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I read this because it was Emma Bull’s new book. I have no knowledge of or interest in the Wild West and would probably have passed it by if it had not been by an author that I liked, and I would have waited for the paperback if the library had not had it.
I had a very neutral reaction to this book, though I think my expectations may have been a little off: this was more of a western with a little magic than a fantasy set in the Wild West (the library has it categorized as a western). I don’t know much of anything about the setting or the historical characters (due to lack of interest), which probably didn’t help; I’ve heard of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, but don’t know anything at all about either of them beyond the associations with westerns. I have no idea how much of the action was based on historical events or how many of the characters were based on real people.
The other problem I had with this was the ending; it seemed very abrupt. The main plot was resolved, but there were any number of things introduced that were not developed. I have seen random people on the internet (nobody related/official) claim that this was intended to be part one of two. If that was indeed the case, I wish there had been some indication of this on the book itself; I would have had different expectations of/reaction to the ending.
This book is set in Tombstone, Arizona, in 1881, and follows the presumably historical events from the inside with Doc Holliday, from the outside with the widow Mildred Benjamin, who was a typesetter for one of the newspapers, and from somewhere in between with the drifter Jesse Fox, who had several factions attempt to recruit him. I liked Mildred and was interested in Jesse, and would love to read about their pasts (especially Jesse’s) and futures. I would love to read Jesse and Chow Lung’s adventures in San Francisco(?).
Jesse has been denying that he has any sort of magical powers (his sister went crazy because of them), and was on his way to train horses in Mexico when he felt called to Tombstone. He was called by the Chinese physician/magician Chow Lung, who was aware that something was wrong, but was not powerful enough to fix it. Some portion of the historical figures have some sort of power that they are using to try to gain power and/or control of the area, and are not above using blood sacrifices.
I was interested enough to finish the book (I don’t feel the need to finish everything I start), and would read a sequel if there is one; I would try to learn a little bit about the history and re-read this one beforehand. I actually kind of want to do the research and reread this now, but it has to go back to the library. My lack of knowledge did not hinder my understanding of the book; it works fine as a standalone in that respect. I just feel that I would have enjoyed it more if I had known anything about the setting and had been able to identify the real people and events.
aka The Proud Twins, Proud of Twins, The Handsome Siblings, The Perfect Twins, The Invincible Duo. This is the description from yesasia.com:
Famous movie director Wong Jing adapts the classic sword and martial arts epic by Gu Long into a TV series, with Hong Kong pop idol Nicholas Tse and comedy star Dicky Cheung playing the legendary twin brothers! Xiao Yu Er (Dicky Cheung), raised by The Ten Villains, attempts to uncover the mystery of his family in a gathering for martial arts masters, without knowing that his long lost twin brother Hua Wu Que (Nicholas Tse) is also there…
I found this at Netflix searching for things with Nicholas Tse; it looked interesting (martial arts epic with halfway-decent reviews and/or a favorite actor is enough). This was apparently an official US release, which surprised me; I didn’t realize dramas were being released here. The subtitles were OK (I’ve seen much much worse); I can’t judge the accuracy, but they were readable and understandable. The verb tenses were consistently a little off, and some of the word choices were odd; I did notice one scene with a mis-named character.
The subtitles use translated names; I don’t know enough Mandarin to be able to pick out the actual names. The main cast consisted of:
- Dicky Cheung as Xiao Yu Er/小鱼儿 — Little Fish
- Nicholas Tse as Hua Wu Que/花无缺 — Flawless Flower
- Fan Bing Bing as Tie Xin Lan/铁心兰 — Iron-Hearted Orchid
Little Fish is a joker-type/fights with words/will talk circles around you until you don’t know your own name, though he can fight (he has the most character development so far). Flawless Flower is the quiet one, and Iron-Hearted Orchid is the female lead and a competent fighter. Fish and Orchid both have sidekicks; Fish’s is a former bully who idolizes the Ten Malevolents and wants to meet them; I’m not sure what Orchid’s is (they are referred to once as the daughters of Wild Lion Yun, but she acts more like a maid/servant than a sister).
The show starts off with Little Fish causing trouble for a bully and ending up with the bully as a sidekick; there was a family of a woman wronged by a noble(?) involved. They visit the man and meet Flawless Flower there.
The Floral Palace is a woman-only group (no male dogs, even), though they did raise Flawless Flower. They take revenge on men who hurt women, and order Flawless Flower to get the man that caused the wronged woman problems, which he does, meeting Little Fish in the process.
The leads are all separately on their way to Jianghu, where a competition for the leadership is about to take place: Little Fish is looking for Red Leaf, the historian, to see if he can find out anything about his family; Iron-Hearted Orchid is looking for information about her father, who was the last leader and has been missing for six months; and Flawless Flower has been ordered by the Floral Palace to win the competition and become the leader of Jianghu. They all end up in the competition, and Orchid wins the first round (fighting: Fish had stolen one of Red Leaf’s books and blackmails various people, and is beaten by one of the others; Flower and Orchid win their battles, but Flower loses to Orchid). They are given a second task (to find a wanted criminal), which they complete together. The third task is to find Wild Lion Yun; Flower goes in one direction, and Fish and Orchid in another.
I think Little Fish has the most screen time so far; I don’t think Orchid was shown apart from the others, and Flower was only alone a few times at the Floral Palace. Most of these episodes were backstory, first of Fish/Flower’s father and his best friend and the events leading up to their birth and separation, and then of Fish’s childhood with the 10 Malevolents (actually 5 misfits). Red Leaf’s clan leader(?) is telling the backstory to the acting leader of Jianghu (framing device; the action is being shown) up to the birth of twins and one child taken to the Floral Palace; I don’t think they knew what happened to the other twin. I think Fish was telling Orchid his own story.
I’ll definitely rent the next disc (cliffhanger, though I doubt they’d kill of a lead this early), but I’m not sure if I’ll finish this; it is 40 episodes, and I’m not sure that I have the patience to sit through that much of it (five hour-long TV episodes equals close to four hours of DVD, subtitled, in an unfamiliar language). I’m working from memory; I had this for six weeks, and returned it a couple of weeks ago (made notes, but didn’t finish writing it up then).
I used to read Agatha Christie mysteries for comfort/light reading; I liked the formulaic aspects of them and watching the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. I ran across this 2004 adaptation on Netflix, featuring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple, and decided to rent it. The first volume was The Murder at the Vicarage, which was the first Miss Marple mystery. Unfortunately, I have already sent it back, and am writing from memory. I’ve never really watched any adaptations of Christie’s books, though I’ve seen bits and pieces here and there.
The plot is a standard murder mystery: Colonel Protheroe is an obnoxious, self-righteous, hard-headed, merciless resident of St. Mary Mead; after loudly and publicly announcing his intention to meet with the vicar to discuss possible misappropriation of church funds (and implying the vicar is responsible), he is murdered in the vicar’s study. Due to Col. Protheroe’s character, there are many suspects. There are the usual twists and turns: planted evidence, overlooked evidence, minor incidents turning out to be important, people who aren’t what they seem to be, people lying for various reasons, etc., leading up to (for me, at least) a somewhat unexpected resolution. I must have read this at some point, but did not really remember it.
I don’t have any problems with the show itself as a murder mystery (except for those caused by not giving it 100% of my attention; I was well into it before I realized that the vicar and the curate were two different people; I also kept confusing the plot with that of The Body in the Library.) There was nothing in the acting or costuming or sets that threw me out of the story (admittedly, it would take appalling acting or blatant anachronisms to do that), but there was one piece of casting that bothered me: Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple. I enjoyed her character, but it was not Miss Marple; she did not seem old enough (though is apparently in her seventies), and did not look the part; Miss Marple is supposed to be an elderly, fluffy, white-haired, seemingly scatterbrained lady who knits and gardens, while Ms. McEwan’s character was grey-haired, active, older (somewhere between middle-aged and elderly) woman.
After watching this, I found a copy of the book and re-read it; there were a few points in the movie that did not seem Christie-ish. The novel itself was the first Miss Marple mystery, written in 1930, and her tenth published novel. It is told from the point of view of the vicar, which means that most of the action takes place off-screen. The book consists of people coming to the vicarage to consult with the vicar or gossip with his wife, the vicar visiting others for various reasons, the vicar accompanying the police on their inquiries, and occasionally the vicar doing a little investigation of his own. Miss Marple is more of a background character, and some of her quirks don’t really show up here, though she is instrumental in solving the mystery.
There are any number of changes between the book and its adaptation; the largest is the structure; it is no longer told from the vicar’s point of view, and many events are shown as they happen instead of being described later, which is necessary for a visual adaptation. Miss Marple has a larger part in the story; many of the people consulting with the vicar are consulting with Miss Marple instead.
Many of the background characters had their stories and/or characters changed, from minor name changes (Lester vs. LeStrange) and minor characterization differences (the vicar’s nephew and Protheroe’s daughter) to major differences in background and characterization (the archaeologist and his assistant); some of these changes bothered me, but none had much of an effect on the story as a whole. Some of the events were altered, added, or removed, but the overall plot and the major character’s motivations in the movie were the same as in the novel.
The novel was written in 1930, though I don’t think there was ever any indication of a specific date for the action; there were a few vague references to the war, but nothing that spoke of a particular time (to me, at least; someone more knowledgeable about that period might think differently). The movie was explicitly set in August 1951, which makes some sense; the other books adapted in Series 1 were published in 1942, 1950, and 1957, so having a shorter time period between them is useful. There was nothing in either that really indicated a specific time to me beyond ‘the past’; the adaptation actually felt vaguely 70s-ish, though I don’t know why.
The main problems I had with this were Miss Marple’s casting/characterization (though had no problems with the actress and did like the character); Miss Marple’s random backstory that was relevant to one of the character’s current conditions (with flashbacks to December 1915), which annoyed me and seemed unnecessary, and the ending. The novels generally end with the arrest and an epilogue of tying up loose ends; this ended with the execution (barely off-screen), which I really did not want to see or hear.
For the most part, I did enjoy this one and will probably watch the next one, which is The Body in the Library, with Joanna Lumley as Mrs. Bantry (supposedly). It’s one of Five Complete Miss Marple Mysteries which I’ve owned forever and enjoyed, though I haven’t read it in years.
Overall, I liked this and would recommend it, but was vaguely dissatisfied and am not sure why. I thought I first heard of it from a list of nominees for some award, but can’t find said list now. It sounded interesting (steampunk/airships/gears/everything is clockwork), and the library actually had it, so I checked it out.
The book starts off in New England, which is an English colony under the reign of Queen Victoria. The world itself is described as:
“God in His infinite wisdom had made the world so, hung Earth in the sky on the tracks of her orbit around the lamp of the sun, then left it alone, for man to find his way. After man’s fall into sin and error, God had sent His son to be the Brass Christ, redeeming man by showing the way to correct thought and deed.
…
Hethor knew there were heresies, folk who claimed that Christ had come to wind the Mainspring of the world again, and even that He was neither the first nor the last.
The angel Gabriel appears to the (sheltered/naïve teenage orphan) clockmaker’s apprentice Hethor and tells him that “The Key Perilous is lost.” and that “The Mainspring of the world runs down…only a man, created in the image of the Tetragrammaton, can set it right.” Hethor sets off from New Haven to Boston to see the court mystic William of Ghent, fails to be taken seriously, and ends up on Her Imperial Majesty’s Ship of the Air Bassett, which is on a mission to the Equatorial Wall to support troops who are attempting to make a base there. He manages to cross the Wall (where the gears of the Earth run on the tracks in the sky) and heads south. The front flap describes it as a journey “from innocence and ignorance to power and self-knowledge.”
The positive: I loved the world itself (though I wouldn’t want to live there); I am a sucker for steampunk-type settings and felt this one was well-constructed/described and internally consistent. I was interested in most of the characters, even Hethor himself (not teenage or male; generally read this sort of book for the settings and side characters and plot). I like Lake’s writing style (the right balance of description/exposition/action for me), though I’m not a particularly visual reader and did have problems a couple of times figuring out what was happening (I have a bad habit of skimming long descriptions).
Minor and personal issues: I was interested in some of the side characters, and wish there had been some way to find out their fates. The lack of female characters bothered me a little; I think there were three named in the book, and I don’t think there were really any in the background, either. I know some of that was due to the world itself (or at least the parts Hethor saw), and I would hate to see token female characters. I’m not sure if the ending was what I would have expected from the beginning (a bit of an anti-climax), though the plot unfolded in a consistent and logical manner.
The negative: One of Hethor’s actions near the end made me hate him a little, and I’m not sure I can accept his justification for that action.
I enjoyed this book, would recommend it, and look forward to reading more by the author.
Ju-ken is a Japanese bassist who plays as support for a variety of people (mostly live, occasionally recording); regularly for Gackt, Anna Tsuchiya, and Tomoyasu Hotei, and occasionally for a wide variety of other people. He is also in the band Hellmetz with Masahiro Muta (dr/leader) and Masanori Mine (g) of Anna’s band + T-2SubLow (tetsusaburo?) (v); they released a CD at their December 10th performance and it is now up for preorder everywhere with a release date of Jan. 11, 2008.
2008 information is in a new post.
In 2009 he moved his website and blog to a new site: ju-ken.velvet.jp and blog.ju-ken.velvet.jp. As of August 2009, his old blog entries are still up at the old site.
This page shows up in image searches from people looking for his Darts x TSUTAYA pictures; they were linked at the very bottom (and only ever links, so I don’t know why they show up in image searches). They are here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 (missing one, but it was just hands)
I’m going to dump this here to get it out of my head and somewhere I can find it later; most of this is online somewhere, but due to his blog deletions (deleted all entries in February, disabled comments for a while, re-enabled comments, deleted everything at the end of June, and started a new website+diary in July), is scattered across the internet. He now seems to have deleted all entries before November 13; I’m not sure if it was intentional or accidental.
This is probably not a complete list, since I was working from memory for most of it; it is probably as complete as it’s going to get, though I may go back through some of the Japanese fan’s blogs and confirm some of the vague information. There is post for 2008, which will hopefully be more complete than this one, and I plan on doing an overview of his past career eventually.
His site has a new address: www.ju-kenthebass.net, though it seems to be a redirect to the web.mac.com site.
Things Ju-Ken did this year:
- performed in the Training Days/Drug Party shows in Korea (Jan 28-29) and Taiwan (Feb 7-8) and is in the documentary DVDs released for those, as well as the DVD of the GACKT TRAINING DAYS 2006 DRUG PARTY (Zepp Tokyo)
- Played on the single 「RETURNER～闇の終焉～」 released 2007/06/20 (Returner~Yami no Shuen~)
- TV performances for single 「RETURNER～闇の終焉～」
- unsure about 「野に咲く花のように」 (2007/02/07 release; he does not mention it, and the TV performances were Gackt-only) (No ni Saku Hana no Yo Ni)
- Fanclub trip to LA in March (with a visit to West Coast Choppers; hopefully, this is still up on Jun-ji’s site somewhere)
- Fanclub ski trip in February 2007
- is not supporting Gackt in the November performances (did not play on the new songs on the upcoming album) but has the 2008 fan club ski trip on his schedule.
- played in a variety of live performances with Anna Tsuchiya (some earlier in the year; more recently several in Japan + festivals in Korea and Taiwan and at Anime Expo in LA); two dates in September, three in October, and one in November. He’s not playing all of her fall dates due to conflicts with Tomoyasu Hotei’s tour, but will be at her year-end dates (Back Night Tokyo 2007-08 Shibuya AX Dec. 30 and Back Night Osaka 2007-08 Namba Hatch Dec. 31).
- was in the “Bubble Trip” PV (and probably played on the single released 2007/08/08; the credits were ambiguous)
- played on a few tracks on her ANNA TSUCHIYA inspi’ NANA(BLACK STONES) CD
- is in her next PV (“Cocoon”, release 2008.01.30) filmed in December
- played in the Tomoyasu Hotei/Brian Setzer/Char: Super Soul Sessions in January (DVD released in June)
- will play for HOTEI and The WANDERERS FUNKY PUNKY TOUR 2007-2008 from October 2007 to February 2008; The Wanderers are currently featured on the top page of Hotei’s site
- he is occasionally posting in the tour blog and is sometimes mentioned in the backstage info
- was mentioned (with the rest of The Wanderers) at Hotei’s appearance on Yahoo Talk Dec. 11 (is streaming, available through 2008/01/17)
- in the PV for “Wanderers” (in the yahoo talk around 40 minutes in)
- I think there was also a performance with Hotei for something related to Cartier in the spring or summer
- TV performances for the “Tokyo ni mo Attanda/Muteki no Kimi” single (did not play on the single itself) (東京にもあったんだ / 無敵のキミ)
- “Tokyo ni mo Attanda” on the Music Station Spring Songs Special (2007.04.06)
- CDTV 2007/4/15 (far in the background on both of these)
- “Muteki no Kimi” on Music Station 2007/4/27 (can actually be seen and is singing backup)
- an actual live performance in the late spring/early summer
- Support for KOH+ (Kou Shibasaki + Masaharu Fukuyama) on ”２００７FNS歌謡祭” airing Dec. 5 at 19：00（JST）.
- Yahoo Talk performance (announced a few days before and had sheet music in front of him during; not sure if he was on the single)
- performance 2007/08/07: Date FM Starlight Explosion 2007
- performance 2007/10/21: 岩船山クリフステージ 2007 Cliff Stage Special #7
Other Musical:
- Support for S.K.I.N. (Yoshiki/Gackt/Sugizo/Miyavi) at Anime Expo
- Played on Inoran’s CD 「ニライカナイ」 (Niraikanai, tracks 3 and 8) + an instore appearance on 7/21
- played several gigs with Hellmetz, and sold a CD at the 12/10 show:
- Feb 20 at 原宿ルイード (Harajuku RUIDO) 「魂の共演 SMALL4 !」 feat. tko, The CIGARPOCKETS, HELLMETZ, CRAVE, KATSUMI SETZCHER With SMALL3
- May 6 at morph-tokyo (六本木モーフ) with Fifty50/50Fifty, BULL ZEICHEN 88
- Jul 9 at morph-tokyo (六本木モーフ) 「人生いつでも工事中 vol.1」 with Lion Heads,
ビートン（ピンストライパー） - Aug 8 at morph-tokyo (六本木モーフ) 「人生いつでも工事中 vol.2」 with ストロボ, Dakota Star
- Dec 10 at morph-tokyo (六本木モーフ) 「人生いつでも工事中 vol.3 ～HELLMETZ CD発売記念ワンマンライブ～」 (one-man, CD release)
- performed at 「魂の共演 SMALL4 !」 feat. tko [TOSHIYUKI KISHI] / THE CIGARPOCKETS [MASANOSUKE,NON,YUI]+ MARCY,Shue / (YELLOW)HELLMETZ [Ju-Ken,MUTA,MINE,T-2] / CRAVE [Ju-Ken,SHUE,SCHON] / KATSUMI SETZCHER With SMALL3 [KATSUMI ONISHI,TOSHIYUKI KISHI,Ju-Ken,Shue] (02/20 at 原宿ルイード (Harajuku RUIDO))
- Performed on and wrote music for a track on 酒井愁 （Shue）’s solo album 「夜露死苦哀愁」 (tracklisting, Ju-ken’s entry)
- A “Secret Live” Dec. 16 = 浜崎あゆみ(Ayumi Hamasaki) – イクスピアリ
- something with Ends (fan club trip in March and two unplugged dates in May)
- a performance with Heath in February, maybe (was mentioned before the deletion in Feb, but was supposed to happen afterwards); the pictures from Feb 2007 on Heath’s site are carefully cropped to show only Heath, but he was singing and so presumably needed a bassist (and I’m fairly sure he was on Ju-ken’s list before then).
- I swear there was a mention of playing with Olive Sunday (Mine of Anna’s band/Hellmetz), though I don’t know if it was this year, and they have an official bassist
Non-Performance
- became an endorser for Sugi basses and was in an ad in Bass magazine (I think it was the 2007/07 issue with Paul McCartney on the cover)
- model for the Collaboration the 9th of Darts x TSUTAYA and possibly designed a ring (one is labeled Darts x Ju-Ken). It was only through Aug 30; the pictures are here: 1 2 3 4 5 6
- a limited edition jersey (30 pieces!) with Zero Fighter
- Action figure! (nifty, but not seriously, unfortunately)
- T-Shirt! selling on Hotei’s tour or through his site (now has a “Goods” section).
This ended up being longer than I expected; I don’t know why this sort of information stays in my head while useful things are forgotten. It’s now 2008, and I’ve started a new post; I will update this if I find out anything I missed, though.
This is a first attempt at a book/movie/music/tvlog (medialog?), with occasional digressions into j-rock fangirlness; I’m not sure how successful it will be. Trying to write something coherent and concise and constructive about a book is harder than it looks.
