The Last Samurai
September 29th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
The movie The Last Samurai staring Tom Cruise in 2003 was an idealistic, epic style portrayal of the samurai movie, though it did not touch me much. A Japanese film critic thought The Last Samurai gave a “storybook” portrayal of the samurai, saying, “Our image of samurai are that they were more corrupt.” To me, the epic was depicted in such a Hollywood style naiveté, such a glamorous way that it felt like a fairytale. I suppose neither the director nor the producer were interested in what really happened to the last samurai; it was just good material for them to use to develop an epic style movie. « Read the rest of this entry »
Natural Dye
April 11th, 2011 § 2 Comments
Many people think that natural dye would be environmentally friendly and that “green” products should use natural dye. Let’s consider some facts about natural dyes.
Natural dyes have poor color power, meaning that a large amount of dye is needed to produce deep shades. Natural dyes have poor color fastness to laundering and sunlight too. Even indigo dye — which has a pretty good output — is not powerful enough to supply today’s demand. « Read the rest of this entry »
