Volume 04, Number 19
Movies
Movie News
By Bill Hersey
With his movie star looks and super personality Ben Affleck could have just about any girl he wanted. He chose his daredevil co-star, Jennifer Garner. That dynamic lady was here recently to promote the film The Kingdom for U.I.P.
For her press conference the 180cm tall beauty wore a black mini, a white blouse and a great smile. In regards to working on the film, she said the director Peter Berg wanted it to be real, and unlike the last film Elektra there was a lot of preparation as well as improvising.
One of the highlights of shooting was the chemistry of the cast. "We all had a natural kinship with each other," she said, adding, "being the only woman [in a major role] in the film was nice. Jamie Foxx is a real gentleman and the guys always made sure I had a seat when I wasn't working, plenty of water etc."
She found the two actors from the Palestine-Israel film Paradise Now "very talented and Ali liked to play pranks all the time".
When asked about her films in general Jennifer told the media. "I feel they break down stereotypes and show people pretty much share the same needs and goals. The whole world needs more of that."
In regards to work and motherhood she spends a lot of time with her daughter, "It's not easy—when you are working, you feel like you should be home, and when you are at home you feel like you should be working. Ben is a great father and that's important". This was Jennifer's first visit to Japan, and she was "enjoying every minute of it". Easy to see why Ben fell in love with her. Jennifer makes her Broadway debut in Cyrano de Bergerac in November.
The Grand Hyatt's Executive Chef, Josef Budde, has been busy with special promos for Warner Brothers' No Reservations. First there was the elephant dinner for a top women's magazine shooting. Then there was the gourmet No Reservations dinner which was added to the hotel's French Kitchen menu.
East/West Double Bill
by M. Halliday
For a country so food-obsessed as Japan, decent films about food are surprisingly few and far between. While the previously reviewed Tampopo remains the consummate Japanese food film, Katsuyuki Motohiro's Udon tries to do what Tampopo did for ramen for, well, udon.
Yusuke Santamaria plays Kosuke, a failed comedian who returns home to stay with his father, an udon cook, in Kagowa. As often happens in that mystical place called movie-world, Kosuke gains a greater appreciation of life through his contemplation of something seemingly trivial like ballroom dancing for example or ping pong, or, in this case, udon. You can probably guess the rest.
Naoko Ogigami's Kamome Shokudo is set in Finland and is (sorry about this) something of an acquired taste. Satomi Kobayashi plays Sachie, a Japanese woman who opens a Japanese cafe in Finland. The plot, such as it is, revolves around Sachie's interaction with the oddball customers who frequent her establishment and their effect on each other.
In contrast with Japan, Western films about food are abound, so for something slightly different watch Hubert Sauper's Darwin's Nightmare.
This meandering documentary filmed with handheld cameras and no voiceover has very little cinematically to commend it. However its exploration of the Nile Perch trade in Lake Victoria (considered by some the birthplace of mankind) in Tanzania, that supplies fresh fish to Europe and Japan and its effect on the local population is compulsive, harrowing, viewing. A relentless, at times heartbreaking, film. The night watchman hoping for war so he would get fed regularly and the lady whose ‘job' was to dry rotting fish heads standing up to her ankles in maggots explaining how her work was better than starving, were particularly haunting sequences. As a look at some of the possible flip sides to globalization, real food for thought.