Film Review: 100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience

100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience (directed by Brad Crawford) is an independent documentary that provides an overview of the history of Japanese arcades as well as a glimpse of the resurgence of arcades in the United States long after the golden era of arcades. The documentary can be viewed as a film adaptation of the book Arcade Mania: The Turbo-Charged World of Japan’s Game Centers, albeit only the chapters devoted to video games are included. Understandably, there is a lot of hype surrounding the film, even though the 25 Canadian dollar price (and six dollars shipping in the United States) for the first public DVD release of the film is a pretty ridiculous price (or even for any DVD in general). To add insult to injury, the documentary was also disappointing the first time I watched it as it only scratches the surface of what it is like to be inside one of those arcades. This is nevertheless a great film for someone who is new to the arcade scene and wants some background information on the arcade culture in Japan, but as a source of information into the history of the Japanese arcade culture, the film is by no means exhaustive and, as the film is only a little over an hour, is in fact not even thorough in covering what Japanese arcades have to offer, even if it is in a biased manner.

Show Me Your Moves! DDR as a Medium for Public Performance and Art

So I had the opportunity to speak at Princeton University’s East Asian Popular Culture Conference (EastCon for short), the first of its kind for undergraduates to be able to speak and present their research. When I came to Princeton for the first time to attend this conference, I really wasn’t sure what was expected of me in terms of my presentation and research; the conference itself was well-organized despite its uniqueness. Seeing that this is also the first time I went to an academic conference ever, let alone as a presenter, a little anxiety settled into me and thus I stumbled a bit in my presentation, but for someone who is only beginning to dive into game studies and, more specifically, music games and individual games like Dance Dance Revolution (Konami, 1998) to boot, I nevertheless had a solid presentation (I think) and so did every other presentation there, ranging from an analysis of the Gangnam Style music video to the role of plastic surgery in the pop music industry and economy.

For the Necessity of Change in Higher Education and Beyond

Whenever I watch the news on a national or global level, I constantly see the effects of corporatism and capitalism all over the world, more often than not with negative consequences. The most heinous crime facing our world today deals with the wealthiest bribing politicians to create policies that benefit only the wealthiest, but that only scratches the surface of how such extremist capitalism has affected the entire world. I have only recently begun to realize, however, that such corruption happens just as much on a more local and personal level as well. Governments of individual states and cities and even universities are susceptible to such corruption as well. American universities have become so privatized that I do not think that even public universities are entirely “public” either.

Why I Dropped the Philosophy Major

A disappointing post to start the new year, I know. I may not even try to get the philosophy minor. But I have my reasons for doing this:

1. Philosophy itself is a difficult subject, and my GPA is suffering because of it. Except for one class, I have never been able to get an A for any philosophy class. The class I did get an A on, however, is only a lower-level elective class that deals with the Internet. Except for anyone who has a talent for learning philosophy (which I thought I had until I realized I do not), I do not see how anyone can fully grasp such complex ideas in just a matter of weeks or days. On top of that, hard readings like pretty much every philosophy text require them to be read multiple times in order to understand just the basic ideas the author is trying to say, and time is a luxury that college classes cannot afford to lose. Now I feel like I am forcing myself to read the required texts, making it even harder for me to understand them.
2. Western education primarily deals with Western philosophy. At my university, there is an Eastern philosophy class that is unfortunately only offered in the summer term. While I would love to go into comparative philosophy, there is no class that allows me to dive into that topic as much as I want to or spark a thesis topic in said subject. And with philosophy becoming incresingly difficult for me, there is a high chance that such a thesis may not turn out to be as good as I hoped.
3. The current American education system, more specifically, does not provide any incentive to study philosophy. We are forced to learn for the sake of earning money instead of for the sake of itself. Philosophy majors have a higher unemployment rate and lower salary overall than mathematics majors, and I will not waste any more credits on philosophy any further. I wish it did not have to be this way, but that statistic is pretty much reality. It is an example of American capitalism at its worst (or best, depending on how you look at it).

Despite all these points, however, this does not mean that I have lost any interest in philosophy at all nor will I stop posting on this blog (although the more-than-three-month hiatus may suggest otherwise). I will end with one last statement: education can be, should be, and must be a right and not something limited only to those who have the privilege of getting one.

Anime Review: 5 Centimeters Per Second

[Japanese title: 秒速5センチメートル]

[My first official anime review on this site, though I mainly chose this because this is the second time I cried over an anime, though not as much as I did during Angel Beats!, and wrote this within hours after finishing the film. So you know it's has to good. Enjoy!]

When I finished watching the film, at first, I thought the plot was very emotional yet simple. A sad love story that truly shows the harsh realities that prevent us from obtaining our true desires. But after the film, after thinking about all the narration from all the characters, especially the main character, Takaki, I quickly realized that that is exactly the message that this film is trying to portray, even more so that I initially thought. And while “5 Centimeters Per Second” in the film referred to the rate at which cherry blossoms fall during spring or gentle snow in the winter, perhaps it is also a metaphor for how trying to progress our society is painfully slow. [I also checked the Wikipedia page for this film afterwards and it turns out that the director, Makoto Shinkai, confirmed my initial thoughts.] I could not believe that I did not realize more quickly such a simple yet harsh truth that is brought front and center in this film.

While I believe that the plot can be stronger and more complex than it already is now, just about everything else in the film was simply outstanding. There were moments when I thought the music was even stronger than the already beautiful and detailed scenery. The soundtrack during the film, while it was often soft and subtle under the characters’ voices, set the mood for the entire film very well. The ending theme, “One More Time, One More Chance” by Masayoshi Yamazaki, had accessible yet very powerful lyrics and is a perfect fit for the film. Yet there were also moments when the artwork and the beauty of anime took over. The amount of detail in everything from the close-ups to the vast landscapes surpasses those in every other anime I have seen so far and with a different kind of beauty embedded in every single frame. The train sequences especially struck me as such detail can be used to accurately depict real life in Japan, as I traveled to Japan for study abroad a month ago and immediately recognized Shinjuku Station, among other things also found in real life Japan. The dream sequences struck me on the fantastical side as they show that the chances of achieving our dreams are literally “out of this world” (in other words, next to none).

The only gripe I have about this film is that, like Angel Beats!, it is too short. As the film only shows three points in Takaki’s life, I wish I knew more about his life such as, if Takaki and Akari could have been together longer, explaining why that was meant to be or why the circumstances before the time frame of the film or in between segments prevent them from meeting now or ever. Or better yet, what lies ahead for Takaki? How does society change based on the choices people in general make? Then again, that method was also effective in showing the contrast in societies in these different time periods (and in which Takaki has to live through). On that note, the film was nevertheless very well done, showing that no one should have to experience such suffering but is such an essential part of the human condition that we have to learn to cope with it. That it is our responsibility to make, not hope for, a better tomorrow.

Story: 9.0
Visuals: 10.0
Sound: 9.0
Enjoyment: 9.0
Artistry: 9.5

Comment Question: At least that is what I took away from the film. What did you take away from this film?