One Way Ticket to Love (1959) - Hulu Plus

Criterion had a 50% off sale.  I took that as an opportunity to finally try Hulu Plus since they have a lot of Criterion films on there.  I could sample the first 20 minutes of films I might find worth buying.  I will maybe come back to this neglected blog to talk about them.  But I have this trial and I did queue up in just the Criterion films: 159 films.  That's a lot of movies.  It's certainly longer than just a 2 week trial.  I'll go ahead and pay for one month, why not?  I'm certainly getting my money's worth. 

Hulu doesn't really advertise that they have Criterion and Janus films on there.  They do in abundance.  The best I've experienced so far is One Way Ticket To Love.  I wish I could read the Japanese title, but I can't.

I'm going to try and not spoil it.  But if I fail at that stop at this paragraph.  It is a Japanese film from 1959.  It is something of a love story.  It is something of a marketing tool for the same title single.  In 2014 it is a fantastic B-movie experience.  In the context of 1959 it is astounding it exists.  All the characters have more depth then you expect.  It is above all a tragedy.

Now I'm going to try and talk about the actual film without spoiling it.  The main theme throughout is Japanese culture's guilt duty.  Very good sociological term I made there.  Because of being given an opportunity a character is required to do one thing.  Because of the social bubble they have entered into they are now part of that social bubble.  That social bubble requires they do another.  Each character also has a life outside of that social bubble.

I said it was a love story.  It's a love story in the same way that Romeo and Juliet is a love story. So it's a lust story. Yes, Rudie, I guess you could say that. The various loves in the story line up with the guilt duty into making a Wire style poster board of allegiences and debts. 

Each character feels like a stereotype seen in various films of the time.  They rise above it to become people that you believe in their actions.  While you could say that almost every problem in the film is solved by just walking away most of them can't and by J-society they definitely can't. 

NOW ANOTHER LAYER OF SPOILING BUT NOT

A gun will eventually makes its appearance.  It will begin to change hands.  The predicted target of the gun will continue to change.  Eventually the gun goes off.  And then the film ends.  The ending shot is heartbreaking. 

I'm having such a good time thinking about this film.  I'm going to have to get a copy somehow.  It's only on HuluPlus.  If this is the best film I get out of the experience that's okay.  It is a fantastic film.  I want other people to see it so I can talk to them about it.

I can't in good conscience buy Ging Nang Boyz new album

So Ging Nang Boyz have a new album released right....now.  I would have been super excited for this.  I really like their screaming breaking the speakers punk rock.  I love it when they got it the fuck together and made the Boys on the Run single.  I think the Boys on the Run "video" is heartbreaking and beautiful.

There other videos are all very and beautiful in this shame and teenage sexuality and how weird is to be that public about it when you are 15 or in your 30s.  Bomb The Music Industry's Jeff Rosenstock likes them enough to cover one of their songs in Japanese, "I don't wanna die."

So first we have a video which is very cute and almost a counterpoint Boys on the Run.  It is 12 minutes of cute girls blowing kisses at the camera.  The song is called "paadamu" which I'm not going to pretend I know what it means with even a dictionary.  I'm also not going to pretend what the lyrics means but will try by having it play in the background over and over as I write this.

Paadamu is almost a counterpoint to BotR.  BotR goes out of it's way to humanize and break down walls of the boys/men that are presented.  It shows them all in a very vunerable light.  I'm not sure what they were told to draw on the white board, but you have an incredible wave of stuff from "I don't want to disappointment my parents anymore", "I want a girlfriend", "I want to have sex with this AV Idol", or just "Frank Zappa."  They interview a huge range of guys.  You're given a brief chance to relate to a hundred+ people.  And you give hundred+ a voice.  Ging Nang Boyz based on youtube views have more fame than you'd expect them to have as a screaming punk rock band.  Then again I didn't know this band　（warning creepy clown mask) until I saw their video with a billion views or this band that literally has cocksucker in their name.  So don't trust me to know what's popular in Japanese rock music.

Asside: Sekai no Owari is so イメージ it hurts.  I actually really like that song despite me wanting to hate it.

So the female counterpart is full of male gaze.  We do have a woman saying some words at the beginning of the song.  Who is speaking or why?  I don't know.  Let's assume the band wrote the words that were spoken.  "Do you see this beautiful world?"  "You are my beginning and end."  Then the not bad song plays and we return to the most male gazey part of a very male gaze filled video of a girl trying to not look at the camera.  I can't decide whether we're supposed to assume she's looking at the camera or at the person the camera is supposed to represent.  Most of these girls submitted the videos themselves (I hope! Not someone submitted videos of them without knowledge) There was an ad on their website a while back.  But these girls are not presented to show that they are people (if you prick them do they not bleed).  The Boys/men were.  We are just to sit here and enjoy all the pretty girls.  Which I definitely did, but contrasted with Boys on the Run it's probablmatic.

That's not the only problem.  BotR was an old song, for a movie (which I also think is very good for humanizing the loser males of Japanese society, aka my favorite film of 2010.)  The problem is the 42 minute other video used to ?promote? the new album.

BEGIN TRIGGER WARNING

 Tokyo's Last Story

I do not recommend watching that video.  It contains rape.  I'm going to describe the video in as simple but complete detail.

It starts innocently and awkwardly enough for Ging Nang Boyz.  A guy wants his girlfriend to fart in his face.  That's not far off from their weird sensibilities and whatever grown adults want to do.  There's definitely the weird submissiveness from the girl that I don't know how to process but that's a much much larger Japanese culture issue.  10 minutes into the video Yakuza thugs show up beat up the guy, throw the girl by her hair, and hawl them into their van.  We then get the music portion of the MV as the yakuza drive them into the countryside.  We get plenty of shots of Tokyo, an exhausted and fearful guy and girl, and the Yakuza laughing.  There are also lingering pantyshots on the girl.   Then rape on both the man and attempted rape on the woman.  The car crashes as a result of the girl trying to not be raped.  We then see the man trying to carry the woman through the woods. 

The man stands over the woman and comes to the conclusion that she texted the men who did this to them and was compliant in it.  He cuts off her head with a mysterious available shovel and carries her head through the forest.  The end.

The man is raped with a large dildo.  Through out the forest scenes we keep being told he still has the dildo in his ass as he travels through the forest.  I assume it is supposed to be funny.  Except it isn't at all because it's the result of a graphic rape we just saw.  And for the man's conclusion that his girlfriend was in on it, she is beaten and ducttaped and humiliated.   So in talking about "the art and interpretation" I'm pretty sure he was wrong about the conclusion (his reasoning was while he was trying to smell her farts (HAHAAH) she was looking through the window as they approached.)

END TRIGGER

So the video is a very bad time.  It left me with a sick taste in my mouth. Then a good friend who had not watched it but had watched the pretty girl video made a really good comment.  "Wonder what the pretty girls think of that video?"  That's a really good question.  They aren't presented in the 42 minute video.  But they are presented as the campaign piece in hype for the new album. 

To go to my own morals, I went from being excited about the new album to boycotting it.  As an adult I'm pretty against any entertainment or media that's a bad time.  That is entirely bad things or bad times.  There's enough very real evil and bad in the world that my media that is supposed to escapism from that.  There's no artistic statement to the video.  There's just this video where terrible things happen.  One of the worst things happens.  Then it is over.  And it theoretically is supposed to get me excited about spending money on music.  But I'm not.  I feel betrayed because my good time expectations turned out to be very wrong. 

It's paired with a video about looking at pretty girls, which i also have to have trouble with.  I love looking at pretty girls, but I have to compare it with BotR and suddenly I'm upset about what the video is not.  A band I really like I have to almost revile.  I'm not sure it has tainted their music before this, but it might have a little bit.  They made the worst thing they could then a bad album.  You can forget a bad album.  I can't just exorcise this video.  If I link Boys on the Run in the future to a friend I have to give them a huge warning if they go look at other videos they might find you know, terrible stuff. 

Japan Trip Jan 2013 and Hinge Problems

Hey y'all.  Maybe you'd like to see some pictures from this most recent Japan Trip?

You can listen to Chris and me discuss Red Dead Redemption during it.  The next episode which will be in the a week or so, will be about this Japan trip!  Look out for it!  Also rate our dumb podcast!  We will keep doing it until we don't feel like doing it!

EDIT: To go along with this post, the Japan episode is now available. You can get it here.

Tamage: Tamachi High Lane

I love Game Center CX.  It's almost my ideal TV show.  A common segment is where Arino visits a game center in Japan.  I did my own Tamage (たまに行くならこんなゲームセンター).  

Tamachi High Lane
website
東京都港区芝浦2-12-13



I woke up really early the first day of my most recent Japan trip.  Having lots of time to kill I decided to take a walk.  I spotted this Bowling Center near my hotel in Tamachi on the JR Yamanote line.  A few days later on the way back from Odaiba we stopped inside.

We passed on actually bowling.  We were both tired, and the last time I went bowling I pulled a muscle on the first swing.  I didn't need more injuries. 

The first thing that catches your eye is the surprisingly empty UFO catchers.

 The main attraction of this arcade is Rave Racer the 3rd game in the Ridge Racer series.

We sat down head to head.  I, actually having driven a car and played more than a few video games, ended up winning.  She didn't do bad though.

There was a broken down Basketball machine, and a pile of stuff covering half the arcade. You could tell at this point the arcade was stuff that hadn't broken yet.  Not pictured but it did have a beer vending machine.

Tetris.

Virtual Striker 2 and a Shanghai game

I was pretty close to taking that old style poster.  Everyday Bowling girl is of course in AKB.

Won't you check out Tamachi High Lane Sometime?

Japan Feb 2012 Part 10

In my final evening in Japan I witnessed what has to be the most vapid display of television.

Holy.  I just sat there with my mouth agape.  It's amazing in it's anti-entertainment.  Look at those lack of production values.  How often the camera is off doing an Eva budget thing while people talk.  How the whole show is these girls talking about nothing at all.  They build snowmen and then look at pictures of the snowmen then the episode ends.

Sambomaster - 絶望と欲望と男の子と女の子

My 100 yen nail clippers I'd been using for the past 4 years stopped working, so I had to replace them with new ones.  The new ones are not as good as my old ones   But they do have a floral design.  But this is about my final day in Tokyo!

Japan Feb 2012 Part 9

The best thing to do after flashing Microsoft Japan and having an injured knee?  Walking far too long around Tokyo.  Good job for me not doing something sensible like sit at an arcade for a few hours.

Space Harrier - Main Theme

But first I need to gain a horrible sinus headache from flash weather changes.

Japn Feb 2012 Part 7

Persona 4 Never More Reincarnation - Heartbeat Heartbreak

I woke up with my spine being corrected from sleeping on a futon.  It felt good.  Trying to stand up to check the weather I found out my leg -surprise- was still screwed up.  I hobbled over and opened the blinds.  I sat down and enjoyed the dark mountain morning filled with fog and rain.

Japan Feb 2012 Part 6

Live A Live - Warm A Live - Live Over Again  

I originally made these into parts because I thought I could cover multiple days in one entry.  That hasn't happened yet!

Man that package looks attractive.  Tell me you wouldn't have gone in.

The result.  I ended up keeping only 4 of these games.  Which 4 would you keep?  Which 4 do you think I kept?  Stay tuned to the end of this entry for the non-exciting answer.  Until then it's time to hike a mountain.

Japan Feb 2012 Part 5

The Blue Hearts - Mayonaka no Telephone

A story from the previous day I had forgotten to mention.  While at a green crosswalk I started to cross but a white van turned and just about ran me over.  A policeman chased them down on foot.  It was a two part crosswalk passing over a highway so I got a front row view of the policeman giving the guy a ticket and frequent pointing at me to show, "Hey you nearly killed this guy."

This is by far the most photo heavy entry so far.

Japan Feb 2012 Part 4

The Flickers - White Heat

That day the girl had to go to work so I was left to my own devices.  My original plan was to go to Ushigome-kagurazaka.  I'd had her randomly point at a station on the metro line and that's what it landed on.  I never got around to checking it out, but there's a lot to do in a week in Tokyo.  Like walk all the way to Kawasaki.
 

Japan Feb 2012 Part 3

Hopefully I can write these a little faster.

the kimonos - No Modern Animal

  We got off the train at Shinjuku hoping to find a love hotel we had previously stayed at and been pretty happy with.  The problem is we didn't know exactly where it was.  I had a relatively good idea of where it was in Kabukicho, but having played so much of the Ryu Ga Gotoku series, my internal map of the real Kabukicho and the fictional Kamurocho kept getting mixed up.

Japan Feb 2012 Part 2

Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Like a Shotgun

After waking up we checked out of the hotel we had planned to enjoy the nice day and walk down to Ueno, all of one station away.  It was windy as hell and my Texas body wasn't adapted to such piercing hurricanes.  So we caught the train and waited inside the gates for my SBro to arrive.

 

I'm still stupidly proud of how that image turned out. I should maybe actually watch 48 Hours for the first time in celebration.  The title almost proved true too ho ho!