Reports of Japan’s Death…
Comments: 5
…may be greatly exaggerated. But then again, you never know.
Recent Japan punditry reminds me of the parable of the blind men and the elephant; each man ‘sees’ something different.
Can Japan Come Back?
Robert Samuelson, washington PostAttitudes haven’t changed, says Akio Mikuni, a well-known Japanese economic analyst. “The government still wants to run current account [i.e., trade] surpluses,” he says. And there’s the legacy of stagnation: vast overcapcity in many industries; rapidly rising government debt; weakened banks and financial institutions. “There’s no prospect for growth in the next few years,” says Robert Dugger, an economist who follows Japan. “We’re in a period when large portions of the Japanese economy are shrinking. These sectors were regulated, protected and subsidized.”
Almost everyone assumes that Japan will ultimately surmount its problems and resume healthy economic growth. It might. But history also suggests another possibility. Once some great states — Turkey and the Austro-Hungarian Empire — started to decline, they simply continued declining.
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Posted to General Rants • 2002.08.13 (Tue) • 11:09
Comments
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens 2002.07.30, 23:15
Toby McGuire IS Peter Parker and the best parts of the movie are when the focus of the story is on Peter Parker confronting every adolescent’s struggle with transformation to adulthood (through the allegorical transformation into super-hero).
However, between Spiderman and Minority Report, I’ve been CGI’d to death. These days movies seem to be nothing more than video games on the big screen. Just as I felt the need to watch Spartacus after Gladiator, I had to get out my old laserdiscs of Back to the Future and Bladerunner to fall under the spell of real Hollywood magic.
Posted by garret 2002.08.01, 05:50
cgi is a black hole sometimes. directors often leave it up to the programmers to come up with ‘something COOL’ … and you end up with unsatisfying effects scenes. ‘pearl harbor’ comes to mind, the bomb’s eye view of hitting the uss arizona. cool to a cgi guy; dull and predictable to the audience.
the problem with cgi is that computing power isn’t to the point where you can pay for multiple ways of looking at the same scenes. for any one shot, i’d like to have a 3-d crew play with a half-dozen ways of showing it; then count the myriad ways of lighting, background, complexity of models, etc. - and you realize why, when we try to take realism and ‘go one better’, we often end up with boring effects.
‘bullet time’ in the matrix was cool; but their problem now is, that’s been used in many other places now. they have to come up with something new, and just as nifty. it was a co-star in the movie; in a sequel, it’s just another actor, not a feature.
Posted by James B. 2002.08.03, 09:53
I hear the new matrix will have a brand new ground breaking affect that is suppose to be as impressive as bullet time was…. we shall see.
Overall I enjoyed spiderman. They could have done much much worse.
Posted by Kurt 2002.08.14, 01:52
This has definitely been the “theme of the week”! It’s as if the media outlets are suggesting, “Perhaps you’d like some ennui to go with your mis-labeled beef?” Some other headlines:
“Japan’s Shrunken Role: Is It Permanent?” (Int. Herald Tribune)
“As Tokyo Loses Luster, Foreign Media Move On” (NY Times)
“Japan Close to Bottoming Out” (CNN)
“‘Made in Japan’ Brand Image Not as Strong in West as People in Japan May Think” (Asia BizTech)
Posted by jh 2002.08.16, 12:51
How many times have we heard variations on the “bottoming out” theme? Yet there always seems to be some new scandal on its way to help us redefine our understanding of “bottom.”
The “Japan’s Shrunken Role” article you mention by Howard French of the NYTimes is worth a link for the comparison it draws between China, Russia and Japan. I’d be signing up for Chinese lessons right about now.
http://www.iht.com/articles/67398.html
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