I begin with good news for as the inland revenue has sent a cheque for an overpayment of tax for last year, sufficient to pay fro my trip to London.
It has been a lazy start and I have still not washed and shaved and it is nearly midday, However I have prepared a stir fry for lunch and am ready to of some more work having sorted out in readiness later last night and this morning. One reason for not getting going sooner is the preoccupation with communication file and printer share between computers. I have set aside this activity and will do an hour's work before lunch.
I decided to watch the latest film of Beowulf, the most significant work of Anglo Saxon Literature about the mythological exploits of a brave and skilled fighter who conquers Grendel, a beast monster attacking a drinking hall built by the King in Denmark The beat is impervious to weapons and realising this Beowulf fights him without weapons tearing and arm from the shoulder so that the monster goes off to the marshes to die.
In revenge the beasts mother who also has the same defensive qualities as her son kills the most loyal of Beowulf's men and because of this a special sword given to him has no effect but after a long battle he severs the head of the mother which he brings back as a trophy. Later on in his kinship a slave steals a golden cup part of the treasure of a dragon who leaves his cave and burns up everything in sight in revenge. Beowulf and young man named Wiglaf do battle with the dragon which they slay but Beowulf dies from his wounds and the dragon's treasure is buried with him as ordered by Beowulf before his death.
The mother of the monster and later a dragon creature after becoming king. He also dies in this battle and buried by his retainers as a great hero. The document of some 3000 lines has been the subject of worldwide scholarship and while there is agreement that it was written in England it has been dated only between the 8th and 11th centuries.
I can only assume that the film was made for the Friday night/Saturday night teenage audience/young adult audience. The script and the acting, with one exception is as awful as it gets. In order to make the story interesting several twists are introduced. Grendel is the result of a union between the King Hrothgar played by Anthony Hopkins and the beats mother and the son rejected comes to cause havoc upon his father. Beowulf does not know this when he responds to the call from the king to rid his people of the beast. When Beowulf kills the beast in similar fashion to poem, his mother kills most of his men but not the trusted friend as in the poem. The King then asks Beowulf to destroy the mother in order for Beowulf to gain his reward, but Beowulf succumbs to the ideal female form which the mother adopts. On his return everyone accepts his boasting of how he killed the beast mother but the King senses that he has been seduced as happened to himself. No evidence of the death was brought back and Beowulf claims he hast lost the golden horn given to him by the King as his first reward.
As the beast mother has offered Beowulf becomes immediately King for having told everyone this is to be and that the Kings wife is to marry Beowulf, the king immediately commits suicide. Time passes and everyone ages including his friend Wiglaf, and then someone, a slave discovers the golden horn and brings this back to the King and in doing so breaks the pact with the beast mother that he would prosper as long as she kept the horn. This triggers the arrival of the dragon, his son, causing mayhem and as in the original work, he slays the dragon but the battles ends his life.
Beowulf was a work studied by Tolkien and influential in creating his Lord of the Rings Trilogy brought to life as a work of enduring film art and entertainment. My only thought is perhaps the creator of this nasty and worthless film is haunted by his very creations.
I worked hard but in relaxed fashion during the day photographing and registering completed sets, some 25 sets, 650 cards and around 1000 photographs
I watched two films back tip back in the evening as I slowed down although crating a few additional sets from prepared card work.
The first of these films was Tokyo Eyes. This is not a great film but held together its flimsy story well and provided an excellent insight into commentary Japanese adolescents, although he lead parts were played by experienced TV actors. It was only afterwards where reading the Wikipedia entry that I realised why the film reminded me of about de souffle (Breathless) the 1959 film, as originally it was a French scripts to be shot in Paros and was then changed to a script in Japanese and shot in Japan. The older brother of a seventeen year old girl is a policeman concerned a teenage gunman who fires shots at people without hitting them, stealing or committing other criminal acts. Before the shootings he out on thick glasses and becomes known as Four Eyes. He a computer wizard has a an enormous collection of Long Play records.
My understanding of the film is very different from that of Wikipedia. Early on the film the 17 year old believes she had identified Four eyes from a drawing made by her brother and she skips work to follow him and the enlists the help of friend to investigate further. When she witnesses the young man appear to shoot at the manager off a store her first reaction is to call her brothers and ask him to collect her, and later she tries to tell him as he rushes off to investigate the incident. However before she is able to tell policeman a relationship between the two commences, and in her infatuation she believes what he says that his intention is only to scare and that he has fixed the gun so that if you fire straight at someone it fires wide of them. She erases the telephone message and leaves another saying she has met a boy. The ending of the film is ambiguous. She does explain the situation to her brother and he agrees to take no action, understanding her infatuations and believing when se says that the but intends no harm. When the owner of the gun comes to collect the gun, it goes off and for a time we are led to believe that the boy has been shot although there is no blood. There is also a query whether the gun accidentally goes off killing someone, someone who is first encountered physically ending a relationship.
The ending of the film suggests either he was not shot or he recovers as the two appear to meet off camera in an alls well conclusion. The a story and its outcome did not matter to me. It was the insight into Japanese teenage city life today which I found engaging.
The third film Bridget has a preposterous story which also engaged despite its incredulity because of fine acting and its main star attracting our sympathies. More the film tomorrow as sleep beckons and I need to go to bed with an early start. I hope I am well prepared in order to leave the house to get to the local station by nine thirty. If the weather is poor I may take a taxi. For the fourth day in succession I had a stir fry for lunch using up vegetables unlikely to last over the weekend and then having a salad in the evening. I tried to share files between the working lap top and the desktop as they appeared to be linked on the laptop, but without success and this will be a priority when I return having come so close yet still so far.
It has been a lazy start and I have still not washed and shaved and it is nearly midday, However I have prepared a stir fry for lunch and am ready to of some more work having sorted out in readiness later last night and this morning. One reason for not getting going sooner is the preoccupation with communication file and printer share between computers. I have set aside this activity and will do an hour's work before lunch.
I decided to watch the latest film of Beowulf, the most significant work of Anglo Saxon Literature about the mythological exploits of a brave and skilled fighter who conquers Grendel, a beast monster attacking a drinking hall built by the King in Denmark The beat is impervious to weapons and realising this Beowulf fights him without weapons tearing and arm from the shoulder so that the monster goes off to the marshes to die.
In revenge the beasts mother who also has the same defensive qualities as her son kills the most loyal of Beowulf's men and because of this a special sword given to him has no effect but after a long battle he severs the head of the mother which he brings back as a trophy. Later on in his kinship a slave steals a golden cup part of the treasure of a dragon who leaves his cave and burns up everything in sight in revenge. Beowulf and young man named Wiglaf do battle with the dragon which they slay but Beowulf dies from his wounds and the dragon's treasure is buried with him as ordered by Beowulf before his death.
The mother of the monster and later a dragon creature after becoming king. He also dies in this battle and buried by his retainers as a great hero. The document of some 3000 lines has been the subject of worldwide scholarship and while there is agreement that it was written in England it has been dated only between the 8th and 11th centuries.
I can only assume that the film was made for the Friday night/Saturday night teenage audience/young adult audience. The script and the acting, with one exception is as awful as it gets. In order to make the story interesting several twists are introduced. Grendel is the result of a union between the King Hrothgar played by Anthony Hopkins and the beats mother and the son rejected comes to cause havoc upon his father. Beowulf does not know this when he responds to the call from the king to rid his people of the beast. When Beowulf kills the beast in similar fashion to poem, his mother kills most of his men but not the trusted friend as in the poem. The King then asks Beowulf to destroy the mother in order for Beowulf to gain his reward, but Beowulf succumbs to the ideal female form which the mother adopts. On his return everyone accepts his boasting of how he killed the beast mother but the King senses that he has been seduced as happened to himself. No evidence of the death was brought back and Beowulf claims he hast lost the golden horn given to him by the King as his first reward.
As the beast mother has offered Beowulf becomes immediately King for having told everyone this is to be and that the Kings wife is to marry Beowulf, the king immediately commits suicide. Time passes and everyone ages including his friend Wiglaf, and then someone, a slave discovers the golden horn and brings this back to the King and in doing so breaks the pact with the beast mother that he would prosper as long as she kept the horn. This triggers the arrival of the dragon, his son, causing mayhem and as in the original work, he slays the dragon but the battles ends his life.
Beowulf was a work studied by Tolkien and influential in creating his Lord of the Rings Trilogy brought to life as a work of enduring film art and entertainment. My only thought is perhaps the creator of this nasty and worthless film is haunted by his very creations.
I worked hard but in relaxed fashion during the day photographing and registering completed sets, some 25 sets, 650 cards and around 1000 photographs
I watched two films back tip back in the evening as I slowed down although crating a few additional sets from prepared card work.
The first of these films was Tokyo Eyes. This is not a great film but held together its flimsy story well and provided an excellent insight into commentary Japanese adolescents, although he lead parts were played by experienced TV actors. It was only afterwards where reading the Wikipedia entry that I realised why the film reminded me of about de souffle (Breathless) the 1959 film, as originally it was a French scripts to be shot in Paros and was then changed to a script in Japanese and shot in Japan. The older brother of a seventeen year old girl is a policeman concerned a teenage gunman who fires shots at people without hitting them, stealing or committing other criminal acts. Before the shootings he out on thick glasses and becomes known as Four Eyes. He a computer wizard has a an enormous collection of Long Play records.
My understanding of the film is very different from that of Wikipedia. Early on the film the 17 year old believes she had identified Four eyes from a drawing made by her brother and she skips work to follow him and the enlists the help of friend to investigate further. When she witnesses the young man appear to shoot at the manager off a store her first reaction is to call her brothers and ask him to collect her, and later she tries to tell him as he rushes off to investigate the incident. However before she is able to tell policeman a relationship between the two commences, and in her infatuation she believes what he says that his intention is only to scare and that he has fixed the gun so that if you fire straight at someone it fires wide of them. She erases the telephone message and leaves another saying she has met a boy. The ending of the film is ambiguous. She does explain the situation to her brother and he agrees to take no action, understanding her infatuations and believing when se says that the but intends no harm. When the owner of the gun comes to collect the gun, it goes off and for a time we are led to believe that the boy has been shot although there is no blood. There is also a query whether the gun accidentally goes off killing someone, someone who is first encountered physically ending a relationship.
The ending of the film suggests either he was not shot or he recovers as the two appear to meet off camera in an alls well conclusion. The a story and its outcome did not matter to me. It was the insight into Japanese teenage city life today which I found engaging.
The third film Bridget has a preposterous story which also engaged despite its incredulity because of fine acting and its main star attracting our sympathies. More the film tomorrow as sleep beckons and I need to go to bed with an early start. I hope I am well prepared in order to leave the house to get to the local station by nine thirty. If the weather is poor I may take a taxi. For the fourth day in succession I had a stir fry for lunch using up vegetables unlikely to last over the weekend and then having a salad in the evening. I tried to share files between the working lap top and the desktop as they appeared to be linked on the laptop, but without success and this will be a priority when I return having come so close yet still so far.
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