The Seven Deadly Sins

    Finally, my very last blog post, the moment I've been waiting for. The last show I chose to watch was The Seven Deadly Sins. This is a show I've been wanting to watch for some time now but never got around to it. It's very different from what

I expected it to be but still somewhat enjoyable.

My expectations for this anime were extremely high, just by the given name. I thought it was going to be serious, painful, and heart touching, however, it wasn't.

    The first few minutes of the episode gave me the impression that it was comedic and childish. I don't really enjoy comedic anime because those types of anime rarely follow a serious storyline. I would  rather watch drama and action because it's interesting and it always catches my attention. Or animes that requires thoughtfulness and attentiveness. I would only watch a comedic anime if a friend recommended it to me and even then I probably wouldn't finish it. Another thing that comes to mind about this anime is pervy. The main character Meliodas meets the princess but she's asleep in the attic of the owner’s restaurant. Meliodas wakes her by squeezing her breast and at that moment, I knew that it was going to be cheesy.

    The third princess of the Kingdom of Liones, Elizabeth meets Meliodas and the owner of the Boar Hat bar and is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. However her identity is known and she's pursued by Twigo whom Meliodas defeats quickly. While the storyline begins to pick up, the only thing I was able to focus on was the tone of the princess’s voice. Elizabeth's voice is really squeaky and high-pitched and it was hard for me to focus on what was going on. It was similar to a child’s voice but more emphasis were put on how young she was but she isn't.

    The Seven Deadly Sins isn't what I expected it to be. It's more so of the typical animes with a weak storyline. I'm sure other people may have different opinions but it's only something I'd watch to kill time. If you want to watch something worth your time, watch Naruto. 

Okja

Okja is an action-adventure film co-produced by Netflix and Plan B Entertainment. It was the first time for me to watch a foreign movie without a subscript, however it is very easy to understand what is going. This movie is about a group of self-defined environmentalists who created super pigs by a series of technique like gene mutation, hybridization. These super pigs were sent to different countries and grown by the local farmers. Mija is a young girl who lives with her grandpa in a mountain area of South Korea raising their super pig Koja.  Koja is Mija’s only friend who saved her life. Koja was sent to New York and focused to breed a new pig, and suffered from cruel treatment. Mija started her trip of rescuing her friend Koja.   

There was a lot chaos between Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the company which created transgenosis super pig. Okja was focused to breed a new pig and suffered a lot cruel treatment. The ALF posted the company’s inhuman behavior on the super pig in the company’s event of announcing the winner of super pig, which of course caused a much bigger chaos. At the end of the movie, Mija brought Okja from the company with her gold pig from her grandpa. When Okja and Mija left the slaughter, a couple of super pigs pushed their offspring out from the fence. Okja hid this small super big in her mouth, and took the small pig back to South Korea. Animal liberation is a very controversial topic, however, this movie did not promote either of the stands.

Mija was not depicted as an animal liberation supporter, and she saved only Okja and only because Okja is her only friend and Okja has saved her life. In the scene of buying Okja, the producer conveyed the idea that no matter what you believe and what you have experienced, you should respect other people’s legal property. The composition of the is very interesting in the end of the movie. Mija and her grandpa were having their meal within the square door frame, while Okja was looking at them from the square window frame behind them. People’s activities are limited within these squares which is also true in our real world.

The topic of animal liberation is also a topic of my other class which is more focused on the animal testing. There are many animal liberation extremists who burn the laboratory and threat the researcher’s own life or their family safety. It is hard to believe that a person who doesn’t care the human life would care about the other animal’s life. Due to the extremist, there only very few people stand out to talk about the benefit of the animal testing. People have their right to believe what is right for them, but they have no right to control other people’s believe and they should also respect each other’s believe. In this film, Mija respected the rule of the market. If she wants the pig, she has to buy it.

To be honest, I skipped some of this movie, but I still like this movie. The producers know animal liberation is a very controversial topic, so they just avoided to talk about this topic directly but promote the friendship between animal and human, which I enjoy most in this movie.

The OA: An Overwhelming Amount (Get it, OA-- Overwhelming... Amount??) of Feelings

So I'm pretty sure I've discussed light more than twice in these posts, but for this show it's super important. The OA is chalked full of really smartly put additions of light and also parts that lack light and each of those instances gives of a totally different vibe to the episode. Because the central character is blind (well, not really anymore... idk) the darkness is just as telling as the light, which is really cool.

In general, I've seen lots of dark moments in other films that represent a change of scene or a perspective change (like showing the blinking of the eyes), however in The OA it really symbolizes a period of the character's life and the horrors she went through. What exactly are those horrors? I don't know because the episode left on a cliffhanger and she hasn't exactly been the most talkative character.

Anyway, the show starts and end with dramatic dark scenes, which is particularly important because it leads me to believe that without even watching the show for the content one would be able to tell that the show didn't come to any sort of conclusion. There was no real "light at the end of the tunnel" moment, if you will.

More specifically on the opening scene, the dramatic lack of light in the hospital room introduces a serious question of where the heck this girl is because it looked more like the hospital room that Harvey Dent was stuck in in Dark Knight (see below).
As the episode goes on, there is a gradual increase in lighting, especially around the two parents and as Prarie/the OA returns home. While watching that I figured this would be a relief for her, due to the lighting looking brighter, however she continued to struggle and often she was introduced into a new scene under her blankets or draped in clothing, signifying that she's more comfortable in the dark.

Hoping I don't give too much of the plot away, I'll skip to the end and discuss the lighting in the end of the episode. So she ends up in this strange space between life and death and it appears like a universe of starts and small lights in a sea of never-ending black. In this space she must decide whether she wants to return to life or stay in this dark space. To my surprise, since I thought I had it figured out that she's more comfortable in the dark, she chose to return to her life. The trick was that she must be blind to do so, and thus she returns to life in a scary, dark world that she must find some sort of comfort in.

I don't know much more about her life, but my guess, based on the lighting cues, is that she was hesitant to accept the darkness, but she now thrives in it probably due to her time as a blind person. Although this episode came to no real conclusion, it gave me some really good details to look for in the next few episodes and light is one of them. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for what the light in this show truly reveals about the setting, mood, plot, and characters.

Godless

Dear Dad,

                At your request I reluctantly decided to watch the show Godless and was quite surprised to find out I kind of liked it. Godless is about the criminal Frank Griffin and his gang of outlaws are out to get revenge on Roy Goode , a son-like figure to Frank who betrayed the brotherhood. While on the run, Roy seeks refuge with widow Alice Fletcher, her son and the boy’s grandmother, an outcast herself on their farm outside of an isolated town. When word reaches the town that Frank is headed their way, the town bands together to defend against the murderous gang in the lawless west.

                I know that you have always had a love for westerns, especially the old ones so that was why I was unsure if I would like this show or not. I feel like the older westerns seem to miss some of the newer shows posses, you normally know exactly what’s going to happen so that is why I kind of get bored with them. Because of this I have not really watched a lot of new westerns, so I was a little surprised my liking it so much. I do not think that it is a show I would normally sit down and watch but it is definitely one that I would not mind watching with you while we are home. I definitely think it is better than the older shows and am intrigued by it and Kind of curious what will happen in the next show because this one was left on a cliffhanger. I also think I was more entertained by this show because of the visuals, instead of hearing about the massacre in the beginning it shows you where it happened and what all took place. It gets you more involved and invested into the show right off the bat and makes you want to know why someone would do that.

                I also think that instead of sneaking away to your buddy’s house to watch it using his Netflix that you and mom should get Netflix. I think that this is a show she may enjoy as well and you two could watch it together. I think that even though there wasn’t the romance aspect she normally likes that it will eventually come around it the show and she will enjoy it. Overall I think it was a pretty good show that anyone that enjoys westerns would really enjoy to watch. Maybe we can watch some more over Christmas break and see what happens.

One Day at A Time: Old People Are Very Cool

In the episode Pride & Prejudice, Penelope’s daughter Elena came out to her when they were having a sex talk. Penelope tried to accept it and be open-minded, but she still felt weird about Elena’s coming out. Elena also came out to her religious gramma Lydia, who was thought to be the most stubborn person. However, Lydia figured it out after ten seconds that she is going to against the Pope and God on the issue of being gay because Elena is her granddaughter. She loves Elena and she wants her to be happy. In the last episode, Elena’s father, Victor knew about this, he did not have a father-daughter dance with Elena in Elena’s Quinces leaving Elena in sadness and embarrassment. Something the old people are cooler than us and they are more open-minded.  

Their reaction to the issue of being gay reminds me my own family, though nobody comes out in my family. But the similarity between Penelope’s family and my family is that old people are more opened-mind.

When I  graduated from high school, I planned to apply a school which is very far away from our province because the major that I wanted to study only offered in few school. My grandpa supported me to purchase my dream and do something that I really like, while my father kept calling me everyday to make sure I only apply the school in our province. He even said that if I study in other provinces, he would stop support me economically. It turned out that I did not get support from my father, neither did I go to the local University.

When I was noticed that I got a four-year full scholarship in Truman, I was told by my family that the scholarship is not real. My grandpa supported me as usual, and my father still kept calling me and telling me to stop. We had a  bitter quarrel on the phone. This time, he said he would not be my father if I go to the U.S. Blood is Blood anyway, he is still my father at least biologically.

Another example of how cool my grandpa is was that he started to use a smartphone in his 80s and I tried to teach him everything I can. One thing very inspired me was that he trusted the mobile pay, while my father would never trust the internet. Nobody going to steal your money. There are many things happening  in China at the same time, even I need some time to be comfortable with the innovation. It took me a few weeks to get used to the mobile pay. I am so proud of my grandpa that he tried to catch up.