Turnin' Japanese
Sep. 8th, 2003 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furtechWell, at least some of my current interests are. I just got the symphonic orchestration of Inu-Yasha's "Wind" soundtrack. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but-- wow! Inspirational. Uplifting. Free. This has instantly become one of my favorite orchestral soundtracks.
I have also been engrossed in an ancient Japanese live-action hero show (precursors of the "Power Rangers"). "Shiro-Shige Kamen" is a *very* obscure Japanese television program. There were only thirteen episodes made; this show had only one airing in one area of Japan; the hero dies at the end. I'd seen stills of the show in the comprehensive TV "encyclopedias" that are published and it looked really neat. Taking place at the beginning of the Meiji Era of Japan: samurai and ninja still existed, with some modern inventions starting to appear. The hero is a "policeman" of the era (they use the weapons that look like hand-held pitchforks) who gains supernatural powers to fight supernatural lawbreakers.
Filled with wolf-headed ninjas, fox women and demons of many shapes and flavors, this show did not seem to exist anywhere in any form. There was also a rights issue between two "owners" and neither could find any prints anyway. Still, I looked for any information I could about it over the course of 18 years. Out of the blue, Toei announces that they've found good prints and are releasing the entire series as a deluxe boxed set. I had to be revived with multiple slappings of a good-sized mochi.
Shiro-Shige Kamen is everything I hoped for: fantastic photography, interesting plots, period costumes and demons, demons, demons!
Monsters galore!
Horses and feudal Japanese villages!
Evil Fox Women!
I have also been engrossed in an ancient Japanese live-action hero show (precursors of the "Power Rangers"). "Shiro-Shige Kamen" is a *very* obscure Japanese television program. There were only thirteen episodes made; this show had only one airing in one area of Japan; the hero dies at the end. I'd seen stills of the show in the comprehensive TV "encyclopedias" that are published and it looked really neat. Taking place at the beginning of the Meiji Era of Japan: samurai and ninja still existed, with some modern inventions starting to appear. The hero is a "policeman" of the era (they use the weapons that look like hand-held pitchforks) who gains supernatural powers to fight supernatural lawbreakers.
Filled with wolf-headed ninjas, fox women and demons of many shapes and flavors, this show did not seem to exist anywhere in any form. There was also a rights issue between two "owners" and neither could find any prints anyway. Still, I looked for any information I could about it over the course of 18 years. Out of the blue, Toei announces that they've found good prints and are releasing the entire series as a deluxe boxed set. I had to be revived with multiple slappings of a good-sized mochi.
Shiro-Shige Kamen is everything I hoped for: fantastic photography, interesting plots, period costumes and demons, demons, demons!
Monsters galore!
Horses and feudal Japanese villages!
Evil Fox Women!
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Rawr!
Date: 2003-09-10 01:32 am (UTC)Yeah-- that would be "Dynaman". The original Japanese series was my all-time favorite sentai/power-ranger-type series. I didn't mind so much that they goofed it up, but they did everything so half-assed that they could only do those few episodes before they got their asses sued, tying up the American rights for that series. They did remarkably foolish things like using music without clearing rights or paying for it. My mind boggles.