“When it comes to fandom… this was not merely a case of who dressed up as a space pirate in a hotel ballroom, but a more contentious issue of the 1980 ‘civil war’ that played out in conventions between horrified fans of prose SF and an invading horde of anime weebs. “
Over at All the Anime, I review a new book about the work and influence of Leiji Matsumoto.
“This is a fascinating book, not merely for the pointers it offers to the historian for new paths of enquiry into martial arts history, but for the glimpse it allows of the politicised obfuscations, fudges, and compromises that are sadly all too common in some corners of Chinese academia.”
Over at the Martial History Team blog, I review the new translation of Huang Fuhua and Hong Fan’s History of Chinese Martial Arts.
Newly orphaned youth Yrjö (Kullervo Kalske) heads off to the big city in search of his fortune, stopping briefly to meet, and it turns out, impregnate his childhood sweetheart Elsa (Irma Seikkula). An innocent in the urban jungle, not unlike his co-star in her previous Juurakon Hulda, Yrjö advertises in the newspaper as a man looking for work, only to attract the attention of a liquor smuggler who wants him to work on the wrong side of the law. Penniless and destitute, Yrjö is just about to throw himself in front of a train, when he is rescued by the friendly Lehtinen (Reino Valkama), and put back on his feet by the Salvation Army.
Pretending to be a trader’s long-lost nephew, Yrjö gets a job at last, and after a long series of misadventures, becomes a champion athlete, before returning to the countryside and cluelessly playing with Elsa’s son Matti, unaware that he is the father. Tardily coming to realise his responsibilities, both to Elsa and to Finland, he competes in the 10,000 metres race at the Helsinki Olympics and, after a tense battle, wins the gold medal.
Once again, town and country are a vital juxtaposition – a happily backward rural paradise, all sunny fields and friendly carters, contrasted with the bustle of the big city, where even an honest country boy has to duck and dive (and lie) in order to make it. The divide between the rural and urban Finland, of course, was more than just geographical – it tended to reflect the stand-off between whites and reds in the Finnish Civil War, and even today, often marks the line between conservative and socialist voters.
Urho Karhumäki’s novel Avoveteen (literally Into Clear Water, but referenced in English sources as Towards a New Horizon) was an obvious choice for a Finnish movie, having won the gold medal for “epic literature” at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which featured an artistic achievement category. The film went into production shortly after Japan gave up on the idea of hosting the 1940 Olympics, claiming that it had better things to do with the money. The Olympics were instead awarded to Helsinki, creating a little cul-de-sac in history of commemorative 1940 Helsinki Olympics memorabilia, and inspiring director Orvo Saarikivi to make a film adaptation. However, the 1940 Helsinki Olympics were fated not to happen, either. Avoveteen, like Lapatossu and Vinski in Olympic Fever, was made and released in the brief 12-month window between Helsinki receiving and cancelling the Olympics after the November 1939 outbreak of the Winter War, making the near-future finale of this film a brief moment of alternate-universe science fiction. Or, considering that Finns also win silver and bronze, fantasy…
The film is notable for its scenes of athletes in training, and for something oddly rare in early Finnish films: a sequence filmed in a sauna. Yrjö’s Olympic victory is filmed in a real stadium, cunningly steered to sound Olympic through cutaways to the radio announcer and drop-ins of a crowd watching some real-life event, and through occasional glimpses of foreign flags (including, notably, a Nazi one), and foreign press (including a Japanese cameraman). Yrjö and his fellow runners are never shown running with the crowd in the background, although the camera does sneakily get a good shot of them passing the distinctive tower of the Helsinki Olympic stadium, which would not get to host the Games for real until 1952.
Jonathan Clements is the author of An Armchair Traveller’s History of Finland.
“…a dozen native English speakers were co-opted into the propaganda scheme in December 1944, which happens to be when Sacred Sailors was completed and submitted to the censor. They began broadcasting the Hinomaru Hour later that month. The men read out carefully curated messages from prisoners, performed skits and radio plays, and even songs, including a ditty about ‘the daring young men of the flying Japanese.’ They also did everything they could to subvert their captors’ intentions, including selecting as much British music as possible, because they hoped American servicemen would hate it.”
Over at All the Anime, I discuss the possibility that the first English-language voice-actor in Japanese animation was a prisoner of war.
I am absolutely charmed by the sight of the hardcover Chinese edition of my History of the Silk Road, coming out very soon from New World Press in Beijing.
“The Silk Road is a route from the edges of the European world to the central plains of China. For thousands of years, its history has been a traveller’s history, of brief encounters in desert towns, snowbound passes and nameless forts. It was the conduit that first brought Buddhism, Christianity and Islam into China, and the site of much of the ‘Great Game’ between Victorian empires. Jonathan Clements guides the reader through the trackless wastes of the Taklamakan Desert, its black whirlwinds and dead lakes, its shimmering mirages, lost cities and mysterious mummies, but also its iconic statues and memorable modern pop songs. He explains the truth behind odd tales of horses that sweat blood, defaced statues and missing frescoes, and Marco Polo’s stories of black gold that seeps from the earth.”
I think Tommi the mixmaster needs precisely one button on his mega-console to record me reading out a book, but here we are anyway, in the studio to lay down the audio for The Emperor’s Feast: A History of China in Twelve Meals, available in print, Kindle and audiobook next month at Chinese new year. Managed to get to the end of the Tang dynasty in our first day. Aiming to reach the end of the Ming dynasty by close of business on Thursday.
The Official Schoolgirl Milky Crisis Blog 