Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The declaration of Ultraman

I was just only 7 when I saw something that would change my life forever.

Back then, I just came back from living out my early childhood in Australia. It was a totally different world. If you haven't noticed yet, I live in Malaysia. When I arrived, I couldn't speak Malay, I forgot how to speak chinese, I got picked on at school for talking Aussie, and my teacher, god bless her cholesterol-choked heart thought that because of that, I was retarded, and put me in a 'special' class. And this was in a private school!

Anyway, I was spending a lonely weekend morning with the radio tunes of MC Hammer, Belinda Carlisle, and Paula Abdul wafting through the air when I caught something on my parents' old Trinitron. It was fleeting, but there it was, a grainy footage of a silver and red being beating the shit out of a prostethic monster. I was blown away by the special effects; this was even cooler than Thunderbirds! This was Ultraman!

Malaysia got to be fully immersed in the Ultraman experience a few years later in 1993 when Ultraman Ace was brought to our screens. We too enjoyed the merchandising blitz that followed, Ultraman keropok (can anyone remember that?) Ultraman playing cards, ultraman figures.... Ultraman became a permanent fixture in my childhood days along and the rest of Malaysia as well. The trend still continues today, with the new Heisei era Ultramans being watched these days.

10 years later after I've recently come into the possesion of a few Chinese-dubbed Ultraman DVDs. Although my skills in the language are just limited to swear words and meagre conversation pieces, this presented me with a great opportunity to relive my childhood. And to celebrate that, I'll be reviewing and giving an in-depth look into each episode, for the benefit of my fellow Ultraman fans. 'What?! sitting through 20 hours of a kid's show from the 60's ?! Are you insane?' you may think, but we haven't got a good episode review of the series since Absolute Ultraman folded a few years ago, and I've got lots of free time.

Look for it!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

LoL! I can practically see everything u wrote of in black and white silent film style! Hehehehehe! Poor dear~ Didnt realise u had it so tuf as a kid *hugs* Anyways! I remember the ultraman craze! LoL! He was our superman! How could I forget??? :P Good to know u havent let the passion for it die like everyone else who simply went with the flow ^^ Looking forward to more blog entries :P Dun stop!

Anonymous said...

Btw! XD Selamat Hari Raya!!! =afterthought=

Mark said...

He! IIRC, Canada now has Ultraman DVDs dubbed in English, with the cast lead by the guy who voiced Go Mifune, aka Speed Racer. Go figure. I did watch some Ultraman episodes in Tagalog, but I got lazy to watch it.

Also, let me know how things are going with your story, mate.