Lost In Translation

Childhood Days

It's surprising that there is little mention in English about Masahiro Shinoda's late classic, Childhood Days (1990), which won the Japanese Academy Awards Best Film distinction for that year.  It is a pretty straight forward memory of youth/coming of age film that seems stylistically less adventurous than the films he was making in the 60s and 70s. However, it is a poignant story in its own right. It is the story of a boy Shinji (Testuya Fujita) who is sent to Toyama to stay with relatives during WWII to avoid the air strikes that will inevitably rain down on Tokyo. While in Toyoma he faces bullying and must try to fit in with the unfamiliar country way of life. At school he faces bullying from the class captain Ohara (Yuji Horioka), but at home in private the two bond over their fondness for stories and reading. In fact one of the ways he is bullied is by entertaining the ragtag band of boys with stories remembered from books read. Thus, the bully has two sides-he's not just a sadistic meglomaniacal tyrant liek in most movies of this nature. However, the boys are not unlike those from Lord of the Flies, once power is shifted from Ohara to the old class second, Sudo (Noritake Kobinata) the terror and bullying continues.  This film seems as though it may have been inspiration for another coming of age story set in the countryside that appeared in 1996, Yoichi Higashi's Village of Dreams. Needless to say, Shinoda was still capable of creating compelling cinema even in his late period. (He is sitll living but hasn't directed a film since 2003's Spy Sorge).

The Flavor Of Green Tea Over Rice

The Flavor Of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) directed by Yasujiro Ozu seems like an unusual film to me in that I have mostly seen the late Ozu pictures. Thus, perhaps, like Donald RIchie I have come ot expect a certain style in his films. This films has unusual stylistic shots from inside a cab at the beginning of the film and there are several times when Ozu uses a tracking shot or moves in for a close up that almost seems disruptive given how little the camera moves in his latter films. David Bordwell in Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema points out that Ozu would never again use such flagrant camera movements, but it is characteristic that they were subject to a rigorous semi-abstract organization. Ihave to admit to enjoying those falgarant camera movements-they are more interesting to me than the static camera of late Ozu. After seeing so many of Mikio Naruse's films, a contemporary of Ozu's, it may lie in the fact that over time both directors stopped experimenting as much and settled in with a style that was more static and focused more on the story and acting, rather than stylistic effects of the camera. I can't help but think of Naruse when thinking about the story of this film as well. The story is very similar to Naruse's 1951 triumph with Setsu Hara, Repast aka Meishi (rice!), which is also about a childless couple's marital struggles when the dull, ineffectual husband is finally valued at the end of the film. The couple is younger and poorer in Naruse's films. I found it hard to have sympathy for the Hara character, but it is even harder to have sympathy for Taeko (Michio Kogure) who is upper middle class with a maid to cook and clean and no children-spoiled from a privileged background. She looks down on the earthy, simple unpretentious, but successful business man Mokichi (Shin Saburi), who provides this lavish lifestyle for her which she takes completely for granted. Bordwell  focuses on a scene where Taeko is thinking in a train, which he attributes to William Wyler and John Ford's influence on Ozu. In the end, the wife sees the  folly of her ways and the future seesm bright even for the unmarried niece, Setsuko (Keiko Tsushima) who was wary of marriage after seeing Mokichi and Taeko's marriage up close. 

Meiji Jingu Approach

The golden ginkos of the approach.

 

Yumenji

The final installment in Seijun Suzuki's Taisho Triolgy is Yumeji (1991), which didn't appear until 10 years after the second installment, Kagero-za aka Heat Haze in 1981. Again he teams with producer Genjiro Arata for an unusual biographic film that is more impressionistic than factual of the story of the life of real-life painter and poet Takehisa Yumeji (1884-1934). Yumeji is more of an addendum, to those earlier films. It stands apart, because Yumeji’s artistic world has little to do with the Westernised social and cultural world of the Taisho era that is seen in Zigeunerweisen and Kagero-za. There is a convoluted plot involving women, painting, a duel, and elopement in Kanazawa. At times, as in the previous two films, there are moments of confusion and boredom as Suzuki becomes more interested in the producing impressions of characters or visual images than following a conventional narrative structure or plot line. Like the previous chapters of the trilogy, there are great visual set pieces, art direction, pictures, and images throughout. It is worth noting that I first became aware of this films due to the fact that Wong Kar-wai borrowed a musical motif, "Yumeji's Theme" from this film for his film-In The Mood For Love, and ironically it is used more often in that film than in the original film. It's not unreasonable to say that this and the Taisho Trilogy, in general, is probably only of interest to art film aficionados and people interested in the films of Seijun Suzuki-there is much artistry to appreciate once one struggles through the sprawling dream-like narratives of the films.

Thousand Cranes

Yasunari Kawabata's Thousand Cranes (1952) is another strange and profound novel that explores the depths of human feelings of love and longing. It is one of three works cited by the Nobel Prize committee in their citation for Kawabata as winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968 (the other two works were Snow Country and The Old Capital). There are several novels written by Kawabata where I find the behavior of the characters somewhat baffling and mysterious-dare i say inscrutable. It is clear that they have some obsession with another man or woman, but it isn't clear why exactly they have this obsession. Or perhaps, the reader is denied the inner thoughts that reveal these obsessions.More often than not, it is explored in an extramarital affair, which might not be surprising since marriages in that time were not always "love" marriages, but often arranged marriages or marriages that were practical in nature. In this novel, Kikujji has an affair with his father's mistress, Mrs. Ota, and falls for her daughter, Fumiko, while Chikako, who had a fleeting affair with her father intrudes and is a general busybody that needlessly complicates his life. Kikuji's actions are somewhat obscure-why does he feel compelled to sleep with his father's mistress? Why doesn't he banish Chikako from his life or refuse to meet her when she comes calling given that he find her somewhat repellent and meddlesome. Traditional tea ceremony plays a large role in that Kikuji's father was something of a connoisseur of the art and the action begins when Kikuji visits Chikako's tea ceremony and meets Mrs. Ota her daughter and a possible marriage prospect and this sets the story into action. There are other aspects of it that figure prominently in the story related to his father's personal collection and a piece that is given to Kikuji after Mrs. Ota's suicide. It is yet another artful and mysterious story of obsession and desire.

20,000 Days On Earth

20,000 Days On Earth (2014) is something of a documentary and something of a staged promotion for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds's new album, Push The Sky Away (2013). Therefore, I can't see it appealing to anyone other than Nick Cave fans, of which I am-thus an enjoyable diversion if somewhat stagy in execution and not so revealing.

The Clergyman's Daughter

A Clergyman's Daughter (1935) by George Orwell is one of two novels that he didn't want reprinted (the other being Keep the Aspidistra Flying), because he felt they were flawed in some fundamental way. A Cleargyman's Daughter is experimental in several ways and while somewhat flawed, it has some very worthwhile strengths as well. First of all, Orwell is excellent at describing the miseries of poverty, provincial life, and life in the city. He is great at creating memorable characters which are vividly described and come alive with the wonderful dialogue crated by Orwell-he knew people and knew them inside and out from all levels of society. He describes shady Mr. Wharburton's conversation as "Oscar Wilde seven times watered" and the main character Dorthy's father wish to live in the past  as "very expensive: you can't do it on less than two thousand a year." A wry observation about Dorthy herself states that "she did indeed believe in Hell, but she couldn't persuade herself that anyone actually went there." And perhaps my favorite description is that of Dorthy's employer at the school, Mrs. Creevy: "She was one of those people who experience a kind of spiritual orgasm when they manage to do somebody else a bad turn."

The book is basically divided into three sections. The first sections establishes Dorthy's un-fulfilling life as the daughter of a Clergyman in a small town. She is a kind of puritanical, chaste true believer who is trying to live in a highly virtuous manner much to the obliviousness of everyone around her. The second section occurs after a dubious incident where Dorthy loses her memory and winds up on the bum with a group of homeless youths who take her along for hops picking, which Orwell chronicles with his usual accuracy and details of the miseries associated with such mindless hard labor. After that she spends 10 days as a homeless woman in London before she regains her memory and seeks help from her father, who only helps her by having a distant relation find work for her at a fourth-rate finishing school for girls, where Orwell can have ago at those institutions as well. Finally she is saved from that drudgery and returns to her former life, but only after having lost her faith. This aspect was interesting since I have re-read Animal Farm recently, and religion is not highly valued by Orwell in that novel either. So I was wondering where Orwell was going with this devout protagonist. In the last third of the novel it became clear that religion was another target for Orwell to take to task. Perhaps, being a hug fan of Orwell made this novel more interesting for me than the average reader, but I think it has worth outside of being a curiosity for avid fans.

Petrified Forest

Masahiro Shinoda's 1973 film Petrified Forest is an unusual film. It is based on a novel by Shintaro Ishihara, in which I think the author was trying to resolve some issues such as difficulty with intimacy and a mother complex. There are several different narrative strands driving the film. In the main narrative a young medicine student, Hauro (Ken'ichi Hagiwara), runs into his attractive ex-schoolmate Eiko (Sayoko Ninomiya) and they quickly fall in love with each other. The only obstacle is the jealous owner of a barbershop who simultaneously is her lover and her employer and has power over Eiko, because she borrowed money from him. Hauro and Eiko resolve to get rid him so that they can be together. Haruo's estranged mother (Haruko Sugimura excellent as malevolent women), who was caught cheating on her now departed husband by Haruo, who resents his mother for it-she also left the family shortly after this.  His mother is now obsessed with living with Haruo, and it is the last thing Haruo wants. Simultaneously, he is working on a medical case as an assistant to a senior doctor and professor who operates on a young boy recklessly removing a tumor that leaves the boy deaf. The senior doctor continues to give the boy and his mother (Mariko Yagi) false hope of recovery and implicates Haruo by admitting as much in front of him making him complicit in the facade to his great consternation. Thus, Haruo is full of contradictions-he few objections to poisoning the venal beauty shop owner and lover of Eiko, feels no guilt at denying his mother's request to live with him, but is tortured over the situation of the young boy in which he feels obligated to help smooth over. Quickly, once his lover teams up with his mother he throws her over for the mother of the damaged child-and hell hath no fury as woman scorned-she plans to get revenge by exposing him as a killer after killing  herself with a letter to the police as well as sending a letter to his new lover. His mother intervenes and poisons Eiko and moves in with Haruo to look after him, which seems to destroy him emotionally. The cinematography of Kôzô Okazaki, who worked on Shinoda's Buraikan, is impressive. The soundtrack by the phenomenal Tôru Takemitsu is among his very best compositions.

Recent New Music

Several interesting and entertaining albums have been released this year and I haven't been commenting on them as I have acquired them. Here'S a brief summary of some of the recent ones I've been listening to.

Jenny Lewis' impressive solo follow up, The Voyager. It is a strong album with no filler, but my favorite tracks are: "Just One of the Guys," "Slippery Slopes, " and "late Bloomer."

I think Spoon may have also released one of their strongest albums to date with They Want My Soul. It may be there most straight ahead rock alum yet. The standout tracks are: "Rent I Pay," "Inside Out," and "Outlier."

I am always happy to see a new release by The New Pornographers-they are always pretty solid albums, and Brill Busters is no exception with tracks like: "Birll Busters," "Champions of Red Wine,""Backstairs," and "You Tell Me Where."

Ryan Adams is one of the more prolific solo artists and has released the eponymous Ryan Adams, his first in three years. It is a pretty straight ahead rock album that is solid, but with few standout tracks, however, "Tired of Giving Up" holds up among his best songs.

Thom Yorke also has a new solo album, Tomorrow's Modern Boxes. It has more experimental sounding music, not unlike his first solo record The Eraser. The standout tracks for me were "The Mother Lode," "Interference," and "Nose Grows Some."

To be honest I haven't paid attention to a U2 album since 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind, but since Songs of Innocence was delivered for free to my iTunes I had a listen. And while it's not a return tot heir glory days, it's an enjoyable album with standout tracks, but of those probably "Volcano" and "Raised by Wolves" are probably at the top of my list. 

Kagero- za

Kagero-za (aka Heat Haze 1981) is the second part of the Taisho Roman Trilogy directed by Seijun Suzuki and produced by Genjiro Arata. It is again a literary adaptation, this time of a short story by Kyoka Izumi, a writer most famous for Gothic ghost stories. Izumi had works adapted by a number of directors including Kenji Mizoguchi's The Water Magician (1933), Teinosuke Kingusa's Midare-gami (1961), and Masahiro Shinoda's Demon Pond (1979). The story is somewhat free flowing with several digressions that do not add much to the overall story with large doses of the supernatural. It is set in 1926 and tells the story of Shunko Matsuzuko (played by action star Yasuka Matsuda), a playwright, who happens across a curious woman who turns out to be the apparition of the wife (Emiko Azuma) of his wealthy benefactor Tamawaki (Katsuo Nakamura). The story is further complicated by the fact that Tamawaki has two wives. All in all, the plot was somewhat difficult to follow, but that seems to be secondary to the style of the film overall. And the mise en scene (the sets, locations, costumes, actor movements, cinematography, music, and especially the art direction) are the most impressive aspects of the film. The story, quite frankly, is secondary to the visual expositions of this historical and supernatural time and place. Suzuki has always been adept at the use of artistic flourishes and set direction in his films, but here it is particularly impressive. Especially the last coda of the film which incorporates an artistic play within the film with amazing set backdrops depicting spectacular traditional Japanese art that are further incorporated into scenes that take place outside the playhouse, which has a sensational collapse.

Set in Tokyo in 1926, three years after Suzuki’s own birth, Heat Haze Theatre depicts a Japan caught in flux between tradition and modernity, with 1970s action star Matsuda playing Shunko Matsuzaki, a playwright of modern Shinpa theatre who is being supported by a wealthy patron, Tamawaki (Nakamura). One day he crosses the path of a beautiful woman on her way to the hospital where she tells him a friend is dying. She asks Matsuzaki to accompany her because she is scared of a mysterious older woman (Azuma) there who is selling the fruit of the Chinese Lantern Plant, or physalis, rumoured to contain the souls of women. He refuses, but finds himself unable to shake off this beautiful apparition, whom it is later revealed may be the deceased wife of Tamawaki. - See more at: http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/heat-haze-theatre/#sthash.Shm01hUd.dpufIf nothing else this film has an impressive visula style found in the misc en scene: the costumes, sets, cinematography, set locations, and especially art direction. I liked the play within the film and the dramtic backgrounds of traditonal Jpanese art that inhabit the last scenes of the film.

whose lyrical but ambiguous writing formed the basis of a number of silver screen adaptations, ranging from Kenji Mizoguchi’s early silent The Water Magician (Taki no Shiraitô, 1933) to Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Midare-gami (1961) and Masahiro Shinoda’s Demon Pond (Yashagaike, 1979). - See more at: http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/heat-haze-theatre/#sthash.Q2MwQ1UE.dpufFrom his source material is a screenplay that resists any attempt at a synopsis that is somewhat surrealistic and fantastical. It is a much less linear and coherent narrative than the film's predecessor Zigeunerweisen.