jashykins

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Sushi, Sake, and Tanuki: Love and Leaving 3

The Eastern was getting closer and closer. I felt fear like I had never felt it before. I had been against many different dangers when I was under Hijunaki's control, but I had never been protecting someone I loved. There was a difference between protecting oneself and sensing the little signs of your lover about to go into a panic.

I started to shift into something large. Something that could take down this creature. Before I could even get halfway through the change, the Eastern used its magic to throw me away from Yomosa. My half-formed body could only look at Yomosa in fear as the Eastern held me down with magic.

"You will know fear, obake." It hissed as it landed in front of my lover. "You will know fear when your human toy dies."

I could only watch. I could do nothing else. Not at this moment. Yomosa had flinched when the Eastern had tossed me aside, but she had since regained her composure. The Eastern smiled and let a little hiss of pleasure out. It lashed out with its head. It intended to easily impale my lover on its teeth. But that was not to be.

Yomosa managed to evade the attack by lunging to her right. The Eastern quickly readjusted itself and swiped at the human woman with one of its claws. My woman took a chance and it was only the Eastern's magic that made me stay still.

Yomosa had jumped at the Eastern which surprised it for a brief instant. It flicked its neck and my lover plummeted to the ground. She tried to regain her stability, but before that could happen the Eastern took her in its claws.

"The obake must suffer. My master has given me orders I have to respect." It said sorrowfully and moved Yomosa closer to its mouth in preparation of eating her.

Yomosa started to sing to the dragon and it paused for a moment. My lover was facing death with song instead of screams. She was pleading without fear. In that moment I was truly proud of her. Truly proud to have her be my own.

Then it struck me: if I didn't try to resist the Eastern's magic she would be dead. The first woman I had truly loved would die if I didn't act now.

The thought of Yomosa dying made an unknown power pour through my veins. I didn't know what flowed through me, but I knew that it could help me. I didn't care if it would damn me, I would use it now.

I yelled out as I was able to break free of the Eastern's grip. I shifted into an Eastern and roared. The Eastern turned its head to look at me and snarled. Before it could move an inch, I ran at it. My roars increasing in volume until our jaws clashed with each other.

I could tell that the Eastern hadn't eaten Yomosa and had probably discarded her. We started to fight in earnest as I made sure not to step on Yomosa. When the Eastern pushed me to the ground I looked around for my lover. I did not see her and hoped she had run off into the woods. The fight I was having with the Eastern wasn't one that a human should be involved in.

After what seemed like mere seconds, the Eastern gripped my neck in its jaws. Struggling was difficult as I could easily give the Eastern an opening. One wrong move could mean my death, in other words. But it was a chance I was willing to take.

Suddenly the Eastern let go of my neck and let out a roar. I took the opportunity to push the Eastern on its back, claw at its stomach, and clenched on its neck with my jaws. Blood came out of the Eastern slowly at first and then more quickly.

I smiled as the Eastern came closer and closer to death. It was then that I noticed something on my head and realized that it was Yomosa. She must have jumped onto me after distracting the Eastern.

The dragon turned its head to me and smiled. "Akumie sent me. I have died but there will be more pain for you, obake."

There was one final breath and then silence.
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Sushi, Sake, and Tanuki Links

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Disney Vlog: April 2013 (Parts 1-3)

I visit Disney World! I go to both Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom with revrezner.

Red Dragon (2002)

Title: Red Dragon

Series: Hannibal

Based on the Book: Red Dragon

Written By: Thomas Harris

Director: Brett Ratner

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, and Ralph Fiennes

Rated: R

Released: 2002

Personal Rating: 5/5

Oscars: N/A

Plot: A retired FBI agent with psychological gifts is assigned to help track down "The Tooth Fairy", a mysterious serial killer; aiding him is imprisoned criminal genius Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter.
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My First Hannibal Movie
Now I know it's a crime to not have seen any Hannibal movie before this one. But I haven't seen a lot of movies (when I was younger I hardly watched movies and instead spent most of my time reading books). I started getting interested in the Hannibal series when I started watching the new show Hannibal. In short, I was basically going into this movie without any preconceived notions that Red Dragon had to be like The Silence of the Lambs. I think this might've helped in my enjoyment of the movie. If you're wondering: No, I haven't read any of the Hannibal books by Thomas Harris. But I plan on reading them all in the future.

The Interaction Between Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter
In the beginning of the movie it is implied that Will and Hannibal had had previous meetings. That they had worked together before (or at least Will had consulted with Hannibal about cases before). The first scene between the two ends with Will finding out the truth about Hannibal and then both nearly killing each other. So in the meat of the movie, Will is mentally scarred about what happened between himself and Hannibal (makes mention of this to Reba) and Hannibal is angry with Will. So each of their meetings is very tense with you seeing that, even though he's behind bars, Hannibal is the one in control. I saw that they both valued their past friendship (some of Hannibal's jabs seemed to be testing/teaching Will), but both know that any chance of them becoming friends is long gone. Will, being the one who has more normal human feelings, may be partially afraid because he remembers Hannibal as he used to know him. Hannibal, who is able to put emotions aside more easily, is able to have feelings for Will but at the same time seek revenge when the opportunity presents itself.

Buildup and Reward
Red Dragon has good buildup. It sets up this very eerie tone from the beginning (Hannibal serves his dinner guests human for dinner) and continues throughout. The whole movie relies much more on atmosphere than outright gore factor. I like this. Gore is good, but just because you have gore doesn't mean you have a horror movie. But a big thing with atmosphere is you need a good payoff. And this movie did that part well. The movie managed to give a good ending to the RebaXD plotline, Will having a showdown with D, and Hannibal's own musings on the outcome of what he put Will through.

Final Thoughts
I loved this movie. Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter was a great sight to see. Remember, this is my first FULL Hannibal movie and so I've only seen bits and pieces of the other ones. It's one thing to see clips of something, it's something else to see the whole movie. Edward Norton as Will Graham was good. In the scenes he had with Hopkins I could tell he was trying to hide his emotions. But he couldn't fool Hannibal. I liked seeing the villain being conflicted and so wasn't a fully evil character. He killed and had twisted views of the world, but he was also capable of feeling love. However, his mental instability won out in the end (though it seems he did truly care for Reba until the end). I can't wait to see the other movies in the series as well as read the books (yes, I'll probably even check out Manhunter).

Sunday, May 5, 2013

The Following (Season 1)

Series: The Following

Season: 1

Episodes: 15

Created By: Kevin Williamson

Released: 2013

Rating: 4.5/5
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Anyone Can Die
A lot of shows/movies/ect. like to tease the premise that anyone can die. This show starts off with Sarah Fuller dying. The fact that Sarah died isn't anything to write home about. It's the fact that the actress who played her, Maggie Grace, seemed to hold enough creds to warrant it very unlikely for her character to die. Starting off with killing off a character played by a film actress, just made The Following's point that anyone could die very clear. There are some very surprising deaths in this season. Some deaths are a good shock and others seem to be a tad bit lazy.

Emma
Here is yet another character I love and everyone else hates. Here is a character who has less humanity than Joe Carrol (the leader of the Cult). Emma's main traits are her cruel ruthlessness (she has killed and left fellow cult members to die) and her obsession with Joe (they have a brief affair, well it all depends on what happens next season). I think it is her pure inhumanity that attracts me. There are some characters that you love to hate and she is one of them for me. By the way this season ends, it seems that it is possible that she will play some big part come Season 2.

Complexity of Some Characters
Some characters are shown to be more than one dimensional. Joe Carrol is shown to be a loving father that cares for his son and wife. Cares for his wife so much that he doesn't want her to feel guilt for what he's done. Joe Carrol is also shown to be a killer who is willing to kill his own wife just for the sake of writing a book. Jacob is one complicated character as he is both ruthless but has his own doubts about the cult. I really wish that the rebellious Jacob plotline was given more time. Ryan Hardy (played by Kevin Bacon) has a lot to him. But he's the "man who has seen too much and just wants to quit, but gets pulled back in to his old job because of a new case". This isn't to say Ryan is a flat character, but he isn't the most fleshed out character in the show.

Final Thoughts
I don't know how the series will go on without Joe Carrol. This is because Season 1 had him being very important. So important that him surviving until the end is just as important as Ryan Hardy surviving until the very last episode. I hope every character's death next season will be as good as Sarah Fuller and Debra Parker's and not as bad as Roderick's. The gore in this series is good, though if this series was on HBO it would've been much better. The hiatus until Season 2 will be very painful, especially because of the killer cliffhanger Season 1 gave us.