My Thoughts on "Spirit of Wonder: Miss China's Ring" 🇬🇧🇯🇵🇨🇳🌕
Note:
This was originally written on Saturday September 17, 2022, and was posted on DeviantART the next day on Sunday September 18, 2022. Finally, my first post of March 2024. I was hoping to make Sweden 🇸🇪 finally getting into NATO my first post of this month, but it's taking kind of long for Sweden 🇸🇪 to be added to NATO. Hungary 🇭🇺 finally approved Sweden 🇸🇪's accession into NATO, they said that they would no longer oppose it or stand in the way of it. So, no the last hurdle for Sweden 🇸🇪's NATO accession has been lifted, and the Nordic nation will join the alliance. It's now inevitable, Sweden 🇸🇪 will join NATO.
It just hasn't happened because of the other bureaucratic processes that have to occur before Sweden 🇸🇪 is finally officially admitted into the alliance. Hungary 🇭🇺 still hasn't deposited their instruments of ratification yet. They have to deposit their instruments of ratification first before a new member can added. 30 out of the 31 members of the NATO alliance have deposited their instruments of ratification, leaving Hungary 🇭🇺 as the only member who hasn't yet. But, they will, it's only a matter of time until they do. And once they do, then Sweden 🇸🇪 will officially be a member of NATO, and they'll get to do the flag ceremony where the Swedish flag 🇸🇪 is hoisted up on the flagpole to join the circle of flagpoles of other NATO member states outside of NATO headquarters. That's when I'll write my piece about the matter, the day of or the day after the flag ceremony, when it's set in stone and Sweden 🇸🇪 is an official member of NATO.
But, it's a waiting game, and Sweden 🇸🇪 still is not an official member of NATO. I wish that the Hungarians 🇭🇺 would hurry up, and quicken the pace so that Sweden 🇸🇪 can finally join the alliance that they signed up to join almost two years ago at this point. Both Sweden 🇸🇪 and Finland 🇫🇮 signed up join NATO after both countries' parliaments agreed to apply for membership. And while Finland 🇫🇮 is now in NATO, Sweden 🇸🇪 still is not because of numerous delays, because both Turkey 🇹🇷 and Hungary 🇭🇺 were blocking Sweden 🇸🇪's accession into NATO for various reasons.
Turkey 🇹🇷 blocked Sweden 🇸🇪's accession because they supported the Kurdish militia group/political party, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (or PKK for short), which is hostile to Turkey 🇹🇷, and the Turks 🇹🇷 accused the Swedes 🇸🇪 of giving safe haven to PKK fighters or PKK leaders, who they see as terrorists. Turkey 🇹🇷 has designated the PKK as a terrorist organization, along with the United States 🇺🇸, the United Kingdom 🇬🇧, Canada 🇨🇦, Japan 🇯🇵, Australia 🇦🇺, New Zealand 🇳🇿, the European Union 🇪🇺, and even NATO itself. So, Sweden 🇸🇪 had to completely distance itself from the PKK, and disavow them in every conceivable way (expect designating them a terrorist organization) in order to gain Turkey 🇹🇷's approval for it to join NATO.
Hungary 🇭🇺 blocked Sweden 🇸🇪's accession because of their fealty to Russia 🇷🇺 and Vladimir Putin. Hungary 🇭🇺's government under Prime Minister Viktor Orban has adopted a very pro-Russian stance 🇷🇺 and pro-Putin stance. Orban really likes Putin, and is willing to do anything to please him. And of course, Putin doesn't want Sweden 🇸🇪 to join NATO. He didn't want Finland 🇫🇮 to join either, and I do believe Hungary 🇭🇺 did stand in the way of Finland 🇫🇮's accession too. But, it failed, and Finland 🇫🇮 joined anyway.
So, Sweden 🇸🇪 was the last one that Hungary 🇭🇺 could block to appease the Russians 🇷🇺, and help Putin politically and strategically. Because with Finland 🇫🇮 and Sweden 🇸🇪 both in NATO, Russia 🇷🇺 would be strategically worse off than they are currently, while NATO would be strategically better off than they were before. But, now that the Hungarian people 🇭🇺 have elected a new president who is more pro-European 🇪🇺 and perhaps more pro-Ukrainian 🇺🇦, and is less willing to go along with Orban's pro-Russian 🇷🇺 BS. So, they've taken steps to approve Sweden 🇸🇪's accession to NATO, removing the last obstacle to Sweden 🇸🇪 joining NATO. All that's left to do is depositing the last instrument of ratification, the flag ceremony, and then, bam! Sweden 🇸🇪's officially in NATO.
Anyway, I've spent most of this note talking about Sweden 🇸🇪's accession into NATO, and how it still hasn't completed yet, and the country is still not in NATO yet. This is supposed to be about Spirit of Wonder: Miss China's Ring. This is an OVA (Original Video Animation) that I randomly stumbled across on the Internet when I was looking at retro anime from the 1980s and 1990s. I don't remember exactly how I discovered it since it's been so long. I think I have first seen it, the cover of it in a YouTube video showing off old school anime on physical media. Or, I may have seen the cover of it on DuckDuckGo (my search engine of choice), in the images tab.
Or, it may have been because I had watched this IMAX documentary called Sedona: The Spirit of Wonder, which is about an Arizona town called Sedona. I believe it was even commissioned by the town's city council or the tourism board to gain wider awareness or peak interest in their town because it is a small town, and it's not very well known. Most of you reading this probably hadn't even heard of Sedona let alone been there until I mentioned it in this note. And the YouTube algorithm recommended me videos about this movie or the movie itself, since the whole thing is on YouTube. More on that later.
Regardless of how I found it about it, when I saw the cover of this Chinese girl ♀︎ in a flower dress 🌺, and the title, Spirit of Wonder, it immediately peaked my interest. I tried to look to see if there was a Blu-Ray 💿 of this thing on Amazon, because I like watching things in HD if possible, but no, it didn't have a Blu-Ray 💿. I say this in the review itself, but it doesn't even have a DVD release 📀. The only release of this OVA that's available to purchase on Amazon is the VHS release 📼, and I doubt very many people have VHS players 📼 these days. There is a Laserdisc release 📀, but that one is unavailable on Amazon last time I checked. And even less people have Laserdisc players 📀 than do VHS players 📼 or DVD players 📀. But, luckily for all of us, somebody uploaded the entire OVA on YouTube.
That's how I was able to watch it, and I'm sure that's how most people have watched it were able to watch it. And I liked it. I didn’t love it, but I enjoyed it okay. I say this in the review itself, but I was expecting and hoping that this was more of an action anime, but it’s really not that at all. It’s more of a slice of life or romance anime. I guess I’ve just been conditioned to think and expect that any retro anime is action-oriented because a lot of them are. A lot of them are action and are for adults. It’s not like now where we’re getting a much wider variety of anime of many different kinds of genres besides action, sci-fi, and fantasy. And they’re all for a much wider demographic since more people (of different ages) watch anime now than they did back then.
This is not only not an action anime, but it is also not for adults. It’s not really for kids either since there’s alcohol involved and I believe there’s even some swearing here and there if I’m remembering it right. It’s more for a general audience, or for teens, or for the whole family to watch. It’s not so adult that it’s completely inappropriate or unsuitable for kids, but it’s also not so kiddie that an adult couldn’t enjoy it. It’s more in the middle I would say. More PG instead of R.
From what I understand, Spirit of Wonder is an anthology series, and Miss China’s Ring is one of many stories within the Spirit of Wonder series. I don’t know about the other ones, but I’m sure if I did research, I’d be able to find them. They all have different stories, different plots, different settings, different time periods (I’m sure), and different characters. But, they’re all vaguely fantasy, hence the title of the series, Spirit of Wonder.
I wonder if any other OVAs in the Spirit of Wonder series are available on YouTube like Miss China’s Ring was, I’d have to check. But, Spirit of Wonder: Miss China’s Ring isn’t the only anime movie or OVA that’s available free to watch on YouTube, that somebody uploaded. There’s this anime movie that I want to watch, I have it saved in my Watch Later list, it’s called Rail of the Star ☆. It’s a World War II anime movie that’s set in Manchuria, in the Japanese puppet state 🇯🇵, Manchukuo, as well as Japanese Korea 🇯🇵. Korea was a Japanese colony 🇯🇵 during World War II, and had been in the years prior, during the Interwar period, World War I, and the years before World War I.
From 1910 to 1945, Korea belonged to Japan 🇯🇵, and the Japanese 🇯🇵 did everything they could suppress Korean culture and the Korean language, and to Japanize the Korean people 🇯🇵. Even going as far as forcing them to adopt Japanese names 🇯🇵. They even conscripted Korean men ♂︎ to fight in the war, and the Korean troops were much more brutal than even their Japanese counterparts 🇯🇵 due to the pint up rage they all felt towards the Japanese 🇯🇵, and them forcing them to fight in their war. They took their anger out on the Allied troops they were fighting against.
I believe most of the film does take in Korea, but I think parts of it may take place in Manchuria as well as because I remember seeing a Manchu kid in the promo for the movie in one of those ADV promo compilations. I could tell that the kid was Manchu because he had a bald head and a que (ponytail) in the back. Only Manchus have that, specifically Manchu men and boys ♂︎. The Manchu-led Qing Dynasty in China forced all Chinese men and boys ♂︎ to have the male Manchu hairstyle ♂︎ regardless of their ethnicity. It was mandated by law, and if you didn’t have your hair in that style, you would’ve been punished harshly (probably imprisoned or executed), and seen as a traitor to the empire.
That’s relevant to this OVA because Miss China's Ring takes place in the late 19th century, and the ruling imperial dynasty in China at the time was the Qing Dynasty (the last imperial dynasty of China). So, Miss China immigrated to Britain 🇬🇧 from Qing Dynasty China. Why she chose the UK 🇬🇧 to immigrate to instead of another country like the US 🇺🇸? I’m not sure. The 19th century was the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and anti-Chinese racism was worse in the US 🇺🇸 than it probably was even in the UK 🇬🇧 at the time. So, maybe that’s why she didn’t immigrate to America 🇺🇸. Anyway, back to Rail of the Star ☆.
The movie even covers the Soviet invasion of Manchuria ☭, which was one of the last final blows to Japan 🇯🇵 during World War II, and ended in northern Korea. The Soviets' ☭ invasion or offensive in Manchuria had extended into Korea, but had stopped in northern Korea at the behest of the US 🇺🇸, who wanted to defeat the Japanese 🇯🇵, yes, but also wanted to prevent Soviet expansion ☭ in Asia as much as possible, as much as it was in their power to do so. The US 🇺🇸 moved in, and occupied southern Korea as soon as Japan 🇯🇵 surrendered, while the USSR ☭ stayed and occupied the north. That’s how we got North Korea 🇰🇵 and South Korea 🇰🇷, and how we got the Korean War 🇰🇵🇰🇷 a few years later in 1950.
From what I’ve seen in the promo and read on Wikipedia, the movie is from the perspective of a child, a young girl ♀︎. Sort of like First They Killed My Father was. We’re seeing these tragic historical events, this horrible war from a perspective of a child, a perspective as innocent and pure as they come. But, in this case, the girl ♀︎ doesn’t suffer or face as much hardship as the girl ♀︎ in First They Killed My Father did.
The girl ♀︎ in Rail of the Star ☆ has a pretty normal childhood while living in Korea with her parents (I think her father is in the Imperial Japanese Army 🇯🇵), and the movie is more of a commentary on how mundane domestic daily life can coexist with war and genocide happening at the same time, sometimes right next door. Kind of like that movie, The Zone of Interest, only with Japanese 🇯🇵 instead of Germans, and war and colonialism instead of genocide.
The Japanese 🇯🇵 were committing a genocide of their own, against the Chinese 🇹🇼. Unit 731, that biological weapons unit ☣️ that experimented on human beings, was located in Manchuria. But, I don’t think the movie delves into that specific. It deals more with the war, and with the Japanese 🇯🇵’s brutal colonial rule over Korea and as well as Manchuria since Manchuria was a puppet state of Japan 🇯🇵. It was technically an independent state with its own government, national flag, national anthem, and military, etc., but it was still under the heavy influence of Japan 🇯🇵. The Japanese 🇯🇵 were the ones calling the shots in Manchukuo, not the Manchus themselves.
There were other ethnic groups in Manchukuo at the time too like Koreans, Mongols, Russians (specifically White Russians 🇷🇺 from the losing White Russian 🇷🇺 side of the Russian Civil War 🇷🇺), Han Chinese, and of course, Japanese but Manchus were the majority. Which makes sense, Manchuria is the homeland of the Manchus. But, the Japanese 🇯🇵 held all the power, all the wealth, and all the influence within Manchukuo. They were in a much more privileged position in that "country" than the other major ethnic groups were. I'll put it this way, Manchukuo was as much of a legitimate sovereign country as the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) in the Donbas were, as in, not legitimate at all. Same goes for Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Manchukuo was a fake country, a construct, and false creation by the Japanese 🇯🇵 to assert power and influence over China 🇹🇼, and to expand their territory into North Asia and extract the natural resource there to feed their empire. Just as the DPR and the LPR, and Abkhazia and South Ossetia were just ways for Russia 🇷🇺 to expand its territory, and assert its power and influence over Ukraine 🇺🇦 and Georgia 🇬🇪 respectively.
And for all the talk of the DPR and LPR being real independent states, Russia 🇷🇺 just annexed them anyway, which a lot of people predicted would happen and predicted accurately. I'm sure that Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be next on the annexation block unless Russia 🇷🇺 is stopped, and is defeated in Ukraine 🇺🇦. I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese 🇯🇵 had planned to straight up annex Manchukuo at some point had the war gone differently for them.
I mean, that was in their playbook, they did the same thing with Korea. Making it a tributary state or a protectorate of the Japanese Empire 🇯🇵 called the Korean Empire before they decided to straight up annex it in 1910. Keep in mind too that the Korean Empire was a lot more of a legitimate independent nation than Manchukuo was. I'm sure the same would've happened to Manchukuo had Japan 🇯🇵 won World War II along with the other Axis Powers. It wouldn't have stayed independent for much long had the war gone better for the Japanese 🇯🇵 than it did.
Anyway. I imagine the movie would be about showing how this young Japanese girl 🇯🇵♀︎ was able to have a mostly normal childhood and essentially live a life of privilege because of her father’s connections to the military, while the actual Koreans suffered under the boot of Japanese colonialists 🇯🇵, who were mostly military guys. The military mainly administered Korea, as they did Taiwan, which was also a Japanese colony 🇯🇵 during this period. While all the Korean kids lived under different rules than she did.
Like, she lived in ignorant bliss, completely oblivious to the fact that her life in Korea was built off the backs of an oppressed people. It’s only when the war reaches Korea that this girl ♀︎, the main character, is faced with the reality of her situation, where she’s been living all this time, what her country was actually doing, and what the consequences will be for her country's actions throughout the war, a war that her country started in the first place. Or at least, that’s what I’m assuming from watching that promo, and reading the Wikipedia page.
The whole movie is told in flashback by the girl ♀︎ as an adult, in I assume the 1960s since that's when that character would be an adult, and still be kind of young. In the last clip of the promo, they show the adult version of the girl ♀︎, and she appeared to be in her 20s or her 30s, and the 60s would be when she'd actually be around that age. She’s relaying this story, and telling of her experience living Korea and/or Manchuria during the war.
That’s another difference between Rail of the Star ☆ and First They Killed My Father, Rail of the Star ☆ is told in flashback, while First They Killed My Father isn’t. It’s also fictional story about a fictional character if I’m not mistaken, while First They Killed My Father is based on a true story, and is about a real person, who is still alive BTW. Loung Ung would not have been able to write the book 📖 the movie’s based on if she weren’t. But, even years after writing her book 📖, she’s still alive.
Anyway, I haven't seen Rail of the Star ☆ yet, but I do plan to sometime in the future. Even if it isn't in English, and is only in Japanese. There is no English dub for that movie, and if there is, it isn't available. The version I found on YouTube has Japanese audio and English subtitles. But, you know what? Silver lining, it might make it feel more authentic. It's a historical movie and the best thing historical movies can be is authentic. Even if they aren't 100% accurate or even 90 or 80% accurate (and they usually aren't), as long as they look and feel authentic, you can forgive any and all inaccuracies.
And I have no doubt that Rail of the Star ☆ will have inaccuracies, of course it will. Not just the fact that it's a historical movie and historical movies always have at least one inaccuracy, and it might already be historical fiction since the story itself and the characters within maybe fictional. Again, I'm not sure if it's based on a true story and is about a real person. I'm leaning more towards it being historical fiction, and it being a fictional story about fictional characters that takes place during real historical events. Just like Titanic (1997) or Pearl Harbor.
Plus, it's a Japanese movie 🇯🇵 and it's from a Japanese perspective 🇯🇵, so they probably aren't going to go into the nitty-gritty details about the war crimes and crimes against humanity that took place in Manchuria during the war, or the colonial abuses that took place inside Korea. Japan 🇯🇵's war in China 🇹🇼 was a genocidal one, they viewed the Chinese as inferior beings and didn't even see them as human beings, they saw them as sub-human, and actively tried to exterminate them, and Manchuria was one of the places where that genocide was being carried out.
And Japan 🇯🇵's colonial rule over Korea was one of the most abusive and oppressive colonial rules in the history of colonial empires. They enslaved an entire nation, in more ways than one. They enslaved Korean men ♂︎ to do forced manual labor, to mine and extract natural resources ⛏️ inside the peninsula, and they sexually enslaved Korean women ♀︎ to serve the perverse sexual desires of Japanese men 🇯🇵♂︎ before the war and during the war. A lot of rape and sexual assaults were committed by Japanese men 🇯🇵♂︎ against Korean women ♀︎. They even had a euphemism for Korean sex slaves, "comfort women ♀︎." That term was also used to describe sex slaves in other territories that the Japanese 🇯🇵 had conquered during the war like in the Philippines 🇵🇭 or the Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱 (modern-day Indonesia 🇮🇩).
The Japanese 🇯🇵 (or at least, the Japanese government 🇯🇵) have never really been willing to acknowledge or reconcile any of this. They've never been willing to acknowledge things like Unit 731, or the Nanjing Massacre (also known as the Rape of Nanjing), or comfort women ♀︎, and properly apologize for them. Japan 🇯🇵 even still has a shrine ⛩️ where they honor their war dead, many of whom are war criminals. The late former prime minister, Shinzo Abe even visited during his time as prime minister. That caused significant backlash, not just in South Korea 🇰🇷 and other Asian countries, but even in Japan 🇯🇵 itself. And the whole comfort women ♀︎ issue has been a source of tensions between Japan 🇯🇵 and South Korea 🇰🇷, and why they've never really gotten along the best over the years.
It's only recently, under the Yoon administration that South Korea 🇰🇷 has kind of been willing to put the comfort women ♀︎ issue aside, and work with Japan 🇯🇵 in order to counter both North Korea 🇰🇵 and China 🇨🇳, the two biggest threats or potential threats in the region. So, I don't expect to see or hear anything about Unit 731 or comfort women ♀︎ in Rail of the Star ☆, even if it is an anti-war and anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist film, I assume.
I don't think there's ever been a war film that was actually pro-war that wasn't overtly propaganda. Most war films are anti-war, and I'm sure that Rail of the Star ☆ is no different, even if probably doesn't acknowledge the most egregious crimes committed by the Japanese Empire 🇯🇵 against the Korean people or the Chinese people. But, it is of its time, it's a Japanese World War II film 🇯🇵 that came out in 1993. It was still a time when Japan 🇯🇵 was still very much unwilling to admit they did anything wrong in World War II besides Pearl Harbor. More unwilling than they are now.
I mean, for god sake, The Last Emperor had to be censored in order to get a Japanese release 🇯🇵 because it had a scene depicting the Nanjing Massacre. They had to edit that scene out because the Japanese censors 🇯🇵 opposed it, and said they wouldn't allow the movie to be released in their country if it still had that scene. Anyway, as I said before, it's sitting there, waiting for me in my Watch Later list. But, when I do eventually watch it, I will review it and post that review on here. I really don't have much else to say about Spirit of Wonder: Miss China's Ring that I didn't already say in my review that you can read down below. So, I'm just going to stop here, and let you get on with it.
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I just watched the OVA called Spirit of Wonder: Miss China's Ring, and it was interesting. It wasn't really what I expected. I mean, I didn't exactly know what to expect from based on the title, the trailer, the Laserdisc cover 📀, or the DVD cover 📀, but it was definitely surprising to me. I guess I kind of expected it to be more of an action type OVA, with a lots of martial arts fight scenes, but it really isn't an action OVA, and there aren't really that many fight scenes.
There's only like two or three fight scenes in the whole OVA, and they're not really full on action scenes. They're really just there to show how tough the main protagonist, Miss China is. She's a young Chinese immigrant who owns this bar or pub (this is Britain 🇬🇧 after all) 🍺 called the Tenkai, but she's also a landlord because her restaurant/pub doubles as a boarding house. Or I guess it just is a boarding house since a boarding house is an establishment that provides paid food and lodging for guests.
But, I don't know if there are any boarding houses out there now or back then that sell alcohol 🥃 because Miss China's boarding house does. We don't actually learn what her real name is, but everyone in the community refers to her as Miss China. They all call her Miss China because she's Chinese and she's from China. She doesn't seem to have a problem with it, since she doesn't correct anybody or tell anyone what her actual name is. I guess it just stuck, and Miss China decided to just go along with it since everyone already calls her that and she isn't personally offended by it.
Instead, the OVA is more of a whimsical slice-of-life, comedy, romance drama with sci-fi elements. Yeah, you read that right, sci-fi elements. There's a bit of steampunk or dieselpunk stuff in here because the OVA seems to take place sometime in the late 19th century (in Britain 🇬🇧 I presume, judging by all the accents), and the main plot deals with this inventor named Dr. Breckinridge and his assistant, Jim who build this machine that can reflect objects and create holographic copies that you can touch and interact with. They're almost identical to the real thing.
Breckinridge and Jim do this to "go to the Moon 🌕," and to surprise Miss China for her birthday 🥳, by leaving a "Happy Birthday" message for her, and making a ring 💍 for her out of Moon rocks 🌕. China of course loves these gifts from Breckinridge and Jim, and we see the beginnings of a budding romance between China and Jim 🥰. The OVA ends with them blasting the Moon 🌕 in a million or trillion pieces with the machine, and turning it into a ring that orbits around the Earth 🌍 that they call "Miss China's Ring," hence the title. A ring that will truly last forever.
Of course, destroying the Moon 🌕 and turning it into an orbital ring like that would cause irreparable harm to the Earth 🌍 since its one and only natural satellite would be gone, and everything would be thrown out of wack. I'm talking earthquakes, volcanoes 🌋, giant tidal waves 🌊, and probably some strange weather phenomena as well. If you've seen the movie, Moonfall 🌕, or When Worlds Collide, or Gorath, or Cowboy Bebop, or even Despicable Me, you'll know some of this. But, this is a fantasy, a fairy tale 🧚♂️ if you will, so it's okay.
It's a charming little OVA. It's nothing too intense, hardcore, or crazy, it's very quiet and subdued, and it's mainly focused on fun character interactions. It's something you can just put on and have an easy time with that it isn't too demanding. Unfortunately, it's only available on DVD 📀, there is no Blu-Ray release 💿, and it has never had an HD restoration.
But, you watch it for free on YouTube since people have uploaded the English dub version in its entirety, which is how I was able to watch it. It has a total runtime of 42 minutes and 22 seconds. While, I do appreciate being able to watch it for free, I do want to support an official release 💵. I hope that a Blu-Ray 💿 of this comes out in the future because it's pretty good 👍.
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