The Japan Society Review 62
Book, Stage, Film, Arts and Events Review

Issue 62 Volume 11 Number 2 (April 2016)

February’s Review dealt heavily with the aftermath of theSecond World War in East Asia. In this issue, Annabelle
Sami reviews a production that brings such issues closer
to home. After Hiroshima considers the reception in the
UK of the news of the atomic bombings and the way
in which they were reported in the media. On a similarnote, Jenny White, reporting on Japan Now, a conference
examining contemporary Japanese art and culture, sets
the event in the context of the fifth anniversary of the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, protests in Britain
against the renewing of Trident, and coverage of thereopening of the Takahama Nuclear Plant in Fukui
Prefecture.
Among the stellar cast of speakers at Japan Now
was Shimada Soji, darling of the Japanese crime fiction
community, and we are delighted to include a review
of his The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, recently publishedin translation by Pushkin Vertigo Press. Shimada writes

honkaku mysteries, giving readers the chance to solve
the crime before the detective. At the opposite end of
the spectrum of Japanese crime writers is Yokoyama
Hideo, whose atmospheric and political Six Four has been
receiving the kind of critical attention one would normally
expect of a new Murakami novel. In her review, Charlotte
Goff tells us that it more than lives up to the hype.
One might expect the use of a talking dolphin in asatirical critique of consumer culture to risk overplaying
things, but Susan Meehan tells us that Suzuki Atsuto’s The
Bite doesn’t lack for subtlety or humour.
Lastly, Annabelle Sami revels in Director Tetsuya
Nakashima’s overblown Kamikaze Girls.
As ever, we are extremely grateful to all of ourcontributors, who give up a considerable amount of timein writing for this publication.
William Upton

Contents
1)

Six Four by Yokoyama Hideo

Editor2)

Japan Now at the British Library

William Upton

3)

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Shimada Soji

Chris Corker, Charlotte Goff, Susan Meehan, Annabelle Sami,

4)

The Bite by Suzuki Atsuto

and Jenny White

5)

London Bubble Theatre Company’s After Hiroshima

www.japansociety.org.uk/resources/the-japan-society-review

6)

Kamikaze Girls at the Brick Lane Film Festival

Reviewers

Latest Reviews(Image: Fukada Kyoko in Kamikaze Girls)

Six Four
by Yokoyama Hideo, translated
by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies
Quercus (2016)
640 pages
ISBN 978-1848665255
Review by Charlotte Goff
That the film adaptation of
Yokoyama Hideo’s Six Fouris to be released in two parts gives us some idea of
its size – ‘bulletproof’ is one way that I’ve heard theeighty-one-chapter thriller described. Not trusting
cinema-goers’ ability to recall the enormous cast andintricate plot, parts one and two will be screenedin Japanese cinemas just a month apart. Six Fourrequires commitment. While fiction two-timers andcommitment-phobes will likely end up confused anddisappointed trying to recall just who was Arakida, andwhat exactly was his relation to Akama, or Akikawa, thededicated reader will be rewarded with a plot that isgripping, fast-moving and with a twist which, true tothe blurb’s promise, ‘no reader could predict’.
January 1989 saw Japan move from the Shōwa
to the Heisei era, as Crown Prince Akihito succeeded
his father as Emperor. It is in the closing days of Shōwathat the novel’s first victim, seven-year-old Amamiya
Shoko, was kidnapped and killed. The ascensionof a new Emperor should have been a cause forcelebrations across Japan but it instead underlined
the failure of the police force in ‘Prefecture D’ to findthe murderer; national newspapers which rejoiced
the new Emperor poured criticism on the bungled
investigation in equal measure. Police officers gave
the case the code name ‘Six Four’ – a promise thatthe killer, despite ‘disappearing into Heisei’, would be
dragged back to account for crimes committed in the
sixty-fourth and final year of Shōwa.
Fourteen years have passed since the kidnapping,and Mikami Yoshinobu is surprised to hear the case’s
secret code name spoken again. Once a detectiveon the original Six Four team, Mikami has since
found himself reassigned as Press Director of thepolice’s Media Relations wing. He spends much time
wrangling with his conscience: do his true loyalties lie
in the criminal investigations department where hetrained, or the administrative department in which he
now finds himself? He struggles, too, with the sudden
disappearance of his own teenage daughter and thesilent phone calls that follow.
2

Mikami’s conflicting loyalties lead him to act partdetective, sniffing around for clues to the mysterious
Six Four ‘Koda memo’ and shadowing his colleague
and former kendo club rival Futawatari, while striving
to maintain relations with the local reporters. Fighting
the police’s tight-lipped attitude towards information,
an increasingly agitated Press Club begin to question
police accountability: if all the case information you
give us is anonymous, how can we be sure that ‘Person
A’ even exists?
Almost as absorbing as the plot itself is
the window that Yokoyama (who worked as aninvestigative journalist for 12 years before beginning
as a crime writer) opens onto the workings of theJapanese police force. It is overwhelmingly men that
populate both the police departments of Yokoyama’s
fiction and their real-life counterparts; Six Four was
published in Japanese in 2013, just one year after the
National Police Agency’s 2012 White Paper on Crime
pledged to raise the proportion of women in the force
from 6.8% to 10% by 2023. We see Mikumo, the one
female member of Mikami’s staff, struggle to makea meaningful contribution to the department. Muchof this world of work takes place outside the office, inbars and karaoke booths, and Mikumo is at one point‘commanded’ to stay at home. Following Mikumo’s
travails, (‘She’s just here to lighten the mood a little’,says one colleague) was one of the book’s frustrations
and, later, pleasures.
The first of crime writer Yokoyama Hideo’s works
to be translated into English, Six Four is his sixth novel
and the second to secure top spot in Japan’s ‘Kono
Mystery ga Sugoi!’ annual ranking of the country’s
best crime fiction. In just six days after its release,over a million Japanese people bought the Japaneseoriginal. Not knowing this before reading it, I came to
the novel with just two thoughts about it. The first, ‘It’s
huge’ remains true. The second, ‘This will take a while’
was, happily, wrong. It is a testament to Yokoyama’s
storytelling that (accounts of Shoko’s kidnapping
aside) a book which uses over 600 pages to recountseven days’ events at no point felt slow. The plot
and its flawed (and therefore all-the-more-likeable)
protagonist gave the book an addictive quality. I could
have read more. In the meantime, Japanese speakers
can look forward to the film. The less said about thecheesy NHK dramatization the better. §Issue 62 Volume 11 Number 2 (April 2016)

Japan Now
British Library,
27 February 2016
Review by
Jenny WhiteA review of the Japan Now
conference organised by Modern Culture with support fromthe Japan Foundation, Daiwa
Anglo-Japanese Foundation,
the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, the British Library and the Arts Council on Saturday 27 February
2016.
I came to Japan Now with a sense of curiosity andhigh expectations, and also a little misgiving: how
was it possible that today’s Japanese society could bereflected in a day of ‘contemporary writing, politics
and culture’? I was soon to find out...
On this same cloudy day in London, as Britain’s
biggest anti-nuclear march in a generation was
taking place in Trafalgar Square, NHK, Japan’s national
broadcaster, was reporting the country’s latest census
figures – a decline in population of nearly one million in
the past five years, attributed to a falling birth rate andlack of immigration. Significantly, if not surprisingly,
the largest drop, of 115,000 people, was in Fukushima,site of the nuclear power station, hit especially badly
by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. While Asiannews sources gave plans to reopen the Takahama
Nuclear Plant in Japan’s Fukui Prefecture prominence,
British news was full of reports on Brexit, and in Japanthe headlines were of the Tokyo Marathon.
Japan Now opened with consummate scene
setting in ‘State of the Nation’, an all-star panel withwriter Ian Buruma, journalist Richard Lloyd Parry, andProfessor Shimazu Naoko, nimbly chaired by theinsightful Christopher Harding who pulled together
conflicting view points and provocative audience
questions. Shimazu whizzed us through a ‘History of
post-war Japan in 10 minutes’, citing Ozu Yasujiro’s
1953 film Tokyo Story as epitomising the tensions
placed on the family unit, through two decades ofgrowth in the 1960s and 70s, to posit the significanceof signposts such as the 1964 Tokyo Olympics andthe 1970 World expo as triggers for a reassessmentof Japan’s position on the world stage. Shimazu
reminded us that criticism of the World Expo focusedon the overshadowing of other significant events thatyear such as the US-Japan Security Treaty, and theIssue 62 Volume 11 Number 2 (April 2016)‘mobilisation’ of art and artists to serve the nation, apoint that could be re-examined in the run-up to the
Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.
Lloyd Parry, one of the first foreign journalists
to visit the earthquake area in Tohoku in 2011 noted
the survivors’ resilience, courage, generosity anddecency – ‘the best of Japan’. This was also a ‘signpost’,
he said, ‘that would seem to point to a way out ofthe post-bubble era funk of the last 20 years’. These
were, he told us, the same qualities that had led to adisengaging of grassroots sentiment and mainstream
politics, such self-reliance leading to resignation andlow expectations of a broader political system. Harding
closed by asking whether the Japanese media wasdoing enough both to mediate between grassroots
and politics as well as to challenge political power.
As the discussion progressed, nationalism
versus patriotism in both Britain and Japan emerged
as a core theme, in particular with regard to theirrelationship to sense of self. Buruma suggested thatpacifism, as drafted in Article 9 in the Constitution,banning the use of armed force, had polarised history
as something imposed from the outside; essentially,
the new capitalist system – by which the economy
depoliticized the emerging middle class so that they
could make profits – failed during time of recession.
Such was the picture as we went into thefirst writer session, ‘Japan in Fiction (i)’, contrastingsurrealist writer Yoshida Kyoko and her book
Disorientalism (Vagabond Press), with Hiraide Takashi,poet and writer of best seller The Guest Cat (NewDirections), brilliantly chaired by experienced writerand Journalist Suzy Feay. Hiraide explained that the‘I-novel’, a Japanese term defined as writing only fromone’s direct experience with no invention, might leadto a writer deliberately seeking out more interesting– and possibly dangerous – experiences. Despite thechallenges an ‘I-novel’ poses to translation (the word
‘I’ in Japanese can be neutral) The Guest Cat is now
published in 10 languages. Yoshida’s Disorientalism is
yet to be translated into Japanese.
In this session, the writers discovered that theyboth came from the southern island of Kyūshū, anddiscussion focussed on the significance on theirwriting of living and working ‘elsewhere’, Yoshida now
in Kyoto and Hiraide in Tokyo. Hiraide talked in termsof wanting to find ‘his own battlefield’, away from hisbirthplace.
After lunch we entered the dark side in ‘Japanin Fiction (ii)’, with two quite different crime writers,
Nakamura Fuminori and Shimada Soji, chaired by writer3

Lesley Downer. We heard the cadences of contrastingstyles as the writers read extracts from their books,
our partial understanding confirmed by interpreter
Bethan Jones. Nakamura’s The Gun and The Thief(both Soho Press) dwelt in the internal landscape of‘what if?’ Bestselling crime writer Shimada’s seductive
mellifluous tones, meanwhile, were clearly designed
for audio books; I could have listened entirely inJapanese, which is indeed a compelling option, as only
one of his hundred books, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders(reviewed below) has been translated into English.
Shimada took the opportunity to challenge us to makean English film version!
The final audience question was in some ways themost insightful, advancing a comparison with recent
popular Scandinavian crime dramas, yet suggestingthat what was not present in this Japanese genre
was political intrigue on a larger scale. These instead
display an intense and detailed focus on personal
politics rather than an amorphous and broader politicalcontext. I found this a key point in accounting for the
success of this genre in Japan.
By the end of the day, we were truly rewarded
with a richly honest and profound account by artist
photographer Hatakeyama Naoya, who had sufferedfamily tragedy when his home town of Rikuzentakata
was thrust into the spotlight as the epicentre of the
Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Hatakeyama
added ‘personal’ to the title of this session (‘Surveying

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
by Shimada Soji
Pushkin Vertigo (2015)
Translated by Ross and Shika
Mackenzie
320 pages
ISBN 978-1782271383
Review by Chris Corker
Selected for the new ‘Pushkin Vertigo Collection’ from
Pushkin Press, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders marked thedebut of established crime writer, Shimada Soji, whose
subsequent fame at one time forced him to escapeJapan for Los Angeles. While the book was shortlisted
for the Edogawa Rampo Award In 1981, Shimada
himself was awarded the Japan Mystery LiteratureAward in 2009 in recognition of his life’s work. His
detective novels are Honkaku – or ‘genuine’ – mysteries,
where emphasis is placed primarily on plotting and4the (personal) Landscape’) to highlight the way inwhich the tragedy had caused him to reconsider theobjectivity of his work as a photographer. Hatakeyama
gave an example of how this had affected a debatewith curators on which of his works should be included
in his exhibition Natural Stories at the Tokyo Museumof Photography. A discussion chaired by curator Simon
Baker further explored notions of personal and social
and the fluctuating boundaries in between.
Japan Now was a unique and balanced
introduction to today’s Japan as reflected in literature
and art. The writers, Hiraide, Yoshida, Nakamura andShimada, who went on to make appearances in Bath,Manchester and Leeds were, with the panel chairs,
well chosen to reflect disparate genres. Bethan Jones’
elegant interpretation reiterated its importance asintegral to communicating ideas and in adapting to
the flow of the event. I came away thinking that notionsof patriotism, nationalism and self-identity were,more than ever, complex themes to be unravelled. I
wondered why so little outside Murakami had beentranslated into English; where does the initiative comefrom for this to happen? From a Japanese literary agent
to champion a writer as representative of the Japanesezeitgeist? Or is it events such as Japan Now in the UKthat can drive interest at a grass roots level, presenting
a colour-enhanced picture of a multi-faceted Japan
with complex problems, parallel realities, and anxieties
similar to our own?§clues in lieu of social commentary or the psychologicalinsights that have become a staple of contemporary
crime fiction. In metafictional asides, Shimada evenaddresses the reader directly, challenging them tosolve the mystery before the end of the novel. While
well-implemented, this technique can lessen thereader’s immersion in the story, the book less of anarrative and more of a puzzle or How to guide. The
Interplay between the characters becomes a simple
sounding-board exercise, leaving the dialogue feelingforced. If puzzle-solving is the reader’s main point ofenjoyment from a detective novel, however, it should
not prove such an obstacle.
In 1930s Tokyo, an eccentric artist is found deadby his seven residing female relations, inside a roomthat appears to have been locked from the inside. With
the body is discovered a note, detailing the deceased’splan to murder his relatives in an occult ritual to create
the perfect woman. Soon after the murder, the planis carried out and the dismembered bodies of theIssue 62 Volume 11 Number 2 (April 2016)

victims are found in varying locations across Japan.
The police have no leads. By 1979, these murders,
dubbed ‘The Tokyo Zodiac Murders’ because of theirlink to astrology, have been fascinating the nation
for forty years. When the mystery-obsessed Ishioka
Kazumi approaches his talented astrologist friend,
Mitarai Kiyoshi, with a new lead, they set out to solve
the crime.
There will be something familiar for all readers in
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, despite its unfamiliar (forgeneral British readers) locations. While the locked room
mysteries are reminiscent of an episode of Jonathan
Creek, the relationship of the two protagonists will at
once be recognisable as an iteration of the HolmesWatson dynamic. Perhaps this isn’t surprising giventhat novels and television show alike have used thisformula to good effect over the years. The problem
here, however, is the lack of evidence provided to backup their supposed traits. The reader is told rather thanshown that Ishioka is the well-meaning but less giftedsidekick to Mitarai’s troubled genius. Perhaps this isdue to the fact that this is Shimada’s debut. Ishioka andMitarai have now appeard together in many novels,
gaining cumulative history with each story. In thisfirst instalment, however, this chemistry and depth islacking.
In the second half of the book, the reader is left
alone for stretches with Ishioka. These sections, despite
being grounded in a well-realised Kyoto, are theweakest of the book. It is not so much the rapport of
the two that is missed – as mentioned, this isn’t overly
evident anywhere – but rather the obvious futility of
all Ishioka’s endeavours. The reader is not so cluelessas to believe that the sidekick would ever solve thecrime – or indeed, that any of his assertions could be ofuse; that isn’t how the Holmes-Watson formula works.
The result of all this is that these sections fulfil therole of merely padding out the story, while the reader
impatiently awaits the denouement.
One problem in particular that Western audiences
may encounter is the sheer number of names withwhich they are bombarded at the beginning of thebook, not being able to rely on any distinctive kanji as
would a Japanese reader. Paired with the foreignnessof the language is the fact that many of the names
are similar, almost all the victims’ forenames endingin ‘Ko’. While true to the reality of Japanese naming
conventions, it causes unnecessary confusion in a story
that is already purposely intricate and baffling. Indeed,at the end of the exposition, the author tells the reader
that they already have sufficient clues to solve theIssue 62 Volume 11 Number 2 (April 2016)

mystery, but such is the volume of information that it
would take a great feat of memory to do so.
The mystery itself is intriguing enough. Shimada
does a great job of restricting enough information tokeep the reader believing more is needed to solve
the crime, despite several asides to the contrary.
These asides add levity to a story that is in reality very
macabre, and this juxtaposition of tones may not sit
well with all readers. The references and descriptionsof astrology are also a point that may divide opinion.
Deeply involved in the subject himself, Shimada is not
sparing with these – indeed they hold considerable
relevance to the mystery. Those interested in this field
may enjoy this novel far more than sceptics.
The decision as to whether or not this is aworthwhile read will depend heavily on the preferenceof the reader. If they are happy to forego rapport, put
up with hackneyed characters and bear with someclunky dialogue in favour of the cathartic rush ofsolving a seemingly impenetrable mystery, then The
Tokyo Zodiac Murders will furnish them perfectly well.
Those looking for something narratively adept, andwith well-realised and original characters should lookelsewhere.§

The Biteby Suzuki Atsuto
Rich Mix, 5 March 2016
Review by Susan Meehan
Yellow Earth theatre company
was formed in 1995 with theaim of developing the rangeof acting opportunities available to British East Asian actors. In March this year, it celebrated 21 years of theatre making with an international play reading festival,
Typhoon, at Soho Theatre and Rich Mix in London. The
plays were chosen following an open call for proposals, and Suzuki Atsuto’s The Bite was one of eight selected for a read through by professional actors. Suzuki
is currently on a six-month grant from the Japanese
government to study British theatre, and following theperformance he took part in an audience Q&A.
What to do when the dolphin you are ‘keeping’ ina fish tank at home ‘evolves’ – animatedly introducing
himself as meat-eating Putin, born in Okinawa toparents from the Sea of Okhotsk? Not only that, Putin
is metrosexual as well, and keen to help with the5cooking. A rather astute dolphin, Putin knows that his
young owners, the Nekomiyas, are fattening him up
with intent.
One day after work, Mrs Nekomiya returns home
to find that Putin has managed to climb out of his fishtank. She is overcome by his downright adorability, andby the fact that he can talk. She wonders whether her
dolphin-meat consuming husband will be persuaded
to keep Putin as a pet.
Deftly flashing back to the Nekomiya’s recent
honeymoon, the audience is shown insights into theirnascent relationship, their foodie interests and theirfirst encounter with dolphins. As the play progresses,
is Mr Nekomiya himself starting to smell a little fishy?
Suzuki’s farce soon veers its attention fromsushi-loving Putin to Mr Inoguchi, a rather weird anddistasteful colleague of Mr Nekomiya, sharing with theother characters their obsession with food. Against allodds, Alex Chang who played Mr Inoguchi did manage
to make his character strangely endearing.
Suzuki’s pacey dialogue captivates throughout,and the Q&A revealed that the audience were keen toread other themes into the text beyond the focus on
greed, waste and fads. Among the queries, did Suzuki
choose a clever, evolved dolphin to highlight human
hypocrisy and arrogance when it comes to eating, and
who is to say that it is fine to rear chickens to eat but
not dolphins? During the Q&A Suzuki told the audiencethat he had an epiphany while eating a hamburger at
McDonald’s – he began to wonder why he was eating
the hamburger rather than the other way round.
The play is hilarious, surreal, topical, full of
surprises and at times slightly unnerving. It can beenjoyed without having to dwell on its societal
critique. The young, talented and striking Yellow Earthactors were compelling and versatile. Although it wasbilled as a play reading, and despite lack of time forrehearsals, the cast invested their roles with great
energy and character. In the Q&A Suzuki – himself
used to directing his own plays – expressed surprise at
the level of physicality they achieved.
Leo Ashizawa as Putin stole the show, and Susan
Hingley was particularly strong in her roles as restaurant
manager and menacing caretaker. Franko Figueiredo’s
direction was tight and spot on; flashbacks were deftly
achieved with the actors skilfully going into reverse.
When asked how his work is received in Japan,
Suzuki said that it tended to be more popular abroad incountries such as Korea as Japanese audiences preferrealistic plays to hyperbolic or slapstick theatre. When
asked about the target audience for this play, Suzuki
6

said that it is aimed at adults as there is not muchyouth theatre in Japan. The play was very positively
received at Rich Mix and the audience laughed andwas responsive throughout – Suzuki’s humour clearly
travels, and this is perhaps helped by the fact that hehas been influenced by international actors including
Ray Cooney and Complicite’s Simon McBurney. He alsomentioned Noda Hideki as an influence, and Noda too
has had positive press in the UK.
Commenting on the experience of seeing theplay in translation, Suzuki said that some aspects were
the same but also acknowledged some differences. He
felt that director Figueiredo was decisive and good atlistening to the actors’ comments, while there is moreof a hierarchy in Japan. Suzuki also said that Japanese
actors focus less on the text and more on the action,
making Japanese plays often seems a bit more like apantomime.
As observed by one of the audience members,‘The Yellow Earth Company actors gave the playa realistic sense of Asia and Japan and a sense of
normality despite the play’s intrinsic weirdness.’
It was a delightful, energising eye-popping way
to spend a Saturday afternoon.§

London Bubble Theatre
Company’s After
Hiroshima: A PostEvent Reflection
Dilston Grove,
3–11 March 2016
Review by Annabelle Sami
London Bubble Theatre Company, based in Rotherhithe,has formed a close relationship with Hiroshima over the
past two years. This began with their intergenerational
community theatre project Grandchildren of Hiroshima,
which was performed in Hiroshima in collaboration withthree young Japanese directors in August 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the A
bomb. Grandchildren of Hiroshima was created from thetestimonials of hibakusha and performed by a cast of children, adults and grandparents. The piece was recently
screened at Daiwa Foundation Japan House and is available to watch in full here: http://bit.ly/1VR77b9.
A year later, in March 2016, London Bubble
performed their latest show, After Hiroshima. As a sisterpiece to Grandchildren of Hiroshima it tracked the British
Issue 62 Volume 11 Number 2 (April 2016)

response to the dropping of the atomic bomb and thesubsequent rise of pacifist groups in the UK. The show
charts how reports of radiation sickness were kept hiddenin the UK and how, when this information was uncovered,church leaders, young mothers, and politicians alikegathered together to protest against nuclear weaponry.
At the beginning of After Hiroshima British soldiers
come across the ruined city, four months after the
dropping of the bomb. One soldier recounts the harrowing
experience, of the shadows burnt into the ground andof the incessant cremations. From here, the show tracks
forward, through the formation of the Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Aldermaston March,
to the present day, with explorations of what the £100
billion cost of replacing Trident could be used for in the UK
instead of nuclear warheads. The entire script is formed of
testimonies from people who were involved in these earlyanti-nuclear protests and their memories of the news of
the first atomic bombings.
The show ends with a depiction of real-life protester
Takako Barker, who travels to the Japanese embassyin London every week to protest against the revisionof Japan’s Article 9. A cast member then tells the storyof Sasaki Sadako, the 12 year old girl who died from
Leukaemia caused by radiation exposure in 1955 after
attempting to fold one thousand origami cranes as a wayof wishing for good health. As the story is being told thecast bring origami cranes onto the stage – a moving end
to the piece.
Crucially, the cast is made up of around 40 volunteer
performers from the local community, led by the artistic
team at London Bubble. There was also a small team ofvolunteers, of which I was part, who helped backstage
and at rehearsals. Some cast members are Japanese living
in London (indeed, one member is from Hiroshima) andsome of the cast are London Bubble regulars. Other castmembers are involved in the CND or participated in peace
protests in their youth. What stood out to me was theIssue 62 Volume 11 Number 2 (April 2016)high level of all-round participation and the eagerness ofthe non-professional cast to play an active role in shaping
the show. Their opinions and suggestions were listened toby the artistic team and this produced an overwhelming
feeling of shared responsibility for the resulting show.
This is something that is obviously important to London
Bubble and is cultivated by artistic director Jonathon
Petherbridge’s methodology. In workshops, performancematerial is gathered and explored with groups ofcommunity volunteers – a process that was also used inGrandchildren of Hiroshima, allowing the cast to have a
say as to what goes into the show.
Helping to run these rehearsals was Akiba Yorie, avisiting artist from Tokyo and artistic director of Glasio Bluo,a Tokyo-based puppetry company. Akiba also worked on
the Grandchildren of Hiroshima project, bringing a senseof unity to the two shows. She said of the performance
making process,Although the theatre making process I am experiencing
here is very challenging as rehearsal hours are extremely
limited, I do enjoy collaborating with other artists andactors as they are open to throw ideas and thoughts
around. This kind of collaboration process was rather new
to me and I will definitely apply it to my upcoming puppet
project, The Talking Stick, in Hiroshima next year.

The final image in After Hiroshima is that of a British
soliderandTakakoBarkerholdinganorigamicranetogether,symbolising the shared responsibility of both countries tomaintain peace. I believe it is also an encapsulation of how
successful the project was in demonstrating how the arts
can be used to strengthen relationships between Japanand the UK. One cast member said,
Having been to Japan, taking part in this play served todeepen my understanding of the trauma experienced bythose caught in the aftermaths of the atomic blasts, butalso that the tragic events have a legacy of peace andsolidarity.

Not only did those involved in the project learn fromthe experience, with a few teenage members having neverheard of Hiroshima before, they gained a new connection
to the country, with many members expressing their wish
to visit the Peace Memorial Museum. They also learnt
about pre-existing connections between Japan and the
UK of which many weren’t previously aware. Let us hopethat more theatre projects can facilitate new links between
Japan and the UK in the future.
www.londonbubble.org.uk/
www.glasiobluo.info/§7

Kamikaze Girls
Directed by Nakashima
Tetsuya
Brick Lane Film Festival
30 January 2016
Review by Annabelle
SamiThis film festival ofindependent Japanesecinema, run from asmall gallery space on
Brick Lane, is a great
example of how agroup of friends can get together and produce a
vibrant, successful cultural event. The initial buzz was
generated solely through Facebook, the event’s pagegarnering over 12,000 potential attendees. Tickets forthe three-day event sold out within days, with extra
screenings being added to meet demand – all ofwhich is impressive for an independently-organised
event making its debut in London’s already saturated
events calendar.
The film that I attended was one of the additional
screenings added for 10.30am on a Saturday morning.
Although an early start for a film, it certainly didn’t
put off the room full of people eager to see one of
the independent films being shown in this varied
festival. The venue, 5th Base Gallery on Heneage Street,
had been decorated with fairy lights, and seating
comprised an array of cosy blow-up beds with a few
rows of chairs at the back. This simple set up with aprojector used to screen the film gave the viewing
experience an intimate collegiate atmosphere.
I selected the film I went to see – Kamikaze Girls,
directed by Nakashima Tetsuya – at random, with noprior knowledge of the director. The film had alreadybeen shown a handful of times in the UK at various
independently-organised screenings. Originally a‘light novel’ written by Novala Takemoto, the film
adaptation retains the simple plot – expertly delivered
with brilliant performances from Fukada Kyoko andTsuchiya Anna – in which two teenage girls fromvery different teen subcultures meet and strike up an
unlikely friendship.
Even people who know little about Japan areaware that the country boasts a startling range of youth
subcultures, with vibrant fashion and lifestyle trends
flourishing in areas like Harajuku in downtown Tokyo.
Kamikaze Girls takes two contrasting subcultures –the Lolita and Yanki girls – and situates them to great
effect in a rural small-town context.
Lolita girls, especially ‘sweet Lolitas’, wear dolly
styled clothing influenced by Victorian fashion while
Yankis belong to high-school all-girl motorcycle
gangs, whose signifiers include chain smoking,heavily customised matching uniforms and generaldelinquency. Despite these stereotypes, both girls
show great complexity of character. The Lolita
Momoko’s (Fukada) sweet dolly aesthetic is undercut
by her strange sense of humour and seemingly
emotionless persona, while Ichiko (Tsuchiya), a Yanki
girl, shows a depth of feeling and tenderness in contrast
to the delinquent youth model. But, most importantly,
the girls are brave, adventurous and badass – as theoverblown motorcycle gang fight scene at the end
amply demonstrates. Quite often when it comes toportraying the lives of teenage girls on film, characterstend towards the vapid and one-dimensional, but thisis not the case in Kamikaze Girls. These girls constantly
challenge our perceptions and this makes the film somuch more than just an adaptation of a ‘light novel.’
The film’s comic-book-style warped reality
provides a fast paced and entertaining viewing
experience and a great backdrop for Fukada andTsuchiya’s comedic performances. A real triumph ofindependent film, it’s easy to see how Kamikaze Girlswon Best Film at the 2005 Yokohama Film Festival.

Kamikaze Girls by Nakashima Tetsuya is available on
DVD, published by Third Window Films.
For an interview with Hayashi Kentaro, organiser of the
Brick Lane Film Festival, please visit:www.japansociety.org.uk/40314/kamikaze-girls/ §Interested in writing for the Japan Society Review?

Please write to william.upton@japansociety.org.uk with examples of your work and information about
your knowledge of and interest in Japan.