As you've no doubt noticed, there is a new James Bond in town, and like me, he's blond! So I felt an instant affinity for the guy. Now, I'm by no means the world's biggest Bond-phile, but I enjoy 007 movies when they're good, which is often, and even when they're bad, which is also often, they're so absurdly stupid that they're good. So I knew I had to check out where they were taking the franchise. I thought Daniel Craig looked kind of cool, and after reading some reviews I was excited to see a leaner, tougher, more bad-ass sort of Bond. I really liked Pierce Brosnan, but I was getting a bit bored of his Bond: too polite; not enough action.
Movies in Japan are a bit more of an affair than they are back home. They have gigantic theaters just like us, it's just that they're more concentrated. My town has plenty of rice fields, but sadly, it was short of multiplexes. So for this Bond-viewing, it was off to the big city for me. I had already driven to Hong's place in Gifu to pick up some tires from a friend, so I figured since I had my car here, I might as well drive into Nagoya. After spending about an hour and a half on the Japanese-version of Google maps, I concluded that there it was a virtual certainty that I would get lost driving. Nagoya is one of the biggest cities in Japan, and there were expressways criss-crossing each other and heading every which way in ways that made my head spin. It was a recipe for disaster. Sadly, I canned my driving plan.
So, I was in for a LOT of public transportation. I was in a kind of pissed off mood from an hour and a half of fruitless cartography (as well as my movie partner cancelling out due to hangover-related problems), and as I rushed out the door and nearly missed the 2:00 train I silently cursed all the Japanese at the train station for being so damn timely. Why am I always the only one running?
So, two train rides later, I was in Nagoya Station. There goes 7 bucks. From here, I still had to catch a subway to the exact opposite side of the city. There goes 3 more bucks. Apparently, this damn Bond movie is only playing in one theater in Nagoya, which the website described as "off the beaten path." Yeah, it was. When I arrived at the station, I realized I was darn far out of wherever I started. It was quiet and pretty ugly-looking, and cold. The movie started at 3:50, and by this point it was about 3:20. Figured I could make it. Maybe walk, but which way? Damn. Better take a bus. After climbing onto no less than 7 buses over the span of an hour, I finally found one that was going my way. There goes another 4 bucks. At about 4:40 I arrived at a giganto-normous mall way off in suburbia and poked around for a frustrated while looking for the movie theater. I was starving. Finally, I found the dang theater and paid my $18 (a steal!) for my Bond ticket. The funny thing about theaters in Japan is that there is assigned seating, so you point to a seat you want on a diagram and then you are supposed to sit in that seat. I rushed to the food court and gulped down the nastiest soup available for $3.80, as well as some discounted fried chicken bits for a buck. Mmmm.
I ran back up to the theater, purchashed a beer (yep, in the theater: This is a major innovation!) and sat back to soak in the action. I made a half-hearted effort to find my appointed seat in the dark, but then realized I didn't like where it was and gallantly flaunted the rules, sitting in a much choicer seat near the front. Luckily, there seemed to be no repurcussions. The movie itself was okay. It certainly addressed my issue of too much talk and not enough action. This was supposed to be Bond at the beginning of it all, and Craig played him as a man of few words, little personality, and lots of dead bodies. It was violent, man! I was a little embarassed for my country's movie industry sitting there in the theater, but then again, he IS British. So, who to blame for this wanton violence? Even the opening credits were kind of disgusting. I think the pendulum may have swung too far from the charming, martini-ordering Bond to the ruthless killer Bond. I was a little put-off. During the lonnnnnng poker game I wandered back into the lobby for tiny beer #2 (there goes another $4.50) which helped me to reasonably enjoy the movie. All in all, it was okay, but honestly I don't know what to think about this Daniel Craig character. I suspect that he's playing Bond really ruthless and personality-less now so that we can see the Bond-ness starting to develop, but I dunno. See it for yourselves. Personally, I think Clive Owen would have made a far better Bond. He's got the same bad-ass edge, but he's got so much more personality. Looking at this guy was like watching a Roman statue speaking one-liners. Maybe in the next movie he'll turn up the personality a notch or two or ten. Hopefully. I say bring Sean Connery back. He's better than all these guys.
After my movie experience, I did feel a little bit like a secret agent in an exotic country, though. I walked around like James Bond for a while, feeling quite covert. Although I don't blend in as well as I imagine, I think. I've only been to Nagoya once, and so before I headed back I walked the area around Nagoya Station. It was beautiful; they had the trees lit up with brilliant blue lights and were showing a slideshow of various sites in England on the building. I guess England = Christmas around here. It was cheesy, but still beautiful, actually. Walking across the street, I saw a strange sight indeed. It was super-windy, like really really windy, and I saw some people in the crosswalk all sort of falling over holding one guy. I thought one person was blown over and they were trying to hold him up. But actually they were trying to restrain him. I realized it when he threw a hard punch at the guy being restrained right in front of him. It had a lot of force to it. I'm guessing the whole lot of them were drunk, which would explain the synchronized stumbling. It was kind of a shocker to see a fight; you don't see that kind of stuff very much around here.
I finished my one-man date with some delicious donuts from Mister Donut and a tasty espresso in a coffee shop and enjoyed the urban experience for a little while longer. Afterwards I headed back to the train station for the ride back to Gifu. Not a bad day, all in all. Total cost for the Bond movie: $14 in trains, $6 in subways, $8 in buses, $18 in ticket price, and $9 in beer. $55. Yowza! I'm still trying to decide if it was worth it. Mayyyyybe.
I will leave you with this truly awesome poster on the train. I miss everyone; hope you're doing well!
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