My headcanon is that Edward behind the wheel is a danger to society. He loses focus so easily and the road rage...
In my AU Havoc and Hughes taught the boy to drive.
Hughes did it first because he is the boy's father figure and he saw it as a rite of passage. Once Edward got the hang of clutch, brake and gas pedals Hughes very quickly delegated the job to Havoc because he has a family and would like to live old enough to see his grandchildren.
Havoc helped Edward get his driver's licence and after that it "mysteriously" disappeared.
SO I SHOW PART OF THIS FILM AT AN ANIME CON PANEL AND IT GETS BETTER/WORSE
(For those who are about to ask, it’s called Throne of Blood in English but its actual name is Spiderweb Castle and some Shakespeare scholars are big mad about it because other Shakespeare scholars consider it the best film adaptation of Macbeth ever made and we can’t have that)
THE ARCHERS DIDN’T KNOW MIFUNE’S BLOCKING. Every time you see him fling out an arm he’s actually signaling to the archers which way he’s about to go. That’s it, that’s what they had to go on. And they were shooting on location on Mount Fuji, which Akira Kurosawa had chosen SPECIFICALLY FOR ITS DENSE FOG.
However, BECAUSE this was Akira Kurosawa—if you don’t know that name think “Stanley Kubrick but earlier and Japanese and not quite as much of an asshole to his actors”—and he was insane, Mifune is also wearing real 19th-century feudal lord armor, in the sense that while it’s a modern reproduction it is completely functional. A feudal lord from the early 1800s could have been resurrected in the 1950s when this was filmed, handed this armor, and would have gone “yeah, that’s correct.” There are actually a couple of shots where you see arrows hit his torso and bounce off, or stick in the armor but they’ve very clearly only just barely stuck rather than going through.
So his torso is protected, and there’s a railing in front of him that provides some protection to his legs, and yes, this means THE MOST VULNERABLE PART OF HIM WAS ALSO THE ONLY PART THAT WOULD DEFINITELY KILL HIM: his face. I’m sure it was of very little comfort to him that the archers also weren’t very powerful shots.
Oh, and his character dies by taking an arrow through the neck. You can tell that one is a trick shot because it’s the only shot filmed from that specific angle, but I can imagine Mifune was none too eager to do it after all this.
While I’m here: you should watch Spiderweb Castle. I show it because it is a GORGEOUS retelling of Macbeth, which is relevant to my panel, but more importantly Kurosawa decided to shoot it in the style of Noh theatre drama, and that’s what I like to highlight. Although the story that inspired it is Western, Kurosawa took one look at it and went “oh that is 1000000% a thing that would have happened here” and the story as he tells it is so clearly, fully, and unashamedly Japanese in both style and tone. It’s a fantastic look into another culture and a masterful film.
"Lady Asaji" (the Lady MacBeth equivalent) never blinks while the camera is on her. Not once.
It's not easily noticed unless forewarned and looking, but it does contribute to an uncanny-valley feeling that there's something not-quite-right about the character.
I can't remember if the actress (Isuzu Yamada) went all the way with her court makeup and blackened her teeth as this one has done.
Probably not, or there would definitely be comments about it on-line.
I've seen on-line claims that the makeup is based on Kabuki theatre.
Noh, it isn't. :->
It's actually period-correct for a noblewoman of the Heian period (794-1185) and IIRC preceded - also may have inspired - that "female" style of Noh mask.
Here the makeup's being worn by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, who wrote "The Tale of Genji" about 1000 years ago.
If interested in this period and its customs, both very different to the later, better-known Tokugawa-period samurai stuff, "The World of the Shining Prince" by Ivan Morris is a fascinating read.
*****
More method acting with projectile weapons:
James Cagney was shot at with a REAL Thompson submachine gun during the making of both "Public Enemy" (1931) and "Angels With Dirty Faces" (1938).
I blogged about it years ago here, a long-ish post about safety vs realism in movie fights.
Here's Cagney talking about the Public Enemy one.
Get that particular "special effect" wrong, and you'll definitely need more than just a retake...
Team Mustang was out having dinner on Roy’s dime when some one asks Riza the dreaded question again.
“Your kid?” The waiter gesturing to her right, where Kain and Ed were
“Who, me?” Kain interrupts before anyone else could answer.
“You’re the youngest one here” Veto follows up while eyeing each of his companions, but missing Ed entirely “But you and Riza don’t look like mother and son or anything”
The asker says some words while gesturing to Ed and Veto eyes the general direction while not actually looking at Ed.
Who at this point is bewildered and hasn’t caught up yet.
“What are you talking about?” Veto looks confused before brightening, gesturing to the chair Ed was sitting on “Oh did you need this chair?” Veto stands up as if to help move the chair
The waiter blusters some before redirecting the conversation to take orders.
Riza orders for the table.
As the waiter leaves, Ed finally caught up to how Veto and Kain gaslit the waiter in response to the mother and son question and starts snickering.
Al finds himself faced with an interesting cook book while looking for new recipes to try. It was written by a “Kitchen Alchemist”. No name. Just Kitchen Alchemist.
The soft pinks, blues, and yellows of the cover suggests that it written by a homemaker who is magical in the kitchen. Magical like alchemy is to most people. It even had nonsensical cutesy little arrays.
He wouldn’t have picked it up, but it was highly recommended by the bookshop keeper.
He brings it home and starts to browse. The pictures of each dish is mouthwatering, and the recipes are easy to follow. Each of the recipes even come with funny little anecdotes from the author—
Al flips trough the stories. There are repeating characters—the names of aunts and cousins and friends and the one neighbor who makes great meatloaf—and places and certain words—THIS IS A CODE!
He starts reading one of the stories like he would an alchemist’s coded notes and comes out of it with an array and instructions for brewing coffee without an active heat source.
Kitchen Alchemist indeed.
Ed comes home to Al etching an array onto one of their pots, and the smell of fresh coffee.
He has a pink book open next to him, with alchemy notes hastily scrawled in the margins.
He looks up when he hears Ed get nearer.
“I found a secret alchemy cook book—not like doctor marco’s!” He adds when Ed gets a look in his face.
“It’s an actual cook book!”
Ed flips through the pages of the Kitchen Alchemist’s cookbook, and is pretty impressed. The actual cooking instructions makes sense, and non-alchemists can definitely use them to make a great dish. The little stories though; thats where the real fun is.
They read like they were written by a busybody housewife. They were entertaining and funny. A great light read.
It’s a pretty good cookbook all things considered.
But as alchemy notes? It’s algorithmic complex molecular alchemy with timed cascading simultaneous flows of energy and if-this-then-that conditions in one array.
the thing about being "good with kids" is all it takes is literally just not trying to control and mould them with every interaction. it's just being a normal person and engaging with them through normal interactions like having conversations and playing games. it's just being genuine and friendly and not perceiving them as lumps of wet clay you are there to shape. "oh you're so good with kids" thanks it's because I think they are people
YOU ARE IMPORTANT TO PEOPLE!!!!!! YOU BRING JOY INTO THEIR LIVES!!!!!!!!!! YOU MAKE THEM HAPPY JUST BY EXISTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PEOPLE THINK ABOUT YOU POSITIVELY EVEN WHEN YOURE NOT WITH THEM!!!!!!!!! PEOPLE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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