Bit Bored of the Rings

[Taro Toporific]

Shochiku Says `Two Towers' to Miss Japan Sales Target
Bloomberg - 14:30 May 28 Tokyo AOL Time Warner Inc.'s ``The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' will fall short of its sales target in Japan by at least a third,

[Big Booger]

Japanese never know how to appreciate quality entertainment.. they prefer things like NHK telethons, morning musume, and so on..
How entertaining..

I mean morning musume TV interviews or The Two Towers... you be the judge.

[vvx]

Is there a japanese channel I can watch the morning musume TV interivews on in the US?

[Steve Bildermann]

[GomiGirl]

However NHK does have its BBC2 knockoff channels BS1 and BS2. If your into things Japanese (and if you living here you must be into *something* Japanese) they do broadcast some incredibly in-depth shows. They had a series of documentaries on the Gulf war and its effects on Asia which I actually found myself taking notes on, very professional. They also had a 15 hour review of Japanese musical culture from Enka to Punk to Rap to the KOHAKU. Except for the inevitable homage to Hibari Misora (God I hate that fucking woman) it was really great stuff.

Completely agree with you Steve. BS1 and BS2 have some great shows. The doco's are my favorite as well.

[Big Booger]

unfortunately I am a skyperfect TV subscriber.. so I don't get BS1 and BS2. Don't get me wrong, I know some Japanese TV is great.. I personally like London Hearts *cheesy I know but a great concept in a TV show.. very reality based hehehehe

I like Food Battle, Iron Chef, Project X, and so on..

Japanese TV offers unique perspectives on life in Japan.. like when they interview a pickle maker, or a rice farmer.. or someone who is disabled in Japan.. I like those shows..

But and here comes the end of all ends.. if you are not a BS1 or 2 subscriber.. and you are stuck with your 4-5 channels.. then you are forced to watch crap quite often. :P

I especially hate the interview shows.. where some bimbo with half a brain comes on to talk about shopping, or eating, or fashion.. wretched...


that or there will be some kind of zaney show where they are playing large sized video games and other activities.. just silly. Like Barney for adults

I know North America has plenty of garbage shows.. but with 700 channels (was a direcTV subscriber) I had plenty to watch.. a lot of variety hehehe if the garbage came on, there was always Court TV or Discovery Channel.

[kotatsuneko]

i find myself going the other way..

back in london i would try to limit watching tv to documenaries, decent films and good comedy, on the whole i would avoid it as much as possible, tho the wife liked to have it on as much as possible, that thing about being home = the tv should be on..

well, here, i dont find myself wanting to read as much about japan, cos, damn i`m there.. whereas in london i`d spend as much time as possible trying to read a variety of things/opinons about the place and have fun tracking rare books down at places like fine books oriental etc..

sapporo at least doesnt really feel like japan, but as it wasnt really until recently that cant be helped and it does have some advantages that set off the cultural lackings.. damn i wish it was larger dowtown anyhow..

rambling...!

tv, yes! well, like the man Steve said, its a wonderful teacher, and if you watch enough, even dialects dont seem quite so daunting.. i find myself going very much down in the gutter of pop entertainment.. its a lot of fun, and makes everyday comprehension a whole lot easier.. i always watch tv with a notebook by my side.. all i need now is to find a language exchange partner to trade findings with, amazingly the wife agreed to me doing this, even if it was a woman... whoah.. finally she is realising that i am kinda serious about being here and that a partner is not the best person to help with language problems...

what i also find amazingly helpful and supportive is just the everyday postings here, from people who have been here for decades, or have left and may return, or newbies.. even a runt like me.. feel free to change the first letter there if you wish ^^

it is therapeutic even to come home and crash in front of a show you are familiar with, wednesdays are great as Diamond girl is on, then one night r/r followed by miracle.. then theres that show with the guy from kinki kids on later..

somehow in the small group of talentos/presenters/idols on tv you , well , i find a group of people i can relate to , a set of virtual friends perhaps that help you unwind, make you laugh, and sometimes think a bit also..

kids laugh when they ask who my best friend is and i reply TV.. but here, it really is..

[Steve Bildermann]

all i need now is to find a language exchange partner to trade findings with, amazingly the wife agreed to me doing this, even if it was a woman... whoah..

Oh Yeeeeeaaaaah. You *think* she agrees *now* - wait till you introduce her to your new language exchange partner Yumi Chan or Setsuko Chan. We'll see how long that arrangement lasts.

[kotatsuneko]

heh , yeh, well i`m really looking to meet a guy, if at all possible.. ^^

[ramchop]

it is therapeutic even to come home and crash in front of a show you are familiar with, wednesdays are great as Diamond girl is on

OK, the answer is predictable, but I have to ask. I stopped watching this as soon as the wife and kiddies boarded the plane. But they're back and she wants to know what happened.

So did she end up with the boss?

[Andocrates]

I saw LOTR with a Japanese friend. I think she just didn't get the whole western mythology thing. She went in with an open mind and spoke English so I think it doesn't "ringu" with Japanese.

To tell the truth I didn't care that much for the movies. I did like Gollum. It just couldn't meet with the LOTR worlds I had created in my mind.

[Naniwan Kid]

The best sequels are better then the first and reward those that have seen the first. They should be able to stand alone.

For example: The Empire Strikes Back. Godfather Part II.

A movie is a movie, and I thought the second LOTR movie was boring compared to the first one. It was a lot of filler and led to a great battle scene. I like how Matrix Reloaded was over the top of the first one, but if you didn't see the first one, you were fucked. It complicated shit so much, so the next one (Revolutions) better sum that stuff up.

[kotatsuneko]

diamond girl, well its special to me, its only the second drama i have watched in full, after home and away with miho chan..

anyhow, sure the chick ended up with her boss.. kind of!

she moved on from her former fiance, after seeing how he was flitting between her and his supposed new fiance, and after an episode where she was really cold to her boss, both me and the wife thought this was totally out of character, so see later on this

i say ,.. kind of.. well, as you know her boss, who was in another really famous drama that was re running recently in the afternoon . and the actor who plays him actually seems to give a shit about acting..

ermm. where was i?

oh yeah, well she was supposed to return to australia with her mate to start anew, but after she pushed her boss to take on a case, of a childs death due to hospital negligence - a direct reference to a previous case the chara had in the series pre history- he ended up resigning and winning the case against his own company who took on the case - he set up his own office

as his chara was a real hard boiled ken chan kinda guy, he could never say how he felt for her, and she kind of thought that perhaps he didnt feel the same about her, but in the last minute as she was about to leave, after setting him up with an office in her old apartment , he rattled that daruma tea cup , showing he wanted her to stay and she did..

thing is, if you watched the various next week eye catchs, the previous week, we saw both characters attending a church wedding as bride and groom, and also there were many inconsitencies in the eye catches and actual plot, which may explain why she was so cold to her boss later in the series...

that is to say, according to the wife and others i have discussed doramas with, often if the cast dont get along, or some funding is withdrawn, etc , the series get cut short, so things dont always make sense, when due to time constraints the eye catches get filmed and logged with episodes, showing you stuff that dont happen in the canned version and plot errors..

fuck i hope that made sense and answers your question... if not, your partner can find info here:

http://www.fujitv.co.jp/diamond/index.html

it was a bloody good series!