Archive for the ‘Asian Pop-Culture’ category

Decade / Shinkenger

August 18th, 2009

Shinkenger_VS_DCD_by_Toku_JusticeI really don’t know why… but I really enjoy the Japanese Super-Sentai series.  Maybe it’s because I enjoyed the North American Power Rangers shows when I was younger which used footage from the older Sentai series and just replaced the voice tracks and actors.

In a way I see Super-Sentai as the more refined and for older viewers version of Power Rangers.  I guess I enjoy it, in a morbid way, when the monsters start killing civilians and you see blood and bruises after the battles.  It seems more real as people and rangers die in battle.

Anyway… because of the latest Super-Sentai, I have now been exposed to the world of Kamen Rider. I had always known that it had existed but I never watched it for some reason. But they gave me a reason to watch it this time as there was a cross-over with the two shows.

Like with most of the Kamen Rider series you do not need to watch the previous one as they are in completely separate worlds/realities whatever you want to call it.  What makes Decade unique is that Decade travels to all of the worlds.  You see Decade fighting with or sometimes fighting against that world Kamen Rider.  The only thing that I am unsure of is if they brought back the original actors to portray the other Kamen Riders as I never watched the previous series.

In closing I will say this… I think it is a safe bet that if you like Super-Sentai you will like Kamen Rider…

Kei

Azumanga Daioh

June 6th, 2009

I actually finished watching this series a couple months back.

The reason I wanted to watch this anime is because of the AMV hell videos that are out on the web, you can search YouTube or Veoh if you want to see them.

It reminded me alot of Lucky Star as the show was about nothing.  Also the dream sequences are some of the best ones that will make you laugh.  If you like turning off your brain, as I do, then I would reccomend watching this.

-Kei

Internal Affairs (2002) vs The Departed (2006)

April 24th, 2009

NOTE: Spoilers are contained in this blog

infernalthe_departed1

I finally watched The Departed last night and I would say it was a good remake of the 2002 Hong Kong movie: Internal Affairs which it is based on.

The similarities between the two movies are very apparent. There are many scenes that they pretty did exactly the same… even down to the dialog (after translation of course).

My favorite scene in the original was when the Superintendent Wong Chi Shing (played by Anthony Wong, who plays Bunta in the Hong Kong live action Initial D Movie — I got my anime reference :D ) is pushed off of the top of the hotel after meeting with his informant Chan Wing Yan and landing right next to him.

I preferred the original version of this scene. In the Departed it shows Det. Capt. Oliver Queenan falling and landing right in front of Billy Costiga, where as in Internal Affairs it all you see is Wong land on top of the cab. I personally found this more dramatic and in a way you didn’t see it coming.

There are also other small things that I preferred in the original one… Like the interactions between Chan Wing Yan and Inspector Lau Kin Min, who is the mole in the police department before they discover who each of them truly is.

Kei