Sun, 6 Apr: Weekly Review 56

Went over all the goodies I got from Lui and put most of them away. I’m keeping out the dvd of Kung Fu The Movie, which is too good. I gotta watch it tonight!

So I watched it, and it was an okay telemovie from 1985. Looks like it was intended as a pilot episode for a projected new series of the show with David Carradine reprising his role. A really nice touch was it co-starred Brandon Lee, who plays Caine’s son. Lee’s father, Bruce Lee, was supposed to play Caine in the original series but his part was given to Carradine supposedly because the producers decided they didn’t want a Chinese American to play the role. So it’s nice that his son at least got to play that character’s son. Mind you, it’s not much of a role; he appears sporadically, and the story mainly revolves around an illegal opium trade that Caine uncovers in the Californian town where he lives. It was very nice to see Master Po reprise his role in the guise of a spirit who advises Caine. Little Grasshopper…

Played and recorded into the computer my Beach Boys In Concert album that was released in 1973. Very interesting versions of Help Me Rhonda and Surfin’ USA. Much tougher. Pretty solid overall. A good mix of contemporary songs and the oldies. The great thing about this album is the Boys don’t sound like an oldies band at all. They sound very contemporary, including good performances of a number of their newer songs, often sung by Blondie or Rikki, the new members.

Went to the Herd open mic in Healesville to see Josh play. There was also Peter, Izaak doing a piano medley, Claire, Heather and Tom, and another Josh, and a guy called Paul from Mornington who spruiked his song Gypsy Caravan as appearing on Channel 31 soon. There was also a birthday hoedown led by Ash to the tune of 1000 Miles by The Proclaimers. Much wild dancing did ensue here. Josh did his popular rendition of I Don’t Like Mondays, plus a cover of a Jake Bugg song that intrigued many of the punters, asking who’s that? Peter trotted out his song Life Is a Circle yet again as his encore. When Izaak handed him the little shaker he uses for that song Josh turned around in his seat and gave me a look and knowing smile, as if to say – here we go again with that fucking song. It was another good night out catching up with some people.

I watched another Urusei Yatsura film tonight. It was The Final Chapter, the fifth film. It’s interesting and a bit annoying how the story mirrors the first film, Only You. In that one Ataru was kidnapped by aliens in order to marry a girl he’d met as a child when a childhood pact was made. In this one it’s Lum who’s kidnapped for a similar reason. I like that this one features Benten and Oyuki quite a bit as they try to rescue Lum. This was based on the final of the manga stories, as was the important sub-plot about Ataru finding and keeping Lum’s horns, which have fallen off. The animation’s a little different this time around, especially the character design. Everyone’s a little more squared off, more blocky, which I guess gives them more solidity.

I actually re-read the final chapters of the manga this film is based on. It was simply called Boy Meets Girl. The film was very faithful to the manga, with just a few details left out and at least one crucial addition. In the manga the alien Carla comes to Earth and intentionally brings her planet’s toxic mushrooms with her, which causes the potential planet-wide catastrophe of a mushroom explosion. The anime suggests it was inadvertent and that Carla was mindful of the dangers it could cause. A much better solution. It all hinges on Ataru saying ‘I love you’ to Lum, which of course he cannot do. In an earlier scene, which is in the manga and the film, he offers his address book of the numbers of all the girls he’s propositioned to Mendo in exchange for use of a spaceship to rescue Lum. Mendo declines because he doesn’t have such a space ship, but surely this is the clearest proof of Ataru’s love for Lum? Lum of course doesn’t know this, but a similar proof occurs right at the end when she discovers Ataru has been holding her fallen horns in his safe keeping. It’s a satisfying conclusion to Ataru and Lum’s love/hate relationship, and a sly way for author Rumiko to have it both ways.

I bought some goodies in the JB store at Ringwood during lunch break. They were Blackpink Lisa’s Alter Ego cd, Blackpink Jennie’s Rubie cd, and the To Your Eternity season one anime bluray. I haven’t really heard the Jennie album, so that’s gonna be a gamble. Haven’t seen To Your Eternity either, but I know I’ll love that. It’s based on a manga by Yoshitoki Oima, who also did A Silent Voice.

Read another short story from The Best of World SF. This was Delhi by Vandana Singh. A well-written story about a man in the titled city who sees visions of people from the city’s past and from its future, and who is tasked to help one such woman in particular. The setup was good but I feel it failed to deliver.

I watched the first two episodes of the To Your Eternity bluray I bought yesterday. As expected, it’s really good, featuring the story of an entity that is dropped on Earth as a rock, then it becomes a wolf, and then finally a young boy. The first episode was all about the entity’s relationship with the boy when it is still a wolf that is his companion. It’s a sad tale of survival in the frozen tundra of what I assume is Hokkaido, Japan. Basically, the boy doesn’t survive; but then the wolf becomes the boy. The second episode is set in an Ainu village on Hokkaido where a young girl called March is chosen as a sacrifice to the local monster (probably a giant bear) for the usual superstitious reasons. But she escapes and encounters the boy/entity just as he is being reborn from a recent encounter with the bear (his body regenerates every time he dies). The boy still knows nothing about human ways, not even speech, so March begins to show him how to catch fruit and how to eat, and it looks like a friendship will develop. I love these redemption/learning stories and am looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.

Listened to the new Jennie album Rubie. It’s surprisingly good. Nothing’s jumped out as standout yet, but the last song, Twin, has a nice keeping it real guitar ballad vibe I like. I also watched a bunch of the videos she’s done for the album, plus a few other Blackpink solo things on Youtube.

I finished picking through the Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. A terrific reference work. Used it to compile a nice Oz Encyclopedia playlist on Spotify. There were a lot of bands and artists I didn’t know and at least three I do that weren’t included. For the record, these were King Fox, Bell Jar and The Going Away Party. The last one is Josh’s band, but even he would have been very surprised to see its inclusion in the book. A group called Young Modern, who I didn’t know, caught my eye. They were listed as power pop and featured John Dowler who went on to form The Zimmermen. I want to check them out. The book is really good for this reason: it’s a great way to discover new or lost bands. Even though at this stage I need to discover new or lost bands like a hole in the head (got too many found ones to rediscover), I will probably buy this if I ever see it in a store.

Rewatched Cowboy Bebop the Movie, plus the extras. I saw a scene from it on Twitter that I didn’t recall, the one where Edward is propositioned by the transexual, and it prompted the rewatch. What a terrific film. The sequence on the monorail is a particular standout. I really liked the new character, Electra, who is indeed a babe. She was clearly a good match for Spike. It’s a pity we didn’t see them together at the end. But Edo will always be my fave. The extras gave us a glimpse of the American and Japanese voice actors for Ed. For me there will never be a substitute for the Japanese voice actor for Ed. She’s perfect. I could make a recording of all of her voice parts and listen to them on repeat. Bebop rules!

There was an interesting Australian Story on the ABC today. It was a return to the old Race Around the World show from the late Nineties, profiling the people who participated in it. This was a classic show and I avidly watched both seasons. The episode only focused on the people from the first season, including John Safran and Olivia Hussey and others, plus the host Richard Fidlar and judges. It was very much a show of the times, before smart phones which have made the concept redundant. Basically these days every wanna be Youtube star makes similar short docos on their phones. But back in the day this was cutting edge entertainment. Recalling the show, Fidlar couldn’t believe how the producers just let the Racers off into the world to fend for themselves with very few safeguards. They could easily have got into all kinds of strife, but didn’t. I thought it a pity they didn’t cover John Safran’s film about his visit to Disneyland, which I thought was a classic. He snuck in through a torn gate for free. They focused on the one where he streaked for the St Kilda Football Team to win in Jerusalem. He was indeed a character. Unfortunately my favourite Racer, Kim Trayll, didn’t participate in this show.

Listened to Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks, one of the albums Lui gave me the other day. I hadn’t listened to it in years, so it came as a shock to find it is a very good album. It’s full of nihilistic anthems, from Anarchy In the UK, to Bodies and God Save the Queen. I’m really liking the change up of Submission, which sounds like an old Iggy and the Stooges thing. You figure Johnny’s singing about ‘your watery love’ because it’s a pun – a Sub (marine) mission. Seventeen’s lines about a ‘little faggot’ jar a bit today, but hey, it was 1977. And Bodies is a powerful statement about abortion. I really like how the Pistol’s fame was really not manufactured in the end. They were the real deal: chaotic, confronting, uncompromising. I love how they fucked it all up in the end. They could have made so much money if they’d been smart. I guess that came later, with the Filthy Lucre tour. Damn, I wish I’d seem them then.

I grabbed some free goodies from the library today. They were dvds of the films Black Widow, No Time To Die (the Bond film) and two of the theatrical releases of the Hobbit movies, An Unexpected Adventure and The Battle of Five Armies. I have the extended versions of those films, just not the theatrical versions, which are handy to have. I’ve got both for the second one, The Desolation of Smaug, because I much preferred the theatrical version of that one. I also grabbed a cd of BTS’s Love Yourself: Tear. All of these were without the covers because they came from a box of dvd and cd discs being thrown out. I’ll take ‘em!

Watched the third ep of TTT the Rank Battle. It turned out not just Chaeyoung but five of the members were cheating with the rubiks cube by pulling it apart and putting it back together. Only Jeongyeon and Mina didn’t. Whether the cheaters get some kind of penalty is yet to be determined. During the mukbang scene Sana made a call to the members and they chatted about the contest. When asked who she thought was in ninth place Sana correctly answered Mina, to the amazement of all.

I had a rewatch of the third ep of Twice’s Time To Twice Rank Battle, which was a particularly good one. The mukbang scene was actually pretty classic. While Sana was on the phone her little purple hamster avatar was sitting there representing her. It was so cute. The mukbang was apportioned according to rank, so that Mina, who was ninth, had a meagre meal, while Sana’s hamster, which was first, had a banquet. Tzuyu pointed this out to Sana during the call and Sana generously offered to let everyone dig in – except Mina. But Mina didn’t seem to care because she wasn’t in the mood for eating today, for some reason. Most of the members complained about Sana being first when she basically didn’t do anything. Momo made the emphatic point that she had been largely relegated to last for her entire ten year career with Twice and had learned to accept it, but it was time to move up. This was a surprising confession seeming to reflect her status in the group’s song vocal distribution where she tends to get the least lines. She is the lead dancer, but also the one who the company seems to think has the weakest voice. I’m not sure if it also reflects the level of her popularity amongst Onces, but it could. Poor Momoling. We are all so happy that she has gotten the opportunity show her unique voice off on the Misamo side projects. This TTT has been interesting for the truth bombs that have been dropped. And it ain’t over yet.