Earlier tonight I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was nice, you should see it. There's no spoilers ahead, by the way. Later I was googling around for the poem the title was taken from, "Eloisa to Abelard" by Alexander Pope:

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;

While looking for that I ran across a posting related to the movie over at Kuro5hin that told a really wonderful story about how we manipulate memory. The mechanism of human memory always fascinates me, especially concerning the relationship between dreams and long term memory, and now since reading Howard Bloom's The Lucifer Principle, our unconcious editing, censorship and fabrication of memories.

Anyhow, while reading the post I realized I had met its author once, at a Linux Expo in San Francisco. He was manning a booth and selling copies of his novel for $5 a pop. Turns out the book didn't floor me (but it wasn't as bad as I made it sound either, I think with a little distance). His Kuro5hin posting mentioned he also edited a book that won a Hofstadter Prize for computer generated fiction, so I followed the link to find out more about it. I haven't looked at the compuer-written stories yet, but the story Sundman unfolds in the introduction is perhaps the most fantastic introduction to a fiction collection I've ever read. I won't even try to describe it, just check it out for yourself.

Rashômon (1950)
Took a break from work/packing to watch japanese movie Rashomon, the Best Foreign Film Academy Award winner of 1950. It's a classic film, so if you're inclined to see this sort of thing then you probably already have or already plan to so I don't want sell it too much one way or the other. I enjoyed it, although all the rain made me too sleepy to watch it on my first attempt. The moral of the story which I perceived is that it matters not what you are, but what you strive to be. That's not bad, as far as moral-of-the-story 's go.

I met my friends Jessica and Toni at the Metreon tonight for a free sneak preview of Bugs!, a new 3-D Imax movie shot in the jungles of Borneo, which played to a packed house, 50% of whom were under 10 I think.

It was awesome! Tropical bugs in giant 3-D with 250,000 X magnification! It was funny, poignant and sexy just like Y Tu Mama Tambien, except with praying mantises, caterpillars and rhinoceros beatles. In 3-D. No, seriously.

I think my favorite shot was a tiny ant climbing into a droplet of water to take a drink.

Anyhow, you should see it if you can.

Tonight I watched the most wholly depressing movie I think I've ever seen, Hotaru no haka (aka Grave of the Fireflies). It is an almost unbearingly beautiful and heartwrenching work of Japanese anime which tells the tale of a young boy and his toddler sister who are orphaned by the Allied assault on mainland Japan and struggle to survive, seemingly subsisting only on hope, love and denial.

After that movie ended I really needed something to cheer me up, so I tried Ping Pong, a more recent Japanese film which concerns itself with high school table tennis players. In some ways it is like any sports film, thematically exploring competition, glory and discipline, and sociological constructs like heroes and friendships, but it covers it with a more pensive atmosphere (think asian philosophy) than your typical western sports film. The movie is well made and felt about as fresh as I could expect from something in the sports genre. It was inspiring; not in a overwhelming way, but in a deeper more subtle way like drinking chilled sake.

I really like John Stewart and The Daily Show, so I decided to put Death to Smoochy on my netflix queue.

The movie is about corruption and criminal underworld influences in children's television programming. Stewart plays a network executive, Robin Williams plays a psychotic children's show host and Edward Norton stars as Smoochy the Rhino, the show host with a heart of gold.

Stewart is always deriding either the movie or his performance in it, so I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. The movie is quite funny and has some good performances. Stewart isn't great but he's not so bad either, and he has a minor role in any case. I thought Edward Norton did a fine job although I would have liked to see the submerged anger of his character fleshed out better. Robin Williams was in over-the-top full psycho mode, which I personally always find fun to watch. The main problem with the movie was it was probably a bit too long.

Matrix Reloaded, The (2003)

Like just about everyone else in America, I saw this movie in the theater last week. I've gotten mixed reviews from my friends, and I suppose my review is somewhat mixed too. Bottom line is I liked it. Pros were the story development (especially along the philosophical/theological lines) and the action/effects (of course). The main con in my mind is that many of the fight scenes were too long and the effects were not as consistently seemless as in the last movie. Many people disliked the "cave rave" scene but I actually enjoyed it although I have to admit it made no sense whatsoever. Just looked like a great party to me :)

The thing about the Matrix is that it's really about taking japanese anime inspiration and bringing it to life. There was no mistaking the anime feel this time. I can't find the reference now, but I have read earlier that when the Wachowski brothers pitched the movie to studios, they showed them graphic animations depicting a cyberpunkish superhero. The first movie was just setting the stage for the real story about this hero.

Lady from Shanghai, The (1948)
This is one I added to my netflix queue after watching Gilda a few weeks ago. Unfortunately it was not as enjoyable as Gilda as a movie, but I did enjoy it as a historical document. There were plenty of outdoor shots of 1940's San Francisco that made it fun to spot and identify certain locations such as Empress of China restaurant and Li Po in Chinatown, Sausalito harbor and the old amusement park that used to be at Ocean Beach (torn down in 1972) called Playland (once home of the terrifying Laughing Sal). Despite that fun, overall I would have to say the film is probably my least favoriteOrson Welles or Rita Hayworth film so far.