Question: Can anyone tell me exactly how much the American remake follows the original Japanese film? I have seen all of the Japanese movies, but only a bit of the American remake, and for some reason, I am having trouble finding it at local video stores.
Moose
3rd Jan 2008
Ringu (1998)
5th Apr 2007
Naruto (2002)
Question: Why were the preliminary trials for the Chunin exam done as single elimination? It would not really cause the best of the best to be chosen because when two strong Ninjas fight (like Gaara and Rock Lee) one has to lose, while when two weak ninja (Sakura and Ino) fight, one gets to go through, only to be guaranteed failure. How is that fair?
Answer: Out-of-character, because single elimination is the most exciting format for the viewers of the anime. In-character, a possible reason is that the failure of single elimination to correctly identify the second and lower places was only recognised relatively recently - there is an essay by Lewis Carroll (yes, that Lewis Carroll), describing the problem in detail, written in 1883. Ninjas were around in about the 1300's, so it probably hasn't been discovered yet. Of course Naruto's history might not match real history but if you depart from reality then there can be no answer but the out-of-character one.
29th Jan 2007
Naruto (2002)
Question: How is Naruto able to easily create dozens of shadow clones when he needs to, but will sometimes struggle to create just a few.
4th Aug 2006
South Park (1997)
Question: Can anyone tell me what Kenny actual sings during the opening credits? I know it changes through the series, but I don't know what he sings in any of the versions.
Answer: In Series 1 and 2: "I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with big vaginas." In Series 3-5: "I have got a ten inch penis, use your mouth if you want to clean it". Kenny doesn't appear in Series 6. From Series 7 onwards, he says, "Someday I'll be old enough to stick my dick in Britney's butt."
6th Dec 2005
General questions
There was a children's television programme that was on British TV in the late 1980s/early 1990s. The characters were all puppets and included a large talking cauldron which had a dark green face, a strange silver/red monster that lived in the cauldron and had a very posh voice, a creature that looked a bit like Alf with bat wings, and a venus flytrap that I think was called Colin. Can anyone tell me what it was called?
23rd Nov 2005
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (1993)
Question: It says that the Power Rangers were based on Japanese series, What were the names of ALL the series?
Answer: Dinosaur Sentai Zyuranger (Season 1), Five Star Sentai Dairanger (Season 2), Ninja Sentai Kakuranger (Seasons 3), Super Sentai Ohranger (Zeo), Explosive Dash Sentai Carranger (Turbo), Electromagnetic Sentai Megaranger (. In Space), Star Beast Sentai Gingaman (Lost Galaxy), Rescue Sentai Gogo V (Lightspeed Rescue), Future Sentai Timeranger (Time Force), Hundred Beast Sentai Gaoranger (Wild Force), Ninja Sentai Hurricanger (Ninja Storm).
4th Apr 2006
Red Dwarf (1988)
Answer: In the book, the Cat finds the concept of a name confusing, as he's convinced he's the center of the universe and the idea that someone wouldn't know who he was is baffling.
13th Jun 2005
The Ring (2002)
Question: Rachael made a copy of the videotape that kills people and gives it to Noah to watch. That means there are now two killer videotapes. Even though at the end of the film when she destroys the original, why didn't she destroy the copy that she made? With both tapes destroyed there would be no way for Samara to come back and kill more people. Granted Rachael still would have been killed, but she would also be saving a lot of lives.
Answer: Rachel is safe, since she has passed the tape on, but Aiden now needs to pass it on. If Rachel destroyed both copies, Aiden would have no way to do this, and would die. Also, based on background material, doing this wouldn't stop Samara: she can regenerate the video, either the same way the original one was created, OR at any point when somebody who has previously passed the tape on appears on a video camera.
9th May 2005
Judge Dredd (1995)
1st Apr 2005
Blackadder (1986)
Question: Many times during the series, Lieutenant is pronounced as 'Left-tenant'. Why?
21st Feb 2005
The Matrix (1999)
Question: Can someone please explain what Spoon Boy says to Neo about there being no spoon, I do not fully understand it.
Chosen answer: "There is no spoon" because the spoon doesn't really exist; it's just a bunch of images inside the Matrix. For Neo to use his powers, he can't think of bending the spoon (or surviving a fall, or jumping a gap, or dodging bullets) because in even accepting the existence of the spoon (or the fall, or the gap, or the bullets) he'll be acknowledging it's impossible to do so. He has to see all these things as just reflections of the Matrix (as he indeed does at the end) and manipulate them in those terms, to use his powers.
8th Nov 2004
Johnny English (2003)
Question: Can anyone please tell me what the gist of the Barclay card ads were (the ads Rowan Atkinson was in)? What did it have to do with Johnny English?
Answer: The adverts showed Rowan Atkinson as a bungling secret agent, similar to Johnny English, who would mess up various assignments and need to make use of Barclaycard features to bail himself out (eg, being in a foreign country without local currency, breaking expensive items that were Barclaycard insured, etc.)
11th Aug 2004
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Question: What actually happens at the end? I assume that the whole plot of the film was Nancy's dream but what happens at the end with the car and Nancy's mom pulled through the window? Was that a dream too?
19th Apr 2004
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
Question: When the titles are running at the end, just after the headlines have stopped, the screen goes to black and the first title you see is "Taj Mahal". Obviously, I know what the Taj Mahal is, but why is it mentioned in the titles?
4th Mar 2004
Dogma (1999)
16th Feb 2004
Ringu (1998)
Question: There is a scene in Sadako's video (ie. the death tape) which features some people crawling backwards. I have watched this film millions of times and cannot work out what it means. Does anyone know what it means or if relates to anything in the film? Does it even have a meaning?
Answer: The other answer is not correct, although you could take it that way if you wanted. The novel upon which "Ring 0" is based was not even out at the time, nor was the prequel even planned at the time this movie came out. So that's not really the answer, although you could retroactively try to connect the two. As for the actual question: the crawling figures are typically viewed as being representations of the victims of the volcanic eruption that Shizuko (Sadako's mother) predicted. Especially as they appear right after words like "eruption" appear onscreen. Or they can be viewed somewhat more nebulously as representations of Sadako's pain, or the pain her victim's feel.
Answer: It may relate to a scene in Ringu 0, which goes a bit more into Sadako's origins; in that film, Sadako is a normal girl trying to hold back the evil spirit within her. A large group of people chase Sadako past the well, but the evil spirit breaks out and Sadako kills them all; the crawling people could be them as they were dying.
17th Dec 2003
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Question: Is there a definite answer as to why this is called "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" in the US?
Answer: Both the book and the film were retitled because Scholastic, the publishers, were worried that American children wouldn't have heard the legend of the "philosopher's stone", and would think the book was about philosophy. They wanted to rename it to something that made it obvious that it's about magic, so they used "sorceror's".
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Answer: It follows it fairly closely, but removes some Japanese cultural references. All of the names are changed, the psychic powers of some characters are removed, and all references to "sea goblins" are gone. Samara is a young girl (not a grown woman like Sadako) and speaks to victims on the phone, rather than the phone call only having strange noises. The lead character is more heroic and investigatory and there are more special effects (for example, the victims' bodies are deformed).
Moose ★