10/18/18 (Thurs)
Ichikawa Kon’s 1955 film, following the broad structure of Natsume Soseki’s iconic novel, is effectively split into two: it begins in Tokyo at the end of the momentous Meiji Era, when a student befriends an older man, then shifts in flashback to the latter’s recollection of his younger years and his confession of a dark secret regarding an old friendship. “Kokoro” means heart or soul, here a deep dark place.
12/22/18 (Sat), Tokyo
A star really is born in this fourth iteration of the now-familiar tale. Continue reading
12/7/18 (Fri), Tokyo
One of the most loved of the many film versions of the novel. I was curious to watch it after seeing the latest stage version in LA. Continue reading
12/4/18 (Tues), Tokyo
A chilling German film set in the late 1980s in the pre-liberated East about the surveillance of a playwright suspected of dissident activity. His home is secretly wired by the Stasi, and agents are ruthless in ensuring its success, warning a busybody neighbor, for instance, that any word from her will prevent her son from getting into the university. The main agent and his assistant listen carefully to every utterance 24 hours a day, keeping detailed notes on all conversations and activity (“suspect and his girlfriend presumably engage in intercourse”). But this soon becomes a story about the listener rather than the listened as the agent charged with the case – himself threatened by his superiors if he doesn’t find something incriminating – grows increasingly sympathetic with his charge. The web of betrayals and lies leads in the end to death, shame and disgrace, leavened only by an act of deep self-sacrifice. It is just a few years later, after the Berlin Wall has fallen, when the playwright is able to view his files and learn the thoroughness of the scrutiny and corruption as well as the fate of the investigator.
A portrayal of the suffocating power of the Communist state: how it creates suspicion among citizens, its pettiness and paranoia, and its ability to crush the will of anyone in its way. Continue reading
11/19/18 (Mon), Tokyo
An oddball Japanese film about a lonely Japanese office worker named Setsuko (the ever-reliable Terashima Shinobu) with a knack for ruining lives. Continue reading
11/17/18 (Sat), Tokyo
A Jewish mensch named Norman (a pitch-perfect Richard Gere) makes his living by introducing powerful people to other powerful people, hoping that some of the benefits will rub off on him. He hits the big time when a minor politician that he once befriended unexpectedly becomes Israeli prime minister. Unfortunately his sudden leap to fame leaves him unprepared for the burst of people seeking favors through his connections, which, desperate to feel important, he proves utterly unable to reject. He begins making impossible promises – finding a huge donation to rebuild a flailing synagogue, getting the prime minister’s son into Harvard – that gradually become a web entrapping him. Worse, his careless blabbing to a woman on a train about a gift he innocently offered the now-prime minister leads to disaster when she turns out to be a government official, who seeks to use the information to topple the government. As the situation spirals into crisis, Norman finds the courage for action, including a bold sacrifice.
9/29/18 (Sat)
I hadn’t seen this 1952 classic in years, but with Miyamoto Amon’s Broadway-aimed musical version set to debut (in Japanese) next week, I figured it was time for a revisit. It didn’t strike me as an obvious choice for musicalization given the halting communication skills of the main character, who is not exactly Mr. Excitement, and I wondered how they could top the haunting “Gondola no Uta” that the man sings on the swing in the iconic finale. First, a look at the film.
9/7/18 (Thurs)
A 1954 film by Heinosuke Gosho set in contemporary Osaka. Continue reading
9/8/18 (Sat)
An unforgiving 1961 satire of Japanese society by the ever-radical Nagisa Oshima based on a story by Oe Kenzaburo. Continue reading
8/15/18 (Wed), Tokyo
This zany film – literally, “Don’t Stop the Camera!” or “Keep It Rolling!” – has become a sensation in Japan, a low-budget little-film-that-could by a no-name director and cast that has spread like wildfire from a single out-of-the-way theater to nationwide release. Shows were sold out from morning to night in the peak o-bon holiday season. No one would tell me anything more about the film than that it involves zombies, which would normally make me turn the other way. But the word was so strong that I finally gave in to the hype and snagged a late-night ticket.
The first half-hour is taken up by an amateurish film with overripe acting and questionable direction, where actors making a zombie movie encounter actually zombies. My heart sank, and I started wondering what I was doing there. But then there comes a sharp change in gears that makes it all worth it. Continue reading
7/29/18 (Sun)
I was never a big fan of Mr. Rogers, who seemed embarrassingly old-fashioned to me back in the day even before Sesame Street was blowing the neighborhood away. But I’m regretting all those years of neglect after seeing this superb documentary of his life – his view of the role of the emerging medium of television in communicating with children, the radical ideas cloaked in his retrograde and laid-back style, his ability to reach out to children (the most difficult audience in any medium). Rogers felt that the pie-throwing and banana-peel humor of the early children’s shows were downright destructive to little minds seeking simple truths, and sought to bring kids up to his level rather than the other way around by addressing them honestly and directly. It’s difficult to imagine today how strange that must have seemed at the time, especially in the show’s childlike setup: sock puppets, crude sets, basic storylines, unhurried style, simplistic themes. But what could be cloying comes out as oddly compelling in the face of Rogers’ earnestness.
6/23/18 (Sat), Tokyo
Kinoshita Keisuke, who helmed the fine Twenty-Four Eyes (二十四の瞳) and Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (野菊の如き君なりき), tends to walk a fine line just this side of sticky sentimentality. In this 1947 work Phoenix, he crosses it. Continue reading
sekenbanashi 