Media diet, November
Dec. 17th, 2022 21:57![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
superborbI was going to combine this with December, but then I realized... it was getting too long as a combined post...
Dracula: I read along with Dracula Daily and it was very fun! It was an interesting format to wait with anticipation for the next event to occur. However, I do think it meant that it was more digestible at the cost of not engaging my 'reading' brain?
Solo Dance, by Li Kotomi, translated by Arthur Reiji Morris: The story of a lesbian Taiwanese woman living in Japan, who is fascinated with death. The translation was somewhat awkward, e.g. I couldn't tell why there was a few sentences in present tense when the rest was in past. I... didn't really have a strong impression of the book, but I did find it compelling and straightforward to read? I liked the dichotomy between how she was perceived vs how she perceived herself, which more subtly gave rise to the fact that her connections with others were meaningful, no matter how much she tried to leave them behind. (Also, thanks tophnelt, I recognized the stereotype of the American who tells you her life story with the mildest provocation, ahaha.)
CW: rape, homophobia, suicide
xxxHolic (2022): Live action adaptation of xxxHolic. A /great/ vibes adaptation, conveys emotions well. Watanuki is more serious / not as silly in here, which I think works better in LA, but was a bit sad to miss. It had a very relaxed approach to time, which is fine if you know the broad strokes of xxxHolic, but may be confusing otherwise? I'd recommend this if you enjoyed xxxHolic for sure!
The Nightmare Before Christmas (Chinese dub): Some of the songs were quite good in translation, some eh. I forgot how fun some of the terrifying Halloween details were!
Meet the Chimps (Chinese dub) ep 1: Narrating the chimp relations as if it were a soap opera was A+, very funny. The English subs kept dropping, so we watched half of this with Spanish subs, surprisingly totally fine. The Chinese dub is pretty meh.
Ponyo: A goldfish wishes to become a girl and unleashes magical chaos in the process. I guess 'magic' suffices to explain why she can survive in both fresh and salt water, and why the plants are not all dead from the infusion of salt. It was charmingly and cutely animated, as expected!
Dracula: I read along with Dracula Daily and it was very fun! It was an interesting format to wait with anticipation for the next event to occur. However, I do think it meant that it was more digestible at the cost of not engaging my 'reading' brain?
Solo Dance, by Li Kotomi, translated by Arthur Reiji Morris: The story of a lesbian Taiwanese woman living in Japan, who is fascinated with death. The translation was somewhat awkward, e.g. I couldn't tell why there was a few sentences in present tense when the rest was in past. I... didn't really have a strong impression of the book, but I did find it compelling and straightforward to read? I liked the dichotomy between how she was perceived vs how she perceived herself, which more subtly gave rise to the fact that her connections with others were meaningful, no matter how much she tried to leave them behind. (Also, thanks to
phnelt, I recognized the stereotype of the American who tells you her life story with the mildest provocation, ahaha.)CW: rape, homophobia, suicide
xxxHolic (2022): Live action adaptation of xxxHolic. A /great/ vibes adaptation, conveys emotions well. Watanuki is more serious / not as silly in here, which I think works better in LA, but was a bit sad to miss. It had a very relaxed approach to time, which is fine if you know the broad strokes of xxxHolic, but may be confusing otherwise? I'd recommend this if you enjoyed xxxHolic for sure!
The Nightmare Before Christmas (Chinese dub): Some of the songs were quite good in translation, some eh. I forgot how fun some of the terrifying Halloween details were!
Meet the Chimps (Chinese dub) ep 1: Narrating the chimp relations as if it were a soap opera was A+, very funny. The English subs kept dropping, so we watched half of this with Spanish subs, surprisingly totally fine. The Chinese dub is pretty meh.
Ponyo: A goldfish wishes to become a girl and unleashes magical chaos in the process. I guess 'magic' suffices to explain why she can survive in both fresh and salt water, and why the plants are not all dead from the infusion of salt. It was charmingly and cutely animated, as expected!
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Date: 2022-12-18 03:41 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-18 03:49 (UTC)Yeah, it was pretty good! I enjoyed it, anyway.
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Date: 2022-12-18 05:37 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-18 14:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-18 14:49 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-18 18:02 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-18 14:23 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-18 18:03 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-19 03:27 (UTC)This was kind of my reaction to the only Li Kotomi novel I've read as well; I picked up a book of her essays a little while back and found it really interesting in terms of her experiences and opinions as, indeed, a lesbian Taiwanese woman in Japan. (As you may have noted, it looks like Solo Dance is also available in Chinese (繁体字) in the author's translation, as 独舞.)
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Date: 2022-12-19 14:09 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-19 15:22 (UTC)Agreed. It was fun! I am really glad I did it! But I'm glad I'd read the book before. I don't think it would be the best way to read it for the first time.
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Date: 2022-12-19 15:27 (UTC)