Episode 241: Ninja III: The Domination

[Cam Bert 8145]

1 hour ago, DannytheWall said:

Good shout outs to character actor James Hong. Like bumping into an old friend, it’s always a pleasure. “Hey! It’s you! Wow, it’s been a while!”  Of course, we greet each other with a rueful smile, as once again Hollywood casts a Chinese-American actor to play a Japanese man. But then again, maybe that fits in a movie where a Chinese medical shop performs Japanese exorcism, or the fact there’s a Japanese temple in Arizona where Chinese kung-fu is being practiced.     
 
But do Japanese ghosts possess people?

There are a ton of Japanese ghost stories and their urban legends are notorious, but the kind of ghostly possession featured in Ninja III falls more into the Western ideas, like in the tradition of Regan in The Exorcist or Emily Rose. In these stories, it’s demons going into the body of another, with the horror being a loss of control and individuality, the helplessness and victimizing. Japanese spirits are yūrei (“faded souls”) more distinct from demons. They’re more like “haunting” kinds of ghosts, even violent ones, similiar to a poltergeist. These are called onryō (vengeful spirit) and will feature in movies like the Ring and Ju-On. 

Possession in the way we might think of does occur in a couple of ways, but it’s not easy to do a one-to-one translation for these kinds of ideas. You can think of one way as similar to channneling, like how mediums invite spirits into them. Another way is to use haunted items and risk being influenced by an accompaning spirit. Still not an exact Emily Rose scenario, and the horror is more existential, a kind of warning— against attachment that Buddhism says is the root of suffering.      

The closest we get to Regan & Emily is a unique Japanese possession featuring a ikiryō, or a “living spirit.” Here, it’s not a dead person at all, but a consuming spirit that detaches from someone living to afflict others. The most famous story comes from the Tales of Genji, the classic ancient hero of Japan. Here, a mistress of our hero Genji grew so jealous over his wife that the jealousy became a ghost and possessed the wife, afflicting her with mental distress and leading to her death in childbirth. The horror here? I dunno, probably patriarchy.

(Standard disclaimers that the world of Japanese ghosts is prolific and tied intrinsicly to culture/religion, and I am only a hobbyist looking to learn if others can correct or expand on anything.)  

Well I don't want to speak on too much authority, I have lived in Japan for 16 but not born here, but this is pretty spot on. Japanese do believe in spirits and ghosts and them haunting and residing in places, but there is no real history of them possessing people. There are those than can channel spirits but for actual ghosts stories of a possession nature are indeed very rare.

On 6/7/2020 at 11:27 PM, RyanSz said:

Omission:

The crew were wondering what was eye-patch's motivation for hunting the ninja, it's revealed in a quick flashback that the ninja was responsible to killing eye-patch's entire clan and making him watch, thus making him want revenge against the ninja. Also during the opening fight I'm amazed no one mentioned the stunt where the ninja knocks a cop of his motorcycle in front of the water hazard, and the stunt man is clearly seen landing on the ground as his bike starts to flip, but the very next shot shows him and the bike being rocketed into the water. It was some of the laziest and choppy editing I've ever seen. Also I know there was talk about connecting to the other two Ninja films, but neither movie is connected to one another as well, they basically just share a title and the fact that ninjas are in them, they don't even have a supernatural element to them.

Quick addition to this. The one man we see the black ninja killing is eye patch's father. He actually cries out for his father in Japanese.

[theworstbuddhist 572]

18 hours ago, JoaquinSlowly said:

‪‪Bloodfist IV: Die Trying feels HDTGM adjacent.

So far this is the understatement of the year.

[Catfish 72]

On 6/8/2020 at 12:20 PM, Catfish said:

Differences Between a Bad Ninja and a Good Ninja....

Goofus carelessly flips completely over a barbwire fence without thinking twice.
Gallant carefully places his jacket over the barbwire before completely flipping over the fence...just in case.

 

[HipparchiaofMaroneia 2]

So June Kept talking about a bloody marry using Clamato juice, This wouldn't be a bloody Mary but a Ceaser. the main difference being Clamato juice has a "dried clam broth" as described by the website. While the main difference being clam juice, both are prepared and served the same way. It might be a Canadian thing but here most people don't use a "Ceaser mix" (as is insinuated when googling Ceaser the drink) most people just use Clamato juice.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I’m loving all the new people on here! Welcome to all!

I don’t really have much to add regarding the movie itself, but as Paul seemed to be struggling to identify the type of tank top that Billy was wearing without referring to the offensive colloquial slang that is often used, I just thought I would contribute that the technical term for those types of tanks is an “A Shirt.”

Yeah, maybe a lot of people won’t know what you’re talking about if you refer to it as an A Shirt, but that’s on them. If they’re curious, they can look it up.

 

[DrGuts1003 462]

One crazy item in Chris’ apartment not discussed in the episode was the working pay phone she has on the wall.  It’s even odder because there are at least two other normal phones seen in her apartment.  How many does she need?

The scene where she uses the pay phone is also odd.  The phone rings and instead of saying ‘hello’, she immediately says ‘Billy where are you?’.  Do her ninja skills include caller ID?  Also it’s weird that she’s wondering where he is.  He had canceled their date earlier because he told her he had to work late.  Why was she still expecting him at her apartment?  Are they already living together?

[Cameron H. 23786]

Aside from V8, what is the least sexiest food/beverage? My vote will always be for coleslaw.

[DanEngler 5249]

14 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

Aside from V8, what is the least sexiest food/beverage? My vote will always be for coleslaw.

Cottage cheese.

[Cameron H. 23786]

4 minutes ago, DanEngler said:

Cottage cheese.

[Cam Bert 8145]

56 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

Aside from V8, what is the least sexiest food/beverage? My vote will always be for coleslaw.

By not adding raisins you're not adding the sex appeal.

[Cameron H. 23786]

43 minutes ago, Cam Bert said:

By not adding raisins you're not adding the sex appeal.

I stand corrected. Raisins are hot as fuck...

[Cam Bert 8145]

This coleslaw fucks

[grudlian. 4725]

11 hours ago, DrGuts1003 said:

One crazy item in Chris’ apartment not discussed in the episode was the working pay phone she has on the wall.  It’s even odder because there are at least two other normal phones seen in her apartment.  How many does she need?

The scene where she uses the pay phone is also odd.  The phone rings and instead of saying ‘hello’, she immediately says ‘Billy where are you?’.  Do her ninja skills include caller ID?  Also it’s weird that she’s wondering where he is.  He had canceled their date earlier because he told her he had to work late.  Why was she still expecting him at her apartment?  Are they already living together?

Did anyone else think her "apartment" was an employee break room when they first showed it? All the stuff like the pay phone and arcade game, being attached to the gym seems much more like a break room than someone's home. I definitely didn't realize until much later that she lived there. 

3 hours ago, Cam Bert said:

By not adding raisins you're not adding the sex appeal.

Don't start this again!