The Woman in the Dunes (Kobo Abe)
I’ve been meaning to watch Hiroshi Teshigahara’s film adaptation of Kobo Abe’s novel for some time now, but have never got round to it…and because I feel it’s respectful to the author to read the novel before watching its film adaptation, of course.
My first Abe novel, it is an interesting tale of a schoolteacher and entomologist who finds himself in an unnamed small village that is surrounded by sand. Missing his last bus back from his remote location, he speaks with some locals who offer him shelter for the night. The next morning, however, the rope ladder necessary for him to exit the room he stayed in has been removed and the villagers have imprisoned him in the sand-surrounded house with the woman who lives there. His days are then to endlessly dig the sand away and make home with the woman, as the villagers look down on him in his new prison.
I was initially intrigued but didn’t immediately fall in love with this, given its somewhat unusual setting. But this is very much one that seeps into the mind and becomes more apparent at a later date, rather than enjoy while reading. The book itself is a rather repetitive scenario of digging away sand, looking for sources of water or means of escape, as well as the growing sexual unison between our hero and his fellow ‘cellmate.’
There is something of a Stockholm Syndrome (before it was a thing) element here, as our hero gradually accepts his place after a failed escape attempt. The life he has is essentially one he would have in the world outside the village: He works to seek a source of nourishment and has a ‘wife’ whom he comes home to everyday. Outside he would still be scraping for a living, or else those above him would leave him to starve. In this sense, he has no less freedom.
And the darkly comic postscript stays with you also, as to how one can be so quickly forgotten.
- Days to read: 14
- Days per book: 14.2
The Changeling (Kenzaburo Oe)
I’ve read enough Oe now to have his works all blur into one, being that they are largely autobiographical, based on various events that have occurred during his life. With many focusing on his relationship with his eldest son, “The Changeling” focuses on his relationship with his brother-in-law and life-long friend Juzo Itami, as well as his wife, Itami’s sister.
While not directly named, it is obvious who this is about, with the story picking up after his brother-in-law’s apparent suicide. The two friends, who had been communicating less, exchange tape recordings of their thoughts which they send to each other to reflect on. But with his wife feeling he will dive into an obsessive world of these tapes, he takes the opportunity to go to Berlin for an extended period working at a university.
While there he meets people whom had acquaintance with his late brother-in-law, including a young female with whom he suspects he was having an affair. Therefore, rather than getting away from it all, he is followed by his brother-in-law’s ghost and is forced to consider darker moments from their past when they were young men growing up together.
Oe is fast becoming one of my favourite writers, and while each book has its own merits, it is easier to consider his work as a whole rather than individually. With his writing so personal and covering old ground again and again, they become difficult to differentiate and it is not easy to recall which moment comes from each book.
But this is something I am very much enjoying, feeling like I am meeting up with some well-know characters each time I start a new one, with many more still to catch-up on. He obviously has no shortage of source material and clearly writes about what he knows (or at least he imagines), as you get that little bit deeper with every read.
- Days to read: 18
- Days per book: 14.2
Akira (Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell)
One of a handful of anime that a non-fan in the West is most likely to have seen is “Akira”. As such, its place can feel as a crossover piece, more for outsiders than die hard fans (though I’m sure some “Die Hard” fans enjoy it). And the start of Le Blanc and Odell’s BFI Film Classic feels like a generalist’s guide, introducing the anime form to the reader.
There are a million and one things that you can write about “Akira”, an undoubtedly seminal work, though probably not always people’s favourite. This looks at the cyberpunk stylings, attention to detail and increased technical aspects over what had come before it, as well as referring to the many points that it predicts.
Written in 2014, the timing of this feels unfortunate, however. This could be an excellent book to write next year (2022), contrasting the Eighties fiction with the reality of Tokyo in 2021 and all the troubles it has brought to the city. Someone should write it. Maybe I should.
But a hugely complex film with an extensive accompanying manga, it is a hard piece to know where to begin to analyse. Le Blanc and Odell do a decent enough job, though the need to be selective will always disappoint some.
- Days to read: 7
- Days per book: 14.2
Throne of Blood (Robert N. Watson)
I had to write an essay on Shakespeare for my GCSEs, and despite getting me an A for English Lit, I didn’t enjoy a thing about it. Yes, Shakespeare is not my midsummer night’s dream. Oh yeah, his influence and all that and stuff, but the actual work is all just misspelt tosh as far as I’m concerned.
The thing I like most about Shakespeare – and perhaps the best adaptation of his work after “Romeo Must Die” – is Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood”. Interestingly, the BFI Film Classics chose a professor of Shakespeare to focus on the film, analysing it from the point of view of the Bard’s work, comparing it to, and quoting from, the original play.
You can see, therefore, that despite the clearly different setting of medieval Japan, Kurosawa was indeed fairly faithful to the source work, keeping in many of the key plot points.
Being that Macbeth was written as a play, Watson looks at “Throne of Blood” from a Noh theatre context, particularly in Toshio Mifune’s movement and expressions in the lead role, but also the set design and the framing of the characters throughout. This is something he notes from other Kurosawa films, notably “Ikiru”.
The BFI Film Classics which focus on older works and those perhaps with a more historical setting tend to be the best as you find you learn a lot more than those on recent films you come to knowing the context. Watson very much focuses on “Throne of Blood” as a Shakespeare adaptation, but also one that makes the most of its Japanese setting.
- Days to read: 10
- Days per book: 14.2
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