LOVING THE UNLOVABLE: MURAKAMI RYU'S 'FROM THE FATHERLAND WITH LOVE'

The visit by Japanese prime-minister Abe to Yasukuni Jinja in 2013 started a war of words with Korea and China before America and Israel chimed in…. Honouring war criminals apparently was not going to win Japan friends. On a visit to Maruzen book shop near Tokyo station meanwhile I found a book by Murakami Ryu entitled From the Fatherland with Love… He is, of course, the author of Coin Locker Babies not to mention the classic Blue Transparent Sky which won him the Akutagawa prize in the 1070s. Both of these books take a look at Japanese society in a way that is subversive and highly critical of the majority, a perspective he explores further in From the Fatherland with Love.

Set in 2010, in the face of an invasion by s small number of North Korean commandoes, Murakami lists the failures of the Japanese government which proves incapable of responding to the situation. To the surprise of the North Korean commandoes their plans work without exception. The Japanese government refuses to engage with them and instead blockades the whole island of Kyushu in order to protect the mainland from further threats of terrorism. The exception to this perception of Japanese weakness in the novel is provided by a small group of misfits; murderers and other unreformed characters who cannot fit into Japanese society, criminal or otherwise. They alone are untraceable and therefore untouchable which proves to be their greatest asset as they make plans to fight the North Koreans whose numbers have swelled by another five hundred after the first two days of their occupation of Fukuoka. The scene is further complicated by the announcement that they are another on hundred and twenty thousand troops ready to sail to Fukuoka as part of the ‘rebellion’ against the North Korean regime. As they make their way in a fleet of leaky boats the Japanese government is pressured by governments around the world to practice caution. As the North Koreans are ‘refugees’ they need to be given protection. The blockade which the Japanese government has put in place has meanwhile driven a wedge between the capital and the rest of the country.

Interestingly, whilst the Japanese are shown to be weak and indecisive, the North Koreans are shown to be more than just efficient. After a period of time it becomes apparent that they are quite brutal and entirely lacking in sympathy. Hence, the gang of misfits take it upon themselves to fight the koryo. As such Murakami shows that as individuals rather than mindless members of the majority it is possible to think and act against forces that are otherwise irresistible. He makes the point over and over again that the majority, whoever they are, whatever they appear to be like, enjoy privilege and power because of violence in one form or another. Prior to their coming to Japan, the North Koreans see the Japanese as monsters, people to be hated. These perceptions are challenged, however, as they become acclimatised to their new home. They encounter Japanese products such as cigarettes, quality paper, running hot water and pornography. Personal items such as women’s underwear prove to be not just a symbol of softness and corruption but also but also of comfort and a superior quality of life. It is noted that the Japanese were the first Asian nation that was able to wage war against the Western powers. The problem for the North Koreans is working out what happened next, and why they became so soft? The reality, of course, is that they are not immune to corruption and to make stand against it there is a public execution of two soldiers. In a scene that could have been dreamt up by Kurosawa Akira, a Japanese doctor who spent his early years in Manchuria, arrives before the assembled troops in his white doctor’s gown and white hair and has to be restrained so that they execution take place. The following day, as events in the novel move towards their climax and the destruction of the North Korean base by Murakami’s misfits, a North Korean female soldier visits the hospital and returns the shoe to the doctor that he had lost during his protest. Later it turns out that she survives and is adopted by Dr Seragi and plans to open the orphanage in Japan that she had once dreamt of opening in North Korea.

HOSODA MAMORU: WOLF CHILDREN

Wolf Children made in 2012 is the latest anime by Hosoda Mamoru. It comes after The Girl Who Leapt Through Time 2006 and Summer Wars 2009. At times, it is like watching the 1988 Miyazaki Hayao film, Tottoro. There are the scenes set in the country planting crops, watching plants grow and, of course, the great house cleaning scenes where an abandoned house in the country is brought back to life by refugees from the city. In Tottoro the mother is hospitalised so the father and his two children move to the country to be close to her. In Wolf Children the father is killed and so the mother moves with her children to the country. She has to do this as, like their father, her children are wolf children. They are able to transform themselves like werewolves but unlike most horror films, they have a choice as to whether they live a human life or an animal life. Like many films that focus on a point of difference these children (and their mother) see the way in which this point of difference becomes the basis for discrimination by human beings. The children have to hide their true identities, in order to survive. Being the object of an irrational fear puts them at great risk. Whilst Yuki chooses to go to school and be human her brother Ame struggles to find acceptance and chooses to drop out of school and receive his schooling from a fox in the mountains. One of the highlights in this film is the scene where Sugawara Bunta plays Yamashita, a crusty old villager who begrudgingly helps the young single mother to grow crops so that her family doesn't starve. His character doesn't change and whilst the mother is shown to struggle with the tasks that he sets her at least he shows her the way to survive whereas her children have no choice but to conform or be destroyed like their father.

Interviewed by Ryan Huff on a visit to Australia, in 2014, Hosoda was asked about the story he was trying to tell:

"When I started Wolf Children I wanted to outline parenthood, more specifically the point where the relationship starts and where it ends. For me, I believe that a parent's job is finished when their children become independent. The children then have an opportunity to use what they've learned. Unlike my previous films, where the story unfolds within three days, the passing of time in the story is stretched out over thirteen years. It was necessary to show everything that a parent does for their children. It's not very conventional in that way."

MOJO WORLD LIVE AT THE OZU CAFE IN CHIGASAKI

Riding the Shonan Shinjuku express from Shinjuku down to Chigasaki is a bit like having a death wish. Whilst not quite getting to shinkansen speeds it feels like it is trying its best. How on earth it would stop if it had to is hard to imagine. The trip takes about an hour and Chigasaki, like everywhere else in this part of Japan, is full of people. The difference is that it is by the beach and, according to Mojo World, people go surfing there before work when the waves are up. Mojo World met me at the station and then his friend Rie san picked us up and drove us to the Ozu café. The café had been open for three years and whilst it wasn't very big, liked to present live music to its diners. Mojo World specialises in music that he plays on various instruments that he has collected from around the wold. When I first met Mojo World he still liked to play Dock of the Bay and other R and B classics on an acoustic guitar. Quitting his job to go overseas he came back to Japan and began importing musical instruments from around the world. He plays as much live music as he can in the summer months and then records music in the winter months. Whilst setting up he decided that there would be two sets. Mojo World would play the first set himself and then after a short break the three of us would lay before he would finish the set accompanied by Rie san on percussion. Rie san had a variety of weapons in her percussion arsenal and had been playing since high school. By day, she said later, she was a life insurance saleswoman. With a small audience in the house, the owner turned off the reggae music on the sound system and then turned down the lights. Mojo World would take a different instrument for each song and build up several layers on a loop and then play over this. It was quite effective and for a passerby to just come in off the street it would have made quite an impression. Especially if they came in during the first song which was a rather unique interpretation of Silent Night which Mojo World had chosen because of it being Christmas season. Given the sounds that he was making, it was lucky that he had shaved off his big bushy beard so that he didn't look like a cult leader so much anymore. For the rest of the performance he didn't really sing so much when he used his voice as make sounds. After the performance a tambourine was passed around for donations and I had some cheese cake and a hot coffee. Then it was back to the station and the last train to Hashimoto before changing to the Keio line for Shinjuku. By this time of night there were no express trains, they were all local and were never in the slightest danger of coming off the rails. 

SUKITA MASAYOSHI EXHIBITION IN OSAKA

The Sukita Masayoshi exhibition was being held in the Big Step in Amerika Mura, downtown Osaka. It was early afternoon and, heading south from Umeda on the Midosuji line, it had been quieter than usual despite this being a public holiday for the Emperor’s birthday. I could still remember when the old emperor had been on his death bed in 1989, the news in Tokyo broadcast details about his vital signs every night until the end.

 

After eating o-mu Raisu for lunch at Meijiken, an old favourite in Shinsaibashi that had been there since the 1930s, we found our way to the entrance of the gallery and straight away I recalled several of the photographs that Sukita san had used in his book on David Bowie for the launch of which he visited Melbourne and the Silver K gallery in 2012. Particularly the shots of Bowie wearing the Yamamoto Yoji designed clothes. After looking at the extensive selection of photographs we sat in some comfortable chairs and watched some videos… There was a news special from New Zealand about the book launch for Sukita’s photographs of David Bowie, there was a video of AKB48, there was another music video and then some scenes for a counter-culture inspired film in the early 1970s, Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets… Elsewhere in the exhibition there were photos of Western musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Iggy Pop and David Sylvian as well as bands such as the B 52s, Bow Wow and Devo. There were lots of Japanese musicians including photos from the Solid State Survivor sessions for the Yellow Magic Orchestra and some landscapes and an interesting shot of some PET bottles that were filled with some kind of eerie light. One photo taken in Nagasaki in the early 1960s showed a man with some horrendous scarring on his neck. The shot was very grainy but it didn’t disguise the extent of the burns. Presumably he was a victim of the atomic bomb.

 

Despite his father being killed during the war when he was a child, Sukita still remembers him taking photographs. As a child he had been obsessed with films from the West starring actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean and he sometimes rode his bicycle 100 kilometres to see these films. As a result, he became a photographer and later travelled to New York and London to photograph various musicians such as Jimmy Hendrix, Marc Bolan and David Bowie...

MACH PELICAN SUPPORTING GUITAR WOLF AT THE TOTE

    

 

It was a nice hot day in town and Christmas was on the horizon. Guitar Wolf had played during the week at the Espy and now it was going to be on for young and old at the Tote. The Spazzys walked on to stage and played to a crowd that was still in its infancy. They didn't seem to mind and in what turned out to be their second show for the day weren't going to be distracted even when the lights went off. "It's nice in the dark" said one.

"Can someone please shine a light" said another. "I need to see where the dots are on my guitar."

An obliging punter held up his mobile and shone a light so she could find her spot for the next song.

After a short break Mach Pelican made their way on to the stage. The singer/guitarist took his spot in front of the microphone and they were off racing through the next few songs.

 

"Atsu sick cunt" came a cry from the crowd.

 

There was some drama as the bass player's strap came undone and he had to make a few adjustments. One of the punters was staring to make himself known air punching his way from one side of the stage to the next. He climbed up face level with the singer and air punched a long to the music to the alarm of the roadies. After awhile it became apparent that he wasn't going to connect with the singer's face so there a was a lowering of the tension. Julian Wu stood next to him slumped over the fold back. It didn't look like he was going to indulge in the same kind of hysterics. At the end of the set a group of beared men started chanting over and over:

 

"Whoa Mach Pelican

Whoa Mach Pelican

Walking along

Singing a song..."

 

The air puncher turned and stared. After a few repetitions of the same verse, he started to chant along with them.

 

With what appeared to be great disdain, the bass player from Guitar Wolf walked on stage with his bass which only had three strings and  tuned up before, with a flick his hair, he  walked off the stage. The drummer in his Hawaii shirt set up, played a few beats on the drums and then followed. Like creatures from another planet they set the tone for what was to come next... If that was possible. A large number of big boys with beards and short pants were already staking their claim at the front of the stage. By the time Guitar Wolf joined Bass Wolf and Drum Wolf on stage the crowd was thick and the band took advantage of the build up and just played slabs of noise. The bass player paddling away on his three strings as the guitar showed what you can do with power chords and a fuzz box. To start the show he skulled a stubby full of beer. Once that was down the hatch he cleared his throat grinned at the crowd pointing at them with his fingers before taking aim with his guitar and subjecting them to a barrage of sonic fire.

 

"Have you been to Japan" Guitar Wolf screamed several times. "I bet you haven't been to Mars." With that off his chest the guitar was cranked up again, the crowd surged and the scene for Tokyo Trashville in all its glory was set. Air puncher made his way onto the stage a few times but when he started pawing at Guitar Wolf who was flat on his back on the stage the roadie threw him off to the delight of the crowd. One woman in the crowd had already slapped him a few times with his own snapback. An intense looking man with an Asian girlfriend suddenly walked off leaving her with a look of consternation on her face. Late he too was thrown off the stage, this time by the bass player. The disdain he had worn before the show had well and truly been left behind as the intensity of the show picked up.

 

"Do you know baseball?" asked Guitar Wolf. "I don't think so. I think you know cricket." With that he took off his guitar and hit a ball into the crowd. A bottle was thrown narrowly missing his guitar. Either he didn't notice or he didn't care. Guitar Wolf unfazed, sent ball after ball into the crowd before strapping on his guitar again and hitting the fuzz box.

 

The big boys in short pants were taking it in turns to stage dive by now and there was plenty of crowd surfing going on. A Japanese woman with some impressive tattoos joined the Aussie boys before Guitar Wolf himself got in on the action. One of th4e crowd surfers tried to take his guitar and was then given it. Guitar Wolf sang the word Driver over and over pointing and prodding the punter when to play the guitar. he put his arms around him a few times and said something into his ears. Whatever it was the punter still looked confused. He looked to the bass player to get some idea of where to play on the frets. Guitar Wolf started to wrestle him to the ground. At some he must have injured himself because his hand was covered in blood. The roadie looked in in confusion. A young woman dressed in a big KISS t-shirt climbed up next to the speakers to take photos. By the end of the show the crowd were surging to and from the stage. There was lots of fist pumping and photo action happening. After the set there was a short encore and then it was all over for Guitar Wolf for the night. The punters looked shocked if not delirious.