Home | Forums | Mark forums read | Search | FAQ | Login

Advanced search
Hot Topics
Buraku hot topic As if gaijin men didn't have a bad enough reputation...
Buraku hot topic Swapping Tokyo For Greenland
Buraku hot topic
Buraku hot topic Dutch wives for sale
Buraku hot topic Live Action "Akira" Update
Buraku hot topic Iran, DPRK, Nuke em, Like Japan
Buraku hot topic Steven Seagal? Who's that?
Buraku hot topic Japanese Can't Handle Being Fucked In Paris
Buraku hot topic Multiculturalism on the rise?
Buraku hot topic Whats with all the Iranians?
Change font size
  • fuckedgaijin ‹ General ‹ Media Fix

Marine Sniper In Japan

Movies, TV, music, anime other random J-pop culture phenomenons. Also film/video production, technical discussion, cast and crew calls, etc.
Post a reply
4 posts • Page 1 of 1

Marine Sniper In Japan

Postby Mulboyne » Sun Aug 26, 2007 9:40 am

[floatl]ImageImage[/floatl]Author Stephen Hunter is well known for his series of thrillers featuring sniper Bob Lee Swagger. His best-selling book "Point of ImpactImage" was recently made into a film version under the name "Shooter". It seems the next part of the series is set in Japan and the Japan Times carries an interview with Hunter where he talks about the book:

In the book, you have a Japanese kendo instructor tell your American protagonist that he "hated 'The Last Samurai.' " How did you feel about that film?

I hated it as well, because it put the little white guy at the center of a Japanese story, and he proved to be smarter, faster and tougher than anyone. In one sense, "The 47th Samurai" is a rebuke to that movie and to the "White Samurai" genre, where that generally happens as well; I made certain that my hero didn't become a better swordfighter than the Japanese, but only a passing adequate one, with definite limits on his skills. His only chance lay in figuring out ways to cheat rather than any innate superiority and he knew that he was doomed against a first-class swordsman.

What were some of the more challenging aspects of setting a work in Japan?


Not to trivialize it, not to fall into the cliche of American-in-Japan-finds-the-little-yellow-folks-funny. I tried to imagine a Japanese mind-set and base the motives of the Japanese characters on cultural concepts that have meaning in Japan more powerfully than in America. My worst trouble, however, was with the thing called "Japlish," or the imperfect English spoken in the tourist trade by many Japanese, often to comic effect. Usually I represent Japanese English speakers as fluent and eloquent; on a few occasions I did try and reduce the vocabulary and some of the connective words, because such forms of communication do exist and are a common experience for Americans visiting Japan. I hope my ear for it was good enough so that when Japanese read it, they aren't insulted...more...
User avatar
Mulboyne
 
Posts: 18608
Joined: Thu May 06, 2004 1:39 pm
Location: London
Top

Postby Mulboyne » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:10 pm

Yomiuri: Hunter misfires in Japan novel
...The 47th Samurai, Hunter's latest addition to his "Swagger saga," is set in Japan...Given its setting, this book could have been a real treat for readers in Japan. Unfortunately, it falls short of the author's previous high standards. The reasons for this failure are multiple.

First, Bob in his previous appearances has been a technically proficient sniper and a brilliantly instinctive gunfighter. In this book, he scarcely touches a gun at all, taking up swords instead, getting some whirlwind training from a kendo master. An interpreter tells Bob that the master has admonished: "He says you are not Tom Cruise. There is no Tom Cruise. No one can learn the sword in days or weeks, except in movies. He hated that movie, by the way." Wearing his Washington Post movie critic hat, Hunter hated "that movie," too, but in this book it doesn't stop him from having Bob emerge victorious over six seasoned opponents in his first real swordfight...

...Hunter's previous books have sometimes verged on firearms fetishism in their level of technical detail, but they have accurately portrayed gun nuts as an American subculture. Japanese "sword-nuts," however, are portrayed in this book as heavily dominating Japan's cultural mainstream...In The 47th Samurai, however, his yakuza gangster baddies spend so much time obsessing over their imagined glory as latter-day samurai that there is no room left for any other character traits. Oddly for Hunter villains, they just lie flat on the page...

...A third problem is a lack of sense of place. When Japanese journalist Nick Yamamoto sniffs around for news from the upper reaches of the yakuza world, he starts at such Tokyo gaijin hangouts as Gaspanic, Hobgoblin and Warrior Celt. He even pays a visit to Kinswomyn, which in real life is a no-men-allowed lesbian bar. These places are not described, and the names read as if they were plucked at random from a guidebook. One rare scene that does describe a place realistically involves a murder on the winding stone pathway in a small park between Kabukicho and Golden Gai in Shinjuku, Tokyo. For this high point of verisimilitude, Hunter tips his hat in the acknowledgments to Tabloid Tokyo author Mark Schreiber, who "found the ideal spot...measured it, photographed it, mapped it, and then e-mailed it to me." (Interestingly, this collaboration was not mentioned in Schreiber's recent Japan Times interview with Hunter.)


I saw a copy of this book last week and happened to open it at the part shortly after the one-against-six sword fight mentioned above. One of the surviving characters says something like "Master, may I commit seppuku now?" When I read that, I put it back on the shelf.
User avatar
Mulboyne
 
Posts: 18608
Joined: Thu May 06, 2004 1:39 pm
Location: London
Top

Postby GuyJean » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:26 pm

Mulboyne wrote:.. One of the surviving characters says something like "Master, may I commit seppuku now?" When I read that, I put it back on the shelf.
Ha, ha.. But what happened!? ;)

Gj
[SIZE="1"]Worthy Linkage: SomaFM Net Radio - Slate Explainer - MercyCorp Donations - FG Donations - TDV DailyMotion Vids - OnionTV[/SIZE]
User avatar
GuyJean
 
Posts: 5720
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2002 2:44 pm
Location: Taro's Old Butt Plug
  • Website
Top

Postby Greji » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:19 pm

Mulboyne wrote:Yomiuri: Hunter misfires in Japan novel
When I read that, I put it back on the shelf.


I thought it was the part "......One rare scene that does describe a place realistically involves a murder on the winding stone pathway in a small park between Kabukicho and Golden Gai in Shinjuku, Tokyo....."

Afraid that Mark dimed your hang-outs?
:cool:
"There are those that learn by reading. Then a few who learn by observation. The rest have to piss on an electric fence and find out for themselves!"- Will Rogers
:kanpai:
User avatar
Greji
 
Posts: 14357
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2004 3:00 pm
Location: Yoshiwara
Top


Post a reply
4 posts • Page 1 of 1

Return to Media Fix

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests

  • Board index
  • The team • Delete all board cookies • All times are UTC + 9 hours
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group