101 in 1001 - Mindhunter

Mindhunter

Mindhunter is a show I watched recently as part of the 101 in 1001 goal:

• 067. Watch 5 new (to you) TV series (all current episodes). 

Year: 2017

No. of Seasons: 1 (Season 2 will be released later in 2018)

No. of Episodes: 10

Cert: 18

Genre: Crime, detective, dark humour, psychological thriller

Language: English

Holden Ford, Dr. Wendy Carr and Bill Tench

Cast (main):

Jonathan Groff as Holden Ford

Holt McCallany as Bill Tench

Anna Torv as Wendy Carr

Plot:

In the late 1970s two FBI agents - street-hardened professional Bill Tench & enthusiastic but inexperienced Holden Ford - and a sociologist/psychologist/researcher Dr. Wendy Carr expand criminal science by investigating and exploring the psychology of murder. As part of the Behavioural Science Unit, the team use their encounters with killers to both build profiles of the people who commit violent crimes and to help solve current cases. 

Holden interviewing Ed Kemper, the "Coed Killer"

Overall: It was enjoyable, for the most part, and I appreciated that they based the main characters on people who were working in the field at the time (Holden is based on the FBI agent John E. Douglas and Wendy's character is inspired by psychologist and scholar Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess). The way the killers are portrayed is interesting as well. Even though they've done horrendous things and aren't shown as sympathetic or empathetic characters in any way, there is a kind of sympathy for most of them and what they've been through until that point. As Mindhunter is a show dealing with the psychology of criminals, I think it was important that the writers did that.

Best Bits:

Holden fanboying over and getting excited about meeting some of the serial killers before the interviews amuses me, especially when combined with Bill's disgust and disapproval. Also, the parallels between what happens in Holden and Bill's (and eventually Wendy's) private lives and what they encounter during the interviews/cases are also interesting. In addition to that, I like that they use music, and cars from the 70's in the show and talk about/meet fictionalised (but accurate) versions of real-life serial killers from the era and slightly before. It's very effective for world immersion.

Interview with mass murderer Richard Speck

Worst Bits:

Some of the interactions that Holden has with his girlfriend, Debbie, are superfluous to the plot and offer little to either character or plot development. In contrast to that, some of the conversations between other characters feel extremely unnatural, as they have to convey certain pieces of information or explanation of technical terms during them. Neither of those things render the show unwatchable though, and it does improve as the season progresses.

Watch It If You Like:

Serial killer-themed plotlines, detective shows, criminal psychology, behavioral science and the evolution of criminal profiling, shows based on criminal history, dark humour, the 70's.

101 in 1001 - Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman

Kantarou: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman

Back in December I watched a show on Netflix called Kantarou: The Sweet Tooth Salary Man (original title: さぼリーマン甘太朗/ Saboriman Kantarou) as part of the 101 in 1001 challenge goal: 

067. Watch 5 new (to you) TV series (all current episodes).

Netflix suggested this series to me because I was looking for/watching Japanese language films and shows, as I wanted some listening practise. However, this was a show I watched purely for entertainment purposes. 

Unfortunately, I haven't read the manga, so I can't make any comparisons. This is just going to be about the show.

Title: Kantarou: The Sweet Tooth Salary Man [Japanese title: さぼリーマン甘太朗/ Saboriman Kantarou]

Year: 2017
No. of Seasons: 1
No. of Episodes: 12
Cert: PG
Genre: Comedy, food, feel-good, wacky
Language: Japanese (Subtitles available in various languages on Netflix; I had English)

Cast (main):
Matsuya Onoe as Kantarou Ametani
Ren Ishikawa as Kanako Dobashi
Sarutoki Minagawa as Toru Miyake
Hiroyuki Onoue as  Daisuke Yamaji
Hazuki Shimizu as Erika Sano

Kantarou eating melon kakigori

Plot: Graduate Kantarou Ametani begins working at a publishing company as a sales agent but he has a secret: he plays hooky from work to indulge in his true passion - sweets!

Overall:

The series is based on a manga of the same name, by Tensei Hagiwara (writer) & Abidi Inoue (illustrator), and was co-produced by Netflix (this isn't an ad, I swear!) and TV Tokyo. The title contains the pun "Saboriman", which is a combination of 'salaryman' and a form of the verb 'saboru', which means to skip out on your duties and obligations. The kanji for Kantarou (甘太朗) also contains the character "ama" (甘) - meaning "sweet" - though it's said "kan". 

On a side note, there are a lot of Japanese language puns/word plays throughout the show which are also ridiculous and fun, but sadly they often don't easily translate without providing explanation notes, so they're left out or just written as direct translations. 

Having a squats contest in the middle of giant peach volcanoes

For example, when eating a particular dessert with peaches (momo) in, Kantarou imagines that he turns into Peach Boy (Momotaro) and is having a squats contest with an exercise demon, based on a work colleague of his. This is based on the Japanese folklore stories of Momotaro, but they focus the camera on Kantarou and his colleague's thighs a lot and have them say "we're two peaches", which seems a bit strange out of context. I watched this with someone who understands Japanese and someone who doesn't and the latter was a bit confused (but still found it amusing anyway). 

The word for thighs is "futomomo" (太もも; I'm writing the kanji/hiragana for this because it has another meaning also) in Japanese. Throughout the whole scene the writers were playing with the fact that "futo" is also the first part of saying "two" when counting certain things. So essentially, they were saying "two peaches" and "thighs" and "we're two peaches", whilst having peaches for heads and showing their thighs, doing squats on the screen. (Yes, it's that kind of show...).

Anyway, it was an entertaining and fun to watch and gave short snippets of information about food making processes and history along the way. 

Best Bits:

All of the "Sweets Heaven" scenes are bizarre and funny, and Kantarou is just a very strange person in general (he gets stranger as the series goes along), but in a way that makes you like him and laugh with him. Sometimes he does things and encounters things in "real" life that are almost as strange as what he imagines. When you find out why Kantarou love sweets so much, it makes sense, and his going off into imaginary worlds makes more sense as well. 

天国 (tengoku/heaven) on a giant hotcake sun

I also liked all the references/parodies of other films/TV shows, though I probably missed some. It doesn't really make a difference if you "get" them all or not though, because the scenes were enjoyable regardless.

Worst Bits:

The plot is somewhat silly since he only stops to eat sweets after he's already finished all the sales work he needs to complete. I'm pretty sure he would be allowed to go and eat something for lunch at least, in which case he could eat all the sweets he wanted then (correct me if I'm wrong though). Also, sometimes it felt like I was watching a tourist information show about the districts and sweets shops of Tokyo, rather than a fictional comedy, but it was interesting so that wasn't so bad. The way Dobashi behaves towards Kantarou is also slightly odd. Or rather, the way she goes about it doesn't seem to make any sense. But again, it's not something off-putting and I like her as a character. 

Dobashi and Sano (eating, of course)

Mostly though, as I really dislike the noise of people eating (myself included) the sound was somewhat unpleasant at times (though, some of the noises Kantarou makes when he eats aren't the same as most people, haha).

Kantarou and his mother. Let's just not talk about this...

Watch It If You Like: Quirky comedy; sweets; foodgasms; the processes involved in making food; salarymen; watching people eat; slacking off work; seeing places in Tokyo/Japan in general; bloggers; silly humour; some slightly dark humour; weird, bordering on surreal visuals.

Rating: 7.5/10

101 in 1001 - Watch 5 TV Series - Bad Guys (나쁜 녀석들)

For my 101 in 1001 challenge, I've been slowly working towards completing various goals on the list. Lately I've been watching a TV show and calling it part of the goal:

• 067. Watch 5 new (to you) TV series (all current episodes).*

Apparently, Netflix suggested this particular series to me because I like 'Gotham' and 'Hannibal'. Those are two of my favourite shows, so how could I not watch it!

Title: Bad Guys [Korean title: 나쁜 녀석들 / Nappeun Nyeoseokdeul]
Year: 2014
No. of Seasons: 1*
No. of Episodes: 11
Cert: Mature (PG - 12...no sex but lots of violence / mature themes. All the knives and some of the gore are blurred out though.)
Genre: Drama, action, crime
Language: Korean (Subtitles available in various languages on Netflix; I had English)

Cast (main):
Kim Sang-joong as Oh Gu-tak
Ma Dong-seok as Pak Un-Cheol
Park Hae-jin as Lee Jung-moon
Jo Dong-hyuk as Jung Tae-soo
Kang Ye-won as Yoo Mi-young

Plot: Oh Gu-tak is a detective that will use any means necessary to catch criminals and this results in his frequent suspension from the police for using excessive force. Detective Oh decides to bring together a team of "bad guys" to assist on difficult cases and help hunt down other criminals. The plan is approved and the ambitious Inspector Yoo Mi-young also joins the team to keep an eye on them. They release three inmates from jail to form the team: Lee Jung-moon - the youngest member, who is a genius with an IQ of 165 and doctorates in maths and philosophy, but is also a convicted serial killer; Pak Un-Cheol - a gangster who took over the Seoul underworld in just 25 days, and continues to be in control, even in prison; and Jung Tae-soo - he was previously an uncaught hit man who never made mistakes, before suddenly confessing and turning himself in one day.

Overall: This wasn't a show without flaws. The story was mostly, though not always, predictable,  some of the acting was a little over the top and melodramatic in places, and sometimes I disliked Oh Gu-tak so much that it made me not even care about the loss and suffering he'd been through or what he was trying to achieve. However, none of that prevented 'Bad Guys' from being a highly enjoyable, entertaining and watchable show, with great characters, solid, complete narratives for all the characters involved, and interesting storytelling techniques that made even predictable plotlines somewhat uncertain. In short, I loved it! 

Yoo Mi-young at the base of operations

Jung Tae-soo's tattoo

Side note: if you're expecting to see Yoo-Mi-young showing off her legs in short skirts all the time, as on the poster, sorry to tell you that you'll be disappointed (she usually dresses as in the above image, or in a formal police uniform). So don't just watch it for that. Jung Tae-soo does like taking his shirt off rather a lot though (because of his tattoo, naturally) so, if you're interested in that, then it's rife. Don't watch the show just because of that either though. :P

The crime boss (Madam Hwang) in this episode was so over the top

Jung Tae-soo visiting Park Sun-jung

Best Bits: The cinematography - from the framing to the lighting to the angles and colours used - is gorgeous. From a storyline point of view, the way the line between who is a "bad guy" and a "good guy" is extremely thin or sometimes non-existent is great. There are really only anti-heros at best in this show. Also, Jung-moon and Un-Cheol's unlikely "friendship" is fun and gives their characters more depth and the friendly rivalry between Tae-soo and Un-Cheol is amusing as well. All of the characters have relationships/interactions with people outside of the team as well though. It gives insights as to how they ended up on their individual paths and the differences - or lack of differences - between how they act towards various kinds of people.

Inspector Yoo interrogating a suspect

Also, I like that the events that happen are clarified by the end, too. Sometimes I want things left up to my imagination in series, but not in this case. They go a little overboard with explanations sometimes, but I don't think I'm in a position to criticise them there!

Pak Un-Cheol and being shown a photo by his boss, Lee Doo-kwang

Other than that, a certain character getting an apology (more than just an apology) in the end and their reaction to it is satisfying, because they are probably the closest thing to a "good" person in the whole story, but have to go through a lot. There are other "best bits", but they're spoilers (Prosecutor Oh Jae-won is awful, but a fantastic character at the same time), so you'll just have to watch it and find out for yourself. :)

Jung-moon & some douchebag (AKA: Prosecutor Oh)

Worst Bits: There was a lot of music all the time. I got used to it, but sometimes it would have been nice to have a break from it. There were a few too many slow motion scenes as well, to the point that it became corny and during the fight scenes I'm not sure why 30 - 50 guys with baseball bats, golf clubs, and hammers - there's always a hammer! - need to all fight 2 or 3 guys at once. They seem to just fight amongst themselves at some points.

Drama with Tae-soo  (for a good reason here, though)

Then, Tae-soo being so overly dramatic was somewhat mood-breaking at points, although, I admit it was also highly enjoyable in a cheesy sort of way. 

Detective Oh with his daughter

And, last but not least, Gu-tak spitting everywhere or having spit/snot dripping from his face all the time - just, WHY? It's mostly the spitting part though.





Also, I watched this with a friend (who enjoyed the series too) and they want me to tell you that Jung-moon's hairstyle - his face in general, in fact - was one of the "worst bits", but that has nothing to do with the show being good or not. It's true, you see his face a lot in the show, even when he's not in the scenes (that will make sense if you watch), but I disagree with my friend. So I'll end this section with a nice screenshot of Jung-moon and his hair:

Lee Jung-moon...gets injured a lot

Watch It If You Like: Crime dramas with an undertone of comedy; Korean drama shows that don't focus on romance; storylines about psychopaths; hammer and golf club fights; dramatic acting; storylines about serial killers; action scenes; character-focused narratives.

Rating: 8.5/10

*Technically, there is another season (Bad Guys 2/Bad Guys: City of Evil), but it's about completely different characters, has different storylines, features different actors, and only the premise - criminals helping to solve crimes - is the same. I consider it a sequel rather than another season of the same series and so didn't watch it for this goal, but will probably watch it at some point.