RRR (2022)

I read so many reviews and expected the movie to be good.  The movie did not disappoint.  It was insane.  Love, friendship, loyalty.  Then tiger, ox, and antelope.  This was a lot of movie, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Crazy stunts, beautiful people, amazing sceneries.  The movie delivered everything as a blockbuster.  Then a dash of Indian patriotism and propaganda.  I didn't mind.  It was hard not be be pumped up at the end.

One thing I would nitpick on was the running time.  It was long even when I was stuck in the economy class on an international flight and had nowhere else to go.  It could cut off an hour and still be a great movie.

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

This was not a spy movie.  This was a trashy romance novel turned into a movie.  Boy met girl; boy slept with girl; boy and girl had an argument.  All within twelve hours of knowing each other.  Then the love competition showed up.  Girl sacrificed herself to resolve the love triangle.

In every trash romance novel, the boy and the girl needed jobs.  They couldn't be lovesick all the time; people wouldn't read that.  So this movie made the boy a spy and the girl a thief.

Math Teacher and I had fun identifying all the John Woo tropes.  Slow-motion.  Close-up to faces.  Walking through fire.  Flipping through air.  Double guns.  And pigeons!  Lots and lots of pigeons!

I didn't realize how much I was influenced by this movie.  All the good guys wore cool sunglasses; all the bad guys wore ugly sunglasses.  This notion had carried into my own trashy romance novels!  😎

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Who could forget Tom Cruise hanging by a thread from the ceiling?  Oh, the memes!

Ghibli Museum Ticket Buying Process

Originally Posted on 14 June 2023

Buying entrance tickets for Ghibli Museum exemplifies a very typical Japanese business operation.

I tried for two months to buy tickets to no avail.  This month I finally read carefully.  The website stated if I wanted tickets for July, I needed to buy tickets starting 10 June.  Here came 10 June.  Because it was an important task, I decided to use the English website so that I didn't mis-read any information.

The English website put me in a holding pen with 200+ people in front of me, waiting for buy tickets.  I got annoyed.  I went to the Japanese website.  I was able to get in immediately.  Therefore, if you could barely read any Japanese, use the Japanese website.

To buy tickets, I needed to create an online account with Lawson convenience store.  Why Lawson had monopoly over Ghibli Museum entrance tickets, I didn't know, but fine!  All companies wanted my personal information nowadays.  I started creating an account.

• Name:  type in kanji only.  You can copy and paste a random Japanese name off of the internet.  However, this will come back later.
• Phone number:  if you don't have a Japanese cell phone number, you can randomly input ###-####-####.  The website will not call you.  However, you'll need this number when picking up tickets later.  So remember the random numbers you inputted.
• Address:  if you don't have a Japanese address, copy one from any random address you find online.
• Birthday:  o...k...

All right.  An account was created.  I could buy tickets now.  Oh, no.  Ghibli Museum's Japanese website only accepted credit cards issued in Japan.  Foreign credit cards were not allowed.  So I could only reserve the tickets.  I have 48 hours to pick them up.  At Lawson convenience store only.

I went to the closest Lawson to me.  The cashier told me no.  It was a Lawson 100 shop; it did not have a Loppi machine that allowed me to pay for the tickets.

Fine.  I went to a regular Lawson convenience store.  The cashier pointed me to the Loppi machine.  I inputted the phone number that I had used to create the account.  Then Loppi printed out a piece of paper and told me I had 30 minutes to pay for the tickets.

ARE YOU SAYING I WAS NOT ABLE TO PAY AND PICK UP THE TICKETS AT THIS POINT?  WHY THE F?  I already created an online account, reserved tickets online, went to two Lawson stores, used the Loppi machine.  WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!

I grabbed a few drinks and food in Lawson and went to the cashier to pay for everything.  I finally saw the actual tickets that the cashier grabbed behind the counter.  WHY COULDN'T I JUST COME HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE TO BUY TICKETS???  Then the cashier wanted me to sign the receipt, in KATAKANA!  WHY THE F!  I inputted my name in the online account in kanji.  Now I need to sign in katakana?  Why the F this language has three writing systems (hiragana, katakana, kanji)?

For the life of me, I couldn't remember how to write my name in katakana while standing in front of the cashier.  So I decided to write my last name in katakana and my first name in hiragana.  The cashier didn't care.  He handed me the tickets without even looking at the receipt.  He probably threw that away as soon as I walked out of the store.

All right.  I finally got my tickets.  Next step is to actually get into the museum.  I probably need to sign my name in blood.

03 July 2023 Update:  Finally arrived at Ghibli Museum.  Three staff checked my tickets before entering.  Why three?  The first staff tore apart the two tickets stuck together and gave one to each me and Math Teacher.  The second staff tore off the entry stubs.  The third one handed me museum guides and another two tickets for a free short movie.  Why one staff couldn't perform all three functions?  That was a very good question.  Why I needed more tickets when I was already inside the museum?  That was another very good question.

Ghibli Museum 1

Ghibli Museum 2

Ghibli Museum 3

Snacks not at Ghibli Museum

Soul (2020), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Two great movies to watch while being stuck in the economy class on an international flight.

Surprisingly, both movies dealt with death.

Soul was about someone died and tried to return to life, while as Puss in Boots was trying to escape death in the first place.

Both movies had cats!

Both movies were about denial and acceptance.  The theme was quite heavy.  Not sure if the movies were for children by having cute kitty cats.

Free Guy (2021), Jungle Cruise (2021)

Cute and entertaining.  Two great movies to watch while being stuck in the economy class on an international flight.

The Flash (2023)

This movie was probably made years ago.  Due to politics and infighting within DC, it was not released until now.  I feel bad for this movie; if it had been released before Marvel's multiverse phase, it would probably do very well.

It seemed they just threw all action movie tropes into this one.  Time travel, multi-verse, old experienced guy teaching new stupid naive guy.  Somehow it didn't feel too strange.  The movie was still enjoyable.  There were a lot of fun one-liners.

The only thing that I wanted to pick on was, there seemed to be no security at the big corporation bio lab, at Bruce Wayne's manor, and at the Russian Siberian prison.  Everyone simply walked in.  There were guards, but they were more reactionary, not preventative measure.

Aquaman 1, Wonder Woman 1, and Shazam 1 all did very well.  But then, Wonder Woman 2 and Shazam 2 were, um, not as impressive.  Will The Flash follow their footsteps?  Only time can tell.

First Man (2018)

It was a strange movie about Neil Armstrong.  It focused a lot on his remembrance of his dead daughter.  At first I thought, ok, he was being a sentimental father.  Then it kept happening.  It was as if Neil Armstrong didn't care about his two alive sons.  It became creepy.  So I wasn't sure if this was real, or it was dramatized for the movie effect.

I was also glad that I didn't watch this in a movie theater.  Too much light; too much shaking.  It made me dizzy even on a small screen.

Being a huge space nerd, Math Teacher didn't like the movie either.  Not enough space and science-y stuff.  He preferred Apollo 13 (1995).

The Goonies (1985)

Surprised that I never watched this movie.  I always thought it was about mafia.  Turned out there were murderers in the story.  So I wasn't too far off.

Another great treasure hunting story.  Every character (child or adult, good guy or the villain) had memorable personality.  It was enjoyable.

National Treasure (2004)

Wow!  Almost twenty years!  Still a very enjoyable movie.  Treasure hunting and solving for clues were always fun.  This one was about American history.  Of course there was not a map behind the Declaration of Independence, but I learned a lot.

Sean Bean was always a plus 💖