The Lost Ann-Mi

Christmas in Israel

The best thing about being in Israel in these weeks before Christmas is the complete and utter lack of the tacky, stressful feeling that Christmas brings on in most European countries.

They are not spamming the airwaves with annoying Christmas songs. The shops are not full of hideous color combinations of tinsel and epilepsy-inducing lights. And there is not the pressure to “SHOP SHOP SHOP!!! ONLY 15 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!!”

Nice.

Instead, it’s easy to relax. Despite the lack of pressure, there is still a sensation of Christmas in the air. You know the tingling, excited feeling that tickles your spine and warms your belly with thoughts of sitting with the family and enjoying each others’ company?

I have that right now just from pure anticipation. I look forward to gingerbread cookies, warm glögg, the frosty air, the Christmas tree twinkling quietly outside the window. I drool as I think of my mother making the Christmas ham, and how my dad and I might yet again plan another gingerbread house, buy the dough and the candy for decorating it, and then do absolutely nothing at all except eating the sweets. We would probably eat the dough raw too, if it weren’t so hermetically sealed.

Certain classmates at the Ulpan do randomly burst into Christmas songs, however. I’m not sure whether they’re trying to annoy me or what, since they’re Jewish and they know I don’t like Christmas songs… But it hasn’t annoyed me yet. I’d much rather hear it coming from someone’s mouth than from everywhere else.

Mm. I could get used to this.

Laputa

I just watched the Studio Ghibli movie, “Laputa”, from 1986. Forget what it may mean in Spanish - this has nothing to do with women who sell themselves for a living. This is a proper fairytale.

But it’s not your average fairytale. Sure, it has a princess, a prince, several castles, armies, magic spells, strange creatures, and so on, but it also has something very special that makes it much more unique than your average Disney story.

It’s got imagination!

The scenery is stunning and it has no annoying generic comic relief side kicks. There are distinct sides, but the line is not as clear as “Good Guy” vs “Bad Guy” - everyone thinks they are in the right and does what they think is best. Of course, some of those desires happen to be getting rich quick, but there are far worse things to wish for…!

It’s a story about two children. In the original Japanese version that I saw, they were not squeaky, annoying, or even helpless. The film has robots, trains, tanks, battleships, and even airships. Airships! You can’t go wrong with airships, I tell you! It has similar undertones to the swashbucklingly crazy game, “Crimson Skies” with some Ghibli fairytale magic thrown in for good measure. Oh, did I mention it has pirates? Not your smelly water-faring pirates. These are air pirates! With an airship! WOOOOOHOOOO!

I loved the movie. It was honestly fun to watch, despite the fact that it was not as unpredictable as I would have liked. I guess it doesn’t matter if you know where you’re headed, just as long as the journey there is exciting. Some of the music may be dated, but the animation is still fantastic, and the story remains fresh.

There was only one downside to this all, and to be fair, it’s not the film’s fault:
The version I watched was marred by idiotic English subtitling. Or dare I say American? I say this because it seems to be more seldom that Brits dub Japanese movies - it’s the Americans who have the interest and desire to do so. This is a mixed blessing - I don’t understand Japanese, but do they have to sub it in such an annoying way?!

What makes it so bad? It’s not like I have to listen to the horrible acting, right? Well, they talk two or three times more than the Japanese version. Half the time, whenever there’s a quiet moment, the screen becomes full of stupid dialogue (or often monologue) stating the obvious and overriding the quiet, beautiful atmosphere of the film itself. It’s the equivalent of constantly having tires screeching on the screen, even when the car is sitting perfectly still and its occupants are enjoying a sunset.

I can’t put into words how irritating this is. It also likes to exclaim things like [dramatic piano music]… Ok. I have nothing against subtitling for the hearing impaired. It tends to be interesting. But.. WTF? Unless I suddenly have actually become hearing impaired, there was NO music playing at that moment!

So not only do they babble on when there is no dialog going on, they have to spam it with “dramatic piano music” when there is no MUSIC going on! ARGH!

When I buy the film, I’ll have to try to make sure it comes without the brain-dead extra subtitles!! Either that, or learn Japanese…

Edit: Apparently Disney did the English dub. That explains everything.