This movie follows the lives of multiple couples that all happen to have business in a love hotel. Among the line-up are one of the hotel's managers and his singer girlfriend, a Korean couple, an older couple who are both fugitives, and a bunch of other different characters that pass by.

The biggest shock to me is that there is hardcore sex. Considering that most mainstream Japanese fare don't even show couples kissing, it was pretty shocking to see couples bumping uglies with each other. Granted it's all censored, but still that's incredible. Most of the characters are memorable in some form or another, and do a decent job of getting your interest (the best stories, hands down, were the aforementioned Korean couple and a particular story about a runaway teen and a dude that's trying to force her into prostitution). The camerawork is also pretty good, as the handheld combined with the angles makes it feel as if we snuck into the rooms as flies on the wall, watching things we probably shouldn't be watching.

The downside however, is that after a while, the movie feels like it starts dragging. The ending is just so abrupt and out of nowhere, for a while it feels like it's a non-ending. There are also some plot threads that never get completely resolved, which is a damn shame since some of the stories start out really strong and falter because of a lack of resolution.

So... I guess it was okay, just nothing to write home about outside of HOLY SHIT JAPANESE PEOPLE HAVING SEX IN A MOVIE.

This one is actually a pretty interesting project. Basically, animation GOD Hayao Miyazaki permitted one person to film him over the course of a year, and this is the end result. We seem him working on The Wind Rises, making fun of his peer Isao Takahata for delaying his movie, and a look at the man in his off hours, contemplating life and his career choice.

The title of the movie kind of intimidated me, because I didn't want to see a dark side of one of the greatest anime directors of all time, but it's actually quite a positive, if sometimes bittersweet, documentary. Miyazaki is definitely an interesting character to watch, seeing him yo-yo back and forth between child-like playfulness and intense perfectionism. What really got me early on was his discussion on what he believes are the problems with movies today. He mentions that the advances in filmmaking are incredible and allow things to be done that were impossible when he first startedout, but the days of a filmmaker taking risks to make movies that they want to make are dying, and that the movies that come out nowadays are beautiful but soulless, "cursed dreams" as he describes them. It's kind of sobering to see the director accept that he's part of a dying breed but acknowledge that these things weren't meant to go on forever.

I have to admit that it's really hard to review a documentary since there are different criteria to follow than a regular movie. However, I will say that it does an excellent job of showing the complexity of Mr. Miyazaki's character, one that is often shrouded in mystery. His other assistants add on to the depth of the documentary, and show their struggles in trying to meet Miyazaki's expectations, which contrast a lot with the moments of his own self-doubt (ie: he had a hard time drawing the planes in The Wind Rises).

So I have to give kudos to the filmmaker for showing Miyazaki as not just a great director but as a great human-being in general.

I got to the theater and was informed that the People's Republic of China confiscated the film as it was being sent to Hawaii. Apparently, the government REALLY doesn't want Americans to see it. As an apology, I got a ticket to Kabukicho Love Hotel, as mentioned above

-Tom Cruise surviving all kinds of totally not survivable shit in the last action scene. That honestly took me out of the movie briefly.