The 2004 Movie... in Japanese!

Greetings once again! I hope you all had a great holiday, and I wish all my fans and followers a happy 2011! Last night, I got an interesting treat in the mail. On December 17th in Japan, the 2004 film version of POTO was shown, dubbed in Japanese for the first time. I have a friend in Japan who graciously agreed to videotape it for me and send me a copy. For some odd reason, even though I despise English-language dubs of foreign films (give me subtitles any day), I love watching foreign dubs of films that were originally in English, especially musicals. This was actually my first time watching (almost) the entire movie dubbed in another language – I enjoy listening to the Spanish and Italian soundtracks, and I've watched bits of the movie with the French audio track, but in that case, the Phantom's voice appealed to me even less than Gerard Butler's (even though he clearly had more training).

One thing to remember about shows videotaped in Japan: often, if the films were made in the US or other countries, they'll have 2 different audio tracks. Japanese TVs can switch between them, but on most American sets, you'll need to unplug either the right or left audio channel; otherwise, you'll have the English/other language and Japanese tracks talking over each other for the whole thing. In this case, the English track was on the left (red) audio channel, while the Japanese was on the right (white). Anywho, here's my review of the Japanese-language dub of the 2004 movie.

A Holiday Gift For My Phellow Phans

In the spirit of the holiday season, here is a video I made for an audio compilation I put together some time ago. I love listening to POTO in different languages, and this is something I made to demonstrate why. Enjoy, and please leave comments and/or subscribe to my YouTube account!




I remain your obedient servant,
I.A.E.

POTO: The High School Version

A little over a month ago, I had my first experience seeing a high school production of our beloved POTO. The performance was at Punahou School in Hawaii (which happens to be my sister's alma mater). I tried not to come in with too many preconceived notions of what would and wouldn't work in such a production, but let's be honest. I think everyone reading this page has seen the stage show live, or at least watched YouTube clips of one or more productions. Plus, we've had the novel, the movie version, countless cast recordings and cover versions, and all sorts of other media telling us what to expect when we see "Phantom" somewhere.

I wasn't all that worried about a high school version "ruining" POTO for me -- I had seen many school versions, some good and others bad, for many other shows, and none of those shows had been "ruined" for me, nor have any that I consider to be poor shows been "saved" in my eyes by a high-quality production, whether done professionally or by students. Plus, there have been a few POTO adaptations I disliked, but clearly, none of them "ruined" the whole thing for me. But anyway, thus ends my rant over whether a high school or other amateur production has the potential to "ruin" Phantom. I now present my review of Punahou School's production, the first amateur one done in Hawaii.

Happy Hallow's Eve!

Greetings, everyone! I'm sorry I haven't posted in so very long... but I knew I couldn't let Halloween go by without some kind of acknowledgment on this blog. I hope all of you have a wondrous All Hallow's Eve, whether you're planning on trick-or-treating, staying home and giving candy to kids (and kids-at-heart) who drop by, going to Halloween parties, curling up with your favorite scary books/movies/music, or doing something else to keep the spirit of Halloween alive in your heart. As for me, I'll be prowling the streets of Waikiki as part of their annual costume parade!

Recent Occurrences

Greetings, all! Sorry I haven't blogged in so long . . . but to make up for it, here's a huge update on what I've been up to. Toward the end of May/beginning of June, I had an awesome two-week stay in California, during which I got to do quite a few Phantom-y activities.

Ode to a Film Phantom

Robert Englund is one of my favorite horror film actors of all time. His movies, regardless of their quality compared to each other and to others in the genre, have always entertained me. Of course, he's most famous for playing Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series (the most recent remake notwithstanding). It's his 1989 version of The Phantom of the Opera, however, that holds a special place in my heart.

This version of Phantom was directed by Dwight H. Little and starred Englund as Erik Destler, Jill Schoelen as Christine Day, Stephanie Lawrence as Carlotta, Alex Hyde-White as Richard, and Bill Nighy as Carlotta's lover. As the names suggest, this is not a straight-up adaptation of Leroux's novel. Rather than the Paris Opera House, this story takes place in Victorian-era London. Well, the bulk of it, anyway -- there's also a bit set in modern times with a sort of reincarnation/time-travel plot device to connect the two eras. In some ways, that aspect is similar to Bram Stoker's Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, but in my view, the film overall seems to have more in common with John Badham's criminally underrated version of the classic vampire's story (which starred Frank Langella as the Count). Both are very different from the original novel in terms of plot, yet they evoke the mood and atmosphere of their respective books in a way that's perhaps more faithful than the vast majority of other adaptations.

"Love Never Dies": An Update

Greetings once again, and Happy Earth Day! Today, I bring you yet another post relating to "Love Never Dies" (the Broadway premiere of which appears to have been pushed back to next spring). I would have posted it a while ago, but didn't for two major reasons: 1) I was super-busy with school, and 2) I wanted to make sure I had as much accurate information as possible before posting. In this case, new info kept coming out pretty much non-stop . . . Such is life. But anyway, here's the post that was several weeks in the making.

Before I get into the meat of this post, though . . . First off, I'd like to make a couple of corrections to my previous post on LND, just so that nobody will think I intentionally got certain plot points wrong in order to make the show look bad (since it does a pretty good job of that on its own). The first is that the Phantom (or "Mr. Y.," as he's called -- ha ha, get it? Mr. Y = Mystery! Sheer genius, I say!) does not rape Christine; she returns to sleep with him the night before she marries Raoul, which puts their characters in a much better light. (For those of you playing along at home, that was sarcasm.)

The other correction I need to make is that the Phantom doesn't follow Christine and Raoul to New York; instead, he sets up his theme park/freak show/thingy on Coney Island ten years after the original (the math doesn't really make sense there as far as dates are concerned, but I guess we're supposed to just go with it), and then he tricks them into coming to work for him at a time when they're desperate for money thanks to Raoul's boozing habit . . . and somehow, Christine has no idea that this mysterious guy who wants her to sing but refuses to give his name or show his face is actually (gasp) the Phantom! Um, sure . . .

Since I'm in a "kernels-of-truth" kind of mood, I have an admission to make as well: I never intended to blog on LND again here. I heard the cast album from a free source a week or so after my last post on the show and found the music and lyrics to be so underwhelming that I thought it unworthy of review on this blog. (Certain melodies sound partially or mostly plagiarized, as well, and not always from ALW's previous work -- listen to "Sally's Song" from Nightmare Before Christmas, then listen to "Beneath a Moonless Sky" from LND and tell me they don't sound the same!)

Anyway, I thought my previous LND post would be my final word on that sorry, Twilight-ified show. Recent revelations about the show and Andrew Lloyd Webber's company the Really Useful Group, however, have made it necessary to bring up LND once again.

"Don Juan Triumphant": The Artist's Plea

Greetings once again! This is an essay I posted on my Facebook page some time ago about Erik's Don Juan Triumphant as it was portrayed in the original novel and some of the adaptations. I've made some minor changes and corrections since that original posting in order to post it here. Again, feel free to comment and offer your own opinions or insights!

"Love Never Dies" -- Why I Won't Be Seeing It

As I'm sure most Phantom fans reading this are aware, Andrew Lloyd Webber will soon be debuting a sequel to his musical version of The Phantom of the Opera, called Love Never Dies. The London premiere will be on March 9th, and a Broadway premiere is expected to follow, scheduled to begin on November 11th. While some Phantom Phans seem ambivalent or supportive of this sequel, it looks like the vast majority of die-hards are horrified by the idea. In this case, I stand with the latter group.

This is not to say that I think ALW has no right to do the sequel -- certainly, he wrote his original version and still holds the copyright over it, and he can do with it whatever he wishes. Plus, I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if I claimed he had no right to make a sequel since I've always been a steadfast supporter of the First Amendment right to free speech (not to mention that I myself have had some pretty crazy ideas for creative projects).

But at the same time, we the fans (and Phans) have rights too. We have the right to decide for ourselves whether or not this sequel is something we want to spend our hard-earned money on, and we also have the right to voice our opinions on this show whether we are supportive or opposed to it. Here are some of the major reasons why I don't plan to buy the cast album, let alone trek to London or New York to see it live:

Tour Closing? Say It Isn't So!

I just heard a bit of news yesterday that the touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" will be closing this November in Los Angeles after a run that lasted over 17 years. BroadwayWorld.com confirms the story.

Honestly, I'm dumbfounded. I can only hope that a new tour will begin before too long, and that the current one isn't closing to make room for a planned tour of ALW's sequel. Regardless, I'm glad I had the chance to see it while it was running.


I remain your obedient servant,
I.A.E.

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I remain your obedient servant,
I.A.E.

Happy Phanniversary to Me!

Sorry 'bout the lack of post-age lately . . . I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a great New Year's celebration, and I wish health, happiness, and prosperity to you all for 2010.

Today, January 3rd, is my one-year anniversary of seeing the ALW musical live at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco! To celebrate, here's the review I wrote up of the performance shortly after coming home from my trip.