A son returns home to learn the truth about his dying father, whom he has not spoken to in years because he could no longer stand the fantastic stories his father would make up about himself all the time (such as the one with the big fish). Sounds like a straight (dull ?) story, but turned out to be something like Tim Burton's version of Forrest Gump (complete with spiders, witches, giants, Siamese twins, a circus, daffodils, werewolves, a war, a bank robbery, and Steve Buscemi). All in all the best movie I have seen this year.

9 points

I changed courses at my Japanese language school. I was taking normal classes (conversation, reading, grammar) two evenings a week, but am now enrolled in a special preparation course for the JLPT Level 2 exam in December. This is going to be tough: There will be three hours of class every Saturday and easily enough homework to take the rest of the weekend. I will have to cut back on my office hours, too, which is maybe not such a bad idea, anyway.