I know I mentioned that I'd get to do this earlier, and that I was looking forward to it. I have to say, my expectations got totally blown out of the water.

If you get the chance, be it through US distribution (September is the street date for the DVD and Blu-Ray) or the internet, do yourself a favor and see Mamoru Hosoda's Summer Wars. It's not about the difference between the analog and digital worlds, but about communication across national boundaries and the internet as a tool of globalization. And it's about the people behind the avatars on the internet, and what people can accomplish in this new digital/analog world.

This is a movie for us.

I was lucky enough to see it in a screening tonight, with Hosoda himself in attendance and my Japanese popular culture studies professor acting as translator. The man himself is amazing, good-natured, and pretty damn humble. He said, essentially, there are two types of directors: those who become great directors to become great directors, and those who become great directors because they want to create great films. And he thinks of himself as the latter.

That's a sentiment I can totally get behind. Whatever you do, do it well because you love it and want to do it well.