The adventures of Tadzio in Japan
Jan. 7th, 2008 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusBjørn Andresen (born 1955 in Stockholm) was the child star of Visconti's lugubriously beautiful 1971 film version of Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice", centred around the homosexual longings of an elderly composer for a beautiful teenage boy he spots in a Venice gripped by cholera. You can see Visconti casting the movie in the documentary In Search of Tadzio. Andresen, now a minor actor raising a family back in his native Sweden, has reached the age of Dirk Bogarde's character Von Aschenbach in the film, but looks back at his teenage fame with somewhat less affection. Tadzio has become something of a skeleton in Andresen's closet, a portrait in his attic.
Andresen has complained about being taken to gay clubs by Visconti and the (predominantly gay) crew, and was upset when Germaine Greer put his image (snapped by David Bailey) on the cover of her book The Beautiful Boy. He later experimented with gay sex himself: "I had a homosexual experience in the 70s," he told El Mundo magazine. "People were discovering the gay thing and then in the world of entertainment homosexuals became very popular in Sweden. It seemed very modern, something that was fashionable. I think we have to try everything. I did it more or less to say that I'd tried it, but it's not really my cup of tea."
The other thing Andresen tried was Japan. "After the release of Death in Venice," says Wikipedia, "Andresen spent an extended period of time in Japan, where he appeared in a number of television commercials and also recorded two pop songs. It is said that his appearance as Tadzio in the film inspired many Japanese anime artists (known for their depictions of young, effeminate men), especially Keiko Takemiya". This intrigued me -- the idea that Tadzio became a model for the kind of bishonen character I was singing about in my 1988 song "Bishonen" (based on an account of "the third sex" in Ian Buruma's book "A Japanese Mirror") -- so I set about trying to google whatever I could about "Tadzio in Japan".
The history of Andresen's Japanese months can be gleaned from various Japanese websites dedicated to him and the endless merchandising his ambivalent image has spawned. "Death in Venice" was shot in early 1970. Andresen visited Japan twice, in August and December of 1971. On these trips the beautiful boy posed for a fashion feature in An-An magazine, where he was styled by Isao Kaneko and art directed by Seiichi Horiuchi. They put him in sailor suits and tried to make him look as much like the 15 year-old Tadzio of the film as possible, despite the fact that he'd already turned 16. An-An came out on September 20th, and "Death in Venice" hit Japanese screens on October 2nd.
Andresen didn't waste time in Japan; he also appeared in some commercials for a Meiji chocolate product called Excel. He recorded two singles for CBS / Sony, "Forever Together" and "For Loving", but disappointed fans by saying in interviews that he had no desire to continue his music career (much later, he played in a Swedish group called Sven Eric's Dance Band).
One Japanese website shows family snapshot album pictures of Andresen in Japan in 1971 with his parents. The captions show a typically Japanese amused fascination with the gaijin's first encounter with Japanese food:
"Bjorn pokes at sukiyaki. As for the raw egg, he must have had a bad feeling about it -- it seems not to have been eaten."
"Bjorn stuffs his mouth with rice crackers. The expression on his face is one you won't see in the movie."
"Bjorn gets angry for a moment. To tell the truth, it's because he's been told he's too young to drink the sake he's been looking forward to."
Andresen's lasting Japanese legacy, though, is to have provided a little bit of his cultural DNA to the shoujo manga industry in the form of a marked influence on the way epicene, ambiguous male heroes were portrayed. For a while, at least, the beautiful Swedish boy inspired depictions of the bishonen, "the youthful hero doomed to fall like blossom". Not to mention a wildly successful slew of four-button sailor tops from Isao Kaneko's Pink House label.
Andresen has complained about being taken to gay clubs by Visconti and the (predominantly gay) crew, and was upset when Germaine Greer put his image (snapped by David Bailey) on the cover of her book The Beautiful Boy. He later experimented with gay sex himself: "I had a homosexual experience in the 70s," he told El Mundo magazine. "People were discovering the gay thing and then in the world of entertainment homosexuals became very popular in Sweden. It seemed very modern, something that was fashionable. I think we have to try everything. I did it more or less to say that I'd tried it, but it's not really my cup of tea."
The other thing Andresen tried was Japan. "After the release of Death in Venice," says Wikipedia, "Andresen spent an extended period of time in Japan, where he appeared in a number of television commercials and also recorded two pop songs. It is said that his appearance as Tadzio in the film inspired many Japanese anime artists (known for their depictions of young, effeminate men), especially Keiko Takemiya". This intrigued me -- the idea that Tadzio became a model for the kind of bishonen character I was singing about in my 1988 song "Bishonen" (based on an account of "the third sex" in Ian Buruma's book "A Japanese Mirror") -- so I set about trying to google whatever I could about "Tadzio in Japan".
The history of Andresen's Japanese months can be gleaned from various Japanese websites dedicated to him and the endless merchandising his ambivalent image has spawned. "Death in Venice" was shot in early 1970. Andresen visited Japan twice, in August and December of 1971. On these trips the beautiful boy posed for a fashion feature in An-An magazine, where he was styled by Isao Kaneko and art directed by Seiichi Horiuchi. They put him in sailor suits and tried to make him look as much like the 15 year-old Tadzio of the film as possible, despite the fact that he'd already turned 16. An-An came out on September 20th, and "Death in Venice" hit Japanese screens on October 2nd.
Andresen didn't waste time in Japan; he also appeared in some commercials for a Meiji chocolate product called Excel. He recorded two singles for CBS / Sony, "Forever Together" and "For Loving", but disappointed fans by saying in interviews that he had no desire to continue his music career (much later, he played in a Swedish group called Sven Eric's Dance Band).
One Japanese website shows family snapshot album pictures of Andresen in Japan in 1971 with his parents. The captions show a typically Japanese amused fascination with the gaijin's first encounter with Japanese food:
"Bjorn pokes at sukiyaki. As for the raw egg, he must have had a bad feeling about it -- it seems not to have been eaten."
"Bjorn stuffs his mouth with rice crackers. The expression on his face is one you won't see in the movie."
"Bjorn gets angry for a moment. To tell the truth, it's because he's been told he's too young to drink the sake he's been looking forward to."
Andresen's lasting Japanese legacy, though, is to have provided a little bit of his cultural DNA to the shoujo manga industry in the form of a marked influence on the way epicene, ambiguous male heroes were portrayed. For a while, at least, the beautiful Swedish boy inspired depictions of the bishonen, "the youthful hero doomed to fall like blossom". Not to mention a wildly successful slew of four-button sailor tops from Isao Kaneko's Pink House label.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 02:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 02:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 02:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 03:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 03:21 pm (UTC)You've been using the internets long enough to know better.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 03:32 pm (UTC)You know, I used to contribute to a messageboard where anyone with a different view was routinely called a troll. There was a music fan who championed melody, for instance. He was a troll. There was a sexist communist fellow. He was one too. Even I was considered a "troll" by some there. It just seemed like narrow-minded bullying. Meanwhile, the people who were apparently beyond criticism there seemed incredibly bland and dull. Quite frankly, if anyone should have been banned it should have been the dull ones.
You know, Kuma, there are some here who might even want to see you branded a "troll" and banned. I absolutely don't agree. In a healthy society or on a healthy blog, "characters with strong views" are fine, necessary, welcome.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 04:08 pm (UTC)I'm well aware I rub certain people up the wrong way because I'm out-spoken and opinionated. And I dont believe that anyone who happens to go against the grain of the community is a troll. Variety is the spice of life and it's all part of life's rich tapestry, etc. All the very best and interesting online communities have their antagonists and rivals.
That said, find one post by me thats been an off topic, spiteful, personal attack on someone here. You won't because even at my most obnoxious, I've never posted anything like that, it's just not my style.
There's a big difference between someone like me or Marxy almost always challenging your view points, and that guy above who pretty much just took the opportunity to call you an old, ugly pervert.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 04:14 pm (UTC)As for me as Von Aschenbach, I suppose The Golden Tosser's Friend can be forgiven for not knowing my entire back catalogue; 1997's 2pm (http://www.phespirit.info/momus/19970116.htm) goes: "I wander in Venice with Von Aschenbach..."
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 04:35 pm (UTC)By the way, I just saw your request for the 90's FRUiTS magazines. I think Microworlds posted a link to them in PDF format. I have more (about 50 issues) but it's like 3 or 4 Gbs of data, I downloaded it by torrent -- uploading it to you would require 3 or 4 seperate uploads and would make me go over my monthly bandwidth quota, not to mention take hours... sorry Nick.
As a consolation I've uploaded for you "Route B Staff Roll 'Exhausted' (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F2BDAGFP)" composed and written by Takuyuki Aihara & Nobuyoshi Sano. Let me know what you think, I really love this song.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 04:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 05:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-08 12:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 02:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 02:54 pm (UTC)I also think a lot of people draw too much of a link between bishonen/yaoi and gay culture. Yaoi comics featuring bishonen boys are predominantly drawn by women for women. That's not to say there aren't gay men who enjoy them but it's mainly a female industry.
on 4chan there's a yaoi board called /y/. I remember they once held a gender survey and girls outnumbered boys by 2 to 1.
On 2chan, there was a yaoi board and a "bara" board. The bara board was for pictures of "ordinary" men who didn't fit the yaoi architype. the name bara derives from Japan's first major Gay publication "Barazoku" meaning "The Rose Tribe", and it featured men who were appealing to gay men. If yaoi is for women by women, "bara" is for gay men by gay men.
The difference between the gay men in yaoi and gay men in gay publications ("bara" style) is quite big.
Japanese most famous modern-day gay mangaka is probably Tagame
He's featured heavily in the magazine GMen, which is now the most popular gay magazine in Japan. Barazoku unfortunately stopped printing years ago.
The guy who drew this cover is called Jiraiya, he's another very popular gay mangaka
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 03:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 05:15 pm (UTC)Don´t go on yaoigallery either. All I got from there is a Bowie/Nomi/Iggy threesome and satyr porn.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 03:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 03:48 pm (UTC)Classic gissy! Straight by '83!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 05:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 10:38 pm (UTC)Alternatively:
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-08 12:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 05:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 05:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 05:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 06:34 pm (UTC)reached the age of Dirk Bogarde's character
Date: 2008-01-07 06:04 pm (UTC)Tadzio I can live without. He seems very French Provincial aristocratic and sublime.
http://www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org/?p=622
Now "hard o gay" guy is outa sight but has gotten too commercial. His early Youtubes of saving children from squirrels, and mothers from crying babies where unique.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 10:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 11:06 pm (UTC)http://gfx.aftonbladet.se/multimedia/archive/00100/S__H_R_SER_DE_UT_I__100592w.jpg
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-07 11:31 pm (UTC)But he's still a little boy!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-08 02:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-08 06:05 am (UTC)