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Season finale was a New Years ep, so timely since New Years was yesterday. For Japan, it’s about soba and mochi, which was well represented. Then there was an overview of the season - highlights of all the s3 eps and a teaser for the feature film. I may have to hunt that down next, or just head over to the Netflix series. That’s now showing as trending on my Netflix but I’m guessing it’s an algorithm popping that just for me. No way this is trending now. I mean, if it is, maybe I can sell a den article. Is it trending for you?
S3 was the weakest so far but I’m not sure why. It was still charming, and even more inventive about how it defied its own formatting, but it didn’t have the same spark as the previous 2 seasons. I’m still into it tho.
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It’s listed in my “Trending” section, but far enough back that it may just be trying to get us, who watched it before, to jump in again. I don’t trust no al go rhythm.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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Preachin to the choir...
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What I hoped might be one of the feature films was in fact, the Chinese remake of the series. I watched the first ep.
It ruins what the original did. There's 9 eps at 45 mins each, way too long, and it seems to be a continuous story across the series instead of stand alone eps with some carry over story arcs.
The food is lame. Master is 'laoban' meaning 'boss'. He has a scar but is nowhere near the stoic cook from the original. This ep has him meticulously preparing an American style hamburger and fries. srsly?
Some of the other characters are echoed - the cop, the yakuza and his flunky, the old regular dude who's swapped his lid for a bucket hat.
There's some beautiful cinematography. It's a port town but it doesn't have that red light district seedy underbelly like Shinjuku. The first ep had a dark turn - a rather brutal hurt child scene - it almost engaged me but then it got sappy in that PRC way.
YouTube has the whole series in good definition with subs, but I doubt I'll watch more of it.
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S1e1 Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories - it's a seamless transition, the only change being the opening with that Netflix TA-DUM and some slightly modified graphic credits.
The premiere ep brings back a few of the same characters right away and tells a tale of a transvestite tokusatsu. A sweet tale, very much in the spirit of the original show.
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A few more Tokyo stories deep and the Netflix game is decidedly more conventional. The stories are okay but it’s missing that all-nighter existential vibe and could use more of the regulars. They’re appearing but just as dressing, not as integral to the stories. Still watching tho.
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I liked the omelet rice ep because it had a great cameo of the peanut abacus guy. That was a sweet story.
The Mahjong player with son was interesting because of the mahjong tables that automatically shuffled and dealt the tiles. That was really impressive. I grew up around mahjong. My dad was an avid player and we'd had mahjong nights when the relatives were by for some holiday dinner or something. I learned it and enjoyed it but never got that good and don't remember how to score. It's basically go fish but with more complex hands and suits. I don't think I could play anymore.
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S4e6 - another ghost story. Not as well done as the earlier one but it did jog a memory because of the running out of pickled plums theme. My dad had a similar experience. He had this huge jar - like a 3 gallon glass jar - filled with pickled lemons his mom made. I never met my paternal grandma. She died before I was born. I wonder how long my dad carried that jar, moving it from southern CA to PA then to Svale. It was a medicinal - he made this strange soup broth with it when he wasn't feeling well. It was strong - the broth only required a like a teaspoon of the lemons. I remember having it a few times. It was really intense. I also remember he was so sad when he finally ran out of that.
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My count is off again because I think I just watched e6. It's the one about the childhood friend of Mr. Chu. It was rather mediocre. The only scene that nudged me was when the friend was working as a cleaning lady at the love hotel and picked up what I think was a used condom off the bed. But the rest of the ep was meh.
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The return of Erect Oki! Strangely sentimental tale of porn.
And an ep based on Othello (the game) which is like oversized Go.
One more ep and that concludes S4. It’s another New Year ep. But not tonight…
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S4e10: season finale and it’s buckwheat soba for all!
This ep packs several flashback stories into one fast paced ep. The gambling winner didn’t really go anywhere. The power outage ghost story about watermelons was my fav because it got so surreal. There was a tiny glimpse into Master’s private life at the end. I wish his story would be told, but am okay with it remaining a mystery.
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S5e1: Off to a good start with a very poignant episode. I had ramen while watching it. That made it more enjoyable although my ramen clearly paled to the Master.
I'm going to try to eat something Japanese with all of the remaining episodes.
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S5e2: Horoscopes and cheese chicken katsu. Ok, I’ve never had cheese chicken katsu - didn’t know that was a thing and now I’m wondering if I missed out like with chicken & waffles.
As for the horoscope theme, given that I translated a horoscope for nearly 20 years, I could totally relate. Another sweet and poignant ep.
I had leftover stir fry (kale, broccoli, faux sausage, peanuts) and brown rice. More Chinese than Japanese and it didn’t pair as well.
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Umeboshi onigiri = pickled plum rice ball. My mom used to make these every New Year’s Day. I dislike them. I didn’t get a taste for ume until Stacy reintroduced it. She loves it. My mom didn’t dice up the ume like in this ep. She just tucked a full on in the center. So freakin sour. It would be better diced I think. This ep gave me the craves for that again. I haven’t had one in 20-30 years maybe and I don’t eat sushi rice anymore because it’s basically sugar.
The ep was about Marilyn’s old teacher coming to see her strip show, but he’s got dementia and she’s reunited with her former classmate rival.
The s5 eps are well crafted but more cohesive plot wise, not as existential. Still good tho, just not as abstractly poetic.
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E4 - fried chicken wings. This season is decidedly more sexy. An aging bikini model hooks up with an young IT guru who idolized her as a teen. A bit predictable. The pubic hair mention is key because that was specifically taboo in girly mags in Japan for a long time but I can’t imagine that’s still an issue what with hentai and all.
I had ramen.
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