Lost In Translation

Kiling Them Softly

Killing Them Softly (2012) directed by Australian Andrew Dominik (Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) is based on a novel by George V. Higgins. A few things standout in this film: the visual style, the performances of the ensemble cast, and the overt political messages on billboards coming from TVs and radios from the 2008 presidential elections. The visual style includes things such as slow motion bullets shattering glass, by the scum-coated, rain-soaked cityscapes, and Johnny Cash signalling the arrival of the protagonist. Next the standout cast with the likes of Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, Sam Sheppard, Richard Jenkins, and Vincent Curatola (aka Johnny Sack from The Sopranos) among others. The political commentary about America being for sale against the rhetoric of the politicians throughout seems a bit too on the nose and obvious. However, it is an entertaining job-gone-wrong crime film stylishly executed. It's only Dominik's third film, so I would be curious to see what takes on next, because I have enjoyed all of his films so far.

Meiji University Nakano Campus

The new Meiji University Campus in Nakano is going to be used for the first time during the 2013-2014 academic year. It will house the undergraduate School of Global Japanese Studies and the graduate school.

I knew it was a mixed use location, but I was surprised by the many commercial venues such as Footnik pub, Ootoya (Japanese restaurant), a tapas bar, a noodle shop, a Chinese restaurant, two different cafes, McDonald's, etc.

I like the large window common spaces seen here on the first three floors-also plenty of outdoor seating at tables.

The glass doors for the offices are not popular, but easily remedied by a poster.

This time around I get the window view.

There's plenty of shelf space and the rooms are bigger than our previous offices.

The view of the campus to the east.

And the view to the west, the building across the way is Teikyo University's Nakano Campus building.

Girls

I have to admit when I heard about the new HBO produced comedy Girls, it did not register as a show that I would be interested in watching. I decided to give it a go when I learned from this article that Steven Soderbergh watches it. I was also happy to see that Jud Apatow is a co-producer of the series. It is essentially the brain child of Lena Dunham, who apparently made and directed the film Tiny Furniture, which is on my to-see list. The series is quirky, and mostly funny. The cast is generally very good, and I'm surprised on how good the writing can be. Perhaps, too much of Dunham naked or undressed. It kind of reminds me of Louie, because it sometimes inhabits dark places and has lots of awkward sex. I think it is one of the better comedies out there.

The Culture of Compliments

Kate Elwood discusses the cultural aspects of giving and receivng compliments in her column Cultural Conundrums:

Mark Twain famously declared, "I can live for two months on a good compliment." But for those with heartier accolade appetites, an "emergency compliment" website was launched last October by Megs Senk, an art director at Weiden+Kennedy, an American advertising agency. When in urgent need of a commendation pick-me-up, praise cravers need only turn to the screen for offbeat random admiration, like "Eight out of 10 coworkers agree your desk is the cleanest" or "You're the best at making cereal." The playful site has already garnered more than 2 million visitors. Of course, the notion of on-the-spot cyber-approbation has attracted its share of derisively eye-rolling detractors as well.

Compliments in usual face-to-face interaction are notoriously fiddly and even more so in cross-cultural contexts. Who can you compliment and what can you say? How should you respond when on the receiving end? Communication researcher Hiroko Matsuura took a survey of Japanese and American students' feelings about complimenting. The responses were similar between the two groups for many items, particularly those related to praise motivation, which both groups agreed was to make the other person happy or as a good way to start a conversation and not in order to get a compliment in return.

There was, however, some noticeable divergence regarding a few questions related to compliment-bestowing as a cultural custom. Americans generally agreed that it was easy for them to make small compliments, but their Japanese counterparts disagreed. Americans also agreed that complimenting was an important part of their culture but the Japanese respondents somewhat disagreed. When questioned about the likelihood of complimenting in specific situations, Matsuura also found that the American students were more likely to compliment family members than the Japanese students.

Perhaps the true beauty of the online compliment generator is that it eliminates the need to respond. The online user can simply bask in the nutty glory of the moment. On the other hand, being on the receiving end of a face-to-face friendly comment often requires the recipient to struggle to find the right tone--not too boastful, not too dismissive--and in cross-cultural situations frequently failing.

Applied linguist Takafumi Shimizu made a study of compliment responses of Japanese people speaking in Japanese, Americans speaking in English, Americans studying Japanese in Japan, and Americans studying Japanese in America. Shimizu broke down the responses into three basic categories: 1) positive, such as thanking, agreeing, or expressing gladness; 2) avoidance, like changing the subject or making some explanation; or 3) negative, for example, disagreeing or expressing embarrassment.

Forty-eight percent of the native Japanese speakers made positive responses compared with 81 percent of the Americans speaking English, with the two groups of learners of Japanese falling midway between these two groups. However, when it came to frequency of avoidance strategies, the learners of Japanese in Japan actually had higher frequencies than the native Japanese speakers. Thirty-nine percent of the Japanese native speakers avoided responding to compliments, but 45 percent of the Japanese learners in Japan did. Only 15 percent of the Americans speaking English and 18 percent of the Japanese learners in the United States made use of this strategy.

When making negative responses to compliments, learners of Japanese really outdid themselves, with much higher frequencies than either the native Japanese or native English speakers. Only 13 percent of the native Japanese speakers and 4 percent of the Americans speaking English disagreed with the compliments, expressed embarrassment, and so on, but 34 percent of the Japanese learners in Japan and 58 percent of the Japanese learners in the United States did.

In addition, when the Japanese learners disagreed they did so using stronger language than the Japanese native speakers. The Japanese native speakers only used words of direct negation like iya, iie, or ie ie in six out of a total of 240 responses; but the Japanese learners in Japan used these words 28 out of 192 times; and the Japanese learners in the United States did so in 64 out of 192 times. Moreover, the Japanese learners often used blunt-sounding phrases like chigau ("That's wrong") or so ja nai ("That's not right"), while the Japanese native speakers typically used the softer sonna koto nai ("It's not really like that").

Shimizu's results lend further support to the argument for the importance of eschewing simple but ultimately misleading overgeneralizations in cultural communication patterns. Victor Hugo compared compliments to a "kiss through a veil." When that veil is a cultural shroud, care must be taken lest the kiss be met inadvertently with a kick in the teeth.

Phnom Penh Noir

While browsing in a bookshop in Bangkok, on impulse I decided to pick up Phnom Penh Noir (2012) edited by Christopher G. Moore. Apparently it is the second such book in a series of SE Asian locales, the earlier edition is Bangkok Noir. At any rate the first three stories in the collection are by the most famous writers in the collection: “Hearts and Minds” by English The Killing Fields director Roland Joffe, “The Fires of Forever” by James Grady, author of Three Days of the Condor, and "Love and Death at Angkor" by John Burdett author of the Bangkok series that includes Bangkok 8. All of these get the nourish elements right, however, Joffe’s story felt a bit contrived and cliché, and Burdett can’t write a story these days without including some fantastical elements that mar any realism that he has created-also rife with clichés. The best of the three was Gray’s “The Fires of Forever.” However, these famous writers were trumped by editor Moore’s story “Reunion,” which was one of my favorites in the collection. I know that Moore has written several crime novels set in Thailand, but I have yet to read one and I feel I should give him a shot after reading his story. I was most intrigued by Praba Yoon’s “Darkness I Faster Than The Speed of Light.” I am most familiar with Praba Yoon through his collaborations with director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, most notably co-writing Last Life in the Universe. The story, not unlike the screenplay, was intriguing and enigmatic, but only six pages in length. There were several first time authors. I’m not sure how to classify the contribution from Kosal Kheiv, a poet-singer who was repatriated to Cambodia after serving time in jail as a teenager, despite spending almost all of his life in the US. Bopha Phron is another local voice, a journalist, who has written a surprisingly compassionate short story about pedophiles in Cambodia. There are typical noir stories set in Phnom Penh from Giancarlo Narciso and Christopher West.  While Richard Rubenstein’s story is unusual in that it is set in Cambodia during the rule of the Khmer Rouge in the 70s. Cambodian Suong Mak’s story “Hell in the City” looks at the powerlessness of poor women. Andrew Nette’s “Khmer Riche,” “A Coven of Snakes” by Bob Bergin, and “Rebirth” by Neil Wilford employ the Phnom Penh atmosphere effectively as the other stories. The last selection is a number of song lyrics from Christopher Minko lead singer of the band KROM. Some of the stories are better than others, but also tall of them lend realistic details about the city, Cambodia, and Khmer culture in general. I suppose this is best read as I did as color while traveling in Cambodia and Thailand.

Into The Abyss

Werner Herzog's Into The Abyss (2011) is a powerful look at the death penalty. I think Herzog makes a much stronger statement here than that  which was made in Dead Man Walking by letting real killers, their families, people who work in the system, and the families of the victims talk about their experiences. Herzog looks a single case involving two young men who committed a triple homicide in order to get a car. It is something to consider, and I think Herzog chose Texas, since they have the most executions of any state in the union. Recently, I read that the 82% of the Japanese also support the death penalty, the only other developed country that executes prisoners.

Bangkok Burger Company

Being a burger enthusiast and feeling the need to have some grease after a big night out, I decided to give Bangkok Burger Company a go to see how it stacks up against Japanese gourmet burger joints. I ordered The Bacon Cheese, triple crispy bacon, cheddar cheese and a burger cheese slice. However, you then need to make several choices after that; 1: Australian wagyu, ribeye, and aged sirloin or pork fillet and smoked bacon. I choose beef of course. 2: Then you chose the size regular (110g) or large (180g). I got the regular size. 3: There are three bun choices: homemade fluffy white, whole heat oat-flaked, or home made olive oil and Italian herb foccacia for an additional 40B. I went with white. 4: steak house fries or curly fries for an additional 40B. I go the curly fries. The burger had quality ingredients (including the bun) and American style bacon is a bonus--in Japan it is usually thick ham instead of traditional American-style bacon. As you can see in the burger isn't very dark, the meat didn't taste right somehow. In Japan it is so greasy that you need those little grease paper wrappers to collect the grease when you're eating. Also, the curly fries were great.

I'm on holiday so I couldn't resist a vanilla shake as well.