I have this role-playing game called Feng Shui. From the ever creative mind of Robin D. Laws, it's a Hong Kong action movie RPG. In my limited knowledge of the genre, I think that means it's a little bit like Big Trouble in Little China. I really have no idea. But one of the gaps in my cultural lexicon.
But after today's issue, I realized that I have a parallel in Japanese comics. Though decidedly different media and nation, there's an over-the-topness to the violence, even though it still looks realistic sometimes, and a drama to the destructive powers that humans have harnessed. Hardly surprising from a nation that has better firsthand knowledge of those powers than most. But there's also the same over-the-topness afforded moments of drama or comedy. Like the writers, be they film or manga artists, are interested in slowing down everything so that we can scrutinize each moment more clearly.
The second half of a car chase today, lots of explosions and crunching glass. I've decided that Kenmochi, one of the "henchfolk," as Olaf so plainly put it, is one of my favourite characters. He's morally ambiguous in his employment for Mr. Kaieda, but the dude stops at nothing to get the mission done, and seems to have a heart. The development of the characters through this very bizarre narrative has been handled subtly, but well.
And though I may have cause to say or think it again over the next couple of weeks, Turm Garten is a stone cold psychopath.
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