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Koi Tsudu Youtube Digest

Koi Tsudu Youtube Digest

It seems like this was not translated fully, so I translated from 59:20-1:09:22. I’ll keep updating this post till I finish (there’s about 10 minutes left to the video)

Kousei: Nabe-nii what did you think? When senior had to say the line, “This is the remedy”

Watanabe: When the show aired I really looked forward to this part.

Kousei: Right?

Watanabe: So when I watched, he flung open his coat.

Kou…

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Recently I’ve been nothing short of obsessed with the Korean fusion sageuk romcom, The Tale of Nokdu. It’s a solid project which is amazing in its attention to detail – definitely worth the watch, and rewatch. Out of the many great fight scenes in this drama, my favourite would have to be the one in Episode 12. A group of female assassins – the Virtuous Women Corps, infiltrate a birthday celebration but are found out. In the midst of the fight, our protagonist Nokdu rides in to help. It’s not very long but the way the cinematography and music comes together never ceases to impress me.

So let’s start with when the women are exposed as assassins. As they prepare the fight, the camera cuts to each woman in turn – a mix of close-ups and medium close-up shots of each drawing their sword.

The tightness of the shot also allows us a good look at their determined expressions. It’s very reminiscent of Chinese wuxia movies – it’s designed to make you understand you’re watching the heroes here.

At this point more soldiers rush in. Observe how the camera is placed low here. Coupled with the diegetic roar of men breaking in, it increases the tension immediately and makes them look more imposing.

Compared to the sense of tightness of the previous shot, we’re suddenly freed into a wide angle shot, with Nokdu riding forward. Because of this contrast, we get a sense of breath and vigour. At the same time, the gallop of the hooves is in sync with the music. Therefore it adds to the sense of urgency in the scene. Nokdu is swooping in to save the day, complete with his gorgeous flowing hanbok.

OK FAVE SHOT HERE. You know what, they really didn’t have to make a shot like this. They could have just had the horse scene, cut back to the fight, and then add in the part where Nokdu glides in (more on that later). But it’s BEAUTIFUL. Bird’s eye angles can be used in a variety of ways, in this case I see it as a transition to connect Nokdu with the greater action.

Also do you note how in the horseriding scene the camera is moving leftwards…and how in this scene it’s still moving left? You can actually FEEL the continuity and seamlessness. There’s a thread tying this entire sequence together from start to end – and it’s completely intentional.

Here we have one long take of the assassins fighting. This is the part that made me want to do an analysis in the first place! You feel like you are in the fight, like it’s happening in real time. It increases the sense that there’s action all-around. Something you would know if they kept cutting, but you can feel more because they did one long take.

Also the camera is unsteady, you’re angling up to look up, you’re angling down when someone falls to the ground. So again, it’s like you are partaking in the action. As an audience, this point of view plays a large part in helping you immerse in what is going on onscreen.

You see that at the end of Ssook’s twirl with the sword, we finally have a cut to a medium close-up short of her. This cut is so seamless you can barely notice it. It draws our focus right in on her, and together with how she delivered her line, it emphasises her strength. The camera didn’t steady itself fully because we’re still in the thick of the action. You could say it’s the unsteadiness that maintains continuity between the long take and this shot.

I will skip the next few seconds to the part where Nokdu slides in. However, I want you to note how many of these shots in symmetry or have some kind of visual pattern. Duo, duo. Two ladies killing a man cut to two ladies killing a man.

Then, at the point where Ssook is cornered, Nokdu slides in. Another beautiful shot!

Here, the camera at a low level again. If it was placed higher, Nokdu’s entrance wasn’t going to be as imposing. Also, the camera tracks forward as Nokdu glides moves in. Again imagine if it was still. You won’t feel the same power as when the camera is moving WITH Nokdu.

Last note, even though I won’t analyse the rest of the fight, the moment right after Nokdu glides in, and says “It’s hot” the entire tone changes. It’s an incredible switch into comedy and the remainder of the fight, the way it’s shot, the bgm, the choreography, all reflect that.

The Tale of Nokdu is, as a friend of mine has pointed out – the little drama that could. It’s a drama that may not be a blockbuster, but is entirely sincere and detailed in its execution.

Fight Scene Analysis: Why You Should Watch The Tale of Nokdu Recently I’ve been nothing short of obsessed with the Korean fusion sageuk romcom, The Tale of Nokdu…

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the look / ichikawa mikako in stella mccartney, nov 2017

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Bread of Happiness 2012 ‘しあわせのパン’ Directed by Yukiko Mishima

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there aren’t any kuragehime memes so. here you go.

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#god if only the drama had what it takes#to go in this direction instead wrt the romance#this wouldve been sooo good#yukito leaving and then him and morio slowly finding their way back to each other (@fukaifukai-mori)

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I don't mind! Love both the show and the manga!! But I do ship Inari and Shu though 😅

hi is anyone willing to talk about the kuragehime drama with me ?? or even the manga idm. just. someone. i literally ship everything (except inari and shu bc obvioud reasons) and i love all characters. so.

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I don’t agree with tumblr’s whole “you can’t enjoy this thing because it’s problematic” vibe, but watching Friends is weird now knowing that the actor who played Chandler led an invasion of Japan in 1863, which led to the forceful Westernisation of the isolated country.

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Ok wow.

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だからさ - Picking up regional dialects as a Japanese learner

I work in Hakodate, in Hokkaido, the prefecture of ‘People who speak Japanese nobody can understand’. Besides the general dialect of the Hokkaido region, there are also some differences between cities. Hakodate has it’s own dialect and accent. For Japanese people, these dialects are not easy to identify. For me? I couldn’t tell if it hit me with a brick. 

Even though I’ve learnt Japanese for a number of years, speaking and listening was never my strong point. Hakodate is the first place where I’m actually in a situation where I listen to Japanese every day. When I got here, to me there was only two types of Japanese - Japanese I could understand, and Japanese I couldn’t understand. 

When I came hear, when people spoke Japanese I couldn’t understand, I just assumed that my Japanese wasn’t advanced enough to understand. It didn’t occur to me that they might just have a thick accent, or better yet, be speaking completely in dialect. 

I have a colleague who has been working here for about 30 years, and everyone remarks on how he speaks in an obvious Hakodate dialect. To me, I couldn’t tell the difference. Then just this year a new colleague came from Osaka. I could tell he spoke in a Kansai dialect because the intonation was a little different, and also because he would say things like ’分からへん’ instead of ‘分からない’. But one day I caught a really interesting conversation between him and the school administrator. 

Her: If you don’t mind me asking…you don’t sound like you come from Osaka. You sound like maybe you’re from Kyoto instead?

Him: Oh yea, I was born in Kyoto. 

So apparently he was born in Kyoto, moved to Tokyo at around elementary school age, moved back to Osaka after university to work there for 10 years. AND STILL, people could tell he was not only from Kansai, but specifically from Kyoto. 

Keep reading

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Teiichi: Battle of Supreme High 2017 ‘帝一の國’ Directed by Akira Nagai

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だからさ - Picking up regional dialects as a Japanese learner

I work in Hakodate, in Hokkaido, the prefecture of ‘People who speak Japanese nobody can understand’. Besides the general dialect of the Hokkaido region, there are also some differences between cities. Hakodate has it’s own dialect and accent. For Japanese people, these dialects are not easy to identify. For me? I couldn’t tell if it hit me with a brick. 

Even though I’ve learnt Japanese for a number of years, speaking and listening was never my strong point. Hakodate is the first place where I’m actually in a situation where I listen to Japanese every day. When I got here, to me there was only two types of Japanese - Japanese I could understand, and Japanese I couldn’t understand. 

When I came hear, when people spoke Japanese I couldn’t understand, I just assumed that my Japanese wasn’t advanced enough to understand. It didn’t occur to me that they might just have a thick accent, or better yet, be speaking completely in dialect. 

I have a colleague who has been working here for about 30 years, and everyone remarks on how he speaks in an obvious Hakodate dialect. To me, I couldn’t tell the difference. Then just this year a new colleague came from Osaka. I could tell he spoke in a Kansai dialect because the intonation was a little different, and also because he would say things like ’分からへん’ instead of ‘分からない’. But one day I caught a really interesting conversation between him and the school administrator. 

Her: If you don’t mind me asking...you don’t sound like you come from Osaka. You sound like maybe you’re from Kyoto instead?

Him: Oh yea, I was born in Kyoto. 

So apparently he was born in Kyoto, moved to Tokyo at around elementary school age, moved back to Osaka after university to work there for 10 years. AND STILL, people could tell he was not only from Kansai, but specifically from Kyoto. 

My own journey has been completely unconscious. I only started getting confirmation that I might be speaking in a dialect when I was ordering ramen from a (fellow) foreigner in Tokyo. I said a word, I can’t remember which, but I said the word with the last syllable unstressed. In Hakodate, I realised afterwards, it happens often, our last syllable tends to sound like it’s floating upwards. Anyway, the ramen guy looked at me and stressed the last syllable for me. 

And just today I was telling my colleague, whose a Hakodate local, about why I wanted to visit a certain attraction. I said, ‘妹が好きだからさ′ (’Because my sister likes it’) and she was like ‘Hehe, you’re starting to speak Hakodate-ben now eh?’

I had no idea that ‘だからさ’ was Hakodate dialect! Maybe it isn’t specifically but the way I pronounced it. It amused me. It shouldn’t be shocking that I’m speaking in a regional dialect, as a Japanese learner I had always figured that I’d learn ‘Japanese’ - without considering that hey, Japanese is not just one standard thing. 

As a Chinese Singaporean this should have been more obvious to me. I don’t speak the standard Beijing dialect which is so commonly thought in language schools. It is, to my ears, even a little ticklish. I remember when I was studying New York, one of the guys in my class was Taiwanese. We were the only two Chinese speakers in our Japanese class. During break, the Chinese class students in the room next to us were reciting sentences out loudly, and the Taiwanese guy and I just looked at each other across the room and started laughing. A unique bonding experience in a foreign country. 

Of course, it’s not that the Beijing accent is funny or inferior to either of our accents. It’s, as I said, the most standard. I mean, one could argue that we are the ones who speak bastardised Chinese. But it was just the fact that to us, the Beijing accent is very thick (a lot of ‘tongue-curling’) and distinct. 

But that’s the beauty of languages. Even while knowing the Mandarin Chinese of my country, there’s still so many dialects and accents out there. My dad can very easily identify which prefecture a Mainland Chinese comes from, despite growing up in Malaysia. This fascinates me a lot, and it has to do with interacting with Chinese speakers from many regions.

Perhaps one day I would be able to be that advanced in my learning of Japanese that I’d be able to hear a person speak and go ‘Oh, you’re from that city!’ That’s certainly my goal. And to me, there’s no problem not learning ‘standard Japanese’. Mostly because it’s usually limited to the spoken side of things, and also because I’m quite easily influenced (or adaptable, if you wanna spin in positively). 

What about you, as a Japanese learner, do you think it’s a must to learn ‘standard’ Tokyo-spoken Japanese first?

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Kuranosuke Looks Ep 8 // “No matter where she goes, no matter how far she goes, I’ll hold on to her.”

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Teiichi: Battle of Supreme High 2017 ‘帝一の國’ Directed by Akira Nagai

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So, thai hotels are following me now...?