'BOBTAIL' REVIEW

Into Eternity (2010)

A few weeks ago, I read the article in “American Scientist” about how modern humans outnumbered Neanderthals because they enabled efficient hunting using domesticated dogs. Its authors speculate that our ability to domesticate dogs may have to do with our white sclerae (other primates have darker sclerae). Dogs communicate with us through exchange of gazes, among other things, while other primates do not. White sclerae might have enhanced the communication through gazes. Fascinating. That was more than 40,000 years ago. “Into Eternity” is the documentary film about the deep underground nuclear waste depository in Onkaro, Finland. The site is still …

 
'BOBTAIL' REVIEW

“Bobtail” Reviews

Japanese Bobtail and normal tailed cat. (Wikipedia) Here, in “Vermillion and One Nights”, most of the articles have been long and serialized. It is my habit to write long, big materials, which tend to end up unorganized. Well, I decided to write those “capsule reviews” more often. Let those be compact and readable. Three paragraphs maximum. Some of the reviews will not be on Japanese cinema, but I will keep repertoire varied and less cinecon oriented. I decided to call these reviews “bobtail reviews”, because “capsule reviews” sound too journalistic and professional. “Bobtail” is as in “Japanese Bobtail”, popular cat …

JAPANESE FILMS

Someone Who Looks Like Gary Cooper (cont.)

This is part six of “Films of 1949” series (Part 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). Nobuyoshi Araki, a renowned photographer and an artist, admires young Setsuko Hara in “Late Spring” in his own particular way. He considers her sturdy build and impressive physique the most “photogenic”, very favorable human (female) features in visual arts. For Hara was uniquely “different” from other actresses of the era in this regard, Araki notes, she radiates her visual presence on the screen tremendously. He comments rather jokingly on the scene in which Hara was readied for wedding in the last of “Late Spring”(1); …

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