I gave two sets of foreigners directions yesterday. What the heck are tourists doing in St Leonards anyway^[1]? They both wanted to know where the train station was, which worked out, because for once I actually was able to give directions! Usually people are asking me where so-and-so street is, and I have a terrible memory for street names. Anyway, I was on the Pacific Highway and it was pretty easy to point “that-a-way” but I had trouble communicating “on the other side of the street.” I kept worrying from their looks of incomprehension that they might have thought I was saying turn left. One set was Japanese (guessing based on the script used on their Sydney tourist guide book) and the other was a French couple (guessing based on accent), yet both had trouble with “on the other side of the street” and since I was the one constant in both conversations I take it for me not being clear enough. If either set had been Russian I could have said “на лева”; I actually remember that. Human languages are so hard.

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1. I mean that in a why would they want to be there kind of way, not a they don’t belong there kind of way

Thinking about Babel, which as mentioned in the previous post I saw yesterday. I’m not giving anything away by saying that the story is divided into three largely unrelated stories. The connection between the stories is tenuous, but they drive each other. The central characters for two of the stories have been nominated for best supporting actress: Adriana Barraza for her character Amelia in Mexico, and Rinko Kikuchi for her character Chieko in Japan. I wonder how unusual it is for a picture to receive two nominations in the same category like that. Anyway, the nominations, and the award if it follows, would be well deserved for either. Kikuchi (26) delivers a particularly believable performance of a deaf teenager.

It makes me wonder though, why “supporting” and not “starring”? It seems mainly because they aren’t Brad Pitt or Cate Blanchet, who received top billing. Their performances were good, but not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. It seems to me the Mexican and Japanese stories are just as important, and much more interesting than the Moroccan (American centric) story. Making the American and Australian actors the stars and the supporting actress nominations for the non-native English speakers reinforces the belligerent Ugly Americanism of Pitt’s character, who sees the world revolving around himself.

I knew a girl once who called herself Ronin Slayer. According to Dictionary.com:

Ronin : In Japan, under the feudal system, a samurai who had renounced his clan or who had been discharged or ostracized and had become a wanderer without a lord an outcast; an outlaw.

It suited her. Sometimes I wonder what she is up to. Whatever it is, I wish her well.