Perfect Blue was a good wake up to "reality". I've always wondered about reality, and what it is, but I get so lost in it, I take a break from thinking about it too much. The thought of reality is overwhelming and can get scary at times. Perfect Blue was very interesting, in the storyline as well as the way it was showed. The view is left in the dark most of the time, but there are extremely subtle hints in the movie. Like how Rumi was extremely sad when Mima had to do the rape scene. Of course it is something that one would be against, but it seemed that Rumi took it personally, as if she had been raped herself. In Rumi's mind she was indeed raped, because she projected herself as Mima, the pop idol, getting raped. Throughout the movie, the audience doesn't know if who they're watching is Rumi's image of Mima, or the real Mima. Throw in an insane stalker, Me-Mania, and you've got yourself a movie that is more confusing than Inception!
I believe that we never saw the real Mima until the end of the movie. Rumi was being haunted by her past self the entire time in the movie. When Mima is filming the TV series, Double Bind, I believe that was Rumi the entire time as the actor, manager, and reflection of the pop idol. You can interpret this movie in many ways, which is amazing! What the director did here is amazing, and simply awesome.
Back to the idea of reality, I think something like the matrix is going on here. If you've never watched it, it seems pretty lame now, but the concept is really good (to me). This life is all fake, something like a "hyper-reality", and that our real bodies are outside in the "real" world. We're all living here in "this world" trying to make an identity for ourselves. Maybe we're all trying to find our "real" identities of ourselves, so we can accept our "true selves" in the "real" world. Is that the meaning of life "here"?
This week is about Botchan. The anime itself is fairly "old" by today's standards, with very simple drawings. The drawings are so simple that some of the background doesn't even move with the frame. The only time I see a moving background is in the beginning when he's on a boat and the clouds are constantly moving. This is a good trick because if you see it in the beginning, you expect the rest of the movie to be the same. The movements are also very choppy and aren't smooth, but given the time period and probably the budget of this animation, it's amazing what they did with so little.
Usually the cover art displays very detailed art that is completely overdone compared to the anime itself, but here it looks pretty modest.
The anime's main character, Botchan is a teacher who goes to the country to teach. The students ridicule him and constantly tease him, while the staff deceives him and enjoys it when he gets mad. There's only 1 person he can count on, and that's Yamaarashi who he calls Porcupine. This is a good representation of what goes on these days in classrooms and the sort. It may not happen in the big cities, but it still happens in the small town, local classes. We had some people like Bruson and Robbie who are in the class tell stories of their high school days where they'd play jokes on the teacher, pull pranks on one another, and made high school a memorable time for themselves. I, like them, am from around here and I also did the same thing in my classes. It's most likely because all 3 of us went to all-boys-Catholic-schools, so there's no girls, which usually means everyone gets along. This is not a sexist thing, it's just boys act differently in front of girls, so if you take them out of the equation, all guys get along and form a brotherhood. The classes in Botchan also showed only males, so that might be a large factor in why the students ridicule Botchan. Remember guys, flying meatballs.
So this week we watched Ninja Scroll in relation to our class discussions about Japan and their culture. Shinto was brought up a lot this week as it has a lot of influence in Japanese anime past and present. The way Shinto is integrated into Japanese culture is quite interesting. Many people know of the symbolism regarding Shinto, but they don't admit to "practicing" it regularly. That statement is very contradictory to what they do though. They attend the festivals which still have the original feeling as intended hundreds of years ago. They also wear small charms and do the small practices everyday like the superstition regarding certain acts and such. Even with all of these examples, it's still very hard to understand and explain how one practices Shintoism.
Ninja Scroll personified the Shinto influences that were in the movie. The oni was very obvious and there was a good bit of symbolism in this film. The morals of Jubei were that of a Samurai to his lord. The only thing is, that Jubei is a rōnin, so he worked for reasonable amount of pay to whoever hired him. The only task we know about that he was paid for was when he had to get a sacred sword back for a small village. The village was small and he knew that, so he only charged them 10 gold pieces, which may seem like little, but Jubei understands that to the village that's a good amount to ask. He is extremely moral when it comes to the female ninja Kagero. She held the cure for his poisoned body, but the only way for him to be cured was to either kiss or have sex with her. He had feelings with her and she likewise, but he still couldn't do it even when forced upon. Mrs. McCay said that he would feel it was rape if he had sex with her. I totally agree with this because even if they both wanted to, he needed to have sex not for love, but for his own personal gain which in this case was life.
The last point I want to make is about the old man, Dakuan. He was introduced as the good guy, but his actions make me believe that he's a demon himself. Either the government is harboring demons to keep the power to themselves, or the old man was lying and had an ulterior motive to taking down the Shogun of the Dark. His methods seemed to be part of the mentality that "the ends justifies the means". In the end, I truly believe he's a demon because of his power and of course his advice to Jubei, "to defeat the demon you have to become a demon."
After watching Akira, I didn't exactly know what to think or even say. It's an interesting movie, and it has so much symbolism in it that it's hard to keep up with it if you aren't exactly sure of what to look for. I know I was lost in the movie, but when I went to class, it opened up a new perspective on the entire movie for me.
Akira to me was amazing if you look under the surface. The underlying meanings in this film are so crazy creative that it was surprising to me that they thought of this back in the 80's. I'm not undermining the people from that time period, but I'm saying that this type of film would be amazing in any given time period with similar circumstances.
The human experimentation done by the government and the overall power of the corrupt government was a real eye opener for me. Now that I try and relate to this movie, it seems as we're heading down the path of the movie. I don't know if human experimentation is going on now, but I'm sure something grotesque of the sort is happening behind closed doors unbeknownst to the public. Our society is slowly getting controlled by the government more and more. In Korea and most of Eastern Asia, I know that the government requires vehicles to be equipped with a front facing camera by the rear-view mirror so that they can monitor the people and to see accidents as witnesses themselves. That's in addition to the multitude of CCTV cameras that watch over the streets and intersections. I say this is an invasion of privacy, but that's what your home is for, not public streets. Government regulation usually does lead to safer streets, but also heavily regulated streets.
The people in the film are all trying to find "themselves" and Tetsuo Shima, who I believe to be the main character of the film, wants to find himself as a greater and stronger being than he is now. The main character of the story could be the audience themselves, as it tries to give a fair warning as a possibility of what can happen in the future.
When the movie tells you that Akira is in everyone, I totally believe this statement. Akira isn't a person, but rather the ambitions of people. The ambitions of the character Akira led to amazing powers which attracted envious people who also wanted the power, so they tried to find it using the character via dissection. Tetsuo's "Akira" led to him becoming that grotesque form, which consumed himself, everything, and everyone he loved. It's a way of telling the audience that there's a point when to stop. Don't find yourself looking too far looking for yourself.
Hello, my name is AnhTri Huynh, which is pronounced On Chee Hwin when saying it with an American accent. It'd be too hard for me to explain how to say my name. I'm Vietnamese but born and raised in Marrero, Louisiana. English is my first language and sadly I barely speak Vietnamese. I'm a commuter, so I find myself spending more time on the road than ever before. I'm a Biology Pre-med major, and most of my days are spent here 8-5. I'm glad there is an anime class, as my list indicates I've watched way too many.
Many of you may not have heard about "The Low Lifestyle" until today in class, where Mrs. McCay introduced me via my index card. That moment was a great feeling for me, because it gave me a chance to spread the word about "The Low Lifestyle". It wasn't surprising to see that many people didn't know what it was, and I felt even better telling everyone. I strive to help people understand the concept, as many people ask me, "Why do you drive your car so low? You can't go anywhere like that!" My feelings are that you don't need to go everywhere, it's more about where you do go. By that I mean that if you go everywhere, you won't get to know the places that well, but if you go to the same area frequently, you get to know the roads like the back of your hand and also people get to know you, but in my case they know me by my car.
Some people tell me I can't drive downtown or in the French Quarter. My response is indeed I can, I just need to drive on the main roads which are usually the smoother ones. I also carry wood planks in my trunk to get over certain speed bumps and curbs, and many people say it's too much trouble, but I'm glad to drive so low static. Static means that my car's height does not change while driving, meaning there's no airbags or helper cups to raise my car at any time while driving. There's a feeling of satisfaction everyday to drive this low going to Loyola. I can say that I scraped a few times, but I made it around fine, all while looking unique and standing out from the norm on the road.
A video if what I do when needed -
Cars are a passion in my life, from childhood to now. I can thank my brother for that since he's a big inspiration in my life, he's like a role model for myself. Even with cars in my life, I have other passions I like to take part in. Some being photography, anime, manga, Korean dramas, and food. They aren't as big a part of my life as The Low Lifestyle, but I still find myself on a photography craze for a week. The same can be said for my other passions, but The Low Lifestyle will always be #1.
It's not my fault I can't drive downtown because my car is low, it's because the roads are too high.
