Batfamily Action Style: Girls with Guns
While the likes of Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman are great for female empowerment and the fun spectacle of Harley Quinn and Black Widow are fun I have found myself disappointed with how the action is lackluster compared to their male counterparts. Even the more street level heros like Colleen Wing and Elektra have rather average fight scenes even though they are part of the supporting cast of the best Martial Artists in the MCU. While their fights are good they can be better. With the Batfamily finally coming to live action what can be improved?
So what source of media can the female members of the Batfamily be inspired by?
An old genre from the golden age of Hong Kong Action Cinema is the key to really capture what they can do. The Girls with Guns subgenre. Yes Madam is a 1985 martial arts film starring Karate Champion Cynthia Rothrock and current mega star Michelle Yeoh. It is considered the first movie of this kind and kicked off this type of story. Female action stars kicking ass and taking names just as well as any of the well known male actors.
If you want to see what a Cassandra Cain/Stephanie Brown scene would look like in a fight watch this movie.
But these were not the only women defining this subgenre. Moon Lee, Cynthia Khan, Yukari Oshima and more were stars as well.
Sadly though by the 90s the subgenre died out along with the golden era of Hong Kong Cinema. A mixture of corruption due to the Triads being involved in the Hong Kong film industry, the rise of mainland Chinese movies, and the slow reunification of Hong Kong back into the Chinese government from British ownership were 3 major reasons this era died out. Combine this with the Hong Kong financial crisis due to the reunification, other competition from different Asian countries, and major American movies like Jurassic Park coming out led to the death Hong Kong 80s cinema. While luckily it recovered and made a resurgence through reimagining and artistic direction it was never the same again.
Essentially too many hands and factors controlling the industry.
The Girls with Guns subgenre sadly fell to obscurity in western audiences eyes. Never really making a splash in pop culture compared to other kung fu movies. However echos of their works can be felt since its fall in the mids 1990s. In Japan Anime was echoing the style of action. The best shows you may know is Black Lagoon and Ghost in the Shell .
While there is no correlation with the subgenre effecting other action movies in other Asia countries they have grown similar waves a female lead martial arts action. In 2008 ,Thailand had a short lived action star of Jeeja Yanin from her internationally acclaimed movie Chocolate. In 2013 in Indonesia the Raid 2 had amazing action scenes for their mute villian Hammer Girl played by Julie Estelle. Vietnam in 2019 gained similar fame for their movie Furie. It even got its own prequel directed by the first movie's main star Veronica Ngo. Finally in South Korea, while it was having its Renaissance in its film industry along came the film The Villianess. While more action oriented it was so good that John Wick 3 had to steal a scene from it.
With characters like Cassandra Cain, Lady Shiva , Black Canary and more street level heros possibly making an appearence in live action, Hollywood might as well pull out all the stops for these badass women. If they do,they might want to look outward for inspiration.
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SPOILERS AHOY (ISH)
It’s been like four years since I did a post like this, so here’s me dumping my thoughts on various, random things I’ve been into/thinking about lately.
I’ll be covering Miraculous Ladybug S3, Fire Emblem Three Houses, My Hero Academia, The MCU, Chocolate/Zen: Warrior Within, Pokemon SwSh, Victorious, BtVS/Angel, and Star Wars: RoS so just a warning for potential spoilers. Also, there will be salt and gushing, so proceed with caution.
Victorious
--> Ok, so this show came out when I was already in high school, so I think some of my opinions and takes on the show are going to contrast with the general consensus.
--> But I’m firmly in the pro-Tori Vega camp. Do I agree with her kissing Beck in the pilot? No. But considering that Jade humiliated her in front of her class for a small misunderstanding that could have been easily cleared up if Jade took five seconds to hear Tori out, I find it difficult to feel bad for Jade. Plus, Tori gets called out for this a couple of times in later episodes anyway.
--> As for Cat’s BF, yeah, that was shitty too but A. He was originally Tori’s BF and they only broke up a year prior to the episode and B. Not only does Tori feel immediate remorse for what she does (spraying Cat with cheese and then kissing her bf in front of her), but she apologizes and never does anything like it again for the rest of the show. BTW, these are both season one incidents, so clearly Tori grows out of this.
--> Plus, I can relate to some of Tori’s awkward traits, like being kind of annoying, not having the best verbal comebacks and feeling pretty average.
--> On the other hand, I can’t stand Jade. Her attitude reminds me of a girl I used to be on and off friends with in middle school. She ended up embarrassing me in front of the cast of our fall play in eighth grade and never apologized for it. Plus she would say or do things that, in hindsight, made it clear she didn’t want me around.
--> But I mean, at least that girl didn’t steal a pint of my blood meant to be used in a mutual friend’s operation, so...
--> Although clearly, Rex the Puppet is the worst character on this show. Jade at least does stuff, why do we need to have Rex around...?
--> My ships are Tandre (Tori/Andre) and Catrina (Cat/Trina)! Tori and Andre always look like they have fun performing together or just hanging out, and their friendship is just so precious. I wish Cat and Trina had more scenes together, because I loved their road trip in “Tori the Zombie” and they’re both dysfunctional in their own ways, but trying their best!!
BtVS/Angel
--> Nothing new really. But my Tandre feels reminded me how much I also loved Gunn/Fred and wished that they stayed together. Even their ship name, Funn, is precious and gahhhhhhh breaking them up was a mistake!
My Hero Academia
--> It took me like 3-4 years after watching the first episode, but I finally watched it.
--> I’m surprised by how much I really like Izuku. Like, I normally like the protagonist fine, but Izuku just really stood out to me. He’s socially awkward, but in a pretty understandable way, intelligent and passionate without using any of it to put other people down, and ofc he cares about his friends and saving other people because what shonen protagonist doesn’t? The only thing I don’t like about him is his hero worship of Bakugo, but that’s just my bias.
--> Oh, yeah, I don’t like Bakugo.
--> Relating to Aizawa the most, and realizing that it’s because I’m getting older hukjdshfaskdnfj
--> I don’t have a ship I’m the most invested in, but I like Izuku with both Todoroki and Uraraka, and I also like Uraraka with Tsuyu. Erasermic is also really good.
--> Not a fan of Eraserjoke. I don’t like the way she continues to ask Aizawa out and then plays it off as a joke when he rejects her like. Like, it’s such a high school thing to do, it’s so weird seeing two grown adults do it. Just take the L and move on, Ms. Joke. Not only is it creepy to continue asking someone out when they say no, it’s annoying to pretend that you didn’t really mean it because it makes it difficult to read you in future scenarios.
Fire Emblem Three Houses
--> Love it love it love it.
--> Like Fire Emblem has always been more of my brother’s thing, but with Awakening, Fates and Three Houses introducing easier difficulty options, I’ve found it much easier to get into the series. Like, I’m a pretty casual gamer so I’m not looking for anything too challenging most of the time.
--> Ofc I knew going in I was picking Golden Deer, and I was not disappointed. I love everyone every single student in there. The atmosphere was so chaotic, that I just knew recruiting everyone that I could to make it more so just had to be done.
--> Claude and Hilda are the best lord and “retainer” respectively, don’t @ me.
MCU
--> Uh, I haven’t really kept up with MCU stuff since Endgame (which I didn’t care for tbh). I just wanted to remind everyone that I hate Tony Stark :)
Miraculous Ladybug S3
(me @ this entire season tbh)
--> I don’t really post much about ML on this blog anymore because I ended up making a side blog (for salt mostly tbh). But in case anyone doesn’t keep up with what happens over there, I basically hated this entire season lol.
--> Ok, I loved Silencer. Best episode in the season period, no questions asked. I also really liked Kwamibuster and Startrain. Desperada grew on me over time, while Bakerix was... okay, I guess. And Felix was entertaining, even if I felt that the message that they were trying to get across was forced and meant to shut the fandom up. Oblivio was good until that ending, and once Silencer came along, I quickly learned I had no use for it anyway. It being an amnesia episode did it no favors, either.
--> Just as I feared, the season revolved more around humiliating or putting Marinette in really embarrassing situations for the same of “drama”. The Puppeteer 2 is a really good example of this. And it’s upsetting, because none of this actually does anything for Marinette’s character. She’s not even allowed to breakdown or be upset about anything that goes wrong for her until the end of “Heart Hunter” and even that only lasts, like, ten seconds.
--> Also, I don’t ship the Love Square anymore. Lukanette all the way, baby.
--> Let’s be real, Marinette/Happiness should be the real OTP of the show.
--> The fact that every episode of season 4 is supposed to be as dramatic as Chat Blanc does not leave me hopeful for the future. Like, really, you’re going to use an episode in which an entire timeline’s worth of events gets erased and leaves everyone with no memories of it as the basis of your emotional impact going forward? Um, thank you, next.
Rise of Skywalker
--> Haven’t seen it and after seeing the spoilers, I don’t plan to. I really liked TFA, and was excited to see what they did with the Rey-Poe-Finn dynamic. I was not here for Kylo Ren or Reylo. I guess Finn/Rey is joining Tandre and Funn in my “missed opportunity OTPs” corner. D:
Chocolate/Zen: Warrior Within
--> OMG one of my fave movies of all time. Like I appreciate it more and more with age. It’s basically everything I want in a movie.
--> The scene where Zen discovers that her mom’s hair is falling out and she blames herself for it always gets me. Like I always forget about it, so when I see it again, I can’t help but nearly breakdown myself, because I know exactly what Zen’s thought process is without her even having to say anything. I feel just as overwhelmed as she does in the moment and nearly cry every time watching it.
--> One of the few movies that I wish actually got a sequel. Like I have so many questions that could be answered. How do Zen and Moom adjust to living in Japan? How does Zen’s father try to relate to her and Moom? Do they make any other friends? Will Zen get access to resources that will help her? Will they be further ostracized because of their status as outsiders? As someone who already struggles verbally, how will Zen adapt to living in a country that primarily speaks another language?
Pokemon SwSh
--> Multiplayer is so much fun and wayyyy more accessible than in the past imo. A bunch of people at my martial arts school would do raid battles before classes, so I would always leave to get there early and play with them. 10/10 experience, and it makes me excited to get Animal Crosssing to do the same thing.
--> But on the other hand, I feel like this game has a lot less going for it than SuMo. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it feels like too much is missing. Like I still enjoy it, but it’s more for the gameplay and less for the story. I’m also not nearly as invested in my team like I was last time (I loved my Sun team so much, I basically kept it the same for US, minus one or two changes). I’m trying to change it fits a “Psychedelic Ocean” vibe (Water/Psychic), and then do an “Earth” themed team for my Shield run but I just haven’t picked it back up since beating the game.
--> The characters were alright. I wasn’t as attached to any of the rivals like I was in SuMo. Leon is my bro though.
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