Story of "My Blueberry Nights"
失恋したエリザベスを慰めてくれたのは、カフェのオーナー、ジェレミーが焼く甘酸っぱいブルーベリー・パイだった。それでも、別れた彼をエリザベスは忘れられない。彼が新しい恋人といる部屋を見上げ、エリザベスは旅に出る。失恋から57日、ニューヨークから1,120マイル、彼女はメンフィスにいる。
I hope you are all well and enjoying your lessons at b!
みなさん元気にｂでのレッスンを楽しんでいるといいな！
This month I am going to write about a very famous movie,
‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price’.
By now many of you will have heard of Harry Potter
and his adventures in the wizarding world either
by watching the previous five movies or
by reading the fabulous books by the talented author J.K. Rowling.
今月はとっても有名な映画、
"Harry Potter and the Half Bloood Prince(邦題『ハリー・ポッターと謎のプリンス』)"
について紹介するよ。
前回までの映画を見たり、才能豊かな作家J.K.ローリングの素晴らしい本を読んで、
魔法の世界でのハリー・ポッターとその冒険について今までに耳にしたことがある人も
多いんじゃないかな。
‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ - The Story.
あらすじ
It’s Harry Potter’s (Daniel Radcliffe) sixth year
at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.
After the events of ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’
Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has returned to power
and has now initiated the wizarding war between good and evil.
ハリー・ポッター(ダニエル・ラドクリフ)のホグワーツ魔法魔術学校での6年目の年。
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
(邦題『ハリー・ポッターと不死鳥の騎士団』)"
での出来事以来、ヴォルデモート卿(ラルフ・ファインズ)は力を取り戻しつつあり、
今まさに善悪の間での魔法戦争が始まろうとしていた。
Unknown to Harry, Professor Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon)
has plans to defeat Voldemort
- but requires Harry to conduct a special task in order to fulfill his plan.
Enter Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent),
the one-time potions professor at Hogwarts turned eccentric retiree.
After convincing Slughorn to return to Hogwarts,
Dumbledore instructs Harry to extract an important memory from him
- a memory that holds the key to defeating Voldemort
and to the survival of the wizarding world as we know it.
However, the dark lord has plans of his own.
He has delegated his own mission to Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton),
son of the disgraced Lucius (Jason Issacs)
and Narcissa Malfoy (Helen McCrory); a mission
that will bring about a fundamental change for both Hogwarts
and the world beyond.
A mission that is both dangerous and destructive.
A mission that, if carried out,
will ensure the victory of Voldemort
and his army of death eaters in the wizard war.
Draco is not alone in his task - sworn to protect him is the sallow-faced,
mysterious and enigmatic Professor Snape (Alan Rickman),
once death eater turned spy,
whose allegiances to Dumbledore still remain unclear...
‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ - Review
Mike評！
Having been an avid fan of the Harry Potter series
since the beginning and having read all of the books
I must admit that I had mixed feelings
about this latest installment in the movie series.
Although the director David Yates majestically brings
the story to life on screen with a combination of
amazing special effects and heart wrenching performances
by Michael Gambon as Dumbledore and Daniel Radcliffe as Harry,
I did feel that the director focused
too much on the romance element of the story.
Whilst the previous films (and books)
the ever increasing threat of Lord Voldemort was the driving force,
this movie seems to almost forget about him completely
(admittedly he does not appear in person in the sixth book).
The love story between Ron and Hermionie takes up too much screen time,
whilst the deepening feelings between Harry and Ginny Weasley
took only a few minutes to explore and seemed almost very sudden
with little prior explanation.
On the other side of the coin, the highlights of the movie are
most notably pronounced by the brilliant performance
of Jim Broadbent as Professor Slughorn.
I believe that he was perfectly cast in this role as a quirky
and slightly mad character - mirroring exactly his presence in the book.
Also, Michael Gambon’s performance as Dumbledore
hit the right note in a very pivotal scene in the film
- one that brought a tear to my eye.
The director of photography also opted for more metallic
and sepia colour tones in this movie,
making it feel as if the world of Harry Potter is really headed for darker times;
this is accompanied by a beautiful and tender score
by composer Nicholas Hooper
which really pulls on the heart strings at the right moments.
All-in-all, I’d say that ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’
does a good job as acting as a precursor
to the finale ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’,
but as a stand-alone movie I think it could have been more magical
and less romantic.
I’d give this movie a 3 out of 5.
全体的にみると、『ハリー・ポッターと謎のプリンス』は最終章となる
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows(邦題『ハリー・ポッターと死の秘宝』)"の
先駆けとなる作品としては、よい出来だと思う！
でも、今回のものだけを考えると、ロマンスよりも、魔法的な部分がもっとあったほうが
よかったんじゃないかなって思うな。
というわけで、今回の映画は5点満点中3点！
Even so, I’d recommend that you go to see this film,
and if you haven’t seen the previous five movie
then it’s time to hit your local Tsutaya!
In the movie we see a flashback of when Lord Voldemort was just a child.
The actor who plays the young Voldemort is actually the adult Voldemort,
Ralph Fiennes’, nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin!
In this scene, Professor Dumbledore has just appeared
in Harry’s village and escorted him,
by magic, to another random location without any explanation:
My movie blog is about the 1980s classic, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". 1980年代のクラシックムービー、"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (邦題 『フェリスはある朝突然に』) を紹介するわね！
Ferris Bueller is an average, if not exceedingly charming and popular, high school student. But Ferris is not so fond of study. He thinks life is about more than just school, it should also be about enjoying yourself. As he says during the movie, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." So Ferris every so often pretends to be sick (in Australia we call this "chucking a sickie") and takes a 'day off' - a holiday- to go and enjoy life.
フェリス・ビューラーはずばぬけて魅力的で人気者・・とまでいかないまでも、平均くらいの高校生の男の子で、勉強は大嫌い。彼は学校だけが人生じゃない、楽しむべきものだ！と思っていて、映画の中でも、「人生を描いた映画ってすごく速く進むんだ。たまに止まってじっくり見なかったら、見逃しちゃうんだよね。」と言っているくらい。それで、フェリスはよく病気のふりをして (オーストラリアでは仮病を使うことを"chucking a sickie"と言うのよ！) 学校を休んで、人生を楽しもうとするのよ。
As the movie starts, we learn that Ferris is about to take his ninth 'day off' for the semester, close to the maximum allowed. He realises that this could therefore be his last day off for a while, because each time he pretends to be sick he has to make up a different, more serious illness: "This is my ninth sick day this semester. It's getting pretty tough coming up with new illnesses. If I go for ten, I'm probably gonna have to barf up a lung. So, I better make this one count."
'Barf' is a casual American term for 'vomit' or 'throw up'. While it may be possible to fake non-specific symptoms, like a stomach ache or a headache, it would be almost impossible to fake throwing up a lung. So Ferris has to make this day off 'count', in other words, he mustn't waste it, he must 'make the most of it' and have as much fun as he can.
The rest of the movie is about how Ferris makes the most of his day off, with some outlandish and outrageous adventures involving his best friend, his best friend's dad's car, his girlfriend and both his jealous younger sister and suspicious teacher trying to catch him out on his fake illness. It is a very, very funny movie from the late John Hughes, who was also responsible for other 80s classics like "Pretty in Pink" and "The Breakfast Club".
その後はフェリスがどうやってその休みを過ごすかが描かれているわ。彼の親友や、親友のお父さんの車、ガールフレンドと嫉妬深いフェリスの妹、そして仮病を使う彼を捕まえようとする疑り深い先生を巻き込む風変わりで非常識なフェリスの冒険！その他"Pretty in Pink(邦題『プリティ・イン・ピンク/恋人たちの街角』)"や "The Breakfast Club(邦題『ブレックファスト・クラブ』)"などの80年代のクラシック映画で知られる、故ジョン・ヒューズのとってもとっても面白い映画よ！
My favourite movie is When Harry Met Sally. The 2 main actors are Meg Ryan (the role of Sally) and Billy Crystal (the role of Harry). I love it because the story is very funny and it talks about relationships between women and men.
In the movie, Harry and Sally meet at university in Chicago and they drive to New York together to start working. Harry says that men and women cannot be friends because they might want to become boyfriend and girlfriend and there`s no way to stop that. Sally says it`s too bad because they come to New York without knowing anybody. However, a few years later, Sally and Harry meet again and become friends. I definitely recommend this movie. I hope you can see it.
私のお気に入りの映画は『When Harry Met Sally（恋人たちの予感）』。主演はメグ・ライアン（サリー役）とビリー・クリスタル（ハリー役）。ストーリーはとっても面白くて、男と女の関係について語られているところが大好きなの。
I also want to talk about how to improve your English skills. First, it`s very important to try all aspects of learning a language - speaking, writing, reading and listening. Some people learn by listening and others learn by looking. If you like listening to English, try watching English movies or TV. Now, you can find English DVDs in Tsutaya from popular TV shows like Friends or Sex and the City, boht of which I like.
If you like reading, you can order an English book from Amazon or go to Kinokuniya Bookstore. Reading English can be hard so I recommend reading a children`s book first. One of my favourite books from when I was a child is The Witches by Roald Dahl. He is from England and he has written many books. I also recommend trying to meet foreigners. Many foreigners in Japan want to meet more Japanese people and they would be happy to help you with English. Many foreigners go to Shinjuku, Shibuya and Roppongi. I hope you can make a new friend and practice English as much as you can! The more often you can speak, the better.
また、あなたの英語を上達させる方法についてもちょっと話すわね。まず、あらゆる面で語学を学ぶことがとっても大事なの。話すこと、書くこと、読むことそして聞くこと。ある人達は聞くことで学び、他の人達は見ることで学ぶ。もしも英語を聞くのが好きなら、英語の映画やテレビを見てみて！今なら、TSUTAYAで『Friends』や『Sex and the City』の英語版のDVDが見つかるし。両方私のお気に入りなの！
My all time favorite Jim Carrey movie is the “Cable Guy.” The “Cable Guy” became an opportunity for Carrey to show off his comedic skills in this dark comedy playing a stalker by the name of Chip Douglas.
Matthew Broderick plays Steven, an average Joe who is forlorn over his recent breakup with his ex-girlfriend Robin. When he moves into a new apartment, Steven comes in contact with Chip, who shows up to hook up the television cable.
However, Steven soon learns that Chip’s obnoxiousness is a walk in the park(easy) compared to Chip's behavior when Steven tells him he doesn't want to be his pal anymore.
Chip(Jim Carrey) now stalking Steven and leaving a barrage of telephone messages one of them being....
チップ（ジム・キャリー）はスティーブンのストーカーをして留守電に沢山のメッセージを残すんだ。
Chip Douglas: [on answering machine] I was just blow drying my hair, thought I heard the phone ring. Ah... has that ever happened to you? Anyway... call me, we'll talk about it.
