Archive for the Live Action Category


Live Action: Batwoman on CW

October 13th, 2019

It’s been said before here on Okazu, but I always feel I must disclaim before I review any DC anything – I really don’t read Batman. I don’t really like Batman. I was a Marvel collector, my wife took care of DC. So you’ll excuse me if I haven’t been following Supergirl with it’s queer storylines (and queerbaiting.) I tried. I watched like three episodes and just couldn’t do it. I’ve attempted to watch Arrow and the Flash and all of them make me feel exactly as I did as a child when everyone loved some movie or music personality and I was like… okay, nice for you. I did try though, honestly! They just didn’t hook me. But I felt an obligation to at least try and watch CW’s newest series, Batwoman, if only to review it.

After one episode, I can say that I think, maybe, I might like it. ^_^

The opening plot is loosely pattered after Batwoman: Elegy, with some fairly significant and much-needed changes. When Elegy was written, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, was the law of the land in the United States. Kate’s story was a real story, the story of Lt. Dan Choi, a man whose illustrious military career was cut short merely for being gay. In the last decade DADT was overturned and so it makes no sense that they’d keep that same scenario. Instead, Kate is busted out of military academy for violating academy rules in a scene that makes the point that the real problem is homophobia. Kate, cut off from a military career, and by her father from the career she really wants in his high-tech security firm, is angry and rootless. On top of this base, the Alice storyline from Elegy has been ported, with modification.

Batman was unable to prevent Kate’s sister Beth’s death – and – has disappeared. Gotham is without a protector, crime is rising and suddenly a new villain is terrorizing the city, Lewis Caroll-quoting, Harley Quinn-esque, manic pixie nightmare girl, Alice.  Thankfully for my sanity, the hideously obvious BIG REVEAL doesn’t make it to the end of the first episode, thus fixing the most tedious bit of writing in Elegy. Now we can settle in and see what the story might actually do.

To quote YNN Reviewer, Chris LeBlanc, Ruby Rose’s hair is 80% of this episode – I am in absolute agreement with this. It’s not that I just like angry, violent lesbians with undercuts, it’s just that I want you to tell me the last time you saw a woman in an American television series with this haircut. Take your time, I’ll wait. I’ll wait a long time, because the answer is ‘never.’ I know Batwoman will be getting her scarlet tresses, and I’m okay with that, as long as Kate gets to keep her undercut.  ^_^ The cowl did look a bit weird without something to tie into the cape.

The acting in the first episode was…all right. Everyone felt like they were trying to get a feel for the characters and their relationships, which left me a bit like I was watching a really good read-through. Ruby Rose as Kate smoulders beautifully.  Meagan Tandy as Kate’s ex, now-married to a guy, Sophie is a wild card that can be played in a number of ways – in this first ep, she’s damseled because she’s the one character in the story Kate would put herself on the line for. Both Kate’s father and Lukas are unfortunately written and I hope to heck they fix them both, because blecch. Especially Luke. I need him to stop being clumsy dorky scared boy. One of those things would be fine, but you cannot convince me that Bruce is leaving his entire billion-dollar set up to a fuckup. This and how absurdly dark the filming is, so the fight scenes are almost wholly obscured, were the weak points.

The biggest pleasant surprise of the opener in both writing and acting is Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton, Kate’s sister by marriage. Everything about her was terrific. She way set up as a loopy-harmless-bubblehead, then given a twist that made sense and was…fun. Between this and the downplay of “the mystery of Alice’s identity,” this first episode gave me real hope for the writing. Hope for the writing is why I’ll be tuning in tonight for the next episode of Batwoman.

I can’t really rate it fairly after one episode, but it’ll give us a point of comparison later.

Ratings:

Cinematography – 4 Who can tell, it’s so dark.
Story – 6 Alice, but with some improvements, here’s hoping
Characters – 7
Service – 5 Some nice lesbian kisses

Overall – 6 with hope for improvement

I just hope like hell they don’t try and get Sophie and Kate together again. Introduce another character as a love interest, PLEASE.





LGBTQ Live Action: Signature Move

September 1st, 2019

I have been waiting for this movie since 2017, when it was making rounds of the film festivals to great acclaim. Amazon picked it up and I finally had a chance to watch it.

Signature Move, directed by Jennifer Reeder and co-written by Fawzia Mirza and Lisa Donato, follows Zaynab, an immigration laywer, who is feeling stifled living with her widowed mother…a mother who, predictably, wants her to be married.  Zaynab copes by taking up Lucha-style wrestling, which she is learning from a client. She meets Alma, and their romance throws her life into disarray.

The acting is superb. Alma and Zaynab have instant chemistry. Alma’s personality is easygoing and garrulous, while Zayna’s pent up emotions make her instantly sympathetic. The scenes with Alma and her Mexican family are full of color and smells and sounds – the life of a happy household, while Zaynab’s Pakistani mother loses herself in Pakistani television dramas and searches for a husband for her obvious-to-us very gay daughter. I very much enjoyed Mirza’s portrayal of Zaynab – cool, but horribly awkward and ultimate goofy, against Sari Sanchez’ gregarious and straightforward Alma.

The dialogue moves fluidly between Mexican Spanish, Pakistani Urdu and English with accompanying background music, which made for a fluid spoken and musical soundtrack. The cinematography never gets in the way of the story, which is set in Chicago, but could be any city in America.

Wrestling here stands as loud, colorful metaphor for Zaynab’s journey of self-acceptance. Zaynab’s mostly closeted, unwilling to be seen as being gay in public. The masks that covers her face in the scene above is a not-very subtle image of the way she hides from life. “I feel like you’re keeping me secret, “Alma says, but Zaynab is keeping herself secret, as well.

I particularly liked that the sex wasn’t more important than the relationship, or the inner lives of the characters. And I loved every single one of the supporting characters. They made the movie charming and wholly enjoyable. A perfect Sunday afternoon watch that left me with a smile on my face.

Ratings:

Cinematography – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Service -1
LGBTQ – 8

Overall – 8

I would totally watch a television series with this cast.





Live-Action: Yuri Short Drama Happy Days

August 15th, 2019

Last spring I reported on the existence of self-described “Yuri Short Drama” Happy Days. Serialized on Youtube, this is the story of a couple, Kozue and Junko, and their sofa.

To call this anything more than an incredibly low-budget B-series wouldn’t be fair. Nonetheless, there are moments when the series is charming – and it is engaging enough that at the end of Episode 4, I was quite unhappy. ^_^

For the first several episodes Junko and Kozue lounge about on their sofa, or the floor in front of it, eating candy and talking about…things. Each episode is somewhere around 15 minutes and little of consequence occurs.  It’s just day-to-day life stuff. But at the end of episode 4, a thing happens. That thing changes the tenor of the story considerably. It also ends up leading the production itself out of the little room in which it has been filmed, into the larger world.

Ratings:

This is so low budget, I feel ratings are not really worth it. This is one-camera, 6’x6′ room, and a bag full of candy low-budget.

Overall – 7

I don’t know what might happen at this point, but I guess I’m going to keep watching to find out!





LGBTQ Live-Action: Gentleman Jack

June 9th, 2019

In a world where every generation of people seem to need all of history explained to them, personally, or they don’t “get” why we need a Pride month, it’s sometimes easy to feel a sense of disconnection from history.

The Stonewall Uprising happened 50 years ago – I recommend the American Experience episode on Stonewall for first-person recounting of what happened and why. If you haven’t read Lillian Faderman’s The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle, consider it assigned reading for this Pride Month, as well. ^_^

The protests we’re seeing this year tend to be about pushing back against rainbow capitalism and corporate overrun of Pride events – and these are legitimate issues, but there is also a welcome renewed “in your face”-ism about Pride, as a whole generation of hate groups show up to the party, enabled by the downfall of empathy in our governing bodies; so we’re back to having fun as loudly and publicly as possible to remind people that we won’t be forced back into the closet.

Most folks are probably not all that clear on the who and whats of even recent LGBTQ history, literature or art, much less events in the distant past. As I’m starting to see a whole generation of young people who are new to the ongoing struggle, I find I do want to re-establish those connections. Especially as we’re once again finding ourselves facing increasing violence and bias. It’s good to remind ourselves that we are not alone now…and we have never been alone.

As I get older, I’m also really finding myself less tolerant of people who believe that because the word “lesbian” didn’t exist, people could not be presumed to be lesbian. (Much as if Indigenous people needed colonizers to name their country before they had an identity. Which, yes, I know colonizers and white supremacists believe.) There have always been words to describe women who, when they look for romantic or sexual partnership, look to their own sex. There have always been words that queer people used for themselves, as well as those that have been used about us. The premise that because the word “lesbian” did not exist means that no lesbian relationships existed before the word is…well, it deserves to be ridiculed. Regardless of the words used, I guarantee that women fell in love and lust with other women before the 20th century.

And so we come to Gentleman Jack.

Gentleman Jack is a fictionalized story based upon the real diaries of a real 19th century English lesbian, Anne Lister. Actual passages from her diary are used in this show, in which the characters are won’t to break the 4th wall and address us in their actual, historically accurate words.

This HBO/BBC production is lovely, and painful and honest and often rather funny. Written and directed by Sally Wainwright, my wife and I are finding it to be compelling watching right now. Wonderfully acted by Suranne Jones, Anne is not all that likable, until she is…and she often is. Funny, snarky and scheming, hyperactive and overachieving, Anne Lister is someone who would be exhausting to be around, but amazing to watching from a distance. Anne’s relationship with the emotionally fragile Ann Walker can be tiresome, but I’m all in for watching this story take us into a second season.

The setting, the clothes, the facts of life in 19th century West Yorkshire are all impeccably researched and presented. Shibden Hall itself is a fantastic member of the cast. Anne’s relationship to the people around is presented as accurately as possible, with interpretation coming in the form of tone of voice, body language, expression, all of which feel real. The music is another cast member, “almost like her companion” as my wife describes it.

As an insight to one lesbian’s life, Gentleman Jack is a terrific story, but since our job today is to understand history and the context of the day we find ourselves in, it’s worth remembering that Anne Lister was not the only well-known 18th century lesbian in the UK. The Ladies of Llangollen were contemporary, preceding Anne in society as lesbians. They apparently knew each other and Anne visited Plas Newyd at least once (as have I, for what it is worth.)

I actually like that the sex scenes are not explicit or extended, but are not coy or childish either. The strongest bits of the narrative, in my opinion, are Anne talking about her gender presentation and sexuality with honesty, a little pain and a lot of self-awareness. These scenes are largely taken from her own words, which give them power and resonance.

Ratings:

Acting – 10
Cinematography – 8, but there have been some controversies.
Story – 9
Lesbian – 10

Overall – 9

Much of Anne’s voluminous diaries remains untranslated, but there are number of abridged editions available, including Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister, by Anne Choma, the historical advisor for the series and a woman who is still transcribing the diaries. Also worth looking into is The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister, a 2010 BBC movie.





Sailor Moon Super Live Event Report

March 31st, 2019

Sailor Moon fandom is, without question, the most charming, delightful and adorable group of people on the planet. I mean that so sincerely. A more joyful, happier group of people I cannot even imagine.

Yesterday, it was my sincere pleasure to gather together with 2000 of the cutest people in the world, decked out in glorious finery as their favorite Senshi, or in Sailor Moon-inspired clothing, with ribbons and bows and handbags and t-shirts and back packs, all proclaiming their love of this lovable series to see Sailor Moon Super Live.

The performance is not quite a musical and not quite a play. It is more properly a pantomime of the key elements of the first Sailor Moon Arc, accompanied by singing, dancing and a host of really fun stage effects. The opening was worth every penny as the effects allowed integration of manga panels, and animated fore and backgrounds. We are able to enjoy rather sophisticated quick-takes on scenes like Mamoru and Usagi meeting, the gathering of the Senshi and the various battles.  The fight scenes, which combined effects, were especially fantastic when, for instance, black light effects turned Usagi’s classmates into monsters and stage elements, lighting and CGI effects combined for attacks and scenery. All of which made for a fun and dramatic stage. There were subtitles being shown but at one point, they had become rather silly, so when Kunzite was laughing evilly – about all he had for lines – I joked that I was surprised it wasn’t subtitled. ^_^ “Bwahahahah. Hahaha. Haha…” Random spoken lines are also displayed in the background as manga panels. Having seen this, I now understand why it’s called a “2.5D Musical” and I think it works.

The songs sung during the show are all original and, IMHO, mostly forgettable, except the song sung by the Senshi to encourage Sailor Moon, which was spot-on for their temperament and relationship to Usagi, and which was reprised during the concert portion of the show. The concert also included “La Soldier” and an extended version of “Moonlight Densetsu” to which we all sang along.

We had paid for the VIP seating, so when the show was over, we got high fives and hand shakes from the cast and a Super Live fan, along with the concert light stick and t-shirt we had bought before the show. The concert light stick could change colors and I giggled every time we all dutifully changed the color to match whomever was singing. We’re such nerds. ^_^

We spoke with folks about the amazing variety of goods and clothes and designs we saw. A lot of the stuff was fan-created, but without difficulty, we saw official Sailor Moon goods from Her Universe and Torrid/Hot Topics (I was wearing my old Inner Senshi HT shirt from the first time they carried Sailor Moon goods back in the 2000s, and people were recognizing it, which means we’ve all been doing this a long effing time. ^_^). And of course folks trotted out their Japanese brand goods – my wife carried her Sailor Moon x Gu collaboration purse, filled with Sailor Moon hand towel and gashopon Sailor Moon locket purses from Japan. Everyone was decked out in their Sailor Moon finest. 

Before and after the show, there was a flurry of photo activity. I took a few pictures of folks who were dressed up. One set of Haruka and Michiru were magnificently cosplaying as this cosplay magazine photoshoot. They looked so good we recognized them cosplaying as this cosplay. How amazing is that?

 

This group we encountered on the street outside the theater. I asked them if I could use this picture.

For some pictures of the cast and from the performance, check out this article on Theatermania. Unexpectedly, Forbes(!) also has an article on the show and short trailer, as well.

The only, only down side was that the music was so loud, it fuzzed out sometimes. This worked okay for the bad guys’ distortion music, but less so when it was meant to be melodic. I’d totally see this again, but bring earplugs to cut back on the noise. 

Ironically, the night before we had gone to see a bit of contemporary dance, Elizabeth, the dance, by Ann Carlson, which was also a kind of pantomime of female dance choreographers’ work, so as we sat through Sailor Moon Super Live, it felt kind of like it was the same – homage to a pop culture phenomenon as the dance troupe paid homage to high culture phenomenon.

Sailor Moon Super Live was a heck of a collage to celebrate of 25 years of a pop culture phenomenon.