ちゃいなたわ〜

'Tsure ga Utsu ni Narimashite (My S.O. Has Depression)' A film review on Japan Times

「日本のジュリア・ロバーツ」だと言っていますねえ。

「あと、トレードマークである１千ワットのスマイルを出しながらも、うつ病患者の妻として必要な、恐ろしいほどの集中力も持ち合わせている」、と書いてます。

 

The original article: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20111007a3.html

Sorry about the alignment and paragraphing! Blame Yahoo! Japan for that. C.T.

 

 

Friday, Oct. 7, 2011

'Tsure ga Utsu ni Narimashite (My S.O. Has Depression)'

Young couple face the wretched 'black dog' of depression

By MARK SCHILLING

Here's a confession: I'm not a big reader of manga, including the many that have been made into Japanese films. Given the limited amount of reading time I have left on Earth, I'd rather spend it with Proust than "Gantz." So sue me.

Tsure ga Utsu ni Narimashite (My S.O. Has Depression)	Rating: (3.5 out of 5)
	http://www.japantimes.co.jp/images/photos2006/full_star.gifhttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/images/photos2006/full_star.gifhttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/images/photos2006/full_star.gifhttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/images/photos2006/half_star.gifhttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/images/photos2006/star.gif

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/images/photos2011/ff20111007a3a.jpg

Love is the cure: Haru (Aoi Miyazaki) tries to support her husband, Tsure (Masato Sakai), as he battles with debilitating depression. © 2011 MY S.O. HAS DEPRESSION

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Director: Kiyoshi Sasabe
Running time: 121 minutes
Language: Japanese

Opens Oct. 8, 2011

[See Japan Times movie listing]

One exception: Tenten Hosokawa's "Tsure ga Utsu ni Narimashite" (literally "Tsure Has Become Depressed") series, of which I devoured volume after volume. Based on the true story of how Hosokawa and her salaryman husband coped with his long bout of depression, the manga was honest and unsparing, but also gently humorous and usefully informative. Unlike the usual misery memoir, it didn't turn its subject into a martyr or hero. Instead it insisted on his human ordinariness, as well as the commonness of his illness. ("Depression," his doctor sagely tells him, "is like a spiritual cold.")

Kiyoshi Sasabe's film adaptation (with the odd English title "My S.O. Has Depression") respects the manga's spirit, while softening its story for the mainstream audience expecting a cute, warm-hearted relationship drama. But Sasabe, who has made other films mixing fact and fiction — such as 2007's "Yunagi no Machi Sakura no Kuni (Yunagi City, Sakura Country)," about Hiroshima atomic bombing survivors, and 2006's "Deguchi no Nai Umi (Sea Without Exit)," about World War II suicide submarine pilots — also describes the not-so-uplifting side of depression, from marital discord to attempted suicide, with unsentimental directness.

I was surprised, actually, that anyone would make the comic into a film, but "My S.O." is a big commercial title, with Aoi Miyazaki and Masato Sakai — two of the few current young stars who also happen to be true actors - playing the couple and Toei, a major distributor better known for its action titles, handling the release. (A three-episode TV series that aired in 2009 passed under my radar.)

Miyazaki is Haruko, aka Haru, a struggling manga artist, and Sakai is Mikio, nicknamed "Tsure," a salaryman who fields customer complaints for a foreign-owned IT company — a job designed to depress just about anyone. A sincere, hard-working type, Tsure is especially susceptible.

Meanwhile, Haru's manga serial is dropped by her editor, just as Tsure suffers his first breakdown. He tries to persevere, but can barely walk out of the house, let alone do his job. His sympathetic doctor diagnoses him with depression — and tells him it will take at least half a year to recover. Haru, an understanding type, urges him to quit his company: They'll manage somehow. On the verge of total collapse, he reluctantly agrees.

So far so ideal, but Tsure's struggle is just beginning. For those who have never known it, depression may seem similar or equivalent to "the dumps" — a state that can be shaken off with a funny movie, a brisk walk or a date with Mr. Johnnie Walker. Tsure, however, is not only tortured with feelings of worthlessness, but also drained of energy. Even the simplest task — making a phone call or walking out the door — requires a titanic effort. Instead he hides in his futon and weeps like a frightened child.

Haru says the right things to her husband, "Ganbaranai" ("Don't strain yourself") being among the most pertinent, but the stress of caring for him while trying to restart her career builds and finally explodes.

Here is where many a Japanese drama would unleash the histrionics. Miyazaki and Sakai, who also played a married couple in the 2008 NHK taiga maxi-drama "Atsuhime," turn up the volume, but without distorting their characters' nature or essentially strong relationship with each other.

 

Read the rest of the article at Japan Times: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20111007a3.html

"早餐店" = hamburger shops?

 

 

 

 

You have a myriad of choices for breakfast in Taipei, but when you hear people refer to "早餐店", what they usually mean is a hamburger shop where the likes of Taiwanese style pork burgers are served (like this typical establishment, introduced by Pekoさん).

 

The street where I live is a "Battle Zone" of 早餐店 with at least 10 shops crammed on a strip of about 50 meters, due to concentration of schools and a high density of students.

 

That's why there are two options for the 早餐店 owners if they were ever to survive: to lower the price or diversify.

 

This one, called "幸福合作社" chose the latter, and they seem to be doing quite well.

 

The reason why pork patties are used in regular Taiwanese burgers is because many Taiwanese people don't eat pork; they realized early enough that this wasn't the case anymore, especially among the students.

 

So what you see above are their real "beef burgers". Served with coffee "without cream" and "without LOTS of sugar", NOT typical at all at 早餐店s in Taiwan!

Northern Noodle House in Linkou (北方麺館の炸醤麺と酸辣湯)

 

 

北方麺館 (Northern Noodle House) in 林口 (Linkou).

 

 

White, thin and flat noodles.

 

 

The 炸醤 sauce was a little spicy, so I could not finish the hot and sour soup (酸辣湯).

 

Be careful, illegal parking on 文化三路 will be towed away!

Danshui? Tamshui? Tamsui!

(This article was originally published at code-mixed blog: http://petekobe.blogspot.com)

Since I started driving, I seldom take the MRT.But recently, I had a chance to take it from Shilin to Beitou.

At the station, I noticed that the way they transliterate 淡水 has been changed to Danshui! Previsously, the MRT were using its own innovative transliteration: Tanshui. Now it has become Hanyu Pinyin, the system used in mainland China and preferred by Mr Ma Ying-Jeou, then the mayor of Taipei City.

When the central government decided to use 通用拼音 instead of Wade-Giles, they made exceptions for those place names that are already well-known overseas. Such names include Taipei, Keelung and Kaohsiung. They should actually be spelt TaiBei, JiLong and GaoXiong respectively in 通用. The latter two are major international ports, and changing the names might have caused some chaos. (Compare this with South Korea, which dared to make Pusan Busan, and to change 漢城 into 首爾.)

But what about Tamsui? It was the major port in the past, and the British Consulate in China were once located there. Therefore, it is one of the very few place names in Taiwan that appear in foreign historical texts. It seems to me to be a good idea if they have retained the old spelling.

Of course, this is a matter for the Taiwanese people themselves to decide. Taipei City opted for Hanyu Pinyin, I remember, because they thought most foreigners who learnt Chinese used Hanyu Pinyin and not Wade Giles. This may be true, but the road signs in romanised alphabet are mainly for those who have never learnt Chinese and those who don't read Chinese characters.

Therefore, the main aim of the romanised signs should be clarity. As long as the non-Chinese-readers can locate themselves and make distinctions between different streets, what romanising system should be used does not really matter. But this will work only if one system is used consistently. If, on the other hand, different systems co-exist at the same time, several different ways of spelling the same place name can exist, and this will cause a great trouble for those who fail to realise Hsinchu and XinZhu are one and the same city, 新竹.

As for me, I have no preference as to which romanising system Taiwan should adopt (although 通用's habit of capitalising letters in the middle of a word needs some getting used to). After all, no system is better than any other. But what I want the authorities to make sure is to be consistent once they decide on which one system to use. Hanyu Pinyin might not be the easiest system for foreigners to get used to; but they find it useful, not because it is better than any other system, but because it is used consistently everywhere in mainland China.

Typhoon Kaemi

Nothing much.

Local cable networks, as usual, predicted that this was going to be the end of the world, but look what actually happened. (As usual.)

No rain or wind reported in Taichung, though kids didn't have to go to school!

Here in Taipei, it's a bit windy, but anything is more welcome than the usual July heat.

It was actually quite nice yesterday, as I took in-laws' kids to the airport for planepotting. It could have costed some heat-strokes otherwise.