Yesterday, I spent a few hours walking through the streets of London. I didn't actually get there in the morning as I was checking on the non-dairy Icing I'd prepared on Saturday night, left in the refrigerator overnight & had only just reached the consistency where it could retain its shape after being piped onto a cake, which is good to know if I make it again in the future, but it resulted in me not getting to the station to catch a Train to Paddington until around 12:25. Once on board the train, it took 20 minutes to get to Paddington & another 20 minutes to get to Tottenham Court Road, as I'd decide to look in on Orbital Manga to see how many copies of Stir Fried Product had sold. I checked the time as I thought I needed to be at the British Academy of Film & Television Arts at 2:00PM, panicked that I might be late if I stayed any longer, so left almost immediately.

I walked from Orbital, all the way to Piccadilly Circus, but somehow got lost. Although I knew where Piccadilly was, I had no idea where 195 Piccadilly was as the numbering system on that road was somewhat haphazard. I actually had to phone my brother, asking him to look for directions on Googlemaps, which was slightly annoying as I walked down the road, had to turn around & back track. Eventually I got the right directions & made it to BAFTA at 1:55PM, it was a single glass door with the golden mask that has one eye missing, & as it turned out, I had walked past it about four or five times. I walked into the building havng realised that there was a secrity guard sitting behind a desk just out of sight who opend the doors for me as they remained firmly shut when I'd attempted to push them open. I went upstairs to check in at reception where I was informed that the screening wouldn't be for another half an hour...

The first film Dog in a Sidecar サイドカーに犬 was a rather amusing coming of age drama as Kaoru, a 30-year old estate agent, reminisces about one remarkable summer of her childhood in the 1980’s. Coming home from school one day she finds her mother painstakingly cleaning their families one room appartment before she suddenly dissapears in the night. The following day, the free spirited Yoko, who is the complete opposite of Kaoru's mother, a complete contradiction of how Kaoru has been taught a woman should behave.

The second film Fine, Totally Fine 全然大丈夫 was a somewhat absurd comedy. The brief presentation before the film began noted that while outside of the period Dramas of Kurosawa & Ozu, Yakuza & Horror films, very few Japanese comedies have made it across from Japan, despite it froming a major portion of Japans domestic release.

The two male leads of Fine, Totally Fine spend most of the time making home movies until Hisanobou decides he should make more of his life, he works as an administartor in a Hospital, overseeing the cleaning staff, while Teruo, who works part time as a Landscape gardener as well as as looking after his fathers second hand bookstore.

Their friendship is put to the test when Akari walks into their lives. Innitially given a job at the hospital by Hisanobu out of pity after she turned up to the interview, covered in mud & bleeding, having been beaten up. Following a series of bizarre events, Akari ends up working at the second hand bookstore while Teruo's father goes on a journey to improve his health. His health does return, he finds himself a girlfriend & in one of the funniest scenes in the film (after Teruo spending a night in a haunted room) is when the two of them, on national TV, sing a lovesong they'd written...

About Rice!!

The film was exceptionally amusing & I would not hesitate to see it again!