Yamato - Impressive Drumgroup from Japan

Basically this is a photoweblog. So besides some short announcements most of the time I post pictures with some backgroundinformation. But occasionaly I'll make an exeption. Once I wrote about the Egyptian weblogger Alaa and several others who were detained by the police while demonstrating peacefully in support of the independence of the judiciary in Egypt (see here). And I wrote e few times about the International Film Festifal (IFFR) in Rotterdam (see here).

Tonight I want to write something about a show that a friend and I visited Sundayafternoon in our hometown Utrecht from Yamato, a Japanese percussion/drumgroup from Nara. Unfortunately my girlfriend couldn't join because she had to work.

Nara was one of the former capitals of Japan before Kyoto, Kamakura and current Tokyo, although stricly speaking Kamakura was officially not a capital city, but the chief city during the Heian period of one of the shogunates. BTW Heian in Japanese means peace or tranquility. But don't let's go to deep into that.

I was talking about Yamato. I've seen them twice before during a previous worldtour about 6 years ago. I was very much impressed then as I was again this Sundayafternoon. It's a combination of a visual spectacle, with good use of light and a very energetic and impressive performance of musical skills. They are now in the middle of their European Tour. You can check Yamato's schedule. If you have the chance to visit I would highly recommend to go.

Judging by the number of performances in Holland (41), I guess Yamato has a special relationship with Holland. Maybe it has to do with the long relationshp between Japan and Holland which started 407 years ago on 19 April 1600 with the Dutch ship "De Liefde" (Love) which was the first Dutch ship that reached Japan and marked a long intensive trade relationship. For more than 200 Years the Dutch were the only Westerners allowed in Japan. During that time they were staying at Dejima, a small artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki.

Anyway, enough history lessons. I have embedded a video I found on YouTube from Yamato where they are performing on German television. If you have a subwoofer connected to your PC, I would recommend to turn it on. Be prepared that you could end up in an argument with your neighbours. It gives you a bit of an impression. But nothing beats a live performance by Yamato. If you want to feel the air move and experience goose bumps as a chemical respond on the moving air I would suggest that you visit a concert of Yamato. Enjoy!

Here you can check some more videos of Yamato.

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) (3)

The International Filmfestival Rotterdam (IFFR) is finished. My task is accomplished. I watched 33 films in ten days. I know it's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. It was a good festival. Most of the movies I watched were worthwhile. Today after I slept in I slowly had to adjust to my regular daily life. I had square eyes after seeing all these movies and I had withdrawal symptoms. But I'm doing okay now. I guess I probably won't see any movie this week. But although some people might see this as a punishment to watch 33 movies in 10 days, it wasn't a big burden for me. I've enjoyed it and saw some nice, gorgeous, funny and interesting movies.

Thursday my girlfriend and I stayed in a hotel for one night, because we had two movies on Thursdaynight and Fridaymorning we also had two movies together and the first one was starting at 9:45 A.M. So to avoid the early train during rush hour we decided to check for a hotel on the internet. We went to Rotterdam in the afternoon to check in at the hotel first. It was a very nice and clean hotel with good facilities and not too expensive. And breakfast was included, which is not so common anymore these days, I found out when I was checking hotels on the internet. Most hotels charge about 17 Euro for one person extra (about 20 Dollar) for breakfast. The hotel was on walkable distance from the trainstation and not too far from the different movietheatres. If you ever visit Rotterdam, this hotel is highly recommended. Our first movie started at 7:00 P.M. we had to take dinner a bit early. Because of our good experiences one week earlier, we went back to Sumo again. Because we entered the restaurant before 5:00 P.M. they charged us the price for a lunchmenu. We had the all you can eat dinner, but this time we only paid 16 Euro 50 each for a menu instead of 19 Euro 50 last time. A very good deal.

Anyway let's go to the rest of my movielist and my ratings. In my former post you can see how the rating works. You can click on the movietitle again to read an English description of the movie. At the end I have posted a few more pictures of Rotterdam on the day- and nighttime and from Sumo.

Betelnut (+)
It doesn't happen very often, but I left this movie after about 50 minutes. If the director's goal was to show boredom he succeeded very well, but the result was not interesting enough to watch for almost two hours.

Still Life (+++1/2)

Paprika (++++)

I don’t want to sleep alone (++++)

Weed (+++1/2)

Aachi & Ssipak (++++)

Nightmare detective (+++1/2)

The Killing of John Lennon (++++)

Lost in Tokyo (+++1/2)

Western Trunk Line (++++)

Day Night Day Night (++1/2)

Retribution (++++)

After This Our Exile (++++)

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) (2)

Here is a list with the movies from the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) that I've seen so far with my ratings. Those who are interested in the content of the movies can click on the title for an English description.

The rating goes from 0/+ to +++++ meaning:

0 = very bad
+ = bad
++ = not so good
+++ = good
++++ = very good
+++++ = excellent

Election (+++)

Election2 (++++)

The bare footed kid (+++)

Justice my foot (+++)

Throw Down (+++)

The last dining table (++1/2)

Hana (++++)

Anxiety (++++)

No Mercy for the Rude (++++)

The story of my son (+++)

PTU (++++)

Strawberry Shortcakes (++++1/2)

Living in Fear (++++)

Summer Palace (++++)

Ex-drummer (++++)

Fourteen (++++)
Unfortunately had to skip Fourteen because the movie before this one got delayed and then I would have missed my last train, so the rating is based on the contents and other reviews I saw. Hopefully I will be able to watch this one some other time.

The Matsugane Potshot Affair (++++)

Freesia (+++)
Due to a headache I decided to skip this one. So the rating for this one is also based on my judgement of the content of the movie and reviews that I read elsewhere.

Das Leben der Anderen (+++++)
This excellent German movie was the most impressive movie that I saw during the festival and that I saw for a long time. It's Oscar nomination for best foreign movie is well deserved. I haven't seen the other candidates for the Oscar, but they must be of an outstanding quality to beat "Das Leben der Anderen (Lives of Others) in my humble opinion.

Driving the lover of my wife (++++)

The 13 remaining movies of my list and my ratings I will post later this weekend.

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)

Since Thursdaynight I spend a lot of time at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). The IFFR wil finish on Sunday February 4th. This year I will set a record by watching 33 movies(!!!). When my mother heard that I was going to see 33 movies she said yuck. Actually she said something else, but this is a proper and decent weblog (wink).

I saw 2 movies on Thursday, 5 on Friday and 5 today (Saturday). So 12 down, 21 to go. Here you can check the festivalprogramme. The festival has a wide range of different movies from all over the world. My main focus is Asian cinema, so the most movies I normally watch at the IFFR are from China, Japan and South Korea and sometimes from Taiwan, Malasia, Thailand (this year a lot from Hong Kong) depending on the supply. That doesn't mean that I try to watch all. It also depends on the subject/story of the movie. The IFFR always has a wide and interesting range of movies from the Asian region. But I also watch movies from other countries if I find the reviews/descriptions interesting or appealing. I always have to make a selection. On my first longlist for this year I had 45 movies, so on my final list of 33 movies I had to skip 12 . The agony of choice (me in my ironic mode). Later I might post a list af the movies (with links) and my ratings.

Last Friday my girlfriend joined me with the last movie at night. Before the movie we had to kill almost three hours, so we went out for dinner. I also could use a break after four movies. We went to a place called Sumo, a Japanese (Chinese management) restaurant with three parts, a teppanyaki part where the food is prepared in front of you on a iron plate (teppan in Japanese, yaki means baked/grilled), a set of tables where you can eat à la carte and a part where they offer all you can eat. We reserved a table at the all you can eat part. For just 19 Euro 50 (about 15, 16 Dollars) you could order anyting you like, from all kinds of sushi, dishes like yakitori, tempura, different types of udon and some ricedishes and other small dishes. The sushi wasn't the best we ever eat, but still more than reasonable with an extreme good price/quality ratio related to the all-you-can-eat-concept. The yakitori and beef dishes were nice, but the udon was so so good. The (young) staff was very friendly and helpful. Surely a place to go back. The pictures below were taken by my girlfriend.

Long time no pics

It's a long time since my last post. More than two weeks. I have been quite busy, both with work and in private. So I didn't took any pictures until last Saturday. From January 25th till February 5th the anual International Filmfestval of Rotterdam took place. I think I discovered this festival about 6 years ago. Since then I'm a regular visitor. The festival offers a wide range of international and some national independent movies. I don't know the exact number of films, but I think there were about 250 movies shown during the 12 days of the festival. One of the reasons I like the festival is that Asian movies often are well represented at the festival. My main interest are movies from Japan, China and South-Korea, but I also see movies from other countries occasionally. I have seen some real nice movies the past 6 years.

Last year I visited 17 movies in 9 days. Although there were plenty movies this year I would have liked to watch I took it easy this year. Basically because of my limited available time. I went to the festival on three days seeing a total of 8 movies.

For a short description of the movies I saw you can click on one of the following movie titles:

• The Great Yokai War
• Grain in ear
• Three Times
• Takeshis
• The Enchantment
• The Lost hum
• 9 Dragons
• Linda, Linda, Linda
  

The following pics were taken in Rotterdam last Saturday around the square that forms the centre of the filmfestival. The square is surrounded by two theatres, one movie theatre with 7 or 8 moviescreens and many restaurants. There are also some nightshots.