Every 14 Days...(4)

after the quake (Murakami Haruki)

Given the end to my recent holiday to Japan, ‘after the quake’ seemed an appropriate next Murakami book to read. And so I did, being that I’d left my copy of ‘The Elephant Vanishes’ in Solihull.

Contained are six short stories about six different Japanese and how the Kobe earthquake of 1995 impacted on their lives. Delightfully weird and wonderful, the stories are full of metaphors – most of which I’m not sure I fully understand – reflecting the very individual impact that the natural disaster can have, despite being a nationally tragic event.

Designed to show changing times among the people of modern Japan through the inner-turmoil of the main characters, Murakami shows how such an event will impact on everyone in some way, however it manifests itself. From my own experience, despite the recent Fukushima earthquake impacting on thousands upon thousands, meeting individuals made it feel like a very individual event, with all having their own experiences, and after the quake shows as much, in its own unique way.

Days to read: 12
Days per book: 15.5



Hell Screen (Akutagawa Ryunosuke)

Taken from his Rashomon and Other Stories collection (the one that I do not own), ‘Hell Screen’ is a small, literally pocket-sized short, telling the story of a crazed artist, tasked with painting a screen depicting the Eight Buddhist Hells for His Lordship. Focusing on the artist, Yoshihide, and his unconventional techniques, ‘Hell Screen’ serves as a typically old-fashioned parable about the dangers of all-consuming passion and questioning one’s superiors.

A great storyteller, ‘Hell Screen’ is among Akutagawa’s finest works and brilliantly paints a haunting image, not only the screen itself, but also in the mind of the man that created it.

Followed by the incredibly short ‘The Spider Thread’, another Hell-themed parable, it makes for a captivating read about medieval Japan.

Days to read: 1
Days per book: 14.7



Kusamakura (Natsume Soseki)

Kusamakura is the second novel of the hundred years ago Japanese writer Natsume Soseki. The self-narrated story of a wandering artist from Tokyo as he travels through Japan’s mountains, it is an internal monologue as to debates about art and poetry, as the artist seeks for new inspiration in his work. From this, the story is littered with haiku and other poetry as the artist tries to capture distinct moments.

In terms of plot or story, there is little here; it is merely a wandering man and the conversations he has with himself – around art – and the locals that he meets. As with the other Soseki novel that I have read, it is very much of the time it was written, with references to the Russo-Japanese war and his contempt for it. What is within the lines is a comment on how a move from isolation is now apparent in Japan and how this is extending to those isolated in the countryside, with one of his new companions now off to become a soldier at the book’s close.

Kusamakura serves as a haiku to capture a moment in time, painting a picture with words.

Days to read: 14
Days per book: 14.2



The Elephant Vanishes (Murakami Haruki)

Started on my penultimate day in Japan (the actual one, not the original, budgeted one), this collection of short stories travelled back with me to London, and then up to Birmingham, where I accidentally left it at my mate’s newly bought house before going to watch Villa play a dull and lifeless draw against Stoke City Rugby Football Club. It did, therefore, take me a while to make my way through this strange and bizarre book of stories about the weird and wonderful.

The second collection of shorts by Murakami that I have read takes works from various publications that he has written over the years and leaves a mixed bag of offerings; some outright weird, others too strange to comprehend the intended meaning. All different, this is almost like flicking through Miike Takashi’s oeuvre, creating intrigue and confusion in the reader, but not always satisfaction.

Days to read: 89
Days per book: 13.9

Wu-Tang Clan at Kentish Town Forum (11 06 11)

Yet another drunken video from a London gig, the Wu-Tang Clan (or should I say Method Man and Friends) delivered a decent performance, minus RZA and Raekwon, which showed that Method man can still do it and that they're still a pretty tight-knit group despite all the years...

Politic 13

Enter the Newground - DJ Kentaro
Introduction - DJ Kentaro
Trust - DJ Kentaro
Chicken Spit/Up to Jah Mash-up - DJ Kentaro
Heard Yer Bird Moved In - Pest
More Styles - The Herbaliser
Put it on Tape - The Herbaliser
Everybody in the Place (Fairground Remix) - The Prodigy
Poison - The Prodigy
Voodoo People - The Prodigy
Moon Sequence - The Herbaliser
Ka Boink!! - The Herbaliser
Up 4 the Get Downs - The Herbaliser
Shattered Soul - The Herbaliser
Another Mother - The Herbaliser
Definition - Black Star
The Bottle - Gil Scott-Heron

DJ Kentaro at XOYO (21 05 11)

Drunken video from Kentaro's gig at XOYO in Shoreditch last Saturday...

Attack the Block

British film is often criticised and many will say that we just don’t make good films in this country. And to an extent, this is correct. Many are made by those that have worked wonders in television, but simply can’t make an entertaining piece when moving to the big screen. Others are overly-sentimental and serve as DVD -fodder for Mother’s Day presents.

Another man making the switch from a career in TV and radio to film is Joe Cornish, making his directorial debut with ‘Attack the Block’. Part of the film-obsessed duo Adam and Joe, it would always be interesting to see what he would produce, and what he has is an enjoyable little piece in ‘Attack the Block’.

Set in South London (oh my days, blood!), the story is about a group of teenagers – with typically poor grammar – trying to defend their tower block from an alien invasion. Typically British, it’s more of a small-scale piece, not overly doing it with special effects and unnecessary drama. The dialogue provides intentional laughs, in a Kidulthood kind-of-a-way, with largely silly characters and situations.  

Joe Cornish will probably not set the cinema world alight, and could easily face a similar path to that of Simon Pegg, starting with a nice, small-scale piece with quality beginning to decline as the budgets and fame increase. But at this stage, ‘Attack the Block’ is harmless fun, with some good comedy moments, elements of some interesting directorial talent and an addition to the recent wave of successful British television makers making the step into film.

Compared to an equally-silly American comedy, this will probably get nowhere near critically or financially acclaimed, with people likely to make the age-old comment that the British just don’t make good films. But being that the comedy is very British, it is probably more due to the lack of international appeal that the film will probably achieve than poor quality. Jokes here are more expected on BBC Three than a cinema screen, and so will miss with many expecting Hollywood shine. And because of that, the British are unlikely to be making a mass invasion in cinemas throughout the world.

13 Assassins

Another year, another film, another new style of film-making from Miike Takashi. This time, the samurai epic.

So, obviously this film is very similar to that of Kurasawa Akira’s ‘Seven Samurai’. A samurai is tasked with a mission, and so has to hastily pulled together a crack team of samurai, of different characters, culminating with a epic battle in a small Japanese village. All pretty solid, standard stuff.

This time round it’s the pervy weirdo Lord Naritsugu that is the bad guy; ordered to be assassinated by his Shogun half-brother. This leads samurai Shinzaemon to seek out a team to carry out the Shogun’s decree, plotting the head him off at a small village. And so goes the first hour of the two hour film.

After preparing for battle, the second hour is then an all-out sword-fest, with the kind of fight scenes that took months of choreographed planning rather than split-second decisions in the face of death. And impressive it is, often exhilarating as the 13 heroes take on over 200 hundred useless henchmen who politely wait to be killed one-by-one.

The first half is not your typical Miike fodder, filmed as any mainstream epic would typically be, but the second half has more of a bloody and violent feel that you would more expect. Serious moments can appear a little comical in places – perhaps one of Miike’s flaws, hindering from  being as revered as his peers – and there is little real character development here among the 13 titular roles. Unlike ‘Seven Samurai’ where the team is considered and thoughtfully put together, here samurai appear here and there, and little is known of them bar their name, with Miike preferring the audience to enjoy their bloody demise rather than create any empathy for them.

But like many of his films before, while all are different is style and content, they all have that little element that makes them typically Miike; mixing both comedy-violence and a sense of disbelief at what you have just seen. While neither his best, nor the best samurai epic ever filmed, it is a joy to see that Miike can make a more serious, accessible film after many years and an extended filmography of gore.

Cold Fish

‘I hope you like cold fish’ is probably the sexiest thing I’ll ever hear a French girl say.


Completely out of context, ‘Cold Fish’ is the latest work of ‘Love Exposure’ director, Sion Sono. Being that it is over four hours long – and not even I can be arsed to sit through a film for that long – I have never seen ‘Love Exposure’, and so this was my first experience of Sono‘s work.

The old ‘based on a true story’, then grossly exaggerated for cinema premise, we see boring, dull, pet fish shop owner, Shamoto and his family’s lives turned upside down when the big and brash, tropical fish shop owner, Murata walks into them.


What follows is a pretty standard offering, with violence, blood and sex thrown in for ‘shocks’, and it’s all pretty entertaining, in a popcorn-movie kind of a way. Despite being another long film, it rarely drags, with some nice camerawork to contrast industrial Japan in the shadow of Fuji-san.


There are attempts to add the odd psychological element here and there, though these never get too deep, as ‘Cold Fish’ plods along its dirty, sexy, bloody way. Don’t search for any hidden meanings here; there’s; little fishy about this one.