Rude-a 23 Album Thoughts(J-indie)

 

   Rude-a or Rude-alpha is a Japanese rapper who is more known in the underground club scene in Tokyo. The rapper has released a decent number of albums, with 23 being his most recognized work to go mainstream. He seems like a rapper who's music would be available exclusively through Tower Records. His youtube channel documents most of his releases up until now. You can search up Rude-a to see his music videos…. I'm too sure about his background other than this. Some anime might be featuring his song too...23 comes in two editions. A regular edition and a special edition.

Tracklist : 

1. アイスクリーム(Ice Cream)
2. Wonder
3. It’s Only Love
4. ハレルヤ(Hallelujah) feat. BASI
5. Tokyo Circus
6. Sorry
7. Life
8. 23
9. Boy Meets Girl
10. Take Me Back
11. 会えない夜(Aenai Yoru)
12. Back To You
13. グッバイベイビー(Goodbye Baby)
14. 春の風(Haru no Kaze)

    23 is an album that almost could be this young rapper's step up into the Japanese mainstream music industry. Much of the sound to come out of this latest effort is rooted in EDM dance pop, soul alternative, and reggie influences. I would call it a pitch to sell out for the fame if Rude-a wasn't so good at controlling his musically ambitions to mold his own version of the norm. Tracks such as It's Only Love typical punch have you just seeing the beach under the sunny sky protected through palm trees brought on the the chorus's beat. Life takes the rapper to a more alternative style while bring something new in the guitar accompaniment. Back To You has the right balances of soul Rnb and Reggie to continue Rude-a's underline goal to have this album playing all summer long. I was a bit afraid that 23, being the first album I've heard by Rude-a would play itself out quickly. Many other Rappers go for the same musical make up, only to get boring really quick…. Cough Cough *Sky-High… Cough Cough…. but Rude-a has a creative artistry that feels untamable. I'm hoping that he keeps this same energy if he does ever go full popular mainstream artist on your boy. Right now he's the Rapper who's music can bend in whichever way he chooses it too. Depending on whether it's mainstream or indie that's in demand.

   Rapper's who can actually sing for their own music interests me greatly.  Rude-a's vocals add a fresh washed out vibe to his tracks. Kinda like the fresh smell of laundry right out the dryer.The vocals are not perfect, yet he manages to sing with passion. He puts me in mind of other groups in Japanese recent pass such as FUNKY MONKEY BABIES and SPICY CHOCOLATE(Rude-a actually was a featured artist on their last album.) Did I mention that this guy can rap really well? All the perfect balance between the rapping and the singing is done smartly. Both skills seem to stand side by side to each other. I would love to listen to him live just to seem how smoothly he can transition between the two.

 

   Rude-a, Taichi Murkai, and SIRUP are all in the same boat as far as being indie artists that are on the rise currently. SIRUP has pretty much entered the mainstream(His last album made the Oricon top ten.) rapping and singing like Rude-a but I think their different styles will cater to two different groups of mainstream listeners.

 

Jay Fung(馮允謙) - Detour(下載) Mini Album Thoughts(Cantopop)

    Jay Fung was a sudden find that came to me while searching around Youtube's results one night. I don't know much about him outside of the fact that he has a Youtube channel where he has covered many popular songs. He might have been discovered through Youtube or some singing show like most vocalist in Hong Kong. Who would have thought that Fung has been releasing music since 2012…. Maybe even before then. Him seeming like a new artist could be a good or a bad thing depending on how you decide to look at it. Detour is his newest release to date.

01.聲音導航
02.尋找白金漢
03.Full Moon Party  
04.山旮旯  
05.愛斯基摩人之吻    
06.尋找白金漢(合唱版) -馮允謙/黃淑蔓


     


    Fung introduces himself using a more visual approach. Detour literally has a music video for every track making the singer's new effort feel like a visual album that would make Beyonce proud. My opinion of most of the album became based on seeing the music videos along side the songs which isn't always a good thing. Hearing the tracks by themselves wasn't as exciting as I thought they would be. I saw that his music is lacking individuality. Fung tends to sound similar to a slew of other Cantopop singers but uneventful tracks, Finding Buckingham and Voice Navigation are Fung's best moments as they play to what the singer could be with more uniqueness in sound. Detour then takes a real detour displaying a true to form eighties soul sound thrown randomly out the hat. This is yet another musically choice that doesn't make Fung's performance sound bad however it's just not exciting enough to make listeners remember him in a gripping Cantonese pop world. After two tracks where Jay Fung boogies on down, he returns to Finding Buckingham featuring a female vocal uplifting what was already good about the track. Being apart of the crowd works for Jay only during two tracks. It's not so much that Detour is a bad album. Instead the EP shows his talent for what he could be once he finds a sound all his own.





    What is a damn shame is that Jay Fung showcases an attractive vocal performance in certain moments during Detour. One moment is toward the end of 山旮旯 when he ad libs vocal runs. Listeners need more of this side of him. Something that has Jay Fung singing bigger and catchier choruses. The vocal ability is there. If he would work on making his music stand out more, he would be a force to be reckoned with.

   I recommend people who don't know much about Cantopop to give Detour a listen. You won't notice how much Jay Fung's music sounds like a tons of other singers from Hong Kong. His older music might sound different … Not that I would know.

FIRST LOVE(初恋) Japanese Film Thoughts(2020)

 

   First Love is the first of two films directed by Takashi Miike that I've gotten around to watching over the past two weeks. This film wasn't a huge hit in Japan despite superstar performances from well known faces such as Masataka Kybota, Shota Sometani, Takahiro Miura, and newcomer Sakurako Konish. The film did however get positive reviews from international audiences and was screened at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.




   A down on his luck boxer finds himself protecting a drug addicted women from gangs, assassins, and corrupt police officers on one eventful night. He doesn't know why they are after her but he must make sure she survives the night. Drugs and cops just need to stop mingling already. Love can also come at unexpected times….

   Miike's creative print is on almost everything he has a hand in directing. I've felt that his films during the last two or three years haven't been as extreme as his films that graced audiences a decade ago. Still, First Love manages to find a bit of old spark that was lost in time. Some aspects of First Love could be mysteriously hard to follow. Only due to the fact that a lot happens at once as you are introduced to new characters with personalities just as colorful as the last character. Nothing here feels typical, even if the storyline might not be the most original that Japan has ever produced. Miike swiftly crafts a world needing wick deeds and wacky characters to do them. Violent comedy makes several appearances during First Love which isn't a shock at all if you know Miike's usually style. I'm not the huge fan of Miike myself…. I do watch his films if they suit me but it was very easy to admit that First Love's wacky blood gore has perfect comedic timing in line with the passing events of First Love. Certain scenes that wouldn't be deemed appropriate to laugh at in reality are made into decent funny cues. Plus the whole "destroy anything in my path" mentality many if not all the characters have makes for exciting build up to an expected explosive conclusion… Well, partly expected anyway.

   One would think that a film like First Love wouldn't flourish in the character development category. I expected characters good enough to carry the story, not characters that are truly given strong background stories to revolve in the film's conclusion. Miike wrote First Love so that the film goes back to tie up all the loose ends before the film can end. It was like the film overstayed it's welcome because First Love would have been good ending after the climax scene's violent happenings. Instead, a drama fueled ending plays out on screen that I'm not mad at. Everything felt complete in Miike's own kind of way.

    First Love is a great addition to Takashi Miike's filmography. There are qualities in First Love that might seem very new if you have never watched Miike's other works before. Do be warned, some of his films are not for the faint of heart… I'm looking DIRECTLY at you "Ichi The Killer" and "Audition". [INSERT ME LAUGHING]



BELOW IS AN INSERT FROM THE FILM. WATCH AT YOUR OWN DIGRESSION:

Downfall(零落) Japanese Manga Thoughts

    Downfall is a one shot manga created by Inio Asanio. A few of Asanio's works have been translated into English through license under Viz Media. He is known for creating manga that is real on true emotion and modern age imagery. Some of his most famous works include Solanin, Goodnight Punpun, Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction, and Girl on the Shore. The awards he's received are due to him being the voice for the youth in Japan's modern day society.




    A struggling manga artist goes through a downward spiral as he loses his faith in his work. A long the way he tries to take all the people around down with him. None has ever been so hopeless.

     Inio Asanio is the kind of creator who doesn't lay everything out on the table for his readers to see.  You get sucked into the story through character inner demons then your trapped in the seat preparing to start a long dark ride. I wouldn't call downfall a super depressing story. Reviewers online beg to differ but maybe I'm not easy to make sad…. I don't know what unnerved other people that read this manga. What interested me about Downfall was how the character was going to recover or was he going to destroy himself in his downward descent. This isn't a story that is suppose to make you feel joyful because some parts of life have nothing that is cheerful. Those times in our lives are represented by this manga. I also felt that the characters that were interacted with stand for the different mood swings of the main character. As I read, most events in the story made me feel nothing, which is a scary thing in itself. My heart become hollow like the manga creator I was witnessing slide along in life away from all meaning. Certain portions from Downfall could be triggering to some however, that's not a bad quality. Manga is suppose to invoke emotion good or bad. Downfall shows that Inio Asanio is a master at his craft as a storyteller.

   Downfall's art falls in line towards Inio Asanio's other works. If you look back on his older series(What a Wonderful World), you can see where he made major improvements in his art style. Downfall was one of the results of years of nips and tucks here and there. His art gives off a sense dipped in realism similar to his plots. Some of the scenery looks literally like he took pieces of newspaper and pasted them in the panels on the page. Character models don't follow any ordinary design, nor are all the characters drawn using the same structures. I've always felt that some of Asanio's character drawings look very silly while others look more like what a normal manga character would look like. Goodnight PunPun had some of the weirdest character drawings I have ever seen in a manga. On the other hand, Dead Demon has the best scenic panels that any manga on the shelves today has to offer.

   Downfall is such an emotional filled body of work that reading it's pages will mean something different to everyone. I'm a big boy who can handle the message that "the world can be a messed place" constantly presented in Asanio's works. If you were a fan of his other release then Downfall will be a joy to have in your collection.

Jo Pil -Ho: The Dawning Rage(악질경찰) Korean Film Thoughts(2019)

 

    Jo Pil Ho is a 2019 Korean film that was directed by Lee Jeong Beom(Man from Nowhere, No Tears For The Dead). The film was his first project since 2014 and it stars actor Lee Sun Gyun(Parasite) along side rookie actress Jeon So Nee and Park Hae Joon. The film debuted in the top ten at Korean cinemas but didn't earn back the money that it took to produce the film, making it a commercial failure. Many people also gave the film negative reviews for using the sinking of the Sewol Ferry as a plot line.




   A corrupt cop bites off more than he can chew when laundering money causes him to go head to head with a corrupt corporation.

  Let me just put out there that a lot have hate has been thrown this films way. You can go online and find a ton of reviews in English  spelling out how bad this film is. I was actually almost swayed to not watch Jo Pil Ho because of all the people saying how bad it is. Somehow I mustered up the courage to buy the film physically because I'm a fan of Lee Sun Gyun. I'm glad that I did at the end of the day. The film is actually much better than a lot of the reviews will lead you to believe. Now, is this film the best Korean cop thriller that South Korea has to offer? Not by a long shot, but this film will keep you watching until the very end. Boom takes a couple of themes from his hit film The Man from Nowhere and rehashes them in this new thriller. A cop mets a teenage girl in the middle of a war to see who is the baddest. The girl brings a new meaning to this said cop who can be kinda alright when he's not so awful. You know the same old cliche relationship feelings that make a good film when done right. These elements can be used over and over again if presented in thoughtful formats like Jo Pil Ho chooses to follow. Contrary to what people have to say about this film,  Jo Pil Ho is a film that's based in realism. There's some crazy ass moments that still don't take away from a raw message that life isn't something you can always control. You don't have to let bad circumstances define you though. No matter how hard that may seem. Be prepared from some funny moments, realistic fight stuns, and an ending that can be taken in one of three ways in my opinion. I personally really loved the ending since it's closure enough for the story while also giving viewers reason to discuss the film after the credits roll.

     Sun Gyun plays the role of a bad cop fairly well. Those ton of Korean cop films doesn't do him much justice however he still took the role to a level only he could do. Another actor would have given us their version of bad that would have been alright. His version of bad was perfect for this film. He plays a cop that is a badass due to the fact that he isn't perfect. He doesn't have the right answer all the time and he constantly fall flat on his face during the film. The character never wavers in his resolve to get back up on his own two feet again. This is apparent in Sun Gyun's facial expression throughout the film. A dawning rage could be seen in his eyes during certain interactions that was impressionable. The connection to the Sewol Ferry accident was solely for Jeon So Nee's character to have more depth. How the accident tied to how the character viewed life made me feel deeply for her. She was really another version of Jo Pil Ho only a female teenage copy who was just as lost as him. The real life incident served no other purpose than that, so I'm not sure why a lot of people tried to look more into the reference than needed be. I understand family members of the victims being upset over the tragic event being used…… Sometimes artistic expression pulls at those hard emotions that we would soon want to forget. Lastly, I read that some people felt that the villain was evil without a solid reason. The character was apart of a company that was corrupt in itself. He really was following orders of another who had such disgusting warped ideas about people and money that no other explanation was needed on the character. The film paints this picture very well for all to see.

     While not as good as The Man from Nowhere, Jo Pil- Ho: The Dawning Rage was a good enough follow up after No Tears For The Dead. This film isn't for viewers that need everything spelled out for them to enjoy a film. Instead this film is for people who can take the social cues this film gives and paint their own understanding.