Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #6

Last episode, we learned that five eliminated players would be returning, though their identities weren’t revealed right away. “So, they’re the survivors,” Chung-hoon says in proper anime form as they walk in – still unrevealed. We flash back to a “Quest 2.5,” where the torso busts hang from the ceiling via shibari, and the room is lit with steamy red. This is when Seohyun walks in and cracks the whip, but unfortunately, Love and Leashes never made it to the Netflix top ten. Physical: 100 hit number two this week! … More Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #6

Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #5

After bonding over this show on an episode of the podcast, Donovan and I were messaging last night about the upcoming fifth installment. I told him I wouldn’t be able to sleep, with the terrible weight of soon knowing Jang Eun-sil’s destiny on the bridge. He asked when the episode was actually gonna drop on Netflix, and we discovered it’s 8:00 GMT. What that means for our time zones, I could not tell you. You know how it is, with math. … More Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #5

The Humanitarian Crisis in Turkey and Syria

An earthquake initially centered in Gaziantep, Turkey was felt in Cyprus, Egypt, Israel and Lebanon. It’s killed and injured tens of thousands of people in Turkey and Syria, including Syrian war refugees. The relief effort by the United Nations has been complicated by the destruction, as rescue workers continue searching for survivors. … More The Humanitarian Crisis in Turkey and Syria

Physical: 100 is a Personal Attack [PODCAST]

To discuss the new Netflix anime Physical: 100 — up to episode four — we need QNA cohost Donovan Morgan Grant, who offers an insider perspective on the world of fitness, having taken his body into his own, Renaissance sculptor hands. Our conversation covers as many of the contestants as we can, their various dramas in this fitness challenge, and how anyone can integrate a more active lifestyle into their routine. It’s safe to say that Physical: 100 has breached the bounds of the Netflix window and haunts both of our daily lives, daydreaming about those magnificent torso busts we want to be [with]? … More Physical: 100 is a Personal Attack [PODCAST]

Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #4

I’d made a call too early that 2022 was gonna be one of the best years for movies, and that didn’t pan out exactly. So, is 2023 gonna be the year for television? Already in January alone, I’ve cried at The Last of Us episode three, and I must say that this fourth episode of Physical: 100 had me extremely tense. It was almost unbearable. Funnily enough, you combine those two things and produce one Squid Game, but Squid Game did not have Jang Eun-sil, who finds herself in the spotlight once again. … More Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #4

Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #3

This is it. Finally, it’s Jang Eun-sil’s turn in the ring. Or the “arena,” but believe me, she turns it into a ring. Before we get there, the third episode opens with a resolution to last week’s cliffhanger, between Agent H and Seol Ki-hwan (I did a bit better with names this time). They have a pretty vicious fight, their shirtless bodies caked in mud almost immediately, and injury seems inevitable. Agent H takes the ball and performs a strategy we’ll see plenty more of: the turtle maneuver. He tucks the ball beneath his body, nice and safe, but it isn’t a done deal. Ki-hwan manages to get the ball loose and runs away with the game, despite not being favored to win. “I crushed him,” he says of Agent H, but feels bad all the same. Meanwhile, Agent H tells the camera, “The defeated have nothing to say,” with a chuckle. … More Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #3

Thespian Equestrian | Ran (1985) Review

The horses and the horse riders are put through the wringer in Ran, the final epic of Akira Kurosawa and perhaps his greatest film. I saw horses struggling through water coming up to their necks, soldiers falling off horses, and horses just about to trample a soldier who fell off his horse. It’s a movie entitled “Chaos,” after all! And, well, that’s about as fresh an angle I can manage for this or any Kurosawa title, the director being so widely studied and appreciated. Of course, I’ve come into this one for the first time nearing the age of 30, long after film school let out. I have nothing to add to the conversation, so take this review on a humble blog as a missive – delivered by horseback – that I’d like the conversation to continue. … More Thespian Equestrian | Ran (1985) Review

Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #2

Well, there won’t be much to report on Jang Eun-sil here. See, one hundred is a big number. It makes sense that the first actual challenge will remove half. But in the meantime, managing the titular one hundred affects the show’s pacing, so we’re in for a multi-parter to cover the event. Unfortunately, that means Jang does not perform in this entire episode. So, what happened with our cliffhanger, the hanging challenge? Well, it was the soldier who won, and in doing so, gains an advantage for the upcoming game. But before we get there, we have to watch the other fifty do the same challenge. Come on, guys. Notable here is that the cheerleader drops second, alongside the huge dudes. Overall, the women didn’t do as well in this group, with the top scorer taking 16th place. … More Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #2

Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #1

One of the biggest lessons about writing that I have practically no use for came from a book entitled Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko. Highly recommended anyway, I noticed that each chapter in this larger account of police militarization in America chose a perspective – a main character. It wasn’t just “here are the facts,” it was “here are how the facts impacted this guy.” Framing history with subjectivity is what I tried to do with the feature about Mulan and more recently on Collider about a lost film, identifying H. R. Giger as the protagonist of that story. Clearly, I haven’t got it down, but that’s why I write opinion pieces, not history. And if you’ll indulge further meta, I had no idea how I was gonna approach writing about Physical: 100, so I’ve chosen Jang Eun-sil as the protagonist because it’s simply the most honest choice. … More Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #1