Tokyo Story


"Life is disappointing."

A line like that at the end of any other film would be intolerably self-pitying. But coming where it does, near the end of this supremely humane and compassionate film, it is devastating.

Towards the climax of the film, the most callous and seemingly shallow character in the film erupts into a powerful and heart-breaking show of grief. That Ozu can make us feel so much for a character we have previously only felt reproach towards shows the unique quality of the movie. She has hidden depths, and her neglect of her parents is not a cause for our self-righteousness, for she obviously loves them deeply, but an occasion for reflection on the general grief of life. Everything passes. Yet this fundamental and ultimate loss of dignity does not mean we cannot achieve it in the moment. A towering masterpiece.

"Man has this choice and this alone: nothing or God. Choosing nothing he makes himself God; that means he makes God an apparition, for it is impossible, if there is no God, for man and all that is around him to be more than an apparition. I repeat: God is and is outside of me, a living essence that subsists for itself, or I am God. There is no third possibility."

-- Friedrich Jacobi

An interesting thought: I just learned that the Japanese character for "sound" is a combination of the characters for "sun" and "stand." This is particularly interesting given the cover of my favorite album ever:


It seems to be a literal depiction of the character for sound!

I think this might just be my favorite New York Times article ever.

Shena Ringo is a 24 year old classically trained musician and ballerina turned popstar from Japan. Her music is just as weird and wonderful as that sentence implies!

Her latest album, Karuki Zamen Kuri no hana (roughly translates as "Chlorine, Semen, Chestnut Flower"--and no I have no idea). It is a masterpiece in the glorious baroque pop tradition of Pet Sounds and Sergeant Pepper's. This is not to say that Ringo doesn't have an highly original sense of melody and composition, because she certainly does, this music is very modern and owes very little to American pop music of the 60s, but instead it means that Ringo has created the kind of pop album full of strange sounds, noise, and sheer exuberance that betrays a rare amount of inspiration and keeps the music sounding weird and beautiful no matter how many times you hear it (think "Good Vibrations" for a common example).

One song in particular, track 5 (I can't read the Japanese!), is a good example of Ringo's approach: it starts off with what sounds like 5 o'clock news theme playing on the tv in the other room before morphing that theme into full bodied orchestration with a darting string section bouncing along to Ringo's vocals. The song finally bounces into an extended coda of a duet between a piano and harpsicord (I think)) that is strangely beautiful.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring

This Korean film is movie of the year so far, and I have some doubt it will be replaced. Its deceptively simplistic structure and "cycle of life" style themes coincide with an impressively dark philosophy of human existence; it suggests that the only escape from the moral darkness in our hearts (as certain as the seasons) is a form of self-annihilation. Yet the movie also contains a scene of extraordinary beauty that depicts a trancendence of evil through extreme physical endurance--this is to suggest that our moral failings are linked to our physical embodiment. There is hope, but it is only a simplistic reading of the film that sees the final scenes as a depiction of rebirth when their real meaning is that nothing ever changes.

I strongly recommend reading this beautiful letter from a soldier in the Civil War, it's a good way to honor Memorial Day and be reminded of the power of eloquent words at the same time.