Aside from watching the movie in the front row , this was one of truly a great experience, it was a great present. I went out with some friends who surprised me with a gift, and for once I felt someone actually paid attention and put thought into a gift. It was simple but it was something that is really me.

Back to the movie though, it is undoubtly the best movie of 2003 since it was released in 2003. Sorry, LOTR fans, for me it was undoubtly the best movie of the year. I found it amazing that after 2 or 3 weeks out in the theatre, in a large theatre at that, at a 10:15pm showing, it was so crowded we had to sit in the front row, says a lot. I believe every seat was filled. I am only half Japanese and I don't know it really tugged at feelings that spoke to me.

Everything seems to come back to my upcoming service and I realize that somewhere lies that same element of courage and honor that I must step up to and show, not for others but for myself. Tom Cruise did a wonderful job. My only criticism was with my basic Japanese language used in the translation on screen, which didn't properly state what was been said. Sometimes they would have Tom Cruise speak and in Japanese, an example is: To go, I want to go, I must go are all said differently but with, I guess what you'd call, a different tense. If you said Go, it wouldn't mean the same as if you said, I will go. They say different things though they both still have the word go, they don't mean the same thing, I noticed things those mistakes and I am not even fluent.

Bad subtitles and a sore neck aside, it was story telling gem. The story is nothing new, but the feeling behind the film is what makes me love film so much. I joked with a friend that it was the Japanese "Dances with Wolves".

I wouldn't say I am the most involved person when it comes to part of my heritage, being half Japanese, they are far from being a perfect model of society. There are some qualities though....it really speaks to me, and even evokes a sense of pride.

Devotion or faith in something is a miraculous thing. The problem in my life, and I know it for a fact. My lack of goals and truly unwaivering faith in something is what criples me the most. I know I have the strength, I simply need something that I can believe in. To some degree I think a lot of people need that. We all have some strength and we are subject to using it, however sometimes the problem is we lack convictions, or rather conviction that is for the greater good.

Convictions are a powerful thing, which only showcases our better traits when it is not for our own self serving purposes but for something better for everyone.

It's funny because I joined the US army, though fighting oppression and defending the rights of it's citizens and allies is the right thing to do, the movie did have me thinking that the army which I am about to serve, does serve something that goes towards the greater good of it's people, but is undoubtly has leaders acting not in the greater good of humanity, but in the greater issue of politics. I sometimes wish humans would not fight under the banner of nationalism but humanism. We are all people of this world, I only wish we could all put aside our beliefs for a second to see the human on the otherside of the eyes.

There may be no logic to what I am doing, and my thoughts brings no solution, in fact they only bring more questions. While watching the movie I realized I am plagued by thinking too much, I spend too much time in myself, in my own mind. These thoughts I jot down, speak to that nature in me.

Anyways it's getting late, 2:24am here. I'm going to bed. I would recommend this film to anyone who hasn't seen it. I kind of wish I didn't have to sleep.