Titanic @ Sendai(PART 1 OF 3)
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I borrowed the "Titanic" DVD from the Joe Fortes Library a week ago and viewed it. Oh!...that was a fantastic film!---more than three-hour long, yet I viewed it without an intermission!
Did you? But it was made in 1997, wasn't it?
Yes, it was---14 years ago. For some reason, I didn't see it when it was first released.
Do you know, Kato, the 3-D version of "Titanic" will be released in the next year.
Why released in 2012?
Remember! That sinking disaster took place in 1912.
Oh,... I see---The next year is its hundred-year anniversary, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
Diane, did you see it back in 1997?
Yes, of course, I did...it was reportedly a mega film that took $200 million---the most expensive movie ever made in the history, they said. Besides, I heard, it was a state-of-the-art fantastic movie. So I couldn't hardly wait, and stood in a long waiting line to get a ticket.
Yeah, I've heard of it. The film earned more than a billion dollars worldwide, and set a record. Although I didn't pay a cent, it was such a spectacle movie of such magnitude that it's hard to imagine feeling you didn't get your time and money's worth. I really enjoyed the movie myself.
Oh, did you?
The first part is kinda eerie with underwater images of the Titanic's remains resting beneath the Atlantic since its close encounter with an iceberg in 1912. When I first saw this part, I thought that I was viewing a different documentary movie, and wondered if I should return it.
You know, Kato, the director---James Cameron---is a underwater nerd who filmed the remains by himself. He was so preoccupied with the Titanic. That preoccupation was the motive to make the film in the first place.
Oh, was it?
Before filming the Titanic movie, he took part in the salvage expedition.
I see...Did James Cameron find that fabulous blue diamond?
That diamond didn't exist in the first place, neither did the romance between Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio).
No kidding!
James Cameron created a "Romeo and Juliet" story on the Titanic so that he thought the movie would attract a great number of viewers and could get enough funding for making the movie from film companies.
I thought the movie was filmed based on the historical facts.
Yes, it's true in part, but half the characters in the movie are fictional figures created by James Cameron.
Diane, how do you know?
'Cause I've read about the background story---as much as possible on the Net.
Have you?...so, you're saying that the "Romeo and Juliet" story on the Titanic didn't actually happen at all, aren't you?
No, not at all.
Well..., it's such a letdown, isn't it?
Kato, did you genuinely believe that the romance actually took place on the Titanic?
Yes, I did...that romance is the core of the whole movie, isn't it?
Yes, it is, but that romance is a fiction. By the way, Kato, are you talking about another Titanic ship made in Sendai---your second home town in Japan?
Oh, no. There is no Titanic made in Japan as far as I know.
Then, how come you've picked up "Titanic @ Sendai" as a title.
A good question, Diane...well, as you know, the core of the romance goes like this:
Distraught by her engagement to Cal Hockley---the wealthy yet caddish and bullish man, Rose considers suicide by jumping off the ship's stern.
A drifter and artist named Jack Dawson stops her.
Discovered with Jack on the stern, Rose tells Cal that she was looking over the ship's edge in curiosity and that Jack saved her from falling.
At Rose's insistence, Cal invites Jack to dinner the following night to show his appreciation.
Jack and Rose develop a tentative friendship, though Cal and Ruth are wary of the young third-class man.
Following the first-class dinner that night, Rose secretly joins Jack at a party in the ship's third-class quarter.
The couple enjoyed the party to their bone.
Forbidden to see Jack by Cal and Ruth, Rose attempts to rebuff Jack's continuing advances.
She soon realizes, though, that she prefers him over Cal, and meets him at the bow of the ship during what turns out to be the Titanic's final moments of daylight.
They go to Rose's stateroom and she asks Jack to sketch her nude wearing the Heart of the Ocean---Cal's engagement present.
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Yes, this is the fictional Romeo and Juliet story on the Titanic.
The same romance happened to me in Senday.
Are you kidding?
Oh, no, of cource not. I'm dead serious. In fact, I've already written the story in Japanese.
■"Woman in Sendai （仙台の女）"
(December 18, 2011)
Kato, as I told you before, I cannot read Japanese. Besides, when I used the GOOGLE translator to read one of your stories, it tralslated the nitty-gritty of a tale into a confusing mass so that I couldn't understand the story at all.
Well,...in that case, I'd better tell you now.
Please do...I'm all ears.
It all started when I was a college boy. First of all, take a look at the memo Naoko gave me.
(To be followed)