Alice in Borderland

Expanding Its Collection of Japanese Dramas?

Asian Crush

Never Expected an English Cover of This

ラブ・ストーリーは突然に used as the opening song for 東京ラブストーリー, Tokyo Love Story.



Debbie Gibson -- apparently she has an entire album of English covers of Japanese songs. She must still have quite a fan base in Japan.

The original...

Romanticizing the Shogunate

Was watching the latest Taiga drama the other weekend, Yae's Sakura (八重の桜), and I was reminded of Abarenbo Shogun (暴れん坊将軍) because of the Tokugawa. I haven't seen any of the recent movies; will someone attempt to remake it in the near future?

I don't know at what time the original aired (or if it matters, in Japan) but the drama was PG entertainment.


At any rate, Yae's Sakura may turn out to be interesting as it covers the last days of the shogunate and the civil war that was part of the Meiji Restoration.





But it may be too feminist as well, even though it is based on a true story...




I wish I had seen some of Gō and Ryōmaden, but I didn't find out Tokyo TV had moved to the channel that also shows NHK World until last year.

Inferiority complex... in Japan?

The J-drama Jin marks the anniversary of TBS;

Chinese have an inferiority complex of sorts can be associated with the Chinese; the actions of the government can be explained as an attempt to reclaim past glory and wash away national shame for having been overwhelmed by foreign powers in the 20th century. But the flip side of an inferiority complex is a superiority complex, and both are rooted in pride. The common root is why someone can swing from one to the other?

Something comparable can be found in the Japanese psyche -- losing World War 2 may not have helped? The drama seems to be an opportunity for the Japanese to indulge in a fantasy of sorts - what if Japan somehow was ahead of the West in medicine. The main character, having traveled back in time from contemporary Japan, "invents" modern surgery practices and techniques in order to work as a doctor during the Meiji Restoration. In ep. 6 of the final series, the main character demonstrates his skills to a bunch of foreign visitors, and astounding them with his capabilities. How will the drama be resolved, and will his introduction of advanced medicine have anything to do with it?

It is unfortunate that Japanese programming on Ch. 26 on Sunday no longer has subtitles - I'd like to know what is going on in Jin, and there isn't much information on the internet.

How many in the audience will remember all of them?

Tokyo Hive: 151 former students to return for “Kinpachi Sensei” finale

How many devoted Kinpachi Sensei fans are there in Japan?

Kinpachi Sensei Coming to an End

Tokyo Hive: Takeda Tetsuya reflects on the end of “Kinpachi Sensei” & his role

I've seen a couple of the series when they were broadcast on local TV a long time ago--it's a sentimental drama which tries to encourage students dealing with the culture of examination hell in Japan, but I've never seen it offer real suggestions for reform or reject the current system. Maybe I haven't watched enough of it. There were references to spirituality, benevolence, and such as a response to some of the issues that Japanese teenagers face, encouraging them to look at the bigger picture and to think of what sort of people they want to be. A simplified Japanese humanism? But television won't save Japan from its spiritual malaise, and the happy endings that Kinpachi Sensei offered may have only given the audience some measure of emotional satisfaction and not the truth that it doesn't seek to confront.


More info:
TBS
wiki
Drama wiki
KikuTV
jdorama
Tenkai-Japan

How well is feminism in East Asia reflected in its television?

Lst night I watched the first 10 minutes or so of the Japanese version of Cold Case, Zettai Reido: Mikaiketsu Jiken Tokumei Sousa (絶対零度). The show seems less like a realistic procedural and more like a genteel British TV mystery, along the lines of Miss Marple. It doesn't help that the main character is played by the Japanese idol Aya Ueto. It is hard to give her character much credibility as a real police detective, since she is trying to be the typically "cute" Japanese female.

Korean and Japanese dramas suffer from a lack of realism when the writers are focused more on the interpersonal drama. A realistic depiction may not be their primary aim. For example, there is the current Legend of the Patriots (which, like Iris, might work better as a wuxia story). The romantic comedy Secret Agent Miss Oh was laughable (in a bad way) because it was an attempt at a romantic comedy within a story revolving around agents of a S. Korean intelligence agency. Then there was the aforementioned Iris -- while the series had many fans in S. Korea, I thought the lack of plausibility in the portrayal of intelligence work impacted the quality of the drama. (The producers could have learned a lesson or two from 24, and if you are familiar with 24, that comment should tell you a lot about Iris.)

Given the lack of credibility to the story, it is difficult to see these dramas as vehicles of feminism. But nonetheless they do normalize the image of a career woman working in formerly all-male professions. The other day I saw a short documentary about female S. Korean police officers (cadets?) in training. At the completion of their training, they were doing the "v" sign, which I did not think was professional or serious, but girly. If male cadets were to do the same thing, I would think that they have been emasculated to an even greater degree, not knowing what is proper for their self-image.

(I note that in a recent episode of Invincible Youth the Korean singers went to a tank base and the soldiers there seemed young, but more masculine than their peers who work in the Korean entertainment industry. It was also interesting to note that when they got some camera time to say something to their families, they were usually reassuring their families that they would be doing their best and so on. Based on my experience with the American military, I'd say it's very different from the messages and image that American soldiers present to their families. One could say that the Koreans are very family-oriented, but I also think that in comparison with Americans, they are rather infantalized because East Asian parents are too dominant in their lives. Being drafted in the military may toughen them up a bit, but it will not help develop republican virtue.)

Have women in Asia not been defeminized as quickly as those in the United States? I've seen some of the Hong Kong policewomen who cary firearms, and they do resemble nam yan po (mannish). Sure, they are not allowed to wear makeup, or only very little, while on duty, but their demeanor is not very femenine. Those who would go into such professions would probably tend to be nam yan po to begin with--it's very different from one sees in movies and television shows. As such societies enter the late stages of "capitalism" will radical egalitarianism take greater hold? How much longer can a family-centered ethic hold? It seems to be disappearing already in the big cities of East Asia. While most E. Asian women have it beat into their heads that they should marry young, more are content being single for a while, having small families after they marry, and returning to the workforce as soon as possible. (It may be even more of an economic necessity than it is here in the U.S., but do they consider the consequences for their children?)

How is East Asian feminism different from American feminism? Does it focus less on the "negative" (patriarchy, oppression, and so on) and more on the "positive" (equality)?

Losing time

Being underemployed and spending too much time on the internet = memory loss.

Or using it some unproductively (and yet monotonously) tends to make one loss track of time?

Yesterday I realized that it was Monday and I had missed Saturday's episode of Showbiz India; today I remembered the first episode of the "new" TBS drama on KTSF 26 was broadcast on Sunday. For a brief moment I was upset that I didn't watch the two shows. On Sunday I had been engrossed in KBS's The Legend of the Patriots but it still seems like my memory failed me. I can't remember what I did two days ago, because it was so unremarkable, and this was troubling. "Where did the time go?"

I need to find work and fill my schedule up with better things. (Spending the day writing would not be much of an improvement, but I could be wrong. Writing with a pen and paper could be better for the brain than using a computer.)

It looks like the latest attempt to arrange a get-together for the HS friends will end once again in failure. That's the last attempt, I think. Trying to maintain ties seems worse than pointless now. If I stay in California, it won't be because of past friendships, but because of family, and there are days when it feels like family isn't a sufficient reason.


Lucky Hawaii residents: KIKU