Media Roundup, August

[superborb]

Loads behind on my flist (dwlist? what DO we call it), but will catch up this weekend!

Translation State, by Ann Leckie: Set in the same universe of the Ancillary series, and told from the PoV of the three main characters, the mystery of a missing (escaped?) Presger translator leads to the consequential decision of if the Presger translators can become human. (The Presger are Mysterious Powerful aliens and the translators are mostly-humans reconfigured to serve as intermediaries between them and humans.) It was fine? I enjoyed the weirdness of the Presger translator childhood and it was an easy, fast read. The plot was very straightforward, but some of the worldbuilding was more subtle. The book was quite heavy handed on gender and consent, but it didn't cross the line to didactic. I think I wanted it to be more than it was though -- more insightful or complex.

Shards of Earth, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (DNF): I'm just noting this for my future reference, that I gave up 12% of the way in because I just didn't care about anything happening. Maybe worth another shot when I'm in a spectacle heavy mood? Fight scenes that don't bring world, plot, or character development are just not very interesting to me.

Moonlight Chicken (2023): Chicken rice diner owner hooks up with one of his customers; cue complicated getting together storyline! Mostly a family and relationship centric show. There were some really interesting dynamics! The "exes but I still care about you" point was done well. I also thought they expressed the intergenerational differences in acceptance of being gay in a nuanced way! However, they seemed to be Going Somewhere with the commentary on rich people, but then it just disappeared after being a pretty important conflict? I am also wildly curious what the Watsonian explanation for why 'can only afford one beer a day' Jim feeds his cat expensive single serve cat gogurts, but it was cute product placement. Not very long at 8 episodes of 1 h 15 min, and pacing was mostly good (the teenage B couple often slowed down the pace, but they were cute). They also do a good job styling the characters differently / the actors look unique, so it was easy to keep track of them. Would recommend as a cozy relationship centric BL.

Marry My Dead Body (關於我和鬼變成家人的那件事) (2022): Homophobic main character picks up a red envelope and is told that gay marriage is legal in the living world now so it must be legal in the ghost world too! It's a cop show again smh, though at least because it's Taiwanese the cops don't have to be Good Guys. More of a comedy / light in tone movie, but then the MC has some rage problems (plus the homophobic and weight insults) so it felt a bit jarring sometimes? But I laughed several times and it never hit my second hand embarrassment squick so overall a success on the comedy front for me. I also liked the Jolin Tsai music choices. While the ghost husband is gay, gay relationships are on screen, and there are definite arranged marriage vibes, I doooooo think you needed pretty thick slash goggles to read the couple as a romantic one on screen. Overall, I enjoyed the watch!
CW: Aaron Yan is... in this. And now I've looked up why this needed warning and: yikes.

Yong-Jiu Grocery Store (用九柑仔店) (DNF): This was supposed to be a small town convenience store slice of life. It started that way and then totally went off the rails midway through (and @halfcactus skimmed ahead and said it didn't get back on the rails). I enjoyed some of the early episodes a lot! I liked the soy sauce maker who makes everything by hand! Aaaaand then the romances took over and they were SO weird in vibes. Like, they just seemed awkward! Then we got to the female lead's and female lead's mother's backstory and like, it was terribly melodramatic and boring at the same time! So much a stereotypical ~complicated mother~ that it was superficial instead of complex, SO MUCH YELLING by the female characters. Really sad because the first couple episodes had a lot of promise.

Comments

[china_shop]

Yeah, I found Translation State a bit anticlimactic, too -- maybe because I love the other Imperial Radch books so much. Expectations are terrible things. ;-)

This has reminded me to go back to Moonlight Chicken, so thank you for that. (I'm not reading your reaction in case it's spoilery.)

I started Marry My Dead Body, but I'm having trouble with a) the homophobia and b) consent stuff. Idk...

[superborb]

It was Fine! (Though TBH I did feel like the other Radch books were highly influential, but reading them a decade after they were published and having read the books that were in conversation with it meant they were not as mind blowing as they'd have been if I'd read them earlier!)

I try to aim my reviews at the 'vibe and nonessential details' spoiler level (And rot13 everything else), but YMMV!

I had written out a spoilery CW for the homophobia in MMDB if that'd help?

[china_shop]

If Translation State had been on AO3, I'm pretty sure the tags would have put me off before I even clicked. (I don't read a lot of SF, and I fell hard for Breq (particularly Adjoa Andoh's audiobook version), so it's hard for anything else to measure up. It makes total sense for them to have less impact in the context of later-written books, though!)

*appreciates* (I'm very spoiler averse; as soon as I decide I'm going to read/watch something, I start avoiding any mention of it. Which is tragically antisocial, I know. /o\)

I had written out a spoilery CW for the homophobia in MMDB if that'd help?

That's okay, thanks. I think I'm DNF-ing. Ot1h, they're punishing the main character for being homophobic, while otoh, I assume he eventually turns out to be queer? Which feels like a difficult line to walk when queer people's internalised/externalised homophobia so often comes from a place of pain or discomfort-with-self. (And of course the whole thing is complicated here by his being a cop and wielding power that way.) Idk, maybe I'm overthinking. (ETA: and re-reading your reaction, maybe I'm wrong about him turning out to be queer?) Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[superborb]

Ahh, I do think Breq was amazing, but I really wanted to know more about the Presger -- I'm a sucker for alien aliens!

Yeah, I definitely read it as a thoughtless young man (BAD vibes when he's a cop!) who ~grows~ during the experience, but I can see people reading it as internalized homophobia.

[brownbetty]

I felt like Moonlight Chicken was doing things I was not fully able to appreciate w/r/t intergenerational conflict/views on the gays, but also w/e was going on where the thing is that Uncle Jim is Too Generous and needs to learn to be More Selfish?

[superborb]

Yeah, I also felt it was trying to do stuff with the intergenerational views on How To Be Gay. I also think part of the Uncle Jim generousness was grief that he needed to process?

[trobadora]

Loads behind on my flist (dwlist? what DO we call it)

Honestly, I still call it my flist because "reading list" just doesn't have the same vibe. *g*

thank you for sharing your reading!

[superborb]

I started with reading list but then it felt like an actual 'books waiting' kind of list given this type of post!!

[halfcactus]

Yong-Jiu: To be clear, the last 2 eps were okay, I just think it spent too much time on the 2 young CPs getting together, which is not what I (and I think any of us) signed up for lol. And in ep9 they introduce a grandmother character to add to the gang to show parallels with the MC's childhood, but it felt a bit too little too late for me (when it's already soured me so much on the way it treats women). ^^;

Moonlight Chicken: sounds fun!!!!!! I haven't really made the move to start Thai series lately but if I were to watch one, that's the one I feel is directly relevant to my interests!!!

Marry My Dead Body: the first thing I did afterwards was find Dancing Diva on Youtube and one of the top comments is "不敢相信！ 2023舞孃還這麼紅" which I thought was so cute! Re: Aaron - internally crying bc he's completely redefined the concept of a problematic fav to me sajda;sjf;asfj;asf

[halfcactus]

PS. 'can only afford one beer a day' Jim feeds his cat expensive single serve cat gogurts makes total sense to me. His desire to spoil his cat is the reason why he can only afford one beer a day XD I too used to spend more money on treats for Chippy than snacks for myself and I liked to get the ~healthy~ ones too hahaha

[superborb]

Oh Moonlight Chicken does seem like your kind of show!! Definitely of the Thai BLs I know of the one that sounds most like it would appeal to you. And LOL now I understand the cat gogurt motivation...

I even thought 'oh they cast someone really handsome for the part' because I didn't recognize Aaron dsfajsklfj Shame the good looks are wasted on him -.-

[halfcactus]

♥

My own rationale is that a treat for myself might not satisfy me, but a treat for Chippy is sure to satisfy him so the latter is, idk, a risk-free investment. AND I had hoped to one day successfully bribe my way into his heart. XD

Yeah Aaron was the baby during the FLH days and I wouldn't have known it was him if I hadn't seen him listed in the cast list. But, well, it was too late to appreciate his looks or him playing a gay character... I still appreciate the movie being able to stream with his scenes intact, after spending so long in the c-ent/c-platform scene haha.

[superborb]

Ahahaha I see, I see!!

Yeah, and not having to worry about post-release cuts or withdraws!

[lirazel]

Have you read any Tchaikovsky that really works for you? The only one I've been able to make it through is Elder Race, but I enjoyed that one enough to be willing to try some of his other stuff (he's so prolific!) if there's something that really sticks out to other people.

[superborb]

That's the other one of his that's on my TBR! I'll keep it on there and give it a try then!

[adevyish]

When I heard about the Aaron Yan casting initially I was like oh wow he's going to play a cheater after how he got outed? and then all that news came out… y i k e s.

[superborb]

Yeeeeeeeeeah it's such a questionable decision that it's really shocking.