- The Killers
2/8/24 (Thurs)
A 1946 film noir by Robert Siodmak that feels its age. Continue reading
The Boy Friend (film)
- The Boy Friend
2/1/24 (Thurs)
Ken Russell’s 1971 adaptation of the 1954 mega-hit musical, which was itself a pastiche of 1920s shows (Rodgers and Hart’s The Girl Friend would seem a pretty obvious source). Those shows tended to be forgettable fluff with lame stories, bad puns and interchangeable songs designed to show off the talents of its stars, an approach that the story-based Oklahoma! had rendered archaic by the mid 1940s. Few of the flapper-era shows were revivable by that time without significant rewriting. The original The Boy Friend is tuneful and fun but depends on a knowledge of what is being parodied, in this case the British variety of 1920s musicals, which would have been well within living memory for 1950s audiences. The plot, if you can call it that, is about a girl’s finishing school in Nice where the lovers who have presented themselves as poor discover in the end that each is actually rich and titled. The story is intentionally silly and delivered in mocking style, acknowledging its own irrelevance while offering lively characters and memorable tunes.
Film musicals were still alive if sputtering in the early 1970s, and Russell must have been looking for something enjoyable after the controversy over his provocative previous work. He evidently did not believe the campy original would translate to film (raising the question of why he turned to this show in the first place), so he did an even campier version where the musical is being performed at a seaside resort attended by a big American film producer there to scout out talent. The musical scenes in the show proper thus mix with backstage clashes within the troupe as the performers try to outdo one another to catch the producer’s eye. When the lead breaks her leg, the stage assistant is catapulted into the main role. (That parallels real life: the lead in the original London stage production fell ill just before the opening and was replaced by a minor performer, Anne Rogers, who rode the role to stardom.) She falls in love with the male lead, who to her frustration shows no interest in her.
Noh: Basho, Mochizuki (芭蕉、望月)
- Noh: 芭蕉、望月 (Basho, Mochizuki)
9/30/23 (Sat), National Noh Theater (Tokyo)
Basho: A dialogue-heavy show by Zenchiku with an unusually beautiful text. A monk in rural China meets a woman who, overhearing him read from the Lotus Sutra, wants to discuss Buddhist precepts. He doesn’t allow her in his hut at first since women are normally prohibited, but gives in when she notes that they live in the same city and draw water from the same river, suggesting a karmic connection.
She turns out to be the spirit of a plantain tree (basho), a plant with large and particularly delicate leaves. They discuss how even non-sentient objects such as trees (“even women and heartless plants,” according to one translation) can attain salvation. Continue reading
Perfect Days
- Perfect Days
1/28/24 (Sun)
Shibuya Ward (which encompasses Shibuya, Harajuku, Aoyama and other Tokyo hot spots) had apparently approached Japanophile Wim Wenders to make a documentary on its clean public toilet project, the Tokyo Toilet, which has installed some innovative and attractive facilities throughout the district (many of which I’ve used). Wenders decided to turn this into a piece about a devoted public worker, allowing him to show the facilities as background for something more profound.
The Discarnates (偉人たちとの夏)
- 偉人たちとの夏 (The Discarnates)
1/26/24 (Fri)
I wanted to see Obayashi Nobuhiko’s 1988 adaptation of Yamada Taichi’s best-seller before the acclaimed UK remake, All of Us Strangers, arrives here in the next few months. The Japanese version’s unusual English title refers to a being that does not have a physical body, basically a fancy word for ghosts. That seems to give the game away; I prefer the Japanese title, literally “Summer with Strangers”. The Japanese film is described as a horror story.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Café Society
- Café Society
1/5/24 (Fri)
Woody Allen’s 2016 work is pretty standard fare for him. The young Woody type, here named Leonard, moves from NY to Hollywood seeking a job with his uncle, a powerful film producer. He falls in love with a down-to-earth girl, but her problem – she has a boyfriend. Bigger problem – her boyfriend turns out to be the uncle. After some back and forth, she goes for the money. The disillusioned Leonard goes back to NY and works at his gangster brother’s nightclub. He becomes a terrific schmoozer and meets another beautiful woman, who he marries. Then his ex turns up at the club with the uncle, now her husband. She has taken on the airs of a Hollywood insider, not at all the simple girl she was before. Nevertheless, Leonard can’t stop thinking about what might have been…
Kuroneko (藪の中の黒猫)
- 藪の中の黒猫 (Kuroneko)
1/9/24 (Tues)
Shindo Kaneto’s 1968 horror film is less scary than it is spooky and moody. It takes place in Kyoto near Rajomon (known later as Rashomon), the massive gate that had become a dilapidated structure by the late Heian Period when, judging from the clothing and the presence of Lord Raiko, the movie is set. The gate was by this time known as a haunted spot good for disposing of corpses and unwanted infants. (The film’s full Japanese title, “Black Cat [or Cats] in a Grove”, perhaps intentionally recalls Akutagawa’s short story In a Grove that was the basis for Kurosawa’s Rashomon. I’m not sure why they chose Kuroneko as the English title rather than the translation, Black Cat.) Cats are supernatural beings in Japanese folklore in the form of “bakeneko” (ghost cats), so the notion of felines lurking somewhere in the woods immediately signals something shadowy.
The Irony of Fate (Ирония судьбы)
- The Irony of Fate (or Enjoy Your Bath)
1/2/24 (Tues)
This two-part Soviet television film of 1976 reportedly proved an instant success, playing to an estimated 100 million viewers, and has since become a beloved New Year’s Eve ritual all around the ex-Soviet world, many of its lines and routines instantly recognizable to Russian speakers. It’s been likened to a Russian It’s a Wonderful Life, though I’ve also seen comparisons to Annie Hall since the characters are members of the intelligentsia (the leads are a surgeon and schoolteacher) rather than common laborers. I’d never heard of it until a few days earlier but was intrigued by the premise. I found Part 1 easily on YouTube.
7th Heaven
- 7th Heaven
12/29/23 (Fri)
Frank Borzage’s 1927 film, based on a play that itself ran for nearly two years on Broadway, was apparently a massive hit in its day. It won the first Academy Awards for Best Direction and Actress (it lost Best Film to Wings), spawned several remakes over the decades (including a flop musical), and turned the pairing of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell into a sensation that carried over for another 11 films. Sawato Midori, the benshi narrator who voiced all the characters live for today’s show, noted that Ozu featured a poster of this film in one of his early works, so it must have been popular in Japan as well. A benshi would have presented the movie in this way back in its day (further explained here), so the event was very much a throwback to the silent era. Sawato performed to the accompaniment of a five-piece band.
The Song Lantern (歌行燈)
- 歌行燈 (The Song Lantern)
11/26/23 (Sun)
A 1943 film by Naruse based on a novel by early 20th-century author/playwright Izumi Kyoka (which has the much more evocative English title A Song by Lantern Light). Izumi’s fantasy contents wouldn’t seem an ideal subject for the more grounded Naruse, but maybe the apolitical subject matter was a way for the director to get around wartime restrictions and censorship. The film opens ominously with an exultation for the “100 million to carry the burden for bereaved households” (i.e., homes whose sons have died in battle), but the story thereafter is completely war-free. The Noh-based story has similarities with Mizoguchi’s Kabuki-based Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), and while it does not reach those heights, it has its moments. Hanayagi Shotaro repeats his lead performance from the stage version, where it became one of his signature roles.
Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル )
- バトル・ロワイアル (Battle Royale)
11/19/23 (Sun)
Fukasaku Kinji’s 2000 cult classic about kidnapped high schoolers with a mission to kill is like a manga on speed. Fukasaku is best known for Battles Without Honor and Humanity, where the violence is grounded in reality of a sort. He abandons any semblance of reality here to give us a head-spinning series of murders, suicides and humiliations as the plot itself – the violence is the film’s entire reason for being.
That said, he manages to create unique and sympathetic characters who, despite the ridiculous plot, largely feel real within the world they’re given. Continue reading
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
- Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (live streaming)
11/18/23 (Sat)
This highly praised show was being live streamed in the final week of its Broadway run. The League of Live Stream Theater, which was providing the broadcast, made everything super easy. When I discovered that I had accidentally bought tickets for the wrong performance, they instantly cleared it up for me, and when a friend who I had gifted a ticket couldn’t get online 30 seconds before the show, they immediately sent him a new e-mail that allowed him to catch the show from the beginning. Three cheers for them. The show has drawn crowds in New York but at a notably low average ticket price, suggesting that they’re attracting different audiences than usual; my friend felt from the laughter that many viewers must have been black since they recognized small points that others wouldn’t understand (as he proved to me). If so, that’s a very good thing for Broadway. Let’s hope that’s emulated in other shows.
sekenbanashi 