しあわせ

In the basement of Mitsukoshi Department Store on Lower Regent Street is JP Books which is probably the biggest Japanese bookstore in London if not the UK or possibly Europe!
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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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I’ll be going to Brighton with Frank Chickens on the 2nd August. It’s been a while since I’ve worked with the Chickens and this night sounds like a good gig. It is more dinner and cabaret than a normal theatre evening. Sounds interesting. If you’re near Brighton it’d be good to see you there. It’s at the Komedia Brighton from 7 0′clock on Thursday August 2nd and costs £10 with food and drink extra.
Teriyaki Bento Collectives and A Scandal in Bohemia are also on the bill.

A new print of this film is playing until the 12th of July at the BFI Southbank.

It’s part of a month long season of films by the Director, Mikio Naruse. He is as major a film-maker as Kurosawa or Ozu, but is probably completely unknown outside Japan.

I must say I’d never heard of him or seen any of his films.
Three of his films are available in the Eureka Masters of Cinema collection. (This collection has titles by a number of Japanese directors)
Flowing, Sound of the Mountain, Repast
and
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is available in the Criterion Collection from the US.

IMdB entry for 成瀬巳喜男.

— July 16 update —
After seeing When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, I can see why he isn’t well known. If this is an example of his better work it is fairly disappointing. The portrayal of women characters was interesting but overall it was a very static and tedious film with very little to offer visually. I didn’t even really get a sense of the time and place of the film. But I’m going to give some other films a chance to see if it wasn’t just a bad choice to headline the Naruse season at the NFT.

Tomoko-san, another friend of mine from the “Chickens”, is one of the directors and performers in this play at the Pleasance Theatre Islington
June 21, 22, 23 at 19:45, Sunday 24 June at 18:00
Tickets £10 (£7 concessions)

Hiroshima, 1947. Canadian journalist Henri
Corbeil is sent on a six-week assignment.
He does not return home for almost a year.

Montreal, 1971. 24-year-old Hélène Corbeil
retraces her father’s journey through Japan.
Armed only with his journals and interviews,
she hopes to find the mother she never knew.

This bout of visual theatre explores hand in
hand melodrama and satire, tragedy and
parody, as the international cast concieve a
poignant, sensitive, albeit sometimes silly epic,
in their native English, Japanese and French.

I saw the dress rehearsal last night and it’s quite a performance.
The company has put a lot of work into it and it deserves an audience.
I was pleased to be able to understand the Japanese except for one long speech, but that is given a translation by another cast member anyhow.
As a bonus the venue is really good– There’s a great courtyard and pub/restuarant below the theatre.

–update 14Sept–
The company has a promotional video on YouTube showing their work on this show.