Haruki Murakami Review Part Three: South of the Border/West of the Sun

This piece is the most realist, and shortest work of this authors that I have read so far, and if you've read the two previous posts then you will expect me to praise this book. This expectation will not be disappointed. The short story focuses on Hajime a successful bar owner. It shows him at school with his first love and in the present with a successful business, backed by his father in law, and with a dutiful wife and children at home. Into this world walks his school friend that he loved, and he is conflicted internally by his wife and family and the recapturing of an old love seen through rose tinted spectacles. As in the case of After Dark the realism of this short piece is welcome and excellently done. This realism must be considered in relation to his other works, with the style being more comparable to an Ingmar Bergman film, willing to push the boundaries to show the complex relations between men and women, rather than surrealism pulling the rug of credibilty from under you. Equally this story follows incredibly normal themes; a wife stuck at home feeling her husband no longer loves her, an ex love who wants to be able to pick up a relationship at her whim and leave again and a middle aged man struggling between family and a potential great new love. This normality is written in a haunting and beautiful way,largely untainted by the jarring of surrealim and thus allowing a real investment in his decisions. In the end we a treated to a finale in the style of an episode of The Twilight Zone, which always has to be considered a positive. Ultimately, this would be my favourite Murakami work so far.

Haruki Murakami Review Part Two: Kafka on the Shore

This piece is the opposite of After Dark, being a long and extremely surreal work. I enjoyed most of this novel, and yet if it has a weakness, as I believe it does, this lies in its excessive surrealism and length. At the start of the novel we follow another person who's run away from thier family, a boy called Kafka, and an elderly man on some sort of invalidity benefit for learning difficulties, but who can speak to cats and therefore retrieve them for their owners. Following Kafka through his relationship with a fellow traveller who may be his sister, and an older lady who runs a library he works at, starts the piece perfectly. One of the ideas expressed here and elsewhere is that sometimes a persons life just halts, and that no more forward progression is possible, and yet they continue living for many years, is interesting and a superior alternative to more simplistic fetishisations of suicide. However, for me, the surrealism becomes far too much and really jars a work I'd invested in. The realitionship between the old man and a truck driver who journeys with him is beautiful, and yet when we get to the section where the truck driver speaks to people from other realities, or helps the old man retrieve a magic rock to assist in supernatural powers, this readers patience was tried. Kafka's realtionship with a library assitant of confusing gender is the extent of surrealism that fits perfectly in a Murakami work. Equally, the relationship between Kafka and the old lady, who used to sing but cannot without her lover lost many years ago, starts off beautifully but is jarred by excessive fantasy. One idea that could be in this work, though its always impossible to be sure with Murakami, is the disruption of war. Obviously the bombing and Japan and the Second World War provide a backdrop to alot of modern Japanese literature, and in this text there is the feeling of the work showing the extent of mixed up feelings, alienation from family, inverted morals etc., existing in a state which has experienced war. Therefore, this book is interesting and the characters excellently drawn, as usual. However, these people are so well drawn that it is a travesty that by the end the length of the book, and the excessive nature of its surrealism mean that potentially heart rending scenes lack that effect. If taken out of the real world, it is then hard to give two hoots about anything that happens in it because its importance and reality has been mocked. In the end, an interesting, but sometimes frustrating read.

Haruki Murakami Review Part One- After Dark

This short story follows a group of isolated or alienated individuals whose lives cross over in the darkness of a Japanese night. Firstly, as someone who feels that all books could do with losing at least 50-100 pages, and all movies half an hour, the brevity of this piece is welcomed. So is the simplicity. As will be seen above I do have some reservations with the longer or most surreal works. Looking up some other reviews on the internet, this work seems to be one of the least respected by serious Murakami fans, maybe the restrained surrealism the reason for this. However, I like this realist nature, as it allows an investment and engagement with well drawn characters, which can be annoyingly jarred by the talk of alternative realities. The heavy set whore house owner, the girl from the cafe the black sheep of the family, the excitable and sociable band member and the office worker are all excellently written. The extent of the story across this short work involves the voyeuristic watching of the girl in the cafe's comatose sister and a murder in the brothel. The first aspect is typical Murakami surrealism, though pleasingly restrained. The second though showing us the culprit for the murder, and the potential future retribution, seems more like The Twilight Zone, for me something to be grateful for. Ultimately, I would describe this as a perfect entry point to new readers, though not wholely representative of his work as a whole.

DVD Review- The Wrestler

Out now on DVD, The Wrestler follows many contemporary indie films in going for naturalism. This is seen in many of the backstage locker room conversations, with minimal dialogue, contrasting with the bloody intense action that Randy’s just endured in the ring. A washed up wrestler from the eighties, ‘The Ram’ has to trawl around local shows, often increasingly bloody, but for diminishing financial returns. In addition to this Mickey Rourke’s character has to work for a smart ass boss in order to pay the rent on his trailer park home. Ultimately, Robinson’s health fails him and he faces a life without wrestling, his only relationship with a stripper played by Marisa Tomei, and his estranged daughter.

The film contains amazing performances from these two leads. Rourke plays the Giant with a gentle heart, who increasingly does himself physical damage, yet refuses to use his physical strength against his landlord or boss, who take advantage of him. Equally, Rourke’s character is unable to deal with the progression of time, and lives in the 1980’s, whether it be a love of 80’s cheesy rock music, or a retro video game based upon his high profile fight against The Ayatollah. These touches really lift the film, especially for those who were fans of wrestling in its heyday, with its history of foreign political enemies, The Ayatollah recalling The Iron Sheik, or Nikolai Volkoff. Equally, we see later that the Ayatollah is actually an American used car salesman.

The relationship with the stripper really works, as she does not need saving and has a clear code and rules that allow her to separate her professional and private life as a mum. This contrasts with ‘The Ram’ living in the past. Despite criticism from many reviewers that the relationship with the daughter is an after thought or too clichéd, again this works given the deeper truth that Rourke’s real relationship exists with the fans and his fame, something he cannot overcome. Also, given the troubadour nature of the profession of wrestling his dysfunctional familial relationship rings true to fans.

This focuses heavily on the male experience, without being ‘a man’s film.’ Presumably because men have greater representation in the production of films, reviewers still often focus heavily on whether a film contains well written female characters. However, this ignores how often male characters are clichéd or stereotypes (lads, gangsters, cockney wide boys). Yet this film contains a brilliantly written male character. It is excellent because it focuses on the male ability for self pity, which maybe the lead character doesn’t express too greatly, but nonetheless everyone who is familiar with the phenomenon of the mid life crisis and middle aged men looking back on their life with regret will recognise. In fact despite not being a fan of 80’s rock music, no one can be unmoved when Rourke bursts out to his fans to the strains of Guns N Roses.

Ultimately, this film works so well because it unashamedly shows a man unable to cope with the modern world, and faltering trying to repair relationships, yet ultimately decries what the wider world has done to him, or his inability to live the life of a normal member of society. This love of the male camaraderie over wider society has been attempted and failed by a series of hooligan movies because they resort to defending their repellent behaviour. Instead, when Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson realizes his home exists in the world of wrestling we cheer him on.

A great film.