Misaki

Misaki-(Japanese for beautiful bloom) created by Keith Mallett

I originally chose this picture because it was of a geisha girl, and she looked almost ashamed or troubled. As I studied the picture more I really like how it looks as if she is turning away from something unwillingly. This reminds me of Midori the first day she wore the dress of the geisha, and at the end when Nubo didn't respond to her helping him fix his shoe. This picture shows me a person that wishes they could hold on to the past a little longer, out of fear for the future, which I feel was the feeling residing in the main characters of child's play.

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. By Michael Dorris.

Michael Dorris' A Yellow Raft in Blue Water describes the lives of three Native American women. Dorris complicates the novel, however, by having each woman narrate one section of the story from her own perspective with each woman's story adding new layers of meaning to their collective intergenerational saga. In addition, Dorris further complicates the plot by presenting the three stories in reverse order with Rayona, the "granddaughter," telling her story first, followed by her mother, Christine, and then her "grandmother," Aunt Ida. Consequently, Dorris' novel reads like a complex mystery, and the reader must carefully piece together its plot by continually uncovering new information and reassessing previous information as the story unfolds backwards in time.

I read this novel my sophomore year of college and I think it fits theme in the sense of a child trying to find themselves. For the reasons of this project I would focus on the character Rayona. She like the kids in Child's Play was trying to figure out her true identity, but instead of already knowing her end through her family's legacy she had to learned thru the dysfunction of her mother and grandmother.

My Reflection

My Reflection.(1998) sung by Christina Aguliera, written by produced by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel.

This song was written for the Disney movie Mulan. Which was about a Chinese maiden goes undercover as a man to save her father from death in the army, and becomes one of China's greatest heroes in the process.

Lyrics:

Look at me
You may think you see
Who I really am
But you’ll never know me
Every day, is as if I play apart
Now I see
If I wear a mask
I can fool the world
But I can not fool
My heart
Who is that girl I see
Staring straight back at me?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?
I am now
In a world where I have to
Hide my heart
And what I believe in
But somehow
I will show the world
What’s inside my heart
And be loved for who I am
Who is that girl I see
Staring straight back at me?
Why is my reflection
Someone I don’t know?
Must I pretend that i’m
Someone else for all time?
When will my reflection show
Who I am inside?
There’s a heart that must
Be free to fly
That burns with a need
To know the reason why
Why must we all conceal
What we think
How we feel
Must there be a secret me
I’m forced to hide?
I won’t pretend that i’m
Someone else
For all time
When will my reflections show
Who I am inside?
When will my reflections show
Who I am inside?

I picked this song to fit the theme of Child's Play because its a song about true self, and in the story I feel the characters were battling that issue. More so the movie Mulan was about fate and destiny, and this song was during a vulnerable part when Mulan had to chose between her destiny or what she wanted to do. In the story the characters at first unaware of the fate, soon tried to fight it, yet unlike Mulan it had taken over their life.

The Wood

The Wood.(1999). directed by Rick Famuyiwa. Starring Taye Diggs, Omar Epps, Richard T Jones.

On the wedding day of a writer's friend, things aren't looking good when the groom goes missing before the ceremony. During his and his other male friend's effort to retrieve him, that writer named Mike can't help but tell the story of his youth with his friends. Ever since he met them on his first day at a new school, they shared the common experiences of growing up and life's discoveries. Inglewood, an L.A. burb, is the Wood, home to a largely Black middle class, where Mike, Slim, and Roland have been best friends since junior high. It's three hours before Roland is to marry, and he has very cold feet. Mike and Slim must sober him up and help him decide if he wants to go through with the wedding. In flashbacks, they recall key moments of their friendship, the rites of passage of boys to men. Mike is the principal narrator, arriving in the Wood from North Carolina, nervous and shy. In addition to male friendship and wedding-day jitters, the story explores Mike's long-term connection to Alicia, his lovely and together first sweetheart.

I feel this movie carries with the theme of life transition, because these best friends grew up learning and growing in a neighborhood similar to the one in childes play. They to each had their own personality and grew up into their separate lives. The story I think is child's play just interpreted into the lives of African Americans.

Childs Play

Child's Play by Robert Lyons Danly, translated from Takekurabe a japanese novel written by Ichiyō Higuchi.

The main characters are children living on the edge of Yoshiwara, the only district of Edo or Tokyo that was licensed for prostitution. As they grow up, they find themselves assuming their family professions and losing the freedom they enjoyed as children.

Nobuyuki of Ryuge Temple: Destined to follow in his fathers footsteps and become the next priest of Ryuge. He would don the traditional dark robes of a priest as if he knew there was nothing to change fate. He was a scholar and considered a wet blanket causing him to be tease

Shota the pawnbrokers son:  Leader of the main street gang. His family had money and he was a likable boy. Shota was to take over his family business of collecting money loans that his family leneded out. He had to, on the outside be hard, but really he was a child with too much emotion, that made good grades.

Midori of Daikokuya: The beauty of the town, spolied and wanted for nothing. Originally a country girl but moved to the city once her sister was seeked out by the manager to work in Daikokuya. She had a personality that everyone loved with a bright promising could be future, yet her destiny was to follow her sister as a geisha.