Lost In Translation

Carthago

Carthago in Nakano specializes in Mediterranean fare from Turkey, Tunisia, and Lebanon, and it has great music, and an exotic atmosphere.

Combinaiton Mazza (hummus, baba ghanouj, and ezme salatasi) for ¥1500.

Sigara böregi (Turkish spring rolls with minced lamb) ¥750.

Karides sis (shrimp sis kabob) ¥1900. It's a small restaurant with a small staff, so some of the more elaborate dishes will need more time to be prepared. I thought the food tasted authentic and well prepared, so I'll be back in the future to try other dishes.

Echoes: Writers in Kyoto Anthology 2017

Echoes: Writers in Kyoto Anthology 2017 is a collection of written pieces of various genres from the Writers in Kyoto group that was edited by John Doughill, Amy Chavez, and Mark Richardson. This volume has an explanatory note from the editors and a preface from the group’s most prominent member, Alex Kerr, author of classic books on Japan such as Lost Japan, Dogs and Demons, and most recently Another Kyoto. Later in the volume, Kerr also contributes a piece about three old Japan hands (Harold Stewart, David Kidd, and William Gilkey) in Kyoto that inspired him in “Three Old Men of Kyoto.” The other entries in the collection range from poetry, journalistic nonfiction, essays, and fiction. Even though the theme of the collection is Kyoto, many of the pieces collected here will appeal to readers with an interest in Japan in general. For example, Joseph Cronin looks at the relationship between two early influential Japanophiles in his essay “Lafcadio Hearn and Basil Chamberlin.” This is followed by a closer and more personal look at the writing of Hearn in Doughill’s contribution, “Hearn, Myself, and Japan.” There’s another literary discussion in Jeff Robbin’s essay, “Basho’s Appreciation for Women: 15 Poems of Female Experience.” Other aspects of Japanese culture are investigated as well, such as the role of the tokonoma (an alcove) in tea ceremony as discussed by Paul Carty in “Tokonoma Lessons.” Japanese ceramics are the focus of two separate essays, the first, by Robert Yellin “Pride of Place-Sake Vessels” discusses the artistry behind these ceramics created for consumption of the domestic liquor which is followed by a more academic discussion of the aesthetics behind Japanese ceramics by Allen S. Weiss in “Equivocal Ceramics.” The collection ends with Chavez’s piece about a remote island in the Inland Sea in “Return to Goat Island.” Also included are the winners of the 2017 Writers in Kyoto Competiton. This collection also features tasteful photographs throughout and was designed by John Einarsen (award winning designer of Kyoto Journal). This eclectic collection of various writings seems to have something for every tastes and will hopefully continue to be an annual event to showcase writers in Kyoto and Japan.

An Actor's Revenge (Criterion)

I recently decided to revisit Kon Ichikawa's An Actor's Revenge (!963), because it was re-released by Criterion with several extras. The film is a singular achievement by Ichikawa for several reasons-it was a studio assignment, a remake of a classic film based on a well-known kabuki revenge play from the 30s meant to commemorate Kazuo Hasegawa's 300 film appearance at the age of 56 (he also starred in the original version). Hasegawa would return to the two roles he played inthe original-Yukinojo, the onnagata (female impersonator) of a traveling kabuki theater set on the revenge of his parents and the role of the Robin-Hood-like thief Yamitarō. Thus, Ichikawa was faced with several problems of how to create a fresh version of the story that was appropriate for audiences for the 60s. Many of the top stars of the mid 60s cinema appeared in the film in supporting roles: the targets of the revenge are Dobe (Ganjiro Nkamura known for several roles with Ozu among) others), Kawaguchiya (Saburo Date who appeared in films by Mizoguchi among others), and Hiromiya (Eijiro Yanagi who also appeared in severla films by Mizoguchi among others), two leading film actresses had roles in the film as well Ayako Wada as Lady Namiji and Fujiko Yamamoto as Ohatsu the thief. Ichikawa decided to focus on the theatrical aspect of the story filming exclusively on stage sets of artificial locations often within a dark background and employed several cinematic conventions of the silent era throughout the film which underscores the story origins in kabuki. The final product is highly stylized film that  is a one off in Ichikawa's oeuvre. The Criterion extras include: a new 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack, a rare 1999 Directors Guild of Japan interview with director Kon Ichikawa, conducted by critic and filmmaker Yuki Mori, a new interview with critic, filmmaker, and festival programmer Tony Rayns, a new English subtitle translation, and an essay by critic Michael Sragow.

Black Panther

I'm not a huge fan of superhero movies but Ryan Coogler's  Black Panther (2018) was refreshing on several levels. The world of Wakanda that was created was impressive as was the almost all-black cast. But like all movies of this genre it relied too much on CGI, lengthy battles, car chases, and the hero coming back against all odds. But one of the better films of this kind.

A Hell Of A Woman

A Hell Of A Woman (1954) is another entertaining hardboiled pulp crime story from Jim Thompson-one of the masters. Frank "Dolly" Dillion has it rough working for peanuts as trying to get deadbeats to pay up for items bough on credit. That is until he meets Moana and her cruel rich aunt and he starts to see a way out of the dead end life he's leading. Incidentally, a decent film version was made by French director Alain Cornea called Seire Noire.

Radiance

Radiance (2017) is the latest film by Naomi Kawase, which won the Ecumenical Prize at the 89th Cannes Film Festival. The story is about, Misako (Ayame Misaki), a young woman who is writing the script for an audio guide that will help the visually impaired enjoy an coming movie in the theater. When the photographer, Masaya (Masatoshi Nagase), harshly criticizes her script during a prerelease screening for a panel of the visually impaired, Misako is both hurt and angered. The film looks at issues such as losing sight, and in a sense one's identity, the photographer is going blind and is not able to take photographs, while Misako is coming to terms with the dementia of her mother in the woods of Nara. It is somewhat slow moving, but has something to say about perception and coming to terms with loss.

God Of War

I hadn't heard of Gordon Chan's God of War (2017) but was intrigued when I saw that it was about Japanese pirates being fought by soldiers of the Ming dynasty in the 16th century in China. There's plenty of action as a small band of well-trained soldiers defeat the supposed Japanese pirates, they are actually led by a samurai clan that is trying to acquire money and firearms to take control of Japan and later the world.