The Complete Substitute for All Forms of Sociability

Finished my reading assignment for myself for this month. Actually I started reading this book some months ago, around September in fact, but only got serious with it late last week, and finished it just now. My head's still spinning. I feel like I can't think properly, but I also feel like I'll forget all my thoughts and feelings about the book now,  just like how you forget your dreams minutes after you wake up, unless I write them all down. SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT. Kafka on the Shore  has two ongoing plots that seem to parallel, yet seem to have nothing to do, with each other. The odd chapters follow Kafka Tamura, who is described by one of the characters in the book as a "cool, tall, fifteen-year-old, lugging around a backpack and a bunch of obsessions." He starts the story by running away from an unhappy home and his father's Oedipal curse in which it is prophesied that he would kills his father and sleep with his mother and sister. At times, Kafka i...

Some good. Some bad. In as few words as possible. The Lincoln Lawyer Matthew McConaughey, Marissa Tomei, Ryan Philippe Matthew McConaughey at his charmingly slimiest as a smooth-operating defense lawyer who experiences a moral dilemma just as he is handling the biggest case in his career. While the story is nothing new -- not even a single twist in sight for the tired old legal drama genre -- the movie does well with strong performances and a solid, if a bit predictable, plot. Battle Royale: Director's Cut Fujiwara Tatsuya, Maeda Aki, Shibasaki Kou I've long heard about this movie but didn't really buy into it. It's basically about violence and moral depravity of people satirized and brutalized into a literal battleground with high school students as the participants. The movie opens strong but loses some of its cohesiveness in the middle portion before fading into a fairly predictable ending. Fujiwara Tatsuya overacts, Maeda Aki underacts, but some strong...