Related: [[0.1 Journal/2025/2025 media consumption|2025 media consumption]] ## Movies ### Watched (most recent to least, top to bottom) - 🇯🇵 *Perfect Days* (2023) (drama) | Depicts the simple daily routine of Hirayama, a middle-aged Japanese man who works as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. ==SPOILER ALERT== The first thing I noticed about the movie is how little dialogue there is. Hirayama doesn't say anything until ~1 hour into the movie. Indeed, he is a man of few words, but, when he does speak, his gentle, warm personality comes through. The use of music is intentional: songs only come on when Hirayama inserts a casette tape ([here is a Spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4FCySdtvSlHZtaXyNs7Ejr?si=0cb9a95b84c849e6) of all the songs he plays) or when someone is singing. The same threads reappear throughout: Hirayama playing tic-tac-toe with a stranger over several days on piece of paper he finds in a public restroom, taking photos of *komorebi* (I love how there is a word to describe sunlight shining through the leaves of trees) to store in metal tins labeled by month and year, getting his vending machine coffee, and reading before bed. His dreams, depicted as black-and-white vignettes, contain a blend of events and observations from the day along with his memories. They serve as a checkpoint where the day resets, after which he wakes up—with no alarm—to the next, brand new day. Watching him go about his life, I'm reminded of my routine and how I find joy in the little things in it. Like Hirayama, I enjoy reading before bed, taking pictures to document everyday sights in the city, and my morning cup of coffee. Despite Hirayama keeping a simple routine, his life isn't always drama-free. We see this through his complicated ties with his family, his relationship with his colleague Takashi, and his interactions with the man dying of cancer near the end. The ending sequence was interesting: Hirayama’s face shows a mix of happiness and sadness as he drives to work, with Nina Simone's "Feeling Good" playing in his car. I interpreted it as the film’s way of reinforcing that life is made up of both peaceful, happy moments to savor and, inevitably, messier stuff. Hirayama is mostly shown alone in the film, but he is clearly capable of connecting with others, whether it's his niece, the woman at the bar, and her ex-husband (the cancer patient). I suppose the right balance between solitude and connection is different for everyone, and Hirayama seems to have found one that works well enough for him. ==END OF SPOILER==. - 🇬🇧 *Louis Theroux: Drinking to Oblivion* (2016) (documentary) \[watch on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf5leszPfPw) for free] | Well, well, well. Look who's on a Louis Theroux documentary watching spree. Of all the patients featured in this film, Aurelie left the biggest impression. She asked Louis how it felt for him to see people like her who struggle with alcohol addiction and described the idea of her quitting drinking as difficult and unnatural as "pulling the roots out of a tree" (since she had been drinking since she was 15). She just came across as a genuine, empathetic person. Hearing her explain that alcohol has been such a deep-rooted constant in her life that she would rather keep drinking, knowing it will lead to death, than face the alternative of not drinking at all was disheartening, especially because she was so likable. On a brighter note, it was encouraging to see patients like Peter and Sam making progress in their recovery. Peter began receiving treatment for his mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety, which helped curb his dependence on alcohol as a coping mechanism. I'm surprised that was his first time receiving a formal mental health diagnosis, despite having gone through panic attacks during previous relapses and hospital visits. <u>How consistently is mental health screening integrated into care for patients going through acute medical detox?</u> Anyway, back to the documentary. Even though the film is just a snapshot in time and their lives might look quite different today, I hope they're still doing well. - 🇬🇧 *The Most Hated Family in America* (2007) (documentary) + *Surviving America's Most Hated Family* (2019) (documentary). \[watch on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMMgxbLfDfY&t=5520s) for free] | There are 3 films in Louis Theroux's series on the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) in Topeka, Kansas, but I did not watch the second one, which came out in 2011. The two documentaries I watched paint a tragic portrait of a family consuming itself. The WBC is a hate group. The trauma they inflict on the outside world (e.g., terrorizing grieving families by picketing soldiers' funerals while carrying signs with vulgar, offensive text) is matched by the psychological damage they inflict within their own family. Shirley Phelps-Roper (daughter of the church's founder) remains trapped in a system where "loving" her children means shunning them to save their souls, while her daughter Megan (and many of her other children) had to choose between keeping her family and keeping her sanity. Many things seemed to have changed between the first and last film in the series, though: the church's message seems to be mellowing out. And, while they've lost some members, they've also gained new ones from outside the family. Curious to see how else WBC might change in the next few decades. - 🇳🇴 *The Worst Person in the World* (2021) (romantic comedy-drama / tragicomic coming-of-age film for adults) | Also one of my favorite movies of 2026. I enjoy films like this: subtle performances paired with real, raw, often relatable themes. This comment Mark Kermode made about the film captures the life of the lead character, Julie quite well: "Modern life \[is]... open, fluid, and mobile but weirdly oppressive." Julie navigates her twenties and early thirties not knowing what she wants. I understand why she goes through these dilemmas, but I find it hard to empathize with Julie sometimes, as her selfish behaviors (==SPOILER ALERT== e.g., *basically* cheating on Aksel, not visiting Aksel on his last day—the night before he passed away from pancreatic cancer, running away from her relationship with Eivind when things got hard—as Aksel predicted she would) hurt others who love her. ==END OF SPOILER.== Still, her hurtful actions, flaws, and indecision in her personal, professional, and love lives do not make her "the worst person in the world." Julie reminds me of this Sylvia Plath quote from *The Bell Jar* :"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and...beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet." More personal reflections here: [[0. Daily Notes/2026-08-23 The Worst Person in the World Movie Review and Thoughts|2026-08-23 The Worst Person in the World Movie Review and Thoughts]] - 🇺🇸 *The Invite* (2026) (character-driven relationship dramedy) | one of my favorite movies of 2026. perhaps of all time, even. Amazing that every minute of a movie just under two hours long and shot in a single room can be so engrossing. A very human film. Tense and funny at the same time. Each actor inhabited their respective roles well. Bonus points for mentioning Berkeley, CA. Thank you to Stefanie for recommending this. - 🇬🇧 *Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere* (2026) (documentary) Was on an expedition / adventure-oriented documentary run. I wonder if this has anything to do with my taking up indoor bouldering. I would never free solo anything—I don't have the skills, and the risk is too great even if I did, but I'd hike in Patagonia and visit Antarctica if I get the chance. It's fascinating, though, to have a window into these people's lives and thoughts because they're so different from mine. Orthogonal, but I understand the magnitude of the vector? The magnitude of my intensity is even lower than that of these guys—Marc-Andre LeClerc literally died from climbing. Am I willing to die for what I love? It's not exactly a fair question because being a physician-scientist doesn't pose life-or-death risks like free soloing does. - 🇨🇦 *The Alpinist* (2021) (documentary) | story about Marc-André Leclerc. Fascinating look into his outer life (his climbing achievements) and his inner life (his mindset going into each climb—how he was aware of and justified his risk of dying each time he went into the mountains, his relationships with his then-girlfriend, mother, the film crew, other climbers, etc. He had a spiritual approach to climbing: never made a big deal out of his climbs; didn't want others to know when he would make his first ascents because he didn't want that first, pure isolated experience between him and the mountain to be tainted by media attention. The film crew struggled to get a hold of him due to his unpredictable schedule. - 🇺🇸 *The Dawn Wall* (2015) (documentary) - 🇺🇸 *Free Solo* (2018) (rewatch) (documentary) ### Want to watch - C'mon c'mon - Encounters at the end of the world by Werner Herzog - Antarctica: a year on the ice - Meru - Drive My Car - Moonlight - 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days ## Shows ### Watched - When the Camellia Blooms (2019) - fun blend of genres, including crime/thriller + romance + comedy + slice-of-life. one season only, easy to get through. took me some time to like the male lead, ### Want to watch - The Dinosaurs (Netflix) 2026 - Ancient Apocalypse: The Americas (Netflix) 2026 - Salt Fat Acid Heat - Cooked - Michael Pollan ## Books - See [[3. Synthesis/Lists/Reading List/Bookshelf|Bookshelf]]