Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[grampagen]

Hey Sharp, sounds like things got a little uh...let's say, obnoxious in the Capital today. It's not much, but I hope that hasn't been much more than a rowdy annoyance on your end.

[Jcogginsa]

[Jcogginsa]

[grampagen]

I come back to this fan-edit of Game of Death every so often. Though the broader context outside of the fights is missing, it's more concise than what Robert Clouse took out and stitched back in to his edit in 1978.

For example, the other two guys that job to the Pagoda opponents really sell the threat level, especially where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is concerned.

Something interesting that somehow eluded me through the years is that Ji Han-jae, who plays the guardian of the second level, is one of the founders of Hapkido. Not only is it very generous and sporting turn to put your own martial art on blast like that in a major motion picture, but as he employs a similarly mixed art I suppose that explains his higher booking.

[Guy1]

[Postmania]

[Dark Soul # 7]

...so the frog was evil then?

Wait... Guldo had a wife!!!

[Dark Soul # 7]

Nagatoro: We're absolutely, definitely not dating but if you try to touch or flirt with him then there will be a reckoning!

[Sharpandpointies]

Hey Sharp, sounds like things got a little uh...let's say, obnoxious in the Capital today. It's not much, but I hope that hasn't been much more than a rowdy annoyance on your end.

Canada's own right wing on full display for the world, including swastikas, comparisons to the Holocaust, and tolerance of such by the other demonstrators.

I'm out in the West End, so I don't see or hear any of it (except on the news), and my work is far enough away that we're just under a security alert (fed-gov building). Other than absolute disgust, I'm basically okay. Thanks!

[Sharpandpointies]

I come back to this fan-edit of Game of Death every so often. Though the broader context outside of the fights is missing, it's more concise than what Robert Clouse took out and stitched back in to his edit in 1978.

For example, the other two guys that job to the Pagoda opponents really sell the threat level, especially where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is concerned.

Something interesting that somehow eluded me through the years is that Ji Han-jae, who plays the guardian of the second level, is one of the founders of Hapkido. Not only is it very generous and sporting turn to put your own martial art on blast like that in a major motion picture, but as he employs a similarly mixed art I suppose that explains his higher booking.

Going to watch this at lunch hour. ^_^

[Sharpandpointies]

Canada's own right wing on full display for the world, including swastikas, comparisons to the Holocaust, and tolerance of such by the other demonstrators.

Also, Canada's racism. Gonna quote Fareed Khan, of Canadians United Against Hate.

"This smacks of racism and white privilege...If you had a Muslim, or a brown person, or an Indigenous person who organized such an event and called for unseating the government of this country, security forces would have been down on them like a bag of hammers."

Weird metaphor aside, he's 100% correct. We SAW that, here in Canada, with BLM protests (more peaceful, less disruptive) getting out-and-out escalated and attacked by the police themselves.

Edit: the more I think about the metaphor, the more I think it might have been an intentional mixed metaphor. Security forces...like a bag of hammers...'dumb as'....

[Sharpandpointies]

Jujutsu Kaisen's fights continue to please and amuse.

spoilers:

"My complex plan has succeeded: now I will hit you with an elephant!" "Fine, I hit you with a house!" "Hah, just as I expected! Endgame!"

end of spoilers

Joking aside, the move-countermove is really good, the art is still great, and the fighting is actually logical and sensible in that art*. Good stuff.

* I bring this up a lot because Masamune Shirow's early stuff, while lauded as fantastic manga, had fight sequences that were all-but incomprehensible in terms of 'how did they get from there to there?'. Dammit Appleseed, whi did it take a whole bunch of volumes before your hand-to-hand fights actually made sense?

[Nik Hasta]

Jujutsu Kaisen's fights continue to please and amuse.

spoilers:

"My complex plan has succeeded: now I will hit you with an elephant!" "Fine, I hit you with a house!" "Hah, just as I expected! Endgame!"

end of spoilers

Joking aside, the move-countermove is really good, the art is still great, and the fighting is actually logical and sensible in that art*. Good stuff.

* I bring this up a lot because Masamune Shirow's early stuff, while lauded as fantastic manga, had fight sequences that were all-but incomprehensible in terms of 'how did they get from there to there?'. Dammit Appleseed, whi did it take a whole bunch of volumes before your hand-to-hand fights actually made sense?

Wait, what's the connection with Shirow here?

[Sharpandpointies]

Wait, what's the connection with Shirow here?

Oh, no connection, other than 'the fights in Kaisen are great because they make sense'. I talk a lot about 'fights needing to make sense and be comprehensible'; just commenting on why.

Back in the day, when Appleseed was still coming out, it got a lot of praise from a lot of people. With some good reason - art was good, characters were interesting, there was depth. Etc. But boy, some of Shirow's fight sequences were downright incomprehensible (to the point where in the later volumes, when there WAS a sequence that was actually extremely well-done, myself and my friends actually marveled over it). And that was one of my first exposures to manga.

So these days, thirty-five years later, when I see a fight sequence that I can follow panel by panel, easily, without wondering 'how did the characters get from X to Y?' I make note of it. The whole Shirow business is just 'why'.

Edit: I can see why it was somewhat confusing, that mention. Apologies.

[Dark Soul # 7]

Jujutsu Kaisen's fights continue to please and amuse.

spoilers:

"My complex plan has succeeded: now I will hit you with an elephant!" "Fine, I hit you with a house!" "Hah, just as I expected! Endgame!"

end of spoilers

Joking aside, the move-countermove is really good, the art is still great, and the fighting is actually logical and sensible in that art.

And then there's the Comedian-dude whose comedian powers are so potentspoilers:

that he'd be a match for Gojo Satoru.

end of spoilers

The series strikes a nice balance between enagingly intense, heart-renderingly dramatic and just plain silly.