Train to Busan: PENINSULA(반도) Korean Film Thoughts

 

   Train to Busan is a 2016 South Korean film that became a smash hit overnight worldwide. This was mostly due to South Korean never actually exploring the theme of zombies in their stories. The film gave solid inspiration for other zombie related stories to be made such as Rampant, Nexflix's series Kingdom,(base off the webtoon) and the more recent Alive. There was an announcement some months ago that director Yeon Sang Ho would be creating another Train to Busan film for 2020. It's cast was to feature popular actor Gang Dong Won along side costars, Lee Jung Hyun, child actress Lee Re, and more. Despite the mix reviews, Peninsula also became a huge success in many countries.  

   An Army Solder tries to survive a zombie filled world four years after the events in Train to Busan. He returns to the Korean Peninsula to find riches with a group of people. They don't know if there's still survivors or if the undead lay in wait for them.....

    I was one of the people who was excited for Peninsula as a fan of the original film. So I waited to get my hands on a copy of the film as everything started happening with the pandemic as the film opened. When I finally got a copy, I waited a few days to get myself in the mind frame to see this world again since I wasn't prepared for the emotional ride that Train to Busan took me on four years ago. Peninsula opens up somewhat like Train to Busan did only we all know that the world will never be what it was. After the few opening scenes, things start to go downhill slowly. Maybe it was a bit faster than I could see because I wanted to hold on to hope that this film would be as good as it's leader. Instead, the film takes on weak story telling to throw these character's into an apocalyptic world which doesn't make much sense in reality. You're going to risk your life for money that you probably won't get to spend because you'll be a mindless ass zombie like all those other people out there. I would have said no thank you to this proposal. What made Train to Busan such a powerful film was the instinct to survive while protecting your loved ones in a confined place like a train. Peninsula would have done well to stick to the same formula instead of trying to give viewers an open world that one of us asked for. A boat makes an appearance in the opening scenes and that could have been the setting for the whole film had Park Joon Suk and Yeon written this story with a bit more though. Even the zombies seem so uninspired to get run over multiple times by moving vehicles - You see them get run over so much that all I could do was stare at the screen blank face. I would say that the zombies an after thought as the human fight among themselves. Then they get thrown back in just to remind us that their still there. Zombies normally don't behave like this. You don't get time to pop in and out of the picture. I did like that Yeon kept the idea that the Zombies can't see in the dark though. Two golden moments of Peninsula are the beginning and the few scenes leading up to the ending. Everything else felt hollower than the pavement the zombies wondered around on in the city. 

     Gang Dong Won has always been one of my favorite South Korean actors. Over the years he has shown that he is capable of playing a wide range of roles. Plus he has the looks to top it all off. However, this performance right here was not it. I might even say it's one of the worse of his whole career. Peninsula's opening gives you context into his character which I loved because it had Train to Busan's original vibe but these attempts still couldn't stop his character from being very hollow throughout. All the performances were like this. Each and every one. I felt nothing when people died in this film. I wasn't too invested in them because they gave me no connection to true humanity. Unlike the film before, who's characters's relationships helped drive the plot to an emotional overload. Peninsula gives nothing heart wrenching till you get to the second to the last scene where the best acting in the whole entire film takes place. Someone needs to explain to me why this sort of emotional connect took the whole film to get to when it should have been intergraded into the film from start to finish. The little girl's final line that closes out the film must have been meant to be emotional but she sounded stupid. Compare this girl's ignorant comment to the experience of the child and pregnant wife in the first film who gave all they could to flee to safety four years before while this girl is sitting up there saying that same world wasn't so bad. Way to miss the mark that was set by such a powerful ending in the original Train to Busan. 

   Yeon Sang Ho should have left Train to Busan alone after Seoul Station. No, he had to go on thinking that he could cash in more by making this awful spin off film. Peninsula is not a sequel to Train to Busan just let everyone know. It's set in the same world but that's the only connection. That alone might be one connection too many. 

Fukuyama Masaharu(福山雅治) - AKIRA Album Thoughts(J-pop/rock)

 

    Fukuyama Masaharu has been a defining force in the Japanese music industry for decades. His career started in the eighties to a failed singing career as none of his releases charted on the Oricon Charts despite his boyish good looks. He would soon finally break through thanks to one of his songs being used for a popular drama. This slingshot his career for many years all the way to the present. Fuku is one of the kings of number one albums and now. he's celebrating his 30th anniversary with his new album titled Akira: the singer's first since 2015. I forgot to mention his acting career but I believe more people abroad know him for his films than as a mega popular singer. It's Only Love is still one of my chill out songs when I listen to Japanese music. I wasn't even alive when the song was on the airwaves..... 

    Akira actually sort of surprised me a tiny bit. I might be saying that I wasn't expecting Fuku to return shouting that he still had something to prove to the masses however, he sure did in his new effort. Fuku seems that he knows what time is his as an ever aging artists in a country who's music industry is ever so changing. Younger listeners as born every year and if you can't prove that you're worth the attention, your sales will start to fall quicker than Godzilla fell into the Tokyo bay. Mika Nakashima's recent two album sales were awful...... Fuku, being the very well seasoned producer that he is, seemed to have put his whole foot into smashing down Akira's setlist. The album is a pop rock party most of the way through it's seventeen tracks(Yeah.... you read that right.) till you really focus in on all the production that composes these songs. Fuku loves switching into three or four core sounds which are Jazz, Rock, and pop. There's also a country undertone to some of his music. This being said, Akira doesn't offer much new growth into what Fuku has become over the years he was only acting. He instead gives listeners track after track of big choruses that fly into your speakers slickly. Horns make appearances off and on in the instrumentals while he strums his guitar. Bold sounds then come in as he adds a whole drum section that sounds like the marching band was marching in the studio. Cow bells are in his music too for those people who like a country twang. I sure like it when Fuku slides it in his music. My problems while enjoying Akira came from the length. Seventeen tracks is enough to tire out any album after a time. Fuku is talanted enough to give you an interesting listening experience but even he can't create a long album without sounding the same on one or two tracks. I still really loved the album even if around the middle things get tiresome. Tracks like Popstar keep Fuku sounding youthful in a ever-changing younger generational Japanese listener's eyes.  

   Akira has Fuku giving the best vocal performances he has in years. He came here to remind everyone why people call him Japan's answer to Bon Jovi. I was kinda of disappointed that not shredding guitar were in this album like his last album Human. FIGHTING POSE's guitar solo alone knocked all us the hell out with his technicality brought to the forefront in a playful edge. The technicality is still apparent in his new album but he seems to have tamed the wild child quite a bit. I was waiting for a song where he unleashed his wild child only for it to never come. 

   Fukuyama Masaharu came back to his fans full force. There's no doubt in my mind that the masses will love his new album. He's so wildly loved in Japan as a legend. I'll still watch the sales to see how it all turns out though. 

Shall We Kiss First?(키스 먼저 할까요?) Korean Drama Thoughts(2018)

 

    Shall We Kiss First or Should We Kiss First is a 2018 Korean drama that was directed by Son Jung Hyun and written by Bae Yoon Mi. Top actress Kim Sun A(My Lovely Samsoon) stars along side actor Kam Woo Sung(Alone in Love, R-point, The Outlaw) play characters who met on a blind date without knows that they have deep connections from the past. Both have lost all faith in love as a result. The drama also stars a number of costars including Oh Ji Ho, Park Si Yeon, Kim Sung Su, and Ye Ji Won. Their performances granted them awards at the SBS Awards in 2018. 

     This drama centers around mostly middle aged characters which isn't common at all when talking about Korean drama. I wanted to watch is drama do to this fact alone. The first couple of episodes have a lighter fair in the atmosphere considering the foreshadowing was sort of bleak. Shall We Kiss First continues to have mood swings every other episode. Even the opening instrumental would make one think that the drama is a comedic sitcom about middle aged women who sit around sipping coffee all day. One episode the content tries to make you laugh, while in another episode the events are sad enough to make you question why life isn't always fair. Storylines create a great method to allow the characters to grow with the viewers. The writer does this by taking the viewer back to the past at the end of each episode, using dialogue that relates to the couple. I loved every time this was done during the series because each memory holds sentimental value to the characters as well as the viewer. A lot of dark stuff transpires in the middle to the conclusion of Shall We Kiss First as outside forces try to pull the couple apart. Can I just say that characters being diagnosed with incurable diseases needs to be left in 2018. It's an overused concept that lost emotional depth after being used for over decades. Thankfully, this drama is the kind that doesn't require you to see every little detail to understand where the story is trying to go. The background scenes for the main couple are the most important. After that you have a ton of scenes that involve over the top acting but I'll get to that next.... 

   There's a younger couple in this drama that has no chemistry as all. Their storyline doesn't develop so the writer forces sentimental emotions on the female character because she's related to the main couple but the end result feels so empty. It was like their relationship was a situationship to fill up scenes. Ki Do Hoon does an alright performances as a deaf guy. If only his character had been written in more detail so he could have out acted some of the overacting by the actress. I like Kim Sung Su as an actor, however, he never received the love from South Korea that I believe he deserved. His character in this drama comes off as very aloof till it comes to his wife and friend. I got to see ex husband and his side chick that he married doing too much. Lee Mi Ra's portrayal as the hyperactive friend was too much comedic relief that viewers never knew they needed... We didn't actually. My amusement couldn't tire out cause I had none to give watching that mess. Kim Su A paired together with Kam Sung Woo was like the heaven verse hell part of everyone's performances. Both characters as so layered in many problems that there's a lot to unpack when you watch their interactions. Questions such as why he is like that? Why is she like that? These questions kept me watching their acting. You see them come to a breaking point many times but they always find their way back to each other. Such a sense of maturity is what I like to see in Korean drama land where some leading couples act like they never graduated high school.....    

  Shall We Kiss First isn't a drama I would watch again alone. I would show it to someone else though. While I was satisfied, this drama was more "good performance by the leads" than an overall good production in my opinion. Mature Kdrama is hard to come by so check this out if you want something different. 

Venus In The Blind Spot(伊藤潤二短編集: BEST OF BEST ) Japanese Manga Thoughts

 

   Junji Ito's works have been pushed out into bookstores faster than a baby can be born as of late. I'm totally in favor of these releases though. You can never have too much manga from this guy. There's another collection coming at the end of this month and another collection on the way next year toward the summer. 2021 will defiantly be Ito's year but lets dive a little into Venus in the Blind Spot. 

    This collection is a couple of short stories much like Ito's other works. I tend to not read up on his manga before I buy them just so the surprise will be enjoyable for me. Soon you find that Venus stories mostly involve science fiction with horror mixed in. Not all the stories hit as hard as others in the creepy department, however you can understand the appreciation to why certain stories were included. A story about a boy living in the country who goes almost mad over his love for manga wasn't content I was too interested in. So after a few pages, I began to skim read just to get through the story. Also, there's a pick of various subjects between science, mystery, and horror. Some stories aren't nightmarish in my opinion, though the creepy mysterious vibe makes up for what I was missing in scares. The Green Chair story was weird as hell while the story about the tongue lady will make you throw up every time you think about making out with your lover. Venus in the Blind Spot has it's own story that's very good just because it's different from all the other stories, yet very Junji Ito. What story creeped me out the most you ask? I would have to say the one about the boy born of a corpse. That last page's panel of him looking through the door smiling, freaked me the hell out. We talking goosebumps people.... Those who are fans of Ito will find themselves satisfied if they decide to pick up this hardcover. 

    The color pages that open Venus in the Blind Spot was a very nice touch. I wasn't ready for all that color in front of me.  I've said this before in my other posts about Junji Ito's works but he's the the master of visual horror. Readers don't flock to his stories because he's a master storyteller cause he's not. Readers keep coming back for more because they know that reading his manga will expose you to some of the most disturbing imagery one could see in manga.(I've only seen worse a couple times in my life when it comes to manga. The Grudge manga adaption was one of them ..) As I've become more of a fan, I find myself bracing myself right before a page turn. These scary imagery are always well drawn. From the stenciling to the sharpness in the fine lines of the drawings's details. He must do a hell of a lot of inking and it shows in the final results. 

    People who want to start reading Junji Ito's works from the beginning should check out either Umizaki or Tomie. Both are a good examples of Ito's works at his prime. Plus these two have solid stories that are a bit more consistent than his other works.  

BTS - BE(방탄소년단) - Mini Album Thoughts(K-pop/Rap/RnB)

 

   I won't spend too much time saying a whole lot about this mini album since there's tons of other thoughts about this new album online. My thoughts will probably be slightly different from the majority opinion. I'm not swayed by popularity and being popular doesn't make your music good in my opinion. Still, no matter what anyone has to say about BTS, they still opened the floodgates to creating a space that allowed more Kpop acts to  be present in America. Also, they are the only Kpop act that has managed consecutive number one albums on Billboard Chart without the use of bundles unlike Super M. Giving these boys their props is definitely easy to do. 

Track List:
01. Life Goes On 
02. 내 방을 여행하는 법 (Fly To My Room)
03. Blue & Grey
04. Skit
05. 잠시 (Telepathy)
06. 병 (Dis-ease)
07. Stay
08. Dynamite

   

   Be was the chapter in Bangtan Boy's career to kick back on a couch to create music that was whatever they were feeling at the time. They are at a point in their careers where they can put out almost any song for their fans only for them to mindlessly eat it up. Life Goes On is nowhere near a radio friendly hit but it serves fans a glance at their emotional driven artistry that isn't always fueled by sales. It's a slow to mid tempo RnB track wrapped in a relaxing melody. This and another song took me back to old school BTS back when they were about social messages in their lyrics. The second song was Disease which made me the happiest listener of these guys that I've been in a long time. Those of you who know the greatness that used to be released by these boys will greatly appreciate what a good time this song is. From the lyrics where the raps break down how the guys see themselves through other people to that vintage hip hop beat born in the eighties, Disease is that songs for fans missing that edge in BTS's current music. Stay ends the mini album on a dance pop note that reminds me of Map The Soul Persona's sound. It's not a bad thing cause I love Euphoria on that album. The tracks I didn't mention were more lackluster to me. You get just a lot of autotune vocals stacked up on uninspired choruses. Just skip these while tuning out BTS's super bias fans. 

     Disease proves that that BTS is more of a Hip Hop group at their core instead of a pop group. They aren't anywhere near the most talented group in the world but they are some of the best idol rappers that Kpop has ever seen. Especially considering RM by himself. Vocals would be easier to digest without all the processed autotune on their vocals. I do think they do this to correct certain notes because Jimin can't always get up there on his own. He's improved a lot though. 

    What doesn't make any sense is how Big Hit Entertainment actually released a $50 deluxe edition of BE during a pandemic like that was alright. I'm not paying that type of money for only three good songs with some pictures. I hope kids weren't stealing their parent's credit cards just to get this album. Save your money or buy the digital album.  CONGRATS BTS ON BEING ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR FOR TIME MAGAZINE! 

Jukjae(적재) - 2006 Mini Album Thoughts(K-indie)

 

     I always want to keep this blog about informing my readers about music, movies, and, books that might not be as well known. So, you won't always see popular artists such as BTS on here mostly because they're everywhere. I will be getting around to my thoughts on BE but for now, I'll focus on this solo Korean singer called Jukjae. His video's have constantly been shared by famous Korean acts in the industry. He released his first mini album after a string of digital singles(one featuring RnB singer Zion T). The album is titled 2006. 

Track List:
01. 반짝 빛나던, 나의 2006년 (Shining, My 2006)
02. 풍경 (Scenery)
03. 알아 I Know (With. Na Won Joo)
04. 너 없이도 Without You
05. 흔적Trace

    Jukjae's music is well known for bring soul music to acoustic music. Many other Korean male artists have tried to perfect this style too. However, Jakjae just makes these sounds feel right. sometimes simple productions go the long mile as you can see in the title ballad: 반짝 빛나던, 나의 2006년. The tracks chorus has a smooth touch that's effortless in melody. Listeners can't help to be swooped away by this relaxing style. Most of the album give you an " drink coffee in the afternoon sitting outside the cafe as the sunsets" kinda vibe.  Music is always good when it makes you imagine a mental image to fit the song. I would like Jukjae to explore more genres on his next LP so his music will stay fresh. He doesn't release very often and when he does, it's a single. Probably because his label doesn't have the funds. 

    Jukjae's vocals are similar to the cream on a freshly baked dessert. The soft sweetness makes all come together. Since the production's not too technical, everything revolves around his vocals. Nothing short of effortless could be used to describe his soulful voice perfect for the blended RnB alternative songs he creates. I like him as soon as I heard his first song. 

   2006 pretty much is a daily dose for the fans who wanted more from the singer. Jukjae gave them this in addition to his growth as an artists. He's slowly heading toward a more mainstream sound that I won't be mad at if it's good.