Public post about today: Ozu film festival starts

The BFI is having an Ozu film festival. It started yesterday but wisely I decided not to make any kind of strong plans for that day. Instead, I started the festival today with a silent movie double feature, "I Flunked, But ..." and "A Straightforward Boy," with piano accompaniment promised.

Well, this was really one for the Ozu collector, as "Boy" was missing part of the beginning and the end and generally seemed lacking in plot. A young boy is kidnapped and gets the better of his kidnappers, forcing them to buy him toys, attacking him with them, then setting his toy-hungry friends after them.

Next was "Flunked." This was supposed to be quite the comedy, but while I got a bit of a kick out of watching the five students do coordinated moves and realized there was a comedy moment in that the one guy who didn't pass was the only one who got a job, still, there was nearly a total lack of character development or other interest in this movie and I had a hard time not dozing off.

Still, I'm excited about the series as a whole, and am looking forward to my next trip back to the BFI to see more movies by this Japanese master. However, I may choose to see more talkies in general.

First game of Puerto Rico in ages

This was actually a good day: up a bit too early, but had a productive morning with the added highlight of sniperi's Christmas Lucky Charms for breakfast, then off to Streatham for lunch with lovelybug where we made plans to see the Wellcome exhibit on Thursday and to find time to see Sherlock Holmes the next week.

I then trucked back home as we had managed to lure laurenclose over to our house (oh, the advantages of having neighbors!) for a game of Puerto Rico. It had really been a LONG time since we played, at least a year, possibly more! I assumed my usual role of "teacher of the game," and Lauren assumed the traditional role of "newbie who kicks my ass." I couldn't believe I'd just forgotten pretty much every strategy I'd ever used to play the game - going back over my old posts in seattle_rico, I clearly had many of them; Lauren followed the cash-heavy "Starbucks" plan (though by accident) and took us both to the cleaners. Final score:

L: 55 (19 vp, 22 bldg, 14 bonus - 2 bldgs)
J: 51 (22 vp, 18 bldg, 11 bonus - 2 bldgs)
Me: 44 (22 vp, 16 bldg, 7 bonus - 1 bldg, wah)

I kinda screwed myself by not getting a warehouse to keep my stuff in, and boy, I rotted left and right. L also decided I was the threat, and worked on shutting me out - ultimately I think a successful ploy but just one more good move by shadowdaddy woulda got him out front of the pack. Whoda thunk with a harbor that I couldn't have done better - but shipping diversity ensured I was blocked off of our piddly three boats over and over again. Aaargh! Well, at any rate, it was great to get back "in the game" again, and I'm reminded why this was always my favorite of all strategy board games.