LAMP IN TERREN - Fantasia Album Thoughts(J-rock)

    Finally getting around to writing a post about indie band turned major label band, LAMP IN TERREN. The band has released five albums in totally. Two are indies albums and the other three were released under A-sketch. Most Japanese music rock lovers should know that A-sketch is home to some of the biggest best selling rock bands in Japan right now, like One OK Rock and Flumpool. even though this band's releases have been meet with lukewarm sales, they still manage to chart on the Oricon charts. Fantasia is their third album to date.

CD Tracklist

1. Caravan (キャラバン)
2. 地球儀(Globe)
3. 涙星群の夜(Night of the Lantern Star Group)
4. heartbeat
5. innocence
6. at (liberty)
7. pellucid
8. Off Course (オフコース)
9. 不死身と七不思議(Immortality and Seven Wonders)
10. eve

  First thing first. I love this band to shreds. When I found them for the first time, I said that they are going to be huge given the right songs and promotion strategy. They continued to impress me with their music release after release. They're not too popular yet so I have to keep a close eye on their activities to know when new music is going to be released. LAMP IN TERREN's music is an alternative rock sound that has guitars slamming hard. They can take a song, start it out calm as a spring morning them build up like a rolling storm just came in out of nowhere to interrupt the calm of that morning. The instrumentals in Fantasia as well as their other albums contain a bare nakedness that oozes the feel of a band that hasn't been touched by the mainstream market or a band that is focusing solely on selling a lot of units. I've talked about artist in my past posts who sometimes find that middle ground of creating music that meets the masses but also was made with the same artistry that got them to their place of fame. This has kind of began with LAMP IN TERREN'S music. Some producer has started giving his input about their music choices as could be seen with a few of the track selections for Fantasia. Pop rock doesn't fit their lead singer's voice…. The mixture of his powerful raspy voice isn't meant to be accompanied by a pop sound. I listened to it and noticed right away that it didn't balance itself out well. The vocals are too unfiltered to be used in that way to sell more albums. It scares me because I don't want this band to sell their soul to the mainstream devil. Artists need to sell but don't become a robot in the process. Too many artists have been eaten alive by that idea of being mainstream. These artists probably listen to their own songs and don't even recognize their own music anymore. Fantasia does manage to snap back in time to save the album before it falls over the edge. These guys are clearly experimenting with new sounds while leaving what their fanbase loves about their music. Heartbeat was a single that was only available at their live shows, making it hard for most people to get their hands on the song until Fantasia hit stores. Its a good track that mixes alternative rock with a hint of keyboard pop. Innocence was the major single for this album that left no disappointment from me. Its a normal garage rock song that normally comes from this band. They do show that they are growing with every single though. From the middle of the album to the end are the biggest highlights if your a fan of LAMP IN TERREN previously. Fantasia's opening track also gets the blood flowing too.

   Hiroshi is one of the best frontmen that a band could ask for. He's good at guitar and that VOICE! That voice can shake a whole stage when unleashed at full power. this guy can belt some seriously strong notes. Not only can he do this but he can also hold them for a long time. Also when he really gets into singing, his voice has this growl to it that adds more rawness to LAMP IN TERREN'S music.

  My biggest fault with Fantasia was that I hated the covers and concept photos. Hiroshi in that scarf wrap hoodie makes me think I'm looking at a poster for a live action film based on a manga. I just can't take it seriously… Using some kind of artwork with the WHOLE band would have been a better  cover to me.

Tunnel(터널) Korean Film Thoughts(2016)

 

   Tunnel is a 2016 fim directed by Kim Sung-hoon(A Hard Day) and stars Ha Jung Woo, Bae Doo Na as the lead roles. Veteran actors, Oh Dal-Su and Shin Hung Keun also join the cast in costarring roles. The film's screenplay is based off the novel of the same name written by So Jae Won in 2013.

  A man is on his way to celebrate his daughter's birthday when the tunnel he's traveling through collapses…..

   Every time I say the title "Tunnel", I want to add "The" in front of "Tunnel" for some reason. It sounds more dramatic to say "THE TUNNEL!"in a booming deep voice.  The Tunnel, I mean- Tunnel has a disaster plot that puts one in mind of other Korean films such as The Terror Live or The Tower. Actor Ha Jung Woo stared in The Terror live too so that makes me wonder if the director saw his performance in that and asked him to do this role. His character is pretty much in the same position as in The Terror Live. Trapped in one place for the duration of the film. Things like perseverance and humanism are big core values that support Tunnel's story progression. I honestly though that I would see a victim trapped in one place unable to move while people scrabbled to get him free from the outside for the whole film. The plot instead gives the character instinct to to move around his surroundings. The fact that he survived the tunnel's collapse is in itself a miracle. A lot of other events that happen in this film surprised me as well. There's comunication connection from the tunnel to the outside world for awhile. Then there's only one way contact that throws the hopeful happy conclusion that plot was constructing into disarray. Much of the faults that lay in the South Korean place and government are exposed because of the lack of people stepping in to help until the last minute. I starting gritting my teeth when I experience a person reporting to the police that they are trapped in a collapsed tunnel only to have the police go through the notions of a routine citizen report call. HE JUST TOLD YOU HE'S IN A COLLAPSED TUNNEL! GET YOUR ASSES OUT THERE! The incident didn't even become nation wide news until they went to the scene. When it became a top story, people were more concerned with getting a new scoop or making themselves look good. Meanwhile the poor guy is in there with a birthday cake and two bottles of water. His wife comes into the picture but its not much she can do. Being hopeful that the rescue crew would save her husband was all she could do. That got crushed by all the sorry people involved who couldn't do their jobs correctly. If it wasn't for one man on the rescue crew that had a sense of justice to save lives and Ha Jung Woo's strong will to live, Tunnel would have been a morbid film.

   Ha Jung Woo shines in this role that was such a perfect fit for him. I've always loved Jung Woo as an actor because he gives off a great positivity in all the roles he plays. Even the villains he has played have a witty trait that makes viewers say, "THATS OUR HA JUNG WOO!" His character was so positive considering the position he was in. Most people in that situation would have freaked out. Maybe even died of a heart attack from the shock of being buried alive like that. Ha Jung Woo's character just waited. He did what he had to do to save the resources he needed to survive. He just kept pushing to stay alive no matter the troubles that he faced down in that tunnel. Believe me, He faced problems down there that would make anyone's heart sink to their stomach. Bae Doo Na is one of those actresses that you wouldn't notice if you passed her in a sea of people of the street. She  's an actress that you can't take your eyes off when she's on screen though. Its not her looks so much as her weird charm. There's this thing about her that can't be put into words that makes her talent unreal. I've seen her in role after role over the years and she continues to empress me in the way she approaches roles. She plays a grief stricken wife who is torn between saving her husband and being influenced by the people around her. Her character wasn't an aggressive women at all. I know its Korean culture to sometimes be passive aggressive. However, you don't have time to be passive aggressive when your husband is stuck in a collapsed tunnel while the workers who are supposed to be rescuing him are taking their own good time. They had no problem running to the table to eat the food she was cooking. Some of her character's choices frustrated me in the film too. Veteran actor Oh Dal Su still plays odd costar roles. He's been doing so for as long as I can remember. His character is the only character that uses any common sense. Greed doesn't cloud his objective to save the victim trapped in the tunnel. I felt for his character as I watched the film. Almost as much as a felt for Ha Jung Woo's character. He was trying to do the right thing but people kept adding their own agenda which slowed down the rescue. Most of the conflicts stem from the humans in this film besides the tunnel itself collapsing. It didn't make any sense.

    Filming seemed to have taken place in the mountains. I don't know the exact location but it was filled with forests for as far as the eye could see. The scenes in the tunnel were done with half CGI effects and shot on location. The effects looked so real that I started to scream when the tunnel was collapsing… Love when films make you the viewer get invested. The aftermath of the tunnel looks to be a set. The camera focuses on pinpointing different angles so the viewer can see how small the space he was in was. The outside scenes are shot from about for landscape view. To do this the director utilized the use of a drone to capture all the mountains and trees. The final scene of this film was a powerful one thanks to the way it was shot from above. Great film to watch if you like nature landscapes.

  Tunnel was a good film. I had no doubt in my mind that this film wasn't going to be bad. Great cast and script that keeps being attractive till the  credits roll. How could you not add this film to your Korean disaster film collection?

 

Ai Otsuka(大塚愛) - Love Honey Album Thoughts(J-pop)

 

CD Tracklist

1. HONEY
2. 私 (I)
3. QueeN
4. TOKYO散歩 (Tokyo Stroll)
5. サクラハラハラ(Fluttering Cherry Blossoms)
6. HEART BREAK
7. Monochrome (モノクロ)
8. make up
9. FrogFlag
10. HEY!BEAR
11. Starting Pistol (スターターピストル)
12. 日々、生きていれば(Everyday, As Long As I Live)

   Love Honey is Ai Otsuka's Eight album to be released in Japan. The era of 2000 - 2008 was Otsuka's time of huge success in Japan. She then to a long break from music to give birth to a child. This might have been one of the worst choices she could have made in terms of her music career. In 2014, she was met with moderate success when her new album Love Fantastic hit stores. The album only sold a couple thousand units and was her first to not debut in the top twenty on the Oricon Charts. Otsuka chose not to take this time of a huge decline in sales as a totally lost. Choosing to experiment with her sound in the surprising release of album, Love Tricky.  Love Honey also showcases Otsuka in her most artistic form. The album's music feels like Otsuka has control of what her music is to be. I hear a more solid foundation in pop sound. Watashi(means "I" in Japanese.) is mature with its resonate violin solos paired with a digital trance pop style. Heartbreak revives the era when she sang melodic ballads that didn't lack lyrical depth or influence on the listener. I was actually surprised that she brought back this style with her and an acoustic guitar brought in at the chorus after a calming sequence of pop beats. A maturity is here that feels natural. Having a child must have really changed her outlook on music. Honey's cuteness is fun to listen to in a non annoying way. I'm not a fan of squeaky voice  Japanese singers but I like Ai Otsuka's music. Honey has her go into the high range in her voice to be use effectively. She's effortless at being mature was a cute edge. Was Frogflag even sung by Otsuka Ai?? One thing I always noticed about Otsuka is that she sounds very different when she sings Jazz. Its like a middle aged women comes out of her and her voice gets more vibrant. That cute high voice listeners are used to disappears somewhere during this time….. Other tracks such as Queen and make up are inspiration from Love Tricky that didn't make the album. Power Pop tracks that raise her appeal at turning new styles into music that fits her as a musician. HeyBear can be easily forgotten because of all these great tracks. You know her lable had to put one track on here that reminded me why I didn't like every song Otsuka came out with in the past. I will say that I enjoyed more songs on Love Honey than I did any of her older albums.

   Otsuka isn't the best singer in Japan. I wouldn't even list her name if I had to create a list of I thought the best vocalists in Japan were. Ok, I might list her name but it wouldn't be the first name that I would write down. Her voice does have a tonality to it that connect with listeners. Voices like her are also like the face of female singers Japan at one point. Well, that was until Japan realized that mature voices are also attractive. I'm a big fan of her's when she sings songs that fit her voice while not getting too typical in making her voice fit into that stereotypical cute category box. Older tracks in her discography, for example, Planetarium, Kingyo Hanabi(Gold Fishfireworks), and Cherish are all my favorite works by Otsuka. These tracks are her vocals at their best. She has a special charm that makes you like her music. Something that a lot of singers wish they had but just don't. Love Honey brings out the times when her vocals sound the best once again. She's experimenting with different methods of singing and It makes for a more variety in vocal. Producers keep using the backup singers from her older albums the accompany Otsuka during Honey and Heartbreak. I've never heard such a interesting kind of harmony that this women's music seems to have with her backup vocalists. It's almost like her voice is prerecorded then copied a couple times to be used together in the harmony.

  Otsuka Ai's Love Honey is one of her best albums if not the best. I get excited seeing all these female artists getting more artsy with their music after child birth. Hikaru Utada did it effectively with her latest album and Otsuka is following suit.

Shelter Korean American Novel Thoughts

    Shelter was written by Jung Yun, A writer who born in South Korea and grew up in North Dakota. She was educated at Vassar College, the university of Pennsylvania, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her works have gotten her two Artist Fellowship awards from the Massachusetts Cultural council. Jung currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her husband.

  This novel contains a strong plot based on family. It's pages make you think what does int take to keep a family together even when the connection that binds each family member together is about to break. The plot unforgivingly sets the picture of a man named Kyung who is having financial problems with his family of three. He has a wife and they have one son together. They are trying everything they can to get out of debt but then a horrid event befalls Kyung's mother, father, and their maid. Soon they are all living under the same roof, forcing Kyung to face the scars inflicted by his parents that never healed. Jung's writing gives a first person look into what its like to be a Korean American man that came from an abusive home. Kyung's character is a man who takes on the role as father, husband, and son without being emotionally connected to these roles. He fills these roles because they need to be filled more than the fact that he desires to be active in these roles. The only thing he seems emotionally connected to is his parents. Its not for good reasons either. His scars caused by his past greatly effect the way he treats his family or maybe even every single person he comes in contact with. Shelter's plot is like a boiling pot that bubbles over with each turn of the page. Tensions run high with each character interaction. What hurts someone the most is what is left unsaid. Loved ones stay in wait for someone they hold dear to reach out to them. Just listening can be enough to put a person's mind at ease. Isn't that also family? Having people who are not only related but people that you can also confide in and lean on. The biggest conflict in this novel is that none of the characters truly have this essence of what it means to be a family. They tried their hardest to cover up their emotional scars only to have tragedy reveal them again. Plot elements such as this make Shelter very interesting. A reader will want to know which character will snap first as the pages keep turning. One thing is for sure, once you snap, there's no turning back.

  While the plot is based heavily on Kyung's inner thoughts, these thoughts also open up a chance to experience the stereotypes and other hardships Kyung faces as a Korean American. He doesn't speak Korean at all. His parents also don't speak Korean to him causing him to not have a solid connection to his parent's motherland. Many Korean Americans don't know Korean from my experience and if they do know how to speak the language, its not completely fluent. Kyung also married outside of the Korean race which is a big no in Korean traditional customs. Now you know that Kyung's child is biracial and he doesn't know how to love his child like a father should because he never learned. He can't even teach his child about his Korean roots thanks to the lack of his parents teaching him. Readers who actually pay attention to the stereotypes the minority races face should know a few off the top of your head that Asian Americans face. For example, All of them are Chinese or they have no masculinity since the media tells us that they can only be weak nerdy men.(unless you want to talk about the stereotypical martial arts roles.) Yun makes reference to this in the first few pages of Shelter then she brings the truthful negative ideas of an Asian man marrying a White women to light close to the novel's conclusion. Many white families still can't imagine their daughter bringing home an Asian guy.(We talking white girls that are not obsessed with Korean pop music.) Especially in these times when Trump supporters feel the need to tell a person to go back to their own country. Last time I checked, The race that America truly belongs to was the Indians. Also note that I said the word "many" not "all". I'm aware that Asian men marry White women and are on good terms with her side of the family. Love can be colorblind like that. I connected to the introduction of Korean church culture that was presented in Shelter too. I'm an African American(black) guy who is majoring in East Asian studies so I've taken five years of Korean language study. When I first started taking my study of Korean seriously, I attended a Korean church for three years just for one on one Korean lessons.(No, they weren't free if thats what you're thinking.) Situations that were described in Shelter's pages reflected a lot of what I experienced during my time attending a Korean church. Only difference is that I'm a black guy that somewhat was outcasted but I kept coming to service because I was determined to learn Korean. The people were generally nice to me but I noticed the way things worked around there. Women got into groups and would smile in your face the first minute then turn around and talk about you behind your back the next minute. One women pulled me in a room one time to give me a scarf that she made for me for christmas. When I asked her in Korean why she couldn't give the scarf to me in front of everyone else, she said " They would talk about me and I don't want that.". Reading about the way Kyung viewed the church his father belonged to brought back memories for me. Kyung's mother and father are typical Korean family that moved from South Korea to the American dream. I couldn't bear too much of their behavior. They made me cringe because Kyung was the actually victim in all of this but he's not helped by his parents in the slightest. Both of them were lost causes that didn't deserve to have a child. Kyung's wife was caught in the whirlwind which was Kyung's family. She tries to fit into the image of a perfect Korean family for Kyung's parents. Doesn't work out too well though. Her side of the family makes matters worse as well. This family situation can't get anymore dysfunctional and it makes for a nail bitting read.

  I picked up Shelter at one of my local Barnes and Nobles on a whim. Didn't think the pages would hook me like they did. Jung Yun is an author to keep on the look out for.

Another Oh Hae Young(또 오해영) Korean Drama Thoughts

  Everyone should know by now that I'm a Shinhwa fan so its natural that I would watch Another Oh Hae Young eventually. I also remember writing in a post that Eric was my favorite member of the group back when I had biases. The excited Shinhwa fan that I am, I dove right into this drama. I hadn't seen Eric Mun in any dramas since Super Rookie, a drama that I watched a LONG time ago.  Another Oh Hae Young was directed by Song Hyun Wook and written by Park Hye Young. Eric Mun and Seo Hyun Jin fill the lead roles while actors and actresses Jeon Hyu Bin, Ye Ji Won, Kim Ji Suk, and Lee Jae Yoon were casted in costar roles. The drama lasted for eighteen episodes during its original airtime last year.

   Two women by the same name have know each other since their school days. One girl is was know as the plain Oh Have Young and the other was the Pretty Oh Hae Young. This caused the plain Oh Have Young to resent her more pretty counterpart to the point that the scars she experienced from her presence run deep. She never lets the hard ships of life get her down though. She later runs into Pretty  Oh Have Young years later when they both are hired to work at the same company. Both women have had their share of hardships dealing with love. One's wedding was called off and the other left her husband to be waiting at the alter. These two men will connect the women together in more ways than than they both could imagine when plain Oh Hae Young began to fall for Pretty Oh Hae Young's ex husband to be.

  I don't know what i was expecting when I started watching Oh Hae Young. Eric being in this drama was enough to get me to watch but other than that nothing motivated me to watch this drama. Two women with the same name who couldn't be any different was a good plot starter for this drama. You guys know I'm a sucker for those under dog stories where the character isn't given high praise by others but still keeps cheerfully living anyway. For the first few episodes, I was interested in the lives of the two Oh Hae Youngs. Then there was the chance that they would meet again. A driving conflict that keeps you watching the next episode. After that interest dies, your left with a relationship thats trying to form between to people but both people have emotional baggage. They don't talk their problems out like they should. Instead they have emotional fits that make both of them look like they need to be checked into a mental ward. Everything about this couple was like an emotional game of tug of war that I was watching but my mind stopped taking in what I was seeing. I think I also stopped looking at the screen during a few later episodes.  Matters only get worse when other actions behind the scenes explain a lot of what happened to Oh Hae Young's plans for marriage. This section of the drama made my come out of my mindless state long enough to see plain Oh Hae Young became bitch on heels. I really enjoyed seeing her character be mad at the world. She was not there for anyone's foolery. Not even her supposed love interest. The side character stories were fun to a certain extent. Their relationships had too much clowning in them for me to take them seriously. Only one of the relationships made me invest my heart into their progress thanks to certain conflicts. Eric's character had a loop hole in his background story that I really needed to be informed about. It bugged me so a lot while I was watching…. I don't want to give away a spoiler so lets say he had traits that needed to be explained. Some Korean drama scriptwriters seem to forget the four basic story starter questions, Who, What, When, and Why when they write these scripts. You can't have a fantasy element in your script and don't explain when or how the character got this ability. This simple lack of storytelling made Oh Hae Young's plot collapse for me but thats not all. Fun fact about this drama is that the plot was suppose to span only sixteen episodes. Two more episodes were added for some reason. I could tell that the drama desperately wanted to end at episode sixteen. Most conflicts had been resolved except for the ones that the the scriptwriter prolonged. Two more episodes of Oh Hae Young weren't needed because it didn't expand on the plot we already had to make the story better. The ending was good however the process to get to this ending was not solid. In fact, it was some of the messiest transitions in a script that I had ever seen. There was no doubt that the script was being edited on while the dram was being filmed. Some of the  ways that a select few conflicts were resolved weren't satisfying enough. The writer took the easy way out instead of letting things get really interesting for the characters. Seeing their love survive at the end would have been much more rewarding. I didn't even feel anything for the last attempt at a cliffhanger in episode eighteen. The plot tried to pull it off but the result gave off a cheesy feel like this was only made to get the drama to the ending. The final scene felt tacked on too. I miss the time when Korean dramas had solid scripts that keep the viewer engaged all the way up to the final episode. Each episode made you want to watch more not make you FORCE yourself to watch more. There's still good Korean dramas out there. These half assed ones give them a bad name sadly. Korea, DO BETTER.

   I feel myself tired thinking about the characters of Oh Hae young. Plain Oh Hae Young was my ideal kind of Korean drama female lead. Yes, she can be very annoying at times but she has a strong will to be independent. Hye Young fills the shoes of her character well. She's funny, outlandish, and cute. Sometimes she's very vulnerable as well. These moments are usually kept to herself behind closed doors. Think that hyper active friend that's there when you're feeling down. She takes you out to eat and you guys hang out until you feel better about yourself. Being around her becomes emotionally draining after awhile so then you head back home. Korean drama needs even more head strong women who don't get pushed around by male characters. Eric Mun's character is the cool collected kind of guy who doesn't let what he's thinking slip too easily. If he does, you must really mean a lot to him. He loses his composure constantly during the later half of the drama. Its painful to watch each and every time that he does. Eric comes across as chill and a little quit in real life so this role wasn't too much for him to handle. Oh Hae Young's main lead is very different from Super Rookie's and that role might have been harder for him since it was a departure from his real personality. the costars might as well put on clown suits because they are responsible for the half of the comedy that Oh Hae Young herself isn't doing. They have funny moments that I laughed at and the couple that was always speaking french was adorable. Their antics did make it hard to take their relationships seriously. Lee Jae Yoon's character got barely any love at all in this drama. His character was just a body of negative emotions. I wanted the script to use his character more to help create a plot that hadn't been seen yet. He was present as a villain of sorts but the character would go off camera constantly. This caused him to lose his intensity as a character for me. The script writer didn't write his character with a strong enough ambition to be a calculating third wheel character either. Same problem with Pretty Oh Hae Young. She's a life sized doll that doesn't do much except be pretty. Some attractive people believe that everything will work in their favor. Sorry, looks don't buy love all the time nor do looks last forever. We all have to grow old someday. Better work on having a good personality.

   Locations shown in Another Oh Hae Young must remind Korean viewers of a day in the life of a working class person in Seoul. Oh Hae Young walks down the streets of Seoul and rides the bus at certain times. She works at a company that contains normal looking office space. Her living routine   rotates back and forth between her parents home and a place she rents out. The camera makes all these places feel familiar to all viewers no matter what racial background your from. They do this by simply having the camera following Hae Young from different angles. The angles used in her home center around making the setting feel as personal as possible. Nothing here is different from other dramas honestly.

   Another Oh Hae Young is "another"(like that pun?) drama that starts with a promising storyline then falls flat toward the middle leading to the conclusion of the drama. K drama fans are coming to the daunting realization now that dramas aren't as good as they used. I'm talking going from a time that every drama coming out of South Korea was good to having a few good gems in a sea of flops. I would also like to note that this new era greatly affects people who have watched K dramas for years compared to a person who just started watching Korean drama yesterday. Our experiences and opinions will not be the same.

Base Ball Bear(ベースボールベアー) Light Source(光源) Album Thoughts(J-Pop/Rock)

 

Tracklist

1. すべては君のせいで
2. 逆バタフライ・エフェクト
3. Low way
4. (LIKE A)TRANSFER GIRL
5. 寛解
6. SHINE
7. リアリティーズ
8. Darling

    Base Ball Bear and I have sort of a long history together. It all first started when I found their music video for Change on youtube by chance. Kind of the way you come across all good music East Asian music if your not Asian. This band interested me because their conventional system the band was run with. The band was named Base Ball Bear for gosh sake and their music was catchy but the vocals didn't fit the typical norm of the Japanese music I had already heard at the time.  Then I started listening to their albums one by one. I tried to keep up with their releases through the years until other music interests made me forget about them completely. I saw they released a new album thanks to the Oricon Chart's monthly listing. When I saw them on there, I was both  excited and sad at the same time because I hadn't been checking for their music. We're talking about on of the bands that got me to a happy place when I was feeling lost or disappointed….. but hey. At lest I'm here talking about them now, right?

   Light Source or Kougen is Base Ball Bear's eighth album to date. I'm a bigger fan of them during their Changes to Short Hair era. In fact, I might say that these two songs are my top two favorite tracks by them. Stairway Generation comes in a close third. Base Ball Bear is well known for their pop rock tunes that get caught in the confines on a person's mind for days. Their sound is pop that you can dance to while adding in a hint of rock edge. Kougen is a little more mainstream pop than the last time I've heard one of their albums. They had a definite change in music style to accommodate the new generation of listeners in Japan's society. Even so, the album doesn't throw away the band's away completely. Base Ball Bear's lyrics still are like paint that hit a blank canvas. Each color paint meets the white canvas, combining with each other to form a painting. The lyrics convey the emotions that connect people to each other as well as the effect these emotions have on the being of each person.  From the first track to the third track had fragments that reminds me of the Base Ball Bear that i used to listen to as a teenager. Kougen is just Base Ball Bear molding a solid version of their pop rock sound that they were still redefining with the release of each album in the past. The keyboard synchronizes playing normally and adding a digital pop effect on Base Ball Bears songs while the lead guitar and bassist play with precise proficiency. Drums are the part that has enough skill to pull these other parts together as a main sound. Now, you just have to add a more pop mainstream melody and you have the album Kougen. It took me a while to warm up to this album because I felt it was a little too mainstream sounding for my tastes. Kougen is good enough to not be overlooked though. Those guitar solos will also not let this album be passed by without being given a listen at least once.

Base Ball Bear during their Change Era

  Yusuke always sounded like a vocalist that joined Base Ball Bear never learning how to sing properly to me. Thats why I said in the beginning of this post that their vocals weren't typical to other bands I had heard at the time. He has improved over the years. He sings out more with a full voice and his falsetto notes are way more stable than they used to be. Shiori sings backup vocals and plays bass. I love when they sing together. The contrast of female and male vocals makes their songs stand out to me. If you listen closely during their songs, you can hear her voice singing right behind Yusuke's.

   Kougen isn't a flop but it could have been. I don't like this album as much as I liked their older music. However, the album isn't bad at all.

Swim!( 男水！) Japanese Drama Thoughts

  Swim or Dansui if you want to know how to say the word swim in Japanese but can't read the language, is a 2017 Japanese drama that lasted for eight episodes. The drama is based off of a webtoon by the same name created by Kiuchi Tatsuya.  Most manga and anime lovers will look at this drama then automatically think that its a live action version of the mega popular anime entitled Free!. I know I thought thats what it was when I first saw the promo poster. Got way too excited there only to be disappointed when I started watching. This defiantly isn't Free! but its a good substitute  for fans that miss Free! or want something different using the same sport orientated themes as Free!.

  Dansui isn't a drama that takes the viewer on a journey of youths trying to win a lot of competitions to be the best. This dramas focus is more on gaining the resolve to have the energy to take the next step to want to be better. I'n not going to write a plot section for this drama post because the central conflict is very similar to Free. Friends who have dreams to swim together at the same school, soon to be destroyed by a difference in ambition between the friends. One friend had the strength to keep chasing after his ambition while the others are left behind to wade in the water… I might mean that literally[INSERT ME LAUGHING]. Each episode is met with a catchy theme song and a hell of a lot of male testosterone. Testosterone from losers who love to swim but have no ambition whatsoever. Its a little disheartening to watch a plot line about good looking boys who just don't want to be better. Everything is "You did well," even though their times for swimming laps sucked to high heaven. Nothing else really happens in this drama besides this team getting whipped into tip top shape so they can one day be in a tournament and give the teams a little competition. A half and hour is the time span of each episode, making Dansui a quick watch if you marathon it. I felt like I was in the presence of real friends every time I watched. The characters defiantly make the show lively especially if you're not into sports.

  Dansui doesn't have a female character either just like Free!, but there's always a feminine male character thats like the mother who looks out for everyone. This character is basically a female in every way. From the cute face down to the personality traits only its a guy. The coach that comes to take over the swim team is the character that really opens their eyes to their lazy behavior to not want to be better. Only a history filled with hurt could make a person not want to try to give an effort to be better than they are now. Danseur's main characters are a great example of this. They give every excuse in the book to not try harder in an attempt to guard themselves from the hurt and humiliation they might face in defeat. To me, the worse way to lose is not trying at all. Never give up before you try because you lose out on the opportunity to grow no matter if the end result is good or bad. Each actor conveyed this in their performances. They played characters that had to gain confidence to climb to the spot where the other team, containing the main character's ex best friend waited. During their struggle to be better, these boys laughed, cried, and swam. I laughed a lot at the antics of the team when they were together. It was like watching a family constantly throw friendly shade at each other. Since all the cast is good looking enough that they could be in a Johnny's boyband, I think a lot of girls will like the drama for the eye candy as an added bonus. All of them are pretty new actors too.

  The camera did a great job capturing these boy's swimming scenes. A huge chunk of the drama takes place at the pool. Hey. Its a swimming drama, What do you expect? The camera focused on highlighting the action of swimming in a real fashion. However it was still stylish in the way that some shots felt like you were watching a real life swimming match. Some shots are done close up to the pool while others are done far away in equivalent to what a person who was sitting in the stands would see if they were watching the boys swim. Other shots on location use their classroom(clubroom?) and the showers/locker room. Have to take showers after swimming in all that calorie. We all know the actually truth is these scenes are for the girls who want to see the goods…. Is it me or did I just see the rating of this show shoot up?! Outside of school, the boys are shown going home in the streets as well as that same old scenery of the riverbank. Japanese dramas/movies love that damn riverbank.

   Don't watch this drama expecting it to have a solid ending. I think that ether a second season will be made or this drama was solely made to show the process of getting to those nail bitting tournaments.(I know there was a stage play.) Its a cute show that shouldn't be compared to Free!. HAPPY WATCHING!

The Age of Shadows(밀정) Korean Film Thoughts

    The Age of Shadows was directed by Kim Jee Soon who is well know for being a director that has done a wide range of genre of films. Actors Song Kang ho and Gong Yoo star in the film with a special appearance by popular actor Lee Byung Hun. The film was chosen as South Korea's selection in the 89th Academy Awards but wasn't nominated in the category for best foreign film. The film's release in South Korea was met with great success. It topped the film box office for three weeks straight.

  A Korean gang of rebellions try to survive in the time that Japan invaded South Korea. Lines have already been drawn between Japan and Korea but these brave souls try to create a resistance.

  Nothing about The Age of Shadows interested me in terms of storyline at first. I watched the first teaser trailer when the film was being released in Korea and it looked like all the other films that deal with Japan combined with Korea's history. Assignation was the last straw in a line of other "western" themed Korean films for me. I just wasn't excited for this film at all. Then I watched the film and the plot plays out well but not anything that Korean film watchers haven't seen before. The group of people in the resistance against Japan are smart yet emotionally geared toward saving face as Koreans.On the other hand, the plot focuses mainly on the Koreans who joined the Japanese side to stay alive. Saving face is the last thing these people are thinking about. They just want to live to see another day. Even though some of them are helping their fellow Koreans in secret. Watching the characters weave around the Japanese rule without being caught was an interesting experience. Conflict sets in when the Japanese gets wind of the happenings behind the scenes. Of course, its in human nature to not go down without a fight. The gun fights or action scenes were right up there on the same level of Assignation but more visually graphic. The film can be visually graphic in a violent nature that isn't recommend to be seen by people who can't handle gore. What was with this film and human toes? Little spoiler there… Don't worry though. This doesn't give away much. Back to the plot, The Age of Shadow's kind storytelling begs to stay true to reality. You don't get a process of storytelling that goes easy on viewers. Instead everything is a harsh cruel reality that won't insult Korean viewers. They know of the history that the people during that time went through. Harsh might be an under statement in fact. The story is still unoriginal to me but I could make it through the film because it was created to be an exciting watching experience.

  The shots were done on location of a set. I've watched so many historical Korean films that I could tell right away that it was a man built set. Obvious effort was put into making the sets look real. From the dirt roads tot he traditional foundation the houses were built on. Other than that, the film takes a drastic shift in location. More than a few scenes are spent on the train that was more beautiful than the set. The inside of the train was most likely a set too. You guys know how films make fake locations look real. The forest scenes looked like the same forest that been in every other Korean film. Same for the mansion and jail scenes. Been there, done that. Good job to the camera man for making the gun fights look as stylish as possible.

  The acting for everyone consisted of dead give away roles. These roles didn't challenge any of the leading cast and I'm sure the director picked each actor based on the projects they worked on before. I only watched this film for the cast. Gong Yoo and Kang Ho was popular enough to pull in a decent audience just based on popularity. Both actors bring a ernest substance to their characters to display characters that would never give up pride in their country or race. I noticed that the film chooses to highlight the violence more than the performances however. Acting ability is needed to make shooting another person believable too.. All the costars did well holding their end of the performances with the veteran actors.(Gong Yoo isn't quite a veteran yet but he will be in the years to come.) Never felt so much conviction from actors playing the villains. They got into those roles by wearing them like a second skin. I only expect the best from actors that work with Kim Jee Soon and Song Kang Ho.

  The Age of Shadows is a film geared toward people who like action. Gun fight to more specific. I liked the film but didn't love it. If you haven't seen a lot of Korean films then you might like the film more than I did.

****PLEASE NOTE: THIS FILM CAN BE VERY GRAPHIC. DO NOT WATCH IF YOU'RE UNDER AGE. THANK YOU.****