Lost In Translation

Kitchen Bar Moris

Kitchen Bar Moris is just off Meijidori on my way home from Shibuya, so Stopped in for their excellent ¥750 taco rice with healthy genmai.

Modern Times

Modern Times (1936) is Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp's swan song and last (mostly) silent film. The film celebrates individuality in the face of the modern industrial society-and the film is divided into four parts-"The Factory Worker," "The Jailbird," "The Department Store Security Guard," and "The Singing Waiter." In the first the assembly line drives the Little Tramp mad and he finds himself in an institution. When he gets out he meets the Gamine, a female street urchin who will be his partner in crime. It she that gets him a job as the singing waiter and we hear the Tramp speak for the first time, but it is really a sort of fraught-Italian. And int he end the Tramp goes off on the road with the Gamine-for the first time not alone. It's easy to see why this film is considered a classic-it has many standout images and scenes throughout the film. It gets the first rate Criterion treatment with the following extras: new audio commentary by Charlie Chaplin biographer David Robinson, two new visual essays, by Chaplin historians John Bengtson and Jeffrey Vance, new program on the film’s visual and sound effects, with experts Craig Barron and Ben Burtt, an interview from 1992 with Modern Times music arranger David Raksin, plus a selection from the film’s original orchestral track, two segments cut from the film, All at Sea (1933), a home movie by Alistair Cooke featuring Chaplin and actress Paulette Goddard, with a new score by Donald Sosin and a new interview with Cooke’s daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge, The Rink (1916), a Chaplin two-reeler, For the First Time (1967), a short Cuban documentary about first-time moviegoers seeing Modern Times, Chaplin Today: “Modern Times” (2003), a program with filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne,three theatrical trailers, and a booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Saul Austerlitz and a new piece by film scholar Lisa Stein that includes excerpts from Chaplin’s writing about his 1930s world tour.

Bending Adversity

Over the years I have read many books about Japan from foreign pundits, some good (classic books by old Japan hands such as Ian Buruma and Donald Richie among the best of those) and some not so good (TR Reid's Confucius Lives Next Door and Pico Iyer's The Lady and the Monk for example). Nonetheless, I was compelled to read David Pilling's latest addition, Bending Adversity (2014), in that he analyzes and discuses the country in light of the last triple disaster of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown of 2011. In Part One: "Tsunami", he discusses the triple disaster of 2011 in chapter one and in chapter two looks at the concept of "Bending Adversity"-a term that he as adopted to explain the resilience to catastrophic events in Japan over the years. Part Two: "Double-bolted Land" is comprised of a historical overview of Japan and its society as well as a discussion of Japan's relationship with the outside world. These chapters are the ones you find in every book in Japan in that they are trying to create a context for discussing contemporary Japan in a historical context. Part Three: "Decades Found and Lost focusing on "bending adversity" in context of the rebound from the 1923 earthquake and WWII, and the economic collapse of the housing bubble in 1990. Part Four: "Life After Growth" is comprises of five chapters focuses on the post bubble years and subjects as China's economy overtaking Japan, the Koizumi years in the 2000s, the graying of Japanese society, the hiring "ice age" and decline of lifetime employment, and gender relations in contemporary Japan. Part Five: "Adrift" looks Japan's precarious relations with China and Korea as well as the wrestling with the pacifist constitution and the role of Japan's self defense forces which Shinzo Abe challenges in his first term. Part Six: "After the Tsunami" focuses on Tohoku after the devastation through personal stories and a discussion of weak government vs. strong citizens. And in the Afterword he muses on whether or not these tragedies resulted in Japan reassessing its society and their place in the world. 

Pilling does an especially excellent job of explaining economics and politics since the post bubble years-especially the Koizumi years. He interviews scores of everyday citizens, but also cultural figures like authors Haruki Murakami, Natsuo Kirino and the Prime Ministers who ruled Japan in the last two decades. There are savvy observations of Japan and its society through as well. And he discusses all the major media stories of the last few decades such as the Afghanistan hostage, women as an untapped resource, nationalism and its effect on its Asian neighbors, and Japan's strange victim mentality in relation to WWII among others. Obviously much of the material was reused from articles he wrote for the Financial Times, I think he did an excellent job of explaining what has happened economically, politically and socially in Japan since the bubble. 

Fight Zatoichi Fight

Fight, Zatoichi, Fight is the eight installment and the third of four films that were released in 1964. Once again, Kenji Misumi (The Tale of Zatoichi) is at the helm in this film that largely concerns Zatoichi getting an infant back to his village when his mother is killed by mistake-the assassins were trying to kill Zatoichi, who gave up his palanquin to the women traveling with her infant son. He employs the help of a female pickpocket thief Ko (Hizuru Takachiho) to get the infant home-while fending off attacks on his life which cause him less problems than changing diapers and feeding the infant. There are some cinematically inspired scenes throughout: one where a woman sings to her child and Zatoichi and the child listen framed by a bridge in the wilderness, another where an overhead shot witness the carnage of a fight when assassins attack Zatoichi while he is changing a diaper. The inevietable impressive swordsmanship scene occurs when Zatoichi is gambling and exposes loaded dice by slicing them in half and while simultaneous cutting them free from a hiding place in a basket above the game. The final battles has a band of hired men with torches trying to distract Zatoichi, but are dispatched as always.

dot.Eatery and Bar

I've been meaning to check out dot.Eatery and Bar since it recently opened, the terrace looks nice for evening. I got the soup (bean) and salad (taco) lunch special with iced tea for ¥1000 plus tax. Nothing special but a pretty good bargain.

I Am A Cat

I know I have read at least the first volume of Natsumi Soseki's novel I Am A Cat, sometime in my early years of coming to Japan, but I can't remember it well. Kon Ichikawa has made an adaptation of a Soeki novel previously with Kokoro, a more serious work. I tend to like Soeski's comedies more (Botchan is a comic masterpiece) so I quite enjoyed Ichikawa's light touch in I Am A Cat (1975). Tatsyua Nakadai is great in the role of the persecuted English teacher and father of three, Kushami. And I enjoyed his interplay with his cronies, including a fine performance form future director, Juzo Itami (Meitei) and his former student Kangetsu (Nobuto Okamoto). Unlike the novel, which is told form the point of view of the cat, the film is a series of mostly comedic episodes that happen to Kashimi. The nameless green eyed gray stray is in the film intermittently as a voyeur and sometime as a participant until his voice over at the end of the film changes him into narrator and ends in tragedy after drinking some beer on the day his beloved neighbor cat has died. Ultimately, it is a minor entry in the body of a great director, but it is not without its merits.

BFI: 8 1/2

I have come to appreciate the films of Frederico Fellini very much and 8 1/2 is considered one of his masterworks. In this volume D.A. Miller takes a closer look at one of the auteur's signature films in BFI: 8 1/2 (2008). The book is divided in to three sections: 1. From No One to Someone, 2. From Auteur to Person, 3. From Substance to Style. Throughout the book Miller analyzes the film with great detail and makes some interesting points. for example he addresses the narcissism of a director having writer's block and indulging in personal fantasies. As well as how the film in essence is an exercise in style where substance is secondary. He also discusses Fellini's relationships with the church, women, marriage and other obsessions.  It's another worthy addition to the BFI series.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

Just when you think the vampire genre has been exhausted a new film, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014), breathes new life into the overexposed genre. The director Ana Lily Amirpour has created a stylish and exotic film in which Los Angeles and Iran have been combined to create a noirish world known as Bad City, where drugs, hookers, oil, and urban blight populate this imagined world. Amirpour has style and it is exuded here in the choice of the vintage car that Arash (Arash Marandi) drives to the fact that the hijab wearing vampire, known as the girl in the credits (Shelia Vand) skates. The black and white cinematography employed by Lyle Vincent helps create the norish mood of Bad City. It draws to mind comparisons with Jim Jarmusch, who released his own stylish and moody vampire film, Only Lovers Left Alive in 2014 as well. The atmosphere is also supported by imaginative and appropriate music cues and soundtrack choices. It is an audacious debut and a welcome addition to the vampire genre. 

Ride The Pink Horse

Criterion has brought out a film noir classic, Ride The Pink Horse (1947) directed by and starring Robert Montgomery. It isn't your typical noir story, it's based on a novel by Dorthy B. Huges (she is best known for her novel In A Lonely Place that was also made into a film starring Humphrey Bogart) in that it takes place in San Pablo, New Mexico. The indigenous people are contrasted with the criminals in that they have a genuine love of life and are no concerned with money and goods-this is seen by the altruistic actions of Pancho (Robert Gomez), Lucky Gagin's (Robert Montgomery) newest drinking companion as well as his guardian Pila (Wanda Hendrix), who is looking after him. He's in town to blackmail Frank Hugo (Fred Clark) a wartime profiteer and career criminal. It's an underrated and entertaining film noir. The Criterion package includes: an informative and illuminating audio commentary featuring film noir historians Alain Silver and James Ursini, new interview with Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, the Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1947, featuring Robert Montgomery, Wanda Hendrix, and Thomas Gomez, an an essay by filmmaker and writer Michael Almereyda.

Alone On The Pacific

Alone On The Pacific (1963) was one of several artistic successes for Director Kon Ichikawa in the 60s and was one of three produced in 1963 based on a true story. The screenplay (written by Ichikawa's wife Natto Wada) is based on the book and true story of Kenich Horie (played by teen idol Yujiro Ishihara), who sailed a small yacht from Osaka Japan to San Francisco. it is a classic story of man versus nature. it addresses issue like Japanese pride-we get voice overs when a cruise ship with Americans comes by asks him if needs food-and he feels insulted that they think he couldn't take care of himself. He is inspired to do this trip out of national pride no Japanese has undertaken such a voyage and Horie is eager to prove that Japan is among the great seafaring nations of the world as well. The supporting cast has some big names such as Masayuki Mori playing Horie's father and Kinuyo Tanaka playing his mother.  The music was composed by the always impressive Toru Takemitsu.