Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Page 2 of 2)

Well, I haven't watched that episode in a long time, but I don't really recall it being that narrowly defined. The Mythbusters guys tend to take a pretty holistic approach to their premises. As I recall, it was more along the lines of, "Could a ninja really have done that shit?" Not, like, in his back yard with a lot of preparation and practice, but in a setting where it would actually mean something.

Basically, we now have scientific proof that ninjas are pussies.

We're talking about the difference between being able to hit a baseball with a bat when you know the pitcher in front of you is going to throw to you, and being able to do it when a ball is thrown randomly from any direction. I'd say possible often enough to be impressive, but even the best hitter would miss enough for it to really come down to luck.

"That's more Samurai..."

"...shut up."

I failed to keep score as well as I should have, but I think it broke down like this:

Teague: right.

Everybody else: wrong.

"Synecdoche, New York" is, at the very least, a good movie. It might be a great movie. I'm not sure. I saw it months ago and I'm still processing it.

Yep, that'll be a fun episode...

/got no dog in this fight, haven't seen it myself

Since we (I) make a brief reference to Power Rangers in this episode, I thought it would be interesting to note that That Guy With The Glasses has a video series (still in-progress) about the History of Power Rangers.

For those too young/old to have been part of the Power Rangers craze, you might find it interesting to see what us oldtimers/whippersnappers thought was so danged cool about it. He does a good job of hitting the major events (including many I'd forgotten) and summarizing the mythology and the overarching ideas. I personally stopped watching the show as of Turbo, though it seems I missed out on some good stuff with "in Space."

The other reason I bring it up, though, is that looking at the clips he uses, it seems that as the shows moved away from reusing Japanese sentai footage and started producing the action content locally, it transitioned from karate to kung fu. And it started with Turbo. Apparently I outgrew it at just the wrong moment.

Actually, not quite true. Power Rangers always used action from Sentai shows. Turbo, specifically, used clips from Gekisou Sentai Kaareinja (get it? Car Rangers?). The Kung Fu you see (when they're wearing the suits) was done by the Japanese stunt people. What was shot in America was anything that showed the kids specifically. They did a better job hiding the difference between 'borrowed' and new footage as the shows progressed.

The shows continued to use Sentai footage, up through the latest show, RPM, which aired in 2009, and was based on the Sentai series Engine Sentai Go-onger.

The current Sentai series airing in Japan is Tensou Sentai Goseiger, which is based on a card game they sell here. Yup, it's Power Rangers Yu-Gi-Oh. It'll be interesting to see if that one makes the transition to America.

Interestingly enough, while all the TV shows are based on and use footage from Japanese shows, the movies were both entirely original, even Turbo, which was a bridge between the Neo and Turbo series. There's some interesting stuff online about the production of the first film in Fox Studios Australia, where the Matrix films were shot. I'll edit this post if I can find it again.

Last edited by Gregory Harbin (2010-07-21 23:10:21)

So I didn't listen to this one until just now, because I hadn't seen the movie and figured I should see it before listening to the commentary.

After almost two months I 'realized' that I was never gonna find the motivation to actually sit down and watch it on my own, so I just listened to  the commentary as I watched the movie for the first time.

The commentary was hilarious and possibly interesting, but I'm pretty much in agreement with Teague. Never really got the appeal of these kinds of movies and this one didn't dramatically change my mind. It's probably too late for me.

Glad I listened to the commentary though...

Last edited by Hansen (2010-08-18 04:49:12)

Welcome to the forum, good sir. And that's a hell of a first post.

Enjoy our free cookies and alcohol.

What? Where?!

Why was I not informed?!

Dick shaped cookies? Beer bottles already have a somewhat phallic shape. Plus if you shake 'em first they'll spray all over you - erm -if you're into that sort of thing.