#imagase

[semash]

[braceletofteeth]

A woman like that suits you.

You think so?

[the-rat-wins]

obsessed with how this guy is dating the gay japanese equivalent of veronica mars

[99pacificpassions]

Cat Corners a Mouse

@absolutebl:

The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese AKA Kyuso wa Chizu no Yume wo Miru (Japan 2020) - Drama llama queers so queer and so dramatic it's like Japan is trying to PROVE something: obsession, cheating, break-up, reunion, then break up again, all of it explicit. This show is just SO JAPANESE. I can't even, but you should watch it and you'll know exactly what I mean. Something like My Personal Weatherman owes it's lineage to this kind of BL. If you like Japan naked, boney, emo, and smoking (hot & ciggy) you will love this, and should watch it. It's objectively amazing, I can't stand it, but I NEED people to talk about it more.

Absolute-kun gives so much and asks for so little. Here's my personal appreciation of this terrific film, for him and others interested in top shelf BL…

Spoilers ahead, but I felt Cornered Mouse (currently on Viki) was better the second time because I could soak up the details. If you haven’t seen it, you might enjoy it more with some background beforehand. It's a bit difficult to keep up with.

The seme is Imagase Wataru (on left above), a gay man passionately in love with Otomo Kyoichi, a businessman married to a woman. Wataru (given name) is like a character out of American Noir… literally a chain-smoking private investigator.  Like a Noir protagonist, we may not like his means, but he has a code he lives by.

Kyoichi is handsome and sympathetic, but he places himself in situations where women eventually suggest a sexual liaison and his fatal character flaw is that he can’t say no to women. But the philanderer can say no to Wataru, to a point. He’s much rougher with Wataru’s feelings than he is with any of the women in the movie.

The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese is based on a manga of the same name and reviewers say that it’s about 65% faithful to the original story. Another reviewer compared it to Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, which is one of the best films ever made. I won’t claim Cornered Mouse is in Mood's league, but I would say it's close and that the main differences are Mood’s opulence and heterosexuality. Cornered Mouse is the best-crafted BL I’ve seen to date.

The film has some great writing, but prefers to show instead of tell, which requires a lot from the talented actors. Narita Ryo as Wataru is remarkable and a couple screenshots aren’t going to do his performance justice, but here he's hunched on a stool like a cat:

Here's Wataru after Kyoichi wakes up to find him looking through the text messages on Kyoichi's phone... in the same room: 

Narita Ryo transcends the AbsoluteBL bar for great acting. Elsewhere, he’s not afraid to look ugly in a scene.

Obviously, this film’s in the BL category of “gay man converts straight man”, generally considered a doomed goal within the queer experience. Somehow, Cornered Mouse’s river of details makes this seem realistic, mostly due to the straight lead’s indecisiveness and Wataru’s persistence... and his fellatio techniques.

Negative reviewers of Cornered Mouse never dispute that it's well-crafted. They tend to complain about the ending and that the characters were difficult to like. Yet, the movie is about accepting people for who they are. If you don’t believe me… well, here’s the director Yukisada Isao:

My hot take is that Cornered Mouse is less about the lead characters accepting each other for who they are and more about the audience accepting them despite Kyoichi’s duplicity and Wataru’s lack of ethics.

The audience is also asked to accept the dilemmas inherent within the “gay man converts straight man” BL subgenre. At a key moment, well along in the men’s sexual relationship, Kyoichi’s college lover has called them both separately for drinks. She makes Kyoichi choose between them, resulting in this exchange:

Kyoichi (to Wataru): “I could never choose you. No straight guy would. You get it, don’t you?”

Wataru, smirking: “Yes.”

Kyoichi then goes to bed with the ex-girlfriend, but can’t perform. He returns to Wataru and is “punished” for his hubris. 

Previously, Wataru has asked to be the top during sex, but was rebuffed. After getting drilled, Kyoichi treats his relationship with Wataru with new respect. Yes, he will break up with him and even get engaged with a woman, but he goes through the formalities of a break up, on par with a heterosexual relationship. He’s far more concerned with Wataru’s feelings, even as he’s crushing him, than he was before that key moment.

The film asks its contemporary audience to come to terms with this more traditional implication: that Kyoichi “turned gay” by taking the sub role.

The other problem for many reviewers was Cornered Mouse’s open ending. They thought it was open, anyway. I didn’t. Kyoichi breaks off his engagement to a lovely woman and vows to “prepare” for the return of his lover Wataru. Kyoichi has always been the reluctant partner. Throughout the film, Wataru pursued Kyoichi no matter his target’s resistance... stalking, blackmailing, pleading... as if he had no limits. Of course, he’ll be back for more. Besides, in the manga, it’s made clear that’s what happens.

Wataru talking earlier in the film:

[tell-me-im-your-favorite]

.

Names:

N/A

Mangas:

The Cornered Mouse Dreams Of Cheese

The Carp On The Chopping Block Jumps Twice

Author: Setona Mizushiro

Place: N/A

( My friend gave me their copies :3)

.

💚

.

#otomo #imagase #thecorneredmousedreamsofcheese #setonamizushiro #manga #mangarecommendations #gay #romance #bl #mxm #afterschoolnightmare

[darkartfinds]

La Peste by imagase

[lesnuitsdepoesie]

Le fossé qui nous sépare ne sera jamais comblé. Alors nous continuerons à y construire des ponts. Et quand ceux-ci seront emportés par les flots, nous les reconstruirons.

Setona Mizushiro, Le Jeu du Chat et de la Souris, citation partie 2.

[umanisti]

窮鼠はチーズの夢を見る (the cornered mouse dreams of cheese), dir. yukisada isao

[braceletofteeth]

Sorry. I can't do this.

All I asked for is kissing.

Come on. It's not that easy.

[fluffyrabbitofdoom]

“Besides, when you're unsteady on your feet like me, you can walk straighter carrying a difficult burden.”

Drama and audio drama: The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese  (Kyuuso wa Chiizu no Yume wo Miru/ 窮鼠はチーズの夢を見る ) & The Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice (Sojou no Koi wa Nido Haneru/  俎上の鯉は二度跳ねる)  Characters: Kyouichi Ootomo and Wataru Imagase  Song: Trouble I'm In by Twinbed

[tell-me-im-your-favorite]

.

Names:

Otomo

Imagase

Manga: The Carp On The Chopping Block Jumps Twice

Author: Setona Mizushiro

Place: N/A

( My friend gave me their copies :3)

.

THIS WAS S O S A D 😭

.

ALSO, THE FACT THE AUTHOR ALSO WROTE AFTER SCHOOL NIGHTMARE!!! AAAAAA

.

#otomo #imagase #thecorneredmousedreamsofcheese #setonamizushiro #manga #mangarecommendations #gay #romance #bl #mxm #afterschoolnightmare

[darkartfinds]

La Peste by imagase on DeviantArt

[legend-collection]

Yuki-onna

Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair and blue lips. Her inhumanly pale or even transparent skin makes her blend into the snowy landscape. She often wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened. In legends from the Ojiya region of Niigata Prefecture, a beautiful woman came to visit a man and became his wife from the woman's own desire. This woman was reluctant to go into the bath and when she was made to go in anyway, she disappeared, leaving only thin, fragmented, floating icicles.

Pic by imagase on DeviantArt

In the Aomori and Yamagata Prefectures, there is a similar story about one called the "Shigama-onna." In the Kaminoyama region of Yamagata, a yuki-onna would come visit an old couple on a snowy night to warm herself by the irori. When late at night the Yuki-onna would again go out on a journey, the old man would attempt to take her hand to stop her, when he noticed that she was chillingly cold. Then, before his eyes, the girl turned into a whirl of snow that exited the house through the chimney.

On the night of a blizzard, as the Yuki-onna would be standing there hugging a child, it would ask people passing by to hug the child as well. When one hugs the child, the child would become heavier and heavier until one would become covered with snow and freeze to death. It has also been told that if one refuses, one would be shoved down into a snowy valley.

In Hirosaki in Aomori, it is said that there was a warrior who was asked by a yuki-onna to hug a child similarly, but the warrior held a short sword by the mouth and hugged the child while making the blade go close to the child's head, which allowed the warrior to avoid the aforementioned phenomenon. When the warrior handed the child back to the Yuki-onna, the ghoul gave many treasures as thanks for hugging the child. It is also said that those who are able to withstand the ever-increasing weight of the child and last all the way through would acquire great physical strength.

In the Ina region of Nagano Prefecture, Yuki-onna is called "yukionba", and it is believed that they would appear on a snowy night in the form of a yama-uba. Similarly, in Yoshida, Ehime Prefecture, on a night when snow is accumulating on the ground, a "yukinba" is said to appear, and people would make sure not to let their children outside. Also, in the Tōno region of Iwate Prefecture, and on Little New Year (koshōgatsu) or the 15th day of the first month, a yuki-onna would take many children along to a field to play, so children were warned against going outside. It can be thus seen that yuki-onna are often considered the same as the yama-uba, sharing the similarity that they are fecund and take many children along with them.

In the Ito region of Wakayama Prefecture, it is said that there would be a one-legged child jump-walking on a night when snow accumulates, and the next morning there would be round footprints remaining, and this would be called the "yukinbō" (snow child), but the one-legged snow kid is thought to be the servant of a mountain god.

In the village of Oshika, Tōhaku District, Tottori Prefecture (now Misasa), it has been said that a yuki-onna would come during light snow and say "Koori gose yu gose" ("Give me ice, give me hot water")—"gose" is a dialect word for "give me"—while waving around a white wand, and she would bulge when splashed with water and disappear when splashed with hot water.

In the area around the Kumano River in Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture, the "Oshiroi baa-san" or "oshiroi babaa" is also thought to be a type of Yuki-onna, and they are said to drag along mirrors, making clinking sounds while doing so. These characteristics, that of waving around a white wand (gohei) and possessing a mirror, are thought to be the characteristics of a miko who serves a mountain god that rules over birth and harvest. In Aomori, it is actually said that a yuki-onna would come down to the village on the third day of Shōgatsu and return to the mountains on the first day of Rabbit, and it is thought that on years when the day of Rabbit is late in arriving, how well the harvest does will be different from before.

In the Iwate and the Miyagi Prefectures, a yuki-onna is thought to steal people's vitality and in Niigata Prefecture, they are said to take the livers out of children and freeze people to death. In Nishimonai, Akita Prefecture, looking at a yuki-onna's face and exchanging words with her would result in being eaten. In Ibaraki Prefecture and in Iwaki Province, Fukushima Prefecture, it is said that if one does not answer when called by a yuki-onna, one would be shoved down into the bottom of a valley. In the Fukui Prefecture, they are called "koshi-musume" (越娘, "passing girl") and it is said that those who turn their backs to a koshi-musume when being called by one would get pushed into a valley. In Ibigawa, Ibi District, Gifu Prefecture, an invisible monster called the "yukinobō" is said to change their appearance and appear as a yuki-onna. It is said that this monster would appear at mountain huts and ask for water, but if one grants the request, one would be killed, so one should give hot tea instead. It is said that in order to make the yukinbō go away, one should chant "Saki kuromoji ni ato bōshi, shimetsuke haitara, ikanaru mono mo, kanō mai" (meaning "A kurujo in front and a bōshi behind, by wearing these tight, nothing is possible").

The Hirosaki, Aomori legend about a yuki-onna returning to the human world on New Year's Day (Shōgatsu) and the legend in Tōno, Iwate Prefecture about yuki-onna taking away many children to play on "Little New Year" (koshōgatsu)- looking at the days on which they visit, both legends offer insight on how the yuki-onna has some characteristics of a toshigami. The story of how when one person treated a yuki-onna with kindness on a blizzard night, the yuki-onna turned into gold the next morning; illustrating how even in old tales such as the Ōtoshi no Kyaku, the yuki-onna has some relation to the characteristics of a toshigami.

Yuki-onna often appear while taking along children. This is in common with another yōkai that takes along children, the ubume. In the Mogami District, Yamagata Prefecture, ubume are said to be yuki-onna.

They often appear in stories about inter-species marriage, and stories similar to Lafcadio Hearn's Yuki-onna where a mountain hunter gets together with a woman who stayed the night as a guest and eventually birthing a child when one day the man carelessly talked about the taboo of getting together with a yuki-onna resulting in the woman revealing herself to be a yuki-onna but not killing the man due to having a child between them and warning, "If anything happens to the child, you won't get away with it" before going away can be found in Niigata Prefecture, Toyama Prefecture, and the Nagano Prefecture, which came about as a result of many stories about mountain people where those who break the mountain taboos would be killed by mountain spirits. There is also the hypothesis that the yuki-onna legend was born from a mixture of paranormal stories of mountain people and the paranormal yuki-onna stories.

Old tales about yuki-onna are mostly stories of sorrow, and it is said that these tales started from when people who have lived gloomy lives, such as childless old couples or single men in mountain villages, would hear the sound of a blizzard knocking on their shutter door and fantasize that the thing that they longed for has come. It is said that after that, they would live in happiness with what they longed for in a fantasy as fleeting as snow. There is also a feeling of fear, and like as in the Tōno Monogatari, the sound of a blizzard knocking on an outer shōji is called the "shōji sasuri" (rubbing a shōji), and there is a custom of making children who stayed up late go to sleep quickly when a yuki-onna rubs a shōji. From real sayings such as the shōji sasuri, it is said that things that one longs for sits back-to-back with fear. Also, winter is the season when gods would come to visit, and if one does not pay respects, terrible things will happen, so even if it is said to be things that one longs for, one cannot put too much trust in that. In any case, it can be said to be related to the coming and going of seasons. Nobuyoshi Furuhashi, scholar of Japanese literature, stated that the novel Kaze no Matasaburō is also probably somehow related.

There are various legends about the yuki-onna's true identity, such as saying that the yuki-onna is a snow spirit or the spirit of a woman who fell over in the snow. In a setsuwa of the Oguni region of Yamagata Prefecture, a yuki-jorō (yuki-onna) was originally a princess of the moon world and in order to leave a boring lifestyle came down to earth together with snow but was unable to go back to the moon and so is said to appear on snowy moonlit nights.

Yamaoka Genrin, an intellectual from the Edo period, said that yuki-onna is born from snow. It was supposed that if there were a lot of something, a living thing would come forth from it, giving birth to fish if the water is deep enough and birds if the forest is thick enough. Since both snow and women are "yin", so in places like Echigo it is said that yuki-onna might be born from within deep snow.

Among Japan's traditional culture, Yuki-onna can be seen in kōwaka such as the Fushimi Tokiwa, which can also be checked in modern times. In Chikamatsu Monzaemon's Yuki-onna Gomai Hagoita, the story is about how a woman who was deceived and murdered became a yuki-onna and took revenge as a vengeful ghost. The bewitching and frightening aspects of a yuki-onna are often used in such depictions. Old tales and legends like these have been confirmed in Aomori, Yamagata, Iwate, Fukushima, Niigata, Nagano, Wakayama, Ehime, among other places.

[honmakurara]

What Kyuso is, and what it isn’t

A few thoughts about Kyuso wa cheese no yume o miru upcoming movie release

Warning 1: spoilers ahead!

Warning 2: I wrote this post quite long ago but the movie was delayed due to the spread of the pandemic, and so I chose to postpone my thoughts as well. So if you find that some thoughts might sound a bit "old", that is the reason why.

**

I can remember there was at first a lot of criticization towards Ohkura's upcoming Otomo role in the Kyuuso wa Cheese no yume o miru movie, which honestly I cannot fully understand.

While I can understand not everyone might be comfortable "enjoying" a story starting out of repeatedly cheats towards women and a blackmail, it sure does not just sit back on this alone (quite the contrary), and I think that both character and story-wise it can be an amazing opportunity for Ohkura's career.

Same for the Boys' Love theme: live action adaptations of BL stories have so far generally lacked too much and definitely failed to adequately portray the BL theme itself, due to poor budget, poor staff, poor attention and poor everything. A brilliant exception is the Double Mints movie: a very dark, violent and angsty story (beware if you're not incline to these themes) and yet a very touching and heart-wrenching movie, where the BL relationship is as much sad as realistic.

Back to the Kyuso movie.

Ohkura's Otomo character in the Kyuso no cheese BL movie isn't just a "bisex" one, and isn't just a "gay" one either. The original manga is actually no real BL because it was not published in a Boys' Love magazine, it had been written in a josei magazine whose target is the adult female audience. That is to say the story does not aim to be a queer manifesto, even though I think it deals amazingly great with such themes. What's (I reckon) great about Mizushiro sensei's story isn't the yaoi theme itself (alone), but rather the excellent way she portrays the human weaknesses and dark sides of her characters (male and female ones), which is not to say I "cheer" for the characters, because I don't, but introspection-development-wise, the story is gorgeous.

Even after the re-prints of the volumes, which have partially edited illustration (not a big thing, only the genital depiction has been censored), the illustrations, dialogues and themes keep being the original ones.

As I said above, the several twists this story carries are also why I reckon this role might be a huge and challenging opportunity for Ohkura's career as an actor, together with his "controversial" Kumon Onna and recent Montecristo ones, and why I won't go easy with 'judging' the movie as proper adaptation of the manga, should it turn out to be disappointing on screen.   - Spoilers ahead, you're warned -

While living is life as a "regular het" guy, Otomo is married and repeatedly cheats on his wife. Should he be praised for leading this life? I guess no, definitely not. So, we start out from a mean man doing despicable actions who suddenly gets "blackmailed" for his bad behaviour by a homosexual kohai of his.

Is Imagase the only bad guy here, for daring such blackmail? I guess not.

And yet, despite (or thanks to) these premises, the story evolves into something very, very different.

It takes a gay kohai of his to make Otomo realize that his marriage is just an empty shell, that he basically married out of any deep feelings for his wife and was 'happy' with just 'life going on'. It's the meeting with Imagase that forces him to think deeply about his life, to realize he's never cared for other people's feelings to start with. In short, Otomo is a womanizer, a selfish and rather empty guy. The sexual relationship with Imagase reveals him also as being jealous and passive, masochistic and dominant at the same time, very much incline to temptation, whatever its shape or time. He's not to be praised, not a little bit. He's not to be looked down at, at the same time. Because he's human, because that is how life takes his toll on everyone of us (nothing is black or white, rather being endless shades of gray), and because it's only when Otomo realizes who he is and what he wants -thanks to Imagase- that he finally manages to be more "himself". "I'll turn 30 soon. I might still have to know what true love is." -Kyoichi Otomo-

These 'simple' words are one of the keys of the whole story to me: I was aghast when I read it in the manga, I still remember them 10 years later, and I was so relieved to  notice it was kept in the trailer, at least. Which is to say I'm not the only one thinking they're valuable.

 Otomo has met and has been with a lot of women, but none of them is able to rip a hole inside his soul. And then, yes, it's Imagase who "makes the miracle", he's the only one who intercepts the black hole and bluntly tells him so. Because sometimes this can happen through the most unexpected of encounters. It's Imagase who makes Otomo finally realize how important it is to pursue a relationship where both parts openly discuss, argue and talk constantly about each other... in bed or not. It's Imagase, a cheeky, blunt, capricious, selfish, impetuous, fickle and mean guy. It's not a woman, nor a good boy. But it's him who is there for Otomo when the latter needs it (and even when he does not). This is what makes this story not just good but special, to me: a cynical analysis about love relationships and human growth/twists, but at the same time a very humble and realistic one.

 Personally speaking, I don't "like" Otomo nor Imagase nor their petty behaviours, and yet I cannot wait to see how Ohkura and Narita will portray them in every little bit of these flawed characters, because I have been hooked to the story as a whole since the very beginning (ten years ago) and I still am this bewitched, and probably forever will be (yes I know, Ohkura: there is no thing like forever anymore. But bear with my feels, please). I would lie if I were to say I don't care about the sex scenes because, hey, it's a very sexy story after all, but that is not where the real point is, to me. The point is that thanks to this movie adaptation, Ohkura has been given a great (maybe not the greatest itself, but greatest so far) opportunity and I'm cheering on him eternally for this.

I had honestly never thought that one day this story could actually become a movie, and even if I did, last thing I would imagine would be that Ohkura could be starring in it.

But it happened. Not to mention Ohkura himself seems to have become fairly fond of this story... thinking deeply about his character, the staff involved, the story and its themes, just like he did during Dr. DMAT, Hanachan no Mizoshiru and Montecristo filming time. Should the movie even fail to hit my (absurdly high) expectations, I won't love the manga less. So far, the theatrical trailer looks a bit different from the sophisticated 'air' I thought it would have, but still quite nice: way more tender and cute than I thought, but with a palpable longing atmosphere which I find very much on point. We'll see. Cannot wait. In the meantime, ganbatte Ohkura, I'm proud <3  

** Post Scriptum: Besides, I find it very nice that Kyuso movie will be distributed by Phantom Films, which so far handled a lot of quite interesting movies. Among these I definitely recommend: - Call Boy (with Tori Matsuzaka), story of a host/gigolò in Tokyo. Photography is amazing in this movie and so are all the actors. - Hoshigaoka Wonderland (Suda Masaki has a very small part in it, but he's amazing);

- HIS: latest release, story of a gay couple that split up during University and meets again several years later... when one of the guys has become father of a young girl. The movie is a sequel of a coming of age drama aired in 2019 in Japan. 

- (not by Phantom Films but anyway) Double Mints: the BEST "yaoi" movie I have ever seen, so fa. A dark story filled with angst, violence, abuse and still, the touching story of a bond&love that cannot be torn off. Definitely not an easy movie, but definitely recommended if you're interested watching how a movie should be done and how "gay feels" are definitely not in the way nor "like a shojo manga".

[lightneverfades]

Kyūso wa Cheese no Yume o Miru (窮鼠はチーズの夢を見る) | The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese (30 sec. trailer)

Story:  Ootomo Kyoichi, a weak-willed salaryman in a troubled marriage, is cheating on his wife. To his surprise, his wife hires a private eye to expose his affair–and the private eye is none other than Imagase, an underclassman Kyoichi knew in college. Imagase explains that he's gay and always had a crush on Kyoichi, so he offers to hide the infidelity in exchange for the make-out session he'd always fantasized about back in college. Kyoichi reluctantly agrees, thinking it will save his marriage, but things with Imagase soon spiral out of control.

Transcript: 

Imagase: I always liked you. Imagase: [to Kyoichi] Would you like to go out with me?  Kyoichi: Why do I have to go out with a man?  Woman: You’re choosing a woman over a man. Kyoichi: I can’t afford to choose you. To a normal man it’s an impossible choice.

[fluffyrabbitofdoom]

I am wasted, losing time On a foolish, fragile spine I want all that is not mine I want him but we're not right In the darkness, I will meet my creators And they will all agree, that I'm a suffocator

Drama: The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese / Kyuuso wa Chiizu no Yume wo Miru/ 窮鼠はチーズの夢を見る Characters: Kyouichi Ootomo and Wataru Imagase Song: Smother by Daughter