Once Upon a Tokyo

Everyone:s Got an Opinion about LOST

So, yeah. LOST. Fair warning—if you are still living in a cave and/or don:t want to talk about this, LEAVE NOW…

Okay, I warned you.

I had really given a lot of time and interest to this show, and now that it’s over, I’m still kind of digesting everything. I guess that what makes a good LOST episode—the fact that it forces you to actually think and digest stuff and play around with the ideas they present you. (In that respect, I’m of the segment of fans that don:t mind that the fact that EVERY SINGLE MYSTERY DIDN:T GET ANSWERED! Some mystery is okay, and in fact it kind of keeps the show “larger than life” because it:s so removed from our typical cut-and-dry spoon-fed info-dumps that is the other end of the spectrum.)

So on one hand I kind of like the LOST season ending, in the sense that I was really caught up in all the tearful reunions that were happening. You can:t ask for more closure than seeing all the main characters getting to move on to heaven-or-whatever. Like the rest of LOST-a-maniacs, we can all “let go” and move on.

On the other hand, I hated the LOST season ending, in the sense that we get no payoff for any of the momentus events that have happened. Typically, a LOST cliffhanger will leave you with either: one, THE MOST OMINOUS PRONOUCEMENT EVER!!! or two, THE MOST IMPORTANT REVEAL SO FAR!!! But none of these momentus, ominous, and/or important revelations had anything to do with what happens to the characters in the end—either the plane leaving the island or with the characters moving on into heaven.

Why set up any complex relationship of time/space, good/evil, if-then universe/or-else alternate worlds, if you don:t have anything to really say about it? For some of the questions that remain outstanding that I still wonder about (and some that I never really asked about or cared for) you can see this site at CollegeHumor.

But let’s sum up—Hurley and Ben become the island:s new protectors, fulfulling an ages-long feud that was raised to mythological proportions, and all we are left with is seeing how Jack died and moved on? This is so typical of the show (in particular, the awful writer:s-strike plagued Season 3)—to abandon the rich store of complex characters in order to focus on the perceived “favorite.” Yes, Jack is a great character in his own right, but the show ain:t called “JACK GOT LOST.” But apparently in the minds of the writers it was. Yes, I:m still bitter for the horrible end Jin and Sun faced, only two episodes in to being reunited, which itself only happened after TWO YEARS of being apart.   

Here:s my alternate take for Season 6:
The Jughead bomb worked, the “sideways flash” alternate universe is in fact the Real World now that the island is destroyed, except that the island still exists, too, as a kind of echo of itself, including the echoes of Jack, Hurley, Kate, Sawyer, and the etc. of everyone on the island. (Heck, maybe this is the whole reason for the island:s "unique properties" in the first place, since the island-echo can be free of the contraints of time itself. In a weird time paradoxical way, the island is its own reason for being.)

So for most of Season 6, there are actually two copies of all the characters—the Real World and their island echoes. Because of the “magic” of the island, anyone in the Real World can share the memories of their island echoes, which is why Desmond can “awaken” them. The characters who had died on the island (Charlie, Libby, etc.) can share the memories of their ghosts (since the island “keeps” ghosts, as evidenced by the whispers), and they don:t need Desmond to awaken themselves, which is kind of what happened with Charlie and Libby anyway. Such “awakenings” brings ghosts/echoes into the Real World, so all are whole once more. It can be shown on-screen, so after the scene of Jin and Sun regaining their memories in the Real World around the ultrasound, we cut to a previous moment with their island-echoes dying underwater and white-flashing (similar to the time-jumps of Season 5,) planting them in their new lives in the Real World.

And the final scene, with Lapidus and Kate and everyone flying away from the island, would end with them white-flashing, too. Jack:s dying moment can happen, too. His eye would close, but instead of cutting to black, the screen cuts to white . . . 

     DUN!

I Don't Understand Japanese Programming

Tonight is LOST night, wherein several friends come over to my house and we watch Lost Season 6, aka the Final Season, aka Where The Heck Are They Going With All This. Don't panic, I officially buy this in all its HD glory through iTunes, so it's all nice and legal, and I connect it to my nice flatscreen HDTV, so it's Pretty Awesome All Around.

Still, I can't give away any spoilers, since my friends are a bit behind due to the fact we had to skip a few weeks here and there (although I usually can't wait and watch the latest episode as soon as possible.) Suffice to say, I can't believe the writers did what they did last week, with the thing in the water that went all thing-y and left those two ... If you know what I'm talking about, then you know exactly why I'm disappointed almost to the point of giving up on the show altogether. I mean, I'm certainly not watching this because *Kate* is such a great character... 

Instead, let me talk about a spin-off of show I always liked-- Trick-- which happens to be Japanese. What a coincidence, considering the country I live in! This spin-off takes their bumbling police officer and makes him the titular character of Keibuho Yabe Kenzo (Assistant Police Inspector Yabe Kenzo). The lead character, Yabe, is a loud-mouthed, brash, and overconfident officer who doesn't really solve anything, but his overworked and frustrated underlings end up making him look good. And this guy likes to look good-- the running gag is that his toupee is obvious to everyone but himself. Whenever he does manage to lose it, his bald head is pixelated so the audience will never see it! There's a lot of word play, which helps me study some Japanese along the way, although Yabe's Japanese is as rough and impolite as it gets. TV is a bad influence!

You can watch the first episode here with subtitles.

As for what I don:t understand about Japanese programming? This brand new show, with a built-in fan base (being a spin-off), is in the coveted time slot of .... 11:15 on Friday nights? Huh?

Pop Culture Watch: Shin-chan

Remember umpteen million years ago when The Simpsons started? Critics complained that the animation was limited, the designs crudely drawn, the characters rude and obnoxious. And while that was never my own impression of the show, that was exactly my impression when I first encountered Crayon Shin-chan. The characters look hastily scribbled together, and the main character has an annoying, low, "well, der!" kind of voice and a habit of participating in nudity and fart jokes. So naturally the show has enjoyed great popularity for over fifteen years as a TV show and nearly twenty as a comic.

This show centers around Shin-chan, an energetic but essentially clueless Kindergardener whose frequent misunderstandings lead him into trouble.

But the more I discovered about Shin-chan, the more I realized there was a lot of complex themes and scenarios. In other words, Shin-chan is a 'clown' in that classic definition-- his anti-social behavior is funny precisely because it *is* anti-social. His cultural gaffes shed light on what is proper and what isn't-- and when something "isn't," it's disruptive and allows us to laugh. It's satire, making fun of the complex rituals and formalized language in society.

For example, there are "set phrases" for when you come and go from home. Shin-chan often says the "I'm home!" set phrase ("tadaima!") when he leaves, and vice versa ("itte mairimasu!") when he goes.

They've dubbed a bunch of them for Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network, but obviously a lot has to be tweaked to make it culturally understandable. Here is one I found on YouTube, where Shin-chan failed to tell his mom they needed to have been collecting milk cartons for school, and are therefore forced to consume liters of the stuff the night before. Strangely, I was expecting *more* potty humor than there was, but even still, it keeps the whole show a bit more juvenile than it really should be, what with the breakage of cultural norms and all. Guess we can't all be South Park.

It's Knight Rider!

Guess what I happened upon on the Super Drama TV channel on cable? Knight Rider! Let's see what happens in this period piece of 80s goodness, complete with big hair, tight jeans, and electronic cars.

In this episode, KITT is "kidnapped," stripped out of the car's shell by Randy, an upstart computer nerd (one who is being used only for his brain by a tall and … quite mannish-looking woman, Adrian.)

Some interesting observations:
KITT's "central processing unit" contains his personality and, uh, apparently, all the electronic detection things he could always do in his car-form, too. So… why was he ever made into car-form in the first place? Moving on…

The villains helpfully discarded KITT's CPU (they never really call it that) in a trash heap, and Michael Knight is able to return him to the Foundation of Law and Government. Apparently, that Foundation carries a lot of weight, because you can just show up without a badge or identification and say you're from the Foundation of Law and Government and get anyone to come clean. But I digress. They put KITT into this long, short black box that is wider and thicker than most DVD players nowadays. Later in the conversation, they say he's been put in PORTABLE TELEVISION. I have luggage that's more portable than that, but everyone in the episode is impressed by the portability of this television.

Michael Knight investigates Randy's house, and his mom says he stays on his computer a lot. Oh! THAT'S what that cabinet is on the table in the corner. That WHOLE THING is his computer, but the 4-inch screen in the center is the monitor! And what are those large file folders you are holding?  Oh, those are the FLOPPY DISKS! I had almost forgotten about those things. Click click click whirrrrr… accessing information with WHOOP WHOOP sounds that all computers made in the 80s.

Oh, and about our villain"ess", Adrian? "We don't even know if that's her real name!" says Devin. Yeah, and it sure is genderless, too. Gah. Shudder. Yikes. What she DOES have lots and lots of poofy 80s hair. Kinda like David Hasselhoff, too, come to think of it. Every time this "woman" tries her seductive ways on the various characters, I get to shout "EWW" at the TV. And that was quite a lot.

Randy remote-controls KITT with an Atari video game joystick. (Well, after randomly stabbing the keyboard several times.) The kind that's just a black stick with a red button on the corner.

Adrian wants to use KITT's laser power pack to heist a bunch of art on its way from San Francisco to Denver. Shouldn't she just use the laser itself? Heh.

So here's how you stage an art robbery-- Use the "computer override" from KITT to turn off the motor of the moving armored car. (Huh?!) Use a laser power pack to burn a rectangle in the side of an armored car. Watch as the guards' bullets bounce off KITT's plating. Shoot the guards while they're distracted from the safety of your own small platform truck, the kind that conveniently is the same height as the rectangular hole of the armored car. Force Randy at gunpoint to physically drive KITT in order to "finish" off Michael Knight, who is coming in a beat-up podunk Edsel to foil the scene. This is the key point here--  you CAN'T do this by remote control and you CAN'T drive it yourself even tho Randy has taken the automatic driver out. Actually, scratch that last point. This part didn't work out so well for Adrian.

"I can't believe you double-crossed me!" Adrain tells Randy. "I CAN!" says Michael Knight, his arm around Randy's shoulder. … EW!

But… but… they never Turbo-Boosted to save the day?! Ah, there we are. In the final seconds of the show, they Turbo-Boost into a freeze frame to celebrate being returned to the status quo at the end of the hour. Yay, Knight Rider!

In other news, there's a Knight Rider 2008 in the works as a made-for-TV movie, with a GT Mustang as the new KITT. Oh, and after a few seconds of research, my apologies go out to Ann Turkel, who was the villain of today's episode (actually spelled "Adrianne"), and who apparently was also featured in the 1981 photo art book, The Most Beautiful Women.

"Lost" Season Premier

Okay, so even in Japan I got to keep up with my favorite show. LOST is one heck of a mystery, although I'll admit to being more than a little frustrated at times that they don't reveal a whole heck of a lot, even when it would make sense that the characters, you know, actually *talk* to one another.

But anyway, I just finished watching the Season 4 Premier... not as earth-shattering as some of the other premiers they've had, but there were a bunch of great moments.

I know a lot of people have been calling the "flashbacks" ... "flash-forwards," as it seems that it wasn't just a gimmick used for the cliffhanger at the end of Season 3. But I'm of a different mind. I think THAT is what is actually happening in the here-and-now, and all the stuff on the island IS the flashback. In other words, Seasons 1-3 were all about the islands with flashbacks of their real lives, and NOW this Season is all about their real lives with flashbacks of the island. The questions aren't "what's going on on the island?" They're "what WAS going on on the island?" Well, it makes sense it MY head.

And now for the SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!!!

-- Love the opening shot with the mound of fruit being smashed. A nice mis-direction.
-- Several edge-of-seat moments: Naomi's body goes missing! Hurley finds the haunted cabin! Kate gets drips of blood on her! Jack would have SHOT Locke!
-- Other things that were really neat surprises but not edge-of-seat: That creepy guy visiting Hurley in the hospital: "Are THEY still alive?"; Rose choosing not to go with Locke; Charlie's reappearance
-- Weak Spots: Sawyer's lines have been reduced to one-liners from action movies; none of the previous mysteries were even touched on-- leaving us with just the new mystery of what really happened/why are Jack and Hurley covering something up in the present? That's not really a mystery, you know, since it's just a new way to phrase the same old questions. I mean, if we can't be thrown a bone in the season opener, that's just plain mean.

Thoughts?