Wow...It looks like people read this :)


Good lord....what influences me ....in both Japanese film and Lit...

of the non-anine sort of stuff.
 There are so bloody many.....

 Um...
   In film...
                Just about everything from Kurasoua Akira...
                       I like The Seven Samurai the best however...
     for best viewing watch "the Magnificent 7" just after it.
                  Stuff by Ozu ....he IS the definitve filmmaker for films
which portray the common man. He is around both before and after the war  
 so you get a better picture of things....he was anti-war but in a way
that was controvewrsial.
 One of the coolest (whose name illudes me) is an older man hanging around
a younger woman because she gives him life after years of drudgery....in a
way that mirrors Grave of the fireflies he is dead in the beggining.....
picture it as a twisted "It's a wonderful life."
 films by "Beat" Takeshi a populair comic are all pretty dark....ut this
does not spoil them....
 Sonatine. and Violent cop are two of his films....
 I have another on the shelf whose name I can't remember.
Be warned...these films are a grand display of violent nilism. Violent cop
is just what it says.
 Tampopo, Taxing Woman....etc...Anything  by Itami actually...

 I'dd also like to reeomend a film called Ange Dust. I saw it without
subtitles ut you can half-translate half figure out the story in this
colorful psychological drama.

 Wonam of the Dunes is of course a film/short story that strangely reminds
me of something Richard Lawson would write....not because it is at all
like any of his stories...just because.

I find it's always interesting to see what stories become when they get
translated to the screen....
The story (written) House amoung the thickets vrs. Ugetsu.
   THe story Sansho the Baliff vrs the movie Sansho the Steward (or is it
the other way around???)
and Banana Yoashimoto's Kitchen (the movie is nice... ut it's sure as hell
nowhere near the book.....) 
I reccomend the story at the end of the book Moonlight Shadowwhich is
based on a Mike Oldfield song.
 Banana Yoshimoto is Manga...read it....mmmmm good.

 Literature-wise...I will read anything in translaton from the House of
Sleeping Maidens and Snow Country to the copilation in Monkey Brain
Sushi....
 Here I'd like to mention 
              Haruki Murakami (no relation to Ryo) Dance Dance Dance, 
 Wild Sheep Chase, and The Hard Boiled Wonder-land at the end of the
World.

 Two stories which I slid into a Nene short story (Mr. Carp and Carp)
appear as the large alino carp Nene has fed  in the pool uotside the
temple since she was a child.

 Two other great collections (one of which was entirely edited by My old
Prof....Ted Goossen...the other well, he did a lot.) 
 The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories and an issue if the literary
magazine/digest Descant 89 which has come repeats of the stuff in the
first one by Ted I mentioned....
 In taking classes with him (for 3 years or was it four???) I gained a
HUGE appreciation for Japanese Literature and Film....It's funny because
as I was voraciously eating these books I was also working on my English
degree which projected a vast canvas for comparisom.
 We also got to see what didn't make it into the ooks and see the first
translations....some by the original authors to be "polished"
 by translators....
  I've been bloody lucky....

 Oh ya...and then there are the stories from Shawn Hagen's Japan period.
which I can't ignore either :)

                                          R DoA


On Fri, 15 Aug 1997, David Lerman wrote:

At 07:39 AM 8/15/97 -0400, Robyn, Duke of Amber wrote:
     

                       In My Mind's Eye.

I'd like to blame a couple of things for this.
 Ryo Mourakami's "Almost Transparent Blue" and "Tokyo Decadence"
as well as the film "In the Realm of the Sences."
  along with "The White Serpent" (story) and "Ugetsu" (movie)
          and finally  "Japan's Sex Trade" by Peter Constantine.

  I read the above and the thought popped into my mind about Suds-kun doing
"The Trial" (how's it coming, Shaun?) in a manner like "Rashamon", where
the judges have to deal with each witness' distinctive version of truth.
That thought reminded me that Star Wars was influenced by the Kurosawa
film, "The Hidden Fortress".  That thought leads me to pose the following
questions to the FFML.

  How much are the FFML authors influenced by Japanese non-anime cinema?
How does it affect your writing, e.g. plot development, characters, writing
style, whatever.  Did you watch Japanese movies before you became
interested in anime?  How does it influence your perception of Japanese
society?  How does it influence your interpretation of anime and manga?
What Japanese movies would you recommend to people either as leading to a
better understanding of anime or as influencing your writing. 

                                                                           dml

 ___________________________________________________________________________
     Nene   Nene    Nene    Nene    Nene    Nene    Nene    Nene    Nene   
                    I met a Lady in the Meads,
                    Full beautiful, a faery's child,
                    Her hair was long, her foot was light
                    And her eyes were wild.
                                            J.Keats
  ________________________________________________________________________    
           Agent Of Chaos. Robyn, Duke of Amber. Unicorn Knight
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