Mars Red(マーズレッド) Japanese Manga Thoughts

 

   Mars Red is a series that started in 2020. The series was a stage play created by Kemuri Karakara and that was adapted into an Manga. A anime was made that same year for thirteen episodes as well. 

   Set in Japan's history of 1923, a girl waits for her brother to come home from the war. She soon finds out that he has died but could have sworn she saw him one night as she was being attack by a monster(?). 

    I wasn't sure about how this manga would make me feel. The art was my original reason for picking this up. Somehow, I got drawn in... Not so much because of the story itself but the cast of characters. We get some cool group of guys in this underground army that all have their own personalities and bring a new emotional layer to the story dynamic. Things fall a bit short as far as the overall story. There's a certain pridefulness in the writing that gives a vibe like this is a different vampire story than all the others, when in reality, it's really not. the only thing I really noticed that was different was Japan's historical context added to the story as well as the artificial blood concept. Maybe the anime has another way of telling this story however, I'm not sure i'm interested enough to find out.Volume three is the last volume sadly. Especially when the good twist had to be rushed so that the series could end as quick as possible. The last volume probably was my favorite though. 

    The art has a sophisticated touch to what we know as normal manga art. I believe this was done on purpose as to add a tone to the time period that the story was set in. Each character has a unique design that's shown through sketch pages in the back of each volume. 

   Mars Red falls on a middle ground for me. The story isn't amazing or awful. It's kinda of just like a history timeline with Vampire armies and good art. Karakara does try to make you think that you're getting something new at first.......  Anyways..... I might check out the anime in the distant future. 

Spiritwalker(유체이탈자) Korean film Thoughts(2020)

 

    Spiritwalker is a 2020 South Korean film that stars singer turned actor Yoon Kye Sang(G.O.D.) and costars, Park Yong Woo, Lim Ji-Yeon with Woo Kang Min. The film was directed by Yoon Jae Keun.  It also debuted at the top of the Korean box office during the first week of release. 

   A man drifts from body to body unable to remember who is is or where he comes from. He just knows that people are chasing after a man that he always seems to be close to.....

    I loved how Spiritwalker jumps right into the fray of the action. There's no slow build up to the central conflict. There's no dragged out scenes where you have to spend most of the film getting to know characters. Your viewer experience is instead being moved toward enjoyment by the fact that you know nothing about the main character however, you see right away that he's in the middle of a conflict. The first half of the film is pure mystery as the character tries to pick up the pieces in his memory. Action packed scenes don't happen too much here.(if that was what you were looking for..) Still, the story is very engaging up until events really start to fall into place. The "drifting" in itself was fun to witness and the different bodies added something new to the plot every time. Especially when you start to see a pattern.....

    Yoon Kye Sang was phenomenal in this role. His acting brought the character out of the script into reality so well. He and the actors that played him inside their bodies were amazing because the connection just felt very real to me. His costars had the look in their eyes are everything. It takes years to get to that point of being an actor. Yoon Kye Sang is one of my favorite South Korean actors so I knew that he would kill this role. 

   Spirtiwalker is a film that I highly recommend to people who want to best from South Korean cinema. This was defiantly one of the films that shows South Korea still has it. Watch this film and enjoy!!! 

    

Nobody Knows(아무도 모른다) Korean Drama Thoughts(2020)

     

    Nobody knows was a 2020 Korean drama that was directed by Lee Jung Heum and stared Kim Seo Hyung, Ryu Deok Hwan, Ahn Ji Ho, Park Hoon, and a whole cast of supporting characters that light up this crime drama. I wouldn't say this drama is well known but it's a hidden gem for Korean drama fans that have an open mind. 

   A women becomes a detective after her best friend is murdered nineteen years ago. She is still looking for the murder as he's presence lives on in a new case involving a high school student that she's close to.....

    Nobody Knows is not a show for the average Korean drama watcher. There's no romance in this drama. You can look but you won't find any.... Even though there was a chance to right a romantic relationship in there if the director wanted to. I'm glad that he didn't because I feel that it would have cheapened the plot. You will experience nothing less than a dark crime drama that deals with the same concept of young girls being murdered in early days South Korea that bleeds over into more of a modern day twists. Each episode gives you a piece of the puzzle to form the full picture of what happened. Some situations, I fell didn't need a full episode to figure out since I had figured it out before the detective I was watching did. There's still a special mystic about Nobody Knows that keeps you watching through the slow parts. I think it was a strong desire to answer the questions that you had. For example, how does that new case connect to the new one? How does the new victim, who is a boy, connect to her friends murder. A whole mirage of characters make their way into the story as well and you get to see the events that led up to the incident, which was needed to find the overall answer viewers need. I was happy that everything ended up being wrapped nicely into a little bow by the drama's conclusion. However, the final episode did overstay its welcome by a few minutes in my opinion. I actually yelled CUT! at my television screen a few times..... 

    Actor Park Hoon embodied pure evil to play his role in this drama. He shines bright in his performance so much to the point that he's was likable due to the light touch of comedic flare he added to the character. I don't support his actions but I do love the talent that you get to see every time he's on screen. The scene on the roof top with Kim Seo Hyung's character during the final episode was gold. I also loved the scenes he had with Ahn Ji Ho(Nobody Knows was his first show and he did so well..) in the hospital... Just acting gold all around. 

    Nobody Knows is a Korean drama for people who like crime dramas. People who want something different from the regular Korean shows that are promoted everywhere. I think that the dark elements will make you think about the world through a new point of view.    

Heaven(ヘヴン) Japanese Novel Thoughts

   

   Mieko Kawakami is one of Japanese most notable upcoming young authors. She's won many awards for her novels and was knowledge by TIME magazine after just two of her novels were translated into English. I was too interested in her first novel that I was but her second novel titled Heaven, caught my eye after I read about the strong bullying themes. 

    A high school boy and girl are bullied continuously in their class. The boy has a lazy eye and the girl chooses not to take baths for personal reasons. They both try to find their own version of HEAVEN. 

   This book isn't very long and Kawakami holds no punches with the subject matter of bullying. Literally the whole book is the main character thinking through his torture by his tormentors. You could also call Heaven a kind of dairy for him. He actually tries to figure his bullies out, even having the guts to ask one of them why he was being bullied. Readers would think that it's because of his lazy eye. He even thinks that it's because of his lazy eye but, you come to find that this is the excuse he gives himself to stay a victim in this bully world.  Most of the characters give me a major headache and the main character just tries to find something to hold on to. He tries to find sense in everything that people do when you have to realize that people do things without using common sense at all. There's no way that I would have stood there and let an associate to the guy who bullies me give me a whole monologue about why he does what he does. He would have got something thrown at him after awhile. Toxic friendship comes into play in Heaven's pages as well. The friendship seemed good for the guy until he started to level up from the girl, then things started to stink like she did.... I was most proud of the main character's progression in becoming more stable in his decisions. So called friends that can't be happy for you making moves to better yourself is not your friends. It doesn't matter if your friend is leaving you behind or not. You have to make the moves to better yourself as well so you can met your friends neck and neck. If not, then still be happy for them. Friends that can't do this need to be disposed of quickly. Heaven's overall conclusion is a big sigh of relief.... I felt that I let out a breath that I was holding in while reading the book the entire time. 

      I would recommend Mieko Kawakami's Heaven to readers who like raw storytelling that doesn't try to baby you. Kawakami's writing is true to reality with a bit of social commentary. Some readers will appreciate that and some will not.