Spain revisited - Barcelona

I realise I forgot (read: too lazy) to upload Spain photos, so here they are, for Barcelona first


I can't really remember, but I think this guy's cardboard says, "I'm doing this to save the world from global warming; what are YOU doing?"


Guides! Spoke to some of them who were curious why I was snapping photos of them.











Park Guell, also designed by Gaudi




This is at INOPIA, a fantastic tapas bar, but still slightly steep on the prices. No one spoke English there, and we were at a lost until they found a Belgian guy who spoke French to interpret the menu for us~~

Protégé

Ha Nam~

From 칠공주..

Letters From Iwo Jima

GREAT MOVIE!!! Found it much better than Flags of Our Fathers partly due to the cinematography: rather than proceeding in flashbacks, the storyline followed chronological order, which helped a lot in following what was going on, and keeping track of the characters. The movie was much more poignant, following the stories each man had to tell thru the content of his letters home. The themes brought out - honour, national pride, longing for home and hearth - are all well-handled rather than given a touch-and-go in preference for exploring the themes of personal sacrifice and cowardice treated in the companion movie.

General Kuribayashi was well portrayed by Ken Watanabe. A character of vitality, of continuity and hope in the movie, Kuribayashi is a key figure in the initial stand against the first frontal assault on the island; by reacting well to pressure and improvising, he managed to draw out the island's defence.

Saigo, played by Kazunari Ninomiya, also aptly conveys the sense of hopelessness and pointlessness of the entire venture. From the start it is made clear that the Americans couldn't have taken more from him than his own countrymen have, save his life. Yet he remains hopeful for the promise of life, of seeing his family again. Instead of committing suicide to preserve honour, he chooses to conserve his energy to fight another day - after all, what use is a dead soldier?

However, suicide was unfortunately seen to be honourable, and expected, in the case that you'd failed to protect what was given to you to. It didn't help that the officers in charge of the platoons were bound by that sense of shame, by that sense of failure, and could not but commit suicide. This seems to me to be the ultimate cowardice rather than the ultimate sacrifice.

The soldiers are the ones who want the war to end, however it may, to get home to their families, to what they'd left behind to fight this seemingly pointless war. National pride has other ideas: women canvassing for the war cause (making sure that someone else's husband and sons go down with their own), children singing nationalistic songs that urge the preservation of Iwo Jima as Japanese soil that must not fall into the hands of the barbarian outsiders, the Kempeitai as ruthless censorship police that makes sure everyone properly expresses their nationalistic pride by displaying the flag outside their door.

It is the same for both sides: the mere soldiers are the ones who suffer the most, and may actually be the most clearheaded since they had the most to lose, personally. The wounded American soldier Baron Nishi takes in is just a mere boy, amazed that an Olympic equestrian champion would be in such a war, fighting against his side. The letter that comes to Sam from his mother is the same as what any of the Japanese soldiers' mothers or wives would write - highlighting again the absurdity of war.

"Do what is right because it is right." Kuribayashi dies in Saigo's assurance that he would pass from this world still on Japanese soil. As the letters are uncovered sixty years later, the feelings of loss, of devastation, yet also of hope, of assurance, of meaning of life, come across loud and clear. Much more enjoyable for me, than the other.

Official website

From Jerms

This is why online quizzes are rubbish. I'd rather be the vigilante or warrior monk hahz.