A 5-Course Bard Meal To Transport Us Back To Love Between Fairy And Devil

How it started 90% of the time: YASSS! Master Soapy T-Rex has only three lines to say about this impossible drama concept. Time guilt suppressed.

How it always ended:

soapver4.tumblr.com

Sentient Jams

Metadrama idea: Fairies and demons ranting against fates repeated across lifetimes, generations and realms — plunging down abysses, unsealin

Tomato Tennis

"Things are about to get wild! As players take their positions, the smell of old and rotten tomatoes hits our noses, and the sight of players dressed in animal costumes adds to the surrealism of the scene. The players hold their fabric rackets, ready for a game that's unlike any other."

"As the first serve is made, the ball arcs in the air with a juicy splatter, and the spectators react with delight, laughing and cheering at the unusual spectacle before them. The players dance across the court, moving with agility and grace, using their fabric rackets to swat the tomatoes in all directions."

"Look! The giraffe's tomato sails over the net and into the lion's court. The lion swings his racket, but he misses the tomato! The giraffe scores the first point."

"The lion is not happy. He roars in anger and charges at the giraffe. The giraffe is scared, but he holds his ground. The lion leaps into the air and tries to swipe at the giraffe with his claws. But the giraffe ducks out of the way, and the lion lands on his face."

"The crowd laughs. The lion is humiliated. He gets up and tries to hit the tomato, but he keeps missing. The giraffe wins two sets in a row, 6-0, 6-0."

"As the game progresses, the players' antics and shenanigans become more and more outrageous, with one player even taking a bite out of the tomato during a play. The crowd goes wild, cheering and clapping at every unexpected turn."

"After a hard-fought game, one player emerges victorious, holding a slice of tomato, their signature victory pose. The crowd erupts with applause, and the players take a bow, proud to have put on a performance that was not only entertaining but also offered a refreshing change from the traditional ball games where the ball is a clone standardized down to the millimeter level."

"And that's a wrap on another batch of exciting matches! You have been watching Splat!, a wackosome tournament that convinces kids to step away from their screens and explore the wonder and magic of the world around us. Raw messiness is our biggest star. It's a great way for your future Olympians at home to learn how to deal with unexpected situations and how to laugh at themselves."

"I'm your announcer for the day, Coco Reed. Over and ouch!"

Credits

Illustration: AI1-AI2-AI1 (Although WOMBO did not contribute anything to the image concept or composition, it was instrumental to the refinement stage in the middle.)

Narration: AI3-AI4-AI3-AI4 (Approximation) + Human dubbing

Game concept: @tomatodiscourse must have been an indirect source of inspiration.

H Universe Awards 2024

Potential Lifesaver Award

Baby Reindeer [United Kingdom]

Care is not an invitation for possession. Self-hatred may get in the way of justice.

Forbes

‘Baby Reindeer’ Review: A Devastating Examination Of Trauma And Abuse

Baby Reindeer is one of the best Netflix originals ever made, but it's not an easy watch.

Most Meaningful Character

Squid Game Season 2's Player 120 Cho Hyun-ju [South Korea]

Discriminated people are more than their discriminated statuses and traits. Femininity does not lessen a person's capacity for toughness or leadership. We often don't fall neatly into one box or another conceived by society. So. Stop. Treating People. As. Little. Categorization. Games.

Hyun-ju cannot be mentioned without mention of the silver-haired mother, player 149 Jang Geum-ja. The ignorant elderly woman frowns upon gender transition yet she tenderly looks after the much taller and well-built Hyun-ju more than many trendy young people around you and I care about marginalized individuals in their midst.

NPR

Landmark ruling finds South Korea military illegally discharged a transgender soldier

A court rules that the military unlawfully discriminated against Byun Hui-su for undergoing gender reassignment surgery. The verdict came se

Most Thought-Provoking Series

Hellbound / Hell Season 2 [South Korea]

Human hubris manifests not in defying divine forces, but in knowing that which you do not truly know.

TIME

Breaking Down Hellbound's Brutal Season Two Ending

The second season of Netflix’s supernatural K-horror gives some real answers to its metaphysical machinations

Best Ending

Self-love-themed finale of Eternal Night Star River / Eye-Rolling Official English Title [Mainland China]

You're capable of tapping your full strengths to give important people in your life your all only if you are comfortable in your own skin. The other side of the coin, though, is Murder Mindfully. Ziqi's problem is not that he is a demon in the conventional sense of the term, but that the him beneath it all wrongly identifies as one.

Geekiest Series

Avatar: The Last Airbender [United States]

Diverse cultural elements and martial arts galore.

TIME

How Avatar: The Last Airbender Is a Love Letter to Asian Cultures

While many other fantasy series are Euro-centric, the new Netflix "Avatar" adaptation centers Asian culture and history.

Best Aesthetics

Blossoms Shanghai / Luxuriant Blossoms [Mainland China and Hong Kong in relation to the cinematography]

Variety

Wong Kar-wai’s ‘Blossoms Shanghai,’ Netflix’s ‘Cigarette Girl’ Win Top Prizes at Busan Streaming Awards

Wong Kar-wai’s series debut 'Blossoms Shanghai' won two of the top awards at Busan's annual Asia Contents Awards and Global OTT (streaming)

Wong Kar-wai did not compromise for the small screen. The question is whether any scene is overdone. It's also a pity he could not get the color grading perfected in time for the CCTV broadcast. A "director color-graded version" with richer colors in at least various scenes was later released.

Best Music

What Comes After Love [South Korea and Japan in relation to the soundtrack]

What comes after that? Fragrance notes-like music that takes you places, of course.

Notes

There is plenty of online discussion revolving around acting, directing and writing, so awards in those areas are unnecessary. The acceptability of acting, moreover, is perhaps particularly vulnerable to cultural differences. Also subjective is the weights and combinations of factors that should go into the assignment of any Best Drama award. On a gut level, the drama that worked best for H this year is China's beautifully-shot sci-fi adventure series Tibetan Sea Flower / Adventure Behind The Bronze Door, but why should it be important to anyone reading this? Is it as thematically meaningful as various dramas above? Is its adrenaline-pumping, breathtaking directing and writing close enough to flawless, given its repetition of a certain trick and choosing to tell instead of show when unveiling the secrets to certain mysteries? How important is it for everyone to accept like H does that some choices can be justified by its place in a larger network of stories (the Lost Tomb franchise) apt for Easter egg hunts and jigsaw puzzle games? A more level-headed personal pick in any event would be any drama conferred the honor of Potential Lifesaver Award.

Beware of sampling errors that may contribute to the appraisal of shortlisted dramas. This unspecified shortlist, in turn, is subject to marketing prowess and social media reach.

News Box: Santa Clauses Past and Present and Content Theft

© open-arms, shared under the permission of CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Life is a fascinating yet somber journey in which we see the Santa Clauses of our childhood in the mirror as we age and our younger, gift-begging selves in our own little elves as they grow bigger. No true Santa Claus, however, ever gifts stolen goods. Neither do we need to be conversant in the native language of Rudolph the Red-nosed to become more civil and considerate members of the global online community. Before you share content that does not originate from you on social media and other places, verify its source and check out guidelines on proper citation practices. If you have been nice and awesome so far, have a MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH or just a GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON!

The following poems appeared in the episode broadcast on Tuesday:

1. The 21-st century time-traveling heroine, Hae Su, is mesmerized by a Goryeo prince’s beautiful calligraphy. What the family-loving and genteel man writes is a piece of prose titled “Home Again” by Six Dynasties Chinese poet Tao Yuanming, which describes the poet giving up his governmental post for a peaceful, simple life at his countryside home. (Original text | Translation)

2. As a confession, the prince gifts her “Bamboo Stalk Song,” a poem by Tang author Liu Yuxi that uses inconstant weather as an analogy for ambiguous love. (Original text | Translation – be sure to read the footnote)

3. Since modern-day Koreans are generally not as well-versed in classical Chinese, Su has to depend on his brother and wife (also her cousin) for the interpretation. This, of course, leads to some awkwardness and fury, which Su fails to notice. Then, ignoring the romantic undertones of the poem, she hilariously attempts to copy Goryeo official Kim Ji-dae’s poem on majestic and serene scenery, “Yugasa Temple,” as her response to the prince. Since no translation is available online, The Chair is supplying its own below:

瑜伽寺 유가사 (note that the Korean alphabet has not been invented then)

寺在煙霞無事中 (사재연하무사중) 

亂山滴翠秋光濃 (난산적취추광농) 

A mist surrounds the tranquil temple in the evening light 

A jumble of green mountains and the marvelous sights of autumn beckon

雲間絶磴六七里 (운간절등육칠리) 

天末遙岑千萬重 (천말요잠천만중) 

Steep stone steps rise for six to seven miles into the clouds 

Numerous layers of hills lie at the faraway horizon

茶罷松簷掛微月 (다파송첨괘미월) 

講闌風榻搖殘鍾 (강란풍탑요잔종) 

After sipping tea, one sees a new crescent hanging at the pine canopy 

After a lecture, one hears lingering bell notes from the sleep chambers

溪流應笑玉腰客 (계류응소옥요객) 

欲洗未洗紅塵踨 (욕세미세홍진종) 

The streams must be laughing at the government official, 

Who tries to but cannot wash away his worldly marks

(References: Naver, Apple Daily)

Su eventually settles on this reply: \^0^/

According to Apple Daily, the netizen who identified this poem noted that the current name for a temple which used to be called Yugasa is Donghwasa / 桐華寺. 桐華 is the name of the Chinese novelist who penned the book the show is based on. Readers may like to know that there is another Yugasa Temple, which retains its name to this date and has been associated with the poem. All the same, we are free to regard the coincidence as a cross-cultural tribute.

Similar plots can be found in Scarlet Heart, the 2011 Chinese drama adaptation of the novel. Most poignantly, the quick-witted, Chinese time-traveling heroine there struggles to pronounce the exquisite vocabulary used in letter writing in Qing China, finding herself as good as illiterate despite her education and white-collar background. In both cases, too, it may be one thing to read about polygamy and marriage between closely related individuals as a side note in history books, but another to see it simulated three-dimensionally, with actors viewers emotionally identify with. Time slip shows, clearly, provide excellent opportunities for examining how robust people’s connection to their ancestral past can or should be. On one side, there are the issues of lost heritage and pardoning historical figures for being products of their times. On the other, we have arguments for cultural pride in using language entirely of your own (for Koreans), heightened literacy rates brought about by simplified languages, and support for modern ethical sensibilities.

For more Sino-Korean and Chinese poetry, you are welcome to explore this site category or search for Kuiwon’s very informative WordPress blog, which The Chair has long wanted to introduce here. Kuiwon has also written at length about his thoughts on the issue of Chinese character usage in South Korea. His view, however, neither reflects nor contradicts this site’s.

One mistake in the Korean adaptation warrants notice. As the netizen reported, the story takes place in the AD 900s, but Kim Ji-dae lived from 1190 to 1266, so the writing Su copied from could not have been lying around. At least it is a romantic notion that a book traveled back in time with you—theoretically more romantic, perhaps, than being wooed by the husband of your sick cousin.

The Meeting of the Face and the Gaze

The Meeting of the Face and the Gaze #CheeseInTheTrap #Kdrama #ParkHaeJin #KimGoEun #Humanities

On the lush grounds of frizzy-haired college girl Hong Seol’s campus roams a bunch of green-eyed beings—stalkers, thieves and one copycat—accusing one another of being weirdos who think of normals like themselves as weirdos. There is also the Mr. Nice, Yoo Jung, whom Seol catches betraying a faint smirk when a flirtatious schoolmate trying to strike up a relationship with him at a…

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Deep Down Inside, Beneath the Clothes of Culture

Deep Down Inside, Beneath the Clothes of Culture

Logic broke down when a bare-bodied male philosopher locked eyes with a little cat in a bathroom. That was the scene Jacques Derrida painted of himself alongside a meditation on how the cat was behind him since it was before him. But more precisely, Derrida was referring to the animal world in general and how animality surrounds and pervades humanity since it precedes the emergence of humanity.…

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Escape From Everything Everywhere One by One —a film-inspired escape game

A series of escape rooms based on Everything Everywhere All At Once:

(Warning: Spoilerverse ahead!)

The first escape room: The first escape room is set in a laundromat, just like in the movie. The walls are covered in graffiti, and there are clothes and other laundry strewn about the room.

The keys: Players must find items that will allow them to travel to different universes. For example, they might need to find a pair of shiny buttons, a woman's and a man's, to travel to the universe where Evelyn is a movie star reuniting with her old love, or they might need to find a rock with googly eyes among many rocks to travel to the abiotic universe.

The puzzles: The puzzles in the escape room are all based on different universes that Evelyn Wang verse-jumps to in the movie. They block clues to the locations of the keys. For example, one puzzle might involve using the knowledge of a bagel chef to piece together the perfect bagel model, which acts as a knob of an oven cabinet where a key or clue to a key location can be found. Another puzzle would be translating Cantonese words on a signboard, by chaining up a jumble of bilingual dictionaries, only one of which contains English and none of which translates Cantonese to English, in the universe where Evelyn is a sign spinner.

The clues: Like in all escape game recommendations, some of the clues are obvious, while others are more obscure. For example, one clue might be a piece of paper with horrifying tax figures that would wake up even the deadest work zombie, while another clue might be a song lyric that only makes sense if you've seen the movie.

The physical challenges: Some escape rooms entail physical challenges. For example, in the universe where Evelyn is a cook contending with a rival who has a raccoon master, players can "knock out" an army of agile staff members dressed in raccoon costumes by hitting their fake tummies with paintballs. In the universe where Evelyn is an opera star, players are to wear Chinese opera costumes and gather in front of a camera within a time limit. In the hot dog universe—you've guessed it—players must work through everything using hot dog fingers. That, and playing piano keys correctly with their toes. The hot dog fingers could be made slippery, so that it's difficult to control them.

The ending: If players are able to solve all of the puzzles and overcome all of the challenges, they will be able to exit the multiverse through a giant everything bagel. Or maybe, they will beg the game host to let them stay for an eternity.

Obvious choices for background music: Laundry sounds, kung fu themes, Chinese opera, Le Festin, and the soundtracks of the film itself, In The Mood For Love, The Matrix, The Mask and maybe 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The escape room would be a great way to test film lovers' creativity and problem-solving skills while exploring the different universes that Evelyn Wang verse-jumps to in the movie.

Kindly remember to send this human editor and human generative filler the bagel donations.

Weaving Poetry, Beauty and Meaning

Weaving Poetry, Beauty and Meaning

Huang Juxiang (lit. fragrance of yellow chrysanthemums), Yamamoto Yueniang’s Peranakan mother and look-alike Enveloped in a mesmerizing atmosphere with a light touch of folk magic, Southeast Asian drama The Little Nyonya traces the story of its fairylike, Japanese-Peranakan heroine Yamamoto Yueniang from the 1930s to the present day. Its origins, however, began much earlier. Since the 10th…

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Tagorean Victory

If Taiwanese drama ToGetHer could be compared to a dish, it would likely be a hearty cheese and tomato sandwich topped with a soft and silky sunny-side up egg—nothing profound or elegant, but enviably more efficient than a typical philosophical tome at brightening up a wintry morning. All the same, this is not an ordinary sandwich, but one which yolk carries a small dash of the flavor of the…

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