アーヤと魔女 Earwig and the Witch[link to netflix]
tomorrow's history, yesterday's future / 昨日の未来、明日の歴史
Somewhere in space, this may all be happening right now
Tuesday 30 November 2021
[3WR] アーヤと魔女 / Earwig and the Witch (2020)
Tuesday 23 November 2021
[3WR] アキラ / AKIRA (1988)
Reviews:
So much yellingThe Road WarriorThe Amoeba CacophonyEspers vs VespasSO MUCH KITCHENBike strikes psych
Friday 17 September 2021
ロン丼牛ドン / London Gyudon 12: Kineya Mugimaru
For reasons that felt somewhat outside of our control, there has been a bit of a gap since our last gyudon so we have been stuck on 11[1]. As we are not aiming to be Spinal Tap, I did not want this to be the case.
The last eighteen months or so has seen a fairly large hit to the restaurant sector in London and we have not always been allowed to go to restaurants in that time. Even so, the project was still something that I thought of “finishing” with the one that would take us to twelve. I would finish something that I had started.
As it happens, on my walks around the area, I do, of course, still keep an eye out for interesting eateries and was recently made aware of Kineya Udon - though due to the udon part rather than the gyudon part - opening relatively nearby in St Pancras Station. I used to work around here and knew that there were a few things around here but I was very much drawn to the station based noodles concept. I may have mentioned my romanticised view of “tachisoba” and this was pretty damn close. I went there for the udon[2] and was a) very happy with the nostalgic taste and b) made aware of GYUDON. Actual gyudon[3]. I messaged Paul and told him that it was back on[4] and we organised a time.
St Pancras Station is beautiful from outside the front-facing on to Euston Road (or whatever it is called at that point) is wonderfully ornate with the interior being refurbished to a lovely standard. The back end of the station is modern, and designed to be a juxtaposition from the front and I think it works very well. As Eurostar comes into St Pancras, there are quite a few decent amenities and fairly good quick food options in a light and breezy environment. Kineya Udon is at the rear of the station near the domestic platforms but also fairly near the exit to Kings Cross station so it is fairly easy to get to.
The ordering method befits both an udon place and a train station as you do order and pay before sitting. There are two touchscreen menus from which you can order part of your meal - you select and are given a receipt to hand to the cashier. Rather oddly, in my opinion, you can order the bulk of your meal but you pick up options after ordering from the screen, so for example, if you want a korokke, you cannot order at the menu, you have to pick up later from the freshly fried section in the style of a canteen. As would be entirely appropriate, we ordered a gyudon each, a zaru udon to share and some tempura bits and bobs. As an exercise in nostalgia, we also got some fried chicken pieces.
As ever, we started on some of the sides and I knew what to expect with the udon. Zaru udon is pretty simple/basic and so you do have to get that right - you cannot rescue it with sauce. And they do get it right here, with a simple sauce and nice noodles. As expected, this was good and being able to add sesame is always a winner. The tempura was fine although nothing special but entirely in keeping with the concept. The chicken was very “convenience store” style which I was not a fan of but Paul was very happy with. Again, probably more as an exercise in nostalgia than taste! The pieces were fairly oily and tasted kind of unhealthy - again that would definitely hit the spot for a lot of people.
Although it had not been the whole pandemic time that I had not had gyudon, this was still pretty highly anticipated by me although there was something that made me think that it might be that good. It looked quite good with an egg included in the bowl and quite a liberal sprinkling of spring onion. The taste, however, was quite plain. I struggle to even remember the taste in all honesty and it did not taste particularly of gyudon. The beef was a little thicker than ideal and was not marinated sufficiently for my taste. The biggest indicator was how the rice stayed very white with little flavouring coming from the topping - it stayed unseeped. The portions were a decent enough size so we were quite satisfied in terms of the volume but the taste had let me down.
Kineya Mugimaru is yet another place where the food is generally good but the gyudon is not up to the standard that I want. I have been back to Kineya and will go again for the noodles but the gyudon search continues [Gyud]on and on.
It is also worth mentioning that there appears to be a branch in Cambridge so this one has spread outside London!
Cost of gyudon: £9.60
Kineya Mugimaru
Unit 27B, The Circle, St Pancras Station, London N1C 4QP
1. And when we started, I thought 12 would be the last gyudon -being a monthly idea for a year but I am not the best at this regularity stuff.↩
2. It is worth pointing out that I came across Marugame Udon not long after this which opened in 2021 near Liverpool Street Station. It takes this udon concept and pushes it further into a large restaurant. It is very good and a hearty recommend from me.↩
3. As it happens, I then found a couple more places within the next few days that had gyudon in the Holloway area - there seems to have been some gyudon growth in the last year or so.↩
4. “Like Fat Pat’s thong” ©The Thick Of It↩
Saturday 17 July 2021
Ghibli Club Awards
After six months, we reached the end of the road and felt it worth a marker of some sort to let us see what a journey it has been. So, an awards ceremony was born which was held in the greenery of Montrose Playing Fields (aka “Mattress Park”) by the beautifully named Silk Stream followed by a lunch at Bang Bang Food Hall.
Ghibli Club started as a result of some idle chat around there being lots of films that you could watch but not actually getting around to it - and thinking that maybe it could be a somewhat shared experience. I said that all the Ghibli films were on Netflix (pretty much) and that I would be happy to watch them all again (or for the first time in some cases). Then we thought, if you are doing it, then it does not take any extra effort to ask other people too.
I wanted it to have very low “barriers to entry” and so was not keen on there being discussions or something that would eat into time more than the two hours for each film. It would, however, be nice to show that you’d seen it so I stole an idea from the excellent caneandrinse podcast to request 3-word reviews (“3WRs”). We watched our first film, Nausicaa, before 18th January 2021 and decided on a weekly roll (on a Tuesday, which was due to a regular quiz some of us did). I posted this as a blog on 22nd January to ask if others wanted to join[1] in with the club.
After a few films, we got a better idea of how to make it work a bit better or smoother. The first thing was that people did actually want to discuss. I guess that those that actually were watching along the same schedule thought that it would be worth actually discussing but I really did not want to have one per film so we went for one every 5 films. The discussion could then take place in a “rest week” every month or so which also allowed us to choose a non-Ghibli side (or “gaiden”) film too. The first discussion was very good with 6 people in there and was the first time a few of us had met too which was pretty nice - especially in a lockdown. The discussions were feisty and fun with a clear understanding that people had to be honest - there was no need to pretend to like things or say these films were 6/10[2] when actually we thought 3/10. The spreadsheet that I used to administer the club was kept separate from other members so that reviews were kept anonymous and did not affect your view until you had already seen it - I published the relevant blog post only after I had received sufficient 3WRs. That core of 6 stayed to the end with a later, remote, addition[3] who joined the later discussions. Those discussions became a little long and unwieldy so we started having them in groups of 3 or 4 rather than 5s so that people could get to the end without falling asleep!
As we came to the last few films, there was a tone of sadness at coming to the end but I feel like it was really good that we got to see them “together” and the order was perfect for seeing how things changed and adapted over time.
The voting was done via a Google form so, again, it was kept separate from everyone and so we did not know how others had voted[4] in each of the categories. The categories were fairly simple but we also wanted to have a vote on all the 3WRs too.
The winners were:
Favourite | Joint: Kiki's Delivery Service & Spirited Away |
Least favourite | Joint: Only Yesterday, Ocean Waves & Tales from Earthsea |
Favourite Visuals | Spirited Away |
Favourite Soundtrack/OST | Spirited Away |
Best Side | Your Name. |
For each film, the most popular 3WRs (with winning percentage) were:
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind |
Ohm My God (71%) |
Laputa: Castle in the Sky |
Pirates! Pilots! Islets! (71%) |
My Neighbour Totoro |
Imaginative Parenting Solutions (43%) |
Grave of the Fireflies |
Sibling Spirits Reunited (60%) |
Kiki's Delivery Service |
Supergirl does Amazon (57%) |
Only Yesterday |
Overcoming child abuse (43%) |
Porco Rosso |
Pig's gotta fly (43%) |
Your Name. |
Joint (29%): Sliding doors moments & Temporal Transformational Romance. |
Ocean Waves |
Romanticising Toxic Relationships (86%) |
Pom Poko |
Scrotum to totem (43%) |
Whisper of the Heart |
Joint (29%): Smitten kitten written & Baron concrete road |
Princess Mononoke |
Wolves (F)ighting (C)onsumption (57%) |
The Garden Of Words |
Rainy Shoe Rendezvous (67%) |
My Neighbours the Yamadas |
One hot mess (43%) |
Spirited Away |
No-face saves face. (43%) |
The Cat Returns |
Im-paws-ible meow-rriage tail (43%) |
Howl's Moving Castle |
Birdperson the Movie (57%) |
Tales from Earthsea |
Ghibli's expensive knock-off (29%) |
For a few dollars more |
Joint (43%): Chime calls time & Weaponised musical chairs |
Ponyo |
Joint (29%):Soup thief, ahoy! & It is Ham |
Arrietty |
Failed sugar heist (57%) |
From Up on Poppy Hill |
Who's your daddy? (43%) |
The Wind Rises |
Jiro to zero (43%) |
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya |
Joint (29%): Moonwalker thwarts suitors & Celestial Moon Presence |
When Marnie Was There |
Kuuki time travel (33%) |
Wolfwalkers |
Trances with Wolves (43%) |
1. Interestingly, I know of two film clubs that started as a result of not wanting to do this one. They liked the idea but not the films (and not seen, at that point). I am not sure how they ended up but not sure they got to 25 films! I think they wanted a discussion like a book club which seems fair. ↩
2. This was a unilateral decision by me to avoid scoring films. The problem with scoring films is that the discussion almost inevitably then becomes about the score rather than the film itself. We all, also, have quite differing views on what the bounds of scoring are. For me, an OK film is 5 or 6 and a bad film is 1-4 but many people would say bad films are still at the 6 or 7 end. It makes the whole thing somewhat meaningless without normalisation. The discussions we had, I think, really allowed people to have multiple views on the same film - being both positive and negative about a film which I do not think is quite as easy if you then start from a score.↩
3. This was someone that I knew from an excellent film quiz that he used to create and host weekly (twitter: @Jamie_Reviews and website: https://justalittlebitrandom.blog/ ) which I would strongly recommend. ↩
4. Well, I did because I had the responses but I am, of course, an honest person.↩
Friday 9 July 2021
[3WR] Wolfwalkers / Wolfwalkers (2020)
Tuesday 29 June 2021
[3WR] 思い出のマーニー / When Marnie Was There (2014)
思い出のマーニー When Marnie Was There[link to netflix]
As part of Ghibli Club, each person submits a 3-word review [3WR] for the film after watching. Why not send yours to add to the list?
Reviews:
Kuuki time travelFamily tree sketchingStrong family tiesGirl forgets granFiend oar GrandmotherMudflats steal Shoes!Pure, honest friendship
Tuesday 22 June 2021
[3WR] かぐや姫の物語 / The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
かぐや姫の物語 The Tale of the Princess Kaguya[link to netflix]
As part of Ghibli Club, each person submits a 3-word review [3WR] for the film after watching. Why not send yours to add to the list?
Reviews:
Celestial Moon PresenceClassical shimmering beautySlightly episodic storybookPrincess of natureNurture nobbles natureMoonwalker thwarts suitorsalien attracts aristocracy