Facebook, Boyle, & Ohas

I had a pretty good day. My internet crashed for a few hours this afternoon, but it gave me about enough time to clean up. I have lots more cleaning to do tomorrow I'd say.

So I'm on Facebook now. If you happen to use Facebook and are interested, my name on there is Satchi Morioka. I'd be happy to add you as a friend.

So Susan Boyle didn't win. Good enough tho, right?

And finally, I just stumbled upon Sir Arthur's Den today, and this guy is just brilliant!

Have a look at this:

KarmaKula chapter 3: “Harvesting the Ohas” (Click to see pictures)
May 10, 2009 · Filed Under Multimedia, News

News - A succession of fresh, quality news, from inside and outside of the WebKarmaKula, the new episodic series from the Ninjai Gang expressly developed for the web goes on as scheduled. On the last Friday the Gang has released the third chapter, Harvesting the Ohas, with which the series has shown yet another trait after the splatter ninjitsu of The Ninjas and the spaghetti western The Frog in the Well. The new episode features horror elements and Eastern mysticism, acting more like an introduction for the events to come than like a self-finishing tale as the two previous chapters.

At the center of the story lie the worship of a demoniac being and her followers, which exploit occult knowledge to indefinitely extend their own life to the detriment of endless monk’s one. The ritual depicted in Harvesting the Ohas needs the forced extraction of monk’s semen and its infusion, through unknown “mystical means”, within the body of the aforementioned followers. KarmaKula’s target is to find the cultists and give to his “old friend” his “precious gift“, namely “her karma“.

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There is no room for action here, and even if the background told in HtO reveals KarmaKula’s indie origins (collecting the semen of sacred monks?!? A b-movie wouldn’t go that far!) I would say that however one can’t complain for the production, which among a photography with excessively saturated colors, good digital effects and a careful direction perfectly synchronized with the (always wonderful) soundtrack decently entertains for the almost 10 minutes the episode lasts and builds the right bases for the sword-slaughtering that will be definitely shown on the next month.

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HtO features a new female character after the pretty-but-deadly Satya Bellord of The Frog in the Well, and listening to her voice one can easily identify her as the actress that dubbed Ninjai, the little ninja protagonist of the series with the same name that will be featured in the movie theaters after the first 12 episodes released on the web. The fourth chapter of KarmaKula will be on-line the next 8th of June, while the current episode is also available in streaming on the Ninjai Gang’s YouTube channel.

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Waiting to see the KarmaKula at work, the series’official site has been updated with new contents including some downloads, a Spread The Word section and a press release. This last one is extremely interesting for those who want to know more about who hides behind the Ninjai Gang and the production of the series, the protagonists, the artists and their multiethnic background made of martial arts, a mix of Eastern tradition and Western pop culture and so on.

According to the information provided by the Gang, KarmaKula’s main actors are siblings, Subhadra, Siddha and the already mentioned Satya Bellord, children of a Chinese mother and an English father grown up between the Far East and California, rigorous students of martial arts for their entire life with a particular focus on taekwondo and both modern and traditional wushu. If this is coupled with the fact that the master of the three performers is Liang Chang Xing, former captain of the 10 times winning Chinese wushu team (to which actor Jet Li belonged too) and heavily involved with the production of KarmaKula one can understand why the series choreographies are so outstanding.