Tuesday, May 28, 2002

I’m back.

As I mentioned earlier, I had a terrific time helping out Saalon with his film. Production chores — holding the mike, clacking the clackboard — are jobs that require not just skill, but concentration. You can’t goof off when the camera’s recording. There’s this sense of pride in knowing that you’re part of a well-oiled machine.

On the last day, I had my bizarre experience of the weekend. I ran out to the grocery store for half-and-half and donut holes, and as I turned back onto the main road, I came to a halt behind the parade. There was a short Memorial Day parade marching down the street, complete with a band and fire engines.

I laughed out loud. Here I was, driving around in a foreign city, just trying to remember how to get back to Lumix’s house, and I turn onto a street behind a parade.

Speaking of Lumix — our main actor, a cussing minister and a neat guy — he was incredibly gracious enough to let me borrow his copy of Warrior of the Winds (the botched American release of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind). This is the film that got him hooked on anime, improbably, so his generosity amazes me. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to watching this weird edit. To quote Frederik L. Schodt:

“When first dubbed and released in 1985 by New World Video, an American company with little experience in the field, nearly twenty minutes of the film were edited out. Miyazaki’s thoughtful masterpiece — with its sophisticated antiwar, pro-ecology, and spiritual themes — thus became Warriors of the Wind, an action-oriented story with the stock Judeo-Christian theme of ‘Good battles evil for the future of mankind.'”
— Frederik L. Schodt, manga critic