First Day of 2006

Was at Wisma earlier. Saw a fish dead in the aquarium. Lying moribund in the corner.

Watched Blood and Bones with Beat Takeshi as the male lead.

It's a story of a Korean man, Kim Shunpei, who migrated to Japan in 1923 and how he lived his life pleasing nobody but himself.

He was violent, lecherous, shrewd and died a lonely man in North Korea.

Nothing in this movie is cheerful. Not even the wedding of Kim's daughter, Hanako, because in her effort to escape from his violent ways, she married a man she doesn't love, only to be a victim of domestic violence. Funerals were not peaceful as well, because after Hanako hanged herself, Kim came to disrupt and beat up her husband. There was some tensed humour as the family had to carry Hanako's body around the funeral hall to get out of the way of the fracas.

Takeshi always strikes fear in me when I watch his movies because he already looks crazed. There is this disturbing disquieting air around him. He is fantastic as an actor.

I think such movies are scarier than horror movies. Because they seemed so real.

Interestingly, the director, Yoichi Sai, didn't want to make this movie without Takeshi and so waited 6 years. His previous movie was Quill which was that heart warming dog movie with a G rating. His next film after Quill is Blood and Bones. It's given a R21 rating.