#MAHJONG DEMON HOW TO#
#MAHJONG DEMON PRO#

вЂњYou have to pass a written test and an interview, and then place high in a test tournament.вЂќ

вЂњTons of people take the test every year, but the pass rate is really low,вЂќ she says.

#MAHJONG DEMON PRO#

Two years later, she passed the Japan Professional Mahjong League (JPML) test to become the first Western mahjong pro fellow American Garthe Nelson passed at the same time. вЂњBut mahjong is really easy to learn, and pretty soon I was playing in jansou by myself.вЂќ вЂњI first saw the tiles and was like, вЂWhat are those things? They look so complicated,вЂ™вЂќ she recalls.

вЂњBut itвЂ™s what I love, so I couldnвЂ™t be happier.вЂќД«orn in Seattle and known to friends (and foes) as the вЂњWest Coast Angel,вЂќ Barr, 28, fell in love with mahjong while a student at TokyoвЂ™s Sophia University. вЂњIвЂ™m so busy every day with mahjong, itвЂ™s like I breathe it,вЂќ she says.

#MAHJONG DEMON HOW TO#

вЂњItвЂ™s the best game out there and I want the world to know it.вЂќД®ver since learning how to play in 2004, Barr has become a worldwide mahjong ambassador, spreading the word from Taiwan to Denmark to Las Vegas. вЂњMahjong is pretty much a manвЂ™s game right now, but I think thatвЂ™s such a waste,вЂќ she says as she sits in front of a computer playing an online match. She doesnвЂ™t just want you to play mahjong-she wants to you to dominate at it.Д«lue-eyed blondes are generally the last thing youвЂ™d expect to see at the jansou tables. Yet if you ever wanted to learn, look no further than mahjong pro Jenn Barr. It can be found everywhere-in hotel basements, in the backs of offices, even around the corner from your local train station-yet it remains hidden behind shutters and tinted windows, out of sight to all but those who can read the characters on the signage out front: вЂњMahjong.вЂќД¬hances are, youвЂ™ve seen dozens of 'jansou' (mahjong parlors) in Tokyo, but you probably couldnвЂ™t pick them out, let alone go in and play. This scene of forces spinning out of control virtually defines Yang's dark sense of the present historical moment, even if he chooses to go beyond it and end on an unexpected grace note of tenderness and repose.The most popular board game in Japan is essentially invisible. Acting styles in Western and Asian filmmaking are clearly not the same, and beyond this difference lies a collision of cultural identities close to the center of Yang's frenzied maelstrom.ДЄlternating between the abrasive and the poignant, the sad and the terrifying, Mahjong offers a demonic tour of modern life that culminates in one of the most shocking, dramatically powerful murders I've ever witnessed in a film. If this viewpoint strikes us as odd and oblique, I'm sure that's no less the case when Asians see Asian characters in Western films. What's valuable about these characters is the fresh and fascinating insights they provide into how Westerners вЂ“ and westernization вЂ“ might be regarded from a Taiwanese perspective. It's been widely criticized for something I like most about it вЂ“ the inclusion of French, English, and American characters. вЂњ Mahjong is Yang's angriest and most provocative film, and also probably the one that's elicited the most anger from viewers, especially in the West. Its view of human nature is so dim, or grim, that even the filmвЂ™s most sympathetic character, Virginie LedoyenвЂ™s vulnerable Marthe, has ignoble motives.ДЄlert viewers can spot characters from Mahjong occupying the background of YangвЂ™s subsequent film Yi Yi. YangвЂ™s films had always been heroically unsentimental, but Mahjong is almost nihilistic. Taking the experimental comedy of A Confucian Confusion into even more fraught and contradictory areas, the pace and tone of the film is breezy even when the subject matter is at its most bitter or bleak.

One good turn starts her descent into a twilight world of petty criminals, con-men, kidnappers and killers. A young French girl travels to Taipei in search of the priggish British architect who dumped her. YangвЂ™s vicious satire of modern TaiwanвЂ™s criminal underworld and business overworld (can you spot the difference?) may be his most divided and divisive film, gleefully mixing cultures (French, English, American, Chinese) and moods (comic, touching, ironic, horrific).

Mahjong demon