Ikigami is a Japanese film that came out on 09/27/2008 which originated from a manga, Ikigami. The manga is currently up till volume 6.
I watched this with English subtitle on a flight back from Japan in February. I have to say that I loved it. To be honest, I do not like Japanese films since they tend to be slow paced and have bad acting. But the slow pacing worked really well in this film, and the acting wasn’t bad at all. I wish I was able to watch this with my wife.
The story is about Kengo Fujimoto, working in a government department that delivers an official paper called, “Ikigami” Ikigami is a letter that is sent to a Japanese citizen when they are chosen to be killed within the next 24 hours. “Iku” means to die and “Gami” or “Kami” is paper, so it basically means “death note”.
There is no way to avoid the death. Every citizen is injected with a slight chance of the deadly nanoprobe when they enter an elementary school. These nanoprobes are programed so that it activates and kills the host when they reach a certain date and time between the age of 18 through 24.
The story focuses on three incidents of Ikigami delivery and how the people who gets them reacts and lives the last 24 hours of their life. One is a musician that is trying his best to get famous, one is a son of a politician who is in favor of the Ikigami government policy, and the last but not least, is a guy who wants find an eye donor for his younger sister.
So, why oh why would a government do such a thing? The theory is that by giving a sudden death during the age of 18 till 24 will raise the awareness of limited life, and people will become more productive. It’s kinda similar to the stance of the Akira Kurosawa’s film, “Ikiru”. An old, but near to retirement man starts to question about his life when he is told that he has cancer, and will die soon. The awareness of death has actually let the man start to live his life to his full potential. It’s a good film to watch if you can rent it, and can stand watching a black and white film.
It seems like it is not licensed for distribution in the US yet. You may be able to find a English subtitle somewhere on the web, but I don’t know where to find it. I hope that it gets licensed and imported here.
Georgia Max Coffee chose to redesign the toilets of a number of key ski resorts in Japan. The cubicles were fully wrapped on all sides, so that the person caught short would have a ski jumper’s view when they were sitting on the loo. The person could look down at their skis (simply printed on the floor of the cubicle) and see the steep ski jump slope ahead of them. The toilet paper holder carried the only brand messaging in the cubicle, reading: “Seriously kick-ass intensely sweet for the real coffee super zinging unstoppable Max! Taste-explosion!†The message also featured the URL www.maxcoffee.jp, where visitors could view videos of extreme sports as well as sign up to the MAX community.
(Quote from original article: coloribus.com)
This is a review about a Korean BBQ restaurant we went on 3/08/09 at noonish. Please see below for the address and such. Oh yeah, I hate this restaurant. If you wanna save time, just skip this and remember, never try Soot Bul Gui Rim 2 Korean BBQ.
Soot Bul Gui Rim 2 Korean BBQ
233 S Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90004
(213) 365-9992
Price
$16.99 – All you can eat
$10.00 or so dishes and lunch specials are offered
If you’ve seen the reviews of this restaurant, you will notice that it has good reviews. However, I say just skip this restaurant. We went and got the $16.99 all you can eat since we heard that their Galbi is very good. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that good. Overall, the meat and side dishes did not impress me. I would rather go to a bit expensive place for taste quality.
Service was one of the awful things I have ever encountered. It was as if they did not want us there. Water did not have any ice in it, and they don’t come to your table unless you press the buzzer. Even when you press the buzzer, the waiter did not come right away. I was watching him, saw him notice the buzzer, and he did not care to stop wiping the desk so that he can come and serve.
All in all, $16.99 for a decent food, bad service, will not convince me to recommend this place to anyone at all. If you want to eat an all you can eat Korean BBQ, there are tons of others that you can go for $16.99, and have better service.
