I’ve been attending the San Francisco International Film Festival for the past couple of days and I have come to the conclusion that pummeling through a gauntlet of movies during a film festival was just as I remember: exhausting and exciting. It’s kind of like riding a roller coaster after an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Nonetheless, there are many Asian-centric films that I have chosen to include on my cinematic to-do list. One of them is The Invention of Dr. Nakamats, a quirky documentary about Yoshiro Nakamats, a legendary inventor (hence the name of the movie) who has — wait for it — 3,400 patents to his name.
He will definitely make you think you haven’t accomplished anything in your life.
The 81-year-old man, who can easily be equated to any even-handed, yet demanding Asian uncle or grandfather, is the inventor behind the O.G. floppy disk (remember those?) as well as a “Love Spray” that supposedly make women irresistible. He has created a pen that could write underwater and has invented the car of the future. In addition, he has taken it upon himself to photograph every single meal he has eaten for 34 years. This visual food journal was not for the ultimate foodie blog, but it helped create an elixir for long life.
To make things even more interesting, it was Danish director Kaspar Astrup Schröder that brought this documentary to the forefront — and it’s a good thing he did. I’ve been wondering where I could get a pen I could use while taking a bubble bath.
