Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and other matters…

Eddie Redmayne
J. K. Rowling
David Yates

Today we watched the trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a movie starring Eddie Redmayne (the Oscar-winning star of The Theory of Everything) and directed by David Yates, and based on a screenplay by J. K. Rowling. It looks pretty exciting, and it's starting in just two days' time, on a Wednesday rather than a Friday or Saturday because it's a national holiday.

At the weekend, Chelsea and Manchester City both won their matches, but Liverpool and Arsenal both were held to draws. At the moment, only Chelsea look really convincing, with Arsenal 😃😃😃 and Manchester City drawing too many games. Manchester United are quite a long way back; they are also drawing a lot of matches.

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Dictogloss 3: Model

In 2012, it was estimated that the number of smartphone users in Japan had surpassed the number of people using the older feature phones. It is easy to understand why more people are choosing to use smartphones when you consider the number of incredibly useful functions they offer. The main advantage that smartphones have over feature phones is their ability to run “apps”, or programs made by third-party developers. These can perform a huge range of tasks, from converting currencies and calculating stock prices to playing games and drawing pictures. Owning a smartphone means that you can install as many of these apps as you want, and many of them are free.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Star Wars: Rogue One, and other matters…

Today we watched two trailers, both for movies that are coming soon. The first one was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the first movie in a new series by J. K. Rowling, starring Eddie Redmayne. It's a kind of spin-off from the Harry Potter series, featuring a former Hogwarts teacher who was fired. He never actually appeared in the books or movies, but was mentioned. Many critics were worried that the new movie wouldn't be very good, because it is located in New York and much of the Harry Potter charm comes from the British locations, but everyone says it is good. It is coming next week, so I am looking forward to it.

The second trailer was Trailer 3 for Star Wars: Rogue One. It is the first Star Wars movie that is not set in the same timeline as the major trilogies, and is called an anthology film, so it should be enjoyable for people who don't know Star Wars well. That is going to be released on December 16th.

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Rogue One, Ghost in the Shell, and other matters…

Today we saw two movie trailers, for Star Wars: Rogue One and Ghost in the Shell. Ghost in the Shell is a remake of the Japanese animation classic, starring Scarlett Johansson. I think I will check out the Japanese original before I watch this Hollywood version of the story.
Star Wars: Rogue One looks very exciting, and I am looking forward to seeing a movie that is not just a direct remake of the original Star Wars movies. The cast, including Felicity Jones, Forrest Whitaker, Donnie Yen, and Mads Mikkelsen, looks really good. I think there are already three trailers in circulation, so we have to be careful not to see too much of the movie before it is released in theaters!
Another interesting science fiction movie, coming next year, is Arrival, starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.

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Campus festival, Arrival, Rogue One, and other matters…

Today we watched two movie trailers: Arrival, and Rogue One. Arrival is the new Dennis Villeneuve movie starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. It is about the arrival of spaceships from another planet on Earth, and the attempts of Amy Adams, a linguist, to communicate with them. She is obstructed by the army, who believe that the aliens are enemies that they need to attack.

The Rogue One trailer was a new one, and it looked very beautiful. I'm a little worried that I've seen too much of the Rogue One movie before its release. In today's trailer, Trailer 3, Mads Mikkelsen was the main protagonist, and Forest Whitaker and Felicity Jones played less prominent parts.

This last weekend was an international weekend in football. England beat Scotland, but Wales drew with Serbia, and they may have problems qualifying for the World Cup.

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Rules Don't Apply, and other matters…

Warren Beatty
Annette Bening
Lily Collins
Martin Sheen

Today we watched the trailer for Rules Don't Apply, a romantic comedy starring Warren Beatty and Lily Tomlin. I enjoyed watching Lily Tomlin in Love, Rosie, even though its rating is very low on Rotten Tomatoes.

Right now, there are some interesting movies playing. Miracle on the Hudson is a straight, moving drama, based on a true story and starring Tom Hanks. Star Trek: Beyond is a well-made science fiction movie. Jason Bourne is a suspenseful action movie. All are very entertaining and well worth seeing. In December, the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One, will begin playing, on December 16th.

I heard that KGU will hold its campus festival this coming weekend. I hope it goes well!

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Rules Don't Apply, and other matters…

Warren Beatty
Annette Bening
Lily Collins
Alec Baldwin
Martin Sheen
Matthew Broderick


Today we watched a trailer for Rules Don't Apply, a movie coming soon that stars Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Lily Collins, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, and Matthew Broderick. Warren Beatty plays Howard Hughes towards the end of his life when he has a mental illness. Lily Collins plays an actress employed by Hughes, who seems to be involved in some kind of romance with another of Hughes's employees.

This move reminds me of The Aviator, which also focused on Howard Hughes. That movie was also a drama with a lot of comedy. Leonardo DiCaprio played the lead in that film.

The Premier League had fewer surprises this weekend than in recent weeks. Most of the top teams won their matches, and now Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool are all on 23 points at the top. Manchester United, although they played well, only got a draw, however, so they are down in 8th place.

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Mr. Tambourine Man, Underworld: Awakening, and other matters…

Today we listened to the song Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan, while watching a video on Youtube of his live performance at a folk festival in 1964. We also watched the trailer for Underworld: Awakening, starring Kate Beckinsale. Kate Beckinsale came onto the scene with Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing and since then has appeared in many movies. Most of them do not have such great reviews, but I have always enjoyed her movies. Her most recent one is Love & Friendship, a Jane Austen adaptation. That has not yet been officially released in Japan, but hopefully it will come to Denkikan early next year.

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Mr. Tambourine Man, Underworld: Awakening, and other matters…

Today we watched a video of a Bob Dylan live performance from 1964, at the Newport Folk Festival. He played Mr. Tambourine Man. We saw the lyrics as we watched the performance and noticed the many rhymes in his songs. His performance looked a little diffident to me, so maybe I'll look for a different one. He missed out one of the verses.

We also watched another Underworld movie trailer. This one was for Underworld: Awakening, released in 2012. Kate Beckinsale looked cool as usual. I think maybe I'll go back and rewatch all the Underworld movies, because I enjoy the fighting between the Lycans and Vampires and the pictures are not too horrifying to watch.

Kate Beckinsale first became famous with Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing adaptation. Hopefully, we'll have a chance to watch that sometime!

This weekend was another interesting weekend in the Premier League, with Manchester City again failing to win. They had an entertaining draw with Southampton, but they are still on top because Arsenal also drew. The biggest result of the weekend was the 4–0 defeat of Manchester United by Chelsea. Now the top 5 teams are all within 1 point of each other.

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Hurricane, Underworld: Blood Wars, and other matters…

"I'm finished with this war."
"Well, it's not finished with you. He wants the blood of you and your daughter."

Today, we watched the trailer for Underworld: Blood Wars, a movie starring Kate Beckinsale. It's about another chapter in the fight between the Lycans and the Vampires. I think it's the fourth movie in the series. The Lycans want the blood of Celine and her daughter in order to make some kind of super-Lycan/Vampire.

We also listened to a live version of the song Hurricane by Bob Dylan. He sings very fast and the words are sometimes difficult to catch. This song is a fairly straight protest song and also a narrative.

In the Premier League, Manchester City have dropped points again, and now Manchester City are level with Arsenal on 19 points. If Liverpool beat Manchester United tonight, they will join Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the table, with Tottenham just below. If Manchester United win, they will join Liverpool in fourth place. The title race looks as if it will be very exciting.

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Blog Check 2-01

Posts: 11
Words: 1582

Book reviews: 3
Juppun ha Juubun: 7
Diary/Typing: 0

Hurricane, Underworld: Blood Wars, and other matters…

Today we listened to the song Hurricane by Bob Dylan, the recent winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Hurricane isn't one of his best-known songs—or at least it wasn't until the movie Hurricane starring Denzel Washington was released—but it shows one side of his songwriting, the song being more or less a straight story told chronologically. The version we listened to was a live version from the 1975 Rolling Thunder tour. It sounded rather rough, and sometime let's listen to a smoother song. Maybe we'll also watch the Hurricane movie.

We also watched two trailers for Underworld: Blood Wars, starring Kate Beckinsale. I don't remember exactly, but I think this is the fourth one in the series. The Lycans want the blood of Kate Beckinsale and her daughter, perhaps in order to make an all-powerful blend of Lycan and Vampire. But from the trailer it looks as if Kate Beckinsale becomes all-powerful.

I don't really like horror movies, but the Underworld series is not too intense, so I want to watch this latest one.

Tonight, Liverpool play Manchester United! I'm looking forward to reading the reports.

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Shrek (Popcorn ELT Readers)

That night, Shrek finds a lot of fairy tale characters in the swamp. Now the swamp is not quiet. Shrek is angry.
"Why are you here?" he shouts.
"Lord Farquaad doesn't want fairy tale characters at the castle," says Pinocchio.

Thus starts Shrek's adventure. He goes with Donkey to see Lord Farquaard, who promises Shrek that he can keep his swamp to himself if he finds Princess Fiona and brings her to him to marry him. Donkey and Shrek team up with Dragon to take Princess Fiona to Lord Farquaard's castle, but Shrek realizes he loves Fiona. What will happen? Read this book and find out!

Hughes, A. (2011). Shrek. London, UK: Scholastic.

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My favorite vacation memory is this summer vacation. I went to Finland and France with my friends in this summer vacation. It was first time to go to Europe. I did a homestay in Finland because my friend has a Finnish friend. Japan was very hot but Finland was cool. It was very good to me. I ate Finnish food and played Finnish game. I enjoyed experiencing Finnish culture. I could see beautiful nature. In France, I went to some sightseeing spots. On the last day, I went to Disneyland Paris. I was very happy because I could meet French Mickey.

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Song of the Sea, Irish Coffee, and other matters…

Today we watched the trailer for Song of the Sea, an animated movie based on a traditional story from Ireland. It looks very interesting, and the colors are beautiful, but for some reason it's showing for one week, at Denkikan only!

Malta was England's opponent at Wembley on Saturday night. When I hear Malta, I always think of Murakami Haruki's book, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, in which Malta and Creta are two sisters. But this match had nothing to do with Murakami's work, although thinking about it might be profitable since the match was rather boring. The score was 2–0 to England, with many players taking it easy in the second half to save their energy for tomorrow's match, which is against Slovenia.

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Song of the Sea, and other matters…

Today we watched the trailer for Song of the Sea, an animated movie based on a story from Ireland. The animation was simple, but the colors were very beautiful, so I want to see it. It's playing at Denkikan this week only! Today's morning show is in Japanese, but the other shows are in English with Japanese subtitles. It looks great, so I'm going to try to go and see it on Friday.

Did you hear the news about the England football manager? Sam Allardyce was appointed in the summer after the poor performance of the England team in EURO 2016 under Roy Hodgson. But he was fired after about 60 days because of a scandal, and the new manager is Gareth Southgate. England played their first match under him on Saturday, against Malta, and they will play their second match tomorrow against Slovenia. The match against Malta ended in a win for England, 2–0. Let's hope they win tomorrow, too!

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Masterminds, and other matters…

Zach Galifianakis
Kristen Wiig
Owen Wilson 

starring A, B, and C

a movie starring A, B, and C



Today we watched the trailer for Masterminds, a movie starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, and Owen Wilson. It was directed by Jared Hess. It looks like a senseless action comedy, but surprisingly it is based on a true story of a gang who hold up a regional bank in "one of the largest cash heists in history", stealing $17,000,000. Jason Sudeikis plays a very funny hitman.

In the UK now, the Conservative Party conference is being held. The Prime Minister, Theresa May, will give more details on the process by which the UK will leave the European Union. It is said that Article 50, the official exit process, will begin in March next year. That will probably take about two years. But after that Britain needs to negotiate a separate trade deal. I wonder how it will work out?

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Book Review 2-03: Madagascar

Marty and Alex
live in a zoo,
with Gloria the hippo,
and Melman, too.
Marty's a zebra.
He's black and white.
He isn't very happy.
He runs away one night.

As you can understand from the chant above, Marty the zebra is bored of living in a zoo, so he runs away. Alex the lion, Melman the giraffe, and Gloria the hippo are worried about him, so they also escape to look for him. But they are captured by bad people who want to take them to a wildlife park in Kenya. They escape, and end up on the island of Madagascar, where they meet lemurs and fossa. (Fossa are animals who live under trees and eat lemurs.)

This book is published by Scholastic. It's a Level 1 book in the Popcorn ELT Readers series. Level 1 books are for early beginners and have a vocabulary of 200 headwords. You can check out the other books in the series at the series website.

You can see lists of Level 1 books, Level 2 books, and Level 3 books.

Beddall, F. (2011). Madagascar. London, UK: Scholastic.

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Masterminds, and other matters…

Jason Sudeikis
Zach Galifianakis
Kristen Wiig
Owen Wilson

based on a true story
action comedy
directed by Jared Hess

the trailer for Masterminds


Today we watched the trailer for Masterminds, a movie that was directed by Jared Hess and stars Jason Sudeikis, Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, and Owen Wilson. The movie is based on a true story about "one of the largest cash heists ever on American soil". One funny scene featured Jason Sudeikis, who plays a hitman, asking Owen Wilson, "Who d'y'all want me to kill?" At the time, Wilson's two children are sitting next to him, so, nodding towards the children, he says: "Not in front of the…". Sudeikis misunderstands the gesture and whispers, "Oh, you want me to kill them?"

The movie has a low score on Rotten Tomatoes, but it looks like a lot of fun.

The Champions League mid-week matches featured Celtic against Manchester City. A thrilling game ended 3–3. Yesterday, Manchester City played Spurs, losing 0–2. Many people thought that Manchester City would win the Premier League easily, but it seems that some teams have worked out how to play them. Things could get quite exciting!


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The Magnificent Seven, and other matters…

Today we watched the trailer for The Magnificent Seven, a movie starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, and Lee Byung-hun. It's directed by Antoine Fuqua, who also directed Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke in Training Day, for which Denzel got his second best actor Oscar.  He is one of my favorite actors, so I will certainly watch this movie. It is a remake of the 1960 movie of the same title and that was an adaptation of The Seven Samurai starring Toshiro Mifune.

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