Kwaidan, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Jan. 11th, 2005 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
essentialsaltesFilm: Kwaidan is beautifully lit and enormous care was obviously given to the visual style. One particular shot of shifting fog is perhaps the most eerily beautiful thing I've seen on film. The film also captures the feel of a long-gone period of Japanese history as it exists now only in legends.
That said, as folk tales, they do not offer much narrative surprise, and I was often impatient for the four stories to come to their inevitable conclusions, especially given the glacial pace of the film.
The third story, "Hoichi the Earless", is the strongest.
Book: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell has been seemingly inescapable over the past few weeks. Friends and relatives have mentioned it (or lent it to me). It is being pushed by the publisher and prominently displayed by Borders in their window displays. I think it is being served up (by marketing boffins) as a grown-up Harry Potter. Tolkien is big, Potter is bigger... here is the next big thing in fantasy fiction that will capture the mainstream audience.
Too bad it's not very good. It's not bad or unreadable, but the best I can say is 'mediocre with some rare flashes of humor' (in a 700+ page book, they are very rare indeed). The book is the story of the return of magic to England in the Napoleonic Era, after centuries in which magic had fallen into disuse. Although presented as fiction, the book borrows from nonfiction (notably in the plethora of footnotes throughout the book) in an attempt to build up the reality of this counterfactual world. I didn't find that tactic too distracting, but many of the footnotes were quite gratuitous. I get the feeling that the author lovingly wrote a decade's worth of little vignettes and tales that relate to 'real English Magic'. Some were assembled into the narrative, and others that she couldn't bear to part with became the footnotes. Unfortunately, these little bagatelles strung together do not provide much of an overarching story, and sometimes characters seem to behave uncharacteristically to meet the needs of a particular vignette. The book could easily, I think, be cut to half its length.
I was also bothered by the lack of strong female characters. Given the historical nature of the piece, I certainly don't want to read an 800 page feminist fanfic wish fulfillment fantasy about the beautiful Her Ladyship Doctor Jessica Starling, MP. But the women in Strange and Norrell are seldom seen and, at best, one-dimensional. I think it's better in Lovecraft, where women are ignored, rather than in Strange and Norrell, where women largely serve to be placed in peril or die sentimentally.
I liked the historical feel and archaic spelling; it might have been more interesting and impressive had the author gone to the extreme of writing a straight-faced History of English Magic, as if written in the early 1800's. A strange combination of a pseudo-Necronomicon and S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure (The 'Good Parts' Version). Certainly, Strange and Norrell could use a 'Good Parts' Version.
That said, as folk tales, they do not offer much narrative surprise, and I was often impatient for the four stories to come to their inevitable conclusions, especially given the glacial pace of the film.
The third story, "Hoichi the Earless", is the strongest.
Book: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell has been seemingly inescapable over the past few weeks. Friends and relatives have mentioned it (or lent it to me). It is being pushed by the publisher and prominently displayed by Borders in their window displays. I think it is being served up (by marketing boffins) as a grown-up Harry Potter. Tolkien is big, Potter is bigger... here is the next big thing in fantasy fiction that will capture the mainstream audience.
Too bad it's not very good. It's not bad or unreadable, but the best I can say is 'mediocre with some rare flashes of humor' (in a 700+ page book, they are very rare indeed). The book is the story of the return of magic to England in the Napoleonic Era, after centuries in which magic had fallen into disuse. Although presented as fiction, the book borrows from nonfiction (notably in the plethora of footnotes throughout the book) in an attempt to build up the reality of this counterfactual world. I didn't find that tactic too distracting, but many of the footnotes were quite gratuitous. I get the feeling that the author lovingly wrote a decade's worth of little vignettes and tales that relate to 'real English Magic'. Some were assembled into the narrative, and others that she couldn't bear to part with became the footnotes. Unfortunately, these little bagatelles strung together do not provide much of an overarching story, and sometimes characters seem to behave uncharacteristically to meet the needs of a particular vignette. The book could easily, I think, be cut to half its length.
I was also bothered by the lack of strong female characters. Given the historical nature of the piece, I certainly don't want to read an 800 page feminist fanfic wish fulfillment fantasy about the beautiful Her Ladyship Doctor Jessica Starling, MP. But the women in Strange and Norrell are seldom seen and, at best, one-dimensional. I think it's better in Lovecraft, where women are ignored, rather than in Strange and Norrell, where women largely serve to be placed in peril or die sentimentally.
I liked the historical feel and archaic spelling; it might have been more interesting and impressive had the author gone to the extreme of writing a straight-faced History of English Magic, as if written in the early 1800's. A strange combination of a pseudo-Necronomicon and S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure (The 'Good Parts' Version). Certainly, Strange and Norrell could use a 'Good Parts' Version.
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Kwaidan
Date: 2005-01-11 09:24 pm (UTC)Story 1: The Black Hair:
Husband: I am tired of you! I am leaving you, although you are perfect.
Wife 1: Interminable pleading and weeping.
Husband: You bore me--I'm going now.
Wife 2: I am very beautiful and rich. Too bad I'm a bitch. We will now watch me be a bitch and you realize your mistake for about 15 minutes.
Husband: You are a bitch, and I am leaving you to return to my perfect wife.
Wife 1: Welcome on this dark night, husband. I live in this creepily abandoned house, where no foot has evidently trod for a long time. I am still perfect, however. Let me show how perfect I am.
Husband: You are perfect. I am happy to be back. Let us go to bed. Oh my god! I have woken up next to a skeleton with my wife's beautiful black hair! I completely did not see that coming! Now I will flee from this house for a surprisingly long time before the next story finally begins.
Story 2: The Woman of the Snow:
Woodchopper 1: Gosh, it seems we've been slogging through this snow for an awfully long time.
Woodchopper 2: True, but the interesting painted backdrop keeps me going. Also, I am younger and sexier than you. This may seem irrelevant, but trust me, it is not.
Woodchopper 1: Let us rest in this ice-covered shack with big holes in the walls, where we will unwisely not huddle together for warmth.
Snow woman: Wooo! wooo! I'm very creepy. Now that I've frozen the old woodchopper, I will do the same to the younger one--but no! He's too sexy! I will swear him to secrecy about what he's seen and let him live.
Woodchopper 2: Now that winter's over, it's much more pleasant to collect wood, especially when I meet attractive young girls in pink wandering through the forest. Perhaps I'll take her home and introduce her to Mom.
Mom: Nice to meet you. I'm not in the story long. At least, not long considering how LONG this story is.
Young girl: Now I am the wife of this sexy young woodchopper. I bear children and I never age. Can you guess who I am?
Neighbors: Nope, but we sure are impressed. Peasant women usually age so fast. What's your beauty secret?
Young girl: Not telling. Husband, what beautiful sandals these are. Let us discuss them.
Husband: They are beautiful sandals, but not as beautiful as you. You remind me of this woman I once met in the snow. Let me tell you about it.
Young girl: Wooo! Wooo! How creepy I am! I bet you never guessed that I was the snow woman. Now I am leaving, and if you don't take care of the kids, something bad will happen to you.
Story 3: Hoichi the earless.
Narrator: Now hear the story of a historic battle between two samurai clans, at great length, in a high, stylized singing manner, that will really annoy you, unless you like that sort of thing.
Cut to Hoichi and Monk:
Monk: Hoichi, I'm leaving you alone although you're blind. Eat the watermelon.
Hoichi: Yes, master.
Ghost: Hoichi, come sing us the story of that historic battle between samurai clans.
Hoichi: Didn't the audience just hear that?
Ghost: Yes, but don't worry, there's like an hour left to fill.
Hoichi: Okay. Say, to stretch it out, perhaps I could do it over and over three nights running?
Ghost: good idea.
Monks: Gosh, it's weird that that Hoichi is gone for the third night in a row. Let's go look for him in the graveyard. Why, there he is!
Hoichi: I'm singing to this honored audience.
Monks: No, you're in a graveyard! But simply leaving won't do the trick. The problem with ghosts is that once they start calling you, they keep on. So they're coming back for more reruns of that song tomorrow, unless we cover you all over with magic spells.
Hoichi: All over? Will that take long?
Monks: Yes. You know, to save time, we'll leave your ears uncovered.
Ghost: Odd, Hoichi isn't here. But those look like his ears. Since he won't answer, I will tear them off.
Hoichi: Ouch!
Narrator: But it was all okay, because Hoichi could still sing beautifully, and he became very rich.
Story 4: In a Cup of Tea:
Samurai: There's the reflection of a ghost in my tea! Oh my god, it's still there! It's still there! It's still there! Oh, what the heck, I'll drink the tea. Oh my god, I'm being haunted! I'm still being haunted! Still haunted! Now I'm in a cup of tea, too.
Re: Kwaidan
Date: 2005-01-11 09:52 pm (UTC)Onscreen title tells us it's the year 1900.
Girls play Japanese badminton in the street.
Voiceover: The author didn't finish writing this story. Why? I don't know and neither do you. But the story actually takes place two hundred years ago. The story of the writing of the story takes place now. I mean, not now-now, but 1900-now. Screw it, it's 1700 - deal with it.
Samurai: There's a face in my tea.
Samurai: There's still a face in my tea.
Samurai: What is that face doing in my tea?
Audience: The backstroke.
Samurai: Audience, be quiet.
Samurai: There's still a face in my tea.
Samurai: Well, at least it doesn't taste too bad.
Samurai: I see dead people.
Samurai: I attack dead people.
Samurai: I see more dead people.
Samurai: I attack more dead people.
Voiceover: And that's where the story ends. I bet you want your money back. But let's see if the story of the writing of the story ends any better.
Author's Publisher: Is the author home?
Author's wife: No, he saw the Pillow Book, and made sure he wasn't home when you called.
Author's Publisher: Damn that film.
Author's Wife: But he did leave you this note.
Author's Note: I still don't have an end for that story. Inexplicably, I will off myself grotesquely so the audience will feel it got its money's worth.
Audience: lame
Author's Note: Told you I didn't have an ending.
roll credits
Re: Kwaidan
Date: 2005-01-11 10:15 pm (UTC)Re: Kwaidan
Date: 2005-01-12 06:30 am (UTC)HHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAA!!!!!
Ah. Thanks for that. :D