Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Okay Japan you and I need to have a talk

Dear Japan,

I want to start by saying you have given me a lot to be thankful for:

Samurai particularly Itto Ogami of 'Lone Wolf and Cub' fame, the greatest father son story in literature.

Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings. A book in which I uncover something new each time I read it.

The whole Kaiju (translated ‘strange beast’, but meaning giant monster like Gojira) movie industry without which we would never have seen Jack Reno make a joke about American instant coffee.

Ninjas of course, is there anyone who doesn’t think Ninjas are cool? Ninjas never go out of style. ANY story can improved with ninjas, they are like zombies in that way……mmmm…..Zombie Ninjas!

Rope work (Kinbaku) which goes so far beyond anything else I think some of the knots use mobius strips and cross over into some weird non-Euclidian geometry dimension on a topological level.

Also where would my late night TV experience of Deep Cable be without J-Horror, sure Korean-horror may have taken it further and Spain-horror has been putting out some kick arse stuff recently. But where would scary films be now without the influence of Ringu, Ju-on, Dark Water, One Missed Call & Pulse. We all know the tropes by now :vengeful ghosts; long stringy black hair; impossible physical gymnastics; meowing little ghost boys; cursed videos (or cell phones or computers); old rotted buildings and corpses; moldy books and newspapers; elliptical storylines (or a total abandonment of logic); creepy sound design; and creepy cinematography.

Then there is the Anime, so much anime. Enough to say if you don’t know who Deunan Knute or Major Motoko Kusanagi are, or if you don’t know who Astroboy (anyone else looking forward to the new movie), Gigantor or Prince Planet are then your childhood Saturday mornings were probably more active than mine.

For all this I can even forgive your robotic hubris that will see the rise of our machine overlords



but seriously WTF?

10 comments:

  1. Oh WOW a giant redhead ;) Hey there B xx

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  2. I'm gonna have nightmares over that one.
    Totally agree, WTF?

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  3. i don't know if I want to be in that train or not...

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  4. I can even forgive the whole whale thing because of anime. ninja scrolls, spirited away, akira...
    adult cartoons - i never have to grow up

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  5. You know I am just totally lost for words!!!

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  6. Why does Japan always top their awsome with their creepy?

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  7. And lets not go near the whole bukkake related thing either.

    In addition to the above I would add Weird Game Shows (usually involving pain and/or humiliation for contestants).

    Those cartoons you mentioned were staples of mine. As well as Kimba the White Lion (I'm getting the whole lot of those from some other parents we know through the boy's kindy) I was a big fan of The Samurai and The Phantom Agents (and I've seen the odd DVD of them but don't own any...oh how I'd love to see The Phantom Agents!).

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  8. And then there's fugu. What other country would allow the legal sale of lethal comestibles?

    Oh, and you forgot to mention Ultraman.

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  9. I'm not sure which is more disturbing... that or the Sta-Puft Marshmallow man

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  10. Fantastic. I have not laughed this much today...What a wit you have...love the photo selection and the tongue in cheek

    Wait...you did mean this a bit tongue in cheek....right??
    Loved your post. Stop by for tea at Psyche Connections.....We welcome witty (right?) folk daily...
    Linda

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