Take This Bread
Since we do not have cable TV at home, the channel is usually set only to either ABS-CBN or GMA (ABC it is during American Idol nights, and soon, Philippine Idol). Studio 23's reception is hazy, and MTV's is worse. I can actually type right now in this entry ABS-CBN's lineup of shows depending on the day. I can even notice trends, like plugging that a show will be simulcast after one show and before another, instead of just mentioning it's time slot.
Example:
Manuod po kayo ng Star Circle Summer Kid Quest, pagkatapos ng Pilipinas! Game KNB? at bago mag-Wowowee. (Hah! Cringy)
Having no cable is not that bad, especially since I don't get to watch much television during the school year (thus, I can tell my students that "no TV during weekdays" is tolerable). However, things change when you find time to actually watch TV and kill time. You might as well get comfy with women losing inches off their desired body parts, or formulaic melodramas that try to revive careers of some stars.
Recently, I was with my brothers and cousin one late afternoon, lying on the sofa. Somebody switched the channel to ABS-CBN. Since I was waiting for the local news program, I paid attention as well to what was on air. In the next minutes, I was down with laughter.
The show is entitled Yaki-tate Japan! From the advertisement I saw before, this Japanese cartoon is about a guy who tries to perfect The Japanese Bread that will make its mark globally, just like the French bread, English bread etc. The episode I saw featured the male lead (I'm poor with Japanese names), a budding baker competing for a scholarship grant to study bread-making in France (I might be wrong, though), in the middle of a bread competition. He and his competitor have to make the best croissant (two jurors will taste their breads).
The male lead's foe possesses such confidence: he was explaining his technique while making the multiple layers of his dough, all the time declaring that his recipe cannot go wrong. Our hero, meanwhile, prepared his bread silently (using his "solar hands") and actually finished baking first. The jurors take a bite, and hilarity takes over.
The jurors fell down the floor, like cadavers, but with smile on their faces. The audience is taken aback, accusing the male lead of poisoning the motionless taste testers. He defends himself by saying: "hindi sila namatay; dahil sa sarap ng tinapay ko, napunta silang langit". What a treat! Meanwhile, the jurors are actually experiencing nirvana: they were being entertained by pretty gals dressed in bunny attires. The realization that they are not in heaven yet came when their bodies disappeared little by little.
Back on earth and in full consciousness (but not in full sanity), one of the jurors declared the lead as winner for this stage of the competition, and demanded that he eat more of the croissants to go back "to the other side"; the lead then tells him that the other juror ran away with the rest of the bread. The opponent naturally appealed; his bread wasn't even tasted yet. More funny things happen, and this is sustained until the end of the episode.
The scenes I retold are really bizarre and even exaggerated. Kababawan. But this cartoon's entertainment value is a far cry from the violence of transforming robots or alien invasions (I get tired from these shows' attempt to achieve complexity). True, there still is a hint of competition, and maybe the antagonists will resort to dirty methods. But the idea is refreshing - one episode even featured the recipe of a bread baked (?) in a rice cooker. Move over, Jang Geum.
Yaki-tate Japan! reminds me of a Chinese comedy I once saw. It was entitled God of Cookery, a competition in search of the best chef. The male lead (was it Stephen Chow?) cooked a buchi-like delicacy that's hard enough to be played as a ping-pong ball, but has tenderness deep inside (after biting, gallons of juice will splash from it). The juror also goes ga-ga after tasting sumptuous meals: imagine a prim and proper businesswoman rolling over a giagantic slab of porkchop.
Apparently, local TV can be entertaining too. At least for shallow beings like me.
Example:
Manuod po kayo ng Star Circle Summer Kid Quest, pagkatapos ng Pilipinas! Game KNB? at bago mag-Wowowee. (Hah! Cringy)
Having no cable is not that bad, especially since I don't get to watch much television during the school year (thus, I can tell my students that "no TV during weekdays" is tolerable). However, things change when you find time to actually watch TV and kill time. You might as well get comfy with women losing inches off their desired body parts, or formulaic melodramas that try to revive careers of some stars.
Recently, I was with my brothers and cousin one late afternoon, lying on the sofa. Somebody switched the channel to ABS-CBN. Since I was waiting for the local news program, I paid attention as well to what was on air. In the next minutes, I was down with laughter.
The show is entitled Yaki-tate Japan! From the advertisement I saw before, this Japanese cartoon is about a guy who tries to perfect The Japanese Bread that will make its mark globally, just like the French bread, English bread etc. The episode I saw featured the male lead (I'm poor with Japanese names), a budding baker competing for a scholarship grant to study bread-making in France (I might be wrong, though), in the middle of a bread competition. He and his competitor have to make the best croissant (two jurors will taste their breads).
The male lead's foe possesses such confidence: he was explaining his technique while making the multiple layers of his dough, all the time declaring that his recipe cannot go wrong. Our hero, meanwhile, prepared his bread silently (using his "solar hands") and actually finished baking first. The jurors take a bite, and hilarity takes over.
The jurors fell down the floor, like cadavers, but with smile on their faces. The audience is taken aback, accusing the male lead of poisoning the motionless taste testers. He defends himself by saying: "hindi sila namatay; dahil sa sarap ng tinapay ko, napunta silang langit". What a treat! Meanwhile, the jurors are actually experiencing nirvana: they were being entertained by pretty gals dressed in bunny attires. The realization that they are not in heaven yet came when their bodies disappeared little by little.
Back on earth and in full consciousness (but not in full sanity), one of the jurors declared the lead as winner for this stage of the competition, and demanded that he eat more of the croissants to go back "to the other side"; the lead then tells him that the other juror ran away with the rest of the bread. The opponent naturally appealed; his bread wasn't even tasted yet. More funny things happen, and this is sustained until the end of the episode.
The scenes I retold are really bizarre and even exaggerated. Kababawan. But this cartoon's entertainment value is a far cry from the violence of transforming robots or alien invasions (I get tired from these shows' attempt to achieve complexity). True, there still is a hint of competition, and maybe the antagonists will resort to dirty methods. But the idea is refreshing - one episode even featured the recipe of a bread baked (?) in a rice cooker. Move over, Jang Geum.
Yaki-tate Japan! reminds me of a Chinese comedy I once saw. It was entitled God of Cookery, a competition in search of the best chef. The male lead (was it Stephen Chow?) cooked a buchi-like delicacy that's hard enough to be played as a ping-pong ball, but has tenderness deep inside (after biting, gallons of juice will splash from it). The juror also goes ga-ga after tasting sumptuous meals: imagine a prim and proper businesswoman rolling over a giagantic slab of porkchop.
Apparently, local TV can be entertaining too. At least for shallow beings like me.
posted by mardan at 2:25 AM
1 Comments:
hoy milleniomario! kamusta na? napanood ko rin yang episode kaya lang yung bandang huli na. hindi ba japan ang pangalan niya o ang tawag sa kaniya? ehehehhe. bisita ka rin sa mga blog ko. ehehehehe...
sana mabasa ito ng mga estudyante mo. wehehehehe. anyway. pwede ba kitang i-link?
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