TOKYO: “The Queen of Villains” is a typical coming-of-age tale about a young woman’s road to empowerment and self-discovery — except it all takes place in the body-slamming, arm-twisting world of Japanese professional wrestling.
The Netflix series, which began airing last month, tells the story of Dump Matsumoto, a real-life wrestling legend from the 1980s who grew up poor with a father who was often absent or abusive.
Matsumoto grew up angry, she said, and went on to create in her wrestling persona a ferocious, almost camp villain character, known in the sport as a “heel,” complete with outlandish Kabuki-like facial makeup, chains, sticks and a grotesque scowl. She loomed large as a symbol of fearless and defiant womanhood.
“I gave it my all to be evil,” Matsumoto said.
A hefty woman with a friendly smile, Matsumoto makes a point even now to adamantly deny that she was ever a nice person or acknowledge that many people in Japan, especially women, love her.
“I still beat people up in matches. I stuck forks in them and made them bleed,” she said, adding, “All the people who pretend to be good are the truly evil ones.”
“The Queen of Villains” follows the friendship between Matsumoto and Chigusa Nagayo of the popular wrestling tag team known as the Crush Gals. Nagayo served as an adviser, trainer and choreographer for the series’ dramatized wrestling scenes.
Japanese professional wrestling fans still talk about the matches between Matsumoto and the Crush Gals, including the ones they fought in the US
The actresses in the series spent two years training for their roles. They gained weight and muscle, and learned techniques like the “giant swing,” in which a wrestler grabs her opponent’s legs and moves in a dizzying circle, or the “flying knee kick,” which involves a jump and kick to the body while airborne.
The trick in professional wrestling is to execute the punches and body slams convincingly but in a controlled way to avoid serious injuries. A wrestler also must know how to fall properly.
One key fight scene took a month to film as the actors went over each move, again and again.
“Dump played a role to be hated by the entire nation,” said Yuriyan Retriever, a professional comedian who stars as Matsumoto in the series.
“Previously, there was a limit, maybe even unintentionally, beyond which I couldn’t go. But when I played Dump, all those emotions had to come out and be expressed,” she said.
She felt like she was no longer playing a role, she said, but that she had become Dump Matsumoto.
“It’s frightening to be hated, and I don’t think anyone wants to be hated,” Retriever said.
“When I finished a cut, I was crying. And my body was shaking. I can’t express it in words, but I understood all the pressures Dump must have felt.”
The series not only presents a women-beating-the-odds story against a backdrop of sexism and abusive management but it also captures the postwar period of the Showa-era in a way that feels authentic. The scenes used thousands of extras, many of them serious wrestling fans.
Some viewers say the real-life wrestling was more intense than the dramatized version in the new series.
Rionne McAvoy, an Australian filmmaker who as a professional wrestler was hit with a stick by Matsumoto, said: “The actors often fail to capture the intensity, grit and charisma required for these roles.”
But for most viewers, it’s real enough and heartbreaking.
“This is an eternal but emotional story portraying ordinary girls who passionately pursued a dream, found friendship and also themselves,” director Kazuya Shiraishi said.
“It gave me a chance to reflect on my own 15-year filmmaking career, what I truly want to be, what kind of films I want to make. I just wanted to tell their story, which is also everyone’s story.”
Netflix series explores women’s dreams in the body-slamming world of Japanese pro wrestling
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Netflix series explores women’s dreams in the body-slamming world of Japanese pro wrestling
- The Netflix series tells the story of Dump Matsumoto, a real-life wrestling legend from the 1980s who grew up poor with an abusive father
New Zealanders save more than 30 stranded whales
- New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot and pilot whales are especially prolific stranders
- New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840
WELLINGTON: More than 30 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach in New Zealand were safely returned to the ocean after conservation workers and residents helped to refloat them by lifting them on sheets. Four of the pilot whales died, New Zealand’s conservation agency said.
New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot and pilot whales are especially prolific stranders.
A team was monitoring Ruakaka Beach near the city of Whangarei in New Zealand’s north on Monday to ensure there were no signs of the whales saved Sunday stranding again, the Department of Conservation said. The agency praised as “incredible” the efforts made by hundreds of people to help save the foundering pod.
“It’s amazing to witness the genuine care and compassion people have shown toward these magnificent animals,” Joel Lauterbach, a Department of Conservation spokesperson, said in a statement. “This response demonstrates the deep connection we all share with our marine environment.”
A Maori cultural ceremony for the three adult whales and one calf that died in the stranding took place on Monday. New Zealand’s Indigenous people consider whales a taonga – a sacred treasure – of cultural significance.
New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840. The largest pilot whale stranding was of an estimated 1,000 whales at the Chatham Islands in 1918, according to the Department of Conservation.
It’s often not clear why strandings happen but the island nation’s geography is believed to be a factor. Both the North and South Islands feature stretches of protruding coastline with shallow, sloping beaches that can confuse species such as pilot whales – which rely on echolocation to navigate.
Cheating on your spouse is no longer a crime in New York, with the repeal of a little-known 1907 law
Cheating on your spouse is no longer a crime in New York, with the repeal of a little-known 1907 law
ALBANY, N.Y.: New York on Friday repealed a seldom-used, more than century-old law that made it a crime to cheat on your spouse — a misdemeanor that once could have landed adulterers in jail for three months.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill repealing the statute, which dates back to 1907 and has long been considered antiquated as well as difficult to enforce.
“While I’ve been fortunate to share a loving married life with my husband for 40 years — making it somewhat ironic for me to sign a bill decriminalizing adultery — I know that people often have complex relationships,” she said. “These matters should clearly be handled by these individuals and not our criminal justice system. Let’s take this silly, outdated statute off the books, once and for all.”
Adultery bans are actually law in several states and were enacted to make it harder to get a divorce at a time when proving a spouse cheated was the only way to get a legal separation. Charges have been rare and convictions even rarer. Some states have also moved to repeal their adultery laws in recent years.
New York defined adultery as when a person “engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.” The state’s law was first used a few weeks after it went into effect, according to a New York Times article, to arrest a married man and 25-year-old woman.
State Assemblymember Charles Lavine, sponsor of the bill, said about a dozen people have been charged under the law since the 1970s, and just five of those cases resulted in convictions.
“Laws are meant to protect our community and to serve as a deterrent to anti-social behavior. New York’s adultery law advanced neither purpose,” Lavine said in a statement Friday.
The state’s law appears to have last been used in 2010, against a woman who was caught engaging in a sex act in a park, but the adultery charge was later dropped as part of a plea deal.
New York came close to repealing the law in the 1960s after a state commission tasked with evaluating the penal code said it was nearly impossible to enforce.
At the time, lawmakers were initially on board with removing the ban but eventually decided to keep it after a politician argued that repealing it would make it seem like the state was officially endorsing infidelity, according to a New York Times article from 1965.
Banana taped to a wall sells for $6.2 million in New York
- Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun forks over more than six million for the fruit and its single strip of silver duct tape
- Given the shelf life of a banana, Sun is essentially buying a certificate of authenticity that the work was created by Maurizio Cattelan
NEW YORK: A fresh banana taped to a wall — a provocative work of conceptual art by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan — was bought for $6.2 million on Wednesday by a cryptocurrency entrepreneur at a New York auction, Sotheby’s announced in a statement.
The debut of the edible creation entitled “Comedian” at the Art Basel show in Miami Beach in 2019 sparked controversy and raised questions about whether it should be considered art — Cattelan’s stated aim.
Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun on Wednesday forked over more than six million for the fruit and its single strip of silver duct tape, which went on sale for 120,000 dollars five years ago.
“This is not just an artwork. It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community,” Sun was quoted as saying in the Sotheby’s statement.
“I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.”
The sale featured seven potential buyers and smashed expectations, with the auction house issuing a guide price of $1-1.5 million before the bidding.
Given the shelf life of a banana, Sun is essentially buying a certificate of authenticity that the work was created by Cattelan as well as instructions about how to replace the fruit when it goes bad.
The installation auctioned on Wednesday was the third iteration — with the first one eaten by performance artist David Datuna, who said he felt “hungry” while inspecting it at the Miami show.
Sun, who founded cryptomoney exchange Tron, said that he intended to eat his investment too.
“In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture,” he said.
As well as his banana work, Cattelan is also known for producing an 18-carat, fully functioning gold toilet called “America” that was offered to Donald Trump during his first term in the White House.
His work is often humorous and deliberately provocative, with a 1999 sculpture of the pope stuck by a meteor titled “The Ninth Hour.”
He has explained the banana work as a critical commentary on the art market, which he has criticized in the past for being speculative and failing to help artists.
The asking price of $120,000 for “Comedian” in 2019 was seen at the time as evidence that the market was “bananas” and the art world had “gone mad,” as The New York Post said in a front-page article.
The banana sold on Wednesday was bought for 35 cents from a Bangladeshi fruit seller on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to The New York Times.
Sun has hit headlines in the past as an art collector and as a major player in the murky cryptocurrency world.
He was charged last year by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged market manipulation and unregistered sales of crypto assets, which he promoted with celebrity endorsements, including from Lindsay Lohan.
In 2021, he bought Alberto Giacometti’s “Le Nez” for $78.4 million, which was hailed by Sotheby’s at the time as signaling “an influx of younger, tech-savvy collectors.”
Global art markets have been dropping in value in recent years due to higher interest rates, as well as concern about geopolitical instability, experts say.
“Empire of Light” (“L’Empire des lumieres“), a painting by Rene Magritte, shattered an auction record for the surrealist artist on Tuesday, however, selling for more than $121 million at Christie’s in New York.
Farmer in Argentina gets jail term for killing penguin chicks
- The sheep farmer was found guilty of destroying nests and killing chicks while clearing land along the Punta Tumbo nature reserve
- In his defense, he said he had no choice but to clear the land as the state had failed to set up an access route to his property
BEUNOS AIRES: An Argentinian farmer was given a three-year prison sentence for animal cruelty Wednesday, likely to be commuted, after being found guilty of killing over 100 Patagonian penguin chicks.
The sheep farmer from the southern province of Chubut was found guilty last month of destroying dozens of nests and killing chicks in 2021 while clearing land along the Punta Tumbo nature reserve, home to one of the main colonies of Magellanic penguins on the Atlantic coast.
The farmer is unlikely to be incarcerated as Argentina’s penal code recommends alternatives to prison for a first conviction and sentences up to three years.
Prosecutors had requested a four-year sentence.
Environmental group Greenpeace, the complainant in the case, had welcomed the farmer’s conviction as “an important step for environmental justice.”
The farmer argued there was no choice but to clear the land as the state had failed to set up an access route to his property, or boundaries between his farm and the reserve.
The Magellanic Penguin is listed as a species of “least concern” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, meaning it is not at risk of extinction even though numbers are in decline.
SpaceX fails to repeat Starship booster catch, as Trump looks on
BOCA CHICA: SpaceX’s Starship megarocket blasted off on its latest test flight Tuesday, with President-elect Donald Trump joining Elon Musk to witness the spectacle firsthand in the latest sign of their ever closer ties.
But the Republican leader was deprived of the chance to see the booster stage caught in the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms, an engineering marvel demonstrated by the company last month and one he personally lauded during his election victory speech.
Instead, the colossal Super Heavy first stage made a more subdued splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Company representatives cited unmet technical criteria, dampening the triumph of an event attended by a bevy of Trump-world figures, including Donald Trump Jr.
Earlier, Trump greeted Musk warmly on Tuesday afternoon, sporting a red MAGA hat as the pair headed off to watch from the control tower of the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, where the rocket blasted off at 4:00 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) on the sixth test flight for Starship.
SpaceX founder and CEO Musk has been a constant presence at Trump’s side since the incoming president’s election victory, joining him at a meeting with Argentina’s President Javier Milei and even at a UFC bout.
Trump’s decision to travel to Musk’s home turf was the latest sign of the growing alliance between the billionaire duo, which has raised questions over possible conflicts of interests given SpaceX’s lucrative contracts with NASA and the Pentagon.
Tuesday’s launch marked the quickest turnaround between test flights for the world’s most powerful rocket, a gleaming, 121-meter-tall (400-foot) stainless steel colossus central to Musk’s ambition of colonizing Mars and making humanity a multiplanetary species.
Musk aims to launch the first uncrewed missions to the Red Planet as early as 2026, coinciding with the next “Mars transfer window” — a period when the journey between Earth and Mars is at its shortest.
NASA is also counting on a specialized version of Starship to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade under its Artemis program.
Flight six of Starship was seen as a test of whether SpaceX’s first booster catch was pure precision or relied on a stroke of luck after Musk — perhaps inadvertently — disclosed how close the last flight came to disaster.
In a clip posted to X showcasing his gaming chops in “Diablo IV,” sharp-eared fans caught an employee briefing him that the Super Heavy booster was “one second away” from a system failure that could have spelled catastrophe.
Starship’s upper stage will make a partial orbit of Earth, reenter the atmosphere and splash down in the Indian Ocean a little over an hour later, but this time in the daylight, providing clearer visuals for analysis.
Key milestones include reigniting Starship’s Raptor engines for the first time in space and trialing new heat shield materials. The flight also carries Starship’s first ever payload — a stuffed banana — and serves as a swan song for the current generation of Starship prototypes.
With twice the thrust of the Saturn V rockets that powered Apollo missions, Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built. Musk has already teased that its successor, Starship V3, will be “3X more powerful” and could take flight within a year.
The flight comes as Musk is riding high on Trump’s November 5 White House win, having campaigned extensively for the returning Republican leader, as well as donating staggering sums from his own fortune to the cause.
His loyalty has paid off. Musk has been tapped to co-lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” — or DOGE, a cheeky nod to the meme-based cryptocurrency Musk loves to promote.
That in turn has led to concerns Musk could engage in “self-dealing” as the CEO is poised to straddle the line between government insider and corporate titan.
Critics worry he could sway regulatory decisions to benefit his six companies, including SpaceX and its marquee Starship program, which has faced launch delays linked to an environmental review the company called “superfluous.”
