The Nine Tailors

tags: Lord Wimsey, mystery

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From Goodreads

While ringing in the New Year, Lord Peter stumbles into an ominous country mystery.

Lord Peter Wimsey and his manservant Bunter are halfway across the wild flatlands of East Anglia when they make a wrong turn, straight into a ditch. They scramble over the rough country to the nearest church, where they find hospitality, dinner, and an invitation to go bell-ringing.

This ancient art is steeped in mathematical complexities, and tonight the rector and his friends plan to embark on a nine-hour marathon session to welcome the New Year.

Lord Peter joins them, taking a step into a society whose cheerful exterior hides a dark, deadly past. During their stay in this unfamiliar countryside, Lord Peter and Bunter encounter murder, a mutilated corpse, and a decades-old jewel theft for which locals continue to die.

In this land where bells toll for the dead, the ancient chimes never seem to stop.

Lord Wimsey and his valet Bunter were visiting the Fen country when they had a car mishap. They walked to look for help and Bunter guessed they were near Fenchurch St. Paul. The church clock chimed at the same time and Lord Peter uttered "Thank God! Where there is a church, there is civilization." How true! 

They walked on to the church where they met the rector and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Venables. The rector was eccentric but lovable and his wife was smart and efficient. I love the setting and numerous characters, specially Mrs. Venables. 

There is mystery alright, a dead body with an unlikely "murderer", but the story is centered on the bell-ringing called change ringing. I had to stop reading and watched it on YouTube. Very interesting. 

I have just voted it my favorite Lord Peter novel. Dorothy L. Sayers wrote a very engaging novel with her usual sense of humor. It was hard to put down once I started reading.

Highly recommended for Dorothy L. Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey fans.

Burn The House Down

 

tags: Japanese dorama, Mei Nagano, mystery, Netflix streaming, revenge

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Anzu (Mei Nagano, charming and enigmatic) watched her family home go up in flames when she was young. Her mother, Satsuki, apparently left the stove on. All her material possessions were lost and, soon afterward, her family broke apart.

Satsuki developed generalized amnesia, and her husband, Osamu, married her former best friend Makiko. The two of them now live in the same house, which has been restored.

Working with her sister Yuzu, Anzu adopts the identity of Shizuka Yamauchi and gets a job as Makiko’s housekeeper.

Anzu: "That woman stole my home and my family…”

Lovely Mei Nagano as Anzu is all grown up and starring in a revenge family drama. I first saw her in Rurouni Kenshin when she just 13 years old. She's now 24!

Mei Nagano in 2016 Japanese high school dorama, Koe Koi

Highly recommended for Japanese manga live action drama series fans. I loved it!

A Room With A View

 

Beautiful music. Kiri Te Kanawa singing an aria, Chi il bel sogno di Doretta, from Puccini's opera La Rondine (The Swallow).

Julian Sands's death was all over the news feed last week. So sad. I've only seen 2 of his movies, A Room With A View and Warlock.

A Room With A View is one of my favorite movies of all time. I watched it a gazillion times since its release in 1986 or 87. I have 3 different copies. I first watched it on Betamax. Yup, Betamax which was what's available in the Philippines at the time. When we moved to Hong Kong the following year, I had to buy a VHS copy because Hong Kong didn't use Betamax and it had a different system too (PAL). After 3 years we moved to the US so I had to get another VHS copy because USA had a different system (NTSC). When DVDs arrived, of course I had to get it. Same with Sixteen Candles. The tapes of both movies are in a box somewhere in the basement.

A Room With A View is almost perfection with a superb cast. Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch - her luxuriant hair was to die for and I love her character getting peevish after playing a Beethoven piano sonata. Daniel Day-Lewis as Cecil Vyse - magnificent as a snobbish aesthete but accepting in his defeat, his acting was over the top funny. I think in his own way, he truly loved Lucy. Maggie Smith - great in her role as the uptight "poor" Aunt Charlotte with her defective boiler and all. Judy Dench - as Elinor Lavish, a gossipy writer of trashy romance novels. She included the kiss in Florence in one of her novels that Cecil mockingly read to Lucy. Rupert Graves was cute as Lucy's brother Freddy. Denholm Elliot as Mr. Emerson, Simon Callow as Reverend Beebe, and of course Julian Sands as dour George Emerson.

George Emerson and Jake Ryan (of Sixteen Candles) are the best male romantic characters in a movie but are almost impossible to find in real life. LOL

L'Arc-en-Ciel 30th Anniversary Concert

 

tags: Japanese, L'Arc-en-Ciel 30th anniversary concert, streaming on Amazon

Hyde is over 50 years old and he still looks young. I saw him in one movie together with Gackt, another Japanese musician. The movie is called Moon Child about vampires, if I remember correctly. Now I want to watch the movie again if I can find it.