netabare (ネタバレ)

netabare (ネタバレ) = spoiler

I saw Maleficent a couple of days ago; it came out in Japan a bit after much of the rest of the world.  There was a tremendous amount of anticipation for it here, as Disney is quite popular in these parts.  Most of my students can hardly wait to see it, and as its release here coincided with final exam week for many of them, most haven't seen it.

So after exams week, we resumed classes and I mentioned that I'd seen the movie.  They taught me the term netabare (ネタバレ), which I eventually understood to mean spoiler.  None of my students knew the word spoiler; it was simply the way they cried out "Netabare! Netabare!", with their hands held out to shield them, that I understood that they didn't want me to tell them about the story.  They then confirmed this intended meaning by saying to me, "Please don't tell me what happens!"

I liked how Angelina Jolie fit the part.  She uses her eyes so effectively.  Whenever she screamed out her curses and anti-curses in dramatic fashion I felt that things got a bit awkward, but on the whole I couldn't imagine another actress filling this part the way she did.  I don't think it a spoiler to say that I say that I liked the way Maleficent seemed always determined to be truthful with Aurora, even in situations in which it wasn't easy  to be so.

Sometimes students write about Walt Disney and how he's impacted the world as a first-rate imaginary and business visionary.  So far, they haven't brought up any charges of Hollywood blacklists and anti-Semitism, so I haven't had to deal with those sticky subjects. I won't avoid them, but at the same time I'm not rushed to bring them to the forefront.
The trailer in Japan. . .

and a press conference