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March 01, 2018

Movie Review: Hospitalite




 
Trailer:







Movie Review  Kantai/ Hospitalite

            Director:                     Koji Fukada
            Actors:                        Kanji Yamauchi, Kumi Hyodo, Tatsuya Kawamura
            Running Time:           95 minutes










The daily life of a small family owned print shop in Tokyo

© Copyright. JapaneseCustomer.com, 2015.  All rights reserved.

Kantai or Hospitalite its English name, is a film set in the suburbs of Tokyo in summer around a small family run printing shop. The son inherited the building and business from his father. He now lives in the shop with his young wife with the young daughter from his first marriage and his divorced sister who has recently returned home.

The small business gains government orders for printing jobs as a sub-contractor doing work like envelopes. His young daughter loses her pet bird and so to help her find it they put up a flyer around the neighbourhood on community noticeboards..

A stranger sees the notice for the missing bird and uses it as a way to make contact with the family. He spins a story and slowly gains trust by working in the shop and helping with printing, which leads to him moving in and bringing his foreign born wife. Things become uncomfortable quickly in the small living space with two new strangers they don’t know and their big impact on daily life including loud sex and eating habits. The foreign born wife speaks English and soon takes over teaching English lessons to the young daughter much to  the upset of her stepmother. The owners wife is further isolated when the foreign born wife asks the owner to join him for dance lessons. The new visitor senses the owner’s wife may be embezzling money from the printing business and confronts her about it.

The new visitor then invites all his friends to stay at the house so as to help out in the print shop, as they are all foreigners this raises the suspicions of his Japanese neighbours. On the wife’s birthday the new visitor plans a surprise party which brings even more guests, music and the attention of the police and immigration officials as neighbours complain about the noise. After the arrests the original three who live in the shop find themselves again alone pondering what happened and what to do next.

A great setting, interesting characters, inter family relationships, visitors, social etiquette and conflict drawn by misunderstandings and unspoken issues leads to a film that will captivate your interest.
                                




Trailer:














 Movie Review  Kantai/ Hospitalite



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January 31, 2018

Book Review - A Healing Family By Kenzaburo Oe



 










Book Review

   A Healing Family by Kenzaburo Oe




Author:                  Kenzaburo Oe
Translated by:       Stephen Snyder
Publisher:              Kodansha International. Tokyo. Japan 2001
ISBN:                     4-7700-2733-8
                      Pages:                   146                            



Personal life experiences & important lessons

© Copyright. JapaneseCustomer.com, 2015.  All rights reserved.

A Healing Family shares the difficulties and joys of bringing up a disabled son in Japan. Kenzaburo Oe draws on his personal experiences which included the importance of linking with likeminded people. The routines of doctors visits and medicine pick-ups, sharing and learning with other families, learning about oneself, being more patient, dealing with critics, discovering the warmth of strangers and the daily activities one must learn.

He explains how his son Hikari has bonded the family together and what seemed at first a difficulty has become an advantage. The book is in plain talk, honest, frank and inspiring.

Hopefully the book will help to open peoples minds to the difficulties faced. He believes that disabled people should not be isolated but integrated and involved, listened to and learned from particularly how they get through tough days and situations without the skills we have but dont fully use.

A book that shares life experiences and important issues.




 


















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