The clarity of my memory seems to improve in direct proportion to the intensity of shock I underwent!

It is a fact, a fact-o-fact, universally acknowledged, that, a single-o-single cup of coffee with the right-o-right people, can do the greatest of wonders, the most marvelous of miracles and the most remarkable of feats beyond compare! And this we know!

Yes, this we quite know - through the times and climes, across the ages and through the sages of the past-o-past! And as the amazing tag line to Café Coffee Day rightly points out, A lot can happen over a coffee’! Queen Anne's coffee houses of the days of yore, which were respectfully considered 'an alternate sphere, supplementary to the university' are a case in point! 

In fact, the essence of meeting up for a casual convy over a cuppa is not only to indulge ourselves over a hot gourmet cocoa or a filter kaapi, or a kaapi nirvana, but also to open our hearts out over a delightful conversation on some lively-o-lively, lovely-o-lovely topic, that goes on and on and on and on with no bell or brake!

Audie Bock

Now, moving one step ahead, gently ahead, into the literary, well, it was over one such passionate conversation that went on and on, and on and on, over a cuppa coffee with the legendary Akira Kurosawa that Audie E. Bock resolved with gusto that she would translate the legend’s autobiography into English! 

And thus was born Akira Kurosawa's Something Like An Autobiography, in the year 1983, on its vibrant English avatar!

Thanks to the cuppa, we’ve got Akira Kurosawa’s mind and heart on a platter in English!

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in thanking the noble cuppa, for God’s plenty that came down to us, swaing from Japanese to English! All over a cuppa! Ain’t it?

Audie Bock’s ‘Translator’s Preface,’ appeals to us with such an amazing impact, thanks to her spontaneity and felicity in pouring out her thoughts over the myriad events that led up to this great endeavour!

Let’s hear Audie Bock speak -

Six months went by, and my Fulbright year in Tokyo was drawing to a close. I was packing my bags and distributing my household goods among my friends in preparation for departure the next morning when the telephone rang. Matsue was calling to say Kurosawa and he would have coffee with me that very afternoon.

Now let’s listen in rapt attention to the legendary Kurosawa’s heartspeak!

If I were to write anything at all, it would turn out to be nothing but talk about movies. In other words, take "myself," subtract "movies" and the result is "zero."

Akira Kurosawa

There is one more person I feel I would like to resemble as I grow old: the late American film director John Ford. I am also moved by my regret that Ford did not leave us his autobiography. Of course, compared to these two illustrious masters, Renoir and Ford, I am no more than a little chick. But if many people are saying they want to know what sort of person I am, it is probably my duty to write something for them. I have no confidence that what I write will be read with interest, and I must explain that I have chosen (for reasons I will discuss later) to bring my account to a close in 1950, the year in which I made Rashōmon.

Some more snippets from Kurosawa’s Something Like An Autobiography, for us all –

I was in the washtub naked. The place was dimly lit, and I was soaking in hot water and rocking myself by holding on to the rims of the tub. At the lowest point the tub teetered between two sloping boards, the water making little splashing noises as it rocked. This must have been very interesting for me. I rocked the tub with all my strength. Suddenly it overturned. I have a very vivid memory of the strange feeling of shock and uncertainty at that moment, of the sensation of that wet and slippery space between the boards against my bare skin, and of looking up at something painfully bright overhead.

After reaching an age of awareness, I would occasionally recall this incident. But it seemed a trivial thing, so I said nothing about it until I became an adult. It must have been after I had passed twenty years of age that for some reason I mentioned to my mother that I remembered these sensations. For a moment she just stared at me in surprise; then she informed me that this could only have been something that occurred when we went to my father's birthplace up north in Akita Prefecture to attend a memorial service for my grandfather. I had been one year old at the time.

This incident with the washtub is my very first memory of myself. Naturally, I do not recall being born.

After the washtub incident of my first year, I can now recall only a few other events from my babyhood, in a form resembling out-of-focus bits of film footage.

The clarity of my memory seems to improve in direct proportion to the intensity of shock I underwent.

I don't remember exactly what it was that I saw when I was in nursery school and what I saw in primary school. I just remember that there was a kind of slapstick comedy I found very interesting. And I remember a scene in which a man who has escaped from prison scales a tall building. He comes out onto the roof and jumps off into a dark canal below. This may have been the French crime-adventure film Zigomar, directed by Victorin Jasset and first released in Japan in November 1911.

Another scene I recall shows a boy and girl who have become friends on a ship. The ship is on the verge of sinking, and the boy is about to step into an already overfull lifeboat when he sees the girl still on the ship. He gives her his place in the lifeboat and stays behind on the ship, waving goodbye. This was apparently a film adaptation of the Italian novel Il Cuore (The Heart).

But I much preferred comedy. One day when we went to the theater, they weren't showing a comedy, and I cried and fretted about it. I remember my older sisters telling me I was being so stupid and disobedient that a policeman was coming to take me away. I was terrified.

However, my contact with the movies at this age has, I feel, no relation to my later becoming a film director. I simply enjoyed the varied and pleasant stimulation added to ordinary everyday life by watching the motion-picture screen. I relished laughing, getting scared, feeling sad and being moved to tears.

Looking back and reflecting on it, I think my father's attitude toward films reinforced my own inclinations and encouraged me to become what I am today. He was a strict man of military background, but at a time when the idea of watching movies was hardly well received in educators' circles, he took his whole family to the movies regularly.

Later in more reactionary times he steadfastly maintained his conviction that going to the movies has an educational value; he never changed.

Well, in 54 heart-packed chapters of a gripping narrative from recall, Kurosawa talks about a variety of events, from his babyhood years, to his crybaby school days right onto his second year at school, about his school days, about his brilliant elder brother (who later commits suicide), his ‘Little Big Sister’with whom he spent most of his childhood time, on his memorable childhood recollections that arise from sound stimuli, about the great earthquake, about his father and his love for movies and calligraphy, about his years as an assistant director to the great Kajiro Yamamoto, and no spoilers attached.. I assure y’all!

The book is available at all online bookstores! Do grab your copy and read it!

It’s just around 200 pages! So yesss! Fifty pages a day, makes it a read in just over four days! 100 pages a day makes it a read in just two days! Ain’t it! ;-)

Wait! The power of the cuppa doesn’t stop there!

Personally, on an aside, this last Saturday, 09 March, we had a rendezvous over a cuppa hot piping filter kaapi, with my bestie Dr. Benet! The conversation went on and on, meandering its way with such spontaneous elegance, into some amazing classics in world literature! And finally when we were anchored steadfast on Japanese literature, I shared with him on my present reading! Told him that I'd just started reading on Akira Kurosawa’s captivating autobiography of sorts! Dr. Benet then spontaneously recollected with gusto and enthu, on his fond memories of watching Kurosawa’s all-time famous movie, Seven Samurai, which deals with the Samurai legend!

Now this acted the trigger for our little convy to breeze its way delightfully into a host of Japanese writers! And one writer who's topped his name skyhigh on Dr. Benet’s reading list is a famed Japanese author Yukio Mishima, who’s a Samurai writer as well! 

And Mishima is meet for another doodah at that!

Now, wait! The power of the cuppa hasn’t ceased on its charm and its sway, as yet!

After having finished our vibrant rendezvous over a cuppa, when i was on my ‘homeward bound,’ mode, I got a pleasantly surprised call from Dr. Suja, updating me on their reader’s rendezvous that had just gotten over at Dr. James’s house that evening.

Well, I was so happy and thrilled to hear this wonderful news on a young group of bibliophiles meeting over a cuppa at a professor’s house once every fortnight, in large numbers, to discuss and to review one interesting book on each and every rendezvous of theirs! This time it happened to be a book that was released quite recently by Mr. Sam Golden. The book titled, Forbidden Wallet, was reviewed by Dr. Geetha!

In an age and clime when many have safely dispensed with the printed word, and gone for 'greener pastures,' it is so heartening and gladdening to see the passion and the vibes, the fervor and the gusto with which one retired Professor, (Dr. James), with his immense passion for literature, along with a host of heroic hearts, meeting up over a cuppa and discussing books by the number, at leisure!

Art for heart’s sake!

With a cuppa! ;-)

images: flavorwiredotcom, amazondotin, audiebockdotorg