But the current situation in Japan has created sort of a block, or an obstacle, that I can’t seem to get around. Even though I have DVDs on hand waiting to be reviewed, and a few more due to be shipped to me within a week, I can’t manage to compartmentalize my thoughts of Japan’s current reality in order to sit down and do a coherent piece on the latest gravure models video images.

Flower Garden B in Biei by Chizuko Yoshida

Rather – I simply can’t focus on the gravure models because today’s Japanese reality is so overpowering.

When we think of the Japan of as recently as a week ago, we can imagine or see the images, be they photos or paintings, of Mt. Fuji, the bullet trains, or flowers, especially the sakura or cherry blossoms. Via the internet, the images have been exported electronically to every corner of the world.

While I won’t call these images ubiquitous, they are at minimum, well known, or have been widely seen.

But the newer images, like the one above, and the last one in this post, are far too powerful to be ignored, forgotten, or to escape from our thoughts

Japan is a country of islands forming an archipelago. Japan is nearly the size of California, however, its population is nearly 4x times greater.

Japan is also a mountainous country which means that most of it’s people live in the flat coastal areas.

This means that for hundreds and hundreds of years, Japan has been a country dependent on the maritime industries like shipping and fishing for not only it sustenance but also its income.

For years, Japanese artists have portrayed the seas as both friend and foe. For this article I’ll show you some views of Japan as created by artists that are interpretations of life in far gentler times, looks at coastal life, and of the vagaries of the weather and the seas. Our first is a composite image of the most honored symbol of Japan, Mt. Fuji, in conjunction with the sea and the flowers. The earth, the sea, and the sky are portrayed almost simply, but the flowers are exquisite in their detail.

Or we might consider a much more localized view. A man and a woman are sharing the tranquility of an afternoon on a lake. The focus of the art is not the people but of some of nature’s handiwork – those beautiful blossoms.

Hiroshi Yoshida's Golden Pavilion

The next pair are by the artist known as Hiroshi Yoshida who passed away more than sixty years ago. The first is of an inland temple. The painting above is called the Golden Pavilion, and I think, this is a temple or shrine near a small pond in Kyoto. While this painting is not rich in detail, the reflected temple on the pond’s water is superb.

Hirosaki Castle by Hiroshi Yoshida

Above is another from Yoshida. This one is called Hirosaki Castle. This one is far more intricate than Golden Pavilion. That in itself doesn’t make it more beautiful than the Pavilion painting, but it may make this painting seem more interesting to you.

The next one is modern but it shows the relationship between mankind and nature. The man uses the water to convey the cut trees that were of course created by Mother Nature. It doesn’t matter to us whether this wood will be used to make homes, or make a source of heat, or even become pages in a book. The artist is Motoharu Sugiyama.

Sudden Shower by Ando Hiroshige

With the next series, you will see how nature, in the form of weather, becomes more and more of a factor in the lives of the individuals in the art works. Our first is called Sudden Shower and was created by Ando Hiroshige who died in 1858. His works are still the subjects of scholarly research more than 150 after his death.

Rainy Night at Maekawa by Hasui Kawase

A similar theme has been brought to view by an artist called Hasui Kawase. The work is called Rainy Night at Maekawa. It appears to be a gently falling rain, and gives no clue as to the possibility of a larger and more dangerous storm to follow.

The next one is by artist Katsushika Hokusai. While this painting is far simpler than any of the ones displayed earlier, it’s message is far more severe. The people are bent over trying to stand against the wind of the coming storm, and they’ve lost their possessions. Notice the papers and even a fan afloat in the wind.

But that is just a portend of the coming storm. The next one, once again portrays the earth, the sea, and the air. The foreground waters are roiling with their energy while further back, the skies and the seas are more tranquil, but those boats will not be safe.

Our last piece of art is another by the famed Hiroshige. There’s no mistaking the force and the power of those huge waves about to swamp those boats in their path. The tsunami as well as the earthquakes, have been a part of life in Japan, as long as there have been Japanese. The Japanese have had to deal with these elements forever.

These artworks are but a small representation of life in Japan, as it was then. The photos represent a segment of life and death in Japan today.  So it seems that we humans live on this planet as the uninvited guests of Mother Nature, who can decide to take back her gracious tolerance of our existence without much warning to us.  We can only hope for better days.

Though Also on Video has been around for quite some time, I’ve only been a free standing domain since the end of 2008, and I’ve only utilized a stats counter since January 28th, 2010. Basically we’ve been counting page visits for just a tad more than 11 months.

Some time a few days ago, on New Year’s Day, this site passed the  500,000 mark for page hits. That’s a lot of visits. I do appreciate that you’ve come to visit the site, and you’ve come often. My bill has come due to sign up once again with my web host, and I am happy to renew my contract. Just so you know, we will continue to be: -

• banner free
• ad free
• and free of pop ups

Thanks for your support and readership.

JustMeMike

01/04/2010

If you haven’t noticed this yet, please be aware that the Japanese Web Vendor – cdjapan.co.jp – has made a decision to no longer sell idol videos. So none of the links to the cdjapan web pages that offer the DVDs that I have reviewed work.

In fact, if you were to Google, these same DVDs, none of the links posted on Google that link back to specific idol DVDs once offered by cdjapan, are functional at this time. All you will get is a re-direct to a page that will inform you that: No items were found that match your query.

Since I had a link back to cdjapan for most of the idol reviews that I have published, eventually all of those links will be deleted, but in the meantime, simply don’t click those links because they will not produce any useful results.

jmm

Long ago Mankind found a way to travel across the seas or what ever body of water they found themselves at. Back then it might have a simple straw boat, or maybe a complex straw boat, like the one below. Or maybe it was

a dugout tree trunk, or a rudimentary raft. Then came boats with oarsmen, sailing craft, steam boats, then motorized vessels, and even boats that could travel below the sea’s surface. Today we have supertankers, nuclear powered submarines, ships so big they are called floating hotels, as well as naval ships that can launch weaponry to attack enemy strongholds on land while hundreds of miles away from any shore.

Sea travel or crossing water is here to stay – be it a daily ferry commute, or a lengthy sea cruise as a vacation. Others earn their livelihood at sea; be it fishing, or transporting cargo. Pleasure boats have gotten bigger and faster. People race sail boats for honor, prestige, and glory. Boats are used in the commission of crimes, or to capture criminals,

like when Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, as undercover vice-cops used a fast boat as part of a mission to bust a drug lord in the Miami Vice movie,  or simply just to have a day on the water and get away from it all. And let’s not forget that all countries with a sea coast possess a navy that contains warships. Probably not like those picture below, more likely a tad newer.

We take the sea for granted although we are not unaware of it’s dangers. Storms,

shoals, and sea scavengers also known as pirates who lay waiting in safe harbors before venturing out to sea what the tide has brought them, or to take forcibly from those who have crossed their path.

Yet we embrace the sea. People will continue to challenge the sea while others, standing on whatever shore or coast, know that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, on another shore, someone much like themselves is standing on a beach, or a dock, or a jetty, with the same thoughts.

The seas and waterways across the world are so much a part of our daily lives that we have included them as parts of our leisure time, even when we are nowhere near any body of water. Today there are many examples from the world of art, books and movies about the seafaring life. Even music can be related to the life at or near the sea. A prime example of this is the so-called ‘Surfin’ music. This music was born and grew in Southern California, where surfing (above and below) is a way of life for some.

Over a period of a few years, The Beach Boys song writer Brian Wilson, along with musician Van Dyke Parks, and a couple of others, wrote a song called Sail On Sailor. It was first recorded in 1972, though some say it was 1971 and was then released as a single in 1973. Though it did not achieve much success as a single, it still has its place in the annals of music as well as being a part of this column. From the lyrics:

I sailed an ocean, unsettled ocean
Through restful waters and deep commotion
Often frightened, unenlightened
Sail on, sail on, sailor

With those lyrics as our cue, we’ll look at some examples of being on the water. Some will be pure exhilaration. But not all of them will be pleasant or have happy endings. For many, their lives ended while at sea and their finally resting place was not a plot in a cemetery but somewhere on the bottom of a vast ocean.

American artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910) painted working men at sea as well as seaside vistas. His works are usually darker, and in some way foreboding, possibly due to his method of scale and size. While fully realistic his works are not noted for their detail. Check out Breezing Up (above top), Watching the Breakers (above), and The Herring Net (below). All of these convey both Homer’s fascination with the sea as well as its strength and power.

And speaking of fishing, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss starred in one of the most famous movies about what could happen when you are at sea. Of course we are referencing Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975)

from the Peter Benchley novel of the same name. Who will ever forget what Scheider as Police Chief Martin Brody said after seeing what they were going to do battle with:

You’re going to need a bigger boat.

Just as memorable if not more so was the chilling and unforgettable monologue by Robert Shaw as Quint as he remembered and spoke of what happened to the U.S.S. Indianapolis on June 29th, 1945. His conclusion: -

I’ll never put on a life-jacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest…

In case you were thinking, those guys were looking for the shark, fishing isn’t all that risky, how about The Perfect Storm (2000)

which starred George Clooney as Captain Billy Tyne

and Mark Wahlberg as Bobby Shatford. These guys went looking for fish. They needed a monster catch.

Instead they ran into a monster storm. They failed to heed the weather warnings.  Back in Gloucester, old-time sailor Quentin, after hearing where they were heading for said:

The Flemish Cap? Went there once…’62. Lots of fish…and lots of weather…

Not all sea captains meet the fate of Clooney’s Billy Tyne. We’ve discussed Captain Bligh from Mutiny on the Bounty in another article some time ago, so we will give him a pass this time. Sea captains are a hardy lot. They must be full of courage and they must know how to handle their men. Some are adored by their crews and revered while others are simply hated and reviled. Let’s start with a very recent Captain who was so favorably accepted by the movie going public, that he was given two sequels to the original movie.

Of course this can be none other than Captain Jack Sparrow, of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Sparrow was played memorably by everyone’s favorite buccaneer Johnny Depp.

In a scene with the comely Elizabeth, Jack had this perfect description of what his ship and the life at sea meant to him,

Elizabeth: And you’ll be positively the most fearsome pirates in the Spanish Main.
Jack Sparrow: Not just the Spanish Main, luv. The entire ocean. The entire wo’ld. Wherever we want to go,we’ll go. That’s what a ship is, you know. It’s not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that’s what a ship needs but what a ship is… what the Black Pearl really is… is freedom.

Yes, freedom on the seas, and the freedom of the seas. Worth fighting for wouldn’t you say. In Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Russell Crowe portrays Captain Jack Aubrey. This Jack, unlike Depp’s Jack was a naval commander in the British Royal Navy. But he too was adored by his men.

This movie was set during the Napoleonic Wars.  Crowe pushes his ship and his men to their limits in pursuit of a  powerful French warship around the horn of South America.

His rallying cry to his men:

England is under threat of invasion, and though we be on the far side of the world,this ship is our home. This ship *is* England.

On another ship, in another war, the good guys and the bad guys are not clearly defined.  The Caine Mutiny (1954) from the Herman Wouk novel is the story of a US Naval Captain who showed signs of mental instability that could jeopardize the ship. He is relieved of command by a subordinate officer who will then face a court martial for mutiny.

Captain Phillip Francis Queeg was played by Humprey Bogart. Queeg was part dictator, part captain, and part supreme egotist. Speaking to Lt. Stephen Maryk (the late Van Johnson) who would later take command, Queeg said:

Mr. Maryk, you may tell the crew for me that there are four ways of doing things aboard my ship: The right way, the wrong way, the Navy way, and my way. They do things my way, and we’ll get along.

Maybe Queeg was a megalomaniac. He also said:

Aboard my ship, excellent performance is standard, standard performance is sub-standard, and sub-standard performance is not permitted to exist – that, I warn you.

So the case went to a court martial. Maryk was defended by Lt. Barney Greenwald who was portrayed by  Jose Ferrar in a brilliant performance. Greenwald did his job. He torpedoed the hapless Queeg in the courtroom, and Maryk was acquitted. But Greenwald was not happy about getting his client off. In a powerful concluding scene at a party celebrating Maryk’s acquittal, Greenwald faces Lt  Tom Keefer who was played by Fred MacMurray

I wanna drink a toast to you, Mr. Keefer. From the beginning you hated the Navy. And then you thought up this whole idea and you managed to keep your skirts nice and starched and clean, even in the court martial. Steve Maryk will always be remembered as a mutineer.

But you, you’ll publish your novel, you’ll make a million bucks, you’ll marry a big movie star, and for the rest of your life you’ll live with your conscience, if you have any. Here’s to the real author of the Caine mutiny. Here’s to you, Mr. Keefer. [Splashes wine in Keefer's face] If you wanna do anything about it, I’ll be outside. I’m a lot drunker than you are – so it’ll be a fair fight.

But sometimes a story on the high seas is not about the navy, or history, or even a mindless predator like a shark. Sometimes  it is about the most dangerous of all species. Man.

Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, and Billy Zane played the leads in Dead Calm (1989). This was, in no uncertain terms, a thriller on the high seas. Neill and Kidman play a married couple who sail off into the Pacific Ocean to try and forget about a tragic accident. In some dead calm waters, they come upon a mysterious yacht with Zane as the sole survivor. Of course they had no way of knowing that later they would have to fight for their lives

as the man who they helped, Hughie, was a homicidal maniac. This movie had a couple of memorable tag-lines:

High Seas – Deep Terror & In the middle of nowhere, there is nowhere to hide!

How about  one more – one more movie, one more famous ship, and one more Jack.

Can you guess what I am referring to?  I alluded to this way above in the 3rd paragraph when I mentioned ships so big they are called floating hotels. Yes, it can be no other then Titanic (1997) directed by James Cameron. To those of you who guessed Aquaman, I’m sorry  that is incorrect.

The Titanic only sailed once. Its maiden voyage was its last voyage. Though this is the story of an ill-fated ship,

it is also a classic love story between Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater.  The movie’s tag-line was:

A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets

There is a wonderful exchange between Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack, and Kate Winslet’s Rose which perfectly encapsulates their attraction:

Jack: Where to, Miss?
Rose: To the stars.

Later, in their last moments, there’s a memorable line by Rose, as she’s letting go of Jack’s hand as he has already perished,

I’ll never let go, Jack. I promise.

Since the movie begins with an elderly woman, who was a survivor of the Titanic, reminiscing, or should I say still struggling, years and years later, to come to terms with what occurred that fateful night,

we know what is going to happen over the next two plus hours of the movie. Her words are unforgettable, and a fitting way to close this article which I have chosen to call Three Jacks.

Fifteen-hundred people went into the sea, when Titanic sank from under us. There were twenty boats floating nearby… and only one came back. One. Six were saved from the water, myself included. Six… out of fifteen-hundred. Afterward, the seven-hundred people in the boats had nothing to do but wait… wait to die… wait to live… wait for an absolution… that would never come.

Thanks for reading.

Mother of Cities to me,
For I was born in her gate,
Between the palms and the sea,
Where the world-end steamers wait.

So Bombay was not only Kipling’s birthplace, but was also the port of entry for most of the Europeans who emigrated to India in the times when one traveled to India by ship. Bombay Gate, likely where those steamers  Kipling refers to made port, is just steps from the stately and regal Taj Mahal Hotel which was a target of those recent attacks.

—-

A pair of movies about illicit love had come to my attention recently, before the news emanating from Mumbai, and we will get to them shortly. But first, to set the scene, and to provide a historical background, let’s look at a bigger and an older picture.

For many years, the entire Indian subcontinent which now includes Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, was considered to be simply India. As you can see in the above map, from the pre-independence era, Pakistan, and Bangladesh did not exist as independent nations, nor were they on any map.

India was and is a huge and diverse country containing a multiplicity of languages, religions, and customs. Centuries ago the land was made up mostly of princely states, and small kingdoms, each with its own ruler. And even though the land was big enough, the sub-continent was not unified.

Though the country is millenniums old, it was just in the last three hundred years that the British arrived. First as the British East India Trading Company, and then by the mid 19th Century, ‘India’ was colonized as a holding of the United Kingdom. While the British unified the country, and while they helped to build a land with a codified legal system and an efficient administrative arm of the government, it was good but only on the surface. The people of India ultimately chafed and resented the yoke of British colonialism that had been placed on them.

Gandhi and Jinnah

Nehru and Gandhi

 Nehru appeals to his audience

Eventually, the British had to give up the control of India, and the modern state of India officially came into existence. It was created as a consequence of years and months of public statesmanship, political maneuvering behind closed doors, non-violent protests, and the Quit India movement. At the stroke of Midnight on August 15th, 1947,  India was at once independent and partitioned. Jawaharlal Nehru gave a famous speech called Tryst With Destiny, which began:

“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”

Simultaneously, the independent nation of Pakistan was created to the northwest. An eastern wing of Pakistan was also created and located to the northeast. This parcel later fought for its own independence and became the nation of Bangladesh in 1971.

But boundaries on a map, and real life are two completely different things. In fact The Partitioning of India did not go down easily at ground level as millions of people were displaced, having to abandon their homes to move to a place where they would be amongst their own coreligionists. Violence and extreme communal strife occurred.

This is of course is just a brief and extremely elementary surface sketch of the history. But once the layers of government, politics, economics, and religion are peeled back, and we look at the men and women of India, at the level of individual persons, we see that they are still susceptible to the attractions of the opposite sex. Often people were still attracted to each other despite the communal, religious, racial or ethnic differences, as well as the lack of societal approval. It seemed that when when passion reared its head, other considerations might be forgotten.

I’m going to look at four examples, all of which were set in India, of the effects and aftermath of events when fictional members of one race or creed sought to mix, or wanted to mix with a member of the opposite sex as well as a member of a different ethnic or religious group. In these examples we will find that art once again is only an imitation of life.

A Passage to India was a novel written by E.M.Forster in 1924 and was brought to the screen, sixty years later, in 1984, by the famed movie producer/director David Lean. This is a story about tensions between Indians and the colonial British which come to a boil when a white female tourist, Adela Quested, accuses a young Indian, Dr. Aziz, of rape during a visit to the Marabar Caves.

Aziz’s trial, and its run-up and aftermath, bring out all the racial tensions and prejudices between indigenous Indians and the British colonists who ruled India at the time.

Over the years this novel has brought forth discussions on whether, given the time when the book was published in 1924, an Indian could be friends with an Englishman. Or were the British actually racists? Or how could the western minds, which generally need to categorize everything, get its arms around the stunning diversity of India. While I did not read Forster’s novel, I did see the movie and do recommend it. And yes, though the novel was written more than 80 years ago, you can still buy it today,

The Jewel In the Crown - was a TV Series based on Paul Scott’s novels collectively called “The Raj Quartet”. This series of novels explored the ramifications of the British presence in South Asia. While this is about the social and political atmosphere across India, the stories are told both on a personal as well as a national level. To be sure, desire, duty, and destiny repeatedly intersect. The outcomes are always dire, often disastrous.

In the first novel in the Quartet, which was entitled, as was the TV series, The Jewel In The Crown, Daphne Manners, portrayed by Susan Woolridge, a young lady from England,  had come out to India to find herself and to find her fortune which might include a husband. But she found life a struggle in India. As the first book opens, Daphne has been raped in the Bibighar Gardens in the fictional Indian city of Mayapore.

Hari Kumar, whose role was acted by Art Malik, was a British lad of Indian heritage who had spent all but two years of his entire life in Britain. He “fit in” in England. He had enjoyed a public school education (in England this actually means a private school) and enjoyed what was considered a privileged life. But when he came out to India as an adult, he decidedly did not fit in. In his own words, Hari/Harry was both ‘English and black’. He could not communicate in any of the Indian languages which isolated him from the Indians themselves. And for the British in India, he was simply another Indian. Never mind his British education and sensibilities. He will be accused of the rape.

Lt. Colonel Ronald Merrick, (performed by Tim Piggott-Smith) was the police Inspector who held Hari responsible for the rape. He kept Kumar imprisoned, he tortured him, and all the while, he knew Kumar was innocent. Merrick resented Kumar’s excellent British education, which he didn’t have, and all the advantages Kumar had in England. Merrick was also a rejected suitor to Miss Manners.

And there you have the main players, at least as the first novel of the Raj Quartet, as well as the TV Series, begins. This rape was the linchpin that started Scott’s novels, as well as the TV Series, which was produced by Granada TV. But the Raj Quartet and TV series were more than just the stories of Daphne Manners, Ronald Merrick, and Hari Kumar. Daphne later dies in childbirth. Kumar becomes incidental, and Merrick’s homosexual tendencies became known, and he will die in disgrace. But the story began with the forbidden attraction to Hari by Daphne.

The overall agenda of both the novels and the TV series was the final days of the British Raj (ruler-ship) in India. The novels were a vast look at what was happening, globally, nationally, and very locally in India at the time. Remember, when Paul Scott wrote the 1st book of the series, it was 1966. The British were only a single generation removed from India’s Independence and the partition of the subcontinent. There is no doubt that those events pre-occupied many people for many years.

As for Mr. Paul Scott, the author of the books, it was merely twenty years after India’s independence when the first book of the Quartet was published. Was he obsessed or not is a question I cannot answer. I personally read each of the four novels, as well as watched the entire mini-series which was was 14 episodes. It was broadcast from January 9th 1984 to April 3rd, 1984.

Think of all that is apparent as well as what might be below the surface in this quote from the book,

“Ah no, waste no pity on young Kumar. Whatever he got while in the hands of the police he deserved. And waste no pity on her either. She also got what she deserved.”

The above was spoken with something other than affection, wouldn’t you say? And isn’t it a telling remark about the people’s reactions to that tragic event in the Bibighar Gardens, or on a larger scale, weren’t those remarks a key indicator of the differential between colonial masters and an indigenous population?

Before The Rains (2007) is a movie set in southern India in the late 1930s. This provocative tale traces the story of three people caught in an inexorable web of forbidden romance and dangerous secrets. The English spice planter, John Moores (acted by Linus Roche), seemingly represents all that is good about the colonial times.

Despite the growing resistance by the Indians to the British, Moores provides jobs and incomes for the local people by deciding to build a bigger and better road than the existing one, which as you can see in the above image, was barely big enough for a small lorry.  This would enable more spices to be sent out from the plantation in larger quantities and much faster, which would increase profits and be good for everyone. At least that is what he thought. He must have this road built before the rains (monsoons) come. But other thoughts also occupied him.

While his wife and son are away in England, he begins an affair with his housemaid, Sajani, as acted by Nandita Das.

Sajani is caught between her traditional Indian marriage, and the certainty that she would be cast out of her own community if her affair with Moores is discovered. But, facing this deadly ostracism, she makes a decision which has tragic consequences.

Between Moores and Sanjani, is the plantation’s foreman, T.K. (Rahul Bose) He desires the increase in status and lifestyle that his job with Moores brings him. Yet he is bound by the customs, rituals, and mores of his own people. He will face a monumental decision when he must choose to either cast his lot with his boss, Moores,

or help his own people determine what was Sajani’s fate. His risk – nothing short of his own life and freedom. As the film’s tagline says, Passion has its price.

The Bengali Night (1988) – a very young Hugh Grant, in his first starring role,  is featured as Alain, a French engineer,

who becomes entangled in a forbidden romance with his Indian employer’s eldest daughter, Gayatri, portrayed by Supriya Pathak. As their passion ignites, the East-meets-West clash of cultures leads to surprising and tragic consequences.

While this wasn’t a particularly good movie, the real-life back story was. The original source material was a 1933 novel by Mircea Eliade called Bengal Nights. Eliade the author, who left Europe in 1930 to work in India

was in fact the real life source for the character of Alain. But there was a real person behind the Gayatri character too. Her name was Maitreyi Devi, who met Eliade in the early 1930′s. She was the inspiration for Gayatri. She only became aware of Eliade’s book some 40 years later in the 70′s. Following confrontations with Eliade , though they had time to take a photo together,

she thought she had exacted a promise from him that the novel would never be published in English. In 1974, Devi published her own version of the story in Bengali which went to great lengths to dispute the implications of Eliade’s passionate novel.  The English title of her book was It Does Not Die.

Devi claimed that at least some Eliade’s novel was a fantasy – a product of a fevered imagination, roasted by the steamy and exotic Calcutta, and a distortion of the real events between them . Years later, after watching the movie go into production in Calcutta, she brought a lawsuit against the producers of the movie, and actually it got to court. She claimed the movie was insulting to Hindus, and pornographic, and sought to bar it’s release.

I can’t tell you the results of that lawsuit but the film itself, a French production, was shown only once in India, at a film festival, and was never released to theaters in the USA. However, now it is available in DVD. Eliade’s novel was not published in English until 1994. In fact, a lengthy article was written in 1996 by the Indian authoress Ginu Kamani,

and published by The University of Chicago Press. Its title was A Terrible Hurt: The Untold Story behind the Publishing of Maitreyi Devi, and is available online. So the story of a young Frenchman who arrived in Calcutta in 1930, went on to become an erotic novel, then 40 plus years later, a second book was published as a response and contradiction. Fourteen years after that, a movie based on the original book was made, which was followed by a lawsuit, and then,  a half dozen years after that, a lengthy article was published about these events. All of this stemmed from what may have occurred on a Bengali night so many years ago.

Since beginning this column, another movie came to my attention. The Namesake (2007) was directed by Mira Nair, and its source was the novel of the same name written by Jhumpa Lahiri.

 Mira Nair

Jhumpa Lahiri

This is a tale of a Bengali couple who immigrate from Calcutta to Queens, NY. It is a generational picture, and eventually the couple’s first child, who was named Gogol by his father, after the Russian author Nikolai Gogol, matures and seeks to find his own way between the cross-cultural experiences that he grew up with and faced as a first generation US citizen born of Indian parents, and the lifestyle he chose for himself as an adult.

Gogol is played by  Kal Penn who is best known for his work in the Harold and Kumar films. As Gogol, his path leads him to two wrenching love affairs. His first love was an American girl named Maxine, played by Jacinda Barrett,

with whom he lives until he finds out that she has cheated on him. His second love turns out to be the westernized but hot-to-trot Moushimi. Ironically, the role of the Indian girl Moushimi was cast with Zuleikha Robinson, an actress born in London of mixed ancestry.

Though this film is not about forbidden love and the recklessness that towering passions bring forth, it does place the viewer in a position to feel and understand the struggles of Gogol to find his identity as he straddles both cultures and follows his own passions. In fact, there are two taglines for this movie. The first is: Two Worlds. One Journey. The second tagline is: Know Where You Came From to Get Where You’re Going.  This film was given awards for excellence by a few film boards.

Mr. Kipling also wrote:

Oh East is East and West is West and Never the Twain Shall Meet

Those words have passed the test of time in the sense that while we may not always remember that these were the words of Kipling, we do find those words memorable. In his lifetime (1865-1936) Kipling was considered one of the finest and most popular writers in poetry and prose. He even was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. But later on his works came to viewed as controversial. Some claimed he was prejudicial and militaristic. Others said his words promoted British imperialism.  In fact Kipling was a lightning rod for discussion for most of the first half of the twentieth century. I wonder if his words had an influence on E.M.Forster, or Paul Scott?

Clearly I haven’t provided any answers to the questions brought forth by these books and films. Nor did I intend to. I have merely presented these to you. To sample them, or to try them on, or to weigh and measure your own sensitivities to this topic is an action that each of you will have to decide to do on your own. But of this we are certain, that when people with cultural differences meet, and heady passion is added to the mix, this recipe may very well become a combustible event.

They weren’t your standard version of a Hollywood couple. In fact, at the time of his death, they had lived in Connecticut for many years.

While many of you are very familiar with Mr. Newman’s work as an actor; Cool Hand Luke, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Color Money are some of his best known films and readily come to mind. I think only some of you may recall that Joanne Woodward is an Oscar winner herself.

She won an Oscar for Best Performance by Actress in 1958 for her role in The Three Faces of Eve. This was the story of a 1950′s Georgia housewife who was brought to a local psychiatrist. Her symptoms – headaches and an occasional blackout. The 1950′s doctors hadn’t the same amount of knowledge and prescription drugs that today’s MD’s have, so that when three distinct and different personalities emerged from the same person, it was a newsworthy event.

It was also a spectacular role for an actress, and Ms Woodward walked off with the Oscar. She played a mousey housewife (Mrs. Eve White), a sultry and sexy seductress who called herself Eve Black, and a sensible modern woman who called herself Jane.

It was a dream role, and brought into focus not only mental disorders and illnesses, but made men think of how the women in their lives also played multiple roles like wife, best friend, and lover; all hopefully without acting.

My topic is not really this movie, or is it about mental illnesses like Multiple Personality Disorder. The reality is that everyone of us had a mother, every female was a daughter, and women fulfill the roles of friends and lovers all over the world. All of these are possible and are so no matter how brief the time frame was. Men tend to see women in a variety of ways such as a parental figure, a boss or an employee, a sexual partner, a rival, a friend, a daughter, or as a sister. Of course there are variations of all of the above, and the ageing process has a role in that.

But once you remove the trimmings created by environment, economics, and social order we can safely ‘categorize’ our loving partners into three main subsets: tradition has them as WIFE, MOTHER, & LOVER. In short if you marry a woman, you’ll end up with all three. Given that, it is no surprise to see that in ART, and more often than you might think, we can find the three faces of women, who obviously are not all named Eve, but are all descendants of the first Eve. I’d venture to say that it was no coincidence that the title role in Ms. Woodward’s Oscar performance was called Eve.

In art we see many examples of this. Album covers, pop art, or iconic stone idols are often portrayed in threes. This album cover (above) is from the Australian musical group Vespers Descent. And the album’s title? 3 Faces of Eve.

The next one is obviously light-hearted and is the work of Artist Sonya Paz. And the work below is from the Functionalartist, yet another version of The Three Faces of Eve.

The stone idol is The Three Faces of Shiva.

One more? How about this artful bed quilt. ?

I think there’s a pattern here. And if there’s not a pattern in the art world, we can at least agree that there’s a pattern within this article.

Chinese artist Yanqun Xue paints in the style of Classic Realism. His paintings are almost exclusively of women. Not surprisingly he has three categories for his works: Nudes, Girls, and Portraits. Expressed in other terms, those categories become clearer. Nudes are still Nudes. Girls are clothed but relaxed either by themselves or at play with other girls. And Portraits are formal where the women are looking their very best, and hope that this is how other see them.

Nude 216

Nude 205

Since we all know what Nudes are, let’s begin with them. Actually I think these are the least interesting of his works. Even though the nude models all have wonderful bodies, none of the poses are dynamic, nor do we see much in the way of detail. It’s like he’s trading with us – I’ll paint them without clothing, and you can expect the least amount of detail.

Before The Painting

The Afternoon

As for Girls, we might also call them Traditional Girls. These women are not in modern dress. But don’t let that stop you.

The Music

The Earth No. 4

Please note the rich blues and deep red.

The Sound of Bamboo

I also call to your attention the sharp creases of the lady’s garment in The Sound of Bamboo.

The Dancer

The Folding Fan

Finally, notice how detailed the Portraits are – for example, the intricate lace patterns in The Dancer  and The Folding Fan . Or the delightfully patterned chaise lounge in Lili.

Lili

The wonderful design of Christine‘s dress along with the wood trim of the sofa and the curtains behind her.

Christine

A Lady In The Picture

I also like the elegance of a Lady in the Picture as well as the sophisticated silk dress that Linda wears along with the white chair that she is seated on.

Linda

These works of Art are indeed Yanqun Xue’s three style modes and are a wonderful tie-in to our theme of three faces. I guess you can see the skill and heart that went into creating these works. Bringing them to your attention is our pleasure. Thanks for visiting.

While you toss that around in your head, what happened this month to make it so unique? Well, when I originally wrote this, Presidential hopeful Howard Dean (above) had just lost his cool and began that long, deep slide into political oblivion. The political pot still boils angrily, and now, the names include Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (below). What’s ahead – a debate or a tempest?

Mel Gibson had interpreted the New Testament for us in his movie, The Passion of The Christ, and people carried placards in front of movie houses either protesting or lauding his efforts. What’s next — a torch-bearing procession? This year the Oscar may go to a film with the unlikely title of Babel. Just kidding – The Departed got the gold.

Alex Rodriguez had been imported to play third base for the Evil Empire, and once again, the Red Sox Nation wept. Now the talk is about will he leave next year. Howard Stern, who had been yanked off the air by the Clear Channel Radio Corporation in six separate markets, threatened that he might quit. Well he did. Now he plies his trade on satellite radio for millions a year. When you wake up you never know what you will see in the papers.

But when you travel you can make certain you like what you see. A room with a view is so important to you when you travel. Hotels charge a premium for a view or a high floor. Everyone would prefer a high floor with a river view, or a park view, or a view that opens on a famed site like a Cathedral, or a Tower, or even the harbor. Can’t afford one? You might have to stay in a lower floor, with a view of the back of a laundro-mat.

Then again, you can always read AoV. Have a look at some views from windows around the world, speaking cinematically of course.

The park view (above), alongside the Arno River is set in Florence, Italy and is from Calmi, Cuori, Apassionati. The star-crossed lovers have a reunion after 10 years apart. They meet at the top of the Duomo in Florence. Strictly speaking, that’s not a view you can get from any room in the city. This one was done with a helicopter.

Above is a view of The Duomo in Florence from a room, from the movie, coincidentally entitled, A Room with a View.

The green rolling hillsides in Tuscany are from Under The Tuscan Sun, as is the Italian coastal view. This movie starred the luscious Diane Lane.

The local church spire is in Paris, France from the film Le Divorce, with Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts.

And our last window view is of the island-drenched seacoast in Hong Kong from the film My Left Eye Sees Ghosts - that’s Hong Kong movie star Sammi Cheng in motion above, looking lovely, and adorning the movie poster below.

If flying a long way for a view is not your cup of tea, and you’d rather not hand over sums of money to some hotelier, then visit our pages often for absolutely stunning views. Our specialty is not to show you some inspiring cityscapes or the countrysides outside your window but instead, we offer wonderful views of some gorgeous and delightful women. Do drop in – reservations not required.
Originally published March 1, 2004; now updated for JustMeMike’s New Also on Video.

Our video reviews generally are from spots all over the globe. But sometimes the best trip is the one you don’t take. Staying home can be as thrilling as anything you could imagine. You betcha!

Alfred Hitchcock, the famed suspense movie director, had far beyond the minimum levels of imagination. Many of his dreams became motion pictures, and many of those have been loved by multiple generations of film-goers worldwide. Plenty of you are familiar with his works. Your grandparents may have seen his films in theaters when they were dating 50 years ago. Or maybe you caught some of them on TV.

In 1954 Hitchcock released Rear Window, starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. In the 50s, these two were right there at the top of Hollywood’s favorites lists. Hitchcock wanted us to consider the voyeuristic aspects of film — and not coincidentally, television — so he brought to the cinema the story of a photographer forced to spend six weeks at home recuperating from a broken leg.

Stewart employs binoculars as he watches the lives of his neighbors unfold before his eyes. His view into each of their apartments via their windows is not too different from what homebound housewives, recuperating patients, or elderly retired people do when watching actors on television daytime soap operas, or evening sit-coms.

Hitchcock asks us, the film viewers, to be partners with Jimmy Stewart. And we the viewers are drawn in more quickly and efficiently than you might have thought. And we are pleased because it is fun to watch the gyrations of Miss Torso the dancer. We wonder what is going on behind the drawn shades of the newlywed couple. And we feel a tug at our heartstrings when Miss Lonely-hearts again finds her date disappoints her.

We are drawn in despite our built-in reservations. Most of us were brought up to mind our own businesses. We learn early to not ask too many personal questions. And don’t we all value our privacy? Hitchcock breaks through the walls of privacy and we are part of the adventure. We soon share Stewart’s suspicions about his neighbor Lars Thorwald and we aren’t sure of what has become of his bedridden wife.

Later in the film we come to think that Stewart is so preoccupied with watching his neighbors, and figuring out what happened to the ailing Mrs Thorwald, that it seems that he prefers that activity to enjoying the pleasures of the gorgeous Grace Kelly. And that’s exactly what Hitchcock wants us to think. He is saying, hey, we are all voyeurs, we can’t stop, and we love it.

Don’t bother to deny it. Don’t we love looking out of our windows when a car pulls into the neighbors’ driveway? Wouldn’t you be tempted to sneak a peek at your next door neighbor’s wife when she sunbathes in her backyard? Don’t we love to look at pictures and videos of women wearing little or no clothing? In fact, you are reading my column which discusses videos about naked or nearly naked women, and isn’t my column voyeuristic in its nature?

Maybe we aren’t ‘spying’ on the ladies who appear as models, and just as assured is the fact that they are willing participants. No, the truth is we love to watch, just like Jimmy Stewart, in this classic Hitchcock thriller, Rear Window. I am sure that sales of binoculars, and zoom lenses took off after this movie was released.

Fortunately, you can exercise your right to voyeurism without the need of binoculars right here on the pages of AoV. Simply visit our site on a regular basis and our journey into private bedrooms, studios, and backyards with a close-up looks at some of the world’s most beautiful and bounteous bodies can begin.

Originally published February 4, 2005 – Updated for JMM’s New Also On Video – Jan. 28th, 2007

But somewhere in time, the suits that have the corner offices in Takeshobo, Livedoor, Girls Record, Bunkasha, and other assorted production houses, hunkered down with the bean counters, the accountants to discuss declining revenues. The competition from the JAV industry was eating away at profits. So the word came down – the catch phrase wasn’t show us the money; instead it was “Show us your tits!”. And so, nowadays – the cleavages are deeper, the bikini tops are smaller, or in some cases, the models aren’t even wearing tops in the usual sense of the word.

But all is not well. Some of our production houses have lost their focus. Nowadays every scene is over-the-top (pun intended). The days of demureness and cute are becoming harder and harder to find. It’s as if the entire bikini idol industry has gone down the rabbit-hole, just like the literary darling Alice, of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

Bikini idol producers are becoming more and more lost as they struggle to find the way back. When Alice was in discussion with the Cheshire Cat, she said,

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where –” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“– so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

So viewing endless miles of digital data strings leads us to the conclusion that we are deep in the rabbit’s hole with no sign posts directing us toward a different destination. Boobs are likely to become as commonplace on screen as noses and earlobes. Ok – I’m jesting to a degree.

But let’s check out two recent releases. Mami or is it Maya Azuma appears in Guruguru Mami-chan from Takeshobo. Check out the cover – sea shells instead of a bikini!

As we work our way through the DVD, you can see that in every scene there’s a very revealing costume. Though the degree of revealing is different in each scene, all of it is daring and even more daring.

From sea shells, to cut-off tees, to wisps of cloth, to sea weed; there’s a certain inventiveness at work here. You can be sure the camera crews and the individual directors are working hard to “show us the tits.”

I do appreciate the variety of locations as well. No will complain about a day at the beach, or deep in the jungle, or up in the hills for a waterfall. It all works. By the way, when we see Maya Azuma in regular clothes, doesn’t she look nice. You’d never guess she makes a pile of Yen by flying off to a resort with a production crew to flaunt her body for money.

Sally Yoshizawa is another cute girl. She’s shorter, and is a bit overweight. But she’s large busted. In the DVD entitled Yureyure Tengoku from Takeshobo, she too will offer up copious views of her bust.

This DVD doesn’t have the same variety of costumes or the elegant and exotic locations as did Ms Azuma’s. The video had more of nearby locations and many of the scenes are indoors. Looks like Sally has the bigger bust and Maya has the more daring costumes. What ever your preference, you can’t lose these days. It’s bigger and bare which are the bywords in bikini idol productions these days. And that’s ok with me. But I’d like the pendulum to swing back and forth.

But the director working with the busty Ms Yoshizawa hasn’t given up following orders that come down from the Executive Producer. Get those juggs on screen.

So we can see a progression on an industry basis:

From demure to sexy, from sexy to daring.
From daring to almost naked.
Then from nearly naked to naked.
And the last rung on the ladder – from naked to fully engaged in sex.

But that last step of the progression is a different chapter for another day, and another column.

What ever happened to the good old days when Rio Natsume would struggle to return a tennis ball, or Harumi Nemoto would be pedalling a bycicle or driving a golf ball. Those were the days. If we ever get out of the rabbit hole will we ever find them again?

just so you know, Karin (like fellow b-list idol Aoki Rin) made the transition to AV idol this September – expect Kawase Yuna to follow suit.

I’m like, well that’s some news. I knew she went from bikinis to bare; but I hadn’t expected a quick turn from bikinis to bare to blowjobs this fast.

At least she signed on with a successful franchise: Sex On The Beach. This of course means that she got a trip to some island paradise as well. Here is the box cover.

In case you hadn’t heard of the Sex on the Beach series, another fabulous model also did one for them. Maybe she was the first. I’m talking about Yua Aida, and here is a look at her box cover.

As mentioned above, Rin Aoki had a rather interesting career as a Gravure Idol. She worked regularly, and after Layfull got her started with their Eight label in videos which started with nearly naked, to simulated solo sex, to lesbian sex, she was unable to resist the lure of larger amounts of Japanese Yen offered if she would have on-screen sex with men. We all know Rin is no longer a bikini idol and today she’s known as an AV actress.

Here is the first cover from S1 that got Rin started.

Of course, away from Japan, many of the Score Group models cross over X-rated to XXX rated. The most famous was Chloe Vevrier. I recall when that event happened, people were shocked, or horrified, or stated thay would buy it immediately.

So what is your take on this sort of thing? Are you indifferent? Will you buy or will you not become a buyer when or if your favorite Gravure Idol signs up with MoodyZ or Waap Productions, or with one of the dozens of productions houses who keep the shelves stocked to overflowing with ever increasing numbers of new AV content?

Comments welcomed…and appreciated. What do you think?