Hey, wasn't there a bald guy in there? Or something? Guess not.

[secondlina]

(photo by Noobsausess)

In the opening for Watchmen, we saw the trailers for the final Terminator movie, Wolverine and Dragonball Evolution. As much has i'd love to share my suffering about the previous two, i'm really going to have to focus on Dragonball. I love Dragonball. It's awesome. It's silly and funny. But i'm not sure i'm gonna like this movie.

Points that bother me -

• The main hero (Goku) is white. Yes, I know. American cinema means white male american hegemonia. But still, like the film 21, where all the protagonist of the original tale were asian, I was expecting more asians then just the sexy broad and the aging kung-fu master. But I guess that that's like expecting a black superman.
• Krillin? Where are you? Did you die? They removed Krillin. I guess being bald is unamerican. He's one of the main characters and he totally didn't make the cut. Sucks.
• Chichi. You're RELEVANT? Okay, as much as I am all for more badass female superheroes and that I was sad to see her be some lame in the original manga, i'm suprised to see her here as a main protagonist. I mean, in the manga, the only person she seemed to fight was Goku (twice) and then she bore children (she was a kick-ass mom though, like Mrs Weasley.)
• Teen!Drama. Okay...what? Oh Spiderman, when did you learn to Kamehameha? The teen drama is so unecessary. But they added it to transformers, which proves that they can add it to EVERYTHING. Goku is apparently pinning for Chichi. Wasn't that the other way around (In the - he barely remembers her type of sense?)
• The thrill is gone. Roshi, not a pervert. Because Perverts and kung-fu masters don't mix. It's not zen. And unamerican.
• Learning the power of hollywood makeup. MWAHAHAHAHAHA
• Oh, Shucks, Kami's dead too. No god here. Dragonballs were created by mystics. Mystics. Because non-christian beliefs aren't american. Just like baldness.
• Red Army. I'm half-expecting them to be arabic.

Points that give me hope.

• Capsule Corps. Still rocks.
• Bulma. Still hot. But not Asian. The hot token asian role is filled by Chichi.
• James Marster. His make-up looks crappy but he's by far the geekiest member of the cast and loves piccolo because he knows the original story. Plus he's got villain experience.
• CGI Shenron. BADASS.
• Shape-shifting underling. Because even X-men was made cooler by it. And X-men was bad.

Akira Tokiyama said that even though he was initially taken by surprise (in the *huh?* sense people) by the screenplay and actors, he still though it was a cool adaptation. Basically. This is Dragonball for People Who Know Not of Dragonball tm

I guess all we can do is accept that this movie is an independant story to the original, just like the creator is doing. I can manage that. I'm still going to go see it. I might weep and cling to my managa when I get out of the theatre. This is going to most likely be a cool American style kung-fu movie. But it sure as hell won't be Dragonball. Just like V for Vendetta, Howl's moving castle or Stardust are interesting revamps of the originals, this might be too.

Or it might be Spiderman four.

Oh hell, at least we can still produce Nuclear explosions from our hands.

Isa

EDIT: OH well, at least the theme song will be japanese. On December 9, 2008, it was confirmed that the theme song will be "Rule" by Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki.  "Rule" will be used as the theme song for every country's release.^[28] Neat. I actually like Ayumi. Well, some of her songs anyways.

Comments

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

When I wrote all these down and said *it's unamerican* I was joking, but now I read it over and realise it's not even a joke. American cinema white washes so bad. I hope the movie will still be good, even if it is *not* Dragonball, if you're gonna make the characters evolve in an alternate universe, it better be a damn fine universe.

I don't know why cinema simplifies everything so much still. It's like they consider the average viewer to be a complete moron. I'm scared they might still be right.

Also, i'm still angry about the token hot asian chick thing.

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

It's something I've encountered again and again in my "research" of films. Some directors/writers know that the viewer is not stupid, but so many others think that we are, hence the dumbing down of everything you see on the screen. Granted, sometimes I do like having things fully explained to me, but there are times where it's easy to figure out what's going on and we really do not need to have every little thing spelled out. A lot of movie time can be lost on helping 'stupid viewers' figure out what's going on when it could have been used to add to the plot.

You should be angry about the hot Asian chick thing! Asian actors have a tough time getting into serious acting down in the U.S. since there's a stigma around them (and Hispanics, actually), but they (the talented actors/actresses) do still exist. Movie makers just aren't always willing to take the chance and hire an excellent actor/actress, purely based on their race. It's so messed up!

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

With that said, I strongly suggest you listen to this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNmzegQUtFA

A fan posted this in the Avatar community and I think it really states this problem very well.

Off topic, there was a good article recently on the Avatar Movie controversy: http://www.emorywheel.com/detail.php?n=26670

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it's just best to leave animated things animated, that way we're not having these problems with people being passed over due to their race. Voices tend to be (somewhat) raceless. Although now I really want to go and watch Mulan...

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

the song is hilarious.