Lost In Translation

The Home And The World

After recently finishing up "The Apu Trilogy" from the renowned Indian director Satyajit Ray I am in the process of viewing Eclipse Series 40 - Late Ray and the first film was The Home And The World (1984). It is an adaptation of a novel by Nobel Prize winning author Rabindranath Tagore. It is the story of a love triangle that develops during a crisis in India that was caused by the British partition of Bengal in the early twentieth century. A progressive aristocrat, Nikhil (Victor Banerjee), introduces his sequestered wife, Bimala (Swatilekha Chatterjee) to his best friend, the radical Sandip (The Apu Triology's Soumitra Chatterjee). His wife falls for the radical, but then realizes her mistake and returns to her husband's graces. This film feels very different form his earlier films in that most of the film takes place in doors and it seems as though there is less innovative cinematography and the soundtrack seems more muted. That being said Ray uses mirrors cinematically several times throughout the film and some of the few location scenes are memorable-especially the one where Nikhil comes across a mob in  a village as he rides through a bamboo forest and riot that light sup the nights with bonfires. The final scene is very effective and masterly, which involves time lapse photography and conveys a lot of emotion and information. I am curious to see what Ray does in the next two films in this series.

Zatoichi's Vengeance

Zatoichi's Vengeance (1966) is Tokuzo Tanaka's third and final Zatoichi film and 13th in the series. It would seem that there would be little to distinguish it from Zatoichi's Revenge (10th in the series) due to the similarity of the titles and story lines, which are quite similar at this point in the series: Zatoichi fulfilling a poor soul's last wish, helping out a child in need and a damsel in distress while dispatching hordes of henchmen as he rights things. However, whenever there is a Zaotichi film with standout cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (who has worked with the likes of Mizoguchi and Kurosawa) the film looks very different. He is a master of framing shots and using locations to artistic advantage. There is another original great feat of sword prowess in which Zatoichi slices a candle out of a lantern and then places it upon the head of a henchman. Zatoichi tries to set a good example for the wandering blind priest, Jun Hamamura, and finds himself taking a beating for once. There are also a couple of great scenes with taiko drums, which are supposed to be like kyrpotonite for the sensitive hearing Zatocihi (Shintaro Katsu). His duel comes against the rival swordsman Korobe (Shigeru Amachi) and ends in usual fashion. The villain, Boss Gonzo, this time is played by 60s great Kei Sato (Onoibaba, Kwaidan, among other greats films from the era). Another entertaining and beautifully shot film in the series.

BFI: Grey Gardens

The BFI: Grey Gardens (2011) edition written by Matthew Tinkcom was insightful in providing the context in which the film was made. There are three sections that follow the Introduction: 1. 'We Belong Together': Melodrama as Non-Fiction in Grey Gardens, 2. 'The Revolutionary Costume': Little Eddie and Fashion, and 3. 'If you can't get a man to propose to you, you might as well be dead!': Direct Cinema and the Problem of Seduction. This is followed by the Conclusion: 'I'm pulverized by this latest thing': Grey Gardens and its Lives. I was surprised to learn that there was a HBO fictionalized version of the film as well as a theater production of the story as well. Tinkcom provides context and support for the revolutionary film.

Grey Gardens

I was compelled to see acclaimed Alfred and David Maysles 's celebrated documentary Grey Gardens (1976) after learning of Alfred's death earlier this year. The fly on the wall approach of filming ordinary people was novel at that time, therefore groundbreaking. However, to say that Big and Little Edie Beale: mother and daughter, high-society dropouts, and reclusive cousins of Jackie Onassis, are ordinary would be a mistake. They are caught on screen in their descriptive own words talking about their lives that have resulted in living in a single room of a 28 room  mansion in great decline full or cats and other creatures. They are entertaining characters, but perhaps in the age of the reality show it doesn't seems so extraordinary. In fact I found myself wondering about the mental health of the two women, perhaps they were only eccentrics living the way they wanted. It is an unusual documentary to say the least. It seems that it was something of a touchstone among designer in New York in the 80s, and I can see why with Little Eddie's bold fashion statements in the film.

Dust In The Wind

Hsiao-hsien Hou's Dust In The Wind (1987) opens in an impressive fashion with a speck of light that opens up into the lush green hillsides of Taiwan. It is a leisurely tale of economic hardships that complicate the lives of two teens who are trying to stay together while getting ahead in life through work first in Taipei, by escaping the harsh lives that their fathers and neighbors faced as coal miners in the rural countryside. Added complications such as mandatory military service make staying together an impossibility.  Fate sometimes rules lives more strongly than good intentions.

Zatoichi And The Chess Expert

The twelfth and third film of 1965 was Zatoichi And The Chess Expert directed by Kenji Misumi, director of the first installment Tale of Zatoichi. Again there is excellent direction and use of locations, here they spend considerable time on the sea and at Hakone. The opening sequence of taking a fairy seemed historically researched and insightful in how things were done in the past. Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) uses his gambling skills to help out a child who was injured in a scuffle that he was in with would-be Assassins. He is shown to be something of a con man with the dice and even loses for once in one scene. The mother is the wife of a yakuza who fell at the hands of Zatoichi. The chess expert (Mikio Narita) is really a Shogi master with whom Zatoichi challenges at the game and eventually a duel. There are some more feats of wonder like Zatoichi catching coins on a stick at a festival to get a stake to buy medicine for the sick girl which he comically scrabbles after in a battle with disgruntled gamblers after he's bought the medicine.

Fusasuke

The highlight of my first day sampling the "Yebisu Beer X Ebisu Food" menus was at #18 Fusasuke, deep fried tuna with cheese and two dipping sauces in an izakaya atmosphere. Again very friendly staff, I want to go back and have this again.

The Wolrd Of Apu

This final installment in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy is The World Of Apu (1959) and it has all of the elements that make the other versions special as well. These films depict an exotic culture, but the struggles are universal to everyone: love, death, and poverty. The music is by future music legend Ravi Shankar and the cinematography by Subatra Mita is splendid as usual with great location scenery and expressive use of close ups and other camera movement. There is a great edit where a movie is dissolved into the window of a cab moving through the streets with Apu (Somitra Chatterjee) and his new bride, Aparna (Sharmila Tagore), whom he married on a whim. From this happy married tragedy ensues. I have read that some critics see this as the weakest link in the Trilogy, but I disagree I think it as a whole is a truly special document and on their own each film has much merit and this one in particular i think the director is in his prime creating an emotional and powerful film. 

Fuca

My second meal, #05 Yebisu Beer X Ebisu Food was at Fuca and I ate a nice pork tenderized with nihonshu. The staff was very friendly, but the seating fee was ¥900, which is alright if you're putting in time for a night a bit steep for this meal.

The Passenger

The Passenger (1975), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, is another great film of locations, places, and buildings as much as it is about characters. Jack Nicholson stars as the war correspondent Locke who takes on the identity of arms dealer while reporting on a war in Africa. Along the way he takes along a girl, Maria Schneider, with him on his travels while he tries to stay ahead of his colleagues and wife who are searching for him or at least an answer to how he died. The locations include the desert in Africa but also the rooftop of a building by Gaudi in Barcelona. There are several long shots and the film ends with an interesting pan that comes from the room in which Locke has just died before his wife and the police find him and goes out into the courtyard through the window as if his spirit were leaving his body.