Book Review: Yakuza Moon

Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter was advertised as offering a rare female glimpse into the world of Japanese organized crime. I thought it would make a good follow up to Tokyo Vice, which I read and wrote about earlier this month. Whereas Tokyo Vice offered a male outsider perspective on the yakuza, I was hoping Yakuza Moon would present a female insider take on the whole thing. You can probably tell by the way I'm phrasing all this that Yakuza Moon didn't quite live up to my expectations.

It's not that Yakuza Moon turned out to be an awful book. It's got plenty of good stuff going for it like a fast-paced plot, readability, and enough seedy situations and sleazy characters to fill a novel twice its size. So the problem's not so much the book itself (which was alright) so much that it's falsely advertised. True, the author's dad was a yakuza, as are many of the men she goes on to date or become involved with, but it's much less about yakuza and much more about the author's personal struggles.

And there are many struggles to be had! At times this book reads like a bad after school special as the author, Shoko Tendo, struggles with everything from speed addiction to domestic abuse. Tendo's memoir was initially written for a Japanese audience and this is evident in her sparse descriptions of her native culture. Whereas I felt that the descriptions of Japan were some of the best parts of Tokyo Vice, I felt that Yakuza Moon suffered from a poorly drawn setting.

In Tendo's defense I understand that this book was probably just as much of a therapeutic exercise for her to work through her previous trauma as it was a labor of creative love. In the intro to the paperback edition Tendo writes about letters she has received from readers who related to her struggles. This edition of the book also includes an afterword from another author/yakuza child who writes about how much her related to Tendo's struggles. So there's definitely an audience for this book and if you're a part of that audience then more power to you. However, I have a feeling that most average Joes/Janes would be better served elsewhere.

Air Guitar Nation: Long Live C-Diddy!

Air Guitar Nation is a 2006 documentary about the 2003 Air Guitar Championships in Finland. Uh, yeah. I discovered this one whilst browsing Netflix and the absurdity and stupidity of its premise intrigued me. I mean, what the hell is wrong with people that watching someone fake play an instrument is considered a legit form of entertainment?! Thus I got suckered into watching the movie just to see for myself what was going on.

And you know what? After watching the movie I totally get it. The air guitar competitions in the film are hardly serious events, but could more accurately be described as comedy routines that mix together elements of dance and acting. The people who get far in the competitions know how to work the crowds by creating recognizable and absurd stage personas.

The film mainly follows two American air guitarists in their attempts to best the competition and make it to the championships in Finland. These two champs are Björn Türoque and C-Diddy (yeah, stage names are part of the whole "recognizable and absurd stage personas" thing that I described earlier). Björn Türoque, despite his awesome stage name, had a dry, ironic hipster sensibility that wore on my nerves as the film progressed. C-Diddy, however, utilized a goofier and more outlandish style in competitions. His trademark was wearing a Hello Kitty backpack in place of a shirt...how is that not awesome?! To be fair though, C-Diddy had also gone to college for acting and described himself as a professional actor/comedian so he definitely had an advantage over the other competitors in that he was experienced in performing in front of people.

C-Diddy was also one of the few characters in the film whose background is fleshed out. We get to meet his conservative Korean parents, who admit that they would have preferred their son become a doctor or lawyer rather than an actor. Including this family stuff in the film helped to give a bit of depth and heart to what would otherwise be a funny, but shallow experience. Don't get me wrong, this film is still in no way emotionally deep or insightful, but giving the viewer some background info on the characters makes them seem more like three-dimensional people rather than simply cartoonish stage characters.

While I could've done with more characterization, I liked that this movie mostly stayed away from drawing profound insights from the competition. After all, it's a movie about people flailing away on a stage whilst wearing brightly colored costumes. The film, and the air guitar competitions themselves, seem to be the opposite of intellectual experiences. Instead they seemed to be celebrations of pure emotion and silliness. To be fair, 80-some minutes of pure silliness can get a bit wearing, but I'd be lying if I didn't say there were moments of this movie that I loved. So while I'm not going to recommend that you drop everything to see Air Guitar Nation, it's not a bad way to kill some time by any means.

Three Reasons To Watch Zombie

In the history of zombie movies there are a few landmark films that stand out as being particularly influential to the development of the genre. Films like George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, in particular, were hugely influential in shaping the mainstream concept of what zombie movies are. These films also spawned a horde of imitators, the vast majority of which would never gain the mainstream recognition of the Romero fare. Zombie (aka Zombi 2) is one of these imitators. Zombie was released in 1979, just one year after Dawn of the Dead. Zombie was created in attempt to piggyback on the success of Dawn (in Italy Dawn of the Dead was released as Zombi, hence Zombie's Italian release was titled Zombi 2 to capitalize on the existing brand, though it is in no way a sequel to Dawn). According to what I've read, Zombie did well during its Italian theatrical run, earning back its budget and then some. In the modern day US of A the film still maintains a healthy cult following. Still the film's not exactly Avatar in terms of popularity and, while I acknowledge that any film involving a prolonged scene of eye trauma inherently appeals to a niche demographic, I'd love it if more people took a chance on Zombie. Thus I have composed this list of three reasons you should watch Zombie. Please enjoy.

1) The Gore!
Hands down the number one reason to watch Zombie is its spectacular gore. And I don't say that simply because there's a lot of it. No, it's easy and commonplace to just splash a bunch of fake blood on the screen and call it a day, but it's a whole 'nother thing to find a film that takes gore to the stunning and depraved heights (or depths?) that Zombie does. Perhaps the most notable gore showcase in Zombie is the (in)famous splinter in the eyeball scene, in which a zombie grabs a victim by the hair and pulls her toward a giant wooden splinter, eventually lodging the splinter into her eyeball. This moment is notable for its agonizingly slow buildup followed by its unflinching and gloriously gory conclusion. No, it's not for the faint-hearted, but that's precisely what makes it so great.

2) The Shark vs. Zombie Fight
OK, so as far as I'm aware Zombie is the only film ever to feature a scene in which an zombie goes head to head with a live shark. I am pretty confident that I don't have to explain why that is awesome.

3) The Sheer Unrivaled Fun of It All!
No joke, Zombie is probably one of the most entertaining movies I have ever seen. Yes the plot's paper thin, but who cares? Zombie's not about the plot, but rather it's a feast for the senses with its stunning gore, great setting (the lush tropical island of Matul), and awesomely moody and retro soundtrack. At around just one hour and thirty minutes it's also perfectly paced and careful not to overstay its welcome.

Book Review: Tokyo Vice

I'm going to be honest, I picked up Tokyo Vice mainly because of the title. Though I hate to admit it, if there's anything I have in common with greasy 14-year-olds who watch anime it's that we both think Japan is, like, super-cool. So when I saw a copy of Tokyo Vice laying on a table at a bookstore it was the "Tokyo" half of the title that initially caught my eye.

Let me back up a bit and explain what Tokyo Vice is, exactly. While it's being sold, more or less, as the story of an American who travels to Japan and hangs out with yakuza, the yakuza stuff is really only part of the story. Basically the book follows the (mis)adventures of an American crime reporter (author Jake Adelstein) writing for the biggest newspaper in Japan. The book is non-fiction, but beyond that its genre is a bit hard to pin down. The best way I am able to describe it is that it's one-third memoir, one-third travel writing, and one-third true crime.

While the crime elements lend the story excitement, the aspect of the book that I found most interesting were the author's observations about Japanese culture. The little details, such as the importance and prominence of business cards in Japan, fleshed the story out and explained to me things that I would otherwise be oblivious to. It's a cliche to say this, but Adelstein's descriptions of Japanese culture helped transform the setting into one of the most prominent and interesting characters in the book.

OK, now for the bad stuff. First let me say that I don't think that any of the following criticisms are deal breakers. If you're even slightly interested in Japan or yakuza then you're gonna enjoy this book on some level so don't let what I'm about to say deter you. Alright, with that out of the way let me say that the writing in Tokyo Vice occasionally leaves a bit to be desired. While many critics have described Adelstein's writing as "hardboiled", I think this is kind of a nice way of saying that his writing is generally a bit sparse and lacking in a distinctive style. Don't get me wrong, the majority of time Adelstein's writing gets the job done and is very easy to read. Just don't expect poetic musings. On a similar note, the dialogue occasionally felt stilted to me and many of the characters lacked distinctive speaking patterns. I've gotta give this second criticism a pass, however, as presumably most of the conversations were originally conducted in Japanese.

All that aside, Tokyo Vice was an easy, informative, and entertaining read. Throughout the book Adelstein makes a few questionable choices and occasionally puts his family at great risk, but it's hard not to sympathize with him and the crazy cast of characters he interacts with. I genuinely liked many of the characters in this book and loved spending time with them in the crazy place that is Japan.

Ressurection and Revamp

Apparently it's been a year since my last post. Sorry 'bout that. I had other important stuff going on in my life.

...Okay that's a lie. In reality I just got lazy and was writing too much for school to want to write anything in my off time. But school's over now and while it was fun to spend a week doing absolutely nothing, nothingness gets old pretty fast. In my fits of boredom I would surf the Internet in search of entertainment, only to realize that a lot of Internet writing (on blogs and the like) pretty much sucks. I thought, "I could be more interesting than this."

And here I am.

That said, now that I'm back I want to make one major change to this blog: it's no longer going to be about monster movies exclusively. I'll probably write about monster movies here and there, but this blog isn't going to be dedicated to them alone. Instead I want this blog to be about nothing in particular, but rather about anything that interests me at any given moment. That said, I think it's pretty safe to say that this blog will rarely stray far from posts about pop culture. Why? Because (a) that's what interests me and (b) it's fun to write about.

So that's pretty much it, aside from one last thing: despite the fact that the monster theme has been dropped I'm keeping the name. I think it's catchy. Plus, zombie babies...how can you not love them?

Blood The Last Vampire: Demon on Campus

When it comes to Japanese animation I'm no expert, but I'd still argue that I've seen more Miyazaki than the average American. Therefore, it shouldn't be surprising that, while I had heard of Blood: The Last Vampire, a critically acclaimed anime movie from 2000, I had, up until recently, not seen it. Seeing a poster for the live-action Blood redo last year put the original anime film further on my radar, but it didn't quite push me over the edge to watching the movie. No, it wasn't until a few days ago that, for no real reason other than the fact that it was streaming, I decided to give Blood a chance. Overall, I can't say that I was disappointed.

The major thing that you need to know about Blood is that it's only about 45 minutes long. Thus it is not an overly complex, layered, moody drama. The characters are incredibly basic and, to be honest, a little flat. That's OK though, because with its moody visual style and solid pacing Blood succeeds at being a tight, entertaining piece of animation.

Blood opens with a stylish, comic book-y kill on a moving subway. The killer is a gal named Saya, and, while her origin is never explicitly explained in the movie, it is implied that she is the last vampire. After the subway fight Saya meets up with her employers, two mysterious men in suits, and it is here that we are given the set-up for the next 30-some minutes. It seems that Saya's speciality is demon hunting, and that her skills are in demand at a school located in Tokyo's Yokota Air Base.

This plot device works for a number of reason. First of all, as the Yokota Air Base is an American military base, it gives the filmmakers an excuse to record about half of the film's dialogue in English. Yes, while portions of Blood are in Japanese and subtitled, a good majority of the movie is in English. I did a quick bit of Internet research on this and apparently this was done to speed up the process of selling the film to American audiences. While I was initially distracted by Blood's bilingual nature, I grew used to it pretty quickly and overall having the two languages worked more than I would have thought that it would.

Blood's setting also works to create a number of interesting visuals in which Saya's look, that of a young Japanese school girl, is contrasted by her stoic personality and violent actions. Similarly I was impressed by a sequence in which two demons disguised as students shed their innocent looking disguises and transform into monsters. What impressed me about this was how subtle the transformations were. When Saya initially slays one of the demons there is a brief moment in which the viewer is unsure of whether she has struck down a young student or a monstrous creature. It isn't until we see a gnarled, inhuman hand amongst the blood splatter that we fully realise the true identity of the student.

I would like to point out that all of this stuff could have looked really bad if it wasn't for the stark, gritty style in which Blood is animated. Staying away from the cliche cotton candy colored haircuts and outrageous fashions of some anime, Blood's style is realistic and bleak. There is a distinctive color scheme to Blood's world, and that color scheme consists blacks, browns, greys, and other muted hues. The movie also makes unexpectedly good use of CG animation to add an impressive depth to the movie. There is a school dance scene early on, in particular, that I felt I could walk right into if I had wanted to.

Blood isn't going to blow your mind with intricate storytelling, but it is 45 minutes worth of eye candy with a solid enough plot to keep you engaged the whole time. I can recommend it heartily for what it is. Enjoy!

Underworld: Pretty But Undercooked

When Underworld 3 hit theaters a little over a year ago I made a mental note to go back and watch the previous two movies in the Underworld series. Months later and I have finally just finished watched the first Underworld movie. Let me explain my viewing procrastination- it is not so much that I was dreading watching Underworld, so much that it entirely slipped my mind. After viewing the movie, funnily enough, that about sums up my opinion on the overall show- I cannot actively dislike it, as it was mildly enjoyable, but I can't get excited about it either.

The events of Underworld are set up unceremoniously with a quick voice over at the beginning. Basically vampires and werewolves (aka Lycans) don't like each other and they have been fighting for a very long time. Yeah there's a little more to the plot than that, but really that's about all the set-up you need to know. About two hours later from this initial plot exposition, we are given another abrupt voiceover that attempts to tie up the plot quickly. Unfortunately, these two instances are great examples of the lack of grace and subtlety with which plot advancement is treated in the land of Underworld. After this speedy intro is delivered to us with appropriate angst by protagonist Selene (Kate Beckinsale) we dive underground for a shootout in a subway station. With virtually no foundation as to who the shooters are, I felt totally emotionally disconnected from the action. Sure, it looks relatively pretty, but even the visuals here weren't exceptionally novel. The look in many parts of the movie, and especially in this subway scene, is particularly reminiscent of The Matrix. This wouldn't be a bad thing (hey, who doesn't like The Matrix?), but, first off, everything Underworld tries to do like The Matrix is something Matrix did better, and, secondly, when Underworld calms down on the leather trench coats and shades it takes on a moody gothic style, which I found much more appropriate for the film.

One visual that worked for me, in particular, was the emaciated, corpse-like vampire elder Viktor (played by Bill Nighy). Seeing Viktor, pale and ghastly, sitting in an elaborate, spacious, and elegant room was a wonderful contrast, and my favorite moment of the movie.

Unfortunately, we can't all be Viktors, and not all of Underworld's visuals can match the strength of this image. While I understand that this movie is from 2003, I just couldn't get behind the computer-generated werewolves. Yeah, I know that's how it was done in '03, but there were moments of CG werewolves going wild that made me cringe. Their transformations were decent, but way too quick, and would have benefited from more extended periods of bone-crunching. The most notable werewolf transformation sequence occurs in the back of the police car. The beginning of this transformation is excellent, as the soon to be werewolf writhes in the claustrophobic, moving space. Unfortunately, as soon as the character is about to transform and attack the two police officers, the movie cuts away to brooding Selene. I can understand where another film might do such a thing to create suspense, but, come on, you're Underworld, no one is watching you for an expertly executed exercise in suspense- we just want to see pretty images.

When Underworld succeeds is when it delivers on the pretty images. When it failed for me was when it tried to become more than just a slide show of shiny things. Underworld completely overestimates the appeal of its characters and storyline. Plot points are revealed in utter seriousness, without hints of irony or humor. This would be forgivable if I was watching a gripping drama with complex characters, but I'm not. Underworld seems to forget that in order to care about these people we need to know who they are beyond the absolute basics, and that these characters need to be more than the most basic character types.

Take our heroine Selene as an example. She is a female vampire warrior with a steely gaze, a rebellious streak, a strong sense of honor, and a (yawn) tragic past. While she's not unlikeable, she's not a particularly fascinating, or even memorable, character. The werewolf (or Lycan, I should say), side of the film is even more glossed over. While we at least get glimpses of the vampire society (another part of the movie that I thought worked), we get virtually no sense of the way the Lycans live. I understand that the vampires were the main parts of the movie, but I think more Lycan development would have made the story more compelling.

That said, Underworld is still not a bad way to kill two hours. It's fun to look at, and, while the mediocre plot takes itself way too seriously there are a fair amount of stretches in the movie where there's not a lot of talking.

I plan on watching and writing about the next two Underworld movies as the summer progresses. Stay tuned.