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A MEDITATION ON BUGS

Today's film was the documentary (mostly in Japanese)

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009)

This is such a weird film. It is not a monster film. Rather, it is a meditation on insects in the life of the Japanese people from childhood on.

It is fascinating at the informational level but, not satisfied to present a tired hacky entomology film it goes all anthropological and finally spiritual.

The contrast between the fascination with insect pets and in the wild is pointed out in quiet photos of urban sprawl next to insect preserves. In fact it is all quiet.

An odd fact that most Americans are pridefully unaware of is that almost all Japanese do not speak English. So it is in the local language and subtitled. This makes for some fast up and down eye movement because the bugs are a lot more active than most dramatic film and so there are things we miss. I suppose also that we infer a lot in dramatic fare and here, with the bugs, there is little or no non verbal communication. Certainly the phrase "I am alive and kicking" is conveyed without words but not a lot else.

I liked that we see real people and real bug catchers. I got used to the title thing.

And the entire film is soothing. I get the interest and connections with the little guys.

I had enough of the bugs but enjoyed it while it was there. That means a 3 out of Netflix5.

The trailer.

Labels: films