#it's although important to point out I can understand Korean and Japanese

[hadleysmis]

Timeline of Les Misérables adaptations and more that I've mentioned in this account

Long post

1903: Su Manshu's translation. Les Mis becomes a vessel for political arguments in regards to the Qing Dynasty and the political climate of China.

1926: Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh makes a translation of Les Mis in Quốc-ngữ (modern Vietnamese script) and subsequently makes a political argument against the colonial mindset of France.

Hồ Biểu Chánh makes an adaptation of the novel within the same year and by doing so, used Les Mis as symbolic resistance against the French cultural aggression. It is titled Ngọn Cỏ Gió Đùa; a name which the Vietnamese population would call the story rather than the French title.

1927: Budnaseeb, the first Urdu translation, is written. It was heavily abridged, not making it past 300 pages.

1938: Kyojinndenn, an Edo and Meiji Restoration period retelling of Les Misérables, is made. June rebellion is replaced with the Seinan war. Marius' legacy was of the samurai. Hadley guesses that the overall message was anti-war. Since it is technically lost media, I cannot find much opinions surrounding the topic.

1950: Ezhai Padum Padu, a Tamil movie, is made. It majorly focuses on Javert and Jean Valjean's story. It is set during the Indian pre-independence era.

1955: Kundan, a Hindi movie, is made. This retelling of Les Mis is set before and during the Quit India Movement, with the June rebellion being replaced by the protests of the said movement. It uses real life footages of the protests, such as speeches, in the movie.

1956: Duppathage Dukha, a Sinhala movie, is made. Not much information can be found about it, but there is a debate about how some aspects of it were copied from Kundan.

1961: Jean Valjean, a Korean movie, is made. It is lost media, and I can't find any more information about it.

1967: Sefiller, a Turkish movie, is made. The impact was so strong that Turkish people are said to immediately think of Sefiller rather than the original novel by Victor Hugo.

1969: One of the Japanese translations, called Aa mujyou, is written. There's illustration, but it wouldn't be coloured in until 1978.

1972: Beedala Patlu, a Telugu movie, is made. I haven't talked much about this adaptation unfortunately. It is set during the Indian pre-independence era.

1973: Minamoto Tarou makes a gag manga of Les Misérables. It is full of slapstick humour despite it following many key events of the book, although there are major changes near the end. The series ran until 1974.

1974: Lebanon makes a series adapting Les Misérables. Apart from short translated scenes, I haven't gathered much information about it very unfortuantely.

1976: Anime retellings of fairytales and old stories are broadcasted. One of the stories includes Les Misérables. It largely focuses on the story of Jean Valjean and Cosette, and ends when the two successfully sneak into the convent.

1979: Jean Valjean monogatari is broadcasted. Within Les Mis fandom, people usually talk about the awkward animation more than anything else.

1984: A manga by Misaki Akira is published. It is very 80's manga-like and it isn't known to be too accurate to the characters from the original book.

1989: Vietnamese movie based on the Hồ Biểu Chánh's adaptation (1926) is made. The director comes back twenty odd years later to make a TV series from the same inspiration.

1996: Korean TV series is made. It is set in the late 80s. For political context, 1988 was the end of the series of military-authoritarian rule of South Korea. Hadley's only watched up to the first two episodes because the loading time is abysmal and he's lazy.

1998: A Japanese fighting game adaption called Arm Joe takes the world by storm. Or it could've. It uses characters from the novel, but does not retell a story. The name is a pun of the popular titles of 'aa mujyou' which Japan uses as an alternative to 'Les Misérables'.

2000-ish: A horror manga by Inuki Kanako is made. It focuses on Cosette's childhood, and finishes with a rushed ending to Cosette and Marius' ending, without Jean Valjean's return after his departure. I couldn't find the exact date of publication.

2006: A peking opera is made about the story of Les Misérables. Even though there is a full upload with subtitles in Chinese, I cannot read it, so I cannot tell you more details.

2007: Shoujo Cosette, focusing on the little girl's life, is broadcasted.

2013: Vietnamese TV show, adapting from Hồ Biểu Chánh's novel with the same director as the 1989's movie, is broadcasted. The Vietnamese population overall, akin to the reaction of the Turkish population with their own adaptation, prefers and thinks of Ngọn Cỏ Gió Đùa instead of the original novel.

Arai Takahiro takes three years, starting from 2013 until 2016, to write his passion project of Les Misérables. It is seen as one of the most faithful adaptation to date, along with iconic beast analogies which made the manga stand out from other various adaptations.

A performance is carried out by Chung Ying Theatre Company in Hong Kong.

Türkiye uses Do You Hear the People Sing in their Gezi Park protests. The protests were fighting for protecting Gezi Park and the public places, defending freedom of speech and right to assembly, banning the usage of chemical gas by state forces against protesters, the resignation of the Erdoğan's government, free media, and fair elections

2014: Manga classics (Hong Kong) is published. It is seen as a nice starting point for the general population to get to know of the story, most likely from Cosette's storyline, but I haven't heard much from within the fandom specifically. Unlike other manga, this is more easily acessible to an anglophone audience.

2015: An Urdu translation, not abridged, is finally published. It nears the 1900 pages mark. It is titled Mizraab. This was scene as a massive improvement from the original approx. 250 paged translation.

A Korean original musical soundtrack debuted. It's a bit pop-y and rock-y.

2016?: An erotica manga is published. It 'tells the story' of Fantine, and the main ship is her and Jean Valjean. I personally do not recommend it. Javert has long, luxurious hair though.

In order to encourage English literacy, a performance in English took place in Hong Kong, encouraging young students to come and watch and take pre-show and post-show lessons and briefings in order to understand the story and theatre storytelling better.

South Korea used Do You Hear the People Sing in a protest against the then-president Park Geun-hye, fighting to hold her accountable for favouritism/influence from non polical figure(s) in political subjects, corruption, and extortion (to Chaebols). The protest lasted until 2017.

South Korea publishes a children's adaptation of Les Misérables: Les Misérables for lower age students (Athena Publishing).

2017: A book with illustrations titled gū xīng lèi is published. Gū xīng lèi is a common title of Les Misérables in traditional Chinese/Cantonese (I don't know which one).

2018: An illustration book depicting Les Misérables characters as anthropomorphic animals is published. The front cover says it's a beginning half, but as of yet, there hasn't been the second part published. The story ends after Jean Valjean successfully runs away with Cosette from having saved her from slavery from the Thénardiers.

A Japanese audiobook titled 'Jean Valjean and Javert' is made. It gives Javert's backstory as a cruel, black and white inspector. It also focuses on Jean Valjean and Cosette's familial relationship.

2019: A TV movie called Owarinakitabiji is broadcasted. It replaces rebellious aspects of the public with natural disasters (earthquakes). The story focuses on Jean Valjean's storyline.

The first ever government-approved adaptation of the musical Les Misérables in performed in Tehran. There are many changes which makes this adaptation unique, reflecting the artistic state of theatre in Iran.

2020: A Thai-inspired fantasy retelling of Les Misérables, named 'A Wish in the Dark' is published.

2022: Sri Lanka uses the song Do You Hear the People Sing in the midst of mass protests called Aragalaya ('The Struggle'). The protests criticised the mismanagement of the government in regards to the economic sector and the following crisis, severe inflation, daily blackouts, shortage of fuel and domestic gas and other essential goods. They also called to end the nepotism of the president's family.

Japan performs mijimenaru hitobito, a stage adaption of Les Misérables.

A Korean company publishes children's retelling of Les Misérables as a book with coloured illustrations.

A Korea company publishes another illustration book. It is short and concise, overwhelmingly focusing on Jean Valjean's storyline, with the June rebellion only taking the space of one page.

2023: Mandarin play, in joint collaboration with the Chinese and French government, takes place. It runs until January of 2024. Its aim was to be as accurate as they could be to the book, including reciting excerpts in French. It is also an original musical.

A manga based largely on Les Misérables movie starring Liam Neeson is made by Team Banmikasu.

2024: A ballet performance by the Momoko Tani Ballet production takes place.

A manga titled 'Dear friends of L'Heure Bleu' debuted. It focuses on Enjolras' storyline, and begins with him recruiting people for the cause, on his way of forming what becomes to be Les Amis de l'ABC.

The End

I'm sure I've missed out on a lot of things in general, but also within my account itself lmao.

Okay bye!

[burgeoning-ambition]

Hi Vincent! Since you're studying Japanese & Korean, I was wondering if there are any major differences in the way you approach studying each language? Especially since you are laddering Japanese and Korean.

Any helpful hints you've picked up on the way would be great too! ありがとう！

Oohhhh... This is a good question...

I think in terms of grammar I approach them similarly, by memorizing grammar by its function rather than by how it's translated, but when I review grammar I try to review my Korean by comparing to equivalent Japanese grammar. They're a lot easier to compare than either one with English, so it's easier since the word order is often the same and stuff.

But with Korean I think I use a lot more learning apps? Although that's mostly because the Korean resources around me aren't as plentiful as Japanese ones, so I can't get my hands on as much native reading material and stuff to practice. (And I'm not huge on k-dramas, haha)

Oh, another thing with my experience with Korean is that my learning community for it is much smaller- I couldn't really click with a lot of my classmates in Korean the same way I could with my classmates in Japanese (and there was one person in my Korean class who was kind of... A creep so I sort of avoided socializing in there in general), so a lot of my Korean learning is more independent. I won't lie that specific person being so like, uncomfortable to be around kinda killed my motivation to study Korean for a little while, so I really had to improve my internal motivations for studying to make sure I didn't give up.

In terms of tips and tricks I have, one thing I've made a habit of doing is writing down the equivalent Japanese grammar point next to each Korean grammar point in my textbooks! I'll write down conjugations with the same meanings, particles with the same meanings, and sometimes also phrases or vocab terms in Japanese next to the Korean headings and try to memorize based on that. It's usually pretty easy to do, honestly, since the English language textbooks I use for both languages describe things very similarly!

Also, I try to cut out English as much as possible when I learn new words in Korean! Like, I have the Learn Korean With BTS book, and in that the new vocab is only written in Korean, and then if I can't guess the word's meaning from the illustration they put with it, I'll listen to the audio translation in Japanese. I only use English if I'm totally lost because I don't know the word in either language and the illustration is confusing.

Hmm... Another tip I think is important is to not beat yourself up if you aren't "fully laddering" or something like that. If you sometimes have to go back to your native language to double check something, that's fine! It doesn't cancel out all the laddering if you have to go back sometimes to make sure you're actually understanding.

You can also usually find what textbooks Japanese universities use for their Korean language classes! I know Waseda puts all of their textbooks up on their class search and that's publicly available to look at, so you can go find whatever level of Korean textbook written in Japanese with Japanese explanations if you're advanced enough in Japanese!

I feel like laddering is pretty similar to immersion study in the sense that they can both feel pretty difficult and high-intensity even when you're just doing something basic. Completely getting rid of your native language makes things a lot more stressful, I think, so it can be harder. Even if you know that for you personally laddering will be a better way to learn it or more efficient or whatever, it can still feel kinda overwhelming to suddenly be trying to avoid your native language when you study, and I think it's important to remember that! Because sometimes it'll feel discouraging to be overwhelmed by "super basic stuff", but the way you're studying is more intense than studying using native language textbooks! So feeling overwhelmed by stuff you'd find "easy" in your native language is fine! Because it isn't your native language!

I dunno, I don't have many life hacks for it yet... But I hope this blurb helps somehow anyway!

[us-military-unofficial]

79 years ago this month, The US "liberated" the Japanese island of Saipan. I'll describe here why, of many territorial changes during WW2, Saipan most certainly was not "liberated"

[Trigger warnings]: Most any triggers associated with war. Including but not limited to: racism, oppression, US internment camps, suicide, infanticide, truly horrific propaganda, explainations (NOT excuses) for the Imperial Japanese Government and Military's actions throughout the war

Note: I've written the intro and this post has already become excessively long. Please realize it will not be exhaustive, complete, or perfect. I intend primarily to call attention to the US' past mistakes, especially that we have buried the history within our own country. If you feel something is important to add, be it context, corrections, or anything else, I invite you to leave it in the notes. My research and understanding of history is constantly evolving, as everyone's should be, and more information should be accepted but also fact checked.

Final (after writing) Note: You will find some trace humor in this post. Not because the situation is humorous or light, but in fact the opposite. Any joke or humorous organization, or what have you, is because I've been writing this for (checking and doing math) around two hours. I've cried, I've been angry, I AM angry, and I needed to make it emotionally readable and writable. (although I did stop myself from an outright joke or two, to not make light of the situation) There are points where I am utterly unserious around this terribly serious event. I do not handle uninterrupted seriousness well--

-- All comments, information, questions (though perhaps you can research for yourself and com back to comment what you learned!) and yes even opinions and thoughts are welcome in the notes. Hate is not. No one who reads this post will interact with any hate in the notes, and everyone who read will block you. This is not strictly a no-trolls-allowed-zone, but it is a no-troll-food zone. You have been warned, and thank you for reading this already too-long Tumblr post

The Battle of Saipan took place in June and July of 1944. The US army, particularly the air force, wanted the island as a staging point to send bombers on raids to Tokyo

With US victory in the battle impending, the Imperial Japanese leaders redoubled propagandizing to the citizens of the island. Most of these citizens were native to the island and didn't consider themselves "racially" (the term used by the Imperial government) Japanese. Many more were Korean slave laborers deported from territory occupied by the IJA.

This propoganda was largely focused on convincing soldiers and civilians not to surrender. They accused American soldiers of using their (IJA) own terror tactics. Mutilation of the dead, enslavement, and worse.

But as I'm wont to do, I'll be going into the details of the good ol' USofA's role in the mass suicides in Saipan. The Japanese Empire bears enormous blame, and I will not trivialize that. The US also bears enormous blame. Since calling out my country is why I'm here, and because the US' role in Imperial Japan's policies and culture is very unknown in the US, that's my focus

In early 1944- hmm nope we gotta go back further.

In February 1942- wait. fuck. a little further.

in July 1941 the USA- okay I promise this is the last one. deep breath, this is quite a time jump.

In 1919 Japan proposed an amendment to the Treaty of Versailles. It was called the Racial Equality Proposal. It did gain widespread support. Several countries, notably the USA, opposed the proposal and prevented its acceptance.

Japan was the only non-western world power allowed to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The Japanese Empire's government sought closer relations with the western powers and integration into their systems.

Details on the proposal, as with most aspects of political history, could be a series of posts in itself. Here are what I consider the most important points and context for my discussion:

Japan was seeking equality among races only of UN-predecesor, the league of Nations, states. This proposal came in 1919, and legal segregation existed in the US until at least 1968. The US, Australia, New Zealand, and Canda had taken or did take steps to inhibit Japanese immigration.

I will note that The Japanese Empire did hold ideas of their own racial superiority over other Asian people and people further abroad as well. Also that one driving force behind the proposal was Japanese suspicion that the predominantly white and western empires of the LoN would use it to exercise control over the Japanese people they themselves considered inferior. The proposal was intended largely to convince opposition within Japan to join the LoN.

-----

In July 1941, the second great war is raging. France has fallen. Less than a month has passed since Hitler broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and invaded the Soviet union. The US population is reluctant to enter another world war (although FDR, for his myriad upon myriad faults, sees that the world must stand together) but is sending enormous amounts of supplies from military to basic necessities to the Allied Powers. The Germany-Japan-Italy axis won't be broken until 1943

Then the US makes what some call a strategic blunder, and others call FDR's 4D chess mastermind gambit to end the war. The truth is somewhere in between, or perhaps on a different scale altogether.

On July 28, 1941 the US freezes all Japanese assets that they hold and cease all oil shipments to Japan, which is using oil to maintain sea lane supplie routes to Indochina, where the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) is taking yet more territory, as well as powering their war planes and armor.

Japan sees the western colonies in Asia as strategic encroachment, as unjust rule by ideas of white racial superiority, and most importantly, a potential source of resources. Food, oil, rubber, slave laborers, comfort (sex slave) women, and on and on.

I cannot go into the strategic ideas of pearl harbor and the invasion of the Philippines and other European Asian colonies in detail here. The overall IJA strategy is thus: delay American reaction, take territory, make retaking it too expensive for the Allies, negotiate peace.

---

February 1942. The US is recovering from the total shock of pearl harbor. Colonies have been lost. Soldiers and non-combatants massacred and worse. The Allies have agreed at 1941's end: none will make seperate peace with any Axis power, and nothing short of unconditional surrender will be accepted.

This month, the US creates internment camps for all Japanese-americans. Citizens, recent immigrants, children, people with power, people with money, people with nothing. Multiracial families are broken apart. The US propagandized these camps as places where Japanese-Americans could live normally without the ability to accrue intelligence or pass it to the Japanese Empire. In reality, they were mass prison camps.

Since then, the US has committed repeated instances of what are now recognized as war crimes against Japan. The US hasn't been much, if any, better to the people in territories it has retaken.

---

The Battle of Saipan begins in June 1944. D-Day has passed, Allied Normandy, France beacheads have become captured harbors and inland positions. Attrition among Japan and Germany's forces point to total defeat without a real change, and the Allies greatly outproduce them in war material. The Japanese Empire, civilian government and armed forces alike, is putting its endgame into practice.

The Imperial Japanese Army (and other branches) is in fact independent from the government, although both are subordinated totally to the emperor.

The endgame? Cost the Allies, America in particular, more lives than domestic support can tolerate. Force a negotiated peace. Fight to the last soldier on every island, on every hill, with every bullet, and with bayonets and rocks when the bullets and shells run out

Unfortunately for the Empire, the US is going to take Saipan. The deep problem here? If news of American soldiers bringing gifts and befriending the people of the island, the mandate to give their lives for the emperor might falter. Why fight to the last when the Americans only seem to want the war to end?

So American soldiers must be portrayed as horrifically as American propogandists portray Japanese people. American soldiers must be killers, monsters, rapists, anything that will keep the people of the island from letting themselves be taken.

Eventually no war supplies remain. So the Empire gives the soldiers, civilians, slaves, and other inhabitants their final order. Die in the name of the emperor. So the population of Saipan, soldiers and non-combatants, committed mass suicide.

Here I will leave another trigger warning. If you do not wish to read graphic details, please skip the next paragraph.

--------

Soldiers on Saipan pulled grenade pins and held them. People threw themselves from cliffs onto the rocks by the thousands. Parents walked into the sea, or jumped with, or threw their children ahead of them. Because surely even this was better than what the American barbarians would do to anyone captured.

This was proven largely false as time went on, but the will of the Japanese people did not break. The will of the Army Staff didn't break after two atomic bombs. They tried to prevent the emperor from surrending, but they failed.

But why did the people of Saipan, not primarily people who called themselves Japanese, believe what they were told? The reasons are many of course, and probably impossible to truly ever completely understand. But I posit the following

America forced Japan's partial surrender with inhuman threats via Admiral Perry's "gunboat diplomacy" in the 1850s, and forced the nation the rejoin the international community that had already treated the nation horrifically.

American policy was that Asian people were inferior to white people.

America invaded other Asian island nations and made them colonies, despite their semi-recent anti-imperialism bent

America participated in bombing to intentionally create murderous firestorms in German and Japanese cities that killed more civilians than both atomic bombs.

America sent pilots on near-suicidal, never before seen raids of Tokyo from carriers at maximum distance to punish Japan for Pearl Harbor. The intention was to burn down the most flammable targets: civilian housing

Germany and the Allies traded war crime for war crime like it was a game of chicken where enemy civilian lives, white civilian lives, superior in importance within America by law, were worth less than nothing.

America classified anyone with a traceable Japanese heritage in the United States as a hostile agent and imprisoned them. Right down to the children and the proud American citizens who happened to be from Japan, or have a great great great grandparent from Japan.

What if you were on Saipan? Would you have said "surely we can trust the Americans? Surely they're here to liberate, to save, to restore peace?"

Would you have said that after a hundred of your friends chose death with and for their families? How about after a thousand?

around 26,000 civilians were on the island before the battle. American soldiers interned around 18,000 after the battle ended.

The US government will still cite justifications for Japanese-american internment, even if it isn't totally unapologetic. Many Americans believe we were the liberators and even the primary or sole heros of the war.

We don't talk about the abhorrent propoganda the US put out about Japanese people, as a race. Terrifyingly similar propoganda to how the Nazis portrayed their enemies, in particular Jewish and Slavic people: untermensch. subhuman.

In the few documentaries I've ever found that mention Saipan, the evil is the Japanese Empire. The government, the armed forces, the emperor.

I've never heard so much as one sentence about the role of the US. the 100 years our country spent boring their racial, their cultural, their religious, their might, their moral superiority into the minds of friend and foe alike.

Not so much as "The people of Saipan, caught between their government's propoganda and American hate"

I've never heard "These people who knew that every Japanese person in America was declared a criminal by default, acted in fear"

I've never heard "The people trapped on the island who wondered if the war crimes that happened on the mainland would happen here. They knew that America answered war crime with war crime, and Japan had committed plenty itself"

So in this anniversary month of the suicides of as many as 8,000 civilians ahead of the approaching American forces, I wanted to share the context that I had to dig for and piece together myself.

I'm aware this is a nigh unreadable post. But if one American skims it and questions what they've been taught, it was worth writing

if one person anywhere reads this and thinks "we should try harder to consider the causes, and effects, and context of our actions" it was worth writing.

I hope you'll take a moment to remember the people who came (and those who come today) to America for a better life only to receive discrimination and then imprisonment. A moment for the people whose government found it all too easy to radicalize them.

And a moment for the eight thousand people who were so afraid of America, and rightfully so, that they chose to die pointlessly lest they become yet more Japanese victims of American hate.

------

and of course: this is a Tumblr post. I have not sited my few barely used sources. I have not covered this one event even, in any real depth. And I certainly haven't covered it without bias. I'm not sure anyone who knows the truth could do that.

so do your own research. don't take me at my word, but go look into the context named here and otherwise. Learn about the history my government hides, and the history yours hides too. Because it's there

and know that the words "Never Forget" and "Never Again" about the Holocaust, the war crimes, and the rampant disregard for humanity are just that, words.

You can't "Never Forget" if you don't know what happened. We can't ensure "Never Again" if we don't understand the causes, the mistakes, and how we avoid them.

[cvm-jpfilm]

Yukisada - GO

I LOVED this movie and its Yakuza-like protagonist. Though its a love story, I don't particularly see the movie as a romance. Instead the romance in the film serves to humanize the protagonist, who before was merely a ball of fury. The introspection that the movie presents through Sugihara really hit me hard; the isolation, the degradation, the anger, and the realization pulled me in to Sugihara's world and allowed me to sympathize with him. I could really connect with his circumstances and the absurdity of the situation surrounding Japanese-Koreans.

So obviously, the movie bases itself on the ethnic dilemma of Koreans/Chinese people living in Japan, specifically Zainichi. It's a phrase I've of before while studying Japanese and I wanted to write a little bit about it to capture how exactly this connotation impacts the meaning of the film. If you don't know Japanese, this might also explain to you why exactly Sugihara hates this label so much. So Zainichi (在日), literally meaning staying in (在) Japan (日from 日本 or Nihon/Japan) , refers to at it's simplest residents living in Japan. There is an important connotation in the phrases staying in or residents because this kanji,在, does not denote permanent stay. Its connotation might be derived from the verb it forms, which more closely aligns to "to exist (at a particular point in time)" which is one of the most basic verbs in Japanese,ある. The temporary connotation of this label is quite degrading as it literally refers to Japanese-Koreans as temporary residents or outsiders in Japan. In American terms, imagine if common English terms for people of specific foreign roots had the underlying meaning of "go back to your country". Although this isn't really that farfetched when terms like alien exists, which can be heavily demoralizing to people of foreign descent. I think understanding just how engrained the discrimination is in society and language can better frame Sugihara's fight against being labeled.

Which leads me to my next point, what is this movie about? Well, the overall film is definitely a critique on the discrimination of Koreans/Chinese in Japan. It quite clearly and harshly depicts the isolation, vulnerability, and hopelessness of Korean people like Sugihara when Japanese society turns its back on them. However, I think the film has a slightly more nuanced approached then just, "Sugihara wants to be part of Japanese society", that he wants to be just like everyone else. That's the thing, he DOESN'T. He's not Zainichi, a lion, an alien, or even me/himself, he doesn't have or is interested in any identity. I think he makes that pretty clear at the end of the movie, but what really stuck out to me is how Sakurai responds to his confusion over his identity. She doesn't "accept" him in the traditional sense. She's not saying that he's just like any Japanese person, that we're "all alike" or something to that effect. She says "Don't care what you are". The film is saying that stuff doesn't matter, its who the person is that matters. I found that very heartwarming, but also distinctive in that it doesn't label Sugihara a certain way. It doesn't fit him in a box, because the box really doesn't matter.

In this way, the movie strays away from the Shakespearean influence it draws. Its kind of hard not to notice, but the movie heavily draws parallels from Romeo and Juliet. Star-crossed lovers who cannot be together due to their social identities, Sugihara's friend is killed just like Romeo's, and the quotes all allude to this connection. However, it separates from the moral of Romeo and Juliet when Sugihara does not take revenge for his friend's murder, unlike in Romeo and Juliet. The subsequent revenge is what kicks off the war between the feuding families and leads to the lover's deaths. The separation marks a departure from the original message of play, which mocks the family clan structure at the time. Yukisada acknowledges that the relationship between Japan and its Korean/Chinese residents is not as balanced as the clans of the play. Zainichi and other phrases are an unilateral establishment of identity forced upon these people, and splitting from the original story acknowledges that relationship. Unlike the play, where clan identity is criticized because it does not affect who people are, the film disregards identity's meaning entirely because it is someone other people give to each other. In other words, only who people actually are matters.

I was much more focused on the narrative for this film, but I do want to draw attention for a bit to the use of physical objects and distance as symbolism, specifically fences. Yep, it sounds a little weird or basic but hear me out. During the first half of the film, Sugihara tries to jump over two fences when running away from the police. Sugihara is literally running from a Japanese institution, the police, and trying to escape by jumping over a fence. But he can't. He's caught twice and reprimanded. The fence in this case serves as a physical obstacle to the societal entrapment of Korean/Chinese residents in Japan.

Yet, this isn't always the case. In fact, Sakurai complements Sugihara's ability to jump over something. What is that something? A fence, the fence to his Korean school.

It is easy for Sugihara to jump over the fence to the Korean side because it is original identity, but can't do the same for the Japanese fence. It's a small detail but demonstrates Sugihara's conflicting identity.

[kimchokejin]

tag game 🏆 in which natalia (@jiminsproof​), heather (@wistfulocean​) and elle (@joon-rkive​) activate a particular brand of crazy for me. but they probably knew this would happen

so the game itself is simple, rank 34 bangtan lead singles (?) in order of your preference

i will put the rest under the read more because it’s about to get long-winded and opinionated in here 🤙

so first of all...this should have been much easier for me given i created a bts song ranker a few months ago and re-ranked the songs like, last month lmao. however as you can probably guess i overthought this yet again! but after 10 listens i think it’s safe to say i should just stop wasting my time and letting bts completely take over my spotify wrapped for the 3rd year in a row. so my ranking is below. but three FOUR important things before i begin!

1. there is only 1 (one) song on here that i h*te. some of the others aren’t really my thing, but i still enjoy them sometimes! it’s just my taste, if i have any. i joke a lot about my opinions being right but really, truly, these are just opinions

i had to resist adding “but i’m right” here

2. i am ranking these songs based on how i feel about them while listening to them alone with my headphones. i am trying to leave music videos and performances out of it, although there are some performances that have seeped into my soul and i just can’t separate them. but i will let you know when i notice that happening. not all of these songs even have performances (that i know of? did they perform heartbeat?) and with the slow ones ofc the performance might just be them standing onstage in front of microphones so i just don’t think that’s a fair comparison. similar with the mvs, i’m definitely gonna be biased towards the videos with more budget and/or when the members are older lmao so i just don’t want that to be a factor. and there are also some songs that are more fun to listen to while screaming along with your friends and i’m not gonna be able to forget that completely either but again i don’t do that as much with the slow songs and i think they deserve a chance in my ranking. point is i’m TRYING to focus on sound alone. and related to that:

3. i do not speak korean or japanese! i like to look up the meanings of bts songs when i think about it, especially because some of them have such great messages (and others not so much lol) but it’s easy for me to forget that while i’m listening to the songs because i don’t understand many of the words they’re saying. i would say overall that the meaning of the song sometimes makes me like a song more or less, but the language barrier definitely makes that super secondary to me just enjoying the listening experience

4. also! i became a fan during dynamite era. so i might be less attached to some of the old songs (or a song like yet to come!) than people who’ve been fans for longer.

okay, so with all that said, here is my ranking:

Film Out

Spring Day

Boy In Luv

We Are Bulletproof pt. 2

Mic Drop

Boy With Luv

N.O.

No More Dream

Epilogue: Young Forever

Lights

DNA

IDOL

Fake Love

Blood, Sweat & Tears

I Need U

Heartbeat

Run

Just One Day

Danger

War of Hormone

Fire

Dope

Stay Gold

Black Swan

ON

Airplane pt. 2

Butter

Dynamite

For You

Save Me

Life Goes On

Yet To Come

Not Today

Permission To Dance

some of these rankings might be surprising so please

let me explain

in reverse order so we end on a positive (but emo) note

(notes aren’t even necessary and were written mostly in drunk lmao basically just whatever came to mind while i was listening)

[namjoon voice] so let’s go!

34. Permission to Dance

literally no offense to anyone who likes this song if this music gets you going i won’t stop how you move but i want this song to walk the walk out of my life. where to begin...i guess i’ll start with the first time i heard this song, which was the premiere, and i remember watching the music video (i know it’s not supposed to count BUT) with my roommates and at the beginning we were like “oh she’s wearing a mask...is she gonna...” and then she DID. they all did. and we were like are you serious? we stayed up for THIS? like ed sheeran wrote it and i doubt the guys had much creative control of the video esp the scenes they weren’t in but like releasing a song with a music video basically proclaiming COVID is over when it was still a huge problem literally everywhere...YIKES! btw get your omicron boosters folks. ofc the lyrics are generic enough that my friends and i just decided to treat it like a gay rights anthem after the rainbow cowboy performance but even if i could get the horrible taste out of my mouth after that...the song itself still makes me sick. they autotuned the fuck out of it to the point where the chorus sounds like vomit sloshing around in a bucket, the lyrics are empty nonsense, and it’s just not bts! like ed sheeran wrote better songs for one direction, songs that still sounded kind of like ed sheeran songs. this isn’t even ed sheeran’s new sound and it CERTAINLY isn’t bts’ sound. i listen to this song and best case scenario i am tense the entire time waiting for it to be over. my friends and i CHEERED when it dropped down from #1 after one week lmao. the 1 (one) good thing about this song which doesn’t count for my ranking is the sign language built into the dance, that was great! i promise i will not be like this for the rest lmao

notes

the beginning is a one direction song. is it wmyb? that would explain why it triggers a fight or flight response in me

i mean when it’s live jk’s part at the beginning is kinda nice but again that doesn’t count

namjoon why did you say elton john in a british accent

“right vibe” yoongi please define this vibe you keep speaking of

hobi’s cute during his part at the end of the chorus but that’s because of him not the song

jimin’s high notes at the end are good live but again they don’t count!!!

same with jin’s “we don’t need to WOOOOOOORRYYYyyy” that’s my favorite part of his voice

i needed to drink to get through this one yikes

33. Not Today

okay so absolutely NOTHING against not today but this falls in my category of bts songs where i’m like...”why are you yelling???” which makes absolutely NO sense because i generally LOVE the songs that go hard and this song is kind of allegedly about social justice? which is literally the MOST valid reason to be yelling. and yet...i think this song just makes me feel like i’m in a battle scene in a movie, but not the biblical kind like ON, more like the sci fi and/or youth revolution kind like hunger games where it could feasibly happen in a few hundred years and it just stresses me OUT! when i’m in a really chill mood this song can be fun but in any other situation i’m like someone please get me outta here i’m gonna dieeeEEEE. idk i’m sensitive sometimes. i guess the song does its job though

notes

okay but literally does the beginning of this song not give you anxiety is this really just me

yoongi’s rapping voice is good though

extra! huh!

still part of this ~woooooorld~

extra plus ordinary! huh!

WAH!

WILL i survive? will i REALLY???

chong! jojun! BALsa!!!

seriously it’s movie trailer battle scene music

too hot! (milk)

i love hobi’s rap

whatcha sayay! not todayay!

whatever effect they did on the vocals in the bridge i liked that it fits

hands up!

i had a nice day i do like this song

but it’s also v long

i will accept this gunshot it could be thematic

32. Yet to Come

ahhhh yet to come...again i LOVE the message behind this song and it’s something i need to hear at the tender age of 26. the sound just isn’t really my thing. but the best part of this song is when the rap line comes in on the chorus. specifically yoongi and how PASSIONately he raps his part i really FEEL it in the live performances (not that that’s supposed to count here...). last thing i’ll say is that i feel the need to sing this song more than i feel the need to listen to it, so i guess it’s catchy, but i don’t enjoy the listening experience as much as most of their other songs

notes

vocal line does sound nice in the beginning actually

i should just listen to this drunk all the time

no i shouldn’t

[jk voice] yooonGAAAAAAAAY

i sure HOPE the best is yet to come

31. Life Goes On

this might as well be tied with yet to come tbh, the only difference between the two is that i’ve been with this song longer and i’m more attached. and vocal line’s high notes in the chorus are super impressive. i try to sing along and i’m piercing everyone’s eardrums. singing that high AND softly is really fucking hard like props to them...also every time yoongi sings “mmm mmm mmm mmm” i say “thanks suga” afterward because that alone is worthy of a grammy

notes

the bass line is so close to another famous song idk which one but it’s also satisfying

we got jk low notes good good good good good good GOOD!

thanks suga

BEAUFITUL BEAUTIFUL high notes

30. Save Me

this song is catchy, it just doesn’t really do anything for me. i think it ends up fading really easily into the background and it doesn’t really stand out next to other songs with a similar sound

notes

the clock is like what do you mean what is the purpose (2015) of it

jimin your voice is beautiful

i just don’t think i could pick this instrumental out from a lineup of other 2010s dj hits you know?

lmao the echo on tae’s voice went so weird like really listen to it (nyah nyah nyah)

please save me tonight p p p please save me tonight

whoo! whoo!

the best of ME???

but yeah this sounds to me like parts of other songs but don’t ask me which ones i’ve lived a long life i don’t remember

no thank YOU namjoon 🤭

29. For You

okay i genuinely do LOVE this song i just don’t always have the patience for it, if that makes sense. it’s a good vibe that sometimes makes me feel nostalgic but it takes some time to build up. that’s okay! i just have to be in the right mindset for it. and similar to heather i only discovered the mv recently and wow that’s adorable 🥺

notes

joonie baby why are YOU far away. come home. the kids miss you

shower! we’re getting really excited about hygiene!

lmao what is that noise they had to wake yoongi up for this

tae did a REALLY good job in that chorus wow

oh rap line in the chorus no wonder i like this

28. Dynamite

this is the song that got me into bts and it’s a bop! and i think a lot of people have problems with the lyrics because they’re ridiculous but dare i say i like them more than butter’s? it’s just a silly little song and it makes me happy sometimes. jungkook does like milk, lebron does jump high, king kong does exist, that’s three facts in one song what more can you want? and i’ll give bts the benefit of the doubt on this one because it was the first all english group song (that i know of?). maybe it WAS just a gift to armies all around the world because times were tough and english is a widely understood language and not an obvious cash grab like ptd or...

notes

cup of milk let’s fuckin rock and roll!!!

i like jk’s voice when he says kong and stone

this beat cha ching like money! huh!

the autotune here is bad too ngl

namjoon i’m sorry you had to say that in a megaphone but i kinda love it

🎵 its called 4 on the floor! a beat you can’t ignore! 🎵

27. Butter

okay first of all you cannot call me a butter hater exhibit a my 2021 spotify wrapped:

i listened to regular butter (#1) ALONE 724 times...i just really wanted it to stay #1 on billboard lol but i kind of was addicted to the song too. i didn’t get really tired of it the whole 10 weeks straight i was listening to it (between other bts songs...i’m not crazy). and i love that it showed bts being confident about themselves because i worry about that sometimes...some of them have anxiety and body image stuff so seeing them like this like oh yeah i’m hot shit again made me really happy. that said, you know, this was definitely a cash grab and the song itself feels very thrown together (unlike dynamite which was basic but seemed to be more ~sonically cohesive~) so i can only rank it so high

notes

b-b-b-buttah motherfuckah!!!

woo!

break it down!

i remember when this song first came out i was so confused? idk it all just happened so fast

fresh boy or doom boy namjoon which one is it

oh hobi’s part is the BEST part whenever there is party to bring he BRINGS IT

WE DON’T STOP!

OH MY GOD!

26. Airplane pt. 2

sequels will never match up with the original and with an original like airplane by j-hope that is a BIG hangar to fill. not that i spend all of my time listening to this song comparing it to airplane pt. 1 lol. it’s a bop for sure, but similar to save me i think it fades easily into the background. the performance with the microphones takes it over the top but i’m not counting that here. ummmm don’t tell natalia’s mom i need to stay on her good side

notes

i’m in a detective film

the HIGH NOTES! JIN!!!!! i think

i forget what the dance was for this actually but i hope they shake their hips a lot

again hobi’s rap is the best but it’s literally the same as part 1 you know???

IDUNNOIDUNNOIDUNNOIDUNNO! IDUNNOIDUNNOIDUNNOIDUNNOOOO! IDUNNOIDUNNOIDUNNOIDUNNO!

[unnecessary sexy sighing]

25. ON

getting to my biggest LET ME EXPLAIN moments. a lot of this will be the same as what i say about black swan, i don’t think these songs are meant to stand alone. they don’t sound BAD alone, but they were meant to be performed. it’s true of so many kpop songs but when you take away the performance these songs in particular (compared to other bts songs) just don’t hit nearly the same. i think a part of that might just be the way they were mixed/mastered and what the streaming platforms did to the volume when they were distributed (i am completely pretending to know anything about this). not sure if this is fair to use as a factor because the song itself is still so good, but this is a problem i have with songs from other artists too where they sound so good with speakers but then with your headphones it’s just...disappointing. ON in particular sounds a bit quiet and almost restricted in my headphones, while other bts songs sound a lot louder and fuller at the same volume. like when you watch ON being performed, you are ON the battlefield WITH the marching band watching them fight and it’s incredible. when you’re listening to ON alone on your headphones you are watching a war movie with bts as actors and half of them aren’t great actors and no one knows how to use the weapon they’re holding except yoongi. it’s like watching the ON cinematic music video when you could be watching the kinetic manifesto dance performance. it will just never compare

notes

i can’t understand what people are sayin! no way me too

no i will not look at your feet namjoon i have seen enough

whatever else namjoon is saying i love it

okay it’s a little better than watching a war movie it’s like watching a high school marching band youtube video

edgelords

hobi and yoongi’s echo things and sound effects are the best part of this thing

ooh yeah oh eh eh oh oh eh uh huh uh huh doo doo doo

YA YA YA YA! YA YA YA YA! YA YA YA YA! YA YA YA YA! YA YA YA YA!

WIN NO! MATTER! WHAT! winnomatterwhatwinnomatterwhat nega mwoladeon nuga mwoladeon i don’t give a uh i don’t give a uh i don’t give a UH! YEAH!

jimin will you be my roommate though for real i need one

like jk’s high notes are not nearly as dramatic without him standing alone on the stage crouching in pain with a band behind him it’s just not the same

like i’m tapping my foot i just don’t feel the energy

24. Black Swan

i think i made my point with ON but i will just add here that it makes more sense for black swan to not hit in general just because the whole point of the song is like losing passion for music. and it’s not *just* an r&b pop dance song like i think the orchestral elements and the vocal distortions make it super unique. but without the performance, again, it just doesn’t hit the same at all. musically this song is like edging to me. it kind of builds and then goes steady and you’re waiting for it to flourish but then it doesn’t, it just goes “do your thang” and i’m just like dudes what does that even mean. i don’t know what your thing is either. and again maybe that goes with the meaning of the song but i’m just never satisfied unless i’m watching the music video or a dance performance. so that’s why this masterpiece is here on the list

notes

this song is really fucking cool i mean it

the bass is full i appreciate that

bump bump bump! jump jump jump!

yeah yeah yeah! killin me now! killin me now! do you hear me yeah!

hobi’s part is really good

driving to the studio!

ba da NA NA!

this should’ve been a hit

23. Stay Gold

this song was an early fave of mine, i have fun memories of listening to this in my roommate’s car as they were first introducing me to bts. but it got old real fast so i haven’t listened to it much since 2020. but listening to it again after a while...it’s a good song...the best part of it BY FAR is jimin when he sings the japanese part in the chorus because holy shit is that not the cutest thing you’ve ever heard in your entire life??? wtf????? if he did that for the whole song it would probably be higher on this list lol

notes

i’m sorry i will never hear the beginning of this song normally ever since that meme lmao

tae is really good in that pre-chorus

they really BELT out that chorus you go vocal line

honestly pissed they only had jimin do the japanese chorus once i have tears in my eyes

jin said “i’ll steal your heart” and i didn’t even believe him but then he did it :(

oooooh those high notes! so pretty!

22. Dope

okay i love this song but it does fall into the “why are you yelling???” category. i think what throws me off is the musical break after chorus. whatever that instrument is reminds me too much of another 2010s song i didn’t like and i just can’t always get with it. i’ll jam to it with other people but not really when i’m alone. lots to make fun of though which i really appreciate!

notes

AYO LADIES AND GENTLEMEEEEEEEEN (say this in a really annoying baby voice)

DOPE! DOPE! DOPE!

JJEO JJEORO!!!

i don’t wanna say yes!

🎵 some words just go together like higher desire and fire 🎵

those beats in namjoon’s part really hit

ENEMY ENEMY ENEMY!

ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY!

the fact that namjoon said “can i get a little bit of hope?” and hobi’s part wasn’t right after...wtf....

bangtan style lmao

hustle liiiiiiiife!!!

[baby voice] I GOTTA MAKE IT RIIIIIGHT BABY

OW!

21. Fire

thoughts are pretty similar to dope even though they literally tell us why they’re yelling. a bass boosted version of this was my “GET THE FUCK UP BITCH” alarm for a short time so i think it also gives me horrible flashbacks that probably affected the ranking. but it’s a jam for sure!!!

notes

like those first notes bass boosted...imagine that waking you up...it’s scary

this instrumental is honestly ridiculous

when i wake up in my rrrOOOOM

say la la la la la! (la la la la la) say la la la la la! (la la la la la)

(bultaoreune)

BOW WOW WOW

hey........................................burn it up

fiyah!

need! to burn! it down! OW!

HA! HA! HA HA! HOTTER (i always thought they were just laughing aggressively oops)

20. War of Hormone

i am CACKLING every time at jk singing “yes i’m a bad boy so i like bad girls” i love it so much. also s/o to tae for giving his ALL to “TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT RIGHT NOW...IMMA GIVE IT TO YOU GIRL RIGHT NOW” because that probably did a number on his voice. he did so much for us 🥲

the beginning is hilarious i can’t believe they had the mario coin and power up noises too they did that for ME!!!

so aGGRESSIVE namjoon

I’LL be your FAN!

YES i’m a bad boy SO i like BAD girls

hello hello (what) hello hello (what) tell me what you want right NOW!

hello hello (what) hello hello (what) imma give it to you girl right NOW!

say that in a baby voice too

i like the guitar a lot

eh heh! eh heh! eh eh eh hu yeeeeeeeah!!!!!

19. Danger

this song is just so dramatic and hilarious i always love listening to it. also the most important thing i have to say about this song is i am SHOCKED there isn’t a pokemon parody for this in which jimin says “you gotta catch em all” right before the chorus because that’s what i sing every time i cannot be the only person who does that

notes

yeeeeeEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

(in a baby voice) YOU’RE IN DANGER

YOU’RE IN DANGER

YOU’RE IN DANGER

YOU’RE IN DANGER

i’m SICK!

DEONG DEONG DIGIDEONGDEONG

MICHIL GEOT GATAAAAA HOOOOOO

YOU GOTTA CATCH EM ALL!!!

you gotta make fun of jk trying to be sexy in the chorus with the UH!

tae really just let it all out in this song thanks for that buddy

BEEP BEEP!

rap line is so good. why are they so good. who approved of that

oh also sing jimin’s part in the chorus with a baby voice

18. Just One Day

ahhhh....this reminds me of chill car rides as well. i love this song, it’s cute, it’s catchy, it’s fun to “sing” along to, it’s nostalgic, it’s a specific genre of bts songs where i think this (and maybe for you) are the only singles, but it’s my comfort genre. i love it dearly

notes

[namjoon sexy voice] yeah...just one day...one night

[deep inhale]

YA!

the SOUND EFFECTS! BEST PART. so silly i love

when the chorus goes do it! do it! do it! i feel like they’re poking me

hobi brought the party you didn’t have to ask him he just did it

can you please stay with me 🥺

17. Run

run is another one of my early faves. i remember when my old roommate first showed me their music videos this was one of the videos and songs i remembered liking a lot, probably the best at the time. maybe it was the most similar to music i was already listening to. but yeah, it’s a big banger as you know

notes

the GUITAR!

dasi run! run! run!

jimin in the chorus he’s singing his little heart out!

(in the most baby emo voice you can muster) don’t tell me bye bye! you make me cry cry! love is a lie lie! don’t tell me! don’t tell me! don’t tell me bwye bwye!

hobi’s rap is really good wow

ooooh whoooooo oooooooh ahhhhhhh

the bridge is really good like that is a quality bridge do you know how hard that is to come by

16. Heartbeat

this placement is a bit of a surprise to me because a couple months ago this was really low in my ranking. i blame sarah <3 but i think the main reason behind that was, again, me having no patience to let music build. but when you let it get to at least hobi’s part it is SO beautiful. it may still grow on me yet, stay tuned

notes

jk solo low notes oh woooooooow

🎵 some words just go together like higher desire and fire 🎵

jimin i love you you don’t have to wish for it <3

you give me a new BIRTH

HOBI!!!

this is a fist pumper when you get to the 2nd chorus

JIMIN’S HIGH NOTES

JIN’S HIGH NOTES

when the GUITAR gets going oh yes

tae singing high is also so beautiful there’s something special about it

15. I NEED U

okay so this is another banger but what sets this above some of the others is the silly boy band dance i do to this song which isn’t supposed to count but still

notes

fall (everything) fall (everything) fall (everything)

AH!

hobi’s part is so good

but you are everything! everything! everything!

mianhae (i HATE YOU!) saranghae (i HATE YOU!) yongseohae (shit)

and then the dance move

it goes round and round! i go down and down!

jungkook you don’t need a girl could you even look her in the eye at this point?

I NEED YOU GIRL!

another excellent bridge

14. Blood Sweat & Tears

fantastic song ABSOLUTELY no question like this song is great the whole time there are no dull parts i listened to it 10 times in the last week so i should know. not even thinking about the performance!

notes

starts out good and just doesn’t stop wow

peaches and cream sweeter than sweet chocolate cheeks and chocolate wings

“kiss me” if you insist hobi!!!

hobi doing most of the chorus is actually the best idea they’ve ever had

kiss me on the lips IF YOU INSIST YOONGI

oh my god jimin’s about to do some insane high notes

OW!

13. Fake Love

listen. this song is amazing incredible show stopping never been done before never the same totally unique etc. BUT. it was not meant to sound like it does. the rocking vibe mix is a step in the right direction but ultimately this was the final answer. i consider this the official version. we all know they were emo kids it just makes sense

notes

[screaming] FAKE LOVE! FAKE LOVE! FAKE LOVE!

i wanna be a GOOD MAN! (just for you)

now i don’t KNOW ME! (who are you?)

HOBI’S PART

LOVE YOU SO BAD! LOVE YOU SO BAD! drink some water sweetie

why you SAD? i don’t know. nan molla

YOONGI’S PART

oooooh i don’t know i don’t know i don’t know why

outro as intro <3 they do that a lot haha

12. IDOL

what’s fun about this song is i forget how much i love it all the time for some reason. and then it comes on and i’m like holy shit this is so good how unexpected??? also that whistle noise in the background throughout basically the entire song scratches an itch i never even knew i had. great song, one of their best for sure

notes

the BEAT in the beginning

can call me artist! can call me idol!

i don’t! care!!

i’m proud of it! no more irony!

god this song is so fun

i KNOW what i am! i KNOW what i want! i ain’t EVER gonna change! i ain’t EVER gonna trade! CHOO CHOO!

YOU CAN’T STOP ME LOVIN MYSELF!

WOOHOO!!!

AYY!

spotlight eh ! superhero goddamn! anpanman!

I LOVE MYSELF!

RUNNING MAN RUNNING MAN RUNNING MAN! BRRRP!

and the whistle do you hear it in the chorus it’s in the left ear i think it’s like a sports whistle but melodic

AYY!

11. DNA

okay so i have history with this song as well because if i remember correctly this is the first bts song i ever heard. and i didn’t really like it at first because it reminded me too much of other popular songs on the radio at that time that i didn’t like. but over the past few years and with distance from those kinds of songs i’ve grown to really love this one. tae starting the song out is a real treat because i think he rarely starts out the big songs and his voice sets a really cool vibe. also s/o to the one of my favorite misheard bts lyrics of all time “PUT YOUR ASS ON ME!”

notes

lmao the put your ass on me line might have something to do with god and fate that makes it even funnier like this wasn’t random chance you were DESTINED to put your ass on me. tragically beautiful

TAKE IT! TAKE IT! 😳

this love! REAL LOVE!

DNA! TRUE LOVERS!

my notes really are just any english sounding words i hear sorry

OH YEAH!

i love the shouting in the chorus. i love shouting

whose voice is the really low dna

space noises!

yeongwonhi! yeongwonhi! yeongwonhi! yeongwonhi!

screw the lightbulb

la lai la la la! la lai la la la!

10. Lights

first of all side note why are bts japanese songs so freaking good and give me so much emotion? why didn’t they do this with the english songs. this song is so sweet and beautiful and we again get jk starting out in his lower register which is GORGEOUS and then jimin once again singing in the cutest voice ever why was he designed to make me cry. anyway. love the song and the video doesn’t count but it might actually be my favorite bts video ever

notes

low jk solo sorry idk why i’m obsessed with this now

JIMIN 😭

WHOA HO HO HO

SING IT

every time i’m thinkin bout love every time i’m thinkin bout love! eh!

the build up to the chorus i love it i love it so much

vocal line stop making me feel things

i’m your liiiight! i’m your liiiiight!

oh this song is long i forgot

i’m BREAKIN DOWN (same)

JIMIN 😭 

EVERYONE 😭

this is one of their best songs seriously i probably ranked it too low

9.  Epilogue: Young Forever

i am not always in the mood for this song just because again i have little patience to let things build but when you get to yoongi and hobi just fucking screaming their parts i ascend to another plane of existence. it’s not even necessarily the song, it’s the PASSION i feel when i hear it that makes me love it. and again you have rap line in the chorus you simply cannot fail with that

notes

[jk voice] YOONGAYYYY!!!!!!!

HOBI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHILLS!

i’m drinking sake out of a solo cup because i’m forever young

the drama! the passion! you’re gonna love the arts in philadelphia!

jimin got this tattooed

and the way it slows down and becomes kinda solemn at the end i’m gonna cry

🎵 gang vocals here we come! 🎵 😭

8. No More Dream

a classic of course of COURSE!!! again rap line in the chorus can’t go wrong. also this has definitely happened in songs before this one in the list but i love when rap line, usually yoongi, just has one random high pitched word when they’re rapping something (i want a big house big cars and big rings but  sasireun I don't have any BIG dreams) like it’s my favorite thing ever i don’t know why. and they’ve been on their follow your dreams bullshit since day 1 god i love them

notes

the BASS LINE

namJOOOOOOOOOOON

the school bell lmao

whatever hobi’s saying i love it

GEeee

STOP!

SUCH A LIAR!

la la la la la!

they’re just growling at me it’s the best

was the gunshot thematic

this seriously went so hard

please tell me how everything i’m doing is wrong i respond to that

yeah yeah! OW!

okay those gunshots were def not thematic :/

to all the youngsters without dreams aha xx

7. N.O.

okay with this song i’ve blocked out the mv completely :) and the ONE concert performance with that fucking GUITAR RIFF is literally like an engine revving up in my chest. the performance doesn’t count but too late it’s a part of meeee!!! and you gotta do that little steering wheel move for JOHEUN CHAAAA!!! the other fun thing to do is during the chorus when they’re like everybody say NO!!! you do the little echo no! and andwae! in a baby voice. baby voice never gets old to me sorry. and talking about youth issues no one else was talking about! they are icons for a reason!!!

notes

B T S

JOHEUN JIB! JOHEUN CHA!!!!

i guess this song is also supposed to be a revolution but it doesn’t stress me like not today idk why

everybody say NO! (no!)

we roll....we roll....we roll!!!

rrrrrrRRRRAH!

huh?! HUH???!!!

lmao there is so much going on in that last 30 seconds or so

6. Boy With Luv (barely feat. Halsey)

i think this was the second bts song i ever listened to intentionally, so again there is history, i was too jaded to like it the first time i heard it but when i was in a better mindset first getting into bts i really enjoyed it! jimin asking me how my day was and texting me i am giggling and kicking my feet just thinking about it. such a cute fun song and it being a more feminist version of boy in luv????? which still ranks higher on my list but pls ignore that for a sec finally please watch this video the choreography just works way too well

notes

doing the fan chant in my head sorry

vocal line finally figured out how to sound a little bit sexy without trying too hard it turns out the secret was feminism

ohh...............................bae

someone...please......come be his teacher......................

the instrumental is cool like someone called it kitschy once i agree if that’s not an insult

i love yoongi’s part

ay ay! ay ay! HOPE WORLD!

and hobi’s part

oh nooo! oh nooo! nooo way! nooo way! boy with luuuv!

oh whoa oh whoa oh whoa oh whoa oh

i WANT it!

namjoon’s part too all of rap line

yeah? sigh

let me flyyyyy

5. Mic Drop

mic drop is definitely meant to be performed but the difference for me between this and ON/black swan is the song still stands well on its own. it’s definitely better with the performance but i still listen to it by itself and i’m happy. and it’s just good the whole time. aside from the slow part but i’ll tell you my secret on getting past that. when namjoon’s doing his dramatic speech you gotta hype jin up. hype that part up like it’s literally the best part of that song coming up, like that dance doesn’t look completely ridiculous, and it will eventually be one of your favorite parts of the song

notes

okay i do picture hobi dancing in my head during this intro i can’t help it

yeah?

world business! bang bang! clap clap! magic! mic mic bungee!

i’m fine sorry! mianhae eomma!

i do it! i do it!

ooooh highlight of this song is when they echo “hella sick” like barking chihuahuas

baby watch your mouth (mouth!) it comes back around (round!) once upon a time (time!) we know how to fly (fly!) go look at your mirror (same! damn! clothes!) you know how i feel? (gaehaengbok) turn UUUUUuuuuuuP how many hours til we fly (woooOOOOOooooo) i keep on dreamin on the cloud! YEAH I’M ON THE MOUNTAIN! YEAH I’M ON THE BAY! EVERY DAY WE VIBIN! mic drop BAM!

namjoon says mic drop so calmly and casually i’m gonna

haters gonna hate players gonna play (swift 2014) live your life man good luck

HERE WE GO HERE WE GO HERE WE FUCKING GO!!!

and ragdoll

bo! bo-bo bo bo-bo body roll! bo! bo-bo bo bo-bo body roll! (what do you mean those aren’t the lyrics)

thanks steve <3

4. We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2

dude this just goes so hard so fast and again i’ve blocked out the mv completely in favor of the ONE concert performance in which namjoon does his little sword fighty move with his jacket and the...sash? strap? one of those things. i can’t get it out of my head and i don’t want to. again. SO much to make fun of here it’s just everything i need in a bts song and more.

oh FUCK yes

WHAT! WHAT! WHAT!

HA! HA! WE ARE BULLETPROOF! HA! WASSUP! (wassup) BULLETPROOF

[baby voice] IREUMEUN JUNGKOOK! SEUKEIREUN JUNGKOOK!!!

the vocal inflections or whatever!!!

fuck it UP tae oh my GOD

[baby jimin voice] we go HARD! <-- name of my bts hype playlist lol

click click ! bang bang! (said in a baby voice)

we just sing it like (said in a nerd voice)

AND RAPPER MAN!

rap MONSTER!

IRIWA MIRI BWA! HA HA!

rrrrrrRRRRRRAH

jin sang this right after downing a glass of milk

again there is so much going on in this dance break outro lmao

3. Boy In Luv

this song hits EVERY fucking time. i don’t even remember the performance aside from jimin is there. it doesn’t matter. the song is so good and i don’t understand the words i don’t care. it’s got hip hop, it’s got rock, it’s catchy, you can make fun of it, it ticks all the boxes for me

notes

(for absolutely no reason) FIYAH!

oh tae is definitely also there

tae really messed up his voice for this song please have some respect

rrrRRRRAH!

hakuna matata! OH!

i love this whole goddamn thing

say “say what you want” in a baby voice also

car noises!

hold up!

i just ignore the meaning of the word oppa for this

yeah yeah yeeeeeeeAAAAAAAAAAH

jimin sing it bby!!!

2. Spring Day

this song was another early favorite of mine but i did get tired of it for a while because they kept performing it in 2020. but now that i’ve had some space i feel like i can fully appreciate it again. this song didn’t have to grow on me at all, i instantly liked it, tae’s “you know it all, your my best friend” deserves an oscar, i can’t even beLIEVE yoongi’s verse, and again! they are talking about this even while the government was (supposedly?) trying to downplay the whole tragedy. and this was AFTER they were getting successful, they had something to lose, but they did it anyway <3

1. Film Out

this probably seems a little random. i wasn’t in love with this song on the first listen, it definitely took a little for me to really get into it. my friends and i kept playing the music video on our big tv just because it was trippy and funny and when the song started getting stuck in my head it was all over. and vocal line SHINES in this one wow wow wow like especially the end with jimin and jin!! but we still have humor in namjoon’s part so this song is missing nothing. and then the INSTRUMENTAL. it sounded a bit strange to me when i first heard the song but now everything (the piano, the orchestra, the guitar) all come together so beautifully. and the LYRICS like at the end of the day it’s just some sad j-drama ost but it’s MY sad j-drama ost. i’ve never seen it though lol

notes

gorgeous

starts with just a little piano

piano builds

guitar comes in

harmonies

.........................................................................................ayy

beat comes in (”let the beat in”)

[clenches fist] ahhhhhhhh

making fun of namjoon in this song is my favorite past time sorry

and the la la la la las over sope’s rap <3 <3 <3

AND NOW THE ORCHESTRA

AND JIMIN!

AND JIN!

AND JIMIN AGAIN!

beat drops out

i’m a conductor now actually

to conclude:

i hate ptd

i love jimin

newfound love for jk’s lower register

tae really does put his whole pussy into it sometimes

chances are i love hobi’s part

[jk voice] yoooooonGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

namJOOOOOOOOON

jin was there...i love him i swear

sorry for all the pop 101 references

why yes i am absolutely insufferable at kpop night thanks for asking

so if you made it through this whole post let me know i’ll give you a gift of some kind idk what yet but lmk if you have any ideas

not tagging anyone because i don’t want to subject any more of my friends to reading this but if you see this and would like to do it please go for it and say i tagged you! i love to hear other people’s thoughts on bts songs, good or bad

[ouyangzizhensdad]

Do you think that making Chinese food is cultural appropriation? I'm white and started making some of the foods I saw in the shows I've watched since the untamed, but now I'm worried I'm appropriating the culture.

Hi anon,

As a fellow white person, I am also someone who needs to critically reflect on how I engage with different cultures. I can't give you the definitive answer you seek, the clear absolution from any potential wrongdoings; in its stead, I can only offer to share my current thought process on this topic. I’d still encourage you to seek other perspectives, and many people have written or spoken on this topic.

I believe we must first acknowledge that, on the terrain of the internet, discussions regarding cultural appropriation have reached a certain... extreme where some people view all forms of cultural exchanges as inherently suspect. They purport that so long as you stay within the bounds of ‘your’ culture, you will problematic behaviours. That perspective is inherent flawed. That is, it relies on a vision of culture as ‘bounded entities’ that exist in themselves. In reality, the ‘stuff’ that makes culture is emergent, existing only relationally, dialectically--it is a not a ‘thing’ that moves through time but an idea which is constantly negotiated and reproduced in relation to power and changing material realities to remain relevant and intelligible. The boundaries of cultural and ethnic groups are fuzzy, overlapping, and constantly being reworked and made meaningful. As an illustration, many of the food I grew up eating was influenced by ingredients and recipes immigrants brought in the 19th and 20th centuries, yet these dishes were understood as 'typically ours’. And it needs to be acknowledged that most of what is currently considered ‘white people food’ relies on ingredients that were introduced to our diet through colonialism and the violent dispossession of indigenous peoples (and, often, the current day exploitation of workers in the South and of migrant workers). No food can be truly ‘traditionally ours’, whatever the purported ‘we’ ends up being brought into the equation, and no eating behaviours can avoid the historical legacy and continuity of violence and power.

Of course, as people who exist in the world, we know that there are cultural differences. Bakhtin’s insights on language through the tensions between centripedal (ie towards uniformity, a common meaning) and centrifugal (toward diversity and change) forces can be expanded to help us conceptualise how we make sense of the way a ‘culture’ is perpetuated through time as something meaningful in our daily lives. Uniformity allows intelligibility, sense-making, but diversity and change are inescapable by-products of individuals and groups repeatedly going through life, meeting and trying to create intelligibility and sense together in a world that cannot stay the same. It is at the intersection of these two conflicting forces that something can be different yet considered the same--that we can create continuity out of change. But something perhaps less emphasized in Bakhtin’s discussions is how much power and material realities work on these forces. Power influences both centripedal and centrifugal forces, if only in orchestrating circumstances that shape how one encounters ‘different cultures’ or reproduces their 'own' culture.

We live at a moment where the world seems to have reached an apex of connectivity--where goods, people, ideas (and viruses) move across distance and borders at speeds that defy comprehension. Yet the way goods, people and ideas move (through which canals and systems? in which direction? to the benefits of whom? at the expense of whom? to what reception or use? in the service of which institutions and ideologies?) or are, inversely, incapable or unwilling to move, is influenced by power and material realities. It is inescapable.

In a roundabout way, what I’m trying to say is that it's useless to try to live life in 'your lane' by turning to a baseline 'culture' because we simply do not have a baseline culture to return to that is 'safe' from the influences of other cultures or the taint of the historical legacy and continuity of violence. So how do I personally reconcile that with how I engage with content that is produced from different cultural contexts, and how I engage with cooking food that is influenced by different cultural contexts? For me the guidelines I take into consideration are respect, attribution and avoiding forms of dehumanisation. These emerged out of witnessing how other white people have acted as well as critically reflecting on how I have acted in the past, and trying to do better (including of course, by listening to different perspectives on the topic). [just in case, warning for examples of racism/micro-agressions] I've been in China with white people who would praise the cooking we were eating in the same breath they were making jokes about dog meat. I've witnessed in Japan a dude decide not to come to an izakaya with Japanese colleagues, fucking off on his own to Akihabara instead, because he was disappointed he couldn’t talk about anime with them--too obsessed with the idealised version of Japan he’d created in his head to treat the Japanese people he met as people. The internet is full of white people telling you how to cook food from places they've never been and taking credit for 'popularising' that dish or 'making it better'. That's not even talking about the tendency for food to become a mark of a cosmopolitan, metropolitan identity in the West--the open-minded, the liberal, the traveler, the hip white person up with the times and beyond the mainstream. Hell, I've even seen people who act as if eating ‘ethnic’ food prepared by immigrants is the singular proof that they were people who cared about immigrants' well-being.

Food is rarely just about food, even when consumed at home. At the same time, we’d be remiss in all these discussions of power to dismiss how food is also one of oldest things we, as humans, want to share with others--including strangers. Feeding is nourishing and giving, eating is accepting into ourselves something made by others. Most people appreciate it when the value of a dish that holds importance for them is recognised by others--although, of course, many might understandably also resent that they have been discriminated against or mocked for eating that same food. Every time I’ve been invited in an immigrant household or at events with mostly immigrants, I’ve felt this sense of almost trepidation emanating from them, waiting for my reaction, and satisfaction once I was seen eating and appreciating the food they had served me--as if the acceptance of the food that was tied to their identity was a form of acceptance of who they were. Of course this can’t be disentangled from past experiences where other people might have been disrespectful, dismissive or outright racist: but the excitement they had in sharing food that had meaning to them and seeing others appreciate it was genuine.

Beyond situations of clear cultural sharing, where we get closer to what appears to be ‘cultural appropriation’, I believe that we cannot act as if there is something inherently sacrilegious in the idea of adapting recipes or using a specific ingredients in new ways--that’s centrifugal forces at play, and they have provided us with many dishes we love today: from immigrant creations like butter chicken to things like spicy kimchi. We cannot work with the assumption that people will only react with hostility at the idea of other people cooking the food they grew with, even in ways that are different from how they’re traditionally used and are thus “not authentic”. I still remember an interaction I had in a Korean grocery store, once upon a time when I lived in a metropolitan city. A man in front of me at the cash register who had been buying snacks and chatting with the employee in Korean looked at my stuff and suddenly asked me if I knew the name of the leafy green I was buying. I wasn’t necessarily surprised because I had overheard in the past customers and employees commenting in Korean about being surprised about the ingredients I, a white person, was purchasing, thinking I couldn’t understand them. I confirmed to him that I knew I was buying mustard greens. He then asked me what I was planning to do with them, and I explained that while I didn’t think it’s a traditional or common way of using it, I personally liked to add them to kimchi jjigae because it compliments their bitter/strong taste and I like leafy greens in my soups and stews. He said it was interesting, and that he was kind of impressed. The employee chimed to tell me I should be honoured at the compliment because the man was actually a chef who owned famous Korean fusion restaurants in the city. That was clearly someone who took Korean food very seriously and clearly had a certain degree of suspicion regarding how white people interacted with it, but he was also curious and interested in seeing how I approached ingredients without having grown up eating them.

Another point of contention is also that we cannot ignore that food is a sensual experience and that, while tastes are greatly influenced by our environment, they are not solely so. I grew up hating most of the food my parents would serve me, and started cooking in my early teens to avoid having to eat it. Before I started cooking, I would often just eat rice with (in hindsight horrible) western-brand soy sauce instead of the meal my mom had made. When I ate Indian food for the first time during a trip at the ripe age of 16, it blew my mind that food could taste like this. Of course I never wanted to look back, and with each years I discovered that a lot of Asian cuisines fit my palate better than what I grew up eating or other cuisines I had tried. When I was a teenager we visited my mom’s friend in France and I hated what she served us so much I’d simply choose to nibble on bread, prompting her to try to stage an intervention for my ‘obvious’ anorexia. Yet, being in China made me realise ingredients I thought I hated had just been cooked in ways I disliked. Do my taste buds absolve me from any need to think critically about how I interact with food? Of course not. But sometimes the reason we want to cook certain recipes and foods is just that it tastes great to us, and we want to reproduce the recipes we enjoyed with the ingredients and the skills we have. Or, really, sometimes we just want to try new tastes because we do a lot of eating throughout our lives, and it seems a waste to limit ourselves to a narrow number of dishes for decades to come.

So that’s where I currently am in my thinking about this topic, as a white person who cooks dishes influenced by a number of different places but who is also not trying to cook in a way that is necessarily authentic. Some things that I keep in mind that you can ask yourself now that cdramas and cnovels have made you interested in Chinese cooking is: are you taking this as an opportunity to support immigrant businesses when getting your ingredients? are you supporting white creators when looking for chinese recipes (some suggestion of youtube channels: Made with Lau, Chinese cooking Demystified, Family in Northwest China, 西北小强 Xibeixiaoqiang, 小高姐的 Magic Ingredients)? are you being respectful (not reproducing harmful stereotypes in how you talk about chinese food and the people who eat it)? do you use your interest in Chinese food to create a narrative about China and Chinese people that denies them, in some way, of their complexity and humanity? are you using your interest in Chinese food to create a narrative about yourself?

In conclusion I will leave you with a picture of some misshapen baozi I’ve made.

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression, radio version - Ep 43, July 2016 - Inadequate election coverage by media, Increase in motiveless crime.

Kaoru starts this episode by saying how its still really hot. Joe mentions that its only going to get hotter over the next few weeks, and asks Kaoru if he hates Summer. Kaoru says he hates Summer and Winter. He prefers Spring and Autumn, and will absolutely not be attending any summer fireworks displays or other such summer events. Everyone has summer vacation time, so not matter where you go, its hot, and there are people everywhere. He hates this.

Kaoru then moves on to talk about the new single Utafumi, in particular the special site that has been set up for it. Upon entering the site, the phrase 3分10秒間の痛み (3mins10secs of pain) appears on screen. This short phrase gives off a kind of instant power, but Kaoru wonders what Joe actually thinks of the song. Firstly, says Joe, the song contains an effortless feel, and does have an instantaneous power to it. For some inexplicable reason, he also feels like the song is enjoyable to listen to. Joe also picks up on something that he said during his Rolling Stone interview with Kaoru the previous week, which is that Dir en grey is very multifaceted when it comes to expression. Just as there a many different angles from which to view a Picaso painting, Joe views Dir's music in the same way. He fell in love with its multi-dimensional sound after seeing the last tour and listening to Utafumi, and wants to delve deeper into it. Kaoru expresses his thanks at such words, and explains that Utafumi is a kind of step in the direction towards the new album. He asks everyone to look forward to that.

Next they welcome Tasai for the Tokyo Sports corner. The first thing Tasai does is apologise for Hiranabe bringing a young woman with him on the last show. To Tasai, its unthinkable to bring a girlfriend to work. Kaoru says he was honestly pretty shocked.

Tasai's first topic relates to the House of Councillors elections, and how all TV stations run election specials on the night after the election has finished. The tv personality Dave Spector has questioned why Japan never shows such election specials on TV before an election. Surely it would be better to get all the info out there to the voters before the election takes place? Joe elaborates on this problem by bringing up the movie 'Pacchigi!/Break through!', by director Izutsu Kazuyuki. Joe had talked with the producer of the movie, who is a Korean resident of Japan. The movie deals with the conflict between a Korean school in Japan and the local Japanese teens. The producer told Joe that advertising the movie was very tough. He had paid a lot of money to a certain tv station for a CM spot, and wanted to use a clip from the one of thr climaxes of the movie where the Korean female lead character (played by Sawajiri Erika) says to the Japanese boy who likes her, 'If you and I were to be together always, can you become Korean?'. Despite being approved by the ethics committee, the tv channel wouldn't accept it. When the movie was promoted on the radio, the director and producer pushed really hard to be able to play the Korean song 'Imjin River', which appears in the movie, but at the last minute, the radio station refused to play it. This illustrates that the media are the most conservative ones out there. Japan needs its media to change first before other change can happen. Tasai adds that there is no law forbidding detailed coverage before an election in Japan, this is entirely self imposed control. Although the likes of Ikegami Akira play an important role in bringing political issues to the forefront, there is still a large build up of frustration surrounding elections in Japan. Kaoru states that if the media did cover elections thoroughly before voting took place, they would be much easier to understand. Joe agrees, saying that if people developed an interest in the small details of the situation, it might be a catalyst for them to check out the actions of political parties in more depth. Kaoru replies that a lot more fishy businesses would come up to the surface if that was the case.

Tasai admits that there are other ways to get information, for example on the internet, but TV is still currently the big one. The only rule is that they are not allowed to tell viewers directly to vote for or not vote for a specific candidate. But there is nothing stopping them from presenting all the information there is, and telling viewers to make thier own decision before an election. Joe wonders which media outlet will ever be the first one to take this step. It will be a very important move if it happens. Tasai thinks it is currently still quite difficult for a tv station to be able to do this. He  also thinks that another important point in relation to the recent election is that young people didn't vote. Kaoru agrees, and says changes in the media would make everything easier to understand for them. Tasai says that in one previous House of Councillors election, the number of voters over age 60 was 12 million, wheras the number of voters in thier 20s in the same election was only 4million. The politicians are therefore always talking about the interests of the elderly..pensions etc, which people in thier 20s don't connect with. Tasai makes a plea for any listerners of this show who are in thier 20s to please go out and vote at election time. Kaoru echoes this sentiment. Joe say politics needs to be more future facing, and brings up the case of a country who did an experiment giving voting rights to 0 year old babies. Thier parents would vote for them in a way which they thought best represented thier future interests.

Kaoru coments that an online voting system is also needed to meet the reality of this younger generation. Tasai thinks that online voting will become a possibility in the near future. Joe comments that given the advanced state of technology in this day and age, an online voting system should not be that hard to organize. At the same time, Kaoru says he does enjoy going to vote in person at the local elementary school (*voting stations are often set up at elementary schools in Japan*), because he would never have any other opportunity to go into such a building, and he finds it quite nostalgic.

Tasai's next story is about a strange incident where a ballet teacher had her thumb cut off by a man. The man knew she would be alone at the ballet studio in the morning. He entered, strangled her till she passed out, and then cut off her thumb with a chisel. He must have had some kind of reason to do this, but no-one knows why. He apparently admitted he had wanted to cut off the little finger, but the ring finger got in the way, so he cut the thumb instead. Tasai doesn't understand why anyone would do this. No-one in the man's neighborhood knows anything about him, which makes him all the more odd. Kaoru comments that even though Japan is known for being a safe country, this kind of thing still happens. Joe asks Tasai if he has seen an increase in this kind of random crime in recent years as a reporter. Tasai says he definitely has. Crimes like murders etc used to be more clear cut in thier motives, such as wanting insurance money etc, but these days there seems to be a lot more thoughtless, maningless crime going on. Joe adds that a lot of these crimes have no apparent motive or end goal. Cases are also on the rise where crimes are commited against unrelated people. Tasai says this must have something to do with the environment people grow up in these days, but what exactly it is, he can't tell. This is unlike Hiranabe, who definitely had a motive for bringing that girl to the studio last week. *wink wink*.

To finish, Kaoru plugs the new jingle campaign, and says he might play some more entries on next week's show. Lastly, he wonders how Dobashi is doing in Rio and makes the realisation that if Dobashi never returns, Hiranabe will have to appear more often instead.

Songs - Dir en grey/Red Soil, Bauhaus/Hollow Hills, Dir en grey/Utafumi.

[nctinfo]

[TRANS] WayV’s interview with ELLE Korea May 2020 issue!

— Kun

A suffering leader, everyone's Kun —  With a meticulous personality. The pros and cons would be: I think I am the leader thanks to my sense of responsibility and delicacy. [But] when there is too much to take care of, it is a bit cumbersome. There’s no member who gives me a hard time because they all pick on me one by one (laughs). If I had to introduce my hometown, Fujian Province, it's a quiet city with clean air and few people. Many people come to visit because the mountains and the lakes are beautiful. When I think about nature, I start missing my hometown. At school, I was the head of the student council's entertainment department. I might look like a serious person since the members are so active and mischievous, but I'm also a fun person. Times when I feel like we’re one team are when you know what the others are thinking just by the look in their eyes and, when we dance and the movements are 'synchronised'. WayV to me is the comfort of being able to share everything with each other. All the members worry a lot about music so a lot of ideas come out every time we hear new music. It is certainly an advantage that all seven have a lot of desire. I have a bright young voice, but my desire as a vocalist is to have a thicker and more mature voice these days. Wouldn't it suit dance songs that match our [team's] style more than ballads. I graduated in Practical Music. If there is a song I want to arrange: I'm still trying to look for my style while listening to various songs. I want to challenge not only the arrangement but also the composition. I am a good cook. The dishes I recently made for the members are the dishes that I learned from the main chef of the company while I practiced them [on the members]. The menu with the biggest reaction recently was DongPo Pork. When I can't sleep, I deliberately watch low-rated movies and these days, I watch a four-hour-long landscape video shot from a train driver's perspective. It makes me fall asleep really fast (laughs). The most memorable stage after debuting was as expected, MAMA 2019. When I was giving the award speech, my hand that was holding the microphone was shaking and it was all captured [on camera]. What I want to say to myself in hard times is to be confident! The moment you lose your confidence, everything becomes more difficult. The mindset I don't want to lose is to be grateful. Everything I do right now is impossible to do by myself. This is the most important. To Winwin: who has known me the longest among the members! I hope you always take on challenges with courage because I will always be there beside you to support you. Also, all the members know that you are cute.  

— Lucas

Healthy energy, hot Lucas — Between a boy and a man, I feel closer to 100% boy! I don't think I feel mature enough. [Maybe I’m just like] a baby who wants to be a man (laughs). The most impressive man to me is a responsible person. And also, a man who gives everything to his loved ones. Having an attractive rapping sound because of a low and husky voice. My desire to sing is big! I want to sing a sad song. I've heard from people around me that a calm song suits my voice. Like the calm songs of Paul Kim I normally listen to too. My favorite song is "Take Off, The killing point is the dance break, with the powerful guitar riff. Emotion is what is the most important on stage. I believe each song has its own soul, and it is important to immerse yourself. My role in the team is positive energy. Although always looking bright, surprisingly, I have a lot of thoughts. Yesterday too, I had a lot of thoughts before going to bed, so it took me a while to fall asleep. Not long ago, Kun hyung played me a song he had composed and so many ideas came up so I wrote them down and sent it to him. WayV to me is a friendship that feels really deep even though it’s been only a year since I made a debut with the people I love so much. So much that when we come back from a schedule, as we laugh and talk together, the stress will suddenly be gone. The most important thing in a team is to have sincere conversations with each other to understand each other's differences. Only then can we get along well because of the wider understanding. Having appeared in a number of familiar variety shows like the Chinese version of <Running Man> <Let's Run Season 3> I like that I can go to various places the most. It's also a special opportunity to meet people with other jobs and not only artists. I think I'm often called/casted [for these shows] because of my sincere youthful reactions. The mindset I don't want to lose is the promise I made when I debuted to be a good influence on people. That's what I always keep in mind. I want to be a person who always gives positive influence to people, family, and fans around me. To Yangyang: who I know is really smart, you're still a cute little brother to me (laughs)

— Winwin A quiet presence, Winwin — In the reality show <Dream Plan>, mingling well with the elders in the village was impressive. Special trick behind it was thanking them for looking out for me! Since they were all kind natured, I guess treating them with sincerity looked good. When Lucas and I visited their home, we got served a meal and received a warm welcome. A performance video of Ten and I has been released. As a dancer, Ten is a member whose strength is being versatile. He helps the members at dance practices a lot. I’ve learned dancing in a special dance school. At the time I was the shortest and least talkative kid until I grew taller in high school. I’ve spent most of the time practicing alone. Chinese dance is similar to modern dance mixed with ballet. Learning the choreography is fast and it’s an advantage to be skillful in tumbling. I would like to properly showcase a modern dance at a concert someday. When I’m on the stage what I care about the most is my gestures and facial expression. During ‘Take Off’ promotions, the gestures and facial expressions I did during my part varied from stage to stage. I hear that I’m ‘pure’ a lot. A new charm that I want to have: our fans call me ‘Baby Chick’. I want to showcase more of an ‘eagle’ image, so I cut my hair short. Isn’t it similar to Park Saeroy (laugh). Something that makes me angry, although I normally have a good temper is being unsatisfied with stage performance to the point I can’t sleep on that day. But it’s okay to just take a nap. I just need to do better. The most memorable moment in WayV promotions was receiving the Best New Asian Artist Award at the MAMAs, it was the first time we’ve gotten an award together so I was very happy. The reason why I went to Beijing on my own as a middle school student seems to be fate. I passed my exams without much determination, left my hometown and went to school in Beijing where I was noticed and then debuted. Coincidence became fate. To me WayV is a path that we’re talking together, a team with a lot of growth potential. I’d like it if the younger members came to me whenever they need someone. I feel our fans love and support the most when: I’m always amazed and grateful for our fans hearts. All of the people who always look out for us even when we’re not promoting any albums and who support us are an immense source of strength. Success to me is when more people get to know us and we get to perform in many different countries. I want to think about my personal success after my team’s success. To Kun: when members want advice, we reach out to Kun first before our families. He knows a lot, can do a lot, and is a person we can depend on.  

 — Ten

Ten who is curious about what's next rather than what’s now — The secret to adapting well everywhere is attending an international school. I had friends of various nationalities and I also traveled a lot. Wherever I went, I went to see the common [places] first. Learning an unfamiliar culture is fun. I’m learning Thai, English, Korean, Japanese and now working hard at learning Chinese. I memorize expressions that I can use while watching Chinese variety shows and dramas. Although it's still difficult to read the buzzwords and hanja. The most important thing as a performer, and what makes you an outstanding dancer, is to have your own style while not being trapped by masculinity and femininity. I am different now from a few years ago and I'm trying to challenge myself by being flexible in various aspects. What I've learned since debut is, in the case of WayV, that when you work with various genres the main concern is the vocal style and with SuperM, I learned about the importance of performance through the activities [we did]. 'It's important to dance well, but you must also have your own [style]', 'think about what you want to express in front of the camera, but you must be faithful to your feelings on every stage in order to develop [yourself]' is the advice I received from the Hyungs (Baekhyun, Kai, Taemin). For the dance video that I did together with Winwin, the concept, music, settings, and outfits were all decided by us together without the company's advice. I came to realize the difficulties of being a staff member (laughs). I can [now] see the wider picture and more details. I like poetry too. I think poetry expresses emotions. It helps me  understand the world and the society as a person and not as an artist. The lyrics of my 2nd solo song 'New Heroes' feel like an autobiography. If 'Dream in a Dream' was all about the performance then 'New Heroes' is a song about the time spent committing [to something] and I thought anyone can sympathize with that. The [original] lyrics were so great that I asked them not to change it and to just go with it. I want to write lyrics myself someday. The kind of person I want to be is [someone who] always tries to go with the flow as I think that making plans and setting expectations can make it more difficult on yourself. I hope I could be a person who can leave a good impact on others. WayV to me is just like a family who always does everything together and takes care of each other asking ‘have you already eaten?’. Everyone has an open mind to try and accept new challenges. During the 'Moonwalk' promotion period, I was kinda surprised how well we got along. Having received recognition for my skills since debut. The times when the expectations are high are: Art and languages too are ever-evolving disciplines, so it's not easy to keep up. Nevertheless, there are self-expectations and anticipations to show a new side of myself. I will work hard (laughs). I still play Pokemon Go and I'm waiting for the June update. I will catch a lot of new Pokemon again! To Xiaojun: with whom I saw Harry Potter together yesterday! Let's make an appearance in Harry Potter when there is a reboot.

— Hendery

Flexible midfielder, Hendery — Something I’ve gotten into recently is practicing playing drums. Kun hyung is cooking a lot lately so I’ve been reviewing the food too. The other day he made kimchi jjigae so good that it even got an approval from manager hyung. My favourite track is ‘Take Off’. We filmed the music video in Ukraine and spent loads of happy times together, so I feel happier whenever I listen to it. Something I’ve improved on since debut is that recording songs takes less time. When I hear a member of staff say ‘Is this really Hendery’s voice?’ I feel proud of myself. The charm of my vocal is: I’m still looking for it, but I feel like my rap sounds nice when I spice it up with a little melody. Good at giving advice to our members. A tip to giving good advice is: it’s important to have helping and not making decisions in mind. Talk about both bad and good points about the A and B. The secret to always looking like I’m at peace is my parents always telling me ‘Your happiness is the most important. You always have a home to come back to, so work as much as you can enjoy’, thanks to them I grew up as someone with little stress or worries. Mindset that I don’t want to lose is the excitement before going on stage. I think the most important thing for an artist is their greed for performing. When I get on stage the most important is interacting with fans. The most memorable stage was our Korean debut on <Show! Champion>. I couldn’t believe we’re performing Chinese songs in Korea. I was so overwhelmed to see our fans welcoming us so enthusiastically even though they didn’t understand what we were saying. I opened an instagram account recently. My posting plan is ‘This is where I am‘ ‘I am filming today’. I want to showcase my daily self. I hope our fans can smile for a brief moment when they see the pics I had the most fun taking. To me WayV is: I feel empty when I go away to see my family for a little. Every time that happens I facetime them to relieve the sadness. Lucas is the member who picks up the most (laugh). To Lucas: No matter how busy we get, even if we become grandpas, I’ll always be by your side. It’s something I want to say to all of the members, but Lucas is a friend I'm especially attached to so I really wanted to say this. 

— Yangyang

Infinite potential, bold maknae Yangyang — I speak Chinese, German, English Korean and Spanish. Great language skills are useful when you travel. Whenever I talk with friends of various nationalities, I think it's fortunate that I can speak many languages. In our team alone, it's full [with people who speak] Chinese, Thai, English, and Korean (laughs). My role in the team is being the happy virus! Although of course, the hyungs think I'm a maknae that requires a lot of energy from them. WayV to me is a high tension team that can deliver strong and positive energy. If someone shows a slight sign of exhaustion, we immediately stick together and somehow infect each other with energy. I think that such energy is conveyed to fans on stage. If I have learned anything from living together with the members [it would be] the habit I have developed to control my greed and to care for others. I'm used to looking at the other's feelings now before doing something. My favorite song is ‘King of Hearts’, because I participated in writing the lyrics. I also love 'Love Talk' from the 2nd mini album. It is a charming song that is sweet and sexy but has a way to make your body move. My ambition as a rapper is the flow. Because I think this is the aspect that determines the impression of a song from the listener's point of view. I want to be a multi-talented person who is good at not only rapping but also dancing, singing, and writing lyrics. I've always had a lot of ambition. The attractive part of writing lyrics is that I can tell my story, since from a long time ago, I wrote lyrics little by little and it's always fun work. I want to steadily keep doing it. I like Virgil Ablo and Demna Gvasalia, and the fashion icon who caught my eye these days is Mike Amirie. I am drawn to people who have a simple yet clear style. The same goes for musicians. I like people who have a clear style like Travis Scott and A$AP Rocky. I’ve said 'I like who I am' before. Instances when I am especially like myself is when I'm confident. When I have confidence and want to show off, I can show much more than my actual skills. I use SNS to check on NBA and fashion news. I see the news on sneakers I'm looking forward to fast. Surprisingly, I don't look up anything about me [but] when a stage or performance is over I do look up the reactions. Most of them are good, so every time I read, I get energized. To Hendery: hyung, you seem to really get into gaming, but don't try too hard (laughs). 

— Xiaojun

Warm voice, Xiaojun — Something I’m into these days is practicing the songs that will be included in the next album that we are preparing for. Before debuting, I only sang my favorite ballad song, but nowadays, I want to sing songs of other genres such as R&B. I've been uploading videos of me singing on my personal Instagram. My favorite song is ‘Face to Face’. My heart warms up every time I hear it. I really like the lyrics ‘You won’t be lonely because I’ll be your strength, I won’t let you cope with your wounds alone in silence’. The keywords that describe me are kind. Friendly. Positive. I often say ‘I wish my songs were healing different people’. The way I heal myself is: my heart calms down when I look at pictures with many memories sealed in them. I take a lot of pictures of the scenery and especially when I look at the pictures of my hometown in Guangdong I feel healed. The reason behind my strong sensitivity is the big influence of my dad who’s a singer and my older brother. Ever since I was little we would often watch movies together. I graduated with a musical major. My greed for musicals is: I’ll surely do it again later. I like starring in musicals but one day I’d like to make my own. A musical piece I’d like to recommend is <Dear Evan Hansen> who won at Tony Awards and Grammys. It’s a warm story about a lonely high school boy suffering from social anxiety disorder, who is working on his trauma and healing from the pain. My way of dealing with stress is quiet time on my own. Just like positive energy, negative energy is easily spread to others, so I’d rather be alone. A memory I really want to make is a trip, I promised to go on before debuting, with the members. The destination is still undecided. The kind of team member I want to be is a silent supporter. It would be nice if I can be 'my people/dearest' to others. Something I want to do this year is to have an event for the fans. I like to surprise friends or throw surprise birthday parties. I think fans will love it if we would do a guerilla performance. I told you here so I have to throw [that idea] away and I will prepare something else (laughs). To Ten: You are one of the 'Hyung-line', and you Korean is the best so there are many times you have to lead us. Don't carry everything on your own and sometimes lean on us! The same goes for Kun hyung.

t/n: Due to the structure of this interview there might be inaccuracies as many things only made sense in Korean but sounded kinda awkward in English (more so compared to other translations we did). We tried our best to convey what they meant, but please keep this in mind when reading this interview.

Translation: Alex, Esmee @ FY! NCT (NCTINFO) | Source: ELLE Korea Scans — Do not repost or take out without our permission!

[ordinaryschmuck]

Why I (Want To) Love Amphibia

Salutations random people on the internet who probably won't read this. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons. If you've been paying attention to my posts, you would have known that I made a top twenty list of the best-animated series of the 2010s. And if you read my Honorable Mentions list, you would have known that I consider Amphibia one of those shows that, while I like it, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's one of the best. Don't get me wrong. It's good. But there are issues that I have with Amphibia, and I can't recommend it without being hesitant. I still like it fine, but I doubt some people will be as forgiving as me. So I'm going to explain the quality and faults that the show has, while still being considerate to those who do love it. Because unlike some people who would make a two-hour-long video essay about how much they hate something, I can at least acknowledge that while something doesn't entirely work for me, that doesn't mean it won't work for everyone else. Because there is a reason why this show has such a following...I don't think it's earned, but I won't knock people down when they love something I find passable. And I hope that respect goes both ways as I explain why I (want to) love Amphibia.

Also, this review is going to contain spoilers for the entire series. So if you haven't checked it out yet, I recommend you do it to form your own opinion. Season one is on Disney+, and you're on your own for season two. And I suggest you find a legal way to watch it if you can, because I'm not going to leave a link to a pirating website filled with every animated series and movie you can find. And I'm definitely not going to insert that link into a random letter in this review with the thought that if you have to pirate something, then you might as well work for it. Because that would be crazy.

...

Stop being crazy.

....

Anywho, let's start with:

WHAT I LIKE

The Comedy: Let it be known that this show is funny. Like, really funny. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's funnier than Gravity Falls, which got me chuckling with every episode, but Amphibia definitely hits more than it misses. There are occasions when the jokes aren't really character-oriented and could be said by anybody in the Plantar Family, but if they're still funny, then who am I to complain. Although there is one issue that I have with the comedy. But I'll save that for when I talk about what I don't like. For now, I can assure you that if you're hoping for some laughs, Amphibia has plenty to offer.

Warnings Against Toxic Relationships: But even the best comedies know when to offer some substance. Because I won't lie, when Anne described what is clearly a toxic friendship in the second episode, I was hooked. I love it when kids shows breach topics that can be important for children down the line. And for the most part, I think Amphibia does it well. There are so many instances that the writers' point out the several red flags that a person should avoid when it comes to a friendship and when it's time to either cut that person from your life and stand up for yourself. One of my favorite episodes is "Prison Break," where Sasha explains how she manipulates people and shows zero remorse for it. Then there's the episode "The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers" that shows how a person's influence can affect others and how much it changes perception as Anne and Marcy still believe they need someone like Sasha in their lives...At least I hope that's what the intention is. Because if the writers are trying to say that Anne and Marcy really need someone like Sasha...Well, I'll save that for my dislikes. Because even though it could use a little polishing, warning kids about toxic relationships is what keeps me hooked into seeing what happens next in this series.

It’s Not Afraid to go Dark: On top of breaking borders with morals intended for kids, I just gotta respect a show for playing around with what's considered "too dark." Especially if that show is on the Disney Channel!

The writers are not afraid to imply that death happens in the world of Amphibia, primarily because it is like a swamp ecosystem filled with predators and food chains. And I feel like because the characters are mostly amphibians, the writers can get away with an entire cave filled with the bones of victims as long as they're not humans. But frogs? No one gives a crap about them. There's a reason they're the ones who get dissected in schools.

Plus, a good majority of the monsters that Anne and the Plantars face are pretty horrifying at times. The crew who work on the show do a great job balancing the line of making these creatures look scary, but never go too far that they'll scar kids for life. Except in the Halloween special...How the f**k did they get away with the monsters in the Halloween special? And while they don't ever show what these monsters do, the implications honestly make things much worse, which again, I kind of respect. It's good to have shows like Amphibia that can scare kids a little bit. Getting through something fictitiously dark helps make kids feel braver and prepare them for the real horrors in the world. Especially since most of these creatures are just exaggerated versions of real-life predators...google them.

The Season One Finale: It was "Reunion" that made me realize that Amphibia has the potential to be amazing...it's also the last episode of season one, so let that sink in.

Joking aside, I honestly do love this episode. It's funny, it brings in elements from other episodes, nearly everybody does something useful, and it all ends with a satisfying and equally gut-wrenching climax. A climax, by the way, that is so perfect that I'm going to do a scene breakdown for why it's so good...so, you know, add that to the to-do list (I have so much s**t to make -_-). "Reunion" has so many elements about what makes a season finale so good that I feel like future writers should take notes for their own series that they plan to make. While I wish every episode of Amphibia had this level of quality, the writers know that the last impression is one of the most important. Because I will defend this show if this is the episode people use to trash it.

Marcy: I will also defend this show if someone trashes Marcy. Trust me, the best way to tell that someone is just hating on Amphibia for little to no reason is if they utter the word, "Marcy is a bad character." That is not true. Marcy is a great character, and I'd go so far as to say she's the best character in the series. She's sweet, adorable, and has a story ten times more interesting than Anne's. Anne learns what a sincere relationship is like through the Plantars, where Marcy falls victim to another manipulative relationship through King Andreas. It's her co-dependency that has the chance to get fleshed out more, and I can't wait to see if she has a moment to break out and form her own path.

Also, in the mass expanse of the multiverse, there exists a world where Amphibia is about the adventures that Marcy had in Newtopia as she uses Dungeons and Dragons logic to get by. And I want to see that universe! Because this clumsy nerd is already a blast to watch with the briefest of cameos. Imagine how much fun she would be if she had her own series!

Sprig: I don't know how much love Sprig gets within the fandom, but I got a feeling that it's not enough. He's funny without being annoying (most of the time), there's a whole lot of heart and sincerity to his actions, and above all else, he's the best friend that Anne needed. When Anne explained her very flawed views about friendship in "Best Fronds," it is clear how essential someone like Sprig is as he teaches Anne what friendship really means. It means caring for each other, supporting each other, making equal sacrifices for one another, and just being on the same page as each other. It is genuinely sweet seeing their friendship bloom, and I honestly hope the Amphibia fandom gives Sprig the amount of appreciation he deserves. Sure, he can be annoying sometimes, but for the most part, he's easily up there as one of my favorite characters.

Wally: Same with Wally! Who would have guessed that a character who appears as an dumb source of comic relief has a level of depth and lovability to him? "Wally and Anne" shows that while he is a nonsensical goofball, he doesn't really care what the frogs of Wartwood think of him. What matters is what he thinks of him. And that is just an incredible lesson to teach kids that just makes me love Wally more. 

(It also helps that he's probably the funniest character in the show. I know I said that he's dumb, but when he works, he works.)

Kermit the Frog Cameo: ...It's Kermit the Frog, y'all. I physically can't hate him. Especially since this is the perfect show for him to make a cameo in!

WHAT I DON’T LIKE

Anne’s Character: I don't have a problem with Anne. I think she's a serviceable protagonist, and I love the fact that she's Thai, offering a form of Asian representation other than Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. But here's the problem with Anne: After a season and a half, I still don't know what her character is. If you were to ask me to describe a Disney show protagonist within one sentence, I could do it effortlessly. Watch:

Star Butterfly: An adrenaline junky of a warrior princess who slowly learns to be responsible with each passing season.

Luz Noceda: A generous nerd that obsesses about fantasy and fiction, who still understands when to take a step in reality when the moment calls for it.

Scrooge McDuck: An old Scottish miser who has the heart of adventure and is a duck that almost loves his family as he loves his money.

For Anne, I don't know where to start because her personality is so inconsistent. Sometimes she makes friends with others without even trying, and other times, she gets on others' nerves easily. Sometimes she's a thrillseeker with the heart of adventure, and other times, she's a person who prefers to hang back and avoid doing work. And sometimes she's the only sane character with logical advice, and other times she's the most insane character who needs advice. Now, you could argue that these are all character traits that make Anne multidimensional. But if you ask me, it seems like her personality is dependent on what the writers want her to be for the episode. Someone like Luz going back and forth between two traits only works if there is a dominant personality trait that takes over the other. If Luz spends an entire episode being angry and serious, it proves that there's more to her than just a character that's nerdy and optimistic. But it's clear she is still that lovable nerd by having her say a corny line like, "Talk to the glyphs, Witch!" But because Anne has so many personality traits, it's hard to tell which is the norm and what is out of character. Case in point: Having Anne obsess over hang-gliding in one episode and doing a puzzle in the next is off as neither correlates with each other. Nor do they tell me who Anne is, other than the fact that she's clearly a character lacking a singular identity. And seeing how she's the main character, the one audiences are supposed to root for and identify with, it's probably not a good thing.

The Story: For the record, I have no problems with the story itself...the way it's written, however...

First off, there's too much filler. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as filler episodes have the potential to be fun when written well. The problem is that relying on filler instead of telling your story can leave some people (me) uninterested and angry. And the thing is, there is a perfect way to avoid filler that doesn't involve telling the overarching narrative: Introduce personal plotlines. Look at The Owl House, for example. There are several character-oriented narrative threads that get introduced within the first few episodes. Such as Luz learning magic, Eda's curse, her relationship with Lilith, and Amity's redemption. Therefore, The Owl House avoids any filler episodes just as long as it focuses on any of these plotlines and even introduces new ones. Amphibia has the plotlines, but it rarely focuses on them. Especially since the story takes way too long to develop. 

Every time I think the show is finally going to start moving forward and we can continue the story, there are like ten more filler episodes where everything comes to a screeching halt. Now, to be fair, there is an explanation why we're forced to wait for the story to move forward, and it's because the characters are forced to wait as well. But, even then, there could have been better ways to pad out that waiting than just adding filler. For example, I may not have been forced into an alternate universe where nearly everything wants to kill me, but if I was, I WOULD SPEND EVERY WAKING MINUTE I HAVE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT A WAY BACK! In the first season, how many episodes does Anne spend trying to figure out the mystery of how she got there and how to go home? Two. There are two whole episodes, out of thirty-nine, where Anne tries to figure things out...That is insane to me. But to be fair, season two is doing a much better job at moving things along...but it doesn't change the fact that the writers are kind of bad at telling their own story.

There are two episodes, "Anne Vs. Wild" and "Lost in Newtopia," where the story continues, but it's only in the last few minutes. The problem is that if you take those endings out, the episodes themselves do not change a bit. BUT because those are significant and essential moments for the plot, you can't take them out. Resulting in scenes that, while intriguing, come across as awkward in the long run. So now, my question is why. Why is the story handled so poorly? And I have one theory.

It Feels Like the Writers Can’t Decide What they Want the Show to be: Sometimes it seems like Amphibia is written as a pure slice of life series like Big City Greens. However, there are times when the show seems like it's intended to mix slice of life with fantasy like Gravity Falls. Now here's the problem: Big City Greens and Gravity Falls are two very different shows in terms of storytelling, tone, and character work. Big City Greens is an episodic comedy series where character development is unimportant, and the adventures rarely go beyond just being wacky. As for Gravity Falls, it is a show that is semi-serialized where the character development is constant, and the fantasy-adventures are always prevalent in every episode. And there are several episodes of Amphibia that could be a part of either show. Episodes like "Stakeout," "Lily Pad Thai," and "Little Frog Town" have plots that I can see being in Big City Greens. Then there are episodes like "The Domino Effect," "Toad Tax," and "Marcy at the Gates" that I could see being in Gravity Falls. These two groups of episodes are vastly different from one another that it causes Amphibia to feel disjointed in the process. Usually, I'm a fan when a series mixes different genres together, but do you want to know why something like Gravity Falls does such a great job at mixing slice of life with fantasy-adventure? Because, as I said, fantasy-adventures are always present in every episode. "Dipper vs. Manliness," "Boss Mabel," and "Roadside Attraction" each have the most basic slice of life plots of the show, but there is always a fantasy element or a monster to fight. There are entire episodes of Amphibia where there is no monster, and even when there is, it doesn't have the same amount of tension and weight that the creatures in Gravity Falls have weekly. A show like Big City Greens doesn't have to worry about monsters or evil villains every week because it doesn't need to. It's a show about the wacky adventures of a family of farmers adjusting to city life. Why would they have to worry about a monster every week when they just have to worry about each other. If Amphibia was the same way then there would be no issue. But because if it wants to be a mix of slice of life with fantasy, then it does need to worry about a monster every week. I usually try to defend shows that try to play both sides, but this show has to be the one occasion where I have to say pick one or the other. Because the writers tried hard to be both, and personally, I don't think they did a good job.

Characters Don’t. Stop. SCREAMING!: It's here we move on from what's objectively wrong with Amphibia to the things that just bother me personally...and this is one of those things. I get it. An over-the-top reaction to something minimal can be funny on occasion...but it's never "on occasion" with this show. Nearly every episode has characters screaming to get a laugh, and most of the time, it's more annoying than it is funny. It's Hop Pop who does this the most, and I just feel so bad for Bill Farmer. That voice already seems like it's hard to do, so being forced to scream and yell with it for the sake of comedy can't do him any favors. Other shows, especially ones on the Disney Channel, have characters overreact for the sake of humor, but it's Amphibia that I feel like it relies on this the most. I'm sure some people aren't bothered by this, but I am, and this is my review, so I'm mentioning it.

Poly: Speaking of things that probably don't bother other people...I feel like I'm making some enemies with this one. Because, boy, do I not like Polly. Her voice is annoying, she mostly causes problems for the family, and to me, her entire character seems pointless. No, really. Think about it. Anne is the main character, Sprigs acts as her emotional support, and Hop Pop acts as the voice of reason. What's Polly's purpose? Because all she adds are unnecessary jokes, character traits that could have gone to anybody, and acting more as a plot device than an actual character. The only justification for her that I can think of is that she adds gender balance to the main cast. Which would be more than acceptable if there was a point to her existence. But I think it's pretty evident with her exclusion from the original pilot pitch for the program that Polly's personality is practically pointless...that is most likely the only alliteration I'll ever do for a review, so you have better appreciated it.

If you like Polly, then more power to you. For me, I just don't enjoy her.

Sasha: Oh, nelly. I can already see the hateful messages I'm gonna get from this.

Now, as a character, I actually do like Sasha. I think her personality is interesting enough to dissect, and I think she acts as a perfect antagonist to Anne, the Plantars, and even Marcy if you want to get into it. My problem relies on how much the fanbase is already jumping on the "Forgive Sasha" train. Because, "Aw, she's just like Catra and Amity! So sweet, tortured, shippable with the main character, and--" STOP IT! Stop it right now...and think. With Catra and Amity, you see the environment they grew up in, you feel the abuse they deal with, you understand the reasoning of their actions, and you come to forgive them for who they are...At least for Amity, you can. For Catra, it requires more of an argument. But Sasha? Did we see the same cruel mistreatment to her friends? Did we hear the same coldness in her voice as she describes how to manipulate people? Did we witness the same damage she's done to Anne and Marcy in how they perceive healthy relationships? Apparently not! Because while everyone else is already on the same page that Sasha deserves redemption, I'm sitting here thinking that maybe it's for the best to be a little more hesitant. So far, we have yet to see any way to understand her reasoning and have yet to see how she deserves forgiveness. Sure, Sasha was willing to sacrifice herself for Anne, but did Sasha really earn that? It works as a sudden realization that Anne deserves better, but Sasha has yet to do anything that proves she can be better. Especially since the next time we see her, she's trying to help a fascist ruler get back up on his feet...THINK ABOUT THAT!

But, sure, she's meant to be forgiven. That can work. Because while Sasha shows kids the type of people they should avoid, she can also work as a warning for what kids should avoid becoming. That is a great thing to teach...but it can also be potentially dangerous. Because if incorrectly interpreted, Sasha can show kids that every person who seems toxic just needs a chance to change. And that is the last thing you want to teach, given how very few toxic people actually change. You want to know why The Owl House gets away with an equally dangerous lesson about how not every bully is awful? It's because it shows two sides of the spectrum by proving why someone like Amity did the things she's done while also saying that characters like Boscha and Mattholomule are just a-holes for the sake of being a-holes. Sasha has no one to compare to. Sure, there's King Andreas, but he's a government figure. They're built to be manipulative. Sasha needs someone that's on her level of cruelty to prove that while some people can change and have reason to do so, others don't. And seeing how I don't think she deserves to change, at least not yet, that is an issue. It's the biggest issue out of all the issues I have with this show.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, yeah, I think it's pretty evident how I feel about Amphibia when I can write paragraphs about the stuff I don't like while barely being able to talk about the things I do like. Because I do enjoy this show. It's funny, most of the characters are enjoyable, and its discussion on toxic relationships still has me hooked to see what happens next. My issue lies with inconsistency. The main protagonist, storytelling, genre, and thematic purposes are all inconsistent. I'm interested enough to watch more, and who knows, maybe I'll make a final verdict review once the series comes to an end. For now, if you had to ask me what I’m excited to make a return, I don't know if I'll be willing to hop to it by saying Amphibia.

(Also, if you're still looking for that link for that pirating website I mentioned, now would probably be a good time to tell you that I really never did put one in. I told you, that would be crazy...That should teach you to try to break the law.)

[perfeggso]

Noir (yutae) 

Week IV pt. 1

Tokyo – fall of 1983: Nakamoto Yuta is quickly rising in the ranks of one of Japan’s most notorious yakuza families, and he’s poised to climb even further if he can stop himself from being ruined by the pretty Korean boy who’s shown up out of nowhere.

Chapter 1  |  Chapter 2  |  Chapter 3  |  Chapter 4  |  Chapter 5  |  Chapter 6  |  Chapter 7  |  Chapter 8  |  Masterlist

Glossary of Japanese words

Characters: Yuta x Taeyong + NCT ensemble, Twice J-line (for funsies)

Genres: Gang!AU, angst, smut, fluff, 1980s!AU

Warnings: graphic violence, swearing, minor character death, alcohol use, mentions of drugs, period-typical homophobia, xenophobia, BDSM

Rating: 18+

Length: 7k

“Okay,” said Yuta, “this is the last time I’ll ask – I promise.  You’re sure I didn’t scare you last night?”

Taeyong sat in the passenger side of Yuta’s car, waiting in the pick-up area at Narita International Airport the morning after their first night together, listening to "4:00AM" by Taeko Onuki.  He rolled his eyes.  

“Yuta,” he began, “if I was going to be scared of you – which I am not, by the way – it wouldn’t be because you startled me when you yelled in the middle of the night, I can tell you that much.”

The night before, Taeyong had fallen asleep in Yuta’s arms; tired, sated, and oh so happy.  His little bundle of positivity only unwound when he was shaken rudely awake in the early hours of the morning by Yuta screaming.  It didn’t last for long, partially because Taeyong had used all the wits he could gather to coo over Yuta, calming him down and easing his tension, but it had been disturbing, nonetheless.  When Taeyong felt like he’d waited a sufficiently long time for Yuta to regain his bearings, he’d ventured to ask what was the matter.  All Yuta could put into words was that he’d had a bad dream, and that for as long as he could remember, his bad dreams could sometimes get horrifying or tangible enough to make him react quite violently in the real world, and he was sorry.  Taeyong didn’t press him on what that particular dream was about, but it must have been quite upsetting.  Who knew what kinds of things Yuta had seen in his life for his unconscious brain to draw upon?  Anyway, the next morning Yuta couldn’t stop the incident from preoccupying him, apparently very worried that it would somehow make him less desirable or something.  Taeyong was having none of it.

Yuta sighed as he sank farther into the driver’s seat, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel.  Taeyong felt a little pang of guilt that he might have insinuated that maybe he should fear Yuta for other, non-nightmare-related reasons.  But like he said, he didn’t.  He didn’t fear Yuta even though he’d watched him kill another man with his own eyes.  Yuta was too sweet and odd, too predictably human, and made him feel too good to scare him.  

“Okay, good.  It just happens sometimes.  Haven’t figured out how to control it yet,” Yuta said.  He switched the topic. “How’s your ass, by the way?” Taeyong smiled to himself.

“It’s fine, but you did bruise me a tiny bit.”

Now it was Yuta smiling.  “Sorry.”  He didn’t seem very sorry, though.  “Don’t Change” by INXS started to play over the radio.  

“I don’t care,” Taeyong admitted.  “I like a little reminder of who made me feel like this.”  

“Good,” said Yuta.  “Next time I’ll mark you up deliberately.”

Taeyong’s breath caught in his throat.  Should they even be talking about this on the job?  Wasn’t Yuta worried about being distracted?   Still, he filed Yuta’s promise away in his mind so he could hold him to his word.

“You wanted tattoos, anyway,” Yuta teased.  “I can give you the low commitment version.”

“You’re kinda corny sometimes, you know?” Taeyong said, causing Yuta to splutter laughter.  

“Yeah,” he confessed, “I know.”  He turned to regard Taeyong with a smile.

Taeyong hadn’t brought anything with him last night to change into for the next day, so (with permission!) he’d raided Yuta’s closet.  Taeyong wouldn’t have minded wearing his clothes from the night before – they weren’t particularly slutty and no one he’d be seeing today had seen him in them the previous night – but they still smelled pretty bad from all the sweat and spilled alcohol lodged in their threads.  Instead, Taeyong got to smell like Yuta.  

He wore a Bauhaus t-shirt, black jeans, and a gray blazer with a little gold pin with the Inagawa-kai logo on it attached to the lapel.  Yuta wore the same one on his black, patent-leather peacoat.  He had paired that with black aviator sunglasses for a truly eye-catching combination.  Taeyong thought it was funny that Yuta seemed incapable of not dressing like a mobster.  

Before Yuta could say whatever he was about to, a blue BMW pulled up right next to them and rolled down the window, revealing Taeil in the driver’s seat and Mark by his side.  Taeil was yelling something Taeyong couldn’t hear over the sound of departing airplanes, and apparently Yuta couldn’t understand it either because he yelled back for Taeil to repeat himself.  

“What?” Taeil asked instead.

“He’s wondering if you’ve gotten any updates!”  Mark repeated.

“No!” Yuta responded.  “And why are you double-parking me?  Just pull up a little!”

Taeil obliged and parked in front of Yuta and Taeyong, getting out once he’d cut the engine and walking to Yuta’s window.  Yuta turned off the radio.  

“Why do you need an update?” he asked.

Taeil rested his hands on the car door.  “Because,” he explained, “Mark was hanging around headquarters and really wanted to come even though I kept telling him that if they brought more than one extra person with them I would not hesitate to leave him at the airport.”

“Why didn’t you just say no?” Yuta inquired.  

“Because I thought he’d tell you I said no and then you’d be annoyed.”

Taeyong sat there as this whole interaction played out, watching Mark watch them from Taeil’s car.  It seemed like Mark got a lot of preferential treatment.  Not that Taeyong could talk.  

“Alright,” said Yuta.  “It’s not a problem.  I don’t have any reason to believe there will be more people with Kun than he said.”

Taeil clapped his hands over the car door a couple of times.  “Okay, just checking.  Shategashira ?”

“Yeah?”

“ Would you have been annoyed with me?”

Yuta pondered the question for a minute, eyes dancing around the cabin of his car.  “Probably,” he eventually admitted, smiling and looking at Taeil out of the corner of his eye.

“Knew it!”

Part of Taeyong wanted to know what Yuta’s deal was with Mark, scared the curiosity might be coming from a place of burgeoning jealousy.  Taeyong was over the moon about his relationship with Yuta, but sometimes he cursed his own decision making.  His infatuations always stressed him out terribly, and his situation was already stressful enough.  

He watched as a group of well-dressed men exited the door Kun and his people were supposed to be emerging from.  Yuta and Taeil were still talking – something to do with their meeting preparations, no doubt – and hadn’t seemed to notice the new arrivals in the pickup area.  

“Is that them?” Taeyong asked.

Yuta and Taeil both snapped their heads in the direction Taeyong was pointing.  Yuta blinked.  

“Yeah,” he confirmed.  “It is.”

“How many were there supposed to be?” Taeyong asked as a follow-up.

“Seven,” Taeil answered this time.  “They brought two extras with them.  Fuck.”

“Looks like someone’s going in the trunk,” Yuta joked.  

Taeyong and Yuta got out of the car, walking over to the Triads with Taeil and Mark, who’d finally stepped out onto the curb.  Taeyong thought he caught Mark giving him a once-over, perhaps registering the presence of Yuta’s clothing on his body.  

“I thought I told you to stay at your post,” Yuta scolded.  

Mark shrugged.  “I thought this was a special occasion.”

The Triads were more inconspicuous than the Inagawa-kai usually were, their tall builds and dark clothing lending them all an appearance more akin to a celebrity and his bodyguards (although who the celebrity was could be up to interpretation) than to a group of criminals.  

Kun, or at least the man Taeyong assumed was Kun, stood at the front of a near perfect triangle of his men, a relaxed confidence defining his features.  

Kun and Yuta acknowledged each other with a bow.  

“ Shategashira , good to see you,” Kun greeted.

“ Fu Shan Chu , the honor’s all mine.”

Taeyong didn’t know what Kun’s title meant, but he had a feeling Yuta wasn’t pronouncing it very well.  Not that he could have done any better.  As Taeil and Mark quickly extended their own greetings, Taeyong prayed a silent ‘thank you’ that the Triads all spoke Japanese; he didn’t need to be any more confused than he already was basically nonstop.  Although after a moment of thought, he realized this made perfect sense considering these men had been hand-picked to attend an important business meeting (if you could call it a “business meeting”) in Japan.    

“Taeyong,” Yuta began, the indulgent tone Taeyong had grown more and more used to him using when they were together overtaking his voice, “I want you to meet some dear friends.”  

Kun introduced himself first as a Deputy, second in command of his syndicate and in charge of international business; then came Sicheng, a skilled tracker and fighter despite his lithe build; followed by Ten, the Hong Kong liaison for the group’s Thai offshoot who explained by way of introduction that, since no one could ever pronounce his real name, he went by ‘Ten’ for the number of people he’d personally “interrogated” by the time he decided he needed a nickname (“but now I’ve lost count”).  The three of them were followed by Yukhei, a tall Hong Kong native and self-described yes-man for Ten; Dejun, who kept his introduction succinct but fixed an almost manic positive energy on Taeyong the whole time he spoke; Kunhang, the “Macanese Snoop,” whatever that meant; and Yangyang who once worked for the Taiwanese Triads and was in charge of smuggling since he used to do it between West and East Germany for some reason Taeyong didn’t quite catch.  The seven men were able to pack so much information into their introductions because they kept jumping in on each other’s sentences, adding information they deemed pertinent about their friends seemingly as a way of hyping one another up.

Once the seven men in front finished, Yuta peaked exaggeratedly to the back of the group to address the stragglers.  

“And you two, it seems to me, are none other than Zhong Chenle and Huang Renjun, all grown up now, hm?”  The pair smiled mischievously at each other.  They wore almost schoolboy-like suits that looked a little too expensive to be trusted in the hands of a late teen or early twenty-something, as they appeared to be.

“Hello Yuta-san,” they each chimed, a bit out of synch.

“I can tell that you’ve aged too, Shategashira,” quipped the shorter of the two.  The taller joined in.

“Yeah, please make sure you’re getting enough sleep, sir.”  Chenle and Renjun tittered as the Triads rolled their eyes and Kun shot them an absolutely lethal glare.  

“I’d be careful if I were you,” Mark jested from over Taeyong’s left shoulder.  “You’re on Yuta’s turf now and I can promise from experience you don’t want to see him pissed.  Can’t run to your daddies here.”

Now it was Chenle rolling his eyes.  “Shut the fuck up, Mark,” he said, and Mark cackled in amusement.

“Thank you, Mark,” Taeil interjected, a cautious impatience practically dripping from his voice.  “I think our Shategashira can defend himself.”

“Great!” said Yuta, trying to regain control of the interaction.  Taeyong was starting to get nervous because they were all still standing out in the open outside one of Narita’s many exits, and it wouldn’t have taken that much imagination on the part of an onlooker to identify them as a group of gangsters.  Yuta didn’t seem nervous though, so Taeyong pushed his anxiety as far down as he could until it was nearly imperceptible.  Yuta leaned closer to him a bit as he aimed to guide Taeyong through their ongoing introductions.  

“Those two meiwaku are the sons of Triad commanders.  They’re completely spoiled, as you can see.”  Taeyong almost giggled, amused by the amount of time Yuta seemed to spend getting bullied by people who were barely out of high school.  Yuta continued.  “So that’s everyone,” he concluded, pulling away from Taeyong.            

“I’m humbled to meet you all,” Taeyong said, brain overloaded for the hundredth time in a month by all the new faces and by Yuta’s proximity.  

Yuta brushed his finger over Taeyong’s sleeve.  It was a small movement and he doubted anyone else saw, but Taeyong had to suppress the heat threatening to overtake his face.  Yuta never got into the personal space of his subordinates while conducting business, but then again, Taeyong was an exception in more ways than one.  He couldn’t decide if he was more irritated by Yuta messing with him or by his own oversensitivity.  

“You don’t have to use kenjougo with them,” Yuta joked. “Polite language will do.  They’re all younger than you, anyway.”

Taeyong balked.  He knew that Chenle and Renjun were young, but his tone hadn’t been meant for them.  And he thought Yuta was a prodigy...  

“You want to introduce yourself, Taeyong?” Yuta suggested.  

“Oh, right!  Hello, my name is Lee Taeyong and I’m sort of a member-in-training, I suppose.  I’m helping Yuta prepare for your upcoming meeting.”  Taeyong bowed, having rushed through his introduction, and he was glad no one could see his downcast eyes go wide when he felt Yuta’s palm just above the small of his back, guiding him upright.  Could he not?

“Taeyong’s been a great asset to us lately,” said Yuta, and Taeyong thought he detected the tiniest hint of teasing in his words.  “I trust you’ll all come to appreciate him as we have.”  

Taeyong heard Taeil sigh from behind him.  “We should be going,” he stated, “but I regret to inform you that one of the pipsqueaks is going to need to improvise in terms of seating on the way into the city.  We were expecting fewer people.”  

Kun smiled wryly.  “Maybe I should have hired a professional driver,” he joked and Taeil stiffened in irritation.  “But no,” he continued, “I understand.  These two insisted last minute on a vacation to Tokyo and their fathers didn’t listen to my concerns about bringing them, so here we are.  We’ll figure it out.”  

“Shall we?” asked Yuta, turning on his heel towards the parked cars, and Kun made a hand motion that signaled for all the Triads to follow.  

“You know,” said Taeil, as he watched Mark drop back in formation to share more personal greetings with some of his Triad buddies, “we could just put Mark in the trunk, and this wouldn’t be an issue.  He did insist on joining after all.”

Mark turned his attention from Yukhei to Taeil and scowled.  “If you do that, I’ll yell so loud you get pulled over and then I’ll say I’m being kidnapped by the yakuza,” he warned.  

Ten sidled up to Mark and regarded him casually, a smirk forming on his face.  “Uh-huh,” he said, “and what do you think the cops will make of that Irezumi on your wrist?”

“Shut up,” said Mark, seeming to resign himself to an uncomfortable ride back.

Taeyong and Yuta returned to their car, trailed by Ten, Kun, and a skittish Renjun who held a finger to his lips as he slipped into the middle seat in back.  Taeyong paused in front of the vehicle for a moment, next to the passenger side door.  He was fairly certain he wasn’t supposed to sit shotgun, considering he had the lowest rank of the five of them save Renjun.  He looked at Yuta questioningly, expecting a word or gesture directing him to the back seats.  Instead, Yuta nodded for Taeyong to enter where he was, so Taeyong opened the door and sat in front, trying to be small and invisible by moving as little as possible.  Kun and Ten didn’t seem to question it.  

“Thank you for choosing Inagawa chauffeur service,” Yuta said jokingly once everyone was inside.  It took a moment to get going because Mark was trying to force Chenle into the trunk of Taeil’s car and Chenle responded by flailing and emitting a screech so high in pitch that Taeyong worried it might shatter all the windows of both cars.  

“You’re a smart boy, Renjun,” Kun stated, “choosing to come in this car.”

“Yeah,” Ten chimed, “what would you have done if we tried to force you into the trunk?”

Renjun smirked.  “I have a pocket knife on me and I’m not afraid to use it…” he explained in response, making everyone laugh.  In front of them, Mark pouted as the trunk door finally closed over him.  Taeyong caught a smile on Yuta’s face out of his peripheral vision as both car engines started.  

***

Taeyong had only been to the “training room” at headquarters a couple of times before.  The first time had been when Doyoung decided to nab him and teach him knife throwing, and the second was when Jaehyun asked him to hold arm pads for him to punch.  The space was painted yellow from floor to ceiling and had harsh lighting and mold growing like shadows in the corners.  One section had weights, mats, and boxing equipment set up next to a mirror; one, some knives and targets; and one, a table and small sitting area.

The Triads had only been in town a few hours and already, they seemed to be getting quite comfortable.  When Taeyong had a moment of free time, Ten and a few others grabbed him without explanation and dragged him off to go “have some fun and get to know each other.”  Apparently, that meant subjecting him to public mortification.  

Sicheng had his arms wrapped around Taeyong’s midsection, bending him over and essentially   demobilizing him.  Taeyong breathed heavily, unable to do anything but struggle and watch the speckled floor under him shift along with his jerky movements.  

“Sicheng, maybe go easy on him?” he heard Kunhang suggest from the table area, where some of the Triads were sat watching.

“I thought Inagawa was tougher than this,” Yangyang heckled, and Taeyong felt hot shame pile on top of his bodily discomfort.  

Dejun piped up next.  “He’s new, Yangyang, give him a break.”

Taeyong wanted to respond, but he was too busy trying to defend himself physically to do it verbally.  Sicheng brought his knee up into Taeyong’s stomach, just hard enough to startle him without hurting him too badly.  He used Taeyong’s disorientation to trip him, and next thing he knew, Taeyong was sore and heaving with his ass on the padded floor.  

“Or don’t go easy on him,” Kunhang remarked.  “Either way.”

Taeyong looked to his audience.  Dejun, Kunhang, and Yangyang were all sitting around the table in the corner, a neglected game of poker which had started as a way of blowing off some competitive steam after “training” laid out between them.  Ten stood a bit off to the side, arms crossed and gaze sharp with scrutiny.  He took a couple of strides towards Taeyong and Sicheng, a smirk overtaking his mouth as he looked down at Taeyong like he was prey.  Taeyong had met plenty of scary people in his life, and the frequency of such encounters had only increased since he started hanging around the yakuza, but Ten, with his wicked expressiveness and black leather suit in this moment gave Taeyong a chill of pure terror.  

He noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye and turned his head to see it was Sicheng reaching his hand out to help Taeyong up.  He smiled, face inviting and a welcome contrast to Ten’s entire aura.  Taeyong took his hand and let Sicheng pull him to his feet.

“I thought you were supposed to be Yuta’s bodyguard,” Ten said plainly.  

“Well, not exactly,” Taeyong tried to explain.  “I just follow him around and keep a lookout for trouble; anything suspicious.”

Ten narrowed his eyes in a way Taeyong felt had to be partly for show.  “That’s all, huh? Doesn’t sound like much.”  Ten looked Taeyong head to toe and hummed thoughtfully.  “Could there be another reason Yuta keeps you around?”

Jesus Christ, did everyone know?   The room felt suddenly cold as Taeyong’s body came down from his previous exertion.  He tried to suppress a shiver as his brain rushed to come up with a response.  Thankfully, Sicheng stepped in.

“He knows how to fight, Ten, he’s just used to fighting brainless brutes.”

Taeyong nodded, hurrying to redeem himself. “Sicheng’s right,” he confirmed.  “M’sorry.”

Ten let out a laugh through his nose.  “No need to grovel,” he said, smile growing slightly less intimidating.  He pushed a finger playfully into Taeyong’s shoulder, sending Taeyong’s mind reeling.  “Anyway, I heard you saved Yuta from an assassin, so I’m in your corner.  I’m just taking it upon myself to help you improve and make yourself even more useful.”

Taeyong laughed in confusion, spitting out a sarcastic, “gee, thanks.”

Dejun expelled a sound of wounded disappointment from behind Ten, certainly brought about by the poker game.  Kunhang and Yangyang snickered.  Ten ignored them all, keeping his attention trained on Taeyong.  He raised an eyebrow and smiled, catlike.

“Wanna see something cool?”

“Sure?” Taeyong ventured, not sure if this was another way of saying “let’s have some fun and get to know each other.”  He steadied his core in case Ten decided to tackle him or something.  

Instead, Ten opened his leather jacket, giving his torso the effect of having bat wings.  Taeyong was surprised, but not as surprised as he would have been a month ago, to see the glint of what had to be at least two dozen small metal weapons emanating from the lining.  

“Shit…”

“Nice, huh?” Ten prompted, and Taeyong felt compelled to nod in agreement.  Ten used his head to indicate the right side of his jacket, where he had stored a slew of small knives, brass knuckles, and throwing stars, among other things Taeyong didn’t recognize.  

“This side is for hand to hand combat,” he explained, smiling like a snake about to bite.  He indicated to his left next, where he had some longer and thicker knives, plyers, metal clamps, and a bouquet of slim needles, each about nine inches in length.  “And this side is for extracting information.”  Ten seemed to register Taeyong’s cautious surprise.  “I only show you this so you know what you’re up against,” he cooed.  

“Al-alright,” Taeyong almost swallowed his words.  “I appreciate it.”

Before Ten could terrorize him any further, the door swung open and everyone was looking to see who had arrived.  It was Yukhei, trailed by Yuta.

“Yup, they’re in here,” Yukhei was saying, holding the door open for Yuta to enter.  

Yuta stalked towards Taeyong, Ten, and Sicheng and the boys at the corner table all stood in greeting.

“Ten,” Yuta said in mock disapproval, “are you traumatizing my poor partner?”

“I’d call it ‘educating,’” Ten responded.  “If he gets traumatized that’s simply a byproduct of necessary learning.”

“Okay, Ten, just don’t scare him off,” Yuta replied.

“It’s not like I could leave if I wanted to,” Taeyong grumbled, and Yuta shot him a cutting look, but it softened quickly into an expression of vague sadness.

“Taeyong, you’re wanted in room 2A.”

Taeyong schooled his face.  “Right away, Shategashira .”  

Yuta turned on his heel and exited the room.  Yukhei stayed by the door, Taeyong figured, because Ten needed him.  Taeyong followed hesitantly after, but Yukhei stopped him on the way out, looming over him but smiling so genuinely that Taeyong felt more comforted than scared.  

“If it’s any consolation,” Yukhei began, a thick accent coating his deep voice, “Sicheng kicks my ass all the time too.”  

Taeyong had a hard time believing that considering Yukhei, though he was roughly the same height as Sicheng, was noticeably larger in every other way.  He was probably either too nice or too reliant on blunt force.  Taeyong let out a breathy laugh.  

“Thanks.  That does make me feel a bit better.”

“No problem.”  

Taeyong left, hearing Ten’s call of “bye-bye, Taeyong!  I’ll see you again soon!” echo down the hall after him.  His stomach sank when he thought of the coldness he’d accidentally caused in Yuta, but the other man was nowhere to be found so he figured he’d just report where he was needed and find Yuta later.  

Room 2A was one floor down.  Taeyong tried to open it himself but it was locked, so he opted to bang on the metal to announce his presence.  It opened, a grinning pair of faces belonging to Johnny and Mina greeting him on the other side.  

“Yonggie!” Mina exclaimed, moving herself away from the entrance so Taeyong could pass her, which he did.  “Welcome!”

The room was little more than a cinder block box with a metal chair in the center.  If Taeyong didn’t trust Mina and Johnny at this point, he would be expecting something horrible to occur in such a room.  

“What’s going on, you guys?” Taeyong asked.  

Johnny closed the door and came to lean on the wall across from Taeyong.  

“Why don’t you take a seat,” he suggested, and Taeyong did.  “We’re here to impart on you some very valuable lessons.”  

Taeyong grimaced.  He was exhausted from what Sicheng had put him through and just wanted to find Yuta.  He’d had enough “education” and “lessons” for one day.  Nevertheless, he figured he had no choice but to indulge his captors.  

“What lessons are those?” Taeyong asked, rocking himself slightly against his chair.  Mina joined Johnny on the wall.

She answered, “Tactics for resisting interrogation.”

Taeyong started.  “Whoa.  Okay…”

“I know it sounds bad,” said Johnny, “but it’s really important for you to know.  Yuta asked us to do this.”

Taeyong felt his skin prickling as he grew more nervous.  Why didn’t Yuta just teach him himself, then? he wondered, posing the question out loud.  

Johnny smirked.  “Because, he has important shit to get done.  He can’t tend to his Yonggie constantly.  He has to delegate some of that.”

Taeyong gritted his teeth.  “Alright, alright.  But why do I need to know this?  I’m practically useless so why would anyone bother kidnapping me?”

Johnny slid down the wall until he was crouching against it, his face softening in mild concern.  

“First of all,” he said, “you should know you’re not useless, Taeyong.”

“Yeah!” Mina added.  “He might give you a hard time, but Johnny keeps telling me how much he likes having you around.”  Johnny smiled at this.  

“You hang around with a Lieutenant all day!” he said, and Mina finished his sentiment with, “you are TOTALLY kidnappable, Taeyong!”

Taeyong laughed at the preposterousness of this compliment.  “Thanks, guys.  I’m sorry, I’m just in a bit of a mood today,” he explained.  “And I guess you’re right.”

“Of course we are,” Johnny said, pushing back off the wall to standing.  “Anyway, now that we’re all on the same page, this is where things might get a bit unpleasant again.  We give this training to every member of the syndicate and all of our serious romantic partners, so contrary to your instincts, you are doubly in need of this.”

Taeyong squirmed, uncomfortable in a bad way over the fact that he wasn’t technically a syndicate member yet and uncomfortable in a good way at the knowledge that Yuta considered him serious .      

Mina smiled.  “Don’t worry, this has come in handy for me, for sure.”

“That just makes me worry more, you realize?” Taeyong replied with a grimace.  

“Okay, fair enough.  Sorry.  But it’s better you know than end up dead or betraying your friends and boyfriend!”

“Taeyong,” Johnny began.  “Let’s start with what you know.  When you picture a yakuza kidnapping, what’s happening?”

Taeyong’s mind flew to the image of Ten’s sparkling and deadly bat wings.  “I try not to picture that, but I saw what Ten carries around with him, so I think I have an idea.”

Johnny laughed hollowly as Mina watched him.  “Yeah, Ten’s a special guy.  I think he’s the only person I’ve met who genuinely enjoys that part of the job.  Anyway, so you know it could get bad.”

Johnny lifted his shirt to reveal his lower abdomen.  There was a long, thin scar across his obliques, slicing an inked koi fish in half.  

“Knives are common,” he explained vaguely.  “I got this one from a Sumiyoshi thug nicknamed ‘The Butcher.’  But we’ll get to that later.”

Taeyong swallowed thickly as he tried to steady his buzzing eyes.  Johnny continued.  

“Obviously, you know that we expect you not to divulge any sensitive information.  There are three things you are allowed to confirm for your captors though, just to get them thinking you won’t be a complete pain in their asses.  Those three things are name, rank, and clan.  Got it?”

Taeyong remembered how Yuta had lost patience quickly with the Yamaguchi assassin who refused to give any personal details.  He didn’t want to end up like that guy.  He nodded.  

“Lee Taeyong, Kumi-in, Inagawa-kai,” he recited, as if anyone in the room didn’t already know.

“But no more than that,” Johnny confirmed.  

“Another important thing to keep in mind,” Mina continued, “is that there are ways to avoid the worst tactics.  If they’ve gone to the trouble of capturing you, that’s because they think you have crucial information that they need.  It’s in their interest to keep you alive.”

Taeyong nodded along, determined to be a good student as he realized more and more clearly the very real possibility he might need to use some of what he was learning.  

“Although it can be tempting to act defiant as if you’re not bothered by the pain, and many experienced gangsters will do this to avoid hurting their fragile little egos,” Mina looked pointedly at Johnny, who just shrugged, guilty, “it can do you some good to play to the opposite.  You should exaggerate your injuries and pain.  Even if they try to use that against you and humiliate you, ultimately if they think you’re closer to death than you are they’ll let up much faster.  Make sense?”  

Taeyong nodded quickly.  Exaggerated pain, he could do that.  “Makes sense,” he confirmed.  

“Okay,” Johnny went on, “another thing.  Obviously if you ever did get kidnapped, we’d send some people out to find you, and hopefully they’d be successful.”

Taeyong shifted in his seat, watching Johnny start to pace.  Hopefully .  

“When you do get rescued, for that to end well you need to stay calm and not try to join in the fight.  If they see you moving around a lot or if you look like you’re about to break out of whatever restraints they have you in and fight back, then they’re way more likely to treat you like an enemy combatant and not like a prisoner.  You could get killed.  It’s kind of counterintuitive, but it’s important.”

Taeyong rolled his ankles, gaining some comfort out of the way the stretch and crack of the movement soothed his muscles.  He took a deep breath.

“Hey guys, why are we doing this right now?  Am I in danger?”    

Mina and Johnny exchanged a glance, sending Taeyong’s heart racing even faster than it already was as he tried to decipher their silent communication.  Mina spoke first.

“Not necessarily,” she said.

“We just want to prepare you,” Johnny added.  “Well, Yuta wanted us to prepare you because he’s been really worried since that assassin came after you two.  We can’t be sure that anything too serious will go down but if, say, a gang war does start over this Mitsubishi thing, we want you to be prepared.  Got it?”

“Oh…yeah, got it.”  Taeyong sighed.  “I supposed it’s too late to just…let me go, huh?”

Johnny’s face screwed up and Mina’s twitched.  Taeyong thought of their conversation at Johnny’s pachinko bar, assuming she too was pouring over the memory of her own warnings.  

“I – look,” Johnny began, and Taeyong already knew the answer he was about to receive.  “It’s been discussed, and the higher ups are adamant; you’ll be given the choice as soon as the Mitsubishi deal is secured, but no earlier.  They felt they needed to bring you on in the beginning, and I’m in no position to question if that was overkill, but at this point you’re certainly stuck, considering all the information you have.” Taeyong nodded, eyes fluttering to the floor as Johnny leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms.  He huffed a breath.  “Do you – do you want to leave, Taeyong?”

Taeyong blinked.  He didn’t know what to say.  He didn’t even know what leaving would mean or where he could ever go.  His new life was exciting in a way he’d always dreamed about and he liked the people around him more than he’d liked anyone in a long time; Johnny and Mina going out of their way to help him stay safe, the other Tora regiment members all welcoming him so easily, and Yuta…god, Yuta… At the same time though, Taeyong’s new life hadn’t managed to shake the feeling he so often had that he was floating through existence, incapable of being grounded even by the most intense experiences.  He wasn’t used to things working out for him.  Besides, the last time he made a major decision for himself, he’d been called xenophobic names and battered within an inch of his life.  

“I…don’t know,” he admitted.  “I don’t think so, anyway, but I don’t want to be a liability.”

Johnny smiled slightly.  “That’s not worth worrying about because you aren’t.”

Taeyong wasn’t convinced, but he nodded anyway.  “Alright,” he said.  “What else have you got to teach me?”

Johnny and Mina let him go after another half hour or so of discussion, teaching him how to school his demeanor to fit somewhere between deference and defiance, how to relax himself in a way that would prevent excessive bleeding and make blows easier to endure, and how to give answers that kept the line of questioning going but revealed nothing to the interrogators.  By the time he left room 2A, Taeyong was wondering if he should feel empowered or petrified, his mind careening from one emotion to the other with every new thought.  Once he was done processing, he decided to find Yuta.  

He’d barely had the chance to talk to him all day and it was weird for him.  The night before had been ridiculously intimate, Yuta fucking him so well, opening up to him about his past, and holding him as they fell asleep; so the weird shifts Taeyong had observed all day in Yuta between teasing and aloof were giving him whiplash since he couldn’t ask what was causing them.  He hoped Yuta wasn’t busy.  

“ Douzo .”

Taeyong’s heart sank when he opened Yuta’s office door and saw Kun there, though he tried not to show it.    

“Taeyong, what is it?” Yuta asked, an air of impatience radiating from him and from Kun as he turned around to see who was there.  

“ Shategashira ,” Taeyong saluted.  He felt like it was his first day all over again. “Sorry to interrupt.  I was just hoping to speak with you whenever you’re free.”

Yuta’s expression softened.  “Of course.  Why don’t you sit by the window while we finish up?”

“Thank you,” Taeyong said, bowing sheepishly and settling into one of the indicated chairs.  “Excuse me.”

Kun looked sideways at Taeyong, silent.  

“You can speak freely in front of him,” assured Yuta.  Kun nodded and pulled his attention back to the matter at hand.  

“I just don’t understand how they would have gotten ahold of that information.  Could it have been through Donghyuck’s crew?”  By “they” Taeyong assumed Kun meant the Yamaguchi-gumi.  

Yuta shook his head, placing his fingers in a check mark shape at his chin.  “I doubt it.  Donghyuck is extremely careful.”

Kun was growing exasperated.  Taeyong felt like maybe this was an interaction he shouldn’t be witnessing.  He didn’t quite know why he felt that way, though.  

“Well, Yuta, there has to be a weak link somewhere, and I trust that you’ll eliminate it.  We’re already in a less stable position than I was expecting upon arrival.”

Yuta smiled accommodatingly.  “Thank you for your confidence.  The leak could have also come from a different regiment, but I’m doing all I can to weed out whoever is responsible.”

“Good,” said Kun.  “Our success and our partnership could depend on this.”

“I understand.”

Right then, Chenle and Renjun showed up at the door, having finished a shopping trip down the street, to tell Kun that Ten was looking for him.  Taeyong thought he saw Kun direct a sliver of a smile his way as he left.  

Yuta sat up and joined Taeyong by the window in the chair to his left.  He sat and sighed, a big, open smile overtaking his face.  There was the whiplash again.

“Hi baby,” he said.

“Hi.”

“Did Johnny and Mina give you the talk?”

Taeyong snorted a laugh, looking at Yuta from under his fringy bangs.  “Yeah, they did.”

“You okay?” Yuta asked.  Taeyong shrugged.

“Could’ve been worse,” he guessed.  “Good stuff to know.”

Yuta leaned in.  “Is that what you wanted to talk about?”

“I guess a little.  But there was other stuff too.”

Taeyong looked around Yuta’s office.  He’d been stuck almost all day in rooms with concrete walls and fluorescent lighting, and it was making him want to jump out of his skin.  He told Yuta to wait a moment for him to get up and turn off the lights.  On second thought, while he was up and about, he opened the window to flush the room of the stench of stale cigarette smoke.  Yuta watched him with caution as he underwent his little chores.  Taeyong turned from the window and made his way back to his chair, eyes finally able to relax in the dimness.  

“Johnny and Mina said you’re worried I might be in danger.”

Yuta sighed again.  “I don’t necessarily think you’re in imminent danger, but I want to be safe.  It’s always a possibility.  Sorry if I scared you.”

“Like I told you this morning,” Taeyong repeated.  “You don’t scare me.  I just want you to be up front with me.”

“Up front, huh?” Yuta paused, his eyes flitting over the floor in thought.  “Truth is I’ve been worried about you since the Yamaguchi assassin.  It’s always risky to take on a new recruit, or a lover for that matter,” Taeyong blushed at the word, “but up until that point I don’t think the danger felt as real.  I would never forgive myself if I let something bad happen to you, Taeyong.”

One of the things Taeyong had been wondering about clicked into place for him.  “Your dream last night…is that what – ”

“Yes.  That’s part of why I was worried about frightening you.  Thought I might have said something while unconscious about you, I don’t know, getting abducted or something.”

“You didn’t,” said Taeyong, breathing a laugh.  

“Good.”  Yuta smiled, gaze trained at the open window and fingers fiddling with the bottom of his blazer.  Taeyong wondered if he was nervous to make eye contact.  “And then later when you mentioned how you’re basically stuck with me, then I felt like shit all over again because it’s true: you’re essentially my hostage.”  With that, Yuta finally looked Taeyong in the face.  “I just don’t know what to do when you say things like that. I know this seems silly, I mean I’ve never shied away from doing arguably unethical things before, but I couldn’t help but ask myself if you even like me -- ”

The pressure that had been threatening to send Taeyong shooting out of his own body finally became too much, and in lieu of doing the impossible, he found himself damming up Yuta’s stream of consciousness with a kiss.    

“There we go,” he teased, pulling away and reveling in the awestruck look on Yuta’s face.  “I had to shut you up somehow.”

Yuta’s face hadn’t moved since the kiss ended and a smile was spreading over it like melting butter. “That’s no way to speak to your commander,” he teased back, sounding a little drunk on relief.  Taeyong spoke.    

“ Shategashira , I hope you can forgive me.  But you are being ridiculous.  I like you, okay?  And it’s not because I’m scared or brainwashed.  I like you because I like you .  I like the way you make me feel.  I’m sorry for making you think I wanted to leave.”  

Yuta took Taeyong’s hand and kissed it.  “ I’m sorry for being such a basket case.  Aish, it’s embarrassing, huh?”

Taeyong snorted.  “Oh please.  If you weren’t insecure sometimes, I might actually be afraid of you.”

He smiled to himself, wondering for a moment if maybe he needed to stop thinking so much and just bask in the strange twist of fate that had brought him and Yuta together.  They were still getting to know each other, but Taeyong had never been with someone so charismatic yet so open.  If he was going to risk being kidnapped and tortured it might just end up being worth it.  Taeyong allowed himself to be lost enough in thought that a few seconds felt like minutes and he barely heard it when the door flung open without warning.  Yuta heard it though, wrenching his fingers from where they were laced between Taeyong’s.  

“Yuta-san!” said Renjun as he entered the room trailed by Chenle. “What’s going on in here?”

Yuta glared.  “Didn’t anyone teach you to knock?  That’s very disrespectful.”

“Sorry, didn’t know you had anything to hide,” Chenle quipped.  “Anyway, Kun is looking for you again.”

Yuta stood, reluctantly it seemed to Taeyong.  “Why couldn’t he send someone else to fetch me?”

Chenle rolled his eyes as they left the room and on the way out Taeyong heard Renjun explain, “because, he told us if all we were gonna do was loiter he might as well put us to use.”

Taeyong giggled, catching himself when Yuta peered back through the door.  “Hey, you can go home.  Or stick around and make some friends, yeah?”

Taeyong nodded.  “Yeah,” he agreed, and Yuta rapped his knuckles against the door with a grin before he was gone.  Taeyong stood, determined to have some Triad friends by the end of the day.    

[aion-rsa]

The Karate Kid: The Real Martial Arts History Behind the Movies

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When it comes to martial arts films, The Karate Kid was a game changer when it came out in 1984. Its lasting cultural impact was a landmark advancement for the western understanding of the martial arts. But was it a genuine representation of Karate?

Den of Geek consulted Dr. Hermann Bayer, an expert authority on Okinawan Karate and the author of the upcoming book Analysis of Genuine Karate―Misconceptions, Origin, Development, and True Purpose. Dr. Bayer remembers firsthand how The Karate Kid stimulated the Karate boom in the mid-eighties because he was a practicing Karateka then. But as a martial scholar, he’s pragmatic about his opinions.

“First and foremost, we have to bear in mind that we are talking about a movie, not about a documentation or a piece of research,” says Bayer. “This means that we need to concede that fascinating viewers by something pretty, amazing, or spectacular to look at is more important than authenticity.”

The Year That The Karate Kid Premiered

When we reflect upon the original, we must remind ourselves that the landscape of martial arts films in the west was vastly different in 1984. There just weren’t that many martial arts movies in western pop culture back then.

Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon came out over a decade before The Karate Kid, and tragically, Lee didn’t live to see it succeed. Many B-movies coat-tailed on Enter the Dragon‘s success, especially in the subgenres of Bruceploitation and Blaxploitation. This comprised the bulk of martial arts for western audiences. Beyond the imported niches of Hong Kong Kung Fu and Japanese samurai movies, there just weren’t that many other martial arts films available. And those were limited to showings in second- and third-run theaters or midnight “Kung Fu Theater” TV broadcasts. Consequently, the genre was considered low-brow entertainment with minimal impact on the box office. 

When The Karate Kid debuted, most of today’s martial arts superstars had no Hollywood presence. Despite starring in dozens of Hong Kong films, Jackie Chan had only led one Hollywood production by that point. That was Battle Creek Brawl, made by the same filmmakers who did Enter the Dragon, however it under-performed and was deemed a failure. His other Hollywood credits in 1984 included a cameo in the sequel ensemble comedy The Cannonball Run II. With only three minor Hollywood appearances, he was still virtually unknown to the Western audience.

Chuck Norris was more prominent having starred in more than a half dozen B-action flicks by then. His 1984 entry was Missing in Action in which Jean-Claude Van Damme had an uncredited role. JCVD didn’t grab any limelight until four years after The Karate Kid, when he starred in his breakout lead role for Bloodsport. Jet Li was only on his second film that year, Kids From Shaolin, but that wasn’t shown outside of Chinatowns in the U.S. It would be another 14 years after The Karate Kid before Jet made his first Hollywood appearance as the villain in Lethal Weapon 4. 

The Karate Kid changed the way martial arts films were perceived. It demonstrated that the martial arts genre could deliver wholesome family entertainment, as well as good box office returns. It ranked fifth among the highest grossing films of 1984, behind Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Gremlins. The Karate Kid was the sleeper hit of the year, and it made Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) into crane-kicking icons. 

The Limitations of the Karate Kid Trilogy

The Karate Kid was a Hollywood adaptation of a common plot device of Kung Fu movies – the training trope. Many of Jackie Chan’s late seventies films were “martial training” stories. Those narratives can be distilled down to three acts as seen in The Karate Kid: the hero suffers an injustice — like the murder of his family (or in Daniel’s case, just getting bullied) — then the hero finds a quirky master who uses obscure, almost non-nonsensical training methods, and finally the hero, armed with these hard-earned skills, takes revenge.

Jackie’s groundbreaking 1978 Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow is a perfect example of this. That was a turning point for Jackie, the launch of his unique style of comedy Kung Fu, back when he was in his physical prime. In that same year, the Kung Fu grindhouse Shaw Brothers studios delivered the timeless classic film The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, which is a perfect example of the same formula. “Martial training” stories are even retold in animated films like Mulan and Kung Fu Panda. The Karate Kid just had the ingenuity to set it at West Valley High School in San Fernando, California. 

Today, Daniel-san is enjoying a revitalization through Netflix’s hit series Cobra Kai. Packed with more easter eggs that an April bunny basket, Cobra Kai has been rectifying flaws from the original films with a subtle, yet effective elegance. Despite its time-honored success, the original films fell under tremendous scrutiny from genuine Karatekas who were quick to point out inaccuracies. Frankly, for such a flagship film of the martial arts genre, the martial arts weren’t that good. The main cast of the original film had little or no martial arts background. Kreese (Martin Kove) was the only cast member who studied Karate prior to the films. 

Part of this adds to the charm. Despite being the All Valley Karate Champ twice in a row, Daniel is a newbie to the art. In fact, the original trilogy happens in a little over a year. The Karate Kid takes place in 1984. The Karate Kid III, despite premiering in 1989, depicts events at the following All Valley Karate Championships. Daniel goes from zero to hero in an alarmingly short time.

How could Daniel genuinely master Karate with so little training time? Is “wax on, wax off” deck sanding and fence painting truly that effective? Of course not. If it were, the MMA cage would be dominated by car washers, carpenters, and house painters. That’s the magic of movies. Movie martial arts are no more realistic than movie car chases. 

This still begs the question – how much of Miyagi’s weird training really works?

“Whole floor. Right circle, left circle.”

Traditional martial arts training can take many forms, and the spirit of Mr. Miyagi’s esoteric lessons isn’t too far off the mark. Although few practitioners today carry water up mountains like the Shaolin monks, mundane chores like cleaning and repairing are still implemented in training within a traditional Dojo. Frankly, the repetitive nature of martial arts practice is boring so any way to invigorate enthusiasm is welcome. And the efficiency of multi-tasking is always appreciated, even in modern strip mall Dojos. 

A common training ritual is cleaning the floor before class. This is extremely important because most Dojos practice barefoot. Many old school Dojos require that students push damp rags across the floor with their hands in a low crouch. As anyone who has done it knows, this is harder than it looks and serves as an excellent warm-up exercise. When the Dojo needs repairs, students pitch in where they can because a good Dojo fosters community that way, and variations on training emerge within those tasks akin to Miyagi’s painting and sanding. And if there’s a Dojo fundraising carwash, you know there will be plenty of “wax on, wax off” practice. 

But beyond the waxing, sanding, and painting, how real is Miyagi-Do? 

“Only root Karate come from Miyagi.”

There are two styles of martial arts represented in The Karate Kid, Okinawan Karate and Korean Tang Soo Do. Kreese’s Karate is Tang Soo Do mostly because the choreographer for the original films was Grandmaster Pat E. Johnson, a leading proponent of that style. Although most likely the product of coincidence, it fit Kreese’s character perfectly. Many U.S. soldiers who served in Korea brought Tang Soo Do back to the states when they returned, just like Kreese, including Johnson and his martial comrade, Chuck Norris. 

In Season 3 of Cobra Kai, Kreese’s backstory confirms what martial arts fans have always suspected – that his style of Karate is in fact, Tang Soo Do. Calling it “Karate” was not inaccurate. Few Americans know Tang Soo Do, so even today, some schools market themselves as “Korean Karate.” Tang Soo Do is a predecessor of Taekwondo. Taekwondo is the other Asian martial art in the Olympics alongside Judo, but this is soon to change. 

Read more

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Miyagi-Do is derived from a branch of Karate known as of Goju-Ryu. Writer Robert Mark Kamen had learned some Goju-Ryu which inspired him to create Mr. Miyagi. He even poached the name of the founder of Goju-Ryu, Chojun Miyagi, and adapted the history to fit the Miyagi family history for The Karate Kid II where they travel to Okinawa. Goju means “hard-soft.”

“Karate legend Miyagi Chojun gave the name ‘hard-soft’ to the style in the mid-1930s,” explains Bayer.

Bayer finds the contrast between Miyagi’s and Kreese’s philosophies more intriguing than their difference of styles. “I see the first movie of the trilogy as the most important in terms of establishing the two contrasting mindsets of Mr. Miyagi’s ‘Karate approach to life in general’ and John Kreese’s ‘No mercy’ combat-specific attitude. However, both mindsets are essential to and part of genuine Karate.” Bayer claims that fighting in genuine Karate is exclusively reserved for life-threatening situations. “Karateka never start a fight; they always end a fight―and to end a fight ‘no mercy’ is essential.”

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The All Valley Karate Championships and the Olympics

The most unrealistic story element in The Karate Kid is the All Valley Karate Championships. Beyond the controversy about whether Daniel-san’s crane kick win was illegal, Karate tournaments didn’t have the level of production value in the eighties depicted in the movie. Even today, they seldom get that elaborate. A hexagonal ring is hard to make out of the square puzzle mats typically used for local tournaments nowadays. And that spectacular tournament table backdrop was way beyond the budget of tournament promoters. However, Karate will soon be showcased on the global stage, replete with a grand pageantry far beyond what the All Valley Championships imagined.

The Tokyo Olympics will introduce Karate as one of the five new sports in 2021. This will be divided into two categories: Kata, which is a solo form recital akin to gymnastics floor routines but with kicks and punches instead of leaps and flips, and Kumite, which is sparring. Here, Dr. Bayer draws an important distinction between authentic Karate and sport. It’s a critical distinction for what plays out in The Karate Kid. “As long as any kind of rules are implemented, combat changes into some kind of game,” says Bayer. “Life-protecting fighting is pure violence, pitiless full-power action, and has no place in a sport setting.”

Here also is where Bayer sees Kreese’s villainy. A symptom of his wartime PTSD, Kreese is unable to make the distinction between self-defense and sport. “The ‘No Mercy’ combat approach in competition and sports is inexcusably misplaced and represents an ‘Americanized’ misconception of Karate, characterized by ‘winning at all costs’ in combination with the importance of fancy uniforms, of ranks, and of other attributes in an attention-seeking culture.”

According to Bayer, this is also where the authenticity of Miyagi’s contrasting Karate approach shines. “This is the exact opposite of Mr. Miyagi’s humble Karate-Do mindset, where ranks, belts, and other visible signs of competency are irrelevant. His answer to the question what belt he wears was ‘Canvas. JC Penny. Three ninety-eight. You like?’ In spite of its lethality, the purpose of authentic Karate training is not the use of violence, it is gaining self-control, especially in situations loaded with threats and aggression, and where blood pressure and adrenaline levels are off the chart.” 

Despite this separation of killing art and sport, Bayer still sees the role of sport Karate as extremely important, and he can’t wait to see what happens at the Olympics. “Sports Karate canalizes aggression into fun and competition activities, and its training practices are perfect for physical education, for health and fitness purposes. Under a responsible coach, students grow mentally and are guided towards positive values―reflected in modern physical education learning outcomes and their according training designs.” 

“Karate here. Karate here. Karate never here.”

Despite its martial shortcomings, The Karate Kid succeeds in revealing the heart of Karate. The hardships Daniel endures, his loyalty to his sensei, Miyagi’s humility, and the distinctions between the street fights and the championships all play out with an uncommon sincerity, and perhaps that is the secret of its longevity. Even if Miyagi-Do is entirely by Kamen’s design, it’s a clever homage to Okinawan Karate. And even in the martial world, that’s hard to find.

“Authentic Okinawan Karate’s genuine purpose was exclusively self-protection and the protection of someone’s life,” says Bayer. “This genuine Okinawan Karate is hardly to be found in today’s worldwide Karate practice.”

The Karate Kid trilogy is streaming on Netflix now.

The post The Karate Kid: The Real Martial Arts History Behind the Movies appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[hanguk-berry]

안영~~ i just discovered your blog and absolutely love it!! I’m 16 too and hope to carry on teaching myself german (my college doesn’t offer languages as a subject ;-;) and also to teach myself korean!! How did you start learning korean? And how do you keep up with learning so many languages at once?

안녕!~~ Hallo and Hi ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Firstly, thank you so much for your kind words ㅜㅜ This made my day (although it is currently almost 9 p.m. here ... heh~) It makes me really happy to see people enjoying my blog! @.@

What makes me happy too, is that you study German?! :o That is really cool but you must be very determined ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ since German grammar can be really tough, even for Germans 💚 Keep it up! If you need help or advice (I hope these two words don't exactly mean the same thing ㅋㅋ), please do not hesitate to contact me ^-^

So, moving on to your questions (I always tend to talk too much ㅋㅋ):

I started studying Korean by learning the alphabet first. Frankly, I did not even know that romanization was a thing at that time, which turned out to be good to not to know.

1. Start with Hangeul - 한글

Probably the MOST important thing when studying a new language is getting familiar with the alphabet. I read/heard a lot of people say that "You can use romanization at the very beginning but you should not depend on it"

[DISCLAIMER: I am not quoting any specific person, so please do not be offended by my words. ♡

+

Those are all my own opinions, based on personal experience. None of these are guides on how to study Korean, but rather advice that has helped me to get where I am now. ♡]

I disagree with the quoted sentence. Be hard on yourself. Do not study to an unhealthy extend. But do push yourself to train your body and brain, as well as your mind, to actually study. Although my words might sound harsh, trust me - it is worth the result you'll get at the end.

So, to conclude my first point: Study 한글.

It is worth the time. (Actually, it doesn't take to much time. I learned it within two hours. LEARNED. That does not mean that I was fluent in reading it. It means that I understood the basic principle of the Korean writing and reading system and knew the sounds connected to each character.) (To clarify, the last sentence doesn't mean that I could read every word I saw from then on. I could - when I saw the single character written in front of me - associate a sound with it.)

2. Practice Hangeul - 한글

The key is practice, practice, practice. I assume everyone of us in the language study community was or is tired of hearing this at some point (including myself). But it is true what they say.

I practiced reading Korean by:

a) writing down basic words

e.g. months, days of the week, numbers, most common names in Korea

b) following many, many Korean accounts on Instagram

Call me a Koreaboo. (I honestly do not understand the point of that. Let people do what they want as long as they do not show disrespect towards a group of people/a culture or hurt anyone.) But I am - and always have been, and always will be - attracted to East Asian men. (In fact, I am more attracted to Japanese people than Korean, and I love the sound of Japanese more, too.) (Japanese is so hard to study, though. That's why I chose Korean.) (I am talking too much again and drifiting off. Oops. Back to the topic,heh~)

FOLLOW AND INTERACT. Read their stories. Really read their stories. Read the captions before translating. (This obviously works with official accounts [Korean musicians/actors/etc.], too.) Your first ten attempts won't be the best but after a while you will be able to read faster and recognize words that are often used. Make Korean friends. Talk to them. They will be very pleasured to see someone being interested in their culture, country and language!

(I created a whole new account where I am only following Korean people, mostly students around my age. I made it for the sake of the Korean content not drowning in the much more understandable english content ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.)

3. Basic Grammar

I started out with studying very basic grammar (sentence structure, basic conjugation, basic particles,...). For this, I took an old folder, emptied it and made it my Korean folder. Then I went through the first 10 lessons of Unit 1 of howtostudykorean.com

For every lesson I made handwritten and color coded notes. (Color coded means that I used different colors for • basic information about the grammar rule • important information • main examples • more/own examples .)

As everyone has his/her own methods of learning languages, try to find your own and do not be afraid to experiment!

4. Follow your heart :)

Afterwards, I began studying wildly ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. I learn whatever I want or need in the very moment. I try to stick to a schedule but that does not work for me since I have a lot of extracurricular activities.

E.g. when I read Korean webtoons and notice a particle I have never seen before, I study it. When I wonder at 3 a.m. about how "What if..." is expressed in Korean, I look it up the next morning.

5. Use what you have learned

Show the world what you know. Talk (text, if you aren't confident.) (Yet.) (Don't worry, I am still too shy to speak Korean in front of literally ANYONE. Do not pressure yourself. Be comfortable. ) Post photos with short (or long) captions in Korean.

By having conversations with native speakers, you will automatically pick up natural-sounding speaking habits. (Be careful, though. Especially in Korean language, there is a rather big difference between written and spoken Korean. As long as you are casually texting, it is more every-day/conversational and informal Korean. (Except you and your chat partner both talk on a very professional level.) (Which would be weird, to be honest.ㅋㅋㅋㅋ)

If your Korean friend uses a grammar pattern or slang etc. try to use it as often as possible to manifest it into your brain. (Maybe you should warn them or else they are gonna thunk you are some psycho being all 근데 근데 근데 근데 근데.) (근데 means "but", by the way. )

♡♡♡

I think that is all for now, regarding how I have started studying Korean. And this blog is already longer than anything else I have ever posted 😳.

♡♡♡

Last but not least, you asked me how I kept up with studying languages. Honestly, I don't. And if you have other priorities, for example school, let them be your priorities. There is no rush with studying a language. (Well, except maybe some aliens force you to do so within a month or else they will destroy our lovely planet...which...let's be honest, is very unlikely to happen.) (Unless?) (Ok, I am so unfunny and it is definitely too late by now.) (Wow, I spent an hour writing this o0o it is 9:45 p.m. now.)

I hope this helped you at least a little ^-^ If you ever have any question I am here and will try to answer them for you!♡

[lisalowefanclub]

Multiplicity and what identification and representation means to Us

Madeline: I don’t remember there being many cool, attractive, and overall desirable but not fetishized (bye yellow fever) representations of Asian people in mainstream media while I was growing up in the early 2000s. The Asian media I did consume was introduced to me by my dad, so you can imagine the kind of outdated and endearingly weird characters I was exposed to as a kid. Think blind Japanese swordsman Zatoichi or humanoid child robot Astro Boy, both of which originated in Japan around the 60s. As for celebrities, I occasionally heard people talking about Lucy Liu or Jackie Chan, but only as defined by their stereotypical Asian-ness. My point is that this kind of cultural consumption fell into one of two categories: that of obscurity, which suggests that cultural objects are created by Asians for Asians (bringing to mind labels like “Weeb” for Western people who love anime), or that of hypervisibility grounded in stereotypical exoticism. You’d be hard pressed to find a film that passes the Asian Bechdel test.I didn’t discover K-pop until coming to college when I became curious about who my white friends were fawning over all the time. Since then, it’s been really neat to see how K-pop has become popularized as one of the many facets of America’s mainstream music and celebrity culture, especially when artists write and perform songs in Korean despite the majority of their audience lacking Korean language fluency. This suggests that something about the music is able to transcend language barriers and connect people despite their differences. Today it’s not uncommon to see Korean artists topping Billboard’s hot 100 hits, being interviewed on SNL, winning American music awards, gracing the cover of Teen Vogue, or being selected as the next brand ambassador for Western makeup brands like M.A.C. If you were to ask your average high school or college student if they know Blackpink, BTS, or EXO, they would probably be familiar with one of the groups whether or not they identify as Asian.What does this mean, then, for young Asian-Americans to grow up during a time when Asian celebrities are thought to be just as desirable as people like Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, or Michael B. Jordan? What does it mean to see an Asian person named “Sexiest International Man Alive”, beating out long-time favorite European celebs? What does it mean for popularity to exist outside of the realm of the racialized minority and for it to build connections across minority cultures? Of course, fame can be toxic and horrible-- it is, at times superficial, materialistic, gendered, fetishized, and absolutely hyper-sexualized-- but I for one think it’s pretty damn cool to see people who look like me featured in mainstream American culture.I’ve found that throughout the semester, my understanding of Asian presence in America (American citizen or otherwise) has been deeply shaped by our discussions of identity politics and marginalization, another class I’m taking on intergenerational trauma, and my own identity as a Laotian-American woman. Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the similarities between American proxy wars in Korea (The Forgotten War) and Laos (The Secret War), both of which involved US bombing of citizens in the name of halting communism. Taking this class has challenged me to reconceptualize how we make sense of mass atrocity in relation to a pan-Asian identity, especially when contending with how trauma and violence can act as a mechanism for cultural production, and I look forward to exploring this more in my thesis. 

Cyndi:  K-pop is always just the beginning. Enough in and of itself, any interest in the genre at all reinvigorates the consumer to become more engaged with the world in which it exists. Two years ago, I got into a big, but in hindsight pretty silly, argument with my mom when I started going to a Korean hair salon (because of my K-pop delulus / Jennie prints) instead of seeing Maggie, our Vietnamese hairdresser who I can usually only see twice a year on our bi-annual visits to California to visit extended family. My mom told me the Koreans don’t need our money, they are already richer than we will ever be. Who are ‘the Koreans’? Who is ‘we’?? Is every person of Korean descent doing better than every person of Vietnamese descent in America? And #why is my mom being A Hater? Surely, sharing our identity as ‘perpetual guests’ in America should create some sort of solidarity, or at least, allow for transitory economic collaboration??? I give my money to white people all the time: to McDonald’s (Cookie Totes), to Target, to Swarthmore College. 

K-pop cannot be the end. As much as I enjoy the music, the show, and the celebrities, I also know in my heart that the current international interest in K-pop will not last. As an almost perfect and perplexing exemplification of modern global capitalism, the industry will over-expand and thus wear itself out. I always see the subtle disappointment on my language teachers’ faces when they ask me how I came to take interest in Korean, and I have to answer ‘K-pop’, because that is the truth; that is not where I am at now, but it will always be how I began. It has become clear to me that this disappointment is not just a generational difference. Maybe these old people are jealous of pop stars like how I also have to question whether I am secure in myself when I see a 14 year old accomplishing things I as a 21 year old could never accomplish in my long life. I am coming to understand that part of their reaction comes from the fact that there is a fine line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation, that pop culture is ephemeral, but they have lived their lives as entirely theirs. Casual or even consuming interest for the parts of culture that are bright, and clean, and easy cannot ever stand in for true racial empathy, though it is where many of us start. Identity in K-pop is merely another marketing technique, but to the community of fans and lovers, it is something that is real, lived, and embodied. I find that looking at K-pop always brings forth my most salient identities in terms of gender, race, and sexuality. As much as female group members express affection and jokingly portray romantic interest toward one another, would it ever be accepted if these jokes were no longer jokes, but lived realities? Even if the K-pop industry itself did not seek to produce fan communities of this magnitude, these communities that have been founded in response to it are here to stay.  Lowe argues that “to the extent that Asian American culture dynamically expands to include both internal critical dialogues about difference and the interrogation of dominant interpellations” it can “be a site in which horizontal affiliations with other groups can be imagined and realized” (71). A recent striking example is Thai fans’ demand to hear from Lisa on the protests -- a primarily youth-led movement against the government monarchy--going on in Thailand. Although she is, of course, censored and silenced on this topic, the expectation is still there; fans are holding their idols to a standard of political responsibility. 

Jimmy: I haven’t really paid much attention to K-pop until working on this project. Sure, my cousins would do anything to go see BTS perform in person, but I didn’t care so much. Or maybe, I was just not saturated with the cultural zeitgeist. Whereas they live in the center of a cosmopolitan city which imports and exports, my hometown hums white noise. Increasingly, though, K-pop has entered into my life and the wider American cultural space. Now, K-pop tops the charts and is featured on late-night talk shows. Whether or not you are a devout follower, you have probably encountered K-pop in some form. It was not until I went to Swarthmore that I have “become” Asian American. Back home, my friends are primarily either white or Vietnamese-American. And even though I did recognize that I had an “Asian” racial identity mapped onto me, I did not consider it to be based on any politics. After engaging with and working within  Organizing to Redefine “Asian” Activism (ORAA) on campus, as well as taking this course, I have a better grasp of what it means to rally around an Asian American identity. It is a way to organize and resist. Reflecting on my political evolution, I feel comforted and alienated by the cultural weight of K-pop in America. It is amazing to see the gravity of cultural production shift away from the West. And to have global celebrities from Asia is great. Yet, K-pop is limited as a platform for Asian Americans to create identity. What are the consequences when mainstream ideas about contemporary “Asian” culture are still perpetually foreign from America? Is Asian American community just built around transnational cultural objects like K-pop and bubble tea? Does the economic and cultural capital of K-pop held by its idols obscure or erase the heterogeneity and multiplicity of Asian Americans? 

Jason: The first time I heard K-Pop was when Gangnam Style came on during a middle school social event when everyone is standing in their social circles doing their best not to be awkward when teacher chaperones are constantly staring at the back of your head seeing if any wrongdoing would occur. At that time, I could never imagine the K-Pop revolution that would occur within the American music industry.  Anytime I turn on the radio it is only a matter of time until a BTS song will start being blasted from the speakers. It is crazy to think that K-Pop has become so widespread within American popular culture that mainstream radio stations in Massachusetts are so willing to play K-Pop, even the billboards of 104.1 “Boston’s Best Variety” are plastered with BTS, because they know that is what their audience wants. Eight years ago, during that middle school social Gangnam Style was more about being able to do the dance that accompanied the song rather than the song itself. This has completely changed as more and more people are finding themselves becoming devout supporters of K-Pop. This class and project have continuously been pushing me out of my comfort zone by engaging in literature that I would never have read and discussions that I would never have imagined participating in. I have even listened to more K-Pop over the past couple of weeks than I had ever before in my life. I was impressed by myself when a song by BLACKPINK came on and the radio host said here’s some new music that I knew that the song was from their first album that came out around a month ago. I am grateful that I have been pushed out of my comfort zone and “forced (by having to actually do the homework)” to engage in the material of the class. Who knows how long this K-Pop fascination will last in American popular culture, but I am glad that I could be a part of it rather than letting it pass me by and staying within my comfortable music sphere of country, pop, and British rap.  

[ddaenqu]

Short and Sweet

Update Me Drabble - This is set before the events in Update Me

pairings: fanboy!jimin x idol!reader

themes: Non-idol Verse AU, Reverse Idol AU, Fanboy AU, Fluff, Angst,

tags: possessive behavior, obsessive behavior, overprotective behavior, unhealthy behavior, toxic behavior, sasaeng behavior, stalking

a/n: oh baby, this is for the love of my life, min (@jooniescupcakes). thank you for being my friend and happy birthday!!!! i love you so much :((( and would’ve stopped writing if it weren’t for you, my first friend on here that’s stuck w me during my weird 2am talks. you’re so sweet n cute n adorable and i only wish the best for you. i hope you enjoy this! just something i thought would be cute for update!jimin, especially since around the time you wanted a drabble with him. and i’m also freaking out because i don’t know whether i scheduled to post this when it’s july 22nd for you, or if it’s still the 21st, like i’m having such a trouble, so i’m sorry if i get it wrong :(((

Jimin absolutely hated it here.

The constant chattering filling the small room, feet that hit hard on the poor wooden floor, the constant buzz of energy that sounded like a white noise throughout the room, and the sweat that clung to the walls and skin of everyone.

He didn’t want to be here, as he always hates being at the dance studio, but today—especially—he did not want anything to do with this place.

Jimin looked around the room, beads of sweat forming at his forehead and then his legs aching, throbbing uncomfortably that he was always shifting his leg to get rid of the odd tremor in it.

Everyone was white and black to him, their faces blended into the same, their words and voices sounded like plain mockery when they spoke to him, their eyes downcast as if they bored with life, and he knew for a fact they were. They lived their lives in ignorance, he thought in spite, looking back at his phone, showing an event on the calendar with an event in capitalized words.

Just looking at it made his heart thump in an immense amount of infatuation, butterflies fluttering at the pit of his stomach, his body screaming with energy burning at his breaths, slow to comprehend a sudden rush of excitement that came and went.

Didn’t they know what today was? How important today was? Who in their right mind thought that having a lesson today would be fine?

They were obviously fucking stupid.

Usually, he’d be at home, retweeting, replying, and liking everything of yours, over and over. A cake, your favorite type, and flavor, sitting nicely in his fridge with newly bought wine sitting atop his counter with a nice ribbon he bought—in your favorite color—tied around it.

Instead, he was sitting in his dance studio, covered in, his words: grease. With people he didn’t like, neither did he have newly bought wine or a pretty cake sitting in his fridge, he doesn’t have anything.

Jimin already feels useless as it is, but now that he’s consistently messing up on the dances—he’s close to ditching or making up some half-assed excuse to get out of here.

He clicked his tongue, brushing his hair out of his face, and clicked on Twitter, hoping to lessen his sour mood.

Looking through to see all of your fan accounts, most in English, some in Japanese or Korean (that’s as far as he could understand). He can somewhat notice they were all making a mess of themselves over you, noting certain words like “I love you” in English. He couldn’t blame them though.

It was your birthday after all.

His holiday.

The one day he feels complete as if he’s celebrating something with you, being with you, knowing you’re going to be having an Instagram live, responding to birthday wishes—you’re going to be there—for him.

At one point, he thinks it’s unfair how everyone gets to celebrate it too. He wants to feel special when he congratulates you personally through a private message, email, even fan mail that he’s made sure to send in accordance to your time zone.

Although, you never reply, never text of it, or utter a word about it. He knows you must’ve read it. You had to.

You loved your fans. You love him.

He scrolls further and further through his feed, through tags that were related to you or your birthday, constantly switching through different social media’s just to look at photos you’ve posted hours ago, only to look at your face—your perfect smile that radiated everything. Everything he wants to have at this moment.

It’s a constant reminder, seeing your captions in English, never in his language, or you, rarely being able to tour, and when you do, it’s never Korea.

He detests it.

Couldn’t you learn Korean for him? It’s hard, he could understand that at least, but with his help, you could easily learn it. That way you could always understand his posts, his love and adoration for you, you could be with him and only him.

Life would be so much easier if you were with him.

A shy smile reaches his lips, only imagining what you would look like if he ever had to chance to meet you. He’d imagined you’d be shocked, that’s a given, but you would be happy.

The things he would do for you on your birthday. An unhealthy amount of dates to the park, the restaurants, the beach. Lavishing you with gifts he could only imagine were the best of the best, diamonds, gold—anything you looked at with interest, it’s there—and his hand, intertwined with yours, tight enough to leave marks.

The dance instructor walks to the front of the room, already ruining his mood. Jimin dreads their heavy steps and their obnoxious clapping to collect the students, to prepare them for another onslaught of useless dancing. The songs weren’t nearly as good and fun as yours, maybe he’ll have a talk with the instructor to change it.

“Five-minute warmup,” they state blandly, then going on to busy themselves with something or someone else, Jimin didn’t care.

Of course, he still listens.

He, slowly, goes to shut his phone off and toss it into his bag sitting in the corner of the room, obviously situated from the rest of the class’ bags. Until his phone vibrates and rings, a notification from Twitter once again. Your username popping up on the notification screen (he practically has all of your usernames ingrained into his brain, from every each app you use)

It’s a post. A thank you message.

It’s for him.

Jimin flushes with heat, his breathing becoming irregular the moment he opens it up, reading it over and over, and over. Eating up every word and letter you used, every smiley face, every emoji, everything. He doesn’t care at this point if his ears and face are red, sweat collecting at his neck—he doesn’t care at all.

He curls into himself in his awkward sitting position, his heart hurts and hurts. Muscles that were limp before, slack against the floor, were now building up with newfound energy.

Quickly, typing out a response to the thank you letter, knowing he will come back to it later and reply with something better than what everyone else is replying with under your post.

A simple “I love you” will suffice, for now, ending with a short and sweet, “Happy birthday :)”

(thank you for reading! and send birthday wishes to @jooniescupcakes please, and go all out with praises 🧸❤️)

[overthinkingkdrama]

I stumbled on a post of yours listing your favorite kdrama melos and I hadn't realized until that moment that my fav kdramas (the smiles has left your eyes, just between lovere, secret love affair my ahjusshi etc) would all be classified together as distinct from other kdramas. I'm wondering what your thoughts are about Korean melodrama as a genre that is separate and distinct from not only other kdramas but also Western melodrama.

I apologize for how long it took me to post this response. This is a really great ask, touching on one of my favorite narrative subjects, and it required a bit of mulling before I could formulate an answer.

Melodrama as a genre umbrella is broad enough to include many different types of stories beneath its label. Sometimes the term "melodrama" is used specifically to differentiate from a "romcom", or to indicate that a drama (sometimes, but not always) will steer toward a tragic rather than happy ending. Sometimes it merely means that the subject matter is going to be "heavy" and "angsty" rather than "light and fluffy". The definition of the word in English typically connotes a story that includes sensational or exaggerated characters and themes, designed to appeal to emotion. In fact, if you start trying to parse what we mean when we describe something as a "melo" it might seem so general as to be unhelpful, but I believe we can narrow it down a little more.

The term "makjang" also very often gets applied to Kdramas, sometimes interchangeably with the word melodrama or as a sort of intensifier for melodrama, which is how I frequently use it. Although I would suggest that the way we use the word in the English-speaking fandom is somewhat different from its actual connotations in Korean. If you’re interested in specifics about what that term actually means and where it comes from this is a good blog post. And I think I’ve seen a couple other good definitions floating around if you do some googling.

If you’re more familiar with American television or fairly new to Kdramas, you might compare a makjang drama to a daytime soap opera. All the secrets and betrayals and star-crossed lovers you would associate with melodramas in general, but turned all the way up to 11. The most extreme end of the meo spectrum, verging on absurdity. This is generally what the uninitiated think all Kdramas are like. I frequently have people who don’t know much about the subject refer to Kdramas as “Korean soap operas”. I dislike this characterization because a) it ignorantly and rather Eurocentrically paints all Korean television with the same broad brush, when anybody with more than a passing familiarity knows that Korean television is just as varied in quality and content as any other country’s and b) the term “soap opera” has such a specific, culturally defined, low-rent connotation that I would have a hard time applying it meaningfully to non-Western television.

Not all melodramas are makjangs. Although all makjangs will be some variety of melodrama.

Rather than overwrought, exaggerated or sensational I prefer to use the word "heightened" to describe the subjects of a melo, since the word does not imply a value judgement and I think gestures at the central element of all story—but especially melos—that makes them so appealing in the first place. The emotions are “heightened”, the personalities are “heightened”, the actions are “heightened”. Everything is just a little bigger, a little sharper, a little louder than normal. They have deeper, more broad-reaching implications. They have greater scope and thematic resonance than what we generally experience in everyday life.

Even dramas that deal with fairly quotidian subjects (such as college, family relationships, workplace stress) can either have a more grounded/realistic bent, or a more melodramatic bent. Although I would argue that story because it seeks impose order and meaning on otherwise random or meaningless events through the magic of narrative structure will, by its very nature, necessitate certain type of melodrama. That is the quality of “heightened”-ness. Without it, we don’t really have stories at all. So, in that way this is very much a continuum, and not a set of discreet genre categories

As for the second part of your question, how Korean melodrama is distinct from the Western melodrama…I may not be entirely qualified to answer it, as my perspective is that of a Western viewer who is trying to define and categorize things as a non-native speaker with a distinctly Western literary critical background. However, I will attempt to give you my best answer based on the many dozens of dramas I’ve now seen and my own readings about Korean culture.

Because the single run mini-series with an average of 16-20 episodes is currently the currency of the realm, a lot of Korean television focuses on delivering a compact story with a limited cast of characters and bringing a single story arc to a conclusion. Which is different from most American network television which basically tries to stretch out endless seasons of a show whether the story actually calls for it or not. In the West this is changing because of streaming services, which make prestige television shows more and more desirable and common, resulting in more complete stories in limited runs. And it’s also changing in Korea which has been increasingly experimenting with preproduced, longer run and multi-season dramas. (This is of course a limited view of Korean television, which also has its share of long run weekly dramas or weekenders which have a different structure altogether, but I don’t know much about those so I won’t speak to them.) We’ll have to wait and see what style of television grows and thrives in the coming years.

While Korea has indisputably experienced an Americanization of its media in the past decades, there are certain things that are unshakably culturally construed, which appear in dramas again and again up to the present day. A lot of this peculiarly Korean sensibility I think can be tied to a few factors: the influence of Confucianism, the division of North and South, the country’s history of colonization, and a uniquely Korean relationship with emotionality typified by the concepts of han and heung.

I don’t want to wade too far into waters that are too deep for my shallow understanding, but a lot of the “fodder” so to speak of Korean melodrama comes from the specific history of the peninsula. The heavy emphasis on familial (especially parent/child) relationships and the specific way in which they are handle in Korean dramas requires a basic crash course in Confucianism to grasp. The concept of “filial piety” and different types of generational guilt or generational trauma might seem alien to a Westerner. Especially a Westerner from as young a country as the United States.

Because of the concept of “filial piety” and a strong emphasis on family background and blood ties, the recurrence of plots points like birth secrets, family registry falsification, the mistreatment of orphans, adopted children or the children of criminals/murders is much more frequent in Korean melodramas than Western television and treated with different weight within in the culture, and I find this can sometimes be off-putting or confusing if you don’t understand where some of these hang-ups come from. It’s also important to remember that South Korea is a relatively young Constitutional Republic with an extremely recent and troubled political past. More recent than the Japanese Occupation which left so many scars on the collective cultural consciousness, more recent even than the Korean War and the division of North and South Korea. Also, it doesn’t hurt to recognize that, while social stratification is an issue everywhere and that there is no culture in the world that doesn’t have some kind of class system, strongly Confucianism influenced societies have engrained into their history a type of caste system that many Western viewers are completely unfamiliar with.

I’m not saying that you have to be immersed in Korean culture or history to understand and enjoy dramas, but it certainly helps to understand some of the nuances or even troubling elements that you will detect while watching. And it might be a good attitude to adopt, that if you find something off-putting or weird in a character’s reaction or the behavior of a particular group of people in a drama, to ask yourself if there is some kind of shared cultural context that you might be missing to explain the difference. A lot of what I’ve learned about Korean history and culture over the past few years has come from detecting such differences or such intellectual discomfort and doing my own research to find out why these things are coming up again and again.

Moving away from structure and even just cultural context, I do think there is something really unique in the “feel” of Korean dramas that isn’t present in other media I’ve watched. A special kind of relationship “raw” emotion that I think is integrally and inescapably Korean. I think this has to do with the concepts of jeong, han, and heung.

Jeong has to do with a sense of community and communal love, which I think might be the most “visual” of these three “indescribable” emotional concepts. You can see it in the special weight given to sharing food, or in drinking together. You can see it in the family that the neighborhood of Ssangmun-dong in Reply 1988, that creates an umbrella of bonds which extends far beyond blood relations. It’s something that generates a special kind of warmth that I look to Kdramas for specifically. Of course, when an ideal like this is damaged or missing or twisted beyond recognition it can cut deeply and leave behind irreparable scars. Which, I think, might explain why so many romantic heroes and heroines in melodramas come from places of profound social isolation (people like Moo Young in TSHLYE and Gang Do in Just Between Lovers) or from severely broken homes.

Perhaps more relevant to the discussion of melodramas in particularly, han has to do with a sort of internalized trauma, or grief that one carries with them throughout their lives. It can be a broader cultural trauma (like the societal scars left behind from the Japanese Occupation) or something more personal (Like the loss of a child or a broken relationship). I found this quote which I think explains the feeling and its relationship to Korean media well:

Long-term foreign residents here note a tendency of people to wallow in or enjoy the sadness, in an almost romantic way. There is a deep strain of melancholy in Korean culture, and this is expressed in the modern age through sad songs, films and TV dramas that offer an unrelenting stream of tragic heroes, unrequited love and bittersweet memories – most likely contributing to the appeal of Korean pop culture abroad.

[Korea: The Impossible Country’ by Daniel Tudor (2012)]

Heung is somewhat less relevant to our discussion of melodramas, although it is interesting and much more evident I think in other examples of Korean media, but it is the almost manic reaction or counterpoint to han. A sort of overflowing, irrepressible sense of pure joy. And I totally recommend you go out and read about this stuff yourself, I'm probably just slaughtering these concepts trying to summarize them in my feeble way.

It the special cocktail of all three of these "feelings" that give Korean dramas (for me, Korean melodramas in particular) that special addictive quality that made me fall so deeply in love with them. That tacit permission to feel things, to feel them deeply, even overwhelmingly and the catharsis that goes along with that. That is the special sauce, the “heightened”-ness I mentioned before that takes the mundane and makes it magical.

Sorry this got so out of hand, but I hope it was an interesting read and worth the wait. Thank you so much for the ask.

Jona

[glassesandkim]

In dont know if you watch Kim's convenience but I remember you said you do. I just finished the final season and am just so happy for simu liu getting cast as the first asian superhero I love him. I remember Alex Landi saying he wanted the role, and I'm asking would that of been ok to cast a half Korean actor in a role meant for someone who is Chinese? I hope the question doesn't sound ignorant but it seems off that Alex was advertising himself for a role that maybe wasnt for him.

Also I'm asking it because I am white and maybe it wouldn't of bothered me but I know that you are of asian descent and perhaps can give better insight.

Hello anon!!!!!!!!!! Sorry it’s taken me so long to get to your question! I really appreciate this ask and thought about how to answer it everyday. I am, however, afraid my answer is going to suck LOL mostly because it’s something I personally don’t have too much opinion on. 

Yes, I watch Kim’s Convenience (awesome show!!!). I think it’s also important to note that Simu Liu isn’t of Korean descent but plays Jung in the show as we also point out that Alex Landi is half-Italian and half-Korean. 

I’m Chinese so I can’t speak for the Korean community, especially as we have unique and separate life experiences and identities. But as a Chinese Canadian growing up watching Hollywood cast Asian people in roles, this is my opinion.

With Kim’s Convenience, the writers/production team from my knowledge is Korean-based. So they casted these actors knowing that Simu Liu isn’t Korean. 

With some shows and movies, I’m not always convinced they know the difference between the different East Asian ethnicities/nationalities. And that’s what usually puts a bad taste in my mouth.

I don’t think I would personally be upset if Alex Landi, who is mixed race and of Korean descent, was cast as Shang-Chi. Although, I would much rather prefer if a Chinese actor was cast. I had the same feeling when Zhang Ziyi was cast as Chiyo in Memoirs of a Geisha. I felt they chose her because she was one of the few high profile Asian actors at the time. That they didn’t know any other Asian actresses out there (or maybe were unable to find a Japanese actress that could speak English in the film). (BUT DON’T QUOTE ME ON THAT! I don’t know if that’s true.) It’s a similar feeling to when they casted Scarlett Johansson to play Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell because she’s high profile and could earn the movie more money because of her status. 

But I also understand the reality and directors who cast based on talent and/or chemistry. It’s ideal to have an actor play a role that they can completely understand but it’s not always doable. At the end of the day, they’re acting and I think it’s more important that the actors and directors/writers respect the source material and try their best to do it justice. It does show when they do that.