments on msn have brought back to mind, and trust me she has a photographic AND videographic memory which scares the hell out of me). So I’m going to have to see it again because seriously, it’s a masterpiece.
