Labrynth

Ok, so I rented Labrynth this week (to watch while working on posters for class), after not having seen it for over 10 years. I just have a few small comments. First of all, David Bowie would definately fit-in in Japan. I think I have mentioned how affeminate men can appear to be, but everything - especially the hair (and maybe eyebrows?)- would look pretty stylish, if only he were in his mid-20s and Japanese. Maybe it is the 80s thing? I thought the skinny jeans and flats were cute.

Second of all, I am almost certain J.K. Rowling sampled from Labrynth when writing her first Harry Potter book. Quite genius if you think about it: take elements from some of the most popular and successful stories in history, which might not have been "normal" or "mainstream", adapt them into your story... and then mainstream it! At one point during the movie, Jennifer Connely refers to her travel companion as Hogwort(s?) and the moving stairs in the castle at the end of the movie (an adaption of the M.C.Escher drawing) are almost identical to those in Hogwarts. Too close to be a coincidence, and I have already mentioned the nordic mythology connection (Fenrir) in earlier posts.

In some ways, it's a little creepy considering the age difference between Bowie and his love interest, but this movie was way ahead of his time, and the music was pretty good. If you haven't seen it in a while - it's worth checking out. The tape I rented has Japanese subtitles (tried to read them, but too hard with the kanji), so I think I'm going to try to fit it into an ESS activity at some point...