"Non-Slip Stories" and 30-year-old junior-high students

What is "Non-Slip Stories"? Well, it's a butchered English title of "Suberanai Hanashi (すべらない話), one of the latest projects of Japanese comedy genius Hitoshi Matsumoto.

Matsumoto is more commonly known as "Ma-chan", and is one half of the comedy duo Downtown, with partner Masatoshi Hamada. Individually and as a duo they are among the highest respected and are the highest paid comedians in Japan, despite their relatively young age (in comedian years). This is saying something in an male-dominated industry that, more than others, still carries the tradition of treating older comedians with unquestioned respect, and where younger comedians often are the victims of self-depracating visual humor before they can be considered to have earned their chops. Downtown rose quickly, and at one time, combined, had more than six different shows on television every week. Their popularity grew from Matumoto's deep and off-kilter humor, and Hamada's quick wit and short fuse, (which had developed into a reputation as a comedian to actually be afraid of, but we'll talk about that more at a later time).

So Suberanai Hanashi is a project of Hitoshi Matsumoto. Its genius is in its simplicity. Get a bunch of comedians together around a table. A six-sided-die with each person's name on one side is thrown. When your name comes up, you must tell a funny story, with the only stipulation that the story must be true, not made-up. That's it. You can even tell the same story over and over (as one comedian did in the first episode, and the story actually got funnier and funnier). Where Japanese humor is often known for it's reliance on sometimes juvenile visual gags and the humiliation of younger comedians who will do anything for some screen time, Suberanai Hanashi is refreshing new concept. What's makes it so easy to identify with is the reality of the stories. Almost all the stories are from the comedians' childhood memories, and it seems there are many universals when growing up in Japan. The five specials (they have aired about once every couple months since last year, another brilliant way to maintain interest without burning out the audience as an American network would likely do), contain story after story of daft mothers, lost dogs, class clowns, protective big brothers and lesbian older sisters. (OK, maybe not every story is universal...) These specials have been passed around our mostly Japanese office, and only the first line or title of a story has to mentioned to illicit giggles from those that have seen them. At this point, like most Japanese television, official subtitled versions do not exist. Non-subtitled versions are likely available at and Japanese video stores, like Animenia Video in Beaverton, Oregon. If you are an advanced student of Japanese, or want to learn more Kansai dialect, these are a great way to hear great stories in Japanese. You can also get a taste from YouTube: 1, 2,

Last night I watched Seijun Suzuki's Fighting Elegy (not one of the Taisho Trilogy mentioned yesterday), and if you can get past the fact that 30-year-olds are playing junior-high school students , you can enjoy the often funny story of a young man who distracts his hormones in some rather unexpected and unhealthy ways. Suzuki makes some subtle pokes at pre-war Japan, Christianity and facism that is common for his style. Despite the popularity of "youth rebellion" movies at this time, Suzuki can always put together an original fight scene, and this one contains several, often laced with tinges of humor.

Seijun Suzuki, Midnight Eye and KimuTaku

I have been excited to see more Seijun Suzuki movies making it to DVD. Criterion has been great at getting the ball rolling, and for the uninitiated I really recommend Branded to Kill. Tokyo Drifter is another great place to start. The interviews included are worth watching to see how, unlike some of the great Japanese directors, Suzuki had to bend the rules, scratch, fight, and sneak in his artistic visions to the carbon-copy scripts he was forced to make. Branded to Kill led to the director's firing from Nikkatsu, but thankfully not to the end of his career. More recently three of his later films have been released by Kino as the Taisho Trilogy. I actually was really disappointed by Suzuki's most recent Pistol Opera, so I am a little hesitant with these films (from 1981-1991), but will give them a look and let you know.

I really don't know how the folks at Midnight Eye do it. For the uninitiated, Midnight Eye is THE place to go for news, interviews and reviews of the latest in Japanese cinema. They are seeing the newest movies as they are released in Japan, not on the festival circuit then in limited release sometimes years later.

I always kind of chuckle when people talk about "the new KimuTaku movie". I say, "Which one?" and they reply, "You know, 2046." That movie came out in Asia in May of 2004! Though Kimura hasn't been in any movies since...

Hello, from the PDI Bookstore

This is our first post for the PDI Bookstore. We focus on English language books translated from Japanese, as well as books about Japanese business, language and culture. We will post our newsletters as well as other interesting news, links and tidbits about English language books about Japan.