A Love/Rant Letter

Week 6. Still haven't been to cinemas. Personally, my last record of not going to cinemas was only 3 weeks. Well, my schedule until early January only lists Argo, Paranormal Activity 4, Skyfall, The Hobbit and Looper. Recently I learned that Ben Affleck's Argo is only playing limitedly in Japan, so it's not going to reach my village-y place that's two hours from the nearest biggest city. It sucks yes. I didn't want to resort to torrenting films. I have always been a fan of watching movies in cinemas. Watching movies in the cinemas is simply indescribable by words; the sound of popcorn crunching, the cold light breeze of the air conditioner, the dark room, the blaring sounds, the (maybe) comfy seats, the fellow audience, the large screen, the stupid people playing their phones in the dark or maybe the couple making out in the corner. The laugh shared together with the audience or the thrill of everyone in the room holding their breath. I miss all that. Especially back home knowing that everytime I go to the cinemas it means that I'm going to share more or less 2 hours with the people I trust to be with me for that time being: my family, my brother, my friends. Going to cinemas is like spa for me. Going to cinemas is like going to a beach for me. Going to cinemas is like shopping for me. Going to cinemas is like every good thing in life. Every time I walked out of the theater after a film, I feel free, I feel happy, I feel a soft cushion of clouds with rainbow in front of my eyes (hyperbole alert!). No matter how bad or good the film is, my feeling stays the same. I miss going to an IMAX theater, the super large screen and the super loud sound system is unforgettable. I know I'm like someone who came from a remote village in a godforsaken land and go to the cinemas for the first time, but the feeling is like that. Although next week I'm bound to go to Oita for Paranormal Activity 4, I really want to be able to experience the joy of watching in cinemas every week.

Part 2 of this post is my rant about how retarded Japanese cinemas on releasing Hollywood films ON TIME. Japanese government have issued an anti-piracy law that was effective per October 1, 2012. To what extent does this law cover? Apparently every unlicensed material that's available on the internet. Not only downloading torrents of films and music but watching unlicensed videos on YouTube could be endangered by this law. Well, why do you need anti-piracy law on the first place? Because Japan is too arrogant. I know they are trying to protect their own film industry but come on, delaying films up until 2 years isn't the answer. For example, The Hunger Games was just released recently on September 28 in Japan while its DVD has already been released on August 18 everywhere else in the world which means that a Blu-Ray torrent of the film is already available on the Internet. Doesn't that hurt the film and cinemas itself? I understand if the delaying only takes 1 week or 2 weeks for dubbing and stuff in Japan, but like Daniel Craig & Rachel Weisz's Dream House that is just going to be released this November? Do you need a year to do dubbing and that other stuff? For the case of Argo, the film is released perfectly on time, but not getting a wide release. Rage rage rage. The world says that Japan is one of the developed countries but apparently my country Indonesia whose status is only a developing country is more experienced and excelled in handling this movie stuff. In Indonesia, Skyfall is getting an early release of November 1 whereas in Japan, December 1. In Indonesia, films are getting released on time and better yet, the films' selections are amazing. Japan did not have any certainty on recent films like Dredd or End of Watch but Indonesia already screened both of them. I puzzles me how Hollywood still sees Japan as one of the big markets as they are still coming and do press calls or premieres in Tokyo or other places in Japan. I tell you, nothing special here in Japan for Hollywood films. People here would still prefer watching anime than effects-heavy Hollywood films.

Let's see what happens next week.