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.

Stuff bought

Lately I've been buying more than usual.

This week for books I picked up:

Demery, Leroy W. Jr et al.
Electric Railways of Japan: Interurbans - Tramways - Metros Vol.3 - Western Japan.

Demery, Leroy W. Jr et al.
Japan by Rail: Published as a Supplement to Electric Railways of Japan.

Obata Toshishiro
Shinkendo Tameshigiri: Samurai Swordsmanship & Test-Cutting.

Vaporis, Constantine Nomikos
Tour of Duty: Samurai, Military Service in Edo, and the Culture of Early Modern Japan.

Then there were the videos:

Ghost Hound DVD Complete Collection

You're Under Arrest: Full Throttle DVD Collection 1 and 2

I got the DVD discs on sale from The Right Stuf, I'm trying to keep my spending under control so I often hold off on getting releases right away.

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,

Ah been shoppin'

This week has been a busy one for my pocket book. The damage to my budget to date is as follows.

BOOKS:

Enbutsu Sumiko
Tokyo: Exploring the City of the Shogun

Figal, Gerald
Civilization and Monsters: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan

Jacoby, Alexander
A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors


LIVE ACTION:

Death Note
Kitaro

DOCUMENTARY:

Tokyology vol.1 Pop Culture

ANIME:

Ghost Hunt part 1 ep.1-13
Hellsing Ultimate IV
MS Igloo 2
Ouran High School Host Club part 1, ep.1-13
Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl box 1 ep.1-40 (No damage on this one, thanks AnimEigo, you folks are cool.)

MANGA:

Eden v.8-10
Hikaru no Go v.13
Kaze Hikaru v.11
Manga Sutra v.3
Monster v.17
Real v.2
Rose Hip Zero v.4 (Japanese original to look something up)
Switch v.1 - 2

Plus I ordered several books from Japan.

manga after work

Yesterday I stayed on the bus past my stop and rode into dowtown Berkeley.

First stop: Anime-V to pick up the second Hellsing Ultimate DVD and order a few other forthcoming titles.

Then over to Comic Relief to pick up GTO The Early Years v.4, Monster v.8 and Blade of the Immortal v,17 "On the Perfection of Anatomy".

Then over to the BART station to catch the F bus back home, same bus as I was on earlier as it loops around the UC Berkeley campus.

The second volume of Hellsing Ultimate was not as cool as the first one, but then there was so much to tell in the first volume. However we do find out that the butler's nickname is shinigami and it does greatly advance the story.