shot glasses
shot by both sides
critically acclaimed when first published in japanese shot by both sides climbs inside a mind forever wounded by the childhood trauma of war . it is an intense stream of consciousness with loops flashbacks and multiple digressions that surge through the mind of akaki a middle aged japanese man in a business suit and overcoat standing on a bridge in tokyo waiting for a friend to show up for an appointment . he recalls how he awoke that morning suddenly overwhelmed with a desire to locate the military greatcoat he was wearing when he first arrived in tokyo from his hometown in rural kyushu twenty years before . memories of the day he has just spent fruitlessly searching for the coat mingle with memories of his lonely lust drenched teen years as a poor country boy in tokyo and with older memories from his childhood in northern korea under japanese colonial rule when his dreams of becoming a military hero were lost along with his father in japans defeat . shot by both sides is an enlightening adventure of introspection and a stylistic triumph of unique power .
standing on a tokyo bridge waiting for a friend akaki a middle aged japanese man indulges in reminiscences that recall his arrival in tokyo twenty years earlier his childhood in northern korea under japanese rule and the impact of the trauma of war .