Angela Aki–“Creep” and “Kiss from a Rose”

I love Angela Aki for many reasons, not the least of which is because she speaks fluent English. Japanese music likes to throw random English words and phrases into their lyrics with little concern for actual pronunciation or sense. So it’s thrilling to listen to someone who actually can appreciate how powerful it is to properly combine two languages. I’m a long way from bilingual but already I wish there were entire genres of it – movies that switch subtitles to suit the characters, and songs with alternating verses.

What’s also interesting about her translations of English songs is that the lyrics are fairly divergent from the original – but they maintain the same emotional mood. I’m normally a purist, but I’m not going to complain when her versions are so lovely – and well, as we’ve learned, translating things too literally only ends you up in the soup.

 

I guess there’s no denying that I am very much a child of the 90’s considering how nostalgic I get over Radiohead – and my not-so-inner emo-teen still is moved by “Creep,” as well as the cover by Belgian girls’ choir Scala & Kolacny Brothers:

“I don't care if it hurts.
I want to have control.
I want a perfect body.
I want a perfect soul.”

which will now, for better or worse, forever be associated with the emotional distancing of Facebook because of The Social Network.

“I want you to notice when I’m not around.”

“I don’t belong here.”

And then there’s Angela Aki’s cover, which I can only think of as more of a love-song to someone else and less of a hate-song to oneself. But I can hardly be surprised that she would make it more hopeful, considering her other works.

You are the only color
In the monochrome world where I live.
You are the subject of the picture
Whenever I shut my eyes.

I'm a creep.
You don’t know
My existence,
My secret.

From the milk of your skin,
To the honey of your smile,
I want to swim in the universe
On the other side of your lips.

You brush your hair up
And it shines in the light.
An angel on earth,
Grant me mercy.

I'm a creep.
I see nothing but you,
My hell,
My secret.

He’s running out again.
He’s running out.
He’s run, run, run, run, run.

In the depths of delusion, I called your name
It reached reality, it reached you.

But I’m a creep,
I’m a weirdo.
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here.

He’s running out again.
He’s running out.
He’s run, run, run, run, run.
‘Cause I’m a creep.

***

And now, to delve even further back in my slightly embarrassing musical past, Seal’s Kiss From a Rose. I mean, really.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Here I figure Angela is perfectly at rights to translate it anyway she wants, because it doesn’t make sense even in English.

 

I saw you in the midst of the flames,
The battlefield where love burnt to ash.
Holding the gold sword of self-confidence,
Time stood still
As you came near me.

Baby, I cried out for mercy.
My white flag already raised.
If I am to die from love,
Kill me with a kiss.

I have lived like a traveler.
My heart had no lodging, but, baby,
The place I finally wandered to
Is the land called you,
Where the red rose of passion
Takes root and blossoms.

Baby, finally I surrender to you.
My white flag already raised.
If I am to die from love,
Kill me with a kiss.

With a kiss from you,
With a glance from you,
My body catches fire
And burns to ash.

There is so much a man can tell you, so much he can say.
You remain my power, my pleasure, my pain.
To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny.
Won't you tell me, is that healthy, babe?
But did you know, that when it snows, my eyes become enlarged
And the light that you shine can be seen.

Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grave.
The more I get of you, the stranger it feels, yeah.
Now that your rose is in bloom, a light hits the gloom on the grave.

If I am to die from love,
Kill me with a kiss.

“Maybe none of us really understand what we’ve lived through...”

After I’d acquired an interest in all things Japanese and before I actually came to the country, I would jump at the chance to get my hands on anything with a hint of it. Which is why I picked up “The Remains of the Day” by Kazuo Ishiguro. I soon realized that despite his name, he hasn’t lived in Japan since he was a child and is for all intents and purposes a British writer. Remains is even narrated by that staple of British literature, the Butler – and yet, in a strange way, Stevens struck me as an integrally Japanese character. He’s one of a dying breed – the dignified, loyal servant, and as he considers his own role in relation to those he has served, there’s a strong feeling of “shikata ga nai” (alternatively shouganai)– “it can’t be helped.” Stevens knows that the man he spent most of his life serving was not as honorable as he would attest – but it couldn’t be helped. Where else would he go, who else would he serve, what else would he do if he weren’t buttling?

Shouganai is a sentiment that is pervasive here, notably so since 3/11, and it can be at times a frustrating display of complacency(1)and heartbreaking calm in the face of adversity. Stevens’ sense of resignation becomes fatal in the characters from Ishiguro’s more recent work. I went to see on the draw of Andrew Garfield (and my love of all things Social Network) and ended up buying the book the second I left the movie theater. I rarely buy new English paperbacks here because they’re unreasonably expensive, but it was such a beautiful movie – the actors especially were brilliant – and I needed to know how it differed from the adaptation.

Usually I’d try not to spoil the plot of a movie for you, but the trailer reveals pretty much everything, and it’s not a suspense-heavy story, but rather relies on the characters. The three main characters start as children living in what appears to be an idyllic English boarding house. We soon realize that they are actually clones, created to provide organ donations that will lead to their early deaths.

If this were just about any other movie based on any other novel than an Ishiguro, there would be an inevitable chase scene where the doomed lovebirds make a desperate flight for freedom and are hunted down by The Man. And yet Never Let Me Go has the same sense of tragic acceptance that Remains of the Day does, that Japan itself has had these past few months. The only method of escape they consider is what they believe has been sanctioned – when that falls through they don’t seek an alternative. Because what else is there, really?

It can’t be helped.

 

 

(1)“But it can be helped,” an exasperated ex-pat friend once said to me when I used it in his presence. I was speaking to some mutual Japanese friends. While they nodded in agreement, he responded, “We can help it.”

“Can I borrow your handcuffs? I forgot mine.”

I went to see the final installment in the SP franchise yesterday. It was a tv show in late 2007, followed by a special episode and two films (or two films divided in two, I don’t know the difference). Though it’s commonly referred to by the simple initials SP (security police) the full title in Japanese is a mouthful: Keishicho keibibu keigoka daiyon-gakari - Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Security Department Bodyguard Division Fourth Section. *deep breath*

I liked the series - even though it was ostensibly a “cop show” it had a very Japanese feel. It was very, “How do we stay humble to the VIP while shoving them bodily out of the way of danger?” and “My apologies for setting you on fire but I did warn you not to shoot.” Since guns are outlawed only the outlaws have guns – our heros come up with some awesome improvised weapons depending on their location. Hospital equipment in one episode, office supplies in the most recent movie – maybe I just have a weird fetish for office supplies but I had to suppress a cheer. Maybe it’s a teacher thing – but hey, knowing the Japanese, the entire audience probably felt the same.

I adore the lead actor, Okada Junichi, who is unassuming in a way I find appealing in both my leading men and my security police. Also a member of the group V6, he debuted shortly before his 15th birthday, and has stated that he would get nauseous from stage-fright in his early days. As his character, it also gives him an edge – no one expects 170 centimeters of nice business suit to be able to kick the bad guys’ butts and save the day.

And I love the original theme song, Way of Life, sung by Okada-kun with the rest of V6. Even though it’s an emotional ballad that doesn’t quite match the feel of the series, even though the music video is one I find touching and yet am embarrassed to find touching at the same time. (“How many Symbols of Extreme Emotional Angst can we fit into this single music video?” GROWN MEN. HOLDING HANDS. SINGING. A BALLAD. IN THE RAIN. WITH HAND GESTURES. AND ONE CONTINOUS CAMERA SHOT.) Oh, whatever, I refuse to feel shame:

When I become aware, time has passed.
I am just wandering for no reason.
Light shines through a break in the clouds.
I turn my palm up to the shining days.

It’s a way of life.
Just before, I turned and walked away,
To break out of the gray days.
Even if I falter or feel uncertain,
I can accept almost anything.

Overtaking, I stand still on the road
Looking back over my shoulder at yesterday.
I protect the trembling soul,
Running, running after.
There is a future I want to protect.
I place my trust in today and keep walking.

So unnoticed, time comes full circle.
Every day repeating the same again.

It's a way of life.
What kind of future is waiting?
The image those gray days left behind,
Even if I sigh or feel sad,
I can dissolve almost anything.

This is how I am still remembering,
The dream I saw that day continues,
The promise we made with each other.
Whether I keep calling or stop,
We can't return to yesterday,
So I reach out my hand now.

Childhood memories recalled,
Following them leads nowhere.
Wanting to reveal the feelings in my heart,
Now my calling voice dies out.

Overtaking, I stand still on the road.
Look at the feelings I can't convey.
Someday we will reach an understanding.
Running, running after.
There is a future I want to protect.
I keep walking like this, even now.

I place my trust in today and keep walking.

岡田准一

“Fantastipo”–Toraji and Haiji

Back then, we were always
Running after something.
Everything was filled with radiance.
We were troubled and lost our way.

This world is next door to paradise.
Touch it with a fingertip and the wind slips through.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Fantastipo,
Painfully beautiful,
A blooming flower that has never been seen.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Fantastipo,
Even now we haven't forgotten
The way we felt back then.
I'll lead you
to Fantastipo.

Before we knew it, we became adults.
Reality somehow grew cold.
Our destination on the trip that day
Wasn't this kind of place.

Falling down into eternity,
Waiting for the end of the dream.
Someone's voice calling on the wind.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Fantastipo,
Like a sweet temptation,
An impulse after the pain.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Fantastipo,
From now on our dream begins,
The way we were back then.
I'll invite you
to Fantastipo.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Fantastipo,
Painfully beautiful,
A blooming flower that has never been seen.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Fantastipo,
Even now we haven't forgotten
The way we felt back then.
I'll lead you
to Fantastipo.

堂本剛 国文太一 トラジ・ハイジ 歌詞 英語 翻訳 ファンタスティポ

“And that’s how we knew the bus was coming.”

This has nothing to do with Japan, and everything to do with all of my other interests.

I’m currently watching my way through the filmography of Jesse Eisenberg – yes, even the ones with zombies and werewolves and marijuana users. The following interview demonstrates all the self-effacing humor, endearing awkwardness, and sheer intelligence that is at the heart of why I adore him:

 

“Clearly I seem like a very relaxed person, but!”

 

 

And when he’s in a calmer atmosphere, he’s as sweet as anything:

“I started acting to be included in a group, because I felt excluded in school. I couldn’t care less what the outcome was, I just liked being in a group of people that didn’t kick my shins. But when I was acting in a play, I liked knowing my place, that I was this role, and other people were that role, and we could interact with each other in a way that was very clear to me. Even if I was not in a position that I liked being in, I at least knew that that was my position. And I learned to become comfortable with it.”

 

I mean really, who else would be concerned with how comfortable Mark Zuckerberg is feeling?

“It’s an alarming clock. It wakes you up.”

It’s strange the things one has to come to a foreign country to discover about one’s homeland. Thanks to the “Morning 10 Movie Festival" sponsored by Toho Cinemas, both foreigners and Japanese alike have the opportunity to watch cinematic classics from America, Europe, and more. Last year I got to see two of my favorites, The Great Escape and Laurence of Arabia in the big screen manner that they so richly deserve. As the festival was quite popular its first season, it has just been renewed for a second year, with even more theaters and movies being involved. The 50 movies (“Red List”)shown the first year will be repeated at different locations, and 50 new movies (“Blue List”) will be shown at the originally participating theaters. For the most part, the movies are aired only once a week on Saturday morning at 10:00, as the title indicates, which is not always a convenient time. But this year at least one theater in Tokyo, the Miyukiza, will run the movie of the week for the week including multiple showings in a day.

Thanks to that clever bit of scheduling I was able to go see Shawshank Redemption yesterday evening. Though it’s one of my favorites, I wouldn’t have thought of it as a movie with the visual grandeur of the aforementioned two – but was pleasantly surprised that it really did have its own moments of rich cinematography.

However, as the Morning 10 website is in Japanese, I thought I’d type up the list of movies and dates of at least one location for my fellow expatriates and for my own reference – italics are ones I’d like to attend.

Toho Cinemas Miyukiza (Takarazuka Building, 1-1-3 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku. Take the JR Yamanote Line to Yurakucho Station, Hibiya Exit. Tickets here) will air the following schedule:

Feb. 5-11	Shawshank Redemption
Feb. 12-18	Field of Dreams
Feb. 19-25	The Public Eye
Feb. 26-Mar. 4	The Apartment
Mar. 5-11	Roman Holiday
Mar. 12-18	Love in the Afternoon
Mar. 19-25	Romeo and Juliet
Mar. 26-Apr. 1	Somewhere in Time
Apr. 2-8	The Godfather
Apr. 9-15	The Wild Bunch
Apr. 16-22	The Sting
Apr. 23-29	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Apr. 30-May 6	Plein Soleil
May 7-13	Un Homme et une Femme
May 14-20	East of Eden
May 21-27	Stand By Me
May 28-Jun. 3	Casablanca
Jun. 4-10	The Third Man
Jun. 11-17	Twelve Angry Men
Jun. 18-24	Duel
Jun. 25-Jul. 1	Silence of the Lambs
Jul. 2-8	The Name of the Rose
Jul. 9-15	The Right Stuff
Jul. 16-22	Fantastic Voyage
Jul. 23-29	Papillon
Jul. 30-Aug. 5	Bullitt
Aug. 6-Aug.12	West Side Story
Aug. 13-19	Singing in the Rain
Aug. 20-26	Laurence of Arabia
Aug. 27-Sep. 2	Ben Hur
Sep. 3-9	Some Like it Hot
Sep. 10-16	There’s No Business Like Show Business
Sep. 17-23	Amadeus
Sep. 24-30	Streets of Fire
Oct. 1-7	Limelight
Oct. 8-14	The Great Dictator
Oct. 15-21	The Great Escape
Oct. 22-28	The Bridge on the River Kwai
Oct. 29-Nov. 4	Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
Nov. 5-11	La Nuit Americaine
Nov. 12-18	Witness
Nov. 19-25	The Way We Were
Nov. 26-Dec. 2	A Room With A View
Dec. 3-9	Julia
Dec. 10-16	Rear Window
Dec. 17-23	North by Northwest
Dec. 24-30	Il Ferroviere
Dec. 31- 2012 Jan. 6	Les Enfants du Paradis
Jan. 7-13	Kramer vs. Kramer
Jan. 14-20	Rain Man

 

Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills, meanwhile, in its second season will air the “Blue List” of a different 50 movies. Here they will only be aired once a week, and as the location is very popular I would recommend buying the tickets online here when they go on sale two days before the showing. (Keyaki Saka Complex, 6-10-2 Roppongi Minato-ku. Metro Hibiya Line to Roppongi Station, Exit 1C.)

Feb. 5-11	Sound of Music
Feb. 12-18	That’s Entertainment
Feb. 19-25	The Band Wagon
Feb. 26-Mar. 4	It’s a Wonderful Life
Mar. 5-11	Charade
Mar. 12-18	Sabrina
Mar. 19-25	Moonstruck
Mar. 26-Apr. 1	Goodbye Again
Apr. 2-8	The Godfather II
Apr. 9-15	The Deer Hunter
Apr. 16-22	Gone with the Wind
Apr. 23-29	Doctor Zhivago
Apr. 30-May 6	Belle du Jour
May 7-13	Les Dimanches de Ville D’Avray
May 14-20	Witness for the Prosecution
May 21-27	Sunset Boulevard
May 28-Jun. 3	From Russia With Love
Jun. 4-10	The Thomas Crown Affair
Jun. 11-17	Dirty Harry
Jun. 18-24	The French Connection
Jun. 25-Jul. 1	A Fistful of Dollars
Jul. 2-8	The Magnificent Seven
Jul. 9-15	Shane
Jul. 16-22	The Big Country
Jul. 23-29	Jeux Interdits
Jul. 30-Aug. 5	Khane-ye Doust Kodjast
Aug. 6-Aug.12	Marcelino Pan y Vino
Aug. 13-19	Il Gattopardo
Aug. 20-26	The Graduate
Aug. 27-Sep. 2	Midnight Cowboy
Sep. 3-9	Taxi Driver
Sep. 10-16	In the Heat of the Night
Sep. 17-23	The Longest Yard
Sep. 24-30	The Hustler
Oct. 1-7	Alien
Oct. 8-14	Carrie
Oct. 15-21	E.T.
Oct. 22-28	Edward Scissorhands
Oct. 29-Nov. 4	Back to the Future
Nov. 5-11	American Graffiti
Nov. 12-18	The Bad News Bears
Nov. 19-25	Breaking Away
Nov. 26-Dec. 2	La Strada
Dec. 3-9	La Dolce Vita
Dec. 10-16	Rebecca
Dec. 17-23	The Birds
Dec. 24-30	Diva
Dec. 31- 2012 Jan. 6	M*A*S*H
Jan. 7-13	Black Sunday
Jan. 14-20	The Guns of Navarone

 

A map of the full country’s theaters here.

Any of your favorite classics that you would recommend me to see?

“No more honey from this bee.”

I went to see the Space Battleship Yamato movie this weekend. While I didn’t grow up on the original cartoon the way many Japanese did, I have had a fair amount of vague exposure. I can, for instance, hum the theme song. And as the live-action preview has been playing before every movie I’ve seen the past few months, I was pretty exited to see it.

Thank you… Goodbye.

I hope it gets released in America as well – I want it to be big. I want it to be the next Star Wars (original trilogy) and Star Trek and every sci-fi show you’ve ever loved rolled into one. It deserves to be big – it is made of pure undiluted Epic. The cast is great, and the special effects are awesome.

“Happiness at the misfortune of others… That *is* German!”

I’ve been doing a lot of reading the past few months, what with getting a Kindle and taking a slow train across the country over the summer and then with my computer breaking down so that I had a lonely internet-less couple of weeks. I decided I ought to put my Comparative Literature degree to good use by reviewing some of them, especially ones I felt strongly about (either positively or negatively) so that you might get an idea of what to go forth and read, and what to avoid.

For starters, I’d like to talk about the Inkworld trilogy, but first I have a few words to say about the movie based on the first book, Inkheart, which came out in 2008. The basic plot is that Mo, a bookbinder, has the magic ability to read characters out of a book when he does it aloud. The movie keeps that plot – and then sucks all the charm out of it. It’s actually a wonder I bothered to read the book after seeing the movie first.

The movie Inkheart, see, is an epic story of an epic battle. But it’s not the epic battle that’s in the book, or the epic battle of the book-within-a-book (1). No, the movie is the epic battle between Paul Bettany’s magical ability to turn every movie he’s in into pure gold, and Brendan Fraser’s magical ability to turn every movie he’s in into pure something-that-isn’t-gold. I do not know what it is about the man – it can’t be something as simple as being a bad actor as much worse actors go far simply choosing characters that are actually themselves, thriving off Meisner’s “living truthfully in imaginary circumstances.” Perhaps it’s simply phenomenally bad luck on his part in the movies he or his agent choose to be in. There must be something appealing in him, as the author, Cornelia Funke, mind-bogglingly claims he inspired the main character. I can only hope that his movies are better after being translated into German.

Because I believe there can be something Gained in Translation (2), though I am still a hard-core believer in learning the language whenever possible. I could be wrong since I can’t read the original, but I think being translated from the German added something to the trilogy. A book about books? That’s a recipe for pretentious disaster right there. I mean, I love books, and will talk on end about them, but when a character starts saying things that I would every day it makes me sick, it’s like looking into one of those distorting mirrors you see in circus “fun” houses. But something about the translation lends the Inkheart trilogy a tone of old-fashioned-ness, as though it were a folk story or fairy-tale. If an American had wrote this book, I kept thinking, I probably would have tossed it across the room (3), rolling my eyes, “Ooh, meta-fiction, how clever.”

Instead I found the first book of the trilogy to be a charming YA fantasy, and enthusiastically continued to the next two, Inkspell and Inkdeath. I’ve noticed other reviewers saying that while the first may be suited for children, the others are noticeably darker – they say this as though it’s a bad thing. Personally I am all for the gradual darkening of children’s series. They should grow up as the kids reading them do, Harry Potter being a prime example. The first came out when I was twelve and the last when I was twenty-two. If there hadn’t been a serious advancement in adult tone and content, I don’t know that I would have been interested enough to continue (4). I read The Hobbit in elementary school and Lord of the Rings in middle school (well, middle-school-ish, I didn’t really go to middle school). It’s just the natural progression of things, like starting with A Midsummer Night’s Dream and ending up with Othello.

And call me a pessimist – which I don’t believe I am – but I love literature which has dark elements, if they stay within reason. The latter two books of the Inkheart trilogy fulfill that criteria to a T. It is actually impressive at some points – I have no idea how Ms. Funke does it and can only conclude that it must be a German thing. Starting at some point in the second book and continuing almost non-stop until the end – Everything Goes Wrong. I don’t know how so many terrible things can happen and yet it not descend into “Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies” ridiculousness. It doesn’t, incredibly, it felt like plausible and realistic misfortunate at every turn. It felt like historical disaster, like a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy.

And yet, and yet, she doesn’t resort to the clichés authors often use because they know it will instantly tug at the reader’s heartstrings. There are plot twists that, as horrible as they are in real life, I only roll my eyes at in fiction because they’re so obvious – a child getting killed, say, or a woman getting raped. Ms. Funke comes up with some extremely creative ways to make her characters suffer – while still being in the realm of, “Yes, I could see this happening to me were I a fantasy character.”

And every one of the characters suffer, my goodness, do they. All of the big things go wrong, and then the alternative ways people try out to correct the original mistake also go wrong, and meanwhile all the daily things that you’d think would be all right even though the rest of the world is chaos also go wrong. Every relationship, including the ones you’d think would be beyond any question a solid foundation, turn to betrayal, and even the cute little teenage romance of the first book becomes as bitter as pouring salt on a fresh divorce. The writer drinks, the fairies bite, in a move that harkened back to my much beloved T.H. White’s “Once and Future King,” someone kills a unicorn.

All that said, you’d think one would be curled up in a sobbing ball in the corner by the end. But somehow, perhaps it’s just me (pause for chorus of, “It’s just you.”) but I find it comforting for a book to go to dark places like that. It feels far less saccharine than books that ignore or deny bad things happening. It feels like real life to me – there’s sorrow and then there’s hope and maybe there’s both at once but it keeps going. I appreciate that in a book, and if you do as well I’d highly recommend the trilogy.

But not the movie (5). Don’t do that to yourself.





(1) What the actual story of the book-within-a-book is, is not exactly clear, not even after reading all three books in the trilogy. Are Capricorn and Dustfinger the respective villain and hero of Fenoglio’s novel? They don’t seem it – Capricorn’s idea of evil-lordliness is to make someone read henchmen out of a book for him, and the real-world setting of the first book renders Dustfinger rather ineffectual – he’s more of a hero in the third book that he kicks more ass than Chuck Norris.

(2) I read this short story by a Chinese girl. She had a correct but cautious grasp on grammar, so many of the sentences were merely fragments containing only the essentials, and she had invented some of her own adverbs where the English language was insufficient. All in all it ended up being a haunting [in many senses of the word] work that reflected the fractured mental state of the main character, a man who took some time to realize his beloved was dead.

(3) This is a lie. I have never tossed a book across a room.

(4) This is also a lie. I am obsessively compelled to finish a book series once I finish it, the way I am compelled to finish watching a movie even if I hate it, the way I am compelled to finish listening to a song or something dire will happen, the way I was compelled to tell you that was a lie just now.

(5) Unless you’re as big a Paul Bettany fan as I am, and your love can carry you across otherwise charmlessly kitschy waters.

"FREE WILLY”

Need a quick pick-me-up? Nothing like 40 Inspirational Speeches In 2 Minutes!

 

Seeing them all in a row like that, though, makes me think we need more female characters making inspirational speeches.

"Wonder if he'll ever know / he's in the best-selling show."

Various movies I have an interest in:

"Paradise Kiss" is a manga about a high-school girl who is abducted into the world of fashion when a group of student designers decide she'd be their perfect model. Naturally she ends up falling in love with one, becoming friends with the rest, and overall loving the career - but other than those implausibles, it's a bitter-sweetly realistic story of unfulfilled dreams and difficult relationships. I would never have believed I would enjoy a comic about clothes before, but I loved this one. As of May, Fox International was in talks to produce it, but apparently they're going to make it in Japanese so here's hoping they don't mess up too much.

 

"Ningen Shikkaku," called "No Longer Human" in English, called author Dazai Osamu's masterpiece, called my favorite Japanese book when I am inevitably asked. "That's... rather dark," they say, but at least they look at me with more respect than if I named some children's comic. The movie, coming out next spring, stars Ikuta Toma, a bright young actor that I've loved in everything so far but... he always plays such essentially positive, heroic characters that I'm curious to see him play the "human disqualified" as the title literally translates.

 

I was excited about "Norwegian Wood" until thirty seconds ago because I enjoyed the novel by Murakami Haruki. Then I looked it up and realized the movie would be directed by Tran Anh Hung who has done some pretty horrendous work in the past, and now I'm dreading it a little. It's a very subtle, laid-back novel - I've heard it called the Japanese Catcher in the Rye - and he's got all the subtlety of a ACME anvil. Well, perhaps if they don't let him write the script it won't be so bad. No word yet on who will star.

 

"My Darling is a Foreigner" has been making a buzz around the expatriate community. The manga by Oguri Saori was based on her real-life marriage with journalist Tony László. It will be interesting to see how a foreign man - which rarely fare well in Japanese entertainment - translates from a sympathetic source onto the big screen.

 

Today the third part in the "20th Century Boys" trilogy came out - I think I posted about going to see the previous two. I have such a Pavlovian reaction now that the second I hear the very distinctive theme music I look at the TV even though I've seen the preview dozens of times. Since I have to go into the city tomorrow to buy my application for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, I might go to the cinema while I'm there.