First Love (on Netflix)

The cinematography of ”First Love” on Netflix is really beautiful.

The light, filter, composition, focus, and detail … Everything feels just in the right temperature and pace.

The scenes feel so warm and close. As a big fan of photography and an amateur photographer myself, I admire the way how the drama was shot, and you may say it feels like very “Japanese”. I guess many of us may not be able to well define what being “Japanese” really means.

We often focus on the director and actor/actress of a show. The cinematographer plays an equally important role in a show. A picture is worth a thousand words. To this day you can still see and feel the power of a good picture (or a good movie).

What I watch: The Recruit

Finished Season 1 of “The Recruit” now released on Netflix, about how a Georgetown Law School grad joined the CIA as a junior lawyer and then he survived in many struggles from internal office politics to terrorist attacks externally.

I was quite amused by the bureaucracy of different arms of the US Government, from the Agency to the State Department, and to the Treasury — Wow! Sanctions are real! OFAC looks very powerful!

On the other side, it seems personal connections do matter everywhere. Rule of law? People write the law and enforce the law.