VIFF - Day 12 - アキレスと亀 (Achilles and the Tortoise)

Tonight probably marks the end of my attendance at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival. I'll check Wednesday's schedule to see if there's anything else that piques my interest. On Tuesday I have an outrigger practice to go to and Thursday night I'll be attending the home opener of the Vancouver Canucks 2008-2009 NHL season. I don't have super high expectations for this year's team but I don't want them to hit rock bottom. Then again, hitting rock bottom might be a real wake up call for the team's management. Oh well. There's a very small part of me that wants to see the Habs win the Cup this year because it's their 100th season.

As for tonight's movie: It was called アキレスと亀 (Achilles and the Tortoise) and it's the latest movie made by Kitano Takeshi (aka: "Beat" Takeshi when he's in front of the camera). The movie starts off with a short anime clip describing the mathematical paradox of Achilles never being able to pass a tortoise in a race. The film then follows the life of the main character, Kuramochi, in three stages of his life: as an elementary school student who likes drawing, as an art college student and as a middle aged artist who is both an artistic and commercial failure. Figuring out the grand metaphor of the movie shouldn't be too difficult by now. The film is reflective, sad, funny, zany, absurd and touching at all sorts of different points in the story. Yet I found it to be a much more well composed and satisfying package than Kitano's previous outing, 監督バンザイ！("Kantoku Banzai!" or "Hurray for the Director!"). I believe this movie, along with "Kantoku Banzai!" and "Takeshis" completes his restrospective/introspective series of movies. You don't have to have seen the other two movies to enjoy this one but I don't think it would hurt to see them either. As for myself, I've seen them in the order they came out with "Takeshis" being the first one of the trio released. (Now will someone please re-release "Sonatine" on R1 DVD with English subtitles.)

I thought about seeing another film tonight but ended up deciding not to. Did drop in at HMV and picked up a copy on DVD of Kinoshita's classic movie "Twenty Four Eyes"...