Childhood Memories: Japanese and Wuxia Series

The other day a FB friend posted a video clip from an old Japanese series that we used to watch when we were kids. Back then computers were still a luxury and there were not many TV programs for kids, so video rental providers were popular (along with handheld game devices). I was saturated mostly with Japanese series (anime and non-anime) and wuxia (martial arts) series ever since I was young and I still have fond memories of these even until now. I still love Japanese anime and wuxia series.

Let me share some of my memories that have recently brought up to the surface by watching that video clip. Here goes:

1. One of my most remarkable memories of a Japanese anime series was when a bad guy in the series died and the girl who loved him the most did something extraordinary. She used a machine to take over his body to get some revenge. This body switch was such an amazing concept for a young person like me and it's left such a profound mark on me. In an anime world, imagination is the key!

Side note: the thing is, I don't remember where I saw this scene, but it's been stuck on my mind for the longest time ever, so I can't find any links to this just yet. 

2. The said video showed a superhero that could produce fire from his hair (and could shoot fire from the hair). How awesome is that? :-D I don't care how the mechanics work, but the sheer possibility of making it happen on screen is super cool. 


3. In one Japanese series, there was a female robot that could shoot boob missiles. The only downside of this was that once both missiles were shot, then she was doomed. I just found some info on this robot. No wonder she wasn't built with lots of weapon. She was built for peace! Here's the link if you want to read about her: Aphrodite A.  

I couldn't find any video clip of her in action in the anime, but here's a video of her action figure (including the boob shots) in case you want to see it: 
 

4. I loved watching wuxia series when I was young because of the many female characters in the movie who could do martial arts. As a tomboy, I loved the idea of strong women he he he he...Funnily enough, though, I never questioned something that I considered an epic love story in one wuxia series until much later. You see, in one story, this "forever young" female loner took in a young boy and trained him in martial arts. As he grew older, they fell in love with each other, but many people thought it was unnatural for them to be together, so they were separated for many, many years. They went through a lot of hardships, but in the end they were reunited (the guy lost one arm at one point in his journey). Here's some info on the female character: Xiaolongnu.  

Move away, Romeo and Juliet! LOL!!! 

Here's a video clip that some scenes from the series. You can see how the guy has progressed from a young adult into a mature man in it. 

3BT: Random Days

1. Enough me time (recharging time) at home where I get to do whatever I want, which includes kicking my ass to exercise more. Love the endorphin!

2. When the thermometer shows that indoor temperature is cooler than outside temperature. Summer is on, baby! :-D

3. Reading a magazine at MIL's place with the sun on my back and the wind blowing the leaves, creating beautiful shadows on the living room floor.

4. Being reminded again as to how precious my husband is. How patient he has been with me and how he's never made me feel like an idiot nor has he ever told me that I'm stupid or an idiot.

5. The things we take for granted: the ability to walk, to eat, to sing, to hear, to drink on our own without anybody's help.

6. Older blog posts that remind me of some details that I've either completely or half forgotten. 

7. Finding the old songs that have been playing in my head because someone have compiled the songs in a youtube video. I watched these wuxi series on VHS tapes when I was little (except the last one on the list). The women used to be my heroines: the kind that knew martial arts and could therefore protect themselves ha ha...And I used to try to imitate their hairdo. Ahem...:-D How nostalgic!



8. The roses have finally started blooming. YEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!!

9. Clearing up my computer desk because husband had bought a new bookshelf, so I could move the piles of books to an empty shelf. Nice to have more space!

10. Printing some raindrop photos and putting them near my computer desk and one photo on the kitchen wall. Every time I look at them, I remember the feeling I had when I took the photos: I felt like a fairy in a fairy land, surrounded by thousands and thousands of beautiful raindrops.

Curse of the Golden Flower

Saw "Curse of the Golden Flower" last night with hubby. The visuals and the attention to details were amazing. I was suddenly pulled into a life that was really rigid and so full of rituals. I enjoyed the movie because of the visuals and the built-up tension it showed. I felt like sitting on the edge of my sofa, anticipating the climax...wondering where the story would take me.

I wonder, though, why are there so many movies with this kind of ending? The ending reminds me of my feeling when I watched "Hero" and "Raise the Red Lantern", and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." All of these movies are Zhang Yimou's movies, btw.

Here's the trailer of "Curse of the Golden Flower":

Some of the visual beauties in "Curse of the Golden Flower" reminded me of some scenes in "Hero", just like in this one (the fight scene starts at 1:00):

Whenever I check out movies in imdb site, I always like clicking on trivia part. Do you know how long it takes to shoot the above fighting scene?

Here's the answer: 

"The lake scenes took almost three weeks to film because the director insisted that the lake's surface had to be perfectly still and mirror-like during filming. Due to the natural currents, this occurred every day for only two hours starting at 10am. To adjust to this phenomenon, the filmmakers arose at 5am each day to begin five hours of preparation and set-up."

And I bet many people still remember the lovely fight scene among bamboo trees in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon":

And while reading this trivia page, I chuckled upon finding these sentences:

"Concerned that Western audiences would not be able to tell Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro apart in the beginning of the film as they are dressed similarly, Yimou Zhang had Kaneshiro's character eat peanuts throughout many of the opening scenes to distinguish them." 

That paragraph describes R2's feelings whenever he watches this kind of martial arts movies. He says that he enjoys watching Asian martial arts movies, but sometimes in movies that are fast-paced, he loses track on the characters he he he he he...

Anyway, I think among those four movies, I still enjoy "Curse of the Golden Flower" more than the others, but for some reason "Raise the Red Lantern" has left the deepest mark in my heart.