Father Geek here fresh from watching a great film print of the best Lovecraft screen adaptation to date, DAGON with its director Stuart Gordon and a sold out crowd at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema last night here in Austin. Incredible! Loved it!

I know, I know, what am I doing posting a story on ATTACK OF THE CLONES, it opened soooooo long ago here in the states. Well, that's just it, "in the states", our site has a worldwide audience and believe it or not some parts of our world are just now getting to see the flick. Plus, if this was just a review of the film I wouldn't be posting it, buuuut this is a review of the EXPERIENCE of seeing AOTC in Japan with a Japanese audience. And I thought many of you might enjoy the cultural uniqueness of this event, totally different than the screenings back here in the good ol'USA.

So with that I turn you over to our guide for this cool little trip, Chiba Hakujin...

I'm an American (from New Orleans) living in Japan and teaching English and I thought you might like a review of the AOTC opening from the land of the rising sun. As you probably know today, July 29, all across Japan they held day long previews of AOTC. My theater in Kaihim-Makuhari showed 9 screenings, 6 subtitled and 3 dubbed in Japanese.

Tickets went on sale 4 days before the preview and you had to pick them up at the theater, no phone reservations. And there was "assigned seating", like for a play or sporting event. Luckily me and my girlfriend got good seats. We each got a special lobby card with the image of Luke & Leia from the original Star Wars EpIV poster on the front. On the back was info about the film and a message in Japanese from George Lucas asking people to please not reveal the contents of the movie to friends, blah, blah, blah. I have to say I was a bit surprised at the lack of fervor over the preview. No long lines at the theater of people waiting to get in and we bought the actual tickets the day before! Back in the US those puppies would've sold out 2 days earlier.

So we sit in our assigned seats in the brand new, absolutely gorgeous, stadium style Cineplex theater. I saw BLADE 2 in the very same theater 2 weeks ago so I knew I was going to see AOTC in the best possible conditions available in Japan. When my girlfriend walked in her eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas Day. You have to appreciate how rare a movie theater like this is in Japan, land of the cramped, small, space saving cinemas. Suffice to say I was well rewarded for my many weeks of resisting watching downloaded bootlegs of AOTC from the Net. On come the trailers, MINORITY REPORT, WIND TALKERS, and LIFE AS A HOUSE (which made my girl happy since she has a huge crush on Darth Hayden).

Then come those words: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . . NOT A PEEP from the audience! I couldn't believe it. I was flooded with memories from TPM a few years earlier in the states. The theater erupted at the site of these words on the screen, but Japanese etiquette forbid the audience, and me, to break into the cheers I so desperately wanted to hear. Then comes the logo and theme . . . still not a peep! I couldn't resist it and let out a very loud "Aww yeah!!" When I recovered from the very hard elbow poke to the ribs my gal had given me I focused on the movie. I'll say this about the movie: it was wortht he wait! I was a bit dissapointed on the lack of saber dueling. After seeing Ray Parks in action in TPM I was hoping for a bit more fancy footwork. But Yoda and Dooku (what was Lucas thinking with that name?) had a pretty good battle.

For the collectors interested in Japanese SW merchandise the theater lobby held no shortage of goodies for sale. Of course there were all the action figures (a bit steep at 1260YEN, ToysRUs has them for less than 1000YEN--roughly US$8). A few small Lego sets. One sheet posters from ALL 5 movies. A movie program guide (they make these for most movies here, just standard press kit interviews and general movie info and pics). A poster size uncut sheet of pogs (I thought those went out in 1992?). Black cap w/ yellow SW logo. Long rectangular holofoil stickers with scenes from AOTC, pencils w/ AOTC character heads on the top (clone trooper, jango fett, obi wan, yoda), and cell phone (keitai) straps with the same character heads from the pencils (it's very fashionable to have straps and charms hanging form one's cell phone). Also available for free in the lobby was an AOTC newspaper. The promo pic of Obi and Ani standing shoulder to shoulder, sabers at attention was on the cover and in it were 2 articles about the movie and ads for various merchandise (sndtrk, fake sabers). All in Japanese of course.

That's about it. Definitely a unique SW movie going experience. Feel free to post this on your site and let anyone know if they're looking for a hard core SW fan to see Episode 2 with when it's officially released here in another 2 weeks, I'm their man.

Peace,

Chiba Hakujin