{"id":1172,"date":"2011-02-01T18:21:29","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T22:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2011-02-01T18:21:29","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T22:21:29","slug":"teppanyaki-no-teppanyumi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/?p=1172","title":{"rendered":"Teppanyaki? No, Teppanyumi!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a very busy week last week, I got to experience what it is like to be a social butterfly for just a little while. I don’t know how people keep up with it, it is so tiring. I was at a charity event on Wednesday, then Thursday and Friday I had going away parties to be at, then Saturday I was out the whole day shopping, then an art show (which I will tell you about in another post), then bowling. I hurt my back bowling. Sad face. Angry face. Damn you BOWLING!<\/p>\n

Anyways, back to Friday. Going out that night did not<\/strong> include seeing a movie. I felt bad about not going to the theatre for a second week straight but I was invited to a going away party at a teppanyaki restaurant in Yorkville (ooh fancy) called Yamato<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you don’t know, teppanyaki is a Japanese style of cooking where the food is prepared in front of you and the chef usually does tricks to entertain you. It is kind of cool and has been in many movies and tv shows. I have to say I was incredibly underwhelmed by the acrobatics. There was some spinning and flipping of spatulas before any food hit the grill; then there was the flaming onion volcano which was totally cool but then it was as if the chef got bored and he didn’t do anything else. I don’t know what I was expecting but it was definitely more than that. The food was really good though so I can’t complain too much about it except I kind of want to because I paid $69 for my meal. Sure that included a tip but that is still pretty hefty price to pay for one person especially a non-rich person like me. Oh and the dessert, oh the dessert. I can’t believe I forgot to mention that. It was the cheapest thing on the menu but oh my god was it good. I had the white chocolate cheese cake and it was just, for the lack of a more appropriate word, orgasmic. This dude at the table got the chocolate cake and it sounded like he was dying of pure ecstasy. Am I over selling it? I may be over selling it but it was still good.<\/p>\n

So because of culinary acrobatics, flaming onions, and sugary treats I didn’t make it to the movies on my usual day. I was planning on heading out either to see Black Swan<\/em> or The Mechanic<\/em> on Sunday but that didn’t happen because as I mentioned before I hurt my back. Damn you BOWLING! Tell you the truth I am not sure if it was the bowling that did it but that is the only thing that I can think of that would have done it. Sunday morning when I woke up my body was not having any of this “moving” so leaving the house was a no. I did however set up my laptop on my bed, piled some pillows up, sat back and finally watched 500 Days of Summer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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This movie is about Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a greeting card writer who never became the architect he planned to be and how he falls in love with a girl named Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). Its about how they meet, how they fall apart, and everything in between. As the poster says, “This is not a love story. This is a movie about love.”<\/p>\n

500 Days of Summer<\/em> is not a new movie. It was originally released in 2009 and me in all my movie-goer-ness had never managed to see it til now. Since its release I have been reminded of this void by friends, family and complete strangers. Even the cashier when I picked this up almost passed out from astonishment that I hadn’t seen this film of glorious films. This\u00c2\u00a0wondrous\u00c2\u00a0masterpiece of cinematic splendor. Mind you it was all women who gushed over it and the guys liked it but weren’t as crazed about it.<\/p>\n

This over\u00c2\u00a0abundance\u00c2\u00a0of “Oh my god. you have to see it. It is so good.” May be the key reason why it took me so long to see. It would have brought my expectations too high and I would have been ultimately disappointed no matter how good the movie is. I think I gave it enough time to rest and I have to say it is a good movie. Not exactly what I expected but still very good.<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t consider this a romantic comedy, that is a much to generic and unfavourable category for it to be in, but I can’t think of a new category for it. There is romance but it is not cheesy overly Hollywood style romance. And it is funny but it is not packed with jokes or gags it is more of a realistic “shit-happens” kind of humour. It is also\u00c2\u00a0impeccably\u00c2\u00a0acted by all members of the cast; none of them treating this as a throwaway role.<\/p>\n

The film isn’t linear. The story is told from Tom’s perspective with the help of a narrator; jumping back and forth to specific days in his and Summer’s 500 day relationship. These days highlight important moments, well moments that are important to him. The story isn’t complex but the way their courtship is revealed to you is done\u00c2\u00a0incredibly\u00c2\u00a0well.<\/p>\n

The characters are whole interesting people with their good and bad points as well as their quirks. Tom’s somewhat neurotic personality is played perfectly by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And Zooey Dechanel as Summer, with her pearly smile and doll like big eyes, was a perfect match. They are 80% of the movie and they carry it well. The other 20% is made up of Tom’s 2 best friends – Mackenzie, a sex starved, karaoke loving, mischief maker played by Geoffrey Arend and Paul, a level headed, doctor who has been in a steady relationship with his highschool sweetheart played by Matthew Gray Gubler – and his little sister Rachel, a sharp tongued, quick witted, smart 12 year old.<\/p>\n

The movie is also wonderfully shot. I know it takes place in California but that is about it, the detail of which city is something that I misses. It highlights the loveliness that can be found amongst the urban sprawl as well as gives an in depth look at beautiful architecture that most of us can easily ignore.<\/p>\n

500 Days of Summer<\/em> really is an excellent film. I am so glad I was not disappointed in it especially after all the “oh really? You haven’t?” and the look of pure astonishment on peoples’ faces. You should\u00c2\u00a0definitely\u00c2\u00a0have a look at.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tra<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a very busy week last week, I got to experience what it is like to be a social butterfly for just a little while. I don’t know how people keep up with it, it is so tiring. I was at a charity event on Wednesday, then Thursday and Friday I had going away […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1176,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions\/1176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underbellyofsunshine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}