Lost In Translation

Tiger Gyoza Hall

Today I stopped in Okubo at Tiger Gyoza Hall for lunch. Somehow I didn't feel like ramen or gyoza and went with the grilled pork, green peppers, and onions set lunch. The tan tan men and various gyoza look good though, so I'll be back to try them at some point.

Fellini Satyricon

2015 saw the release of Frederico Fellini's startling Fellini Satyricon (1969) by Criterion. It is inspired by Petronius's classical Roman satire of the reign of Nero, The Satyricon. The story essentially concerns the exploits of two pansexual young men Encoplius and his decadent friend Ascyltus. It seems that Fellini was trying to draw a parallel between the previous per-Christian decadence of Nero's Rome and the late 60s decadence and youth culture that was taking over the world at the time. Fellini has created an alternate universe that sears the mind-it is so visually stunning, overwhelming, and alien. Everything from the massive sets, freak-like extras, props, costumes, make-up, costumes, to soundtrack is an assault on the senses. But like the source material, it is an episodic narrative with no stars and seemingly no overreaching message. It is very much a reflection of the chaotic times that people were living through at the end of the 60s. The Criterion edition includes: a new 4K digital restoration, supervised by director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray, audio commentary featuring an adaptation of Eileen Lanouette Hughes’s memoir On the Set of “Fellini Satyricon”: A Behind-the-Scenes Diary, Ciao, Federico!, Gideon Bachmann’s hour-long documentary shot on the set of Fellini Satyricon, archival interviews with director Federico Fellini, a new interview with Rotunno, a new documentary about Fellini’s adaptation of Petronius’s work, featuring interviews with classicists Luca Canali, a consultant on the film, and Joanna Paul, a new interview with photographer Mary Ellen Mark about her experiences on the set and her iconic photographs of Fellini and his film, Felliniana, a presentation of Fellini Satyricon ephemera from the collection of Don Young, trailer, a new English subtitle translation, and an essay by film scholar Michael Wood.

Kill All Your Darlings

I have read occasional pieces by Luc Sante all over and liked what I read, so I decided to pick up his essay collection, Kill All Your Darlings: Pieces 1990-2005 (2007). Sante is a true connoisseur of outsider, underground hipster history, culture, and music. He has become obsessed with his adopted country and its language after moving here as an immigrant from Belgian. The first section is comprised of essays about place-mostly New York, but not exclusively-see "In A Garden State." (New Jersey) He relishes the fact that he lived in the Lower East Side among the heroin addicts before gentrification, "My Lost City." He is extremely interested in the history of places as well, see "The Ruins of New York," "A Riot of My Own," etc. The essays in the second section are more abstract as he muses on things like the world "dope" in "Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?" He wistfully remembers the heyday of cigarette smoking in America in "Our Friend the Cigarette." In the third part there are essay related to music like "I Is Somebody Else," which is a review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol.I. Also, there is a look at the original Master of New Orleans Funk, "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say" and a discussion of blues in "The Invention of the Blues." In the fourth part of the collection, Sante displays his ability to write with authority about art: seminal artist such as Victor Hugo in "The Octopus with the Initials VH" and Charles Magritte in "The Detective," as well as pop culture icons such as Tintin in "The Clear Line" and contemporary photography artists like Walkers Evans in "The Hunger Artist" and Robert Mapplethorpe in "The Perfect Moment." Part Five gives the reader more personalized essays that expresses the importance of poetry to the author. in "The Total Animal Soup of Time" it is Allen Ginsberg's singular poem "Howl" that has captured his imagination. And in the final essay, "A Companion of the Prophet," it is Rimbaud's poetry and life that is his inspiration. In an eclectic collection like this essay that about things that interest me are much more interesting to read, but all of his writing has a kind of impressive sheen that nonnative writers like Conrad and Nabokov before him bring to their new language.

Children of Hiroshima

It seems that it was inevitable that Kaneto Shindo would direct a film about the terrible legacy that befell his city Hiroshima in WWII, Children of Hiroshima (1952). Shindo is more well-known for his screenplays-he wrote more than 150 treatments for films and TV, and directed his last film in 2009 at age 97, he died at 100 in 2012. However, this was his third and the first film that brought him recognition as a director inside and outside Japan-as it was widely seen outside of Japan and screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953 . It is the adaptation of a novel about a young school teacher Takako (played by Shindo's wife and frequent collaborator Nobuko Otowa) who returns from her teaching job on a small neighboring island to visit her friends, family, and former students. This will allow the viewer to see the devastating effects of the bomb on families, survivors, and the infrastructure of the city itself which is forever symbolized by the "genbaku domu" that haunts the city center. There is impressive cinematography by Takeo Ito, with prominent use of deep focus and camera angles bordering on the expressionistic, but the overall affect is closer to neorealism.  The atomic blast reconstruction montage, is also effective in that by ellipsis. Shindo only lets us hear a ticking clock, before a sunflower wilts in the heat of the explosion.  Which make the following images all the more shocking: young girls with their clothes blasted off and their bodies blackened by the blast, moving – slowly ambling along like the walking dead. 

Hungry Heaven

I found another elite burger joint in Meguro in Hungry Heaven. I usually order a cheeseburger first visit to a new shop, but this time I tried the Grill Grill Grill-grilled onions, tomato, bacon (Japanese style so closer to ham), and mozzarella cheese, fries and a drink for only ¥950. Great bun and burger, not a big fan of Japanese bacon and the tomatoes made it slippery and hard to eat. Still It's one of the best I've eaten at in Tokyo-next time I'll go for something simpler.

Beware Of A Holy Whore

The final film in the Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder is Beware Of A Holy Whore (1970). And to be honest it was my least favorite. I had read that some reviewer said that watching the others would lead the viewer to a greater appreciation of this film, which he thought was the best in the collection. It has a very different feel to it than most of the other films, I suppose it most resembles Kazelmacher in execution, since it is mostly made of scenes of people waiting around. I guess I was thinking that there was some solipsistic, meta-narrative going on that was only apparent to Fassbinder and his crew. Perhaps this is more homage to Goddard than film noir as some of the early films, and this cannot be denied by the presence of Alphaville’s Eddie Constantine, as himself. This is Fassbinder's first color film in this series and looks good, he used Hollywood cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. In the accompanying essay by Michael Koresky, he suggests that the climactic work of the first phase of Fassbinder’s career and an expression of his need to start afresh. After this Fassbinder has supposedly made more accessible films. This was his most esoteric in my opinion. I will have to see some late career films to see if this indeed did happen. I am watching Fassbinder, because most critics agree that he is a modern master. The jury is still out.

Kon Ichikawa

Japanese director Kon Ichikawa has certainly made some interesting and visually stunning films, so I read Cinematheque Ontario's collection of essays by about Ichikawa, Kon Ichikawa (2001). The first essay is appreciation of the director by Yukio Mishima, "Kon Ichikawa," who adapted his novel, Temple of the Golden Pavilion-Conflagration from which the cover still of the book was taken. This, in turn, is followed by Ichikawa in his own words a self-interview by Ichikawa and then an interview with Yuki Mori. Then there is a thorough essay, "Kon Ichikawa," by Japanese film scholar Audie Bock. No collection about a major Japanese director would be complete without an essay by eminent film scholar Donald Richie, here has written an essay called "The Several Sides of Kon Ichikawa."  Tom Milne has also contributed an essay that discusses the director's major films in "The Skull Beneath the Skin." There is another interview with Japanese film scholar Joan Mellen: "Interview With Kon Ichikawa." French film critic Max Tessier has two pieces the first an exploration of the darker aspects of Ichikawa's films in ""Kon Ochikawa: Black Humour as Therapy" and "Nostalgia: An Interview with Kon Ichikawa." There's a somewhat less then reverent remembrance from director and former assistant director to Ichikawa, Yasuzo Masumura: "Kon Ichikawa's Method." It is followed one of the finest pieces in this collection from my favorite Japanese critic Tadao Sato: ""Kon Ichikawa." It has interesting discussions of Ichikawa's most important films. Ichikawa discusses adapting Junichiro Tanizaki's novel The Key in "Between Literature and Film."  This is followed by a brief essay by Ichikawa in which he explains his motives for adapting Junichiro Tanizaki's The Key in "Between Literature and Cinema." Before reading Keiko McDonald's essay "The Modern Outcast State: Ichikawa's Hakai," I watched the film known as The Broken Commandments. It is an adaptation of a chapter from her book, From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Film, which is on my to read shelf. Next up was Dennis Washburn's thorough essay "A Story of Cruel Youth: Kon Ichikawa's Enjo and the Art of Adapting in 1950s Japan", which references McDonald's essay -so the context of the essays is done in a manner so that you've read referenced essays before getting to the newer ones that have referenced them. I was not able to track down a subtitled version of Punishment Room before reading Michael Raine's "Contemporary Japan as Punishment Room in Kon Ichikawa's Shkei no heya." Ichikawa's scriptwriter wife, Natto Wada follows this essay with an explanation of what she was trying to achieve with her adaptation of Shintaro Ishihara's novel The Punishment Room for the screen. McDonald had another addition to  this collection with her discussion of The Key, "Viewer's View of Kagi." I have already come across William B. Hauser's essay "Fires on the Plain: The Human Cost of the Pacific War," which appeared in the collection Reframing Japanese Cinema: Authorship, Genre, History edited by Arthur Nolleti Jr. and David Desser. This followed by a brief memoir by Ichikawa: "The Summer of 1945" about the end of the war. Eric Cazdyn's ambitious essay "The Ends of Adaptation: Kon Ichikawa and the Politics of Cinematization" discusses the history of adaptation in Japanese film and how it relates to the freely changed adaptations of Ichikawa, who was known for adapting around 70% of his films. This is followed by a conversation between Ichikawa and Yuki Mori about "Ototo" as well as a short memoir by Ichikawa called "A Record of Ototo." Then Donald Richie discusses Ichikawa's "Ten Dark Women."  Then there is another short memoir from Ichikawa, "The Reality of 1961." Catherine Russell's essay "Being Two Isn't Easy: The Uneasiness of the Family in 1960s Tokyo," is one of the stand out essays in the book as she discusses The Japanese Family, gender roles, and modernity  in the early 60s. That film is discussed further in "The Uniqueness of Kon Ichikawa: A Symposium" with Ichikawa, Akira Iwasaki, and Kyushiro Kusakabe. Next there is an unusual essay by Linda C. Ehrlich on the artistic foundation of An Actor's Revenge: "Playing with Form: Ichikawa's An Actor's Revenge and the 'Creative Print.'" Scott Nygren also discusses this film in his essay, "Inscribing the Subject: The Melodramtization of Gender in An Actor's Revenge." This followed by another note from Ichikawa about his first use of CinemaScope film in "CinemaScope and Me." Brent Kliewer follows this with "Escaping Japan: The Quest in Kon Ichikawa's Alone on the Pacific."The symposium on Tokyo Olympiad with Eric Cazdynm Abe Mark Nornes, James Quandt, Catherine Russell, and Mistuhiro Yoshimoto was one of the more interesting selections in the book. It looks at the controversy of the film which some officials thought was too artistic and not a good record of the event, but was a box office success anyway. William Johnson makes "Ichikawa and the Wanders" sound like a compelling film in his essay. This followed by another informative interview by Yuki Mori with Ichikawa regarding one of his biggest commercial successes, "The Inugami Family." Kathe Geist follows with "Adapting The Makioka Sisters," which is considered a late masterpiece by Ichikawa. The next essay looks at the formal elements in the film that recall the cinema of Yasujiro Ozu in David Desser's "Space and Narrative in The Makioka Sisters." Aaron Gerow uses Ichikawa's late films as a barometer of the Japanese cinema in recent times in "The Industrial Ichikawa: Kon Ichikawa after 1976." Then there are three reviews of films (Kagi, Fires On The Plain, and The Makioka Sisters )by Pauline Kael, in "Pauline Kael on Kon Ichikawa. Then there is an interview by Mark Schilling from 2000, "Kon Ichikawa at Eighty-six: A "Mid-Career" Interview." This would be the last selection in the book, Ichikawa died in 2008, after making his last films in 2006. A great discussion of a long and varied career of one of Japan's master filmmakers.

While We're Young

Noah Baumbach is on a roll with the poignant and very funny While We're Young (2014), on the heels of equally impressive Frances Ha (2012). Then again I think he's only really had one misstep in his career-2007's Margot at the Wedding. At any rate, Baumbach has brought back Ben Stiller (as film maker Josh) and paired him with the up and coming Adam Driver (Jamie) for a hipster bromance with commentary on authenticity, being young,  and growing old. Once again Baumbach has also written the smart and erudite script about the documentary film maker friends. The story is complicated by the fact that Josh's wife, Cornelia (Naomi Watts) is the daughter of a well-respected documentarian played by Charles Grodin. There are a couple of indie rock stars in the ensemble-Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz plays Josh's newly christened father friend and Dean Wareham (front man for Galaxy 500 and frequent film music scorer). Once again Baumbach ends the film with a Bowie song, in Frances Ha it was "Modern Love," here it is "Golden Years." I think this would have made my top 10 of last year had I seen it then-certainly one of the best comedies of 2014.

The Naked Island

Japanese director Kaneto Shindo is probably best known for his erotic horror films Onibaba (1964) and Kuroneko (1968), both of which have Criterion releases. But his biggest international success was arguably The Naked Island (1960), for which he won the Grand Prix Award at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1961. (It is available in its entirety on YouTube.) The film was also a financial success and allowed him and his company to continue making films and avoid bankruptcy. At sunrise, one suspects everyday, a peasant man (Taiji Tonoyama) and woman (Nobuko Otowa) row a boat to a nearby island to get water for their crops on the island with no running water. The film is filmed in a stark black that captures the beauty of the island and ocean and white with no dialogue and a rousing score that follows the everyday struggles of the poor farmer family, they also have two young sons, on the isolated island. A tragedy occurs which pushes the wife to the brink of desperation and giving up-but they cannot-where do they go from here? They will struggle on. The film calls to mind the Italian neo-realists in Shindo's depiction of a poor family's struggle for survival.

Zatoichi's Flashing Sword

For the second time (and the second of four produced) in 1964, Kazu Ikehiro takes the helm for a Zatoichi film, Zatoichi's Flashing Blade. In the opening sequence Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) dispatches three flies disturbing his sleep with his sword in an overhead ceiling shot-a shot repeated later at the end of the film. Zatoichi is shot in the back and a kind traveler helps him out after being shot-paying for his recovery and medical treatment. It tuns out to be the daughter, Okuni (Naoko Kubo) of a local boss, Seiroku (Takashi Edajima) whom he offers to serve for compensation for paying his debts. There is a dispute with another local Boss Yasugoro (Tatsuo Endo), known for his evil ways and stuttering, over the river-crossing rights of the village. As expected a high body count for Zatoichi ensues when the factions go to war and Zatoichi returns in time to save the day for Seiroku and his minions.