TAR Asia 2: Episodes 6 and 7
Jan. 10th, 2008 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsOkay, in the last recap, the racers went to Japan, and did things in the middle of the night that ended up not mattering at all because they all got bunched on a Fukuoka-bound train in the morning, and then got taxis to some government office, where TARA host Allan Wu was waiting to tell the racers that this leg wasn't over. Let's move on, shall we?
Episode 6: Fukuoka, Japan to Busan, Korea
1. Okay, so Allan gave the teams their clue envelopes, and he customized his greeting for each team. He even called the envelope "a nice shiny yellow prize" for Marc and Rovilson, who I should add, were racing this entire portion wearing lame fake mustaches. At this point, they'd won every leg so far bar the first. Anyways, the clue called for even more bunching: a ferry trip to Busan, Korea (back in my day, it was called Pusan). There, they were to taekowndo-chop some boards at a specific taekwondo school.
2. Just finding the school posed trouble for some teams, especially Ann and Diane, who were first at the government office in Fukuoka, but ended up at this juncture in last place. Ouch. Seriously. IIRC, they got dropped off in the part of the street.
3. Next clue took them to some market with a pig statue, and the first Yield of the race. Like the Goths would just a few days later, one team, Henry and Terri, put up a picture of a team that was ahead of them, and unlike the Goths, they had no real reason at all to justify putting up Marc and Rowilson's picture. Yeesh. At least the Goths had their reasons, even if they were flawed...
4. Detour! It's between grabbing coins from the bottom of a octopus tank (ever seen fish swimming in tanks at a seafood restaurant? yeah, it's like that), or delivering food to specific addresses (in a place where not all streets have names). No contest here, folks. Everyone eventually completed the octopus detour, with only Daichi and Sawaka (who had done so well in the Japan portion of the leg, not surprisingly since that was their home country) even trying the deliveries, and discovering it was too much of a hassle.
5. After the octopus, racers headed to some place called the APEC House at some beach. By the time the race got to the APEC House, it was dark and the front fence was locked. Through some arrangment or other, racers were allowed to climb over the front fence and search the grounds for the next clue box. Here, Ann and Diane tricked the Japanese siblings by saying they were heading to the airport. This confused the siblings quite a bit such that the Malaysian moms overtook them.
6. Roadblock, and it's unlocking one of like hundreds of locks with a given key. It's another one of those tasks copied straight from TAR America, albeit in a different country, and much scaled down. Marc and Rowilson got seriously lucky on this one: The key they got unlocked the first lock they picked. The Philippine sportscasters commented on how they went from luck of the evil to a whole new level of luck on that. (Interestingly, the subtitlers here translated "luck of the evil" as if to mean unlucky.) Other teams, while actually having to try more than one lock, didn't seem to take long on this Roadblock either.
7. And finally, the pitstop at some temple. Marc and Rowilson, first place, whatever, but no prize for them. And eventually, the Japanese siblings got eliminated, and the sister sung a song over the closing credits. Yeah. Whatever.
Episode 7: Busan, Korea to Seoul, Korea
1. Self-driving is always a wreck to watch, but Paula and Natasha took it a bit literally, blowing their tire a la TK and Rachel, and having to get help from the cops to change it. This prompted at least one team to think they were getting arrested for something. After P&N finished their little tire change, a nice touch (in this viewer's opinion, anyway) with a "Khob Khun Ka": It's the Thai word for "Thank you."
2. Anyways, they were driving to some bean processing place for an early Roadblock, which is one of those luck-based tasks. In this case, racers were to find a clue placed on top of a cloth strapped over a HUGE clay pot with fermenting soybean mash in it. One of the racers accidentally broke one of the lids covering the cloth, and another misinterpreted the clue and thought she had to look for the clue in the soybean mash in the pot. At least with this arrangement, you wouldn't miss a clue if you tried a pot that did have one (hello, hay bales!).
3. Next, self-driving to Suwon, to some amusement park. Racers were to find a swanboat with a flag in it, and then paddle over to retrieve their next clue from a buoy. At this point, there was a different team in the lead, gym partners Adrian and Collin. Their buzz is that one of the members is hearing-impaired, and as you've probably noticed, this hasn't impaired them in the race.
4. Next clue was to some cultural park, with the Detour: Carrying logs, or throwing sticks into a small long target container. But first, just getting to the park was where things got frustrating for Vanessa and Pamela, as they found their decent performance on the roadblock rendered useless through bad driving, the kind that gets you lost in the middle of nowhere, especially where a good deal of the signs aren't in English. The passenger wouldn't stop blaming the driver for their hopeless situation... for that matter, neither would the driver herself.
5. At the cultural park, A&C took the logs, 2nd place Marc and Rowilson took the sticks. And somehow, despite the inherent difficulty of throwing a stick so that it lands in a small thin container (that's standing upright, I might add... think throwing a strand of raw spaghetti into a vase from like 10 feet), the Phillipine sportscasters overtook the gym partners, and got their clue for the pit stop first.
6. Seoul Olympic Peace Park, and yet another "BASE!" for Marc and Rowilson, although once again without a prize. Somehow, between the cultural and peace parks, Pam and Vanessa overtook Paula and Natasha to take 3rd, despite their misfortunes in trying to find the cultural park. Terri and Henry were shown doing tasks several hours behind the others. For example, it was twilight when they were getting the clue at the Suwon amusement park, and by the time they got to Seoul, it was very dark. They were in last, but it was an NEL. However, in a twist that TAR America has never implemented, they got a different penalty from Edwin and Monica, as they'll be starting the next leg sans money. In a show-ending confessional, Terri claimed she was well above begging, so we'll see how this pans out.
7. I should note that in the three episodes past, there was quite a deal of Japanese and Korean that wasn't subtitled in English, but the local subtitlers here nevertheless caught and translated... Hmm...
Episode 6: Fukuoka, Japan to Busan, Korea
1. Okay, so Allan gave the teams their clue envelopes, and he customized his greeting for each team. He even called the envelope "a nice shiny yellow prize" for Marc and Rovilson, who I should add, were racing this entire portion wearing lame fake mustaches. At this point, they'd won every leg so far bar the first. Anyways, the clue called for even more bunching: a ferry trip to Busan, Korea (back in my day, it was called Pusan). There, they were to taekowndo-chop some boards at a specific taekwondo school.
2. Just finding the school posed trouble for some teams, especially Ann and Diane, who were first at the government office in Fukuoka, but ended up at this juncture in last place. Ouch. Seriously. IIRC, they got dropped off in the part of the street.
3. Next clue took them to some market with a pig statue, and the first Yield of the race. Like the Goths would just a few days later, one team, Henry and Terri, put up a picture of a team that was ahead of them, and unlike the Goths, they had no real reason at all to justify putting up Marc and Rowilson's picture. Yeesh. At least the Goths had their reasons, even if they were flawed...
4. Detour! It's between grabbing coins from the bottom of a octopus tank (ever seen fish swimming in tanks at a seafood restaurant? yeah, it's like that), or delivering food to specific addresses (in a place where not all streets have names). No contest here, folks. Everyone eventually completed the octopus detour, with only Daichi and Sawaka (who had done so well in the Japan portion of the leg, not surprisingly since that was their home country) even trying the deliveries, and discovering it was too much of a hassle.
5. After the octopus, racers headed to some place called the APEC House at some beach. By the time the race got to the APEC House, it was dark and the front fence was locked. Through some arrangment or other, racers were allowed to climb over the front fence and search the grounds for the next clue box. Here, Ann and Diane tricked the Japanese siblings by saying they were heading to the airport. This confused the siblings quite a bit such that the Malaysian moms overtook them.
6. Roadblock, and it's unlocking one of like hundreds of locks with a given key. It's another one of those tasks copied straight from TAR America, albeit in a different country, and much scaled down. Marc and Rowilson got seriously lucky on this one: The key they got unlocked the first lock they picked. The Philippine sportscasters commented on how they went from luck of the evil to a whole new level of luck on that. (Interestingly, the subtitlers here translated "luck of the evil" as if to mean unlucky.) Other teams, while actually having to try more than one lock, didn't seem to take long on this Roadblock either.
7. And finally, the pitstop at some temple. Marc and Rowilson, first place, whatever, but no prize for them. And eventually, the Japanese siblings got eliminated, and the sister sung a song over the closing credits. Yeah. Whatever.
Episode 7: Busan, Korea to Seoul, Korea
1. Self-driving is always a wreck to watch, but Paula and Natasha took it a bit literally, blowing their tire a la TK and Rachel, and having to get help from the cops to change it. This prompted at least one team to think they were getting arrested for something. After P&N finished their little tire change, a nice touch (in this viewer's opinion, anyway) with a "Khob Khun Ka": It's the Thai word for "Thank you."
2. Anyways, they were driving to some bean processing place for an early Roadblock, which is one of those luck-based tasks. In this case, racers were to find a clue placed on top of a cloth strapped over a HUGE clay pot with fermenting soybean mash in it. One of the racers accidentally broke one of the lids covering the cloth, and another misinterpreted the clue and thought she had to look for the clue in the soybean mash in the pot. At least with this arrangement, you wouldn't miss a clue if you tried a pot that did have one (hello, hay bales!).
3. Next, self-driving to Suwon, to some amusement park. Racers were to find a swanboat with a flag in it, and then paddle over to retrieve their next clue from a buoy. At this point, there was a different team in the lead, gym partners Adrian and Collin. Their buzz is that one of the members is hearing-impaired, and as you've probably noticed, this hasn't impaired them in the race.
4. Next clue was to some cultural park, with the Detour: Carrying logs, or throwing sticks into a small long target container. But first, just getting to the park was where things got frustrating for Vanessa and Pamela, as they found their decent performance on the roadblock rendered useless through bad driving, the kind that gets you lost in the middle of nowhere, especially where a good deal of the signs aren't in English. The passenger wouldn't stop blaming the driver for their hopeless situation... for that matter, neither would the driver herself.
5. At the cultural park, A&C took the logs, 2nd place Marc and Rowilson took the sticks. And somehow, despite the inherent difficulty of throwing a stick so that it lands in a small thin container (that's standing upright, I might add... think throwing a strand of raw spaghetti into a vase from like 10 feet), the Phillipine sportscasters overtook the gym partners, and got their clue for the pit stop first.
6. Seoul Olympic Peace Park, and yet another "BASE!" for Marc and Rowilson, although once again without a prize. Somehow, between the cultural and peace parks, Pam and Vanessa overtook Paula and Natasha to take 3rd, despite their misfortunes in trying to find the cultural park. Terri and Henry were shown doing tasks several hours behind the others. For example, it was twilight when they were getting the clue at the Suwon amusement park, and by the time they got to Seoul, it was very dark. They were in last, but it was an NEL. However, in a twist that TAR America has never implemented, they got a different penalty from Edwin and Monica, as they'll be starting the next leg sans money. In a show-ending confessional, Terri claimed she was well above begging, so we'll see how this pans out.
7. I should note that in the three episodes past, there was quite a deal of Japanese and Korean that wasn't subtitled in English, but the local subtitlers here nevertheless caught and translated... Hmm...
