Creepy fannish obsession, now with 28% more religious allusions!
So I just got back from my last class of term, which we spent watching Zatoichi! It was pretty fabulous, but of course I put the 'unpleasable fan' in 'unpleasable fanbase' and find at least one fault in pretty much everything, so... you know how it goes. But before I get to that.
Oh god, the classroom was so damn hot. I thought I'd be clever and wear a thin sweater under a teeshirt so I wouldn't get cold, and of course wasn't expecting to walk into a sauna. My hair actually frizzed from the humidity caused by everyone's sweat. Ewww. I sweat through both of my shirts. Ewwww.
I actually got talking to some people before class started, though, since I got there extra early. Oh wait, you thought I was kidding about getting to class half an hour early so I could sit at the front because nobody gets between me and Saotome Taichi? Pffft, what are you, new? (Technically I sat in the second row, because you get a better view of the screen from there. Details.) I got conned into showing off a drawing of Saotome Taichi, which attracted a little more attention than I was comfortable with, and resulted in me clapping my sketchbook shut, hiding behind it, blushing to the ears, and squeaking, "Too many people are looking!" (They thought my reaction was cute, so it's all good.)
As for the movie itself, guh, hello newfound massive crush on Tachibana Daigoro. He's so elegeant and charismatic; Osei was a really likeable character. (Oh, like you didn't see that coming.) And itty bitty twelve-year-old Saotome Taichi? Too cute for words, with his tiny little hands and pudgy cheeks. But, uh, Taichi as young Osei? Poses a bit of a problem for me.
I'm very fond of Taichi, of course, and I have a rather high opinion of him, preeeeetty much putting him on a pedestal, because I'm a little off-kilter like that. So seeing teeny tiny him being felt up by some creepy old guy? Bothered me, yeah. And before I have time to recover? "Hey mister, wanna spend some time with me?" The rest of the class laughed. I actually cried a bit. To me, Saotome Taichi is almost a personification of beauty and purity that could never exist in a corrupt world, but somehow does anyway. To put a weird twist on it (yeah, 'cause so far it's been so normal), I saw my personal Madonna figure prostitute himself to the first person willing to take him up on his offer.
Rationally, I know it's not him, not by a long shot. It's a character he played. Five years ago. And onstage he's probably played any number of questionable characters.
But it still bothers me.
What the hell is wrong with me?
God help us all if he ever gets married; I'll probably lose my mind completely. Well, with any luck he'll have the good grace to wait until I've recovered from this punch in the stomach first. (Though I've never really been the lucky sort.)
...Well that went downhill quickly.
(Edit, pardon.) Oh, but here's me forgetting the not-catastrophic part. See, I rarely talk in tutorials and never talk in lectures; there's just too many people, it's too scary. But on the rare occassion that the topic turns to one of my few areas of expertise, nothing will stop me from contributing what needs to be said.
TED-SENSEI. Now, you'll see an onnagata in the film -- I can't remember the name of the actor who plays him at the moment...
KEI. *hand darts up, waves a bit* Tachibana Daigoro, sir.
TED-SENSEI. *looking somewhat impressed* Ah, do you know all of the actors in the movie?
KEI. No, sir, but I do know who played his character as a child, in flashbacks, if you're interested.
TED-SENSEI. Oh?
KEI. *lighting up* Saotome Taichi! Oh, but sir, neither of them are kabuki onnagata; they're taishu engeki onnagata.
TED-SENSEI. *stares, looking quite impressed* ...Maybe I should take your seat and you should come up here and do this, I think you know more than I do...
Oh god, the classroom was so damn hot. I thought I'd be clever and wear a thin sweater under a teeshirt so I wouldn't get cold, and of course wasn't expecting to walk into a sauna. My hair actually frizzed from the humidity caused by everyone's sweat. Ewww. I sweat through both of my shirts. Ewwww.
I actually got talking to some people before class started, though, since I got there extra early. Oh wait, you thought I was kidding about getting to class half an hour early so I could sit at the front because nobody gets between me and Saotome Taichi? Pffft, what are you, new? (Technically I sat in the second row, because you get a better view of the screen from there. Details.) I got conned into showing off a drawing of Saotome Taichi, which attracted a little more attention than I was comfortable with, and resulted in me clapping my sketchbook shut, hiding behind it, blushing to the ears, and squeaking, "Too many people are looking!" (They thought my reaction was cute, so it's all good.)
As for the movie itself, guh, hello newfound massive crush on Tachibana Daigoro. He's so elegeant and charismatic; Osei was a really likeable character. (Oh, like you didn't see that coming.) And itty bitty twelve-year-old Saotome Taichi? Too cute for words, with his tiny little hands and pudgy cheeks. But, uh, Taichi as young Osei? Poses a bit of a problem for me.
I'm very fond of Taichi, of course, and I have a rather high opinion of him, preeeeetty much putting him on a pedestal, because I'm a little off-kilter like that. So seeing teeny tiny him being felt up by some creepy old guy? Bothered me, yeah. And before I have time to recover? "Hey mister, wanna spend some time with me?" The rest of the class laughed. I actually cried a bit. To me, Saotome Taichi is almost a personification of beauty and purity that could never exist in a corrupt world, but somehow does anyway. To put a weird twist on it (yeah, 'cause so far it's been so normal), I saw my personal Madonna figure prostitute himself to the first person willing to take him up on his offer.
Rationally, I know it's not him, not by a long shot. It's a character he played. Five years ago. And onstage he's probably played any number of questionable characters.
But it still bothers me.
What the hell is wrong with me?
God help us all if he ever gets married; I'll probably lose my mind completely. Well, with any luck he'll have the good grace to wait until I've recovered from this punch in the stomach first. (Though I've never really been the lucky sort.)
...Well that went downhill quickly.
(Edit, pardon.) Oh, but here's me forgetting the not-catastrophic part. See, I rarely talk in tutorials and never talk in lectures; there's just too many people, it's too scary. But on the rare occassion that the topic turns to one of my few areas of expertise, nothing will stop me from contributing what needs to be said.
TED-SENSEI. Now, you'll see an onnagata in the film -- I can't remember the name of the actor who plays him at the moment...
KEI. *hand darts up, waves a bit* Tachibana Daigoro, sir.
TED-SENSEI. *looking somewhat impressed* Ah, do you know all of the actors in the movie?
KEI. No, sir, but I do know who played his character as a child, in flashbacks, if you're interested.
TED-SENSEI. Oh?
KEI. *lighting up* Saotome Taichi! Oh, but sir, neither of them are kabuki onnagata; they're taishu engeki onnagata.
TED-SENSEI. *stares, looking quite impressed* ...Maybe I should take your seat and you should come up here and do this, I think you know more than I do...