Ningen Gowasan 2018 live

Okada Masaki's Haiji in the Ningen Gowasan ads in Morinomiya Osaka

Update 15 July 2018: Since Ningen Gowasan has ended the show in Osaka this afternoon, I have now uploaded the plot at the end of this post. Enjoy!


I’m still tokidoki after watching Ningen Gowasan 「ニンゲン御破算」2018 live. I do believe I’m so blessed that I’m allowed to squeeze some money and time to fly to Osaka to watch Okada Masaki live (three times, no less!)... and I still feel that tingling sensation when I saw him for the first time in my life, 10 m ish from me, emerging with his gorgeous white hapi, the white overcoat his character Haiji worn.

How do I express the tokidoki I feel? Upon listening to his voice reverberating in the Morinomiya Piloti Hall Osaka, and also in my heart?

Here’s a guy I fell in love with in 2012, and that was through an Edo-time movie (Raiō) he played in 2010. Then I backtracked watching his portfolio until 2007 and moving forward again, and I’m in love with that kakkoi and kind boy.

But now, he is not a boy anymore. He’s a man. A gentle man, whose gaits show the pure confidence that doesn’t even go near the line of arrogance. A young man whose career is displayed in front of him through his fine choices of work and excellent work ethics.

Alan Rickman just died...

Alan Rickman....

I'm so sad that I feel like I'm unintelligible right now. 

But what can I do when one of my favourite actors died just now? Alan Rickman is my definitive Colonel Brandon; he was my ideal man in the Jane Austen world. I used to listen to his voice reading a poem at YouTube a few years back, mesmerised by his voice. I watched him as Col Brandon watching Marianne, youthful Marianne, then reading her poems. I watched him recently as Louis XIV in A Little Chaos, again with Kate Winslet who used to portray Marianne.

It hurts, you know? Separation hurts. And for that... I can only pour my pains here...Well, not just here, but this is one of the outlets I have, so do excuse my sadness...

My Col Brandon just died. My Severus Snape just died. And it hurts so much...

This link provides you with The Guardian's version of 10 best Alan Rickman performances. I posted some Alan Rickman YouTube videos as well below, just because I love him so. Alan, rest in peace. Thank you for providing us with that smile, that humour, that voice... that beauty that is you...

Some of my favourite Alan Rickman scenes/series are below:

Downton Abbey Season Three!

Downton Abbey Season Three

I cannot believe I'm a month's late for this! But better late than never. Ladies and Gents, just a shortie to tell you that I've just watched Downton Abbey Season 3 Episode 1 where Mary Crawley is married to Matthew Crawley. Yay!

For those who are not familiar with Downton Abbey, here's the Wiki link. I've seen Seasons One and Two and I was so addicted, I practically remembered major lines there! Practically from Lady Grantham (Dame Maggie Smith) who is now the favourite matron and grandmother of many period drama fans! Suffice to say, I want to be as cool as her when I grow old. Lady Grantham rocks! Oh, but she Lady Grantham has Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine) - her in law - as her sparring partner this season. I see intriguing banters ahead! Who says that the excitement of Downton Abbey is only in watching Mary-Matthew, Sybill-Branson or Edith-Anthony Strallan? Not that those are not exciting; they are. But to me, the star of Downton has always been Dame Maggie Smith's Lady Grantham!

Girl with a pearl earring

I first saw this famous painting of Jan Vermeer van Delft, ironically enough, as a cover of the novel with the same title. Then, yesterday I was intrigued to learn that the book (a 1999 production - I first thought it was a 19th century production or something) had been made into a movie, again with the same title. Ergo, I rented the DVD to see what it was like.

And I love it. I love the colour, the light... the compositions... everything. Colin Firth was amazing there as Vermeer... (Firth is good in playing cool, seemingly heartless, characters), and Scarlett Johanson who played Griet, the fictional model for Girl with a Pearl Earring. Cillian Murphy, who played as the Scarecrow in Batman Begins was also there, as Griet's boyfriend. Poor boy, he did not know that Griet loved master Vermeer more than him... Or did he?

Pic: Girl with a pearl earring, Jan Vermeer van Delft, circa 1665

‘Gone with the Wind’ vs ‘Little Women’: Brief review against slavery and injustice

I cannot stand myself not to write this in my own blog after viewing Gone with the Wind (1939) two nights ago. I dislike the movie and the novel so much; I could not comprehend how the novel became the best-seller ever. Yes, I’ve read reviews of GWTW, and I still could not get it. Yes, GWTW depicted the polar opposites of human quality: selfishness (through Scarlett O’Hara) and every merits a woman can have (Melanie Wilkes). Margaret Mitchell was also very fair to give Scarlett her own quality of resilience and stubbornness that saved her from starvation and the downfall of Atlanta during the Civil War. Scarlett was finally able to realize her love to Melanie (that she had originally despised the most). Yes, the women of GWTW displayed great virtues during the hard time of war. And yes, the people of Atlanta displayed magnificent togetherness and kindness for each other during the war and stood together to rebuild their city again.

But there are major things that made me winch upon GWTW: slavery and racism issue. I understand where Mitchell, a Southerner, came from, and when the novel was written; 1936 (won Pulitzer in 1937) – where racism against black – or, to be politically correct here, Afro-Americans – was still very much apparent in the United States. BUT. The novel depicted Mitchell’s favour to the romanticised South so much, it made me sick. Of course, it was well written, the characters blended well, blablabla… but it still did not hide the fact of the author’s preference to slavery, that it was ‘not all that bad’. Riiight...said someone who was not born a slave, or never became a member of inferior community.

Dance of the Heart

If anyone ask me what movie with the best dance scenes I've seen so far was, I will definitely answer that with Becoming Jane. I found that the dances in this movie very moving... and soulful, especially the second dance when Tom Lefroy suddenly swung in front of Jane Austen and took her hand. The switching moment was beautifully choreographed, and Tom truly took Jane by surprise (well, he took me by surprise as well!). Jane's sparkling eyes and sudden blossoming of her heart were too difficult to describe, even though I tried to encapsulate them in my latest chapters of 'Becoming Jane: the Vignettes' (updated!). And, as I said many times, the chemistry between Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy was so thick, you could eat it with a spoon (like an ice cream smoothie or something...).


Another dance that has captured me was the part where Jo March and Theodore 'Laurie' Lawrence danced animatedly behind the curtain in Little Women. It wasn't a romantic dance - dare I say that there were never romantic scenes between them per se, unlike Tom and Jane. BUT. But it still counted as a lovely dance for me, especially with the very charming friendship between the two teenagers. The best friendship in period drama, I should say.


Too bad though, that Marianne and Col. Brandon did not dance together in Sense and Sensibility (1995). I like Lizzy and Darcy's dance in Pride and Prejudice (1995, 2005), but they were pretty much awkward to each other (Pride, everyone?), so it didn't really got into me. The banters were cool, though. Very Austenian funny, actually.

Hey... the pictures above seem to show that the curious Jo and Laurie took a sneak peek over Tom and Jane dancing. Come to think of that... perhaps a Jo/Laurie and Tom/Jane cross-over fanfic would be in order...


I should also say that Little Women reminded me of my fandom towards Winona Ryder (despite her dark past) and Christian 'Bruce Wayne' Bale. I am looking forward for a producer and a director creative enough to pair Christian Bale and James McAvoy in the same movie. I will definitely strive to watch the premiere! I don't mind Hathaway and Ryder as well in that movie... (and don't switch the pairing! Let it be Ryder-Bale and Hathaway-McAvoy still.)

Pic 1: Jane & Tom (Becoming Jane, 2007)
Pic 2: Jo & Laurie (Little Women, 1994)
Pic 3: Marianne & Brandon (Sense & Sensibility, 1995)