That is how the ride goes…

Tokyo Vice (Miniseries)

2 Seasons, 18 Episodes

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/tokyo_vice

I don't know why, but watching this miniseries reminded me of President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Southeast Asian countries. Everyone had much to say about Xi in private regarding the CCP's megalomaniac and imposing projects. Still, when the big Don landed in their backyard, leaders from these minion nations decided to hide their tails behind their hind legs and play dead. No one can blame them. This is the effect a powerful nation has on smaller ones. It happened in ancient times and continues to happen now. Might is right.

When the majestic fleet of the Ming Dynasty emperor came to the Malaccan shores in the 1400s, the Sultan had no choice but to send his emissaries to China with gifts. When the Siamese King showed displeasure, another entourage would go there with gifts and beautiful princesses to solidify international relations.

Intertwined with physical might are the potent forces of wealth and political office, with a recent addition being the capacity to influence public opinion. The power of propaganda cannot be overstated. In this modern world, where news travels faster than both light and sound combined, those who control the news literally control the revolutions of the planet!

This miniseries is based on Jake Adelstein's book of the same name, subtitled "An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan." Jake worked as an apprentice journalist at Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan's premier newspapers. He studied Japanese Literature at Sophia University in Tokyo, a Jesuit-sponsored institution. He was the newspaper's first non-Japanese reporter.

The book narrates his observations as an American looking at the working culture, working environment and his experiences reporting on criminal cases around Tokyo. He shadowed a police officer and was exposed to the down low of the running of the yakuza activities and the precarious understanding that they and the police foster. The yakuza are a necessary evil in Japanese society. Peace is maintained when different gangs have a sense to respect each other's boundaries and not to step on each other's toes.

The yakuza have intricate connections in all layers of society, including the police, politicians, and the media. What is reported in the press for general consumption is generally agreed upon by all factions above. Those in power justify suppressing the truth by citing national security and the need to maintain public order.

A similar scenario also occurs in Malaysia. Many of my schoolmates, who have since retired from active journalism, have much to say about the murmurs surrounding major breaking news that erupts frequently. Fearing the repercussions of breaching the disclosure clauses in their employment contracts, they would remain silent during conversations. Having interacted with them since childhood, I could see that their words were on the tip of their tongues, eager to burst out, but did not.

Jake's report about a well-known yakuza boss allegedly making a deal with the FBI in exchange for a liver transplant in the USA landed him in a great deal of trouble. Intertwined in the plot is another gaijin (a foreigner in Japanese), the American daughter of an evangelist who flees home to start a new life as a hostess, a modern version of a geisha. In this context, a hostess is someone who serves drinks, engages in conversation, and sits at tables in a bar or high-end restaurant. It is strictly non-contact entertainment. They make money through patrons' tips and from the owners of the establishment based on the number of drinks clients purchase.

I am grateful to SA for recommending this engaging miniseries to me. It helped me understand the subtle balance between vice, criminal activities, police work, and conducting business in the modern world. Much like a peacekeeping conduit, politicians play the role of middlemen, striking a balance between allowing gangsters to operate and keeping the police guessing their next move. They aim for a win-win situation where the bad guys (the yakuza, in this instance) exert their control over the public, politicians continue to disguise themselves while profiting, and the general public believes that their lives are improving. In reality, people are being taken advantage of while everyone else gets richer at the expense of the general public.

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Thick as thieves?

The Post (2017)

The ongoing saga involving the former seemingly unassailable Prime Minister of Malaysia and its sovereign fund is a stark reminder that the world is ruled by an unholy union of politicians who conned the public, bankers who finance the whole fiasco, lawmakers who put a legal jargon to all these. Trailing them are a thick band of thieves, yeomen, hyenas and a slew of servants who would die or kill for their cause under the banner of nationalism. Depending on the setting, servants of God would get their hands dirty in the cookie jar to give a divine seal to all these shenanigans. 

In an environment of each wanting to fend for himself, in a world where 'The Truth' does not always prevail, and victors decide justice, the losers are the general public. Repeatedly the laypeople fall prey to the 'powers' of the day's sweet promises. In pursuit of happiness, they sacrifice my sweat, blood and tears.

They say we, the people, choose our leaders and the fate of our country. The politicians are at our mercy and not the other way around. But, increasingly, opposers to the status quo are cowed into submission by fear of harm and lost opportunities. The ongoing 1MDB trial opened the putrid cane of worms where civil servants are treated as lapdogs and rubber stamps for the ruling party. Amongst all these traitors emerge a lowly administrative officer, Nor Salwani Muhammad, who had the foresight to slip a recording device in her superior's pencil box to record certain vital proceedings.

I don't know him!

In a civil society, the last bastion of hope seems to be the media, the third force of resistance. Even that is a threat in many authoritarian societies. Press is no longer the purveyor of the truth but increasingly become mouthpieces of their financial masters.

The Washington Post is usually associated with the Watergate Scandal and Nixon's subsequent resignation as the US President. In 1966, an American State Department military analyst felt that the USA was misleading the public by convincing them that the war in Vietnam was proceeding well when, in reality, things were pretty bleak. The thought of the unassuming public sending their youngsters to be slaughtered in tropics pricked his conscience. The analyst decided to go public with documents that would prove the hypocrisy of three decades of US administration (post WW2) that had been hoodwinking the American public.

Even though it was first exposed to the New York Times, the filmmakers decided to tell the story from the viewpoint of the Washington Post who was struggling with a lady leading the helm as its publisher. The Post was the second newspaper that was approached to publish after the AG office shut down publications of the New York Times for articles deemed threatening national security.

The Post, a political thriller, shows the trials and tribulations of the journalists trying to fight for free speech, The First Amendment. After the mumbo-jumbo of legal threat and repercussions from the Nixon administration, the Supreme Court decided to allow printing of the controversial news. Its justification was that the papers worked for the governed, not the governor!

Lesson learnt: The citizens decide the path of the country. Its leaders should lead their subjects towards this end. They serve the public, not themselves or some uncertain promise of the future. It is difficult, however, when the people are lulled and stupefied by years of indoctrination and self-aggrandisement.

https://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/503023

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Press freedom versus privacy!

Shubun (Scandal, Japanese; 1950)
Director: Akira Kurosawa

The theme of this movie is still relevant today. The talk of the need for the public to know everything versus the space for citizens and people in authority to safeguard their secrecy is an ongoing debate. Where the line should be drawn on the Truth is anybody's guess. With the recent leakage of supposedly private intimate poses of celebrities to the media is proof of this ongoing debate on this debacle. The boundary of what is indeed trash and what is news is progressively blurred as the public gets all excited with trivial unimportant happenings or smut that happens to people in the limelight or are the people in the press simply sensationalizing these trivial non events?
Again, Kurosawa had chosen a modern looking post war Japan with a Western outlook. People are dressed in Western clothes, jackets, pants and dresses and the ladies were donning cropped modern hairstyles. The recreational activities mirror their Western counterpart. Instead of horses at the races, in this movie, cyclists were the racers!
The legal system is also Western in outlook. With modernisation come the scourge of modern living, journalists.
Even back in the 50s, pressmen had become a nuisance to modern living especially amongst the rich and famous. This, is the basis of this movie.
After seeing Toshirō Mifune (a Kurosawa regular) in mostly stern and serious roles, here he is seen as a happy smiling free wheeling artist, Ichiro Aoye, motorcycling by the countryside painting natural landscapes. During one of these trips, he gives a ride to a famous singer, Miyaso Saijo, unknown to him at that time, after she misses her bus and was heading to the same inn as himself.  Miyaso, a shy artiste, was moving around incognito but was identified by a tabloid reporter. As she was sipping tea in Aoye's room dressed casually in kimono, they were secretly photographed. And the tabloid has a field day promoting a non-existent secret love affair of the singing star. Suddenly, the general public recognises both of them everywhere. They are both everybody's darlings. The paper is also happy, laughing all the way to the bank with their sudden increase in circulation.
Aoye is not amused, however. He intends to sue the tabloid for invasion of privacy. Ms Saijo later joins in.

Comes in attorney, Hiruta, a failed lawyer who had lost the rat race in the dog-eat-dog world of lawyers offering his services to represent Aoye. The role of Hiruta is played by Takashi Shimura, another regular feature of Kurosawa's movies. Unlike his previous outings where he is docile and reserved, Shimura is a fast talking lawyer, at least initially. He has a heavy sorrow of a burden that he carries on his back. He has a very sick TB infected daughter at home and an unquenchable addiction for the races. He feels inadequate both as a father and a lawyer.
The publishers, fearing that they may lose money at court, entice Hiruta by sponsoring him at the races and bribing him.
As the case progresses, Hiruto's throwing of his case become apparent to everyone. His clients, however, still gives him a chance as they get closer to Hiruto's charming but ill daughter. This further depresses Hiruto who is caught in a bind - he is cheating his clients blind even though they go all out to cheer and fete his terminally ill child!
Along the course of the trial where the tabloid's defence attorney, a prominent law figure from the university, has a field day, Hiruto's daughter succumbed to her illness.
At the crucial moment, during submission, Hiruto makes clear to the court of the defence's treacherous attempts at bribing him and turns the case around in his clients' favour.
A nice feel good movie which tries very hard to show the goodness in every individual. Just like the 1946 Christmas movie 'It's a wonderful life' the formula of using the songs 'Silent Night' and 'Auld Lang Syne' seem to work wonders to highlight this point.
In embracing the cultures of their captors, even the Japanese have these songs sang in their own lingo. They don't go around complaining that they have been wronged by a world conspiracy to outsmart their success and bring down their culture.In the 70s many rock bands like 'Cheap Trick' were pleasantly surprised when they performed live in Budokan. Their fans in this non-English speaking land could sing every verse of their songs word to word!

Today's news, tomorrow's thrash!

Ace in the Hole (a.k.a The Big Carnival; 1951)
Director: Billy Wilder

This must be one of the first movies that take a swipe at the evil of the media and the way they exploit the situation with only one intention on their mind, for financial gains. That is all. The apparent concern and empathy is all just show. Even though the media helps to showcase to the world, it has its own personal agenda. Put in Kirk Douglas, a smirk journalist with an attitude problem and some punchy line and you have it- a blockbuster which is eternally carved in the annals of time as a great film.

Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas), lands in an Albuquerque newspaper office after thrown out disgracefully of many papers back in the East. He is dreaming of a break which would put him at par with a Pulitzer winner. He dreams on.

He is sent to cover a rattlesnake show. En route to the venue, at a stopover for petrol, Chuck and his rookie photographer hear about a cave-in at an Indian reservation site. The owner of the petrol station, Leo, is trapped. The reservation area is filled with stories of curse and superstitions. Grabbing their chance,  Chuck and his assistant report the story and hog the headlines for the next few days. They manage to garner the attention of people from miles away.
Leo's wife, Lorraine, is a bored ex-waitress at a nightclub joint which is tied down by an unfulfilling marriage. She cannot wait to scoot off from all these and be in the midst of the bright of the city once again. She thinks that this is her chance, but Chuck talks her into staying put and act as an anxious wife at least for the media.

As Leo lays trapped in ruins, the popularity of the run-down town soars.
A corrupt power crazy Sheriff uses this opportunity to improve his chances for re-election. Actually, the idea was given by Chuck!

Lorraine is not complaining either. Her small cafe had not ever seen so much business. Somebody even starts collecting money at the reservation site. Scores of busloads and trainloads of people join in the fracas while Leo stays trapped and is slowly dying. Even the circus comes to town! A rescue fund is launched.

On the sly, Chuck gets exclusive rights to visit Leo in the cave and the rights to the story. He holds his office at ransom and throws his weight around. To drag on the story, he manages to convince the unsure rescue worker the longer way to get the victim, just so that the rescue mission and the story stays on longer!
As the story goes on and Leo's life is in a limbo hanging by a thread, he sees the love that Leo has for his wife and how his wife does not care a damn about him. Chuck realises his own mistake and tries to make amends...

A gripping tale which was based on real events.
The lesson that one can learn at the end is that no one actually cares what turns out for others. All they are interested in is their own agenda. And churning money and making a business out of everything in spite of your misery while appearing to sympathise and empathise to your predicament. Beware, it may be fake. People who seem too good to be true may not just be!

Quotable quote...
It's a good story today. Tomorrow, it'll be yesterday's news and they'll wrap a fish in it.

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