The Olympics!

I didn't catch Olympic fever until the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Before that I was of the opinion that sports=the mucho boring (that opinion still holds to non-Olympic sports). But man, China's Olympics converted me. I think it was the opening ceremonies that did it. There must have been some sort of brainwashing or subliminal messaging thing happening, because after those opening ceremonies, the Olympics owned me. I watched everything. I mean everything. Even DRESSAGE.

(It also didn't help that I was unemployed and a recent college graduate and I had cable, so there really wasn't anything better to be doing with my time than switching back and forth between NBC, USA, MSNBC, and the other two random channels that were broadcasting Olympic events all the time. And then I found out one of the guys on the beach volleyball team was from Solvang, so I had to root him on. He won the gold!)

I had a lot more difficulty getting into the 2010 Winter Olympics. Mostly because I don't fully understand the concept of snow. It's very abstract to me. I've only been around snow for approximately 2 weeks in my entire life. I sometimes have a hard time believing that snow actually exists.

But the thing that really killed the 2010 Winter Olympics was whenever NBC would cut to commercial break, they'd show all of these super annoying Olympic themed ads for How to Train Your Dragon. This is the ad I saw 400 times:

Everyone I've talked to who's seen How to Train Your Dragon has gushed about the movie, it's heartwarming, it's so wonderful, it's so touching... I don't care. I can't watch the movie. The stupid ads ruined any future film watching experience.

I wondered if I'd grown out of my Olympic obsession phase. Then I watched Kon Ichikawa's amazing documentary Tokyo Olympiad. It confirmed that I loved the Olympics more than ever (just not the Winter Olympics, sorry Sochi, Russia 2014, we're probably not going to be seeing that much of one another).

Anyway, the film is about the Tokyo Olympics of 1964. Tokyo was supposed to host the Olympics in 1940, but then World War II happened, things didn't exactly work out.

Ichikawa shows a post-war Japan, a Japan that is rebuilding and modernizing. We see a Japan that is striving for "peace, love, and valor" the themes of the 18th Olympic Games.

According to various articles on the internet (so this may or may not be true) the Japanese Olympic Committee didn't like the film because it was arty and too long (almost 3 hours, but doesn't feel like it at all) so they made him cut it. Boo on them, because Ichikawa's full version is amazing. See for yourself:

The beauty and grace of gymnastics. Compare that to-

The duckish waddling of racewalking.

The marathon. One of the most intense competitions depicted in the film.

One of the things that I loved the best about the movie was seeing Japan's take on sportsmanship. For instance, during the Women's 80 M hurdles, Japan's Ikuko Yoda doesn't place. The announcer calls, "Yoda of Japan loses! The Rising Sun flag will not fly. But she ran and jumped her best." I loved the positivity.

My favorite part of the film is the closing ceremony (unfortunately there's no clip of it on Youtube). The ceremony is bittersweet, everyone is celebrating in the stadium, there are fireworks, "Auld Lang Syne" plays. The announcer gives his take:

"Applause bursts out in waves. The most exciting closing ceremony in Olympic history! The formal opening ceremony was beautiful indeed, but tonight all barriers of nationality and race have dropped away. The whole mass of humanity celebrates together as one and feels sad to see the time must come to say good-bye. It's just wonderful, that's all I can say. This moment brings tears to my eyes and warms my heart as if understanding for the first time what world peace would be like. Sayonara! Till we meet again! Good-bye friends!"

The film ends with a poem:

Night

And the fire returned to the sun.

For humans dream only once every four years

Is it enough for us to let this peace we've created

did away like a dream?

Seriously, if the nations of the world can get along to compete at the Olympics, can't we get along all of the time?

Unfortunately, this movie is out of print. You can't get it on Netflix, but if you go to USC you can check it out for three days from Doheny! I highly recommend it. And this isn't one of those fake recommendations, this is legit. WATCH THIS MOVIE.