About a year ago, I watched a very enjoyable movie called 'Tampopo'; the story of a trucker who helps a widow refurbish her roadside noodle shop and improve her culinary skills. The movie was filled with likeable characters, with scenes of genuine warmth and camraderie, not to mention several outstanding scenes of food being cooked or eaten with great relish.

I started reading up about the director Juzo Itami and discovered that he has been an actor through most of his career and then suddenly took up directing at the age of 50! His first directorial effort, called Ososhiki (The Funeral) won the Best Film award at the Japanese Academy in 1985.

I finally got hold of 'The Funeral' and watched it last week. What a treat! Like many great directors, Itami uses a standard troupe of actors in all his films. The two key actors are Itami's wife Nobuko Miyamoto and character actor Tsutomu Yamazaki. Fans of Japanese films will be very familiar with Yamazaki, who recently was seen in the Oscar Award winning 'Departures' and in the Japanese special effects blockbuster 'Space Battleship Yamato'. 

'The Funeral' tells the story of a funeral (what else) which takes place in the house of the son-in-law of the deceased. Over the course of 3 days, the audience is introduced to a variety of characters, emotions and experiences, most of which would strike a chord with viewers, irrespective of their culture or nationality.

The scenes range from the somber (the mother and daughters break down uncontrollably as the casket is rolled into crematorium) to the hilarious (one of the mourners gets up to answer a phone, but topples over due to cramps from having sat too long) to the risque (the son-in-law bumps into his mistress during the funeral proceedings and they have an 'encounter' in the woods). Fans of Japanese cinema will also be pleasantly surprised to see acting legend Chishu Ryu appear briefly in the role of the priest. 

Itami's later films dialled up the social satire, but in this, his first film, the scenes and emotions are mostly genuine and none of the characters are over-the-top. The Funeral is a definite 'must watch'.

Over the past 2 days, I finished watching 2 hit French films from 2009, LOL (Laughing out Loud) and Le Petit Nicolas. They were 2 of the top 3 grossing French language films in France in 2009 (the other being Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard, produced by Luc Besson).

LOL is a dramedy centering on the lives of a group of a high school students, specifically Lola, who is called LOL by her friends. Lola lives with her divorced mother (played by Sophie Marceu) and 2 younger siblings. As one can imagine, it's stressful being a teenager today...having to handle peer pressure, deal with nosy parents, trying to keep a love life going, etc. 
Although this sort of subject matter is not really my cup of tea, the film in general was entertaining and the young actors in particular were very engaging.
A word of warning - the depiction of teenage life in LOL is both realistic and familiar, therefore potentially unnerving to parents of teens or pre-teens who are likely to be going through a lot of the same (or perhaps worse) in years to come.
There's the usual story arc, with the mother and daughter falling out, but in the end, it all works out reasonably well. The film is going to be remade by the same director in English, featuring Myley Cyrus as Lola and Demi Moore as her mother.

Tonight I just finished Le Petit Nicolas, the film adaptation of the beloved stories by Goscinny from the 1960's. It's the polar opposite of LOL, while also being a story about a kid, school friends and relationship with his parents. But, oh so funny, so nostalgic, so good-natured.
Nicolas has a perfect life with loving parents and motley group of close friends at school. But then, he mistakenly suspects his parents are expecting another baby and thinks he will be abandoned in favour of the new arrival. This leads to various hi-jinks as Nicolas and his friends try to protect his place in the family. In the end, all the confusion is cleared up and we get to see one of the sweetest family scenes ever filmed, as Nicolas' dad tries to cheer him up at the dinner table. 

A couple of weeks back we went to see David Coverdale and Whitesnake live on their Forevermore (the name of their latest album) tour.
My favourite Whitesnake album is Slip of the Tongue, primarily because of the outstanding guitar work by Steve Vai. It is probably the last album that Vai appeared on before he went solo.
Slip of the Tongue probably marked the last of the Whitesnake albums to achieve mass popularity. Soon after, hard rock/ heavy metal in general went on a downturn as the music world turned its attention to grunge for several years.
Whitesnake probably has the most number of songs in any bands repertoire to feature the word 'love', both in the song titles and in the lyrics! While many other rock/ metal bands sang about war, satan, madness, science fiction and fantasy, Whitesnake always kept it simple.
The Whitesnake set in KL included a good mix of hits, dating back from the late '70s right up to the title track from the latest album. It was great fun listening to and singing along with the old favourites - Give Me All Your Love, Love Ain't No Stranger, Is This Love, Love Will Set You Free, The Deeper the Love, Fool for your Loving (you get my point about the 'love' word), Here I Go Again and Still of the Night.
Coverdale's voice has not survived the ravages of time. His low notes were fine and his famous high-pitched scream/ yell was also in astonishingly good shape. But his entire middle range was gone, reduced to a scratchy growl, frequently requiring the support of backing vocals from his musicians. Fortunately, the songs are well know enough that the crowd was singing along and able to overlook the fact that the lead singer was struggling to keep up.

Speaking of musicians, I must say, David Coverdale over the years has consistently put together a great group of professionals who have worked together well. The current line up has Reb Beach (ex-Winger and ex-Dokken) and Doug Aldritch (ex-Lion and ex-Dio) on guitars and Brian Tichy on drums. Tichy drum solo was awesome in its ferocity and seemed to go on forever. Beach and Aldritch featured in an engaging guitar duel just before the half-way point of the set.
At the end, there was a wonderful surprise, with Coverdale singing Soldier of Fortune and then a medley of Burn and Stormbringer which had the crowd on its feet. No prizes for guessing the average age of the audience that night if the biggest cheers came for his Deep Purple songs from 1974.
Keeping in mind the condition of his voice, I can't imagine that Coverdale (now aged 60) will be doing too many more concerts. Am happy I had a chance to see the man in action!