The White Tiger is not so beautiful.

I watched the acclaimed Netflix original White Tiger. I should say I did not resonate with the film so much. The White Tiger is not so beautiful.

It tells a story of class division and political dirt in India. The protagonist aspires to climb the social ladder, identifying himself with the white tiger he sees in a zoo. The beauty of the beast inspires him to break free from the slave mentality.

Although the satire is good and the actings superb, the script and editing lacked a crucial finishing touch, depicting only the crime and not the punishment. It may be OK to be bullish in the climb uphill, but if a self-reflection is lacking there it would fall short of a literally masterpiece, let alone a cinematic one.

To be fair, I haven't read the original novel yet. I might have different impressions from the presumably more nuanced text. 

If the film had some self-reflecting element at the end, I might have been more favourably inclined. The fact that it was received favourably by Western critics appears to suggest some element of political correctness applied to the rise of India and China by the West, repentant of its colonial past, which is good in itself but does not testify for the quality of the work. In all, I see it as a great missed opportunity.

An online conversation with Prof. Adrian Cheok and Senator Fraser Anning

 

I had the pleasure to have an online conversation with Prof. Adrian Cheok and Senator Fraser Anning.

I have been friends with Adrian for many years. Adrian suggested that I have a conversation with Senator Anning, and I gladly accepted. It is always interesting to get to know people and exchange ideas.

Although I don't necessarily agree with the views expressed by Senator Anning and Adrian, it is very important to compare notes and say what comes up to your mind honestly when you hear somebody say something contrary to your opinion. I also felt that I really needed to have an insight into Senator Anning's personality, the deeply seated motivations and values, before becoming too judgemental as the Zeitgeist of the social media era would tend to promote.

Here's the link to the youtube video that Adrian put up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLHnxUERilI

I thank Adrain and Senator Anning for the interesting conversation. I hope people can live in a spirit of diversity and inclusion everywhere. Please leave comments on this blog or the youtube video if you feel something needs to be said.

Why Dorothea's disappointment has universal repercussions.

I was walking in the backstreets of Tokyo after nightfall. It was a chilly January day, and I was listening to an audiobook of Middlemarch by George Eliot. This elaborate novel has established itself in the history of world literature despite its somewhat cumbersome structure. I imagined how Mary Anne Evans, who wrote under male pseudonym due to the unsavoury prejudice towards women at that time, must have felt when she wrote it. The intricate circumstances of gender-sensitive authorship of the novel is quite poignant. The young and talented Dorothea marries Mr. Casaubon, who appears to be culturally superior with significant ambitions. The disappointment of Dorothea in finding the dry and aged nature of Mr. Casaubon is a wonderful study of human psychology, if somewhat sarcastic.

Suddenly, while listening to the recording of Middlemarch on my iPhone in the chilly Tokyo night, I realized how any hopes of eternal fame is only an ultimately sad illusion generated by our reaction to our mortality. It is like the marriage of Dorothea to Mr. Casaubon. We stake our hopes on it, but it ultimately turns out to be without substance and empty. That is probably why Dorothea's disappointment has universal repercussions. I listen to George Eliot in Tokyo in the 21st century and am thankful for it. However, as far as the essence of existence is concerned, the life of Mary Anne Evans was there and then, and no more. The same is true for all of us. 

The Office American version quite moving from time to time.

 

So I have been watching The Office American version at last, as it is being streamed on Netflix in Japan.

I am a great fan of Ricky Gervais, and I enjoyed The Office U.K. version thoroughly. As many people would agree, The Office is arguably one of the best comedy shows ever made, in its creative juxtaposition of the comic and tragic, somewhat reminiscent of Shakespeare. 

I have naturally watched some episodes of The Office American version now and then, mostly on international flights, but have not viewed the series systematically until now.

I had my own trepidations, but the American version has actually turned out to have some fine points. 

Particularly interesting is the fact that perhaps in the U.S., there is not such a layer structure between the comedians and the "ordinary" people. The comedian (in this case the boss in the office) is also a member of the mediocre society. In the U.K., on the other hand, the comedian is probably superior in intelligence and dramatic grasp of life, a tradition carried by Ricky Gervais himself, although in an implicit style compared to, for example, Stephen Fry.

The fact that everybody is on the same board with equal humbleness makes The Office American version quite moving from time to time.

A comparison of the Chinese Dream with the American Dream

 

I have recently repeatedly heard news coverage of the Chinese Dream pushed by President Xi Jinping. In the Japanese media, the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Civilization is a phrase heard often, in relation to the Chinese Dream.

It would be great if the peoples of China would be able to enjoy the growth of the society in terms of economy or otherwise. On the other hand, it is hoped that diversity and individual freedom would be able to enhanced in China in the years to come.

In today's youtube posting I make a comparison between the Chinese dream and the American dream, with the latter more focused on the diversity of opinions and the individual freedom to pursue happiness.

Differences between the American and Chinese dreams.

When people split into twitter and parler

In today's youtube posting I discussed the permanent ban of Mr. Trump from twitter and its implications.

I fear that there is a danger that the platforms would split into physically defined echo chambers. Up to now, echo chambers did exist, but they were subsets on a single platform, such as twitter.

When people split into twitter and parler, for example, there would be an increased danger of more absolute segregation of people and opinions.

Youtube: Twitter vs Parler: Danger of platform-defined echo chambers

Review of Uncertain exhibit by Tasuo Miyajima @tatsuomiyajima @scai_bathhouse

The Uncertain exhibition at SCAI THE BATHHOUSE in the downtown area of Tokyo is a great leap forward into the brave new world by one of the world's greatest contemporary artist, Tasuo Miyajima.

https://www.scaithebathhouse.com/en/exhibitions/2020/11/Uncertain/

The art gallery, owned by Masami Shiraishi, is a cultural icon itself, being a converted public bathhouse close to the Tokyo Geidai (Tokyo University of the Arts) and The University of Tokyo in the Yanaka area of downtown Tokyo.

The new exhibition shows Miyajima's hallmark digits, but this time as a collection of paintings, oil on canvas.  The effect of bringing the LED numbers back into the realm of old school paintings, with twists on the canvas shapes and installations, is simply stunning. The 7 canvases are arranged in such ways so as to represent a particular digit, with the unused canvas lying in a ceremonial manner on the floor. Miyajima suggests a relocation of the canvases, based on the fate of specially designed dice telling which digit to install. 

For Tatsuo Miyajima, a graduate from the department of oil paintings of the Tokyo Geidai, this is perhaps the first venture into the venerable method of oil painting in his long and productive career. The result is an inspirational and poignant statement on the relation between the abstract and concrete, the ephemeral and permanent, and between the certain and uncertain in this time of great vulnerability for the human race. 

There are series of works with LED digits on white cloth, a statement perhaps on the co-existence of our organic self and the increasingly ubiquitous digital technology.

Photo Myself in front of the SCAI THE BATHHOUSE art gallery in Yanaka, Tokyo.