Other than referring to the Chinese dating (not Japanese), I have no idea what the title signifies. The narrative is Japanese, not Chinese. But that indicates the production staff's sloppy approach to their representation of minorities on the show, both in this episode and previous ones like "Tattoo", "The Voodoo Mambo", and "The Shaman's Apprentice".
So all the tropes are here, like they were in those previous episodes. The promo even refers to the "mysteries of the orient". There is a wise old minority or two, Jack as the old white guy is the one who acts as a bond between the ancient and the modern. And the antique is centered on the Westernized view of Japanese culture. America and England gets pens and trefinators and cradles. Minority cultures get rattles (for First Nationals) and regional statues (for the Japanese), and voodoo masks (for the Caribbean). At least we didn't get chopsticks. I'm not sure if it means the production staff were big on ethnic stereotypes, or Lewis. We do get people using katanas, and seppuku, and such.
And a big thing about honor. Don't Canadians and Americans have anything to do with honor? Three seasons of the series, and I don't remember anyone non-Asian using magic to determine their children's honor.
There's also the presence of Tia Carrere. Who is Hawaiian, not Japanese, damn it. Yes, I suppose she was the Asian "big star" they could get, but it's still mildly offensive. There are plenty of Japanese actors, even in Canada. Couldn't they get one of those? And Tanaka spouts fortune-cookie Confucianisms about honor and such.
The idea of the trio tracking down non-cursed artifacts, to trade for a cursed object, is interesting. It's a continuation of a trend of the show focusing less on the cursed antiques, and more on other magical stuff. We saw it in "The Butcher", last season, and we'll see it later in "Midnight Riders".
And "Year" is the season's "international" show, as the magic of stock footage takes the episode to Tokyo, NYC, and Hong Kong. As well as the unnamed city where Curious Goods is. Conveniently, the statues have magical teleportation powers. One wonders if writer Rodney Charters used the excuse that the monkeys weren't antiques to justify all the locational teleporting. Then again, Charters didn't have any trouble having Micki and Johnny take jets to Hong Kong and NYC, respectively.
Unfortunately, the magic of the monkeys doesn't make much sense. They can teleport Tanaka's children to Tanaka, but they can't teleport themselves? So they... teleport Shohei around, so he can recover them and teleport Shohei back to Tanaka with Jack even though Shohei doesn't have a monkey at the time. What? And the second test is a bit of a cheat: Hitoshi didn't ask the monkey to help him. But he gets killed for something it did on its own? Yeah, he wanted the monkey to fool the inspector, but he didn't have a "test run" the way that Koji did earlier and Michiko has later. His "dishonor" sin is... what?
Also, the secondary climax is a bit... expected. Of course once Tanaka confirms that his daughter is honorable, she can't bring herself to kill him. Because she's... honorable. Duh. The big climax, where Mushashi sacrifices himself so that Tanaka will be dishonored and the monkeys kill him, isn't telegraphed. Tanaka didn't fail any test: the monkeys killed him because he was... dishonorable. But Tanaka has been acting dishonorably throughout the episode. Johnny isn't exactly a sterling character: why didn't they kill him as well? Again, who knows how the monkey works? They don't have the logic that a Vendredi cursed antique usually does.
The monkeys are creepy, because monkeys are usually creepy. But the creepiest part of the episode is Shohei. Lawrence Nakamura does a good job of characterizing him with what he can: I like his little smirk when he confronts Micki. We never find out anything about him, except that he's apparently Tanaka's willing accomplice. Sadly, we never find out why. And he just... disappears at the end.
And if the trio and Mushashi hadn't shown up to help Tanaka get killed, what would he have done? Yes, he partly rejuvenates, and it's Robert Ito. But was he going to father more children in the elderly state he'd in?
Essentially, "Year" is full of plot gaps and unexplored nuances. Robert Ito gets a chance to play Tanaka as a guy who has been essentially killing his children, all to gain immortality for himself until he finds the one honorable kin. But that's tossed away for a brief mini-climax ("Oh nos! Michiko killed herself because she was honorable!"), when the conflict of a father killing his own children seems pretty heart-rending. At least to me. Instead the show opts for horror and an easy ending.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
So all the tropes are here, like they were in those previous episodes. The promo even refers to the "mysteries of the orient". There is a wise old minority or two, Jack as the old white guy is the one who acts as a bond between the ancient and the modern. And the antique is centered on the Westernized view of Japanese culture. America and England gets pens and trefinators and cradles. Minority cultures get rattles (for First Nationals) and regional statues (for the Japanese), and voodoo masks (for the Caribbean). At least we didn't get chopsticks. I'm not sure if it means the production staff were big on ethnic stereotypes, or Lewis. We do get people using katanas, and seppuku, and such.
And a big thing about honor. Don't Canadians and Americans have anything to do with honor? Three seasons of the series, and I don't remember anyone non-Asian using magic to determine their children's honor.
There's also the presence of Tia Carrere. Who is Hawaiian, not Japanese, damn it. Yes, I suppose she was the Asian "big star" they could get, but it's still mildly offensive. There are plenty of Japanese actors, even in Canada. Couldn't they get one of those? And Tanaka spouts fortune-cookie Confucianisms about honor and such.
The idea of the trio tracking down non-cursed artifacts, to trade for a cursed object, is interesting. It's a continuation of a trend of the show focusing less on the cursed antiques, and more on other magical stuff. We saw it in "The Butcher", last season, and we'll see it later in "Midnight Riders".
And "Year" is the season's "international" show, as the magic of stock footage takes the episode to Tokyo, NYC, and Hong Kong. As well as the unnamed city where Curious Goods is. Conveniently, the statues have magical teleportation powers. One wonders if writer Rodney Charters used the excuse that the monkeys weren't antiques to justify all the locational teleporting. Then again, Charters didn't have any trouble having Micki and Johnny take jets to Hong Kong and NYC, respectively.
Unfortunately, the magic of the monkeys doesn't make much sense. They can teleport Tanaka's children to Tanaka, but they can't teleport themselves? So they... teleport Shohei around, so he can recover them and teleport Shohei back to Tanaka with Jack even though Shohei doesn't have a monkey at the time. What? And the second test is a bit of a cheat: Hitoshi didn't ask the monkey to help him. But he gets killed for something it did on its own? Yeah, he wanted the monkey to fool the inspector, but he didn't have a "test run" the way that Koji did earlier and Michiko has later. His "dishonor" sin is... what?
Also, the secondary climax is a bit... expected. Of course once Tanaka confirms that his daughter is honorable, she can't bring herself to kill him. Because she's... honorable. Duh. The big climax, where Mushashi sacrifices himself so that Tanaka will be dishonored and the monkeys kill him, isn't telegraphed. Tanaka didn't fail any test: the monkeys killed him because he was... dishonorable. But Tanaka has been acting dishonorably throughout the episode. Johnny isn't exactly a sterling character: why didn't they kill him as well? Again, who knows how the monkey works? They don't have the logic that a Vendredi cursed antique usually does.
The monkeys are creepy, because monkeys are usually creepy. But the creepiest part of the episode is Shohei. Lawrence Nakamura does a good job of characterizing him with what he can: I like his little smirk when he confronts Micki. We never find out anything about him, except that he's apparently Tanaka's willing accomplice. Sadly, we never find out why. And he just... disappears at the end.
And if the trio and Mushashi hadn't shown up to help Tanaka get killed, what would he have done? Yes, he partly rejuvenates, and it's Robert Ito. But was he going to father more children in the elderly state he'd in?
Essentially, "Year" is full of plot gaps and unexplored nuances. Robert Ito gets a chance to play Tanaka as a guy who has been essentially killing his children, all to gain immortality for himself until he finds the one honorable kin. But that's tossed away for a brief mini-climax ("Oh nos! Michiko killed herself because she was honorable!"), when the conflict of a father killing his own children seems pretty heart-rending. At least to me. Instead the show opts for horror and an easy ending.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?