2023 Q1 Media Roundup

Hi everyone!

Here's a roundup of the media I've gotten through in the first quarter of 2023:

Good (play)

As part of my bid to make the most of having moved back to London, while browsing things to do late last year, I saw that David Tennant was starring in a play on the West End called Good, and decided to get a ticket and go alone.

Good was written by British playwright Cecil Philip Taylor and first published and performed in the 1980s. Despite also receiving a film adaptation, I hadn't actually heard of it. The play is set in pre-war Germany following the Nazi Party's rise to power and explores the central themes of morality and self-identity.

It's a captivating piece of theatre absolutely made by all three starring actors. I'm still quite new to theatre but also found the understated and carefully-considered staging and sound direction really striking. It's no longer being performed, but is being shown in cinemas across the UK and Ireland soon. Highly recommend checking it out if you can.

No Fixed Abode by Maeve McClenaghan

I picked up No Fixed Abode last year in the run-up to my interview for my current job, along with another book on homelessness in the UK. Evidently didn't get around to reading it in time, but as mentioned in one of my updates posts, was finally compelled to finish it as part of the research for the Tokyo Godfathers video.

The book employs an approach to non-fiction/investigative writing that I really enjoy, following a rough personal narrative that allows you to learn about the topic along with the author. It's the kind of book that could only result from somebody throwing themselves into what they're researching, and takes a needed empathetic angle without the literary voice losing focus on the cold facts. A great introduction to this topic and by extension the impact of austerity on the UK and its population.

To Kill a Mockingbird (play)

Having been on a bit of a theatre kick and then hearing that To Kill a Mockingbird was also being performed on the West End, I decided to grab a ticket, as it was one of my favourite novels when I first read it.

I now haven't read the book in over a decade and so can't comment too much on the play as an adaptation, but it was a great way to be reintroduced to the story. It's got a longer runtime, but doesn't feel bloated, and is buoyed by the energy of the three leads, and many comedic moments impressively deftly interwoven with the otherwise tense atmosphere. It was a great one to see live in the theatre, with both the way the story is relayed to the audience and the court scenes. The presence of the audience added an interesting, sometimes uncomfortable dimension to the experience that ultimately really enhanced it. The play has now moved to the US, and is again recommended if you do have the opportunity to see it.

Chainsaw Man (anime)

After blasting through the manga, I ended up becoming really excited for the Chainsaw Man anime, especially based on the trailers. I don't read much manga and as a result don't often get to experience the unique thrill of seeing the anime adaptation of a story I love, much less as it's airing, and on the cultural phenomenon scale of CSM.

I've remained relatively shielded from popular opinion on the anime, though I've heard more negative things than positive. It's definitely later on in Part 1 that CSM really hooked me, beyond what this first season adapted, so it's hard to say where I stand. There are obvious standouts to season 1, such as the bursting-with-inspiration opening and endings. I found seeing some scenes adapted made them resonate in a way they hadn't in the original, giving them new meaning for me -- a particular character's demise being a huge standout. For now and until we see the rest of part 1 adapted, the jury is out on how successful the anime is from my perspective. Season 1 shows a clear ability to capitalise on the series' nuances and emotional poignancy that I hope only grows as the story progresses. I'm still very much looking forward to speaking some more about this series at some point.

Poems on the Underground

I used to be big into writing poetry but paradoxically never made enough time for reading it. Having gotten back into the former recently, I decided it was time to rectify that, and asked my dad (who first got me into it) for some recommendations. This collection of poems old and new once displayed on London's public transport system was one of them. I absolutely loved going through this one, and found plenty of bodies of work I want to explore thanks to it.

All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami

I previously spoke about Heaven also by Mieko Kawakami, one of Japan's most prestigious novelists. I loved that book so much that I decided to read all three of her books currently translated into English, and so next moved onto this one.

Very simply, All the Lovers in the Night is a book about a woman in her thirties with a regular job who lives alone, has no truly close relationships, and lives for the annual walks she takes on Christmas Eve through Tokyo to see the lights adorning the city -- until she meets a man who threatens to change everything.

It sounds like a romance novel, and I was increasingly certain that a romance novel was what I was reading as I progressed through the story, but AtLitN defies labels. The book touches on a number of complex and difficult subjects, both overtly and thematically, but never feels particularly interested in deep exploration or moralising to the reader. You are one with the narrator, and the many things within herself and her world that she doesn't want to look too closely at.

Kawakami's writing is delicate yet incredibly precise, with the feeling that every word has been carefully chosen. I've learned that the hallmark of her style is deceptively simple sentences that contain hidden depths. In the end, her novels are what they are to you, nothing more and nothing less. But AtLitN and the novel of hers I've now moved onto, Breasts and Eggs, each choose to centre a woman's experience navigating modern Japan -- the more overt sexism and social pressures, but also the conflict of identity and the forms relationships with other women vs. men take as a result of all of these things, with a particular focus on the fractures that can form in the former. It's all fascinating and consistently emotionally devastating for what often otherwise appear to be unassuming stories. All in all, Kawakami is an author I've completely fallen in love with.

Paranoia Agent

I first watched most of Paranoia Agent many years ago, but never managed to finish it, and have been meaning to return to it for way too long.

Paranoia Agent, released in 2004, was Satoshi Kon's single venture directing an entire TV anime, and his only entirely original animated work aside from Millennium Actress. It centres around a series of attacks from a young boy on roller skates wielding a golden bat, the investigation into the crimes, and the wider psychological impact of them on the city.

The less that's said about Paranoia Agent the better. Perhaps because of Perfect Blue, I went in expecting a more typical psychological thriller, but the show is anything but. It's definitely a series that warrants multiple viewings, though I'm not sure I'll ever personally feel the need to return to it. I mostly just let Paranoia Agent happen in front of me, forgoing theorising and even much continual analysis (considering I was spoiled on the big reveal). It still took me a while to get through it, and I think committing too much mental energy would've stopped me from enjoying the show for the experience that it is. It both is and isn't like anything else Satoshi Kon has made. You can feel the voices of the different staff involved in each episode as opposed to the tighter grip Kon would've had on his film projects, and this works in the show's favour.

I'm still working out how I feel about Paranoia Agent on a personal level, but there's no doubt it's a triumph of animation and story making with a central cluster of themes and messages Kon fans will no doubt already know and love, and a final episode that hit me like a tonne of bricks.

Broker

Broker is a 2022 Korean film directed by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda that I recently saw in the cinema. As is generally true with me and films, it was a case of a friend wanting to go and see something. It's just as well.

One of the big draws was it being singer IU's big screen debut, who I'm a big fan of. But the premise immediately sounded right up my street -- IU plays a mother who opts to leave her baby at one of Korea's baby boxes, set up for single mothers who wish to anonymously leave their newborns they're unable to care for.  As two of the men working at the church try to sell the baby on the adoption black market, the mother returns.

It sounds like a dark premise laid out like that, and it's certainly a heavy one. Throughout the film, characters posit what they think is "best" for a child like Woo-Sung, and where discussions of morality can even fit into a mother's decision whether or not to keep her baby. Overall, though, the film is, in fact, incredibly light -- quite literally, in its palettes, its sparse and careful dialogue, and the emotional catharsis it offers. It's absolutely beautifully shot, scored, acted, scripted, and I loved it. The conclusion offered isn't a perfect and perfectly satisfying one, but that seems fitting for a movie about characters trying to find closure, stability and definitives where they may never truly exist. Broker is, all told, a really lovely and special film. Cried multiple times, my favourite entry on this list. Please let me know where I go next in Kore-eda's filmography.

After the Rain (anime)

Finally, I recently watched 2018's After the Rain, an anime and originally a manga about a high school student who develops feelings for her 45-year-old manager at her part-time job.

I've seen After the Rain being described as having a 'problematic premise', which I don't really like, as I think problems come with execution rather than ideas. I knew how seriously After the Rain took itself -- which was part of what drew me to it, as I love an emotionally-nuanced love story -- but not just how far it actually would take its premise, which gave me pause. That was something I enjoyed about the show -- I constantly found myself thinking about how I felt about what it was doing, thinking about why I thought those things, and so on. Like all things, I don't think After the Rain is perfect in its execution, but the heart of the show was an earnest one seeking to explore a scenario that has undoubtedly played out many a time in real life. Even while questioning some of its framing, I found myself thoroughly enjoying and consistently struck by its understated, mature exploration of each of its characters feelings. All in all, After the Rain was a welcome reacquaintance with the simple reminder that we don't have to simply love or hate media, and a refreshingly different take on the typical love story more focused on the each of its characters as individuals.

Finally, these are the YouTube videos I liked!

Hope this is a fun post to browse that people can get some recommendations from and speak soon!