From Japanese TV to Apple TV

I blogged last about Japanese TV shows, and a great source of clips is on YouTube. Normally I’d watch YouTube on my computer, but I need do that no longer.

The other day I got myself an Apple TV, which promises to revolutionise my TV watching. I do watch a lot of TV, but I’m not really a channel watcher. At least I don’t tend to sit down and watch whatever’s on TV, unless there is a particular programme I want to watch. Normally I’d download something – legally of course – or watch a DVD. I like to watch TV series episodes back-to-back, so I don’t have to wait for next week for the next episode. So during an evening, instead of watching a couple of hours of random TV, I’ll watch a few episodes of whatever series I like. One of my all-time faves is X-Files, which I love to watch again and again. Currently I’m watching LOST, My Name is Earl, Desperate Housewives and the fantastic Heroes. Generally I rip one of my DVD’s so I can watch it via Front Row on my Mac, but now it syncs wirelessly to my Apple TV so I can sit on the sofa and watch it on my telly screen, which is clearly genius. This is how I really want TV to be like: on demand.

The only things I’d add to the Apple TV is functionality to browse Flickr, and to have my Flickr stream available as a slideshow. That would get rid of the need to have one of those eStarling WIFI photo frames I’ve been lusting after for ages. It’d be really great to have a live feed of my Flickr contacts photos too. Also, I’d like to be able to stream DVD’s that are in my MacBook drive through my Apple TV – which would mean I’d not have to Handbrake everything I want to watch.

Watching YouTube videos on your TV through a device like this really makes you realise what the potential of the Internet really is for self-production of video. Now I have a TV channel which shows me content from all over the world, made by individuals….it’s pretty emancipating.

I also have my entire iTunes library available through my TV and speakers, so I no longer have to risk leaving out my Macbook when I have a party, or I’m really drunk – so it’s pretty damn good for that reason (^ ^).

Popteen, J-English & Engrish

[You'll need Japanese characters installed to see the kana in this post]

Using katakana, which is one of the Japanese syllabaries, you can make approximations of English words and phrases so that they can be read by Japanese speakers. For example, there is a new Hollywood film released over here at the moment, called “Rashitsu Yuawa 3″ – spelled in kana as; “ラシツ ユアワ 3″. Can you guess what the film (or ‘firumu’) is? Yup, it’s “Rush Hour 3″. So rather than picking the Japanese for rush hour, or a phrase for a busy time when people are travelling, it’s translated directly into J-English.

I really like this way of writing foreign words and phrases. If you’re a westerner and you know somebody that writes Japanese, then they’ll probably use these characters to write your name, such as the name ベン or ベンジセミン, for example.

I’ve noticed only a couple of translations the other way around, and one of them is the doujinshi (fan manga); Megatokyo. Megatokyo uses some kana in it’s logo, which are: メガトーキヨー. This looks to me, as very very much a beginner to kana, as: “me ga to ki yo”. However, Tokyo is usually spelled using kanji as: 東京 – which I understand to be the two syllables: “to” and “kyo”. So メガトーキヨー, or “me-ga to-ki-yo”, seems to me to be an Engrish way of pronouncing Tokyo, but from the perspective of an English speaker, rather than a native Japanese speaker.

Disclaimer: I have the Japanese reading, writing and speaking skills of an average 2 year old child at the moment, so most probably this is all wrong – as the geek I am; I’m enjoying attempting to decipher Japanese though (^ ^)

There is a hugely popular magazine here called Popteen, which is one of Asia’s bestselling teen magazines, covering fashion tips, love and advice for teen girls. The magazine has quite a unique approach as the models themselves are readers of the magazine. Readers are encouraged to register on the site, and add a portfolio, which may get them featured as a magazine model. It’s quite a nice business model, and helped in no small part by the Internet now. The magazine features “Gal Samurai” manga, which is the story about Ran Kirishima, a junior in the Maizono High School, and a “gal” who likes to hang out in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. When her parents experienced marital trouble, they left Ran in the care of her grandparents in the countryside. It was there that her grandfather, a martial arts master, began training her as a martial artist – and from whom she inherited her martial arts skills. Ran is a fashionably high school student who fights for justice, and looks fantastic while doing it.

Popteen also has a US/English site now, and I read today that Gal Samurai will be published in English too. I’m going to see if I can get hold of a copy of the Japanese manga, but the English version is probably easier for me to read at the moment.

You can visit Popteen’s US site here, for an English version.

Tokyo-Ga

Last night – from a recommendation – I watched Wim Wenders’ 1985 film Tokyo-Ga. The film follows Wenders to Tokyo, where he goes in search of the Tokyo depicted in Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu’s films. Wenders tries to understand better the world and universal truths about families and human relationships that the director so incisively, obsessively and repetitively depicted in his films. If these truths are truly universal, Wenders asks, does this world depicted so vividly in Ozu’s films still exist in modern-day Tokyo?

The interesting thing about the film is that Wenders seems to reject interaction with people in Tokyo (other than during interviews by the actor and cameraman from Ozu’s films, near the end). Rather he wanders Tokyo in a ‘Lost in Translation’-like daze. Hypnotised by the pachinko parlours, roof-top golf driving ranges and the bright neon lights of Shunjuku. This detatchment almost felt like he was approaching Tokyo as if he’s watching a film himself, rather than actually being there. An interesting part of the film was the shots of TV’s, showing constant streams of – to the westener – unintelligable programmes, adverts and dubbed films. Wenders also spent a day in a factory that made realistic wax food for use in restaurant display cases. These metaphors seemed to tie together during the film. From the robotic, repeated movements of the golf players – most of whom will never play on a golf course, to the fanatical attention to detail of these wax foods, to the pachinko parlours’ hypnotic movement and noise. This ’static’ movement, to me, seems important. However Wenders film differs greatly from Ozu’s films in that Wenders focuses on the superficial. It seems that Wenders will nto find the Tokyo in Ozu’s films, but the real answer – for me – is in the way that Ozu approached Tokyo, and the people there.