Lost In Translation

Flint Town

I was very impressed with the Netflix documentary series Flint Town (2018) which was made by a trio of directors (Zackary Canepari, Drea Cooper, and Jessica Dimmock). It is essentially a look at an under-budgeted urban police department in a dying northern industrial city. However, it is also about local politics, national politics, race, the economy, poverty, drugs, and crime. Then consider the fact that Flint has one of the highest viloenent crime rates in the US and was still reeling from a political scandal where dangerous amounts of lead in the water system were covered up by local politicians and the city came into the spotlight during the 2016 Democratic presiodential debate held there by Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. The rise of the Black Lives movement spurred by police killings of blacks all over the US led to the murder of policemen all over gives insight into what modern policing has become warts and all. The show focuses on a new mayor and the new chief of police that she brings in as well as several of the policemen under his command. It is a fascinating look at modern America.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Godspeed You! Black Emperor (1976) is a documentary about a bosozoku youth motorcycle gang in Tokyo directed by Mitsuo Yanagimachi. It is shot in cinema vertie style and also includes interviews or fly on the wall sequences with conversations between gang members and their parents or inter gang meetings. These early gangs are more social clubs and less violent and criminal than they would become in the 80s. I think it most interesting in the lost Tokyo of the 70s, popular music, and fashion more than anything else-I can't say I was particularly drawn to any of the gang members profiled. I may have been most curious to find out why a recent favorite band from Montreal took this movie title as a name-it feels like it was a random choice after seeing the film.

Sabotage

Alfred Hithcock's adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel, The Secret Agent, Sabotage (1936) is known as one his better British films. It is an effective thriller. It is a story about London cinema manager Carl Verloc (Oscar Homolka), who  working with a gang of European saboteurs. His wife (Sylvia Sidney) and her young brother Stevie (Desmond Tester) are unaware about his activities, but Scotland Yard have assigned an undercover detective (John Loder ) to watch him from a vegetable stand nearby. There are great location shots and some memorable scenes (shot at the legendary Gainsborough Studios), including the meeting of spies in an aquarium, while the suspense set piece at the couple’s kitchen table is truly memorable. Hitchcock later confessed that the other significant thriller sequence, filmed on a bus, was a ‘grave error’ on his part because he thought it alienated his audience. Overall, an entertaining and effective thriller.

Sad Vacation

Sad Vacation (2007) is Shinji Aoyama's follow up to two of his earlier films-Helpless (1996) and Eureka (2000). There are specific call backs to those two films in this film, however, I have only seen Eureka, but I plan to remedy that soon.  I still think this film works on its own merits-it is a story about the families people create in society. It is also about revenge and settling scores, the focus of the film is on Kenji (Tadanobu Asano), man who has been left by his mother and survived his father's suicide. He is looking after his dead yakuza friend's mentally challenged sister and then decides to take home a Chinese boy whose father died when they smuggled them into Japan. He finds a girlfriend from his work as a driver and reconnects with his mother's new family, but not all ends well as KenjI's agenda is slowly revealed.

Extreme Burgers

Found a new burger spot in Nakano, Extreme Burgers, and tried the cheese burger (¥1400 lunch set with drink and fries)-a bit too much mayo and the burger had some gristle in it. Not sure if I'd give it another chance.

Shirkers

The Netflix documentary Shirkers (2018) is a fascinating look at how three young Singaporean women made a film and it was held hostage by their mentor, George Cardona, for over 25 years until he died. This film by Sandi Tan tells the story of the film and its dormant life and the footage is startling-mostly because it captures a Singapore that no longer exists, but there were some flashes of brilliance in the footage I saw and the at may be what caused the mentor to sabotage the film out of envy-but we will never know since he is dead.

Onimaru

The French backed Onimaru (1988) was Yoshishige Yoshida's Cannes entry for the year. It is a Japanese re-make of Withering Heights set in medieval Japan and stylized as a Noh-like production. It looks great but drags for much of the two hour 23 minute run time. Yusaku Matsuda plays the demonic lead while Yuki Tanaka plays his muse, Kinu. I found this more interesting than the the other late career film, A Promise, that I saw. The other worldly music was written by film score legend Toru Takemitsu.

Toyoda's Cheese Steak

Finally made it over to Hatagaya to try Toyoda Cheese Steak-it's probably the best in Tokyo. I also got a side order of pulled pork. I'll definitely be back.

Gentleman In The Parlour

W. Somerset Maugham's travel collection Gentleman In The Parlour (1930) is an uneven collection of stories from the author's trip through what was then Burma and Siam, ending in Haiphong, Vietnam. As Paul Theroux points out in the introduction, he wrote the book several yeas after the fact and wrote the story from the point of view of a solo traveler, even though he had a companion on that lengthy Asian journey. He does write about some of the local color, but he mostly focuses on cultural differences and the most entertaining episodes are about some of the characters he met on his journey.

Home From The Hill

I believe that Home From The Hill (1960) is the first Vincent Minnelli directed film I've seen. However, I chose to see it because it stars Robert Mitchum. Little did I know it also starred a young George Hamilton and George Peppard in major roles. I was also pleased to find that there was a bit in the film where some locals hunters take Mitchum's son, Hamilton, out for snipe hunt-a practical joke that found its way into an episode of Cheers, in which psychiatrist Frasier is similarly duped. Overall I enjoyed it, but it was a a bit melodramatic and over long-2 hours 30 minutes.