AGE OF WATER GAIJIN MOVIE

Brodie often finds himself in life-threatening situations, yet there is a sense, through these novels, in which he has all the angles covered and is never in any real danger. There is one particularly tense standoff on the compound of the American Embassy in Tokyo-and that is before Brodie goes behind enemy lines in the Korean Demilitarized Zone and China. Writers often talk about raising the stakes, and by looping in the President and senior government officials, The Spy Across the Table raises the stakes about as high as they will go.

Certainly it it is Jim Brodie’s most globe-trotting adventure. Later he must deal with a Chinese master spy who goes by the mononym of Zhou (“one of the most dangerous men alive.”)ĭespite its pedestrian title, this may actually be Lancet’s best book. Very soon Jim Brodie finds himself scooped up in a limousine by the First Lady of the United States. His books have yet to be translated into Japanese, and the stories do hop around to different locations, so that the action is not limited to the Land of the Rising Sun.įor its part, The Spy Across the Table begins with a chase through the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Lancet seems to be writing for more of a foreign audience, anyway. Whether it be a fight aboard a water bus on the Sumida River, a fateful encounter atop the lookout deck of Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto, or a crash course in the perils of pufferfish poison at a restaurant in Asakusa, the continuing saga of Jim Brodie is the stuff of airplane books, or “tray-table tomes,” as Time Magazine would call them. Yet his set pieces are nothing if not memorable.

AGE OF WATER GAIJIN MOVIE

In the same way that a comic book movie like The Wolverine (2013) manages to work in a yakuza fight at Zojoji Temple, a chase through a pachinko parlor, and another fight atop a speeding bullet train - all in just a few short minutes of screen time - Lancet is not afraid to rebuff local snobbery in favor of famous landmarks and other bits of “Cool Japan” that tourists would consider essential. People who live in Japan, whether they be natives to this country or long-term foreign residents, might have a chuckle over some of the scenarios Brodie finds himself in. Soon Brodie is thrust into a larger web of intrigue, which leads him to a summer festival in a remote Japanese village, where he tangles with an ancient order of assassins (“They’re ninjas, just say it!” quips one Amazon reviewer.) As for the low, with Japan usually figuring in as a backdrop, Brodie’s murder investigations often bring him up alongside a variety of colorful characters, including tough-talking Chinese hoodlums, who comically snag their knives on the inside of their pockets, and gangsters named Habu (after the Okinawa snake, a deadly pit viper), who patronize gay nightclubs because it is the last place the police would look for them. Without letting it bog down the action too much, Lancet manages to weave in little asides on things like woodblock prints or tea bowls. At FCCJ, Lancet spoke about how he endeavors, in his writing, to intermingle “the high and low.” And indeed, even in the midst of a murder scene, Brodie’s thoughts are never far from the reference points of an antiques dealer.

That gives you a basic comparison for Jim Brodie, Lancet’s reluctant protagonist, who would prefer to focus on his antique dealings, but always seems to find himself getting drawn into danger.

Age of water gaijin