Cultural Differences About Sex

I watched Koutara-san, a Japanese anime series, but I almost couldn't finish it because it was so creepy. Like a whole lotta anime, the characters were high school students. The main guy keeps having fantasies about the main girl. Nothing creepy there really. Guys think about sex all the time. He does it because he's a guy, and he does it because she's psychic and is embarrassed when she reads his mind and "sees" his fantasies. Funny. Everyone calls him a pervert, but really, like most teenage guys (and guys in general), he's just a horn dog. Okay. Nothing really strange there.

Main girl goes home. Grandpa makes her sit in his lap. Then he fantasizes about her. Okay. Crossed the line. Creepy. Gross. Disgusting. What's with the dirty old men in Japanime? They chase high school girls around peeking up their skirts and snapping photos and it's supposed to be funny. But this was a cut above. A whole-notha-level. That's his GRANDDAUGHTER! Ew! Grandpa goes on to tell the main male character how he got to feel her thighs! Then he fantasizes about his granddaughter's female classmates. I almost quit watching. The girl called him a pervert, but that's about it. It seemed "normal." I'm so disturbed.

Grandpa even chastised the main male character for only fantasizing and not making any moves on his granddaughter!

Japan has a problem with men groping women and girls. It's so bad that they have female-only cars on trains. That seems like just avoiding the problem rather than dealing with it. I'm not saying we don't have our own messed up attitudes about sex here in the US. I know we do. It's just crazy how ogling young girls is so mainstream.

I just had to rant about that.

Netflix Bingeing: Les Témoins

So I burned through the six episodes of Les Témoins in about two and a half days. The show did temporarily feed my need for dark crime drama. For some reason I had a little trouble transition from Danish to French. I got over that pretty quickly and got sucked into the story. All six episodes follow the same case, unlike so many other series I have watched.

The main detective, Sandra, is quite observant and excellent at her job. Like most of the detectives in the gritty crime shows I watch, she's a bit of a loner with problems at home. Paul, another detective, knows what's going on in the case, but doesn't want to share. Sandra figures it out anyway.

This story involves a couple of serial killers, blackmail, revenge, people digging up dead bodies, detective work, and a wolf. I don't know if they will make another series. This one wrapped up well at the end. I sorta hope they don't make another one.

Oh, and I really like the theme song We Don't Die, by Tricky.

Netflix Bingeing: Dicte

I was recently lamenting that I don't have a good, gritty crime show in my queue. On a whim I started watching the Danish show Dicte. My knitting project is mindless enough that I can even watch foreign shows.

I watched the entire first season (which is all Netflix has) this week. I really like it. It isn't the kind of twisted crime series I love, but I really got into it (and the knitting slowed.) Dicte is a reporter with a complicated past and a penchant for getting in the middle of police investigations. The stories are interesting--even if all of them far-fetchedly revolve around Dicte. The acting is good too. I'm hoping Netflix puts up season 2 soon.

I miss Wallander. I'm still jonesing for some sick crime. Watching this series made me think about writing a crime novel. But, I don't know anything about crime, or police, or writing novels.

Foreign Shows: La que me vida robo, Zhong Wu Yen, Velvet

I watched another show in Mandarin--a Taiwanese soap called Zhong Wu Yen. I like watching things in Mandarin. I picked up a few words, but the story was so trite! Toward the end I just wanted it to be over. The end was so predictable.

I thought I would start watching a Spanish soap opera, try to improve my Spanish. I tried watching La Que Me Vida Robo. I started with training wheels: subtitles. It was easy enough to understand, so I watched a few episodes without subtitles. Again, such a trite story. Upper class folks falling in love with working class, disappointed parents--totally trite. I couldn't take it. I stopped watching after about 5 episodes.

I just watched the first episode of Velvet-with subtitles. I'm not sure I can watch it without subtitles--Spanish accents, and they speak quickly. The thing is--same trite story. Store owner's son falls in love with worker. Parents of both kids disapprove. I don't know if I can keep watching. Maybe I should try and watch movies in Spanish.

Foreign Shows: Coffee Prince and Empresses in the Palace

I like foreign films, so I decided to try and watch some foreign (besides English) shows. I put the Korean show Coffee Prince in my Netflix queue intending to watch it during the day. Ross came home one day just as I was starting to watch the first episode. I offered to turn it off and put on something else, but he said no. We were both completely hooked by the end of the first episode. This show is well written, well acted, cute, sweet, funny, and heart-warming. We burned through the episodes (there are only 17) and we were a little sad when it was over. I'm really glad we watched this series. We now shout Aish! all the time. I guess the English equivalent is Geez! or Sheesh!

After Coffee Prince,  I wasn't sure what to watch. I spotted Empresses in the Palace and put that into the queue. The series is only 6 episodes. Each episode is an hour and a half.

Empresses is about inner workings of the harem in the Chinese royal palace. This show is full of intrigue, betrayal, murder, suicide, affairs, and fancy clothes. The show was in Mandarin, which I enjoyed. Of course I only understand a word here and there, but I like the sound of Mandarin. I laughed every time they said "My Lady," because it sounded like Meow Meow.  The show is probably a pretty accurate. I'm sure ladies did what ever it took to gain the emperor's favor. Now I'm in search of another foreign show to watch.