Movie Review and a Personal Evaluation

This week I want to talk about Jiang Ziya. Or, at least, I want to start with it. If you haven't heard of it, I'm not surprised. Its a Chinese animated movie that came out recently and thus has a somewhat limited release. That said, this is the company that put out Ne Zha, back in 2019. While Ne Zha wasn't as good as The Legend of White Snake that was released later that year, Ne Zha was a fun movie. Sometimes the tone shifts were too frenetic for me and I wished they'd drop the fart jokes for a solid scene. That said, my husband loved those and wished the film would have stopped delving into seriousness as often as it did, so it really was a matter of taste, which part you enjoyed and which part you enjoyed less. 

Jiang Ziya doesn't suffer from that tone issue at all, I'm glad to say. Focusing on the story of the mythological general Jiang Ziya, the story is telling a simple tale that, as with everything ends up being a lot more complicated. To keep his place in heaven, Jiang Ziya is given the task of killing a fox demon. The demon fights back, even trapped as she is, and uses her abilities to show our titular hero that by killing her, an innocent will die as well. 

Thus begins an epic battle for the truth of the situation. 

I won't go further into the story, since the movie is new and spoilers are a thing. What I can say is that I quite enjoyed the story. I really liked that everything came down to one of my favorite tropes... the "from-a-certain point-of-view". The basis of this is the belief that everyone is the hero of their own story. The bad guy has his reasons, and so do the good guys, but the further you look into what these people have done, the more the issue muddies with all of the parties coming out as less than stellar morally-speaking. The animation was excessively good, unsurprising since as I said, this is the same company that did Ne Zha and I really enjoy the style. I suggest that if you haven't seen it yet, and don't mind watching movies with subtitles (or if you understand Mandarin), definitely keep an eye out for it. This is the second movie of a trilogy the company is making, so keep your eyes peeled for the third one. If you guys hear about it first, please be sure to let me know. I'll be waiting eagerly for it. 

My second topic is a bit of an apology. I've been quiet on my progress with my editing on Fox's Facade because I felt like I wasn't getting enough done on it for you guys. Today, I accepted that I had significantly underestimated the amount of work this story was going to need. So, while I'd prepared to write about 50% of the novel from scratch, I hadn't realized that trying to fit the two together would really mean rewriting closer to 80% of the novel. 

All that said, the story did need the change, and in the end, bringing you the best story is the name of the game. 

Having said all this, I will say that the editing shouldn't be significantly delayed, but it probably will take me longer than the two weeks I have left in October to finish it. Right now, I'll probably try to work on both during Nanowrimo, editing daily after my 1,667 words are finished. Or at least, that's the plan. As always, we'll see how the plan survives contact with the enemy. 

Fall has Officially Begun!

Artober has officially begun! 

I'm doing well so far. I've finished 6 pictures, as seen below. I am counting the sketch of Towa as well as my finished, since they were not only done on different days, but also both were inked. 

While the bottom three are original drawings of mine, the top three are based on character designs by Rumino Takehashi. I may draw them each in my style later on in the month. 

So what else am I up to? Well, my last couple of days were a write-off. My hubby and I seem to have caught a minor stomach flu. I am already writing again and trying to get book 3 finished. I'll just stop updating until I have something concrete to share here. Hopefully, it will be soon though. 

Aside from that, I haven't been up to much aside from reading. One of my favourite authors, Annette Marie is releasing two books this month, the last two in this specific Guild Codex series, though there are two other side series in the works as well. I made the overall bad decision to read the entire series again to move up to these last books. Now, I have another 3 books left to go before I can pick up the new books and its kinda killing me. No spoilers if you've read them yet! Not that I mind spoilers, but its just polite to wait a few weeks before you start dropping them. 

Oh, which reminds me. As part of my language studies, I have picked up a few children's books in Japanese. While I am making a lot of headway learning how to say, "my Asian studies class is on Thursday at 1 o'clock" I wanted to start learning more basic words. What better way to do that than with a book that you would read to children. Other than a few hitches (the language being used is all the casual form, not the polite form I'm more used to), it's been going well. I am currently translating しろくまくろくま which translates as "White Bear, Black Bear". It's a fun story if a bit creepy (as is the way with most children's stories, if you look at them) and I'm having fun going through it and writing down the vocabulary in an attempt to learn. 

What have you been getting up to? What are you reading?

Holmes Alone

First off, my basic review. This movie was a treat to watch and I sincerely hope we get more. A very decent 4 out of 5 stars and definitely worth your time. 

That said, here is your warning. Everything below this has spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled, go watch it and then come back. 

We're all good now? Good. 

First off, Holmes Alone is a joke on the character's name. Enola written backward is alone, which is her shtick. She does alone, has all her life (aside from her mother), and prefers it that way. Even Hot Guy(TM) doesn't break through that unbreakable wall until she realizes that he really does need her help. Which works for the character, since she's supposed to essentially be a Holmes character. As far as acting goes, everyone did a great job, especially the main actress, Millie Bobby Brown. I'm not certain that I can accept Henry Cavill as Sherlock though, even if he did a great job. He's a bit too... broad of shoulder for the role of Sherlock, in my opinion. Other than that physical bit, he played the role well and I wouldn't mind seeing him in the role again. 

The plot deals with important issues of the time period, in particular, women's rights, a subject near and dear to my feminist heart, which makes me love it more. Enola's mother has gone missing, leaving her in the care of her brothers, who haven't even returned for Christmas since Enola was very young. Now, they find that Mom has been taking the money that Sherlock and Mycroft have been sending back home and using it for nefarious things. Also, knowing that her daughter would never survive Mycroft's version of TLC, she left her quite a bit of money. Money which Enola uses to try to find her mother who doesn't want to be found. During her daring escape, she saves the life of a young lord on the run from his life. She finds out that Mom was involved with the militant arm of the suffragette movement, but has to put finding her on hold to save the young lord again. She succeeds but is captured and delivered in Mycroft's hands as a result. Her lord saves her from the "finishing school" Mycroft has her sent to, but she convinces him that they must confront the killer so he can take his place in the House of Lords for the upcoming vote on the rights of women. 

As far as the plot goes, this is actually a great little plot. It was intelligently carried out for the most part and kept me entertained, even if it was a little obvious as to where the plot was going. In this case, it wasn't a detriment to enjoying the show, which I really appreciated. 

However, there is always something that brings it down and in this movie, it was the fight scenes. In particular, if you are a small woman who has been taught to fight and you choose to fight someone, I can understand trying to punch and kick at first. Fighting well takes skill, and so long as there isn't a 100 lbs or more difference between fighters, I'll put my money on the skilled one all the time. However, if their opponent is also a fighter, with at least 50 lbs on that girl and the reach to match, you don't keep trying to fight with your fists. It was established in the opening that Enola was taught to use weapons from her mother. True, the bow and arrow were clearly favored, but I'm pretty sure they were fencing in at least one of those scenes. And yet, Enola never once even goes for a weapon, when she's fighting against an assassin trying to kill the lord. She continues to try to use a throw that she's never succeeded at using before. While I can understand that it was to give her a "stand up and cheer moment", this came off as scripted and irritating, especially when she ignores weapons around her like polearms and forged iron fence poles in favor of her fists. For me, it detracted from the intelligence of her character, which, when it's a Holmes-type character, is necessary to sympathize with them. 

That said, this movie is still 100% worth your time to watch. 

Have you seen Enola Holmes yet? Do you agree with my assessment here? Let me know in the comments. Also, would you like me to do a few more of these? I don't normally do movie reviews, but if this is something that would interest you guys, let me know. 

Fall is When I Fall Down

... from exhaustion that is. 

Okay, I'm joking on falling and being exhausted, but I am moving into my busiest season of the year. The fall season starts in September for me and doesn't end until usually December (though last year it lasted until February). 

It is not only when all the new shows I'm waiting for come out (this year, RWBY Season 8 is coming out, as well as Inuyasha's successor, Yashahime or Princess Half-Demon are the ones I'm most eager for, though only until Log Horizon, Season 3 is finally released in January) but its also the month-long drawing challenge I most wait for. And even if I ignore that all important challenge, I can't forget about planning for Nanowrimo. This year, I'm hoping to start writing book five of the Kitsune-Ken series and while I have an idea for the plot, it is nowhere near realized enough for me to start yet. 

One of my favourite digital pictures so far. Please, do not expect this quality during October. This took me a stupid amount of time to do.

On the other hand, I am really looking forward to it. I really like being busy, even if it does mean I end up feeling like I'm burning the candle at both ends to get everything done. Especially when that busyness comes with Nanowrimo and art. It pushes me to my edge, but I do some of my best work when I'm pushing everything out. I even have the lofty goal of trying to plan out the rest of the Kitsune-Ken series this October, at least, generally. An idea of what story will be told each book and what to look forward to. 

And with that update, I'm going to run. I want to get started on that backlog. I don't want to keep you guys waiting for Fox's Facade any longer than I need to. 

To Ink or not to Ink(tober)? That is the Question.

     So, Inktober. 

     Normally, I am big into Inktober and I like pledging to draw something every day. Generally, I do not make every day. I average about half and never regret it. This year, however, I'm questioning whether to take part again. I do have to specify here. I will be still be trying to draw every day in October. That isn't in question, even if I know I'm going to be too busy to draw every day. Its whether I will be working in only ink and whether I will be using the hashtag. 

     Part of my hesitation is due to the creator of Inktober himself. I won't go heavy into the allegations and legal issues... I'm not a lawyer and I've done minimal research on it. If you're in for the long haul, here's a good Reddit post going over in much better detail what I touch on ever so briefly below. 

     In 2019, the creator started claiming Copywrite on personal art books released with Inktober in the title. This means that a lot of artists who take part and then release their art as an Inktober book for their fans couldn't release it without a lot of hassle and legal work on a book that he has nothing to do with, but that he created the event. This year the controversy is that the creator has been accused of plagiarism by an indie artist/author who released a very similar book 2-3 years ago on inking.   

     As I said, I am not going to get into my personal feelings on him claiming Copywrite on artists' work that he had nothing to do with except that they originally posted them all under the Inktober hashtag, nor will I be talking about the lawsuit. I don't know enough about Copywrite law, I haven't read either of the books involved and while I've done a handful of research, I am in no way qualified to say yeah or nay on any of it. 

     What I can say is that all of the hubbubs is making me unsure if I want to be attached to the name this year. Also, while normally I work with only ink and love it, I would really love to get more sketching time in on my Surface. Drawing digitally is a completely different set of skills than painting in any sort of traditional medium, even if mine is a bit closer since I'm missing some of the cooler tools that the paid programs give you. 

     All that said, I'm just not sure yet. There are other options out there. Artober, Midnightober, OCtober, Witchtober... There's one for digital-only, as well, though I can't remember the exact name for that one. The question is which of these options is a fit for me. 

    Honestly, I don't really have an answer yet. I'll probably look into what my friends are choosing to do and see how open the options are. What do you think? Are you still interested in seeing any drawings I do during the month? Let me know below or on FB.

Learning Languages: The Super Difficult Way

 I have never been quiet about the fact that I have huge admiration for people who can learn multiple languages. I took Spanish classes in high school and Japanese in university. Since then, I have done online studying and taken books out of the library, bought language learning software, and more. All in all, I am bad at learning languages. One of the things that has really worked for me, if in an excessively slow way, is Duolingo. I've been using it for around two and a half years now. I'm not very far into it, I only know about 500 words. 

All that said, I am an eager and active study partner, if slower than I would like. So when a friend of mine asked if I wanted to study with her for her university class, I jumped on the chance. Since the class is offline, I spent some time trying to answer the test questions she sent me on paper. That was when I discovered something very interesting that I hadn't realized before. 

Part of my inability to grasp the language is due to my aphantasia. 

How did I discover this? On my phone, I can type Japanese really quickly, identify the characters, and even a good couple dozen characters I am starting to pick up on.  However, when I tried to write down the answers on paper, I couldn't remember what any of the symbols looked like. 

This isn't particularly new to me. I remembered, very vaguely, having that problem when I took Japanese in university. What I hadn't realized then was that part of the reason I was having trouble is that unlike many of my fellow studies, I couldn't just recall what the specific hiragana or kanji looked like and draw it from there. I was left suddenly wondering if I hadn't actually learned them. However, it couldn't be that since I've actually found myself able to read lyrics in Japanese on some of the videos I've been watching lately. 

I finally realized that it was because of my aphantasia. I can't see the pictures, so I can't recall them that way from memory. The only thing I've found that works so far, is forcing myself to learn from muscle memory, where you do the very dull work of writing out words and letters like a kindergartener on coffee. By giving my fingers and hands muscle memory, I can commit them to memory, forcing them to stay in the little box I have set aside for them. 

The main con of learning languages this way is that its slow. Very slow. As in I'll have to spend hours daily, simply writing out the alphabet, over and over right now. That said, I don't know if there is a faster way to do this without keeping a picture beside me at all times. I will research and continue forwarding the long slow work of putting pencil to paper, but if any of you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them. 

Hella Fun Movie Week

 It has been a hella fun week. I've been writing and watching B-movies with my husband. Constantine from 2005 was still a blast to watch. Good tone and sets, good actors, outdated effects, and the most overplayed script you can imagine. It was super fun though. I think Keanu Reeves will always be my Constantine because of it. We also watched one of the new Alien movies; I can't remember the name, but it starred Olivia Munn; an actress I always enjoy watching. Even she couldn't save this movie though. It went right past B-monster movie into a D-movie. We also watched Push with Chris Evans. Since I am wholly in the mood for a good urban fantasy it hit that niche for me nicely. 

On the work front, I have finished another chapter or two and I have another that's nearly done. Unfortunately, September is upon us which means my tendinitis is acting up again. Before anyone worries, it isn't bad and as a yearly event, I am finally getting an idea of how to deal with it. It means that I write until it starts acting up and then I have to take a break for a while. Expect to see a lot of art posts and me cheering my Japanese for a few weeks while my writing is slow. Despite that, I am getting a lot of work on this novel done and I don't currently think I'm going to be behind my schedule so long as I do still write rather than forsake everything for my art. It's always a challenge but one that I think I'm up for. 

And that's going to be it for this week since I can feel my wrist just starting to ache. Please, if you've read Lord's Curse don't forget to write up a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or wherever you bought it from. Those reviews really help with getting my work seen by more people. If you already have, please consider suggesting my book to friends if they're looking for a fun fantasy to read next. Every little bit helps! Thanks again, Readers! I couldn't do it without you!