Drama

Shōgun – Tomorrow is Tomorrow

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Shōgun – Tomorrow is Tomorrow
  • IMDb: link

Shōgun - Tomorrow is Tomorrow

“Tomorrow is Tomorrow” accomplishes two major tasks. The first is Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), and Mariko (Anna Sawai) and out of the clutches of those who want both Toranaga and Blackthorne dead. The second is it provides multiple opportunities for both Toranaga and Blackthorne to get a measure of each other. Blackthorne discovers the cunning of his rescuer/captor in getting out of Osaka while leaving his enemies at an empass unable to move forward with their plans without his presence. Toranaga gets a measure of the pilot who puts his own life on the line rather than be left behind. As so a friendship begins between the pair with Mariko cemented as the bridge between them.

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The Joy Luck Club

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Joy Luck Club
  • IMDb: link

“I tell you the story because I was raised the Chinese way. I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people’s misery, and to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way. Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl, and I was born to my mother and I was born a girl, all of us like stairs, one step after another, going up, going down, but always going the same way.”

Joy Luck Club

There are a handful of films that are guaranteed to always bring tears to my eyes. Based on the novel of the same name, 1993’s The Joy Luck Club centers around the lives of twenty-something Chinese-American women and the lives of their mothers, all of whom grew up in China, which are explored in flashbacks. After immigrating to America, these four women found each other and created the group playing mahjong and sharing stories for which the novel, and film, are named.

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Cat Person

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Cat Person
  • IMDb: link

Cat Person

Adapted from the short story of the same name, Cat Person stars Locke & Key‘s Emilia Jones as an overly imaginative college student working part time at a local movie theater. After a couple of awkward conversations with a regular, Margot (Jones) decides to give the older Robert (Nicholas Braun) a chance. A romance that blossoms over texts, however, runs into issues when the two spend more time together in real life.

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Shōgun – Servants of Two Masters

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Shōgun – Servants of Two Masters
  • IMDb: link

Shōgun - Servants of Two Masters

With his impeachment all but assured, Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) uses John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) as a wedge to divide the lords planning on his removal by pitting the Christian and non-Christian sects against each other. During his stay in prison, Blackthorne learns a bit about the local politics from a priest (Joaquim de Almeida) coming to understand, at least in some small part, value he could provide to Toranaga whose plans not to kill the heretic have already born fruit.

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The Great Films – Lost in Translation

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Lost in Translation
  • IMDb: link

Lost in Translation

Anyone who has spent time alone in a hotel room isolated and far from home, dealt with the uncertainties of your early 20s or a emotional barrage of a mid-life crisis, or spent time with a stranger who has somehow changed your life, can appreciate at least some of the various themes writer/director Sofia Coppola explores by putting Bill Murray in Japan. Bill Murray in Japan, that’s the premise that Coppola started with. And to it she blended in the talents of a young up-and-coming actress named Scarlett Johansson. The rest, as they say, is history.

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