‘Hi Score Girl’, a manga series riddled with comedy and unnecessary violence, sees the gamer life of Haruo Yaguchi disrupted by the presence of a gamer… wait for it… GIRL! Defeated in a head to head contest time and time again, we come to learn about Akira Ono, the girl in question, as her stellar level of education and rich family (something made abundantly clear) fails to meet her joys and desires, something she only finds in the gaming landscape. Throughout the episodes I watched, I saw a plethora of stereotypes that played into the story, used as a vehicle to fuel the narrative in much the same way as previous films.

Week three’s viewing of an Asian film lead me to ‘Cake’, a Pakistani comedy drama released in 2018. Following the lives of two sisters and their family, we watch their experience of love, loss, grief and conflict in a film that emphasises the value of family.

These values take me back to the concept of “filial piety” that I discussed in my previous BCM 320 blog post. As referenced in the above tweet, the father’s return from hospital is celebrated in a party-like fashion, with chanting, cheering and singing gracing him upon his return. This again, similar to certain…

My second week of viewing Asian film saw me see ‘Furie‘ for the first time, a Vietnamese mixed martial arts film that revolves around a mother’s pursuit to retrieve her daughter from kidnappers, during which her morals and questionable past are brought to light. With this viewing came a live tweeting session, during which some interesting points were raised on female representation and the value of family in asian culture.

When researching martial arts’ place in Vietnamese culture and Asia as a whole, I came across this video of Vietnamese police displaying martial arts techniques, showing a speed in movement and precision in striking similar to what was conveyed in the film. Hai Phuongm, the lead character, has a series of fast-paced conflicts with foe that stand between her and her daughter. There’s a distinct lack of firearms (well, until the end), with hand to hand combat being…