Over the river

It took some time to write up this one. All the information I had was scattered here and there in various books.

But it is done, I present to you another entry related to Edo and Tokyo:

Honjo 本所

Easy to stay awake

This week I've added another live action film to my recommended titles web pages, this one has death but no killings and humor, plenty of humor and not for the easily offended, but great for the rest of us.

This week I add:

Wakeful Nights
Director: Makino Masahiko
Screenplay: Omori Sumio
Based on a work by: Nakajima Ramo

The film centers around a group of Rakugo (traditional Japanese storytelling) performers and their teacher's family. This group has been together for years in the traditional master apprentice relationship one still finds in some occupations. However several members of the group are elderly and a great deal of the story involves wakes, wakes with drunken storytellers have got to be interesting. But then the disclaimer on the box says: "Warning: Contains Adult Situations and Language, Disgusting Puns, Sick Jokes, Filthy Karaoke, and a Traumatized Manta Ray."

This is also an instructional film, I learned more Japanese terms for female genitailia from this DVD than from all the books on my walls.

There are also tea spewingly funny extras on the disc, including a dirty song contest and off color lyrics set to old children's tunes and spoofing patriotic songs.

Order Wakeful Nights from The Right Stuf

A long long river

This week I continue with my posting Tokyo related entries with a river that was so powerful the Japanese government spent 10 years splitting it into two as part of a major flood control project.

This week we have the:
Arakawa 荒川

Dragon of the streets

This week I am recommending yet another live action title.

This one from Miike Takashi. Some of the fans of his films don't like his recent work. I wonder how many of those simply like him for the shock value of his early works. I find his recent works highly enjoyable and this one falls into that category.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Director: Miike Takashi

Screenplay: Togawa Seiji

 

Films based on video games are usually avoidable; their quality as films is often dismal. Then there are a few that shine, this is one of them. Based on the Sony video game and directed by Miike Takashi Yakuza: Like a Dragon is actually an interesting and amusing action film. Kiryu has just been released from prison and is looking for his boss who has gone missing. He finds himself helping a girl who has run away from an orphanage look for her mother. He also ends up coping with other yakuza that assume he has something do to with the sudden disappearance of 10 billion yen from the gang's various bank accounts, and wanting to settle old scores. Then there is a stoic, and wounded, guest of a host club, inept bank robbers in knit masks in the middle of a heat wave, lovers turned stick up artists, a baseball bat armed gang and other fun. Fans of Miike know to expect over the top elements in the film as well as his dark humor, both are delightfully in evidence here.

 

Order Yakuza: Like a Dragon from The Right Stuf

Edo ditch

This week I have an entry on an Edo landmark that no longer exists.

The rather un appetizingly named:

Ohaguro-dobu (Ditch of Black Teeth)

The ditch was filled in long ago, in fact I've walked over it while visiting the neighborhood.

Expect more Edo/Tokyo entries as I'm planning to focus on that interesting city for the next few months in my reading and writing.

Edo Killing

This week I am recommending another live action title, this time a TV series. Somehow this one has been below the radar of many fans of Japanese cinema. I hope more people pick it up especially since the series is available at such a low price.

Baian The Assassin - TV Series

Director: Yoshida Keiichiro (ep.1), Sugimura Rokuro (ep.2-3), Ogasawara Yoshifumi (ep.4), Mimura Haruhiko (ep.5-7)
Screenplay: Abe Tetsuro (ep.1-2, 7), Shimoiizaka Kikuma (ep.3), Nogami Tatsuo (ep.4), Furuta Motomu (ep.5-6),
Based on a work by: Ikenami Shōtarō

Watanabe Ken stars as Baian, a doctor who moonlights as an assassin in Tokugawa Period Edo. Baian has a code of honor and will accept only assignments that target the wicked and those deserving of death. Don't expect a fast paced swashbuckling action show with big fights. Baian carefully stalks his targets looking for the right moment to strike. He works through an agent who acts as an interdiary between him and the clients, after all keeping his identity secret is crucial to his survival. His weapon, large needles which combined with his medical skills are deadly.

Order Baian The Assassin from The Right Stuf

Another from history

This week I bring you an entry for a historical personage who is best known as a villain in popular lore, fiction, and theater.

This is :

Kira Yoshinaka 吉良義央

who was the target of the loyal samurai in the Akō Jiken.