#macau you will always be famous

[lewisinho]

went down the macau rabbit hole so here’s nico rosberg and lewis hamilton both missing the same braking point and ending up crashing in macau 2004 😁

[betweenheroesandvillains]

adult men in the hello kitty cars...

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

👆 My son asked me : Mom, Do you know who's he? then he told me that ~

日本職棒名星選手-大谷翔平 Shohei Ohtani／おおたに しょうへい 

(b. 1994) 他目前效力於美國職棒大聯盟洛杉磯道奇，主要擔任投手及指定打擊（即投打「二刀流」） Los Angeles Dodgers – No. 17

He is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher and designated hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Shotime".

══════  ✾  ═══════

My son is a chemical engineer at LCY GROUP in Taiwan. He called me two days ago and said: Mom, he got a promotion and a salary increase, so he took me to eat, go shopping, and buy ice cream to go home and enjoy. lol (He is a very pragmatic big boy who never dreams. Maybe because he is a child of a single parent, because they have experienced many human relationships with me, inculded up and down in life since they were young, so they mature very early. Fruits were pulled from the tree before they were ripe. hahaha) In fact, his company is not as profitable as in previous years in general this year, but he is lucky. He is the only one in his department at the Kaohsiung factory who has been promoted and received a salary increase.

We chatted and laughed about all kinds of topics. I am really lucky. God has given me two children who are smart, independent, sensible and gentle. Of course he also gives me dividends lol I like and appreciate that every time he takes the initiative to give me money, I always see the light of accomplishment and love in his eyes ~ shining like stars in the sky! 🙏 Thank God!

Although "it is more blessed to give than to receive". But there is another deeper understanding, especially for some people with strong self-esteem. Sometimes you have to learn to meekly "accept" gifts from those who love you in life.

我的兒子是台灣榮化集團(LCY GROUP)的化材工程師，前兩天打電話跟我說:媽媽，他升職加薪了，所以他帶我去吃飯、逛街和買冰淇淋回家享受。lol (他是個相當務實，從來不會作夢的大男孩。可能因為是單親的小孩，因他們從小就跟著我經歷許多人情冷暖，所以很早熟。果子還沒熟就從樹上拔下來了。hahaha) 其實今年他的公司總體來說並不如往年利多，但他很幸運，高雄廠在他的部門只有他一個人被升職和加薪。

我們聊天又笑呵呵的各種話題無所不談，我真的很幸運，天主賜給我兩個既聰明獨立又懂事溫順的孩子。當然他也分紅給我 lol 我喜歡也感謝當他每次主動地給我錢時，我總會看到他眼中充滿著成就感和愛的光芒~像天上星子閃爍著! 🙏 感謝天主!

雖然『施比受更有福』。但另一種更深的認知特別是對於一些自尊心很強的人而言有時你要懂得學會在生活中柔順地"接受"從愛你的人的施予。

Lan~*

📌Restaurant餐廳：鼎泰豐 Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese restaurant chain specializing in Chinese cuisine, particularly famous for its Xiaolongbao. Based in Taipei, Taiwan, Din Tai Fung also has branches in Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States.

是臺灣一家以麵食生產銷售為主的連鎖餐廳，以小籠包等上海點心聞名，總店開設於臺北市信義路二段的永康商圈中。1958年成立，最初為油行，1972年轉為餐廳，兼賣小籠包。1996年，鼎泰豐日本新宿店開幕，發展為跨國企���。

在1993年曾被《紐約時報》評為「世界十大美食餐廳」之一。2010年香港尖沙咀分店獲得米其林一星，是台灣首間獲米其林指南列入星級的餐廳。

[daeyeol4you]

The Chay Rewatch Ep 9

Ep 1 & 2, Ep 3, Ep 4, Ep 5, Ep 6, Ep 7, Ep 8

Ep 9 - Kim is so whipped while somehow still being emotionally constipated

Time: 10:22 – 12:11 – songwriting boy

Kim’s Outfit: An olive-green jacket, a white shirt, and the return of the white pants

Why does no guitar in this show have a guitar strap?

Chay’s song breaks Kim’s writing block, Kim’s written tons of music before, but now Chay is becoming his muse, taking over the one outlet Kim allows himself

The emotional shutdown Kim forces himself through once he realizes how happy even the memory of Chay is making him. He can’t allow himself to be weak because any attachment to Chay is a weakness, but even that fails because immediately he’s back to smiling while he plays

Kim is so inspired to write even while he’s very clearing trying to cut Chay out of his brain, he’s trying to write his feelings out so he can go back to being cold, untouchable Kim

Korn really did screw up all of his sons emotionally – commitment issues to spare

Time: 29:46 – Macau Spotting

Macau scaring the absolute shit out of Pete, what a little shit

Macau’s Outfit: Another sweater vest with orange and blue stripes with tan pants and white shoes

Macau and Vegas definitely planned this, and Macau is so happy to be causing mischief

Wingman Macau you will always be famous

Macau going on and on about the sermon to tease Pete only to fall asleep immediately, what a mood

Time: 39:24 – 40:03 – the guitar pick!

Not me immediately trying to analyze all of the details of Chay’s room

There’s a bottle of milk on his desk – again I’m sorry I laughed this is a funny bit

The towers of CDs behind Chay speak to how Chay isn’t just into music because its fun, he’s put a lot of effort into appreciating music

The ukelele is cute

He has a jar of I think paper stars on his back shelf – I only mention this because there are a number of different meanings to lucky paper stars but the one I know best is that if you fold either 1,000 or 2,000 (depending on the tale) you can get a wish (you also can give the stars to someone you love) I also know some do it for luck – which Chay has interesting thoughts about luck as we know

Chay creating the guitar pick with his own two hands – my art kid Chay agenda is so real

Chay’s outfit: I’m 99% sure that Chay is wearing a Geto (from Jujutsu Kaisen) shirt. Chay anime fan confirmed

Geto is an antagonist from Jujutsu Kaisen, and I view him as a tragic figure who was once good but due to the evils of his job and the abuse he saw, turned evil. Later on, his body becomes a vessel for further evil

Chay’s friend is named Ohm! I so forgot about this bit I won’t lie

Chay really had been hoping it was Kim. He may have left the next step up to Kim, but he’s still so hopeful that Kim doesn’t leave him behind. He’s for sure getting impatient about it and is planning his next move on his target – sorry crush!

Chay ignoring Ohm draws up a lot of my ideas about how private Chay is about everything. He allows others to see just the surface of everything going on with him, but he tends to be very private about his thoughts and interests. Its not a lack of confidence. I just think he learned early on that sometimes speaking up about everything can be a burden (particularly in his relationship with Porsche) you have to work to get his more internal thoughts

And Chay chooses this! At any point he could put down the guitar pick and answer his friend’s invite, who probably knows something is up with Chay just not what. He’s very tunnel-visioned when he chooses a path, but he doesn’t feel the need to tell anyone else that

Chay doesn’t hide or lie about his emotions and thoughts usually. He just doesn’t always say them out loud. There’s a difference trust me

Time: 49:48 – 53:04 – Chay’s version of gift giving

Chay’s Outfit: a grey crewneck with white and blue paint splatters over a black shirt with the same pendant from the song scene

Kim’s outfit: a studded black leather jacket paired with a white shirt and blue jeans. His necklace this time is a blend of two different chain types (partly made of safety pins I think?) with his regular silver earrings and rings

Chay breaking into the rehearsal space – child I was just praising you for leaving the ball in Kim’s court, please stop waving red flags! You are such a concerning young man

Chay is so cute no wonder Kim is okay with the stalking, also who is this friend Chay keeps getting this info from (please just be stan twitter please that’d be so funny)

I love how this scene gets presented from behind the glass of the recording booth, the slow zoom-in on the two as the scene progresses

Kim’s calm responses to this are so dynamic when placed next to Chay’s which are full of excitement and nerves

Gosh the zoom-in when Chay presents the box – beautiful

“This is limited edition. You’ve got the only one piece in the world.” – how long do you think its been since Kim received a genuine, heartfelt gift like this?

Compare this gift to Kim and the guitar. Kim bought an incredibly expensive guitar for Chay, but it was to buy his way into the house. There was more manipulation than thought put into that gift

Whereas Chay made that pick himself adding even greater meaning to the gift. Chay isn’t trying to manipulate Kim, he’s genuinely just staying true to himself by confessing and giving Kim the pick as thanks. Chay’s always been upfront about his emotions and intentions with Kim which is very refreshing

of course Chay passed - he's very talented

“From now on I won’t have any excuse to see your face.” “Can I bother you one last time?” – that’s such a cute statement, plus it also goes to show that Chay gets that Kim is trying to cut him off and will accept it after he says his piece (Chay respects boundaries! I am ignoring his stalking for right now!)

I love Chay’s fidgeting here, very genuine and doesn’t feel forced

KIM’S FACE WHEN CHAY SAYS HE LIKES HIM! He knew but was not prepared for Chay to actually say it

Chay’s rambling about making an oath with himself – he is so good! He is so emotionally healthy & confident! (I am ignoring the red flags about his stalking right now!)

I know some people were disappointed about never getting a ‘real’ kiss, but I like this cheek kiss. Chay’s still young compared to Kim, and Kim holds a lot of power as his tutor as well as how many secrets he’s keeping from Chay. A kiss on the lips would have been marred by that and would have been uncomfortable when looked back on. This kiss works for them, it's sweet and it’s a foundation for the two of them to build on

During this scene, there’s this large empty space between Kim and Chay. Chay stays respectfully away until Kim breaks the divide and kisses him. It was always going to be up to Kim to choose what to do next

THE MUSIC!! THE HUGS!! – Kim is so not a hugger, but for Chay he lets it happen, twice! This is the same man we see bullying bodyguards and murdering people! The duality of man indeed

Shoutout to Tankhun for his open and honest defense of Porsche – truly a man who knows that open communication is necessary (unlike his brothers)

Overall Chay Rating (Chrating) – A

This ep definitely goes everywhere, but we get a good amount of KimChay development as well as a Macau appearance. I’m glad we got solo scenes from Kim & Chay before they saw each other as it laid the groundwork for the confession scene, very well plotted. Chay being so truthful to himself as well as Kim’s emotional breakthrough was very refreshing

[itsanidiom]

SHIPPER TAG GAME

LET'S GOOOOO~ tagged by @negrowhat

1. What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care anymore?

Glorestor or Glorfindel / Erestor of Middle Earth Fanon Fame. Not that I don't CARE about it anymore, mind you. There's just not enough new content (for obvious reasons god it's old and there's like one conversation of original source material). I don't think about them as much anymore. Like I used to be reading fanfic EVERY NIGHT and we're talking like novel length fanfics (as you can imagine people in the LOTR fandom write lol). Anyway here's some super old fan art... (>u<)

2. Which ship would you consider your first one?

Oh god...something Dynasty Warriors related for sure...

Probably like Sun Ce / Zhao Yu or Gan Ning / Lu Xun. (GO WU! lol) I feel like there were other couples I'm totally forgetting right now...but yeah god I love Dynasty Warriors...

Also...daaamn Gan Ning looks good there I should go buy the latest game. (>w<)

3. Your first fanfic belonged to which couple?

Like the first one I wrote or read?? I went into my oldest of old "old writing" folders and found this list of docs that I haven't been touched in over ten years. SO I'm gonna saaaay it was a Dynasty Warriors fanfic...one of these pairings. (^ ^;)

Also kind of hilarious to see that I literally still organize my fanfic files in the same way for over half my fucking life ago...nice...

4. Do you remember the first couple you saw a fanart over?

I feel like it would have been something Inuyasha related. That or something Final Fantasy X. I do not remember, but it was probably some version of these scene.

5. Did you ever get into ship discourse?

Not that I can remember...do not need this in my life...lol but maybe I've reblogged some RPF like discourse? Like the "should or shouldn't you ship" type discussions. I'm on the side of "do whatever you want but don't send it to the famous people" [ex. like ATEEZ fanfic/fanart] or "if they are literally doing it as part of their promo go ahead, it's for fun/they literally requested it as part of their promo" [ex. BillyBabe]. (^ ^;)

6. Did you used to have any no-otp or have it currently?

It honestly always depends on the quality of the fanart or the fanfic because even a notp can turn into a OH!tp if it's good enough. [Exhibit a: my Phaya/Tharn/Chalothorn fanfic]

7. Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read?

Weirdly the one new Chalothon/Singh fic from The Sign. But I really need AO3 to fix the spelling of his name in the tag...

8. Currently, do you have any OTPs?

PhayaTharn are the current obsession~

Look at them...adorable...

9. Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together?

Still wish John Wick / Santino fucked...also like James Bond / Q and The Protagonist / Neil and Arthur / Eames...bromance is SUCH a waste but considering the genres of these movies it is never gonna happen...I have to wait for the Thai BL versions lol (^ ^;)

10. Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting?

OH I haven't been traumatized by watched it yet, but Dead Friends Forever has made me get onboard with Macau/Chay of KinnPorsche fame because OMG LOOK AT THESE CUTIES!!!!

11. Do you have any ship that, in the past, was considered normal but now you would be cancelled over?

GOD I remember there was a LOT of Sesshomaru x Inuyasha yaoi when I was a kid LMFAO like...straight up cancelled...I dunno if it was normal back then but no yaoi was normal back then so like it sadly all got lumped together or something...then again looking at some of the comics that are coming out these days...

12. What was your favorite crack ship?

All the McFassy ships from back in the day like OMG REMEMBER JUNGKOV?? STELIOS AND LETO??? ARCHIE AND ROBBIE? SO MANY CROSSOVERS!!

LOL Sorry that just brought me back LOL

13. Who is the couple you read more fanfics of?

Ahhhh I don't know...I usually either write a lot or read a lot...I literally have a fic rec list for Glorestor lol and then when I look in my AO3 bookmarks the top ship is Hannigram sooooo let's say Hannigram even though I haven't read one for a while.

14. What most of your ships usually have in common?

toll and smol...i like me a toll and a smoll...lol or big and small...i dunno something something contrast something something just crush him and/or be uncharacteristically gentle or somehow incapacitate the larger man with your wiles...that is all...

15. What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

Miscommunication < seconding @negrowhat's response. Cannot stand it. Such a boring trope. Very annoying for me (the audience).

[kabelkavintagejapan]

Why Kabelka?

Kabelka Vintage Japan is a used and vintage shop dealing in second-hand vintage bags and accessories. The store offers a wide selection of brand-name items, ranging from value-for-money casual brands to carefully selected high-brand vintage items. It is co-operated by Yuka who resides in Japan and Bella who resides in Macau, hence our shop name Kabelka VJ.

Credibility

All products have been rigorously assessed by experienced appraisers from the most famous and authorised vintage shops in Japan. We promise to only introduce to you vintage bags from those big shops and therefore, our bags always come with an official receipt from them. You can enjoy shopping at our store with peace of mind, as it is a reliable shop.

为什么选择Kabelka？

Kabelka Vintage Japan是一家经营二手复古包和配件的二手复古店。 该店提供广泛的品牌商品选择，从物有所值的休闲品牌到精心挑选的高品牌复古商品。 它是由居住在日本的Yuka和居住在澳门的Bella共同经营的，因此我们的店名叫Kabelka VJ。

公信力

所有的产品都是由日本最著名和授权的古玩店的资深鉴定师严格评估的。我们承诺只向您介绍那些大商店的古董包，因此，我们的包总是带有他们的正式收据。您可以放心地在我们店里购物，因为我們是一家可靠的商店。

[undiscovered-horizon]

Author's note: The shirtless scene in Shang-Chi is one of the most self-aware things Marvel has done.

Imagine reuniting with your high school sweetheart, Shaun, in a very unexpected way: fighting each other in an underground ring in Macau.

"Now for the most anticipated fight of the night! Get ready for the two most famous names to appear in this ring! On my left, the Bus Boy!" Jon Jon's excitement was beyond explosive. It was fairly easy to guess that depending on the outcome of the spar, he will either become a millionaire or chew cardboard for dinner.

Shang-Chi entered the ring shirtless which earned a confused question from Katy about its whereabouts but he was just as in the dark as she was. Apparently, an unspoken "rule" this place had. The crowd around him cheered, their expectations for him higher than he was aware of. After all, he did become worldwide famous after barely a day.

"On my right, the famed champion, The Beheader!"

The crowd became louder as the door across the ring opened. The name made Shang-Chi slightly uncomfortable as it implied a quite unpleasant experience should he lose the fight. What he could not expect even in his wildest dreams was the reality that hid behind the imposing name; a reality he remembered fondly despite the time that had passed.

When the door opened and you stepped out, Shang-Chi first couldn't believe his eyes. Was it really...you? The last time the two of you spoke you were on your way to Europe with your parents. How come you ended up in a fight ring in Macau? Did you ever get hurt?

Then his mind as if went back several years, maybe Shang-Chi himself became younger - became the boy you used to date. He certainly felt that way like all the years spent separated from each other never happened and just the previous day you were bowling at a run-down parlor in San Francisco.

"(Y/N)?" he said quietly, still in disbelieve. Maybe it was his bias but he was sure you looked even more impressive than the day you left. Time was certainly merciful to you.

On the other hand, you felt dread from the very moment Bus Boy hit your ears. Part of you was certainly amused - you're going to fistfight your high school boyfriend in an illegal fight club in Macau, which itself sounds at least ridiculous. The other part of you started to reminisce about the days you spent in San Francisco. Was Shaun the same person you knew when you left? No, couldn't be, both of you have changed since high school. Would he still recognize you? Maybe years had gone by but can you really forget a face you used to stare at every day? Slowly, you could feel the old affection resurfacing. You were always honest with yourself: you tried forgetting Shaun instead of peacefully getting over him because of the immense guilt you felt over your departure. It was simply easier to forget it happened instead of accepting you did something not quite right.

Should you tell him the truth, would he believe? Moreover, would he forgive you?

You were aware he deserved to hear the whole story but the real question was: was Shaun willing to listen? It was difficult for you to come to terms with the fact that he might be upset enough to actually fight you, something you did not plan on doing, and won't want to have anything to do with you. You sighed quietly - after all, he was a grown independent man and was fully entitled to not want to hear your story and simply walk away. And you would have to accept that.

The doors in front of you opened, the exceptionally loud cheering nearly deafening you. Right across the ring, there he stood. More grown and handsome than you remembered. And for some reason...shirtless?

Although you couldn't hear him, simply by seeing the way he moved his lips, you knew he said your name: something he probably hasn't done in quite a while.

"Hey, Shaun," you answered equally quietly but you knew well you did get the message across.

The bell rang signalizing the beginning of the fight. Still unsure what ground you were standing on, you walked forward slowly, approaching Shaun cautiously. If he just threw punches at you, you wouldn't be too mad about it: you did, after all, lie to him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked as he pretended to land a punch. "Macau is not Europe."

You ducked from his another pseudo-swing and grabbed his arm in a very mild joint lock. How long till the audience realizes?

"Neither is it America. I could ask you the same thing," you whispered.

Shaun got out of your poor excuse of a lock and, still presenting his best acting skills, he kicked your stomach. It was a good thing you made a good pair back in the day because in any other scenario the trickery you were committing right now would never work. Before Shaun's foot touched your body, you threw yourself backward, landing on your back. The crowd cheered - a good sign, they were still in the dark.

You didn't get up - did not have time to. Shaun sat on top of you and hit the floor right next to your head: he never targeted you.

"Let's get this over with and I'll tell you everything," you said.

"I missed you," he breathed out, completely confusing you. Not that you did not expect that, more like that wasn't a good moment to get all melancholic

"I missed you too, Shaun. But now's not the time for that."

Using his moment of distraction, you pushed him off and got up. He tried scoring a few dishonest hits until you ducked one of them, got behind him, and pulled him down with you so that Shaun was lying on his back on you. Your hands were around his neck and head in a loose choking hold, only looking like you were choking him out.

"Count to 15 and pretend to pass out. I'll meet you in the locker room," you whispered in his ear as secretively as you could. As honest as he could be with himself when Shaun thought of you whispering into his ear again it was a part of a completely different scenario than the one he was a part of now.

Shang-Chi pretended to lose consciousness while thinking just one question: Why did he always let you win?

[self-proclaimed-chaotic-good]

Testing Strength | Xu Xialing x Katy Chen

Prompt: Knot

Words: 1433

Fandom: Marvel (MCU)

A/N: I’ve been planning this story since January and never got around to finishing it. Hopefully, I’ll do some rewrites and turn it into a proper series. Takes place sometime after the event of the movie.

Summary: Katy finds her new purpose in life after training under the Avengers, though she still has a lot to learn and being associated with the siblings of the once powerful leader of the Ten Rings puts a target on her back. Meanwhile, Xialing hopes to uncover her father’s past while asserting her position as the new Ten Rings leader.

-

Katy was never a morning person in the first place. It took a lot of effort to haul herself off the bed and get ready, unlike her friend, Shangqi. Always the punctual and disciplined one, but not any more responsible as she was when it came to karaoke nights. So, a phone call from him at five in the morning while she was still recovering from a hangover wasn’t ideal. How he would have been functioning still to even manage to call her was a mystery, or maybe it was that mystical magic stuff that ran through his family.

“No,” was her immediate response as she answered.

“Come on, meet me outside,” he said before hanging up.

His voice sounded monotonous but her brain was too muddy to register it. He wouldn’t have called this early if it wasn’t important. They’re technically new Avengers, after all. Or, at least, still in that six months probation period. Wouldn’t want to make a bad impression on someone like Captain America.

She trudged back and forth between her room and the bathroom, her mom clattering away in the kitchen while her nainai was playing cards with her little brother. They don’t know anything about Macau, the Golden Dagger, the Ten Rings, or Ta Lo. All she had told them about that time was that Shaun had a family emergency and she had gone with him as emotional support. 

They do know about a career change, she just didn’t specify what it was. Though, her little brother has seen that Bus Boy video and asked if Shaun was joining the Avengers. Katy made him promise to shut up about it with the promise of getting a picture with those famous superheroes. As soon as the big paychecks come in, her mom will stop worrying about it, and maybe then, Katy will tell them.

“I’m leaving,” she announced, shoving her shoes on.

Her mom stuck her head out of the kitchen. “Without breakfast?”

“Yeah, Shaun wanted to head out early.”

“Well, okay… are you sure Shaun doesn’t want to come in and eat? He usually stops by first- “

“It’s fine, mom.”

“Yeah, I’m sure they want to head out early in case of any mishaps like that bus incident that happened a couple of months ago, right, Katy?” Ruihua said unconvincingly with a wink.

Katy forced out a laugh. “Yeah, yeah.” She shot him a quick glare and cursed at him under her breath before their nainai could turn around to face her. “I’ll try to be home early this time,” she added with a smile to her.

She hummed, muttering in Mandarin, “Good. But this overworking and spending too much time with Shaun when you’re not even dating is lowering your chances –”

Katy didn’t want to cut off her grandmother, but she was tired of hearing this. She could see her concerns, but it was old-fashion to her. Marriage and making a family isn’t a priority in this day and age. While the world could end at any moment with each colossal threat in addition to the constant reminder from her nainai that she wasn’t getting younger and wants to be alive to see her great-grandkids, Katy still did not want to force herself to fulfill her nainai’s wishes. 

Her mother would say that it was very American of her to think this way, but she tried her hand in dating and also could not see Shangqi as more than a friend. It had been a few years since she graduated from college, but only now did she feel that drive to push herself to her full potential. Being forced to go on a date with one of Nainai's friend’s grandsons isn’t going to help her.

So, she walked out.

If only she tried to tolerate her nainai’s lectures and make Shangqi suffer and wait while she indulged in her mother’s cooking, maybe things would have turned out different.

-

Xialing wasted no time in reforming her father’s organization. She had made her own empire in Macau at the age of 16, after all, and with the Ten Rings, she saw only endless potential to create anything she wanted. She wasn’t worried about her brother’s reaction. He was no boy scout, either, and she wasn’t going to rule like her father.

It pained her that even after all those years, when Shangqi had been the one to run away first, he still regarded him with pride while he merely glanced at her when she had some use to him. It wasn’t his approval that she was looking for, she just wanted her father back. After all that time when her mother passed, her father turned away from her, and her brother abandoned her, and even after going off on her own to create the Golden Dagger Club, they were still her family. 

Which was why she still held that anger after seeing Shangqi for the first time in years at her club and how there was still bitterness when her father barely acknowledged her. Having to live in the shadows for so long, she wondered how much of Xu Wenwu did she and her brother even know of.

After the major renovation made around the headquarters and her home, she made a point to dig through his studies in between training sessions. Her father had lived for a thousand years. How much of history was influenced by him and how much of the Chinese myths and legends  were about him? 

It was a month into taking over the Ten Rings when Razor-Fist, or Mattias, notified her of a threat in one of their territories and she was determined to find out how far exactly did the empire stretched and how many enemies did he have. If word got out that the immortal leader of the legendary Ten Rings was gone, a small territory dispute would be the least of her problems. A power vacuum between the Ten Rings and its enemies that could lead to chaos.

Her father was ambitious and had been determined to see everything through. What he wanted was what he would get. She guessed that that was something that she got from him. Centuries worth of his ascent to being the greatest power, all preserved in his study. Xialing wondered if he had ever intended for his children to read them and if her mother knew or chose to leave it in the past.

She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes, remembering when her mother would whisper stories of Ta Lo as she tucked her into bed and the moment when she gave her the jade pendant. This whole time, her mother wanted them to see her village, the key to finding it having been kept as a memento of her so that she was always with them. How different things would have been if she had believed in those stories when she got older and searched for them as soon as she ran away.

A knock brought her back to the present. She gingerly closed one of her father’s journals and granted the person to come in. Jon Jon walked through the door with a medium sized box tucked under his arm, looking breathless as sweat soaked his face. Mattias walked in behind him, his face riddled with bad news as he pressed his lips together in a frown.

“Boss,” Jon Jon said, pulling out a crumpled envelope from his jacket, having been stuffed in in his haste to reach her. Once she took it, he slid the box onto her desk carefully and stepped back.

She flipped the envelope over, her eyes recognizing the symbol of the White Dragon organization.

“I thought that they were dealt with,” she said, directing it to Mattias.

Mattias grunted. “There’s been a shift in the black market. Rumored magical items being looted and sold into the circuit. Our resources say that a few of the major gangs operating under our territories have acquired them.”

“They’re planning to take over the Ten Rings,” she stated rather than questioning. It was inevitable. 

She opened the envelope with a small dagger, steeling herself for what the contents could be. Jon Jon and Mattias waited patiently, watching their boss’s expression darken the longer she read the note. Her eyes flickered over to the box, a knot forming in her stomach as she quickly cut it open, movements only slowing as she peeled the flaps open.

“They’ve got Katy,” she growled, staring down at the familiar black embroidered bomber jacket that Katy Chen had worn to her club.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

I don't make mistakes. I make prophecies which immediately turn out to be wrong.

- Murray Walker, BBC commentator and the ‘Voice of Formula One’

Murray Walker, otherwise known as the ‘Voice of F1’, was a BBC commentating legend from 1976 to 1996 before joining rivals ITV in 1997, where he stayed for a further five years.

Seldom can any frontrank outside-broadcast commentator have had a longer span at the microphone, or a voice more distinctively identifiable with their sport, than motor racing’s Murray Walker.

In British broadcasting lore John Arlott’s rural burr will always remain redolent of cricket’s roots in the village green, just as Dan Maskell’s creamy courtside whisper was homage to the leisured grace of the suburban tennis club, and Bill McLaren’s Borderer’s brogue forever implied the blazered probity of olde-tyme amateur “rugger”.

So, at grand prix time for bikes and cars, for more than half a century, the passionate yawp and yowl emanating from Walker’s commentary box was an almost onomatopeic accompaniment to the snarling beasts hurtling past at 200mph. It may have been high-octane noise, but the descriptions were also skilled and professionally accomplished.

On both radio and television, Walker’s florid “pants on fire” commentaries were heard across seven decades. The first grand prix he described live was for BBC “wireless” at Silverstone in 1949 (won by Baron Toulo de Graffenried’s Maserati 4CLT). His last live commentary of a grand prix was in 2007 for BBC radio, when he was 83.

In all, Walker covered more than 350 Formula One grands prix, more than 200 Isle of Man TT and senior Manx motorcycling events, and countless other categories from powerboat races to motocross and speedway. For well over half a century, if noisy motor sport was broadcast, you could pretty much guarantee that Walker’s decibels were attempting to drown it out in his valiant efforts to enhance the narrative and embellish the scene. But it was not without cost. Years of exposure to the din left him with hearing loss in both ears.

While his stimulating ebullience was appealing to (most) cognoscenti petrolheads, a wider audience fondly enjoyed the commentator’s accompanying torrent of tautologies and full-spate sophistries, his “Murrayisms”, as he called them. Most outside broadcasters are embarrassed by (or flatly deny) their reported heat-of-the-moment bloopers, but Walker happily revelled in, and nurtured his. “Far too often I’d operate mouth before engaging brain,” he would admit, “but the action in front of me was always happening at such a lick.”

The good ol’ trouper knew, too, that happily confessed horse’s-mouth recitation of these touching gaffes not only saved the bother of a freshly minted script each time, but also handsomely enhanced his fees on the lucrative after-dinner circuit.

You need to squawk for the full effect:

“This leading car is absolutely unique – except, of course, for the one immediately behind it, which is identical.”

“Mansell’s now totally in front of everyone in this race, except the two in front of him.”

Michael Schumacher on the Monaco GP grid: “There are seven winners of the Monaco Grand Prix on the grid today and four of them are Michael Schumacher.”

Nigel Mansell putting in a lap: “Nigel Mansell is slowing down now, he is taking it easy. Oh no he isn’t! It’s a new lap record!”

Pedro Diniz’s fire in Argentina: “There’s nothing wrong with the car except that it’s on fire.”

“How you can crash into a wall without it being there in the first place is beyond me!”

But what F1 fans remember best: “It’s go, go, go!”

Murray Walker was born in 1923 in Birmingham, England. Walker had a happy childhood and was proud of his roots. Walker was conscripted into the armed forces and passed out as an army officer from the Royal Military College in Sandhurst. Murray was commissioned in 1942 into the Royal Scots Greys, achieving the rank of captain. He helped make the push from Normandy to the Baltic. He would command a Sherman tank in the Battle of the Reichswald with the 4th Armoured Brigade before leaving the Army as a captain.

Upon demobilisation, went into advertising, a career which, on its own, might have made him worthy of note. Trying to find his place in the world, he studied shipping management before being employed as an accounts director by the Masius agency, where he was in charge of the Mars project which came up with the famous slogan ‘A Mars a day helps you work rest and play’.

Although he continued working in advertising, once again Walker broadened his horizons when, in 1948, he made his first public broadcast at Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb. A year later and he was commentating for BBC radio on the British F1 Grand Prix.

He established himself as the BBC’s chief motorcycling commentator before going into F1 full-time from 1978. However, even then Walker continued to dabble in other series, from the British Touring Car Championship to motocross and Macau.

It was his partnership with James Hunt at the BBC though which cemented Walker’s place in commentating history, as he brought the breathless passion and excitement which proved the perfect foil for Hunt’s dry wit and in-depth knowledge.

Walker remained with the BBC through to 1996 with Jonathan Palmer stepping up following Hunt’s death. But with F1’s television rights going to ITV in 1997, so too did Walker. This time it was former racer turned commentator Martin Brundle who brought the F1 know-how to Walker’s ‘Murrayisms’.

He retired from full-time commentating in 2001. After he ended his regular Formula One commentaries, Walker continued to appear on television for a number of years afterwards, mainly on magazine programmes but occasionally commentating on less high-profile motorsport events. Acknowledging the partial deafness he had developed over the years, in 2006 he became an ambassador for the David Ormerod Hearing Centres, and campaigned to help people understand the importance of frequent hearing tests.

On Saturday, March 13, 2021, the British Racing Drivers’ Club announced the sad passing of Murray Walker at the age of 97.

RIP Murray Walker.

F1 commemorate Murray Walker at the Bahrain Grand Prix 2021

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon’s Eye on DuckTales S01E07 - The House of the Lucky Gander

It’s time for the Casino Episode! The casino episode is a stock story for TV shows. There is a casino and its proprietor is a crooked manipulator who is forcing someone to remain against their will. The proprietor is typically a really swell and charismatic guy whose boundless salesman’s charm disguises his ulterior motives.

The outline is always the same but the details change in the telling. What makes a story good isn’t its originality; frankly, if you’re going to get hung up on originality, you probably shouldn’t be watching a rebooted show in the first place. What matters is what the writers do with it. So how does DuckTales use the casino episode?

One way they shake things up is by not using Vegas. Las Vegas (or some fantasy equivalent) typically provides the setting for the casino episode but DuckTales instead takes us to Macau, a region of China internationally famous for its gambling tourism. They, of course, give it the punny name Macaw.

After all, this is DuckTales. Why go to Vegas for the casino episode when you can teach kids about an international locale that makes even Las Vegas look like some dude’s weekly poker game with the boys?

Of course, the episode doesn’t really have a lot to say about Macau; just that it exists. The casino episode is instead used as a conversation starter for a follow-up on the lesson from “The Great Dime Chase”. It all revolves around our victim du jour:

Reinventing Gladstone Gander

Gladstone is a fascinating character; much moreso than I think the writers realize. The basic premise of Gladstone is that he is the polar opposite of Donald Duck. Donald has to fight and scrape and claw for every scrap he has. He gets no respect for it and lives in abject poverty. He is the cosmic punching bag, constantly beaten down by life but never refusing to get back up and give it another go.

Gladstone is the walking embodiment of privilege. He receives absolute cosmic favoritism. He cannot turn around without tripping over a $20 bill. He falls backwards into unbridled success at every opportunity. He coasts through life on Easy Mode, showered with undeserved accolades and wealth while limitless safety nets are constructed to ensure that even if he does fail, there is only so far he can fall; it will all turn out okay for him in the end.

The conflict between Donald and Gladstone is not a perfect metaphor, but it makes for an effective elementary-level Intro to Privilege 101. If Donald and Gladstone applied for a job, the manager would greet Gladstone, shake his hand, and offer him the job without even glancing at his resume. Donald wouldn’t even get to turn his in because the security guard at the door wouldn’t let him in the building. That’s what it means to be privileged.

It’s not something Gladstone himself is even doing. He didn’t ask for this. He isn’t conspiring to make this happen. But it’s undeniable that he’s received an inordinate amount of unsolicited favoritism - it’s just that Gladstone gets it on a cosmic scale, whereas real-life recipients of privilege get it on a systemic scale.

And it’s easy to understand why someone in Donald’s position may resent him for it, just a little, even if it isn’t entirely fair to do so. Again, Gladstone hasn’t actually done anything wrong with regards to his boundless luck; the “bad guy” here, so to speak, is whatever cosmic karmic system is bending over backwards to provide for Gladstone while kicking Donald at every opportunity. But it’s still pretty unfair to Donald that this is happening, and it’s hard to blame him for being bitter about it.

But Donald isn’t the only character contrasted against Gladstone in this episode.

Louie’s Lessons in Scheming: The House of Lucky Fortune

It’s easy to overlook since Donald, Scrooge, and Gladstone dominate the story, but this episode is actually a follow-up on the lesson of “The Great Dime Chase”. Louie is enthralled by Gladstone, who embodies everything Louie wants to be.

Scrooge is a firm believer in the Bootstraps economic philosophy, and in “The Great Dime Chase”, he sought to impart this to Louie. It’s a belief system that dictates there are two kinds of people in the world: the wealthy and the lazy. Under Bootstraps philosophy, people who work hard will naturally rise to the top of the hierarchy; if you’re poor, the only thing you can do to climb out of poverty is to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”; knuckle down and start working.

Bootstraps philosophy ascribes personal weakness as the key reason why poverty exists. It simultaneously states that the poor are poor because they’re lazy, stupid, and unmotivated while the rich are rich because they’re hard-working, well-deserving, morally-upstanding people that earned every cent in their pockets.

Incidentally, trying to pull one’s self up by one’s bootstraps actually means being so stupid that you honestly think tugging your boots upwards will allow you to fly, but people misuse a lot of phrases. Being bad at choosing metaphors is the least of the problems with Randian economics.

So it’s natural that Scrooge loathes Gladstone. He makes no effort to disguise his visceral disgust in the man he views as a “freeloader”. Which is an interesting choice of words, given that he used the same term to describe Donald in “Woo-oo!”.

Gladstone and Donald are the walking contradictions of Scrooge’s worldview. Donald works his fingers to the bone and gets nothing and nowhere for his troubles, while Gladstone is showered with wealth and praise for doing absolutely nothing. Gladstone is the lazy one with no personal ambition or work ethic, but Donald is the one who lives in poverty. Privilege provides for Gladstone while Donald constantly gets screwed by life.

Scrooge believes that wealth is the natural reward for hard work. Donald works hard, but Gladstone gets the wealth. And Scrooge doesn’t want to think about that, because if he acknowledges that luck is a key factor in the accumulation of wealth, then he has to start asking himself how much of a role luck played in his own fortune. That is an intolerable question to Scrooge, so proud is he. Easier to just slap them both with a derogatory label and think nothing more about it.

All of this provides the conflict in the foreground, while Louie lurks in the background developing his opinions which serve as the basis for the episode’s central lesson. Louie is initially wowed by Gladstone, but ultimately gives Donald the push he needs to overcome and defeat Gladstone in the third act. And it’s Louie who learns the episode’s central lesson: luck is overrated, hard work is better.

On paper, anyway. In “The Great Dime Chase”, Louie was forced to make up his own busywork because there was nothing for him to actually do, and then was compensated with a symbolic (but also very literal) $0.10 for the day’s labor. “The House of the Lucky Gander” runs into a similar issue. The episode does a poor job of really defending the Bootstraps ideology it’s trying to instill in Louie. It does, however, do a fantastic job of accidentally making a very different argument along the way.

Something Wicked This Way Comes: Liu Hai

Now, it’s fairly typical of proprietors in casino episodes to be charismatic and likable individuals, at least on the surface. A bit slimy, but they have a salesman’s charm that makes them enjoyable to watch onscreen. Liu Hai isn’t anything special in that regard, but he does fill the role well enough.

The scam here is that Liu Hai is a fortune demon who has imprisoned Gladstone and is feeding on his good luck. How that actually works isn’t elaborated on; the details don’t really matter. It’s just there to set up the confrontation with Scrooge, which itself provides a stage for an ultimate showdown between Donald and Gladstone.

The second act sees Scrooge and the kids attempting to navigate their way out of the casino, only to be repeatedly waylaid by its myriad attractions and confusing layout. This is an apt commentary on the predatory layout design of real-world casinos; they’re designed to be difficult to leave so that people have more opportunities to spot something worth spending money on. Scrooge actually points this out within the episode itself.

Although the casino ultimately falls away when Liu Hai’s true nature is revealed, the commentary remains. Liu Hai sets out to find something to bait Scrooge with in his casino, and it’s here that he ultimately succeeds. This is where the episode begins saying things that the writers weren’t meaning to say.

The confrontation that the writers intentionally wrote was this: Donald and Gladstone run a race on Scrooge and Liu Hai’s behalf. This gives Donald a chance to finally triumph over Gladstone, cathartically fulfilling his story in the episode. But it also serves the episode’s central thesis. Donald and Gladstone represent hard work and luck, respectively; the race is to determine the superior factor.

Gladstone’s good fortune nearly wins it for him and Donald considers giving up. However, Louie (who you may have forgotten is the character around whom these stakes revolve) gives Donald a pep talk to get back on his feet and keep going. Donald refuses to be defeated and ultimately prevails, proving once and for all that hard work beats luck.

Scrooge then conspires to trick Liu Hai into feeding on Donald’s bad luck, defeating the demon and setting everybody free (including Gladstone!). Louie rejects luck as overrated, having taken Scrooge’s lesson about Bootstraps philosophy to heart. Gladstone is also briefly tempted to abandon his reliance on his privilege, but then decides against it ‘cause the writers want to be able to use him again in the future.

But there are complications, starting with Scrooge’s own personal weakness. In one fell swoop, Liu Hai tricks Scrooge into a sucker’s gambit, and all it takes is a single sentence of dialogue. What sentence could be so powerful as to single-handedly defeat Scrooge McDuck? It’s this:

“Gladstone's good fortune has been satisfying but surely, as the richest duck in the world, Scrooge McDuck's luck must be the most delicious feast of all.“

Remember that bit earlier about Scrooge loathing Gladstone because he doesn’t want to think about what Gladstone’s fortune means for his own? Yeah. This bit triggers Scrooge. Scrooge is so offended that he bets it all on a single roll of the dice, without even stopping to determine what game they’re even playing first.

In this moment, Liu Hai defeats Scrooge. Philosophically. Scrooge wins the physical confrontation with a clever bit of trickery, but thematically, it’s a hollow victory. Scrooge has done precisely what he was trying to avoid doing throughout the entire episode: he sat down at a casino table to play a game of chance. The game is a horse race, and while Donald’s hard work competes with Gladstone’s privilege, Scrooge is given no opportunity to influence the outcome of the game one way or another. Scrooge can only watch and hope his luck prevails.

Scrooge’s fate will be decided on the roll of the dice - the exact scenario Scrooge has so vocally claimed has never been and will never be a factor on his achievements. There is no win condition here for Scrooge’s Bootstraps philosophy; he will either fail or succeed by chance. All because he let his ego blind him into sitting down at the table.

But Donald does win the game, proving at the very least that hard work is better than luck, right?

Well. No.

Donald wins the game only by a stroke of luck. Gladstone happens to find a $20 bill lying by the finish line. This momentary distraction buys Donald the time he needs to get his second wind from Louie’s encouragement and come back for the win. This random x-factor whose existences confuses even Liu Hai ultimately decides the entire contest. Donald has to work hard for his victory, but is only able to achieve it because he got lucky; there but for this random occurrence, his efforts would have been for nothing.

Luck is the ultimate winner of today’s events. Scrooge loses his temper and throws his chips down at a game of chance, sacrificing his philosophical high ground. Donald wins that game of chance due to a stroke of good luck. The prize is freedom, and Donald’s victory buys Scrooge a chance to obtain Gladstone’s freedom too, so even though Gladstone lost, he still walks away with the exact same trophy as Donald anyway; he’s too privileged to fail.

Gladstone himself points this out in the end, but the protagonists blow him off. The reaction of the other characters signifies that what he’s saying isn’t even worth responding to. But he’s actually right. Luck has a demonstrated effect on Scrooge’s fortune, luck is the only reason that Donald’s hard work paid off just this once (and never before), and Gladstone gets the prize even when he loses because he’s too privileged to ever truly fail.

Privilege is a jerk, isn’t it?

In Conclusion

I’d be remiss to call this a good episode given that it sets out to deliver a misleading message about the meritocratic association of effort with result that has done so much damage to our society. But I’d be remiss to call this a bad episode given that it fails in delivering that message so hard that it actually makes a salient point about the association between disproportionate fortune and the accumulation of success instead.

Gladstone is ultimately the philosophical victor here, which serves as a stark and much-deserved criticism of Scrooge and his belief system. This makes the episode much more meaningful and insightful than it was actually intended to be.

In this episode’s predecessor, “The Great Dime Chase”, I recommended turning off your brain and just tuning into the wacky fun time. I must make the opposite suggestion for “The House of the Lucky Gander”. I highly recommend watching this episode, but paying critical attention to the way the events on the screen contradict what the characters are trying to tell you that the story is about.

To say that luck is a major deciding factor in whether hard work gets rewarded is not a very pleasant idea. Neither is the suggestion that different people’s efforts will be rewarded differently for purely superficial reasons. But Donald and Gladstone provide observations and criticisms of the society in which we live that are more accurate and more valuable than Scrooge’s self-flagellating fantasy of having climbed the ladder of a pure meritocracy.

[uomo-accattivante]

This is a great article about how The Card Counter managed to finish principal photography after getting shut down mid-March due to COVID-19.

Also, it includes this interesting description from Paul Schrader about Oscar Isaac’s character, William Tell -- “So now I have a character and he’s in his room, he’s alone. And he has a mask on. And the mask he wears is a professional poker player. And the problem that runs alongside him is that he is a former torturer for the U.S. government. So it’s a mix of the World Series of Poker and Abu Ghraib.”

Having somehow weathered his way from enfant terrible to wizened survivor, Paul Schrader is a filmmaker who is simply not finished yet. Every time it might seem his career is on the wane, he resets, revitalizes and comes back again.

Just a few years after his 2014 film “Dying of the Light” starring Nicolas Cage was taken away from him by financiers — leading Schrader to disavow the movie — he received his first Oscar nomination (for original screenplay) after directing “First Reformed,” which was released in 2018 and starred Ethan Hawke as a troubled small-town minister.

Schrader’s work is marked by emotional intensity, intellectual vitality and an aesthete’s appreciation of style. His filmography is full of unusual corners that are still being discovered. The 1979 film “Old Boyfriends,” directed by Joan Tewkesbury with a screenplay by Schrader and his brother Leonard, was recently rereleased on home video. As was the 1990 film “The Comfort of Strangers,” directed by Schrader from a screenplay by Harold Pinter.

He’s been directing films from his own scripts since 1978’s “Blue Collar” starring Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto. He went on to write and direct such films as “Hardcore,” “American Gigolo,” “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters,” “Light Sleeper” and “Affliction.” His celebrated work as a screenwriter for director Martin Scorsese includes “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Bringing Out the Dead.”

Never one to shy from controversy onscreen or off, he directed Lindsay Lohan in the 2013 Hollywood-set thriller “The Canyons,” written by Bret Easton Ellis.

In March, Schrader was about three-quarters through the shoot for his next film, “The Card Counter,” in Mississippi — with a cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe — when the production was shut down due to the growing pandemic. In July, Schrader was able to shoot for an additional five days to complete production.

During the break in shooting, “The Card Counter” was picked up for distribution by Focus Features.

Schrader recently got on the phone to talk about the unusual circumstances of the film’s production and completion. A film critic before he became a filmmaker, Schrader not only had startling insights into his work, but also thoughts about what filmmaking and exhibition might be like in a post-COVID world.

Before we start talking about the production on the movie, could you just describe the story? What is “The Card Counter” about?

Well, I don’t want to get too deeply involved in the plot, but what I will say is over the years I’ve kind of developed my own little genre of films. And they usually involve a man alone in a room, wearing a mask, and the mask is his occupation. So it could be a taxi driver, a drug dealer, a gigolo, a reverend, whatever. And I take that character and run it alongside a larger problem, personal or social. It could be debilitating loneliness like in “Taxi Driver.” It could be a midlife crisis like in “Light Sleeper.” It could be an environmental crisis like in “First Reformed.”

So now I have a character and he’s in his room, he’s alone. And he has a mask on. And the mask he wears is a professional poker player. And the problem that runs alongside him is that he is a former torturer for the U.S. government. So it’s a mix of the World Series of Poker and Abu Ghraib.

How did you come to put those two things together?

I’m always looking for that. I’m looking for deep-seated problems, either personal or societal, and some kind of oddball metaphor. The more you get closer, you run these two wires next to each other, the more sparks you see flying across. And it’s in the sparks that the viewer comes alive. If the wires ever touch, there’s nothing left for the viewer to do. But if you keep these two wires really close to each other, the viewer will start to spark from one wire to the other. And that’s the greatest thing you can give a viewer or a reader, an opportunity to be part of the creation.

Let’s talk about the production and everything you’ve been through. Take me back to March. What was it like for you when the production had to shut down?

I have learned in my dotage how to make a quality film on a low budget. So the film I used to make in 40 days I now make in 20. And so “First Reformed” was 20. I had shot in Biloxi 15 days. Now I knew coronavirus was going to be rising, because when I heard that Macau shut down, I said, you know, it’s just a matter of time. Macau is the wealthiest gambling center in the world and I’m here in the gambling center of the Gulf. If Macau shuts down, it’ll reach Vegas, it’ll reach here. And we were doing a scene, a poker tournament with 500 extras. And I remember I said to the A.D., “We can’t put 500 people in a room without one of them being positive.” And sure enough, one of them was. Two days later, we not only closed down, all of the Gulf was closed down.

Fortunately, when I went back, I had shot my big crowd scenes. And also I had shot my sex scenes, which I would have hated to try to do under these restrictions. So all I had left when I went back was a number of scenes in the prisons, and four more scenes in the casinos, some driving scenes. So I was in pretty good shape. But I really wanted to finish the film.

And Oscar Isaac, he was on his way to Hungary to do reshoots for “Dune.” And he wanted to put off this reshoot till after “Dune” — to do it in September because he has a big beard and he didn’t want to shave off his beard. I said to him, “Oscar, there’s a window open right now in Mississippi.” I said, “If we don’t jump into this window while it’s open, this will become one of those famous films that never got finished, and we’ve got to exploit this moment.”

So I talked him off the ledge and he agreed to do it. And we were able to put everybody back together and do our week of prep and five days of shooting. It was very strange, and in a way it was kind of fun, in a summer camp sort of way. But I would hate, hate to make a whole film this way. It was an adventure for five days, it’s a nightmare for five weeks.

In the break from March to July, were you on high alert that you could come back at any moment? Were you editing the footage you already had?

Here’s what happened. I was editing. My editor is in New Jersey and my assistant editor is in Tennessee, so we’re all editing virtually. And I had four major dialogue scenes between my principal characters that I had not shot. Then I was able to screen virtually the film for a number of people I respect, like Scorsese, who is the executive producer, like [filmmaker and programmer] Kent Jones and other people. And what I asked them all is, “I have four more scenes to shoot. I can rewrite them. What am I missing? What do I need to add? How should I write these four scenes?”

And I started getting feedback about what they felt was missing. So I was able to rewrite these scenes and make these relationships much better. And not all productions get to do that. It’s a very expensive reshoot, but it was built-in that three-quarters of the way through, I have an opportunity to rewrite one-quarter of the meaningful character scenes. So I did, I rewrote it. And I realized what was missing. And I wouldn’t have realized that if I was shooting at the top. I would have only realized that in post. And I would have walked around the room kicking myself in the ass, saying, “I wish I had the opportunity to reshoot some scenes.”

How was getting everything back together?

As soon as Mississippi allowed us to come back, we came back. And of course nobody’s working, so everybody’s eager to come back. They are hyper-conscientious because they know they are only being allowed to work by the grace of God. And so the masks and the PPE and the hands and the distancing, you don’t need to tell any of the people this. They’re so happy to be at work. They have no problem with any of that.

You can only have one person within six feet of your actor at a time. That person could be hair, it could be makeup, it could be props, it can be the director, it could be another actor. And you kind of queue up. And a thing that I realized, we had a warehouse. So we did rehearsals for every scene in this warehouse. And I told the actors that when we get to the location, to the casino, the prop people will be in there, the lighting people will be there and then you will walk there with your mask on, and you will take the positions that you took in rehearsal. Then I will roll camera and you will take your masks off and we’ll play the scenes. So that’s how we did it.

Given everything that it takes to get to shooting, once you were back on set with the actors, did you still feel like they could give you the performances that you needed? Was it difficult to get to a place of artistic creation given all the other concerns that everyone has?

Because they had done the rehearsals, they had gone through the permutations of their performances before. So the only thing different for them was that they were in a real space rather than a fake space. As I explained to them, there would be no time for exploration on set. All the exploration you are going to do, we’re going to do here in the warehouse. I don’t want to hear one peep from you about changing anything once we get into this hothouse environment. So however many hours we have to spend in the warehouse, let’s spend it.

How close to finished are you with the movie now, considering you had a lot of it already cut together?

Basically, I’m finished, down to an hour and 49 minutes, which is where I think it should be. Obviously, I have to do the score, there’s the post-prod and the special effects, but the thing is that there’s no pressure to finish the film anymore at this time. I was talking to Focus, and I could give them the film in a month. They don’t want the film in a month because they don’t know what to do with it in a month. They said, you just take whatever time you need, which is the opposite of the way studios usually talk. I also have final cut, so it doesn’t really matter. What I deliver, I deliver.

When you made “The Canyons” you talked a lot about your feelings regarding the theatrical experience, VOD and streaming and contemporary filmmaking. What impact do you think the COVID shutdowns will have on movie theaters?

There’s a certain kind of film like “The Canyons,” which should be made for VOD, which is a kind of exploitation film. And there’s another kind of film like “First Reformed” that has to be mounted by film festivals and art-house cinemas, so that it has an identity prior to VOD. So if you’re on VOD and you see an Ethan Hawke film about a minister, you’re not going to say, “Oh, let’s watch that.” No, what you’re going to say is, “Oh, I heard about that film. I heard it was good.” Well, how did they hear it was good? They heard that from film festival reportage and they heard from their friends who have seen it at theaters. So that sets up VOD.

The opposite case is a film like “First Cow,” a film that was crushed by not having a theatrical window. And everybody is, “Should I watch ‘First Cow’?” They have no context. So what’s important for a film like “The Card Counter” is we have to give it context. We have to go to the festivals and we have to go to the art cinemas to tell people what we have in our hands. Then we can go to VOD, where the real money is. So “First Reformed” went to Telluride, Toronto, Venice and New York. That set the table. I would love to set the table for this one. I can go to all those festivals. That’s not a problem for me anymore. The problem is: Are festivals going to happen?

Do you think theaters are going to come back?

Not in the way they did. There are only four reasons for theaters to exist anymore. And this situation has accelerated these trends. Like symphonies and operas and live theater, concerts, they need a reason to exist. One reason is family cinema, because parents love to see their kids interacting with other kids. Animation films will always have an audience. Another is extraordinary spectacle. IMAX, virtual, whatever they come up with. Something you can’t see at home. The third is date movies for high schoolers, which is horror and rom-coms. Or rather, dirty rom-coms.

And then the fourth is club cinema. Which used to be called art cinema. But with these new institutions that are a combination of social institutions and cinematic institutions. So the Metrograph in New York has one restaurants and two bars. There’s more square footage devoted to eating and drinking than there is to watching movies. And yet it’s always full because people want to be in that environment. So then alcohol’s become the new popcorn. And those club cinemas, which were pioneered by Alamo, they will continue to exist because people want to be part of the club, people want to buy a membership. They want to eat and hang out, and they want to know which films have been approved by the club. Which is something you cannot get from VOD.

When “First Reformed” was coming out, you spoke about how you had made it thinking it could be your last film. And yet you seem so reenergized over the last few years. Do you feel that way? Have you been able to hit the reset button in some way?

Oddly, yes. I’m in the middle of a new script, which is about a horticulturalist. And what has happened in my case, following the disastrous situation I went through with “Dying of the Light,” I said, I would no longer work unless I had final cut. And once I got final cut, I was free. When I began, you didn’t really need final cut. When I was working in the studio system, all those other films, you were working with people who knew movies, who liked movies. Who you can talk to, you could disagree with — things would get changed, sometimes they’d get better, sometimes for worse in your mind, but you were working with people who liked movies, who watched movies. In the last 15 years, I’m dealing mainly with financiers, who not only don’t watch movies, don’t even particularly like them. And how can you have discussions with these people? And that’s what final cut freed me from, because I realized I couldn’t talk to these people. I wasn’t talking to [studio executives like] Barry Diller and Thom Mount and Ned Tanen anymore. I was talking to Joe Schmo from some hedge fund and I couldn’t talk to Joe Schmo. The only way I could talk to him was to have final cut.

I’m certainly excited to see what becomes of “The Card Counter.”

The new one is quite good. Focus told me not to hump it too much because that’s their job down the line. But you can take my word for it, it’s quite good.

###

[pupa-cinema]

Happy Go Lucky Heads – 金太の大冒険(The Adventures of Kinta) - Lyrics English Translation

Each of the final lyrics of each verse holds a double entendre, so I'll include those in parentheses under! Kintama means balls, while 金太Kinta is a common male name. Put any appropriate word that begins with ma after Kinta and voila, you have something that rings inappropriate!

ある日金太が歩いていると Once upon a time, Kinta was walking along when he bumped into 美しいお姫様が逃げてきた A beautiful princess who was running away 悪い人に　ネエ　今おわれているの I’m being chased, oh my, by some bad guys お願い　金太　守って Please, Kinta, protect me 金太　守って　金太　守って Kinta, protect me, Kinta, protect me 金太　守って Kinta, protect me

（金太　守って = 金玉持って: Hold his balls in your hand）

しかし金太はけんかが弱く However, Kinta was a weak fighter 友達とやっても　負けてしまう Even when he fought with friends he would lose 腕力に自信のない金太君 Oh poor Kinta-kun with no confidence in his strength けんかはいつも　負けが多い He is always losing fights 金太　負けが多い　金太　負けが多い Kinta is always losing fights, Kinta is always losing fights 金太　負けが多い Kinta is always losing fights

（金太　負けが多い = 金玉毛が多い : Balls with lots of hair）

やがて悪人がやってきた But still the bad guys came along 身の丈2メートルもある大男 A giant with a body 2 meters tall 金太と悪人の大決戦 An epic brawl between Kinta and the bad guy 金太　負けるなとお姫様 Kinta, don’t you lose, the princess cried out 金太　負けるな　金太　負けるな Kinta, don’t you lose, Kinta, don’t you lose 金太　負けるな Kinta, don’t you lose

（金太　負けるな = 金玉蹴るな : Don’t kick his balls）

悪人は金太におそいかかる The bad guy pounced at Kinta 金太は思わず　とびのいた Without second thought Kinta leaped away アー　そこにあったのは大きな木 Ahh, there lied a big tree そのまわりを金太はグルグルまわりだす Kinta spun and spun around it 金太　回った　金太　回った Kinta spun, Kinta spun 金太　回った Kinta spun

（金太　回った = 金玉割った : Slice his balls）

悪人はいつか目をまわし Before long the bad guy's eyes became dizzy そのすきにお姫様と逃げだした He used that chance to dash away with the princess お姫様の美しさに金太君 Before the beauty of the princess, Kinta-kun’s- 目をパチパチまたたいた Eyes were dazzling and twinkling 金太　またたいた　金太　またたいた Kinta was dazzled, Kinta was dazzled 金太　またたいた Kinta was dazzled

（金太　またたいた = 金玉叩いた : Punch his balls）

しばらくゆくと二人は After a while the two realized おなかのすいたのに気がついた That they were starving フト見るとマスカットの木がはえている They caught a glimpse of a muscat tree 金太はナイフで切ったとさ So Kinta sliced them up with a knife 金太　マスカット　ナイフで切る Kinta sliced up the muscats with his knife 金太　マスカット　ナイフで切る Kinta sliced up the muscats with his knife 金太　マスカット　ナイフで切る Kinta sliced up muscats with a knife

（金太　マスカット　ナイフで切る  =  金玉 スカッとナイフで切る: Slice and dice the balls

おなかのふくれた二人は With the two of their stomachs stuffed さらに安全なマカオに行くことにした They decided to go to the even more safe city of Macau 行けども行けども　マカオは見えず They walked on and on, but still Macau wasn't in sight お姫様はイライラして　金太に聞いた The princess grew impatient, and asked Kinta ネエー金太　まだ　ネエー金太　まだ Oh Kintaaa, are we there yet, Kinta are we there yet 金太　まだ Kinta, are we there yet

（金太　まだ = 金玉だ: It's balls）

そうしているうちにも二人は Onward and onward the two went やっとのことでマカオに着いた Until they finally arrived in Macau 金太とお姫様はマカオに着いた Kinta and the princess arrived at Macau やっとのことでマカオに着いた They finally arrived at Macau 金太　マカオに着く　金太　マカオに着く Kinta arrives at Macau, Kinta arrives at Macau 金太　マカオに着く Kinta arrives at Macau

（金太　マカオに着く＝金玉顔に付く: Balls on your face）

マカオに着いた金太君 Now that Kinta-kun has arrived in Macau 知り合いのビルをたずねたとさ He asked around for information on his acquaintance's residence お姫様はそのビルを見て言ったとさ The princess saw his residence and said まあ金太わりとましなビルね Oh my, Kinta, it’s such an upstanding building まあ　金太　ましなビル　金太　ましなビル Oh my, Kinta, it’s such an upstanding building 金太　ましなビル Kinta, it’s such an upstanding building

（金太　ましなビル = 金玉萎びる: Balls shriveled up）

中にはいると誰もいない Upon their entry they found no one 伝言板にただひとこと書いてある Only a message written on a board 神田さんから金太君へのことづけで From Kanda-san to Kinta-kun 「金太　待つ　神田」と書いてある It read “Kinta, I’m waiting for you, Kanda” 金太　待つ　神田　金太　待つ　神田 Kinta, I’m waiting for you, Kanda 金太　待つ　神田 Kinta, I’m waiting for you, Kanda

（金太　待つ　神田＝金玉掴んだ Grab his balls）

御存じ　金太の大冒険 So the story goes, the adventures of Kinta これから先はどうなるか What ever could be lying in store for him ahead またの機会をごひいきに We’ll save that for next time それでは皆さんさようなら For now it’s goodbye everyone

Footnotes: ●  This is actually a cover of Tsuboinorio(つボイノリオ)'s song! Long since called "A representative song of Japan" and "A comic song", it was released in 1975. A bold debut, as that same year was when it made waves with its catchy tune and cursed wordplay! So much so it was banned from radio stations.. And history has now repeated itself 50 years later: not only are fans afraid to play it on the radio, Omedetai themselves even appear to be struggling. Their posts read "Now that our song has been released, our record company has been doing their best to promote us yet, for some reason no media outlets have been willing to hear our say... If you're with the media, please contact us at kintama.sukomi@gmail.com." One day later... "We're still searching for any media outlets that would be willing to do a segment on our song, yet not one has even inquired us ><."

This email address looks.... I wonder what would happen if one were to send something...

●  The music video was directed by Fujii Ryou! Who on twitter said "This is a cover of that famous song. In this time and age. Of all things. I stirred up a horrible video." Then posted a picture of a phallic rocket ship with the caption "The creation process of my worst creation. To lessen the load on myself and the work required for the cool spaceship Kinta takes on his adventures, I had erected this stiff model from pure scratch. Bending toilet paper and ping pong balls to my will.” He even made a pun himself... 大金を投じて normally means to pour a lot of money into something, 大金 literally meaning ‘big gold’ but.. kintama in JP is also literally ‘gold orbs’...

●  https://twitter.com/omedeta_japan/status/1340960220063780864 As any word starting with "Ma", if followed after "Kinta", is wont to be heard as "Kintama", Omedetai have not let opportunities pass them by. They each made playlists dubbed "Kinta-my-list(Kintamairisuto)" (Mylist is the wasei-eigo word for playlist).

Sekihan's included Mariah Carey's famous Christmas song, among other western songs by artists who start with Ma. Each song with a sexual theme. 324's all western as well, but his themes are more emo, suiting his taste. Mito-juu and Mao's have a mix of J-pop and western, yet all songs are sure to have a title or artist who starts with Ma. While Poniki only has Aoi Usagihttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aoi_Usagi. As it's the theme song for 'Kinka of the stars'... Fans are invited to make a playlist of their own, and a chosen winner will win the title of "KintaMeistar"! A pun on the word ‘meistar’.

●  https://twitter.com/omedeta_japan/status/1340513940644610048 The members seen recording backup vocals. Shouting 'Kintama' for the sake of emboldening the brazen.

●  KintaMarathon In promotion of the song they hosted a campaign asking for people to listen to the song for a cumulative 42.195 hours, the same number of miles there is in a marathon. Screenshot and send in your playtime for a chance to win a signed Adventures of Kinta record.

●  https://lineblog.me/omedeta/archives/9435022.html Mito-juu blog post. "We took to this challenge with utmost solemnity. Before the song you see today took form, we had taken the song apart and put it back together countless times until we got it right. The recording phase was nothing to scoff at either. A single concept album. A story told on a single stage. It was truly a challenge to stuff it all into one single song. I think I drummed more than just one or two songs worth for this.

For the music video we managed to scout out the like-minded fellow named Fujii Ryuu. When he presented the drafts, then the blueprints, then the final piece to us... Each time I went "This is it!" as I was practically making a victory pose in my head. It's thanks to Fujii Ryuu that we were able to create something so amazing. I say that with confidence.

I hope those who listen to this song will smile and laugh. I hope those who watch this MV will smile and laugh. I hope it serves as something of a release from stress.

I'm going on a bit now but I do hope it may serve as a fortunate encounter for you. If so, then it was more than worth making.

I hope you can get a good laugh out of it, that would make me more than happy.

[stillness-in-green]

Spinaraki Week, Day 5: Free Day+

Post-canon, Shigaraki and Spinner fight--well, something like the good fight, anyway.  For @codenamesazanka​, whose endgame wish for Shigaraki can usually be summarized as, “Escapes punishment to go be a vigilante with Spinner somewhere.”

A drabble series using all the week’s prompts I didn’t hit otherwise, and a few blanks, so let’s just call it Free Day.

———–      ———–      ———–      ———–

Shigaraki's grinning when he walks into the alley, an unmistakable sign that he's onto something.

"Got a new target?" Spinner climbs down long enough for Shigaraki to grab hold around his neck before scaling upwards again.

"Better.  I picked up the trail on our old friend Tsang."  Shigaraki's all lean muscle in a crisp black suit.

"That bastard finally slipped up?  Ha!" A light switches on in one of the cheap apartments above them.  Spinner crawls easily around a corner, changing directions.  "What's our angle?"

"He'll be in town for the Grand Prix next month."  Shigaraki chuckles darkly.  "Game on."

———–      

Spinner stir-fries pork minchee over their ancient stove, adding soy sauce and molasses and listening as Shigaraki, perched on the edge of their ratty sofa, types industriously on his laptop, explaining their new lead.  The sound of New Oumun's nightlife drifts in through the window, a jangle of distant music and traffic wrapped in the hum of eight-hundred-thousand people living on an island thirty kilometers square.

Spinner slides the meal onto one big plate, snags two forks, and drops onto the floor between Shigaraki's knees, leaning back comfortably as Shigaraki steals a fork and leans over him to dig in.

———–      

Spinner wakes to an empty bed and sighs, standing up and dragging himself over to the window.  Unsurprisingly, Shigaraki's sitting on the tin awning below; he doesn't look over as Spinner eases down beside him.  He stares out over the city, in the direction of the glittering casino towers but not really at them, expression blank and cool.

His bad hand trembles faintly, barely noticeable save that Spinner knows to look for it.

Shigaraki doesn't speak as Spinner closes his hands over Shigaraki's own, Shigaraki's deft, pale digits curled lightly between Spinner's claws.  

He doesn't speak, but he leans closer.

———–      

A tip for a successful vigilante career: people never bother hiding much from children.  Spinner allows himself to be climbed on by four local brats, even the one with the purple ooze quirk, as Shigaraki carries on a discussion in near unintelligibly rapid Cantonese.

"Do the trick!" the youngest one demands, holding up a box she retrieved from who-knows where, a heavy padlock hanging from the front.  Shigaraki rolls his eyes but obediently touches three fingers to the lock; a second later, a blue marble rests in his palm, the box lies open, and the kids are telling him everything.

———–      

They get a check-in from Toga a week before the Prix.  She chatters happily away on video-call, firing periodic barbs over her shoulder at an annoyed-looking Skeptic.  

"So you guys have a new thing going down?"

"Yeah.  That bastard from Hong Kong who tried that rice extortion racket last year."

"Hah!  He deserves you two.  Oh! Kurogiri says to say hello!"

"Does that detective know you've been visiting?" Shigaraki drawls.  He doesn't even tense, Spinner marvels, as Toga peals laughter at the suggestion.

"Duh, no.  I'll tell him you say hi too," she pronounces sagely, and Shigaraki doesn't argue.

———–      

"Hey, Shigaraki!  It's almost time; what's taking you?"

"'S gotta look right."

"You're gonna be in and out in minutes; you--blue?"

"Getting bored of black all the time."

"....Why do I have a hard time believing that."

"Believe what you want. But I thought you liked blue, Spinner."

"What are you--why are you grinning like that?"

"Haha."

"...This is about my old vest, isn't it?"

"It's fine.  You even got Re-Destro on polka dots for a while."

"Look, you KNOW I had to--"

"Trendsetting for the whole army.  So fashionable."

"I swear, I'm gonna--mmg."

"..."

"...Shigaraki..."

"..Heh.  Save it for after."

———–      

Shigaraki leaves the casino with a tail.  Several tails, actually, and at least one of them has some experience, because he doesn't just watch Shigaraki or the street around him; he looks up, up and around, at the skies, the roofs of buildings, parking garages, all the usual spots.  

A fire-user, a man with a maw full of jagged teeth and big moon-pale fish eyes, and the experienced one, whose quirk they haven't been able to figure out.

Spinner tucks up tighter beside a wheezing air conditioner unit as they pass below him.  

In the distance, high-powered car engines scream.

———–      

Third guy had a blindness-inducing quirk.

Had.  

Now he has Spinner's machete driven into his neck, no vital signs, and Shigaraki writhes on the ground, growling through his agonized groaning.  A fissure opens up in his neck as he claws at the cement, another across his temple and down the side of his face.  

"No pulse on any of them!" Spinner says frantically, dropping down beside him.

"Haaah.  We're too good at this, Spinner."  Shigaraki grins horribly, wounds beginning to trickle blood. "S'okay.  We've still got Tsang."

"But I thought we were gonna--"

"Yeah.  You just gotta get me there."

———–      

It's not as neat as they planned it, Tsang tossed into the path of a bunch of race cars still marbleized, then loosed with a snap.  

Instead, they have to free him long enough for Shigaraki to off-load the blindness quirk and Spinner just bodily tosses him into the oncoming headlights.  Messier, all around, and there are probably already blurry new pictures of them getting around social media.

But by the time they shake most of New Oumun's “heroes” and bribe or blackmail the rest, Shigaraki's wounds have closed up, he's back on his feet, and they make it home clean.

———–      

Spinner gets Shigaraki into the shower with only minimal bullying; afterward, the two of them settle back on the window awning.

 Shigaraki tucks himself between Spinner's legs and leans back against his chest, arranging his broad arms around his own shoulders with an air of sated possessiveness.

They watch the downtown spotlights of the district swing across the clouds in comfortable silence.

"There's probably gonna be some people calling us villains again," Spinner says at last.

Shigaraki hums in disinterest, eyes half-closed. 

"League of Villains’ leader has nothing to say, huh?" 

"He's on vacation.  No comment."

Spinner chuckles and welcomes in the quiet.

———–      ———–      ———–      ———–

Points of Note: 

-New Oumun is Macau 200 years in the future.  Here’s all the mental image you need.  The Grand Prix is a famous street racing event that, by this point in time, probably includes some pretty wild allowances for quirk use.

-Tsang is from a Hong Kong crime family; pretty much all of Macau’s imports--including all of its food--come shipped via Hong Kong.  My thought is that the two islands have, if not quite merged together, definitely grown in each others’ direction somewhat in the time since quirks Happened to the world.

-Shigaraki mostly burned out All for One (the quirk) in his final battle with Deku.  His 75% complete status combined with the damaged AFO quirk, over-used super-regeneration, and the strain of the last fight has left him a somewhat precarious existence, with his enhancements spiraling into breakdown if he disrupts his balance overmuch.  That said, he definitely did not burn out as much as Midoriya thinks he did, a fact Shigaraki is perfectly content to keep to himself, not least because returning to his role as supervillain is not entirely off the table if Midoriya and his classmates don’t follow through on promises to improve the state of their society.

--Mr. Compress is in the wind.  Shigaraki has his quirk, but by arrangement--he's laying low, but will want his quirk back eventually, once he's established his new identity.  

-Toga has shacked up with a rogue faction of the MLA and is reconnecting to her quirk in a way that tells her it's okay, it's always been okay.  She's handling it with Skeptic and Geten; the three of them have developed a relationship that seems to consist almost entirely of bile and spite, but they close ranks terrifyingly well.

-Kurogiri is overseeing the treatment of the remaining Noumu.  He's in a somewhat delicate honor-bound arrangement overseen by Tsukauchi--he doesn't try to run away as long as Tsukauchi doesn't try to cage him--but he's keeping to his word so far, periodically in communication with Aizawa, though Shigaraki is pointedly incommunicado.  There are issues there that will need to be resolved eventually, but Shigaraki's in no hurry to do so.

-Trumpet becomes instrumental to the MLA ideology surviving and its sounder points being addressed--he does some prison time, but the Commission is completely unable to stop him from turning his trial into a media circus the likes of which the country hasn't seen in decades.  It helps him sleep better at night, anyway.

-All for One, Dabi, and Re-Destro are dead.             -AFO was killed in the Tartarus jailbreak--NOT by Shigaraki, but rather by a guard who realized what was about to happen and made the call, just before Decay got him, to pull the trigger on all the guns aimed at the Lord of Evil’s head.  This was unsatisfying for pretty much everyone.           -Dabi was, one way or another, lost to The Todoroki Plotline.           -Re-Destro almost certainly dies at some point during the "war", protecting his savior and liberator, and willing him to carry on towards tearing down all the systems that entrap people.

[randomahjummafan]

Fated to Love You (2014)

I watched Fated to Love You (2014) Korean version. And I think, just for me, that it's good I watched the Thai ver before the korean. If you want to watch it by the year they came out, first would be the Taiwanese, next is Korean, then Thai and the Chinese ver. So now, I'm left with the Chinese ver but I won't watch it yet. I had too much heartbreak already. Again, SPOILERS WILL BE STATED AS WELL AS COMPARISON.

So for the Korean ver, our fated lovers are Lee Geon and Kim Mi Young. But this time, I have to say that the Korean ver, made a version of their own. I know the story is there but I have to say they owned it. From where they met, where "it" happened, and looooots of different stuff.

So what I liked about this version, is what I've said, they owned like they made their version which is very Korean Drama like. There are a lot of things that I liked on this version but I will also tell the comparison from the Taiwanese ver because it was made after the Taiwanese ver. Well, the difference was mainly the cruise ship, in the korean ver they did it at a resort in Macau. Also, there was no mistaken proposal that happened in this ver. But they met before they met in Macau. Then there's also no lie-low turned into a news, pregnancy test. THANK YOU KOREAN VERSION FOR GIVING ME THE SCENE THAT I WANT IN ALL VERSION. THEY SLEPT TOGETHER AHHHKKKKK. I mean, when Mi Young was living in Geon's house already, they end up sleeping on the same bed for a few days(or even weeks???) I'm just sad that they weren't able to celebrate their birthdays. Also, I like how this version showed that Sera, Geon's original girlfriend, was not very controlling. Like I was shocked she was there on the first episode, unlike in the other vers. Also, I rememberes, in this ver, it doesn't have the rocking horse but it has a special cup. I like the part also wherein Geon is reading story for their baby. I mean, they were really sweet duh!!!! Just watch I love it. Again, thank you Korean ver for giving us the aftermath of their marriage. I mean, the twins part. I was soooooo happy atleast they showed what happened. You really did owned the drama. Daniel's role was so good. I mean, he wasn't that nosy and he was just pure gentleman. A reliable neighborhood oppa, indeed. Mr. Tak and Lee Yong's partnership with a little bit of competition are also funny. In this ver, atleast Yong wasn't that much of a hater. Good thing she liked Mi Young. I also liked that they didn't put much attention in what happened in Paris, it was just like, she made it, she's famous. That's it. I mean, I wasn't really fond of that part lol.

My rating would be 9/10. The drama was fun. And even the OST was good! Even though there's an illness, and a little nosy stepmother who isn't really a step-mom, anyway, they were all fine for me. It was a great drama. But you can watch the Taiwanese Drama first always so that you would have an idea for what will happen. Though you have to prepare tissue for that version but it's also funny (funnier than the korean ver lol sorry). I was glad that the grandma was even though she had a scary aura she was soooooo nice. Also, all secondary characters were funny. It was perfect. I recommend it. Well, after watching this ver, I realized that the Thai version was a mixed version of Taiwanese and Korean vers. So choose well on what to watch after the Taiwanese. I recommend to watch the Taiwanese ver as the first to watch so you would know the story. Then you may choose whatever you'd like next.

Some scene from the drama

Ahjumma