Lost In Translation

Bathtub Gin

Ableford's Bathtub Gin is my latest craft gin purchase and it has a strong juniper and spice taste-mostly cinnamon, orange, and clove. I believe it was under ¥4000-some of these craft gins are quite expensive up there in price with craft whiskies.

Private Life

Tamara Jenkins has just released her third full length feature, Private Life (2018), a poignant and funny mediation on fertility, late parenthood and male and female roles in society. The film is reliant on the brilliant turns from the three main lead actors, the artistic would-be parents Richard (Paul Giamatti) and Rachel(Kathryn Hahn) and their egg donor and step niece, Sadie (Kayli Carter). It is a realistic and entertaining look at modern adulthood.

Fort Graveyard

Kihachi Okamoto's Fort Graveyard (1965) is a curious war film. It is both a serious anti-war film and something of a comedic farce. Toshiro Mifune stars as anti-authority sergeant Kosugi who is sent on a suicide mission after striking his superior officer-Satsuma (Tatsuya Nakadai). He is assigned a troop of jazz musicians who open the film by playing a raucous version of "When the Saints Go Marching In", which seems to be a curious song to be played by the Imperial Army while at war with the decadent USA. Comfort women appear and Rieko Dan plays Oharu, a Korean comfort woman devoted to Kosugi. The film alternates between comic gags and action as the rag tag group captures and then loses a fort at great cost as the war finally expires as their actions are for nil.

The Fifth Risk

I remember being distraught when Trump began naming his cabinet, it was a a big "FU" to government and the agencies run by the government as he nominated people who were not only not qualified to lead those departments, but often were in open opposition to them. Ultra-corrupt Scott Pruitt had tried to sue the Environmental Protection Agency and Betsy De Vos, besides having no formal education experience, was anti-public education and supported charter schools and the dismantling of public education. These appointees and most of the others deeply troubling to me until I reasoned that career bureaucrats in these departments would continue doing what they had always done and insure that these vital government agencies would continue to serve the people. Michael Lewis proves this point in his newest book, The Fifth Risk (2018). Lewis looks at three misunderstood agencies, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Commerce, within the government and analyzes who little thought the Trump administration has given these vital agencies and how the people who work their continue to labor for the betterment of the nation as a whole rather than kowtow to partisan issues such as refuting global warming or indulging in practices to help the private sector benefit from government policies. Lewis achieves this with substantial interviews with key people in these agencies to find out what is done in them and what the people were responsible for in their jobs and to assess how they were approached by the new administration. The typical response to the first part was that people were invested in serving the people of the united states-a sense of mission for their fellow citizens. As for the later question most, of these agencies were met with indifference or incompetence and no agenda-it is no secret that Trump was wildly unprepared since he did not expect to win. In some cases they were promoting changes that would adversely effect his base like eliminating Rural Development from the Department of Agriculture or promote money making schemes like privatizing water. This is the second non fiction book I've read that pays substantial attention to predicting tornadoes in Oklahoma and the mid west (the other was Sam Anderson's book on Oklahoma City Boom Town). Lewis draws a parallel between the tornadoes and the current government when he ends the book by saying:

"And so you might have a good reason to pray for a tornado, whether it comes in the shape of swirling winds, or a political clan. You imagine the things doing the damage that you would like to see done, and no more. It's what you fail to imagine that kills you."

Let The Sunshine In

Claire Denis' Let The Sunshine In (2017) is an unusual film in that it feels like a series of vignettes pieced together, rather than a fully fledged narrative. The eternally striking Juiette Binoche stars as Isabella, an aging divorced artist who is desperate searching for love in all the wrong places-such as from a married business man and an alcoholic actor among others. Many of the scenes take place in enclosed spaces and feature close ups of the actors, the few times the camera is allowed to escape close quarters we get glimpses of the stand out cinematography from long-time collaborator Agnes Godard. However, some scenes stand out like the dance scene in the club. Overall, it does not feel like a joyous depiction of female desire-there seems to be too much suppressed anguish in the character who is destined find satisfaction elusive.

Gyozabouchohakkai

Gyozabouchohakkai is a popular restaurant in Asagaya known for nabe (hot pot) and gyoza (dumplings). The last time I tried to go to this restaurant it was fully booked (they do not accept reservations). That wasn't the case on a rainy Friday night.

Fried gyoza was first up.

Spicy gyoza with chili oil and cilantro.

Boiled gyoza with shrimp and mushroom were distinct and unusual.

Steamed vegetarian gyoza.

The Dancing Girl Of Izu

The Dancing Girl Of Izu (1933) directed by Heinosuke Gosho was the first adaptation of the popular Yasunari Kawabata short story of the same name (six other film versions would follow this one). The original story is quite succinct, thus some melodramatic aspects have been added to the story to flesh it out-not always successfully. That being said this version stars one of the early stars of  Japanese cinema-Kinuyo Tanaka as Karou, the dancer (who would star in most of Kenji Mizoguchi's triumphs among others). One of the most impressive aspects of the film for me was the location shots all over Shimoda and the Izu peninsula. It gives the viewer a sense of what the resort area looked like in the early 30s before the modern development-mountains are frequently caught in the background as do the harbor and beach throughout.

Lake Success

Gary Shteyngart's latest novel, Lake Success (2018) is said to be the first Trump era novel since it takes place during the election and it's immediate aftermath. It is a curious novel in that Shteyngart suggests a lot without really making definitive statements about America and the place that it is in right now. Perhaps his vision is something of an imagined America that is slightly less combative and damaged as it is in reality. Essentially the novel is about Barry Cohen a hedge fund millionaire goes on an odyssey across America by Greyhound after confluence of personal and professional problems arise and goes on the run. He's having trouble dealing with his deeply autistic son and his younger liberal east Indian American wife Seema. He may be under investigation with the SEC for some dodgy dealings with a pharmaceutical company that buys other companies and raises prices on drugs for profit. Barry himself seems to be on the spectrum as he has an unhealthy obsession/attachment to watches-several of which he loads into a roller board to take on his journey. This like many things suggests something that is not apparently clear-obsession with time-time is running out? I suppose it is significant that all of the main characters are far from white middle class Christian males. At his first stop in Baltimore he makes friends with a young crack dealer. His journey is headed into the past he is chasing his ex-college girlfriend-so he stay with her liberal university professor parents in Virginia and they take him in and humor him. He meets an old business associate, a Korean America Jeff Park in Atlanta, whom he want sot mentor and who is among the firs to call Barry out on his amoral business practices. Then Barry encounters a lovely black girl who acts as a sort of romantic interlude with the other and introduces him to southern culture. He reconnects with his old girlfriend and her son, who is also on the spectrum in El Paso Texas. However, after an elongated stay in Texas his dream of a new life with his ex is not realized. So he moves onto to San Diego to visit his father's grave. He finally returns to New York and his journey has changed him somewhat, but he still is a distant father paralyzed by his son's disability, he doesn't reconnect with his wife, there is reckoning for his shady business dealings-but he doesn't change professions he cannot stop making large amounts of money. The novel travels much further into the future than I had expected. It doesn't seems as though Barry has changed much at all-what is the lesson about life he has learned? What is America as he experienced it rubbing shoulders with one-eyed Mexicans on the Greyhound. I had trouble finding a definite statement about our times today and America in general. Furthermore, I did not find this novel as funny as usual. That being said it was an entertaining ride across America peopled with distinct characters who felt true to life.

Omar

I have to say that I really enjoyed Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad's taut thriller Omar (2013). Three childhood friends plan an attack on the Israeli opposition and one of the members, Omar (Adam Bakuri) is captured and forced to be an informer. This reluctant informant is one of the major story lines the other concerns his love for his friend Tarek's (Eyad Hourani) sister, Nadia (Leem Lubany) who is also being courted by his other friend Amjad (Samar Bisharat). There are plenty of parkour-like chases through crowded bazaars and other impressive visuals throughout not to mention the exotic location of the West Bank make for an unusual thriller-it was very entertaining and well-made.

Daguerréotypes

Agnes Varda's film Daguerreotypes (1976) is a difficult film to categorize. It's something of a documentary about people who run the shops in the Parisian neighborhood where Varda lives, but she has infused some fictionalized elements in giving the subjects certain topics to ruminate about-dreams for example. Varda has succeeded in capturing a certain place and time, but I did not personally find the fictionalized elements very compelling-however, a certain artistic style is evident and effective. I liked how she ends the film with still life shots of the subjects that is something of a coda to what has gone on before a review of all the different subjects and their distinctive lives.