Book Review: Kenzo Kitakata, City of Refuge (1982)

Twenty-one-year-old Koji Mizui’s life spins out of control: his girlfriend turns out to be a minor; he (sort of) loses his job after spending time in jail falsely arrested; he kills one man, and then another, in semi-self-defense. As a result, he ends up running from the mob and the police, travelling with an abandoned six-year-old to whom he becomes a surrogate father. In sum, noir crossed with a buddy movie crossed with Sesame Street. City of Refuge tries to be moving but ends up bland. Grade: C+

Book Review: Kenzo Kitakata, The Cage (1983)

The story of Takino, an ex-Yakuza who has settled into straight life running a supermarket and a coffee shop with his wife. Six years have passed since Takino left the gangster world, but when he squares off against a punk who has caused trouble in his store, Takino feels "a strange rush of something close to happiness." The old Takino has emerged from his cage--one of several metaphorical "cages" in the novel--and he knows at once that he does not want to go back inside. An interesting psychological study of both Takino and Takagi, the grizzled, decorated police veteran who pursues him. Grade: B

Pulp Poem of the Week

Want me to squeeze

the blood out?

Or maybe I could stop

the bleeding?

Cauterize it with my

cigarette.

Kenzo Kitakata

The Cage

1983

(translated by Paul Warham)