From Kurosawa to dinner to whatever

Leaving your comfort zone really does produce the most interesting results. In my case, what started out as a trip to watch a great film ended in a fun dinner with the most random of people. I had been sick (as in really really sick, as in it-might-be dengue sick) for a few days when Erwin Romulo of the Philippine Star told me that I should watch Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (Kumonosu-jo, 1957), which was showing at the CCP as part of the Kurosawa Retrospective sponsored by the Japan Foundation in celebration of the celebrated director’s 100th birth anniversary. Since I like Kurosawa and was sick of staying in bed, I thought “why not?” So after an incredibly draining magazine shoot (another story in itself), I made my way to the Cultural Center of the Philippines with the straightforward plan of watching pictures get flashed onscreen in a darkened room, then heading home to work and rest. Thankfully, the universe had other ideas. Throne of Blood is basically Akira Kurosawa’s interpretation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but with samurai. The film was in black and white, and shown in 35mm reels that have made the rounds of different countries from Japan to the US to France. It was an enthralling experience. Instead of three witches and a cauldron, there was a forest spirit with a spinning wheel. The only annoying thing about the whole experience were the girls behind me who kept talking throughout the film and squealing that Lady Washizu (Lady Macbeth) looked like the ghost Lotus Feet from Feng Shui. Thankfully, Kurosawa’s genius transcends blabbing girls who should know better than to talk during a screening. After the movie, I bumped into director Marie Jamora (who later told me that I had missed National Artist Eddie Romero at the screening), who left right away; Erwin, news anchor Shawn Yao, who in a poll was named 2nd hottest newscaster in the Philippines (the first one being Pinky Webb), UP College of Fine Arts professor Cesar Hernando and Pupil frontman and ex-Eraserhead Ely Buendia. After standing around for a bit, I made to say goodbye when Erwin asked “Don’t you want to have dinner?” Twenty minutes later, we found ourselves in Suzhou, a 24 hour Chinese restaurant in Malate, ordering up a ton of stuff that ranged from mustasa rice to vegetables in oyster sauce to siomai to xiao long bao (siomai-like things with soup inside that the restaurant is known for) and talking about everything from the UP Film Department to Eddie Romero’s B movies to what exactly mustasa was to where to find the best xiao long bao in Manila (Shawn and I are of two minds over this). Except for the motley assortment of people at the table, the dinner was quite normal. In any case, it was fun. And judging by how we decimated everything on the table, it showed us how hungry we were as well. Afterwards, it was time to go home. After dropping off Ely and Prof. Hernando, Erwin, Shawn and I got to talking about the film and dinner. “That was an interesting bunch,” Shawn said, “Someone should have taken a picture.” “You should blog about it,” Erwin said. Which, I think, was the next best thing. The point of this entry isn’t that we had dinner with people who almost couldn’t get out of the CCP for the people asking to have their pictures taken with them. The point of this entry is that when you leave what you’re used to, when you try something new, sometimes, the results are pleasant and surprising and show you that there’s a big world out there with possibilities you could never have expected. Like dinner with old friends and new acquaintances. As we rode home, talk turned, as it is wont to because it is September, to Alexis Tioseco, who was murdered with his girlfriend Nika Bohinc on the first day of this month last year and whose case many seemed to have forgotten about, but which Erwin and a few other people continually strive for people to remember. I later got a text from Erwin that pertained to blogging about the evening, but for prose purposes, I would have liked to imagined that it was something that he said on the drive home. He said: “Kurosawa to dinner to whatever. Write it all down now. Write for all of us and perhaps for Alexis. He would have been with us.” I imagined that he would. So thank you, Kurosawa San, for creating great films, for bringing people together to see them, and for enabling a delicious dinner. By the way, the Akira Kurosawa Film Festival is still ongoing, this time in the UP Theartre in Diliman. Check out http://www.jfmo.org.ph/articles_arts-and-culture/film_festivals/arts_and_culture_film_festival-kurosawa.php for schedules and details. Admission is free.