Almost let this pass

Almost forgot that today was the anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on Nagasaki (Hiroshima being a few days ago). It always reminds me of the story of Sadako and the 1000 paper cranes which was first read to me as a wee tyke in primary school. Even now the story makes me cry. Naturally they are man tears, the kind that can heal critically wounded comrades on a battlefield, but tears none the less.

Saw the Korean film The Host last night as a part of the Melbourne International Film Festival. This was a classic. A Korean monster movie that breezes through Clockwork Orange, Godzilla and 3 Stogges territory. The monster is cool and scary, the characters endearing despite their patheticness, and the use of foreigners in the film is just hysterical, particularly if you've lived in countries like Korea or Japan which have an actual US military presence. My favourite part is watching the US doctor forcing his Korean co-worker to pour about one hundred bottles of dusty formeldehyde down the drain and into the Han river. Naturally enough this leads to the creation of the monster. There's also loads of stuff in here that relates to biological and chemical weapons and pandemics, such as the SARS outbreak of a couple of years ago. But wait... there's more! I'd be remiss if I didn't remind everyone just once more that there's a giant monster running around picking people off, regurgitating them and eating them.