So I’d like to couch
the last paragraph of this post with this statement: I believe Ruth Ozeki’s “My
Year of Meats” is absolutely 100% true! Sure, the author claims this is a
novel, but I know better since her fictional documentary experiences mirror my
own real-life ones. She’s completely accurate. MYOM is the absolute real deal
of what it’s like to work with a Japanese film crew.
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The Japanese director
I work with is obsessed with food. His #1 obsession is Korean barbeque, and he
will travel hours out of his way to try out a new Korean restaurant. Seriously.
I have learned that food is essential to the greater experience of making any
documentary. It’s not just sustenance. Crew meals are wielded as a means of
control, power, pleasure, and punishment.
Which brings me to
“Oni the Lonely” (a book I wrote with my husband, who also works on Japanese
documentaries and is entirely familiar with the world-wide quest for Korean
barbeque). It’s a vegan-centric novel with demons, Buddhism, and a teenage
protagonist battling a voracious appetite for chicken nuggets – despite being
raised as a strict cause-no-suffering-to-others vegetarian.
How important is food
– and MEAT – in novels? In all my pursuits, it seems to be a central theme. It
plays as large a role in real life as it does on the page. It is a means of
control, power, pleasure and punishment. A way to torture our protagonists and
ourselves.
So here’s my secret
foodie observation of Japanese documentary film making: When a day of filming
sucks and everything is going wrong, we eat like the kings of Korean Barbeque…
but when everything is going well and we can’t get enough great footage, it’s
hello dollar menu. I once fed a crew of 5 for $17 at a Burger King in Flushing,
NY. On another great shooting day, we ate 99-cent slices of cheese pizza made
with questionable dairy products. Our intestines all paid a hefty price for
that success.
This leaves me
wondering if there is a food god in Japan. When things go well, we tend to
focus on the job (or life). But when things change for the worse, do we make
Korean barbeque offerings to the food gods to adjust our fates? I’ll have to do
more research.
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| JAMIE BRAZIL |
Anyway, feast or
famine, it all filters through to the page or screen eventually. Because it’s
life, it’s passion, and it’s all good story telling. Right, Ms. Ozeki?
BLURB for ONI THE LONELY:
Mari
Kato, 16, wants what everyone else her age wants: a driver’s license. Too bad a
family curse, passed on by her Japanese-born Buddhist dad, who claims to be
thousands of years old, transforms Mari into a flesh-eating Oni demon when she
feels frustrated (like every time she gets behind the wheel). But when her
geologist mom moves their vegan-lifestyle-obsessed family to Rock Creek, Mari
stumbles upon the gates of Hell and a mining company plundering its depths. Add
in an evil cheerleader determined to steal Mari’s first boyfriend and plunge
the Earth into eternal darkness. Suddenly, getting the keys to the car isn’t as
important as saving the world. Totally dealable… if she can find the courage to
reveal her demon self.
3 comments:
Interesting comments on food, Jamie. Several places I've worked always brought donuts/pastry in to unit meetings which were often a version of hell. And when someone was promoted or retired, food was central to the celebration event.
However did you get involved in working on making Japanese documentaries?
I blame my husband, Judith. He went to film school and met the above-mentioned director there :)
Oni the Lonely sounds AWESOME! What an interesting life you lead, Jamie! Plus you have bloodhounds - what could be better?
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