Lost In Translation

Tokyo from Edo to Showa 1867-1989

Tokyo from Edo to Showa 1867-1989 (2010) may be the best comprehensive social history of Tokyo from the acclaimed translator of Yasunari Kawabata and Junichiro Tanizaki among others, Edward Seidensnicker. There is a preface by film critic and historian Donald Richie as well as an introduction by Japanese scholar Paul Waley. This volume is essentially a combination of a two volume series on the social history of Tokyo starting with the first volume Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake: How the Shogun's Capital Became a Great Modern City, 1867-1923 (1984). The chapters in the book include: 1) "The End and the Beginning" 2) "Civilization and Enlightenment" 3) "The Double Life" 4) "The Decay of the Decadent" 5) "Low City, High City" 6) "The Taisho Look." Seidensnicker chose to use the Great Earthquake as a dividing point instead of the end of the Taisho era (which ended December 25th 1926) since it created an opportunity to rebuild the city anew and ushered in a new age socially and culturally. This in turn leads to the second volume: Tokyo Rising: The City Since the Great Earthquake (1990). This books has the following chapters: 1) "The Days After" 2) "The Reconstruction Days" 3) "Darker Days" 4) "The Day of the Cod and the Sweet Potato" 5) "Olympian Days" 6) "Balmy Days of Late Showa." I guess the main drawback for this volume is that it ends before "the Bubble" burst in Japan and Tokyo, but I think it was the earlier chapters that were really most interesting. Although I must admit it was interesting to see him correctly identify areas of Tokyo that would develop and become major centers of commerce like Roppongi, Shiodome, and Marunochi. It is clear that Edward Seidensnicker, like Donald Richie had great affection for Tokyo and it's traditions. One of my summer projects is to read Seidensnicker's translation of The Tale of Genji and then his memoir about this project, Genji Days.

Shadows

John Cassavetes first film as a director, Shadows, came out the same year as Jean-Luc Goddard's Breathless. I think that both films breathed new life into the form that was perhaps becoming somewhat bloated by the studio systems, it is somewhat akin to the punk movement with an emphasis on do-it-yourself. Goddard finding inspiration as a film critic who was compelled to make movies and Cassavetes as an actor with a bad experience within the film system and wanted to make films on his own terms. This film evolved out of Cassavetes improv acting troupe and chronicled the lives of a group of mixed race friends living in New York and dared to look at un-Hollywood issues such as racism and awkward first sex encounters, which were unheard of in those days. Cassavetes was trying to achieve a sort of verisimilitude of the human experience by focusing more on the characters than story or cinema conventions. As a result some film critics disdain Cassavetes improv style, while others laude his style. Critic Philip Lopate was late to the party, because of the fact that Cassavetes went adrift from the conventional long-medium shot style of most art films of the era and experimented with hand-held and close-ups to capture the essence of his characters. His gonzo filming style also brings the viewer in direct contact with the seedy 42nd Street of New York in the 50s

Tsuke Soba Sakuranba

Tsukemen at Tsuke Soba Sakuranba in Nakano. It was really tasty, I think I had the shio (salt) style soup with chicken (there are other choices such as shrimp and pork). So good that I think it rates in my Top 5 for Nakano so far...

The Wind Rises

The last Studio Ghibli film by Hayato Miyazaki is The Wind Rises (2013), which has been getting almost universal praise. It is an entertaining fictionalized film about the dream for creating a perfect plane and there is also a subplot of a doomed romance. There is some great artwork and sequences, particularly the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 is rendered ina beautiful fashion. However, there is a large elephant in the room of the story of the invention of the Zero fighter by Jiro Horikoshi: almost absolute omission of Japan's war of aggression and colonization of China and SE Asia. Horiskoshi is portrayed as a saintly engineer focused on creating a beautiful plane and oblivious to everything else including the purpose of his creation and that is a bit hard to swallow. There's a scene where he is allowed to observe Nazi technological advances in aviation and asked a colleague who they will go to war with--come on...there is no way that he was that naive and Miyazaki avoids confronting any hard questions and also avoids being an apologist.

Sanjuro Redux

I recently re-watched Akira Kurosawa's sequel to Yojimbo, Sanjuro (1962), because so many of my Japanese Cinema students saws it as the out-of-class viewing assignment and I realized that I couldn't remember the film well, unlike Yojimbo. Tsubuki Sanjuro (the man with no name's alias in this film) is an interesting character: savvy, uncouth, and a killing machine with the sword. He mentors and helps a group of samurai bring down corrupt officials who have kidnapped their magistrate. One of the leaders of the group is a sinister Tatsuya Nakadai who ends the film having a sword fighting duel with Sanjuro and loses spectacularly in spurt of blood. There is some comedic relief from the rescued magistrate's wife (Takao Irie) and her daughter (Reiko Dan) as well as a captured henchman. There are the usual Kurosawa flourishes and grand moments of cinematography in the fighting scenes. It was nice to revisit a classic Kurosawa samurai film.

Betonamuchan

Betonamuchan is an authentic tasting Vietnamese restaurant in Okubo near the station. I stopped by for the beef pho (Hanoi style) lunch set with fried and fresh spring rolls for ¥900. I'd like to come by for dinner some timee.

Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse

The fact that Criterion had only carried is one Mikio Naruse title, When A Woman Ascends the Stairs, until the 2011 release of Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse (Flunky, Work Hard / No Blood Relation / Apart from You / Every-Night Dreams / Street Without End) bodes well. In my opinion Naruse is worthy of being included in the pantheon of great Japanese directors like Kurosawa, Ozu, and Mizoguchi. The British equivalent of Criterion, Eureka!, has released several worthy Naruse films, hopefully Criterion will do so as well in the near future, because Naruse deserve a larger audience. Some of this might have to do with the fact that many of his early films have been lost, but Criterion has managed to find several of those early ones that still exist. Criterion has commissioned noted musicians Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz to create original scores for these films as well that I think add o the enjoyment. Again this collection has informative essays from Criterion staff writer Michael Koresky. The first volume, contains two films: Flunky Work Hard (1931) and No Blood Relation (1932). Flunky Work Hard is a 28 minute short that anticipates Ozu's I Was Born, But... (1932 in the story of a working-class father and son. It is a nansensu comedy that is essentially a comic tragedy. There is a sequence where there is a montage with prismatic effects, split screens, and super impositions triggered by shocking news that exhibits Naruse's experimentalism at this stage. This sort of experimentalism has been completely excised in his later works from what I have seen. No Blood Relation is a typical female driven melodrama that would become his forte in his later years. The story of a woman who leaves her family only to achieve great acclaim as an actress in America, who then tries to reclaim her daughter and thugs intervene. This one has some impressive location scenes and clever plot was adapted from a shimpa play by longtime Ozu collaborator Kogo Noda. There is some camera zooming experimentation as well as the use of deep focus that is not seen in late Naruse films. Apart From You (1933) is yet another female driven melodrama about a household with an aging geisha and her wayward son who resents his mother's job and a young geisha that was forced into the profession by an alcoholic father and spineless mother.  There is more of the experimental zooming and camera affects in this film as well, as well as interesting outdoor locations and interestingly framed shot inside. Every-night Dreams (1933) is another geisha drama where a single mother is struggling to raise a son on her own, until the father returns to try and make amends for not being able to support his family. It is similar to No Blood Relation, but perhaps less melodramatic. The mother is clearly stronger than the husband and will be a survivor. Street Without End (1934) would be Naruse's last silent film and his last for Shochiku. It seems that this film was based on the lurid tale of a tea hostess, but in Naruse's hands he manages to find a stirring melodrama rather than focusing on the exploitative elements of the tale. A working class girl falls for a rich man after an auto accident, while turning down an offer to become a film actress. There is some bold commentary on the restrictiveness of conventional marriage, the tea hostesses brother asks: "Think you'll be happy as a bourgeois housewife?" and a direct inter-title that says: "Even today, feudalistic notions of 'family' crush the pure love of young people in Japan." His next film for what would become Toho Studios was Wife! Be Like A Rose!, which would not only win Kinema junpo's first prize, but would also be theatrically shown in America. Naruse rose in prominence in the 50s when his camera would move less and less severe cuts in his editing, but the tales of woe and suffering would continue.

Bertolucci Redux x 2: The Last Emperor / The Conformist

I think I first sought out Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987) on Roger Ebert's recommendation from his show "At The Movies." I remember seeing it again in the mid 90s while working as a substitute teacher in a history class and was impressed. It has stood the test of time well. The locations and cinematography are amazing and it has an excellent cast with John Lone, Joan Chen, and Peter O'Toole in the principal roles. The special features include: audio commentary by director Bernardo Bertolucci, producer Jeremy Thomas, screenwriter Mark Peploe, and composer-actor Ryuichi Sakamoto, and a booklet featuring an essay by critic David Thomson. The audio commentary was quite interesting, but I found it amusing that Sakamoto tried to be an apologist for Japan's colonial role in his commentary China saying that they suffered at the hand so of Europeans as well-certainly not on the level of Nanking and the other atrocities committed by the Japanese there.

I recently read the BFI: Il conformista essay on Bertolucci's The Conformist (1970) by Christopher Wagstaff. So I decided to watch it again and it also holds up to the test of time as a striking visual artifact as well. I originally sought it out as director Paul Schrader confided that he always watches it before starting a new film project for inspiration. And I can see why he does this.

BFI: The Conformist

I was first inspired to see Bernardo Bertolucci's film, The Conformist, when I read that critic/director Paul Schrader stated that he watched this every time before starting on a new film project as a director. After seeing the film and the exquisite mise en scene and cinematography employed throughout the film I could understand why he did this. Christopher Wagstaff analyzes Bertulucci's film in BFI: The Conformist (2012). He does this by discussing the "Background" where he compares and contrasts the screenplay from it's adapted source, the novel by Alberto Moravia (Godard's Contempt was also based on one of his novels). Then the "Collaborators" were discussed. Chief among them were his influential editor Franco (Kim) Arcalli, virtuoso cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (also known for Apocalypse Now and The Last Emperor ), and production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti. This is followed by a discussion of the "Narrative" or the main parts of the story. And is in turn followed by a discussion of "Mise en scene and Montage" which is essentially a general discussion of Bertolucci's desire to inject a psychoanalytic element into the film and a shot by shot analysis of images and action that takes place in the film. Wagstaff makes an overt summation of the film in the final section "Sex and Politics," in which he states: 

Il conformista is a supremely beautiful artifact. But it brings the viewer no nearer to understanding any but the most orthodox sexual orientation. And while its theme of conformism might on a very superficial level, contribute to explaining why the fascist regime was so tolerated by a politically indifferent Italian populace, it contributes little to an understanding of the politics of fascism and its savage consequences in a historical movement. Perhaps what it does do is illustrate the extent to which all 'messages' are made of 'images,' and all images are illusions projected on one kind of screen or another: the more attractive the image, the more illusory.

Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson is back with another winning comedy, this one, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), is set in the imaginary eastern European country Zubrowka. I have revisited a couple of older Anderson releases after getting the Criterion Fantastic Mr. Fox edition and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. While the former is one of my favorite Anderson films, I realize I had given the later the short shift by dismissing it as overly sentimental and quirky, perhaps, it came out too closely on the heels to The Royal Tennebaums, another Anderson favorite. But on second viewing I had a much greater appreciation for the world he created for that film. Thus, I felt I would like to see the next Anderson world on the big screen, so this is the first film I have sen in the theater this year.The world created in this film is based on the melancholy works of its acknowledged inspiration, the late Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. It has lots of great effects and performances starting with the two leads Ralph Finnes as the beloved concierge, M. Gustave and Tony Revolori as the young Zero Mostel (played as an older man by F. Murray Abraham). The effects and cinematography are half the fun, and there are a fully array of great cameos by the likes of William DaFoe, Jude Law, Tom Wilkerson, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson among many more. It's another entertaining voyage into the imagination of Anderson.