Today has been a precious day. It rained a good deal this morning, and snowed a good deal as well from afternoon until now, the weather very well puts me under a melacholic mood. Just yesterday and several days before, depressive bout of thoughts didn't leave me even for a second... I cried myself to sleep, to awake this morning feeling light and refreshed... as if a heavy cloak of dark clouds had finally lifted. Everything appears precious to me, even the little act of driving in the rain, to catching glimpses of snow falling outside of the windows as I sat working on my assignment, to seeing my parents back from work, to cooking spontaneously a fried rice dish... Then I know... I had been too hard on myself. If only I had looked a little bit closer to what really matters. I couldn't see it then, and suddenly, a revelation came, not from careful analysis of self-introspection like I always do, but from simply allow myself to live, to breathe in the moments, to experience everything as it is and as it comes. We humans are strange, and much stronger than one is able to give credits to. Perhaps, this feeling of tranquil happiness is just that, a fleeting moment of revelation, and the next day, stress and unhappiness will again take me captive... even so, I am happy just as I am now. Isn't that life? We struggle just for that brief moment of happiness? Let me be selfish for a little bit then... because yes, I am selfish, it has always been my weakness. But I'll keep trying to conquer it... because there will always be another better tomorrow.
And so it goes without saying that today is a perfect day to submerge myself into some quiet and tranquil entertainment, to be more specific: a good dose of warm slice-of-life manga Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and touching movie based on a true story Hachiko: A dog's story. Remember my short entries on favorite movie and drama and manga? If you ever truly follow my blog, you know that I am a big fan of slice-of-life genre: nothing is everything, and everything is nothing sort of story. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, or YKK for short (image above) is precisely that kind of manga, one that appeals so much to me personally. I won't attempt to summarize or even to review because I know I am not in the mood to do so (there are always people who do it better than me), but I'll just say my quick impression on it: it is so precious a manga. It's a story about nothing really, but just the mundane everyday life of a robot, in a post-apocalyptic urban town, running a little cafe and her interactions with different people who come into her life. It's so very slow, with no action or drama really, but with a lot of heart and genuineness. 16 chapters in and I've already fallen in love with this manga. Reading this manga makes me appreciate so much all the little things around me that I have taken for granted: the light streaming in from opening the curtains in the morning, the smell of freshly roasted coffee, a sudden visit from an old friend one quiet afternoon, hugging a loved one while watching the sun rising up... In Japan, YKK is also labeled as a healing manga, and it sure stays appropriately so.
I always watched this relatively short movie: Hachiko. It is based on a true story that happened in Japan in the 20s about the relationship between a professor and a dog he found on his way home one evening. Two years later the professor suddenly passed away from a stroke, and his dog knew nothing of that. He still came to the station that he had been waiting for the prof. when he was alive and continued to wait for him faithfully for the next 9 years until the day of his death. Amazing a story really, and this movie is also amazingly touching. This is one remake that I truly feel that it has given appropriate credits to the original. Nice actings, beautiful and calming scores, solid story makes watching this movie a moving experience. It has been a long time since I was able to watch such a lovely movie, highly recommended!
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