しあわせ

A Life More Ordinary

In February the ICA in The Mall, London are holding a short festival of contemporary Shomin-geki. 庶民劇 [しょみんげき]　The drama of ordinary people. So no yakuza, samurai, weird horror, or giant robots.

There are six films

The Milkwoman 9, 11 Feb
Strawberry Shortcakes 10 Feb
The Cat Leaves Home 12, 13 Feb
Kamikaze Girls 13, 15 Feb
No One’s Ark 16, 17 Feb.
Kaza-Hana 17 Feb

The only film I’ve seen is Kamikaze Girls; it’s an enjoyable film, worth a watch.

Prices are £8 for non-members and £6 for ICA members

Thanks to Andrew-san for telling me about this.

Strawberry Shortcake trailer
Strawberry Shortcakes review

This short film festival is organised by the Japan Foundation and will be touring the UK in February and March.

ICA (London) 9 – 17 February
Watershed Media Centre (Bristol) 15 – 21 February
Queens Film Theatre (Belfast) 22 – 28 February
Filmhouse (Edinburgh) 29 February – 6 March
Showroom (Sheffield) 6 - 22 March

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…

Frank Chickens are playing Shunt on the 2nd November.
Here are the details from Chika-san.

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We are coming back to London, play under London Bridge station,at Shunt lounge.

Shunt is very interesting organization and it worth visiting their venue once!
There are more performers, musicians, and DJs as well.

Date: Friday, November 2, 2007
Time: 10:30pm - 11:00pm
Location: Shunt Lounge
Address: Joiner Street in London Bridge tube station, London, SE1 9RL
Ticket: 5 pounds for a day membership

More info about Shunt

The lounge opens from 6:00pm - 11:00 (and till late once get in) but highly recommended to come early enough as it is always long queue on Friday night.

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Haiku Edited by David Cobb, pub: The British Museum Press

When I went to Crafting Beauty at the British Museum I couldn’t afford the £800 sake sets but I bought this little book.

I’ve attempted a couple of haiku in Japanese, but somehow I don’t think the form lends itself to love poetry and the reaction is more one of amusement than anything else! Oh well.

Most people are familiar with the 5,7,5 sylable structure, but maybe not with the seasonal words, kigo, and cutting word, kireji. I also wonder about the syllable count. Apparently 17 isn’t a hard and fast rule. Also how do you count a glottal stop? or a long vowel? or n? How important are verbs and particles; there’s very little space to express things. What’s not said as is often the case in Japanese is just as important.

This book is essentially a gift book. It has a short essay about haiku, then the bulk of the book is haiku and illustrations from the museum’s collection. Each haiku is given as calligraphy, a romaji version and an English version. The haiku in the book are arranged into the four seasons. There are also notes on the authors and suggestions for further reading and Internet links such as The British Haiku Society. (which is unfortunately an out of date link)

It’s nice little book to dip into. The poems are short enough to explore reading in Japanese and figuring out the kanji. Maybe you could even try writing haiku in Japanese. You might not produce great poetry but it’s an interesting thing to try.

My favorite haiku in the collection is a modern one by Hino Soujou
見えぬ眼の方の眼鏡の玉も拭く

If you are interested in Japanese poetry you may also be interested in Love Songs from the Manyoshu.

If attempting your own poetry this online saijiki of seasonal words is interesting as are these pieces of advice for writing haiku.

The program for the 51st LFF has been published and bookings open at the end of this month.

This year I see 7 films from Japan listed as well as 2 shorts. None of which I’ve seen before although a couple of directors I’m familiar with; such as Kitano Takeshi, the famous actor/director; Nobuhiro Yamashita, the director of リンダリンダリンダ; and Masayuki Suo, the director of Shall We Dansu.

Does Your Soul Have a Cold? Sun 21 Oct, Tue 23 Oct Documentary.
EXTE - hair extensions Thur 25 Oct, Fri 26 Oct
Glory to the Filmaker Thur 18 Oct. Kitano Takeshi
I Just Didn’t Do It Fri 26 Oct, Mon 29 Oct. Masayuki Suo
Matsugane Potshot Affair Tue 23 Oct, Wed 24 Oct. Nobuhiro Yamashita
Mourning Forest Sun 28 Oct, Tue 30 Oct
Vexille Sat 20 Oct, Sun 21 Oct. CG Anime

Ticket prices are from £6, £8.50 or £11 depending on time and venue.