Today, let me introduce one of my favorite movies. It is Bridget Jones's Diary which made a big hit in 2001. It was the time when I was studying English in Boston. I bought VHS of this movie at that time and have kept it until now. In this movie, Renee Zellweger was playing well as a cute and funny heroine, Bridget. In preparation for the role, she gained much weight. Her efforts were approved by the public and so she was chosen as a nominee of Academy Award for Best Actress. I can't help laughing at her performance to the end of this movie. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth were also playing well the roles of guys who were fighting over Bridget. Hugh Grant whose role was Daniel. He was a chief editor and so called a cunny hunter who had another girl friend and broke up with Bridget all of a sudden. On the other hand, Colin Firth whose role was Mark. He was a once-divorced attorney and so called a square. After Bridget was dumped by Daniel, she made up her mind to change her job, lifestyle and herself as well. She started to make a career as a reporter, which made her shine and become more beautiful. Bridget and Mark first didn't like each other due to misunderstandings, but they were naturally getting close and realized they became drawn to each other... Daniel changed his mind and proposed to Bridget, however she has already found something more extraordinarily than that... Bridget and Mark became a nice couple at the end! However, I have one question about this movie because when Bridget's mother was talking about Mark's ex-wife who was Japanese and cheated on Mark with Daniel, she said "Japanese are cruel race." Therefore, I'm wondering if there is a popular belief in which Japanese are cruel race in England...
I think this movie is very helpful when you are brokenhearted or depressed because you can get a lot of energy from Bridget and become cheerful!!
I'll show you some of my VHS collections today. VHS is now old-fashioned, but it doesn't matter to me because everything with memories are special for me now and forever!!
BOOK REPORT #2 REFERENCE: 1) Author: Mary Shelley. 2) Title: Frankenstein. 3) Publisher: PENGUIN BOOKS LTD. 4) Place of Publication: London, England 5) Date of Publication: 1992 6) Number of Pages: 208.
PLOT SUMMARY: At the beginning, Robert Walton, an explorer looking for a new passage from Russia to the North Pacific Ocean via the Arctic, found a man who was weaken by the cold and told the man’s tragic story in the letter to his sister in England. The man named Victor Frankenstein was grown up in Geneva, Switzerland and moved to Germany to study natural science. With time, Victor became obsessed with the ambition that he could recreate a human body. After his experiment with electricity, Victor made the ambition a reality. He opened graves and gathered limbs and organs from the dead body and put them together so as to produce an ideal artificial human. However, after bringing the creature to life, Victor soon regretted it because he was not a human but a “monster”, and abhorred his ugliness and deserted him. While the monster was following after Victor heading Swaziland, he learned how to read and speak from books and gained intelligence and human hart. Also, he learned who he was from the experience that he was mistreated by others due to his ugliness. Then, he appeared before Victor and demanded a creature of another sex to make his own family. If Victor did so, the monster promised not to appear again. At first, Victor tried to fulfill the promise from sympathy with the miserable monster, but finally refused because he feared the further increase of monsters. The monster got angry about it and vowed revenge against Victor, and then murdered his brother, friends and wife. His wife, Elizabeth, was killed on their wedding night as the monster warned. Walton heard the Victor’s whole story and learned that Victor came here to kill the monster. However, Victor died on the Arctic Ocean without fulfilling his mission. Then the monster appeared before Walton and told him his side of the story, and disappeared in the darkness of the sea saying “I shall die.”
LITERARY TERMS:
1)Setting: The end of the 18th century Russia →The Arctic (present) Switzerland, Germany, England and Ireland (reminiscence)
2) Point of View: This story is told from omniscient.
3) Conflict: Victor vs. the monster who was created by him.
4) Symbol: The ugliness of the monster means the ugliness of Victor himself because he toyed with a human life.
5) Climax: When the artificial human became a real monster and killed Victor’s brother, friends and beloved wife.
6) Irony: Although his ambition to control human life became a reality, Victor finally met with a terrible misfortune. (Victor was revenged by the monster he created.)
7) Theme: Human cannot take control of nature including human life no matter how advanced natural science has become.
EVALUATION: This book is the most famous work among Gothic novels. Gothic novels are considered a prototype of Science Fiction or Horror novels. Around the end of the 18th century, people became interested in the world which they could not explain with reason. They were impressed by the ragged mountains and rude sea and enjoyed them in fear. In this book, I could find many descriptions about awesome nature. I think that Shelly intended to show the difference between nature and artificial illusion.
I thought Frankenstein the name of the monster before reading this book, but I soon found that it was the name of the doctor who created it. Frankly speaking, this book is much harder to read than I thought because it has not only difficult words but also some parts which require deep interpretations, so I also read Japanese version to keep better truck to understand the story. After reading this book, I felt sorry for the monster who had never been loved even by the creator himself. Through this book, I think that Shelly would like to warn that scientific advances might destroy humans if taken incorrectly. Especially, human life should not be controlled by human but should be only by God.
In summer, I went to Yokohama District Court to attend the orientation of a new Citizen Judgement System and to watch a real trial, because I had to write a report for my Jurisprudence class.
I watched the case where the defendant was tried for violation of narcotic law.
He bought drugs from foreign dealers and used them for two years. He got guilty and was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison with 3 years suspension of sentence.
After the trial, three judges and we participants started the discussion over the new Citizen Judgement System and the trial we watched. Two of the participants asked the judges the following questions:
Q1) What is the background that Japan decided to introduce the new system?
A1) It is to follow the system of other democratic countries.
Q2) Does the fact that the defendant had some criminal recordsaffect judgement on the verdict?
A2) No, it doesn't because it's been more than twenty years since he got guilty for the last case and it can be dangerous if he is tried with a prejudice that a person who has a criminal record must commit a crime again. In addition, we find that this case and the last one are different from each other, so we should try him for a new case this time.
When I went to the court, I found that most of the participants were housewives or pensioners. Therefore, I doubt that busy businessmen can contribute to the new system. If I were chosen as a citizen judge, I would provably accept the offer, anyway.
Today, let me introduce one of my favorite movies. It is Bridget Jones's Diary which made a big hit in 2001. It was the time when I was studying English in Boston. I bought VHS of this movie at that time and have kept it until now. In this movie, Renee Zellweger was playing well as a cute and funny heroine, Bridget. In preparation for the role, she gained much weight. Her efforts were approved by the public and so she was chosen as a nominee of Academy Award for Best Actress. I can't help laughing at her performance to the end of this movie. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth were also playing well the roles of guys who were fighting over Bridget. Hugh Grant whose role was Daniel. He was a chief editor and so called a cunny hunter who had another girl friend and broke up with Bridget all of a sudden. On the other hand, Colin Firth whose role was Mark. He was a once-divorced attorney and so called a square. After Bridget was dumped by Daniel, she made up her mind to change her job, lifestyle and herself as well. She started to make a career as a reporter, which made her shine and become more beautiful. Bridget and Mark first didn't like each other due to misunderstandings, but they were naturally getting close and realized they became drawn to each other... Daniel changed his mind and proposed to Bridget, however she has already found something more extraordinarily than that... Bridget and Mark became a nice couple at the end! However, I have one question about this movie because when Bridget's mother was talking about Mark's ex-wife who was Japanese and cheated on Mark with Daniel, she said "Japanese are cruel race." Therefore, I'm wondering if there is a popular belief in which Japanese are cruel race in England... 
