Thoughts on: Time and Space Are Nonsense: The Films of Seijun Suzuki by Tom Vick

 Being someone who digs about piles of Japanese cinema looking for interesting titles to watch and books to help me understand the medium I was quite happy to hear of the publication of this book. When I ran into a copy of the book at the Berkeley Art Museum shop I bought it immediately.

Over the years I have read about Suzuki Seijun on occasion and was curious to learn more. I rate books by how much I learn from them and this one I rate very high. From the beginning I found material that put Suzuki's work in the context of the industry of the time his early films were made. Mainly this was that of Nikkatsu's churning out B films for double bills. Suzuki got in trouble several times for his efforts to make his films more interesting by using new and experimental effects, effects that could be jarring to the viewer, and wre disliked by his boss. I should say delightfully jarring as I have found myself more than once holding by breath as I focused on what was being presented to me on the screen. The book gave me a better perspective regarding the context of the films and how they contrasted to the works of other directors of the time. Also covered is his firing and blacklisting, successful lawsuit against Nikkatsu and popularity among members of cinema clubs at the time.

I was also highly delighted to see a section on the influence of kabuki in Suzuki's films. I have long felt that kabuki has had a strong influence in Japanese cinema, after all many of the early actors were kabuki actors and for many years onnagata played the roles of women in Japanese silent cinema. Vick's book dealt with the specific influence on Suzuki, who is a fan of kabuki theater, and other directors. There is even a reference to kabuki influences in Shinoda Masahiro's The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan, itself a film based on a kabuki play by Kawatake Mokuami.

Then the book goes further than most of what I have read, going into the films made after Suzuki's return to the director's chair in 1977. It is these films where Suzuki had greater freedom to experiment with the structure of cinema, narration, and visual presentation and produce unique works.

If you are interested in cinema, Time and Space Are Nonsense is a book I feel you should strongly consider reading, even buying to add to your own library.

Now on to the next book in my to read pile. Edo Kabuki in Transition.

This week's books

I picked up three new books this week.

Flynn, Brian, Joshua Bernard & Jeff Dey
Tokyo Underground 2
San Francisco: Super7: 2010

A great guide to stores in Tokyo for those interested in popular culture related items such as toys, anime and manga.
NOTE: This is the second edition of the book, not a second volume.

Harrison, Edward & John
Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot
New York: Mark Batty Publisher, 2010

Before this book came out we only had Matt Alt and Yoda Hiroko's Hello, Please!. The two books have almost no overlap so both are worth having.

Lent, John A. (ed)
Animation in Asia and the Pacific
Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2001

A great looking anthology, the contents look like a who's who of writers in the field,

Ôoku

Recently read volume 2 of Ôoku.

This is an alternative history of Edo Period Japan in which a severe disease has hit the country that kills most males during their adolescence. Japan is able to close it's borders before the Europeans find out and a new society grows where women take a dominant role and men are treated with great care. In this Japan the shogun is now a woman.

In the first volume you are introduced to this Japan, in the second it goes back to the early history when the red pox was fairly new. What's fun for me is that many of the characters are from history and the author has done considerable research on the persons and customs of the times.

Tokyo Vice

Just finished Jake Adelstein's book Tokyo Vice on his years as a reported for the Yomiuri, the Japanese language one not the English Daily Yomiuri.

A very interesting look at working on the police beat for a major newspaper. Adelstein is the only non-Japanese reporter to have been in the press club at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

I was clued into this one by Mark Schreiber's review in the Japan Times.

This is one I can recommend reading.

Yaro Art!

I'm currently reading, well more like looking at the pictures of a new book from DH Publishing.

The Art Trucks of Japan

A fun book. I only wish it had more pictures of older trucks from the 1970s on. But still cool, with great nighttime shots.