No subject

Wed Oct 20 14:12:43 IST 2010

in its portrayal to capture the sensibilities of pop art in flaunting=20
the unreal and surreal world of the characters in the film.  Even the=20
clothes each gangster wears extends their personality in a more comic=20
and flamboyant fashion.=20
The packaging is clearly designed to target the growing American=20
audience primed for Japanese and Hong Kong cinema, thanks to the=20
efforts of directors like John Woo and Quentin Tarantino.  However,=20
viewers expecting a slam bang visceral ballet of nonstop gunplay and=20
sex are bound to be disappointed - while Suzuki's film does contain=20
these elements in fits and starts, it is generally a static visual=20
study of alienation in a candy-colored Tokyo gone mad.=20
	August 9, 2002
	Stray Dog (Nora Inu), 1949, 122 mins=20
	Director: Akira Kurosawa.
	Black and White, VHS, English subtitles
Stray Dog was Kurosawa's tenth film and showcases his ability to=20
orchestrate a complex story without losing the viewer. Here, as=20
elsewhere in Kurosawa's work, the war, only four years past, casts a=20
long shadow over the film.=20
Stray Dog, is based on a real-life, seemingly insignificant, incident:=20
a thief steals a rookie policeman's gun, and the policeman spends the=20
entire film trying to recover it.=20
He takes the help of an experienced cop to search all over the sleazy=20
underbelly of Tokyo for the lost gun. The film has a well knit plot=20
and is imbued with a tense, apprehensive atmosphere - enhanced by=20
Kurosawa's deft use of the oppressive heat wave under which this=20
desperate urban chase takes place. The increase in temperature=20
reflects the frustration of the detectives' investigation. Kurosawa=20
would return to this sweltering mode later again in another police=20
thriller, High and Low.
Kurosawa, who always spoke of Stray Dog as something of a failure -=20
'It's just too technical. All that technique and not one real thought=20
in it' - felt however that the killer was the one character whom he=20
portrayed in real depth. In this respect the film anticipates another=20
element of High and Low - Kurosawa's ability to sympathise with a=20
killer, yet never disguising the destructive effect of his actions.=20
	August 16, 2002
	High and Low (Tengoku To-Jigoku), 1963, 143 mins=20
	Director: Akira Kurosawa
	Black and White, VHS, English subtitles=20
Based on 'King's Ransom', a novel written by Englishman Ed McBain,=20
High and Low has been considered by many to be Japan's "best ever=20
filmed"detective story.
Kurosawa again cast Toshiro Mifune as Gondo a wealthy industrialist=20
whose son has been kidnapped. Gondo has to pay off a huge ransom for=20
the boy's return. But this is a ransom demand with a twist -as the=20
harried businessman prepares to pay the ransom, he discovers that his=20
son is safe at home: the kidnappers have accidentally snatched the son=20
of his chauffeur.  Does Gondo drop his payoff plans, or does he do the=20
honorable thing and rescue his employee's son? This dilemma is but one=20
aspect of the multilayered character study seen in this film.=20
Akira Kurosawa weaves together character study, social commentary and=20
police procedure. As Gondo grapples with his choice, the movie=20
acquires a mythic depth - it's not unlike the story of Abraham, as=20
Gondo is forced to decide between the life of an innocent and loyalty=20
to an abstract code. At the same time Kurosawa alludes to the more=20
general dilemma of modern Japanese life - the conflict between humane=20
values and the rigid loyalties that have made for its commercial=20
success.
One aspect of Kurosawa's genius is the way he composes his tableaux to=20
dramatic purpose. =A0If Gondo's high rise represents Heaven, with its=20
amazing, expansive view and feel at nighttime of being among the=20
stars, the police end up in Hell chasing their suspect:=A0 a hot,=20
sweltering ground level world where loud music blares and the drug=20
addicts cluster like lost souls in the river Styx. It is a=20
fascinating, intricate look at the execution and solving of a=20
masterfully conceived crime, a moral dilemma that keeps the story=20
driving forward and a stark social commentary.=20
	August 23, 2002
	Tokyo Drifter, 1965, 83 mins
	Director: Suzuki Seijun
	Colour, VHS, English subtitles=20
"Phoenix" Tetsu, a killer for hire, decides to go straight and follow=20
the example set by his seemingly conscience-stricken boss. The film=20
follows the travails of Tetsu as he tries to go straight, drifting=20
around the deserted areas of Tokyo, risking death at every turn out of=20
loyalty to his boss.=20
In the hands of director Suzuki Seijun, however, this is anything but=20
a straightforward journey. A plethora of visual colorization effects,=20
nonstop action, and the ever-present "Song of the Tokyo Drifter" mark=20
this film as both a psychedelic thriller and a deconstruction of the=20
yakuza genre.=20
Like all his films Tokyo Drifter is violent, funny, over-stylized and=20
self deprecating. The gunfights are staged with detached elegance and=20
precise editing that foreshadows many of the ironic showdowns=20
popularized in modern action cinema. The violence is constant but=20
surficial (no slow motion bullets through the head) and the fun is in=20
trying to understand all the ways the film makes fun of itself.=20
-------
That's the set of films for the month. We look forward to meeting you=20
during the screenings.=20
Many of you have been enquiring about grant possibilities at Sarai. We=20
shall be inviting proposals for Independent Research Fellowships soon.=20
Do keep a lookout.
Cheers,
Ranita=20
The Sarai Programme
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi - 110054.
Tel:  (+91) 11 3960040
        (+91) 11 3951190
Fax: 3928391, 3943450
www.sarai.net

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	<TITLE>August 2002</TITLE>
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<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>Contents:</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>I	Seed Grant Fellowship Presentations=
 </B>
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>II	Films @ Sarai: Focus on the
Documentary & </B>
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>			 Asian Film Cultures: Japanese
Cinema</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>-------------------------------------=
--------------------------------------------------------------------</B>=
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>I	Independent Research Fellowship
Presentations</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><SPAN STYLE=3D"font-weight: medium">Inde=
pendent
researchers have continued to present their works at Sarai over the
past two months. The June newsletter carried brief reports of some of
their work. Below is a glimpse into a few more. </SPAN>
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium">1. 	<B>GNU/Linux in=

India
	Reportage on the Free Software/Open
Source Movement in India
	Frederick Noronha
Frederick Noronha i=
s
trying to explore the concept of Free Software and its implications,
specifically in a South Asian or Third World context. He has started to
document the contributions that are being made by Indians to GNU/Linux,
including software innovations based on GNU/Linux. Noronha finds that
contrary to the earlier pessimism the contribution is actually quite
interesting...and growing. He has also been actively trying to forge
communication links between Free Software or Open Source proponents,
the ICT-for-development campaigners in South Asia and the development
sector all of which, he says, "have strengths that could gain in a
major way from one another." =20

2.	Visthapito=
n
Ka Shahar (The City of the Dislocated)
	A study of urban transformations
related to the Metro in Delhi
	Naveen Chander
Naveen Chander has been exploring issues=

of public space, urbanisation and displacement with the process of
modernisation in the dreamed"beautiful city" - as effected by
the Delhi Metro Project. He has also enquired into the dynamics of
labour behaviour. Through audio interviews and photographs of bottom
level workers and of people displaced due to the project, he has tried
to draw different perceptions of the city and development. Naveen also
travelled to Calcutta to be able to draw a comparative analysis with
the Calcutta Metro project.
3.	Rickshaw wale ki jeevan yatra:
shahar tak, shahar mein
	Study of the specific migrant
experience of rickshaw pullers in Delhi
	Rajendra Ravi

Rajendra Ravi's study tries to document the everyday in the lives of
rickshaw pullers in Delhi. He has looked into a number of issues
relating to the nature of migrant labour; the process of initiation
into the trade; restrictive policies with respect to ownership and
their implications for the lives of rickshaw pullers; police violence;
spatial issues including the absence of designated parking spaces and
the need to see the relationship between owners and pullers of the
rickshaw in complimentary terms rather than in an antagonistic one. =20


4.	Neighbourhood Research Project
	Mapping the vicinity of the Jamia
Millia Islamia Campus
	Students of the Jamia Sociology
Department (Biswajit Das)
In a=
n
effort to map the neighbourhood of their institution, the Jamia Millia
Islamia University, the students focussed on two areas: a study of
organisations located in the area and a study of the locality itself.
Four papers were presented. The organisations studied were Spectramind,
a call centre that employs hundreds of young English-speaking people in
Delhi and the Software Technology Park located in the Okhla Industrial
Area. Studies of the area focussed on the emergence of cybercafes and
the changing physical and cultural landscapes.
5.	Changing Face=

of Chiragh Delhi</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>	A study of the morphology of an urba=
n
village</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>	Ranjana Sengupta</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><FONT SIZE=3D3>Ranjana Sengupta has been=

enquiring into the the process of urbanisation in Chiragh Delhi, an
urban village situated in the heart of Delhi which has now changed over
from generations of agricultural activities to different professions.
She has delved into </FONT>
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><FONT SIZE=3D3>the relationship of the
village to the dargah, community relations within the village and h<SPAN=
 STYLE=3D"font-weight: medium">ow
the residents of Chiragh Delhi (themselves quite heterogenous)
interpret and resolve varying aspects of their history.</SPAN></FONT></P=
>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium"><FONT SIZE=3D3>6.	<=
B>Whose
City is It Anyway?</B></FONT></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>	Reportage on Education, Law and
Transport in select localities in Delhi</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>	Anjali Mody</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in">Anjali Mody has concentrated her researc=
h
in the Jamianagar area of Delhi - an area which houses a cross-section
of people from different communities, classes, professions and also
houses a large number of students. She looked into local print cultures
and the relationship of the neighbourhood with the charismatic local
MLA now in prison under POTA. Part of her presentation also discussed
the status of urban reporting in newspapers. She plans to publish a
series of articles based on her research in the near future. =20
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in">7.	<B>Built Environment and Women</B></P=
>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>	Study of the gendered logic of
housing structures, work and public spaces</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>	Vandana Khare</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium">Women often
encounter difficulties in dealing with urban spaces - both within the
home and outside. Vandana Khare argues for the need of a gendered
designing of city spaces. She is studying work spaces, public transport
and housing facilities in Mumbai to enable viable solutions, especially
for working class women,</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium">8.	<B>Slums in Delh=
i
- Demolitions & Relocation</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>	Housing policy and land relations in=

Delhi</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>	Harini Narayanan</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium; text-decoration: no=
ne">
Harini Narayanan presented her findings from an ongoing research on
slum policies and demolitions in Delhi. Two aspects were highlighted in
her presentation.  First, the act of demolition is a process, as much
as an 'event' so that to live with violence and housing uncertainty is
the 'normal' way of life for most poor inhabitants of the city. =20
Second, she stressed on the general silence on the issues involved in
slum housing, with the exception of the depiction of the 'act' of
demolition. She pointed out the marked differences in representation,
depending on the kind of structures being demolished. =20
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium; text-decoration: no=
ne">
<BR>
</P>
<P ALIGN=3DJUSTIFY STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none"><=
B>II	Films
@ Sarai</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium"><I>All screenings
are on <B>Fridays, 4:30 pm</B>, at the Seminar Room, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies, <SPAN STYLE=3D"text-decoration: none">29
Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054</SPAN>. </I>
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><I>The films are listed in the order of
screening.</I></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; line-height: 100%"><=
U><B>Focus
on the Documentary</B></U></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: medium"=
>	<B>August
2, 2002</B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium"><B>	Apoornathakal
</B>(The Incomplete), 2001, 23 mins</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><SPAN STYLE=3D"font-weight: medium">	Dir=
ected
by Salil R. Aluvila</SPAN></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium">	Colour, VHS,
English subtitles</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><SPAN STYLE=3D"font-weight: medium">What=
 is
friendship? And how do you deal with the loss of a loved one,
especially when there are indications that the death may not have
occurred under natural circumstances? <B>Apoornathakal </B>is the story
of a young man trying to come to terms with the death of his childhood
friend - a friend with whom he shared intense love. It is the memory of
moments spent together, of shared conversations and hints of intrigue
surrounding the death that continue to haunt the living. <B>Apoornathaka=
l
</B>is based on a true story. </SPAN>
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><U><B>Asian Film Cultures: <I>Japanese
Cinema</I></B></U></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in">We return to Asian Film Cultures Series
this month with three films from Japan that engage with the post-war
Japanese city, a city that is invariably connected with crime and a
quest for criminals.</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in">Critics have often remarked on Kurosawa'=
s
films as quests, and much of <B>Stray Dog </B>is taken up with the
desperate attempts by Detective Murakami (Kurosawa stalwart Toshiro
Mifune) to retrieve his gun, which is being used to commit murder.
Murakami spends much of his time in literal frantic pursuit, chasing
his quarry and accomplices through the ragged streets of heat-drenched,
occupied Tokyo.=20
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in">Like many a noir hero, Murakami is a goo=
d
man drawn into a criminal demimonde, here the squalid world of postwar
profiteering, corruption and murder. And like these heroes he has an
unsettling link to that world in the form of his gun, which makes it
impossible for him to return to normal life. Kurosawa uses his quest to
explore a series of seedy tableaux, from opium dens to western-style
grindhouses, and the social casualties that populate them. The montage
sequence, where Murakami takes to the streets to find the pickpocket,
is remarkable for the neo-realist recording of life on the teeming city
streets, whilst maintaining the pace of Murakami's desperate search.
Kurosawa even provides a classic doppelganger for Murakami in the form
of the thief: much is made of their similar backgrounds and very
different, but inextricably joined, fates.=20
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><SPAN STYLE=3D"font-weight: medium">Kuro=
sawa
returns to the police procedural thriller again in </SPAN><B>High and
Low</B>. Using big-city slums (low/hell) in direct contrast to the
privileged world of a powerful businessman (high/heaven), <B>High and
Low </B>is the very human story of a misfired kidnapping and its
consequences on all concerned. Bit by bit the shattering impact the
crime has on the victim, his family, the police, and the kidnapper are
slowly revealed as the police doggedly pursue every scrap of evidence.
Kurosawa presents his characters' ’struggles as not only a
suspenseful and clever detective story, but also a moral battleground
where "good" has to pay a heavy price to win out over "ev=
il"
if in fact it is possible at all.=20
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><SPAN STYLE=3D"font-weight: medium">The
film is at once a procedural crime story, a social commentary on the
casualties of industrialization and the redemption of a man's soul. The
low lying squatter hovels, addict-infested Dope Alley, and red light
district basement bar provide an incongruous foil to the prosperity and
seeming order of modern Japan. </SPAN>While not one of Kurosawa's
master works, the film, with its grim reality and moral ambiguity
stands as a superb example of film noir at its best.=20
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in"><B>Tokyo Drifter</B><SPAN STYLE=3D"font-=
weight: medium">
has free for all neon jazz characters jiving to the boogie woogie
backdrop of 1960's industrial Tokyo.  A yakuza film of the purist form,
Seijun Suzuki presents us characters of extreme brightness and colors
that match the environments around them. Suzuki uses a lot of
incongruous jump cuts, like the beautiful shot of Yoyogi stadium that
comes up, to create a kind of travelogue view of Tokyo that is used
under the credits. </SPAN>
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium">From the dance hall=

to the western style bar, the set design is unique in its portrayal to
capture the sensibilities of pop art in flaunting the unreal and
surreal world of the characters in the film.  Even the clothes each
gangster wears extends their personality in a more comic and flamboyant
fashion.=20
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium">The packaging is
clearly designed to target the growing American audience primed for
Japanese and Hong Kong cinema, thanks to the efforts of directors like
John Woo and Quentin Tarantino.  However, viewers expecting a slam bang
visceral ballet of nonstop gunplay and sex are bound to be disappointed
- while Suzuki's film does contain these elements in fits and starts,
it is generally a static visual study of alienation in a candy-colored
Tokyo gone mad.=20
</P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium">	<B>August 9, 2002<=
/B></P>
<P STYLE=3D"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: medium"><B>	Stray Dog (Nora=

Inu), 1949, 122 mins=20

	Director: Akira Kurosawa.
	Black and White, VHS, English subtitles=

Stray Dog was Kurosawa's tenth
film and showcases his ability to orchestrate a complex story without
losing the viewer. Here, as elsewhere in Kurosawa's work, the war, only
four years past, casts a long shadow over the film.=20

Stray Dog, is based on a
real-life, seemingly insignificant, incident: a thief steals a rookie
policeman's gun, and the policeman spends the entire film trying to
recover it.=20

He takes the help of an experienced cop
to search all over the sleazy underbelly of Tokyo for the lost gun. The
film has a well knit plot and is imbued with a tense, apprehensive
atmosphere - enhanced by Kurosawa's deft use of the oppressive heat
wave under which this desperate urban chase takes place. The increase
in temperature reflects the frustration of the detectives'
investigation. Kurosawa would return to this sweltering mode later
again in another police thriller, High and Low.
Kurosawa, who always spoke of Stray
Dog as something of a failure - 'It's just too technical. All that
technique and not one real thought in it' - felt however that the
killer was the one character whom he portrayed in real depth. In this
respect the film anticipates another element of High and Low -
Kurosawa's ability to sympathise with a killer, yet never disguising
the destructive effect of his actions.=20

	August 16, 2002=

	High and Low (Tengoku To-Jigoku)=
,
1963, 143 mins=20

	Director: Akira Kurosawa
	Black and White, VHS, English subtitles=
=20

Base=
d
on 'King's Ransom', a novel written by Englishman Ed McBain,
High and Low has been considered by many to be Japan's
"best ever filmed"detective story.
Kurosawa again cast Toshiro Mifune as
Gondo a wealthy industrialist whose son has been kidnapped. Gondo has
to pay off a huge ransom for the boy's return. But this is a ransom
demand with a twist -as the harried businessman prepares to pay
the ransom, he discovers that his son is safe at home: the kidnappers
have accidentally snatched the son of his chauffeur. Does Gondo drop
his payoff plans, or does he do the honorable thing and rescue his
employee's son? This dilemma is but one aspect of the multilayered
character study seen in this film.=20

Akira Kurosawa
weaves together character study, social commentary and police
procedure. As Gondo grapples with his choice, the movie acquires a
mythic depth - it's not unlike the story of Abraham, as Gondo is forced
to decide between the life of an innocent and loyalty to an abstract
code. At the same time Kurosawa alludes to the more general dilemma of
modern Japanese life - the conflict between humane values and the rigid
loyalties that have made for its commercial success.
One
aspect of Kurosawa's genius is the way he composes his tableaux to
dramatic purpose.  If Gondo's high rise represents Heaven, with
its amazing, expansive view and feel at nighttime of being among the
stars, the police end up in Hell chasing their suspect:  a hot,
sweltering ground level world where loud music blares and the drug
addicts cluster like lost souls in the river Styx. It is a fascinating,
intricate look at the execution and solving of a masterfully conceived
crime, a moral dilemma that keeps the story driving forward and a stark
social commentary. 

	August 23, 2002=

	Tokyo Drifter</=
B>,
1965, 83 mins
	Director: Suzuki
Seijun
	Colour, VHS,
English subtitles=20

"Phoenix"=

Tetsu, a killer for hire, decides to go straight and follow the example
set by his seemingly conscience-stricken boss. The film follows the
travails of Tetsu as he tries to go straight, drifting around the
deserted areas of Tokyo, risking death at every turn out of loyalty to
his boss.=20

In the hands of
director Suzuki Seijun, however, this is anything but a straightforward
journey. A plethora of visual colorization effects, nonstop action, and
the ever-present "Song of the Tokyo Drifter" mark this film
as both a psychedelic thriller and a deconstruction of the yakuza
genre.=20

Like all his films
Tokyo Drifter is violent, funny, over-stylized and self
deprecating. The gunfights are staged with detached elegance and
precise editing that foreshadows many of the ironic showdowns
popularized in modern action cinema. The violence is constant but
surficial (no slow motion bullets through the head) and the fun is in
trying to understand all the ways the film makes fun of itself.=20

-------
That's the set of
films for the month. We look forward to meeting you during the
screenings.=20

Many of you have
been enquiring about grant possibilities at Sarai. We shall be inviting
proposals for Independent Research Fellowships soon. Do keep a lookout.<=
/P>
Cheers,
Ranita=20

The Sarai Programme=

Centre for the Stud=
y
of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road,
Delhi - 110054.
Tel: (+91) 11
3960040
 (+91) 11
3951190
Fax: 3928391,
3943450
www.sarai.net
 

 

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