A movie...and a group of men...you should see!!

(Okay....so first...let me say that NO (dammit!) I did not COULD NOT get a picture of Mr. Watanabe, she said with tears in her eyes.)

Tonight, was a very memorable evening. First of all...I met my friend Hiroko at the movie theater...we stood in line with all the other ticket holders and waited as each person's bags were inspected....no cameras!! *Mine was hidden at the bottom of my bag, but I just didn't have the guts to get it out later on!!

We watched the movie...which was incredible!! Despite the fact that there were no English sub-titles, I could understand about 50% of the dialogue. After the movie, Hiroko was quizzing me about things and I pretty much understood what was going on. I'm actually glad I saw it this way first...if I had had to read all the sub-titles at the bottom of the screen, I would have missed some of the action, I think. I will get the movie on DVD when it comes out and watch again.

At the end of the movie...the audience was...hmmm..."blown away" would be a good way to describe the feeling in the theater. It is common for Japanese movie-goers to sit until the final credits have finished, but even after the lights came on a bit, no one talked...it was quit strange. THEN....the spotlight came on and out came Ken Watanabe and another actor, Tsuyoshi Ihara. I have to admit that when I saw them, I had them in my mind as their characters in the movie, and almost started to cry...again!

*A note about Ken...he was dressed all in black...Hiroko speculated that he was wearing suede...both he and Tsuyoshi looked great!! (handsome...sexy..."kakuii"...any similiar adjective will work here!!).

Both seemed very moved, themselves about the movie...answered a few questions...It seems that both men visited families of the people they portrayed (Ken was Gen. Kuribayashi and Tsuyoshi was Baron Nishi, who was actually an Olympic equestrian rider). The time was a bit short, but...as the unwritten Japanese rule of entertainment goes, "things must be finished within 2-3 hours"...and so, they left.

BUT....as they were leaving, I do believe that I made eye contact with Ken...got a bit of a head nod...I'll take it!! *smile* !! I mean....it's not like he could miss me or anything...picture if you will a theater filled with about 300 Japanese people and there....right there in the middle...is a blonde foreign woman....COME ON!! HE HAD TO HAVE SEEN ME!!!

It was a good evening....thanks Hiroko for sharing the evening with me!!