The Week in Entertainment

Film: Sasame-yuki (The Makioka Sisters). It was advertised as part Jane Austen and part Yasujiro Ozu. Add a little Chekov and you've got it - Juichiro Tanizaki's novel transferred brilliantly to film. Making Tsuruko a presence in the film (instead of a letter-writer) worked really well; the dynamic between the four sisters is captivating if somewhat dysfunctional, and with all four in the same room it just gets better. And the knowledge that Japan in 1938 is trembling on the edge of disaster makes it all more poignant.

DVD: Some Hawaii 5-0 and some Mission Impossible (Season One, with Stephen Hill). Man, I can't believe I was 12 years old when that came on first... I know I watched it. Oh, those old televisions, with the picture dwindling into that dot in the middle of the screen when it went off...

TV: The Noble Bachelor - man, I had forgotten how awful this was. It and the Sussex Vampire get all weird and gothic and god-knows-what with the plot lines, but at least Vampire was well-acted. This one is just plain bad, all the way around - blending it and The Veiled Lodger gives us a story that is composed of incompatibilities, and adding Holmes's prescient nightmare - oh, puh-leeze. Avoid it unless you're compulsive about seeing every single Jeremy Brett episode of Holmes.

Read: The Man Who Smiled - excellent. A much-missed chapter in Wallander's life, brilliantly written (and translated). Also started Seth Lehrer's Inventing English which is an extremely entertaining book, and has given me this cool word for teacher: Lorethane. I love it.