Submitted for your approval:
http://www.ntv.co.jp/channel/asx/hkzkt10.asx
BTW, has anyone else seen this game show? It was one of my favorites when I was living in Taiwan, but I’ve never known quite how to explain it to people who haven’t seen it. I think its title is something like “Superchange!” (Mandarin: Chaoji Bian Bian Bian!)
Best. Game of table-tennis. Ever!
I beat you to it. Alas, my thread, as they are wont to do, sunk like a stone with only 2 replies and 98 views.
Consider this your third reply, Doghouse. You know officialy beat Homebrew. No hard feelings.
Great video, btw.
Pretty clever. There was a show like that that was always on in China, (perhaps a rebroadcast of the Taiwanese show) though I don’t remember seeing anything quite that creative.
Wow. Upon rereading my post there, I see it’s a mess. “Now” and “Officially”, respectively.
It’s not a regular show in Japan, but a special that’s on once or twice a year (Usually during the August Obon holidays and the New Year’s break). It’s sort of an open pantomime competition for amateurs with celebrity judges. Frequently you see families, school groups and seniors’ clubs putting together an entry.
The performances range from pathetically awful to not bad to pretty damn impressive. That one’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.
A slight hijack and question for sublight and anyone else familiar with japanese tv…what’s the deal with new year’s shows here? This past new year’s eve I remember watching a show featuring a guy in a loin cloth bungee jumping off a building into a tower of flame. Not at midnight, but about 15 minutes later. In fact the countdown to midnight was very anticlimactic compared to his jump. The next hour or so was spent searching for him to see if he was still alive. It was bizarre. Since I don’t speak japanese, I don’t know what that was all about. Is that a japanese cultural thing? I know a lot of their shows are…different.
By the way, I can’t get the link to work right. It says its a .asx file and none of my many media playing devices (windows media player, real player, quicktime) can play it.
I don’t know, New Years just seems to be the time when the networks get to cut loose and do whatever they like, which is mostly endless live variety shows with dozens of celebrities doing different stunts and games. My personal favorite was back about six or seven years ago when one channel had a “hot spring resort olympics”, in which about twenty topless models were playing various games in the bathing areas. No censoring, and it was on at about two in the afternoon. Sadly, Japanese TV has descended into a mire of prudery since then, with nary a nipple to be seen. How I long for the good old days of quality television.
I think the skit is a satire to the popular Japanese film “Ping Pong” (http://www.mediacircus.net/pingpong.html). If you’re interested in how ping pong can be made to look like martial arts, this is the film to see.
Are there any versions of this movie that aren’t streames? My 56k connection can’t handle it.
Some more clips from the show:
http://www.ntv.co.jp/channel/kasoh/
http://www.ntv.co.jp/kasoh/past_movie/index.html