Netflix Net-a-thon (TSS)

(This post is book-related as the movies I’ve watched have mostly been book adaptations.)

Anyway, I thought my internet provider was going to start limiting my monthly usage to an unreasonably and ridiculously low amount (5 GB – are you kidding?) in January, so in December I started my own Netflix Net-a-thon and started watching as much stuff as I could ‘instantly’ online.  It’s unlimited through Netflix but of course not necessarily through your internet provider.  I keep going to my provider’s site to see if they’ve implemented the limit, but they haven’t yet so I keep on expanding my ‘instant’ watching.  Let me tell you, I’ve watched some gems!

Where to start?  How about:

Bleak House by Charles Dickens – 450 minutes – A+

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell – 375 minutes – A

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte – 159 minutes – A

Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster – 112 minutes – B

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens – 351 minutes – A-

I really adored all of these, but especially Bleak House.  Excellent!  Where Angels Fear to Tread just felt like it had an abrupt ending, but perhaps it’s because the other ones I viewed were so long and well-developed.

I also viewed two Japanese language films because I’m doing the Japanese Literature Challenge.  I love foreign films.  I started watching them when my kids were small and would be noisy playing whenever my husband and I would rent DVDs.  The kids could be as loud as they wanted to when we were watching the subtitles!  I truly hate dubbing.  I want to hear the original language of the film.  I don’t mind sub-titles at all.  Hearing the original language is part of what makes foreign films so wonderful.

The two I viewed:

After Life -118 minutes – A
Last Life in the Universe – 103 minutes – B+

In After Life, after they die, people go to what looks like an abandoned school of sorts and they get to choose one memory of their lives to be re-enacted.  This is a slow, but beautiful movie.  I’m just the geeky sort to love slow, thoughtful movies, though, so I loved it.

In Last Life in the Universe, a Japanese neat-freak librarian is living in Bangkok and is constantly thinking of committing suicide.  After a tragic event, he meets a Thai girl who is a total slob.  Opposite attract, though, right?  Very weird but interesting movie.  It would have received an ‘A’ except there was quite a bit of bad language.  In Japanese, Thai, and English.

I’m really having fun with these and will probably be watching more.  I’ll keep you posted with any interesting titles.