Philippine Asian News Today Vol 19 No 10 | Page 30

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PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY May 16 - 31, 2017
Land of Mine (PG) ****
By Alan Samuel
Hearts should go out
for all who come across
Land of Mine. Indeed this
Oscar nominated film from
Denmark is worthy of win-
ning that most coveted
award. Head down to the
Vancity Theatre to relive
some harrowing wartime
experiences.
Actually, this film is set
right after the end of World
War 2. Apart from the hor-
rors of destruction and
fallen soldiers and civilians
another lingering leftover
are mines left Unexploded.
Given the task of uncover-
ing and destroying such
weapons of war are a group
of young German POWs
left to serve out their time
under Danish authorities.
In charge of the platoon
of having to “guide” these
very young impressionable
men is tough as nails Sgt.
Carl Rasmussen. Under
the watchful glare of Rol-
land Moller this steady as
he goes commander man-
ages to instil just the right
amount of knowledge and
fear in the minds of his cap-
tives who inch by inch must
traverse a deadly stretch
of sand somewhere on the
coast of Denmark.
You get that sense of
numbness and desperation
as the boys meticulously try
to disarm such killer weap-
ons. Talk about a pressure-
packed movie. Full of hope-
ful performances this tense
drama is a nail-biting hold
your breath experience not
to be missed out on.●
Wounded Soldier!
FIRST HOMER
Q. Who scored the first ever homerun at the Rizal Memorial
Ball Park on December 9,1934?
A. Lou Gehrig, dubbed ‘The Pride of New York Yankees’ and
‘Iron Man.’
     He scored the historic hit as a member of the visiting
American All-Star team.
     Gehrig notched 493 homeruns, including 23 grand slams,
in 16 seasons with the Yankees.
Ooops! Baseball maybe the great American pastime, but it
did not originate in America. Nor did Abner Doubleday, a Civil
War army officer, have anything whatsoever to do with invent-
ing it.  Rather, the game is English in origin and was played long
before Doubleday was born. The  Doubleday myth arose in 1908
when former U.S. National Baseball League President A.G. Mills
wrote that  Doubleday invented the game, diagrammed and laid
out the first diamond, and supervised the first games in Cooper-
stown, New York, in 1839. But Doubleday, who had become a
profile magazine writer, had never penned a single word about
the game he supposedly invented, nor could anyone attribute a
single quoted remark about baseball to him. It is now believed
that baseball was simply an Americanization of rounders, a sport
popular among English school boys and related to cricket.
Classified Odd. In baseball-crazy Japan, baseball teams are
expected to publicly apologize to their fans if they lose. And there
are other reasons that may prompt an apology. Players apologize
for getting hurt, and winning pitch