Binge Watching Series Recommendations

[vertical_doug]

I also finished watching Fallout. I thought that was entertaining!

If you liked Fallout, but didn't play the games back in the day, you should watch the Easter Egg video on Youtube. There is a lot going on here.



The thumbs up, the vault-tec bobblehead and the blue and gold vault suits. All funny.

[vertical_doug]

And I think the acting by the Japanese leads has been very good. They are invoking very traditional motifs from an era where restraint was of the utmost, so the subtle nod, hand movement, proximity, etc. was very important. Hiroyuki Sanada who plays Toranaga is especially good as he portrays Toranaga's decay in the face of total defeat in episodes 8 and 9. And Tadanobu Asano is also good as Yabushige, the lord who makes his living from split allegiances.

I never really believe this as I think this is a stereotype dramatized in Kabuki and Bunraku for storytelling. Although Bushido did permeate society at this level, the reality was somewhat different as even as restrained a society as Japan, people are still their same crappy selves. How else do you explain the bribe seeking courtiers etc.

Ultimately, the court is ruled by language, and it is the mix of honorific language (Respectful, humble and polite) It's worse than reading Shakespearian English, and extremely tiring. I have a love of traditional historical dramas on Japanese NHK TV, and the language is always a struggle. Even my wife finds watching these shows exhausting as the language is so complex and she is a native speaker.

[j44ke]

I never really believe this as I think this is a stereotype dramatized in Kabuki and Bunraku for storytelling. Although Bushido did permeate society at this level, the reality was somewhat different as even as restrained a society as Japan, people are still their same crappy selves. How else do you explain the bribe seeking courtiers etc.

Ultimately, the court is ruled by language, and it is the mix of honorific language (Respectful, humble and polite) It's worse than reading Shakespearian English, and extremely tiring. I have a love of traditional historical dramas on Japanese NHK TV, and the language is always a struggle. Even my wife finds watching these shows exhausting as the language is so complex and she is a native speaker.

Stereotype is a less complimentary word than motif, but yeah that's basically what I meant. Sort of like TV or TikTok now. What's on the screen is short hand versions of the current culture, which everyone watches and incorporates into their own mannerisms, which then influence newer referential work, etc. In the end, whether it is natural or affectation, authentic or invention kind of gets smeared together, and then over time what survives may only be the Cliff Notes version that becomes the measure of authenticity.

I thought it was a nice meta-moment when a play takes place at the palace to entertain the dignitaries who are all essentially hostages pretending they are not hostages while the hostage taker acts like he is actually their savior by holding them safely in Osaka when the danger is his creation. Theater on all levels.

Did make me think maybe Osaka is Denmark and Edo is London in Japanese theater of that era. And no wonder Kurosawa liked Shakespeare.

[72gmc]

I'm not yet done with Alan Bates vs The Post Office and the scandal may be expanding ... someone build a fence around the Post Office, I have other series to watch!

[BBB]

If you liked Fallout, but didn't play the games back in the day, you should watch the Easter Egg video on Youtube. There is a lot going on here.



The thumbs up, the vault-tec bobblehead and the blue and gold vault suits. All funny.

Thanks for that. I haven't played the games, so there was a whole lot of detail in there that went over my head when I was watching.

[BBB]

I also managed to watch the Netflix three part series about the disappearance of MH-370.

It was interesting, but laced with conspiracy.

The three parts dealt with the pilot, the Russians and the Americans.

The pilot seems the obvious choice, but the evidence is circumstantial.

The Russians was a theory only and not really supported by evidence. It went along the lines that the Russians needed to create a distraction from their invasion in the Crimea and had one of three Russians on board gain entry to the electronic heart of the plane, turn off the equipment giving the plane an electronic signal to the outside world and then execute a turn of the aircraft that had it move back over Malaysia before turning, on this theory, north. This theory could be de-bunked by the fact that access to the electronic heart of the plane did not grant access to the controls of the plane.

The Americans was a theory that had the plane being brought down over the Sth China Sea. Why? Because of unaccounted for electronic cargo on the way to China. And the presence of two AWACS planes in the region on the night in question. Thought not said expressly, this theory relies on the Chinese bribing the Malaysians to get sensitive equipment on board and the Americans taking positive steps to interfere with the electronic equipment on board the plane (remotely) and then bringing it down in the Sth China Sea.

At the end of the day no one seems to know what happened to the plane. It does seem odd that a plane can disappear from radar, execute a turn, fly over Malaysia and then turn either south or north and there is no real evidence (save for a few pings from a satellite and a handful of debris). This is a busy air corridor (the Sth China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, the Malacca Strait and the top half of the Indian Ocean (assuming the plane turned Sth). Very odd.

The Netflix series had a whole lot of noise and not a lot of conclusions.

[vertical_doug]

Stereotype is a less complimentary word than motif, but yeah that's basically what I meant. Sort of like TV or TikTok now. What's on the screen is short hand versions of the current culture, which everyone watches and incorporates into their own mannerisms, which then influence newer referential work, etc. In the end, whether it is natural or affectation, authentic or invention kind of gets smeared together, and then over time what survives may only be the Cliff Notes version that becomes the measure of authenticity.

I thought it was a nice meta-moment when a play takes place at the palace to entertain the dignitaries who are all essentially hostages pretending they are not hostages while the hostage taker acts like he is actually their savior by holding them safely in Osaka when the danger is his creation. Theater on all levels.

Did make me think maybe Osaka is Denmark and Edo is London in Japanese theater of that era. And no wonder Kurosawa liked Shakespeare.

I am a fan of Yukio Mishima. He was the last Japanese to commit seppuku. He wrote a book called Hagakurenyumon (An introduction to hiding amongst the leaves). Hagakure was a book written by a Samurai about being a Samurai. Mishima thought the Modern Japanese had lost their way, so wrote a book interpreting the original.

I don't know if you can find a copy in english, it is still in print in Japanese. I looked on Amazon UK and found this:
https://www.amazon.com/Yukio-Mishima...s%2C143&sr=8-3

There is some stuff on the web trying to explain it.
https://nowhere.news/index.php/2018/...-and-hagakure/

It's funny I like Mishima, but to the Japanese, he was a bit of MAGA Japan when he went full right wing.

[echappist]

I am a fan of Yukio Mishima. He was the last Japanese to commit seppuku. He wrote a book called Hagakurenyumon (An introduction to hiding amongst the leaves). Hagakure was a book written by a Samurai about being a Samurai. Mishima thought the Modern Japanese had lost their way, so wrote a book interpreting the original.

I don't know if you can find a copy in english, it is still in print in Japanese. I looked on Amazon UK and found this:
https://www.amazon.com/Yukio-Mishima...s%2C143&sr=8-3

There is some stuff on the web trying to explain it.
https://nowhere.news/index.php/2018/...-and-hagakure/

It's funny I like Mishima, but to the Japanese, he was a bit of MAGA Japan when he went full right wing.

Full right wing doesn’t quite capture how right wing he was. He wasn’t just merely an author espousing extreme rightwing views. Rather, he started his own equivalent of a militia to effect his aims, not so dissimilar to the rightwing Freikorps in Germany after WW-I.

I had to read one of his novellas in high school, so we had to learn about his background.

He and his followers actually took over a military base and tried to start an insurrection by exhorting the military stationed there to rebel. He committed seppuku when his message fell on deaf ears and received jeers, rather than what he hoped to accomplish.

The “los[ing] their way” to which you alluded is really his repudiation of the pacifist policies adopted by (or foisted upon, depending on perspective) post-war Japan. It always baffled me how he gained popularity in the West b/c it’s really difficult to see a similarly revanchist German non-Nazi author gain acceptance, were s/he to espouse views such as retaking of Alsace or Koenigsberg.

[Scott G.]

Full right wing doesn’t quite capture how right wing he was. He wasn’t just merely an author espousing extreme rightwing views. Rather, he started his own equivalent of a militia to effect his aims, not so dissimilar to the rightwing Freikorps in Germany after WW-I.[snip]

In 1939 Japanese army units in Manchuria started a small war of their own, attacking the Soviet Union
misleading Japanese Army HQ about what they were doing.
Mishima may had Nomohan in mind.

[taz]

I am a fan of Yukio Mishima. He was the last Japanese to commit seppuku. He wrote a book called Hagakurenyumon (An introduction to hiding amongst the leaves). Hagakure was a book written by a Samurai about being a Samurai. Mishima thought the Modern Japanese had lost their way, so wrote a book interpreting the original.

I don't know if you can find a copy in english, it is still in print in Japanese. I looked on Amazon UK and found this:
https://www.amazon.com/Yukio-Mishima...s%2C143&sr=8-3

There is some stuff on the web trying to explain it.
https://nowhere.news/index.php/2018/...-and-hagakure/

It's funny I like Mishima, but to the Japanese, he was a bit of MAGA Japan when he went full right wing.

I'm NOT a fan of Mishima. My opinions based on reading "Mishima's Sword" and general research/reading afterwards.

Japanese culture is fascinating. Mishima was a weird guy.

[robin3mj]

Hearing good things about The Veil on Disney/Hulu. Shades of Homeland and Tehran.

I plan to check out this weekend.