personal development plans: Happy New Year!! ...unt Decade!!

I hope everyone is enjoying themselves, as always the trigger-happies set off the fireworks 2 minutes early. ;)

[ Picks of the year/decade ]

Bob's Film of the Year: Inglorious Basterds

Over the past couple of days i've been compiling a list of movies with the aim of choosing my 'Film of the Decade', following on from the recent stint of programs on Channel 4 (i'm sure that some of you watched the 'Best Advert of the Decade' show at least). And although I could've just picked something quick that I found utterly awesome like Kill Bill or House of Flying Daggers purely because i'm into martial arts and they're relevant to my interests, I wanted to pick something that had the total package.....

...and so after ending up with a list of about ten films I whittled it down to just two, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie (2001) and Takeshi Kitano's Dolls (2002). Whilst both are up there in my all-time favourites anyway, I ultimately chose Dolls as I have rarely felt such mixed emotions whilst watching a film.

Bob's Film of the Decade: Dolls (2002)

Bob's Song of the Year: Mind Wall [ Towa Tei ]

Bob's Song of the Decade: Plastic Girl [ Capsule ] (2002)

Thinking about the past decade, if I could sum it up in one word then that would be Japan. Up until the late 90s I knew very little about the Japanese and my only insight back then came from the Hong Kong movies that I grew up watching....which generally portrayed the Japanese as the enemy. But the internet changed all that....and Japan has had a big part of my life ever since.

I hope the following decade provides a few little treats of it's own.