Peter Tasker

Carmen Maki’s Musical Half-Century

By Peter Tasker | July 7, 2019 | Comment (0)

Both Carmen and Terayama were brought up by single mothers – who were themselves often absent – with little or no memory of their fathers.

By Peter Tasker | January 8, 2019 | Comment (0)

The word “rugby” has become one of the “season words” that are an essential component of every haiku.

By Peter Tasker | December 30, 2018 | Comment (0)

Terayama’s text ranges from a sexual fantasy involving his mother to a prose-poem dedicated to 1960s screen goddess Ayako Wakao.

By Peter Tasker | October 27, 2018 | Comment (0)

“You have a wife, don’t you?” “Yes, she’s as cold as ice. When she’s asleep, I often dream of setting her on fire.”

By Peter Tasker | October 6, 2018 | Comment (1)

She is still going strong. The flame still burns.

By Peter Tasker | September 22, 2018 | Comment (0)

All is resolved somehow and the goat goes back to the wide open pastures of Hokkaido.

By Peter Tasker | August 27, 2018 | Comment (0)

Our hero is disengaged, transgressive and filled with a restless energy that makes him dangerous – rather like his creator

By Peter Tasker | August 1, 2018 | Comment (0)

Imagine that the counter-culture of the late 1960s was transposed to the last decades of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

By Peter Tasker | January 30, 2018 | Comment (0)

In the early 1980s, home video was in its infancy… the result is a punky, DIY aesthetic that manages to be both simple and moving

By Peter Tasker | October 10, 2017 | Comment (1)

Yang gives a moving performance as the stuttering, socially inept ex-barber with the ring-name of “Barikan” (“Clipper”).