Soft power in action: here comes Sugimoto
Golden Kamuy the live-action series will air on Netflix Asia on 19 May 2024. We’re excited but at the same, managing our expectations. With the exception of Rurouni Kenshin, quite a few live-action adaptations made us re-watch the anime versions – or in the case of our Creative Director, re-read the manga – to remind ourselves that the original stories are quite good.
The Japan Times has already formed an opinion about the casting of a key Ainu character for the Netflix series. However, we think author Noda Satoru has done well to get this far. It’s one of the major ‘soft power’ fictions coming out of Japan, so do watch it.
Apart from the Godzilla franchise, Golden Kamuy has enjoyed a high profile in the West, being the face of the The Citi Exhibition Manga マンガ at British Museum in 2019. And to have Sugimoto cosplayed at comic events is priceless.
We look forward to watching the series.
Orakel Dewata: a page turner
March and April 2024 was a scorcher because of the heatwave. We spent the unsociable months reading some 400 pages of fantasy about witches, witchcraft and fairies in Malay. Orakel Dewata (The Oracle of the Gods) by Yuda Areni isn’t easy for us to read. English is our main medium. Fans read the novel in three days but it took us two months.
It’s the story of three mythical kingdoms, and their citizens’ fight against invaders and usurpers to the thrones. They have fairies, dragons and witches fighting on both sides. The ending is a cliff-hanger.
The design of the universe is impressive. The concept of Dwipohon, a giant tree with two massive branches where the good fairies live, captures our imagination. Fairy dwellings and a river sit between the two branches. And then there’s this other massive tree that lives in the underground – hell, perhaps? – inhabited by the bad fairies, its branches burned to a crisp. It would be interesting to see how different readers interpret and visualise these trees. Maybe that’s an idea for a drawing competition.
Orakel Dewata ends with a cliffhanger. A sequel is being written.
More on Yuda Areni
Musings on material culture
Congratulations to Tintoy Chuo for being featured in Edition 4 of Muzings, the annual magazine published by Museum Volunteers affiliated with the Department of Museums, Malaysia. The article on wayang kulit (shadow puppet) by Josiane Reggane caught our attention.
We’re in the middle of reading the magazine and we find the articles fascinating. It’s great to know that the National Museum has the support of volunteers who provide guided tours in English, French, Japanese and Korean to visitors.
The magazine supplements the official blog and the quarterly newsletters dedicated to the activities of the volunteers.
As an anthropologist, we find the interest in Malaysia’s material culture reassuring. It’s unique because it’s a publication published by the volunteers, not anthropologists, archaeologists or museum curators. They dedicate their precious time to educate the public about our heritage, and that’s highly commendable.
More on the Museum Volunteers
Books come alive on streaming channels
Summer is around the corner. The seinen season has arrived with Golden Kamuy and Kaiju No. 8. Still, it’s good to catch up with fantasy and romance adaptations that energised the cold months of winter 2023 and spring 2024. There are several book-to-screen adaptations that are worth following if you have access to the streaming services.
The Oracle of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms
Fantasy films with actor Chen Kun in it are bound to be good, at least in the acting department. Mandarin film The Oracle of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms impresses fans with its high-end production and neatly written plots. It’s not the first adaptation of Investiture of the Gods, the 16th Century novel by Ming Dynasty author Xu Zhonglin. But take it from us: this latest version is very good.
Dead Boy Detectives
The comic series Dead Boy Detectives is a spin-off of Season Of Mists, one of the chapters in The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. The Netflix adaptation of this comic series was released in April 2024. Typical of a Gaiman book-to-screen adaptation, the emphasis is on good storylines, great acting and visually arresting treatment in the opening and closing credits. It’s one made for repeat watching because there are so many details to focus on (and to discuss on Reddit). The series does not disappoint.
Judge Dee’s Mystery
If Agatha Christie is your thing, then you might like Judge Dee’s Mystery, a Mandarin adaptation of the crime series written by Robert van Gulik. Gulik’s series is based on an 18th Century Chinese novel. Set in Tang Dynasty, it tells the story of a magistrate who goes around solving mysteries under the order of Empress Wu. There’s romance and a lot of martial arts, so the series caters to a broad audience base.
Gadis Kretek (Cigarette Girl)
Another good fodder is Gadis Kretek (Cigarette Girl). Based on the 2012 novel by Ratih Kumala, the Indonesian series was released on Netflix in November 2023. It’s a love story between Dasiyah, the daughter of the owner of a cigarette factory, and Soeraja, one of the workers. The cigarettes are a metaphor of the class strata and ideologies that unite the characters, and also tear them apart. The story is set in Indonesia, in the decade leading up to the purge of the Communists in 1966. The storyline flips back and forth between the present time and the past.
Gadis Kretek is a very good adaptation, and you expect no less from an Indonesian production. The honesty, elegance and confidence with which Gadis Kretek explains the country’s chequered past help the audience empathise with the characters. The message: the lovers’ tragedy is the consequence of events beyond their control. Whether the Malaysian side has the balls to produce such gripping historical drama remains to be seen.
Story Of Books 