Cover art by Nakamura Yusuke

Solanin is the theme song for the movie of the same name starring Aoi Miyazaki, can’t wait to see that one!

Over the week, I had a chance to watch Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, a Japanese dystopian film that was released back in 2008. I came across this movie through my interest in Matsuda Shota, the actor who portrays the main character, Kengo Fujimoto. Matsuda is the son of the late Matsuda Yusaku, a famous Japanese actor who starred in Ridley Scott’s Black Rain. Sadly he passed away at the age of 40 from cancer. In his honour, his two sons Ryuhei and Shota also became actors and obviously have inherited their father’s talent.

Ikigami’s plot focuses on an alternate-reality of Japan, where the government has formed a law called the National Prosperity Law that sacrifices two to three people per day. Through this law, the government keeps a firm hold on its citizens by instilling the fear of death in them. As a result, work production rises and crime rates fall. The deaths are randomly selected everyday from people in the ages of 18-24. Fujimoto works for the bureau that is in charge of handing out letters to those who are chosen to be sacrificed, within 24 hours before their deaths they are free to do whatever the please besides crime. A pension is paid to the family of the deceased, however if they commit a crime before death, that pension goes towards the victim. The film is extremely similar to George Orwell’s 1984, as there are many shots through a surveillance camera. Those who disagree against the government are treated as thought criminals, and like 1984, they go through a process of brainwashing.

Though what interested me about this film, was not how the characters would cause a revolution through heroic actions. No, it didn’t go that direction at all.  It was a film about what a person would do if the inevitable faced them. We witness the lives of the victims, and their final decisions that they place before them. From a rising musician to a flawed son of politician to a caring older brother, the film has a tremendous human quality to it. Here is the trailer below:

CHALK! DIVA200 Project.

Small video that came along with it:

Here’s the actual design and logo:

Another Yoko Kanno (Majority of the music I own is Yoko Kanno, so bear with me) production featuring her protegee, Maaya Sakamoto and Steve Conte from the New York Dolls (!!). The lyrics are written by the eccentric Tim Jensen, and it is a beautiful poem about parallels. The Garden of Everything was written for RahXephon, an animated series just as eccentric and surreal that deals with the theme of love in a post-apocalyptic world. Illustration and design was all by Yamada Akihiro, a artist previously posted.

The series still remains close to my heart through using music as a main element, and a universal tale told in a unconventional way.

Paula Levine, Interactive Futures essay

Up and coming photographer from Singapore, Zhang Jingna is the youngest recipient for the Overseas Photographer of the Year Award at UK’s annual Master Photography Awards.

Her work is a dream mixed with high fashion finesse.

Photos made on March 13, 2009. For photobook, “Rakuen”

Above are the 3 people who have stuck by me in the awkward years, the depression (often reoccurring) , and into first year of college. Despite going to different schools, we’ve managed to pull together through thick and thin. Most of all, they’ve managed to gain the ability to kick me in the face when I go haywire. Thank you for friendship, minus all the sappy BFF bracelet crap, you guys are awesome.

5 years, a kajillion more to go.

Toshiyuki Enoki: mixes art nouveau motifs into traditional chinese paintings. east meets west.

From Yoko Kanno’s studio album, 23 o’clock Music (２３時の音楽）featuring Maaya Sakamoto

A song that fights the demons in sleep.

I was heaven sent
Traded for the words I swore that
Every piece of me would still belong
Forever and a day
To someone who cared
Whatever there may be
Ever there may be

“Toys if you’ve been good
Knives if you have not”
Better steal a kiss ‘fore I’ll be gone
I’ll be gone