Who's Who In The CBU Update 2009
Who are... Park and Barb?
Barbara Lien-Cooper and Park Cooper, are the owners of Wicker Man Studios and of Gun Street Girl, its flagship project created by Barbara and artist Ryan Howe. Barbara has written for many websites, and served a one-year stint as Managing Editor of the multiple-Eisner-award-winning print magazine Comic Book Artist. Park is the Editor-in-Chief of indie comics company Septagon Studios, and of Comics Bulletin's sister-website MangaLife. Together, they also co-wrote the graphic novel Half Dead, published by Dabel Brothers Productions and Marvel Comics, and later picked up again by Desperado Publishing, and the New Media project The Hidden for manga publisher Tokyopop. They both also adapt manga and edit manga and comics for various companies.
Happy Talk
Um, technically, this is supposed to be a column about comics, but comics aren't the only form of geek culture Park and I consume, so sometimes that's a big problem when it comes to column fodder. On top of that, when I talk about comics related issues, especially gender issues lately (since as Mrs. Dr. Park Cooper, I am a female), I often sound crankier than I'd like to be seen as. Comics lately are like politics. The junkies of political commentary, as well as comics news, seem really grouchy and crabby lately about various events and the twists and turns of their little niche of pop culture.
I'm actually a rather joyful person, but you wouldn't know it from my comic book related commentary because comics can make a person passionately angry, especially when one looks at the inanities and the insanities of our industry, as opposed to the products themselves. But if you catch me talking about other parts of geek culture, I'm more than content to chat about films, manga, and print books. Figuring out why comics aren't a happy-making place for a lot of people in recent times and why we're all so cross and irritable lately might make for a good column one day, but the subject would probably make my pretty gloomy. Since I like being happy and hate feeling annoyed I'm going to write a column about things that make me glad to be a geek instead.
And what makes me happy lately hasn't been comics. Rather, my DVD player has been my general mood elevator. I'm spending a lot more time waiting films than I am reading comics, just because it's easier to find films that I like than comics that I like nowadays. So, I'm just going to give you a quick tour of the films that have been at Chez Park and Barb lately, starting with…
If you think that The Host (which I would recommend over Cloverfield in a New York minute) is about all Korea has to offer in terms of horror films, please check out A Tale of Two Sisters, which is about the most stately, gorgeous tale of terror since Eyes Without a Face or Suspiria. Very vaguely based on a Korean folktale of two sisters and their wicked stepmother, Tale reminds one a small bit of Angela Carter's In the Company of Wolves, except not as overtly fairy tale. A Tale of Two Sisters is on my top five list of atmospheric Asian horror films. Sad fact department, though: There's going to be an American remake. Bad idea. With the exception of The Ring, which was still just an above average thriller in American hands, American remakes of Asian horror are just too literal, just too unsubtle to capture the atmosphere of K-horror and J-horror films. If you want to see the difference, try the Japanese version of One Missed Call versus the American. Both versions are pretty standard popcorn flicks. But in Takashi Miike's Takashi hands, the film moves with some real grace, including an imaginative scare or two, and some good performances.
Then again, America tends to be slightly better at the serial killer type of film. I like the Pang Brothers, for instance, but Oxide Pang Chun's Abnormal Beauty just didn't have that many surprises, nor did it add that much new to the voyeurism-of-violence genre. I mean, yeah, I'd rather see Abnormal Beauty than the preachy, bombastic, immature Funny Games US but I'd rather see The Brood again than either of them. Then again, I don't really watch many of the extremely violent films that I've seen around. Ichi the Killer and Oldboy look really good, but I haven't gotten up the nerve to even think about watching them yet.
Speaking of blood and guts, the Asians did give us two good zombie films, though: Versus and Wild Zero (imagine Rock and Roll High School as a low budget living dead flick) are really fun flicks, so maybe it's not just as simple as the idea that Asian horror does atmosphere well and American horror does violence well.
Oh, speaking of Takashi Miike's work, if you want the imagination of Pan's Labyrinth without the dour, depressing parts, if you want an adult fairytale that doesn't make you sad at the end, check out the insanely creative film The Great Yokai War. While its plot keeps going and going and going, it's still an incredibly weird, wild trip that really opens up your mind. The film is an act of pure joy.
A lot less fun, but definitely attention grabbing department: I showed my husband the film Videodrome for the first time a little while back. Until the ridiculous assassination plotline kicks in, as just a surreal commentary on electronic media and addictive behavior, not to mention how mass-media literally changes how our minds work, it's pretty incredible. The funny thing is, like a lot of good science fiction, David Cronenberg got a lot right about the future. He just couldn't quite contend with modern technology. Few people in the late 1970s/early 1980s could have imagined what heights and depths the computer would bring us to. But, Cronenberg came close. In Videodrome he almost, but not quite, predicted the internet. One's interest in this film really depends on how high or low one's tolerance for general strangeness and slightly didactic and obvious psycho-sexual imagery happens to be. Since Park and I enjoyed the film, I'm not sure what that says about us. We like creativity, I guess.
Speaking of unique visions, Park and I have been watching documentaries on Bruce Lee lately, particularly Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do, where Lee, a talented, intelligent, and just kick ass human being explains his philosophy of martial arts. Just to hear Mr. Lee talk and know that he's created a whole new style of fighting all by himself and how much opposition he met from his peers, who wanted nothing to change, who wanted to conserve the old ways instead of embracing the new, is pretty inspiring. I'll warn you, though, if you watch Lee talk, you'll get to like him… and then you'll start missing him. That's always the way it is when talented, innovative people die young.
That's sort of a downer of an ending and I want to stay happy, so I'll mention how much fun Park and I have had watching one of Bruce Lee's biggest fans, Stephen Chow in a couple of his earliest, funniest films Fight Back to School and Fight Back to School 2. In both, Chow plays an undercover cop who has to pose as a high school student to crack some ring of baddies or another. The first 2/3rds of the films come off as the Asian answer to 16 Candles or Better Off Dead, except even funnier and sillier, before going to pretty entertaining action-adventure shoot-'em-up stuff. These films are loads of fun, especially the second one, which is even more out there and imaginative than the first one. If you're like Park and me and you can't wait for Kung Fu Hustle 2 to hit the screens, if you haven't already, you should check out Stephen Chow's other work. He's a brilliant comedian who can also kick major tail. Makes me smile just thinking 'bout it.
P.S.--
Here, Big Kahuna, you can have your comic book image to put with this column after all, if you want. Fantagraphics's Dennis the Menace collections are really good. They made me laugh and kept me entertained.
Be it comics, books, movies or television, good craft always makes Park and me happy.