July 21, 2011

HP7P2

I have been ridiculed by my friends (except for one) and family members about my reading the series (repeatedly), using its German and French versions for studying the languages, and watching movies on the opening days, for more than 10 years, that I stopped caring what other people would think.
(I rather feel sorry for those who never enjoyed great fantasy and adventure novels, whether growing up or after becoming adults.  Most people I know have never read Lord of the Rings series, Arsene Lupin, the Eight, nor Earth's Children series... not to mention HP.)
I indeed went to the theater on the opening day, and the final and the last installment of the HP series was truly fantastic.

From my perspective, HP1 was really one of the very first movie that the motion picture version didn't disappoint the fans of the original fantasy/SF books.  Despite a lot of things and people appear in the story are totally fictional and no one has ever seen them in real, the movie producers and designers somehow managed to come up with the image that everyone agrees upon.
This is really ground-breaking, I think.
And this is the reason all the fans of the book rush to the theaters everytime a new installment comes out - NOT because the movies are as interesting as the books.

Even for the very last movie, story-wise, I was disappointed that the movie left out all the details and character depths of Snape and Dumbledore.  The parts that make readers wonder if the HP series is really for children.

If you have not watched the movie nor read the book yet, and think about reading it sometime in the future, I would recommend:
(1) Read the books rather than movies
(2) Try to endure the first 2 books, even though they are rather childish, because all the stories are inter-connected
(3) If you are a Japanese, DON'T EVER READ THE JAPANESE TRANSLATION. I am sorry for the translator, but she is not that good.

Anyway, this may be the last time I would write about HP, and thank you for bearing with me one last time.


Somehow, at the end of the Space Discovery era, at the end of the HP series, and what with the earthquake and radiation and all, it feels like this is the end of our dreams.
The dream that science can create a better future.
The dream that there are still wonderful world out there, waiting to be discovered.
The dream that future will be better than now.
The idea that we can invest in somethings we don't understand but seem to have potential.

This is why I feel so sad these days.  That it feels like people only believe in what they can see by their eyes (even though their brains may be tricking them).

2 comments:

オチアイ トクコ said...

私、日本語で読んじゃった!確かに子供向けの書き方ではありますよね。
それであっても、とても素晴らしいお話でしたよ。よく考えつくなーと毎回感心しました。すごい創造力!
全部買わずに図書館で済ませた私ですが…。
今度、勉強の為に英語で読んでみようかな。
ちなみに、映画はテレビでチラッと見ただけです。
いつもこういったものは断然原作がいいので、映画化というのに少しアレルギーですねー。

Meri said...

仲間ですね!!嬉しい:)
映画もなかなか面白いですよ。言ってみれば、ディズニーランドのスターツアーズです。映像がとても良く出来ているので。特に3の監督キュラソンの詩人ぶりは最高です。(あと4と6もかな。)
わたしは2巻だけ日本語で読んだのですが、2時間で読み終わっちゃった(楽しみが長く続かなかった)だけでなく、言葉遊び的なネーミングや英国特有のジョークやリズムが日本語にはできないので、やっぱり楽しみが半減した感じがして、その後は英語で読みました。最初は時間がかかったけど、HPとともに読解力が上がった私です。