A Matter of Size - Japanese culture in Israel!

Herzl has a problem. He's in a weight-loss program but he keeps gaining weight. He's also been told that he's a bad influence on the others. On top of that, his boss also told him that he's been demoted from the front of the restaurant to the kitchen.

After quitting his job, Herzl finds a job at a Japanese restaurant as a dishwasher. His Japanese co-workers watch Sumo and they comment that Herzl is like a Sumo wrestler. The boss Kitano is a former Sumo referee. Fed up with the diet club and inspired by Sumo, Herzl is inspired to take up Sumo Wrestling. He enrolls his friends to participate and they all have other issues in their lives in addition to being "big." Aharon has problems with his marriage. Gidi is an in-the-closet gay "bear."

I don't want to say too much more about the plot and spoil it for anyone interested in watching it except that it's funny, entertaining, heart-warming and thought-provoking. I thought it was unusual to mix Israeli and Japanese culture.This is also a multilingual film with dialogue spoken in English, Japanese and Hebrew.

This film definitely deserved to win some awards and it did! It's a very enjoyable film directed by Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor. Sharon also worked on the screenplay. Those watching this film might also enjoy the soundtrack.

Herzl (which by the way in German means "little heart!') is played by Itzik Cohen and his love interest Zehava is played by Irit Kaplan. Kitano is played by Togo Igawa who lives in England and was the first Japanese actor to become a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company!


Here are some quotes from this film:

"Don't forget... with your mouth...we only talk."---Geula, diet club consultant

"Got married. Got divorced. Then got married again, then divorced...gained 10 kilos each time."---Zehava

"You're just a cook at a salad bar. So don't feel so heavy at the heart."---boss to Herzl

"But even on a diet you've got to eat. Do you want to starve to death?"--Herzl's mother to Herzl

"Hey, he looks just like a sumo wrestler!"---Japanese restaurant co-workers about Herzl

"No hot water again! And you call yourself a plumber!"---Aharon's wife

"It's crucial when and how much we eat. Cuz hunger is our slave, not our king."---Geula

"What's the deal? Does everyone have to be thin? You decided that fat is sick and we ate it all up. They're selling us self-hate here!"---Herzl

"So, should we get a little dirty?"---Zehava to Herzl

"Just since you haven't been able to fit in store-bought clothes."---Herzl's mother about her sewing

"Hope you don't like having sex in the dark."---Zehava

"When I was here in the sumo ring, I felt healthy for the first time in my life."---Herzl

"You think I'd cry about such nonsense? I've been hurt so many times before, I've lost count. I've got skin as thick as an elephants's."---Zehava

"I'm not wearing that. I'm no faggot."---Aharon

"My wife didn't cheat on me because I'm fat but because I'm a bad husband."---Aharon


Here are some scenes from this film:

Here's the official trailer for this film:

The Hedgehog - French film based on a novel

The Hedgehog

Paloma is an 11-year-old girl living with her rich family in an apartment in Paris. She's decided that she's going to take her life when she turns 12. While she's counting the days until her birthday, she documents life around her with her father's old video camera, sharing her point of view and insights. The angst she feels and expresses seems quite typical to me of girls at her age, moving from "tween" into adolescense. I'm somewhat reminded of the book Reviving Ophelia.

But things start to change for her when she makes some new friends in building, thereby changing her perspective on life. Renée is the super of Paloma's building, who reads Tolstoy and other great authors' books to her cat Leo. Her life starts to change in exciting new ways when she meets a new resident in her building who is Japanese and  also shares her love of books.

When I first started watching this film, I thought, "Do I really want to watch this?" But, I found myself getting drawn in by the characters and their lives. This film is based on the novel titled The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

Renee is portrayed by Josiane Balasko, who I think is a great actress both in comedy and dramatically.Togo Igawa portrays Kakuro and Paloma is portrayed by Garance Le Guillermic.  This French film was directed by Mona Achache. I'm looking forward to viewing and writing about more films that have them as cast or director or writer.


Some of my favorite quotes from this film:

"We can be friends. We can be anything we want."--Kakuro

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - quoted from Tolstoy's book Anna Karenina.

Some scenes from this film.

The French title of this film is Le hérisson. A hedgehog is an animal that is quite prickly on the outside and apparently quite tender on the inside. Cars are one of the greatest threats to hedgehogs. A favorite pet for some people are pygmy hedgehogs. Here's a link to some images that I think are absolutely cutsie-wutsie! Link to cute little hedgehog images!


Here's the trailer for The Hedgehog.

Gloomy Sunday - beautiful music with sadness...

Gloomy Sunday

If you've had a difficult Sunday, you might not want to see this film?! But the great thing about this mulitlingual post is that you'll be exposed to many different languages with music!

The original German Title of this film by German director Rolf Schuebel was, “Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod.” It translates into “A Song about Love and Death.” This German film takes place in Budapest before, during and after World War II. Laszlo (Joachim Krol, who played briefly as Inspector Brunetti) is a restaurateur in Budapest who has restaurant called Szabo’s.. His lover Ilona, played by the lovely Hungarian Erika Marozsan works as a waitress in his restaurant. One day Andras (portrayed by Italian Stefano Dionisi,(just an aside but this actor played the famous castrato Farinelli!) a pianist auditions and gets a job to entertain there. Many men are charmed by Illona. But her two great loves are Laszlo and Andras.

A regular German customer named  Hans Wieck ( played by Ben Becker ) falls for her too. When she rejects his proposal, he jumps off a bridge and is rescued by Laszlo. The next morning Laszlo sees him off at the Budapest-Berlin Express.  Andras writes a song for Ilona which is recorded and helps promote Szabo’s.  The song becomes a hit and attracts many new patrons to the restaurant. But it also has a dark side to it as many people commit suicide while playing the song.

I don't want to say too much about the plot except that the time period is before, during and after World War II in Budapest, Hungary. Yes, it has Nazis.

The screenplay for this film inspired by a real song that was written by a Hungarian composer named Rezső Seress. This film is a love story and a mystery. Enjoy it and don’t let the music make you feel too sad…
Here are a few scenes from this film:

Regarding the song...

One of the most well-known recordings of this song in English was done by Billie Holiday in 1941. It's been recorded in many different languages.

Here are links to a number of different versions of it:

Link to version from the film in German:



A Hungarian version from the film:


Video about legend and original recording:

Here's a French version:

Here's Billie Holiday:

An Italian version done live:

A version that's in Spanish with piano and gypsy flavor to it:



A version by Sarah Brightman:

Bjork's version at a memorial:

Japanese version:


Here's a Russian version:

Here's a Vietnamese version: