| |
|
When I first saw footage of Takeshi's Castle, it was during my junior year Bible class in high school. I don't know where my teacher found a tape of the show, but every once in a while he would pull it out to kill some time during the block scheduling days.
It always went over big. Since this teacher was also the senior Bible teacher and my honors american history teacher, I saw the tape frequently and enjoyed watching everyone's reaction to it. Aside from the footage from some gymnastics tournament (maybe the olympics? I dunno) in which a man runs full speed right into the vaulting horse and gets the wind knocked out of him, it was usually the tape that the class most wanted to see.
For years after, I wondered where the show had come from, what it was called, how long it aired, etc. A television network here in the States eventually got the rights to air it, renamed it Most Extreme Elimination Challenge and changed the format a little.
I don't like game shows. I have never, when watching american game shows, ever wished to participate in one. But I love Takeshi's Castle and every time I see it I wish I could have been in Japan during 1986-89 and somehow become a contestant. Everyone looks like they're having so much fun. And some of the courses are really clever! I love the one where a single contestant has to make it through four walls, each wall with four doors, except only one or maybe two doors are actually real. And to get through the real doors you have to have a good head of steam to smash through the covering, so you end up with people running full tilt right into a wall. Outstanding.
By contrast, Sasuke, known as "Ninja Warrior" in the States, amazes me with the sheer athleticism involved. Plus most of the competitors worth mentioning are regulars, so you see them almost everytime the contest comes around.
There exists a thing is this world called a "prank show", in which human fear and misery is showcased for us all to laugh at. I have mixed emotions abot these, or rather about the fact that they crack me up (I suppose we could have a conversation about why these make us laugh, but this may not be the place for it). There are prank shows in the states, but the most recent ones I can recall involve Ashton Kutcher (bleh), Bam Margera (ugg!) and the other Jackass kids. Jackass, while childish and often scatalogical, can occasionally elicit laughs from me. But none of these approach the brilliance of several prank shows aired in Japan. Some clips to give you an idea:
Wake up! The beginning is nothing to write home about, but towards the middle it gets inspired.
Men get into massage chair at ski resort, and then something awful but hilarious happens. This may be a setup, but I don't think everyone on the mountain can be in on it, so someone is getting one hell of a shock. Yet note how the ski resort patrons on the slope react calmly. It's awesome. Make sure you watch the last half where they kick it up a notch.
This one I like purely for the skill involved and the depth of preparation. There's another one that makes me laugh and feel awful at the same time. An entire scene is created around the mark, with explosions and carjackings and shooting and people getting shot. The poor bastard doen't know what the fuck is happening. Imagine the experience! Fantastic.
Am I being fooled by the foreign flavor of these shows into thinking that they are superior to they're counterparts in the States (if any exist)? There's a scene in one of these shows where a bike delivery fella takes a right turn down a street and realizes that an incredibly large boulder is hurtling down the street directly at him, blocking the street. The moment he turns the corner and sees what's in front of him is so perfect I feel like I've never seen it's equal in my much-beloved american television.
I feel like they go further, you know, like they (the japanese shows and the people creating them, I mean) just plain work harder to make more shocking or entertaining television. Why can't american television get on the ball with this? "Fear Factor"? You have to be kidding me. "Survivor" is and has always been lame and uninteresting. For years I've been saying that the United States has the best television in the world, but sometimes I doubt myself. I demand extreme television! |
|
|
