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.