The Slow Torture of Being a Western Movie Lover in Japan

So I guess what, Watchmen is out in America and the UK now? Or soon? And Coraline? And all sorts of other great movies are on their way? And here in Japan... I have no idea when Watchmen will even be released. (Oh, ok, I just checked - end of March. Still, it seems to be the last place in the world it's being released, so...)

Actually, I'm having mixed feelings about that one, but I really want to see Coraline.

I've complained about this shit before, but I thought I'd hammer it home by pointing out that a lot of Japanese movies get released that look fun, that I'd like to check out, but that I have little to no hope of understanding. Okuribito (Departures) just won an Oscar for Christ's sake, but I can't see it here because it comes without subtitles, and probably the DVD won't have English subtitles either even though there are English subtitled versions available in the west. Ass.

I mean, Okuribito would be nice, but mostly I just want to see the dumb movies:

I went to see the Sushi Oji movie, and I'm glad I did, but I wish some of these would turn up with subtitles somewhere y'know? Or that I'd pull my thumb out of my backside and work on my Japanese. That would be nice too.