Notebooks, Elysium and more Seijun Suzuki

For the first time in my life, I purchased some notebooks that weren’t very cheap. By no means am I any sort of stationery snob, nor would I ever want to be considered one.

The odd thing is, I already have several notebooks in rotation as it is. But they’re full of nonsense and all rather disjointed, meaning I never know what I’m looking for in any particular one, or what I plan on putting in there. So what better way to alleviate this documentation conundrum by purchsing more notebooks?

But rather than buy just any bound, condensed tree, I purchased a set of four moleskine notebooks. Apparently, these notebooks invoke the highest order or nostalgia per empty page than any other. The design is very slick and minimal, but to me its still a notebook. Having read up on the history of moleskine before attempting to write in my newly-obtained notebook of note, I was struck with a sense of valuing the notebook more than the contents I had yet to fill it with.

I’ve never approached writing anything with such temerity before. Is this what its like to care too much about your instruments?

On the extreme flip side of this feeling, I purchased some new pens to use with said notebooks. These Pilot Frixion Ball pens are the freakin’ bees knees, I tell ya. I could write everything ever anywhere with these suckers. I’ve never felt more inclined to draw ink dicks on things than I have with these pens – not that I go around drawing dicks all the time – but because I can erase whatever I write with these pens.

This is how out of the loop I am with stationery. I was completely unaware that you could buy pens that had ink you could erase.

So as it stands now, I have notebooks I’m too cautious to write in with pens that have erasable ink. Is this my very own personalised version of the myth of Sisyphus?

In other news, I finally got to see Elysium, the new film by the director of District 9, Neill Blomkamp. Overall, I enjoyed the film and appreciated the message it was trying to get across, but it just left me wanting more… something. That’s the biggest problem, I can’t pick exactly what it was that didn’t win me over. It lacked the subtlety of District 9, both in terms of its political content and action, but I didn’t go into the film expecting District 9 2: Electric Boogaloo. This has vexed me all week.

There was no Reginald sighting (for those of you not in the know, Reginald is the name I gave to a wild ferret that lives in the walls surrounding my house) but there was a freshly dumped pile of ferret shit outside my room one day this week. It seems he is testing the borders for signs of weakness yet again.

More watching took place this week too. Two films by one of my favourite directors, Seijun Suzuki.

Take Aim at the Police Van

This film was curious enough based on the title alone. Nikkatsu went through a film noir phase where they commissioned a series of films and dished them out to a whole bunch of directors with some ridiculously short turnaround times for films to be made to compete with foreign offerings at the box office.

The film wastes no time living up to its namesake when a police escort of prisoners is fired upon in an orchestrated effort to wipe out some of the criminals. The prison guard is held directly responsible and put on six months suspension. The protagonist, Tamon, asks a very silly question “But why attack the police van?” and then decides to conduct his own investigation into the matter.

Had Tamon decided to stay at home and spend time with his caring mother, the fun of Take Aim at the Police Van would’ve lasted a grand total of 10 minutes, the rest of the film would’ve consisted of Tamon becoming an expert at firing rubber bands from a wooden gun in the comfort of his own loungeroom with his mother gradually becoming more enraged with her lazy suspended son. Roll credits.

But oh no, Tamon tugs at every loose thread on this oversized knitted sweater of a mystery and uncovers more and more threads to tug at. But as Tamon uncovers more and more levels of intrigue, he carries on forward, showing virtually no emotion as if nothing around him is actually happening because he’s not finding out what he wants to know.

Well worth a watch if you’re into noir.

Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards!

This film was supposed to be the launching point for a series of films using Detective Bureau 2-3 as the focal point. However, if you are planning on making films about a squad of detectives, you might want to make sure your ensemble cast is actually doing something while the star is off having an awesome time in a crazy film. Jo Shishido and Seijun Suzuki must have had a lot of fun making this film. This film has one scene with a bunch of scantilly-clad women dressed as elves bouncing around a room with an utterly garish Christmas Tree in it to an uptempo jazz rendition of ‘When the saints go marching in’.

Why? Who knows.

Another scene has Jo Shishido deep undercover at a casino, hoping to prove to his gangster counterparts that he’s the real deal, when his ex-girlfriend starts performing a song and dance number which could blow his whole operation sky high. So, our chipmunk-cheeked protagonist does what any undercover operative would do and takes part in an impromptu song and dance number, because that won’t arouse suspicion at all…

Both of these films were entertaining in their own way. What I was more curious about was seeing Seijun Suzuki’s films before he became well-known for the madness of Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill. It’s rare that you would suggest to people to watch a body of directors work in reverse chronological order, but with Suzuki it almost makes perfect sense to do just that.