AMERICAN HUSTLE at the ODEON QUAY

Based very loosely on a true story , this film is a more mature version of Usual Suspects with subtle though more lasting tones.The theme is how characters are born or find themselves through no real fault of their own in impossible situations morph and survive , sometimes becoming more real to their true natures or bending completely out of shape into monsters.

This review from The Guardian gives a good synopsis of the superficial aspects of the plot.

This more sophisticated review from The Vulture looks into some of the philosophical themes brought out from the film.

"A title at the start of American Hustle claims that some of it “is actually true,” though a glance at the record shows not much. Irving is based on Melvin Weinberg, who bought his freedom from prison by setting up fellow crooks — and led the FBI by happy accident to the mayor of Camden, assorted congressmen, one U.S. senator, and mobsters eager to raise capital for Atlantic City casinos. The sting was indeed built around a bogus sheik. But Russell turns Abscam into a sardonic morality play with victims that include the urban poor."

The video below has the unique insights of the director and cast discussing the characters and subject matter of the film and how they inter-related.

BOBBY WOMACK at the ROYAL CONCERT HALL GLASGOW

Bobby Womack had what must be the coolest roadie you will ever see , sharp-suited , shirt fully buttoned with glittering red tie and , would you believe - brown brogues.He had the Moves as well , like a solo Temptation , it was like watching a  multi-coloured version Nation Of Islam follower.

Womack was also in top voice.It takes a rare legend who can name-drop Chaka Khan,Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke and still come across as a humble person merely quoting his former workmates.And it takes an even greater legend to cover a Sam Cooke classic like "Change is Gonna Come" and do it justice.

This review from the Guardian sums of the night quite well.

""So many friends of mine are no longer here," says Bobby Womack. "But I always give them respect." Pushing 70, and having survived a recent cancer scare, Womack still looks, and sounds, like a fighter. Few other performers playing Celtic Connections, Glasgow's long-standing winter roots festival, would take to the stage in a red leather ensemble of jacket, trousers and military cap, like a superfly Che Guevara. Even the opening number, Womack's cool, hard-knock hit Across 110th Street, sounds like a challenge to the crowd: you'd better keep up."

Womack gives a detailed interview about his early life , successes and troubles in The Big Issue Magazine  , including the casual yet horrifying racism, segregation and apartheid practised only a few decades ago.

"If I could relive any moment in my life it would be the first time we were called up on stage to open up for Sam Cooke. I was 16 and travelling with Sam. At that time, if you were black you couldn’t even stay in a hotel. You had to stay in motels, and you had to report when you were coming in and when you were going out. At the shows, whites sat on one side and blacks sat on the other. It was scary. But Sam used to say to me: “Bobby, don’t let your spirit get broken. We have to do this for the world to get better.” Sam also used to say to me: “Look at it this way. In a motel, you get more tail.”"

SCOTLAND: A JAPANESE PERSPECTIVE at STRATHCLYDE UNIVERSITY

Scotland in a Japanese perspective: JDS’s ‘Our Scotland: a Japanese perspective‘ was screened, which is about such issues as inclusion, multiculturalism, and what is meant by sharing other cultures.  In it, a comparison is made between a Scottish ceilidh and a Japanese festival run by Japanese Matsuri for Glasgow.

The main difference brought out in this lecture was Scotland and its People take great pride when its contribution is taken up and made its own by other cultures and nations whilst the Japanese are somehow less open and wonder how others wish to embrace their traditions.

Even something simply as an Origami workshop being run by locals in Glasgow was looked about as odd , compelling a visiting Japanese visitor to remark such classes should not be hosted by locals unless they can get a Japanese teacher.

A good example is the Japanese song  "Hotaru No Hikari" which is sung in Japanese ceremonies , get-togethers and Graduations.A lot of Japanese are surprised the song is based on "Auld Lang Syne" by Rabbie Burns , brought over to the Japanese when many Scots were invited over by the Imperial Court to plan and design in modern Industrialisation of Japan in the 19th century.An entry in this blog gives a brief history of how the song came into being in the Japanese Culture.

There is no real concept of inclusion in the Japanese culture , you are either Japanese or an outsider , the half-way house of being a citizen does really come into play as far as society is concerned , even third and fourth generation of descendants of Japanese immigrants from the diaspora , such as the extensive Brazilian-Japanese community are not full citizens.

According to the Lecturers Japan has got a long way to go to being as multi-cultural and inclusive as Scotland has become , and example of the distance to go came from anecdotes of the documentary screenings in at Kochi University and Fukushima University with much silence and bafflement , only enthusiasm being in short supply.There was even a touch of anti-Sino discrimination directed at the Lecturer being he has a Taiwanese name.

Hotaru no Hikari

Hotaru no Hikari

Hotaru no Hikari

12 YEARS A SLAVE at the ODEON QUAY

From the hype of others i thought it was going to be a film with the protagonists doing staring competitions and glaring at the screen but it is a surprisingly well tempoed film in which the moments of contemplation ( so hard to fully translate to screen) aptly capture the bewilderment , alienation , isolation , shock , loneliness and desperate frustration of the characters situation.

This preview and summary of the film gives an indication of the profound affect this film , which ironically could only be made by a non-US director much the same way it took a British Director to make Mississippi Burning , has had on American audiences.Especially check out the contribution of Harvard Professor Vincent Brown which comes at the 3min20sec mark


Critic Mark Kermode gives a fair review in this Guardian Article.
 

"The key to Solomon's existence is the suppression of his rage – he must feign illiteracy and subservience to survive – and it's notable that for all the anger and shame that the film stirs up about recent history, McQueen remains exceptionally even-handed and controlled in his treatment of all the key players, black and white alike."

This article from the Mirror Newspaper gives a very good background story about the real character portrayed in the film.

"Even Solomon’s descendants had little idea of his life, although several owned battered copies of his book. Estate agent Clayton Adams was 16 when he picked up his mum Carol’s copy. He had the same reaction as McQueen. He said: “I couldn’t put it down. I asked my mother how she had come about the book and she explained he was my great, great, great, great grandfather."

All of this should lead us to the actual Book which is the inspiration for the Film , written by Solomon Northup in 1853 , you can get a synopsis and reviews from this Amazon link 

JAPAN @ STRATHCLYDE LECTURE SERIES

The University of Strathclyde and Japan Desk Scotland are holding a series of lectures on Japan and its relationship with Scotland.Japan’s geography and history was introduced as well as cultural similarities and differences between Scotland and Japan. There was also a screening of ‘Yokoso (Welcome to) Japan‘, a 10-minute video made by Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport which you can see below:


Japan is 80% mountainous , has 67% covering of Forests and its almost 130 Million population live mostly on the coastal areas with only 13% of the land being arable ( compared to 67% in the UK).These statistics alone give an indicator of the historical determinism which means Japanese Society and Community is so structured with a Top to Bottom culture of obedience and respect for authority , strict organisation and natural discipline for every member to play a role as a cog in a machine-like mechanism directed from above.This is not merely a cultural trait but an essential necessity to harness the required provision to survive in such an extreme and delicate food chain without going through the attendant famines and disasters that a more ad-hoc system would inevitably yield to.This also explains the great dependency to the natural bounties of the sea , something we should bear in mind when glibly condemning the Japanese likeness for Marine foods which do not match our cultural tastes, objections from us should be more receptive to the Japanese relations with sea food and should be more in helping them to preserve endangered stocks of what to them is a staple diet.To their credit very little of seafood catches are wasted as just as with the lack of arable land they also do not have too many places to store excess waste.Hence the Japanese culture has for a long time practised a natural occurring recycling process.

The lecturers did not sugar-coat or gloss over some negative things about Japanese culture , giving a very fair assessment of the positive and some negative outlooks and behaviours.For example , even today , the place of Woman in the public sphere is limited by a male-dominated cultural outlook.A Scottish Woman Manager who went as part of a Business Delegation did not receive even one business card from a Japanese counterpart even though it is a standard practice for cards to be exchanged among callers , all the Men in her party did get one.The lecturers themselves , who went back to Japan after nearly 25 years abroad , a man and a woman, were pulled up by their academic colleagues when the man consulted with the woman and actually acted on her input even though the woman was more qualified on the particular topic in question.

Privacy is also something that visitors to Japan might be slightly uncomfortable with, in Japanese houses there are mostly sliding doors without locks allowing persons to enter another persons room with easy access and the concept of staring is not considered rude as it would be here , something that happens a lot to foreigners.Tattoos of any kind are considered to be marking of gangs and the criminal underworld and you would be welcome in a public place with any showing.Most swimming pools even in International Hotels display notices that no persons with Tattoos are allowed.

Privacy is also an issue in the rubbish collection area.All bags are in clear see-through plastic and you have to put your name and address on the bag which means anyone can see clearly what you have been eating and doing with yourself , they can see what brands you use and literally tell what you had for dinner.Japan has for a long time that a very sophisticated recycling garbage disposal system in which there can be upto nine different types of separated rubbish bags , all in clear plastic and with your details on it. 

Japan has a very status orientated system with all kinds of etiquette for all kinds of occasions , the general rule is that hierarchy and age are respected.When one of the lecturers met with the Japanese Ambassador in London the diplomat was erect whilst the lecturer had to give a full and deep bow , a very unfamiliar role for the lecturer who would normally receive bows from the students.

We were also told of the rivalry between Kyoto ( which means capital) and Tokyo ( meaning Eastern Capital).Kyoto is the ancient capital for over a thousand years before Tokyo took over some 500 years ago.Kyoto regard Tokyo as the uncouth , uncultured , unsophisticated upstarts with no history whilst regarding themselves as the true home of the Emperors and the heritage of the Japanese code of life.The Cuisine are also different with some staples in Tokyo being unheard of in Kyoto and Meso being impossible to find in Tokyo.The sauces and spicing are also very different in both regions.

Family and Religion has also gone a large change in recent years.The devotion to working and lack of provision for child-services as well as the rupture of extended families looking after each other has meant that having children is now an economic and not lifestyle choice , even couples who would not mind having children are finding they simply cant afford to do so.This has meant Japans population is falling faster than most developed countries and the population is also getting older.Japan is not a particularly religious society , the very apt reason one of the lecturers gave was that religion was bonded to the state a long while back with a fusion of Buddhism and Shinto and has never that much appeal for this reason , the danger of this is , as happened in the past , that if you make loyalty to the Emperor or State your religion then the state may led you to dangerous avenues as we found the the 30s and 40s.

One important factor is the loss of the concept of a job for life in one organisation.This is not because the workers are more mobile and not loyal to working for one company but has been a top-down phenomenon in which companies want it to be easier to sack workers when there is an economic downturn rather than be obliged to be loyal patrons of a dedicated worker willing to give his whole career to the organisation.This is sadly a practice of modern neo-liberalism which has seeped into Japanese corporate working practices creating a worrying unemployment problem and has made Japan from being ,25 years ago, from the country with the smallest gap in income and wealth distribution to one with an increasing gap resembling unequal societies without the great Japanese value of togetherness and sharing of precious resources.