Lost In Translation

DVD Notes: Spokane Rental Roundup

There’s not a lot happening in Spokane, so it always gives me an opportunity to catch up on movies. I usually try to see foreign films or independent films that are unlikely to make their way to Japan, which seems to have a very arbitrary means of selecting which movies get released, as well as when they might be released. Anyway, here are some capsule reviews of movies I rented while visiting my family:

The Cooler is a film that I heard a bit of buzz about and was inspired to see. Macy plays another “loser”-someone with luck so bad that he “cools” other gamblers who are winning. But it is a story of the redemptive power of love and a meditation on the mythology of luck. I thought it was well-executed and there were some fine performances as well: Macy, Alec Baldwin playing a tough, old school casino boss, and Maria Bella as the inspiration for Macy’s turnaround. There’s a cool extra called “Anatomy of a Scene”, a special series from the IFC (Independent Film Channel), which shows how the climatic scene was shot and they talk to the director, actors, light managers, wardrobe managers, and others. It was interesting and informative.

Maria Full Of Grace was released when I was in San Francisco for my friend Lee’s wedding, and after reading about the film I had wanted to see then, but didn’t have time. It has just recently been released on DVD, and it is a powerful film, that was made in South America and New York completely in Spanish. It humanizes the plight of drug mules from Columbia who live in desperate circumstances and are compelled to risk everything for the possibility of a better life. It also shows how complex the war on drugs is, it tends to be shades of gray, rather than black and white. For example, how it is usually the lowest people on the totem pole who get punished of the dealings of the big time players. It’s the kind of drug movie Steven Soderberg should have made instead of Traffic, if he had perhaps focused on the yellow filtered story in Mexico with Benicio Del Toro. The accompanying commentary by first time director/writer Joshua Marston is extremely interesting and enlightening about the process that lead to the completion of the film.

I have to say that I was disappointed in Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes. It seemed like it might be an entertaining series of vignettes about caffeine and nicotine, but it seemed a bit thrown together with too much ad-libbing and not enough story. The Iggy Pop-Tom Waits scene that had so much promise on paper fizzled, the Jack White-Meg White conversation was pretentious and not funny, the scene with members of Wu Tang Klan and Bill Murray also failed to generate much humor either. The standout scene was done by Cate Blanchet, who played herself and a sort of never-do-well cousin visiting her in a hotel lobby. The following scene with Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan was also entertaining, but the rest of the scenes fell short. I wouldn’t recommend it. Lately I’ve been interested in seeing some movies by Wong Kar-Wai, so I finally picked up 1994's Chunking Express. It was two interlocking stories about love and loss shot in Hong Kong about 10 years ago and is the film debut of the lovely Faye Wong. I found it oddly compelling, despite the lack of significant dramatic action. It’s almost all mood and artifice. I’m looking forward to seeing some of his other older films, and his more recent films like In The Mood For Love and 2046.

I also saw two films by Mike Hodges, director of the excellent Get Carter. The first was, Croupier, a noirish sort of thriller about a writer/croupier who lives by a Hemingway-esque code of honor. It has a lot of atmosphere and is suspenseful with an unforseen twist at the end. Clive Owen was excellent in the film. I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, a revenge film that is a bit reminiscent of Get Carter, however, it unfolds much more slowly, as Will Graham (Owen) comes closer to finding out who is responsible for the death of his brother, so that he can get his revenge. Like Croupier, there is a lot of atmosphere chewed along the way. It also has an excellent performance by Owen and is quite compelling.

Film Notes: Closer/ The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

There are a lot of films out that I want to see, but while in Spokane, I’ve managed only to see a couple. The first was the new Mike Nichols film, Closer. It was a sort of film about relationships, in particular-complicated love triangles between the four leads: Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, and Clive Owen. It was an oddly compelling film, because there didn’t seem to be much of a moral to the story-other than people do horrible things to one another in the pursuit self gratification. It makes you wonder how anyone stays married beyond a couple of years-it underscores the complications that are a part of every relationship, where there a roles of the lover and the loved to be filled. All of the leads were great and Nichols does an excellent job of capturing the dreary grayness of London as well.

The other film I saw was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, the latest by Wes Anderson. I like Wes Anderson films, but they often suffer from a sort of hipster show-offiness. I get distracted from the story by Anderson’s obsession with retro props, music, etc… It’s like he’s trying to show you how cool and quirky he is. The subtle, dry humor has a place, but sometimes it feels forced. I’d have to say that I appreciated Rushmore and The Royal Tennabaums more, even though they suffer form the same sort of cloying “look at me, I’m so hip, I‘m so whimsical” attitude. That being said there were some really funny scenes and I really liked the David Bowie songs that were sung in Portuguese by the Brazilian deckhand, Pele, in the movie. The movies seems as though it could have been edited down to a more manageable length as well-say 100 minutes.

Additionally: I have to say that Roger Evert once again explicates my sentiments in his review, in saying that he can't recommend it, but wouldn't dissuade anyone from seeing it.

Book Notes: Dress Your Family In Coduroy and Denim

Before heading off to America I wanted to read something entertaining and not so heavy , so I picked up David Sedaris’ Dress Your Family In Denim and Corduroy. I think as many as 12 stories had been published n Esquire, GQ, and The New Yorker-so I had read several of them before. However, that did not make them any less funny or enjoyable the second time around. In fact, I enjoyed the collection so much that I basically finished reading it in one day, forcing me to pick another book for the journey. Sedaris never fails to come through with biting, savage, satirical, accurate, and uproariously funny stories. There’s a lot to relate to since he writes about families and the petty concerns of the human condition: greed, jealous, envy, pride, vanity, etc…I think there’s something that everyone can relate to or at least laugh at.

Sex and Chicken Make Christmas in Japan

Now this was what I was talking about (from Vancouver, CN The Georgia Straight):

Sex and Chicken Make Christmas in Japan

By kimberley o'donnell

With Jesus out of the way, Colonel Santa can pitch his Kentucky Fried Christmas cake. Kimberley O’Donnell photo.

Imagine this: your Christmas list is cut down to zero people. Instead of spending Christmas Eve arguing with your siblings about who qualifies as the true black sheep of the family, you go out on a date, eat a gourmet meal, and then toddle off to a nice hotel room for some cozy, romantic, Christmas sex.

There are no carollers, no treacly Christmas specials on the TV, no ghastly plum pudding and mince tarts. There is no necessity to display Christmas cheer, or to worry unduly about the nasty credit-card bills you ran up buying presents for your ungrateful nieces and nephews. Your only care is the frightening amount of cutlery you will have to negotiate before you get to the yummy crème brûlée, and the possibility of a stray piece of spinach on your teeth somewhat dampening the ardour in your date's eyes.

It's amazing how easy Christmas can be once you take the little baby Jesus out of the picture.

Christmas in Japan is strictly an import product, something cobbled together in response to the influence of American GIs stationed there after the Second World War. The Japanese were intrigued by the spectacle of Christmas--all those pretty lights and that strange fat man in the red suit--but they never bought into the religious origins of the holiday. All the different strands of the Christmas narrative got tangled up like so many errant strings of Christmas lights, resulting in the sign I saw in one department store, featuring a skinny, surfing Santa and the legend "Super Funky Holy Night".

Click here to read the rest of the article.  Almost makes me whish I had stayed there for Christmas.

Homeward Bound

Today I fly into Seattle, then onto to Spokane for Chrsitmas, so there probly won't be any posts until I return in January, but you never know. Happy Holidays.

In The iPod: Wicker Park Soundtrack

I haven't seen the movie, although it is playing here-I guess I'll get around to it sometime, but there are several cool bands with new songs on the soundtrack, which is why I picked it up: The Shins, The Postal Service, Death Cab For Cutie, +/- , Mazzy Star, Stereophonics, and Johnette Napolitano (formerly of Concrete Blonde) and Danny Lohner. The loaded soundtrack (17 tracks) also has quite a few songs by bands that I don't know well or never have heard of: Lifehouse, Snow Patrol, Broken Social Scene, The Stills (who were just in Tokyo), The Legends, Jaime Wyatt, Mates Of State, Mum, Aqualung, and Mogwai. I think it's pretty cool, I haven't really been blown away by any of the new bands, but it makes me realize there's a Mazzy Star album I probably need to get.

Kanda At Night

A street in Kanda, from the train platform.

Film Notes: Hanabi

Hanabi/Fireworks was the first Takeshi Kitano (also know as Beat Takeshi, as a comedian) film to garner a large amount of international attention when it won first prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1997. The multi-talented Kitano gets starring/directing/writing/and editing credit for this film. He is a busy man, he is constantly on TV and acts in other films and has written several books and writes columns. I hear that he will teach a course at Tokyo University on film this year as well. I’ve wanted to see it for some time but was waiting for a chance to see with subtitles in America or buy it on DVD. However, I’ve decided to start watching Japanese movies without subtitles again for listening practice. I think Kitano films are good for this, because they are largely devoid of lengthy scenes of dialogue and are mostly action driven. In the past I have seen Brother (which had some English since it was et in LA) and Zatoichi in Japanese. So I picked up Hanabi when I saw it on an end cap that’s promoting a new film that Kitano is starring in now, that is getting a lot of attention: Chitohone (Blood and Bones).

I think the title “Hanabi” (literally “fire flowers”) reflects the tone of the film. Nishi, a retired cop, robs a bank to provide for an injured partner and take his wife on one last trip around Japan. The action is interspersed with still shots of his colleague’s paintings (which were actually done by Kitano) and stunning shots of tranquility at temples and in nature. So in between subtle shots of tranquility, are jarring bursts of violence of the flashbacks of a stakeout gone bad in which his colleague is rendered a quadriplegic and another is killed and scenes where Nishi fights off Yakuza loan sharks who are trying to collect money that Nishi has borrowed. So there are long stretches of peacefulness (which may strain the patience of some viewers) interspersed with short bursts of violence-which produces a sort of effect like fireworks in the summer sky. I’m afraid some people might find the film too slow moving, which may be a sort to of Japanese film characteristic if you look at someone like Kurosawa who often employs a leisurely pace in most films. There are still a few Kitano films I haven’t seen yet and I look forward to seeing them.

Drunk or Tired?

You decide. It's not uncommon to see a VP of a big company passed out in a pool of vomit on any given night. This reminds me of when I used to live in Minami Koshigaya, it was one of the last train stops of the Hibiya line from Tokyo. My friend Brendan and I used to count how many people were pased out on our car on those late nights, I believe the records was 7.

DVD Notes: Starshaped

I recently bought a DVD called Starshaped, which is a documentary film about the Britpop band Blur. To be honest I was a little disappointed. I think the live sequences were well done, but the rest was sort of pretentious. It didn’t really provide an in-depth look at the band just starting out, unfortunately, as I was hoping. This was filmed during their Leisure album tour, a CD I recently borrowed and ripped from a friend. It was interesting to see this band as fresh-faced youths though. I think they are one of my favorite bands, I really enjoyed Damon Albarn’s (the lead singer) side project Gorillaz and their latest album without guitarist Graham Coxon, Think Tank was quite impressive as well. The best thing about the DVD is “Live in Kilburn” sequence.