Tag: shogun

April TV and movies: Parasyte Netflix series, Shogun S1, Fallout S1, Physical 100 S2

Physical 100 S2 — super motivating and inspirational; can’t wait for S3 though I really hope they can add some exercises or rules that give at least *a small edge* to women, otherwise the women just consistently lose or hinder the teams in almost every competition (from the first curved treadmill race to the pullups to the pvp wrestling to the miner sack carry I could go on)

Parasyte live action mini series on Netflix — much better than I expected; they managed to make the parasites not look corny, and keep the story tight and engaging, which is an impressive achievement after the consistent failures of live action conversions like Death Note, One Piece, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop…
The lead protagonist (Jeon So-nee) was great; the pacing was fast and intense; the show didn’t drag on, they did 6 great episodes and noped out

Shogun S1 — finished; ended on a high note although I can’t for the life of me really understand wtf is going on with Blackthorne or why he’s in the story at all besides blah blah cannons blah blah ship blah blah anjin-sama

Fallout S1 — a few episodes, but none of the characters resonated (except maybe Norm in moments), and the intentionally corny cliched writing didn’t land for me; it got increasingly awkward, like watching a standup comedian continually bomb

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March TV and movies: Physical 100 S2, Shogun S1, Heavenly Delusion, Tokyo Vice S1

Great media month, not in quantity but quality.

Starting with the best:

Physical 100 S2 — 9/10 — ahhh just so motivating and getting dat pump. Have only finished 3 episodes. The strength of contestants, the production value, the sheer testosterone spectacle of it — all in a Korean cultural wrapper. Only complaint would be their penchant for ending episodes on obvious cliffhangers (to increase next-episode ctr, ugh), and tendency to focus screen time on a few favorites instead of giving interesting underdogs their due. Also I wonder why Beom Seok was allowed back for S2 but other S1 contestants were not? Seems to be a huge advantage, as he’s familiar with the contest format and has had a year to stew and prep after his early exit…

Shogun S1 — 8/10 — Hiroyuki Sanada is just *samurai’s kiss*. Tbf, I kinda hated him in Tom Cruise’s Last Samurai, and it was only years later after watching his other films (47 Ronin, John Wick, Army of the Dead) that I began to realize it was the quality of his ACTING (as the sneering antagonist to Tom Cruise’s hero arc) that I disliked so much. As they say, Hate is not the opposite of love, but apathy. Shogun is royal drama, political intrigue, samurai battles, religious intrigue, cannons & ships, brothel-ing (or as the show would say, pillowing in the willow world), what’s not to like?!

Heavenly Delusion — 7/10 — there was a traumatic scene near the end of season 1 that I was utterly unprepared for. Like, tried to forget the scene but couldn’t. Until that moment, the show was a fun, sometimes shockingly violent but mostly silly and creative romp through post-apocalyptic anime Japan, a tale of adolescent-hood and adventure and survival. But yeah, beware if you’re watching for E12/13…

Tokyo Vice — 6/10 — watched half of season 1. Though Ansel Elgort is always his ethereal floaty tall stick figure self, and Ken Watanabe is Samurai Dad (also Last Samurai!), the plot struck me as over contrived and dramatized. I had read Adelstein’s original memoir too many years ago, so the story specifics elude me, but I remember it as much grittier and more journalistic. But this is the Hollywood way, I suppose. Also a bit tired of the gaijin glorification theme, which is also common in Shogun, but that’s pretty much the default when it comes to Japan+US media

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