Shop Talk
I was hesitant about writing about the flick I watched last night courtesy of Netflix, as I doubt anyone who reads this blog would be interested in it. Then I saw how highly it is regarded at IMDb and decided to add my opinion. Shoplifters (2018), a Japanese production, is a complex story steeped in realism. The focus is a group of outcasts who form a family of six. The father figure is a no-account who nonetheless has a warm heart, as does his mistress and the “grandma.” Ironically, the three children they take in are better off with them than their natural parents. Credit must be given to writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda, who dared to be different and who was not afraid to tackle a serious, grim subject. He has 24 titles listed under his name as director, 16 as writer, 14 as editor. 32,000+ users at IMDb have rated Shoplifters, forging to a consensus of eight on a scale of ten. It won several awards and was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film. I wouldn’t go that high, as the film at two hours is too long and dwells on minutiae too often. Still, this is impressive work. I imagine most westerners will find it as hard to follow at first as I did. Once the narrative takes a climactic turn, blanks are filled in. I have no idea if such problems are widespread in a country as prosperous as Japan, but that doesn’t matter, as there is poverty everywhere, even in the USA. One of the reasons I enjoy such films is my unfamiliarity with the casts. That always brings a genuineness to the portrayals. Miyu Sasaki tugged at the heartstrings as a little girl who remained sweet despite being abused by her “real” parents. Here she is:
I’d heard Love Potion #9 a lot lately on music streams. It prompted me to learn how to play it on guitar. Like most early rock n roll, it’s fairly easy, the only semi-tough chord B7. Most of it is Am/Dm. Once again, I discovered misheard lyrics. What I thought was “Madam Rue” is actually “Madam Ruth” and “gold tattoo” is “gold-capped tooth.” I’ll stick with my changes, and also refer to the kissed cop as a she, which was rare back in the day but common now. Apologies to the legendary writing team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. No one will ever hear my version but the unfortunate folks in the apartments around mine. The Clovers recorded it in 1959, and it reached #23 on the Billboard chart. The Searchers’ 1964 version hit #3. They had more success in their native UK, hitting #1 with Sweets for My Sweet (Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman), Needles and Pins (Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono) and Don’t Throw Your Love Away (Billy Jackson and Jimmy Wisner), #2 with Sugar and Spice (Tony Hatch), and #3 with When You Walk in the Room (Jackie DeShannon), an impressive legacy. Curiously, there is NR (No Record) of the UK chart position of Love Potion…, at least according to Wiki. Here are the lads:
Here’s a couple of items that stood out this morning at nypost.com: Genetically modified cows could cut methane emissions by 50%… There are 92 murders per day in Mexico.
I noticed the dark clouds moving toward the area, and started breaking down the floating book shop. I was surprised at how quickly they arrived. Fortunately, I managed to get my own titles and a number of others into the car before it started pouring. I know for sure that one paperback in shaky condition to begin with is lost. I put a number of items on the dashboard and in the space below the rear window. Most should be fine. I tore apart three damp boxes. My thanks to the young man who helped me stow away a bunch of stuff, and to the one who bought Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Love’s Executioner & Other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom, and to the young woman who purchased Donald Hall’s Essays After Eighty; and to the gentleman who selected a beautifully illustrated large book on Napoleon, and was reluctant to grasp it with anything but his fingertips, as if it were laden with germs; and to the guy who reminds me of Nikita Khrushchev, who took home a book on dream interpretation in Russian for his Mrs..
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