Takane & Hana

Oh, where to start? I guess where it began. Little dude and I have been reading this manga series since it was released (it's still ongoing). It's by Yuki Shiwasu and as far as I know, it's the only thing she (pretty sure the author is female, though I dunno for sure) has written. I'm not sure how we came across it. And, honestly, given the plot, I'm not entirely sure why I started it...because, let's face it, it's pretty damn dodgy.

Hana is only 16 but her older sister is about 7 years older. When that rather flakey older sister decides not to show up to an arranged marriage meeting with the heir to the Takaba group, Hana is pressed into service because her dad (who, honestly, is a total idiot) doesn't want to lose his job. In this meeting, Takane Saibara (the grandson heir) is...well...kind of a condescending dick. And even though Hana was supposed to just get through the meeting quietly and hopefully unsuccessfully, she can't take it. She literally swipes the wig off her head and throws it at him and gives him a dressing down and leaves, declaring herself completely uninterested in him. 

Takane has never had anyone ever talk to him in this way before. They've always been after his money. And the thing you need to know about his character -- who is 26! 10 years older than Hana! This is the dodgy as hell bit! -- is that he's a bit emotionally stunted. Basically, he's a 15 year old stuck in a man's life with lots of family chaebol-like drama holding him back. This is probably why the story works at all. Anyway, he very adversarily continues to date Hana and they one-up each other all the time, falling in love bit by bit. She brings out the good parts of him, he's helping her grow up. 

Now. In real life I would never ever never be behind a relationship between a 26 year old man and a 16 year old high school girl. Never. The power imbalance is WAY wrong. And I often won't read it or watch it either because...well, because it just squicks me out. And I say that as a once upon a time 16 year old where my mom somehow let me briefly go out with a 20 year old (he was a family friend, but still, mom, WTH). But this is actually a very fun series and overall, it works. There's a crazy blonde uni friend of Takane's, Hana's two best girlfriends + the very lovely Okamon (the childhood friend who's actually a very good fit for Hana and loves her) and even a somewhat devoted underling of Takane's. 

We're up to maybe volume 12? We both like it. There's lots of laughs, a bit of danger, and even though there's the massive age gap, it's actually pretty innocent and not as dodgy as you'd think it would be. 

Which leads me to the next half of this post...there's also a Japanese JDrama live action version. Now, I debated for a long time whether I'd try it or not because there's things that work in manga that just...don't in live action. Like Happy Marriage. 

And, two episodes in, I'd still say I'm a bit not sure of how this one is going but...well...let's start by saying that, in some ways, it does work well because Takane in this does NOT look or feel at all like he's 26 while she's 16. But, at the same time, the actor that's playing him is very wrong. He's the same height as Hana! When the actress is in heels, he's shorter! He's supposed to tower over her. So he feels both right and wrong. He's also not quite handsome enough (not that he's not an attractive guy, just not quite Takane level...but is anyone?).

That said, Hana's friends are all pretty perfect in their roles so far. And the girl who plays Hana is...well, I think she seems okay. Though I wish her hair were pink. HAHA. Maybe a bit more wishy-washy at this point in the story than I think she should be, but that might be because they need to move some things along faster? Or I've forgotten the earlier books? Because it does seem to be following the storyline fairly well from the books (at least, nothing is glaringly obvious and out of place). 

So...in summary, I think I probably will watch this one, though I'm not in a rush to do so. And we'll definitely keep reading it, even with as problematic as the core plot is. Little dude is probably sick of me reminding him that this is something he is never to do in real life. 

Furie

Hubby was still working away last night on his side project, so I decided to watch a movie and one, again, that he might enjoy if he caught any of it. So I decided to try Furie. It's a 2019 Vietnamese movie (and he clocked that right away, which is only fair as he's been to Vietnam twice) starring Veronica Ngo. I've actually seen her in a couple of things before -- she was very briefly in Star Wars: The Last Jedi as Rose Tico's sister (the one that sacrificed herself early in the movie) and in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny.

I gotta say, she kicks ass in Furie as Hai Phuong, a single mother with a shady past who saves her daughter from organ harvesting kidnappers. Well. That was a mouthful. 

So, Hai Phuong has had a hard life. She more or less ran away from home and fell in with the wrong crowd when she was young. But once she became pregnant (and we have no idea who the father is--it never figures in the story at all), she left Saigon and went to the countryside where she ekes out a living as a debt collector. When we meet her, Mai, her daughter, is maybe 9 or 10. They are a bit like pariahs in their neighbourhood between Hai's job, her standoffish attitude, and the fact that she's unmarried. 

She and Mai are close, though Mai wishes her mother would do something else as a job--something safe. When Mai is accused of thievery (falsely) and Hai doesn't immediately stand up for her daughter to the marketplace busybodies, Mai is crushed and runs off. Coincidentally, she's kidnapped soon thereafter. This is the one place where things do fall a bit apart plot-wise. There are hints that Mai is targeted because she's Hai's daughter and because of Hai's past, but it's never explained. But, as a viewer, the action sweeps you along so you don't notice too much. 

To be honest, plot isn't the thing that holds this movie together anyway. It's purely Veronica Ngo and the action sequences. And they are intense, man. Hai immediately gives chase and viewers get a breathtaking (if breakneck) look at the beauty of Vietnam as she chases them down a waterway and through a bamboo forest and then on to the big city. 

It's basically one big fight after another as Hai frantically claws her way through the underbelly of the city looking for her daughter. There are a few interesting (atypical) choices that the movie makes -- it's a very female led film. The men in it are either disposable (after tough fights...but not so tough that you think they have a hope of stopping this tiger mom) or minimally effective (the brother that doesn't help, the cop that's always a step behind). The big bad boss is another woman who is the only one that really puts up a big enough challenge to add tension to the film. And boy oh boy, she's seriously scary. A bit one note scary, but scary. 

I did like that Hai isn't just tough. She's also very vulnerable and desperate in her search. You get glimpses of her childhood that go towards explaining why she wound up the way she did as well. So even though the why of the main plot driver (i.e. the daughter being kidnapped) isn't really explained, it still works and has depth. 

Am I glad I watched it? Hmm, maybe glad isn't the word. It's too violent for that. But yes, I did enjoy the ride. Wait. That doesn't sound right either. You can't really say this is a movie that you enjoy. I appreciated it, perhaps. It was gritty. It wasn't one of those stylised fighting movies where you never feel that there's any real danger or the lead always looks freshly showered. Nah. This is a movie of desperation and trauma and while the fight sequences are fluid and elegant, they feel real. So, yeah, the movie works. And it's all on Veronica Ngo's shoulders that it does.

Also, mad respect to Veronica Ngo. She's 41 (born in 1979) and she could wipe the floor with just about anyone.

Vagabond

Was in a bit of a Lee Seung-Gi mood (so enjoying him in Twogether) and the hubby was possibly going to pay attention while he worked, so I thought I'd try out a Kdrama I thought he might actually watch: Vagabond. 

And, whoa. Like, Keanu whoa. All I knew going in was that he plays a stuntman that gets involved in some spy stuff after some tragedy. I had vague inklings that the tragedy involved his brother.

So. Okay. Lee Seung-Gi plays Cha Dal-Geon. He's an aspiring stuntman and has been taking care of his young nephew after something happened to his older brother. He's struggling a bit -- he's young and trying his best to take care of his nephew properly. He dreams of being the next Jackie Chan / Bruce Lee, but has decided to put that dream aside so he can concentrate on being a good uncle. Nephew Hoon, for his part, is grateful but also feeling guilty when he realises his uncle's struggles. So they're in a bit of a spat right before Hoon is to go off on a government sponsored trip to Morocco to participate in a taekwondo exhibition. 

The flight crashes, killing all onboard. A last video of Hoon was uploaded to the Cloud telling Uncle he caught him throwing out his stuntman stuff and telling him how much he loves him and he'll eat all the eggs next time Uncle makes them. So, yeah, tear jerking.

Meanwhile, viewers catch glimpses of machinations behind the scenes involving defence companies vying for a huge trillion dollar contract for fighter jets. A guy (who worked for one of those companies; the one who was probably NOT going to win the bid) had tried to warn Incheon airport that the plane was going to crash; he's killed as he runs. The woman that took the call is knocked out/down. The airport's computers all crash. And the plane goes down. It's pretty obvious to the viewer that the one company is behind it; they want the contract and aren't worried about collateral damage.

Dal-Geon and the families travel to Morocco for a funeral service at the beach as the bodies couldn't be recovered from the sea. At the airport there, he sees a man he recognises from the video his nephew sent him and immediately gives chase. Who is this man that was on the plane? Why is he here, alive? The guy fights him off, assuming at first that he's an agent or something. There is a terrifically choreographed fight scene where Lee Seung-Gi (or his stuntman, I dunno) is going all parkour over the rooftops and jumping onto a moving car. It is unrelenting. The guy gets away, but only after Dal-Geon is literally tossed off a cliff (that he climbs back up at the end of the episode). 

I'm sure he'll wind up somehow working with Go Hae-Ri (Bae Suzy) who we already know is an NIS agent based at the embassy in Morocco. She's working undercover. 

It is very obvious that this was a high budget production ($20 million, apparently). Production-wise, it's like a movie. They didn't pull any stops here. And all the actors are great so far -- I'd only really seen Lee Seung-Gi in You're All Surrounded before and Twogether (but that's just him being him). This show is leaps and bounds beyond that from story to execution. The only slight dodgy bits were some English speaking non-Korean actors in the beginning that were not stellar (was the one dude trying to do a Russian accent? I dunno what that was). 

Hence, whoa.

Incidentally, young Hoon is played by the child actor Moon Woo-Jin who I've seen in SO many things (What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, The Beauty Inside, My ID is Gangnam Beauty, etc.) This kid really gets work! He's good, though his part was small in this one. And Shin Sung-Rok is in this one too, though I haven't seen him yet. No idea if he's a good guy or a bad guy, though he's mostly known for bad guys (like in My Love From the Star), so I'm guessing he might be bad.

Anyway, pretty impressed with this one so far. It's very intense. And hubby did take peeks at it. Maybe I"ll someday get him to watch something with subtitles. 

The Missing Menu

Hubs was working the other night and said to "watch anything" while he typed away, so I thought I'd try something that he might also enjoy if he caught glimpses of it. It's The Missing Menu. 

I'd thought it was a mainland China show and so was very confused when I could only catch a word or two until I realised it was a Malaysian show about a Hakka family. Whew! I mean, I know my Chinese isn't very good at all (the little I learned growing up was Cantonese and I've since learned a spattering of Mandarin) but, still! I suppose I should have paid more attention before starting it, though it doesn't really matter; what I was looking for was a show that featured some cooking. At any rate, I don't know exactly what they are speaking in this show; a Hakka dialect? Mandarin with some differences? I dunno. 

It really is kinda sad that I can tell Korean and Japanese a lot more. Anyway.

In this one, a single mother / owner of a restaurant has 4 grown up children, with the youngest being at university. They're all supposed to come home for dinner (once a week? Maybe once a month?), but they keep getting busy. The oldest son seems like a total slacker and very unreliable, as we see him get fired almost as soon as we meet him (for being lazy and eating off customer's plates before delivering them). The next oldest son is some type of professional computer engineer-y person and seems busy / type-A (but just as bad at communicating with mom). Daughter works as a producer and seems responsible, but very busy. Youngest son seems the most dutiful and was the one that was really trying to get home, but his professor made him stay over for a seminar because his grades have been slipping.

So none of them make it home this particular night. Mom cooks up their fav (esp. eldest slacker son) Hakka pork dish but then winds up eating a little herself and putting the rest up. Then she slips and falls and breaks her arm. Youngest son and onliest daughter rush to the hospital (daughter finally being off work). And then the rest is trying to figure out how to care for mom, with eldest slacker son not wanting to be imposed on, even though he's the one with the easiest schedule. He really is pretty awful. 

There's some other stuff going on -- mom trying to set up oldest slacker son with a friend's niece (who we glimpsed early on in the bit where son was fired from restaurant; she was at the table he stole food from). And mom not wanting to admit she needs help, etc.

The pace of this show is very different from what I'm used to. It has a different rhythm. It's almost more like watching a documentary? Does that make sense? And there was a bit at the end when the actress playing the young version of the mom (farthest right upper corner in picture) cooks up the dishes used, almost like it's a separate cooking show. Very 4th wall breaking. I actually did really like that part (I know, I know, I love cooking stuff). 

I'll probably give it another episode or two at least, though I'm not in a rush. I didn't love it. None of the characters particularly spoke to me. I mean, I know it's about the mom re-connecting / teacher her children, but honestly, the mom didn't excite me either? I didn't hate it though and I found the cultural differences intriguing, so I probably will watch at least one more and see if it grabs me. They do, at least, all feel like very real people. 

Samurai Gourmet & Flavorful Origins

So, hubs was working on something and I'd read enough of my book (re-reading Uprooted by Naomi Novik, as it's a beautiful book), so I thought I'd watch something. 

I started with a few episodes of Flavorful Origins (and, man, it's weirdly hard to type that without the extra "u" ... I've become British for sure), which is a Chinese show that explores the culinary traditions of China. The episodes are all very short -- about 12 minutes. It seems that series 1 is set in the Chaoshan region, which is part of Guangdong...which is, likely, where my family originated from. I suppose I find it doubly interesting because of that. 

Like when I went to China (Shanghai and Suzhou), everything feels very foreign. I grew up very separated from my mother's heritage in so many ways. Perhaps if we had stayed in San Francisco around the rest of the family, it would have been different. As it was, my exposure to "real" Chinese food growing up was from the few dishes mom would make (egg rolls, shumai, won ton, fried rice, sweet & sour pork...) and a yearly care package from the Aunties.  

In later life, I'd have to say I am by far more Asian than my mother was; I know more of the language and the food than she did. Though I've not stuck to China -- it's maybe sad, but I probably know more Korean and Japanese than I do Chinese. And not just the language either -- but food as well. We probably cook more Japanese than anything else. 

So I find shows like this interesting in a way that makes me a little sad. Does that make sense? Anyway, I always try everything at least once. Well, maybe everything. Not entirely sure what I would do when faced with monkey brains. But I would definitely try the marinated raw crab that's apparently a speciality of Chaoshan, as well as the interesting Chinese olive dishes (totally didn't know this was a thing -- olives are not something I associate with Chinese food at all!). So I'm glad I started this show. It's like a little window into what could have been.

I also tried the first episode of Samurai Gourmet. It's a Japanese show, also with short episodes (about 20 minutes each). It's...slice of life? About food? I'm not sure how to describe it exactly. 

So, we have a newly retired salaryman who finds himself at loose ends with no where to rush off to. He spends his first day of retirement a bit aimlessly, winding up at the train station by rote. On the way back, he stops at an old-fashioned diner for lunch. 

There he's tempted by the set meal and the possibility of an afternoon beer. Should he? But he feels that guilt; drinking in the day? How can he? He fantasizes about a ronin (i.e. samurai without a master) showing up and enjoying a sake & nearly getting into battle with some poor schmucks who have to answer to someone and decides, hey, what the hell, I'm retired! I can do what I want!   

Anyway, it was just a charming little snippet of a show. Ridiculous, but in a good way. It also made we want to have some Salisbury steak (which they just call hamburger steak in Japan). It's been YEARS since I had one. And that wasn't even what our wannabe samurai ate -- he had some eggplant thing. 

So, in a nutshell, another good food related show that's silly but charming. Why is it I like to watch so many shows about food? Now my healthy yogurt lunch is feeling particularly bland.

The Half of It

I turned in Book 2 yesterday to my editor -- and I wanted to get it out before the afternoon, so instead of doing my workout in the morning, I got right to it. So I wound up just doing some yoga in the afternoon. Which is a long way around saying that I needed to do an extra long workout today...so I thought I'd watch a movie instead of a drama. I'd added The Half of It to my Netflix queue as soon as it popped up. Why wouldn't I? Chinese teen in a small town? What's there not to relate to?

It's yet ANOTHER riff on the Cyrano story. Which, okay, I had a bit of a sigh about that, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. It's not that I hate that story...it's just that there are so many of them.

Ellie Chu is smart but cash strapped. Her dad had a PhD in engineering in China, but wound up taking a job as a station manager for a (very) small railway station when they immigrated. But when her mom died when she was 13 (she's 17 now), he pretty much fell apart. He spends the greater part of the film in his bathrobe while she's actually doing a lot of his job. 

She makes extra cash by writing school essays for all the white kids. Wait, what am I saying? They're all white kids. She's, like, the only non-white person in the movie. Which, yeah, I've been there, except I was the only one who wasn't white or black in a place where everyone was one or the other and the twain never met (or talked, if they could help it). Anyway, a sweet but not overly clever second string football jock guy named Paul hires her to write a letter to the most popular girl in school that he's got a crush on: Aster.

And...well...let me just skip to my thoughts because I don't actually feel like hashing out the whole plot. Most of it is pretty typical and exactly what you'd expect, other than there's the lesbian twist to it when Ellie is also falling for Aster. 

When I finished it, I had mixed feelings. Actually, I had mixed feelings when I was about 1/2 way through. This review on Vox actually covers some of my thoughts pretty well. 

There's some really good parts but there are other bits that, honestly, either don't make sense or just don't work. I really wanted to like this more. Partly, it feels like a film from someone who never attended high school and has no sense of when things happen. This is most obvious towards the end when there's the end of year talent show (in which seniors are forced to participate) but there's weirdly also a huge football (American football, if that wasn't obvious) game where Paul scores a touchdown for the first time in some game against some school we don't know/care about and had no idea this was a thing since it had never been mentioned before. Like a homecoming game kind of feel? Except those are in Fall... And Ellie is definitely most definitely NOT applying to the college she wants to go to in another state for literally the entire movie (methinks she doth protest too much), even though her sassy English teacher (who knows that Ellie is the one writing the papers for the cheaters but doesn't care because otherwise she'd have to read more crap) but then, suddenly, she's going. In, like, a couple of days.

Wait. Let's just talk about what I liked instead.

I liked the two lead actors: Paul and Ellie, played by Daniel Diemer (who is 24, but felt passable for a HS senior) and Leah Lewis (23, same). Aster, played by Alexis Lemire (also 24, but who looks more like a 20s girl) had a few nice moments, but she wasn't given as much to do. Honestly, she spends most of the movie as "The Love Interest." I liked the burgeoning friendship between Paul and Ellie. I liked the weird but sad thing going on with Ellie and her dad and their dinners in front of the TV, though I probably liked Paul's relationship with her dad more. I did like the sassy English teacher.

I didn't like the end. It doesn't resolve anything, really and completely drops some of the plot threads (of which there were too many). Maybe it's because they (I say they, I have no idea who "they" are in this instance -- the writer? the director?) seemed to flip a coming of age/friendship movie into more typical teen romance territory but there were no happy endings there? Is Ellie gay or questioning? Are we supposed to surmise something from her terrible fashion sense (though, to be fair, kudus for it being a teen movie that did NOT feature a makeover for once)? Is Aster possibly gay? She doesn't seem to show any leanings this way at all other than the one scene where she randomly invites Ellie out to a natural spring (Sappho, anyone?) -- which could have worked, but as up until that point they've barely said two words to each other (that Aster knows about), it felt really...weird? In fact, most of Aster's angst in the movie is over whether she should marry this dude named Trig. Who she's been dating for ages. Probably. Except she's gone on dates with Paul. Which no one in this VERY small town has gossiped about. Even though she's the pastor's daughter. And Trig...WTH. He's like a caricature of a person. Like someone took Steve Harrington and robbed him of everything other than good looks and then made him really dumb.

(I have to make a small digression there that the actor that plays Trig is named Wolfgang Novogratz. Dude. You go, Wolfgang. Wolfgang. I just...heh. Wolfgang. He's also in another sort of romantic comedy called Feel the Beat on my Netflix list and now I'm going to have to watch it because HIS NAME IS WOLFGANG NOVOGRATZ.)

I'd make a comment about the stupidness of high school seniors proposing and planning marriage except, eh, that happens in small towns. I knew people on their second marriage in their senior year. So, yeah, I won't complain about that. 

And Paul -- he goes immediately from O, la! I love Aster because she's pretty! And nice! And pretty! to Whoa, hey, I think I actually love Ellie because we're such excellent friends and she supports my sausage-making innovations! Even though I kissed Aster just last night and grinned like a fool! Now I want to kiss Ellie!

WTH, Paul. You're too much of a nice guy for any of that. WTH, movie. 

Anyway, it did have some lovely moments. Small moments, a few perfect little scenes. But it mostly felt like a hot mess. I still liked it because, like I said, Chinese girl/small town. But I definitely didn't love it. I wish it'd been MORE. I say that as a writer. I say that as a Chinese (former) American.