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Showing posts from March, 2024

Kyrgyzstan’s Flag Change πŸ‡°πŸ‡¬

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  (This is the new and current flag of Kyrgyzstan πŸ‡°πŸ‡¬.)    On December 26, 2023, the Central Asian country known as Kyrgyzstan πŸ‡°πŸ‡¬ officially changed its flag. The country’s parliament known as the Zhorgorku Kengesh held a debate about changing the design on the flag. The point of contention were the rays of the sun symbol ☀️, which some within the Zhorgorku Kengesh felt resembled a sunflower 🌻, and sunflowers 🌻 are a somewhat negative symbol with Kyrgyz culture. Sunflowers 🌻 mean “a fickle and servile person willing to switch allegiance for personal benefit.” So, they decided to straighten the rays of the sun symbol ☀️ to more properly convey that it is supposed to be a sun ☀️ with the roof of a traditional Kyrgyz yurt πŸ›– on it, and not a sunflower 🌻 with the roof a traditional Kyrgyz yurt πŸ›–. There were some protests πŸͺ§ and opposition to the flag change among the Kyrgyz population πŸ‡°πŸ‡¬, but despite any protest πŸͺ§ or opposition to the flag change, the bill to change the flag sti

Are "Rail of the Star ☆" and "First They Killed My Father" The Same Movie?

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  (These are the posters for Rail of the Star ☆ and First They Killed My Father .)   I wasn't sure if I was going to write this, but I since I started thinking about it, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I thought, "What the heck?" So, I'm writing it. If you follow my blog, you'll know that I recently covered the two war films, First They Killed My Father and Rail of the Star ☆ . Now, these movies might seem different on the surface. First They Killed My Father is a live action historical drama war film that focuses on the Cambodian Genocide πŸ‡°πŸ‡­πŸ’€ and the Cambodian-Vietnamese War πŸ‡°πŸ‡­πŸ‡»πŸ‡³, while Rail of the Star ☆ is an anime historical drama war film that focuses on World War II and the Japanese colonial rule over Korea πŸ‡―πŸ‡΅. They cover vastly different time periods, and vastly different conflicts. You would not expect them to have any similarities at all, but they do. These two movies are remarkably similar to each other, and it's thanks to me

My Thoughts on "Rail of the Star ☆"

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  (This is the North American VHS cover πŸ“Ό for Rail of the Star ☆ .)    I just go through watching, Rail of the Star ☆ . I had in my Watch Later playlist on YouTube for almost two or three years. I had it in there for a long time. I was interested in watching it ever since I saw a promo for it on an ADV Films promo compilation video on YouTube, but I had been putting it off for so long. I just wasn't interested in the subject matter for a while to actually sit and watch it. But, now that I'm back into Japanese πŸ‡―πŸ‡΅ and Second World War history again, I was now in the right head space to actually watch it. Plus, it wanted to take it out of my Watch Later list, and reduce it even further. So, that watching and now reviewing this movie is something that I can cross off my to-do list. Now, I'm sure most of you reading this probably have no idea what Rail of the Star ☆ even is, and if you have, it's only because you read the note above my review for Spirit of Wonder: Miss