The Road to Kanreki - Chapter 2
Updated: Jun 30
(Kanreki (還暦) is a traditional Japanese celebration of a person’s 60th birthday, symbolizing a "rebirth" or the completion of a full 60-year zodiac cycle. It signifies a fresh start, longevity, and a return to the original birth calendar. It is commonly celebrated with family, gifts, and the wearing of red garments.
There weren't too many aji-sai (hydrangea) to choose from in the park across the road. The seasons are weird recently, so it's impossible to tell whether we were too early, or too late (like last year). In any case, Mina managed to catch this one. Not sure whether it's just starting up, or on it's last legs...but it's lovely, nonetheless.
Halfway.
With the world going to shit around our ears, any scrap of escapist distraction from the seemingly endless stream of bad news is more than welcome. Everyone has their thing.
Some people are losing themselves in the FIFA World Cup games. It's all the rage over here...and it goes perfectly with the country's recent 'Japan for the Japanese' nationalist bent. Everything the natives love is there. Groupism. Conformity. A safe, staged confrontation with those infuriating gaijin barbarians. The opportunity to go out and wave rising sun war flags around foreign venues, and upset the South Koreans and Chinese.
After the matches finish, attending Japanese supporters (largely a bunch of young, uber-rich, jet setting elites) swan around the host venues with blue plastic bin liners and tongs picking up rubbish for the global media's cameras. They give pious, self serving interviews to whoever asks, and generally act like their shit doesn't stink.
So, riddle me this - do they hang around picking up garbage after sporting events back here in Japan? Fat chance.
Most Japanese men won't lift a finger to do anything at all around the house...let alone clean up someone else's mess in a public space. So what gives? Are they just looking for attention? Do they think they're being...'patriotic', all decked out in Japanese flag emblems, acting superior? Perhaps their goal is to reinforce a resurgent 'Japanese superiority' narrative.
To model how perfect and clean the Japanese are, compared to...well, you know...everyone else.
It's the most infuriatingly transparent and shallow performative nonsense imaginable...yet people online appear to fall for it hook, line and sinker.
'Oh, the world can learn a lot from the Japanese! Respect!'
(gagging)
As you can probably tell, it's not my bag. I'm not a fan of 'football'. I've always felt that it brings out the worst in people. It's divisive. It's thuggish. It's essentially war without guns and bombs.Truth be told, I've never really gone in for sports at all. Like any Canadian kid, I'd watch a bit of hockey if the Vancouver Canucks actually made it into the play-offs, and managed to pass the first round. Other than that, I really couldn't give a shit.
I was more of an 'artsy type'. I liked to draw. I'd take comic books and sci-fi/horror movies over sports any day. I loved music. Not everything...just what struck me. I'm the same today. As a 70's kid, I cut my teeth on am radio, and as an adolescent, gravitated toward The Beatles and all that British Invasion stuff, then David Bowie, Iggy Pop, old glam, the Sex Pistols...and so on.
I was lucky to have grown up in a place like Vancouver, where there was an amazing punk rock scene in the late 70's and 80's. Being able to see bands like D.O.A., et al - and the myriad of great acts that would come into town on tour back then was the greatest. There was a point in time back when I was in high school that there really wasn't a better or cooler band than D.O.A. They were world class. Untouchable.
Fast forward forty years, and I'm staring down the barrel of the big six-zero.
Sixty.
Not a great deal on the menu as far as distractions go these days.
Live music things are getting fewer and further between. A couple of months ago, Mina and I decided to splurge on a late September trip out to Osaka to see The Damned on their 50th anniversary tour, and what may very well be their final go round in these parts. They were brilliant here in Nagoya three years ago. This jaunt will be a bit pricey...but I figure there really won't be too many more shows like this as time goes on.
The stuff I like is all winding down. Bands on their last legs...retired or retiring. Artists dying. As such, my gig going days seem to be well-nigh behind me. I can't complain too much. I've been super lucky to see what I've seen over the years.
Moving forward, I guess that leaves us with the cinema...a final option for escapism and distraction. Of late, the pickings there have been pretty slim, as well.
It's officially summer movie season, 2026.
So, what's coming down the pike over the next couple of months? At first glance, there's a new attempt at a Star Wars movie, a fresh installment in the current Spiderman series, and Disclosure Day, a Steven Spielberg U.F.O. movie. Of course, there's more...but nothing I'd consider shelling out for.
Looking back, there'd always be at least one big summer movie that I'd get really jazzed up to go stand in line for, but in recent years there, I just haven't been feeling it.
In the run up to COVID, that first clutch of intertwined Marvel superhero movies were good fun, but those seem to have largely run their course. Post pandemic, the film studios have been struggling to get people back out to the theaters. Recently, there seems to be a real dearth of quality content. With superhero movies on the wane, 'the next big thing' hasn't really emerged. Over the last few years, things have also become a lot more expensive.
Enter the era of streaming?
One would think so...but here on Planet Japan, it seems that the natives have yet to fully embrace this way of consuming media. Case in point - there's a fairly large DVD rental place about 5 minutes down the road that continues to do a brisk business. While the shop seems to have changed hands over the years, it's apparently still going strong. If you mention a Netflix show to someone over thirty, you're likely to elicit a blank expression.
Only one out of a gaggle of four J-native teachers out at Insecthead's kindergarten had any idea what Squid Game was. The one teacher who somehow recognized the name neither had Netflix, or any idea what the show was about. Given the local's penchant for Korean dramas, I was more than a bit surprised.
Out at the cinemas over here, the box office is dominated by domestic content. Last year's big sensation was Kokuho (National Treasure), a wholly domestic production about two rising kabuki actors, directed by Sang-il Lee, a Japanese born, third generation Zainichi Korean. The movie pulled $128 million USD in domestic box alone, making it the highest grossing Japanese live action film of all time. I believe the previous domestic record holder was Studio Ghibli's 'The Boy and the Heron' (2023), the most recent animated feature by famed director Hayao Miyakazi.
If nothing else, this proves that there's still an audience willing to shell out to sit in a crowded movie house, provided there's content on offer that speaks to them. Hollywood is no longer a dominant force over here, and mainstream interest in western pop culture - movies, music, what have you - appears to have hit an all time low. Thirty five years ago, it was different story. I'm not sure whether this is indicative of a decline in the once seemingly universal appeal of western media, or simply a reflection where the society is at today.
From my remote perch out here in the far flung reaches of central Japan, most of the pop media and entertainment I consume comes from abroad. I kind of missed the boat on the anime and manga thing. Ditto for the boy/girl idol groups. I gave up on the local indy music scene and live houses years ago, when I finally had to step away from the bands I'd been involved with for almost two decades. Irreconcilable differences and a life chapter closed. Some good memories and hard lessons learned...but finally, things ran their course. I still love music as much as ever - but as a fan, not creator/performer.
These days, I stream most of what I listen to, and still purchase the occasional CD through Amazon or Tower Records Online (yeah, people still buy compact discs over here). I never got back on the vinyl collecting bandwagon, like a lot of my old pals back home did. The collection I let go of back in the 90's will never be matched. Most of what I listen to recently is legacy stuff. I find that there's some comfort in revisiting certain things. Stuff that I'd be stuck into as a teen or art student. Recently it's a lot of 'boomer fare'... The Who, or that new McCartney album (which is surprisingly good). Before that it was later Joe Strummer, Big Audio Dynamite, and The Clash. Today, it's XTC and Squeeze. When that runs its course, it'll be something else.
Heading into summer, I usually end up neck deep in old school reggae, dub, and Jamaican dancehall.
The older I get, the larger the past seems to loom. As far as visual streaming media goes, I try to mix it up... but these days, nothing seems to beat those batshit crazy Korean Netflix dramas.
Born in late 1966, I'm first wave Gen X.
Looking back at my formative years (the late 60's thru 80's, when I finished art college) it seems like pop culture was a more unified affair than it is now. Maybe there are simply too many options these days. Back then, it felt like everyone was familiar with everything. There was this almost universal awareness of whatever was going on at any given time - whether it was music, movies, TV shows - you name it. I'm sure this was due to the pervasive influence of broadcast television and radio.
Across age, culture and class barriers, everyone watched television and listened to the radio. Commercial mass media spread through common, universal conduits. Hit songs, movies and TV shows coloured the culture. Popular sitcoms informed period vernacular. Unfortunate catch phrases like "Sit on it!", or "Up your nose with a rubber hose!" became widespread, and influenced the era's lexicon.
We were exposed to all of this 'common media'; whether we liked or not, it informed our lifestyles, choices and tastes. and helped us determine what we liked and what we hated...even what type of people we'd choose to align ourselves with.
When I was eleven or twelve, I was a bit of an outsider. I was into movies, comic books and records...as opposed to sports, or dreaming about getting my driver's license and buying a car. Without the sometimes dubious benefit of any older siblings to influence my tastes or choices, I was pretty much out in woods as far as knowing what was what.
Sometimes finding what you like entails first nailing down what you don't like. As time passed, it gradually became fairly obvious that most of the stuff that was super popular with the 'in-crowd' at school just wasn't for me. I ended up having to dig a bit deeper to find my groove.
I'd mostly stumble across things I liked by accident, or someone would loan me a stack of records or comics and I'd get hooked.
Of course, there were a few exceptions. I had an affinity for The Beatles, who were popular, though somewhat past their prime. I also loved those big summer movies. Star Wars. Jaws. I couldn't get enough of that stuff.
Movies were the great escape.
As the baggage kid in my Mum's second marriage, home wasn't the happiest place, and I had trouble meshing at school. I was diagnosed as dyslexic in the second grade, and initially had problems keeping up. I'd act out in class, get in shit and my step father would lash out. He was one of those 'spare the rod and spoil the child' types, and I was terrified of him. I spent a lot of time out on my bike, just to avoid being at home. If I wasn't killing time out at a friend's place, I'd be at the public library, poring over books about old horror movies and omnibus collections of classic comics.
I began taking an interest in movies in the mid 70's. When I was around eight, my Gramma and her long time consort started taking me along to the cinema. This was a huge deal, as Mum and my step father never took us anywhere. I was thrilled to get out of the house, and they were so nice to me. I loved it. The movie theatre seemed like some magical kind of place, where reality sort of disappeared for a couple of hours.
I remember the first time they took me, we saw a double feature - Airport '75 and Earthquake (in SENSURROUND*) out at the old Haida Theatre, on Kingsway. It was all pretty exciting for an eight year old. I thought the whole theatre shaking novelty was really cool.
*(fun fact -'sensurround' ended up being a relatively short lived fad. It turns out at the low end sub woofers they used to create that all encompassing shaking effect actually caused structural damage to some of the theatres they were installed in).
One Saturday afternoon in the summer of 1975, they took me to see JAWS, and I loved it. After that, I went through a 'shark obsessive' phase. I became a shark nerd. I remember being over the moon when I got a JAWS t-shirt and shark tooth pendant from Gramma and her consort that Christmas.
I must have borrowed every book that Kerrisdale library had on sharks, and drew heaps of pictures of great whites eating people and wreaking general mayhem. Gratuitous amounts of blood and severed limbs. I recall my fourth grade teacher finally complaining to my Mum, who turned around and gave my Gramma shit for taking me.
Just like that, there were no more trips to the cinema.
Fast forward two years
I was ten when I saw the original Star Wars at the venerable old Dunbar Theatre, a few kilometers from MacKenzie Heights, where the house on 35th ave was. Maybe a twenty five minute bike ride.
That summer, I was a Vancouver Sun paper boy, and Sunday was my only day off. I remember late June and early July '77 being hot as hell. My assigned route - forty five houses going west along 37th from Larch across MacKenzie was a real slog. This paper delivery gig was my first actual job.
While it was brutal, and I wasn't a very athletic kid, it did put some money in my pockets - at least enough to go out to the theatre with the diabetic twins that afternoon. I remember the Entertainment section of the over-sized Saturday edition of The Sun had a two page spread on the movie when it opened at the end of June. Of course, I'd read all about it, and desperately wanted to go.
When I rang the twins up just before lunch that rainy late July Sunday afternoon, and they asked if I wanted to go with them, my heart jumped and sank almost simultaneously.
Mum was inclined to say 'no' to everything back then. If I wanted to go somewhere, I'd cautiously ask my step father first and he'd always shrug and say, 'Go ask your mother'. He was wholly incapable of granting permission for anything. So, I'd go and ask. She was always busy with the younger kids, or at her sewing machine. Nine out of ten times she'd say 'no'.
"No, no, no", and that would be the end of it.
Or she'd tell me to go outside and rake leaves. Or pull weeds in the garden. Or wash her car. In her estimation, if I had that kind of free time on my hands, I should be making use of myself.
I really, really wanted to see this movie, so I decided to go through the routine and ask anyways. Of course my step father deferred.
"Go ask your mother"
When I approached Mum, I recall being shocked when she didn't immediately shoot me down. Maybe it was because I was working, and had my own money...or that it had been summer vacation from school for a few weeks, and I hadn't been in trouble for anything.
Looking back, she may have said OK simply based on the fact it was raining.
One of her other common summertime refrains was, 'You're NOT going to sit in a dark movie theater on a BEAUTIFUL sunny day!'
Never mind that I'd usually end up in the dark basement watching TV, or sitting inside at the kitchen table reading comics or drawing.
So, off I went into the rain on my bike, with five bucks of paper route money stuffed in my pocket. It was probably only $2.00 to get in.
Seeing that movie was one of those pivotal, life changing events.
Front and center, I was ten years old...precisely the age demographic that George Lucas later said he'd made the movie for. It's hard to articulate the impact it had when it first came out. It was thoroughly modern, but rooted in the tradition of old matinee adventure serials from the 30's and 40's. Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and that sort of thing.
Despite the fact that Lucas claimed to be aiming for a younger crowd, the fact that it didn't condescend - or play like a kid's movie - gave it universal appeal. Up until then, there'd really never been anything like it.
After JAWS, Star Wars really ushered in the era of big summer blockbusters.
From then on, there were always at least a couple of big 'must see' summer movies. On opening weekends, we'd make a day of it, and queue up around the block for hours under the blazing sun to secure seats. If the movie lived up to expectations, we'd go back with another group of friends, and queue up again.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back immediately comes to mind.
I must have lined up around the block at least three times that summer...even though I'd seen the invite only sneak preview before it opened wide. These 'sneak previews' were one-off promo screenings that the media, press and local VIP's would get to see just before the premiere. They usually happened early on Thursday evenings, before opening on Friday. I guess this gave the newspaper and TV movie critics a narrow window to get their hasty reviews in before the Friday papers went to press.
In those days, local radio stations always got a certain number of concert tickets or movie passes to give away as promotional freebies. The top 40 am station that I used to listen to was always doing these phone in giveaways to keep people listening, and I'd become pretty good at speed dialing.
I spent every waking moment for an entire weekend in early May, 1980, sitting on a rattan bar stool by our wall mount rotary dial phone waiting for the hourly call to dial in for invitation passes on 14 CFUN.
I think I finally hit pay dirt as the sixth caller (or was it eighth?) on mid Sunday afternoon. Of course, I was ecstatic.
I had to take a couple of buses to get down to the radio station on 4th avenue to pick up my prize, which was actually pretty hefty. Not only did I get the coveted invitation pass - an envelope containing a fancy sky blue greeting card type affair with a glossy black 'The Empire Strikes Back' logo emboss printed on the front, and, "You and a guest are cordially invited to attend a special preview screening of....", printed in fancy cursive inside - but also a copy of the DELL pocket book novelization (which I deliberately avoided reading until after the movie), the double vinyl John Williams soundtrack album, and a six pack of Coca-Cola (?) in glass bottles. Quite an impressive haul.
It's hard to express how absolutely thrilled I was.
I ended up taking one of my eighth grade pals to the screening, and it was all pretty exciting. Star Wars had been such a massive phenomenon in the late 70's, so the anticipation at the gorgeous old Stanley Theater was running pretty high.
The Stanley had opened in 1930, and was Vancouver's premiere movie house back in the 80's. It was outfitted with a then state-of-the-art 70mm screen, and six track Dolby sound system.
When the houselights finally dimmed; just before the 20th Century Fox fanfare and 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away' intro hit the screen, a sudden hush fell over the crowd. Everyone was suddenly went quiet... with the exception of this highly animated blonde idiot in a lemon yellow headband a few rows in front of us. I didn't immediately recognize him, but apparently several people in the audience knew exactly who he was.
In any case, the guy seemed totally oblivious to the moment, and just kept running his mouth. The crowd wasn't having it.
Someone a couple of rows back piped up,
"Hey Mike Reno!! Shut the fuck up!!'
Suddenly it clicked. The yellow headband. That guy was the 'nouveau celeb' singer for crapola Loverboy. They were all over am radio with this awful, 'Working for the Weekend' song, and had this horrible, cheesy video out. I remember having no idea why they'd become a thing. They were total shit.
Reno half turned with this stupid, toothy grin on his face, vaguely nodded or half-bowed to no one in particular, then sank so far into his seat that you couldn't make out his trademark headband. As if on cue, the crowd erupted into hysteric laughter and applause - just as the massive 70mm screen came to life. Seeing dickhead Reno so thoroughly deflated in front of that packed theatre was a deeply hilarious moment, and the evening's perfect segue.
Of course, this movie would go down in the annals of cinema lore as one of the all time greats, by many estimates actually eclipsing its 1977 predecessor. I remember the entire theatre letting out a collective gasp at the classic "I am your father", Luke/Vader reveal. It was completely unexpected. Somehow the studio had managed to keep a lid on any leaks or spoilers.
'Empire' was one of those very rare movies that you actually felt sort of exhilarated walking out of. Before the end credits even started rolling, I was making plans to see it again. To this day, it remains the most memorable and impressive cinematic experience of my life*. It defined the 'big summer movie' experience.
*(Of there was also the first time I saw a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Ridge Theatre, back in 1981. Not exactly the same kind of thing - but memorable, nonetheless...)
In the early 80's, going out to these movies became kind of a summer ritual. Raiders of the Lost Ark was another one. Superman 2. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Line ups around the block. The atmosphere in those theatres was charged. Fun. They were events. Movies like this would run on the 70mm screens over at the Stanley or Vancouver Centre for two months or more, and then make the rounds at the smaller theatres for months. There were a lot of repeat viewers who would go again and again.
These days, a movie opens, runs theatrically for three or four weeks, then transitions to premium streaming. If it's big movie and you're serious, you have to see it within the first week or so, before it's usurped by some anime and relegated to one or two IMAX screenings a day (at some inconvenient time), or entirely bumped to a claustrophobic small screen auditorium.
If you can bear waiting, you'll likely be able to catch it on at least one of the subscription streamers within three months of its theatrical window. Those lacking patience can simply go to a file sharing site and download some kind of dubious pretty close to right away.
Streaming. Funny, back in the early 80's, I remember how some people said that the rise of home video would ultimately erode the tradition of movie going, and start putting theatres out of business.
Most people didn't have video players until the mid to late 80's, but I got lucky and came in to one a few years ahead of the mainstream curve. Sometime after the early 80's departure of my corporal punishment step Dad, I lucked out and got a Panasonic VHS deck from my estranged biological father way down in Los Angeles. I must have been 14 or 15. In those days, California Dad was really big on trying to fill his significant parenting gaps with gifts of imported home electronics. This was alright with me, of course. I think the idea was to keep me away from bad elements downtown...like people who would try to turn me on to dope or whatever. Just say 'no!' and all that Reagan-era 'War on Drugs' garbage. Ultimately, a noble but futile effort. It's all so laughable, now.
Forty five years ago, there were only a few nascent video rental places around town. At best, they might have a couple of hundred movies in stock. To lubricate sales, they would even loan out bulky old school VHS decks for a night or two...but that could get expensive, and you'd basically need a car to haul everything back and forth.
It always took ages for some of the biggest movies to show up on video, too. Years, in fact.
The original 1977 Star Wars movie was finally released as a rental only video cassette in June, 1982. In addition to the poor (by today's standards) mastering and video resolution, it suffered from a cropped 4:3 picture formatting to fit standard tube televisions. In addition, video stores had to pay a $75 license fee per cassette and legally agreed to rent it for only three months before returning it to the studio. There wouldn't be a commercial retail release until a year later, and an official VHS copy would set you back a whopping $79.98 USD (which is roughly equivalent to around $250 today). Anyone with half a brain would just rent a copy, string two video decks together, and dub a bunch of copies on to blank video cassettes. We got all kinds of stuff that way. Home videos didn't become affordable until the 90's.
Fun fact...an original copy of one of these can set you back anywhere from USD $200 - $60,000 on the collector's market
Which brings us back to Deadbeat City. Early rainy season, 2026.
For the last couple of months I'd been going on about wanting to go out to the IMAX to see the new Star Wars thing - The Mandalorian and Grogu, in 3-D. Around this time of year, I usually start waxing nostalgic about all this (aforementioned) summer movie stuff . The past. I make plans to go see this or that new movie, or re-watch whichever summer classic on streaming or disc, and it mostly doesn't happen because I can't keep my eyes open past 10:30 pm.
Getting old is kinda pathetic
Anyways, as opening day approached, I started looking over our schedules, trying to figure out when we'd be able to pull this off. Going out to see a movie used to be a fairly simple undertaking, but these days, it really isn't. Finding the time to do this kind of stuff has become next to impossible.
Back when Mina was doing that horrible shift work at the hospital, we could find time on the odd weekday afternoon to go out to and do this or that...but with her current, fixed Monday-Friday daytime schedule, said option has all but evaporated.
That leaves us with Saturdays and Sundays...but I have to teach two Saturday mornings a month. The remaining two are a toss up. Often there are medical/dental appointments, or Baba service obligations. On the average weekend, there's barely enough time to get everything we need to cover done. Any free time we have ends up being spent trolling the aisles of some supermarket, looking for specials. Sadly, by the time we finish up our hunting and gathering for the coming week, it's early Sunday evening. We're spent, and the clock has timed out.
It's easy to just kind of give up, and flick on the streaming app. Even that's a crap shoot. I'm lucky if I can get forty five minutes into whatever we finally decide to put on without nodding out. As I mentioned...getting is old kind of pathetic.
So, unsurprisingly, The Mandalorian and Grogu in IMAX 3-D very nearly didn't happen.
Almost a week before we were 'tentatively' going to go, Mina suddenly started complaining of this horrible pain where she'd had some questionable dental work done several years ago. It was pretty bad, so she booked an early evening appointment at her usual clinic, and went directly from work.
After a rather long session of digging and pulling, the verdict was that the 'other clinic' had done some shoddy work on the site of a previous root canal, and over the course of a decade or more, it had gone south, and become infected.
After working on her mouth for more than an hour, Mina's (up to then) regular guy, The Chikusa Showa-Showa Machi Dentist, packed some dental putty into the gaping hole in her tooth, gave her some useless over-the-counter painkillers and told her to, '... come back in a few days - when the pain goes away'.
It only got worse.
Though it was clear that there was an infection, for some unknown reason, he didn't bother prescribing any antibiotics. I didn't get it. Was he stupid...or just negligent? One side of her face was all swollen, and she was obviously in a great deal of pain. I felt awful watching her suffer.
She hardly slept that night...but got up and trooped off to the hospital in the morning, as usual. She said that she'd get it checked out if she could make time during the day, which she did.
The doctor there prescribed a five day course of antibiotics to be administered by i.v. drip for thirty minutes a session. It took almost a week for her facial swelling to finally go down. He also loaded her up with Loxonin (the go-to non opiate pain killer in these parts) and Calonal (paracetamol based Tylenol-type tablets). She couldn't sleep properly, and was up taking these alternately every two hours for the better part of a week, but kept soldiering off to work every morning, anyways.
Tough as nails.
Needless to say, when opening weekend finally rolled around, I didn't think that a noisy Star Wars flick was going to make her feel any better. Timing is everything, so I decided to just sort of let it slide. Best to give the lady a break and wait for the flick to drop on Disney Plus. Try to squeeze some value out of that increasingly pricey annual subscription.
Though I'd stopped talking about it, the ads were still all over Japanese TV, and over lunch on Saturday, she asked when I thought we should go. The original plan had been for early Monday evening, as she already had the day booked off for an afternoon appointment. Of course, Tuesday morning would be an early work day for both of us...so anything into Monday evening would be cutting things close.
She looked at me and ventured, "Why not today?!"
I mentioned her toothache, and the less than enthusiastic reviews I'd been reading, but she said that her mouth was alright (?), and that, furthermore, I should know better than to pay attention to what 'he critics' had to say. She navigated to the 109 Cinemas site on her handset. There were plenty of open seats for the 6:25 pm showing. We'd be back by 9 pm, and could sleep in tomorrow. It would be a nice change of pace.
Apparently we hadn't been out to see a movie in almost four years.
Four years? I know we haven't been getting out that much...but holy shit.
The last time round it was Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, back in May 2022 - just before that summer's big COVID surge. If memory serves, that one was directed by Sam Raimi, who made those crazy Evil Dead movies back in the early 80's, and the first three Spiderman movies, in the 90's. Not bad...but by that time, the whole Marvel thing was wearing a bit thin.
A couple of months later, we finally replaced our old plasma HDTV with a bigger 4K, spent too much on a 7.1 surround set up, and pretty much switched over to streaming everything instead of going out. Sure, we have to wait a few more months for the new releases...but there's more content available than anyone could possibly get through in two lifetimes. The peace of mind and convenience are great, and it saves us some money. All totaled, a trip to the movies these days can easily cost ¥10,000.
In other words...'ouch!'
Still...I'd by lying if I said I didn't miss going out old school once in awhile, and cost considerations aside, some movies really do need a theatrical presentation.
I still regret missing the final Indiana Jones 'Dial of Destiny' thing a few years ago. Sure, we saw it on the big TV here, and I liked it... but I'm sure it would have been way better at the theatre. As I recall, there was a lot of COVID flying around when it opened mid-summer 2023, and the last place either one of us wanted to be back then was in a crowded movie house with a bunch unmasked idiots sneezing and hacking all over the place.
Tickets booked, we headed out a little more than an hour before showtime. It's a twenty minute drive out to this little commercial area on the fringes of Nagoya Station. Fortunately, there were no issues with parking. We breezed in 45 minutes before showtime, it was pretty quiet.
Everything is digital these days, and all the transactions happen via your smartphone. There aren't paper tickets...everything is done by scanning your smartphone's screen on a terminal to confirm and verify your reservations.
On closer inspection, I noticed a narrow counter with a couple of staff, kind of tucked away off to the side of the concessions area. I guess this would be where people who felt like just showing up on the fly and doing everything the old fashioned way would have to queue up. The new way of doing things feels a bit cold. There is no bustle. No human touch.
Of course all the terminal screen displays are in Japanese, so Mina takes care of our verifications on her phone. While I can battle through kana, I'm still painfully slow, and at this point, can't read kanji (Chinese characters). I'm not sure that all of said terminals have an English screen option, either. Bilingual options are really hit and miss with that stuff these days.
It seems like if you're one of the few people who prefer not to use a smartphone for every one of life's minor transactions, you're going to find yourself increasingly marginalized, or finally just shit out of luck.
After a few minutes messing around at the terminals, we're finally all checked in for the 6:25 pm IMAX Laser 3D presentation of Disney/Lucasfilm's latest attempt at a Star Wars movie. I can't say that it seemed any easier than four years ago. I'd actually prefer just queueing up doing it the old fashioned way, to be honest.
For some reason, I just wasn't feeling that old swell of anticipation. The 'magic', as it were. I'm not sure what I was expecting. While I was happy to get out and do a proper date night with Mina, that pre-Star Wars movie buzz was absent. It didn't feel like 'an event'.
I wonder if all those streaming shows haven't kind of taken the shine off of the franchise, and made it feel...commonplace?
We stopped by the swag shop to get Mina's usual movie program and memorabilia stuff. Japanese cinemas all have a small souvenir shop or dedicated counter, where pricey branded trinkets and junk can be purchased. They have the whole gamut. From t-shirts, to caps and novelty items. Towels, clear files, stationary, netsuke figurine smartphone dongles, mugs and lenticular 3D posters. This is Mina's territory, and I buy her whatever she wants.
Mina picked out a 'ballpen' with this little figurine of Grogu stuck on the top. I think it was the last one left. ¥800? It's kind of a cool thing. Did I mention that we're both sixty? lol.
The theatre foyer and concessions still weren't busy at all. The 109 is a ten screen multiplex, so I'd expected there to be at least a few more people. It was still too early to get popcorn, so with a bit of time left to kill, we ventured out front to have a look at the posters and marquee.
Just outside the new McDonald's at the foot of the escalators, there was a small cluster of older looking gaijin guys - maybe four of five - standing in a semi huddle, staring intently at their phones. They were all conspicuously quiet. For some reason this struck me as odd. Why would they bother going to effort of meeting up if they were just going to stand around in silence, dicking about on their phones? Maybe that's a thing these days. Being alone together. Or together alone? One of the last drinking junkets I went to with my former band associates several years back was like that.
What's the point?
At first glance, they looked like used car dealers - maybe in their mid-late 40's? It's hard to say. I wondered if they were there for the Star Wars movie. I guess they would be close to around the right age. Gen X...a bit younger than me. Maybe they were young kids back when the original trilogy was winding down.
Mina always nudges me and sniggers when there are other gaijin around.
'Hey, look! Gaijin! Do you think they came for Grogu? Hee,hee,hee!'
Apparently they had, as I saw a couple of them wandering around the foyer like lost farts, just before the p.a. announcement that we could go ahead and scan ourselves into the theatre area and begin seating.
The auditorium itself was less than half full when the movie started, and the trailers seemed to go on forever. From what I could see, the sparse audience seemed to be a smattering of middle aged males - mostly older Japanese guys, with a small handful of gaijin mixed in. I would venture that Mina and I were almost certainly the oldest ones there.
The trailers started at 6:25, and around fifteen minutes later, the main feature kicked in. At just a bit over two hours, it seemed to move at a reasonable click. A bright, fast paced romp.
The verdict without any spoilers? Enjoyable enough. Lightweight. Kid friendly. I think a Star Wars franchise newbie could probably walk in totally cold and be reasonably entertained. The whole affair was self contained. Like four, thirty minute episodes of the Disney Plus show, all strung back to back.
There were some fun Easter eggs and a bit of fan service stuff to please the hardcore Star Wars crowd. The visual effects were high end...about what you'd expect for a production like this. There seemed to be a good mix of old fashioned practical effects, animatronix and puppetry, and more high tech, CGI based stuff. It was nice that the physical puppets actually seemed like practical effects at times.
There was nothing to hate on or dislike here. Despite her toothache (and forgoing the crappy popcorn), Mina said she enjoyed it. I had no complaints coming out of the theatre. I like the streaming series. I enjoyed the movie.
It was 'good enough'. Inoffensive escapism.
7.6/10
As far as more recent Star Wars movies go, I enjoyed Ron Howard's unfairly derided 'Solo' more. While Rogue One was a quality movie...I'd really give the edge to Solo. It had a free wheeling, fun energy that felt a bit reminiscent of the 1977 original. To me, Star Wars movies need a John Williams score. Looking back, that's really a major part of what made those movies (among others that he scored over the years) so great. Williams did a bit of new work for the Solo movie, and it really added a more authentic feel to the proceedings. I understand that he's finally hung it up and retired. The last thing he did was that final Indiana Jones movie a couple of years ago. He must be well into his eighties by now.
As for the other two on my radar, the Spiderman movie at the end of July looks tempting...but we'll have to see which way the wind is blowing when it opens. It turns out that Universal Pictures pushed Disclosure Day from it's original July 10th slot, to October 1st...which means it'll be streaming in the rest of the world before it hits cinemas here. By then, it'll already be a done deal. Yesterday's papers.
Out of the movie houses of past and present, and back on the ground here in Losersville, it's just past the mid-summer solstice.
As I sit here hammering out this last little bit at the keyboard, two typhoons are working their way straight for these precincts. It'll start raining tonight, and then proceed to piss down varying amounts straight through Saturday...or Sunday. As happens, it seems that Mina's dental malaise has spread to yours truly. Last Sunday morning, I decided to join Mina, and visit our 'new' dentist over at Jingu-Mae Station. Nice enough young guy, a 'hafu' (American mother) maybe twenty five years younger than I. He can speak English 'somewhat', which is a major step up from 'not at all'. The bad news - it seems that my mouth is a disaster area. I'll need two wisdom teeth pulled, and four or five fillings done. There are also a couple of other 'problems', but he said that if they weren't causing any immediate pain, we could overlook them for now. The tooth pulling starts next Tuesday afternoon, and from then on, it looks like that will be this summer's recurring theme. Dental malaise. The last summer of my fifth decade. So fun. At least it's covered by my medical insurance.
Sigh.
That's where we'll curtail our seasonal unspooling for now. A hearty slap on the back if you've stuck with me this far, and high hopes that summer wherever you hang your hat is just a little more pleasant than mine promises to be. At least the heat and humidity hasn't really hit Losersville like it did last year...or the year before. Not quite yet, anyways.
Fingers crossed that we'll be in for a bit of a less brutal go round this year.
As always, you'd do well to remember that no matter where you go this summer...there you are. There and nowhere else.
Feet firmly planted, and head in the now.
'This is the way'.
Dusk falls on the park across the road. This shot feels fairly typical of this season's oeuvre, and general mood.
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