The Beach and Marnie

This weekend I went to the beach for the first time this summer! And even though my skin has gotten pretty pale, I didn't get sunburn. I met a guy from Okcupid who works in a hostel near Miyajima and we hung out and had a good time.

When we swam out to the raft we were joined by a British father and his two adorable British kids. (Who probably would resent being called adorable as they were teens, but they were so freakin' beautiful and had accents to die for. I'm totally jealous.) We talked together for a while, and then they swam off. But later we saw them again in the shopping area on Miyajima, this time with Mom too, and the six of us went to have dinner together! It was super fun hanging out and I taught the daughter some Japanese phrases. They were an interesting family and all seemed to really enjoy hanging out together. I was feeling a bit nostalgic for when I traveled with my family and was also thinking, "Someday me too; I'll get married and have some cool kids and take them cool places...."

Today I went to Hatchoza theater downtown to see 思い出のマーニー. This is the first all-Japanese movie I've seen, and I saw it by myself. However, as there was no version with subtitles the choices were either to see the Japanese version or not see it in theaters at all. And I didn't want to let summer go by without seeing it.

There was a lot I couldn't understand, especially for some of the adult characters, but I could understand a lot of short sentences and the children's dialog. Luckily the main story is the same as the book so when people started talking for a long time about something complicated I at least knew what the topic was based on the animation and a few key words. If you know Anna's backstory and Marnie's back (future?) story then it's not too hard to follow what's going on.

I think fans of the book will mostly like the movie because even though the story's Ghiblified and a few things are changed or moved around in the plot, the main story is the same, and more importantly the emotion of the story is the same. You really feel what Anna is going through and her redemption.

Maybe the book leans more toward "It really happened but don't ask how" and the movie is more "It was all in her head" but I have to watch it again to decide. :)

However, this is definitely not a movie to watch alone. There may have been some tears...Any story about a character who's lonely really gets to me.