Archive for the Live Action Category


Thai Yuri Novel Adapted Into Live-Action: Pink Theory GAP, The Series

August 23rd, 2021

Very exciting news via BL scholar Thomas Baudinette today! Thai Yuri novel GAP ทฤษฎีสีชมพู is being adapted into a live-action story, ทฤษฎีสีชมพู GAP The Series, in English, Pink Theory GAP The Series.

The synopsis on MyDramaList says: “Mon, a newly graduated student from university, starts working as an intern in a big company because she admires Sam, the super rich chairwoman since young age. However, when Mon met Sam again, her image of her completely crashed, since she was not like the media shows her.”

Thomas adds, “Technically, it’s one part of a broader series primarily focusing on BL, but it’s adapted from an original Thai-language GL novel. The two actresses gained attention for featuring as supporting cast in some BL series but this move is designed to grow their fanbases. Series seems to be marketed to the same base as BL.

There have been some prominent GL sub-plots in recent series but usually not the series focus. This GL couple is getting equal billing to the two BL couples in the show.” The show this is part of is, according to Thomas, called Secret Crush on You.

Thomas was kind enough to nab a bunch of promo pics for us, so I thought I’d share them with you.

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[Show slideshow]
I’ve been looking into non-Japanese Yuri recently and hope to one day soon talk to you about Chinese Yuri, but this news is really exciting! Thai BL has been growing by leaps and bounds, and I’m really thrilled that GL is getting some screen time. What’s more important is that the popularity of BL has been a pretty recent trend, so Yuri being introduced so quickly is a great sign…and so is the fact that the GL plot is being marketed to the same audience as the BL.

chao_planoy, the author, considers their work “Yuri” and there is a #GAPYuri hashtag on Twitter for more pictures and news. According to a commenter on MyDramalist, an English translation for this book is being planned. Of course, I’ll be sure to let you know when it is available.

Update: There’s a promo on Youtube. ^_^

Thomas also says, that “both Secret Crush on You and GAP The Series will be released internationally, in high definition, through select streaming services. Everyone’s best bet is to follow Idol Factory’s YouTube account for updates.”

While on the Idol Factory YT account, I found this interview with the actresses. It has English closed captions.

Thank you Thomas for thinking of us, and congrats to chao_planoy for having their work adapted into the very first Thai live-action Yuri series!





NO STRAIGHT LINES: The Rise of Queer Comics

June 27th, 2021

It’s the final Sunday of Pride month. NYC is gearing up for a virtual Pride Parade, which is being televised and sponsored and a real Queer Liberation March at which police and corporations are not welcome. Compton and Stonewall and all the other early protests were, after all, protests against police violence, specifically.

So I can’t think of anything better at all to celebrate this day, than to talk with you about NO STRAIGHT LINES: The Rise of Queer Comics.

In 2013, the wonderful artist Justin Hall curated a book called No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics. It was absolutely compelling reading. As I said in my review, I couldn’t put it down.  And while Justin was working on it, he was speaking with a bunch of folks including force of nature Jennifer Camper. It occurred to her that she lives in a time of miracles – all the first wave Gay Comics artists were still alive and reachable and so she reached out and created the Queers and Comics events in 2015, 2017 and 2019, for which I never wrote up a report, bad on me, but I was there for one day and ran a panel! As Jennifer said at the first event, she wanted to create an archive by and about queer comic artists while we had the chance to talk with the folks who were there. The was a bit prescient because after the 2017 event at which Howard Kruse was keynote speaker, he passed away and we only have those panels on page and film left of him.

Honestly, one of the greatest honors of my life has been to be a speaker at these events, and meet the women who are the early lesbian comic artists, just as meeting some of the earliest Yuri manga artists has been so important to me.

Justin teamed up with director Vivian Kleinman to create this film that took that idea a step further. They focused on five pioneers of queer comics, and let them tell their stories for us to enjoy. Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Jennifer Camper (Rude Girls and Dangerous Women), Howard Cruse (Gay Comix), Rupert Kinnard (B.B. And The Diva) and Mary Wings (Come Out Comix).  Their stories are glossed by younger queer artists who talk about the effect that art had on their lives and their works.

My wife and I rented the movie on the Tribeca Film Festival website. We both thought it a terrific watch. There were some touching moments, a few tear-jerkers and a lot of joy and laughter. Thinking back now on those moments that became so…historically important….its always fun to remember the people doing them are people. People you can be just like and do your own thing, too. ^_^

Tonight NO STRAIGHT LINES will be closing out the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco, and I have to stop typing as I am absolutely awash with so many memories of these people and their work and our shared experiences. Keep an eye out for screenings near you on their website. As soon as this has a more general release streaming or on video, I’ll be sure to let you know.

For those of you who read Okazu…this is our history. You should know it. These people are our groundbreakers, you should know them. The fact that so many of them are still here and still telling their stories just highlights the point that we live in amazing times to be a fan of queer comics.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

Celebrate our Pride Month, support a queer comic artist today!





Ride or Die on Netflix

April 16th, 2021

Ride or Die on NetflixIf you are a regular reader here at Okazu, you know that I have loved the darkly violent Yuri manga GUNJO from the day I received a message about it on Japanese social platform Mixi, back in 2008ish. I’ve written reviews of various chapters I read in Morning Two magazine and all three of the volumes in Japanese in my GUNJO category here on Okazu.  In 2018, I was able to meet with Nakamura-sensei (over what was possibly one of the hilariously worst lunches I can remember. This was supposed to be a BLT. It was inedible.) At the time, we worked out how we might do a translation for GUNJO into English. And she mentioned that she was in talks about a live-action adaptation.

Translator Erin Subramanian and I have completed the translation for Volume 1 of GUNJO, into English, which is purchasable by the chapter on Nakamura-sensei’s website. We’re hoping to see a collected Volume 1 on ebook sellers near you one day soon. As we completed Volume 1, the pandemic hit and the project was paused. Today’s review was, in large part, why it paused. Last night Netflix released Ride or Die, the live-action movie based on the manga by Nakamura Ching.  Ride or Die, directed by Hiroki Ryuuichi, is not GUNJO. It is, however, within spitting distance of it.

Like GUNJO, (I ended up using this spelling when Morning Two magazine chose it over Gunjō, so forgive me) Ride or Die contains graphic violence and marital abuse. Unlike the manga, the movie also contains several explicit sex scenes, both straight and lesbian. If any of this makes you feel uncomfortable, you may well want to give this movie a pass. Interestingly, for the lesbian sex scene at the end of the movie, the staff brought in an “intimacy coordinator,” which Max Gao writes about in his article on NBC, Stars of Netflix’s lesbian thriller ‘Ride or Die’ on their on- and off-screen connection. This intimacy does change the end of the story considerably, but whether you think it works better or worse will be an entirely personal decision. In my opinion the end of the manga is very hard to beat for perfection. ^_^

Another change from the manga is that the characters – who remained nameless and were referred to as “Megane-san” and “Lesbian-san” by Japanese fandom – here are named. They get to share moments of genuine joy in this movie, which was probably the most disconcerting change for me. I don’t think it was a bad change, it merely signaled that we would not get that manga ending. Overall, I think both Sato Honami as the abused Nanae and Mizuhara Kiko as Rei, the woman who loves her enough to kill for her, did an excellent job. There were moments when Sato looked so like Megane-san that it was quite extraordinary and I found myself commenting on it every time.

As you may remember in my other movie reviews, I dislike the slowdown of pacing that seems to be to be a common occurrence in Japanese live-action manga adaptations. In the case of Ride or Die, it was the sex scenes that I felt went on too long, and the movie would have benefited from them being cut slightly. But this was pretty much my only complaint. This, I think, came from the choice of director whose career began in pink films and whose body of work tends to favor graphic sex and violence. 

Some of you may wonder about the title, Ride or Die, which I’m sure many of us see as an already tired trope. Nakamura-sensei mentioned that the title change was something she approved of and I’m inclined to agree. It allows us to view the movie as something separate from the manga…but also to see this is a subversion of the trope itself. This is not a “ride or die” scenario in the most typical sense. The characters are, yes, being followed by the police, but not hot on their heels. There’s just no urgency as they wander randomly through their lives together until they and we have all the pieces.

Ratings:

Cinematography – 9
Story – 9
Characters – Portrayed beautifully, so 9 but they are sometimes deeply unlikable
Service – 10
Lesbian – 10

Overall – 9

I’ll watch it again, for sure. If you get a chance to watch it, let us know what you think in the comments!





AND THEN: A Girl-Meets-Girl Short Film

March 21st, 2021

In the middle of spring 2020, Jenn Ravenna Tran launched a Kickstarter for a short film And Then, which she described as “A Girl-Meets-Girl Short Film Set in Tokyo.” As a backer on Kickstarter I received a cut of the film, which is slated for an Autumn 2021 public release. Now that I have finally had a chance to watch it, I wanted to tell you all about it!

And Then begins with Mana, played by Erika Ishii, who receives something in the mail that reminds her of her time in Tokyo. We then flashback to that time, as she wanders the town, sketching and experiencing life there. Mana runs into Haru, played by Rina Hoshino. The story follows them as they criss-cross in and out of each other’s lives. As the braid grows tighter, they are brought together.

The Kickstarter had stretch goals to send the crew back to Tokyo to film more footage, but the pandemic brought that to a halt and instead the money was used to support the crew who had lost work because of COVID-19.  Ravenna managed with the footage that had been previously  filmed…and we get enough of a sense of place that these establishing shots feels only slightly abbreviated. These shots are filled with the kind of colorful nightlife street scenes one expects from a story about “Tokyo.” I found myself nodding and grinning as Mana walks the streets, wanders into a shrine, or a cafe. Shibuya Scramble, Tokyo Tower at night, Kamniarimon, it’s all the warm, welcome, typical visual shorthand of “Tokyo.” 

The relationship between Mana and Haru works beautifully, even with such little dialogue and a short time to develop.  Hoshino and Ishii do a great job with few words. The only weakness comes at the end, as they part with a finality that simply makes no sense for the 21st century.

I’ve written about this before. When I reviewed Dear Brother in 2015, I referenced a movie called Stella Dallas in which being divorced was a reason why a mother could never see her child again. In 2018, I talked about this kind of disconnect with the end of After Hours. We have communications devices that allow us global, near-instant access, it’s hard to imagine a reason for such an abrupt separation without, say, exchanging LINE info. That said, since this movie is excellent, I will allow this. We will sketch in a subtextual reason that makes their parting more immediate and permanent and we will accept that it exists.

I have rated this story as Yuri rather than as a queer movie because the relationship is not explicitly about queer identity (although they do dance together at reknowned lesbian bar GOLDFINGER in one scene.) More importantly, the “girl-meets-girl” of the title puts this safely into our genre standard. ^_^

As a short movie, it has a pretty substantial feel and it absolutely makes me want to know what happens after the credits roll. That’s the finest compliment I can give a narrative – I want more. ^_^

Ratings:

Cinematography  – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 10

Overall – 8

I’ll of course keep my eyes open for a public release – and I hope, when you are able, you’ll take a moment and enjoy And Then.





The Complete Guide to “Yuri Movies” (「百合映画』完全ガイド) 

March 7th, 2021

While on the Yuri Tour in 2019, one of the last places I visited was Toranoana’s Yuri section. I mention this because, while it does not have a Yuribu like Animate, Gamers, or Shosen, Toranoana’s logo-less “Yuri Corner” is by far and away my favorite. Of the Yuribu, I think Shosen gets closer than the others, with curation that spans a wider range of interests for Yuri fans, but nothing approaches the scale or comprehensive curation that Toronoana offers. It begins next to a broom closet on the 4th or 5th floor of the Toronoana in Akihabara (I can never remember which floor) that’s covered with fake brick designed paper ( which you can see on the second picture.) The Yuri Corner goes along the wall, across the wall on the side where the registers are, then down back along the first full size bookshelf, then it turns the corner and is now another, growing section  on the other side of that same bookshelf. Here a few photos of the section. You can see how low-rent the sign is…totally printed from a computer.

 

 

 

 

BUT – and here is the key point – this is the best Yuri section in Tokyo.

Why?  Because it has manga and novels and light novels and reference guides and mooks and other nonfiction and doujinshi. And so when I am in Tokyo, I always save this store until last, because it will not only have everything I wanted to get, but couldn’t find anywhere else and things I didn’t know I wanted, but it will also have books I didn’t know existed and obviously need to read.  Books like the subject of today’s review.

In actual fact, I bought this on Amazon JP last year, but I guarantee that had I been able to visit in 2020, I would have found this book on those shelves.

The Complete Guide to “Yuri Movies” (「百合映画』完全ガイド)  by Fujinoyamai is a fascinating look at someone outside the anime and manga industry looking at media through an explicitly “Yuri” lens.

The book begins with an interesting explanation of the history of Yuri, and then a justification for the use of the term Yuri for looking at movies that have lesbian content without lesbian identity…a distinction that breaks down only towards the most modern of the choices here.

The guide itself is split into three parts. It begins with Japanese movies, beginning with the 1933 silent film Japanese Girls at the Harbor  (港の日本娘) and continues to 2019’s A Girl Missing,  Yokogao よこがお.  Each entry includes a synopsis, a short analysis and details of staff and forms of release.

The second part of the book cover non-Japanese movies. These begin in 1931 with the German film Mädchen in Uniform and continue through 2020’s The Half of It, which I reviewed here on Okazu.

The third part might be the most interesting for us here on Okazu, as it covers anime movies, from 1986’s Doreamon movie, Doreamon –  Nobita and the Steel Troops (ドラえもん のび太と鉄人兵団,) to 2020’s High School Fleet (ハイスクール・フリート), neither of which I knew anything about. So that’s all to the good.

Some of the anime choices are – to my mind, obviously – not “Yuri” as I understand it, which doesn’t bother me in the least, and one or two that I might have included that are not there. I won’t hold it against Fujinoyamai-san, they’ve taken on a huge topic with this book and done an interesting and thoughtful job with it.  I found the book to be a really interesting read. I’m particularly happy to have a guide to Japanese movies I might not otherwise have known about, with English-language lesbian film history being so Europe- and America-centric. On the whole, I’m inclined to agree with their choices.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

If Yuri as a genre interests you, and like me, you believe that it is a useful genre term for media outside anime and manga, this book is a great addition to your shelves…and these movies to your watchlist! And, if you get a chance to get to Tokyo post-pandemic drop by the Akihabara Toronoana and see what other unique Yuri printed material they have for sale. You never know what you’ll find.