Lost In Translation

Giant

Giant (1956) is George Stevens' third film in his American trilogy. It is an epic tale that is 3 hours and 21 minutes long and has some of the greatest stars of the day in Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean not to mention smaller parts for the likes of Dennis Hopper and Sal Mineo among others. The cinematography of the border less Texas fields is also memorable. Perhaps it is Steven's finest achievement in a noteworthy career.

CastleROCK

I recently noticed CastleROCK a burger place in Shinjuku San Chome. I went with a cheeseburger (¥1200 I believe) and wasn't so impressed, it was average-except the homemade buns were toasted and exceptional. I suspect you can get similar or better quality burger at J.S. Burger closer to Shinjuku station.

Wrong Then, Right Now

I was inspired to see Sang-soo Hong's film Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) mainly because it stars Min-hee Kim who was so great in The Handmaiden. Kim plays an artist that a traveling director , Jae-yeong Jeong, falls for. The film is the same story told in two different ways-in the firs the director comes across as a crass self-centered womanizer. In the second he is portrayed as a sensitive soul who is merely a victim of timing.

Hana And Alice

I  was impressed with the Shunji Iwai films I have seen previously, Lily Chou Chou and Love Letter, so I figured I would also probably like Hana And Alice (2004). I was not mistaken, Iwai is an auteur with a very distinct sense of style that is manifested in the art direction, location selections, music, and cinematography. Once again he investigates the world of teens-this time a deep friendship between two girls that is threatened by the appearance of the romantic interest in an awkward boy. The most powerful image was the one in which the girl and boy break up in traditional summer yukatas while a giant balloon character looms in the window.

The Gate

I think Natsume Soseki's novel The Gate (1910) is one of his best novels. It is a curious novel since not much of notice happens in the story. The main character, Sosuke, is something of a cypher, he goes through life with quiet resignation much like his contemporary salaryman brethren of today, but little by little his back story is revealed. He basically gave up all his future possibilities to marry his wife Oyone, whom he stole away from his best friend at Kyoto University. This causes much consternation and separated him from his family and put him in a sort of social exile. He has wandered from Place to place before finally settling his home town of Tokyo. He had to within draw from university and go to work, he works six days weeks and has little energy for anything else on his Sundays off. He is also in charge, by default, of a much younger brother, Koroku, who is studying at university. He had let his uncle handle the family's inheritance, but when his uncle dies he learns that they have squandered it and his brother has to move in with Sosuke and Oyone until they can find a solution to the financial problems. Sosuke is ineffectual and has problems being proactive-he reminds me of  contemporary Japanese who are the same and fall back on the "shoganai" mentality, which essentially means "it can't be helped," it seems like a national characteristic to me. I liked how Soskei drops us in the middle of Sosuke's life and then slowly reveals the trials and tribulations that cause him consternation.

Paris, Je T'Aime (Redux)

Once I saw the Coen brothers episode from the  Paris, Je T'Aime (2006) omnibus I realized I saw it before, but probably 9 or 10 years ago-so I didn't remember some episodes. And I have been doing some serious film watching in the interim, so I could approach certain episodes with more appreciation this time around. My favorite episode this time around was obscure German director Oliver Schmitz's poignant, tragic love story "Places Des Fetes." Also int he running was the above mentioned Coen brothers contribution "Tuilieries" with the always great Steve Buscemi and Alexander Payne's closing episode, "14e Arrodissement" with Margo Martindale who I've come to know from her great performances in the TV series' Justified and The Americans. Some other standouts include: Wlter Salles and Daniela Thomas' immigrant story "Loin du 14e," Maggie Gyllenhaal in Olivier Assayas (one of my favorite contemporary directors now) in "Qartier des Enfants Rouges,"Vincenzo Natali's visually impressive vampire love story "Quartier de la Madeleine" with Elijah Wood, Wes craven's Oscar Wilde inspired romantic ghost story with Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell, "Pere-Lachaise," Tom Twyker (of Run Lola Run) with the frantic love story with Natalie Portman in "Fauborg Saint-Denis," as well as Gena Rowlands' "Quartier Latin" in which she stars with Ben Gazzara. " Most of the other segments didn't completely work for me, but several are notable: for example well-known director Gus Van Sant with "Le Marais," Christopher Doyle (one of my favorite cinematographers) with "Porte de Choisy" with director Barbet Schroeder as an actor, Nobu Suwa's "Place des Victories" starring Juliet Binochet and Willem Dafoe, ALfonso Curon (another favorite contemporary director) with Nick Nolte in "Parc Monceau," and Bob Hoskins in Richard Largravenese's "Pigalle." It was fun to revisit with acquired knowledge of directors and actors.

The Seven Five

I think the main reason I enjoyed Tiller Russell's documentary The Seven Five (2014) about police corruption in Brooklyn in the 80s, is because of the colorful characters who recounted their experiences from those days. People like the main bent cops and friends who helped them pull off the crimes, as well as the drug dealer they protected and the Dominican car stereo salesman who connected them with drug dealers. 

Copo Do Dia

I was in Nishi Ogukubo to attend interviews for a new instructors at TWCU and spotted a place that was new to me, Copo Do Dia, because it is only open for lunch on weekends and I am rarely at campus on weekends. The couple that runs it are very friendly and serve up some tasty looking food-not sure how authentic this shrimp curry with coconut and coriander is-but extremely tasty. It comes with soup and salad for ¥980. I would definitely be eating here more if they were open on weekdays for lunch.

Cape Fear (1962)

I remember enjoying Martin Scorsese's version of Cape Fear (seen in the theater), but I can't believe it's taken me until now to see J. Lee Thompson's classic version of Cape Fear (1962). As menacing as Robert DeNiro was in Scorsese's version, Robert Mitchum is even creepier and more menacing-one of his best performances in my opinion-but there have been so many. It seems Thompson wanted to give homage to Alfred Hitchcock by filming it in black and white and uses his extraordinary composer Bernard Hermann with great effect. So much so, that I learned that Scorsese also used the soundtrack in his version. the southern setting seemed appropriate for the story as well. It is a classic of film noir.

Citizen Jane: Battle For The City

I remember reading that Jane Jacob's seminal book The death and Life of Great American Cities, so I decided to read it and found it very enlightening. It identified many of the things I liked best about cities. So I found Matt Tyrnauer's documentary on Jacobs and her famous battles with Robert Moses, Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (2016), to be a very compelling documentary. The fact that Moses' style of urbanization made the projects worse and weren't torn down until the 90s was disheartening. The fact that China and other developing nations are following this model is also depressing. That being said, I suspect that urban planning has made enormous leaps since the 60s.