I felt like Denzel Washington played “too perfect” of a character. He had a job, was respectful, did everything right by the book, etc. Though I feel like this was done purposefully to go beyond stereotypes which I found effective at least. It did provoke a lot of thoughts involving banding together to fight the white man when in reality racism runs deeper than slavery in America. I really enjoyed watching a film from a completely new perspective that didn’t show the typical white vs minority racism, though that still did exist in the film the focal point was the interaction between two different minority groups.

It was interesting to see how accepting one family was of an opposing ethnic group. DW’s new girl was accepted wholeheartedly by his family yet wasn’t shown anything but scorn and disrespect by the girl’s family. The nice guy act of sticking together by the Indian in the motel really showed it was all an act and how deep racism lies in the roots of cultural upbringing.

Outside of the racism in America between the Indians towards the Blacks, there was the reverse happening in Uganda where the Indians were forced and and treated like aliens that didn’t belong irregardless of whether they were born there or not. I compared it to the similar treatment of the Japanese Americans during WWII where groups of privilege strongly stated that they “Go back to their own country.” disregarding the fact that they were born and raised in America.

This movie played on the trope of minority sexuality however, DW was superior to the Indian guy at club and ended up taking the girl right under his nose, in addition it showed the ineffectiveness of passion/love between the arranged marriage abiding by the Indian traditional customs.

Let’s establish an understood environment and premise for a novel about real events and potentially real problems and then just throw it all away in the end with invisible writing magic. I think Ruth waking up and realizing the whole thing was a dream would of been a better ending. The theme for the end section of the book seemed to emphasize “loss”.

Now that that’s out of the way I can get into the nitty-gritty details. I really enjoyed all the sections involving Haruki #1, the power of the letters is truly astonishing and I’m looking into reading some real letters from WWII. In the end I expected some actual connection between Ruth and Nao but it never happened. Sure we learn about the process of Ruth translating the letters and diary but I found that extremely unnecessary in terms of effectiveness of storytelling for Nao. Of course it was heartwarming to see that Nao and her father are finally getting better and after dealing with the loss of Juko they can work together and go on living life helping each other through struggles. My like for Oliver was diminished greatly towards the end of the book as he transitioned from a typical smart guy to a cold-hearted jerk.

Beyond the character interactions I really didn’t enjoy the magic dreams and super power diaries that somehow correlates  its readability directly into Ruth’s sanity. Maybe I’m not thinking hard enough about the symbolism with the crow and fading pages but they seemed extremely out of place. I could understand such things like Nao’s ghostly uncle as he never gave her any information she wouldn’t already know. There is no suspension of disbelief needed as that kind of thing can be explained by coincidence or a lucid/vivid dream. However when it came to time traveling letters and the like it was just completely unbelievable given the nature of the book up until that point. It just made the whole book a joke for me and I very much wanted everyone to turn into witches, goblins and dragons with a time-mage sand-man hero to tie it all together. Again I’m being too critical but it is simply my initial thoughts from the book and I’m sure if I locked myself in a cage for two weeks rereading the book over and over I’d somehow come out and find value and meaning with all the magic.

Attempting to write in the perspective of a kamikaze pilot sending a letter to his family.

Hey Mom,

I’m a month away from the mission that should assist greatly in the outcome of the war. I want you to know that I have grown much since last I saw you and hope you aren’t too worried about me. I’m proud to be a kamikaze pilot and I have lived a full and meaningful life from beginning to end, and there isn’t much more to ask than that.

The military has forced me into becoming a greater person, all of my poor habits of my teenage years have vanished and have been replaced with productivity. I know you might think I’ve become a  different person but I’m still me just a little different. I hope you aren’t mad at the government or military. Please understand that sacrifices must be made for the safety of all of our proud homeland and my job has a sacrifice but with an indescribable joy, the safety of my family.

Anyways, I hope the rest of the family is doing well and keep pushing M and B to do well in school and study hard! B probably won’t understand what my outcome until she is much older I pray that she won’t be too shaken. M will probably hide his feelings like usual but make sure he is healthy and isn’t impacted too hard. We’ve both been prepared for my final moments so I know you can be strong for me and for the family. This will be my last official letter to you so I will keep things short and sweet and let you know that I have been blessed to have you as a mother with such a kind and loving heart.

Sincerely,

A

PS: The books you had me read helps me cure my state of boredom. They’re so interesting!

Nao uses the word pathetic more times than I can count through the whole reading. She uses it to describe herself, the other awkward kids in school that she loathes and of course her father whom she feels the most strongly when calling him truly pathetic. Of course she loves her dad and wants to see him be healthy however it doesn’t take away any of the animosity Nao has for the sad state she and her father are in. I suppose the theme would be Identity.

Nao identifies herself in this low viewpoint, in addition to all the other losers in her life. She relates to them on that level of lowness but with that connection comes a hatred that reminds herself of what she is, at least in her mind.

Overall the reading sort of warmed up to me in terms of enjoyment and interest. I still feel like Ruth’s sections are extremely bland and don’t connect anything at all. Maybe a few random references but I honestly felt like I gained nothing of value from those sections and can avoid all the material and understand the beginning, middle and end of the story without hundreds of pages of filler. I’m probably being too critical here but it’s only my skewed opinion, I’m not going to relate to Nao, nor can I relate to Ruth. The only characters I have some interest in is Juko and Oliver but even still they don’t give more than a few “smart guy” moments.

My initial reading I didn’t really enjoy the voice of Nao and it was for me personally, a boring read, especially Ruth’s section. However towards the end of the reading in regards to her interaction of the funeral and the kitchen knife I had to find out what happened next.

A lot of Nao’s pretentiousness gets annoying throughout the reading. I understand that given the context of her situation and the age Nao is it makes more sense that she is judgmental and feels the way she does. The occasional “OMGs” really shows the age that Nao represents. Some of her views don’t make sense to me however such as on page 75 “I didn’t pray to Lord Buddha because back then I used to think he was like God, and I don’t believe in God, which isn’t surprising given the patheticness of the male authority figures in my life.” I feel like if she doesn’t finding praying to a God effective or doesn’t make sense to her then how is praying to her grandma or her Shaka-sama make her feel better.

In other news, I can’t believe how horrible she is treated by everyone at her school. I can remember in my childhood the “weird kid” or some one no one really liked. But it turned into an obsession for her school and even her damned teachers. Which is insane to me given how teachers should be held to a higher standard and should be able to be a safe haven for a student. Instead she has no real sanctuary given how she feels bad for her pathetic father at home. On the flip side even though they’re a side character I enjoy Oliver’s relaxed state and calm nonchalant dialogue.

The seminar we had delved into a few really cool comparisons between the kung fu movement and the hip hop spread in America to the rest of world.They both followed they same formula of spreading from one region to the next until it became a global culture. When we watch those movie clips even more than just the hip hop music mixing of Arabian chants and local sounds the artists still wore styles from hip hop artists in America big t-shirts, long gold-chains, baggy jeans, etc. Kato reused a few key words throughout the reading which showed the connection he was trying to make. Such usage such as “groove” and “flow” showed how connected these two big movements really are. Bruce Lee also uses flow to describe mastery over kung fu, the unconsciously conscious way of thinking while performing some task, the groove, the zone, “He’s on fire!” etc.

On a slight detour the graffiti relation to Tsang Tsou Choi’s street calligraphy demonstrated how language and writing are so critical in one’s culture. Both are being used in a way to demonstrate their individuality, skill, or message for the public to see and absorb. Kato strengthens this idea with similar views “The uniqueness of style and individuality was of utmost importance to a writer’s signature, for it was at one time, the only significant vehicle to represent one’s ‘existence.’”

I enjoyed the philosophical analysis Kato does with Bruce Lee and Game of Death. One example being from Bruce himself “To express yourself in freedom, you must die to everything of yesterday. From ‘old’ you derive security, from the ‘new’ you gain the flow.” This was relevant to Game of Death which attempted to set up new ideas and standards to the kung fu movement.  Kato asserts “With the absence of dialectical constraint, the combat choreography, albeit its deadly performance, becomes an arena of artistic contestation much like the street aesthetics of hip hop, in which a new concept is produced through a competitive exchange of styles.” The new “styleless” style of Jeet Kune Do from Kareem Abdul-Jabbal made for a worthy opponent for Bruce Lee.

Global capitalism transitioning into the battle from colonial and imperial subjugation can be directly translated to the messages intended by the Kung Fu movement specifically movies like Enter the Dragon. There was natural strain and conflict with American and Chinese workers involved in film production. One being the language barrier and the animosity/degrading view the American had on the Chinese and vise versa. One example being on page 116 where the Chinese workers hated the American workers and thought they were incompetent but the Americans couldn’t understand and assumed they were getting along great.

There was an additional struggle with cultural traditions and values as stated on page 117 “The scripwriter’s singular act of resistance represented the collective resentment of Hong Kong workers at the denigration of their being in the film production of their own cultural heritage.” This being further pushed by the “kung fu dialect” in association with Bruce Lee performing martial arts. There is a disconnect between language and art.

In addition there was the relationship of how the Asiananic people were being portrayed in the cinema as antagonists in which Bruce Lee felt the same discomfort as the low-end Chinese workers. There is a form of resistance from the Chinese, Vietnamese and any other “foreigner” in association with forced change by a higher power. On page 144 Kato asserts “The antagonism against the “foreign power,” an essential narrative ingredient of the kung fu genre, is thus made inconceivable by the transnationalization of the narrative structure.” He later goes on to show how the personification of the villain can no longer be a foreigner but instead becomes the protagonist.

Enter the Dragon has a lot of super cool fighting scenes in the movie. I was really bummed that Williams was killed off so quickly. I noticed that there was a few stereotypes that we’ve discussed previously. One being the sexuality of the white guy, the black guy and the Asian guy.

This film had a very powerful message to me about ignorance. I had a similar feeling last quarter reading about the war veterans from WWII and getting treated like outsiders. Just the general state of mind on logic goes out the window when any crisis occurs and the majority will quickly shun anything that “might” have the traits of the thing that presented the danger. In this case it was the Muslim people, or really anyone that looked Middle Eastern or spoke some Arabic language. It just baffles me that public schools actually taught that Islam was the most violet kind of religion, even in the context of the movie it was really hard to watch such blatant misunderstandings and disregard for treating people as individuals versus lumping them in with extremists which aren’t members of any specific religion.

I’m just reminded of how the mass public will always try to find a non-reason to be scared of a group. You didn’t see a mass panic towards Russians when the Boston Bombers origins were revealed. It comes down to the power of those in control and what they can get away with. It just makes it clear that ethics and morals are this constant changing thing based on the needs of those with power in order to justify their actions.

Ranting aside the movie was enjoyable but I felt the MC was too smart/perfect and felt extremely familiar to Forrest Gump but with a twist. It was interesting seeing the hatred and disdain the Hindus had for the Muslims. How they “ruined” their lives in America because a few crazy people that could of been any race/religion/sex went and crashed some planes. People seem to find a reason blame other people for their misfortunes rather than adapting. Being mad at others will only add fuel to the fire instead of accepting the situation and improving it. Of course I understand why they’re mad but I supposed I’m biased in the sense that I’m not living in their shoes exactly. I’m in the safety of calm thought and rationality only due to the privilege of my environment.