What is it about West Bank building projects that get the anti-Israel forces so excited? Continue reading
Author Archives: Sekenbanashi
Humanity and Paper Balloons (人情紙風船)
人情紙風船 (Humanity and Paper Balloons)
4/26/14 (Sat)
A much acclaimed film from 1937. It’s the last of only three surviving works from director Yamanaka Sadao, who was evidently drafted into the army the day the film was released and died soon thereafter in Manchuria. I was interested in it mainly because it draws from the Kabuki play Shinza the Barber, which I saw earlier this month. (That was in turn based on the Bunraku play 恋娘昔八丈 that I saw late last year.) It had a string of Nakamuras and Ichikawas in the cast, which sounded suspiciously Kabuki-like, and it turns out that they were disaffected young Kabuki actors who had formed their own left-wing troupe, the Zenshinza, to pursue a more naturalistic acting style. I had assumed the movie would be a standard period piece, but that turned out to be not quite the case. Continue reading
Electoral system and the united states
I’ve noticed in my travels that when people are asked where they’re from, most will respond “Japan” or “France” or “Kenya” or such. The big exception, as usual, is Americans, who rarely say “America”; instead, it’s New York or Ohio or Tennessee. That is, their identity is tied up in their states. That makes perfect sense, of course, given the huge distances, both geographic and cultural, in a continent-size nation. No one says “Asia” or “Europe” or “Africa”, so Americans are in that sense in line with the norm.
It occurs to me, then, that all this talk of jettisoning the electoral college system for the popular vote is, regardless of last month’s results, missing the point. Continue reading
Hamilton and Pence
11/30/16
I’m a bit late to the Hamilton brouhaha after an out-of-town trip, but: These guys just don’t get it, do they? The actor who called out the vice president-elect seems to think he was being respectful. He is lecturing the new administration not on its actions — it’s not even in office yet — but on information presumably taken in his case from the NY Times and Facebook news posts. What are the chances that he’ll be fair in judging the administration once in office? This is why voters outside New York and California have just stopped listening. I’m sure I’ll see Hamilton eventually, but it’s telling that the creators and others in the show’s bubble don’t think the show itself is sufficient to convey the message. So tiresome.
Kung Fu
Kung Fu
3/20/14 (Sun), New York
Kung Fu, a portrait of Bruce Lee’s rise to fame, was a guilty pleasure. Other than the wonderful M Butterfly, I’m not wild about the author David Henry Hwang, who is obsessed with the tired theme of second-generation Asians struggling to adapt to America. (Bruce Lee, though raised in Hong Kong, was born in San Francisco and tried for years to make a life in the US.) I wish he’d go find his identity and come back with other ideas. And the reviews were lukewarm, which wasn’t encouraging. Still, the idea of a kung fu musical seemed so obvious that it immediately grabbed my attention. Continue reading
Like Father, Like Son (そして父になる)
そして父になる (Like Father, Like Son)
3/25/14 (Tue), Tokyo
I watched this mainly on the strength of the much-admired director Koreeda Hirokazu. Unfortunately, while his reputation preceded him, it didn’t follow. Continue reading
Lainie Kazan
Lainie Kazan
2/28/14 (Fri), Las Vegas
When I was looking for shows to catch in Las Vegas, I was surprised to find Lainie Kazan. I didn’t even know she was still singing, but I figured she’d be a fun link back to Vegas in its heyday. Continue reading
The Eternal Zero (永遠の０)
永遠の０ (The Eternal Zero)
A film of a best-selling book about children seeking the truth about their grandfather, who died in a kamikaze mission towards the war’s end. He turns out to have been a soldier who did not go gently into the good night, insisting that he was not mere cannon fodder and wanted to live – a dangerous view at the time. Continue reading
Gravity
Gravity
2/2/14 (Sun), Tokyo
A much-talked about film, already out for several weeks here, being hyped as a potential Oscar winner. I usually don’t take much notice of these disaster flicks, having been burned once too often. But I was interested in how they would build a film around spacewalking, where character interaction is obviously going to be limited, and I like Sandra Bullock. Continue reading
BUNRAKU: 大塔宮曦鎧、恋娘昔八丈
BUNRAKU: 大塔宮曦鎧、恋娘昔八丈
12/14/13 (Sat), Tokyo
Bunraku was showing off some of the younger singers and performers this month. Continue reading
The Sound of Music (live TV)
The Sound of Music (NBC live broadcast)
12/8/13 (Sun)
When I heard that NBC was going to broadcast a live version of The Sound of Music, I was immediately intrigued. There hasn’t been a live broadcast of a musical in my lifetime – the last time, coincidentally another R&H show, Cinderella, was in 1957 – and unlike the Met Live films, this one is made specifically for the screen. I was very curious as to how they were going to approach this given the daunting logistics. Continue reading
The Suit
The Suit
11/16/13 (Sat), Tokyo
This was a Peter Brook production of a fable set in a South African townscape, based on his French version. It is a slight story in a slender retelling. Continue reading
