It takes a lot of nerve to make a film with the same title as Kobayashi Masaki's Kaidan, for you will unconsciously be measured against that impressive predecessor. It would be unfair to do so in the case of Nakata Hideo's Kaidan, for this is not one of the many "remakes" we are being flooded with, but a very different film in almost every aspect. The only thing both films have in common is that they are horror stories combined with jidaigeki, historical drama. Nakata's flick is not based on the grissly ghost stories of Lafcadio Hearn, but on the work of 19th c. writer and rakugo performer Sanyutei Encho (Kaidan Kasane-ga-fuchi, "Ａ Ghost Story of Kasane Swamp"). And let it be said, Nakata's Kaidan is a very entertaining production in its own right.
What is it about?
First we get a flashback - told in rakugo style - in which we see that a samurai, the father of the main protagonist, kills a money lender, the father of the "heroine" in the film, thereby setting in motion the trappings of Buddhist karma - a retribution that will play out its inevitable game in a most scientific way.
Kaidan next tells the story of the handsome Shinkichi (Kabuki actor Onoe Kikunosuke), a poor tobacco seller, the son of the above samurai who in the meantime has killed his wife and committed suicide as an indication that the karma-machine has been cranked up. By chance, Shinkichi meets the elegant Toyoshika (former Takarazuka star Kuroki Hitomi - she also played in Nakata's Dark Water), who is running a singing school for young women. She is much older than Shinkichi, but he is irresistably drawn to her - and she to him. In fact, she develops a jealous, all-possessing love for the handsome young man.
Of course things go wrong with all that delicious young flesh surrounding one weak but attractive man: after Shinkichi moves in with Toyoshika and comes to do small chores in the school, his flirting with the female students leads to conjugal quarrels and finally a fight where Toyoshika is hurt on her eyelid with the plectrum of her shamisen (the same spot where her father was hurt by the father of Shinkichi).
Toyoshika dies of her wound and Shinkichi elopes with one of her students, the cute Ohisa (Mao Inoue). But no rosy dawn will smile on them: Toyoshika's jealous love is so strong that she starts haunting Shinkichi from beyond the grave, and his affair with Ohisa ends miserably, as do all the relations he has with other women afterwards... for he belongs to Toyoshika and Toyoshika alone!
What I like about it
This film is soft on the eyes. I am not only talking about the five beautiful actresses who play the women around Shinkichi (with Kuroki Hitomi proving that a woman in her late forties can still be very sexy), but about the whole production: the cinematography is gorgeous, with beautiful, atmospheric colors, the kimono are colorful and period-production design is most faithful. In fact, the film looks as classically Japanese as possible.
Kabuki star Onoe Kikunosuke also plays an interesting role. Soft and effiminate, he looks like a nimaime actor from the distant past, the time that gentle and weak men always played the romantic lead. In fact, in the beginning of the film Onoe may seem too passive to modern audiences, but as misfortune after misfortune is heaped on his head, his character developes a desperate and mean streak.
What is wrong with it?
Still, although it is certainly worth seeing, I do not think Nakata's Kaidan is a great film. The probem I have with it, is that this classical period drama could have been made 50 years ago as well. I see no innovation in this film, even Yamada Yoji - although he filmed his stories straight like Nakata does - introduced something new in his recent three samurai flicks by showing how destitute samurai in the mid-19th c. could be, how caught in the Catch-22 of a feudal code that was rotten to the core and could be exploited against them.
Kobayashi Masaki and Nakagawa Nobuo (who also filmed this Encho story in 1957) made films that even when viewed today look more modern than Nakata's work. By presenting a traditional story in a very traditional way, Nakata Hideo has created a small classic that comes half a century too late. The word "old-fashioned" kept coming into my head while watching it...
Links
I saw the Japanese DVD which has only Japanese subtitles.
Official website.
Website of Kuroki Hitomi.
Onoe Kikunosuke.
Mark Schilling review.
February 29, 2008
February 23, 2008
The Craft of Sake - Review of Harper's The Book of Sake
One of the best books on sake in English I know is Philip Harper's The Book of Sake: A Connoisseurs Guide. Beautifully edited by Kodansha, with lavish illustrations, this book contains all you have to know about sake and is a pleasure to read, also thanks to Harper's lively style. And that all in less than 100 pages.
Philip Harper is the only non-Japanese toji or master brewer, so he knows what he is speaking about. In a more than a 15-year career, he has worked for fine, small breweries as Ume no Yado in Nara, Daimon in Osaka, and now is active at Kinoshita Shuzo in the north of Kyoto Prefecture.
Harper has managed that impossible task, to write a book that is useful for novices and still interesting for those who are on their way to becoming connoisseurs. After all, in contrast to wine, where you can start drinking as long as you select red or white, dry or sweet, sake has a huge vocabulary of specialistic terms, which can be off-putting for novices.
Wisely, Harper does not start out with an avalanche of jargon but first suggests us to open a few bottles and start tasting. In Making the Most of Sake, he discusses the ideal temperature for drinking sake; which sake to combine with which food; describes the official sake tasting process; and gives information on "drinker's parafernalia", cups, bottles, flasks and other equipment.
We learn that certain types of sake can also be enjoyed "on the rocks;" and that drinking sake warm is no sin (as long as it is not a daiginjo) but that you never should overheat it - Harper discusses various ways to gently heat sake. The interesting thing about sake is, that it can be drunk at many different temperatures and changes character and taste accordingly. It is fun to discover the best temperature for your favorite sake.
Next Harper sings the praise of the combination of a Ginjo sake with your sashimi or sushi, while a full-bodied Junmai fits better with sukiyaki or yakitori.
As regards Western foods, a Kimoto or Yamahai with its yoghurty nuances is the perfect companion to a cheese plate, as well as Chinese foods cooked in oil. Harper provides a "taste chart" and suggest alternatives to the omnipresent thimble-sized sake cup, the o-choko, in the form of glasses and other, larger ceramic cups - especially Ginjo and Daiginjo sake needs room to breath in a wider glass.
In the second chapter, Sake for all Seasons: Types and Styles, we get a little bit more technical as Harper explains the differences between the delicious Junmai, Honjozo, Ginjo and Daiginjo, all premium or super-premium sakes.
He teaches us about Namazake (unpasteurized sake, a novelty of the last ten years or so), the traditional Kimoto method of making the yeast in a natural, but time-consuming and labor-intensive way; about Shiboritate or "Sake Nouveau;" and Koshu or Aged sake. He also gives some space to minor genres as sparkling sake (also a modern invention) and Taru-zake, the sake aged in a cask of fragrant cedar wood.
The going would be heavy if this were only a dry enumeration, but Harper "wets" his story by introducing the actual bottles and brands of the types he is discussing.
Chapter Three, On the Road: Breweries and Regions, informs us about regional styles and about brewer's guilds, but dedicates most of its space to introducing famous sake brands for each prefecture. As elsewhere in the book, the taste descriptions are the work of sake journalist and master-taster Haruo Matsuzaki.
In The Brewer's Craft, we are introduced to the mysterious process of sake brewing, from the raw materials of sake-rice and water, to the koji (the mold grown on steamed rice to change the starch of the rice grains into fermentable sugars), the yeast starter and the actual fermentation process (moromi; sake is characteristically brewn by the "multiple parallel fermentation" method, meaning that production of sugars by the koji enzymes takes place in the same vat and at the same time that the yeast converts those sugars into alcohol - this is also what makes brewing sake so difficult: the two elements must be perfectly balanced).
This is of course where Harper is talking about his own craft, which makes it particularly interesting. His explanation of the often difficult to understand brewing process is the most lucid I know. Harper is so much in his element that he runs out of space here and a very important discussion of yeast and yeast types had to be put at the inside backcover of the book - but this has been done very tastefully by the publisher, with silver letters on black paper.
Of course, not everything is covered in this book of only 100 pages, think for example about the history of sake - and I would have liked to hear more about Harper's personal experiences, but that is perhaps something for another book.
What Harper shows in this volume is that today sake is more delicious and variegated than ever in its long history. He also shows that brewing a good sake is a difficult craft, just like making washi paper, lacquerwork, ceramics, textiles, and all those other, great Japanese handmade crafts.
To brew a good handmade sake is not a process in a computer-controlled factory, but still the work of dedicated, even fanatical people who are obsessed with quality. It is good that "handcrafted" sake finally also is becoming popular on dining tables around the world.
Philip Harper is the only non-Japanese toji or master brewer, so he knows what he is speaking about. In a more than a 15-year career, he has worked for fine, small breweries as Ume no Yado in Nara, Daimon in Osaka, and now is active at Kinoshita Shuzo in the north of Kyoto Prefecture.
Harper has managed that impossible task, to write a book that is useful for novices and still interesting for those who are on their way to becoming connoisseurs. After all, in contrast to wine, where you can start drinking as long as you select red or white, dry or sweet, sake has a huge vocabulary of specialistic terms, which can be off-putting for novices.
Wisely, Harper does not start out with an avalanche of jargon but first suggests us to open a few bottles and start tasting. In Making the Most of Sake, he discusses the ideal temperature for drinking sake; which sake to combine with which food; describes the official sake tasting process; and gives information on "drinker's parafernalia", cups, bottles, flasks and other equipment.
We learn that certain types of sake can also be enjoyed "on the rocks;" and that drinking sake warm is no sin (as long as it is not a daiginjo) but that you never should overheat it - Harper discusses various ways to gently heat sake. The interesting thing about sake is, that it can be drunk at many different temperatures and changes character and taste accordingly. It is fun to discover the best temperature for your favorite sake.
Next Harper sings the praise of the combination of a Ginjo sake with your sashimi or sushi, while a full-bodied Junmai fits better with sukiyaki or yakitori.
As regards Western foods, a Kimoto or Yamahai with its yoghurty nuances is the perfect companion to a cheese plate, as well as Chinese foods cooked in oil. Harper provides a "taste chart" and suggest alternatives to the omnipresent thimble-sized sake cup, the o-choko, in the form of glasses and other, larger ceramic cups - especially Ginjo and Daiginjo sake needs room to breath in a wider glass.
In the second chapter, Sake for all Seasons: Types and Styles, we get a little bit more technical as Harper explains the differences between the delicious Junmai, Honjozo, Ginjo and Daiginjo, all premium or super-premium sakes.
He teaches us about Namazake (unpasteurized sake, a novelty of the last ten years or so), the traditional Kimoto method of making the yeast in a natural, but time-consuming and labor-intensive way; about Shiboritate or "Sake Nouveau;" and Koshu or Aged sake. He also gives some space to minor genres as sparkling sake (also a modern invention) and Taru-zake, the sake aged in a cask of fragrant cedar wood.
The going would be heavy if this were only a dry enumeration, but Harper "wets" his story by introducing the actual bottles and brands of the types he is discussing.
Chapter Three, On the Road: Breweries and Regions, informs us about regional styles and about brewer's guilds, but dedicates most of its space to introducing famous sake brands for each prefecture. As elsewhere in the book, the taste descriptions are the work of sake journalist and master-taster Haruo Matsuzaki.
In The Brewer's Craft, we are introduced to the mysterious process of sake brewing, from the raw materials of sake-rice and water, to the koji (the mold grown on steamed rice to change the starch of the rice grains into fermentable sugars), the yeast starter and the actual fermentation process (moromi; sake is characteristically brewn by the "multiple parallel fermentation" method, meaning that production of sugars by the koji enzymes takes place in the same vat and at the same time that the yeast converts those sugars into alcohol - this is also what makes brewing sake so difficult: the two elements must be perfectly balanced).
This is of course where Harper is talking about his own craft, which makes it particularly interesting. His explanation of the often difficult to understand brewing process is the most lucid I know. Harper is so much in his element that he runs out of space here and a very important discussion of yeast and yeast types had to be put at the inside backcover of the book - but this has been done very tastefully by the publisher, with silver letters on black paper.
Of course, not everything is covered in this book of only 100 pages, think for example about the history of sake - and I would have liked to hear more about Harper's personal experiences, but that is perhaps something for another book.
What Harper shows in this volume is that today sake is more delicious and variegated than ever in its long history. He also shows that brewing a good sake is a difficult craft, just like making washi paper, lacquerwork, ceramics, textiles, and all those other, great Japanese handmade crafts.
To brew a good handmade sake is not a process in a computer-controlled factory, but still the work of dedicated, even fanatical people who are obsessed with quality. It is good that "handcrafted" sake finally also is becoming popular on dining tables around the world.
The Book of Sake: A Connoisseurs Guide by Philip Harper and Haruo Matsuzaki, Kodansha International, 2006
Another book by Philip Harper is The Insider's Guide to Saké, a small pocket-sized book that contains much of the same practical information as The Book of Sake, but without the illustrations; in addition, it has lists of restaurants and shops both in Japan and the wU.S.
Interesting article from the SWET Newsletter about Philip Harper and the process of editing The Book of Sake
February 22, 2008
Gourmet Manga: Oishinbo or "Taste Quest"
In a previous post I wrote about the food-addiction of the Japanese. With the culinary passion here running as high as it does, it is not surprising that also among manga comics there is a category of "gourmet manga." Here is my take on the most famous one: Oishinbo.
Oishinbo (usually translated as "The Gourmet" or "Taste Quest"), serialized since 1983 in Big Comic Spirits, is about the search for the ultimate menu. Writer is Kariya Tetsu, and the manga is drawn by Hanasaki Akira. The comic has not run continuously since it started, as the creators regularly take time off to do food research. In 1987 they won the Shogakkan Manga prize.
The Oishinbo series is published in book form by Shogakkan and has enormous print runs: individual titles often break the one million barrier and the whole series has crashed the hundred million gates... a whole lot of paper and a cash cow for the authors and publisher. Of course the manga has spawned all possible kinds of off-spring: anime-films (1988-92, 136 episodes), a live-action film (with Mikuni Rentaro as the stern father, 1996), TV drama, TV shows, recipe collections and games.
Two reporters of the Tozai Newspaper, young dog Yamaoka Shiro and female sidekick Kurita Yuko, go in search of the “Ultimate Menu” for the celebration of their newspaper's hundredth anniversary. But at the same time, the rival Teito Newspaper has entrusted a plan for a “Supreme Menu” to the older, experienced Kaibara Yuzan of the Gourmet Club. Yamaoka Shiro is in fact the cast-out son of Kaibara Yuzan (he has received his mother's name). So the stage is set for a dramatic struggle between the son's “Ultimate Menu” and the father's “Supreme Menu.”
Yamaoka is wild and sometimes arrogant, but possesses an extensive knowledge of haute-cuisine and the necessary developed palate. Kurita fully shares his culinary obsession. There is a degree of attraction between them, and later in the story they marry, but it is not their relationship that is central to the manga. That is rather the drama between Yamaoka and his father, a stern figure who is also calligrapher and ceramic artist and who seems modeled on the 20th c. potter/gourmet Kitaoji Rosanjin.
In the whole series, much care is given to the depiction of food, of the widest variety, both from Japan and other cultures. In fact, every imaginable type of food availabe in Japan is present, from sashimi and sushi to exquisite French, from sake to wine, from American sandwiches to curry rice...
Of course, this would not be a Japanese manga if the obsession with ultimate quality was not very prominent again: the best way to make a certain dish, how to tweak a recipe to perfection, how to find the ultimate sharp knife to cut blowfish, the most superb use of a dripping glass to make coffee... etc. etc.
In short, the Oishinbo series is fun to read, and on top of that not only a perfect introduction to Japanese cuisine, but to Japanese culture in general.
Oishinbo (usually translated as "The Gourmet" or "Taste Quest"), serialized since 1983 in Big Comic Spirits, is about the search for the ultimate menu. Writer is Kariya Tetsu, and the manga is drawn by Hanasaki Akira. The comic has not run continuously since it started, as the creators regularly take time off to do food research. In 1987 they won the Shogakkan Manga prize.
The Oishinbo series is published in book form by Shogakkan and has enormous print runs: individual titles often break the one million barrier and the whole series has crashed the hundred million gates... a whole lot of paper and a cash cow for the authors and publisher. Of course the manga has spawned all possible kinds of off-spring: anime-films (1988-92, 136 episodes), a live-action film (with Mikuni Rentaro as the stern father, 1996), TV drama, TV shows, recipe collections and games.
Two reporters of the Tozai Newspaper, young dog Yamaoka Shiro and female sidekick Kurita Yuko, go in search of the “Ultimate Menu” for the celebration of their newspaper's hundredth anniversary. But at the same time, the rival Teito Newspaper has entrusted a plan for a “Supreme Menu” to the older, experienced Kaibara Yuzan of the Gourmet Club. Yamaoka Shiro is in fact the cast-out son of Kaibara Yuzan (he has received his mother's name). So the stage is set for a dramatic struggle between the son's “Ultimate Menu” and the father's “Supreme Menu.”
Yamaoka is wild and sometimes arrogant, but possesses an extensive knowledge of haute-cuisine and the necessary developed palate. Kurita fully shares his culinary obsession. There is a degree of attraction between them, and later in the story they marry, but it is not their relationship that is central to the manga. That is rather the drama between Yamaoka and his father, a stern figure who is also calligrapher and ceramic artist and who seems modeled on the 20th c. potter/gourmet Kitaoji Rosanjin.
In the whole series, much care is given to the depiction of food, of the widest variety, both from Japan and other cultures. In fact, every imaginable type of food availabe in Japan is present, from sashimi and sushi to exquisite French, from sake to wine, from American sandwiches to curry rice...
Of course, this would not be a Japanese manga if the obsession with ultimate quality was not very prominent again: the best way to make a certain dish, how to tweak a recipe to perfection, how to find the ultimate sharp knife to cut blowfish, the most superb use of a dripping glass to make coffee... etc. etc.
In short, the Oishinbo series is fun to read, and on top of that not only a perfect introduction to Japanese cuisine, but to Japanese culture in general.
Official site of author Kariya Tetsu
Big Comic Spirits
Story blog of the whole series by Kariya Tetsu
February 19, 2008
Women with long hair are good for the economy
A Reuters article makes a case for a link between the hairstyle of Japanese women and the state of the economy.
My preference for long black hair is not only influenced by cult film Exte, I now know there is a solid good reason behind it: when long hair swirls around the shoulders of Japanese women, the economy is also on the upswing!
Women tend to wear their hair long when Japan's economy is doing well and short when there is a slump, the Nikkei business daily reported, citing a survey conducted by Japanese cosmetics company Kao Corp.Apparently, Kao (a shampoo and soap maker) does regular surveys in Tokyo and Osaka inquiring after women's favorite hairlength.
Until the early 1990s, when Japan's economic bubble burst, 60 percent of women in their twenties kept their hair long, the Nikkei said, citing the survey.But after the Bubble burst, short hair became the dominant style. The last few years we just saw a welcome comeback of long tresses, but the latest trend again seems to be towards "collarbone" hair, so buckle your economic seatbelts...
My preference for long black hair is not only influenced by cult film Exte, I now know there is a solid good reason behind it: when long hair swirls around the shoulders of Japanese women, the economy is also on the upswing!
Reuters article via News on Japan
P.S. On a somewhat related note: here is a piece about women's hair by Lafcadio Hearn (from Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan).
P.S.2 (March 7, 2008) Also Businessweek has picked up the story, in a quite serious fashion! We get the economy why short hair is more popular in times of financial woe:
One theory is that women adopted shorter hairstyles because in harder times they have less money to spend on hair care products, such as hairsprays and gels, which women tend to use more heavily for longer hair. Sales of hair products peaked in the mid-1990s at $980 million before falling every year until 2004, bottoming out at $550 million.- This despite more frequent visits to the hair saloon to get a cut!
The article also cites economist Richard Jerram, who expresses his surprise that hairstyles were not a lot shorter if influenced by the economy - he says in 1998 Japanese women would have been skinheads if the theory was correct!
Sukiyaki Western Django
Cult director Miike Takashi pulls out all stops in big budget Sukiyaki Western Django, his very post-modern, Japanese "Sukiyaki-style" take on the Spaghetti Western. And this “fusion Western” is not such a bad idea at all. In the fifties and sixties, the great Kurosawa Akira made The Seven Samurai, which was later remade as The Magnificent Seven Western-style. Kurosawa countered with Yojimbo, a samurai movie about a lonely swordsman who enters a town caught between two feuding factions, a story that seemed lifted seamlessly out of a Western. In reality, the film was original and again formed the basis for A Fistful of Dollars with Clint Eastwood... And so both genres cross-pollinated...
Then came the Italians such as Spaghetti maestro Sergio Leone who with films as Once Upon a Time in the West re-animated the by then stilted genre of the Western and gave it raw, new energy. Playing into the Yojimbo-mode was Sergio Corbucci's super-violent Spaghetti Western Django, about a coffin-dragging gunslinger who – yes – enters a town caught between two feuding factions...
And now we have Miike’s “Sukiyaki Western.” For some obscure reason, "Spaghetti Westerns" are called Macaroni Westerns in Japan, but anyhow the closest native equivalent would have been a noodle dish like udon or ramen. But these dishes are not known outside Japan and "Sushi Western" is a bit strange as those cowboys were certainly no lovers of raw fish - so here comes Japans' native beef stew Sukiyaki - also physically present as it is cooked at the start of the film in the opening sequence with American Miike-fan and colleague Quentin Tarantino.
What is the movie about
Sukiyaki Western Django not only pays homage to Kurosawa's Yojimbo, but also transports Japans’ epic struggle between the rival clans of the Genji and the Heike (12th c.) to the Wild West and at the same time plays a riff on England’s War of the Roses.
The action takes places in the dusty mountain town of Yuta, Nebada (the "b" is Japanese). Yuta has been taken over by two rival groups of bandits, the red Heike, led by raving-mad Kiyomori (Sato Koichi) and the white Genji, under dandyish but ultra-mean Yoshitsune (Iseya Yusuke). Among his followers is also the cross-bow wielding Yoichi (Ando Masanobu). They are fighting each other and intimidating the town folk while hunting for a treasure hidden in the hills.
Then the classical taciturn, lone and nameless gunman (Ito Hideaki) rides into Yuta, looking for the gold, and is immediately courted by both the Heike and the Genji as a latter-day Yojimbo. Instead, he teams up with go-getting grandma Ruriko (Momoi Kaori) who runs the general store and her mute grandson Heihachi, who is half-Genji, half-Heike and more of an artistic bent than the people around him. Heihachi's father has tragically been killed by the Heike and his widowed mother Shizuka (Kimura Yoshino) now works as the town's whore in the Genji saloon.
So the stage is set for a grand show-down, in which a huge, antique "gatling gun" plays an important role, Ruriko shows that she has a past as a gunslinger by blazing away a large number of opponents and the joke from Indiana Jones of pistol against sword is turned on its head - and then resolved in an unexpected way.
What did I like about the movie
The cultural mashup
Miike creates an Old West that is an East West, because the inhabitants are Japanese and at the entrance to the old-west town we know so well from countless other flicks stands a Shinto torii gate (with a body hanging from the beam!), while the decorations in the saloon are traditional Japanese wall paintings. A cultural mash-up if ever there was one, a drunken merry-go-round of symbols representing symbols and allusions to countless other allusions…
The Japanese speaking English
Yes, this film is in English - Miike's second one, after Imprint. First I thought I would hate the English delivered by Japanese actors, but there is logic to this seeming oddity. Apparently, the original Spaghetti Westerns were often filmed without a soundtrack and then would be dubbed in the language of the country the film was going to be released in (as pointed out in this review). This led to the same disjointed mouth movements as in Miike’s present film. On top of that, the English in Sukiyaki Western is not ordinary, colloquial English, but a sort of ornate, literary and out-of-date lingo. The leader of the Heike is even practicing Shakespeare and asks his men to call him “Hen-ray”...
Our ears are shifted into this accented, stilted English by Quentin Tarantino, who plays an opening sequence in which he tells the story of the Genji and the Heike, gradually Japanizing his English, as if he, too, is phonetically delivering lines he does not understand…
Strangely, this horrible English grows upon you, although it is sometimes so unintelligible that you have the read the subtitles to make sense of the dialogue.
But rest assured that Miike is in on the joke: one old actor’s words are so garbled that a long-nosed, white fellow follows him around for simultaneous translation…
Vintage Miike - violence laced with humor
Visually, the film is stunning. It ranges from the garish – in the beginning with the cheap stage and card-board Fuji – to the sublime, when the snow starts falling during the last fight. Some of the young warriors look more like glamorous rockers than samurai or cowboys, in contrast to the heroic silent gunman who is dressed in authentic Western style.
Sukiyaki Western Django has also been filled to the brim with eye-popping stunts and over the top sequences. To name a few:
- with his huge shotgun Benkei blasts a football-sized hole through an opponent, after which Yoichi shoots an arrow through it right into another enemy;.
- a lesson among the Genji in warding of a sword with Zen-like one-mindedness goes horribly wrong;
- a hypocritical sheriff is impaled on a church-cross and first cannot believe he is dead as he was rather injury-resistant in the rest of the film.
Critical opinion about Sukiyaki Western Django is divided. True, this is Miike at his baroque best, full of postering and gestures, messing with your mind just for the fun of it. It is a different world from his strongest films, as Rainy Dog or Ley Lines, where the people are real, and we can feel their pain.
In Sukiyaki Western Django there is no pain despite all the unbelievable ways in which people manage to get themselves killed. This is pure entertainment, as fake as fake can be, but we all know it, so where's the harm? Let's have fun instead, and fun it is, from start to finish...
Links
Official website
Then came the Italians such as Spaghetti maestro Sergio Leone who with films as Once Upon a Time in the West re-animated the by then stilted genre of the Western and gave it raw, new energy. Playing into the Yojimbo-mode was Sergio Corbucci's super-violent Spaghetti Western Django, about a coffin-dragging gunslinger who – yes – enters a town caught between two feuding factions...
And now we have Miike’s “Sukiyaki Western.” For some obscure reason, "Spaghetti Westerns" are called Macaroni Westerns in Japan, but anyhow the closest native equivalent would have been a noodle dish like udon or ramen. But these dishes are not known outside Japan and "Sushi Western" is a bit strange as those cowboys were certainly no lovers of raw fish - so here comes Japans' native beef stew Sukiyaki - also physically present as it is cooked at the start of the film in the opening sequence with American Miike-fan and colleague Quentin Tarantino.
What is the movie about
Sukiyaki Western Django not only pays homage to Kurosawa's Yojimbo, but also transports Japans’ epic struggle between the rival clans of the Genji and the Heike (12th c.) to the Wild West and at the same time plays a riff on England’s War of the Roses.
The action takes places in the dusty mountain town of Yuta, Nebada (the "b" is Japanese). Yuta has been taken over by two rival groups of bandits, the red Heike, led by raving-mad Kiyomori (Sato Koichi) and the white Genji, under dandyish but ultra-mean Yoshitsune (Iseya Yusuke). Among his followers is also the cross-bow wielding Yoichi (Ando Masanobu). They are fighting each other and intimidating the town folk while hunting for a treasure hidden in the hills.
Then the classical taciturn, lone and nameless gunman (Ito Hideaki) rides into Yuta, looking for the gold, and is immediately courted by both the Heike and the Genji as a latter-day Yojimbo. Instead, he teams up with go-getting grandma Ruriko (Momoi Kaori) who runs the general store and her mute grandson Heihachi, who is half-Genji, half-Heike and more of an artistic bent than the people around him. Heihachi's father has tragically been killed by the Heike and his widowed mother Shizuka (Kimura Yoshino) now works as the town's whore in the Genji saloon.
So the stage is set for a grand show-down, in which a huge, antique "gatling gun" plays an important role, Ruriko shows that she has a past as a gunslinger by blazing away a large number of opponents and the joke from Indiana Jones of pistol against sword is turned on its head - and then resolved in an unexpected way.
What did I like about the movie
The cultural mashup
Miike creates an Old West that is an East West, because the inhabitants are Japanese and at the entrance to the old-west town we know so well from countless other flicks stands a Shinto torii gate (with a body hanging from the beam!), while the decorations in the saloon are traditional Japanese wall paintings. A cultural mash-up if ever there was one, a drunken merry-go-round of symbols representing symbols and allusions to countless other allusions…
The Japanese speaking English
Yes, this film is in English - Miike's second one, after Imprint. First I thought I would hate the English delivered by Japanese actors, but there is logic to this seeming oddity. Apparently, the original Spaghetti Westerns were often filmed without a soundtrack and then would be dubbed in the language of the country the film was going to be released in (as pointed out in this review). This led to the same disjointed mouth movements as in Miike’s present film. On top of that, the English in Sukiyaki Western is not ordinary, colloquial English, but a sort of ornate, literary and out-of-date lingo. The leader of the Heike is even practicing Shakespeare and asks his men to call him “Hen-ray”...
Our ears are shifted into this accented, stilted English by Quentin Tarantino, who plays an opening sequence in which he tells the story of the Genji and the Heike, gradually Japanizing his English, as if he, too, is phonetically delivering lines he does not understand…
Strangely, this horrible English grows upon you, although it is sometimes so unintelligible that you have the read the subtitles to make sense of the dialogue.
But rest assured that Miike is in on the joke: one old actor’s words are so garbled that a long-nosed, white fellow follows him around for simultaneous translation…
Vintage Miike - violence laced with humor
Visually, the film is stunning. It ranges from the garish – in the beginning with the cheap stage and card-board Fuji – to the sublime, when the snow starts falling during the last fight. Some of the young warriors look more like glamorous rockers than samurai or cowboys, in contrast to the heroic silent gunman who is dressed in authentic Western style.
Sukiyaki Western Django has also been filled to the brim with eye-popping stunts and over the top sequences. To name a few:
- with his huge shotgun Benkei blasts a football-sized hole through an opponent, after which Yoichi shoots an arrow through it right into another enemy;.
- a lesson among the Genji in warding of a sword with Zen-like one-mindedness goes horribly wrong;
- a hypocritical sheriff is impaled on a church-cross and first cannot believe he is dead as he was rather injury-resistant in the rest of the film.
Critical opinion about Sukiyaki Western Django is divided. True, this is Miike at his baroque best, full of postering and gestures, messing with your mind just for the fun of it. It is a different world from his strongest films, as Rainy Dog or Ley Lines, where the people are real, and we can feel their pain.
In Sukiyaki Western Django there is no pain despite all the unbelievable ways in which people manage to get themselves killed. This is pure entertainment, as fake as fake can be, but we all know it, so where's the harm? Let's have fun instead, and fun it is, from start to finish...
Links
Official website
February 18, 2008
What is interesting about Obama?
What is interesting about Obama?
No, I am not talking politics - I am referring to the small town on the coast of the Japan Sea north of Kyoto that was catapulted into the limelight (also by its own PR) thanks to the fact that it shares its name with an American senator running for president.
So what is the town of Obama?
It is already many years ago that I have visited Obama, a small fishing port with a stunning number of beautiful old temples and cultural treasures - and it is still a treasured memory. I also plan to return, if possible this year. Obama has a population of 34,000 and lies in SW Fukui prefecture, facing Wakakusa Bay with its interesting rias coastline. Thanks to its excellent natural harbor in the distant past Obama formed a natural landing stage for Korean and Chinese cultural influxes into Japan. It was connected to the then capital of Kyoto via what was called the Saba Kaido or "Mackerel Road," as these fish were caught in Obama, salted and then carried along this route to Kyoto. Obama prospered as a center of commerce and transport and in the Edo-period also was a castle town. Now it may seem a backwater due to its secluded location, but in the past it was an economic powerhouse.
That is still evident in the large number of beautiful temples and wondrous Buddhist statues preserved in Obama. It has even been called "Nara City by the ocean" and in my view, that is not saying too much.
Some of these temples are:
Hagaji, with an ICP Main Hall; the mild faced Senju Kannon and the beautiful Juichimen Kannon.
Myotsuji, a mysterious mountain temple with a Main Hall and pagoda that both are national treasures (both mid-13th c.);
Jinguji, an interesting syncretic temple (the Nio Gate is an Important Cultural Property); here the "Omizu Okuri" rite is held yearly on March 2, to send water to the Wakasai well of Todaiji Temple in Nara, where it is then used in the traditional "Omizutori" ceremony;
Enshoji and its Fudo Myo-o and Dainichi Nyorai statues;
Myorakuji and its Main Hall
Tadaji and its child-faced Yakushi;
Kokubunji and its majestic Yakushi.
That is not all. There are weird rock formations on the coast (Sotomo), delicious sea food, great crafts such as lacquered chopsticks (seemingly a specialty of Obama!), a legend of a 16-year old girl who lived for 800 years without aging, and so on. Obama is trying to get its temples listed on the Unesco World Heritage list and I wish them all success. Hopefully the accidental namesake president (?) will bring them extra tourists. They deserve it.
The only problem is traffic: Obama is far away from anywhere: about 3 hours from Kyoto (with a transfer in Tsuruga to the small Obama Line) and getting around in the town is also inconvenient. The temples are situated in the countryside around Obama rather than together in the center. I was lucky to find a guided bus tour of a full day that included all the major temples, but that does not seem to exist anymore; instead, on weekends from April to November an ordinary bus makes the rounds of the outlying temples.
No, I am not talking politics - I am referring to the small town on the coast of the Japan Sea north of Kyoto that was catapulted into the limelight (also by its own PR) thanks to the fact that it shares its name with an American senator running for president.
So what is the town of Obama?
It is already many years ago that I have visited Obama, a small fishing port with a stunning number of beautiful old temples and cultural treasures - and it is still a treasured memory. I also plan to return, if possible this year. Obama has a population of 34,000 and lies in SW Fukui prefecture, facing Wakakusa Bay with its interesting rias coastline. Thanks to its excellent natural harbor in the distant past Obama formed a natural landing stage for Korean and Chinese cultural influxes into Japan. It was connected to the then capital of Kyoto via what was called the Saba Kaido or "Mackerel Road," as these fish were caught in Obama, salted and then carried along this route to Kyoto. Obama prospered as a center of commerce and transport and in the Edo-period also was a castle town. Now it may seem a backwater due to its secluded location, but in the past it was an economic powerhouse.
That is still evident in the large number of beautiful temples and wondrous Buddhist statues preserved in Obama. It has even been called "Nara City by the ocean" and in my view, that is not saying too much.
Some of these temples are:
Hagaji, with an ICP Main Hall; the mild faced Senju Kannon and the beautiful Juichimen Kannon.
Myotsuji, a mysterious mountain temple with a Main Hall and pagoda that both are national treasures (both mid-13th c.);
Jinguji, an interesting syncretic temple (the Nio Gate is an Important Cultural Property); here the "Omizu Okuri" rite is held yearly on March 2, to send water to the Wakasai well of Todaiji Temple in Nara, where it is then used in the traditional "Omizutori" ceremony;
Enshoji and its Fudo Myo-o and Dainichi Nyorai statues;
Myorakuji and its Main Hall
Tadaji and its child-faced Yakushi;
Kokubunji and its majestic Yakushi.
That is not all. There are weird rock formations on the coast (Sotomo), delicious sea food, great crafts such as lacquered chopsticks (seemingly a specialty of Obama!), a legend of a 16-year old girl who lived for 800 years without aging, and so on. Obama is trying to get its temples listed on the Unesco World Heritage list and I wish them all success. Hopefully the accidental namesake president (?) will bring them extra tourists. They deserve it.
The only problem is traffic: Obama is far away from anywhere: about 3 hours from Kyoto (with a transfer in Tsuruga to the small Obama Line) and getting around in the town is also inconvenient. The temples are situated in the countryside around Obama rather than together in the center. I was lucky to find a guided bus tour of a full day that included all the major temples, but that does not seem to exist anymore; instead, on weekends from April to November an ordinary bus makes the rounds of the outlying temples.
Digital Cultural Properties of Obama (English)
Official homepage of Obama (Japanese)
Tourism page (Japanese)
Update from Yahoo! Newson March 5, 2008:
QUOTE
The mayor of the western town of Obama last year sent a package to the presidential hopeful that included a set of local lacquer chopsticks, voicing hope he would take interest in the region. After a long wait, the town's mayor on Monday received a letter from Obama expressing his appreciation for the town's "support and encouragement" and the "thoughtful gifts". Obama wrote the letter in English but signed it in Japanese, "Your friend".
UNQUOTE
February 16, 2008
The poetess, the courtier, the cock and the barrier
Sei Shonagon is in the first place famous for her Pillow Book, but she did also write poetry and was even counted among the "Late Classical Thirty-Six Poetic Immortals."
One of her poems has been included in the Hyakunin Isshu collection - it is a piece that demonstrates her quick wit, something that was expected of court ladies.
In order to understand that poem, you first have to know the story behind it that Sei Shonagon herself has recounted in the Pillow Book.
It involves the courtier and famous calligrapher Yukinari, who served as Major Councelor. He must have met Sei Shonagon in the period 993-1000. Once, supposedly on an evening in the palace, he told her that he had to rush off because of an Imperial Abstinence, but the next morning he sent a witty note pretending that the cock's cry had called him home - and so in fact playing at being her lover, who had spent the night with her untill dawn.
Sei Shonagon curtly replied that it must have been a false cock. She referred to a traditional Chinese story in which a fleeing prince has his attendents imitate a cock's crow in order to have a barrier gate (that was closed at night) opened for him.
A clear, off-putting reply, I would say. But Yukinari was not to be silenced and wrote back that the closed gate had in fact been the Barrier of Meeting Hill - this was a well-known barrier east of Kyoto, on the pass between Kyoto and Otsu, which because of a wordplay on its name, in poetry often suggested a lover's tryst.
In answer Sei Shonagon then wrote the following poem:
The poetry stone with this poem stands in the grounds of Sennyuji Temple - Sei Shonagon's father, Kiyohara no Motosuke, had a cottage in this area, and the location is also close to the grave of Teishi (died 1000 CE), the Empress whom Sei Shonagon served.
One of her poems has been included in the Hyakunin Isshu collection - it is a piece that demonstrates her quick wit, something that was expected of court ladies.
In order to understand that poem, you first have to know the story behind it that Sei Shonagon herself has recounted in the Pillow Book.
It involves the courtier and famous calligrapher Yukinari, who served as Major Councelor. He must have met Sei Shonagon in the period 993-1000. Once, supposedly on an evening in the palace, he told her that he had to rush off because of an Imperial Abstinence, but the next morning he sent a witty note pretending that the cock's cry had called him home - and so in fact playing at being her lover, who had spent the night with her untill dawn.
Sei Shonagon curtly replied that it must have been a false cock. She referred to a traditional Chinese story in which a fleeing prince has his attendents imitate a cock's crow in order to have a barrier gate (that was closed at night) opened for him.
A clear, off-putting reply, I would say. But Yukinari was not to be silenced and wrote back that the closed gate had in fact been the Barrier of Meeting Hill - this was a well-known barrier east of Kyoto, on the pass between Kyoto and Otsu, which because of a wordplay on its name, in poetry often suggested a lover's tryst.
In answer Sei Shonagon then wrote the following poem:
the cock's cryIn plain words: you can try to fool people with your false cock cries in the middle of the night, but "my barrier" will remain closed to you!
in the depth of night
may have deceived some
but the Barrier of Meeting Hill
will not let you through
yo wo komete
tori no sora-ne wa
hakaru tomo
yo ni osaka no
seki wa yurusaji
The poetry stone with this poem stands in the grounds of Sennyuji Temple - Sei Shonagon's father, Kiyohara no Motosuke, had a cottage in this area, and the location is also close to the grave of Teishi (died 1000 CE), the Empress whom Sei Shonagon served.
Article on Sei Shonagon: The Lists of a Lady-in-Waiting: A Portrait of the Author of The Pillow Book
Translations of the Pillow Book: Sei Shōnagon & McKinney (translator), Meredith (2006), The Pillow Book, London, UK: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-140-44806-3
Sei Shōnagon & Morris (translator), Ivan (1971), The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, London, UK: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-140-44236-7. Originally published in 1967 by Columbia University Press.
Web links to partial translations of the Pillow Book
William N. Porter's 1909 translation of the Hyakunin Isshu (the present poem is no. 62).
February 15, 2008
Japan, the most food-crazy country in the world
Newsweek has taken up the Michelin-story in an interesting and knowledgeable article called The New Food Capital of the World by Christian Caryl and Akiko Kashiwagi.
"Japan is a food-crazy nation like few others," they say - and as I fully agree with their judgement, I'd like to pick up a few points from the article and add some observations of my own. After all, could there be a better reason for being in Japan?
- About one-third of all TV broadcasts in Japan are devoted to food. This ranges from the cooking shows you find also in other countries to food quizzes. But even in news programs dishes are often carried in to be tasted in front of the cameras. And travel programs, whether devoted to trips in Japan or abroad, pay more attention to tasting the local cuisine than visiting museums or other cultural monuments. To the Japanese, food is culture!
- Not mentioned in the article, is the enormous amount of books and magazines devoted to food. Walk into any reasonably sized bookstore and the food-craziness of the Japanese will be clearly on view. Publications range from guidebooks for restaurants to specialized magazines about one particular kind of food, from books for people obsessed by Chinese ramen noodles to recipe collections from famous French restaurants... Nor surprisingly, then, that the Tokyo Michelin Guide sold out in only 24 hours - the same number of books it took a whole year to sell in New York - and after reprinting managed to make it to second position on the bestseller list of 2007, although being published at the end of the year! But in Japan Michelin is only one of many - there are countless excellent Japanese guides.
- One of the favorite pastimes of the Japanese is tabearuki, walking around the town in search of new restaurants. A popular food magazine or guidebook in hand, especially in the weekends, you see Japan's foodies roaming around town in search of a new culinary experience. As everybody concentrates on the same restaurants which are popular at that particular time, you find them in a long row outside, patiently waiting, until there is a seat vacant.
- And of course all those happy eaters want to write about their experiences, so there is an enormous amount of food or gourmet blogs on the Japanese net (here is a link to some of them). The detailed gourmet records are interlaced with cell-phone photos to document the experience. The Newsweek article makes mention of "one housewife whose blog documents her quest for the country's best bread and who has visited 384 bakeries in the city of Kobe alone."
- The sheer number of restaurants in Japan is overwhelming. Tokyo has 160,000 restaurants (Paris only 13,000, for example); in the whole of Japan there are about half a million. These are not all expensive haute-cuisine palaces worthy of inclusion in Michelin, on the contrary, the interesting thing to note is that even ordinary eating places are often of an exceptional high level.
- Finally we have to mention the obsessive craftsmanship which is a characteristic of Japanese culture in general, and also very strong in the field of gastronomy. For Japanese, not only the result is important, but also the process. As the Newsweek article mentiones, students at Tokyo's elite Tsuji Culinary Institute start by learning how to stand properly in the kitchen while using a knife.
Remarkable is also the emphasis of chefs on selecting the fish for that day's menu by themselves every morning at a terribly early hour in Tsukiji, or ordering a particular type of kelp all the way from Hokkaido, even insisting on trucking in a special kind of well water for making the important dashi broth... this kind of stubbornness, this uncompromising quest for the highest quality, is typically Japanese and has made the cuisine here the greatest in the world...
"Japan is a food-crazy nation like few others," they say - and as I fully agree with their judgement, I'd like to pick up a few points from the article and add some observations of my own. After all, could there be a better reason for being in Japan?
- About one-third of all TV broadcasts in Japan are devoted to food. This ranges from the cooking shows you find also in other countries to food quizzes. But even in news programs dishes are often carried in to be tasted in front of the cameras. And travel programs, whether devoted to trips in Japan or abroad, pay more attention to tasting the local cuisine than visiting museums or other cultural monuments. To the Japanese, food is culture!
- Not mentioned in the article, is the enormous amount of books and magazines devoted to food. Walk into any reasonably sized bookstore and the food-craziness of the Japanese will be clearly on view. Publications range from guidebooks for restaurants to specialized magazines about one particular kind of food, from books for people obsessed by Chinese ramen noodles to recipe collections from famous French restaurants... Nor surprisingly, then, that the Tokyo Michelin Guide sold out in only 24 hours - the same number of books it took a whole year to sell in New York - and after reprinting managed to make it to second position on the bestseller list of 2007, although being published at the end of the year! But in Japan Michelin is only one of many - there are countless excellent Japanese guides.
- One of the favorite pastimes of the Japanese is tabearuki, walking around the town in search of new restaurants. A popular food magazine or guidebook in hand, especially in the weekends, you see Japan's foodies roaming around town in search of a new culinary experience. As everybody concentrates on the same restaurants which are popular at that particular time, you find them in a long row outside, patiently waiting, until there is a seat vacant.
- And of course all those happy eaters want to write about their experiences, so there is an enormous amount of food or gourmet blogs on the Japanese net (here is a link to some of them). The detailed gourmet records are interlaced with cell-phone photos to document the experience. The Newsweek article makes mention of "one housewife whose blog documents her quest for the country's best bread and who has visited 384 bakeries in the city of Kobe alone."
- The sheer number of restaurants in Japan is overwhelming. Tokyo has 160,000 restaurants (Paris only 13,000, for example); in the whole of Japan there are about half a million. These are not all expensive haute-cuisine palaces worthy of inclusion in Michelin, on the contrary, the interesting thing to note is that even ordinary eating places are often of an exceptional high level.
- Finally we have to mention the obsessive craftsmanship which is a characteristic of Japanese culture in general, and also very strong in the field of gastronomy. For Japanese, not only the result is important, but also the process. As the Newsweek article mentiones, students at Tokyo's elite Tsuji Culinary Institute start by learning how to stand properly in the kitchen while using a knife.
"There's no moving on to more-refined topics until they've mastered the proper way to cut vegetables, and some critics have compared the rote movements to martial-arts training."There is only one correct arm-hand-finger movement to make sushi, just like their is only one proper way to swing your golf stick. And, contrary to the United States, you will never become a sushi chef after only three months on the job - it will rather take five years of rigorous slaving practice under a severe and strict master. Japanese cuisine is a difficult art form, that does not stop at food, but also demands from students that they remember the intricacies of how to select the proper dish or bowl from among numerous differently formed and colored ceramics - not to forget which dish fits which season.
Remarkable is also the emphasis of chefs on selecting the fish for that day's menu by themselves every morning at a terribly early hour in Tsukiji, or ordering a particular type of kelp all the way from Hokkaido, even insisting on trucking in a special kind of well water for making the important dashi broth... this kind of stubbornness, this uncompromising quest for the highest quality, is typically Japanese and has made the cuisine here the greatest in the world...
What is the smell of your Japanese landscape?
Are you fond of smells? I remember how in Proust certain smells evoke long-forgotten memories, and indeed, the smell of freshly mown grass or hay reminds me of the long and lazy summers of youth.
Although I did not live in Japan as a child, I find that certain Japanese fragrances evoke atavistic memories which are sort of comforting, such as the pervasive fragrance of incense, the smell of old wood in ancient temples, the scent of fresh cedar wood in new shrines (or of bath tubs in inns), or the aroma of charcoal fires on a wintry morning in the Yoshida area of Kyoto.
Smells are apparently important to the Japanese as well. What is more, the Japanese government treats fragrances almost with the same special attention as it does national treasures. After all, the Minstry of the Environment has compiled an official list of "Top 100 Aromascapes of Japan." Yes, the government advises us about the best-smelling places in the country - something I have never seen elsewhere!
Here are a few lines from the press release published at the time the list was compiled, already in 2001
the tang of sea air in Miyako (Iwate)
the smell of deep grass in Hoei (Niigata)
the fragrances of beech and dogtooth violet flowers in Shinjo (Okayama)
Another type are aromas caused by people, for example by local industry:
the aroma of soy sauce of soka senbei (rice crackers) in Soka (Saitama)
the aromas of Japanese and Chinese traditional medicines in Toyama (Toyama)
the scent of clay and fire in the ceramics town of Imari (Saga).
Some of my favorites from the list are:
the scent of old books in the booksellers' quarter of Kanda (Tokyo) - although I am a 100% digital citizen, I like the smell of ink and paper and am always sniffing my books
the smell of fresh moss and cedars in the Southern Valley on Mt Haguro (Yamagata Pref.) - yes, not only this one, but all cedar woods, for example on Mt. Koya with its huge graveyard in the forest, or along the ancient path leading to the Kumano Shrines in southern Wakayama...
the smell of plum blossoms in Kairakuen, Mito. - again, also all other plum groves. My strongest memory is of the yellow "wintersweet" in a temple garden near Taimadera, Nara; or of the private gardens in Kamakura, where you can catch a whiff of plum scent when walking down the narrow alleys.
Indeed, there is something magic about smells...
Although I did not live in Japan as a child, I find that certain Japanese fragrances evoke atavistic memories which are sort of comforting, such as the pervasive fragrance of incense, the smell of old wood in ancient temples, the scent of fresh cedar wood in new shrines (or of bath tubs in inns), or the aroma of charcoal fires on a wintry morning in the Yoshida area of Kyoto.
Smells are apparently important to the Japanese as well. What is more, the Japanese government treats fragrances almost with the same special attention as it does national treasures. After all, the Minstry of the Environment has compiled an official list of "Top 100 Aromascapes of Japan." Yes, the government advises us about the best-smelling places in the country - something I have never seen elsewhere!
Here are a few lines from the press release published at the time the list was compiled, already in 2001
What smells do the Japanese like? Here are a few examples of "natural aromas":
The Ministry of the Environment has selected one hundred places with landscapes that evoke the sense of pleasant aromas. Many places around us remind us of the unique fragrances that are connected with local natural environment, culture and living. The selection was based on the new concept of "aromatic environments," with the aim of supporting local efforts to conserve and create pleasant aromas...
the tang of sea air in Miyako (Iwate)
the smell of deep grass in Hoei (Niigata)
the fragrances of beech and dogtooth violet flowers in Shinjo (Okayama)
Another type are aromas caused by people, for example by local industry:
the aroma of soy sauce of soka senbei (rice crackers) in Soka (Saitama)
the aromas of Japanese and Chinese traditional medicines in Toyama (Toyama)
the scent of clay and fire in the ceramics town of Imari (Saga).
Some of my favorites from the list are:
the scent of old books in the booksellers' quarter of Kanda (Tokyo) - although I am a 100% digital citizen, I like the smell of ink and paper and am always sniffing my books
the smell of fresh moss and cedars in the Southern Valley on Mt Haguro (Yamagata Pref.) - yes, not only this one, but all cedar woods, for example on Mt. Koya with its huge graveyard in the forest, or along the ancient path leading to the Kumano Shrines in southern Wakayama...
the smell of plum blossoms in Kairakuen, Mito. - again, also all other plum groves. My strongest memory is of the yellow "wintersweet" in a temple garden near Taimadera, Nara; or of the private gardens in Kamakura, where you can catch a whiff of plum scent when walking down the narrow alleys.
Indeed, there is something magic about smells...
Here is the whole list of aromascapes in Japanese.
February 9, 2008
The Fourth Kyoto Tourist and Culture Certification Test
Kyoto Kentei or the "Kyoto Tourist and Culture Certification Test" was held for the fourth time on December 9 last year. I took part as a newbie in the Third Level test. Last week the results came out - I passed! I did not have much time for studying, but was certainly helped by my frequent blogging about Kyoto!
The test was introduced in 2004 by the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry in order to certify knowledge about Kyoto's history and culture, and so generate more interest in the old capital.
That has proved a shrewd move. This test has become extremely popular among Kyoto residents as well as history buffs around the country.
As regards the Third Level test of last year, 3,888 persons participated in it. 1,508 people, or 38.8% succeeded. There were 100 multiple choice questions, good for 1 point each - 70 points were the minimum needed to pass.
This year I want to challenge the Second Level, but as that is considerably more difficult than the Third Level, I will have to do some serious study...
The test was introduced in 2004 by the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry in order to certify knowledge about Kyoto's history and culture, and so generate more interest in the old capital.
That has proved a shrewd move. This test has become extremely popular among Kyoto residents as well as history buffs around the country.
As regards the Third Level test of last year, 3,888 persons participated in it. 1,508 people, or 38.8% succeeded. There were 100 multiple choice questions, good for 1 point each - 70 points were the minimum needed to pass.
This year I want to challenge the Second Level, but as that is considerably more difficult than the Third Level, I will have to do some serious study...
The Kyoto Shimbun has the questions and answers of all Kyoto Kentei tests online (Japanese)
Best Japanese Films of 2007 (10): Uncle's Paradise
No. 10 on my list of best Japanese films of 2007 is Uncle's Paradise, a modern "pink" film. As "pink film" even today serves as an incubator for quirky helmers, I think it is justified to add this film to my list, although Uncle's Paradise does not reach the same level as pink movies by directors as Meike and Zeze (see below). But what speaks for it, is that it is also totally mad and surreal...
What is it about
The location is an ordinary, quiet fishing port, a small town in "inaka," the countryside. Haruo (Yoshioka Mutsuo) dreams of catching a giant squid and can often be seen angling at the seaside, accompanied by his girlfriend Rika (Aoyama Minami). But so far he has only managed to catch ordinary squid and his refrigerator is chockfull of the slimy sea creatures.
One day, Haruo is visited by his (?) mysterious "uncle" Takeshi (Shimomoto Shiro - a "pink" veteran, who has appeared in more than 300 of these films), who comes to stay with him. Uncle has a problem - as soon as he falls asleep he sees terribly frightening dreams of vampish, dead women who want to carry him off. Afraid of falling asleep and meeting the zombies again, he is continuously drinking Orunamin C (a vitamin drink). Takeshi has brought a whole case of the well-known small bottles with him and desperately tries to stay awake.
But because he does not sleep and drinks all that exciting stuff "uncle" is also incredibly horny and seduces one after another the women of the small town, who very much welcome his amorous attentions. After the act, "uncle" writes his name on their naked bodies with a red felt pen.
Haruo's life is not without other complications, as his girlfirend is also loved by one of his colleagues, who beats Haruo up when he finds him having car sex with Rika. But as retribution, a strange fate befalls that colleague...
Then "uncle" wanders into the Other World, where the terrible women are, and Haruo and Rika follow him by checking in into what seems an ordinary love hotel...
What are "pink films"?
As most readers will know, "pink" in Japan has another connotation than from the West. It is the favorite color of "Hello Kitty" fans and young women in general, and - something very different again - in the film world refers to softcore simulated porno films. And again in contrast to the West, where softcore porno remains at a rather two-dimensional level, the Japanese pink film has since the sixties been the playground of young, new and very artistic directors. After all, as long as they made films with every ten minutes a sex scene, for a small budget and only lasting about an hour (as these films were often coupled in a double bill in the theaters), they were in principle free to do as they liked. Some directors indeed used this freedom to experiment with weird stories.
In the sixties, Takechi Tetsuji was a sort of forerunner of the genre, with films as Daydream, about erotic fantasies in the waiting room of a dentist - it became quite a scandal, but the director won the ensuing law suit.
Another (in)famous early film was The Embryo Hunts in Secret by Wakamatsu Koji , a claustrophobic story about a man who kidnaps, tortures and sexually abuses a woman in his apartment.
So in the early seventies the pink sluices were wide open, especially after Nikkatsu jumped into the fray with its endless series of "Roman(tic) Porno" films.
The most interesting directors from the Nikkatsu wave are Kumashiro Tatsumi (Ichijo Sayuri: Wet Desire and Woman with Red Hair) and Tanaka Noboru with the Abe Sada Story. Ichijo Sayuri tells a tale of backstage rivalry among strippers in downtown Osaka - a lively and energetic film where the women are stronger than the men as so often in Japanese "pink" films. Woman with Red Hair is about a construction worker who has an obsessive (and again claustrophobic) sexual relationship with a woman he picks up and takes back to his small room. Abe Sada tells the same bizarre but true story as Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses.
The actresses who were called the "queens" of Roman Porno include the curvy Miyashita Junko and Tani Naomi.
The popular SM novels of Dan Oniroku led to notorious films as Flower and Snake by Konuma Masaru. It is the story of a company president who orders his staff member Yoshi to train his wife (played by Tani Naomi) to become sexually submissive - this is done by tying her up in classical "kinbaku" style. (Recently this film was remade by Ishii Takashi, with Sugimoto Aya in the main role.)
Besides the garish novels of Dan Oniroku, also the work of literary author Tanizaki Junichiro has given rise to a whole swelling tide of films, inspired by The Tattooer, The Key and Manji. A Tanizaki work also formed the inspiration for the above-mentioned Daydreams.
In the eighties, pink films became more and more grotesque and few artistry was left. The boom petered out after the VCR conquered the living room, but a small number of young directors kept being attracted to the genre - now often going direct to video. A present-day director who has made pink films to great acclaim is Zeze Takahisa, with Raigyo, Tokyo X Erotica and A Gap in the Skin. With often serious subjects, in fact, Zeze far transcends the genre. Raigyo, for example, is an utterly bleak film about a young woman who escapes from hospital and via a telephone-club sex service meets a stranger, an encounter that ends with a cruel murder in the shower of a love hotel.
The director of Uncle's Paradise is one of the scions of the youngest generation: Imaoka Shinji. Imaoka has been active in the pink film world since the latter half of the nineties, with zany works as Despite All That and Frog Song - that last one about friendship between two women who both are interested in manga comics and large, plush dolls of frogs...
Another young director is Meike Mitsuru and he has raked in succes with The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (2003), one of the best pink films ever made. It tells the story of a callgirl who is shot in the head and thanks to the bullet lodged in her brain turns into an intellectual superwoman. Viewers also encounter North-Korean agents, a rather stimulated professor and the cloned finger of George W. Bush that controls the atomic button...The film made quite an impression internationally and received more critical praise than normal for pink films.
But Uncle's Paradise is not bad either...
Links
Article about the Japanese Pink Film.
Wakamatsu Koji interview on Midnight Eye.
PDF file about the films of Kumashiro Tatsumi.
Article about Kumashiro Tatsumi.
Biography of Kumashiro Tatsumi.
Biography of Tanaka Noboru.
Interview with Zeze Takahisa on Midnight Eye.
The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai website.
Review of The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai by Mark Schilling and review of the same film on Midnight Eye.
Have you seen Uncle's Paradise? What did you think about it?
What is it about
The location is an ordinary, quiet fishing port, a small town in "inaka," the countryside. Haruo (Yoshioka Mutsuo) dreams of catching a giant squid and can often be seen angling at the seaside, accompanied by his girlfriend Rika (Aoyama Minami). But so far he has only managed to catch ordinary squid and his refrigerator is chockfull of the slimy sea creatures.
One day, Haruo is visited by his (?) mysterious "uncle" Takeshi (Shimomoto Shiro - a "pink" veteran, who has appeared in more than 300 of these films), who comes to stay with him. Uncle has a problem - as soon as he falls asleep he sees terribly frightening dreams of vampish, dead women who want to carry him off. Afraid of falling asleep and meeting the zombies again, he is continuously drinking Orunamin C (a vitamin drink). Takeshi has brought a whole case of the well-known small bottles with him and desperately tries to stay awake.
But because he does not sleep and drinks all that exciting stuff "uncle" is also incredibly horny and seduces one after another the women of the small town, who very much welcome his amorous attentions. After the act, "uncle" writes his name on their naked bodies with a red felt pen.
Haruo's life is not without other complications, as his girlfirend is also loved by one of his colleagues, who beats Haruo up when he finds him having car sex with Rika. But as retribution, a strange fate befalls that colleague...
Then "uncle" wanders into the Other World, where the terrible women are, and Haruo and Rika follow him by checking in into what seems an ordinary love hotel...
What are "pink films"?
As most readers will know, "pink" in Japan has another connotation than from the West. It is the favorite color of "Hello Kitty" fans and young women in general, and - something very different again - in the film world refers to softcore simulated porno films. And again in contrast to the West, where softcore porno remains at a rather two-dimensional level, the Japanese pink film has since the sixties been the playground of young, new and very artistic directors. After all, as long as they made films with every ten minutes a sex scene, for a small budget and only lasting about an hour (as these films were often coupled in a double bill in the theaters), they were in principle free to do as they liked. Some directors indeed used this freedom to experiment with weird stories.
In the sixties, Takechi Tetsuji was a sort of forerunner of the genre, with films as Daydream, about erotic fantasies in the waiting room of a dentist - it became quite a scandal, but the director won the ensuing law suit.
Another (in)famous early film was The Embryo Hunts in Secret by Wakamatsu Koji , a claustrophobic story about a man who kidnaps, tortures and sexually abuses a woman in his apartment.
So in the early seventies the pink sluices were wide open, especially after Nikkatsu jumped into the fray with its endless series of "Roman(tic) Porno" films.
The most interesting directors from the Nikkatsu wave are Kumashiro Tatsumi (Ichijo Sayuri: Wet Desire and Woman with Red Hair) and Tanaka Noboru with the Abe Sada Story. Ichijo Sayuri tells a tale of backstage rivalry among strippers in downtown Osaka - a lively and energetic film where the women are stronger than the men as so often in Japanese "pink" films. Woman with Red Hair is about a construction worker who has an obsessive (and again claustrophobic) sexual relationship with a woman he picks up and takes back to his small room. Abe Sada tells the same bizarre but true story as Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses.
The actresses who were called the "queens" of Roman Porno include the curvy Miyashita Junko and Tani Naomi.
The popular SM novels of Dan Oniroku led to notorious films as Flower and Snake by Konuma Masaru. It is the story of a company president who orders his staff member Yoshi to train his wife (played by Tani Naomi) to become sexually submissive - this is done by tying her up in classical "kinbaku" style. (Recently this film was remade by Ishii Takashi, with Sugimoto Aya in the main role.)
Besides the garish novels of Dan Oniroku, also the work of literary author Tanizaki Junichiro has given rise to a whole swelling tide of films, inspired by The Tattooer, The Key and Manji. A Tanizaki work also formed the inspiration for the above-mentioned Daydreams.
In the eighties, pink films became more and more grotesque and few artistry was left. The boom petered out after the VCR conquered the living room, but a small number of young directors kept being attracted to the genre - now often going direct to video. A present-day director who has made pink films to great acclaim is Zeze Takahisa, with Raigyo, Tokyo X Erotica and A Gap in the Skin. With often serious subjects, in fact, Zeze far transcends the genre. Raigyo, for example, is an utterly bleak film about a young woman who escapes from hospital and via a telephone-club sex service meets a stranger, an encounter that ends with a cruel murder in the shower of a love hotel.
The director of Uncle's Paradise is one of the scions of the youngest generation: Imaoka Shinji. Imaoka has been active in the pink film world since the latter half of the nineties, with zany works as Despite All That and Frog Song - that last one about friendship between two women who both are interested in manga comics and large, plush dolls of frogs...
Another young director is Meike Mitsuru and he has raked in succes with The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (2003), one of the best pink films ever made. It tells the story of a callgirl who is shot in the head and thanks to the bullet lodged in her brain turns into an intellectual superwoman. Viewers also encounter North-Korean agents, a rather stimulated professor and the cloned finger of George W. Bush that controls the atomic button...The film made quite an impression internationally and received more critical praise than normal for pink films.
But Uncle's Paradise is not bad either...
Links
Article about the Japanese Pink Film.
Wakamatsu Koji interview on Midnight Eye.
PDF file about the films of Kumashiro Tatsumi.
Article about Kumashiro Tatsumi.
Biography of Kumashiro Tatsumi.
Biography of Tanaka Noboru.
Interview with Zeze Takahisa on Midnight Eye.
The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai website.
Review of The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai by Mark Schilling and review of the same film on Midnight Eye.
Have you seen Uncle's Paradise? What did you think about it?
February 8, 2008
Best Japanese Films of 2007 (9): The Pavillion "Salamandre"
In my previous post I already made mention of The Pavillion "Salamandre" as another surrealistic masterpiece besides Dai-Nipponjin. Strangely, this film has caused only a few ripples in the pond of independent Japanese film, despite the presence of heart-throbs as Odagiri Joe and Kashii Yu. Perhaps that is because the story develops rather slowly and only gradually reveals its madness. The way director Tominaga cuts his scenes also works a bit distancing. But the four Ninomiya sisters are certainly good-looking, the mystery is deep and there is interesting symbolism hidden in the 150 year old salamander Kinjiro, a national treasure, kept alive with huge subsidies from the Japanese government. Guess what it might be?
What is it about
The story centers on a 150 year old, giant salamander that was exhibited in 1867 at the Paris Expo on the order of the Last Shogun. It is now regarded as a national treasure and cared for by the "Salamander Kinjiro Foundation," supported by huge subsidies from the government.
The foundation consists of the four beautiful Ninomiya sisters, who have no problem spending the subsidy money on clothes, accessories and a lavish lifestyle for themselves: Akino (Aso Yumi), Mihari (Kiki), Hibiko (Kitaki Mayu) and Azuki (Kashii Yu). There also used to be a father, Shiro (Takada Junji) in the foundation, but as a latter-day King Lear he has been kicked out and now only is on friendly terms with the youngest daughter, Azuki.
Rumors are spreading that the salamander is a fake and as the real one broke a bone at the Paris Expo, Daini Nokyo Chairman / gang boss Kagawa Morihiro (Mitsuishi Ken) approaches ambulant X-ray technician Tobishima Hoichi (Odagiri Joe) to put the salamander to the test under his machine.
Reason for this request (supported by a hefty some of money) is that the gang boss wants to marry the eldest sister, Akino. As recompense, she wants him to buy out the foundation and pay off her father's debts. The two middle sisters Mihari and Hibiko object, however, as they do not want to give up their comfortable, subsidized lifestyle. So it would be convenient if the salamander can be proven to be a fake...
Meanwhile, father Shiro has suggested youngest daughter Azuki to secretly remove the salamander to a safe place "as bad guys are searching for it." As a reward, he promises to bring her in contact with her mother, who eloped when she was still small.
On the night of its 150th birthday party, held at the Ninomiya's Meiji-period residence, the salamander mysteriously disappears... and fate brings Azuki and Hoichi together... but that is only the beginning of a long story, for we still get the puzzling death of an actress and a visit to a Sicilian village in Shizuoka! The salamander Kinjiro undergoes it all stoically...
What did I like about it
- The mysterious nose of Kashii Yu
The four Ninomiya sisters are presented in glamourous shots, and although the vampish Mihari steals the show with her superior fashion, it is Kazuki aka Kashii Yu who is the most attractive thanks to her strikingly intense face - you may remember her at a younger age from Linda, Linda, Linda.
Azuki is like the salamander in that she speaks only little - a center of calm in the eye of the storm. Her nose has a mysterious aspect, as well... Odagiri Joe must have thought the same, for he has in the meantime proposed marriage to her.
- The manic quirkiness
When Japanese fantasy flows freely, there are really no boundaries to it - very different from the formulaic hackwork coming out of Hollywood. The Pavillion "Salamandre" is a feverish dream, a mindboggling paranoia, and that for the first feature-length film of its director - indie genius Tominaga so far had only made DV shorts.
- The philosophical salamander
The salamander does nothing, except emitting bubbles from his watertank and making Kazuki's hands slimy. In the apt words of Mark Schilling: "[It] may have the personality of a blob, but has been paddling gaily about in the muck for a century and a half. It's metamessage: Don't worry, be happy."
Links
Official website and note in English by the production company.
Official website of Odagiri Joe, his profile on Hoga Central and profile on Drama Wiki.
Profile of Kashii Yu on Drama Wiki.
Review by Mark Schilling.
Have you seen The Pavillion "Salamandre"? What did you think about it?
What is it about
The story centers on a 150 year old, giant salamander that was exhibited in 1867 at the Paris Expo on the order of the Last Shogun. It is now regarded as a national treasure and cared for by the "Salamander Kinjiro Foundation," supported by huge subsidies from the government.
The foundation consists of the four beautiful Ninomiya sisters, who have no problem spending the subsidy money on clothes, accessories and a lavish lifestyle for themselves: Akino (Aso Yumi), Mihari (Kiki), Hibiko (Kitaki Mayu) and Azuki (Kashii Yu). There also used to be a father, Shiro (Takada Junji) in the foundation, but as a latter-day King Lear he has been kicked out and now only is on friendly terms with the youngest daughter, Azuki.
Rumors are spreading that the salamander is a fake and as the real one broke a bone at the Paris Expo, Daini Nokyo Chairman / gang boss Kagawa Morihiro (Mitsuishi Ken) approaches ambulant X-ray technician Tobishima Hoichi (Odagiri Joe) to put the salamander to the test under his machine.
Reason for this request (supported by a hefty some of money) is that the gang boss wants to marry the eldest sister, Akino. As recompense, she wants him to buy out the foundation and pay off her father's debts. The two middle sisters Mihari and Hibiko object, however, as they do not want to give up their comfortable, subsidized lifestyle. So it would be convenient if the salamander can be proven to be a fake...
Meanwhile, father Shiro has suggested youngest daughter Azuki to secretly remove the salamander to a safe place "as bad guys are searching for it." As a reward, he promises to bring her in contact with her mother, who eloped when she was still small.
On the night of its 150th birthday party, held at the Ninomiya's Meiji-period residence, the salamander mysteriously disappears... and fate brings Azuki and Hoichi together... but that is only the beginning of a long story, for we still get the puzzling death of an actress and a visit to a Sicilian village in Shizuoka! The salamander Kinjiro undergoes it all stoically...
What did I like about it
- The mysterious nose of Kashii Yu
The four Ninomiya sisters are presented in glamourous shots, and although the vampish Mihari steals the show with her superior fashion, it is Kazuki aka Kashii Yu who is the most attractive thanks to her strikingly intense face - you may remember her at a younger age from Linda, Linda, Linda.
Azuki is like the salamander in that she speaks only little - a center of calm in the eye of the storm. Her nose has a mysterious aspect, as well... Odagiri Joe must have thought the same, for he has in the meantime proposed marriage to her.
- The manic quirkiness
When Japanese fantasy flows freely, there are really no boundaries to it - very different from the formulaic hackwork coming out of Hollywood. The Pavillion "Salamandre" is a feverish dream, a mindboggling paranoia, and that for the first feature-length film of its director - indie genius Tominaga so far had only made DV shorts.
- The philosophical salamander
The salamander does nothing, except emitting bubbles from his watertank and making Kazuki's hands slimy. In the apt words of Mark Schilling: "[It] may have the personality of a blob, but has been paddling gaily about in the muck for a century and a half. It's metamessage: Don't worry, be happy."
Links
Official website and note in English by the production company.
Official website of Odagiri Joe, his profile on Hoga Central and profile on Drama Wiki.
Profile of Kashii Yu on Drama Wiki.
Review by Mark Schilling.
Have you seen The Pavillion "Salamandre"? What did you think about it?
February 7, 2008
Best Japanese Films of 2007 (8): Dai-Nipponjin
Japanese independent directors excel in making eccentric and surrealistic masterpieces and we had quite a lot of that again in 2007 - think The Pavillion "Salamandre"and Deathfix, for example. The best of these maniac excursions into zaniness in 2007 was Dai-Nipponjin, about an eponymous "Great Japanese" who is not so great anymore and has lost all popularity. The film was written, played and directed by Matsumoto Hitoshi, in real life the "dim-witted" half of the highly popular "manzai" comic duo Downtown. This film is his feature debut. It is a cross between a mockumentary and a riff on the giant monster genre - and the result is a fabulously entertaining product.
What is it about
Daisato Masaru (Matsumoto Hitoshi) is a seemingly a middle-aged loser - with dirty long hair, he looks every bit the typical homeless person although he lives in a wooden house - which is again suitably dilapidated and cluttered with junk. Not surprisingly, he is not popular with the neighbors, who paint graffitti on his wallls suggesting him to get lost and every night a stone comes crashing through one of his windows.
The set-up of the film is that Daisato is being interviewed by a TV crew who are making a program about him. They follow him everywhere he goes, in the bus, while shopping and in his house. At first the only remarkable thing about Daisato seems to be his interest in small, folding umbrellas.
That changes when he receives a phone call from the Ministry of Defense and leaves on his old motorbike to a secret assignment. We now learn that he leads a double life as Great Defender of Japan against invading monsters. The whole power of an electrical power plant is necessary to blow him up to giant size, the cables painfully attached to his nipples, and standing in a sort of blue tent that will become his underpants when he grows in size. The result of the electrical shock is a skyscraper-high Hulk with Eraserhead hairstyle, and commercials by the corporate sponsors of the TV program tattoed on his chest. The fights are shown on TV (with nasal radio commentary as from a pre-WWII documentary), but the ratings are almost down to zero and the program is only shown at some ungodly, midnight hour. In this modern age, Dai-Nipponjin is the epitome of uncool, although his ancestors were regarded as national heroes...
What do I like about it
- The deadly serious Matsumoto Hitoshi
The film is of course carried by Matsumoto Hitoshi, who is present in virtually all frames. And he does a great job. As elderly loser in the beginning of the film he appears so deadly serious that you almost fear having erred into a film about the lonely life of the elderly... In contrast to the other wacky films I mentioned above, the humor in Dai-Nipponjin is not broad or gross but very subtle, even subdued, and at times quietly surreallistic. Matsumoto never even smiles, winks or shows this is all a joke and that deadpan seriousness is exactly what makes this film so absurdist.
Matsumoto also plays a typical Japanese "non-verbal" person, someone who does not like to talk much and has to be drawn out all the time by the interviewer. He tells the story of his life almost unwillingly...
- The wacky monsters
This is decidedly not a "monster film," because these monsters are not of this modern time, either... These kaiju are on purpose done with terrible CGI, to show how old-fashioned they are. The faces of real actors as Takeuchi Riki have been embedded in them. These giant monsters are only funny, and not threatening at all, but they spring from a very fertile imagination, as the "Smelly Baddy" with the deadly farts...
- Conclusion:
This is one lunatic and weird, weird, film...
Links
Official website.
Page about Downtown.
Have you seen Dai-Nipponjin? What did you think about it?
What is it about
Daisato Masaru (Matsumoto Hitoshi) is a seemingly a middle-aged loser - with dirty long hair, he looks every bit the typical homeless person although he lives in a wooden house - which is again suitably dilapidated and cluttered with junk. Not surprisingly, he is not popular with the neighbors, who paint graffitti on his wallls suggesting him to get lost and every night a stone comes crashing through one of his windows.
The set-up of the film is that Daisato is being interviewed by a TV crew who are making a program about him. They follow him everywhere he goes, in the bus, while shopping and in his house. At first the only remarkable thing about Daisato seems to be his interest in small, folding umbrellas.
That changes when he receives a phone call from the Ministry of Defense and leaves on his old motorbike to a secret assignment. We now learn that he leads a double life as Great Defender of Japan against invading monsters. The whole power of an electrical power plant is necessary to blow him up to giant size, the cables painfully attached to his nipples, and standing in a sort of blue tent that will become his underpants when he grows in size. The result of the electrical shock is a skyscraper-high Hulk with Eraserhead hairstyle, and commercials by the corporate sponsors of the TV program tattoed on his chest. The fights are shown on TV (with nasal radio commentary as from a pre-WWII documentary), but the ratings are almost down to zero and the program is only shown at some ungodly, midnight hour. In this modern age, Dai-Nipponjin is the epitome of uncool, although his ancestors were regarded as national heroes...
What do I like about it
- The deadly serious Matsumoto Hitoshi
The film is of course carried by Matsumoto Hitoshi, who is present in virtually all frames. And he does a great job. As elderly loser in the beginning of the film he appears so deadly serious that you almost fear having erred into a film about the lonely life of the elderly... In contrast to the other wacky films I mentioned above, the humor in Dai-Nipponjin is not broad or gross but very subtle, even subdued, and at times quietly surreallistic. Matsumoto never even smiles, winks or shows this is all a joke and that deadpan seriousness is exactly what makes this film so absurdist.
Matsumoto also plays a typical Japanese "non-verbal" person, someone who does not like to talk much and has to be drawn out all the time by the interviewer. He tells the story of his life almost unwillingly...
- The wacky monsters
This is decidedly not a "monster film," because these monsters are not of this modern time, either... These kaiju are on purpose done with terrible CGI, to show how old-fashioned they are. The faces of real actors as Takeuchi Riki have been embedded in them. These giant monsters are only funny, and not threatening at all, but they spring from a very fertile imagination, as the "Smelly Baddy" with the deadly farts...
- Conclusion:
This is one lunatic and weird, weird, film...
Links
Official website.
Page about Downtown.
Have you seen Dai-Nipponjin? What did you think about it?
February 5, 2008
Best Japanese Films of 2007 (7): Like a Dragon
Miike Takashi makes several fims a year, and therefore in the list for 2007 we find Sunscarred, Sukiyaki Western Django, Crows: Episode 0 and Like a Dragon. I opt for the last one as No 7 on my list of best Japanese films of 2007, in the first place because I am fond of Miike's eccentric films, so I feel that at least one film by him should be included. Miike after all still is going strong as one of the most inventive helmers of Japan. And Like a Dragon is entertaining from beginning to end, from the first wail of the electric guitar with which it opens (calling the start of Dead or Alive 1 to mind) to the last rumbles of the big explosion blowing it out.
Like a Dragon was based on a computer game, but that - happily - does not show. We find Miike in classic form, after (in my eyes) weaker and more big budget films as The Great Yokai Wars and Zebraman - although here, too, he works for a larger audience and therefore his trademark kinky sex and gore are absent.
What is it about?
While Tokyo's Shinjuku is sweltering under a terrible heatwave, former gangster Kazuma Kiryu (Kitamura Kazuki) returns to the streets after 10 years in prison. He is searching for Yumi, his former girlfriend (and presumably, loot she has kept for him). On the way, he finds a young girl who is seeking for Yumi's sister, a hostess in Kabuki-cho, whom he takes along in "Wolf and cub" style. Before he can go very far, he is met by the psychopatic Majima Goro (Kishitani Goro) who is now leading his old gang and who has a score to settle - for where is the gang's money that went missing when Kiryu went to prison?
There are three other plotlines: the bank that supposedly holds the gang's money, is being robbed by a pair of idiots in ski masks, but the vaults are indeed empty. The cops who are facing the robbers in a barbershop next to the bank, are led by the cynical Date Makoto (Matsushige Yutaka) and seem just as inefficient as the robbers.
Two delinquent teenage lovers take advantage of the lethargy due to the heat wave and start robbing shops on a whim: it is easy and the girl wants the money. They are like some young people nowadays who think life is like a computer game and can be "reset" any time, but sadly they learn that reality is different.
Finally, a killer from Korea is lying in ambush for a Japanese politician who will fly in to the area by helicopter that night - supposedly he is the man who has the Goro gang's money in his hands.
Everything happens in one night, just like in After Dark, the recent novel by Murakami Haruki. And as I said, it is hot, the city has become a heat island where even at night the temperature is unbearable...
What did I like about it?
- Miike is back in violent form
This is a yakuza movie, which means we are in veteran hands with Miike, who is a master of that genre. Yakuza and chinpira, from mean to meanest, petty criminals, bar hostesses, cops who only by chance seem to stand on the good side of the law... in this kind of underworld Miike feels perfectly at home. It is not on the level of Dead or Alive, Fudoh or Ley Lines, but still very good and above all, action-packed and immensely entertaining.
- Goro is a fantastic Miike gangster
The psychopathic Goro wears an eye-patch, sports a gaudy golden suit and carries a golden baseball bat around. He speaks a sort of funny Osaka-dialect, but as a person he is far from funny. He is ultraviolent and on top of that completely emotionless and unfeeling. For the smallest reason he beats up his own men. His favorite way of killing is to hit a baseball into the head of his opponent.
Kiryu, in contrast, is the gangster with the golden heart. Straight from the pages of a body building magazine, he is like a slow volcano when he explodes. Expect a battle of the titans when Goro and Kiryu start their high-energy fight. Both actors, Kishitani Goro and Kitamura Kazuki are old Miike hands and have appeared in several of his films. But Goro is the one who stands out in this flick.
- The stylishness and colorful atmosphere
Shinjuku is like a living organism in this film, and just as gaudily colorful as its characters. One of the lesser characters sticking in memory is the masochistic gun dealer, who encourages Goro to crack his legs a few times between the door before selling him a gun. Wry humor is evident in the bank robbery where both police and robbers cannot stand the heat - the robbers even have to wring out their soaked ski masks. It is all topped off with a finale in the Milennium Tower, where Kiryu's girlfriend holds the gang's cash and where the polician is headed in what looks like a military helicopter, swinging low over Shinjuku on its way to delirious doom...
Links
Official website.
Interview with Miike Takashi on Midnight Eye (2001).
Interview with Miike Takashi by Mark Schilling (2003).
Senses of Cinema article on Miike Takashi.
Have you seen Like a Dragon? What did you think about it?
Like a Dragon was based on a computer game, but that - happily - does not show. We find Miike in classic form, after (in my eyes) weaker and more big budget films as The Great Yokai Wars and Zebraman - although here, too, he works for a larger audience and therefore his trademark kinky sex and gore are absent.
What is it about?
While Tokyo's Shinjuku is sweltering under a terrible heatwave, former gangster Kazuma Kiryu (Kitamura Kazuki) returns to the streets after 10 years in prison. He is searching for Yumi, his former girlfriend (and presumably, loot she has kept for him). On the way, he finds a young girl who is seeking for Yumi's sister, a hostess in Kabuki-cho, whom he takes along in "Wolf and cub" style. Before he can go very far, he is met by the psychopatic Majima Goro (Kishitani Goro) who is now leading his old gang and who has a score to settle - for where is the gang's money that went missing when Kiryu went to prison?
There are three other plotlines: the bank that supposedly holds the gang's money, is being robbed by a pair of idiots in ski masks, but the vaults are indeed empty. The cops who are facing the robbers in a barbershop next to the bank, are led by the cynical Date Makoto (Matsushige Yutaka) and seem just as inefficient as the robbers.
Two delinquent teenage lovers take advantage of the lethargy due to the heat wave and start robbing shops on a whim: it is easy and the girl wants the money. They are like some young people nowadays who think life is like a computer game and can be "reset" any time, but sadly they learn that reality is different.
Finally, a killer from Korea is lying in ambush for a Japanese politician who will fly in to the area by helicopter that night - supposedly he is the man who has the Goro gang's money in his hands.
Everything happens in one night, just like in After Dark, the recent novel by Murakami Haruki. And as I said, it is hot, the city has become a heat island where even at night the temperature is unbearable...
What did I like about it?
- Miike is back in violent form
This is a yakuza movie, which means we are in veteran hands with Miike, who is a master of that genre. Yakuza and chinpira, from mean to meanest, petty criminals, bar hostesses, cops who only by chance seem to stand on the good side of the law... in this kind of underworld Miike feels perfectly at home. It is not on the level of Dead or Alive, Fudoh or Ley Lines, but still very good and above all, action-packed and immensely entertaining.
- Goro is a fantastic Miike gangster
The psychopathic Goro wears an eye-patch, sports a gaudy golden suit and carries a golden baseball bat around. He speaks a sort of funny Osaka-dialect, but as a person he is far from funny. He is ultraviolent and on top of that completely emotionless and unfeeling. For the smallest reason he beats up his own men. His favorite way of killing is to hit a baseball into the head of his opponent.
Kiryu, in contrast, is the gangster with the golden heart. Straight from the pages of a body building magazine, he is like a slow volcano when he explodes. Expect a battle of the titans when Goro and Kiryu start their high-energy fight. Both actors, Kishitani Goro and Kitamura Kazuki are old Miike hands and have appeared in several of his films. But Goro is the one who stands out in this flick.
- The stylishness and colorful atmosphere
Shinjuku is like a living organism in this film, and just as gaudily colorful as its characters. One of the lesser characters sticking in memory is the masochistic gun dealer, who encourages Goro to crack his legs a few times between the door before selling him a gun. Wry humor is evident in the bank robbery where both police and robbers cannot stand the heat - the robbers even have to wring out their soaked ski masks. It is all topped off with a finale in the Milennium Tower, where Kiryu's girlfriend holds the gang's cash and where the polician is headed in what looks like a military helicopter, swinging low over Shinjuku on its way to delirious doom...
Links
Official website.
Interview with Miike Takashi on Midnight Eye (2001).
Interview with Miike Takashi by Mark Schilling (2003).
Senses of Cinema article on Miike Takashi.
Have you seen Like a Dragon? What did you think about it?
Setsubun, devils and beans
Yesterday was Setsubun in Japan, the early spring festival where bad influences are cleansed from the soul. Or are the dark spririts of winter chased from the house? At least, via various strategies care is taken that devilish forces do not enter your abode: you may place thorny holly leaves under the gate, or, even better, smelly sardine heads (good against any visitors).
[Devil-chasing ceremony at Shogoin Temple, Kyoto (2007)]
In addition, the bean-throwing rite (mamemaki) is performed while shouting "Devils go out, Luck come in" (Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi). Afterwards one should eat the same number of beans as one's age to spend the year free from problems. The practice of scattering beans to drive away demons is an example of a traditional magical rite to ward off evil.
In fact, in the past there were four Setsubun dates indicating the change of the seasons. "Setsubun" is the day before the first day of spring, of summer, of autumn and of winter. The first day of the season is - in the same order - called Risshun, Rikka, Risshu and Ritto. But due to the popularity of the Setsubun festival in spring with its magic ceremonies, "Setsubun" afterwards came to be exclusively used for the spring Setsubun.
So today is Risshun, although there is nothing springlike in the air yet...
Bean throwing ceremonies are held at shrines and temples throughout Japan on Setsubun. Unfortunately, yesterday was an overcast and rainy day and as I was busy, too, I did not visit any temple. So here are some pictures from 2007 which I did not have time to post last year!
I took these pictures at Shogoin Temple in Kyoto. Shogoin is a relatively unknown temple (the sweets sold in the neighborhood called Shogoin Yatsuhashi are better known - see my post about them!).
[Shogoin Temple, Kyoto]
Shogoin has an interesting origin: when the Retired Emperor Shirakawa made a pilgrimage to the sacred Kumano region in southern Wakayama, the priest Zoyo served as his guide. Out of gratitude, the Emperor later helped Zoyo establish a temple in Kyoto - that was in 1090. The temple was named Shogoin, meaning "Guardian Temple of the Retired Emperor." Zoyo had been a yamabushi, a priest retreating to the mountains for practicing austerities, and the new temple became a yamabushi headquarters in Kyoto - a function it still fulfills, see the priest in yamabushi-costume on one of the pictures.
The association with the imperial family also continued in later ages. When the Imperial Palace was destroyed by fire Shogoin served as a temporary palace. The temple still possesses some art works and personal effects of Emperor Kokaku, and also the Shoin building was formerly part of the palace.
As Shogoin is not a tourist temple, prior consent is needed for visiting - but on Setsubun the grounds are open, as is the Shoin building from which the bean-scattering ceremony is performed.
Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi!
[Devil-chasing ceremony at Shogoin Temple, Kyoto (2007)]
In addition, the bean-throwing rite (mamemaki) is performed while shouting "Devils go out, Luck come in" (Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi). Afterwards one should eat the same number of beans as one's age to spend the year free from problems. The practice of scattering beans to drive away demons is an example of a traditional magical rite to ward off evil.
In fact, in the past there were four Setsubun dates indicating the change of the seasons. "Setsubun" is the day before the first day of spring, of summer, of autumn and of winter. The first day of the season is - in the same order - called Risshun, Rikka, Risshu and Ritto. But due to the popularity of the Setsubun festival in spring with its magic ceremonies, "Setsubun" afterwards came to be exclusively used for the spring Setsubun.
So today is Risshun, although there is nothing springlike in the air yet...
Bean throwing ceremonies are held at shrines and temples throughout Japan on Setsubun. Unfortunately, yesterday was an overcast and rainy day and as I was busy, too, I did not visit any temple. So here are some pictures from 2007 which I did not have time to post last year!
I took these pictures at Shogoin Temple in Kyoto. Shogoin is a relatively unknown temple (the sweets sold in the neighborhood called Shogoin Yatsuhashi are better known - see my post about them!).
[Shogoin Temple, Kyoto]
Shogoin has an interesting origin: when the Retired Emperor Shirakawa made a pilgrimage to the sacred Kumano region in southern Wakayama, the priest Zoyo served as his guide. Out of gratitude, the Emperor later helped Zoyo establish a temple in Kyoto - that was in 1090. The temple was named Shogoin, meaning "Guardian Temple of the Retired Emperor." Zoyo had been a yamabushi, a priest retreating to the mountains for practicing austerities, and the new temple became a yamabushi headquarters in Kyoto - a function it still fulfills, see the priest in yamabushi-costume on one of the pictures.
The association with the imperial family also continued in later ages. When the Imperial Palace was destroyed by fire Shogoin served as a temporary palace. The temple still possesses some art works and personal effects of Emperor Kokaku, and also the Shoin building was formerly part of the palace.
As Shogoin is not a tourist temple, prior consent is needed for visiting - but on Setsubun the grounds are open, as is the Shoin building from which the bean-scattering ceremony is performed.
Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi!
February 3, 2008
Best Japanese Films of 2007 (6): Strawberry Shortcakes
Number 6 on my list of favorite Japanese films of 2007 is Strawberry Shortcakes, a film that has received lots of praise, for example on Midnight Eye, and that certainly deserves all the compliments. It is an exercise in subdued realism - almost like a documentary - but with many marvelous touches that show it has been carefully scripted and composed. Strawberry Shortcakes takes a poignant look at loneliness in the socially fragmented big city, through the prism of the lives of four young women. But it is not at all a "woman's film", as loneliness is an illness that attacks us all. The story is based on a popular manga by Nananan Kiriko, who writes for a public of adult females.
The director, indie Yazaki Hitoshi, broke through in 1992 with a lyrical film about incest, but has been mostly silent since then. Strawberry Shortcakes is a great comeback with which Yazaki has won much acclaim.
What is it about?
The film paints a portrait of four different, self-sufficient women in contemporary Tokyo. They are followed two by two and their lives run parallel through the whole film, with subtle interactions.
Cheerful Satoko (Ikewaki Chizuru) has just been dumped by her rocker boyfriend. She works as a receptionist for a "deriheru" call girl service called "Heaven's Gate" ("deriheru" or "delivery health" is at first sight a rather strange expression for a call girl service, but the word "health" is used because in Japan regular sex is considered "healthy" for men, and "delivery" because you can get it in your hotel or office just as easy as ordering a pizza). Satoko more or less becomes friends with Akiyo, one of the callgirls, and the only problem at work is that she has to dodge the unwanted attentions of her boss. Satoko has found a small black stone that fell from the sky and that she therefore has christened "god." She mumbles prayers to the stone to let her find someone who will love her. She likes to sit on the balcony of her tiny apartment and drink beer and in general seems at peace with life.
The classy Akiyo (Nakamura Yuko) is one of the young women working at “Heaven’s Gate.” She is so death-obsessed that she even sleeps in a coffin - it is fun to see the smoke of her morning cigarette rise up from the window in the lid. She diligently saves the money she earns with her often degrading work in order to buy a condo situated on the 5th floor or higher - so she can jump out and kill herself efficiently when she gets old and senile and can no longer manage on her own. Her only consolation are the comradely drinking sessions with her former classmate Kikuchi (Ando Masanobu) whom she secretly loves, a feeling that Kikuchi can not return.
The reclusive Toko (Iwase Toko aka manga author Nananan Kiriko herself) is a book illustrator who works obsessively to forget the recent seperation from her husband (who is quickly remarrying, to add insult to the pain). Toku represses past memories and suffers from severe bulimia - so realistically acted by Iwase that it is painful to watch. Toko has been asked by a publisher to make a drawing of the face of god and struggles with that difficult task, working day and night.
The cutesy Chihiro (Nakagoshi Noriko) is Toko's roommate. She is an office worker (OL) who loves shopping, fashion and makeup and dreams about the ideal boyfriend who will fulfill all her wishes - for her, such a boyfriend is "god." Unfortunately, she is stuck in a one-sided relationship with an egoistic co-worker (Kase Ryo), who is not willing to rise above the level of casual sex and let her start living with him.
All these four women struggle with their loneliness and try to find a patch of warmth in the cold concrete of the vast city. The film is very authentic in its portrayal of these largely "normal" young women and presents their sometimes melancholy situation without getting sweet or melodramatic - on the contrary, all scenes are infused with a very fine sense of humor.
What do I like about it?
- The true depiction of the small incidents of daily life
True realism is in the fine details, for example in the way these young women sometimes speak softly to themselves, as you so often hear Japanese do nowadays (I never noticed this in the past, say 25 years ago).
It is also in how their environment perfectly defines these women - Toko with her own pictures proudly on the walls, while as Mark Schilling notes, "hiding her feelings," Chihiro with her heart-shaped clock (that breaks down!), the matter-of-fact Satoko with her old scooter, old helmet and old apartment and Akiyo on high heels when she goes to work, but in jeans, T-shirt and big, black-framed spectacles when she meets her former classmate Kikuchi.
And realism is also in the sharp psychological insights, as when Chihiro desperately clings to her dream of marriage, folding her boyfriends clothes, bringing groceries to cook for him, although he only wants her to get lost quickly after finishing sex; and the scenarios through which she compulsively goes before she can accept that he does not love her and that she had better move on.
Although the one group of two women never meets the other group (at least not that we see, although there is a strong hint they will meet at the end), there are still various links, such as Toko's lost painting that has been found by the Chinese owner of the ramen-shop where Satoko works after she quits the "delivery health." And more than that, there is the strong thematic link of all four women trying to find their own "god," not in any religious sense, but in the form of "hope" that allows them to go on living.
- The subtle and self-depreciating humor
This film is a savorous mixture of various delicious elements: it is lighthearted, subtle, humorous, a little sad, and sometimes a little crazy. Blissfully absent are all melodrama, romance, sentimentality and the sweetness that usually would cloy a story like this. This is no feel good film, but an indie film with the idiosyncracy hidden just below the surface. On top of that, Yazaki demonstrates much psychological insight and craftsmanship.
An instant of subtle humor is for example the fact that the little black stone to which Satoko says her daily prayers, does not listen to her wishes for a boyfriend, but seems to grant another, more terrible wish - to kill the owner of the "delivery health" who made unwelcome avances...
- A statement about loneliness in the modern city
On the one hand, Strawberry Shortcakes makes a realistic statement about modern life and urban loneliness. When Satoko tries to buy her favorite brand of cigarettes, Hope, from a vending machine and notes it is sold out, she reacts: "There is no hope" (using the Japanese word kibo instead of the brandname of her cigarettes). But on the other hand, when the film ends, all women, in their own way, have come to terms with their lives and found a new kind of hope. Retribution showed how our lack of care for others shakes the very fundaments of our world; in Strawberry Shortcakes people reach out from their loneliness and start caring for each other - the film ends on a very positive tone.
We see all women grow during the film, until - in the words of Mark Schilling again - they "find the courage to live in their own skin without the usual neurotic or religious crutches, but with a like-minded soul or two."
Links
Official website.
Review on Midnight Eye by Paul Spicer.
Review in the Japan Times by Mark Schilling.
This is one of those rare DVDs published in Japan that comes with English subtitles (very finely done by Jason Gray). It is to be hoped that Japanese studios will be increasingly willing to make this investment in order to be succesful internationally.
Have you seen Strawberry Shortcakes? What did you think about it?
The director, indie Yazaki Hitoshi, broke through in 1992 with a lyrical film about incest, but has been mostly silent since then. Strawberry Shortcakes is a great comeback with which Yazaki has won much acclaim.
What is it about?
The film paints a portrait of four different, self-sufficient women in contemporary Tokyo. They are followed two by two and their lives run parallel through the whole film, with subtle interactions.
Cheerful Satoko (Ikewaki Chizuru) has just been dumped by her rocker boyfriend. She works as a receptionist for a "deriheru" call girl service called "Heaven's Gate" ("deriheru" or "delivery health" is at first sight a rather strange expression for a call girl service, but the word "health" is used because in Japan regular sex is considered "healthy" for men, and "delivery" because you can get it in your hotel or office just as easy as ordering a pizza). Satoko more or less becomes friends with Akiyo, one of the callgirls, and the only problem at work is that she has to dodge the unwanted attentions of her boss. Satoko has found a small black stone that fell from the sky and that she therefore has christened "god." She mumbles prayers to the stone to let her find someone who will love her. She likes to sit on the balcony of her tiny apartment and drink beer and in general seems at peace with life.
The classy Akiyo (Nakamura Yuko) is one of the young women working at “Heaven’s Gate.” She is so death-obsessed that she even sleeps in a coffin - it is fun to see the smoke of her morning cigarette rise up from the window in the lid. She diligently saves the money she earns with her often degrading work in order to buy a condo situated on the 5th floor or higher - so she can jump out and kill herself efficiently when she gets old and senile and can no longer manage on her own. Her only consolation are the comradely drinking sessions with her former classmate Kikuchi (Ando Masanobu) whom she secretly loves, a feeling that Kikuchi can not return.
The reclusive Toko (Iwase Toko aka manga author Nananan Kiriko herself) is a book illustrator who works obsessively to forget the recent seperation from her husband (who is quickly remarrying, to add insult to the pain). Toku represses past memories and suffers from severe bulimia - so realistically acted by Iwase that it is painful to watch. Toko has been asked by a publisher to make a drawing of the face of god and struggles with that difficult task, working day and night.
The cutesy Chihiro (Nakagoshi Noriko) is Toko's roommate. She is an office worker (OL) who loves shopping, fashion and makeup and dreams about the ideal boyfriend who will fulfill all her wishes - for her, such a boyfriend is "god." Unfortunately, she is stuck in a one-sided relationship with an egoistic co-worker (Kase Ryo), who is not willing to rise above the level of casual sex and let her start living with him.
All these four women struggle with their loneliness and try to find a patch of warmth in the cold concrete of the vast city. The film is very authentic in its portrayal of these largely "normal" young women and presents their sometimes melancholy situation without getting sweet or melodramatic - on the contrary, all scenes are infused with a very fine sense of humor.
What do I like about it?
- The true depiction of the small incidents of daily life
True realism is in the fine details, for example in the way these young women sometimes speak softly to themselves, as you so often hear Japanese do nowadays (I never noticed this in the past, say 25 years ago).
It is also in how their environment perfectly defines these women - Toko with her own pictures proudly on the walls, while as Mark Schilling notes, "hiding her feelings," Chihiro with her heart-shaped clock (that breaks down!), the matter-of-fact Satoko with her old scooter, old helmet and old apartment and Akiyo on high heels when she goes to work, but in jeans, T-shirt and big, black-framed spectacles when she meets her former classmate Kikuchi.
And realism is also in the sharp psychological insights, as when Chihiro desperately clings to her dream of marriage, folding her boyfriends clothes, bringing groceries to cook for him, although he only wants her to get lost quickly after finishing sex; and the scenarios through which she compulsively goes before she can accept that he does not love her and that she had better move on.
Although the one group of two women never meets the other group (at least not that we see, although there is a strong hint they will meet at the end), there are still various links, such as Toko's lost painting that has been found by the Chinese owner of the ramen-shop where Satoko works after she quits the "delivery health." And more than that, there is the strong thematic link of all four women trying to find their own "god," not in any religious sense, but in the form of "hope" that allows them to go on living.
- The subtle and self-depreciating humor
This film is a savorous mixture of various delicious elements: it is lighthearted, subtle, humorous, a little sad, and sometimes a little crazy. Blissfully absent are all melodrama, romance, sentimentality and the sweetness that usually would cloy a story like this. This is no feel good film, but an indie film with the idiosyncracy hidden just below the surface. On top of that, Yazaki demonstrates much psychological insight and craftsmanship.
An instant of subtle humor is for example the fact that the little black stone to which Satoko says her daily prayers, does not listen to her wishes for a boyfriend, but seems to grant another, more terrible wish - to kill the owner of the "delivery health" who made unwelcome avances...
- A statement about loneliness in the modern city
On the one hand, Strawberry Shortcakes makes a realistic statement about modern life and urban loneliness. When Satoko tries to buy her favorite brand of cigarettes, Hope, from a vending machine and notes it is sold out, she reacts: "There is no hope" (using the Japanese word kibo instead of the brandname of her cigarettes). But on the other hand, when the film ends, all women, in their own way, have come to terms with their lives and found a new kind of hope. Retribution showed how our lack of care for others shakes the very fundaments of our world; in Strawberry Shortcakes people reach out from their loneliness and start caring for each other - the film ends on a very positive tone.
We see all women grow during the film, until - in the words of Mark Schilling again - they "find the courage to live in their own skin without the usual neurotic or religious crutches, but with a like-minded soul or two."
Links
Official website.
Review on Midnight Eye by Paul Spicer.
Review in the Japan Times by Mark Schilling.
This is one of those rare DVDs published in Japan that comes with English subtitles (very finely done by Jason Gray). It is to be hoped that Japanese studios will be increasingly willing to make this investment in order to be succesful internationally.
Have you seen Strawberry Shortcakes? What did you think about it?
February 2, 2008
Best Japanese Films of 2007 (5): Retribution
The next film, No. 5, on my list of Best Japanese Films of 2007 is Retribution by Kurosawa Kiyoshi, a perfect film-noir that treads a fine line between thriller and horror. As always by Kurosawa, there is also a wider, philosophical context.
The Japanese title of this film is Sakebi or "Scream" - in the most haunting moments of this dark film we see a woman in red who utters an incredicle, ear-splitting wail... But the title Retribution fits just as well, as it suggests the film's underlying idea: we are all collectively guilty, both for things we did and for things we neglected to do, and will get our "retribution" when time is ripe.
This is of course linked to the old Japanese concept of urami, grudge. Ghosts full of a grudge, such as Michizane, already plagued the old capital of Heian 1,200 years ago and even modern Japanese still shiver when you pronounce the word urami. A grudge is the final revenge of the downtrodden and the forgotten and it is therefore all the more terrible.
What is it about?
Retribution starts out like just another thriller, with a cop, Yoshioka (Yakusho Koji, a favorite actor of Kurosawa), investiging the murder of a woman on a plot of reclaimed wasteland on the desolate coast of Tokyo. A woman in a vivid red dress lies murdered with her face down in a pool of water. In the pool Yoshioka finds a coat button that matches his, and later his fingerprints are discovered on the body. He also starts seeing a ghost in just such a red dress (played by Hazuki Riona).
Is he himself the murderer? Also his partner in the investigation, Miyaji (Ihara Tsuyoshi), starts having doubts.
In between police work we get glimpses of Yoshioka at home, in an old flat, where he is now and then visited by his etheral and demure girlfriend Harue (Konishi Manami), who almost seems unreal.
A second and third murder happen, seemingly resolving the mystery. But then the woman in red apears again to Yoshioka and he gradually discovers her background and how she became a ghost full of grudge, demanding retribution for a past wrong, enticing others to kill...
In the end, in a final twist, Yoshioka also learns a terrible secret about himself - as in Loft, no one can escape the misdeeds done in the past...
What do I like about it?
- The haggard looks of Yakusho Koji
Yakushi Koji is generally regarded as one of Japan's finest contemporary actors. Here he plays a brooding, haggard man, with an unshaven face and wild long hair. He suspects himself, thinking that in an attack of madness that he later subconsciously forgot, he may have becoma a murderer. He is lonely, too, the first and most important thing he protects when his flat is shaken by an earthquake, is the whisky bottle. His girlfriend Harue seems more a fantasy than reality, because she does not interact with him, and always seems to be leaving. At work, he quarrels with his partner Miyaji and even visits a psychiater, played by Odagiri Joe in a nice, small role.
- The world falling apart
Tokyo is crumbling, ravaged by a series of small earthquakes. The film is situated in Ariake, on the waterfront of Tokyo with all its reclaimed land - a city literally built on garbage. Future building sites still lie abandoned, it is a most desolate landscape. Puddles are appearing everywhere, as if the sea wants to take the land back (also a form of retribution). The police station and other buildings are old and dilapidated, a far cry from the high city of shining glass and steel that we associate with the name Tokyo. These old buildings are like the past we try to forget.
- The screaming woman in red
Hazuki Riona lets out fantastic eardrum-shattering shrieks (I saw the film on DVD, in the theater this really must be a body-shaking experience!), while she floats into and out of Yoshioka's presence. We see her in mirrors, only half-glimpsed, or behind a dirty, opaque window pane. There are no cheap horror effects here, she appears before us as a normal woman. The dread of this film is in the leaden atmosphere, in the constant feeling of unease. Abandoned fifteen years ago, and dying a lonely death, she now asks retribution from the world. "All of you, please die." Apocalypse is not caused by the hand of some god, but by our lack of care for others: therefore we are all doomed.
Links
Official website
Wikipedia article on Kurosawa Kiyoshi.
Tom Mes interview with Kurosawa Kiyoshi (held a few years ago).
Official site of Yakusho Koji (including his Japanese blog)
Have you seen Retribution? What did you think about it?
The Japanese title of this film is Sakebi or "Scream" - in the most haunting moments of this dark film we see a woman in red who utters an incredicle, ear-splitting wail... But the title Retribution fits just as well, as it suggests the film's underlying idea: we are all collectively guilty, both for things we did and for things we neglected to do, and will get our "retribution" when time is ripe.
This is of course linked to the old Japanese concept of urami, grudge. Ghosts full of a grudge, such as Michizane, already plagued the old capital of Heian 1,200 years ago and even modern Japanese still shiver when you pronounce the word urami. A grudge is the final revenge of the downtrodden and the forgotten and it is therefore all the more terrible.
What is it about?
Retribution starts out like just another thriller, with a cop, Yoshioka (Yakusho Koji, a favorite actor of Kurosawa), investiging the murder of a woman on a plot of reclaimed wasteland on the desolate coast of Tokyo. A woman in a vivid red dress lies murdered with her face down in a pool of water. In the pool Yoshioka finds a coat button that matches his, and later his fingerprints are discovered on the body. He also starts seeing a ghost in just such a red dress (played by Hazuki Riona).
Is he himself the murderer? Also his partner in the investigation, Miyaji (Ihara Tsuyoshi), starts having doubts.
In between police work we get glimpses of Yoshioka at home, in an old flat, where he is now and then visited by his etheral and demure girlfriend Harue (Konishi Manami), who almost seems unreal.
A second and third murder happen, seemingly resolving the mystery. But then the woman in red apears again to Yoshioka and he gradually discovers her background and how she became a ghost full of grudge, demanding retribution for a past wrong, enticing others to kill...
In the end, in a final twist, Yoshioka also learns a terrible secret about himself - as in Loft, no one can escape the misdeeds done in the past...
What do I like about it?
- The haggard looks of Yakusho Koji
Yakushi Koji is generally regarded as one of Japan's finest contemporary actors. Here he plays a brooding, haggard man, with an unshaven face and wild long hair. He suspects himself, thinking that in an attack of madness that he later subconsciously forgot, he may have becoma a murderer. He is lonely, too, the first and most important thing he protects when his flat is shaken by an earthquake, is the whisky bottle. His girlfriend Harue seems more a fantasy than reality, because she does not interact with him, and always seems to be leaving. At work, he quarrels with his partner Miyaji and even visits a psychiater, played by Odagiri Joe in a nice, small role.
- The world falling apart
Tokyo is crumbling, ravaged by a series of small earthquakes. The film is situated in Ariake, on the waterfront of Tokyo with all its reclaimed land - a city literally built on garbage. Future building sites still lie abandoned, it is a most desolate landscape. Puddles are appearing everywhere, as if the sea wants to take the land back (also a form of retribution). The police station and other buildings are old and dilapidated, a far cry from the high city of shining glass and steel that we associate with the name Tokyo. These old buildings are like the past we try to forget.
- The screaming woman in red
Hazuki Riona lets out fantastic eardrum-shattering shrieks (I saw the film on DVD, in the theater this really must be a body-shaking experience!), while she floats into and out of Yoshioka's presence. We see her in mirrors, only half-glimpsed, or behind a dirty, opaque window pane. There are no cheap horror effects here, she appears before us as a normal woman. The dread of this film is in the leaden atmosphere, in the constant feeling of unease. Abandoned fifteen years ago, and dying a lonely death, she now asks retribution from the world. "All of you, please die." Apocalypse is not caused by the hand of some god, but by our lack of care for others: therefore we are all doomed.
Links
Official website
Wikipedia article on Kurosawa Kiyoshi.
Tom Mes interview with Kurosawa Kiyoshi (held a few years ago).
Official site of Yakusho Koji (including his Japanese blog)
Have you seen Retribution? What did you think about it?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)