My Star Wars trilogy DVD (region 2) box set arrived last week from amazon.co.jp — free shipping, very fast delivery. I was excited to finally show Mari Episode IV because she had never seen any of the original trilogy. She loved the Jawas, but about halfway through to movie, she fell asleep.
We finished off the disc the next afternoon. Overall Mari was not very impressed, but loved the organic sound design — the alien languages, R2-D2’s beeps. I guess it’s different if you didn’t see it as a kid. Hard to see today what was so special about it when it originally came out. And maybe it’s just not Mari’s kind of movie. She did find the behind-the-scenes commentary interesting, though.
Mari wanted to share my enthusiasm, so she was asking things like, “Who was your favorite character when you were little? What was exciting about it for you?” I couldn’t exactly remember why Star Wars was so magical when I was young. I’d never thought about it. Hmm, it’s an exciting adventure in a believable world? Because everyone loved it? Now maybe I just like it nostalgically, because I liked it when I was little.
I wonder if I can persuade Mari to watch the rest of the set with me.
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2 responses to “A long time ago…”
Funny, Charles just came back with the DVD trilogy a few days ago. After watching the “bonus” documentary, which was surprisingly interesting, I realized that I really wanted to see the movies again. Then, I got sick with the flu and ended up having plenty of time to watch all three movies while blowing my nose and drinking lots of tea. I don’t know- they’re still good somehow, epic and timeless.
Hi Tin-na,
I guess you would almost need to be sick at home to find the time to watch everything! And then again with the commentary turned on.
Yeah, I haven’t finished it yet, but the documentary is half the reason I bought the set. From the beginning, the peeks behind-the-scenes have always been just as interesting to me as the movies themselves. With the prequels, the making-of is better than the final result.
I tried to get Mari to watch the documentary with me tonight, but she got tired of reading the Japanese subtitles after 15 minutes. Oh well. I wanted so much to watch these discs with a shared enthusiasm — to get some of that feeling of watching in a theater full of fans — but I guess you can’t match tastes with everything.
Hope you’re feeling better!
–Rick