Forthcoming novels, books and future readings.

There seems to be a good number of novels forthcoming in English translation to be looking forward to, two novels in particular that I'm looking forward to and are hopefully appearing before the end of the year, firstly the novel from Hideo Furukawa and also the translation of an early work, (1926), by Edogawa Rampo which is definitely something I'll be keen to read, a provisional list of titles due to appear over the next few months might look something like this -

We, the Children of Cats by Tomoyuki Hoshino, due August 2012, PM Press
Botchan - by Natsume Soseki, (new translation), due October 2012, Penguin Classics
3 Strange Tales by Akutagawa Ryunosuke, due November 2012, One Peace Books
Belka, Why Don't You Bark by Hideo Furukawa, due November 2012, Haikasoru
Body - Asa Nonami, due November 2012, Vertical Inc
Edge - Suzuki Koji, due November 2012, Vertical Inc
Strange Tale of Panorama Island - Edogawa Rampo, due December 2012, Hawaii University Press
Virus - Sakyo Komatsu, due December 2012, Haikasoru
The Gate - Natsume Soseki, due December 2012, New York Review Books Classics
Death By Choice - Masahiko Shimada, due December 2012, Thames River Press
God's Boat - Kaori Ekuni, due December 2012, Thames River Press
Jasmine - Noboru Tsujihara, due December 2012, Thames River Press
Mandala Road - Masako Bando, due December 2012, Thames River Press
A Thousand Strands of Black Hair - Seiko Tanabe, due December 2012, Thames River Press
Gray Men - Tomotake Ishikawa - due December 2012, Vertical Inc

2013 ~

The Tale of Heike - translated by Royall Tyler, due January 2013, Penguin Books
Revenge - Yoko Ogawa, due January 2013, Picador in the U.S, Harvill Secker in the U.K
Kiku's Prayer - A Novel - Shusaku Endo, due January 2013, Columbia University Press
Salvation of a  Saint - Keigo Higashino, due February 2013, Little Brown
The Goddess Chronicle - Natsuo Kirino, due February 2013, Canongate Myths
Botchan - Natsume Soseki, due February 2013, One Peace Books, (a new translation by Glenn Anderson)
The Crab Cannery Ship and Other Novels of Struggle - Kobayashi Takiji, due March 2013, Hawai'i University Press
Death-Tech - Kei Urahama, due March 2013, Lantis Media
Sun at Midnight: Poems and Letters - Musō Soseki, due April 2013, Copper Canyon Press
Self-Reference ENGINE - Enjoe Toh, due April 2013, Haikasoru
From the Fatherland with Love - Murakami Ryu, due May 2013, Pushkin Press,
Wasabi For Breakfast - Kometani Fumiko, due May 2013, Dalkey Archive Press
A Cappella - Koike Mariko, due May 2013, Thames River Press
In Pursuit of Lavender - Itoyama Akiko, due May 2013, Thames River Press
New Tales of Tono - Inoue Hisashi, due June 2013, Merwin Asia Publishing
Tokyo Seven Roses, vols. 1 and 2 - Inoue Hisashi, due May 2013, Thames River Press
Day in the Life - Kuroi Senji, due June 2013, Dalkey Archive Press
Evil and the Mask - Fuminori Nakamura, due June 2013, Soho Press
Lizard Telepathy, Fox Telepathy - Yoshinori Henguchi, due June 2013, Chin Music Press
Tales From a Mountain Cave: Stories from Japan's North East - Inoue Hisashi, due September 2013, Thames River Press
Portrait of a Tongue - Yoko Tawada, due September 2013, University of Ottawa Press
Bullfight - Inoue Yasushi - due September 2013, Pushkin Press
Tales of the Ghost Sword - Kikuchi Hideyuki - due September 2013, Thames River Press
The Case of the Sharaku Murders - Katsuhiko Takahashi - due September 2013, Thames River Press
Lost Souls, Sacred Creatures - Four Stories - Nishimura Juko, due September, Thames River Press
The Crimson Thread of Abandon:Stories - Terayama Shuji - due October 2013, Merwin Asia Publishing
Don't Lose Heart - Toyo Shibata - due October 2013, Pighog Press
A True Novel - Minae Mizumura - due November 2013, Other Press
The Book of Tokyo - Short Stories from Urban Japan, edited by Jim Hinks - due November 2013, Comma Press
Light and Dark - Soseki Natsume,  translation by John Nathan, Weatherhead, Columbia University, due November 2013
Night on the Galactic Railroad and Other Stories from Ihatov - Kenji Miyazawa, One Peace Books, due December 2013

Another title that I'm sure will garner a lot of attention is the rather mammoth biography of Yukio Mishima by Inose Naoki, translated by Sato Hiroaki entitled: Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima, which is published by Stonebridge Press in November 2012. The biography was originally published in Japan back in 1995, but as the description of the book mentions this is the first biography of Mishima to appear in English for nearly forty years, I'm sure it will be widely reviewed. 3 Strange Tales by Akutagawa Ryunosuke looks like it will contain a story from 1920 that has not appeared in English before, (The God of Aguni/Aguni no Kami). Also before the year is out there's a reissue of Mutsuo Takahashi's Poems of a Penisist, which is also translated by Hiroaki Sato, along with this in November is Jeffrey Angles, (internationaldateline.tumblr.com), translation of Takahashi's 1970 memoir Twelve Views from the Distance, excerpts of which can be read at the excellent Cerise Press, alongside with the original in Japanese, both of these published by Minnesota University Press. Many times it seemed that I missed the opportunity of visiting Ryokan's hut, nr. Tsubame City in Niigata, he's a poet I've been meaning to read for a long time, there's so many editions and translations of his work available, (any advice on which one would be greatly appreciated), but I think I'll seek out a copy of Sky Above, Great Wind: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi which is due out any day from Shambhala. Another poetry book which looks like it will make essential reading is the anthology, 101 Modern Japanese Poems compiled by Makoto Ooka and translated by Paul McCarthy, a title that appeared through the now sadly defunct JLPP, published by Thames River Press. Genga - Original Pictures - a book that came out back in July collects drawings from Otomo Katsuhiro taken from a recent exhibition is a title I'd like to have a look through, published by PIE Books. Lastly a novel that appeared at the beginning of the year that I think I'd definitely like to catch up with is Domesday by Kei Urahama, translated by Mika Deguichi and John Cairns and published by Lantis Media, a sci-fi novel that received the 2000 Komatsu Sakyo Prize, looks interesting. I'm hoping that there might be more that may appear in the meantime.

Another two older titles to add, both originally published by Kodansha International, which are being republished by Kurodahan Press - Blue Bamboo by Osamu Dazai, translated by Ralph F. McCarthy and also Citadel in Spring by Agawa Hiroyuki, translated by Lawrence Rogers.

We, the Children of Cats

We, the Children of Cats collects together five short stories and three novellas from Tomoyuki Hoshino, 星野 智幸, translated by Brian Bergstrom with one of the stories being translated by Lucy Fraser and is published by PM Press. Hoshino was awarded the Oe Kenzaburo Prize in 2011 for Ore Ore/It's Me It's Me, it would be great to a see a translation of this novel into English in the near future, it looks like a translation of Hoshino's first novel by Brent Lue could be in the pipeline. Oe has said of Hoshino, "I see [in Hoshino] an ability to truly think through fiction that recalls Kobo Abe. This superlative ability makes even the most fantastical details and developments read as perfectly natural", PM Press also publish another novel from Hoshino The Lonely Hearts KIller/Ronrii haatsu kiraa, translated by Adrienne Hurley. Hoshino has also won the Noma Prize and has been nominated for the Akutagwa Prize twice, once for the novella Sand Planet - which is included here, a story Hoshino was inspired to write after watching the documentary Homesick in my Dreams by film maker Jun Okamura, the collection is also accompanied by a preface by Hoshino and an expansive and thorough  afterword from Brian Bergstrom. Hoshino's shorter fictions are at times composed of highly compressed inverse narratives, metaphors often turn inside out, reading them the reader has to usually keep an alert eye out on what is taking place in the allegorical. The pieces here give a wide and varied impression of Hoshino's concerns,  appearance and identity become porous, equational thinking is rethought and reproduces answers that challenge straight forward and preconceived notional thinking. In the opening story Paper Woman, reality and an imagined world converge, the inital narrator, (also named Hoshino), meets an author of a story about a woman who could only eat paper, eventually she herself turns to paper, the projected narrative supercedes over the opening one, the relationship progresses eventually spawning a son - Kazuyoshi. The story is a complex and highly allegorical one about the relationship between literature, author and reader.

In The No Fathers Club, which has also appeared in the recent anthology Digital Geishas and Talking Frogs, an imaginary world is initiated after the narrator watches a game of no ball soccer, a game played with an imagined ball, the description of this game seems to briefly capture in microcosm the spontaneously absurd animation of the modern world, this soccer game leads however to the The No Fathers Club, a club whose members fathers have died prematurely, the club is formed by the narrator and friend Yosuke and then later Kurumi, with whom the narrator seems to form an attachment to, Yosuke eventually leaves the club by stating that his (imagined) father committed suicide. Kurumi and the narrator organise a meeting with their respective fathers. Chino, translated by Lucy Fraser is narrated by a young man who gives up his part time jobs and travels to "a small country below Mexico" intending to join a group of guerrillas, examples of Hoshino's fascination of South America appear throughout many of these stories. The narrator seems to disassociate himself from his fellow Japanese, rich kids travelling on the cheap, pretending at roughing it out. When reaching the village where he's expecting to make contact with the guerrillas he meets a young Japanese woman who has beaten him to it and appears to have assimilated herself into the country, she only acknowledges him in Spanish, the narrator learns of her history and of how it has come about that she has remained in the village, in repeated episodes throughout the story the narrator is mistakenly identified as being a Chino, (Chinese), which provokes explorative questions on the nature of national identities, the story at various times and places brought to mind the fiction of Ikezawa Natsuki. We, the Children of Cats, follows Masako and Naru a young couple as they come under pressure from their family to have a baby, the history and nature of their relationship is partially explained through a series of passages relating a phone conversation they have, their history entwines with recent episodes from Japanese history, the Sarin Gas attack, the Kobe earthquake. The couple's decision not to try for a child is explored and juxtaposed against Masako's gay friend who is desperate to become a father, through a series of comparative reflections resolutions are readdressed, and in the background of this a visitation by a mysterious cat called Soccer. One of the most challenging stories is Air, opening with an excruciating graphic scene of a broken hearted man gripped in an act of self harm, inflicting pain in order to find some evidence of his existence, through the use of motifs consisting of a musical score by Toru Takemitsu and the narrator playing the flute given to him before the man at the centre of his affections,Tsubame, had left for Mexico, the story vividly explores the narrator's sexual identity. Attending a gay rights parade the narrator meets another uncertain participant, the dual nature of his sexuality and identity is represented with descriptions of an invisible physical self, which through his self harm has been tampered with.

The first of the three novellas is Sand Planet, whose main character, Yoshinobu, is a reporter who writes up cases for Saitama Prefecture Police Press, initially following Yoshinobu as he investigates a poisoning of lunch boxes at an elementary school the novella takes in three, or perhaps four other narratives as it progresses and then finishes by linking them together. The main theme of the story is one of redemption and of the re-establishing of life's validity. Whilst investigating the poisoning Yoshinobu receives a call to investigate homeless people in the Urawa Forest, through meeting a local councilors friend, Yayoi Sakai, Yoshinobu learns of the story of her brother, Misao, who had emigrated from Japan after the war. Whilst this narrative is unfolding there runs another developing narrative line of Yoshinobu's own, the story opens with the death of his father and the family's decision of burying him in the garden, once this fact is discovered by their neighbours, the family are punished, Yoshinobu is in the process of redefining his life and it's meaning and through out there are episodes in which he finds solace and a sense of regenerative power through laying with the earth. The narrative moves on, later after Yoshinobu's mother passes away Yoshinobu drives to the forest and witnesses an elderly man talking to himself in a broken verse, of Urashima Taro, the Republica Dominicana, the man seems to be enacting out a performance for an audience of only one. Another of the narratives begins with the story of a group of missing elementary children who are found in the Sayamma Hills who are from the same school that witnessed the poisoning, Yoshinobu tracks down a homeless woman who had looked after the children for one of the nights that they had been missing. She describes that the children refused to speak and showed her a booklet that they self produced telling that they had taken a vow of silence, 'words have reached their end', one of the pages reads. As the narratives begin to appear to relate to each other Yoshinobu writes up his piece and notes to himself in an Abe-esque observation - 'This is the truth. We mustn't let facts deceive us'. The two following novellas collected here are Treason Diary and A Milonga for the Melted Moon. Finishing these stories and novellas is like stepping back from a vista where the world has briefly appeared in it's truer or more original and realigned form, shot through with dynamic paradoxes and an unerring ambition to challenge, taking uncharted routes and reconfiguring truths that do indeed lodge themselves in the reader, unreservedly recommended, my thanks go to PM Press.

We, the Children of Cats at PM Press

Tomoyuki Hoshino's page at PM Press

        

Wind and Stone

This novel by Masaaki Tachihara, (1926-1980), tells the story of an affair between a gardener, Kase, and his clients wife, Mizue, she had first encountered Kase some years previously when he worked as an assistant gardener for her parents. The narrative moves quickly telling the story of Mizue's parents death and that of the suicide of her brother after his business fails, Mizue marries to Shida Eiji and begins to raise a family, after moving into a new home Shida employs Kase through a mutual recommendation. The novel weaves between incorporating informative elements and historical texts from traditional Japanese landscape gardening and exploring the emotional complexities faced by each character as the consequences of the affair begin to take their toll. The narrative follows Kase as he plans and constructs the Shida's garden, this process takes many months to implement and is informed by the changing seasons, in between his visits to see how the garden is growing Mizue begins to feel Kase's presence in the garden, she feels that the stones are his eyes keeping watch over her, and that each time she looks at the garden some new aspect about it occurs to her, elements that she had at first not noticed. Kase is a man with a history which still encroaches into his life, already married twice, although these failed due to his absence whilst away working, Emiko still visits him. When Kase travels to Yamagata to work on the garden of an artist Mizue's feelings begin to reach a new level of turmoil, she is gripped by guilt by their meetings, not so much as a woman but as a mother.

Each chapter begins with Kase reflecting on books from the history of Japanese landscaping including, Sakuteiki, 作庭記, commonly known as The Records of Garden Making, and recalls that as a youth he had runaway to visit the gardens at Tofuku-ji Temple in Kyoto, his thoughts on what he agrees and disagrees with classical gardening align with his feelings on the affair and Mizue. The balance of the perspectives of the characters is quite a panoramic one, within the novel aspects of the characters lives which are not related to the affair come into view, with Shida we encounter him when he is dealing with business relating to his family owned business of curing hams. At an intervention of sorts from his mother, Kase is introduced to another woman in Kyoto, Tamiko, whose husband had recently died, the two families know each other and are trying to arrange the marriage, Kase manages to keep the fact that he is seeing Tamiko from Mizue but this is only temporary. The novel is full of allusions to the traditional, but at its core has a devastating sense of emotional bereftness in the wake of the affair, the novel's characters are reduced to the elemental forces referred to in it's title and through Kase's observations. 

What attracted me to reading this novel was the discovery that Yoshida Kiju had based his film Jyouen on one of Tachihara's novels and with this in mind whilst reading I envisioned reading this to a degree a'la Yoshida, some scenes in particular stood out in particular when seen from this perspective. Tachihara was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize and won the Naoki Prize in 1966, the novel was translated by Stephen W. Kohl.

Wind and Stone at Stone Bridge Press 

more information via Kamakura City website on Tachihara Masaaki

Read as part of the Japanese Literature Challenge 6

New Writing From Japan

Just a quick post to highlight that Words Without Borders July issue is entitled New Writing From Japan, the first of two issues dedicated to new Japanese writing, the second is coming in next months issue, and is guest edited by Michael Emmerich. Featuring fiction from EnJoe Toh, Kurahashi Yumiko, Nakai Hideo and more..

New Writing From Japan at Words Without Borders.

*The second part of Words Without Borders issue of New Writing From Japan has recently gone up with an excerpt from Chichi to Ran/Breasts and Eggs, translated by Louise Heal Kawai, Kawakami Mieko's Akutagwa Prize winning novella which has recently been published in French translation by Actes Sud, so here's hoping. The issue also features translations of Tsushima Yuko, Asa Nonami, Wataya Risa, Motoya Yukiko, Suzumo Sakurai, Nomura Kiwao and again comes with an editorial piece from Michael Emmerich.

(*edited post 01/08/2012)

The Dancing Girl by Mori Ogai

After recently reading Gan I've been keen to return to Mori Ogai, one of Mori's tampen, The Dancing Girl/Maihime is a fascinating story that must count as being one of the first modern Japanese fictions set outside of the country. Set in the late 1880's, the story first appeared in 1890, opening with various brief recollections of his journey to and from Berlin, Ota Toyotaro goes further back with his recollections and recounts the path of his life, his father passing away, achieving a degree in Law at an early age, also learning French and German. After being sent to Berlin for further studies he notices with some relief that he is able to escape from the rather petty remonstartions of the head of his department. He walks Berlin through the Tiergarten and Unter den Linden, there's a sense that with his move to Berlin Toyotaro has gone through a subtle transformation of character, through shifting continents he himself has been through a subtle transformation of spirit, keeping aloof from his fellow countrymen in Berlin he is viewed with derision and suspicion by them and falls victim to slander, eventually loosing his post. At an old church at Klosterstrasse he comes across a sobbing girl, describing the girl's appearance he concedes; 'that only a poet could do her justice', through acknowledging that he is a stranger to the area, he inquires what is the matter, and learns that her father had recently passed away and that her employer is trying to coerce her into marriage with the condition that he will pay off her family's debt, the girl's mother scolds her for refusing the proposal. He learns her name, Elsie, also that she's a dancing girl, at first they form a relationship of tutor and pupil and after helping her out of her financial problems takes up lodgings in her home. Through an intermediary in Japan he gets some work writing journalistic dispatches.

As the story progresses it becomes apparent that Toyotaro is a man caught between many emotions and allegiances, although not explictly expressed, he finds himself caught in an emotional displacement, the consequences of these forces that are pulling him though are irreverisble in the end for Elsie. The story is potted with refrences to German literature, through a reading of Hackländer Toyotaro learns that the dancing profession is secondary to that of  'the lowest trade'. The arrival of Aizawa, his intermediary, in Berlin, along with that of Count Amakata forces Toyotaro's fate to turn, through translation work for the Count which takes him to Russia, Toyotaro's experiences lead him through the poorest and also the most privilged echelons of society. Though brief, the panoramic vision of intercontinental life must have made revelatory reading for its Meiji era audience, one that still transports the reader today. Although the narrative is one from a personal perspective, it could also be read that Toyotaro's actions and relationship with Elsie represent a comment in microcosm on the sensibilities of the expanding Meiji conciousness and the beginnings of Japan's presence into the wider world, Mori's portrait of this though, rather than being one of celebration ends with a beleagured sense of resignation and dissolution. The story is translated by Richard Bowring and has appeared in the first volume of The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Literature, and also in Youth and Other Stories edited by J. Thomas Rimer.

The Dancing Girl/Maihime at Chikumashobo

Above picture Unter den Linden, 1890 by the Polish artist Anna Bilinska-Bohdanowicz via wikicommons.

Kaneto Shindo

Really saddened to learn that Kaneto Shindo passed away last week.

Obituary at The New York Times

A retrospective of his films, (along with that of Kozaburo Yoshimura), is currently showing at BFI London

The Ruined Map

Whilst reading Kobo Abe's novels it's almost impossible not to visualize them being enacted out in black and white, the details of the scenery, the descriptions of roads and cityscapes, the people in them, any piece of descriptive prose one imagines in black and white. The Ruined Map/ Moyetsukita chizu is probably one of the least known adaptions of Abe's novels by Teshigahara Hiroshi, it is in fact the only adaption that was filmed in colour, although as of yet the film hasn't seen a release outside of Japan, in Japan it is included in a boxset of Teshigahara's movies that has recently been released. The novel was translated by E. Dale Saunders, beginning an Abe novel the reader at first finds themselves getting to grips in searching out the parameters of the story, and in as much as Abe's novels depict an expansive landscape of the imagination, the impression that they operate within a confined space is often difficult to shake off. After the preliminary plot line has been established the reader simply has to wait and look for the moment or clues that things are going to start to shift out of the framework Abe has set up, it's this moment that I think that always draws me back to reading his novels and writing. The Ruined Map is a detective novel in more ways than one, Nemuro Hiroshi, head of sales of a large company, (Dainen Enterprises), has been missing for six months, at his brother in-laws instigation his wife hires a detective in an attempt to track him down. The novel is presented from the perspective of the detective, and visiting Nemuro's wife he finds that since his disappearance she has slipped into alcoholism, the contents of her apartment are described in a way that turns every object into a clue worthy of the most scrupulous suspicion, a motif that appears whenever the detective returns to the wife's apartment is the lemon yellow curtains, it appears as one of the most reliable features that the detective can rely upon.

The detective's investigation is pitted against evasion, the brother in-law insists that he start the case from the beginning and refrains from proffering any of the information that he has gathered. Initially all the detective has to go on is a photograph and a box of matches with a phone number on it, which in turn leads him to the Camellia coffee house. Returning to Dainen Enterprises puts him into contact with Tashiro whom Mr Nemuro was meant to meet with the day he disappeared, Tashiro begins to lead the investigation into stranger waters which are later revealed to be not what they seem, and draws the map of where he was meant to have met Nemuro. As the case progresses the detective begins to learn that Mr Nemuro and his brother in-law are involved in what appears to be a criminal organisation called the Yamamoto Association, involving blackmail and prostitution, obviously a subtle insinuation in the name of the association. The detective wrestles with suppositions of the motives of Nemuro's disappearance, and at times the detective's circumstance resembles those of Nemuro. The novel is devoid of the metaphor seen to the extent in The Woman in the Dunes/Suna no Onna and perhaps lacks the cryptic symbolism of Secret Rendezvous/Mikkai, but themes that feature in Abe's writing are apparent here. Towards the end of the novel the detective appears to suffer an amnesiac breakdown, the demarcations of his individuality begin to slip away, but as with much of Abe's writing this does not in turn to describing the collective consciousness, but acts as a stripping away of the superfluity of the individual. The novel is dotted with instances where the detective observes the anonymous mass, people on the move each searching for their individual goals, Abe's novels carry many subtexts, and here he seems to be looking into the unconscious nature of the aspirations of the modern individual, the map that Tashiro had drawn for the detective acts as a perfect template for Abe to explore many notions of this loosing of direction, or location.

The Ruined Map at Vintage International
       

Eiga Diary

Not sure how I've managed to let it slip by for so long without posting on films, my last film diary entry was back in July 2010, (!),  my film viewing has slowed down considerably over the past year or so, I'm not too sure as to why, perhaps viewer's block?. Although, when if making it back to Japan I'll have to renew my Geo and Tsutaya cards, there are plenty of films that I'd like to catch up with, firstly Koji Wakamatsu's movie on Mishima, which has Arata as Mishima, the movie recounts the days leading up to the authors seppuku, a movie that Wakamatsu has deliberated over making for a number of years. A film that received awards last year from the Mainichi Film Awards was Sketches of Kaitan City/Kaitanshi Jokei, directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, with an award winning soundtrack by Jim O'Rourke, the film is based on an unfinished novel by Yasushi Sato. Shinji Aoyama is a director whose films have always fascinated me so I'd be interested in catching up with his latest, Tokyo Koen/Tokyo Park. A film that I've read alot about is Heaven's Story directed by Takahisa Zeze, the film comes in at a mammoth 280 minutes, I've not checked to see if the DVD of this is available yet but definitely a film I'd like to see, there is an in depth synopsis and interview with the director available to download via the film's page at the Berlin International Film Festival webpage. The films of Sono Sion both shock and compel although aside from films like Cold Fish, Suicide Club, Love Exposure, etc, Sono produces many film exploring social issues, although the films mentioned in their way do comment on society at large, Himizu follows a family facing the strains of life after the recent earthquake and tsunami. Toshiaki Toyada is a director I'm still catching up with, and much to my bewilderment I've still yet to see both Blue Spring and Nine Souls, Monsters Club looks to be another intriguing movie that I'd like to add to the list of films that I'd like to see, Toyoda also has another movie recently out called I'm Flash set in Okinawa. After recently watching Summer Wars, I'm intrigued to see The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki which is due in July, the website is up, here's what I've viewed recently, (well over the past few months):-

About Her Brother - directed by Yoji Yamada
Happiness of the Katakuris - directed by Miike Takashi
Kakera - A Piece of Our Life - directed by Ando Momoko
Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers! - directed by Daihachi Yoshida
Visitor Q - directed by Miike Takashi
Ikiru - directed by Akira Kurosawa
Red Angel - directed by Yasuzo Masumura
Goth - directed by Gen Takahashi
2/Duo - directed by Nobuhiro Suwa
Fish Story - directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura
TekkonKinkreet - directed by Michael Arias
Nausicaa - Valley of the Wind - directed by Hayao Miyazaki
The Face of Another - directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara
Harakiri - directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Confessions of a Dog - directed by Gen Takahashi
I Live in Fear - directed by Akira Kurosawa
Red Beard - directed by Akira Kurosawa
Drive - directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka, (Sabu)
Norwegian Wood - directed by Tran Anh Hung
Gozu - directed by Miike Takashi
Cold Fish - directed by Sion Sono
The Sea is Watching - directed by Kei Kumai
Metropolis - directed by Shigeyuki Hayashi 
Outrage directed by Takeshi Kitano
Guilty of Romance - directed by Sion Sono
Devils on the Doorstep - directed by Jiang Wen
Villain - directed by Lee Sang-il
Summer Wars directed by Mamoru Hosoda
High and Low - directed by Akira Kurosawa
Profound Desires of the Gods - directed by Shohei Imamura
Arrietty - directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl - directed by Katsuhito Ishii























Its been something of a revelation to finally get around to filling in some of the gaps of the films of Kurosawa that I've not seen, in many ways I wish that I had watched these films before watching his samurai or Jidaigeki films, or at least to have watched them intermittently, there are still many of Kurosawa's films that I've yet to see, I think Kurosawa is a director that I wish that I could go back and watch as many of his movies in chronological order as they were released as possible. Another director that I've just started to make in roads with is Miike Takashi, I'd only seen Ichi and Audition before and there's obviously a great many more films from this director that I'd like to track out and see, Visitor Q and Gozu are both films that I'm not going to forget in the near future. Among my future viewing plans I'm hoping to watch the essential recent releases of Shohei Imamaru's back catalogue, it sometimes seems that perhaps outside of Japan, Japanese film appreciation goes in circles, but I sincerely hope that both Akio Jissoji and Yoshida Yoshihige get the same overhaul of re-releases of their films as Imamura has received recently. At the moment it seems that my film viewing comes in bursts, I'll watch a number of films in a row and then let it pass without watching anything, something I'll have to try and remedy.

The Reverse Side of Life

The Reverse Side of Life by Lee Seung - U, was originally published in Korean as Saeng-ui Imyeon back in 1992, it was awarded the first Daesan Literary Award, and translated into English by Yoo-Jung Kong. The novel is narrated, by a nameless journalist who reluctantly, (repaying an old favour to an editor), finds himself writing an 'Author Focus' piece about a writer named Bak Bugil. The novel uses a fascinating mixture of literary approaches and narrative techniques in presenting the initial years of the author, one of the first questions the reader finds themselves contemplating could be how bigger portion of the novel is taken from Seung-U's real life experiences, something the narrator finds himself reflecting upon through out his study of Bak Bugil. Immediately the author reads many of Bak Bugil's collections of stories and essays and exploring his novels for pointers, he meets the author twice, the second time ends up with him drinking too much. From a young age Bak is told that his father is a genius who is away studying, he is expected to pass an advanced examination, with the intention of becoming a judge. Bak is brought up in his Uncle's house, in the yard of which grows a persimmon tree, which he is told he must stay away from, and never to pick it's fruits. From an early age he is a voracious reader, Gide and Hesse are among writers who are referenced to within the novel, and in later parts also Endo, Borges and Lagerkvist, there's little mention of Korean Literature if any at all, as indeed there's very little if any reference to Korean culture as a whole within the novel, but as the novel progresses through the late sixties and into the nineteen seventies the narrative picks up with discontent the students feel, a planned protest is suppressed. The use of peoples name is something kept to a minimum, this fact in a way mirrors that of Baks unique and individualistic approach to his life and world view, he reads to keep the external world at bay -

In short, his engrossment in reading was not to discover a paradise within books. He just wanted to shut his eyes to his own reality. In this respect books were a kind of anaesthetic from early on. Hence now, writing as an adult, he confessed in a low voice while donning a slightly awkward smile, his writing could be considered a kind of anaesthetic.

The narrator is constantly addressing and questioning Baks motives and cross referencing episodes within his life with those in his writings, combining literary theory with a detective like inquisitiveness, the narrative does lean at times on repetition, and incorporates the novel, (or perhaps here novels), within a novel technique, at the same time the differing perspectives, that of the Bak appearing in his novels, the narrator trying to construct a portrait of the writer, with that of the narrators access to unpublished novels and stories, creates a highly compelling narrative, these juxtaposing viewpoints in a way contribute to the repetition, but are essential as the narrator sifts through the events. Young Bak is unable to stop himself from venturing into the yard and in one of the out buildings he discovers a man there kept in shackles, he is later told that the man is a servant of his uncles who has gone mad and that he should not talk to him, although Bak finds the man has a gentle aspect to him and forms a friendship with him, Bak suspects that the rule about the tree was a cover in order to prevent meeting this man. At around this time a man who was born in the village returns from studying and opens a church, many rumours circulate about the church and the motives of the pastor, people reportedly go in and out of the church late at night, his mother becomes involved with the church, and through using Bak's novels and stories the narrator tells the story of Bak's eventual detachment from his mother, also he learns that his father is studying at Jinnam, Bak makes a failed attempt at leaving the village to find his father but is caught and is severely punished by his Uncle, which further instilled in him the desire that he has to leave the village. The narrative follows Bak as he leaves the village and severs the links with his family and after a period of wandering finds himself in Seoul where after being assaulted by a guard he takes refugee in a church after hearing the music of a piano being played, this in turn leads him to meet, Jongdan, a young woman who he sees shares a similar world view to that of his own. It is difficult to describe in detail the events that occur within the novel without giving them away,  these discoveries as they are read are integral to appreciating it. The novel conveys the emotional difficulties Bak faces with addressing his past, his story is wrought with turmoil and upheaval.                        

The Reverse Side of Life at Peter Owen

Blinking and Flapping

An intriguing title that I'll be keeping an eye out for when funds allow is Blinking and Flapping from Yasuhiro Suzuki,

From Seigensha -

Focusing attention on small discoveries in everyday life and natural phenomena , Yasuhiro Suzuki makes works that are sensuous, using familiar materials and technology. Getting alot of attention both inside and outside Japan, this book introduces the thinking process of this talented artist. Photos, drawing, bilingual texts, (by himself and 4 contributors), included.

"Yasuhiro Suzuki's sketches resemble the mathematical formulas a mathematician scribbles all over the blackboard" - Kenya Hara, (Graphic Designer).

Blinking and Flapping at Seigensha Art Publishing

more at Spoon and Tamago.