Comments for From Tokyo to the World

Comment on Wanted: Asians in Hollywood by B-Plus Movie Blog

B-Plus Movie Blog — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:03:13 +0000

That film’s treatment of and demeanor toward green people is deplorable. Why must they be either eye candy or martian invaders?

Comment on Wanted: Asians in Hollywood by tokyoremix

tokyoremix — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:46:05 +0000

You may be reading too much into it. He was a masculine role that didn’t use blatant martial arts. They even made a gag about it — “So what kind of combat training do you have?” “Fencing.” You know Kirk is expecting karate or jiu jitsu or something. Then he ends up being a total boss anyway. I don’t think they equated that stuff with “Asia.”

As for the driver thing, I think you definitely read too much into that. It was the rookie mistake, which a lot of characters have to make to show that the crew is all-new. I think any harm in it was more than made up for when he demonstrates himself as a brilliant pilot immediately afterwards. If you have a bone to pick, it might be with them for making fun of Chekov’s accent. Wiktor Wiktor.

Comment on Wanted: Asians in Hollywood by Emily M

Emily M — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:51:08 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly with the message of your post; however, I mildly disagree that the role of Sulu in the new Star Trek film was “not stereotyped”. One is the swordfighting – yes, that was originally put into the character because Takei did fencing, but it was there in the new movie too, and I remember thinking it looked an awful lot like kendo – and the other was the passing jibe about new!Sulu being a bad driver, both of which are different kinds of “Asian stereotypes” (though you may argue the kendo on ethnic pride, increasing global awareness of kendo, etc reasons and I would cede that point). So while the original Sulu did NOT require an Asian actor per se, the context of the new film did, and there were moments when the character/actor’s racial background WAS relevant to the character’s treatment.

Comment on Wanted: Asians in Hollywood by Margie

Margie — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:23:43 +0000

Good point, definitely agree!

Comment on Wanted: Asians in Hollywood by B-Plus Movie Blog

B-Plus Movie Blog — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:19:12 +0000

Reblogged this on B+ Movie Blog.

Comment on The Sneetches by Molly

Molly — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:45:53 +0000

How can you say something is perfect? I mean, yaeba maybe weird to some, but as we can see, that's one way of how some people expresses themselves. Cosmetic surgery has seem to have been always going for the "perfect" look. If this is how they see themselves as beautiful, let them be.

Comment on Meme Time by Margie

Margie — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:04:57 +0000

In true Facebook, home of memes, fashion: “like”.

Comment on University in Perspective by tokyoremix

tokyoremix — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:31:51 +0000

It’s true. Nobody was trying to be a Todai student, but some of them did put the work in. They filled the computer labs and the libraries and gave some great thesis presentations.

I did see non-SILS students mingling with SILS students — almost all the people I still talk to from Waseda are from the 政治経済学部 rather than SILS, and almost all the SILS students I hung out with during the year I was there were Japanese. You have a point there, though — I wasn’t representing the majority of exchange students. Some of the other Americans on my program thought I was snobbish for not partying with them.

And yeah, the drinking culture is still very much intact, but not the way it used to be. The local izakaya are definitely losing out to the chains and bars in Takadanobaba.

Comment on University in Perspective by Natalie

Natalie — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:26:17 +0000

I was at Waseda too. My impression was always that no one really WANTED to be like those (slightly) over-nerdy Todai students. And SILS enrollment might have been increasing, but that ‘internationalism’ hadn’t really seeped over into the main campus body – did you ever actually see non-SILS students mingling with exchange students? Even in SILS classes, it was rare for exchange students to talk much to the Japanese students in class. I think this was both because exchange students were stuck in their Niji no Kai/ryuugaku bubble and because Japanese students were absorbed in exactly the drinking culture this author laments the loss of (which I don’t believe).

Anyway, it all mirrors a part of Japanese society that might be shifting slightly but is still, generally, unused to foreignness. I didn’t see it going down the drain at all…

Comment on I Hate Remakes by Margie

Margie — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:14:03 +0000

Okay, I now officially want to read / see one of the original versions…thanks for the introduction.