Hello Lyn and all,

we are indeed fortunate to have the Japan Foundation here in KL to
have many initiatives like the monthly movie shows - may I add that
they are offered free of charge - to the public. Of course, not many
are aware of these projects, but there are interested members of the
public who follow the goings-on and we are rewarded by these great
activities. The Japan Foundation also conducts tea ceremonies (these
are ticketed events, with a very small registration fee) especially
during special celebrations like Hinamatsuri.

I hope you'll watch TS again soon, Lyn. I'm looking forward to buy
the DVD myself. I have Ringu at home but I confess I havent yet found
the courage to watch it - even horror movies that my friends find
amusing or 'not even scary' can sometimes give me nightmares. I go
through a lot of heart-pounding thrills at work, as a project manager
in an engineering company, where some suprises from unavoidable
circumstances can be as scary as a ghost appearing out of nowhere! So
I watch only one or two movies, and my staples have been cartoons
like 'The Emperor's New Groove' and 'Chicken Run' and 'Shrek' because
of the advances in animation technology and because they're SO funny.
As you can probably guess, I dont watch horror movies often ;-)

BTW, there's a good interview article about TS at the UCLA
International Institute at
http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=10823 and
also a link to the realvideo clip of the interview between Sanada-san
and the institute's Carl Wakamoto. Perhaps many of us have viewed
this, but for those who havent, the March 2, 2004 interview is in
English and Sanada-san talks about what he liked about Seibei's
character and the experience working on the movie. He also touched on
Last Samurai, particularly regarding the elements that he recommended
to inject realism into the Ujio character he played in the movie.

Now I need to get back to my yukata pattern - I'm sewing a summer
kimono for me and my friends :-) I attended a Japanese tea ceremony 2
weeks ago and that experience has somehow stayed with me deep.

More later and I wish everyone good days ahead!
Faz