Lost In Translation

A Woman's Place

Mikio Naruse's 1962 film A Woman's Place / The Wiser Age feels like homage to Yasujiro's Ozu's Tokyo Story. Surprisingly, this film has been dismissed by the likes of Audie Bock who said that it and two other films from this era are "mediocre" and "negligible" that they have been omitted from film reference books. I beg to differ, it is still a fascinating family drama representative of the changing society seen in the early 60s in postwar Japan. It is the story of a large multi-generational family that comes together when the family patriarch, Kinjiro Ishikawa (Chishu Ryu playing a similar role to the iconic one from Tokyo Story), falls ill. The saintly widowed daughter-in-law, Yoshiko (Noriko played by Setsuko Hara in Ozu's film), this time around is played by Naruse regular Hideko Takamine, who has a son, Ken (Kenzaburo Osawa), that she is relying onto to support her after graduating from high school and college. Ken, however, is struggling under the pressure and is not performing well at school. The matriarch of the family Aki is played by Haruko Sugimura-who also was in Tokyo Story, playing the cold-hearted daughter Shige. They have five other daughters and another son aside from the Yoshiko's deceased husband-who is the first son, who is usually the heir to the family's fortune, which is now due to be given to young Ken. One of them, Natsuko (Yoko Tsukasa), is being shopped around for marriage and finally deices to marry an up and coming executive who is being sent to Brazil for 2-3 years, which eases the burden on the family and allows her young sister, Yukiko (Yuriko Hoshi), to pursue a romantic interest with another of her suitors, Aoyama (Yousuke Natsuki) an intellectual working for the meteorological agency and will be transferred to the Mt. Fuji station. The biggest villains in the film are Umeko, an unmarried but successful flower arranging and tea ceremony teacher and her sister Michiko (Keiko Awaji) who arrives from Kyushu with her deadbeat husband Maasaki (Tatsuya Mihashi). Complications arise when Umeko falls for the mother, Aki's son Musumiya (Akira Takarada Godzilla), a conman and hustler, from her first marriage in which she left him behind to marry Ishikawa. The complication is that Musumiya has fallen for Yoshiko and she has learned about his reputation and has asked him to leave and not marry Umeko-Umeko thinks she is meddling because she is jealous. Suddenly Ken is is hit by a train in an apparent suicide and has sent the family dynamics spiraling. The parents will sell their house and move into a smaller house and have invited Yoshiko to join them but suggest the possibility that she may want to re-marry. The rest of the family are already plotting what to do with the family lot-Jiro, now the main heir, wants to move into the house, Michiko wants to open a supermarket and Umeko thinks they should build an apartment-selfish motives among all. Catherine Russell in her book, The Cinema of Naruse Mikio sums up the film nicely: "It isn't clear what Yoshiko's fate will be-whether she will remain with them, remarry, or be cast out. But she does seem to be left with her in-laws as some kind of relic or the past, stuck without a role in the changing world."

In Flight Films (Spokane Bound)

I enjoyed Kerslake's documentary on Joan Jett, Bad Reputation (2018) more than I anticipated. Jett is an iconic rock star who stared out as a punk-something that was relived in the 2010 biopic, The Runaways, starring Kristen Stewart. I would go as far as to say her first collaboration with producer Kenny Laguna is a classic. I was unaware of her career post 80s, which is where she is entrenched in most people's consciousness. However, she has continued to stay relevant and true to herself over the years-it's an informative and entertaining look at a rock-n-roll icon. 

As something of a cinemafile I am a fan of the ground breaking films of Ingmar Bergman, so I was interested to see what director Margarethe von Trotta and Bettina Bohler had to say about the Swedish film legend in Searching For Ingmar Bergman (2018). Some of the coverage was impressionistic rather than informative. But I found the sections on the late career of Bergman spent in Germany the most fascinating since I was unaware of his financial exile. I am inspired to see some of his films made during this stage of his career since the only one I have seen to date was the 2003 comeback Saraband.

Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi won this year's award for Best Documentary at the Oscars for their film, Free Solo (2018), on free solo climber Alex Honnold's attempt to be the first climber to scale the daunting EL Capitan in Yosemite national park. It's an extraordinary sports documentary where the subject's life is in balance. There's also a meta-story of how the crew can capture the event without pressuring or distracting the climber. Those of us with vertigo can only cringe at the death defying prowess of the free solo climber.

2019 Burlington, Vermont

This will be my last official visit to Burlington, Vermont to observe the study abroad program between TWCU and St. Michael's College, since this is the final year of my limited term contract with TWCU. It's a lovely campus and a charming little city. I'll miss my annual visit.

Casavant Nature Area trail.

Dinner at a new place in nearby Winooski, El Cortijo, above a small pollo burrito.

A coffee cup outside the popular Penny Clyde Cafe downtown.

Vegan chili and a turkey bacon sandwich at Zabby & Elf's Stone Soup, after seeing Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Little Wolf Pale Ale, Zero Gravity at American Flatbread Burlington Hearth.

Lunch at Sneakers, a BLT Fried Egg and Cheese with fries. I missed eating here in the past since it is only open from 7-3.

City Primeval

City Primeval (1980) is another compelling Elmore Leonard crime novel set in Detroit. In this novel we get an epic showdown between a psychopathic criminal, Clement Mansell, also known as "The Oklahoma Wildman," and a thoughtful, laconic homicide detective named Raymond Cruz. The action starts when Mansell kills a controversial black Detroit Judge Guy and his companion for the night over a road rage incident. Cruz quickly connects the dots and is bearing down on Mansell who escaped prosecution once before due to luck and and flaws in the criminal justice system, but then again he has one of the best criminal lawyers in the cool, calculating Carolyn Wilder whom Cruz finds intriguing. Throw in Mansell young, attractive dope smoking former beauty queen and a distinct supporting cast of characters and you have another winning Leonard novel with great dialogue and a page turning plot-it was highly entertaining. 

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino's latest film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019), is essentially a love letter to late 60s film and Hollywood. This is basically achieved by following a fading movie star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double/valet Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) on typical day along with that of Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie)-an actor and wife of director Roman Polanski. The fictionalized actor Dalton allows Tarantino to create fictional films, advertisements, and TV series to fill in Dalton's backstory. There are references to the films of the day seen in the background on marquees as the characters navigate Los Angeles and Hollywood in particular in their daily routines. There's a controversial set piece where Booth gets in a fight with Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) on the set of The Green Hornet, that doesn't portray Lee in a positive light. Tate is based on the infamous victim of the Manson family and provides a look into the real going events of the era like the scene where Tate goes to see herself in the 1968 film with Dean Martin, The Wrecking Crew. The Manson family enters the story when Booth picks up a young, outgoing hitch hiker, Pussycat (Margaret Qualley) and drops her off on the Spahn Ranch. It's something of a shaggy dog movie with a meandering plot until the end of the film. There's plenty of the stylized Tarantino dialogue and some impressive cinematography. Overall, I enjoyed the late 60s love letter but felt it was also somewhat indulgent and overlong.

In-Flight Films (US Bound)

I was pretty confidant that Jordan Peele's most recent horror film Us (2019) would be available on a recent flight-and it was. Like Out, it has a novel concept, great performances, set design, and impressive cinematography. However, I felt that there were many more plot holes this time around. But still an entertaining film overall.

I was happy to have the chance to see Sydney Pollack's posthumous Aretha Franklin concert film, Amazing Grace (2018). Amazing Grace film was not released on schedule in 1972 due to difficulties syncing the audio tracks with the visual print and was stored in a vault at Warner Brothers until 2007 when producer Alan Elliott purchased the raw footage and attempted to sync it. The pared-down footage, now 87 minutes in length, was planned for a 2011 release. It seems Franklin sued him, but her family agreed to let the film be released after her death in 2018. The lady can belt it out-and this performance is from her prime.

Mike Leigh's latest historical epic Peterloo (2018) was one of the highly anticipated films from Cannes, but was met with mixed reviews. It is essentially the story of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre where British forces attacked a peaceful pro-democracy rally in Manchester.The film is notable for realistic costumes, setting, and has some wonderful performances and even the non speaking actors looked great in their period costumes. However, this film is very "speech-y", and very long. There were some very obvious exposition scenes that were out in to explain some outdated or lesser-known legal terms. I think that Leigh could have trimmed at least 40 minutes from the 2 hour 34 minute running time by entertaining some of the political speeches.

Schumann's Bar Talks (2017), directed by Marieke Schroder, follows world-renowned bartender and author of American Bar: The Artistry of Mixing Drinks, Charles Schumann, on his quest to visit the world's best bars in New York, Havana and Tokyo. It seems somewhat aggrandizing-but he does seem to have been a pioneer of what is now known as the craft cocktail bar scene. However, I think the documentary is best when he talks to historians about the history of bar culture and the invention of the cocktail itself. I also enjoyed his visits to bars in Germany, New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Havana. I have been to one of the bars he visited in Tokyo-Bar Ben Fiddich and The Floridan, birthplace of the Hemingway daiquiri, in Havana.

Gan Bi's latest film Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018) was another well-received festival favorite that I was highly anticipating since I really enjoyed his previous effort Kaili Blues. Once again I think Gan Bi's cinematography may be among the best in the world these days. Especially notable is the stunning last 59 minutes of the film which is one unbroken long take shot. But the framing and other filming choices come across as inventive and intriguing. However, the story felt something like Wong Kar-wai lite in that it was supposed to be profound and romantic. But somehow felt shallow and derivative to me and maybe it's because I'm such a huge Wan Kar-wai fan. That being said I still found the film compelling to watch and I think Gab Bi is one to watch in the future.

Tora-san The Go-Between (35)

In Yoji Yamada's 35th installment in the Tora-san series, Tora-san The Go-Between (1985) a structural shift seems to taken place. In the earlier films of the series Tora (Kiyomi Atsumi) had romances with the leading ladies of his generation-Machiko Kyo, Kyoko Kagawa, Ruriko Asaoka, Ayaka Wakao, and others. At this point Tora is in his 50s and rather risk the dirty old man troupe, Yamada has Tora acting as a matchmaker with younger actresses. in this case he travels to the Goto Islands in Nagasaki where the "Hidden Christians" escaped during the Edo era. Here Tora and his buddy Ponshu (Keiroku Seki) help a little old lady who has fallen and then spend an enjoyable evening with her. Early in the morning she dies and they help out digging her grave and attending a church service for her where they her grand daughter from Tokyo, Wakana (Kanako Higuchi). Tora falls for her but tries to help bookish law student Tamio (Mitsuru Harata) woo her once back in Tokyo. The usual pre-credits sequence has a lampoon of Shohei Imamura's Cannes winning film of the same year The Ballad of Narayama.

The Wrecking Crew

The Wrecking Crew (1968) seems to be an important puzzle piece in the making of Quentin Tarantino's latest film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood since Sharon Tate's murder is a significant plot point. The Wrecking Crew, a spy film lampoon, starring Dean Martin and Tate was the last film she made before her murder at the hands of Charles Manson's followers. Tarantino also used this film as well as several others from the era to capture the style of the era. And this film does have lots of late 60s music, fashion, and style throughout. However, it is an inconsequential and sometimes amateurish mainstream production without any edge much like the previous inspiration I watched Cactus Flower. I don't think I'll be watching any more of the films Tarantino singled out as influences for his latest film, while they may be of interest stylistically, I think their intrinsic worth as films are dubious.

The One From The Other

The One From The Other (2006) is another entertaining installment in the Bernie Gunther private detective series from Philip Kerr. This time it is 1949 and—after being forced to serve in the SS—Bernie has moved to Munich to reestablish himself as a private investigator. When the beautiful Frau Britta Warzok hires him for an apparently simple job in Vienna, Bernie’s finds himself the victim of a frame up. Kerr has created a compelling narrative. And there's plenty of great hard-boiled dialogue as usual, for example Gunther says: "Schiller? Sure. He's the guy who said that the truth lives on in the midst of deception. We keep that quotation over the office door. He's the patron saint of detectives everywhere." There's plenty of great historical details through as well-details like the "Nakam" or Vengeance squads where small groups of European Jews avenged the murders of Jews by Nazis. The novels opens with Bernie doing a job in Israel where he meets Adolf Eichmann and Herbert Hagen-a historical fact. Furthermore, the American Office of Scientific Research and Development did conduct medical experiment son prisoners in state penitentiaries to an effort to develop a vaccine for malaria in 1945 as recorded in a Life magazine from that year.

The Naked Director

I had high expectations for Neflix's Japanese produced TV series The Naked Director, which unfortunately were not met. Much like the earlier Netflix produced Hibana-there was some promise and the series was semi-succssful in that some aspects of the production were satisfying. It managed to capture the cultural zeitgeist of the 80s but much of the acting and action was over the top-as per Japanese TV. I'm not sure what I think of the star Takayuki Yamada as Toru Muranashi-a real life porn director. Many of the supporting characters were defined by one characteristic and were largely over the top in their performances. Misato Morita was more successful as Kaoru Kuoiki-also base d on a real-life porn star. The early episodes that took place in Hokkaido were among the best. The Hawaii episodes were too fantastical and unrealistic as most of the episodes at the end.