December Reviews & Recommendations

Rachel Fagundes (Okayama)

Frank Herbert’s 1965 science fiction novel Dune has been described as “unfilmable,” due to its dense plotting, bizarre imagery, and weird, highlydeveloped, feudal-future space society. This has, however, not stopped people from repeatedly trying to film it. The 2021 movie Dune (also known as Dune: Part One), directed by DenisVilleneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival), is the latest attempt.

Dune: Part One, covers the first half of the book (Part 2 is scheduled for release in 2023), and tells the story of young Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), the son of a powerful, planetruling Duke, as his family takes possession of the desert planet Arrakis while various factions within the space-spanning Empire work behind the scenes to destroy them.

So, does Villeneuve’s film succeed—either as an adaptation of its source material or as an entertaining movie in its own right?

Well, it’s certainly a spectacularly good-looking film. On the big screen Dune is often genuinely breathtaking, with a sense of vast scale that is awe-striking. The design choices establish a unique world, and specific sound elements, like the mind manipulating Bene Gesserit Voice, are incredibly effective.

Dune also boasts a great cast across the board. Oscar Isaac as Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides, and Jason Momoa as the loyal swordsman, Duncan Idaho, particularly stand out as bright spots amongst a very talented crowd. Stellan Skarsgård is also clearly having a good time chewing the scenery as the vile villain Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, and Charlotte Rampling steals every scene she’s in as the sinister Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother.

On the downside, the film is dour, self-serious, and emotionally distant from its characters. Like many of Villeneuve’s previous films, Dune is a gorgeous and impressive experience, but not an empathetic one. Throughout Dune I watched various characters express strong emotions without ever feeling like I was experiencing those emotions with them, and that’s ultimately because Villeneuve opts out of actually telling the story of Dune.

When faced with the difficult prospect of having to cram exposition into his film to establish Dune’s rich world building, philosophical themes, coiling political intrigue, or complicated character relationships, Villeneuve chose instead to just, uhh . . . not do any of that.

The viewer is left watching a bunch of scenes happening without understanding why the characters are doing what they are doing or why certain things are significant. What explanations we are given have been simplified down to their most generic elements to keep the story moving along.

At best it feels like watching a series of beautiful illustrations of the Dune novel: cool looking pictures without context. While it may delight the ardent Dune fan to see their favorite scenes and already-beloved characters illustrated in such a way, the film itself is not actually doing the work to establish why these characters are interesting or worthy of love.

On the other hand, viewers who come into the film with zero knowledge of the book may still be swept up enough in the stunning visuals and intrigued enough by the few surface plot elements that did make it to the screen to have a good time.

So, is the film worth seeing? Despite its flaws, I think so, yes. If you have a chance to see it in theaters (and if you feel safe to do so), I think it’s worth watching, if only to appreciate its sense of scale, lovingly detailed design, and impeccable cast. And hell, overall critics are raving about the film, so it’s obviously working for somebody. Go and have a good time. But if you really want to experience the best version of this story, read the book.

Rachel Fagundes is a fifth-year JET and the Head Editor of CONNECT. She likes science fiction, comic books, the ItalianRenaissance, and Japanese festivals.

Dianne Yett (Gunma)

If you knew that your life was going to end any day now, and you were presented with the opportunity to permanently erase something very important to you— something like your cell phone, a favourite movie, or your beloved pet cat Cabbage—from the whole world in exchange for one extra day of life, would you do it?

Neither would I!

If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura has a very simple premise with potentially complex meaning. What would the world be like if all cats disappeared forever? Written by a Japanese author, this book has a lot of potential to explore very complex themes about the value of life, and all the little things that make it worth living. Though I listened to the audiobook of the English translation, from start to finish I could tell that this story was very Japanese. I could clearly picture much of the imagery of businessmen shuffling around on crowded trains, cramped apartment living, the simple beauty of the everyday, and, of course, the unabashed admiration of cats. Oh, yes. As a foreign resident of Japan, still more or less an outsider looking in, even I could see and understand some of the cultural nuances in this story’s settings and characters.

However, the English translation of this story is sadly a little lacking in substance. All throughout, it was impossible for me to forget that this was a translation from the original Japanese. From the ham-fisted presentation of its message to the incredibly stilted, almost cringe-worthy dialogue, I really felt like the writing and story-telling fell painfully flat. It made me really wish I could read Japanese well enough to enjoy the story in its original language. It’s a short read, too, so there isn’t a whole lot of room to flesh out its characters and settings, or to explore its themes very deeply.

That said, If Cats Disappeared from the World definitely has a lot of heart in my opinion. The unnamed main character, while kind of a dunce, does eventually come to the realization that every little thing in life is, in fact, precious. Things like cell phones, movies, family and friends—and yes, even cats—play an important role in our lives. I only wish that were more obvious to him as it was to me while shouting out loud for him to grow a brain, dude!!

Despite its lukewarm reception, I’d say this book is worth a read solely for the fact that it’s so short and oddly campy. The audiobook is only four hours long, and the book itself is only about 170 pages. I recommend renting it from a library or borrowing it from a friend if you can—that is, if you aren’t willing to spend roughly 1000 yen on a somewhat mediocre translation to a book about a dumb guy making dumb decisions (at least until he makes one right decision at the end, thank goodness).

Dianne is a third-year JET in Gunma Prefecture, originally from Southern California. She is also a copy editor for CONNECT Magazine. As an avid writer, she tries to read as much as she can, but as soon as she starts reading, she just wants to stop and start writing. She hopes to read a lot more books this next year along with her admittedly more bookish friends, with whom she has organized a very small, very casual (and currently very distracted) book club.

Caroline Lefebvre (Saitama)

A Korean drama with a unique plot, directing skills, and interesting scene changes, Extra-ordinary You is a must-watch drama, with its unique storytelling methods and plot twists gaining the audience’s undivided attention without fail.

Coming from the directorial team behind The King in Love and True Beauty, Extra-ordinary You begins by introducing us to Dan Oh, 17-year-old high school girl, suffering from a severe heart ailment and a struggling relationship with her fiancé. We follow Dan Oh’s perspective as her character maintains a self-aware approach to her unfulfilling life when she suddenly comes across a book. The book shows past scenes involving herself and the people around her at school, depicting both past and present scenes, and private moments between herself and her fiancé. Puzzled by this strange book, she comes across a perplexing chef who is also self-aware but seems to want her to leave the truth alone; he continues to discourage her as he mutters about the consequences.

Since gaining self-awareness, Dan Oh soon finds that every time she is in an allocated scene from the book, she is forced to act a certain way with no control over her behaviour. As she gains more self-will, she is able to break the scene but finds the world won’t allow her, sending her back to the beginning of that scene until she completes it successfully.

Extra-ordinary You follows these pedantic and contrived actions to the letter as characters strive against the unbreakable chains of fate, gradually becoming ever more desperate against their hopeless situations. Where other narratives might have focussed on the human struggle against the fatalist nature of their situations, where Extraordinary You shines is how it portrays a character who simply goes with the path that fate has written for her, but after gaining self-awareness soon begins to bend the rules of her world’s “fate.” Dan Oh wants to find free will, but believes she can do so by following the rules of this book that dictates her life events, providing audiences with an interesting perspective on the inevitability of life and the nature of self-determination.

Extra-ordinary You seeks to challenge our reality by utilising realism to immerse audiences into identifying with characters. We’ve all, after all, sometimes felt trapped by our situations and life decisions, yet Extra-ordinary You looks at what life could be like if instead of resisting change, we choose to make it work to our advantage.

Director Kim Sang Hyub makes use of stylised realism cinematography to convey these themes—he highlights bright set pieces then contrasts them with dour and dank lighting, reminding his audience that beauty can be found in our day to day lives. Thematically, he follows up on this with a melancholic soundtrack that breaks briefly to moments of unbridled triumphs as our characters seek meaning in their destinies.

So will Dan Oh and her friends successfully break free from the confines of the book, or will they suffer the consequences of their actions as the world notices their divergence from the plot?

Follow their adventure, the twists and turns and the unique directing skills and scene changes throughout the episodes of this stand out K-drama.

Caroline Lefebvre is an Aussie, happy to finally be back in Japan, living in Saitama. When not writing profusely, organising her life and striving against the unwritten script that dictates her life, she can be found wandering the alleys and gardens of her new home.