Sunday, November 23, 2008
"Another Day"
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Yamato Nadashiko - "The Wallflower"
While the four of them manage to make Sunako physically beautiful enough to become a lady, the problem lies with her attitude and interests (which Sunako has no intention of changing). Up until the most recent release in the story, they've managed to convince Sunako's aunt that her niece is indeed a lady befitting the mansion in which they live (and prevent the rent from skyrocketing to triple the required amount). However, in reality, Sunako has not changed considerably.
Sunako Nakahara
The female lead, Sunako is often referred to as Ghost girl or Scary girl due to her dark presence. A lover of solitude, gore movies, anatomical dolls and objects that reflect the ugly side of life as she puts it, Sunako has locked herself away in a world of solitude due to a traumatic experience with her first love. She has especially mixed feelings about Kyouhei, and as the storyline progresses, their relationship becomes more solid and intimate. She even shared a kiss with him.
He comes from a very wealthy family and is quite serious in nature. He is the brain and logic of the group often trying out logical strategies to make Sunako become a lady. He is a book worm who loves to study. This is evidenced by him having the highest grade point average out of all of the boarders. He has a love interest in Naie "Noi" Kasahara, but his shyness gets in the way when he wants to express his feelings. As the manga progresses, he becomes more social and open about himself. He prefers Japanese-style formal wear.
Ranmaru Morii
Naie "Noi" Kasahara
She has an unbreakable love for Takenaga and is often questioning their relationship. She is very beautiful and kind. She is the first female friend that Sunako makes, even if unwillingly. She is always standing up for Sunako at school when people make fun of her. She has a very quick temper around Kyouhei and the two are often found fighting. Like the boys, Noi is not that good when it comes to housework
"Tobi"
Tobi (飛) can be translated as "jump", while Madara (斑) can be translated as "spots".
To keep in Akatsuki's shadow, Madara eventually took on the disguise of Tobi and was placed within Akatsuki as Zetsu's subordinate. As Tobi, Madara wears an orange mask, with swirls focused around the right eye, that covers his entire face outside of his right eye. Before wearing the swirl mask, Madara wore a similar mask, with markings across it which resembled the hidden mist villages ANBU mask, covering his entire face but the right eye. However, the mask does not bear the symbol of the Hidden mist village.
Furthermore, Tobi has several bolts or pins present on the arms of his uniform, obscured by his Akatsuki cloak. While acting as Tobi, unlike others within Akatsuki, Tobi is carefree and goofy, but Madara uses a very formal and correct manner of speech.
While Tobi greatly respects his other members, referring to Deidara as Deidara-senpai in the Japanese version, most of the other members tend to get easily annoyed by Tobi. Deidara, who believes all within Akatsuki should be serious and calm, is not pleased with Tobi's childish personality, and frequently attacks Tobi in a comedic fashion when annoyed. Kisame, on the other hand, somewhat appreciates Tobi's ability to brighten up a gloomy organization such as theirs.
As Tobi, Madara has not been seen wearing a forehead protector, probably to seal his identity, though he already has a mask covering his forehead, so this could also be why it is not visible. Although, it stands to reason that since Madara hates Konoha, he probably refuses to wear the headband anyway, like Orochimaru and Sasuke.
Monday, November 17, 2008
"Akatsuki"
Akatsuki means dawn, daybreak, or red in Japanese. It is also, in the Naruto universe, an evil crime organization that is capturing all of the tailed beasts/sealed demons for global domination. Tsuki means moon. The organization wears black cloak with red clouds with purple/blue nail polish, and straw hats that somewhat resembles a jelly fish. Each has their own ring for the purpose of extracting the tailed beast from their host. The tailed beasts (all 9 together) will become a great jutsu lead to world domination, AKA peace in Pein's case. Its leader is Pein, though executive command is given to select others as well, as some, like tobi (a new member) is even able to tell Pein what to do. Therefore, Pein has executive authority, as does Tobi, Zetsu at times, and maybe even Konan.
The Members:
Pein shares the name shared with six people, all of whom Jiraiya had fought before. Pein has multiple body piercings and rin'nesan, the eyes that possessed by sage of the six paths (founder of ninja world, birth giver of ninjutsu). When they are all together, they can control all jutsus. One of the Peins (the one who can summon) was killed by Jiraiya. Pein appears to be the leader of Akatsuki but is actually following Uchiha Madara's orders. He is Jiraiya's student with is most likely Nagato, Konan's brother.
Konan is the female (the only female in the Akatsuki) with blue hair, which she wears a flower in. She is skilled in the art of origami, which led to her unique style of jutsu. She can turn into paper and fold into whatever shape she wishes. She is Pein's partner and Jiraiya's student.
Zetsu has a black side (evil) and a white side (good). He somewhat resembles a Venus fly trap and spies for the Akatsuki. He eats the corpses of victims and gets in arguments with himself.
Tobi is a hyperactive goofball, and the masked ninja of the Akatsuki. Some think he is Uchiha Madara, founder of the Uchiha clan and Sharingan leader of the Akatsuki. He killed his brother for ever lasting Sharingan and fought the first hokage.
Kisame is one of the seven swordsmen of the mist, and has a shark-like appearance. He carries a large sword called Samehada Whihc, that absorbs chakra and shaves instead of cuts. He is the partner of Uchiha Itachi and he has the most amount of chakra
Itachi Uchiha wiped out his entire clan except for his little brother Sasuke. He obtained the Managekyou Sharingan, which contained the abilities Tsukiyomi and Ameratsu. He fights with Sasuke to take over his eye.
Hidan is a foul-mouthed immortal. He worships a blood thirsty god called Jashin. Because of this he cannot be killed. He was decapitated and buried alive by Nara Shikamaru after he killed Sarutobi Asuma.
Kakuzu had an excessive love of money. He fought in the first hokage and lived a very long time. He was capable of detaching his body parts and enjoyed stitching things up. He had five hearts, but was eventually killed by Hatake Kakashi and Uzumaki Naruto.
Sasori is a puppet master. He was from Suna, but due to a childhood without parents he joined the Akatsuki. He turned himself into a puppet with only his heart still human to contain chakra. He can kill a human to use their body as a puppet. He is also skilled in poison. He was killed by Chiyo and Sakura, being stabbed into the heart by two swords in hands of his mother and father puppet.
Deidara makes explosive clay by chewing it in his mouth.. His clay will expand and explode by his command "katsu". He died trying to kill Sasuke by blowing everything up within 10 miles. Sasuke survived, but Deidara died.
Orochimaru is a missing-nin from Konohagakure. After he defects from Konoha he joins Akatsuki and is paired with Sasori. Once Itachi Uchiha does the same, Orochimaru attempts to use one of his abilities to forcefully take control of Itachi's body. Itachi repels his effort and severs his hand as punishment, forcing Orochimaru to flee the organization in defeat. Upon leaving he takes his severed hand and the ring he wore on it with him. Because of this, as well as the fact that he had intimate knowledge of Akatsuki's secrets and plans, the members of Akatsuki began making every effort possible to find and eliminate him."Please Teach me English"
Year: 2003
Director: Kim Sung-Soo
Cast: Lee Na-Young, Jang Hyuck, Angela Kelly, Kim In-Moon, Na Moon-Hee, Kim Yong-Geon, Kim Young-Ae, Choi Joo-Bong The Skinny: Light, fluffy, and decidedly uneven, Please Teach Me English also manages to be engaging, enjoyable, and a damn fun time at the movies. This isn't earth-shattering stuff, but those who can't find some enjoyment here are probably dead inside.
Review:
It's more Korean romantic comedy! Like most of its ilk, Please Teach Me English is uneven stuff, with multitudes of wacky jokes, annoying mugging, and over-the-top characters who could only exist in the movies. However, it's also creative stuff, with charismatic stars who give funny, and not egregiously over-the-top performances, and a likable streak that makes the film's predictable transformation from fun comedy to saccharine romance a tolerable one.
Lee Na-Young (Who Are You?) is Young-Ju, an incredibly wacky public official who's elected by her office (via spin the bottle) to take English lessons. As a public office, they sometimes get English-speaking patrons, but apparently everyone who works there is without Western language ability. So naturally, she has to go to school. Her first and only choice for English lessons is a local institute, where her teacher is the gorgeous, blond Cathy (Australian actress Angela Kelly).
Moon-Su takes up the English name of Candy, and decides to stick with the class, mainly because the dreamy, if not too girl crazy Moon-Su (Jang Hyuck of Volcano High) is in her class. Young-Joo is given the English name Elvis (thanks to his King-like sideburns), and spends his classtime making embarrassing overtures towards his Caucasian teacher, and generally knocking Candy's supposedly plain looks.
This is, of course, a total fallacy. Lee Na-Young is not plain looking, though the filmmakers go the extra mile by giving her unattractive glasses and perpetually frumpy clothes and hairstyles. Elvis has his own reasons for learning English: his long-lost sister is visiting from the
Not that simplicity is bad. It actually isn't, and Please Teach Me English proves that by taking a simple concept (girl likes boy, boy likes other girl, girl tries to win boy over by doing something required by the screenplay), and giving it enough bells and whistles to turn it into something worthwhile, if not especially deep. The characters are over-the-top, but in likable, identifiable ways. Elvis is a good kid who wants to score big with the ladies, but would easily settle for someone not-so-hot with good character. Candy is a needlessly tough girl who will admit her mistakes, even if it means eating crow and befriending her romantic rival.
Even the stock character of Cathy is given charming life by Angela Kelly, and her struggles with teaching the oddball class (everyone in it is a "type") make for engaging comedy. Nobody in the world of Please Teach Me English is perfect; they're all off-kilter and more than a little odd, but they're all good people too. No bad guys exist, or conflicts which seemingly come out of nowhere. The enemy here is inside each person, and triumph means being able to speak another language—even if it's only a little better than they did two hours ago.
Eventually, Please Teach Me English does sink into predictable "chase after the guy/girl" romantic comedy clichés, but by then the characters have grown on the viewer enough to make it all okay. The romantic steps taken by Candy and Elvis are not overdone or annoying, and are developed in a sound screenplay that manages to sidestep usual romantic comedy script errors. These characters grow together because it makes sense, and not because of manufactured situations or unearned epiphanies.
At first glance, this may not seem true, since the film is loaded with routine filler that would normally make one dismiss other similar films. But it works here. Yes, there are tons of bizarre sight gags, Korean wordplay, slapstick, and even weird animated sequences, but none of it is intrusive or attempts anything besides the obvious: making us laugh, or showing that the characters are falliable, imperfect, lovable people.
Lee Na-Young and Jang Hyuck make a charming screwball couple, even if they do mug a heck of a lot. However, in contrast to the insanely awful hijinks of 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant, the mugging is confined to the characters, and not the world at large. The characters of Please Teach Me English sometimes resemble cartoon characters, but the world they live in does not. If anything, the world seems remarkably real. Full of silly people, but real.
Not that this is award-winning stuff, because it probably isn't. It's just lightweight, pleasing stuff that should provide all the requisite enjoyment for your average audience, and possibly even your more demanding ones. Director Kim Sung-Soo, who directed Musa: The Warrior (!), doesn't overdo much, and when he finally does, it's likely that you'll be entertained enough to not care. Yes, this isn't fantastic stuff, but it's enjoyable and fun. And dammit, sometimes that's enough. (Kozo 2004)
"how do i breathe"
my Little BridE
My Little Bride-Boeun is an innocent 15 year old high school girl and Sangmin is a playboy who comes back to Seoul during his last year of University to complete an internship. The unlikely pair get forced into an arranged marriage because of a promise that Boeun’s grandfather made to Sangmin’s grandfather when they were in the military together. The problem is, the two of them have known each other since childhood and they really only think of each other like brother and sister. On top of that, neither one of them is mature enough to be married.Boeun’s grandfather pretends he’s dying in order to manipulate the reluctant pair to get married. They finally do it to please the family but, they want to keep it a secret from everyone else. They move into an apartment together, but until Boeun gets into University, the parents don't want them to sleep in the same room.The mom tells them no kids till graduation, but what she means is don't do the wild thing. Excluding the sex part, Boeun is still expected to play the role of a wife by cooking and doing her husband's bidding. (It's somehow unsettling to see a little girl trying to play this role.) Things get even more complicated when Boeun falls for the local high school hunk and her husband, Sangmin, gets his internship assignment at Boeun’s high school! Even though the meddling families had only good and pure intentions for their kids, to my western eyes, this movie seems to be built on a somewhat kinky premise. First of all, arranged marriages don’t really exist in the west, let alone marriages between little girls and adult males. At 15, teens in Americas and Europe may look and act older, but Moon Geun-Yong has the looks and the mental age of someone much younger. I realize that the families in the movie wanted to cement their close family ties via the marriage of their children, but it makes me uncomfortable to see such a little girl with a grown man. (Even though they don't consummate the wedding in the movie.) The plot of this movie made me reflect on certain aspects of Korean culture. (Disclaimer: These are just my musings and purely opinion.) First of all, Koreans must be quite innocent and naive, otherwise how could a film built on this premise be accepted as a romantic comedy? If a movie like this came out in the west, people might think: Jailbait, shotgun wedding, statutory rape. They also might view the parents as manipulative conniving bad guys. Perhaps Koreans never gave this strange premise a second thought because they just have more innocent thoughts? Another thing this movie shows the generally childish humor of the Koreans. Sarcasm or subtle dark humor seems rarely understood in Korea. Koreans prefer to laugh at overtly silly situations. For example, in one scene, Sangmin taunts Boeun by walking around in his boxers shorts. (Like OhmiGod! that's so totally Gross!) The way she squeals at the sight of him in his boxers might be the same way a kid would squeal at another kid eating his boogers. Is this supposed to be funny? I just thought it was kind of perverted.Then there's this subtle underlying theme which is practically incestuous. I know Korean families are close, but why are there so many Korean movies where brothers and sisters almost get together? I've seen Korean Movies where a half-brother falls for his half-sister, a brother actually sleeps with his sister, a brother is in love with his brother's wife, and cousins want to sleep together. In this movie, although the main characters are not blood related, they might as well be brother and sister. YUCK. Don't any Koreans find this recurring theme strange? Or again, am I just missing the innocence gene?I personally thought the premise of this movie was odd, but it did very well at the Korean box office. My Little Bride also helped launch Moon Geun-Yeong into superstardom. Of all the aspiring actresses out there, I wondered how this girl in particular broke into the movie biz. One friend explained to me that she won the hearts of the audience because she was just like everyone's little sister. Yes, but would you want to see your little sister shacked up with some older ajosshi?
A story that well sure be inlove with....