"When you find out you will die, thats when you decide to live"

1.

Recently, my movie watching partner and I caught a Japanese movie at GSC or TGV's International Screens. (I cannot differentiate both cinemas-they need more aggresive and effective branding) Okuribito (Departures) revolves around recently unemployed cellist Daigo Kobayashi who decides to move back to his hometown with his wife to seek a new start. He answers an ad for "Departures" thinking it to be a travelling agency but it turns out to be a funeral professional who prepares the deceased for afterlife.

Interesting movie to watch. Not as sombre or dark as one would expect. On the contrary, humor is also present. The ending of a life is also the beginning of one, as cliched as it may sound.

An interesting scene I found in this movie is when Mika, Daigo's wife, follows him to funerals eventhough she was pregnant. In cultures like ours, pregnant people are barred from going to funerals as funerals have an air of morbidity and bad luck surrounding it. This was a change-it showed us that everybody goes through the cycle of life all the time, and going to a funeral is a sign of respect to the deceased and has little or no effect on the idea of "luck".



The old guy who plays the mentor has that Dumbledore air around him-you know, leading, caring and wise. The actor who plays Daigo is cute. hehe.

Okuribito won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year (2009).



2.

Veronika Decides To Die is a Paulo Coelho bestseller that centers around Veronika, who one morning decides to kill herself simply because there wasn't anything else to live for in her life (or so she thinks).

To do so, she takes sleeping pills. However, the outcome is ugly: not only was she unsuccessful in her suicide attempt, but she has only five days to live.

I've wanted to read this book but couldn't bring myself to part with $$ to buy it *blush* ANYHOO Hollywood's making a movie out of it. Gasp.

Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as Veronika, the movie with the same name as the book is due to be released in November 2009 in the States.



3.

Johnny Depp movie. FULLSTOP. Oh wait. Coming soon.


this posts' title: Veronika Decides To Die tagline.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."
Matthew 16:24,25