Lost In Translation

Fatz The San Franciscan

Fatzs Burgers has moved from Koenji to Kichijoji and opened under a new name, Fatzs The San Franciscan.

The menu is bigger and has things like pulled pork sandwiches among other options, I went for the traditional cheese burger with salad and and a coke for ¥1300. The burgers appear to be smaller and cost less as result, I'd go back to try one of the other sandwiches sometime.

The Incorrigible

The fourth film in the Seijun Suzuki The Early Years. Vol.1 The Youth Movies  collection is The Incorrigible (1963) which is notable for being the first collaboration between Suzuki and set designer Takeo Kimura who would be a major influence on the visual style of later masterpieces such as Gate of Flesh and Tokyo Drifter among others. In this film Togo Konno (Ken Yamauchi) is sent to a small town, Toyooka in Hyogo prefecture to finish his schooling without the distractions of Kobe during the Taisho era leading up to WWII. He is an iconoclast besotted with modern literature and at odds with the student moral patrol. He falls in love with the local doctor's precocious daughter and is expelled from school for making a secret getaway with her to Kyoto. The location shots and traditional sets are filmed with great skill and what emerges is one of Suzuki's early masterpieces. This film is much like Fighting Elegy in that it prefigures and explains the mentality that led Japan to start a war of aggression in Asia and elsewhere.

Lazania

I've been meaning to stop by Lazania in Koenji for some time now after walking past it on several occasions. It lived up to its promise with a tasty one person sized lasagna serving for lunch with the "packet"-garlic toast and soup-for ¥1300. It's quite small with only six seats and a take-out window, but I'll be back for more.

Teenage Yakuza

The third film in the Seijun Suzuki The Early Years. Vol.1 The Youth Movies  collection is Teenage Yakuza (1962) is very much a film of the 60s with go go dancing at teen clubs and 60s rock-n-roll on the soundtrack. The misunderstood hero of the film single handedly keeps the yakuza at bay before being dismissed as being as bad as them for his bodyguard services which the shop keepers seems to be happy to pay.  There's something of a farcical give peace a chance to over come the yakuza gangs that have been established in the town and thrive on extortion. Again I think the west Tokyo location (it isn't explicitly clear where the film takes place, but they do mention the yakuza are from Machida which is located in West Tokyo) is the most interesting aspect as it being developed for the postwar boom that the country was in the midst of in the 60s.

Babylon Berlin

I was probably sold on the premise of the new Netflix series Babylon Berlin, a historically based crime drama set during the Weimar period before the Nazi takeover of Germany before I saw a minute of it. I didn't expect such great art direction, acting, and period details such as drug abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder and the like. The club scenes and the decadent sex and drugs lifestyle with lively jazz and free style dancing is impressive.  There are several story lines occurring at once, but the main concerns a young war veteran detective, Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) as a detective from Cologne on a special assignment. There are other storylines linked to Communist revolutionaries and fascist reactionaries who resent the democratic institutions of the period. Another major plotline concerns a poor young woman, Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries-a Teutonic Marion Cottilard) who works in clerical position by day and part-time as a prostitute at night whose has a desire to become a investigator. It is very bingeable, two seasons were released at once-with a third on the way.

The Wind-of-Youth Group Crosses the Mountain Pass

The second film in the Seijun Suzuki The Early Years. Vol.1 The Youth Movies  collection is The Wind-of-Youth Group Crosses the Mountain Pass (1961). It is the story of a college student who joins a struggling traveling variety show. Suzuki elevates the story with inspired location shots and inter cut footage of the great Tohoku summer festivals-the Kanto (lantern) festival from Akita and the Nebuta (lighted float) festival from Aomori.  

No. 4

The Tyson group which has made several great places all over the city has opened a cafe/restaurat in Ichigaya called No. 4, which is good news for me since I often frequent the area for work.

I go the sandwich special of the day-falafel.

The Boy Who Came Back

The Boy Who Came Back (1958) is the first film in the Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years. Vol. 1 Seijun Rising: The Youth Movies collection. It is a pretty typical youth film of the era with Akira Kobayashi playing the hot tempered bad boy juvenile delinquent that is being mentored by the Big Sister volunteer Sachiko Hidari (an early role for the starlet who would give a remarkable performance in Shohei imamura's The Insect Woman). It also has a supporting role for Ruriko Asaoka, another starlet of the era. There are some signs of Suzuki's artistic license that bloom later in his career. However, the most striking thing about this film for me were the period locations of postwar Tokyo-Shibuya, Daikanyama,Ginza, and other locations that were being rebuilt after the wide spread destruction from the war.

The Bridge

I had heard good things about the Scandinavian TV series The Bridge, a joint Danish and Swedish production that originally aired the first season in 2011. The first series start with the discovery of a body on the Oresund Birdge between Malmo, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark. This leads to a joint investigation with lead detectives-Saga Noren (Sofia Helin) from Malmo, a dedicated cop who is mildly autistic and Martin Rhode (Kim Bodina), a serial philanderer trying to make his third marriage stick. I like the personality mismatch aspect of the story between these two very different cops, the usual procedural of the story. However, aspects of the overreaching mystery are a bit over the top at times and some of the characterizations are also too on the nose. The production values are amazing, I like the night shots of Malmo and Copenhagen as well as the bridge cutaway shots used in transition, and I think the opening sequence influenced David Fincher in his series House of Cards. I suspect the next three seasons are in order, well at least I need to give season two a chance to see what they do with the characters and story.

Wild Strawberies

Wild Strawberries (1957) is widely considered one of Ingmar Bergman's masterpieces. It mostly concerns a day in the life of of Professor Isak Borg (Victor Sjostrom) who decides to travel by car across Sweden to accept an honorary degree. Throughout the day he is plagued by upsetting dreams in which he grapples with his past, aging, and oncoming death. These dreams allow him to revisit his past and relive the triumphs and downfalls of his past. It is something of a road movie as his daughter-in-law, Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) decides to accompany him on his journey and reveals discord in her own life. Along the way they pick up a trio of youngsters, who offer a sort of joviality to the proceedings-Bub Anderson play the pipe smoking Sara, as well as Isak's childhood love, Sara, in a dual role. Through the course of the day Isak come sot terms with his station in life and seems ready to face the next day. The Criterion edition includes: a new high-definition digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack, audio commentary by film scholar Peter Cowie, an introduction by director Ingmar Bergman, Ingmar Bergman on Life and Work, a ninety-minute documentary by filmmaker and author Jörn Donner, behind-the-scenes footage shot by Bergman, and a booklet featuring an essay by film writer Mark Le Fanu.