Critiquing “Kickboxer”..Muay Thai, it is not.

Wow..the moves from the 1^st fight are quite legit. Liver kick and then a spinning back fist.

“You don’t win fights with that tip-tap shit…power..power kicks!” True, those tip-tap slap sidekicks that VD was throwing only wins matches if they were point-based. Plus they expose you to many possible counters. VD’s elder bro was throwing too much tip-toe into the high kick…power yes but he was compromising balance. And also, VD was not standing in a proper mitt stance thus he got rocked off his stance easily.

Damn, Bangkok stadium is small….from the looks of it, it is just a community stadium. And the Muay Thai music that they were playing was weird. The Thai champ was kicking a concrete pillar HARD…now that is funny. And he had some weird Chinese pigtail…which is totally not Nak Muay in any way. Then he does a nipple twist gesture to VD to intimidate him….funny shit! The fight looks stiff. Champ lands a sok which knocks out elder bro for the first count out. Champ doesn’t block and just takes hits because I guess he is tough. Then he catches elder bro’s kick and headbutts him. Headbutt?! Was that allowed in 1989s Muay Thai? Then he clinches him up in the high clinch and repeatedly throw khaos to his body. That much is legit. No hydration and ice pack in between rounds, they just fan their fighters with a huge cloth. VD throws in the towel but the champ kicks it away and the champ finishes off VD’s elder bro with an elbow to his back as he was trying to stand up. Officials rush to aid him and 1 guy keeps fanning him with the towel. Why are they so obsessed with fanning people? He tears his opponent’s belt at the end of the fight..with his gloves still on nonetheless! They just leave him out on the street with no medical care….talk about unsanctioned!

Meeting with the Kru..Kru jumps up in front of VD and d

oes crazy fast kicks and punches, “your defense stinks.”  Hahah…now that is so off that it isn’t even funny. Thai village life...rabbits are definitely not commonplace in rural Thailand. Why is the Kru doing Tai Chi hand movements and Kung Fu style kicks? They must have had their “Asians” confused for one another. Kru drops coconut on VD’s abs to train him to breath out. Legit..we still do this today but with light medicine balls. Kru asks him to do Karate style tip-tappy kicks (naw…he should have had him doing MT continuous RH kicks instead) and Karate style sidekicks. VD was not kicking through with his RH kicks and therefore the banana tree trunk was “kicking back”. Anyways, their accent sounds Chinese and their names sound very Chinese too.

The pub brawl scene is funny too. As usual in M.A.D situation, the baddies come at VD one at a time. Baddy breaks glass but stands there wide open and allows VD to nail him with a spinning backheel.

VD’s first Muay Thai fight is very stiff…again. They just stand in the centre and trade RH body kicks, no shin checks…nothing. He earns himself the fight nick of “Nak Su Khao”/ White warrior by finishing his opponent with 3 RH headkicks into a farajkhe Jad Hee. A bit of an overkill if you ask me. :P

There is quite of romantic mysticism in this movie as benefitting the era and orientalism. Wonder who started the martial myth of old Muay Thai fighters covering their stringed fists with glass shards?

When VD does his come around in the final fight, it is purely stylized and with no actual technical or tactical realism. He just comes to it when he sees that his brother is no longer held hostage, he just hits the “Nak Su Khao” switch on and suddenly all his strikes hit and the champ seems utterly useless. He even does the retarded windwiper  kick on the champ.

The truth about Fats (BBC documentary)

Some fun facts that I learned from the above mentioned documentary.

Fatty meals affect one’s blood sample. The cloudiness of the plasma indicates how much fat is infused into one’s blood.

We can MRI scan for our fat content and the distribution of the fat. Fat deposits right under our skin and our organs.

In a healthy diet, 1/3 of our calories should come from fats. Very few foods contain no fat at all. Even vegetables contain a bit of fat.

Fats make food tastier by soaking up flavor and releasing it more gradually in our mouths.

Saturated fats from dairy products are less harmful than saturated fats from processed meats.

Healthy fats such as Omega 3 are found in fish. Some fishes store their fats in their flesh and therefore when we eat them, we receive their omega 3. We can dry out microalgae and eat it and get their omega oils and nutrients.

A diet lacking in fats means that our bodies need to supplement from other energy sources and therefore we may have to eat more of other foods. Stomach issues may result and energy levels may dip when we cut excessive amounts of fat from our diet. Pre and post fat diet eye tracking showed that volunteers subconsciously target and crave food that contains larger amounts of fat. 

Geisha...those Japanese ladies with "too much" makeup

Watched a documentary about Geishas and I learned quite a bit of new and interesting facts. 

Only virgin girls are allowed to be Geishas. Kyoto is still the cultural center of the Geisha tradition. Formal Geisha training as a Maiko can last up to 5 years and cost $500,000 in modern times. Geisha means “Arts person”. They must practice and perfect traditional Japanese arts (dancing and tea ceremony) and music. During the feudal Japanese period, the Geishas were not allowed to prostitute so as not to clash with the courtesans’ business. Geishas also wore their hair pieces simple and their Obi’s were tied behind as compared to the courtesans who wore colourful hair pieces and their Obi’s in front. In modern times, older and more experienced Geishas do not wear full makeup, wear inner white collars (instead of red inner collars), bright Kimonos and simple hair pieces. They can move out of Geisha houses and take on appointments as they seem fit. An interviewed Japanese wife remarked, "In traditional Japanese families, wives do not necessarily interact with their husbands. Their social role is to run the household. Their husbands would rather talk to and interact with Geishas . It is not “appropriate” to compare wives with Geisha." Now that boggles my mind quite a bit. 

The first Geisha, Okichi, to fall in love with the American consul, was abandoned and was ridiculed by the largely xenophobic Japanese and so she fell into alcoholism and finally, suicide.

The Geishas were increasingly sought after as wives by the ruling Japanese class as they were trained in how to take care of and serve men well and also kept secrets.

Coffee girls became a serious threat to Geishas during the 1920s. Geishas sought to remain as curators of Japanese culture as opposed to being leaders of women fashion in the past.

Emperor Hirohito then brought on the age of Imperial Japan and Geisha recruitment numbers swelled as they were upheld to be one of the bastions of Japanese culture. Poor families thus started selling their daughters to Geisha houses because of high demand. There they worked as slaves. They would be bought by and provided for by a patron. When the girls hit a certain age, their virginities would be sold off and the deflowering would be conducted in a very ritualistic manner. Patrons still exist today but sex is highly frowned upon in proper society and is no longer a practice. Geishas cannot marry but can have children of their patrons. Daughters of Geisha are expected to follow the tradition but there is no role of the sons of Geishas.

Olden Geisha face paint used to contain lead and would poison the Geisha’s face yellow! Kimonos are extremely precious to Geishas and their choices of Kimono are dictated by the calendar. Different colored Kimonos are symbolic for the different seasons. Hair pieces need to be attached to Geisha’s heads as the constant pulling and weight often cause premature balding. The Geishas then need to sleep on wooden boxes and not wash their hair for a week so as to upset their hair arrangements. 

Alan Turing

Alan Turing was not a well known figure during his lifetime. But today he is famous for being an eccentric yet passionate British mathematician, who conceived modern computing and played a crucial part in the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in WW2.

He was also a victim of mid-20th Century attitudes to homosexuality – he was chemically castrated before dying at the age of 41.

In December 2013, Alan Turing was granted a posthumous royal pardon, formally cancelling his criminal conviction.

It followed a four-year campaign supported by tens of thousands of people, including scientists Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins. Opinion was divided on whether singling out an individual in this way did true justice to a situation in which thousands of gay men had been criminalised.

Stanford Prison Experiment

Good people in a bad environment?  Which would win out?

The “guards” wore uniforms which served as symbols of differentiation, authority and power. They would also wore sunglasses which would allow them psychological difference and be dehumanised so that they could act in an inhuman manner easier.

Day 2 saw a rebellion as some prisoners were frustrated at the anonymity. The guards then acted up against them to reinstall power. They were repeatedly woken up and given menial tasks so they experienced unrest, anxiety and fatigue.

The “guards” then started a campaign of “divide & conquer” and destroyed “prisoner solidarity”. 

One “prisoner” decided to go on a hunger strike. The “guards” then put him in the “hole” and used the other “prisoners” to make him feel guilty and break his defiance.

"Only a few people were able to resist the situational temptations to yield to power and dominance while maintaining some semblance of morality and decency; obviously I was not among that noble class," Dr Zimbardo later wrote in his book, “The Lucifer Effect”.

Other psychologists visited the experiment and were sickened by the suffering of the “prisoners”. Zimbardo ended the experiment in the next day. The “prisoners” suffered shame and the “guards” suffered guilt. Safeguards were then installed.

Playing a role VS “adding to the script”? And why did the other “good guards” not speak up against the “bad guards”? 

A long overdue reflection on the "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"

The Simian Flu causes the near extinction of the human species. The smallest organisms are the most adaptable and therefore the most probable downfall of a “grand” civilisation of advanced intelligent species.

The apes use jewellery, sign language, war paint and adopt team tactics to hunt. They also have social organisation and use resources to construct basic architecture.

The gun is a very strong symbol for power in this movie. The guns (brought and used by the human scout party) is the cause of initial mistrust. The stockpiled weapons are also the reason for confidence of the human settlers. And later Koba uses it to usurp power. Even more significantly, the apes later take over the weapon stockpiles and turn it on the human survivor colony.

Interpersonal vs political trust. Caesar and Malcolm strike up a friendship through needing to trust each other in various tenuous situations. They do not want to fight. Yet they will be unable to change the tide and control their respective sides. War has already begun between their sides as Caesar rightfully put it. Interpersonal trust is much easier to construct. Political trust is at best temporary. Koba and Caesar also lose their interpersonal ape trust (Which Caesar thought to be uncorruptible) over issues of political trust.

Koba is able to frame the humans for the assassination of Caesar and use their emotions to launch a fast offensive against the humans. This serves as a caution against reactionary politics. No matter how devastating the attack, we must always rationalise and execute a deliberated follow-up to the situation lest we play into the advantage of scheming parties.

“Dehumanising” the enemy (Apes) is ironic since the enemy isn’t human to begin with. Dreyfus repeatedly refers to the apes as “animals” even though they clearly possess intelligence, culture and technology. In this instance, his dehumanisation of the apes seeks to emphasize their “evil” ways and “unhuman-like” rationality. So the apes cannot and should not be reasoned or bargained with.  The apes will not show the humans mercy. Therefore likewise the humans cannot reason, bargain and show mercy to the apes. The other interesting example of this element is when Koba purposefully animalises himself so as to trick the human weapon testers to gain their confidence and lowers their guard. He eventually kills them as they thought of him as no more than an animal and not capable of “human” trickery.

It is hard to rationalise who is the wiser leader in the end? Koba or Caesar? It is easy to think of Caesar as the better as he is “kinder” but Koba’s political approach to the human colony is rational on some levels as it is pre-emptive. Eventually the humans and apes would clash as the humans would seek to rebuild their world and the apes, as another advanced colony, would be a direct competitor in a world of little and scarce resources. The humans would have the weapons stockpile and therefore the tactical advantage. So Koba’s approach is to wipe them out while the apes had the element of surprise before the humans wiped the apes out (eventually). Caesar’s approach was not entirely clear in the movie. He allowed for them to repair the dam and was not going to meddle in the humans’ affairs. It is left unseen whether he would then seek to strengthen the ape colony defences but it is arguable how much he would be able to do before the 2 colonies came into conflict eventually. It is not certain whether this short term peace would be able to translate into a long term peaceful co-existence between the 2 colonies. 

Another important issue in this movie is that of perspectivism. Ultimately, Koba has reason...no...REASONS...to mistrust humans given his life experiences. Caesar was much more privileged in that sense and therefore can trust humans to a larger degree. Their different life experiences therefore form their two differing but equally valid perspectives. In issues of politics, it is important (but difficult) to put aside one's own prejudices and perspectives and approach the matter based on cold hard rationalism. 

I watch "The Shinjuku Incident" again after 6 years

One theme that runs throughout the movie is “Contentment”.  It is about knowing one’s needs over one wants and knowing when to stop. “It’s for survival”, Steelhead’s companions eventually reason this to him and gang up on him. Every character in the movie doesn’t know when to stop. Some do like Steelhead and Yuko but it is too late for them eventually. They have already taken too many steps out to achieve their wants and not be able to step back from the world that they have brought themselves into. Delving deeper into Steelhead’s actions, we can truly question if all his motivations were purely needs. His fiancée was lost in Japan, so he needed to find her. He killed the border guard as he needed to get out of Japan. Once in Japan, he needed to acquire legal status. His friends were in peril so he needed to achieve safety for them and himself.

A good man in a bad world? If we contend ourselves with the reasoning that Steelhead needed to do those actions, we can still reason that he made bad decisions in order to achieve good goals. He chose to tamper with the slot machines to gain cash off them. He chose to sell fake cards so as to earn more money. These were actions that he understood to have big gains but big costs. Once the costs gathered, he didn’t know when to call it quits and kept rolling bigger. The worst decision that he made was to strike a deal to kill off the 2 Yakuza leaders (with Eguchi). That was the one step that he would never be able to step back from.

Perhaps the only example of someone who performs good actions to achieve her wants is Lily. She is seen throughout the movie helping others. Yet she manages to achieve her wants. The irony is that her greatest need (which is to be loved and held with utmost importance by Steelhead) was something that she could not achieve.

Power corrupts or were they always primed for “evil”? From running small scams to eventually running a territory, they were always involved in “evil” means. It is easy to fall in love with their small time roguish charms initially and be shocked by their eventual vileness. Jie was the main character that never wanted to do anything evil. His dream of selling chestnuts was legal and one that spoke of contentment and simple satisfaction. But eventually the world turned him cold and power gave him the chance to seek revenge on it as he became the bully. Another interesting irony is that Jie started the movie as the one who kindly brought in and sheltered Steelhead and suffered negatively for it. Later he used the task of “taking care of the new illegal migrants” to his advantage and benefitted for awhile but eventually paid for it too.

Jie also posts a philosophical question that has always been around. Are we who we are or what we do? Jie concludes that he was still a coward at the end of the movie and rightfully so because he confused being brave with being arrogant. He never allowed/trained himself to perform any actions that were brave. So he never transcended his cowardly nature through his actions. Feeling fear is natural as Steelhead’s character juxtaposes but it is what we do despite this fear which makes one brave. Admitting one’s faults is a start so Jie was right to admit to himself and others that he was cowardly by nature. But he was wrong to let it stop there and not confront and overcome it.

The laissez-faire approach that Steelhead took with leadership failed. He was firm when he was building things up but he was not when things were just starting to be settled. As a reluctant leader, he did not stay the course. The movie teaches us about the need for an authoritative approach…for the need to control his flock with some power/discipline?

No permanent allies…only permanent interests. Chinese using the Yakuza to bully the illegal immigrants. Yakuza using the illegal immigrants to get rid of a targeted segment of the illegal immigrants. Yakuza killing each other. Kitano-san using and dealing with Steelhead to arrest Eguchi. The age-old principle showed itself all too starkly in this movie.

Poetic justice? Eventually the movie allowed the viewers resolution through poetic justice. The Taiwanese boss getting his hand chopped off by Steelhead. Kitano-san cracking the case. HK boy getting killed after he killed Fatty and tried to kill Steelhead. Steelhead dying in the same manner that he saved Kitano-san from. Eguchi dying and with his last energy, he does the right thing but turning in the evidence. But of course the poetic justice are but small consolations because with the grave costs that many of the characters had to pay, we still step out feeling heavy which rightfully we should.