Bellezza was a wonderful host for this second Japanese literature challenge, and I enjoyed this one as much as I did the first challenge.
My favorites were The Housekeeper and the Professor and Fear and Trembling. Fear and Trembling was not technically Japanese, but it was set in Japan and had a lot to say about Japanese culture. I loved both of these books! I also read two mangas, a Japanese vampire book, and a book by a Nobel laureate. I’m very happy with the books I read, and I continue to be very much interested in both Japanese books and movies. Thanks, Bellezza, and I look forward to the next challenge as well!
I absolutely loved Fear and Trembling. I actually watched the movie first and loved it as well. I must say it follows the book almost exactly. It’s a fascinating study of the clash of cultures. The book is translated from the French, and the film is a combination of French and Japanese with English sub-titles.
In this short semi-autobiographical novel, Amelie Nothomb describes the experiences of ‘Amelie’ during her year at a Japanese corporation. Amelie is smitten with Japan, knows the language, and is ecstatic that she obtained a corporate position as a translator in the country where she was born. The job is not all she hoped, but she tries her best to stick out her position the way a Japanese person would. I found this book (and movie) to be truly fascinating. Nothomb obviously loves Japan and Japanese culture, but even she finds that the differences of East and West are sometimes difficult to overcome.
In speaking of the Japanese woman:
“It is best to avoid any kind of physical pleasure because it is apt to make you sweat. There is nothing more shameful than sweat. If you gobble up a steaming bowl of noodles, if you give in to s*xual craving, if you spend the winter dozing in front of the fire, you will sweat. And no one will be in any doubt that you are coarse.
The choice between sweat and suicide isn’t a choice. Spilling one’s blood is as admirable as spilling sweat is unspeakable. Take your life, and you will never sweat again. Your anxiety will be over for all eternity.”
X-Kai- Vol. 2 by Asami Tohjoh is only the second manga I’ve read. The first was X-Kai- Vol. 1 last year, which I primarily read because it was an ‘X’ title, and because I wanted to expand my horizons by reading manga. I liked the first volume quite a bit better. This second volume does finish up Kaito’s story which is nice, but it also has some darker themes going on as well.
Kaito is an assassin who works in a flower shop by day and also takes care of a boy named Renge. He doesn’t like his occupation but does it to help pay for his brother’s hospital care. His brother is a severe burn victim. There are four ’secrets’ in this volume, and the book includes both Renge and Kaito’s brother in the story. As I said, interesting to read — but dark.
Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata, was first translated into English in 1958. Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, and he died in 1972.
I found Thousand Cranes interesting, but a little hard to follow. Two of Kikuji Mitani’s father’s mistresses insert themselves into Kikuji’s life. He falls for one of them, and later her daughter. A tea ceremony is central to the story, but it’s meaning is a little lost on this Westerner. It’s a short novel, but one I’m afraid I just didn’t ‘get.’
I also own Kawabata’s Snow Country, which I still plan on reading at some point, but unfortunately I didn’t find Thousand Cranes to be all that exciting.
1949-1952, 1958 for the English translation, 147 pp.
Unfortunately, it’s been awhile… I’ve been reading but for some reason am struggling to write any reviews lately. I’ve also been succumbing to a guilty pleasure of mine — foreign films. I’m in love with Netflix instant viewing and can’t get enough of it right now. Also, I’ve had some DVDs on my shelves for awhile that I’ve finally made time for as well. So, up first is what I’ve been reading and hope to finish by January, and then on to some short movie reviews.
I finally finished Thousand Cranes by Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata. It’s a short book, but for some reason I couldn’t rip right through it like I usually do with shorter works. It’s about a son whose dead father’s ‘women’ insert themselves into his life. A tea ceremony also had quite a bit to do with the story, but of course I couldn’t quite fully understand the cultural significance of that part.
I’m almost done with Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, which I read to fit into the Canadian, 1%, Book Awards, and Orange January challenges. (I’m a master at overlapping.)
I’ve also started Kafka on the Shore by Murakami to try to fit in one more Japanese title before the end of January. It’s also on the 1001 list.
Now on to my movie madness… With the exception of the first title, all of these are slow character movies. I happen to love slow character movies, so your mileage may vary on these if you don’t have similar tastes.
Lola and her boyfriend Manni must get 100,000 Marks before a certain time or Manni’s probably dead. I’ve had this one on my shelf for awhile, and with great music, dialogue, and action, it’s going to stay there!
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(Kinamand is Chinaman in English) This one really surprised me. Very touching. Keld’s wife divorces him and he marries Ling solely so she can get a visa to stay in Denmark. Will their relationship remain one only of convenience?
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Great movie set during the Spanish Civil War. Carol moves from New York to her mother’s village in Spain and meets her relatives for the first time. I really loved Carol’s spunk and her growth in her family relationships. This one taught me a bit of Spanish history as well.
It was very interesting to watch this one after Run, Lola, Run — some similarities but without all the action. Otto and Ana believe in fate and coincidences. Their names are both palindromes (the same forward and backward) and fairly important to the story. One scene in this movie was so amazing — a shot of the midnight sun moving horizontally to the horizon in the arctic circle. Beautiful!
(This movie has some graphic scenes.)
This was kind of depressing but I liked the story. Apartment dwellers living in a factory town trying to make the best of their lives. Home is still home, no matter the circumstances.
(Graphic scenes and language)
Now I have some more Japanese films on my shelves that I want to get to!
This challenge is a no-brainer for me. I love reading ‘around the world’ so of course I’m participating. Challenge lasts from March 1 through December 31 and requires 10 books by 10 different authors representing 10 different countries.
I don’t know all the countries and titles I’ll read from, but the possibles on my list are here:
The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith (UK/Scotland)
(This post is book-related as the movies I’ve watched have mostly been book adaptations.)
Anyway, I thought my internet provider was going to start limiting my monthly usage to an unreasonably and ridiculously low amount (5 GB – are you kidding?) in January, so in December I started my own Netflix Net-a-thon and started watching as much stuff as I could ‘instantly’ online. It’s unlimited through Netflix but of course not necessarily through your internet provider. I keep going to my provider’s site to see if they’ve implemented the limit, but they haven’t yet so I keep on expanding my ‘instant’ watching. Let me tell you, I’ve watched some gems!
I really adored all of these, but especially Bleak House. Excellent! Where Angels Fear to Tread just felt like it had an abrupt ending, but perhaps it’s because the other ones I viewed were so long and well-developed.
I also viewed two Japanese language films because I’m doing the Japanese Literature Challenge. I love foreign films. I started watching them when my kids were small and would be noisy playing whenever my husband and I would rent DVDs. The kids could be as loud as they wanted to when we were watching the subtitles! I truly hate dubbing. I want to hear the original language of the film. I don’t mind sub-titles at all. Hearing the original language is part of what makes foreign films so wonderful.
In After Life, after they die, people go to what looks like an abandoned school of sorts and they get to choose one memory of their lives to be re-enacted. This is a slow, but beautiful movie. I’m just the geeky sort to love slow, thoughtful movies, though, so I loved it.
In Last Life in the Universe, a Japanese neat-freak librarian is living in Bangkok and is constantly thinking of committing suicide. After a tragic event, he meets a Thai girl who is a total slob. Opposite attract, though, right? Very weird but interesting movie. It would have received an ‘A’ except there was quite a bit of bad language. In Japanese, Thai, and English.
I’m really having fun with these and will probably be watching more. I’ll keep you posted with any interesting titles.
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair was written in 1924, when Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was only 19. It went on to sell millions of copies over the years and was translated into multiple languages. Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 and died two years later in 1973.
Neruda’s poems definitely have a sensuousness about them, and they also evoke the poet’s passion and pain. I only wish I knew Spanish so I could understand the poems in their original. Poetry must be one of the most difficult of writings to translate, but this dual language edition was penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Mervin.
An interesting note — the cover of the book is Heart by Andy Warhol.
A portion of “Every Day You Play”:
Mis palabras llovieron sobre ti acariciándote.
Amé desde hace tiempo tu cuerpo de nácar soleado.
Hasta te creo dueña del universo.
Te traeré de las montañas flores alegres, copihues,
avellanas oscuras, y cestas silvestres de besos.
Quiero hacer contigo
lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos.
My words rained over you, stroking you.
A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of your body.
I go so far as to think that you own the universe.
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.
I want to do with you
what spring does with the cherry trees.
‘Math has proven the existence of God, because it is absolute and without contradiction; but the devil must exist as well, because we cannot prove it.’
Absolutely wonderful — I loved this book!!
Have you seen the movie 50 First Dates? It’s one of my favorite movies, and a very similar situation occurs in this book. A mathematics professor has only 80 minutes of short term memory due to a car accident, but he remembers everything clear as a bell that happened before his head injury. He continues to solve mathematical proofs and has an uncanny ability to know exactly where the North Star is in the sky, even when there’s no visibility. He is kind and has a great love for children. But, he remembers only 80 minutes at a time in the here and now. His sister-in-law lets him live in a cottage next to her main house, and she has hired a ninth housekeeper to cook and clean for the professor.
The housekeeper does her best to please the professor and works around his disability. She tells him about her 10 year old son, and he insists on letting the son come to his cottage after school, even though it’s against the cleaning agency’s rules. The professor writes notes to himself to help remind him of the housekeeper and her son. The boy and the professor both have a love of baseball, and the professor uses this to teach the boy mathematics. Soon a strong bond is formed among the three of them.
There is quite a bit of math in this book, and of course I enjoyed those references tremendously. I have an engineering degree, and mathematics has always been a love of mine. I don’t think you have to know math like I do to enjoy this book, but you will certainly appreciate the beauty of it a bit more if you do.
‘Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won’t find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give them expression — in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.’
Very highly recommended!!
2003, 2009 for the English translation by Stephen Snyder, 180 pp.
[Disclaimer: This copy was received from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.]
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Bellezza was a wonderful host for this second Japanese literature challenge, and I enjoyed this one as much as I did the first challenge.
– A
– B+
X-Kai- Vol. 2
Thousand Cranes
Run, Lola, Run
Kinamand 
Carol’s Journey
The Lovers of the Arctic Circle
Something Like Happiness
I’ll also be participating in the foreign film mini-challenge. Easy-peasy for me as I adore foreign films.
by Charles Dickens – 450 minutes – A+
by Elizabeth Gaskell – 375 minutes – A
by Anne Bronte – 159 minutes – A
by E.M. Forster – 112 minutes – B
by Charles Dickens – 351 minutes – A-
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair was written in 1924, when Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was only 19. It went on to sell millions of copies over the years and was translated into multiple languages. Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 and died two years later in 1973.
