Lost In Translation

Old Style Izakaya

I found this 50s style izakaya by chance last night in Ikebukuro when meeting up with Aki and her husband Chris in town from London. Aki and Chris were AETs (Assistant English Teachers) in Koshigaya like me-Aki's third year was my first and Chris had been for there for a year, two years before me. I will have another chance to catchup with them as they head south next week to Okinawa for a family reunion-Aki's mother is from Okinawa. I will go to Okinawa for three days from Monday, for one last trip before school starts up.

DVD Notes: House Of Sand And Fog/The Motorcycle Diaries

I know House Of Sand And Fog was one of last year’s Oscar nominated films, but things take a while to get here. It was a powerful film and it seems Jennifer Connelly has been solid since her performance in Requiem For A Dream; Ben Kingsley is excellent as usual. The supporting cast members are impressive as well. It is a powerful story of hope and loss. There are no clear-cut heroes or villains. When the book, by Andre Dubus III, first came out and was endorsed by The Oprah Book Club, I thought some writer was trying to distinguish himself from the same named Andre Dubus, a favorite writer of mine since college, with the 3rd title added to his name. I lamented that it was sad that some upstart gets the exposure that a talented writer like Dubus deserved-incidently two excellent films inspired by his writing have been made: In The Bedroom and We Don’t Live Here Anymore. Later I learned it was his son, so I’ll cut him some slack, and the story he has created really resonates-a very powerful modern tragedy.

The Motorcycle Diaries has been deservedly getting good reviews. It is a beautiful film; part “buddy-road movie and part coming of age-as the experiences that Guevara has on his trip influence his decision to give up medicine for politics. The cinematography is great-someday I’d like to visit South America as well. Gael Garcia Bernal, rightfully, is becoming an international star and gives a star turn here as well. His sidekick Rodrigo de la Serna is also equally adept. But the real star of the film, for me, is the South American countryside. Walter Salles captures it in all its beauty.

Sake Drenched Postcards: Paradise TV

The back issues from this site have other interesting/seamy entries about Japan. This one is about a risque cable TV station:

Paradise TV Strives for Stupidity, Sex

Sleaze is not the Captain's bread and butter. Oh sure, some will want to emphasize the hostesses and used panties of his past when the time comes to chisel his tombstone. But those in the know realize that his stellar international reputation has been carved by standard, honest meat-and-potatoes journalism.

This week, however, is another exception. Join him in Japan's temple of satellite television smut - Paradise TV.

The television studio is a sparse mix of a wall map and two green plants. As the weather anchor begins reading the next day's forecast - snow in Niigata and sunny skies across Kanto - a gust of wind suddenly knocks her to one side.

Though giggling slightly, the journalist straightens her top-heavy frame and continues, fumbling a few lines but maintaining eye contact with the rolling camera while she firmly grips her notes.

The breeze increases, so much so that her black skirt and white long sleeves suddenly disappear in the rush, leaving the determined newswoman clad in only lace panties and an extremely loose-fitting black bra in which to announce the rain in Sendai.

Welcome to Paradise TV.

Click here to read the rest of the entry from Sake Drenched Postcards.

Film Notes: The Insect Woman

This last weekend The Japan Foundation put on a film festival called When Masters Were Young-60's. All films were screened with subtitles. There were several films that I wanted to see (Sing A Song Of Sex by Nagisa Oshima and The Toyko Wanderer by Seijun Suzuki). But I only made it to Shohei Imamura's The Insect Woman:

IMAMURA Shohei is an internationally renowned director, having twice won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or for his “The Ballad of Narayama” (Narayamabushi-ko)(83) and “The Eel” (Unagi)(97). Imamura’s works in the 1960’s such as ”Pigs and Battleships” (Buta to Gunkan)(61) and “The Insect Woman” helped to define his unique style that came to be known as the “serious comedy”. This masterpiece depicts the life of a middle-aged woman with lots of vitality, but told with the detached clinical style similar to a scientific observation of an insect. The movie's portrayal of the lives of formidable women during and after the war reveals human nature and desire in their rawest form. HIDARI Sachiko won the Best Actress Award at the 1964 Berlin International Film Festival for her role in this film.

I thought the themes(prostitution, women being kept as mistresses, women's sexuality, nontraditional families with children born out of wedlock, interacial marriage-one character had an American boyfriend and later married a Korean) must have been pretty shocking for 1963. It is an evocative social commentary on society and the hardships many women had to endure in the postwar struggle for survival. I'd be curious to see some of Imamura's other films, he doesn't flinch from controversial material

Praise For Old Boy

I guess I'm not the only one who is a fan of the dark Korean film Old Boy. I'm assuming that it is opening in America soon, since it got this rave review from Salon.com and another from Slate.com.

Non Modern Housing

Here's an old house in the middle of busy Akasaka.

DVD Notes: Shaun Of The Dead and Vanity Fair

Shaun Of The Dead has been getting good reviews, and therefore attracted my attention. It didn’t disappoint, technically a horror/comedy, let’s say there much more comedy than horror. Overnight London is populated by zombies, much like Danny Boyle’s excellent 28 Days Later. Shaun is a sort of slacker type, who has a dead end job, isn’t serious with his girlfriend, and always wants to go to the local pub with his pot selling, video game playing roommate-who’s claim to fame is his crowd pleasing orangutan impersonation. When faced with the zombie crisis he breaks into action to save his friend, girlfriend and her roommates, as well as his mother. Along the way, he is faced with several complications, if bitten by the zombies eventually the person bitten becomes a zombie as well.

Vanity Fair is one of the movies I picked up while on vacation as well. I was intrigued since it was a book I read in college, and I felt that Becky Sharp, the devious social climber was one of he great literary creations. It turns out that the movie (or Reese Witherspoon) lacks the teeth to present her as Thackeray did. However, it is a sumptuous period piece with great scene locations and costumes. I particularly liked the party in the garden and the final scene that took place in India. Realistic? No, Cinematic? Absolutely.

Shiny Happy Ginza

This picture shows the Seibu and Hankyu department stores in Ginza in the afternoon.

DVD Notes: The Fog Of War

Last night I saw a film somewhat related to Vietnam, The Fog of War, about former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. It was directed by Errol Morris, director of the excellent documentary about a crime, The Thin Blue Line. It is a fascinating portrayal of an extraordinary man. The film is framed in reference to McNamara’s 10 Lessons learned throughout his life as a soldier in WWII, working at Ford Motor Company, as Secretary of Defense, and as President of the World Bank. McNamara comes across as extremely lucid and intelligent, even at 85. He seems more reflective about things he has done in his past, but he wouldn’t comment directly on his role-individually, as it related to the avoidable deaths that accumulated during the Vietnam War. However, he feels that human lives need to be taken into consideration more fully when considering war. He seems most proud of the fact that while in office they were able to avoid nuclear war with Cuba, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He seems to regret the amount of destruction we leveled on Japan during WWII. Not just the atomic bombs, he points out that we destroyed 50%-90% of 37 Japanese cities with fire bombing before dropping the two nuclear warheads. He says that LeMay, the architect of the firebombing, has said that had they lost, they would have been tried as war criminals. The questioning and analysis that made him an effective soldier was then put to use in capitalism as he turned Ford Motor Company around with an emphasis not only on stock holders, but also employees and the general public as he introduced fuel efficient cars and seat belts. It was from this point that he was asked by Kennedy to join his cabinet. Once Kennedy was assassinated he bowed under to the pressure from Johnson to escalate the war in Vietnam. It seems that experience inspired him to suggest that the US shouldn’t resort to war unless it is to defend one of the 50 states. Perhaps Bush could use someone like McNamara on his cabinet. A fascinating, thought provoking documentary about an extraordinary man who helped shape the modern world-for better or worse.

Book Notes: Shadows And Wind

While in Vietnam I picked up an interesting book about contemporary Vietnam called Shadows and Wind by Robert Templer. It had been photocopied page by page-a pirate copy, if you will, which is a popular way of producing books for tourists. Anyway, after my first trip to Vietnam I read Stanley Karnow’s excellent history, Vietnam, which focuses on the cuses of the war and the aftermath and I felt this might be a follow up of sorts, picking up where Karnow left off. It’s not as contemporary as I’d like-it was published in 1998, but the author has interesting insights to make about the myth of Vietnam, the culture, the generation gap, food, politics, Viet Kieu (exiled or refugee Vietnamese), religion, and everyday life. Albeit the chapters on politics were long and difficult to get through-they came in the middle of the book, which seemed to slow me in my progress. However, I found the opening and closing chapters the most interesting and informative about contemporary Vietnamese society and from what I saw on my last trip to Hanoi-it is still fairly accurate. The Vietnamese are slowing making their way to the usual global consumerism with their pursuit of Honda Dream motorcycles, cell phones, and other consumer goods, but the governement has kept economic expansion moving at a trickle compared to other countries. More than half of the population was born after the war and no one ever gave me grief because I was an American. It'll be interesting to see whether or not Vietnam develops an economic model like China.