Be My Guest!

I'm not going to do all my usual entries, instead here's what I watched today, starting at midnight last night.

First up: "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!" Do I need to elaborate? I got a rock.

"The Devil and Daniel Mouse." Great memories of watching this Nelvana toon back in the 70s.

 

I seem to recall having a crush on the Jan Mouse. Great tunes and narration by John Sebastian.

"The Flintstones meet Rockula and Frankenstone." Cheesy Flintstones episode with Ted Cassidy as Frankenstone! Lots of cliches and a few laughs. Still lots of fun.

"The Halloween that Almost Wasn't." wasn't very good. But it has a great cast including Judd Hirsch, Mariette Hartley, Henry Gibson, and Jack Riley. On the plus side, it reinforced my origin stories of wearing costumes and All Hallows Day Eve.

"Disney's Halloween Treat." You can watch it on vimeo but you're better off seeing the clips in their entirety. From Wiki:

• "Madam Mim" – The Sword in the Stone (1963)
• "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence – Fantasia (1940)
• Clip of Pluto's Sweater (1949)
• Clip of Mickey's Parrot (1938)
• Donald Duck and the Gorilla (1944) – Donald Duck and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie
• "Pluto's Judgement" sequence featuring three Pluto cartoons assembled together:
  • Puss Cafe (1950)
  • Cat Nap Pluto (1948)
  • Pluto's Judgement Day (1935)
• "Captain Hook" – Peter Pan (1953)
• "Cruella de Vil" – One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
• "The Evil Queen" – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
• "Si and Am" – Lady and the Tramp (1955)
• "Ichabod Crane and Headless Horseman" – The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
  

Tough to pick a favourite. Probably Ichabod.

Next up was "The Jetson's Haunted Halloween." which I don't ever recall watching before. I liked it except for their pet, Orbitty. It's probably easy to locate elsewhere, but try here for quick access.

"The New Misadventures of Ichabod Crane." was next. Worth watching if you're hard up for entertainment, otherwise stick with Disney or "Sleepy Hollow" (I plan to show my students Sleepy Hollow this week. They loved it last year, this year's class is less enthusiastic about English.)

I'd finished five beers by then and it was getting late, so I ignored "Witches Night Out" because I watched it last year. ZZZZZZZ

Today, I watched "Gargoyles" that great TV movie with Cornel Wilde from 1972.

And most of "Planet of the Vampires" AND "The House on Haunted Hill" AGAIN.

All of the above is courtesy of a Twitch channel. Just search for Daikaiju TeeVee. Trolls is on right now!

What follows is a friend's video. We were housemates 25 years ago when I lived in Tokyo and worked for NOVA. (NO VAcation!) Nice to see he's made something of himself.

 

It won or was nominated for a ton of awards including the following:

Winner Best Thriller Short - Prague Underground Film Festival April 2023 Winner Best Horror - London International Filmmakers Festival 2022 Winner Best Horror - Florida Shorts Festival 2023 Official Selection - Monster Fest Melbourne 2022 Official Selection - Diabolical Horror Film Festival 2023 Official Selection - LA International Horror Film Festival 2023 Official Selection - A Night of the Horror Festival 2023 Semi-Finalist - Dark Veins Horror Fest 2023 Semi-Finalist - Tokyo Shorts Festival January 2023 Semi-Finalist - Paris International Short Festival November 2022 Semi-Finalist Best Short Horror - San Francsiso Arthouse Short Festival 2023 Best Horror Nominee - Nicomedia Film Awards Winter 2023

I enjoyed it, how about you?

Back to normal entries tomorrow...

Bean there, Done that.

Busy day today. I saw the premiere of Joker Foie Gras Folie à Deux in Japan earlier, then shopping, then lazing, then watching three movies, then waiting patiently for my pc to work again, and now blogging.

More on Joker later in the week, I wore appropriate socks for the occasion. I can't find the match to either of these.

I hadn't intended on buying more Halloween decorations. 30 bucks later...

The three movies I watched were courtesy of Twitch, so I didn't have to move from my chair. 

First was pretty good, though bloody bloody. Machine Girl.

Then not as good was Meatball Machine.

And its inferior sequel, Meatball Machine Kodoku.

I found a Yokai for today from Fukushima (and all over Japan) though he seems to be a relative of Azuki Baba from a few days ago for he's another bean-washer. Azuki arai  Appearance: Azuki arai are mysterious yōkai encountered in mountainous regions all across Japan. They have many regional nicknames, a common one being azukitogi. These yōkai live deep in forests and mountains, spending their time near streams. Few actual sightings have been recorded, but they are said to be short and squat, with big, round eyes, and overall resembling Buddhist priests. They appear full of mirth with silly smiles and large hands with only three fingers.

Behavior: Azuki arai are more often heard than seen. Their main activity seems to be washing red azuki beans by the riverside while singing a dreadful song interspersed with the “shoki shoki” sound of beans being washed in a basket:

Azuki araou ka? Hito totte kuou ka? (shoki shoki)
Shall I wash my red beans, or shall I catch a human to eat? (shoki shoki)

They aren't dangerous and are quite shy so if you happen to see one, that's a good omen.

As you can see Azuki arai is rather famous and has been depicted in several stories. 

As for today's Junji outing, a friend sent me a link to this story. It's an Enigma.

Here's a sampling.

As you can see there are holes in a mountain and you squeeze into them and then stuff happens. Then this character shows up.

Not really, but it's a pretty good gag. If you want to read more, you'll have to click the link above and subscribe to some site and I wasn't gonna do that.

And now it's way past my bedtime and I have a big day tomorrow exploring the wilderness.

For some yummy, creepy recipes check out Ghoul at Heart.

See ya tomorrow, if my computer cooperates.

Beware of the Red Lantern Boy!

I started off this evening with a simple blog about a boy and ended up (down) several rabbit holes leading to what is Sendai's only Yokai!* Chouchin Kouzou (Lantern Priest Boy) is a tween lad with a cherry-red face who shows up in an area where a horrid murder has taken place. The good news is that he's a fairly benign yokai who means you no harm, just wants to freak you out by walking in front of you and staring you down. 

This video does a pretty good job of depicting the situation.

 

The music is eerie, the actress is a cutie (Mai Horai, based on a few of the commenters, she has a following) and the boy is suitably creepy. 

Now we get to the good part, I've scammed his origin from Yokai Finder and the lad "lives" downtown.

Origin: Chōchin kozō are associated with a particular neighborhood in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture: the area of Aoba Ward between Tsutsumidori Amamiya Machi and Kamisugi. The first sightings took place in the summer during the early 18th century, after a man horribly murdered his wife and her body dumped in that vicinity. The yōkai were thought to be somehow connected to the ghost of the murdered woman.

Here's a blurb from Wikipedia that narrows down his address.

It is said to have appeared in Tsutsumi-dori, in the northern part of the castle town of Sendai Castle (currently Tsutsumi-dori Amemiya-cho and Uesugi 1-2-chome, Aoba -ku, Sendai City 仙台市青葉区堤通雨宮町および上杉1～2丁目. Maybe you'll have better luck with Google Maps than I did.) Its appearance is that of a boy around 12 or 13 years old in human years, but its face is bright red, and it is often likened to the color of ground cherries.

When a person is walking down a rainy road at night, this lantern boy appears from behind, passes the person, then stops, turns around, and stares at the person. The person who is passed becomes suspicious and passes in front of the lantern boy and continues walking, at which point the lantern boy passes them again and stops. The lantern boy repeats this behavior without causing any particular harm to humans, and after a repetition, he disappears.

There is also a theory that the location where the Lantern Boy appears is the place where an unjust murder took place on July 15th during the Shōtoku era (1711-1715 ).

This depiction is by Gegege artist Shigeru Mizuki, (above) and he has his own statue in Tokyo, (below).

*You ninny! You wrote about Sendai's other Yokai, Kashikobuchi, here!

I spent so much time on Lantern Boy, that what follows will be a truncated version.

A while back, I wandered through the book section of e-Beans and came across the Junji Ito display. I don't want to spend full price on any manga, but it does have a nice selection.

I don't have covers for any Green Lantern books, nor have I ever read any Red Lantern book, but just for fun here is the Red Lantern Oath:

With blood and rage of crimson red, ripped from a corpse so freshly dead, together with our hellish hate, we'll burn you all, that is your Fate! 

Instead, let's use a different comic cover. I haven't read it yet. Is that a Red Lantern?

Finally, let's take a look at a Gatcha. Nothing particularly Lantern-related, so how about some pumped up bunnies just in time for Moon-Viewing time.

Hey, the Wonderful Wonderblog has some Halloween tidbits to check out. See ya tomorrow!

SweetSweet!

Welcome to Day 14 of GOvember and become a victim of low content because I don't feel like pushing it.

I bought these the other day and drank one tonight. Much nicer than the last Gojira Energy Drink (Yellow Flavour), this one is the superior Blue Flavour! 

I watched the new Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex short today on TV rather than on my puny phone screen. Pretty cool though I miss the guys in rubber suits.

Really nice to see Megumi Odaka back even if she's only the narrator. Also some nice stock music by Akira Ifukube and "now to give it the perfect ending was a bit of the old Ludwig Van". (Can you identify that quote?)

I followed it up with Godzilla vs. Megalon. Just as good, maybe a little nastier. And I must say, "Humans, if you're going to be smug about approaching Kaiju, you deserve to be obliterated." 

In other news, I watched Domino (actual title Hypnotic) with Ben today. Not bad, a tad dull at times and I may have nodded off at some point. How did they end up at Jeff Fahey's farm all of a sudden? Is Ionie Olivia Nieves in EVERY movie that requires a kid now? She certainly is ubiquitous.

It wasn't until the end credits that I realized it was a Robert Rodriguez movie, I should have guessed.

Best part was the preview. I saw a clip of Sylvanian Families.

and if you skip forward about 40 seconds, you can hear a snippet of a new Puffy song, SweetSweet.

I doubt whether I'll sit through the entire movie just to hear that tune again, I'll wait for it to be released elsewhere.

I have tomorrow off, so I'll be able to increase the GOvember goodies.

Kabochachacha!

I broke out the carving knives and stabbed away at a kabocha (Japanese pumpkin/ gourd). Incredibly tough to break through its mottled skin, I managed to make an acceptable grinning derpy Jack o' Lantern.

This is what I started with. 

I sliced it open without slicing a finger which is always a plus.

Lit up, it has an effectively eerie smile.

Since I have as yet been unable to figure out how to share a YouTube short, hopefully you can access it here. 

Here are a few non-traditional Jacks over the years. A sweet potato. (Video here I hope.)

 

A turnip, just like the Irish used to use.

A Mushroom! This one didn't work very well.

A Spamkin!

And probably my most ambitious pumpkin ever.

So on to Yokai business. Here is the last of Chapter 1, a guide on how to overcome a Yokai.

You should probably avoid this guy, he is the God of Poverty and is apt to make you poor. (So that's what happened to me!)

The forthcoming chapter should be fun...Curses!

I can't get my Google translate to upload at the moment, so basically what it says above is:

"Slow and Curse! Yokai that attack humans use mysterious powers. They can make humans sick, manipulate the weather and nature to cause major disasters." Nasty!

Let's move on to a Venom, this was given away when you bought an advanced ticket to the first movie. Not really sure what it can be used for except for being creepy.

I think I'll watch the new Pet Sematary (Bloodlines?) movie before bed. **

Fellow Blogger, Alexis has some new treats available and I noticed a couple of pumpkins over there as well.

**UPDATE: I didn't hate Pet Sematary. Not excellent but pretty good. Casting David Duchovny and Pam Grier helps.