Live from Japan!

The week before winter vacation I had a group of three students (all boys) come up to me in the staff room. One of them, the designated talker had a video camera in his hand. All three boys had obviously worked very hard preparing what they would say to me and they did an awesome job communicating.

After about a minute it was clear that they wanted me to play a part in a movie they were making. It sounded like fun and I was definitely up for participating so I asked them when they would be filming.

They looked at each other and back at me, “Right now,” one of them responded.

All right! I closed my computer and cleared off my desk and followed them out to the parking lot where that day’s scenes would be filmed. They all walked me through what I had to do very carefully and slowly and they gave me time to practice.

As it turns out, I was the “biran” (villian). And that involved holding not one, but two, plastic guns and shooting them a lot. I only had two speaking parts, but they were definitely fun. When I ran out with my guns and spotted the guy I was after I had to say, “It’s Show Time!” They told me to say it with a very cool voice….hope I didn’t disappoint.

Then, later when I decided not to shoot the guy I was after I told him, “It’s your lucky day.”

They did a ton of cut scenes which meant I had to repeat the exact same gestures and lines over and over but it was really fun. Perhaps the funniest moment, however, was when I had to exit the parking lot at a run while firing my two plastic guns. As I rounded the corner and wen behind the minivan the way they had asked me to I ran into a group of about five of my girl students. You could see the shock on their face and it almost seemed as though they were thinking, “Wow, there is that crazy foreigner again! Americans sure are strange!”

Anyways, the boys finished their film and it will be shown at the student film festival during the first year ski trip. I am a movie star!