Lost In Translation

Dearest Sister

I was recently invited to a screening in Tokyo of director Mattie Do's Laos-based horror film, Dearest Sister (2016). It is an impressive full length feature debut. It has great production values considering that it was independently produced and starred mostly non-professional actors. The film has a subtext that looks at class and gender stereotypes within Laos as well commentary on outsiders who come to Laos to profit. I look forward to see what she makes next.

Kisses

I have been a fan of Yasuzo Masamura for a while and feel as though he is often overlooked in the west. He was the first Japanese to study at Rome, Italy's Centro Sperimentale Di Cinematografia. He returned to Japan in 1953 and worked as assistant to Kenji Mizoguchi and Kon Ichikawa. So he is something like the missing link between the old guard of postwar film and the New Wave. He is probably best know for the critical wartime film Red Angel and the business satire Giants and Toys. I finally found his directorial debut, Kisses (1957), which was initially dismissed as a Sun Tribe film that was targeted for youth audiences. However, it stands out for a number of reasons. For one the protagonist, Kinichi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), was not your typical lead, not particularly handsome and is angry at the world. He and his romantic partner, Akiko (Hiromi Nozoe) are suffering for their parents misdeeds and are obligated to save their corrupt fathers-surely a metaphor about society in postwar Japan. There are great location shots of low rise Japan in the 50s and an extended date in Enoshima at the beach. The cinematography and framing is also impressive. The film is an auspicious debut that comes across as a combination of Jean-luc Goddard's Breathless and Ko Nakahira's Crazed Fruit.

Raw

I remember Julia Docournau's Raw (2016) getting a lot of buzz when it showed at Cannes. I finally got around to seeing the original and disturbing film. It leaves the viewer feeling uneasy after witnessing some pretty extreme events of a young woman who joins a veterinary school that has some intense hazing rituals. However, it is her basic instincts that are unleashed as well as the behavior of her older sister, who is also at the school, that are the most disturbing. I haven't seen anything like this in a while, not for the squeamish.

Burger Kitchen Chatty Chatty

I recently learned that there was a handmade burger shop nearby at Shinjuku Gyoen, Burger Kitchen Chatty Chatty. I usually try a cheese burger when I visit anew place it was ¥1030 plus ¥150 for crispy french fries. I also had a side of spicy chicken gumbo, that was minestrone with some added ingredients at ¥630. The had quick service despite the business of the lunch time crowd. They provide squeeze bottles of mustard and ketchup. I wouldn't say this was an elite burger, but better than average and one train for me to visit-so I suspect I'll be back.

33 1/3: LCD Soundsystem's Sound Of Silver

I'm a fan of the 33 1/3 series with essays about selected albums, and the latest one I read was LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver (2016) by Ryan Leas. Writers take different approaches and in this one Leas mostly analyzes his own personal connection with the band, but also ruminates on their early retirement and return to recording as well as their relationship to nostalgia and New York City in particular. I mostly enjoyed it, but I can see how other readers might have been upset at the lack of journalistic details about the recording of the album as well as a lack of discussion on how the songs were written let alone little actual quotes from the band and its mastermind James Murphy. But I can over look those defects and join in on the recent nostalgia of a band that I think defined the 00s and the fight for relevance in the modern age.

Sacred Games

Mumbai seems like a fascinating place and have been intrigued by it since reading Suketa Mehta's Maximum City and then seeing Slumdog Millionaire. I have also wanted to read Vikram Chandra's Mumbai-set novel Sacred Games, but was intimidated by the 900 plus pages. But I was happy to see that a Nexflix backed TV series, Sacred Games has been released. I binge-watched it in almost two days. It is an Indian based production done in Hindi and other Indian languages with Bollywood stars and real Mumbai locations. There are documentary like asides to historical events that happened in the story's timeline. I was under the impression that it was only one season long, but realized that there would be more after coming across a cliff hanger in the eight episode of the season. I'm looking forward to the new season.

Kakigori Shop

There used to be a ramen shop near TWCU, but it closed down and re-opened as a kakigori (shaved ice) shop and serves curry for lunch, so I stopped by to try it. Melted cheese and soup for ¥1000. Not bad-I'll be back.

This Happy Life

I must have overlooked this wartime propagandist film, This Happy Life (1944), from the Japanese master director Mikio Naruse when I was trying to see all of his available films a few years back. However, this is not one of his best efforts, minor Naruse that is essentially wartime propaganda on how to live simply without luxury during the shortages caused by the war. A family moves into town and sells the idea of doing more with less. That being said there are some impressive cinematic touches such as classic framing and on location cinematography as well as some interesting surrealistic superimpositions and advanced camera techniques.  and other . As Catherine Russell points out in her  book on Naruse, The Cinema of Naruse Mikio, "Although the didacticism of This Happy Life is not his usual style, the dispersal of activity over a collection of characters, and the ongoing issues of economic survival are familiar tropes."

The Damned

Luchino Visconti's The Damned (1969) is one of his greatest triumphs on the screen. It is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions and a stunning visual depiction of a wealthy industrialist family's demise amidst the rise of Nazism in Germany prior to WWII. If there's a weakness it might be that elements of decadence are sometimes over the top with homoerotic orgies, pedophilia, and incest being used as examples of the moral depravity and decadence of the times. The film has a great ensemble cast: the creepy Helmut Berger is great here as the perverted and morally bankrupt scion of a wealthy industrialist family, as is Ingrid Thulin as his mother, Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Umberto Orsini plus Renaud Verley and Florinda Bolkan. I find it curious that Visconti's French novel adaptation The Stranger was made in German, while this German-historical film was made in barely explicit English (subtitles helpful). I suppose it has to do with financial backing and being able to recoup money invested in the production. Overall, it is an operatic and powerful film about decay and decadence.

The Aura

The late Argentian film director Fabian Belinski's The Aura (2005) is an unusual heist film. The hero of the story, played by Ricardo Darin, is something of a fabulist-he thinks he has thought of the perfect robbery and sees it unfold in his mind's eye. No matter that he is a timid taxidermist with epilepsy that he describes having seizures like an aura coming over him. And that is what sets this film apart from other crime films-the unusual perspective and the leisurely pacing of the film-it comes off as an art house film. The cinematography in the forest is impressive. Belinsky's earlier hit Nine Queens, was also very much an original film that was later adapted by Hollywood. Too bad, Belinsky did not have time to mature as an artist-it seems he was just hitting his stride when died after completing this film.