Through The Looking Glass

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

DVD – Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance

Buy it at Amazon.com

This is a weird but beautiful Japanese movie based on the long-running Lone Wolf and Cub manga series (Amazon has 18 volumes available, but I believe there are many more in total).

Ogami Itto is the official Shogunate Executioner (the man who decapitates Samurai who perform seppuku). After his wife is killed and he is sentenced to death (for what are probably very simple reasons but feudal Japan is not my area of expertise – simply put, he pissed off the Yagyu clan who in turn framed him for treason), he chooses to walk the path of evil as an assassin for hire. He gives his infant son a choice between joining his mother and walking the path with his father. Daigoro chooses his father’s sword over his own toy and the two of them set out on a path of revenge and solitude.

This first film in the series of six is burdened with flashbacks and explanations, which are probably necessary but made it difficult for me to follow. Originally released in 1972, it is violent without apology but the gore is rather silly – in one shot you may think that you see the tube from which copious amounts of bright red “blood” shoot out of a man’s wound. There is another rather distressing scene in which a group of outlaws literally rape a young woman to death as her father watches, protesting. In fact, I don’t recommend this one for anyone with tender sensibilities regarding women, as every one who appears in the film ends up dead (his wife, the raped peasant woman), crazy (in the beginning of the film a young woman, mad from the loss of her own son, mistakenly claims Daigoro and nurses him while her family explains to Ogami her circumstances and asks to pay him for the “rental” of his son; he refuses money, saying that Daigoro was hungry anyway), or…well, I’ll get to the whore.

Honor is one of the primary staples of Japanese culture, and never moreso than in the time period during which this film takes place (the first half of the 17th century). When Ogami and Daigoro wind up in a small village populated by outlaws, the men threaten to kill a whore (and presumably Ogami as well) if he does not have sex with her. He lies with her in an utterly passionless scene, after which she praises his ability to get it up under such pressure and his willingness to cast aside his honor to save her life (there is no doubt that he could save his own, with or without his sword…the weapon, that is).

As I said, this movie is difficult to follow and the flashbacks and convoluted plot make it feel longer than it is. Nevertheless, I do recommend it.

DVD – Lone Wolf and Cub 2: Baby Cart at the River Styx

Buy it at Amazon.com

In the second movie, there is far less to keep track of and the storytelling is more linear. There are two basic plots: the leader of the Shadow-Yagyu hires a small, female branch of the clan to assassinate Ogami; men from the Awa clan hire Ogami to kill a man who is being escorted to another village to sell their secrets of indigo dyes (the escorts are, of course, three renowned brothers called the Gods of Death – more on them later).

There is a ridiculously comical scene in which the women prove that they need no backup from men: they literally chop the strongest male ninja to bits as he attempts to get past them. I just about laughed my head off, which, if I meant that literally, would have been appropriate.

To my delight, Daigoro is a little bit older in this film (though not more than 2) and participates a good deal more. We learn that his perambulator is not just a wooden cart. We rewound three times to see the look on his face as he flipped the ’switch’ to release one of the many blades hidden in it as an assassin rushes him. In a tender scene when Ogami has been injured, Daigoro runs to the river and tries to bring his father water by making a bowl with his hands. Of course he fails, but he doesn’t give up and his solution is clever and adorable. It is a lovely bit of insight into how self-sufficient he is, as well as the true bond between father and son. When he is later kidnapped by the Yagyu he is perfectly calm as Ogami tells them that he will go be with his mother, and follows an imperceptible direction from his father to help save his own life.

When we get back to the Gods of Death, they are on a boat headed to the meeting point from which they will escort the Awa traitor. The boat is filled with bumbling assassins as well as the one surviving woman, still bent on killing Ogami. The three brothers use unique weapons including a set of claws that fit over the (I presume) eldest brother’s hands and are just wicked cool. They too follow a strict code of honor, fighting only those who attack them first or stand in the way of their tasks. One of the assassins onboard sets the boat on fire, and we learn that the baby cart floats. The woman, whose name I wish I knew as it would be easier to refer to her that way, attempts to kill Ogami as he is pushing the cart toward land, but he disarms her and winds up saving her life. There follows a very interesting scene in which it appears that he is going to rape her.

The final confrontation with the three brothers takes place in the desert (I need to study Japan’s geography – I had no idea there were desert areas) and contains one of the absolute coolest ambushes I have ever seen.

I liked this one far more than the first – it even kept me awake! Having seen them in order myself, I can’t say whether it would work to come into the series at this point, so I’d advise watching the first one first. Besides, you just might love Sword of Vengeance.

The rest of the series

Lone Wolf and Cub 3: Baby Cart to Hades

Lone Wolf and Cub – Baby Cart in Peril

Lone Wolf and Cub – Baby in the Land of Demons
Also available at DeepDiscountDVD

Lone Wolf and Cub White Heaven in Hel

Conclusion

The DVD treatment of these films is astounding. The transfer is so beautiful that the movies could have been shot yesterday. The cinematography is outstanding, making the crisp, clean transfer all the more enjoyable. There are two subtitle options; the full subtitles include explanations of select words to help the viewer understand what is going on and, to some extent, how the society was set up. The liner notes, available both in the traditional form and onscreen, explain the class system in great detail and reference sources that were used for the notes as well as in the translation. I can’t say how the sound is, other than clean, because we have lousy speakers.

These are short movies – under 90 minutes. And they are really freakin’ neat (if disgusting in places). Go! Rent or buy them! That’s an order.

According to one rather unreliable source (AICN) and one vaguely more reliable source (savewonderfalls.com by way of WHEDONesque), a DVD release of Wonderfalls is looking likely. This is good news for those of us who thought the series was clever and entertaining.

But, while searching for the referenced statement that Tim Minear supposedly made about it, I found this Google cached page from foxnow.com. I know that viewership (is that a word?) dropped after the second week, but it doesn’t seem possible that the decision to cancel was made completely spur-of-the-moment, so I can’t help but wonder why the FUCK Fox sited the ratings as their reason for cancellation.

From the site, dated only two weeks ago*:

WONDERFALLS had a solid sampling in its first 2 weeks, averaging 4 million viewers. The series delivers its best performance among teens on Friday night, ranking #1 in its time period. WONDERFALLS is also popular with young men, ranking #2 in its time period among Men 18-34.

One wonders how far it could have fallen in its third week, since the decision to cancel was announced mere hours after the fourth episode aired.

I’m not necessarily criticizing Fox’s decision. It was, after all, theirs to make. I am just questioning their reasons.

*a few more clicks reveal that the current page has the same information on it.

Today’s question: What color are my eyes?

The catch is that I’m not going to show a new picture. Granted, you could look at any of the photos in the last batch. But it’s almost certain that your answer won’t match my driver’s license – only one person has ever thought my eyes are the color I think they are without being prompted (by me) to look closer. Much closer. (In case anyone doesn’t know, you fill out your own eye color and hair color on the form when you get a license.)

In other news, I dreamed that Xia was visiting and I let him make omelets while I made potatoes. I was very hungry in the dream.

Not the god-awful movie, but rather mine.

Here’s the deal: When I was born my hair was black. It never fell out. When my sister was born her hair was red. It fell out and grew back in blonde. Her hair is now dark blonde or light brown or whatever you want to call that hair-colored hair color. Mine, on the other hand, is a mystery. It got lighter as I grew up and was fairly red by my first birthday:

On the other hand, by age six or so it was dark, dark brown:

Around 16 I started obsessively dying my hair (I wonder how many pillowcases and towels were destroyed due to the combination of me and Manic Panic).

Not Manic Panic but how I looked in college (only bangs are dyed – plenty if you ask me):

I continued dying it on and off until a year or two ago. I’ve grown out a very short cut and have not dyed once. So the question is, What color is my hair? At a glance, I’m a brunette. But if you look closely at the individual hairs they are pretty damn red. And, to complicate things further, there is a blonde streak above my left eye.

A recent picture:

And now that you’ve all seen how very pretty I am, I will repeat the question because I’m sure you got distracted: What color is my hair?

Amazon.com: Wish List

Heeeeeeeeeeee.

In the interest of not driving my future husband completely mad, I thought I might post about something other than my internet trials and tribulations. (As an interesting note, I had to look up tribulations because that phrase is the only context in which I have ever heard it. Turns out the phrase is slightly redundant. That seems fitting.)

I can’t think of anything to write about, though. I could mention that I’m working out and every inch of my body hurts, but, well, I hurt too much to talk about it. I could wax poetic abut the joys of Deadwood, but it would be easier to just link to suki’s blog (AdventureWorld on the sidebar). I could discuss the latest wedding snafu (which is actually ongoing), but that might make me ill and anyway it isn’t an issue for the wedding itself and therefore possibly Not Of General Interest.

Have any of you read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? I picked it up in an airport in transit to or from my Grandfather’s funeral last September. It’s Young Adult literature, which is hit or miss, but this one is a hit. It’s being made into a movie which is either currently filming or about to start. There are four girls whose stories are told in the book, and Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia) is playing one of them (Tibby). According to imdb, Alexis Bledel is playing another. The other two, as well as a fifth girl around whom Tibby’s story centers, are actresses I am not familiar with, though one was in Real Women Have Curves, which I kind of meant to see. The imdb listing is here, though of course they are generally unreliable for unfinished movies. Anyway, my point – and I did have one – is that I really enjoyed this novel and I wondered if any of my readers had picked it up. If not, and if you are not allergic to stories about teenage girls, I do recommend it. (There is a sequel, but I am not going to read it until a trade paperback is released.)

That was nice and random, wasn’t it?

Now that I’ve written “Testing” I feel that I ought to blather on about something completely unrelated to testing. WDers have warped my brain.

Anyway. I am trying out Jamie’s suggestion of using color (rather than my old standby, grey) for my links. First I tried bolding them but it looked retarded. It seems really blue to me, but I’m opening it up for comments before I try anything else. (I might see if I can make the sidebar links a different color – probably the original grey – and leave the post links blue-grey. So that is one possibility if I don’t just keep it like this.)

Also, my FTP issues have been resolved. I was right – I fucked something up on the server end of things. They fixed it for me. The support email was rather chiding. Honestly, for their prices, do they think they have computer geniuses using their services? Or any kind of geniuses? Oh well. Fixed now.

The new version of Blogger offers new templates. I played around with one in my test blog and decided that I liked it, so I am trying it out here. I’m also trying out the Blogger-hosted comments, which is why you can no longer see comments on any old posts. (Edit: it appears that if you click on ‘Comments’ and then refresh the post page, you can leave a comment on older posts.)

If the blog looks the way you’re used to, please refresh the page.

Then leave a comment telling me what you think of the change. I haven’t decided yet, and the old template is saved in case I decide to go back to it.

Yes, this is a form of procrastination.

I have succeeded in many areas in the last few days:

• delicious pizza (so good that when Saturday’s supply was exhausted I made more)
• new blog template (see above post)
• configuring email (it sounds easy, but it wasn’t)
• getting started on getting in shape (weights, crunches, etc.)

  and

• reading stuff that isn’t on the internet (books! Remember those?)

But I am still a failure. However, I suspect that it might not be entirely my fault.

Here is the situation: I have a web host. I have SmartFTP (the free version). I uploaded some files to my server, including an image folder and the pages you can see if you go to noirbettie.com. I opened SmartFTP on Saturday and none of my files were there. They are obviously still on the server, but nowhere to be found on the FTP program. I figured I had a couple of choices: download them from the server, which I don’t know how to do; ignore them and continue adding new files; or upload them again, overwriting my previous work.

I think I chose the wrong option (the last one), because now nothing is working. Except the website itself, except that it’s showing the old versions of the pages (I modified two of them and overwrote them on FTP after re-uploading them).

I found a SmartFTP tutorial online, but it only covered getting started. So, before I got started on this folly of mine, I checked to make sure ALL of the settings were correct. They appeared to be, so I went ahead with the upload. But as I said, the files don’t seem to be going anywhere. As far as I can tell, I am not in fact overwriting the information that is already on my server, but I don’t know why. I’m looking through the forums at SmartFTP, but so far only one person has posted with a similar problem and no one has replied. I’m going to try the FutureQuest forums next.

I just want to cry because this is so not my area of expertise. Put me on Iron Chef and I’d probably be fine, but this? Hopelessly lost.

NEW INFORMATION: I have received a telephone call inviting me to go on Iron Chef.

No, hang on…that wasn’t it. But I may have figured out the problem with my FTP program, which may not have actually been the problem at all. It seems that I may have fucked up my admin permissions with my web host. I submitted a fix-it request to my host and have already received a response, though it appears to be automated (and I hope it is, since I think about three people work at this company).

Please cross your fingers that this will take care of the problem.