Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of It All
From browsing the racks of bookstores in Japan I was aware of the fact that he was well-known, but I had only a dim understanding of his popularity. I remember reading A Slow Boat to China in my Japanese class. It was one of the first things besides manga that I read in Japanese and understood well enough to enjoy. It was a nice, succinct little
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The bigger problem with Murakami is that he is a part of a larger trend in Japanese art which I find infuriating. In fact, he fits into two trends that leave me cold: the "dull wierdness" for "dull weirdness"' sake, exemplified by annoying movies like "Naisu no Mori," and amateurish supposedly-deep films that Westerners who don't know better popularize, like "Renai Shashin" and "Kamome Shoukudo," movies that supposedly tackle "mono no aware" but fail very badly at it. I recently went through a very long Japanene film festival and I'm sad to say that I didn't see a single film that had the power of the Japanese movies of yesteryear. Living in Japan, you probably feel this much more sharply than I do.
I guess Murakami's popularity is based on his dullness. Kantou people are very much into uptight consensuses - from my experience with them anyway - and Murakami is the type of novelist anyone can like, because there's so little to distinguish them from anything else. In such a context, blandness can be a strength. Anyway, I'm going to stop talking about him now...
At the same time, though, I can think of a number of recent things that make me giggle with delight. The 2003 film "Koi no Mon" was fantastic. And "NHK ni Youkosou" is hilarious (I'm picking up the novel later this week and hope the source material lives up to the manga).
Before I go, I'd just to direct you to a film that you probably haven't seen: Kinji Fukasaku's "Gunki Hatameku Moto ni." It's the best Japanese war movie I've ever seen; it's probably my favorite movies overall. It's the type of movie I never expected to see from Japan, even from someone like Fukasaku. It's very radical in its politics, but it's also damn good cinema. I like my fair share of "kuni no tame ni inochi sasageru"-stuff, though this goes way beyond it.
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Since I couldn't find the Fukasaku film at the video store on Friday, I decided to settle for Gunbuster. Speaking as someone who's long grown tired of most anime, I was pleasantly surprised by it. Thanks for the recommendation!
Anno knows exactly how far he can push the maudlin sentimentality, using it to maximum effect to draw the viewer in while stopping just shy of utter stupidity. It's ridiculous but he manages to make it work because of his heightened awareness of his audience and their reactions. I'd like to think that when he started Evangelion he wanted to subtly subvert their expectations, though midway through he started using it to lash out at the viewers.
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