Saturday Sculpture was hosted by the Mind over Memory blogger
To join in, what you need to do is:
1. Share a photo of a sculpture
2. Link or ping back here to Ruined for Life because Mind over Memory’s had to stop hosting. Between a new graduate program and work, she’s super busy.
It’s a fun challenge. Give it a try.
https://spark.adobe.com/page-embed.js
Click on the image to see the Spark webpage I made.
Each week Cee of Cee’s Photography challenges bloggers with a fun prompt. This week we’re to find photos of subjects that feature sea-inspired posts, i.e. those that are teal, aqua, sea foam, turquoise, blue or of water. I just went with photos from my trip to Australia.
This week I experimented with Adobe Spark’s web page design. I uploaded the images and added some text. It was easy to use and fun to play with. Best of all it’s free.
Join the fun.
If you want to see more fun photos, click here.
When I picked Crazed Fruit (1956) out at the library, I had no idea what it was about our who the director, Ko Nakahira was. Until recently, the only directors I knew were Ozu and Kurosawa. I’ve learned Japan has produced many masterful filmmakers.
Crazed Fruit takes place in the late 1950s when Japan is getting prosperous, at least the elite are. The main characters are two brothers from a wealthy family. The brothers, Natsuhisha and Haruji, spend their summer with their fellow rich kids gambling, smoking, drinking, fighting and going after girls. Another occupation is complaining about how their college professors know nothing and how their futures are meaningless. While it’s becoming an economic wonder, Japan doesn’t offer any outlet for their passions.
When the brothers arrive at the train station en route to their pal’s summer house, they see Eri, a beautiful, alluring young woman. Haruji, who’s the young, innocent brother, is smitten, but his brother, who’s quite the lover boy, pulls him away so they can hurry over to their friends.
The next day while out on a boat, they notice a girl in the water. It turns out to be Eri. Soon both boys are smitten and don’t really care or, in the case of Haruji, know, that Eri’s married to a much older, prosperous Western man.
Haruji innocently courts Eri, who always has an excuse why she can’t be picked up at home. The scenes with Haruji and Eri are tastefully sensual. The camera captures their desire as they lie next to each other sunbathing on the rocks by the sea in a way that’s exquisite. It’s a much more compelling than any sex scene I’ve seen in 10 years or more. Nakahira is a master, who deserves to be studies by every filmmaker and film lover.
Soon Natsuhisha becomes obsessed with Eri. He finds her house and sees her husband. He promises to keep her Western husband a secret from Haruji if Eri will have sex with him. She agrees. Eri’s character is hinted at rather than well defined. She’s a mystery and unlike other characters. She’s insulted and angry, but also willing. Natsuhisha exudes animal chemistry and she finds him more than satisfying in the bedroom. Eri seems to want to keep her three men, to keep those relationships separate, but to keep them. Of course, this is impossible
The film, which is based on a novel by Ishihara, broke new ground in depicting sensuality and the abandonment of traditional morality among rich youth. At the time, though people’s own mores had changed, film had not. Japanese films tended to uphold traditional morals. While the tragic ending in Crazed Fruit certainly doesn’t promote the lifestyle or choices of the idle rich, it did shock the elders at the cinema.
Crazed Fruit was conceived and produced to be a low budget, teen flick that would cash in at the box office. The story, in Nakahira’s hands, is a beautiful classic.
The Criterion Collection offers two thoughtful essays on Crazed Fruit. The commentary by Japan film expert Donald Richie greatly enhances the film as he explains the social context and context of this film within Japanese filmmaking.
1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.
2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.
3. Follow The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements, and subscribe to our newsletter – we’ll highlight great posts. Add Media photos from each month’s most popular challenge.
Other themed photos:
It’s off to the beach or seaside with Sepia Saturday. Here’s a few photos of some bathing beauties.
The Mermaid Club, 1910
Source: Library of Congress, 1914
Source: National Library of Ireland, 1914. Two children at the beach
Source: Library of Congress
If you’d like to see more nostalgic summer beach photos, click here.
This week Sepia Saturday invites us to a day at the beach. It’s still a little early for the beach for me and I’m not much of a “beach person” but I did enjoy going through the digital attic of the Internet to find these gems.
1908 Collaroy Beach, New South Wales
Donkey rides available in Black Pool, 1900s
No date or place given. Found with bing.com
Ruined for Life: Phoenix Edition 