Coicoy

The year is almost over, but I am likely not going to watch any new films before the new year arrives. I have already seen some discussion about what might be nominated for awards and whatnot, and what already has been. This is not about that. This is me reflecting on what brought me out to the theater, and what I thought of the experiences. The Big Action Adventure Films Avengers: Endgame Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Captain Marvel Spider-Man: Far from Home Endgame  and  Skywalker  were satisfying conclusions to universes & characters I have been following somewhat closely.  Captain Marvel  was fun and  Far from Home  was mixed for me but still entertaining. But the Marvel/Avengers and Star Wars franchise conclusions brought the fanboy out of me. Endgame was one of the best theater experiences for me this year. It may just take the cake. Films About Real Heroes A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Harriet These two...

 If you have not seen The Rise of Skywalker, this is your fair warning to wait until you have before you read the rest of this post.  A friend and sort of spiritual mentor to me brought me along to see Episode IX with him and a group of friends late Thursday night, so I was lucky to see it before the internet started spoiling the experience (Well, the internet desperately had tried to start spoiling it, but that's another story). At the end of the film, I found myself wondering about of some of the details that were told in the story onscreen and off-screen for this trilogy, and I came back to the thought that I am glad the original trilogy holds a certain special place in my mind that no other side stories could soften. But I want to address a few elements of the story. First, there is Rey.  In the first film, she was a scavenger. She was alone, wandering the deserts of ... (not Tattooine) Jakku. She meets BB-8 and Finn (an ex-stormtrooper), and together they ...

Many of you know that I have been learning Korean over the course of the last several years. Due to some personal life changes and decisions, my emphasis has switched over from Korean to Japanese. Although I will continue to be somewhat interested in Korean, my overall attention has been dramatically switched to Japanese. With that, I have had to make some major linguistic adjustments.   So, let me share with you how I have approached this so far, how I feel about it, and my goals for the future.   First, I learned hiragana. As you may (or may not) know, Japanese uses three written scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. In brief, hiragana is a phonetic writing system used to write sounds in Japanese. The basics are a, i, u, e, o. Then, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. Then, sa, shi, su, se, so. Then, ta, chi, tsu, te, to. Then, na, ni, nu, ne, no. Then, ha, hi, hu, he, ho. Then, ma, mi, mu, me, mo. The, ya, yu, yo. Then, ra, ri, ru, re, ro. Then, wa, wo, and n. There's more ...