The Ghost in the Shell 1.5: [Human Error Processer]

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GitS-1-5-hummanErrorProcesser-cov“La section 9 est sur les dents ! Il faut dire que les enquêtes s’enchaînent pour la section d’élite et que Kusanagi et Batou n’ont guère le temps de chômer…”

“Découvrez enfin dans sa version perfect ce volume phare de la saga, qui vous éclairera sur la vie quotidienne de la section 9, ses difficultés et ses tensions. Un tome qui conclut à merveille le triptyque de The Ghost in the Shell Perfect Edition.”

[ Texte du site de l’éditeur ]

ATTENTION: Peut contenir des traces de divulgâcheur (i.e. “spoilers”)! Les personnes allergiques à toutes discussions d’une intrigue avant d’en avoir elle-même prit connaissance sont vivement conseillées de prendre les précautions nécessaires pour leur sécurité et ne devraient poursuivre la lecture qu’avec circonspection.

La description ci-haut (qui provient du site de Glénat) est totalement erronée! C’est bien la première fois que je vois ça: un éditeur qui ne connait pas son produit ou qui s’en fout! Le Major Kusanagi fait certes une brève apparition mais elle ne fait plus partie de la section 9! Quant à éclairer la vie quotidienne de la section 9, pas vraiment: on y apprends quelques détails nouveaux sur son fonctionnement mais sans plus. Par contre, il est vrai que l’histoire se concentre sur le travail journalier d’enquête de cette force militaro-policière qu’est la section 9.

Si Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊 / Kōkaku kidōtai / lit. “Police anti-émeute blindée mobile”) est mon manga préféré, étrangement, je n’en ai jamais vraiment parlé dans ce blogue (à part brièvement lorsque j’ai commenté le film en live-action et l’animation). Je me dois donc d’abord de donner un aperçu de l’oeuvre en général.

Poursuivre la lecture après le saut de page >>

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Pour en finir avec les tournesols

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A sunflower finale

If you have followed the sunflower theft / case / saga, you’ll be glad to know that the case is finally closed (I hope). After nearly a month, the police finally intervened by visiting the culprit. He confessed his crime and said he was sorry. Apparently, he was so shocked & surprised to be caught that he was shaking. He also promised to return the stolen property to all the places he had taken them. Our stolen pots and sunflowers were returned by the police. I noticed the next day that the flowers stolen from the city’s flower beds were back. We didn’t press charge, but if he ever do us wrong again he would be in serious jeopardy. It was a great occasion to demonstrate my detective skills (elementary my dear Watson!), but now I can finally relax and start to enjoy the flowers again!

 

Look who’s back!
Sunflowers at their peak!

Si vous avez suivi le vol / l’affaire / la saga des tournesols, vous serez heureux d’apprendre que l’histoire est finalement close (j’espère). Après près d’un mois, la police est finalement intervenue en visitant le coupable. Il a avoué son crime et a dit qu’il était désolé. Apparemment, il était tellement choqué et surpris d’être pris qu’il en tremblait. Il a également promis de rendre les biens volés à tous les endroits où il les avait pris. Nos pots et tournesols volés ont été retournés par la police. J’ai remarqué le lendemain que les fleurs volées dans les parterres de la ville étaient de retour. Nous n’avons pas porté plainte contre lui, mais s’il nous faisait du tors à nouveau, il se retrouverait vraiment dans le trouble. Ce fut l’occasion idéale de faire preuve de mes habilités de détective (élémentaire ma chère Watson!), mais maintenant, je peux enfin me détendre et recommencer à apprécier les fleurs!

About writing

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I realized recently that the best way to gather my thoughts in order to write a comment on a movie or a book (or any text) is to go take a poop or a shower right after viewing or reading. That’s when my mind gets freed from the daily drone and works better. It is also the case when I write early in the morning, when my mind is fresh from its nightly clean up and simulation.

They say that, in order to improve your writing, you must write at least a thousand words per day. I just can’t do that because, with my hellish job, I come back home at night completely exhausted and my mind is functioning just enough to eat, crash on the couch and watch TV… However, I have noticed that if I write regularly, the writing come easier to me and the result is generally more satisfying. I just have to keep going… I’ll do that thousand-word-a-day thing on the week-ends or, more likely, when I am retired (now in about only three-thousand-two-hundred-and-five days !!!)…

(Note: this blog entry is 194 words, so that means 806 words to go for today !)

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Isle of dogs

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IsleOfDogs-covIn a timeless and fictitious Japan, the dictator of Megasaki — a cat lover — has banned all dogs to Trash Island. A twelve-year-old boy will sneak out on the island looking for his dog and unwithingly start a revolution. The stop-motion animation is amazing and quite stunning. The story is clever and cute — but, frankly, I’m a cat lover myself. The movie was well received (with a critic rating of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes) — although there was some harsh critics claiming it was succumbing to “the trope of the white savior” as the white foreign-student is organizing the revolt (but lets not forget that the REAL hero is the young boy!) and that it was a prime “example of racial stereotyping and cultural appropriation” ! On this I totally agree: it was a great hommage to the popularity of Japanese culture in the West (anime & manga, Kurosawa’s movies, etc.) and it’s an outrage that they didn’t select real dogs to play the parts! All in all, it’s beautifully entertaining, a great animation that I fuzzily recommend to everyone (although I am quite sure my cats will not like it). stars-3-5

[ Amazon — Biblio — Google — IMdB — Official — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

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In liberfacies

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Against Facebook

I am really getting fed up with Facebook. It is an exceedingly time-consuming activity (chronophagios) that really gives little rewards — I means besides watching cat videos and stalking (um, I means, keeping in contact with) friends. More and more it has become the kingdom of fake news, as people constantly pass their expressed opinions as news (or as news-worthy).

Not only Facebook is doing very little to prevent foreign agencies to try to influence our minds through fake posting or advertising but, at the same time, they block legitimate ads from museums around the world because it is deemed offensive or subversive ! Incredible! How comes a bunch a geeks who know so little about the world become arbiters of morality and political decency ? They’re such a great influence over our minds (and our children’s minds) and yet, there is no one to oversee their policies? Inacceptable!

Of course, I would not be so inflamed by their ignominious policies if I would not have been touched personally by it. I am busy and I don’t have time to post on my blog, on Facebook, on Tweeter, on Instagram, etc. So I concentrate on what’s the most important to me (the medium that I can control the most) — my blog — and I just automatically repeat each (or most) post on the other social media to increase diffusion of my art and thoughts. However, a recent change in policies brought by Facebook is blocking this automatic reposting! What? They let the Russian pass through but they block my book reviews and cats’ pictures?! That’s unconscionable !

That I learned recently from a WordPress email:

“Starting August 1, 2018, third-party tools can no longer share posts automatically to Facebook Profiles. This includes Publicize, the WordPress.com tool that connects your site to major social media platforms (like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook).”

They explain that if my content is linked to a Facebook Profile (a personal account), then Publicize will no longer be able to share my posts to Facebook, but it will still work if it’s a Facebook Page (public profiles allowing “artists, public figures, businesses, brands, organizations and nonprofits connect with their fans or customers”) that is connected to my site. I have only two options if I still want my Facebook followers to see my posts : create a link manually or convert my Facebook Profile to a Page ! They continue:

While Facebook says it is introducing this change to improve their platform and prevent the misuse of personal profiles, we believe that eliminating cross-posting from WordPress is another step back in Facebook’s support of the open web, especially since it affects people’s ability to interact with their network (unless they’re willing to pay for visibility) We know that this might cause a disruption in the way you and your Facebook followers interact, and if you’d like to share your concerns with Facebook, we urge you to head to their Help Community to speak out.

Damn you Facebook! Improving your platform? You means improving your profits by making changes that would favour the commercial use of your application! What about the users, the people who made your product famous (and create its value) ? Oh, yes, that’s true: since we know that WE are your product it is getting more difficult to fleece us, so you reorient your business model!

So, if you were wondering why I am posting very little on Facebook lately, well, that’s the reason. Now, I will probably share my posts manually for a while (for the most important entries) and maybe consider to eventually create a Page, but I am also quite seriously considering withdrawing completely from Facebook…

What do you think about that? (please comment)

And don’t hesitate to let Facebook know what I think of their stupid policies!

(note: the title is in latin)

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Sunflowers in bloom 2

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Tournesols en fleurs 2

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[ iPhone 8+, 2018/07/28 & 2018/08/04 ]

No, I’m not obsessed with sunflowers. It’s just that, this year, they really dominate the front garden and a lot of them were blooming this week. It’s really getting better and better… And none have been stolen in a while!

Non, je ne suis pas obsédé par les tournesols. C’est juste que, cette année, ils dominent vraiment le jardin avant et beaucoup d’entre eux fleurissaient cette semaine. C’est de plus en plus beau… Et aucun n’a été volé depuis un bout de temps!

Notable News (w23-w31)

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Since the last update, over two months ago, so much has happened. 

On the domestic front, it seems that I ran out of karma points because a series of unfortunate events kept happening to me, including frustratingly bad customer service experiences: I had trouble getting my bag of weekly flyers delivered, after eight long months the contractor finally came to finish the landscaping work in the backyard so I could work (hard) to set up the garden, and then the water heater broke down! Everything was just a big pain in the ass! I ended up so stressed and distressed by the whole ordeal that I forgot to do the accounting and pay the bills! This had never happened to me in fifteen years!

UltraBlinking

Out of energy !

However, that was not the end of it. Work is usually a real nut house where we have to run around like crazy, doing absurd stuff. Under normal circumstances it is already demoralizing and exhausting. But we had to go at it during a heat wave, for a whole week! We had a few days of respite and then, the air conditioning broke down—for another week! We were working at temperature between 27° C and 30° C, with relative humidity of 50-55% ! If you calculate the humidity factor (the way that it’s normally done on weather channels) it felt like working at temperature between 35° C and nearly 40° C ! (Of course, according to the charts used by management, it was barely over 33° C and we shouldn’t even brake a sweat! For them it was just uncomfortable conditions!). Damn it, we are working in a library, not a sweat shop! Management brought huge fans, but if you move hot air, it is still just hot air — in a very noisy environment. 

If it was just working at a desk with a fan in the face it would probably be tolerable, but we are standing up and moving around a lot to serve customers (lending, shelving and processing books, etc.) — contrary to what most people believe it is a very physical work. At my age and with my health I cannot work in such conditions for a long duration. One day, I was tired and feeling dizzy (the head-librarian had already left and a couple of colleagues were not feeling well either) so I decided to also leave work early. We were threatened of “consequences” (disciplinary measures) by management for doing so. We endured for the rest of the week, but, in the end, I couldn’t take it anymore, I was exhausted (completely out of energy), having sore throat, migraine and ear ache, so I took a day off.  I just don’t get it: why’s this obstinacy to force employees to work in unbearable conditions? Where is decency and respect of the workers? That’s what upsets me the most: absurd decisions and disrespect… I get it that there is nothing in the labor law (health & security) that prevent work in extreme heat conditions, but it is just common sense and thoughtfulness not to subject your employees to such suffering! Then again, why should I be surprised of such contempt for the workers?

At the same time, I had to deal with some garden theft which became “the sunflowers’ affair” and evolved into a real saga. Finally, as I was ready to blow a gasket, my blood pressure medication was recalled due to contamination with a potential carcinogen (the generic version is made in China, no wonder)! I had trouble at first to get the pharmacy to replace it for free, but now there is a class-action lawsuit being organized…

Japon instantané

My mind elsewhere !

Thankfully, there was a few positive events to brighten my mood, like an occasional trip to the botanical garden or the park, Apple announcing their incoming new operating systems (iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 Mojave) or finally being able to finish watching the latest seasons of Poldark and McMafia. Strangely, as I handled all the bad karma with relatively great zen, I managed to write comments on quite a bunch of stuff (books, TV series and movies): The Dark Tower, The Terror, Crapule, American Made, Victoria & Abdul, Un simple monde, Le chat du louvre 1-2, Black Panther, Isabella Bird: femme exploratrice 1-2, Alien Resurrection & Alien: Covenant, Pline 5, Ad Astra 4-5, Justice League, Batman v Superman, Jumanji, Giacomo Foscari 1, Nos yeux fermés, Your name., In this corner of the world, and The Mummy. Fortunately, reading (or alternatively watching TV) and writing (comments, rants or even poetry) is a great help to bring my mind elsewhere!

On the world stage, we saw the usual fires, floods, volcanoes, storms, kids trapped in a cave, a couple of summits (G7 & North Korea), the World Cup, water was found on Mars and each day kept bringing more Trump insanities. If I wouldn’t know better I could think that Trump is the antechrist and that the end of the world is near! But, no, it’s just our daily lives in the 21st century… I just don’t understand: in 1953 the Rosenberg were tried and executed simply for spying for the Soviets; now, some politicians conspired with the Russians to interfere in the U.S. elections, make their own businesses profits, as well as contribute to undermine western democracies and absolutely NO uproar is being made about it? Delirant isti americani !

Through all this I did my best to stay (sane?) acquainted with the affairs of the world and gathered over two hundreds notable news & links — which I now share with you (in both french or english, slightly categorized, but in no particular order — note that, to save on coding time, the links will NOT open in a new window beyond this point), after the jump.

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The Mummy

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L9677659I found this action movie rather average and, if they wanted to do horror, well, I wasn’t scared. It is well paced and the acting is good (although Tom Cruise is getting a little old for this, his two female co-stars, Annabelle Wallis & Sofia Boutella, are great), but the story is rather predictable — however, mixing Jekyll & Hyde (Russell Crowe) with it was a surprise! I also like the “Egyptian” designs (the flashbacks, the look of Princess Ahmanet, the tomb & sarcophagus — a little reminiscent of Giger style). It’s interesting that, just in case the movie would be successful enough, they’ve put an open ending to allow for a sequel. I hope not. This reboot of The Mummy franchise offered a nice mindless entertainment but, alas, nothing more (Rotten Tomatoes concurs with a critical rating of 15% !). What’s scary is that The Mummy is supposed to be the first movie in the reboot of Universal’s Dark Universe (Jekyll & Hyde [with Russell Crowe — now the cross-over with The Mummy makes sense!], Frankenstein [with Javier Bardem], Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Invisible Man [with Johnny Depp], etc.). The next movie in line should be Bride of Frankenstein [dir. Bill Condon, with possibly Angelina Jolie or Gal Gadot in titular role] first announced for Valentine’s Day 2019 but its release has now been delayed!  stars-2-5

[ Amazon — Biblio — Google — IMDb — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

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In this corner of the world

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InThisCornerOfTheWorld-covAnother great animation—this time by a less known director (at least in this corner of the world, but Sunao Katabuchi has also directed the TV series Black Lagoon and the movies Princess Arete and Mai Mai Miracle). This is a very traditional Japanese animation which is not drawn in the cute style we usually associate with anime. It is soft, pastel-like, yet a little sketchy. It is also realistic in its concept but yet cute in its own way. However, despite a good dose of humour (through the awkwardness of the main character and how she sees the world through her drawings), the story is quite serious as it chronicles the life and hardships of a young bride in the pre-war and, later, the WW2-era Japanese countryside in Kure. Despite the cartoony style, it is very precise in the description of the everyday life, the clothings, the food rationing, and the military details (warships, bombings, etc.). It is really touching, beautiful, educational and entertaining (although it is a bit long at 129 mins). Like Grave of the Fireflies describes the life after the firebombing of Tokyo, this movie is painting a detailed portrait of the life of ordinary Japanese citizens in the Hiroshima area before the A-bomb and a little after. It is a must-see movie that has been nominated for and received several awards both in Japan and abroad. stars-3-5

[ Amazon — Biblio — Google — IMdB — Official — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

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Capsules

Your name.

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your-name-movie-bd-dvd-combo_1I had forgotten how amazing it was to watch an anime that’s so great you are at loss of words, feeling awestruck, almost like it’s a religious experience. I cannot really begin to describe the complex storytelling of this animation. It’s the story of a teenage romance between a Tokyo boy and a countryside girl who swap bodies as they are linked through space and time by some sort of old Shinto god. Or was it just a dream? It’s a truly fantastical tale — as it follows more or less Todorov’s definition of the genre. And yet, it’s also science-fiction because it involves a comet, some meteorites and technology — cellphones, etc. — is instrumental in the storytelling. In that aspect, it might be an allegory on the kind of relationships people can have through social media without never even meeting in person. But the really extraordinary part is the exceptional quality of the animation. It’s so realistic, precise and beautiful that it does really feel like a dream. You want to be there, to visit this remote part of Japan in the Gifu prefecture!

I could say so much about this movie and yet I just cannot find the words to describe how I feel. You really have to see it to understand how great it is. But, of course, if you’re a fan of Makoto Shinkai, you already know all this. He really is a master animator/director. And with each new movie he surpasses himself (mostly Voices of a Distant Star in 2002, The Place Promised in Our Early Days in 2004, 5 Centimeters per Second in 2007, The Garden of Words in 2013). There’s also a light novel and a manga adaptation, both written by Shinkai. Your name. A must! stars-4-0

[ Amazon — Biblio — Google — IMdB — Official — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

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Nos yeux fermés

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NosYeuxFermés-covOuvrez les yeux sur les petits bonheurs de la vie !

La vie n’est pas tendre avec Chihaya… Et elle le lui rend bien. Le bonheur ? Elle ne connaît pas. Son père alcoolique, sa mère partie, elle enchaîne les petits boulots pour pouvoir joindre les deux bouts. Un jour, son pied heurte accidentellement la canne d’Ichitarô, un non-voyant. À partir de cet instant, ce jeune homme à la joie de vivre communicative va tout faire pour entrer dans la vie de Chihaya et lui faire voir le monde autrement.

Dans ce conte moderne touchant, Akira Sasô nous invite à voir le monde autrement qu’avec nos yeux, un vrai hymne à la tolérance, à l’acceptation des autres et de leurs différences, mais aussi un hymne à la vie, dans ce qu’elle a de plus simple et de plus beau. Les personnages s’animent sous le crayon de l’auteur, qui dépeint avec simplicité la vie quotidienne d’un trait doux qui invite à la réflexion et au calme.

[Texte du site de l’éditeur; voir aussi la couverture arrière]

J’ai découvert cette collection, “Conte Moderne” chez Pika Graphic, quand j’ai lu Un Simple Monde de Mari Yamazaki. J’ai remarqué que la collection offrait trois autres titres Japonais: Nos Yeux Fermés de Akira Sasô (avril 2017), Une douce odeur de café de Yamakawa Naoto (février 2018) et Sunny Sunny Ann! de Yamamoto Miki (mai 2018). Comme le style graphique des deux plus récents ouvrages m’apparaîssait plus alternatif, j’ai préféré me lancé d’abord dans le titre plus classique de Akira Sasô… Nos yeux fermés (花に問ひたまへ / Hana ni Tohitama e / lit. “De temps en temps demander à la fleur”) est un manga seinen qui a été prépublié dans le magazine Gekkan Action (Futabasha) avant d’être compilé en volume en 2015.

NosYeuxFermés-p004Nos yeux fermés est un très bon manga qui met en scène Chihaya, une jeune fille malheureuse et amère qui n’a que peu d’égard pour son entourage… Jusqu’à ce qu’elle rencontre Ichitarô, un jeune homme aveugle plein d’optimisme et d’énergie positive qui semble être contagieuse. Mais tout n’est pas rose dans la vie du jeune homme, marqué par un traumatisme d’enfance qui refera soudainement surface lorsque le fils du riche amant de sa mère défunte tentera d’exproprier le restaurant de sa tante. La relation entre Chihaya et Ichitarô leur sera mutuellement bénéfique—leur faisant découvrir le monde sous un jour nouveau, prouvant qu’un sourire et l’entraîde résout bien des problèmes—avant de fleurir en un sentiment qui va au-delà de l’amitié…

C’est un très beau récit, qui se lit bien. Il nous apprend que la cécité n’est pas nécessairement un handicap car on peut voir tout aussi bien (ou encore mieux) avec le coeur. Le style graphique de Sasô est très simple et propre (trait de plume mince et zip-a-tone) mais demeure assez agréable à l’oeil. C’est donc une bonne et agréable lecture.

Nos yeux fermés, par Akira Sasô. Paris: Pika Édition (Coll. Pika Graphic, série “Conte Moderne”), avril 2017. 272 pages, 17.2 x 24.2 cm, 16,00 € / $26.95 Can. ISBN 978-2-8116-3463-6. Pour un lectorat adolescent (15 ans et plus). stars-3-0

Pour en savoir plus vous pouvez consulter les sites suivants:

[ Amazon — Biblio — Goodreads — Google — Wikipedia — WorldCat ]

HANA NI TOHITAMAE © AKIRA SASO 2014 / FUTABASHA PUBLISHERS LTD. © 2017 Pika Édition pour la version française.

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Giacomo Foscari 1

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GiacomoFoscari-covUne rencontre subtile entre deux cultures

Giacomo Foscari est un témoin sensible de l’évolution de deux sociétés chahutées au cours du XXe siècle : en Italie, pendant son enfance, il assiste à la montée du fascisme. Quelques années plus tard, il se retrouve jeune professeur au cœur du Tokyo intellectuel des années 1960, en pleines tensions d’émancipation de la jeunesse. C’est via son parcours et ses rencontres hautes en couleurs que Mari Yamazaki nous invite à voyager dans l’histoire, entre cultures japonaise et romaine. 

[ Texte du site de l’éditeur; voir aussi la couverture arrière ]

Un autre manga de Yamazaki qui m’avait échappé lors de sa parution! Giacomo Foscari (ジャコモ・フォスカリ / Jakomo Fosukari) est un manga josei serialisé dans le magazine Office You (Shueisha) en 2011 et qui a été compilé en volume en septembre 2012. La traduction française est parue chez Rue de Sèvre un an plus tard.

GiacomoFoscari-p073

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Grâce à des flash-backs, Yamazaki établit assez vite le personnage de Foscari qui a grandi à Venise dans un milieu bourgeois et cultivé. En observant le bel Andrea, un camarade de classe plutôt voyou, il réalise qu’il n’est pas donné à tous de grandir dans un milieu favorisé et que certain individu sont peut-être encore sous la protection des vieux dieux romains, comme Mercure, le dieu des voleurs. Quelques années plus tard, l’approche de la guerre et la monté du fascisme rend la situation difficile pour sa famille. Il visite le Japon en 1960, invité par Owada, un collègue universitaire, et décide d’y rester. La “culture chrétienne” qui a profondément transformée l’Italie le rendait mal à l’aise et il se sent beaucoup mieux “dans ce Japon sans contraintes religieuses“ qui lui rappelle beaucoup le polythéisme du monde romain antique. Il est témoin de la tourmente étudiante qui frappe les universités japonaises à l’instigation de la nouvelle gauche et du syndicat étudiant Zengakuren. Le gros du récit se déroule en 1966, alors qu’il enseigne l’histoire gréco-romaine à l’Université de Tokyo. Par l’entremise de sa logeuse—la veuve de son collègue Owada—ainsi que ses amis Yoshio Kishiba et l’excentrique Mitsuharu Tabé, il découvre la culture japonaise. Dans un café qu’il fréquente avec Kishiba, il fait la rencontre de Shusuke Koba, un jeune serveur qui lui rappelle Andrea. Il est fasciné par le jeune homme mais aussi par la jeune femme qu’il fréquente (sa petite amie? sa soeur?). 

Après Thermae Romae, Yamazaki continue avec ce manga sa recherche pour établir des parallèles entre la culture nippone et la civilisation romaine. Elle avait déjà établi le bain public comme point commun et, cette fois, elle traite de la similarité religieuse (à Rome il s’agissait de polythéisme teinté d’animisme alors qu’au Japon on retrouve un animisme frôlant le polythéisme—sans parler de la relation syncrétique entre le Shinto et le Bouddhisme!) ou de vénération de la nature. La sensibilité du récit et l’ambiance introspective qui invite à la réminescence du passé me rappelle beaucoup l’oeuvre de Jirō Taniguchi. Ce n’est peut-être pas surprenant puisque Taniguchi et Yamazaki sont sans doute les deux mangaka le plus influencés par l’art et la culture occidentale. 

À l’opposé de ses oeuvres plus importantes (comme Thermae Romae ou Pline), le style que Yamazaki utilise ici est plutôt simple, sans beaucoup de détails ou d’arrière-plans, comme c’est le cas dans la plupart de ses one-shots (PIL, Un simple monde). Il n’en reste pas moins élégant et laisse ainsi plus de place au texte. Toutefois, comme la majeure partie du récit sert à établir le contexte et les personnages, on sent que l’histoire va vraiment démarrer avec le tome suivant. Malheureusement, le volume deux n’est jamais paru. Yamazaki en a suspendu la production (Temporairement? Définitivement?) pour se consacrer à d’autres projets (Pline, entre autres). Elle a promis à quelques reprises de s’attaquer à la suite (en 2014, puis en 2017) et on espère bien qu’elle tiendra promesse. Car Giacomo Foscari est fort intéressant à lire tant par son récit touchant que par son sujet captivant pour les historiens: l’intersection de deux cultures que tout semble séparer mais où l’on retrouve des similarités intrigantes. 

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Giacomo Foscari, livre 1: Mercure, par Mari Yamazaki. Paris: Rue de Sèvre, septembre 2013. 192 pages, 15.2 x 21.5 cm, 12,50 € / $21.95 Can. ISBN 978-2-36981-007-0. Pour un lectorat adolescent (14 ans et plus). stars-3-0

[ Amazon — Biblio — Goodreads — Google — Wikipedia — WorldCat ]

Giacomo Foscari © Mari Yamazaki / Shueisha Creative Inc., 2012. © Rue de Sèvre, Paris, 2013 pour la traduction française.

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Jumanji: Welcome to the jungle

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Jumanji-covI don’t remember the 1995 version with Robin Williams, besides that it was silly. This more modern version is a little less silly and has much more action. It’s a teen movie so we must not take it too seriously, but it is quite clever in its storytelling. I enjoyed it quite a lot. The play with the characters getting totally opposite avatars in the game (especially the vain girl becoming the fat man [Jack Black]) is quite funny. The Rock (a.k.a. Dwayne Johnson) is really good at comedy and the movie is worth it just to see Karen Gillan again. It’s a good light entertainment that will make you laugh (or at least smile). It was released as a Christmas movie and was rather successful at the box-office (bringing in nearly ten times its cost in revenue!) and was relatively well received by the critics (76% at Rotten Tomatoes). A sequel is planned for next year. stars-3-0

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

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Batman v Superman-covThis is certainly one of the best DC movies (after Wonder Woman of course). It has plenty of good action, interesting story and a very powerful storytelling. I greatly enjoyed it even if it is a bit long and the Hulk-like final enemy/monster is rather disappointing and irritating — the concept of a monster full of energy who fires death rays feels a lot like Godzilla, so no extra point for originality here. I guess you get the best drama when you put emotion at play (or someone’s mama) while pitting super-heroes against each other. I only wish I would have watched this movie before its sequel, Justice League! They also made Lex Luthor into a Batman-type vilain, making the genius albeit evil boy into a simply mad genius — I am not sure if that was a good or a bad thing… Once again,  Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot offer good performances. Anyway, with this movie you get a great (somber) ambiance and epic battles that make it worth watching. As often, Rotten Tomatoes disagrees with a critical rating of only 27% ! stars-3-0

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Sunflowers in bloom

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Tournesols en fleurs

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[iPhone 8+, 2018-07-22]

Enjoy them while you can, ’cause they may all be stolen tomorrow!
Profitez-en pendant que vous pouvez car elles auront peut-être disparue demain!

Sunset on the parc / Couché de soleil au parc

This video offers you a quiet minute of relaxation at the Parc Frédéric-Back as the wind makes the grass dance under the sunset… Enjoy! / Cette vidéo vous offre une minute de détente au Parc Frédéric-Back alors que le vent fait danser l’herbe sous le soleil couchant… Profitez-en !

[ iPhone 8+, Parc Frédéric-Back, 2018-07-08 ]

A quiet minute of relaxation

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Justice League

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Justice-League-2017-movie-posterThis movie offers an interesting ensemble of super-heroes (some more known than others, like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, other less known like the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg). I like Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot in their super-heroes roles. Unfortunately, the bad guy, Steppenwolf, reminds me too much of the Thor movies… As it starts slow and never really takes off, Justice League provides only average action and storytelling, and is overall just good enough to keep you interested (and entertained) into seeing how it ends. The good thing is that you can still “enjoy” the movie even if, like myself, you have not read any of the comics or seen the previous movies introducing the plot and the new DC Extended Universe (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) or its characters (Man of Steel, Wonder Woman, and, lets not forget the bad guys, Suicide Squad). In the end, it doesn’t feel very original. Yawn… Rotten Tomatoes agrees with a critic rating of 40%, although the fans liked it (audience score of 74% !) stars-2-5

[ Amazon — Biblio — Google — IMDb — Official — Wikipedia — Youtube ]

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