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The other Yukio Tanaka
Last night, I slept all evening because Yahoo sucks and wouldn't let me give them money to watch the Fighters final game.
I feel kind of bad actually. If Lotte loses tomorrow, the Fighters go to the playoffs. If Lotte wins, Lotte goes. I kind of actually want Lotte to go, because the playoffs are Oct 9-11 at Seibu, all at 1pm, and I have to work on the 9th and was planning to go to college ball the other days (there WILL be ball each day -- even if the weekend goes 2-0, then Keio-Rikkio will continue their Longest Series Ever on Monday). If the Fighters make it I become extremely conflicted about what to do.
Anyway. Tonight I went up to Saitama Shintoshin and watched the live-action movie of Beck.
Since I don't really like manga or anime, all I really knew about Beck is that it's about a band and there's a character named Yukio Tanaka. (Who I believe is named after our Mr. Fighters.) But, actually, I think the movie did a fairly good job of introducing all the band members and getting the band together; I didn't have much trouble figuring out who was who and how they all fit, although there was a tiny bit of confusion with how the rival band Belle Ame gets their entire thing going. I did kind of wonder WHY the hell the Minami siblings moved back to Japan given that both of them claim to basically suck at Japanese and prefer to speak in English, and Ryusuke clearly has very little to do other than play guitar and cause drama-queen situations.
Anyway, this movie is ostensibly about a shy kid named Yukio Tanaka, who meets a crazy guitarist named Ryusuke Minami after inadvertantly saving the latter's dog (named Beck, of course) from a bunch of gaijin messing with it. Koyuki, as he's nicknamed, is essentially an outcast at school thanks to a group of bullies, although another boy named Sakurai transfers in and takes a liking to Koyuki after Koyuki hijacks the school's PA system and blares obscure grunge music over it, and Saku sticks with Koyuki for whatever reason despite the bullies (who go as far as to break the guitar Koyuki was given by Ryusuke, which turns into a plot point as one of Ryusuke's neighbors says he can help Koyuki fix the guitar if Koyuki works at his shop, and said neighbor also helps Koyuki learn to play guitar -- he's the former Olympic swimmer, for those who read the manga). Ryusuke starts this band called Beck, with him and his friend Taira, who is a kickass bassist, and they get a guy named Chiba to be the vocalist, who is more of a rapper than anything. There's a drummer who I don't think they ever name in the movie, but it's clear in their first performance that they think the drummer sucks, so of course through a crazy set of events, they kick out that drummer, bring in Koyuki, who's been practicing guitar, and also tell Saku to go play the drums, which, holy plot point, he magically happens to be good at. Oh, and Chiba also beats up the bullies who wanted to break Ryusuke's guitar again, and so the bullies are never seen or heard from again.
We also discover that Koyuki has an amazing voice that hypnotizes everyone around him whenever he sings. However, and this is the REALLY STUPID PART: IN THE MOVIE, WE NEVER ACTUALLY HEAR HIM SING. No joke -- whenever Koyuki opens his mouth to sing, lots of manga-like effects happen to show how entranced everyone is by his beautiful voice, but the vocals itself never come out! This is particularly retarded in the finale when the band is playing and Koyuki is singing the song he wrote, only... there's no words. What the FUCK. (Note: we hear his normal voice all the time. Just not singing.)
So, okay, we have a band. And they are pretty good, so good stuff happens to them for a bit, like getting gigs, and eventually getting asked to play at Greatful Sound Fest or whatever it's called. (Despite that Koyuki is still stiff as a board when playing, he gets a fan following of sorts, starting with a girl at their school named Hiromi who starts following Saku around.) Now, we also have some setup that Ryusuke lived in NYC for a while and his close friend is a kid named Eddie who plays in a band called The Dying Breed. Also, Ryusuke has a sister named Maho, who is the same age as Koyuki, and since she also spent so long living abroad, she spends most of the movie talking in English and complaining that she can't read kanji (but gets angry any time someone points that out). And one of the dudes in the rival band Belle Ame also likes Maho and tries to keep her away from Koyuki.
Now, naturally, if they were just going to play at the Music Festival, that would be an awfully boring movie, so they have to add some plot. The Belle Ame producer guy somehow sabotages Beck CD sales so that the only band you see in stores that used to carry Beck is now Belle Ame, and he also pays off the music festival people so that Beck is no longer invited and Belle Ame will take Main Stage. And the Belle Ame guy challenges Koyuki that "if Maho comes to my performance instead of yours, you'll give her up to me".
In the meantime, it turns out that Eddie and Ryusuke stole a guitar from a famous blues guy when they were in NYC... the guitar is named Lucille and has seven bullet holes in it. So a black guy named Leon Sykes (who seems to be a big music producer in the US, very rich and very mysterious) and his entourage come to Japan to come kill Ryusuke and take back the guitar. Which they almost succeed in, except, mysteriously, Sykes's uncle John Lee Davis is also there, and Ryusuke begs to be allowed to play guitar with him before they kill him. Which he does. And JLD says to Sykes, "You can't kill this guy. He's too good to be dead." Sykes relents and lets Ryusuke live, though all bloodied up. And then somehow, we don't know how, Sykes also intervenes to get Beck an invitation to the music festival. They'll be on 3rd stage. BUT apparently his condition to Ryusuke is that the band has to break up afterwards. (If I understood what Ryusuke ranted about correctly.)
So they get to the festival and everyone gets pissed off. Chiba storms off because he's like "you fuckers don't need me anyway, you have Pretty Voice Boy over there", and Ryusuke himself runs off for some reason I forget, probably just that he's a drama queen. Eventually Koyuki gets up on stage himself, and is eventually joined by the rest of the band, AND in the meantime, it's raining and Main Stage has a technical misfunction, so the entire music festival comes down to see Beck instead.
Overall, this movie was really easy to understand because so many important lines were actually delivered in ENGLISH, being as there are several fairly important gaijin characters, and Ryusuke and Maho spend most of their time talking in English, when both in the same room. But what's even crazier is that their English was so perfect that I was totally convinced it had to be dubbed -- I mean, there was no trace of Japanese in the pronunciation at all.
Well, it turns out that actually, Mizushima Hiro, who plays Ryusuke, lived in Switzerland for like 6 years as a kid and went to international school and came back to Japan during his JHS years. And Kutsuna Shiori, who plays Maho, was BORN in Australia and lived there until she was 15 or so, when she won some beauty contest and decided to try out being an actress in Japan. So her true self isn't so far off from her character, where she's actually a native English speaker rather than a native Japanese speaker. Hence the two of them actually ARE fluent in English.
It's just that... his English was so perfect I couldn't believe it. Like he'd get pissed off at something and say "Jesus CHRIST this is stupid" in English. I mean, he'd be talking to the other foreign characters, especially Eddie, and it was just like... okay, this doesn't sound wrong. WTF? Reading the subtitles for his lines was funny too, at one point Ryusuke says "well, that's total SHIT" and it's subtitled as "γγΈγγ".
So now I almost want to see the movie again someday just so I can watch it without wondering whether it's dubbed and who's doing his voice! Plus, to be fair, the music was pretty good if you like rock/grunge stuff, although, again, the lack of vocals on Koyuki songs WAS pretty stupid. WHAT the hell was up with that, they could have just gotten some really good singer to do those songs or something.
I think Beck fans will like the movie but people who just feel like watching a "rock band movie" will also enjoy it just fine. Or if you're a Mizushima Hiro fan. Or, to be fair, the guys playing Taira (Mukai Osamu) and Saku (Nakamura Aoi) were also really cute.
Yeah...
I came home and cleaned up some more stuff around here though it's still cluttered. Mike gets here in like 15 hours though! Wheee.
I feel kind of bad actually. If Lotte loses tomorrow, the Fighters go to the playoffs. If Lotte wins, Lotte goes. I kind of actually want Lotte to go, because the playoffs are Oct 9-11 at Seibu, all at 1pm, and I have to work on the 9th and was planning to go to college ball the other days (there WILL be ball each day -- even if the weekend goes 2-0, then Keio-Rikkio will continue their Longest Series Ever on Monday). If the Fighters make it I become extremely conflicted about what to do.
Anyway. Tonight I went up to Saitama Shintoshin and watched the live-action movie of Beck.
Since I don't really like manga or anime, all I really knew about Beck is that it's about a band and there's a character named Yukio Tanaka. (Who I believe is named after our Mr. Fighters.) But, actually, I think the movie did a fairly good job of introducing all the band members and getting the band together; I didn't have much trouble figuring out who was who and how they all fit, although there was a tiny bit of confusion with how the rival band Belle Ame gets their entire thing going. I did kind of wonder WHY the hell the Minami siblings moved back to Japan given that both of them claim to basically suck at Japanese and prefer to speak in English, and Ryusuke clearly has very little to do other than play guitar and cause drama-queen situations.
Anyway, this movie is ostensibly about a shy kid named Yukio Tanaka, who meets a crazy guitarist named Ryusuke Minami after inadvertantly saving the latter's dog (named Beck, of course) from a bunch of gaijin messing with it. Koyuki, as he's nicknamed, is essentially an outcast at school thanks to a group of bullies, although another boy named Sakurai transfers in and takes a liking to Koyuki after Koyuki hijacks the school's PA system and blares obscure grunge music over it, and Saku sticks with Koyuki for whatever reason despite the bullies (who go as far as to break the guitar Koyuki was given by Ryusuke, which turns into a plot point as one of Ryusuke's neighbors says he can help Koyuki fix the guitar if Koyuki works at his shop, and said neighbor also helps Koyuki learn to play guitar -- he's the former Olympic swimmer, for those who read the manga). Ryusuke starts this band called Beck, with him and his friend Taira, who is a kickass bassist, and they get a guy named Chiba to be the vocalist, who is more of a rapper than anything. There's a drummer who I don't think they ever name in the movie, but it's clear in their first performance that they think the drummer sucks, so of course through a crazy set of events, they kick out that drummer, bring in Koyuki, who's been practicing guitar, and also tell Saku to go play the drums, which, holy plot point, he magically happens to be good at. Oh, and Chiba also beats up the bullies who wanted to break Ryusuke's guitar again, and so the bullies are never seen or heard from again.
We also discover that Koyuki has an amazing voice that hypnotizes everyone around him whenever he sings. However, and this is the REALLY STUPID PART: IN THE MOVIE, WE NEVER ACTUALLY HEAR HIM SING. No joke -- whenever Koyuki opens his mouth to sing, lots of manga-like effects happen to show how entranced everyone is by his beautiful voice, but the vocals itself never come out! This is particularly retarded in the finale when the band is playing and Koyuki is singing the song he wrote, only... there's no words. What the FUCK. (Note: we hear his normal voice all the time. Just not singing.)
So, okay, we have a band. And they are pretty good, so good stuff happens to them for a bit, like getting gigs, and eventually getting asked to play at Greatful Sound Fest or whatever it's called. (Despite that Koyuki is still stiff as a board when playing, he gets a fan following of sorts, starting with a girl at their school named Hiromi who starts following Saku around.) Now, we also have some setup that Ryusuke lived in NYC for a while and his close friend is a kid named Eddie who plays in a band called The Dying Breed. Also, Ryusuke has a sister named Maho, who is the same age as Koyuki, and since she also spent so long living abroad, she spends most of the movie talking in English and complaining that she can't read kanji (but gets angry any time someone points that out). And one of the dudes in the rival band Belle Ame also likes Maho and tries to keep her away from Koyuki.
Now, naturally, if they were just going to play at the Music Festival, that would be an awfully boring movie, so they have to add some plot. The Belle Ame producer guy somehow sabotages Beck CD sales so that the only band you see in stores that used to carry Beck is now Belle Ame, and he also pays off the music festival people so that Beck is no longer invited and Belle Ame will take Main Stage. And the Belle Ame guy challenges Koyuki that "if Maho comes to my performance instead of yours, you'll give her up to me".
In the meantime, it turns out that Eddie and Ryusuke stole a guitar from a famous blues guy when they were in NYC... the guitar is named Lucille and has seven bullet holes in it. So a black guy named Leon Sykes (who seems to be a big music producer in the US, very rich and very mysterious) and his entourage come to Japan to come kill Ryusuke and take back the guitar. Which they almost succeed in, except, mysteriously, Sykes's uncle John Lee Davis is also there, and Ryusuke begs to be allowed to play guitar with him before they kill him. Which he does. And JLD says to Sykes, "You can't kill this guy. He's too good to be dead." Sykes relents and lets Ryusuke live, though all bloodied up. And then somehow, we don't know how, Sykes also intervenes to get Beck an invitation to the music festival. They'll be on 3rd stage. BUT apparently his condition to Ryusuke is that the band has to break up afterwards. (If I understood what Ryusuke ranted about correctly.)
So they get to the festival and everyone gets pissed off. Chiba storms off because he's like "you fuckers don't need me anyway, you have Pretty Voice Boy over there", and Ryusuke himself runs off for some reason I forget, probably just that he's a drama queen. Eventually Koyuki gets up on stage himself, and is eventually joined by the rest of the band, AND in the meantime, it's raining and Main Stage has a technical misfunction, so the entire music festival comes down to see Beck instead.
Overall, this movie was really easy to understand because so many important lines were actually delivered in ENGLISH, being as there are several fairly important gaijin characters, and Ryusuke and Maho spend most of their time talking in English, when both in the same room. But what's even crazier is that their English was so perfect that I was totally convinced it had to be dubbed -- I mean, there was no trace of Japanese in the pronunciation at all.
Well, it turns out that actually, Mizushima Hiro, who plays Ryusuke, lived in Switzerland for like 6 years as a kid and went to international school and came back to Japan during his JHS years. And Kutsuna Shiori, who plays Maho, was BORN in Australia and lived there until she was 15 or so, when she won some beauty contest and decided to try out being an actress in Japan. So her true self isn't so far off from her character, where she's actually a native English speaker rather than a native Japanese speaker. Hence the two of them actually ARE fluent in English.
It's just that... his English was so perfect I couldn't believe it. Like he'd get pissed off at something and say "Jesus CHRIST this is stupid" in English. I mean, he'd be talking to the other foreign characters, especially Eddie, and it was just like... okay, this doesn't sound wrong. WTF? Reading the subtitles for his lines was funny too, at one point Ryusuke says "well, that's total SHIT" and it's subtitled as "γγΈγγ".
So now I almost want to see the movie again someday just so I can watch it without wondering whether it's dubbed and who's doing his voice! Plus, to be fair, the music was pretty good if you like rock/grunge stuff, although, again, the lack of vocals on Koyuki songs WAS pretty stupid. WHAT the hell was up with that, they could have just gotten some really good singer to do those songs or something.
I think Beck fans will like the movie but people who just feel like watching a "rock band movie" will also enjoy it just fine. Or if you're a Mizushima Hiro fan. Or, to be fair, the guys playing Taira (Mukai Osamu) and Saku (Nakamura Aoi) were also really cute.
Yeah...
I came home and cleaned up some more stuff around here though it's still cluttered. Mike gets here in like 15 hours though! Wheee.