しあわせ

I found a new (for me, they disbanded in 2006) jPop group called “Zone” while browsing Stage 6 (now defunct). They were a manufactured band from Sapporo, of four high school girls. The idea was that this would be a new genre called “Bandol” — band idol; they’d look good, could sing and dance. Apparently they couldn’t play instruments at first but they learned how.

Japan Teen Idol dodgyness to one side, they had great stylists and amazing energy. This feel good pop is what I like about them. They feel much more fun and genuine than the similar English and American manufactured bands like S-Club, Steps, Spice Girls (ゲッ）or the original boy band The Monkees.

Wikipedia article

The bassist, Maiko, has gone on to be part of a group called Maria,; I must see what they’re like…

めし dir:成瀬 巳喜男　1951

After going to the NFT Naruse retrospective and being dissapointed in the film I saw, I’ve finally managed to see some of his films on Eureka DVD.

めし, made in 1951 is much better than When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.
Visually not very exciting, but this film has more of a sense of place. Parts of it were even shot on location in Osaka. It was interesting to see places I recognised such as Dontonburi, Shin Kabukiza and the Kuidaore Ningyo.

The characters were believable and this time I could empathise with them. Maybe unusually for any film of this period the major characters are women. The men are definitely the supporting cast and apart from the husband character very much in the background. Indeed this is a recurring motif for Naruse.

The story mainly is about a young housewife, Michiyo, who is dissatisfied with her endless lot of cooking and cleaning for her husband. They are not well off and live in a small house. And yet the husband isn’t a bad man. Maybe a bit absorbed in his job and newspaper but not demanding and quite sympathetic and even kind. Michiyo’s dissatisfaction is made worse when a young niece comes to stay after running away from her home in Tokyo. The young girls freedoms (and possible designs on the husband) do not make for a happy household.

It is an interesting period film. I think maybe the attitudes would be unknown and strange to modern Japanese. The resolution I found very Japanese but true to it’s time I’d say.

As usual worth a rental.

花と怒濤　dir:鈴木清順　1964

Suzuki Seijun is best known for a very strong visual style seen in such films as Tokyo Drifter, and Branded to Kill that ultimately got him fired from his studio. And in more recent years has made Pistol Opera and Princess Tanuki, both of which are very visual but fairly incomprehensible I think.

This film is from the period just before Tokyo Drifter and his split from Nikkatsu Studios. It was towards the start of his collaborations with Production Designer Takeo Kimura. Seijun was making an enourmous amount of B movies at this time. Mainly in the Yakuza genre. Essentially these were to Japan what the B Western was to America. He made about 3 a year under an incredible 40 day schedule. (Contrast this with todays films where directors will seldomn make 1 a year and schedules from pre production to post production lasts many months if not well over a year and many millions of dollars)

So on the face of it this is standard Yakuza fare. Love story, gangs, fights, cops, period feel. But something of the director’s talents shine through and you get really interesting visuals and something more than a B-movie.

His later films are much more visual masterpieces but the story in this one is easier to follow. Worth a rental.

暗殺　dir: 篠田正浩　1964

Another title in Eureka’s Masters of Cinema. This is by Masahiro Shinoda who was unfortunately eclipsed by his contempories Kurosawa, Ozu and Naruse outside Japan.

This is a jidaigeki, period drama, in the style of the Japanese New Wave. It’s set in Edo in the unrest after the Black Ships forced open the country. It was a time of impending civil war at the end of the hundreds of years of appartent peace of the Shogunate. It’s a fairly complex plot in some ways with a lot of political intrigue. So it’s definitely not an average Samurai movie.

What really attracted me was it’s look. Widescreen black and white, shallow focus, great composition, panning to cover dialog, freeze frames (I find this like the poses struck in Kabuki) handheld camerawork. For a film made in 1964 it still looks surprisingly fresh, maybe because it’s techniques have been mined by others.

Worth a rental.

二十四の瞳 dir: 木下恵介 1954

I saw this today on a Eureka Masters of Cinema DVD release. I quite liked it. I was interested in what film could beat Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai in an Awards competition. However despite enjoying it I don’t think it has the classic quality of the former.

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Alex Chapin (MacGraw-Hill)

While waiting on a friend in a bookshop I wandered towards the languages section as usual. I found this reasonably priced little title from MacGraw-Hill. It effectively turns your iPod into a talking phrasebook. One less book to carry if you’re taking your iPod to Japan anyhow. (Although books don’t run out of power or break when you drop them).

The package consists of a CD with 1621 files on it, that’s 5.4 hours and 314.2MB of content, and a booklet of all the phrases and also some suggestions on using it. All the files are clearly recorded by a native speaker. They are broken down into sections using Artist and Album to make finding a phrase quite easy. The text of the phrase is in English and Romaji in it’s title and the Lyrics feature contains the entire section in English, romaji and kanji.

The way I tend to use a phrasebook is to check on something and refresh my memory before piling in to a language transaction like reserving tickets. I think this product would be as good as any print phrasebook for most uses.
For language learning I think it’ll help me expand my vocabulary a little and help give me phrases to instantly insert into my conversation attempts.

Well worth the £10 it costs.