Director Lee Chi-Ngai is amazing here, as are stars Takeshi Kaneshiro (“Chungking Express”) and Mirai Yamamoto. This meandering, slick and very Wong Kar Wai-like film is so confusing, you’ll instantly ignore the deluge of plot twists amidst a huge cast of characters and instead focus on the beautiful cinematography and adept direction. “Now it all makes sense,” says Kenichi, Takeshi Kaneshiro’s character near the end of the noir-ish thriller “Sleepless Town”. Land of my people! (Or some of my people, anyway.) I’ll keep you posted.Cast: Kaneshiro Takeshi, Mirai Yamamoto, Lung Sihung, Eric Tsang, Kathy Chow, Seijun Suzuki Minutes later, I heard the guy’s door slam across the hallway, so I assume he got a refill and went out for another smoke. It’s off to Lithuania tomorrow. I was finally able to gradually scoot my way inside, out from under the awning drip and back to my hotel room. And then consider current events and their proximity to Russia, not to mention the US and Russia’s relationship.) (Remember that the Baltics are very recently independent of the Soviet Union. He talked about the state of affairs in Latvia and the local relations with Russia. He said he wished his kids grew up in DODDs schools like me and Jeff, and that he hoped to be able to take them around Europe once they were old enough to travel longer distances. He’d done three tours in Iraq and was a civilian police officer stateside. Which ended up soaking the back of my sweatshirt. All the while, I was standing under a persistent drip from the building’s awning. I went outside for a late night smoke and some cold air and ran into one of our hotel’s drunk soldiers. #GlobalDebaucheryĪll of that and a blazing hot hotel room, and I was entirely unable to sleep. That might possibly bring my rating up a couple notches, but still not higher than the local Estonian beer. And the alcohol content must’ve been pretty high because, after just one, I was a little loopy. I just know that I didn’t like it as much as I liked the local Estonian beer. Later discovered one was staying right across the hall from us and wondered to myself if they just grouped all the Americans together in a single wing.Īt some point this evening, I had a beer by myself when my dad was resting his back, though I can’t recall when. They were Air Force from Michigan and this was the sixth time in a year they’d been out to Riga assisting the Latvian army. My dad served 22 years, and we moved all over all the time when I was growing up. (For those that don’t know, I’m a career military brat. Saw some American soldiers at our hotel and my dad stopped to introduce himself. The restaurant had uppity food and I really just wanted some comfort food. It was rainy and cold when we checked into the hotel, so we opted to hang out for the evening. Awesome Instagrammable Spots in the Baltics.And possibly a sunnier outlook than the one I always adopt. My dad said he just considers it part of the experience. I’d checked with the hotel ahead of time how much a cab cost and I negotiated a fare only three Euro more. It wasn’t so bad, but I still despise the whole concept. Upon arrival, we didn’t have a pick-up scheduled, so we got to get ripped off by a cab driver. I’d later learn this portion of town was Moscow Suburb, home to Riga’s Jewish ghetto. And the familiar Eastern Bloc housing, which is always run down, was even more run down and not yet covered in trite paint colors. Another City, Another Cabbie HaggleĪs we made our way into Riga, I noted that it didn’t seem this city was doing as economically well as Tallinn with their independence. But not before that street sign came plunging through the window, impaling my torso while I choked on the metallic taste of blood for God only knows how long. That I’d die in a fiery crash in the Latvian countryside with no access to immediate healthcare. Jeff would know better than to mention this to me because all I could think about for the last half hour of the journey was how we were going to topple off the highway. My dad, who was sitting on the aisle side with a perfect view of the road, pointed out to me that the driver was swerving all over the place. The forest edge went almost right up to the water’s edge and there was just a short strip of fine sand I always love this. We also caught a periodic view of the coastline. No undergrowth, but lots and lots of moss on the forest floors that made it look like you could just crawl up and take a comfy nap under the canopies.
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